Is The Bible Up For Interpretation?

I hear this, and see that a lot. People believe that what is written in the Bible is up for debate, or that it's meaning can change over time, or that it can mean different things to different people. Is any of this true?

I remember back in high school and college when every semester we were given a bunch of short stories, poetry, novels, or whatever, written by classic writers. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Judgment by Franz Kafka, and so on and so forth. The students would read these and other stories and then discuss them in class. Each student would give what they thought the story meant, or at least the ones who read the story and weren't afraid of giving a wrong answer, would speak up. After a discussion, the teacher, who knew the answer from a combination of experience and a teacher's edition textbook, would give the correct answer.


Well, who determines originally what the correct answer is? Well, the answer has already been given in this post. You see, the original author of the work has the correct answer, as it was when he or she wrote the piece. As it is with the Bible, the meaning was determined by the author, at or before the time it was written.


This leads to the biggest question of all. Who wrote the Bible? Ahh, good question, even if I do say so myself. The answer lies in 2 Timothy 3:16. It says "all scripture is God-breathed," meaning that God gave the words, but man wrote it down. Kinda like when a company CEO gives a memo, but the administrative assistant types it, and signs the CEO's name to it. In this way, God is in fact, the author of the Bible.


The common atheist/agnostic/non-Christian/and sometimes Christian argument would be "anybody wanting to fake a religious text would somewhere in the text claim that the book was written by God." Which is true, if I wanted to fake a religious text, I would have in there somewhere that God wrote it. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 basically says that if you believe something other than the Gospel that has been preached (in the Bible), you have believed in vain. Essentially, if any part of the Bible is false, then the rest of the Bible is baseless, and it is useless to believe any of it.


Back to the original point: Is the Bible up for interpretation? The answer is no. Just like when Kafka wrote his works, he knew what the meaning was going to be about. Just like the words of Shakespeare have no different meaning now than they did when he wrote them. Just like Melville's words do not mean anything different now just because society has changed. The Bible, like God, is constant. The meaning is constant. It does not sway with times, it does not change with the ages. As I think about this when I am typing, it kind of makes me feel good, sort of at peace, that in a world with constant change, it is good to know that something as good as God and His Word, remain the same.

As usual, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Why Can't I Just Learn About God On My Own?

Ah, yes, the ever popular question. A lot of people I run into refuse to step into a church because 'they prefer to worship on their own' or 'they read the Bible on their own.' Something like that. So what's wrong with that? You may ask.


Well, before I begin, I am not in any way trying to insult anyone's intelligence, but trying to learn something on your own just doesn't work. I'll explain. I took a couple of online classes to get my bachelor's degree. The idea for these classes was that I would read the books, watch their DVD's, and after doing this, take their tests. Yeah, I didn't do it quite that way. I printed out the test ahead of time (not against school policy), typed all the questions into Google (not against school policy), got the answers from Google, then put the correct answers into the test when I actually took it. I didn't score less than 75% on any test, and got as high as a 95%. I wasn't technically cheating, so what's the problem?


First off, I didn't learn anything. Second, and more importantly, I want you to pay attention to the scores on my tests. They ranged from 75% to 95%. There were three reasons for this:


1) Google didn't have the answer,
2) Google had the answer, but whoever wrote the answer gave the wrong answer on accident,
3) Google had the answer, but whoever wrote the answer gave the wrong answer on purpose.


Now, let's apply this to reading and studying the Bible on your own. First off, it is a good thing to read and study the Bible at home. In fact, I recommend it. However, there are bound to be questions that come up when you read, some things may not make sense to you. So what do you do in this situation? Go to Google. What's the problem with going to Google for the answers? They might not have it (which would lead you astray), someone might give the wrong answer accidentally (which would lead you astray), or someone might intentionally be targeting people like you and give you the wrong answer to purposefully lead you astray.


So how does this get fixed? Again, let me stress that reading and studying the Bible on your own is a good idea. However, when questions arise, there is a support structure in place that helps with questions. First off, in my case, the priest of my church is only a phone call away. In some of the larger churches, this may not be the case, but in a good church someone knowledgeable about Scripture is usually easy to reach. 

Online college classes are structured in such a way to facilitate more learning than what I did. They usually have a discussing forum, where you are required to answer a question posted by the teacher, and respond to comments of one or more fellow students. Also, if you have problems, you can e-mail the teacher. I leave you with this: is even this amount of support available when you try to learn the Bible on your own? In addition, a church is a place to go to find help from people other than the pastors, but other people just like you.

As usual, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

What A Shame

I was listening to the radio the other morning and heard a girl call in who was ashamed. She had made a few mistakes, and was now pregnant. For those that are wondering, that is not what I am talking about when I mention the title of this blog post. What is a shame is that she is already attending a church, and is afraid to tell anyone at the church because she is afraid of what they would think.


Now that is a shame, but it does feed into a stereotype of what non-Christians, and even some Christians, think a church is. Some think a church is a place for people that have everything figured out, have all the answers, and have nothing to be ashamed of. 


This cannot be farther from the truth, and we'll look at John 8:2-11 to see why. It starts with Jesus preaching in a temple. A group of people brought a woman to him, saying she had been caught in the act of adultery. They state that the punishment for such an act is to stone her to death, and asked Jesus' opinion on what to do (they were trying to trap him, as they tried before and after, unsuccessfully). Jesus then tells them that the person who has no sin may start throwing rocks at her. Not surprisingly, no one did, and they all left.


This goes to show that the church (or temple in this case) is not a place for perfect people to congregate. In fact, the only person there that day, and any other day before or since, that had no sin was Jesus. The truth is, anyone who attends a church has something in their past that they are ashamed of. Romans 3:23 reinforces this by saying "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."


Okay, so you do go to your congregation and admit your faults. What happens next? Jesus picks back up in verse 11 of the first passage. Jesus tells the woman "go now and leave your life of sin." We already know that people need to repent of their past sins, but what does this have to do with the congregation?


When most people unfamiliar with church try to explain a church, they usually say something to the effect that it is a place where you dress up and go to learn about the Bible, pay some money, maybe have some doughnuts and coffee, do some praying, then leave until next week. The church is more than just these things. A local church should be a community, or even like an extended family. Yes, it is a place for learning, but equally important it is a place for gathering, encouragement, and help. Since, as I said earlier, the church is full of not perfect, but broken people, you might be surprised to find that there is someone in your own local congregation who has been through circumstances similar, or even identical to your own.  


As Christians, we like to talk about how God works in our lives, but it is also important to remember that the devil sometimes does as well. He doesn't stop when you commit the sin, he takes it to the next level. A common ploy of the devil is that when you commit a sin, he tries to make it sound like such a big deal and that nothing can undo it, and no one will understand, so you might as well give up. I don't know what happened to this woman when she told the people in her church, or even if she did. What I do know is that after her story was aired, many other women called up the station and said the exact opposite of what the devil was trying to convince her of, the fact that they had been there.


The truth is, if you need help with something, you need to go to God in prayer, and you need to seek the help of others. The ideal place to find help would be to go to a community, or a family, or in other words, a church. If you don't have a church, I would like to invite you to mine (had to put it in there, I hope you understand). If you don't live nearby me, I urge you to find a local church immediately. And as always, pray and keep in the word.


Amen

Do Everything

Steven Curtis Chapman - Do Everything


Yes, yes, I am blogging about a Steven Curtis Chapman song. I am ashamed. No matter what you think about him, he does what some "Christian" artists don't, and that is tell the Gospel  straightforward. Anyway, I digress.


Anyway, the second verse is the one I will be talking about. It talks about two people, with two completely different lifestyles. One being at the higher end of white collar, the other at the lower end of the blue collar spectrum. The lyrics are as follows


You may be that guy with a suit and tie
Maybe your shirt says your name
You may be hooking up mergers, cooking up burgers
But at the end of the day 
Little stuff, big stuff, in between stuff 
God sees it all the same
While I may not know you
I bet I know you wonder sometimes, does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you, it matters just as long


As you do everything you do to the glory of the one who made you
'Cause he made you to do 
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
Tell the story of His grace, with every move that you make
In everything that you do.


Basically, he is saying that it doesn't matter if you are a chemical engineer (you know who you are), a fraud investigator (you know who you are), or just a meat cutter (you know who... nevermind, that's me). You have a place here on Earth to do God's will. Everybody has different gifts that can be used for the glory of God. Some people think that one set of skills is more important or more admirable than another. Isn't it God who grants everybody their gifts? So how can one set of talents that God has granted to someone be better or worse than another set of gifts that God has granted someone?


1 Corinthians 12:12-20 says the same thing:


The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.


We are all called to spread the Gospel of Christ around the world. You may think that because you are not a priest/pastor/minister/whatever, that you cannot tell people about Christ and spread the good news. Not true. In fact, a wise priest (you know who you are) once said that a priest is not above the people in the parish, that he is there to serve the people, just as Christ came to serve us. What are your spiritual gifts? I don't know, but they  sometimes parallel what you are good at normally. Maybe you're good at teaching others, perhaps teaching a Bible study at church or in your home would be up your alley. Perhaps you are good at talking to people you barely know, volunteering at a local nursing home could be a good fit for you. Perhaps you are good at sitting in front of the computer going to various social networking and Anglican related websites for hours on end. START A BLOG!


Regardless of your gifts or your Bible knowledge, God does have a plan for you and the gifts that He has given you. Keep in the word and pray often. Pray that God will help reveal His gifts that He has given you, for His glory. And always, do everything for the glory of God.


Amen.

This Month's Weekly Refresher?

Once you make the decision to become a priest, it automatically puts a target on your back for Satan to attack you.


The above quote is anonymous. By anonymous, it comes from one of two people, and I can't remember which one. For all I know, it may be both. It's also not an exact quote, but pretty close, and the meaning is the same.


Anyway, it leads perfectly into what I want to talk about for this post. For those that don't know, I feel led to becoming a priest in the Anglican church, more specifically, the Anglican Mission in the Americas. I have been pulled towards ministry since about the third grade, and have on two previous occasions halfway seriously followed up on it, but fell short both times. The third time I decided it was time to go full force, and have been being coached along the way.


Then life got in the way. My wife and I had a second child, work picked-up, Heather (my wife, for those that don't know) went back to get her Masters, plus the already existing daily work and life stresses. It got to the point where 24 hours in one day, or seven days in one week, just weren't enough. So things got pushed to the back burner. I started slacking on planning youth group lessons, I totally disregarded this blog, I haven't been reading the Bible as I should, I cut back on the mentoring from once a week, to once every other week, to just not doing it until things slow down. 


Here I am now, and guess what. Things haven't slowed down. If anything, they have sped up even faster. Life had become too much to handle. I became angrier, somewhat depressed, and even a little aggressive. It wasn't fair to my family, or my co-workers.


I had too much on my plate, and I couldn't handle it. I was literally crying one day and asked God why there was too much for me to handle. I asked Him for help, repeatedly. I heard a song not too long after this happened. The song is by Matthew West and it's called Strong Enough. It was basically a song with lyrics ripped straight out of my life. (The album this song comes from is called "Story of Your Life" Coincidence, I think not.)


You must think I'm strong, to give me what I'm going through
Well forgive me if I'm wrong, but this looks like more than I can do, on my own.
I know I'm not strong enough to be
Everything that I'm supposed to be
I give up, I'm not strong enough....


Again, this is the story of my life. It was exactly what I had been thinking for the past month or so. That last line was word for word what I have said, and have felt for some time. I literally felt like giving up. The rest of the refrain kicks in.


Hands of mercy, won't you cover me
Lord right now, I'm asking you to be
Strong enough, for the both of us.


The second verse:
Well maybe that's the point
To reach to point of giving up
Cause when I'm finally at rock bottom
Well that's when I start looking up
And reaching out


My main problem was that I WAS trying to do this all on my own, and didn't have much success. The truth is we can't get through life all on our own. We not only need the help of God, but the help of our family and friends. It has never been easy for me to ask for help, it may have something to do with the Y chromosome. At any rate, I asked God for help, and now I have to ask the people around me for help as well. 


I realize that this isn't an issue that only I struggle with. Chances are you have had or have now similar issues to mine. The important thing that I have learned is not to give up, and not to push the important things aside. It is also important not to keep things bottled up inside. The most important thing is not to forget God. I forgot him, look where it got me. It is okay to ask for help, don't let the Y chromosome, or the X chromosome for those that don't have both, get in your way.


As always, keep in the word, keep praying. It is by God's grace that can save you, not yourself.


Amen.

Mercies in Disguise

Laura Story - Blessings

Well, Hannah has been sleeping pretty good through the night lately, waking up only two or three times between 8:30 pm and 6:00 am. The past couple of nights have been an exception, with her waking up every 30 minutes to an hour. Whenever Hannah wakes up, Heather and I both wake up as well. Heather just stays up the longest out of the three of us though.


Whenever Hannah wakes up, it's my job to get her out of her crib, and back into our bedroom. Meanwhile, Heather is mixing a bottle for Hannah, then feeds her until she goes back to sleep. The past few nights, I have had a particular section of the song linked above stuck in my head.


What if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near? 

That last line is what really rings in. I've been wondering how not sleeping for going on three days now could be considered a blessing. Then it came to me. Fairly often Heather will ask if I can remember when Ethan was this little. The answer is usually no. In fact, a friend of ours had a baby a few weeks back, and we went to see little baby Alli before she was a whole day old. When we got there and I saw this tiny baby, I thought to myself, "holy moly, was Hannah ever this little, I don't think she was this tiny." In fact, Hannah was actually smaller at birth than Alli was, but I don't remember her ever being as small as Alli, and Hannah is five months old!


As I said earlier, I've realistically only slept about seven or eight hours in the past three days, and my wife has slept significantly less than that. Both of these things are a bummer. But even at 4:00am rocking Hannah in the living room, I look down at her, as she closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep. I see her in her true beauty, and am able to just look at her, and remember her in this stage of life. I look at this and realize that even though this may be an inconvenient time, it truly is a gift from God, a mercy in disguise.


Above and beyond this, we really do need to take a look at the negative things in our lives, and see how they could be used to fill God's purpose. One example would be one of my previous blogs, Missing Car Keys. I invite you to take a look at the things happening around you in order to find God working, and how to spread his love.


Amen.

Be Glorified

I was making a delivery for work earlier and was exiting off the highway and pulled behind one of those seven or eleven passenger vans. You see them a lot, the kind that belong to churches or large families. Anyway, across the back door of this van was approximately a two foot by two foot decal that said "The vehicle donated by Ministries." On the drivers side of the vehicle was the same decal in the same size. I was not able to catch the passenger side of the vehicle, but I can assume it was there as well. 


When I saw this, I didn't know quite what to think. After the event had some time to sink into my head, I came to the conclusion that the reason for this donation was to make the ministry look good. People will no doubt drive by this vehicle numerous times, and some will think 'how nice it was of this church to donate this vehicle.' The church has put its' name out, and has gotten the attention that they think they deserve. They want people to see what they are doing for charity, and maybe then drop on by the church, or send a donation.


I thought about this for a while and Matthew 6:1-4 came to mind. Jesus says:
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites to in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."  (Emphasis added)


There is an even greater principle at work here. This passage does not just apply to how we give, but how we live. If you haven't noticed before, I can get on a tangent about the way people worship. So here I go again. When I get on the topic, I say that it is not so much about the what but about the why.The what can be pretty much anything: When to stand, sit or kneel, what to say, how to dress, etc. The question needs to be why? You need to ask yourself: Is this for the glory of God, or is this for the glory of man? 


Practical example #1: Habitat for Humanity is a very well known charity that helps provide housing for lower income families. They rely mainly on volunteers for labor and donations for materials. To this end, a church group decides they are going to help Habitat for Humanity build a house or two in the community that the church serves. They all agree that Christ says that we need to help the needy and the homeless. They show up with matching T-Shirts that say "First Church of Marketing: Habitat for Humanity Project." They decide to put up a banner with their church logo on it.


Practical example #2: In the past two years, Unassuming Local Church has grown from an average Sunday attendance of 150 to 500. It has gotten to the point of having two services to five every weekend. The only problem is that the sanctuary is not large enough to grow the membership any further, and people are actually reluctant to attend regularly because they feel crammed. The leadership of the church has decided it needs to expand, but doesn't have the funds to do so. They get some bids, and figure they need $100,000 to build a larger sanctuary and expand the parking lot. The church goes on a fundraising campaign, including asking for special donations during church services, and even holding a barbecue in the parking lot with signs saying "proceeds will help benefit our new sanctuary and parking lot." After the $100,000 is raised, the fundraising stops, and the building begins.


Now, which one of these situations is for the glory of God? The first one helped out the community at large, while the second one seemed to help the church. The first one built homes for low income families, and the second one raised money for their own church. With this all being said, It is the second congregation that showed glory to God. It is true that the first church helped others and the second church helped themselves, we need to not only remember the what, but the why. The first church helped out with the intention of getting their name out there, much like the ministry mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog. You might even say 'they announced it with trumpets'. The second church expanded their own building to suit the needs of the community. Yes, it dealt with a touchy subject for churches, raising money, but did it tastefully and without overdoing it. 


Now, the question I leave you with: What are you doing? And are you doing it to glorify God, or glorify yourself?


Amen.