What Job teaches us about wrestling with God

Once again, I want to turn to Ellen Davis as she provides some great wisdom from her book Getting Involved With God. This time she is looking at the book of Job and what it teaches us about suffering and wrestling with God through it.

She explains how it is helpful for Christians to confront God with the pain we are in, even though it might initially feel wrong:

“We are not accustomed to blaming God, and so when we find ourselves doing so, we feel guilty and religiously confused. The ‘solution,’ for some, is to cover our confusion about God with a false piety. Others, bolder perhaps, will give up on God altogether. But the witness of the book of Job is that rage and even blame directed at God are valid moments in the life of faith…[and] we may stay in that ‘moment’ for a long time.”

Looking at the closing chapters, where God speaks to Job, Davis goes on to point out:

“Job is convinced that his moral innocence should have warded off disaster, because he believes that the world is a manageable place run by a demanding but nonetheless predictable God who owes the righteous a good time. But when God finally speaks and shows Job what, from a divine perspective, is so fascinating about the created order, it turns out to have nothing at all to do with human moral standards.

(...)

“What God says, in effect, is this: ‘Look away from yourself, job; look around you. For a moment see the world with my eyes, in all its intricacy and wild beauty’…God calls this man of integrity to take his place in a ravishing but dangerous world where only those who relinquish their personal expectations can live in peace. The price of peace is the surrender of our personal expectations.”

What does it mean to fear God?

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've been reading a book by Ellen Davis called Getting Involved With God: Rediscovering the Old Testament. I'm really enjoying the book, as each chapter continues to provide great insight into certain stories and books from the Old Testament.

The latest chapter I read was on the book of Proverbs. She makes several good points about what wisdom is really all about (namely that wisdom is never abstracted from goodness and how we live our lives), but what stuck me the most is her thoughts on the fear of God. Proverbs says that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. Davis points out that Proverbs consistently "upholds fear as a healthy and necessary disposition toward God. That in itself is to modern readers one of the most offensive things in the Old Testament." So why are we usually so offended by this? What does it mean to fear God?

She says that fear is something we feel in our gut when we come upon the power of God. She continues,

From a biblical perpective, there is nothing neurotic about fearing God. The neurotic thing is not to be afraid, or to be afraid of the wrong thing. That is why God chooses to be known to us, so that we may stop being afraid of the wrong thing. When God is fully revealed to us and we 'get it,' then we will experience the conversion of our fear.

I really like the way she explains this. I am often afraid of the wrong things, mainly being afraid of what people think of me. I desire a healthy fear of God that makes silly fears like that disappear.

I love the way she ends the chapter:

The time comes in every life--and more than once--when we are personally confronted with the power that spread out the heavens like a sequined veil, that formed us out of dust and blew breath into our lungs, that led Israel through the Red Sea on dry land and left Pharaoh's whole army floating behind. If we can experience that power close up and not be gripped in out guts by the disparity between God and ourselves, then we are in a profound state of spiritual slumber, if not acute mental illness. 'Fear of the LORD' is the deeply sane recognition that we are not God.

How the Song of Songs Helps Us Better Understand Love for God

One of the books I'm reading for my Christian Ethics class this quarter is Ellen Davis's book Getting Involved With God: Rediscovering the Old Testament. She is basically looking at various books and passages in the Old Testament and revealing how important they are for us today. So far it has been an excellent book.

In one of the chapters, she explains how beneficial the Song of Songs is for the church today. She points out how we have often misunderstood this book and many of us consider it to be a little too racy to be in the Bible. However, the Song is incredibly beneficial to us because it speaks of divine love and sexual love as a healthy expression and desire in the midst of covenantal faithfulness.

One thing she points out how toward the end of the chapter is how the Song affirms that "longing for intimacy with God is a necessary desire for a healthy soul." She goes on to mention how there are two kinds of love of God. The first is grateful response to experiencing God's mercy, generosity, and blessing. This is frankly how I generally understand love for God and probably the way most of us do. However, look at how she explains this second love:

But there is another love that is even more precious. It arises in us not from anything God has done for us, but spontaneously, becuase our souls were made to delight simply in God's being, and God's being with us. One great modern mystic, Rav (Rabbi) Abraham Isaac Kook, taught that all the rich imagery of the Song of Songs exists precisely for the sake of making vividly real this rare love that does not derive form material benefits. The Song shows us love in its purest form.

i was struck by this because it's hard for me to think of times I don't express love for God apart from seeing his love or grace given to me. I'm reminded that God is worthy of my love purely because he is God, before I benefit from anything he gives me (including forgiveness, sonship, etc.). His majesty and glory and holiness and beauty are aspects that I need help seeing. I'm thankful that the Spirit is alive and is faithful to increase this type of love for him.

The Ultimate Outrage of the Universe

John Piper describes what sin really is:

The glory of God is not honored.
The holiness of God is not reverenced.
The greatness of God is not admired.
The power of God is not praised.
The truth of God is not sought.
The wisdom of God is not esteemed.
The beauty of God is not treasured.
The goodness of God is not savored.
The faithfulness of God is not trusted.
The promises of God are not relied upon.
The commandments of God are not obeyed.
The justice of God is not respected.
The wrath of God is not feared.
The grace of God is not cherished.
The presence of God is not prized.
The person of God is not loved.

The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist (Rom. 11:36) – who holds every person's life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) – is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored by everybody in the world. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe.

From his sermon, The Greatest Thing in the World (9-2-01)

The Problem With Attraction

Ed Welch:

(...)

Attraction is fun, and in Western systems of courtship and marriage, it is the way couples get started, but attraction is about me. It’s about how someone makes me feel. In that sense, attraction is rubbish. It gets people together but it is powerless to keep them together. Even more, attraction, without the addition of other forms of love, promises to separate marriages and any once-close relationship.

What must supplant attraction goes by different names – commitment, faithfulness, love that only death separates, covenantal love and others. Those are all good, and I am sure they guide many people, but they all fall short for me. Commitment seems sterile, so does faithfulness – dogs can do that. Covenantal love sounds too legal.

“I love you because I love you.” That is a great one. God spoke it to the Israelites and he continues to speak love to those who are with Jesus.

The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

But this sets the bar too high. God loves because he is love; I am not love. So I have to search for other ways to describe this different-than-attraction love.

Servant-love? No, that is an important expression of love, but servants don’t share their hearts with the one they serve. They just do what they are supposed to do. The New Testament injects servant-love with new meaning and vitality, but there are times when it feels too impersonal.

“Admire” or “enjoy” are better than attraction. They are less self-referential. They suggest that there are praise worthy features in the other person. These, however, take time. When the thrill is gone in a relationship, admiration and enjoyment won’t offer any new power to love.

What we need is something that captures the imbalanced nature of the love of Jesus for us. He loved us first and he loved us more than we will ever love him in return. In response, we too want to love others first and more. That’s the way to be fully human.

The idea of debt captures it.

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:7-8)

When we owe someone, there is a slight imbalance in the relationship. This is what “I do” means. We commit ourselves to give more than we receive.

Sample vows could go like this.

There are a number of reasons why I am attracted to you.
Now I will move on to better things.
I am committed to learn how to love you
more than I love me and
more than I want to be loved by you.
I want this to be obvious to you.
I want this to imitate the unity we can have with Jesus.
I want this to please God.
May God show me grace and mercy.

This vow aims to do at least two things. It dethrones the usurper Attraction, separates it from Jesus’ style of love, and re-establishes the imbalanced nature of Christian love. Unity shows up, as it should. Unity reminds us that real love is not silent when the other spouse is loveless. We can and should speak out when the other person is aiming for lesser things, such as mere attraction. For example, when the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he loved them more than they loved him, but he also pleaded with them to open their hearts and love him in return. In this, Paul was not saying, “I need love.” He was saying, “As members of Christ we are called to love one another. When we don’t, someone gets hurt and the glory of God becomes veiled to the world.”

For the next generation to get it right, we must loose our infatuation with attraction. We must prefer arguments about who is in debt to whom. “No, I owe you love, and I’m not listening to one more word of your protests.” I owe you more than you owe me – that’s where we go when we meditate on the love of Jesus. Then we can know exactly what we are doing when we say “I do.”

When Doubts Arise

When dealing with doubt, Ed Welch offers a practical solution:

Read the Bible. Here is one of the great “duhs” of all time. When doubts flare, read the Bible. That has become my number one response to doubts. Sounds pretty easy, but it isn’t. The ennui that accompanies doubt works against picking up a Bible. Reading the Bible is hard enough anyway. To read when faith is at a low ebb is counterintuitive and unnatural. That’s why I have appreciated the motto, “Force feed.” There are times when I don’t know what is good for me. A Blizzard from Dairy Queen seems preferable to . . . anything. Those are the times when I have to over-ride my physical cues and tell my body that it is time to eat something decent. So, when doubts come, force feed. The Word of God is what is best for us.

I stick with the Psalms or the New Testament. The Psalms expand our vision and remind us of God’s mighty acts. The Old Testament suggests that one of our prominent sins is that we forget. The Psalms help us remember. In the New Testament I can turn anywhere. Like the Psalms, it reminds me of what has happened, and that is usually enough. But sometimes I need to be surprised again.

One vacation my wife and I read the book of John aloud to each other, and we found ourselves laughing all the way through it, at least through most of it. What was funny was how Jesus always said and did the unexpected. Even though we knew the stories, they never failed to surprise. That, for me, is a profound answer to doubts.

When I was in college and reading about different world religions, I noticed that while all of them were interesting, they were all very predictable. Work hard to be good. Follow the rules. Don’t rock the implicit caste system – some were in, others were out. Men were entitled. Good men are promised good sex, or at least lots of sex. And keep working to be good. All this could be easily invented by a bunch of guys on a weekend getaway.

Then I read the Bible, and it was like nothing else. Jesus never acted like a mere man. No one could have ever invented him or his way of living, especially when we consider the historical situation. The story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 is enough to cure the spiritual jitters. Nothing is what you would expect. Throughout the New Testament, the disciples do what you would expect. They get ticked off at the little grommets who follow Jesus, they jockey for the highest position, they run and hide when things get a little risky. But Jesus never does what you expect. And, somehow, that makes him seem more human. Somehow, his unanticipated responses make perfect sense.

How to Cultivate Delight in God

Speaking to those of us who sometimes feel discouraged in our devotional times, Jon Bloom at Desiring God provides five purposes for having a devotion:

1. Soul Exercise
2. Soul Shaping
3. Bible Copiousness
4. Fight Training
5. Delight Cultivation
   

I thought the fifth one was particularly helpful:

When a couple falls in love there are hormonal fireworks. But in marriage they must cultivate delight in one another. It is the consistent, persistent, faithful, intentional, affectionate pursuit of one another during better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and healthy times that cultivates a capacity for delight in each other far deeper and richer than the fireworks phase. Similarly, devotions are one of the ways we cultivate delight in God. Many days it may seem mundane. But we will be surprised at the cumulative power they have to deepen our love for and awareness of Him.

Read the whole thing

Cul-de-sac of Stupidity

This past Easter, Matt Chandler gave a sermon entitled From Alienation to Reconciliation. He was talking through Colossians 1:21-22. Near the beginning he talked about what alienation is and used the phrase "cul-de-sac of stupidity." Here's what he means:

"The Bible is going to teach us that everything that is created was not created so that our enjoyment of creation would terminate on creation, but rather that everything that exists, exists to point beyond itself to something greater than itself, namely its Creator.

The Bible teaches that you and I prefer creation to the Creator, therefore we get stuck in what I call the cul-de-sac of stupidity most of our lives, chasing things that do not satisfy us, have never satisfied us, and don't really have any hope of satisfying us, but we continue to pursue them anyway. So, although we've had gadgets, relationships, we've had all these things that the world says, "this is what satisfies you," we've had those things, we've tasted at least the first fruits of those things and they didn't satisfy us.

And Here's the lie. Here's the demonic, wicked, evil lie that most buy in to: that more of what we already possess that does not satisfy us is somehow going to bring us joy and happiness. Are you tracking with that? That's the cul-de-sac of stupidity. I have this. It doesn't work. More of what doesn't work might work. This is where a bulk of humanity is stuck--just driving around it over and over and over again...

...This is what alienation means. We are alienated from God. We just want His stuff. And we think that he's stuff will somehow fulfill us, when the Scriptures clearly say that His stuff was given to you so that you might worship Him."

How to Experience God

"Feed on the revealed promises of God rather than rely on an experience. Otherwise, life becomes one continual leap from one experiential lily pad to another."

To experience God. For those of us who are Christians, isn't that what we all want. Don't we want to feel God's presence and to know He is near. I believe this quote, coming from a very insightful post by Ed Welch, gets it right on. I know I often struggle in this area of knowing God's reality in my life. But it's because I'm looking to experience, or walking by sight, when God has given me all that I need in His Word.

Ed explains this concept a little more:

What we find in Scripture are the deeper ways of God with his people. “Sometimes God puts his children to bed in the dark” is one way to put it. Another way is this: in this era, our God has chosen to make walking by faith more fundamental, and more blessed, than walking by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). This means that there will be many times when we can see the goodness of the Lord with our very eyes. But there will be other times when our experience says “God is far away” and he counters “I am with you.” In those cases, his words win.

Just expand the word “sight” in “walking by sight” to include all things sensory, such as our emotions. Then we are back on track: God is speaking right to us. He is not far away. This teaching gets to the heart of Scripture. Scripture exists because we need revelation. We can’t see reality clearly with the naked eye. Scripture is God’s technology that allows us to see everything we need to see.

You don’t feel his presence? Here are God’s words to you.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

There it is. Our senses say that we are destitute; God reveals that we have spiritual food that is profoundly satisfying. Our goal is to hear the word of the Lord in such a way that it drowns out our less-informed emotions.

And here's his conclusion:

How many times have I wanted Jesus’ audible voice and physical presence? I would even have settled for some handwriting in the sky or on the living room wall. But there is a better way… Believe. Believe in the one who has spoken promises and has backed up all those promises with his self-sacrificial actions.

So many followers of Jesus feel spiritually handicapped because they don’t feel the presence of God. They feel blind and numb. All they can do is trust in the God who has spoken to them and, because of him, put one foot in front of the other, care about others, and faithfully slog through the mire of life. Well, it’s time to track these people down and give them a big fat kiss because they are the ones who are knocking on the door of the abundant life. They are learning to believe what they don’t feel, and they are blessed. They are the heroes we can emulate.

True Masculinity

...act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. - 1 Corinthians 16:13

In case you missed it, this picture was from the Final Four semi-final between Duke and West Virginia that took place just over a week ago. It's Bob Huggins consoling Da'Sean Butler who had just hit the floor, writhing in pain from an injury to his knee. It was also Butler's senior season and he wanted desperately to help take his team to the championship game. If you haven't seen the video, I encourage you to check it out here.

I wanted to post this because it has replayed in my mind a lot this last week. It is such a beautiful picture of what true masculinity is, and it's not something we see often. Detached is an adjective that seem to describe most men today. But Bob Huggins was surely not detached. He engaged De'Sean Butler and didn't care what he looked like in front of millions of other people.

By wiping away his tears and speaking words of truth softly in his hear, he loved his young player well. I hope to represent this type of masculinity to those I encounter. And I know I can do so because Christ accomplished this for me and is the One engaging me tenderly with strength and love. And He has given me not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

How to Get the Lasting Inner Applause

"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."

This passage from Jeremiah 9 is what Keller unpacks in his sermon, Sickness Unto Death (available for free on his podcast). The sermon weaves in elements from Soren Kierkegaard's book of the same name. Keller explains that these verses in Jeremiah are a radical reshaping of our self-image and the way we look for the verdict that we are okay. We often look to other people to say "Well done", but of that Keller says:

"Outer applause never translates into the inner applause that we need: the permanent, settled certainty that we are praiseworthy, love-worthy."

He goes on to say that Paul loves these verses. Paul quotes them in 1 Corinthains 1 and then rephrases them here in 1 Corinthians 4:

"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me."

These verses fly in the face of most modern psychological advice. Today, the cure for low self-esteem is to have high self-esteem. Instead of caring what other people think, you should only care about what you think. But Paul says something utterly different. We ought not to have low self-esteem or high self esteem, but instead look to the verdict that can only come from God.

And again in Galatians 6, Paul sums up everything he's been saying about the gospel in verse 14, by summarizing Jeremiah 9:23-24:

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ...

This is the key to having this radically new self-image. We must learn to not just acknowledge the work of Christ, but boast in it. And there, boasting in the cross of Christ, is where we get that inner applause we are longing for.

Keller, toward the end, summarizes it this way:

"What happened at the end of Jesus' life? The greatest somebody in history became a nobody. The one person whose life deserved absolute applause, was mocked, was jeered, was spat on, and was rejected even by God. Why? 2 Corinthians 5:21 says 'God made Him who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.' What does that mean?

On the cross Jesus Christ got the verdict that our performance deserves. Deep in His heart, He heard 'Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire,' so that when we embrace Him by faith, we can hear deep in our souls, 'Well done, good and faithful servant'...

Jesus got the verdict that our performance deserves, so we can get the verdict, the applause, the praise that His performance deserves."

The Bible Isn't Boring

John Piper explaining how we're the problem when we see the Bible as boring:

Reading through the Bible

The summer of 2003, after my junior year of college, I was spending time in Moscow, Russia. It was there that I finally became convicted that I had never read through the entire Bible. I thought that as a Christian, I should probably read what I at least pretended to believe was the very word of God. I had studied a lot of the Bible at that point, but just studying allowed me to "conveniently" stay away from those parts of the Bible that many would consider boring, tedious, and difficult (pretty much most of the Old Testament).

Starting that summer I made a commitment to read through the Bible for the first time. And I was amazed by what I read and began to discover the truth of Romans 15:4, that "whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." I began to see nuggets of truth everywhere, but more importantly, I began to see in greater measure God's great story of redemption and how all of Scripture points to the person and work of Christ. I remember specifically that the idea of God's glory and God's sovereignty became so much more real to me as it seemed to leap out page after page after page.

Since 2003, I have continued to read through the Bible each year. It's been a very fruitful discipline. I've used a few different plans over the years, but I wanted to highlight my favorite one for those of you thinking you wanted to give it a go this year. It's the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan by NavPress. Click on the link to download it. You read four sections of the Bible a day, and read through every book once. One of my favorite parts is that the reading stops on the 25th of each month so you can catch up if you miss days, or study something more in depth during that time. I finished 2009 this morning and plan on starting all over again tomorrow. Who's with me?

Also, Crossway has 10 other kinds of plans in case you're interested.

My ungrateful heart

I read this story in Luke 17 the other day. I don't believe I've ever noticed it before. It has really stuck with me the last couple of days.

Basically the story is this: Jesus meets ten lepers who beg for mercy. Jesus tells them to go to the priests. When they move in obedience toward the priests, they are all healed. Yet, only one of them (a Samaritan no less) turns back to praise God and to fall at Jesus' feet in thanksgiving. Jesus then asks, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

These verses struck me because I felt like one of the other nine. I have not felt grateful for God's grace in my life lately. Why is that? I know the wretchedness that God has saved me from. I know that I was dead in my sin and was rescued by God's grace and power. I know that He has rescued me from the power of sin, so that it is no longer my master. The problem is connecting that head knowledge to my heart.

The truth is, I know I can't be grateful without God in Christ working it into my cold heart. And that is the whole point...I need help and He provides help when I come to the end of myself.

Psalm 3:3 - "But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head."

Every page of the BIble is meant to point us to Christ

One significant idea that I've been learning a lot more about these last few months is how the redemption of Christ is THE central theme running throughout the ENTIRETY of the Bible. If you're a Christian, you might be thinking to yourself that this is obvious. I thought myself that I understood this point as well. But through two main avenues this spring, namely my Systematic Theology class as well as Paul Tripp's book Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, I have become convicted that I really have not fully grasped this idea.

My RTS professor did an outstanding job in my class, showing us that the Bible is not merely a collection of stories interdependent of one another. From the most obscure laws in Torah to the mysterious visions in Revelation, all of Scripture is pointing to the person and work of Jesus Christ. This means the more we understand the obscure, rarely studied portions of the Old Testament, the more we really understand who Jesus was and the significance of what he did. This is meant to have a profound impact to us individually as we grow in the understanding of the beauty of the gospel.

Additionally, through Tripp's book, I have seen the way in which we minister the Word to others should be radically different than the way that I have always been taught. In the 2nd chapter of his book, he says:

"Many Christians simply don't understand what the Bible is. Many think of it as a spiritual encyclopedia: God's complete catalog of human problems, coupled with a complete list of divine answers...What we think of as ministering the Word is little more than a spiritual cut-and-paste system. This kind of ministry rarely leads to lasting change...But a truly effective ministry of the Word must confront our self-focus and self-absorption at its roots, opening us up to the vastness of a God-defined, God-centered world. Unless this happens, we will use the promises, principles, and commands of the Word to serve the thing we really love: ourselves."

I am quite guilty of using God's Word this way, as a spiritual encyclopedia. I love to systematize the verses in order to have a handful ready for unloading on any problem. Although, that's not necessarily bad, if I stop there I miss the big picture. Tripp goes on to say it this way:

"If I handle Scripture topically, I will miss the overarching themes at the heart of everything else God wants to say to me. These themes give me a sense of identity, purpose, and direction that will fundamentally alter the way I think, desire, speak, and act. They will go to the root of my problem, producing change that lasts...Being biblical does not mean merely quoting words from within its pages. Being truly biblical means that my counsel reflects what the entire Bible is about. The Bible is a narrative, a story of redemption, and its chief character is Jesus Christ. He is the main theme of the narrative, and he is revealed in every passage in the book.”

Jesus is the new and better Moses

"Jesus is presented not as a new Moses but as one who utterly transcends Moses. Jesus, like Moses, provides for his followers and leads them in the way; but Jesus is himself the provision-the true bread from heaven and water of life, and Jesus is the way. Like Moses, Jesus offers the covenant sacrifice, but Jesus is himself that sacrifice. Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole as a symbol of divine judgment; the death of Jesus was that diving judgment in antitypical finality. Jesus, like Moses, builds the house of God, but Jesus also is himself the temple. - Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority"

Combining both devotion and study

John Piper gives a plea to his church for them to incorporate both:

1) Daily prayerful meditation seeking personal application of God’s word to your own heart and life.

and

2) Regular study in a class or with a book where the (living or dead) teacher has seen more than you have and can give you insight in 30 minutes that might otherwise take you ten years to see.

Studying the Pentateuch for Jesus' Sake

"Study the living tar out of the Pentateuch"

This is what Dr. Fesko, my ST professor, said last night. Why? Because Jesus is all over the place. We will see Jesus more clearly, understand Paul & Peter more thoroughly, as we come to understand these five books.

More Thoughts on Exegetical Preaching

I thought Michael had some great things to say regarding Monday's post. Here is his comment:

"I think it is a subtly self-centered or man-centered basis that leads us to despise exegetical preaching. If we believe the task is to 'read the times' and then apply an appropriate answer from the whole scope Scripture, we must believe that the fundamental need lies in a smart use of Scripture. We've assumed a role that's not ours; we've assumed we have something to offer, something to say. (And sometimes there might be good reason for that approach - in writing a book, in giving a specific seminar, teaching a class, or just in discussion with friends, etc.)

But if this approach is taken in the time slot traditionally assigned to 'preaching the Word' then we forfeit (at least one opportunity for) what we need most of all: to hear from God Himself. Do we trust in our own insight and resourceful citing of Scripture (almost as a tool to support our message)? Or do we believe, whatever our current situations might be, that what we need more than anything else is to see and treasure Christ? If we're trusting in Him - not in ourselves, at some level - then we'll want to hear His Word, to get on His 'agenda,' to absorb His perspective, even if to do that I am required to put my personal issues on the back-burner and trust that He cares for me.

I would not think that a strictly verse-by-verse approach is always necessarily called for. Of course, some consideration for the particular audience and thoughtful selection of the Word is required - essentially the same reasons that we have services in English instead of Latin or Greek or Hebrew. So, I definitely think that pastors must thoughtfully consider their congregation's particular need and should responsibly seek to bring the Word to them.

And I would be very comfortable giving Andy Stanley the benefit of the doubt - that he's doing just that. But underneath whatever particular approach we take there should be a fundamental trust in God's Word, not our own. Our mentality should be that people need to hear from God - and not necessarily on the topics they would choose - or that we would choose for them. In some respects, the very thing we need is to be removed from our own perspective, to be immersed in a Biblical perspective. Then, when we return to the everyday practical concerns, we'll see them more accurately. And we'll have a high view of Christ's glory, and if we embrace Him, we'll have what we essentially need in any setting.

Consider what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says about reading the Psalms: 'We also ought not to select Psalms at our own discretion, thinking that we know better what we ought to pray than does God himself. To do that is to dishonor the prayer-book of the Bible' (Psalms, p.26)."

Andy Stanley's thoughts on exegetical preaching

Ed Stetzer recently interviewed Andy Stanley here. One question he asked was:

What do you think about preaching verse-by-verse messages through books of the Bible?

Stanley's answer:

"Guys that preach verse-by-verse through books of the Bible--that is just cheating. It's cheating because that would be easy, first of all. That isn't how you grow people. No one in the Scripture modeled that. There's not one example of that.

All Scripture is equally inspired, but not all Scripture is equally applicable or relevant to every stage of life. My challenge is to read culture and to read an audience and ask: What is the felt need? Or perhaps what is more important, what is an unfelt need they need to feel that I can address? Because if they don't feel it, then they won't address it."

Although I believe Andy is doing some good things in his ministry, I think he is entirely wrong on this point.

(HT:Matt Adair)