This book is a great introduction to some of the great issues of the Christian faith, and how we, as followers of Jesus, can stand firm on the Bible and what we believe to be true. It contains chapters on the reliability of the Bible, what Christians can do to stand against the challenges of postmodernism, Atheism, Islam, and other key apologetical issues (e.g., the problem of evil). Overall, the book did an excellent job of summarizing the Christian stance on these issues.

And best of all, the book has several chapters on how to incorporate truth into our lives. Living the truth is not about beating people over the head with it, but having the answers when the questions are raised in the relationships of our lives and our own spiritual development.

Disclosure: I reviewed this book for the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze website.

But principles are one thing; stories are quite another. Don Duntch of Quest Ministries recently told me that stories reveal where God is at work, especially stories of people gaining freedom in their lives and in their thinking.

So it was with great excitement that I recently learned about a book by Ken Lottis, who was Jim’s ministry partner in Brazil. The book is entitled Will This Rock in Rio? and is basically the story of what Ken and Jim did in Brazil.

Now that I’ve read both, I can say that the two books go together. While Jim’s book is informative, Ken’s is inspirational. While Jim’s book affirmed my thinking, Ken’s encouraged me to actually start reading John with someone. While Jim’s book answers the “Why” and “How,” Ken’s books says “Go” and “Do.”

I believe that if you read one book, you must read the other also. If you are a person who wants to love and live among the people who will never “come to church” both books are “must reads.”

In it, Jesus explains His mission. He explains what He intends to do in His ministry. If you and I are followers of Jesus, we need to soak our lives in these verses so we can follow these same principles.

Many churches, Christians, and religious leaders “spiritualize” these verses so that they only deal with realities of the Spirit and the afterlife. I believe this is wrong. Jesus was not concerned only with the spiritual side of people, and neither should we. While He did help meet the deep spiritual needs of people, He was also concerned with their physical, psychological, and emotional needs. Luke 4:16-19 deals with all of these.

If we are His followers, we will focus on such things as well.

But it doesn’t mean you have to do exactly the same things Jesus did in exactly the same way. He performed supernatural miracles, whereas, we may perform the same miracles, but through science or technology. We can work to accomplish the same things Jesus accomplished – healing the sick, setting captives free, giving sight to the blind, giving liberty to the captives – but using different methods.

Most Christians are quite uncreative when it comes to “living as Jesus lived.” We see him feed 5000 people and so if we want to “follow Jesus” we think that we have to get five loaves and two fishes, and pray over them until a miracle happens. But that’s not true at all. We can still feed 5000 people, or 50,000, or 500,000 people, simply by living less selfish lives, and being more generous with our money.

For example, let’s say you spend $5 per day on Starbucks coffee and $2 for a scone. Right there you have your five loaves and two fish.

That $7 a day doesn’t seem like much. But over a work week, it comes to $35. Through an organization like Compassion International, you can feed and teach a child in a third world country for $35 per month. So with the money you save, you could give three meals a day (and a biblical education) to four children every month. Over the course of just one year, that is 4320 meals. Jesus fed 5000 people, and we call it a miracle. Each one of us can do almost the same miracle every year for the rest of our lives, simply by giving up our five loaves and two fish (coffee and a danish).

This is just one example. With a little bit of creative thinking and self-sacrifice, we could come up with similar miracles in health, finances, and education. We can accomplish the same things as Jesus did, or even greater things (John 14:12)!

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 4:16-19.

Maybe it’s just me, but I tend to get annoyed at all the illustrations, stories, and witty jokes that pepper most sermons today. I want something solid to chew on and think over. If I want entertainment, I can watch a movie. And frankly, I can’t remember a single sermon story I’ve heard…let alone the sermons they went with. So for me, stories don’t make the sermon more enjoyable or memorable. But that’s just me. I understand that for lots of people, stories do help keep their attention and remember what is said. So I won’t argue with these reasons for using stories in sermons.

But I have to disagree with the idea that “Jesus told stories and so should we.”

Certainly, Jesus told stories. There’s not denying that. The Gospels are full of stories that Jesus told. We call them ‘parables.” But the Gospels also reveal that these parables were told, not to reveal truth, but to conceal it. He spoke in parables to keep people confused.

How do we know this is why Jesus told parables? Because He said so. His disciples didn’t understand most of what Jesus said either, and so one time they asked Him why He spoke in parables. His answer? “So that in seeing, they will not see, and in hearing, they will not understand” (Luke 8:10).

Why would Jesus do this? He goes on to explain to His disciples that He wants them to understand what He says, as well as anybody else who comes to Him for an explanation of His parables. In other words, Jesus wants to disciple people…especially those who realized they didn’t know it all. He provided a clear explanation of His parables to those who asked Him.

And just in case we get the idea that we should start preaching nonsense sermons, we must understand that most of the time, Jesus taught through books of the Bible. We’ll get into how we know this in the next post.

But for now, just realize that if you are ever confused about what you read in the Bible – especially with the teachings and parables of Jesus – you are in good company. In some ways, the Bible was meant to be confusing. This is so that it keeps us humble, and none of us can fully understand or grasp all of it. It keeps us coming back to God for insight, understanding, and wisdom. Not knowing it all keeps us coming back for more. It keeps us dependant upon God, coming daily to sit at His feet and learn.

Are you confused by a passage or concept in Scripture? Tell God. Ask Him to teach you. Come before Him in prayer and with an open Bible saying, “Teach me wonderful things from your Word.”

When challenged to read and study, many will answer, “Oh, that’s for pastors and professors. I just want to love God. And besides, the Bible says that ‘knowledge puffs up.’”

There is no other area in life where such logic would be accepted.

Can you imagine telling your wife, “I don’t really care to read the notes you have written to me, or really get to know who you are, what you like, and how you think. I just want to love you, and all the knowledge about you will just get in the way”? Since when does knowledge about your loved ones hinder your love for them?

How long would you last at your job if you told you boss, “I don’t really care about knowing how to do my job. Right now I love my job, and think that if I learn how to do it better, I might not love it any more”? You’d be out on the street before the end of the day.

Even with something like sports. Have you ever heard a sports fanatic say, “I love watching sports. I don’t know much about the teams, the players, or even the rules, but I sure do love sports! If I had to spend time reading and learning about the games and the players, it would ruin my enjoyment! So don’t bother me with all those stats and numbers”?

All this is crazy talk…except in some Christian circles. In some churches, it is considered “spiritual” to ignore serious study of Scripture. Oh sure, they may talk a lot about the Bible, and may even memorize large portions of it, but attempting actually learning what those passages mean is frowned upon.

Of course, what many don’t realize is that even Jesus studied. Even Jesus had to learn the Scriptures. In Luke 2:41-52, there are several references to the fact that Jesus learned (from His parents and from the Jewish priests, scribes, and Pharisees) what the Scriptures meant and how to live them.   

And if that’s true, how much more do we!

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 2:41-52.

Join me online at Internet Biblical Seminary! I will be facilitating a few classes there soon, Doctrine 1, Doctrine 2, and Romans & Galatians. And best of all…it’s FREE!

At the site, just register on the left. As part of the registration, there is a drop down menu to select which organization to come in under. Select “Rocky Mountain Bible College.”

Once you are registered, sign up for “Doctrine 1″ (prerequisite for Doctrine 2) or “Romans and Galatians.”  And guess what? The notes for Doctrine 1 and Doctrine 2 includes Charles Ryrie’s Basic Theology.  

Even if you are not able to take these courses, please pass this website on to as many people as you can…church friends, missionaries, family members, etc. These classes are being taught worldwide, and are designed so that those who take the classes can then turn around and teach them to other people. This is true biblical discipleship…but Internet style!

See you in class!

In the churches I am part of, one of the things I try to do on occasion, is host a movie study. I pick a movie, and open it up with some discussion questions to watch for during the movie. Then we watch it. Afterwards, we discuss the movie, and some of the questions. Here is one such study I did recently on the movie “Henry Poole is Here.” If you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest you rent it, and watch it while asking yourself some of the questions below.

Henry Poole is Here
Is your life a miracle or a mistake?

Quote: “Do you ever feel like things happen for no reason? Like you’re just along for the ride?”

Quote:“All that either of us have is right now.”

Discussion Questions:

What do you think of some people’s tendency to see apparition of Jesus (or Mary) in strange places – like a lava lamp, a Cheeto, a piece of toast, or a water stain on a wall? Are these miracles, or just mistakes?
  
What do you think of healing, especially when it happens to people who believe differently than you do? Are such healings from God, from Satan, or just mere coincidence? What do you think they believe about your claims of healing? What do you think atheists believe about all such claims?

What does the movie say about people’s greatest desire, as seen through Henry, Esperanza, Patience, Millie, and Dawn? How about the film director (Mark Pellington) himself? Four years ago, he lost his wife unexpectedly to a ruptured spleen, and was left to take care of his 2 ½ year-old daughter, Isabella. He says that many times he wanted to end it all, but Isabella and others gave him the hope to go on.

How does water play a role in the move? (Henry’s name. Trying to wash the wall. The balloon fight: “I surrender.” The river walk.) What does it symbolize? What role does water play in the life of the believer, and what does it symbolize?

Why does Henry want to check under the bridge for what he wrote as a child? Why does he post the picture of his family on his wall, and write “Henry Pool was here” underneath?

Can people see the face of Christ in you? Are you a source of hope to those in pain? When you encounter people who are filled with depression and despair, who, or what, do you point them to? Is this a reliable source of hope?

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

What is it that all people want? We could say, “Money” or “fame” or “health” but really, these are pointing to something else, something hidden, that people want: HOPE. Hope for the future. Hope for something better. This life is full of disappointment and despair, but hope keeps us going.

Henry Poole needs hope. Upon moving into his home, the first person to welcome him to the neighborhood is a woman named Esperanza, which in Spanish, means “hope.” And like hope, she is unrelenting. Patience patiently works with Henry. And Dawn is the light. Upon meeting Dawn, he begins to feel hope.
    
And yet, Henry Poole is a man without hope. His situation is so desperate, his life has been so full of fear and failure, that he cannot bring himself to hope. He cannot bring himself to touch the face of Jesus on his wall. Why not? For fear it “won’t work.” For fear of another failure.

In the end, Henry discovers he is not sick. Was he healed, or was it a misdiagnosis? As with the other healings, the movie leaves such questions unanswered. But whether the physical healing occurred or not, Henry is still healed, because he now has hope.

How can you be a voice of hope to those around you? How can you be the face of Christ?

How do you view your life? As one big mistake, or one big miracle? Henry Poole has problems seeing a miracle in the stain on his wall. What he realizes by the end is that whether it is just a stain or actually a miracle, it still caused a miracle in his life. Regardless of whether he was truly healed or simply misdiagnosed, he found the miracle of love and hope for the future, he found that his life could actually be lived with significance.

About six years ago, I started using the M’Cheyne Bible Reading plan. I certainly have not done it completely all six years, but I find it one of the best plans available because of the variety of readings it gives me every day.

Anyway, I think that one thing I might do occasionally is post a few comments on this blog for the reading from that day. That way, if you are reading along the same plan, what I write here will sync with what you were reading that day.

Today, one of the chapters in the reading was Psalm 53. It begins with a quite famous verse: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Lots of Christians love to use this verse to bash atheists. “Look!” they say. “The Bible says that atheists are fools! How can they be so ignorant as to not see that all creation speaks of the existence of God?” Then the Christian turns to Romans 1, or to some of the logical arguments for the existence of God.

However, this reading of the text is probably not what David had in mind. He was not writing against atheism. After all, atheism is really only a few hundred years old. Prior to the Enlightenment, everyone believed in the existence of some sort of god or gods. So Psalm 53:1 has nothing to do with atheism.

Rather, the author is writing against the person who chooses to live “as if” God were absent, not caring what we do, not watching over our lives. It is the one who believes God exists, but refuses to read God’s Word, listen to God’s voice, and instead, simply does what one pleases, without any thought of what God might desire.

In other words, who is the fool in view? It is the one who believes God exists, but refuses to obey what He says.  And if you read the rest of Psalm 53, that is what the Psalm is all about: the foolishness of disobeying God. When viewed this way, the biggest fools of all are those of us (myself included) who pray to God, and read His Word, but do not do what He says.

This truth is also explained in passages like Matthew 7:24-29 and James 1;22-25.

What if Outreach, Evangelism and Missions were different?

What if the pastor was not seen as the one who does the evangelism through his sermon?

What if evangelism wasn’t often defined simply as “inviting someone to church for a special event or to hear a special speaker”?

What if the people in church viewed themselves first and foremost as missionaries? How could pastors help them develop this paradigm shift?

What if we viewed supporting missionaries as more important than building a new building or upgrading our existing one?

What is “mission” anyway? Who are “the missionaries”?

What if all our people knew how to share the message of eternal life?

What if there was more to evangelism than simply sharing the message of eternal life (or the four spiritual laws, the Romans Road, or whatever)?

What if we don’t have “evangelism events” but instead trained people to simply love others?

What if we didn’t have “revivals” but instead focused on 1-to-1 discipleship?

What if we stopped praying for revivals and the “evangelization of the lost” and actually went across the street and served somebody?

What if we stopped trying to plan and program our own “serve the community” events, and just joined in the events which the community was already doing? (For ideas, go look at the bulletin board in the Town Hall or the Supermarket. Call the Courthouse, the Fire Department, or the Police. Contact your mayor for a list of events.)

What if evangelism took place in people’s homes as we invite them over to our houses, and us to theirs?

What if we showed as much grace toward believers and unbelievers as God shows toward us?

What if evangelism was just as much about right living as it is about right believing?

Would more people want to become followers of Jesus if we lived life with more joy, laughter, love, patience, kindness, and gentleness?

What if we didn’t care about people using profanity in our presence, or if they smelled of alcohol and cigarettes?

What if, rather than trying to impress our views upon other people, we tried to learn about their views instead, and asked them what they believed?

What if, rather than trying to get people to act like us, talk like us, look like us as soon as they “get saved” we let the Holy Spirit work in them at their (and His) own pace?

What if we stopped saying “Praise God” and “God Bless You” at the end of every sentence?

What if we stopped telling people “I’ll pray for you” and tried to help them instead?

What if, instead of practicing “apologetic evangelism” where we are always trying to defend the faith against the heresies of the heathen, we loved people and served people? 

What if we let people get involved in church who weren’t sure yet what they believed about Jesus or God?

What if evangelism and discipleship were the same thing?

What if we didn’t focus so much on evangelism, but on discipleship?

What if the gospel was more than just a set of doctrines, but an all-encompassing claim on life?

What if nearly everything in life could be redeemed for discipleship?

What if we stopped using Christian music, Christian movies, Christian literature and started watching and reading the same things that our neighbors and coworkers are?

What if, instead of starting Christian Coffee Houses, Christian Work-Out Centers, and Christian Bridge Clubs, we started just going to these places that were already in our community and meeting the people who go there?

What if we stopped “having church” in our Christian buildings, and instead went down to the local beach, or the local restaurant, or the local bar?

—————

Feel free to provide your own questions in the comment section below.

In a previous post, I stated that in general, Christians would give four different answers:

1. I’ve experienced God and so I know it’s true.
2. Following Christianity results in more substantial life change than other faiths. In other words, Christians live better lives, so it must be true.  
3. The Bible, which Christianity is based on, doesn’t have the errors and contradictions that are present in the “Holy books” of other faiths. It doesn’t contradict itself, nor does it contradict the facts of history and science (considering evolution is a theory). Therefore, the Bible can be trusted as true revelation from God.
4. God answers prayer and provides signs and wonders, which proves Christianity is true. This includes things like prophecy and healing.

There may be a few others that Christians would use, but these are the four most common.

But did you know that people of other religions would use almost the exact same reasons for why they believetheir religion is true? Let me give examples of the four explanations. 

1. If you have ever talked with a Mormon, you know that most of them believe Mormonism is true because they had an experience with God such as an inner warming of the heart or a vision, proving to them that Mormonism is true. Nearly all religions have similar experiences.
2. I don’t care which religion you pick, if you talk to someone of that religion, they will say that in general, their adherents are more obedient than people of other religions. This is true of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus…possibly even Satanists. (If you saw my post on Satanism a few weeks ago, in the comments, a Satanist informed me that while Satanists don’t practice mercy, their teachings ”prohibit all illegal activity.”) When it comes to morality, Christians would be hard pressed to prove that we are morally superior to those who practice other religions.
3. Did you know that every religion practices apologetics? We Christians are not the only ones who try to explain the supposed factual, historical, and scientific “problems” in our Scriptures. All religions do this, and many of the arguments are quite sophisticated and compelling. For example, I am currently reading a book called What Jesus Really Said which is a book in which the author tries to prove that Jesus actually taught the Muslim faith! It is a book of Muslim apologetics.
4. People of nearly all religions pray for healing (and see frequent healing as a result – See the recent TIME magazine article on this), receive visions, have ecstatic experiences, speak prophetic words (and see them come true), and observe signs, wonders, and miracles performed through the power of their god(s). Some groups even speak in tongues.

So in four of the ways that Christians believe their religion is better than others, it really is not. At least, not to an outside observer who is only doing surface-depth investigation.

So why hold to Christianity? Why should people believe in Jesus and follow Him? More personally, why do I? I’ll tell you my primary reason in the next post.