Resting With Purpose

     As the last weeks of summer draw to a close, I was thinking about the last-minute vacations and personal time splurges people would be taking as a "final haul" for summer. I was thinking about how people spend their "down time," "veg-out time," "brain-dead time," and what people do to "relax." The top things I could think of were: watching television, listening to music, and playing video games.

     All of these are things I enjoy, but I was thinking about the quantity people consume them in the name of "down-time." With the last few days of summer quickly moving by, I was wondering how many people would binge play Call of Duty for three days straight or watch all four seasons of the Walking Dead back to back before summer officially ended.

Then the thought floated into my mind:

     How many people would spend three days in prayer for the persecuted Christians in the middle east? How many people would donate $100 not to a shopping spree, but to a Christian organization? How many people would sleep-in until noon, but not spend and extra 15 minutes in their devotions?

     I am guilty of all these charges over the summer as a whole. I have not spent or done as much as I should have for the cause of Christ, but I sure made time to do the things I wanted to do. There is a little hope left, however: summer is not yet over. Better sooner than later, make a change now by analyze how the time is spent.

     Why not relax by reading an extra Bible chapter? Or dedicate 15 minutes to prayer (I like to pray by journaling my words to God.) What's more, I've usually found spending time with the Lord to be more relaxing and rejuvenating than watching a movie. A movie makes my mind race with ideas; prayer clams my mind and prioritizes my thoughts.

     Once again, there is nothing wrong with music or movies -- I couldn't imagine my life without either of them! -- but the question comes with quantity and quality. Is your time with God suffering because of these activities? Or does your interaction with God pale in comparison to your interaction with pastimes?

     Most importantly, if you do see a problem, what are you going to do about it? Recognition of a problem doesn't make a difference if no action is taken. If you need accountability, find someone. If you need to set timers or alarms to limit your play time, do it. There is no excuse for allowing your spiritual life to suffer in the name of "relaxation."

     The beautiful part is God promises blessings to those who seek Him out.

"I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me" (Proverbs 8:17, NASB).

     Seeking the Lord is the beginning and continuation of a strong relationship with Christ. In Him all things are possible, including relaxation and down-time.

Nancy Missler

These are two studies I did recently by Nancy Missler that were AMAZING!!!

     The first is "The Way of Agape." Nancy explains the difference between God's love and Human love. She also explains how we are to demonstrate this love towards others. She goes through each part of loving the Lord with all of your: strength, soul, mind and heart. Although originally designed for a women's marriage seminar, this is in NO WAY limited to only women or only the married. This is an amazing study with brilliant principles for EVERYONE.

     The second is "Be Ye Transformed." Now that a firm understanding of God's love has been established, Nancy explains how that love is to transform our lives. She systematically explains the truths of God in order to set the believer free "from ourselves, our circumstances, other peoples' responses and Satan" in order to truly be vessels of the Holy Spirit in the world.

     Nancy Missler does a brilliant job backing up every statement with scripture, personal experience and the experiences of others. Each statement is systematic and easily understood. Her ministry is The King's Highway and is dedicated to helping believers grow stronger in their Christian walk. She is also married to theologian and scholar Chuck Missler, founder of Koinonia House Ministries, whose specializes in Current Events and End Time Prophesy.

A Time of Rest

     Spring Break has been in full swing for about a week now at my school. It's been so strange to go from having class every day and full homework loads in between classes to having nothing -- literally nothing! -- imminently due. Am I still stressed about my upcoming term papers? Yes. But, for the past few days I have had nothing that's "do or die" due.

     Part of my feels like, "YES! Lazy time! I want to sleep in, play games, catch up with friends... in short: have fun because I can." Another part feels like, "What are you doing?!? You should be working, making money, getting ahead on all the school assignments that are still looming over your head." After deliberating for a little while, I figured out that both of these positions are wrong -- Yes, I said both!

     Spring break -- or any free time, for that matter -- must be used wisely. For this time to be used wisely, many things must be taken into account; the results will change each time. For instance, if one has been working extremely long shifts or doing massive amounts of research, a few days of "brain-dead" fun would be a great way to recharge one's batteries. On the other hand, if one has spent the past several weeks up to his eyeballs in social events, a few days of peace and quiet to get some work done would be better. HOWEVER, these aspects are secondary to what the primary focus during any break should be.

     With all of this free time, one must make EXTRA time to spend with God in prayer and devotion. I have actually found it is more difficult to make time for God during break than during the school year. It is almost as though something inside wants to say, "You're taking a break from everything, including God." This is a big fat LIE! Since we have the extra time, we need to use the extra time wisely -- time is a resource just like money, spend it carefully. Take some of this extra time to really dig into God's word and to pray.

     I personally don't care about the "length of time" one spends in devotion, but as a suggestion, however long one normally spends in devotion, double it during break. 10 minutes becomes 20. 30 minutes becomes an hour. Devotional time also doesn't have to be spent in monk-like solitude -- although alone time with God is VERY important too. Some of the best devotional time I've ever had was reading a passage of scripture with my family or friends and discussing it together.

     Since God is to be the most important aspect of our lives, it only makes sense that during time off we spend extra time with Him. I heard someone once describe how we should spend time with God is like how we spend time with a boyfriend/girlfriend.

"Everything calls to mind that special person. We want to share everything with them and the beauty of everything with them. We long to be in their presence just to enjoy being together. All other relationships seem to pale in the light of each other's company. This is what it should be like in our relationship with God. We sacrifice spending time with others or at other events just so we can have a few more minutes with God. We should talk to God about everything and how it makes us think or feel. He is to be our companion through everything."

     May this spring break be a time of spiritual growth and maturation in your faith in Jesus Christ. By spending time to draw close to God, He will draw close to you. He is faithful and will fulfill His promises: those who seek wisdom will find it. Those who desire a stronger relationship with God will find that as well.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. -- Revelation 3:19-22 NIV

5 Principles Of Good Hermeneutics (3)

     Now that we have established that Hermeneutics is a science that must follow rules in order to be considered valid, here are five principles of GOOD hermeneutics.

1) The Literal Principle
     The Bible is about real people, real history, and uses real (normal) language. It is not a metaphoric, symbolic list of mumbo jumbo. When the writer (namely God) wanted to communicate something, he said it. I like to say that if God is smart enough to know what He wants to say, He's smart enough to be able to make sure the message gets across.
     Going back to my previous post, keep in mind normal language does have NORMAL metaphorical language (e.g. she's as smart as a whip, it's a stone's throw away). But as the great Hal Lindsey once said,

If the plain sense makes perfect sense, seek no other sense, lest you end up with nonsense.

     If you torture the data long enough -- even the Bible -- it will confess to anything. The Literal Principle is to be take very seriously.

2) The Historical Principle
     Historical context is everything! Culture, geography, racial views, figures of speech, politics, problems, pressures, customs... All of these factors shape the lens through which we interpret scripture. For example, in America we have the phrase, "Benedict Arnold!" (coming from American History, it means a liar, backstabber or traitor). If a person who never learned American history heard the phrase not only would it mean nothing, it would be confusing. On another level, right after the Twin Towers in New York City fell to Muslim terrorists, how do you think the entire Muslim community was viewed by native New Yorkers?
     All of these issues are present in the Bible. What the author intended to communicate is the most important of all of these factors: understanding the culture is everything.

3) The Grammatical Principle
     The Bible was NOT written in English. Although some would like to argue otherwise, the BEST interpretation of the Bible must come from studying the original languages. This does not necessarily mean that one has to go to seminary and take four years of Greek and Hebrew (though that certainly helps!) but there are plenty of sources for the layperson to use and still have just as much understanding and access to the original languages (see my sidebar link to Blue Letter Bible.)
     The Language and Syntax of a text -- word studies and the syntactical construction -- are the brass tacks of understanding any language. When proper time is spent on understanding the actual words and phrases another level of meaning is revealed.

4) The Synthesis Principle
     Very simply: Scripture interprets Scripture. The Bible talks about itself all the time! The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is a colossal cross-reference system to help you find the places where the Bible interprets itself.

5) The Practical Principle
     I'm not talking about application of scripture here. The question is, "What are the implications of this interpretation?" Does it make sense with the more clear, more easily understood passages? Most importantly, it is the Holy Spirit that illuminates Scripture so that it may be understood. If the scholar has not submitted himself to Christ Scripture CANNOT be understood.
     Read the whole chapter of 1Corinthians 2, but I'd like to focus on verse 14:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

     Natural Man cannot understand the Bible because he does not have the Holy Spirit guiding his study.

     With these tools under your belt, hopefully, you're better prepared now to study the Bible in the fullness God desires for you. Something I like to do (I've tried to adopt it for everything) is to pray that in anything and everything that I may bring glory to God, and that He will guide me to know Him better. Since the Bible is God's mode of speaking to us, why not ask Him to help us understand it?

     One last thing: The smartest people in the world don't have everything memorized; they just know where to find it. Undertaking the study of anything (much less God) can seem overwhelming. Don't be afraid to ask for help or search for those who've been doing it longer than you have. They are usually the best sources of encouragement.

More Than Skin Deep

      Now stop right there! This is not going to be a post about how true beauty is on the inside or anything like that -- not that I have a problem with those kinds of posts, but that is NOT what I'm going to do here. This is actually going to be a post with guys -- who will be are futures leaders -- in mind. BUT don't tune out ladies; this is every bit as important for you as it is for them!

     With that out of the way, let us begin. The new year is almost here, Christmas, the oh so special remembrance of Jesus' Christ's birth, (should be) fresh in our hearts and minds. Something that has been recently pressed into my mind is the importance of studying the Bible -- and I mean really studying the Bible!

     In the words of one of my favorite teachers, John MacArthur, "When reading the Bible, we have to understand that we are Aliens reading and Alien text." I'm not talking about the little green men that fly around in silver saucers here, but the traditional definition of alien:

"Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange" (The American Heritage Dictionary)

       The Bible was written, literally, thousands of years ago; in a different language; with different people, politics, values, geography, culture, figures of speech, customs; and WE -- today --  are not brought up knowing any of these. How can we possibly expect to understand -- I mean really understand the deep issues and meaning of the Bible -- without putting in a great amount of effort to understand the Bible the way the writer (God) intended it to be understood?

     People spend lifetimes studying and learning in order to be able to rightly divide scripture; is it unreasonable that we Christians today should devote some time and effort into understand the Bible? Taking time to begin devotions is the first step to understanding and studying the Bible, but it is just that: the FIRST step. To end there is not enough. As Christians, we are to devote all of our essence to being the best representatives of Jesus Christ that we can be; part of this effort is learning and truly understanding the Bible.

     God has been pressuring me, personally, lately to begin to dig down deep into His word -- to truly understand what I believe, why I believe it, and, most importantly, what He actually says. It is my desire to grow in my knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Bible. I ask that you, my beloved audience, join me in the journey of deeply studying the Bible as The Author intended it to be understood -- All to the Glory of God!

     Here are some resources to help get you started:

     Grace To You is John MacArthur's  website. He is an amazing pastor at Grace Church in California and one of the founders for the Master's College. He is a gifted teacher and is so passionate for everyone to learn the Bible that he has posted all of his sermons for free online! He style of "preaching" isn't really "preaching" at all, it's much more like "seminary lectures" -- but have no fear! He makes everything easy to understand and throws in some entertaining humor as well.

     Here is a searchable list of his sermons:

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/title

     Here is a searchable list of all of his resources:

http://www.gty.org/resources

     In my blog's sidebar is a link to the Blue Letter Bible -- which has absolutely saved my hide in many a theological project. The Blue Letter Bible has (virtually) every translation of the Bible that is automatically paired with a lexical interlinear of the original language (all you have to do is click the verse reference!) Here is another link to it:

http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm

     Beginning study of the Bible can be intimidating; however, if you pursue understanding with a heart of devotion to the Lord, God will honor your desire. Being the master of all thing, He will provide you with both the resources and the teachers necessary for understanding His Word. He is smart enough to know what you need and when you need it ;)