Old Mine … How do we keep it fresh …

This picture creates for me the question - how do we keep the Scriptures from becoming like this mine? If we continue to reduce the Scriptures to merely a textbook of propositional gems won’t we be keeping it on shelves and in academic settings to be analyzed only by “experts?”

The Guardian … What Is Moonstroke …

“God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you – Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke.” (Psalm 121:5-6, The Message)

Psalm 121 is among what are called the “Songs of Ascent” or “Pilgrim Songs.” Annually Jews would make their way to Jerusalem and to the Temple. Songs were sung along the way to prepare for worship in the Temple. The same roads were traveled. The same scenery observed. However, this trip was different – worship with the people of God in the place where God meets his people was the goal. An ordinary place was made extraordinary because of what would happen in that ordinary place.

We have an ordinary place for the people of God to gather – the church to gather. It is made extra-ordinary based on what will occur in that space. How do you prepare throughout the week for worship with the people of God. I am still stewing over the phrase I read Sunday, “as in “quiet time,” prepares me for the church community. Not only should we pray for ourselves, but we should pray that God will help us so that we can be better members of the church.”

Our journey or pilgrimage through life can create a variety of stresses – the length of the journey, the mode of transportation, fatigue, anxiety. Eugene Peterson inserts the understanding of these pressures in his interpretive translation of Psalm 121 (above). God guards us from “moonstroke.” Peterson writes, “And a person traveling for a long distance on foot, under the pressures of fatigue and anxiety can become emotionally ill, which was described by ancient writers as moonstroke. The NIV simply states that God shields us from sun and moon. Certainly travelers in that day understood the stresses of the journey.

I am glad God is our Guardian – shielding us from the obvious (sunstroke) and the subtle (moonstroke). As we gather together, let’s prepare for worship by spending time preparing ourselves for what it means to be in “community” with the people of God.

Putting the emphasis back into the story …

Growing up reading Aesop’s Fables, led me to analytically read stories for the “moral.” The story was easy to dispense with once I knew the moral of the story. Years of college and seminary helped solidify this approach to the Scriptures. While there is little doubt a person could draw somem conclusions from the story read, would it lead the reader to dispense with the story once the “truth” claim had been unearthed? If the goal is the truth claim, then is the veracity of the story a first order issue? Or, do we conclude that since the story was found in the Scriptures it elevates the truth claim. The intent is to stir us to consider how to encourage reading the Scriptures while being held captive to the Spirit of God so we might understand the work of God in the past with an understanding how he may work/lead/teach us in the present and on into the future.

Despite the turnings … still a way to see

Reading more Scripture …

Does how we view the Scriptures influence what we expect when we come to read the Scriptures? Are the Scriptures “propositional truths” God wants us to know but has hidden them in stories we must read, exegete in order to understand and apply? Are the Scriptures the story of God’s activity in the world securing for himself a people so that as we read the story, the Spirit of God “reveals” those truths by which we faithfully follow the example of those following God through the ages?

Just wrestling with thoughts prompted by Grenz and Franke.

Interesting comments related to the future of the Church …

Some people consider the future based on statistical research. Others look around and listen offering prophetic insights. Will Sampson spent some time with two such people - George Barna and Leonard Sweet. Here is one observation I found striking.

According to Barna, the people who sit in our pews on Sunday morning are statistically unrecognizable from everyone else in the culture in terms of their actions and attitudes. I have quoted this statistic several times. Great quote from Sweet to augment this thought: “John Stuart Mills said if you base a religion on a set of beliefs in a very short time the followers will look just like the rest of the culture. Mills was a prophet.”

For more interesting observations.

Changes …

I have added a couple of new books, a new banner with some paintings from two of my favorite artists - Vincent Van Gogh and Tommie Littleton. I hope to update the look of the site every few months or so.

Getting to the other side …

Great imagery in the phrase “the other side.” Jesus reached some with significant needs on the other side. The disciples were charged to get to the other side. What wouuld it mean to get to the other side.

Solitude … Listening … A Place to Hear

Dallas Willard suggests one of our greatest needs is to practice solitude. A place where there is no noise, no speaking, no reading - only listening. Surely staying in the cabin tucked away in the center of this picture wouuld give a very real occasion for solitude.

Spirit-constructed community …

How is it we become the community of faith that reflects the reality of the Kingdom of God? Could it be we find it in the effective work of the Spirit of God through the Scriptures?

Through the act of appropriating the biblical texts, the Spirit creates the community that seeks to live the paradigmatic narrative of the Bible, which focuses on the story of Jesus. To this end, we read the various texts in the light of the whole of the biblical message, listening for the Spirit’s voice guiding us as we seek to be the Spirit-constructed community of faith in the contemporary context. Theology serves this hermeneoutical process in that it assists us in seeing the texts as the theological documents they are, that is, in reading them as scripture. (Beyond Foundationalismp.87)

Next Page »