Practical application

A clean heart is an essential part of preparing for church communications work

January 22, 2016 by untilfulllight

My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.

(2 Chron. 29:11)

In this verse King Hezekiah challenges the priests in their service before God. Things had not been going well for the priests prior to this time. Hezekiah’s father, the former king, had turned away from God. The temple had been closed and desecrated.

When Hezekiah became king the temple was reopened. However, before the public worship of God could take place again, two things had to happen. First the priests had to reconsecrate themselves and second they had to purify the temple. They accomplished both tasks and the result was great joy in renewed worship of God.

The lessons for us in our work today are challenges of purification. What do we need to get rid of both internally and externally so that we can function best in our calling as church communicators?

We may not have a temple, but we have a computer. It may not be defiled with idol worship, but we must be very careful not to use software, images, or files of any kind that are illegally copied. Years ago (when typefaces cost hundreds of dollars each) I was offered a pirated version of the entire Adobe type library. I had very little money, was trying to get a Christian design business started, and wanted it badly, but doing desktop publishing for the Lord with pirated software would not have been right. It wasn’t easy to say no.

Today, I have more typefaces junking up my hard drive than I know what to do with. Seems like a little thing now, but it was a difficult battle at the time. For me it’s been a good lesson to remember that some things I think I can’t do without right now aren’t worth the price of compromising my values.

Like the priests we must also purify ourselves. Each of us knows the garbage inside that keeps us from functioning at our best. Sometimes it’s a complaining or fault-finding spirit; sometimes it’s envy or anger; sometimes it’s cowardice of not trusting God when we know we need to say “no” to a project. Whatever it is, we can confess our shortcoming to the Lord and he will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

With the external and internal housekeeping done, like the priests of Hezekiah’s time, we can then do our church communication duties with joy.

With Job, we ask: What should we do when God disappoints and what does it really means to prosper

January 8, 2016 by untilfulllight

In the same week I was told two things that at first seemed unrelated, but were really about our expectations of God.

The first one was “You know God really wants you to prosper.”

The person saying it was well-meaning, but he was talking about making money and was trying to be encouraging to tell me that I should be better off financially than I am. I didn’t know how to respond.

The second was about someone else, but told to me. It was about a man who was very angry with God because his children had moved away and he had gotten ill. He prayed and prayed that his kids would move back and that his health would be restored, but wasn’t getting the answers he wanted in either area. He thought he deserved better; he’d been told that if he trusted God he would prosper and to him that meant he should be healthy and his kids should be around. The person telling me this story asked how he should respond to his friend.

What follows is my attempt to deal with both situations.

What does it mean to prosper according to the Bible?

Sadly, situations like this are very common. They have been from the time Job was written when his friends falsely accused him of sinning because in their thinking the only reason for a person to undergo the trials he was experiencing was because of sin.

It never occurred to them that God considered Job a very godly man and that he was honoring him before the hosts of heaven with the trials he was given. Clearly, humanity has problem with what it means to prosper in God’ eyes.

I realized that I didn’t really know what this meant either, so I did a word study on what it means “to prosper.”Continue Reading

PLEASE read these two books as you study your Bible, to correctly interpret what you read

February 20, 2014 by untilfulllight

There are few verses that apply more to the church today than Matt. 22:29 where Jesus said:

“You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Jesus did not say, “You are in error because you couldn’t quote a proof text.” He said “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures,” with the implication being that they did not take the total, whole counsel of God into account in their confrontations with Jesus. They could quote a passage or two out of context, but they didn’t know, or bother to take time to understand, ALL of God’s revealed revelation that they had up to that time.

In large measure, all of us are still worthy of that rebuke from our Lord. It is so easy to pull out a verse or two completely out of context, a verse that sounds nice, helpful, and not too demanding to support whatever we want it to say. But if we do that, our Lord’s rebuke stands and we are often in error.

How to avoid this error

The most obvious answer is of course to read the Bible, cover to cover, often, and in historical order–advice that every class I teach hears repeatedly from me. But even if we do that, we still have the challenge to read with understanding. Following are two essential books to help you do this. If you click on the image next to each description it will take you to amazon.com where you can immediately download or order them. Go without a few lattes or dinner or whatever you need to, but get these books.

Out of Context, How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible, by Richard L. Schultz

I recently got this book and am amazed at how the author kindly but firmly and carefully explains interpretation errors that flood the church today. He has hundreds of carefully documented examples including why the Prayer of Jabez was so misinterpreted and dozens of other, but equally false, popular interpretations. In addition, he does not leave the reader with negative citations and examples of bad interpretation. His tone is kind and he does not accuse of people of willful misinterpretation. He includes practical advice and teaching on how to correctly interpret the Bible in ways that will help anyone from the casual reader to the teaching pastor.

How to read the Bible for all Its Worth, by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart

This classic focus on genre analysis (e.g. on whether a book in the Bible is a history, letter, prophecy, etc.) and shows how important it is to understand the overall form of the book before we begin to understand the meaning and application of individual verses. For example, we should interpret a historical book very differently than we do one of Paul’s instructive letters to the church. We should interpret the books of the Law in the Old Testament very differently than we do books of poetry or proverbs. Prophetic writing has its own unique set of challenges. If we are confused about genre or have no understanding of it, we will most certainly misinterpret the material we are reading.

What is especially sad about misunderstanding the genre of a book and how to properly interpret it is that we can become disappointed with God. We may assume He is not true to His Word, when things don’t turn out like we assume He promised they would, when the real problem is that we didn’t take time to properly understand what God said in his Word. We all know the frustration when we feel a spouse, child, or friend doesn’t really listen to us and only assumes they heard what we said. That situation may have serious consequences, but they pale in comparison to the misunderstanding that can take place in our lives if we don’t listen carefully to the Words of our Lord.

Why you might not want to read these books and why you should

You may have many excuses not to read these books: the topic is too difficult to understand or only for theologians; you don’t have time; they really sound boring–lots more excuses come to mind. There may be some validity to all of them, but the books are written at a layperson’s level and we all find time to do what we want to do.

If you are a teacher in any setting (home, church, study) the books are even more essential. Consider:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Tim. 2:15

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 timothy 3:16-17

There is nothing more important we can do than to carefully read and understand the Words of our Lord. These books will help you do that.

Discernment in Theological systems: what about predestination?

July 28, 2012 by untilfulllight

John Calvin, one of the great theological minds in the history of the church, would not have wanted anyone to take his words and follow human opinions rather than the Bible.

In our study of discernment, of how to make the right decisions in the midst of the spiritual warfare that rages around us, this week we looked at discerning theological systems. Here is the questions we looked at:

Question: [following a lesson taught] “God knows who is going to be saved and who isn’t. So were some people selected for salvation or predestined for salvation and others weren’t? And as one person commented ‘then why are we going out and evangelizing?’ And another said “she has a problem with predestination’ ”.

Based on this question, we broke it down into these questions:

•Does God’s foreknowledge equal determinism?

•What does predestination teach?

•What is salvation?

•How should we respond in terms of evangelism?

Check out the notes below to see how the Bible responds to the above concerns. As always, God’s view of predestination, salvation, and our responsibilities in evangelism is far more challenging than we first assume. In addition we were reminded that though theological systems can be helpful in organizing Biblical truth, all systems are man-made constructs. If we find ourselves looking for Bible verses to support a system, or deciding whether we want to follow a Biblical command because of a system—that is an incorrect approach.

God’s Word, the Bible, is our infallible guide for salvation and how to live day-by-day. Following it is a challenge worthy of our time and best efforts.

Click on either image below to view or download the PDF.

The Mormon scriptures and Biblilcal Progressive Revelation

February 19, 2012 by untilfulllight

class notes from 2-19-21012

In this class we answered the challenging questions that asked why we fault the Mormon church for changes in their scriptures, when the historical Christian church has an Old Testament and a New Testament. Many would say that the Book of Mormon is simply a later addition. This lesson shows how different the Mormon view is than the Biblical view of Progressive Revelation. Click on the images below to download either a PDF of the full size images from class (a great way to review or see the content) or a copy of class notes.

Progressive Rev. full size slides — Click on the image to download a PDF where you can view all the slides on your computer

Progressive Revelation, small notes — Click on the image to download the PDF of class notes.

How to answer the question: “What is God’s will for my life?”

July 26, 2011 by untilfulllight

Often we pray that God will show us His will. Before we pray that, we need to ask ourselves if we are already obeying his revealed will.

What is God’s will for my life?

That’s a question we frequently ask in life, particularly when we have to make big decisions. We often feel that if God would just tell us what he wants we’d do it—so we ask. But, just as often as we ask, we are often frustrated because it doesn’t seem like God answers. What’s going on?

Perhaps we are asking the wrong question at the wrong time.

Asking for God’s will in the human realm, as in any area, we must learn the basics before we can learn advanced skills. A writer doesn’t create a best-selling novel the first time he or she sits down to write. Basic skills in grammar, sentence construction, story-telling must all be mastered first. After the basic skills are learned, years are spent perfecting the craft.

If a writer becomes angry and impatient because a publishing company won’t publish a book wherein it is obvious that the writer hasn’t taken time to master the basics, it isn’t the fault of the publishing company, but of the undisciplined and lazy writer.

Our Christian walk requires no less

It is presumptuous to ask God’s will in big areas of life, or really in any area, if we have not been obedient in the areas of His clearly revealed will. God’s Word is filled with basic commands, including the one we are studying this week in Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Before we become impatient and impertinent before God, we do well to check out lives to see if we are obeying His basic commands.

We might need to take a step back and ask ourselves:

“Do we even know what these commands are?”
“Do we spend the daily time in God’s Word to discover them?”
“Do we take time to study them in-depth?”
“Do we pray for strength and wisdom in how to apply them and live a life pleasing to God?

Be ready for surprises

It is often amazing how the big questions about the directions we should take in life are answered when we take the time to step-by-step, be obedient to the basic commands of God.

Micah 6:8 is a great place to start–join us this coming week to dig deeply into it.