Entries Tagged 'Scripture' ↓

If you read the Bible with any amount of frequency, I’m sure you’ve experienced this. You have come across a passage and asked, “Why did they do that?” or “What does that mean?”. Biblical culture shock happens when we read something in the Scriptures that has specific meaning to the culture in which it was written. For us today, reading about customs and practices that were common in biblical times can be shockingly confusing. Unless we try to understand those cultures, we will fail to understand the situation and misinterpret the meaning of the passage.

For example, it is confusing for us why food sacrificed to idols is a big deal in 1 Corinthians 8, unless we understand how young converts were saved from pagan religions where the food was offered to idols and then that meat could be purchased at a local market.

Or we would have a hard time understanding the significance of being thrown out of the synagogue in John 12:42, unless we understood the controlling centrality of the synagogue on Jewish life.

Biblical culture shock should happen all the time and should humble us into learning the ways of the new culture. If you have not been hit by the strangeness of the biblical culture, then you need to plug your brain in before your reading your Bible and then realize that you are in unfamiliar territory and ask God’s Spirit to help you navigate through it.

If we aren’t careful, we can tend to become familiar and slack when it comes to relating to the God of the Bible. There are many things which can lead to such sluggish apathy, but I think one catalyst to such an attitude comes from interacting with Scripture on a surface level. We read the Bible in our language and we know it is talking about a great God. But we take the blessing of God’s Word being readable and knowable and then we begin to think that God is kind of like us. This does not happen immediately, but subtly.

I know it sounds so blasphemous to say that we think God is like us, but I can feel the tendency. I begin to just assume that God is an English speaking God who relates on a human level. But God is so far above us and beyond us. In fact, He says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8,9) He is entirely NOT human and completely different. Paul Washer said, “He is not quantitatively bigger than us, He is qualitatively different from us.” In other words, He does not just do everything better than us and in a larger capacity, but He does things differently.

The reading of the words that have come from the mouth of God must lead us to small view of God because the words are understandable, but to a high view of God that worships and thanks Him for speaking to us.

Two weeks ago, I embarked on a journey to begin memorizing the New Testament. I first received the idea from an RD at Master’s. My roommate, Andrew, and I committed to a program of memorizing a chapter a week, starting with the book of Romans (download the plan). Today we start on chapter 3. At this rate, we will finish the New Testament in 5 years (260 chapters, 260 weeks). I know it sounds a little crazy, but I know I need it.

Over the years, I have become more and more familiar with the Bible. I can locate generally where things are found and can recite the idea of a particular verse. I have “memorized” all my life too. But this memorization has not been of my own choosing, but an assignment either for school, Awana, or church. I know the desired purpose of all those assignments was to really remember the verses for my own spiritual growth, I didn’t walk away meditating on the truth and wanting to know God better.

I know I need a vigorous memorizing plan like this because it will force we to interact with Scripture in the small spaces of my day. When I am driving in the car, waiting for someone to show up, or just walking around, I have time to whip out the small piece of paper and work on the next verse. In this, I turn my attention to the things of God more often. Already I’m seeing the fruit of this, but I need it more. I need it also because Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” If I want to fight against sin, then I need to be storing the word in my heart. Try to sin against God when you have Romans 1 on your mind.

If you don’t have any plan for locking God’s truth in your soul, I encourage you to do so. I doesn’t need to be a chapter a week, but it should be something you can meditate on and that will send your mind Godward when you are tempted to sin.

For those of you went to Shepherd’s Conference this year, we heard MacArthur give a great sermon on Luke 21:1-4, which says:

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

The typical interpretation of this sermon is that we need to give sacrificially, until it hurts, just like the widow. It isn’t about how much you give, but how much faith you have. MacArthur pointed out that although Jesus points out that the widow gave more than the rich people, Jesus never commends her. He never says that her giving of more was what pleased God or that the disciples should follow her example. Along with this observation, he looks at the passage in light of the recent context, in which Jesus is prophesying the destruction of the current Jewish religious system that had been corrupted by the religious leaders.

The passage then on the widow is not a random lesson on giving, but an example of how the corrupted religion of Judaism stole the last that this woman had to live on. She would go home and die because she had nothing. This is why the temple and the rest of the false religion would be torn down (21:5ff).

I say all that because in my web travels, I came across this site: The Widows Mite. The site offers necklaces with a widow’s mite in them for $200. I find it ironic that these guys are trying to make money off of people based on a story where the widow was getting ripped off. I know this site is not trying to say that you gain favor with God, but it is still a little ridiculous.

“Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Wait for the Lord!” Psalm 27:14

I find great encouragement in this verse and a great paradox. I am called to wait on the Lord and that makes sense; I can do that. I need to wait for Him to accomplish His purposes in His timing and in His way. Anytime I try to do something on my own power on my time schedule, then I am sinfully trusting in myself. I simply need to wait.

But the paradox in this verse is the connection between courage and waiting. While I wait on the Lord, I am seemingly not doing anything. I am keeping my purposes and desires at bay, waiting for the Lord to act. So, why are we commanded to be strong and take courage in order to do nothing? Well, I think this confusion may come from a misconception in what the Psalmist means by waiting. The waiting he speaks of does not mean that we sit around and do nothing, but we actively trust and pray concerning the situation. We are doing something, but we are putting our energy and time not into accomplishing what we want, but into seeking the Lord’s will and committing the issue to Him. So when I am waiting on the Lord, my heart must take courage and believe that He will sustain me in that waiting period because He always fulfills His promises.