Walk

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day... (Genesis 3:8a NIV)

Our relationship with God is much like the one Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden of Eden.  They walked with Him naked and unashamed (nothing hidden and nothing to hide).  Their days included God.  God was with them and participated in life with them.  They knew God's face, God's voice, and the sound of God's walk.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. (Genesis 17:1 NIV)

Abram was called by God to do the same, walking faithfully and blameless (nothing hidden and nothing to hide).  When he did, his name was changed to Abraham.  God made him the father of a nation of people, even though he was ninety nine years old at the time.  God made him a father at one hundred.  The stories throughout Scripture show us the same pattern over and over again.  Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the Israelites, the prophets, Jesus and his disciples are all called to walk together with God.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8 NIV)

You and I are called, too.  God wants to walk with us.  Even in a world filled with people who do not walk with God and do not desire to walk with Him, God still wants to walk with them.  He reaches out to them.  He calls to them.  He knocks on the door for them to open.  And, when they open the door, He walks with them, too.

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. (Revelation 3:4 NIV)

When all is said and done, those who wanted to walk with God in this life will get to walk with Him in the next.  It's up to us, though.  Nobody can do it for us.  We need to decide to walk together with God.

How about you?  Are you ready to walk?

A Path

The hardest part of teaching, for me at least, is not building the iceberg.  I like figuring things out enough that I'm constantly building icebergs in different areas of life.  "I learn something new every day."  No, the hardest part of teaching is deciding which tip of the iceberg to share this time.  I find myself constrained by time, so I can't share all the cool stuff I've learned about God.  So, I choose.

Each weekend I preach is a choice.  Every Bible study I lead is a choice.  Every class I teach: choice.  I choose what topic to bring up in this blog post.  I even choose where to take a face to face conversation.  Life is filled with choices and God want's to be a part of them all.  So, I pray.  I ask for wisdom.  Then I choose.

The more I read Scripture, building my own iceberg, the more I began to see an outline for teaching Scripture.  Some of it came from God's Word.  Some of it came from discussions with people.  I found that different parts of Scripture made sense at different stages in their lives.  People preparing for marriage, for example, were much more interested in passages talking about marriage than those who were not interested in getting married.  So, I began developing different Bible studies for different stages in a person's life.  Some of the studies made sense for a sub-group of people.  Married people have certain Scriptures that apply, but single people have others that apply to them.  Men have passages just for them and women have some just for them.  There are many good Bible study books out there that helped us with these topics, so we drew upon the wisdom of other parts of Christ's Body.

Scriptures that applied to everyone, though, began to develop into an outline as well.  Stages or steps began to emerge that everyone seems to pass through.  There is a point when we don't see God or faith in God is passed down from our parents.  There is another point when we see God for ourselves.  There is another point when we decide to be a follower of God.  As a follower of God, there are many points of growth and change in that relationship with God.  Often times these changes build upon one another.  All of these stages or steps, and the Bible studies that go with them, are woven together into a path.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalms 16:11 NIV)

Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing the "tip of the iceberg" to the path.  If you live close enough to Life Bridge Christian Church, I would like to invite you to participate on Sundays (9:00 or 11:00am) to get an overview of each week.  Small groups will be meeting on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings each week do dive deeper, building more of the iceberg, on the concepts introduced on Sunday.  I encourage you to participate in all three ways (Worship Service, Small Group, and Blog/Devotion) to begin building your iceberg and and walking the path.

How about you?  Are you ready to build your iceberg?  Are you ready to walk the path?  I hope to see you there!

Build the Iceberg

It's great to be able to "boil things down" in a way that makes it more understandable.  Not only does it make things understandable, but it makes them memorable.  I've memorized many concepts from the Bible by boiling them down in a way that I can understand.  

Not only that, I've also used this technique in teaching and preaching.  It helps make things more understandable for my listeners.  When we "boil down" the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) into a single statement (Empower one more to walk together with God), we've just learned the gist of seven verses of Scripture in one statement.  Not only that, there is overlap in the Gospels, so we've actually remembered the concepts from even more verses.  This is pretty important since we are trying to read, understand, and apply 31,173 verses in total.  Boiling down ten or so of them is a good start.  Not bad for a day's work!

There are dangers associated with this, though.  Whenever I "boil down" Scripture to a concept, I need to understand it correctly in the first place.  A step of interpretation takes place.  In addition, a step of summation takes place as well.  There is a risk that something will be misinterpreted or dropped in the summary.  Let's look at an example.

Everybody knows this statement: "Money is the root of all evil."  Did you know that came from Scripture?  Well, it's close.  It's a summary statement boiled down from Scripture.  When I asked people what it really said, without looking it up, they knew something was wrong with the statement and began pulling out their own summaries.  "The love of money is the root of all evil," came another voice.  We talked about it, then quoted the actual verse from Scripture.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV)

In actuality, we didn't quote the whole verse.  We only talked about the first half, focusing on the phrases "love of money" rather than just "money" and "all kinds" rather than "all".  When you put it in context with the rest of the verses around it you find out what it's really talking about.  Don't let money pull you away from God.  It will be your undoing.  

See what can happen with boiling down Scripture?  It's a helpful tool, but at some point we need to go beyond the boiled down version to the real thing.  Robert, one of our small group members, mentioned last night that the best way to eat a vegetable is raw.  All the vitamins and nutrients are in it that way.  When we boil, steam, and otherwise cook them, we lose some of the benefits.  He's right.

Continuing with the food analogy, we need to start adding meat to our diets.

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV)

Notice what the Hebrew writer is talking about here.  Infants cry and someone feeds them.  The mature cut up their own meat and feed themselves.  At some point in our process we need to move from crying "you're not feeding me" to pulling out the Word of God and learning to read it for ourselves.  I realize the process is messy. We have some great pictures of our kids with cereal or pasta rings all over their faces, hair, and around them.  But they learned to feed themselves.  The same is true spiritually.

When we start reading and memorizing Scripture, we begin building depth to our faith.  We build an "iceberg" if you will.  Icebergs have 90% of their mass below the water's surface.  Only 10% is visible.  Teachers know that they are the best at teaching when they follow the iceberg principle.  That way, they are able to answer questions on the topic they teach.  When we read and memorize Scripture, we begin building our own icebergs.  This helps us in discussions about our faith when people ask us questions.  Oh, by the way, that's Biblical, too.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have... (1 Peter 3:15a NIV)

How about you?  Does "boiling down" concepts help you?  Have you moved beyond "boiled down" concepts to the real thing?  Do you still yell "feed me," or have you learned to cut up your own meat? Are you building your "iceberg?"

Boil It Down

When trying to overcome the seemingly impossible task of reading the Bible (since I wanted to take on all 800,000+ words at once), I found myself drawn to places where people would teach or talk about the Bible.  Weekend church services, for example, were very helpful to me.  I didn't need to be a Bible expert to start getting it into my life.  Listening to a preacher/teacher was helpful in many ways.  

First of all, they selected the passage to read.  (I always struggled with where to start.)  Secondly, they would pronounce those impossible names, know the meaning of the technical words, and explain the context of the passage.  (When I was reading by myself, I would get confused but wouldn't ask for help.)  Finally, they had a way of "boiling it down" so I understood what was going on then and how it could apply to me now.  Not only that, I would remember the "boiled down" version easier than the full text.

Here's an example we use at Life Bridge.  "Church people" will often refer to terms like the "Great Commandment" and the "Great Commission."  This wouldn't mean anything to me because this seemed like code for something.  In a way it was.  The terms refer to two passages of Scripture.

The Great Commandment was taught by Jesus and goes like this:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV)

Notice what Jesus is saying here.  Scripture can function as an outline.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on two commands.  That means these two commands are much like a roman numeral "I." and a roman numeral "II." in the outline.  This becomes helpful information when reading the Bible.  So, we try to remember this command to Love God and Love our Neighbor.  It will somehow be connected to the rest.  At Life Bridge, we "boil it down" by saying "Walk together with God."  Walking together would be loving our neighbor.  Walking with God would be loving God.  See how this works?

The Great Commission was given to us by Jesus and reads this way:
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)

In this one, Jesus is giving us, his followers, our marching orders.  He gives them right before ascending into heaven.  He's telling us to go and make disciples of all nations.  Loving our neighbor includes helping them love God, too.  That's because it is good to take refuge in God.  God is the giver of all good gifts.  Not only that, God loves us.  So, we share God with others. At Life Bridge we "boil this down" to say "Empower one more."

The resultant statement, combining the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, became the mission statement at Life Bridge.  "Empower one more to walk together with God."

How about you?  Is it helpful for you to listen to preachers or teachers share God's word with you?  Does it help you understand and apply it better?  Have you "boiled down" any Scriptures in a way that make it easier for you to remember?  How do you get God's Word into your life?

Lots of Words

I was never encouraged to read the Bible when I was growing up.  It's not that my parents didn't believe in God.  Our tradition just didn't encourage Bible-reading as a part of our walk.  When I first started going to a church that encouraged Bible-reading, then, I was a bit overwhelmed at first.  People would immediately turn to the book, chapter, and verse when the preacher or teacher would tell them to turn to a passage.  I had no idea where the information could be found.

The Open Bible, containing the 1977 New American Standard Bible, published some statistics that reminded me why I was overwhelmed at first.  In this Bible, there are two sections containing 66 books, 1189 chapters, and 31,173 verses.  No wonder why I had trouble looking up a verse!  The overwhelming feeling started to come back when I saw the final statistic.  This Bible contains 807,361 words.  (And you thought my sermons were wordy!)

One of the other statistics found in that Bible was interesting.  The middle verse of the Bible is Psalm 118:8.  It says, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man" (Psalm 118:8 [NASB]).  God's Word is worth getting to know.

I wanted to get to know what was in the Bible, but I didn't know where to begin. How in the world do I even try to read 807,361 words.  Reading a verse a day, with no breaks, would take me over 85 years.  Reading a chapter a day would still take more than 3 years.  That's much more achievable, but I wasn't sure I could have that kind of discipline - especially when the words were big and the people in these stories lived so long ago.  Yeah, I was overwhelmed.

That was 25 years ago.  Since then, I've read through the Bible many, many times.  I've not only learned from God's Word, but I've learned about God's Word through that process as well.  For example, I've learned different strategies people have taken for getting all those words in their minds.  Here are a few you may find helpful.

Talk About It
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9 NIV)

The Old Testament people didn't have a Bible in their home.  The technology wasn't there yet.  So, they had to talk about it.  God's Word was passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition.  Fathers told their children the stories while grandpa was there to correct dad whenever he got a detail wrong.  Passing along God's Word was very personal and family-oriented.  Wouldn't it be great if your pre-teen daughter had a poster of Psalm 118:8 instead of Nick Jonas on her wall?  (Ok, that's unrealistic.  How about next to his poster?)  When we discuss God's Word in our homes, it becomes important to us.  We start getting it into our minds and our hearts.

Listen to It

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:14-21 NIV)

When the technology existed to write Scripture down, it still wasn't easy or cheap.  Pounding out papyrus reeds and drying them in the sun just to get a piece of paper took time.  People started gathering to places where they could get God's Word into their minds.  They gathered in synagogues and, later, in church buildings where God's Word was read to them as a part of their worship service.  This is the way I was learning God's Word when growing up.  Many of our church traditions still practice this in one way or another today.  When someone else reads the story, along with those big words and unpronounceable names, it's easier to catch the gist of what is going on.  Often times those worship services have someone explaining more background, too, so it helps the passage make even more sense.

Read It

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." (Matthew 19:4-6 NIV)

There are many Bibles with readable translations now a days.  They also have excellent helps that can match your personality.  Daily devotions, study materials, archaeological facts, theological insights, men's/women's/teen's issues, and much more can be found packaged in your favorite Bible.  Now they are available electronically, in the cloud, and on an app.  Some of them will even read the Bible to you.  There are plenty of ways you can get God's Word into your life.  You may be surprised how quickly those 807, 361 words start making sense.

How about you?  Do you read the Bible?  What is your strategy or approach toward all those books, chapters, verses, and words?  When you read those words, do they help you "take refuge" in God?