BibleScribbler

Coffee, a Bible, and a Napkin to Scribble On

Knowledge and Love

· ·

Doesn’t it seem weird that we approach our relationship with God so differently than our approach to our relationship with our girlfriend, bros, or any inanimate object?

What I mean specifically: in regards to inanimate objects – my sons bought some AstroJax.

They are super cool and amazing things. When they brought them home, we didn’t look into books and books of the history of juggling, string, plastic, spheres, and toys. We watched a single video of people using them, and then we went for it. We went for it for hours.

They carried them in their pockets every time we went out of the house.

They wore the stings down.

They dropped them.

They tangled them.

They used them like crazy.

When this cute girl that I know became my girlfriend, I didn’t research the history of the Scandinavian and Danish people. I didn’t learn all about Ivy Tech (where she went to school) and North High School and map out the neighborhoods where she grew up and the fashion design industry that she was interested in.

I hung out with her.

I spent every moment I could with her.

If she was working, I would sit at the bookstore where she worked and I would read.

If she was on her dinner break in the evening I’d bring her Arby’s.

If she had a Saturday off we would walk around Audobon park and kick gumballs.

How much more so should we look at Christianity like this! Some would say it is shallow and emotional. That faith like that relies too much on feelings and not on knowledge.

It is not because of knowing about my girlfriend that I made a life-long covenant to be with her! We have now been married for 13 years and have 5 children!

If we compare the local church to a person, she may have made herself rather fat as far as attendance (though overall church attendance is dropping nationwide) but she’s not typically birthing out more churches.

I’m curious as to what would happen if we treated our faith more as a love affair than an intellectual pursuit.

1 Corinthians 8:1

All of us possess knowledge. This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

What would happen if we went after the immeasurable and risky love of God that is beyond all knowledge? I think it would be awesome.

You Say That To All The Deities

· ·

Hosea 2:11

 I will put an end to all her celebration:
her annual religious festivals,
monthly new moon celebrations,
and weekly Sabbath festivities –
all her appointed festivals.

Look at what is on this list–It’s all of the religious things that Israel was doing!

Somebody might say, “Wait, didn’t God ask them to do all of these religious things?” Yep, He did, but they were all for the reason of drawing closer to the one true God and they were doing these things for every deity on their list! They went all over looking for spiritual beings and the sacrifices or activities that would please them!

God is Jealous

There are a lot of people that don’t like the idea that God is a jealous God. The idea of being jealous or selfish seems controlling, limiting.

Honestly, I think people don’t like the idea of being controlled because they haven’t had somebody stick up for them. If you’ve been oppressed–and I mean really oppressed–and then you’ve had somebody step in and stick up for you, you appreciate jealousy.

Nobody likes to be the damsel in distress, but that’s what we are. Even our Christian books teach us how to be the manly-man hero and save our families/communities/churches that are the ones in distress. We are the ones that need to be saved, not the saviors. We are the ones that need spiritual acts done to us by our Lord, not the ones that need to do spiritual acts for our Lord.

May we end our religious hobbies and let our savior do what He is mighty to do–Save!

Secrecy and Jesus

· ·

Matthew 6 (you should read this whole chapter first) Matthew 6

It is so CRAZY to read this stuff Jesus says about not worrying about money! I keep reading through Jesus’ teachings and I just wonder if the Church ever read this stuff!

The awesome part is that I woke up worrying about money! Am I managing it right? Am I paying off debts the right way? Is my budget set up the right way? Why do I act like I even have a budget?

Jesus flies in the face of all of that!

There are three times leading up to this section where Jesus says our prayer life, our donations, and our fasting should all be done in secret. I think I need to get unlearn.com and have a Bible study blog on there!

Pray in secret. Don’t make it a big oratory or a big deal. It’s valuable to God and you because it’s a conversation. If you get any value out of it being eloquent or by impressing others with it, you’re doing it wrong.

Donate in secret. If you are buying a stronger pride from the homeless man or getting a good deal on righteousness for only $50 a week, you are doing it wrong. Give away stuff joyfully and for the sake of giving it away, not so that you look good.

Fast in secret. If you go without something for religious reasons, don’t tell anybody. I wonder what would happen if we applied this to all of the boycotts the Baptists are known for. Wait, a boycott is the opposite of a secret fast, isn’t it? Think about the secret fast next time your tempted to tell somebody, “No, I don’t ________” Want to go bowling? “No, I don’t bowl.”

I think we need to fast from the condescending DON’T.

In all of this, Jesus is pointing the arrow directly to Himself as the SOURCE of all things.

You want your prayers and requests to be heard? Trust Jesus with your words. Trust Jesus with your prayers. You don’t have to pray like Maya Angelou to get heard.

You want some confidence and ego boost for who you donate money to? Forget about it. It was God’s first. He probably allowed you to get more than somebody else so that you’d share, so you’re just doing what He asked you.

Actually I don’t want to say it was God’s first. He doesn’t even deal in the currency we deal in. If you want to deal in His currency you have to go to the currency exchange at your local soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or the home of your neighbor.

And fasting? Oh fasting. I could write a whole blog post about how messed up I am over fasting. Like anything else, if we do it to get attention from others, that is all we’ll get.

Jesus is the beginning and the end of our ego, our good-personship, our confidence, our confused religious fervor, and our lives. Let’s throw off all of the wrong stuff we’ve learned and look at the things Jesus said all over again and live them out.

May God give us all of the worries and beauty of a flower in the field today!

Romans 1 and the Created Laws

· ·

Back in v. 5 Paul talks about the “obedience of faith” which hints at obedience not coming from the Law. When Paul quotes Habakkuk, it’s kind of out of context for what Habakkuk is talking about, but it still holds true. Judgment was coming on Israel because of their lack of faith in God. They were turning to idols for help. The ones that turned to the Lord for help were some of the remnant that survived. In the same way, the ones that turn to God who gives grace will also survive.

There are a lot of ways that the traditions of the Pharisees became a created thing. I feel like I’ve written about this before…?

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
(Romans 1:25 ESV)

Isn’t this exactly what we do when we make up a law like “close your eyes when you pray” or “make it to church on time?” I see a lot of those rules as I have kids and I hear them correct each other for different things. Like hearing a kid say “Don’t say God! That’s a bad word!” and correcting them to know that “God” is a very very good word, and that’s why you save it for special things.

Customs are what they are, and there is a time and a place for following them, but they should never ever replace faith in God. We do not pray before we eat because we have to, but because it’s a socially acceptable time to just bust out into corporate prayer during the day. Sometimes people get sooo uncomfortable when people eat without praying. I don’t want my kids to be those people.
The obedience that comes from faith is one that is thankful, with or without a recited prayer before a meal. The obedience that comes from faith is one that sings songs of worship whether or not anyone else starts the song. The obedience that comes from faith is one that gives not to fulfill a budget but to fulfill a mandate, or even an inner stirring of God that says “Make this happen!”
There are a lot of moments when Jesus deliberately broke a custom or a traditional teaching just to crack the rock-hard hearts of the religious people. Most of His healing was on the Sabbath, which got all kinds of panties in a wad. I was really good at breaking customs when I was working cross-culturally, because I could just do what was normal for me and shake a custom.

What has become more difficult is to shake customs in my home-culture, because those truly call for a Spirit-led action.

Living by the Pattern of Pilate in 2010

· ·

The perspective of Pilate being blackmailed by the Jewish leaders sheds a lot of light on this section for me. It is so crazy that he would have Jesus flogged and pretty much give the Roman soldiers license to do whatever

Pilate had Jesus scourged in hopes that a scourging would be enough to make the Jews happy.

He felt that he might avoid having to give the veredict of the cross by giving the verdict of scourging. Once again, that is what no one can do. No one cancompromise with Jesus; no one can serve two masters. We are either for Jesus or against Him. “ – William Barclay, commentary on John v. 2, p. 281

A lot of people think they can torture Jesus or His credibility or His BODY and that will be enough, but at some point everyone is forced to make a LIFE AND DEATH decision about what to do with Jesus. Just like Pilate had Jesus flogged, I know many people that will complain about churches or hypocrite Christians so that they will never have to come do a deep, inner, personal, self-realized conviction about Jesus.

Pilate presented a bloodied and unrecognizable Jesus to the crowd and said, “I find no fault in this man!” WHAT‽

Many times people like to talk about an issue, like Pilate talks here about what kind of King Jesus is, and then stop and think that is enough. I’m just going to talk about conservatism in government, right to life, eating healthy, or leadership, and that is going to convey my faith and my relationship with Christ. All of those things might be a part of the conversation, but they are not the point.

Remember the others that wanted to talk to Jesus about such things:

The woman at the well wanted to talk worship locations and what will happen when the Messiah comes.

The rich young ruler wanted to talk about which law was the most important.

The lawyer wanted to know who his neighbor was.

Zebedee’s wife wanted to know seating arrangements.

The Pharisees and Zealots wanted to know where their taxes should go.

The demons wanted to know where He was going to throw them.

Jesus ALWAYS brought it back to HIMSELF.

Even with hair and teeth missing, bruised and hurt beyond what most of us will ever experience, His conversation was all about Pilate, Jesus, and the Father.

Â

May we throw away our methodical outlines to better living and financial plans and run after Jesus, and encourage everyone else to do the same.