In light of Brian’s last post, I thought I would put my comments into a separate post and continue my thoughts on our view of the Bible.

The t-shirt Brian referenced is a good example of something that bothers me about the way we refer to Scripture. The issue is… We treat it like a FORMULA. It seems we have the idea that we can take Scripture (out of context usually) and apply it to our lives directly and get a specific result. This is usually without considering the situation in our lives or the point of the story in the Bible. If you read Scripture in context, it seems to me that Jesus dispels the idea that understanding God and how He works can be computed as a formula. The way God works in our lives isn’t always a 1-2-3 step process. He works in many different ways with all people, even though His character remains unchanged.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I do believe that Scripture is given to us by God and is for our benefit to teach us about Him and about life. I also believe He put it together through divine Inspiration and Sovereignty. It is a great book that tells us the Good News of God’s love and His plan to rescue us from our sin.

I guess it is this notion of the Bible being a ‘manual’ that bothers me somewhat. I do think it has GREAT instruction for us, but labeling it a ‘manual’ tends to make people think they can just look up a ‘problem’ in the Table of Contents, find the chapter that deals with it, and then read the ’solution’. Presto - problem resolved! Does that make sense?

Again, the issue I have with ‘Our View of the Bible’ really isn’t about the Bible itself. It is with the ‘labels’ we have attached to it and the way we read it and speak about it. God has given us a great gift, and it bothers me how we try to reduce it to a human formula for an ideal life.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

(I didn’t make it up. You can buy the t-shirt here)

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2Cor 4:7-18)

Jenn and Reon - you’d better check this out before you’re tempted to post on anything deep and theological again. You might embarass us all!

(HT: Indelible Grace)

I’ve been thinking about comfort, eternity, and Jesus. I don’t know quite where this will end up but sometimes you just have to start writing and hope things aren’t completely hosed in the end…

As Christians, we have a “blessed hope” - a hope which looks forward to Christ’s return and to the restoration of creation. Understandably, this is a source of comfort as we face the hardships and trials of life. We know that there is a final justice. We know that at some point we will be in God’s presence in a “fuller” sense than we experience now.

But this kind of thinking carried too far can lead to comfort which basically ignores the very real situations we find ourselves facing in the present. We’ve all heard the sincere but ultimately unsatisfying variations on “We’ll understand it all by and by”, “It will be better soon” or admonitions to squeeze out just a little more faith.

What’s the answer? I think I’ll defer to Saint Rich on this one :

Your 5yo is right - the answer is always Jesus. He has been through what we’ve been through. He is with us in the now, and later, and always. I don’t think this means the tough times get any less tough. But with Jesus we are able to get through them and learn how utterly dependent on Him we are - or should be.

So how do we do this? How do we “reach out to Jesus” in times of trouble. Honestly, I’m still not quite sure. I think that at some point we just have to recognize our need and call for help. We have to realize that our own strength is not enough and squelch whatever pride says that it is. And we have to stop beating ourselves up when we don’t live up to model “churchianity” which makes “peace” the litmus test how mature our faith is… That might need to be another post in itself.

I’m still trying to figure this out. Any comments are more than welcome.

I’ve had a few questions about prayer for several years now, so I thought now might be a good time to bring them up. Maybe someone else has thought about these questions and has some insight or thoughts into them.

1. I’ve noticed that in life, it is in the hard times and challenging experiences that we tend to grow the most. It seems like God uses those experiences to grow us and teach us. Would you agree?

2. So if #1 is true (as a general rule), then why do we tend to always pray for the easy road for ourselves and other people? Recently, I found myself praying for someone who had just become an independent contractor. In my prayer, I asked God to help it all go well, etc. Also, the same night, we were praying for some people who were traveling due to a death in the family. We prayed that the family interactions would go smoothly, that they would have easy conversation, etc. However, since some in the family aren’t Christians, maybe some ‘not-smooth’ conversation would be the catalyst for something better than ‘a good time was had by all’. Make sense?

I guess I’m just wondering why we don’t pray for strength through hard times and growth in the midst of it, instead of for the easy road. It seems like when you talk to some missionaries, etc, they say, ‘Don’t pray for my safety, just pray that I would be bold, etc’. However, when we pray for people who aren’t on the ‘mission field’ full-time (again, generalization - I know we are all missionaries), then we lapse back into praying for a peachy life. It just doesn’t add up for me.

I know God is sovereign and will accomplish His plan even in spite of us sometimes, but I just wonder if our prayers and true feelings about situations shouldn’t change or be different from our worldly desires as we mature in Christ. What do you think?