The First Five Books [The Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy)]

Why Should You Read The (Jewish Bible) Old Testament?
Here is some familiar ground that we covered previously. The Jewish Bible (Old Testament) provides the foundation for understanding the New Testament. It is often neglected or only read in part. Because of the prominence of the Law in the Jewish Bible, the idea of the grace of God is almost lost to its modern readers. It is often pointed out by readers of the Jewish Bible that God appears to be a God of wrath and judgment. However, some Old Testament characters present God as a God of love and justice. (Moses: Deut. 4-6; Jeremiah: Jer. 9.23-24).

The Jewish Bible (OT) provides the historical background which allows us to understand the message of the New Testament. The authors of the New Testament echo the Jewish Bible over 600 times. Jesus constantly appealed to its teachings as did Paul and other New Testament authors.

The history of the Old Testament is primarily found in the first seventeen books (Genesis-Esther). We must remember when reading this history that it is theological history. It was history told with a purpose. The history that is told is selected history to demonstrate the purpose of God to bring salvation to his creation. The whole Bible is often called salvation history because the God of the Bible is a missionary God.

What does it mean that God is a missionary God? Dallas Willard in his book Divine Conspiracy speaks about a “barcode faith.” Like barcodes on store purchases it doesn’t matter what is inside the package, the scanner just responds to the external barcode. Todd Hunter, has been known to say something like; “Christianity has become a mental assent to a set of beliefs around one theory of the atonement. You get a barcode and that assures you that you can go to heaven.” In short, nothing on the inside of a person has to change.

Marcus Borg in his book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time closes his book by talking about the familiar Christian phrase — believing in Jesus.

For those of us who grew up in the church, believing in Jesus was important. For me, what the phrase used to mean, in my childhood and into my early adulthood, was “believing things about Jesus.” To believe in Jesus meant to believe what the gospels and the church said about Jesus. That was easy when I was a child, and became more and more difficult as I grew older.

But I now see that believing in Jesus can (and does) mean something very different from that. The change is pointed to by the root meaning of the word believe. Believe did not originally mean believing a set of doctrines or teachings; in both Greek and Latin its roots mean “to give one’s heart to.” The “heart” is the self at its deepest level. “Believing, therefore, does not consist of giving one’s mental assent to something, but involves a much deeper level of one’s self. Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level, to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit.

Believing in Jesus in the sense of giving one’s heart to Jesus is the movement from secondhand religion to firsthand religion, from having heard about Jesus with the hearing of the ear to being in relationship with the Spirit of Christ. ¹

God is not merely interested in our believing him, but that through our believing that we become the “salt” and “light” to his creation. He is about saving his world, putting it to rights. We learn best how to become a part of this “mission” by reading, understanding, and then living into HisStory.

Reflections

• What is your definition of the Bible?
• Where did you learn your definition?
• If the purpose of Scripture is to share God’s missionary activity in redeeming his creation, then why do you think that we spend so much time reading it for other purposes?
• What do you think about Dallas Williard’s “barcode faith” theory?

The First Five Books [The Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy)]

The Purpose Of The Scripture
When we come to the Bible, we come to God’s word, written to communicate God’s truth to us. One might define the Bible as God’s word written in the words of men. It tells a story and affirms that God has acted on behalf of man for his salvation and restoration. God certainly could have chosen any way he desired to communicate to us, but the fact remains that he chose a certain method to communicate his truth.

The result of that choice by God is the Bible, which we may hold in our hands, the contents of which we may hide in our hearts, and live out in our lives.

Scripture tells us that God has spoken to us, but what has he said? For one to be in a better position for the Holy Spirit to communicate effectively to him/her the truths of God, one must at least know the purpose of the Bible. If you are to begin to have a proper grasp of the meaning of Scripture, you must decide what its purpose is. To know the purpose of any object helps you define its use. Let’s use a hammer as an illustration. The primary purpose of a hammer is to drive nails. If it is used for that purpose, the intended results will be accomplished. If, however, it is used for other than its purpose, the result could be disastrous. Suppose for a moment that a child was given a hammer without being instructed concerning its use. You may find a hole in the wall instead of nails in the studs. The same is certainly true about Scripture. If you are to discern its meaning, you must know its purpose. If not, Scripture usually gets used in all kinds of ways that it was not intended to be used and holey walls become abundant. That brings us to its purpose.

The purpose of Scripture is to share the redemptive history of God. It is meant to convey a knowledge of God, who is known chiefly by what he has done and in the person in whom he was incarnate. The religious interest of the authors of Scripture control their selection of events and the importance attached to them. They often write for other ends than to simply impart knowledge. They may, on occasion, desire to move their readers to adopt a certain attitude toward life, i.e., religious, social, or political. On the other hand, they may wish to encourage them or calm their troubled minds. The characters of Scripture really lived life and had all the emotions with which we all contend.

Paul, writing to Timothy (2 Tim. 3.16-17), gives us the purpose of Scripture in a simple and precise manner. Paul tells us “…All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for…

• Teaching: which provides instruction for us
• Rebuking: which shows us our sin and summons us to repentance
• Correcting: which restores us to an upright position
• Training in Righteousness: which directs us to walk in the right paths as opposed to wrong paths.

The end result, … so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (v. 17). The word “equipped” is the same word that we find in Mark 1.19, there translated “mending” (RSV, in the NIV it is translated “preparing”), and in Ephesians 4.12 where it is translated “to equip.” In each of the contexts it means “to be put together.” In the vernacular, it means that God’s Word taught to us helps us “get our act together.” As we look at Scripture, we should realize that its purpose is to “mend” us and make us conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8.29). If one uses Scripture with this purpose in mind, there will be much less chance of misusing it. The purpose of Scripture then is to help us understand the following:

• How God has acted on behalf of his children.
• How God relates to his creation, i.e., humankind.
• How man should relate to him as God.
• How man should relate to man.

The First Five Books [The Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy)]

Some Objections To Reading Scripture
Many believers have a silent objection to reading the overall story of Scripture, or even reading some of the smaller stories completely in favor of reading a few unattached verses. They will seldom vocalize this because they do not wish to bring disapproval on themselves. If they do vocalize an opinion, it usually falls into one of the following objections:

Objection #1: The Bible Is Too Big. Where Do I Begin?
They are right! The Bible is a big book. In my personal copy of The New International Version: Textbook Edition (2011), there are about 1250 pages of text to read—and small type at that. But this objection can be overcome. There is an ancient proverb which says, “The longest journey begins with a single step.” I have provided a guide for reading the whole story in God’s EPIC Adventure ¹ and a reading plan called “Reading the Bible Without Additives in 100 Days” to help overcome this objection. ² So, when you read the entire First Five Books of the Bible (Pentateuch), you may know how the story of God’s call and covenant with his people fits together.

Objection #2: The Bible Is A Dull And Boring Book!
I wrote a little booklet entitled: “It’s not the book that’s dull!” This tongue and cheek sense of humor was to get people to focus on some of the real reasons why they had the feeling that the Bible was dull and boring. Here are two reasons:

• The translation that most readers are reading may be difficult to read. So, when reading the Bible, secure a Bible translation which is up-to-date. If the translation you read is full of archaic language or nonsensical sentences, your tendency will be to see Scripture as just a dusty-old-history book written to a previous generation, and never read very much of it. My recommendation are the New International Version of the Bible (2011 Edition), or The Books of the Bible (a version of NIV without chapters and verses) or The Good News Bible. They are both good translations and easy to read.
• Another reason a person may find the book dull and uninteresting is because it is often read like a newspaper which has no value beyond the day of its reading. The Bible has had more influence on the world than any other book. One secular author has said that a person who has not read the Bible is an illiterate person. A strong saying! Think about it.

There are other objections, I am sure. These are the two which I encounter most often. My opinion is: if you learn to personally use materials like you are reading, with your family or your church community, and you read Scripture in an up-to-date translation, you will find that the Bible is not too big to conquer or too dull or boring to read. It will become alive and active in your life. Your job is to be impregnated with the sacred text so that you can imagine how you should respond to life situations and the improvise how to do respond. Remember: wholeness (as in reading the whole Story of Scripture) heals while fragmentation injuries!

The First Five Books [The Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy)]

The Importance Of Knowing
It has been my experience as a pastor and college instructor to note that many Christians do not read the Bible as a story. Therein lies the problem! They read their favorite stories or verses. They sometimes read in Psalms or Proverbs for devotions. While this style of reading is better than no reading, it still falls short of being helpful in understanding what God is saying and doing in the Jewish Bible. Each year many Christians make a New Year’s resolve to read the Bible through. They jet through Genesis, take an excursion through Exodus and have their last gasp in Leviticus. Leviticus has been the burial place of many New Year’s resolutions.

The Old Testament remains the book you always wanted to read and understand, but never did.

In his book Protestant-Catholic-Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology, (0226327345) Will Herberg notes the following:

In the five years from 1948 to 1953, the distribution of Scripture in the United States increased 140 percent reaching an all time high of 9,726,391 volumes a year. People were apparently buying and distributing the Bible at an unprecedented rate. Furthermore, over four-fifths of adult Americans said they believed ‘the Bible to be the revealed word of God’ rather than ‘a great piece of literature’. Yet when these same Americans were asked to give the ‘names of the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible, that is the first four gospels’, 53 percent could not name one. (35 percent could name all four; 4 percent could name three; 4 percent could name two; 1 percent could name one.) The Bible can hardly be said to have entered the thought of Americans quite as much as their views on its divine inspiration and their eagerness to buy and distribute it might suggest.” ¹

I would suggest that Mr. Herberg’s analysis has not changed, even in the past fifty years. I have noted the same lack of knowledge of the Bible among thousands of believers. People who choose to read and study Scripture really want to know how Scripture fits together. They want some basic grid through which they can read it. As we previously suggested, readers certainly know some of the more familiar stories, i.e., Noah, Moses, David, etc. Sunday schools have done a good job of teaching these great stories. What they do not understand is how the Story of Scripture fits together. ²

In the December 1979 issue of Christianity Today the CT-Gallup Poll is overviewed. ³

Their findings are not unlike the findings some twenty years before. This poll was conducted with those 18 years old and over ⁴.

Of those polled in the general public, the following results were noted:

• Only eleven percent read the Bible every day compared to ten percent who read it weekly and seven percent monthly. Thirty-seven million adults never read the Bible.
• Fewer than three in ten correctly identified, “Ye must be born again,” as the words of Jesus to Nicodemus.
• Fewer than half (forty-two percent) could name at least five of the Ten Commandments ⁵).
• The findings among those who call themselves Evangelicals were not sufficiently different.
• Only six in ten could correctly identify, “Ye must be born again,” as the words of Jesus to Nicodemus.
• Only half could name five of the Ten Commandments ⁶.

In 1999-2000 American Bible Society distributed 4,494,991 Bibles, 11,713, 519 New Testaments, and 85,945,643 Bible portions and selections. ABS is one of the largest Bible distributors in the world. The International Bible Society, which is the owner of the New International Version, (now called Biblica) distributed 2,581,602 Bibles, and 11,371,473 Bible portions in 2001. These are only two distributors. This does not count all the publishing companies in the U.S. The point is there is a continual increase in the availability of Bibles, while at the same time there appears to be no increase in Bible literacy.

In the Fall of 2010 American Bible Society as for prayer for the United States in relationship to this issue:

Please pray for the Bible crisis here in our own country. Studies show that people may have a Bible on the shelf but are not reading it. This is contributing to a general lack of knowledge of God’s Word and a decline in moral values. ⁷

George Barna’s report “Six Megathemes Emerge from Barna Group Research in 2010” demonstrates the same conclusion:

The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.
What used to be basic, universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large and growing share of Americans–especially young adults. For instance, Barna Group studies in 2010 showed that while most people regard Easter as a religious holiday, only a minority of adults associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other examples include the finding that few adults believe that their faith is meant to be the focal point of their life or to be integrated into every aspect of their existence. Further, a growing majority believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence or power, but not a living entity. As the two younger generations (Busters and Mosaics) ascend to numerical and positional supremacy in churches across the nation, the data suggest that biblical literacy is likely to decline significantly. The theological free-for-all that is encroaching in Protestant churches nationwide suggests the coming decade will be a time of unparalleled theological diversity and inconsistency. ⁸

Thus, the problem that needs to be addressed is to help you and others as readers of Scripture to fit the pieces of Scripture, in this case the Pentateuch, together in order to have a reliable grid through which you can read the Pentateuch completely delighting in what God has done and continues to do.

The First Five Books [The Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy)]

Two Ways To Read Scripture
There are at least two ways the Bible can be read by you as a reader. You can read Scripture as a book of past events, or you may read it looking for a present communication from God for your life.

If you should choose to read Scripture as past events, you will see the centuries from which the inheritance of the Western religious world came. You will encounter the enthralling stories of the ancient world, which bordered the Mediterranean Sea. You will have a glimpse of the rise and fall of many empires. All these events are told in action-packed narratives. You may observe, as you plunder through the pages, the roots of one nation emerging into world dominance, called by her God, and covenanted to her God to provide for humankind a redeemer. You might investigate some notes of comparison: Israel leaves Egypt for religious freedom—Englishmen left England for religious freedom; The Canaanites and the invading Hebrews—the Indians and the invading New Americans. You may hear the voice of the prophets calling Israel to honor the covenant or reap the consequences, as you hear the modern preachers calling for repentance. But, alas, it remains ancient and jumbled. Our modern mind notes how dislocated the material appears. The ordering of the books both Old and New Testament are not conducive to reading the storyline. The addition of chapters and verses cause us to pause at the wrong time in a story and slows down our reading to a snail’s pace. Our eye gladly stops reading these reflections and the book is put down, often picked again in the next day or so, but the same frustrations result. Those that have grown to read the fragments have developed a habit of reading that it’s hard for them to get their head around the idea that their just may be a better way of reading.

If, on the other hand, you read it looking for a present communication from God, you may miss the richness and importance of how God has dealt with his children from the beginning of time, thus knowing how he might deal with your community of faith or you in a present life situation. If you just dip in and out of the sacred text hoping that something will inspire you for the day, and while that may happen, there really is a better way of consuming Scripture. Reading whole stories at one sitting is surely better than reading a disconnected set of verses. Well, in my opinion, it is.

It should be said, however, that the first way noted above is much more apt to get you closer to hearing the real God of Scripture than the last way. This is not to say that one should abandon the latter way of engaging Scripture, but rather minimize it in favor of hearing and knowing what God originally said to the first hearers/readers, while wondering and asking what the author might have intended for his/her readers to understand. Why? Because whatever God said through the authors then, he is still saying today. The message does not change, it’s just often allusive when we read in a fragmented way.

The First Five Books [The Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy)]

Why Should You Read The Jewish Bible (Old Testament)?
The following series of posts cover the First Five Books of the Bible, often called the Pentateuch or the Torah. It will introduce the readers to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The World’s Best Seller
The Bible is heralded as the world’s all time best-seller. Most likely the most printed book but may be the least read book, at least the Old Testament portion. Readers tend to read their favorite parts but not the whole unless it is read as part of a reading program which chops it up into daily fragments that often doesn’t help the reader get the sense of the whole narrative. It has been translated into over a thousand different languages. Over ninety-five percent of the world’s population has some portion of Scripture, which is available to them to read. It is a collection of books whose message has changed lives over the centuries. It is important to read it, but it is also difficult to read because it comes from a different time and different culture. To help us understand the Jewish Bible (Old Testament), we must have some basic information to assist us.

The Jewish Bible (Old Testament) provides the foundation for understanding the New Testament. As suggested above, it is often neglected or only read in part. Because of the prominence of the Law in the Jewish Bible (Old Testament), the idea of the grace of God in the Jewish Bible is almost, if not completely, lost to its modern readers. It is often pointed out by readers of the Jewish Bible that God appears to be a God of wrath and judgment. However, some Jewish Bible characters present God as a God of love and justice. (Moses: Deut. 4.1-6.25; Jeremiah: Jer. 9.23-24). And after all, God is the main character of all of Scripture including the Jewish Bible.

An often overlooked point is that the Jewish Bible provides the historical background that allows us to understand the message of the New Testament. The authors of the New Testament echoes the Jewish Bible over 600 times. Jesus constantly appealed to its teachings, as did Paul and other New Testament authors. Without understand its storyline, the New Testament is out of the grasp of the biblical reader.

The history of the Jewish Bible is primarily found in the first seventeen books (Genesis-Esther). We must remember when reading this history that it is theological history with a missional point. It was history told with a purpose. The history that is told is selected history to demonstrate the purpose of God to bring salvation for his creation. The whole Bible is often called salvation history because the God of the Bible is a missionary. God’s overall purpose is to restore his original creation which the story arch of the Old Testament and New Testament: from creation to new creation.

The early church had only one Bible, although not in the form of a book as we have today. The Jewish Bible (Old Testament) was the Bible of Jesus and the Apostles as well as the church of Paul’s day. This indicates to me that it is needful, if not essential, that the church today knows something more than it already does about the Jewish Bible. The roots of Christianity are to be found in the Jewish Bible. It has been and continues to be my experience that the church does not understand very much about the message of the Jewish Bible.

Wright on Hell

Wright on Hell & Bell

Surprised by Hope (Paperback)

Surprised by Hope (Kindle)

The Story Before the Story is a straight forward presentation, which provides the reader of Scripture a simple but compelling introduction to reading Scripture as a story. This book interacts with four important concepts: foundationalism, fragmentation, story, and kingdom. Reading with a foundationalism concept without knowing it leads to a reduction of the text into principles, which produces patchwork followers of Jesus. The author believes that reading fragmentively produces fragmented lives in the followers of Jesus. Reading Scripture as a story is the antidote to foundationalism and fragmentation. Kingdom theology is the glue for the reader that holds the story together. This book is an invitation to read Scripture with both eyes open.

We have some interesting ideas about life. Most of them tied to Greek philosophy. In the church among follower of Jesus, we have tied our way of thinking, reflecting, and living around more Greek philosophy than Biblical theology. Here’s a recent presentation that deals with some of those issues.

Enjoy!

Sunday, as I sat through a service at the local community of faith that my family attends, I had the following thoughts.

We are so impregnated with individualism and consumerism. But, unlike a pregnant woman, we don’t realize it. Individualism and consumerism affects the olders and the youngers. It is not a respecter of persons. But, it still surprises me.

In Sunday’s service, the speaker was ill and it was a struggle for him to communicate. What I was struck by was his individualism and consumerism. He first read Psalm 130. With the lens of individualism and the need to consume, it looks like this Psalm is a personal cry for personal help. But, a more thorough reading might suggest that this was not about the Psalmist crying out for his own personal relief, but for the relief of the nation of Israel, the community of God, (church) in the Old Testament because of their sins. Our speaker personalized the sacred text and in doing so made it appear for his listeners that it was about his own and their own personal needs. Is it wrong to cry out to God when in need? No! But, it might be wrongheaded to use this text to support such a cry.

Next, we then moved with no segue to the story of Bartimaeus. The essence of the presentation was centered around the request of Bartimaeus to be healed. Reading with individualistic, consumerism eyes, we often put ourselves in the place of Bartimaeus as he asked for healing. But, what might Jesus be doing in this story and what might Mark mean as he tells this story? Jews, with impediments like blindness, being deaf and dumb, hemorrhaging, being crippled, were excluded from full membership of the community. When Jesus healed them, it was not about meeting a need to be consumed by the individual. It was about being fully restored to the people of God. Tom Wright suggests: “The effect of these cures, therefore, was not merely to bring physical healing; not merely to give humans, within a far less individualistic society than our modern western one, a renewed sense of community membership, but to reconstitute those healed as members of the people of Israel’s god. (Jesus and the Victory of God. 192).

In the sharing time, I was struck by one comment that suggested that Bartimaeus got his identity by being blind as he was called “blind Bartimaeus,” in the KJV of the text, but that translation has not been held over in more current versions where he is referred to as “a blind beggar.” Surely, one may choose to see what one wants to see in a text, rightly or wrongly, but are we then free to submit our findings to a community already infected with individualism and consumerism without first, at least, identifying what Jesus may have been doing or Mark may have been teaching?

So, I wrote my friend a short message inquiring about the following:

What part of what you did yesterday fed consumerism among those gathered?

What did God get out of our time together? It’s really about him and not about us.

What if the way we go about receiving from God is backwards?

What if the purpose of our gatherings is not about what we desire to receive but about God desiring us?

Remember, he was already there when we arrived and remained after we left. What was he looking forward to as we gathered? Another time of sitting around asking that he meet our needs, or a time in which we simply worshiped him without any expectation of receiving anything, but the pure pleasure of worshiping him.

What if church used Open Space Technology on occasion? The following are its four basic concepts:

• Whoever comes/is here are the right people
• Whenever it starts is the right time
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened
• Whenever it’s over, it’s over

I might add, everyone gets an opportunity to speak. What would that look like? Maybe we should ask Paul, he wrote about it somewhere!

googling God’s Will: Why Keep Searching For It When It’s Not Lost?
Winn Griffin
Harmon Press (January 7, 2011)

Years ago when I was first told that God loved me and had a wonderful plan for my life I believed it. I still do. But in recent years I have come to the conclusion that His plan for my life is not as elusive as I once thought. Dr. Winn Griffin, in his succinct little book, Googling God’s Will, agrees. While acknowledging an overabundance of books and websites devoted to the subject of seeking God’s will, he feels the need to offer his own insightful view using contemporary metaphors like Google, GPS systems, and power steering in an attempt to remove what he considers unnecessary barriers that muddy the water and prevent us from resting in God’s will.

Although I would have never phrased it this way, I used to suspect that God was playing some sort of cosmic hide-and-seek game with me. It was like he had this perfect will for my life but wasn’t about to tell me what it was, preferring to hide it from me, forcing me to search for it by trial-but-mostly-error fashion. Some days I would think I was warm but mostly I felt cold. I would wonder why it was so hard to know what God expected from me. These days that seems like a silly notion, and the way I have just phrased it to you it probably sounds silly to you, too. So, if it is silly, why do so many of us practice “seeking” God’s will in that way?

A particular insight Dr. Griffin helped with is that the worldview of the Bible (Middle Eastern) and ours (Western Enlightenment) are markedly different. If we are to understand the Bible’s intended message, we need to understand the context in which it was written. For example, one of the marks of “Enlightened” thinking is its emphasis on individualism, a concept that would have seemed strange to the Middle Eastern mind that thought more in terms of community than individuality, and pronouns we often read as personal are, in fact, collective. So, when we read “you” in the Bible it often, if not usually, means “you all.” Griffin writes, “When it comes to God’s will, we are often looking for answers in all the wrong places. We [Westerners] want to know what God’s will is for our individual life. What we often get as an answer by our teachers is a bandage, but the sore never heals, because we have never treated the root cause of our problem. God appears to act and guide from a community base than an individual base.… God’s will can be as simple as understanding our need for belonging … It may be said that God’s will for us is to be intimate with him … for the sake of others.”

Dr. Griffin’s book, though concise (just 100 pages), is one of those books that takes a while to read. It’s like a nutrient rich meal, a little goes a long way—it takes time to digest. But for me that is the mark of a really good book.

Winn loves spending time with his family, collecting baseball cards, watching movies, eating banana sandwiches (now with Splenda), traveling, reading mystery stories, and watching sports. He has received Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and two Doctor of Ministry degrees: the first was in Biblical Studies; the second at George Fox University, Portland, OR, in Leadership in the Emerging Culture. He serves as an adjunct professor at Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, WA, and he is the author of God’s EPIC Adventure: Changing the Culture by the Story We Live and Tell (Harmon Press: 2007).

Happy 1-1-11

While not the first English Bible to appear, the KJV was the most successful and long lasting, still dominating some church groups today. We have entered into the 400th year of its publication (1611-2011).

While I have not read this concept anywhere , but surely it is out there somewhere, the NIV plans its release of its newest translation in March 2011, yep, just 400 years after the KJV. Surely, there is some comparison to be made there.

Some will like the new NIV, some will not. What else is new? It seems that we get married to a specific translation and the translation becomes sacred, not the concepts it tries to express. It is helpful to always remember that a translation is an interpretation, yes, even the King James Version.

In this New Year, why not be a reader of the world’s greatest story in celebration of 400 years of being the story in a language of the common folk which, incidentally, opened the doors for the story to be translated into every language of the world, which has not yet been accomplished, but groups like Wycliffe have a mission to do so.

It’s been busy the last couple of weeks. I have had two cataract surgeries. The second one was a bit tougher than the first one. I can see colors that I had lost from my vision. I can see clearly now at a distance.

I am writing also writing two chapters for an upcoming book from the Vineyard with a working title: Women in Leadership in the Church: A Kingdom of God Perspective. I am writing “Chapter Three: Why Interpretation is Necessary” and “Chapter Eleven: 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.”

Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ
Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola
Thomas Nelson (June 1, 2010)

Years ago, as a rather insignificant young pastor in a large denomination, I fearlessly (too fearlessly, as it turned out) stood before some 10,000 delegates to propose we change the order of our denomination’s statement of faith and move our No. 3 article of faith, “The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ,” to the top of the list and the then No. 1 article, “The Scriptures Inspired,” to the No. 3 slot. Was not interested in changing the language of the articles, just their order. My motive was pure, I thought. I believed that Christ, as the Bible said, should “have the preeminence in all things”; especially, one would think, in a Christian creedal statement. To my shame, I was jeered off the floor. One colleague later scolded me and said he was “ashamed” of me. It took years for me to live down a reputation of being “renegade” and “liberal” (I was neither). Yet here I am, some thirty-plus years later, more convinced than ever that my proposal was a good idea and I have just found vindication in a new book by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola: Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ. (Where were these guys when I needed them?)

Occasionally, despite all my pious religiosity, I get the uneasy feeling that Jesus has left the building. I, like you, have a tendency to become wrapped-up, even obsessed, in whatever my pet issue is at the moment. It may be anything from evangelism to the environment to end-time prophecy. This is understandable since every year hundreds of titles flood the Christian market dealing with every topic imaginable and we sometimes find ourselves swept up in the current hot topic. But in the end it all comes back to that elemental question Jesus once asked Peter: “Who do you say that I am?” When Christ ceases to be the nexus of our faith and we become absorbed in all the stuff “about” Jesus, and not in Christ himself, we lose our focus.

“The Christian life properly conceived and experienced,” affirm the authors, “is simply a reproduction and a reliving of the life of Jesus.” But Christianity is not just a matter of striving to be “like” Jesus. If that is our sole aim, we are doomed to failure. No one has done or can do it. Rather, we must “be” Christ. Don’t jump to conclusions by that statement. The authors go on to say, “Jesus doesn’t want us to be ‘like’ him; he wants to share his resurrection life with us, [not just] imitate him. Christ wants to live in and through us. The gospel is not the imitation of Christ; it is the implantation and impartation of Christ. We are called to more than mediate the truth. We are called to manifest Jesus’ presence.” Or, as George MacDonald prayed, “O Christ, my life, possess me utterly. Take me and make a little Christ of me.” Quoting Bishop Ryle, with whom the authors agree, “Christ is all. Those three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If our hearts can really go along with them, it is well with our souls. If not, we may be sure we have yet much to learn.”

Author’s Bio
Leonard Sweet currently occupies the E. Stanley Jones Chair of Evangelism, serving from 1995 to 2001 as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Theological School at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. A Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon, and President Emeritus of United Theological Seminary, he is a weekly contributor to the online preaching resource, Sermons.com. Author of more than two hundred articles, twelve hundred published sermons, and almost forty books, Sweet is currently working on two textbooks: one on preaching, Giving Blood, and one on evangelism, Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Who is Already There. His most recent book is So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church and his weekly podcast is “Napkin Scribbles.”

Frank Viola is a best-selling author and international conference speaker. His books include Revise Us Again, Reimagining Church, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church and the best-selling From Eternity to Here.

In his book Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation James K. A. Smith (I just love double middle initials because I am blessed with two middle initials, can middle really be two?), discusses the benefits of gutty learning verses heady learning as we experience being kingdom people. Dr. Smith will be the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Society of Vineyard Scholars (SVS) meeting “The Renewal Of Your Mind: Imagining, Describing, and Enacting the Kingdom of God” to be help in Seattle, February 3-5, 2011. You can discover more information here about the SVS meeting.

For those of you not familiar with the idea of gutty learning, you can get a preview by watching the video below. If that whets your appetite, you can purchase his book here. Listen up! It’s not too soon to mark your calendars, tell your social networks like Facebook and Twitter about this upcoming conference and start planning to attend. Let your gut help you make your decision!

Last month the 19th Annual Wheaton Theology Conference presented “Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N.T. Wright.” If you are interested in Tom Wright’s massive work, you might be interested to hear other NT specialist interact with his work. Continuing education via the Net is really a great opportunity. http://bit.ly/aKudUO

There are eight meal scenes in the story of Luke. The seventh one was what we traditionally call the Last Supper. The eighth one was on the day of resurrection with the husband and wife that Jesus met on the Road to Emmaus.

Think of the first meal in the Garden. The moment is heavy with significance. “The woman took some of the fruit, and ate it, she gave it to her husband, and he ate it; then the eyes of the both were opened, and they knew that they were naked (Gen 3.6-7). This first meal of the new creation was celebrated with a male and female. One shouldn’t pass to quickly by in the reading of the Luke 24 text without noticing the echoes of the first meal in the Garden. Describing the first meal of the new creation, Luke says, “He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, then the eyes of them both were opened, and they recognized him” (Luke 24.31).

The first couple’s eyes were opened and they saw themselves naked. At the beginning of the new creation, this couple’s eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus. They recognized him in the breaking of the bread.

If you have an opportunity to receive communion as you celebrate the Resurrection, the beginning of the new creation in this present evil age, do so and let you eyes be opened to all the new creation in Jesus offers. It’s a story worth living in.

These presentations were delivered at Baylor in February 2010.

Give the session you choose a small bit of time to begin.

Prophetic Preaching 1

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Prophetic Preaching 2

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Prophetic Preaching 3

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Prophetic Preaching 4

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Here is a set of Podcasts by Walter Brueggemann on Prophetic Preaching that he delivered at Baylor University in February 2010.

There a bit of delay for buffeting at the beginning, be patient.

Prophetic Preaching 1

Prophetic Preaching 2

Prophetic Preaching 3

Prophetic Preaching 4

Different but Equal: Going Beyond the Complementarian/Egalitarian Debate
Derek Morphew
Vineyard International Publishing (December 29, 2008)

In the introduction to his latest book Different But Equal: Going Beyond the Complementarian-Egalitarian Debate, Derek Morphew points out that in recent years some sweeping theological changes have taken place in his thinking regarding the place of women in Christian ministry and leadership. Not changed so much, he writes, “but I would rather say that it has evolved, as I have tried to keep pace with literature on the subject.” With that I can relate. Growing things change—even growing beliefs. To never vary one’s point of view and hold the same position one did a decade or more ago is no virtue; it just means that a person has stopped learning, stopped growing. There’s nothing admirable about an adult still sucking the same decades-old pacifier. At least that’s what I have told myself and after reading Morphew, I felt vindicated. Evolving Evangelical—I think that’s a label I can live with.

Morphew’s developing outlook especially regarded the role of women in official leadership within the church, an issue that has been a perennial hot topic in religious circles for centuries. Conservative groups holding to a strict literal interpretation of scripture often exclude women from ecclesiastical leadership on what they consider “biblical grounds.” In this view women are to “keep silent in the church,” and not exert authority over, but always be in “subjection” to, men, holding that only men lead in the church because they are, well, males. In this view, only men are pastors, teachers, and theologians and women, um, their contribution is appreciated—they can cook the meals at church banquets and clean up the mess—but by and large they are expected to dutifully follow … silently. Women, who are qualified in every respect except gender, are repeatedly passed over in favor of often less qualified men. Early-on I wondered how a person’s sex could possibly make an unqualified male more qualified than a qualified female based solely on gender. I wondered what the wisdom was in subjugating half the population of God’s kingdom? But over time, with the rise of feminism (both secular and evangelical) and the blistering debate about women’s place in the church heated up, I, like Morphew, decided to take a closer and hopefully more objective look at scripture and come to some independent conclusions.

In Different but Equal, Morphew articulates some of the changes that took place in his thinking as he weaved his way through the minefield, re-read more dispassionately those hotly debated gender-specific biblical passages, and considered Jewish customs, Christian theology, and church history to offer this timely view that lies somewhere between excessive “complementarian” (men and women have complementary but different roles and responsibilities in society and religion) and extreme “egalitarian” (in God’s sight all people regardless of sex are equal in every respect) viewpoints. Morphew’s is a position that allows for differing interpetations while preserving unity. He writes: “The arguments between these two positions are too nuanced for the differences to become the basis for a breach in fellowship.”

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Artist Bio
Derek Morphew, Ph.D., University of Cape Town, South Africa is a theologian, pastor, and teacher who has been involved in pastoring and church planting for the past 30 years. He serves on the national leadership team of the Association of Vineyard Churches in South Africa, is the international director of Vineyard Bible Institute, and is a highly respected author and speaker at conferences, churches, and universities.

With the new year often comes a New Year Resolution. These resolutions come in all kinds of forms. We all made them and most of them have been broken. It seems to be an endless cycle. One of the resolutions that followers of Jesus often make is a resolution to read the Bible through during the next year. That too, often falls by the wayside. One of the reasons is the call to move from hardly any consistent reading to a commitment to read for the next 365 days and not only that but read it, the text of Scripture, in a chopped up and very fragmented way. Read Genesis 1-2, then Read Matthew 1 or some other routine that tears at the very core of the storyline of the Bible.

So, here’s an alternative, Read the Bible Without Additives in 100 Days (or 200 or 300). What’s the difference you say? Read it as a story using a text of Scripture that has removed all the chapters and verses. Read it in a more chronological fashion. Set the number of days you want to read. Don’t start on January 1, don’t make it a New Years Resolution, pick another day, be intentional, but start soon.

How do you do this? I have prepared a reading guide using The Books of the BibleTM that you can receive every week that provides a suggestion of reading beginning with Genesis and working your way through Revelation on your own time schedule.

Where can you find this information? Just click on the following link and read the information and signup. It’s free!

Reading the Bible Without Additives in 100 Days

It’s a great story, you should read it. Read it again for the first time.

There are three parts to think about here.

First, there is a video to watch, then there is a new article to read, then there is a final question to think about.

First then, the following presentation about metaphors was delivered by James Geary in July 2009.

Next, read the following article “A journey into my colon — and yours” from the Miami Herald from February 12, 2009 by Dave Barry and watch for the metaphors. BTW: I’ve been there and done that!

Finally, ask yourself how you read the Bible, literally or metaphorically? and Why?

NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible
Thomas Nelson Publishers (December 1, 2009)

Maybe at this point, a week from Christmas, you have run out of gift ideas. I have a suggestion for that reader on your list: you might want to drop by your local bookstore and see if you can locate a copy of the NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible, an heirloom-bound anthology of 250 of the most remarkable stories ever told, straight from the Bible.

About this time every year people begin making their lists of New Year’s resolutions. Some have resolved that the time has come for them to finally read the Bible through, cover-to-cover, during 2010. But if life proves anything, most of these resolves will enthusiastically begin on New Year’s morning, breeze through all the electrifying stories in Genesis only to get midway through Exodus and bog down at those often-strange and antiquated laws and ordinances of ancient Israel that stretch for the next 3½ books. By the time they get to the Book of Numbers and all those “begats,” they will, as thousands before them have, renege on their resolution and their Bible will likely end up unopened on their end table for the rest of the year. Thomas Nelson Publishers may have found a solution to this perennial and collective attention deficit disorder in their newly released “Greatest Stories” in which they have compiled the more extraordinary narratives straight from the holy writ (i.e., the New King James Version).

I think we often miss the point that the Bible was originally written for the purpose of being read aloud in congregational settings. As such, one of the major strengths of “Greatest Stories” is its dedication to the Bible’s narrative literary style that makes it worth reading on a regular basis and just as enthralling today as it was to ancient audiences. The book contains action stories like Joshua at Jericho, Gideon’s battle with the Midianites, and David’s duel with Goliath; love stories such as Ruth and Boaz and Mary and Joseph; mysteries like Abraham and Isaac and the theft of the Ark of the Covenant; symbolic fantasy literature as found in the Book of Daniel and Revelation; plus a few of the more salacious stories, including David’s disastrous affair with Bathsheba and Samson’s fatal flirtation with Delilah.

Stretching across both the Old and New Testaments, “Greatest Stories of the Bible” provides readers with the most exciting events in the Bible in a concise, easy-to-navigate, storybook format, taken directly from the New King James Version of the Bible. From Creation to Jesus’ promise to return to Earth again, this attractive book chronicles the failures and triumphs of the most memorable people of the Bible and the events that have captivated the world for centuries.

I can see a variety of purposes this volume can meet: as a gift item for family and personal devotions, a book for the coffee table, an addition to doctor’s (and other) waiting rooms, church libraries, a resource for church classrooms, and much more.

Artist Bio
God. (No photo available)

Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day
Jon Walker
Zondervan (September 1, 2009)

I’m a daily devotional junkie. I think I have been through them all—Mrs. Cowman’s Streams in the Desert, Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, Brennan Manning’s Reflections for Ragamuffins, A Year with C.S. Lewis (my favorite). And I plan to do it all over again in 2010 and just may have found my devotional of choice: Jon Walker’s newly released Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day, a book that is meant to be a companion to Rick Warren’s blockbuster bestseller Purpose Drive Life (sales now peaking at 20 million copies), which, incidentally, is a book Walker collaborated with Warren in writing. In the foreword Warren writes, “Jon makes the message of God’s grace clear and practical. God created you for a purpose and this book will encourage you to live a purpose driven life day in day out.”

This handy bedside book combines concise stories from Walker’s life, humorous anecdotes with a purpose, and wise biblical insight. The following entry especially spoke to me, probably because I struggle with it. Perhaps you do, too. Walker writes:

In our clash of wills with God, we are tempted to pray, “My will, not yours.” But that is a prayer of separation and division. It’s the invocation in a worship service of one; the prayer request that brings Christian growth to a slam-on-the-brakes halt.

Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours.” It’s easy to forget he still prays that prayer today, by the Spirit groaning within us when we don’t yet know the words to say. When we say “Amen and so be it,” we become one with God’s will, joining him as he loves others through us. In our abandonment to the Father’s will, we put ourselves aside in order to “help others get ahead” (Philippians 2:3 MSG).

The life of God flowed through Jesus because he emptied himself of all personal concerns for comfort and honor and demonstrated for all time that God’s power isn’t found in seizing and grasping and taking, but in emptying and being spent for others.

You enter God-life by praying, “Not as I will, Father, but as you will.”

Walker brushes away our all-too-human drift toward half-hearted faith and cheap grace by inviting fellow-worshipers to deepen and renew their commitment to Christ. He does this by helping us identify those areas of weakness in our lives that keep us from growing as we would like and offers sound biblical advice to arm us to combat and overcome those weaknesses. Why not drop by your local bookstore and thumb through a copy. It may be just what you are looking for in 2010.

Artist Bio
Jon Walker has worked with Rick Warren for many years, first as a writer/editor at www.Pastors.com, later as vice president of communications at Purpose Driven Ministries, and then as a pastor at Saddleback Church. He’s also served as editor-in-chief of LifeWay’s HomeLife magazine and founding editor of the Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox. His articles have appeared in publications and websites around the world. You can learn more about his ministry at www.gracecreates.com.