Heroes...and not the TV show

Who are your heroes?

When I was a kid, it was He-man. He was the Master of the Universe after all. (If you're over 40 or under 30, you won't remember He-man).

When I was a teenager, (yes, I was that pathetic), my heroes were Batman and Spiderman. I thought they were awesome.

As a Christian my heroes are William Wilberforce, the British politician who worked the whole of his professional life to end the practice of slavery in England. Another hero is Charles Spurgeon, a British pastor known as the "Prince of Preachers."

My closer to home "heroes" list includes men and women who have modeled a passion for the Word of God and whose lives have been marked with the grace of Jesus Christ. I won't say their names because it would only embarrass them. I hope and beseech the Lord that one day I can be a hero for my wife and daughters, a man who models the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.

Finally, I wanted to give notice to all of one of my modern day heroes, my dad, Mike Hendley. He's a great man and has been a great father. He's a man of incredible patience, wisdom, and maturity. I hope I can be one third of the man my father is. (I didn't want to say half because everyone says half). Today the old man is 60. Happy Birthday Pop.

OIA, Interpretation: Finding the Eternal Principle, and several plugs for Indiana Jones.

Have you ever read a story out of the Old Testament and wondered “How does this relate to me?” Does the context of the story, (sacrifices, camels, and people with beards), seem so disconnected from your world that you can’t see how it connects with you? What about passages in the New Testament that seem weird, like 1 Corinthians 8-10 that talks about food sacrificed to idols? Should you just skip those sections of the Bible altogether?

I’ll admit that sometimes it is really hard to see through the contexts and settings of the passages and not get confused. I wanted to try to make a point here that will help you in your study of the Word.

*The ETERNAL PRINCIPLE, or “What is True All the Time, both Then and Now”), is what you are looking for in a passage.*

The ETERNAL PRINCIPLE from a passage, (all caps required), is the principle, lesson, or truth that is applicable both 2,000 years ago when the event happened and today as well. You have to ask yourself, “What is true all the time?” “What is something that was true back then when the story was written and still true today?” The answer is the ETERNAL PRINCIPLE that we can apply to our lives from our study of the Bible.

Let’s look at a passage in the Old Testament and try to find the eternal principle or principles that may be present. 1 Samuel 5:1-5 tells the story of how God Almighty and the god of the Philistines hung out one time. The Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant, (think Indiana Jones), and had placed the ark, (a symbol of the presence of the Lord), in their temple with their god, Dagon. They thought to show the ark as a trophy of their conquests and a symbol of the superiority of their god above the God of Israel. Needless to say, God was not pleased. The next day the Philistines came in they found Dagon on the floor facing the ark. The day after that, the statue of Dagon had its face and hands broken off. The Philistines freaked out on a Biblical scale, (think Nazis in Indiana Jones).

Now what does this have to do with our lives? We are not Philistines. We don’t live in tents. We don’t have the ark anymore, (the government has it in a secret vault somewhere; remember Indiana Jones). We also don’t have little god statues in our homes, (most of us anyways). We live in a different time period and culture. But what would be a true principle from this passage that was true not only then, but now? How about this:

1. God is the supreme God above all other gods.
2. God will not play second fiddle to any idol.
3. Don’t mess with God Almighty.
4. Even when things seem bad, (the ark was captured by a godless nation), God is still supreme.

These things are true both then and now. They are ETERNAL PRINCIPLES that were true for the Philistines and are true for us today.

Next time we’ll talk about the final step of OIA, which is Application. (Observation, Interpretation, Application). Peace out…and remember Indiana Jones…just not the last movie, which was horrible.

Why is Bobby different? Observation part B

The last time in the blog I wrote about "Observation," the first step in studying a passage of Scripture. It's the stage where we answer the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How questions of a passage in the Bible. In the Observation stage we're not trying to find any spiritual principles or apply anything to our lives, we're just getting information.

Now the last part of Observation before we get any further is really important. It's called the "What's different?" stage. What we want to do is just observe, either mentally or on a piece of paper, what's different between the Biblical setting, (then), and your life, (now). You're asking yourself, "What's different between the story I'm reading and my life, time period, culture, etc?"

The reason we do this is because there are a lot of differences sometimes between the Biblical culture/setting and our lives. Sometimes people try to make applications or take lessons from stories where things are taken out of context and they get themselves in trouble. If we can recognize the differences in the stories we're reading it will help us see what part of the story is still relevant for our lives today.

For example. If we're reading out of Leviticus 4, we obviously recognize the differences of:
1. We're not Jewish
2. We're not sacrificing goats, bulls, lambs,
3. We're in a totally different time period culturally and contextually than the Biblical audience.

The list could go on, and it seems dumb or overly obvious to list what I did, but I promise that when we notice the differences, it will help us notice the "true all the time stuff" that I'll talk about later.

And Bobby is different because he doesn't like to wear pants in public. Weirdo.

Tools for Studying the Bible, part 1...OIA, not OLE!

I previously posted an entry about how important it is to study the Scriptures and rightly interpret the Bible. I wanted to give the first tool today to help us study the Scriptures appropriately. Now keep in mind there are other methods I'm sure that are good and helpful. This is not the only horse in the barn, so to speak. This is just one method that I've used. You may find it helpful, that's all.

The method, (which may be similarly used by others under different names), has three parts: Observation, Interpretation, and Application. In other words, OIA. (I wish it came out as OLE, but I just couldn't make it work that way.)

The first step we will look at today and I'll make other postings regarding Interpretation and Application. OLE! (I've decided to say OLE! throughout this blog because it will be fun).

OBSERVATION: This is the first step in studying a passage of scripture. It is basically observing what is in the text. You are answering the question, "What is going on here?" In this step of the process you are not making any decisions or trying to apply any lessons in the passage to yourself. You are just gathering information. OLE! In Observation, you are asking yourself the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How questions of the passage. Not all of the questions may apply, (how for instance does not always apply).

Who - Who is involved? Who is speaking? Who is listening? Who is this happening to?
What - What happened? What significant words were used?
Where - Where did this story take place? Was that significant? OLE!
When - What time period was it? Was this in the Old Testament, New Testament? During the Gospels or after the Gospels? What is the context of the story? *The when of the story very important in helping you understand how the passage applies to you. It's important to help you establish the context of the passage or Bible story.
Why - Why did this story/passage/letter happen? What were the circumstances that caused this to take place?
How - As I said before. This may or may not apply. OLE!

Okay, so that's step one. I'll cover Interpretation and Application in the following entries. OLE!

How much is enough?

Hypothetical conversation between Super Christian Dave and Non Christian John as they discuss the gospel.

John: So you say I need to become a Christian. If so, what do I need to do?
Dave: Well, you need to surrender your life to Christ.
John: How much surrender?
Dave: What do you mean?
J: I mean how much do I have to surrender to Christ?
D: Everything, your whole life.
J: Is that what you did?
D: Yes.
J: But have you ever done anything wrong after you became a Christian? Committed any sins you weren't supposed to?
D: Oh yeah, sure. But Jesus forgives me of my sin.
J: So were you not totally surrendered to Christ if you indeed sinned again?
D: Well, I guess I wasn't in that moment that I sinned but...
J: But I thought you needed total surrender, total commitment.
D: Well yes.
J: So I guess you are not a Christian anymore then.
D: WHAT?
J: You said I needed to be totally surrendered to Jesus to become a Christian, right?
D: Yes, but wait just a minute.
J: No. If I have to be totally surrendered to Christ and a good guy like you can't even stay totally committed, then I'm screwed. I may as well just live it up while I'm alive. This "salvation" you are talking about is basically dependent on me and my faithfulness, isn't it?
D:......
D: Well...what I meant was, you need to be believe in Christ, and surrender to him.
J: Okay, so it's me and Jesus working together then.
D: Yes, that's it.
J: So it's not just Jesus then? It's me and Jesus.
D: Um, yes.
J: Then how much of it is my obedience and surrender and how much of it is Jesus on the cross? Can you give me a percentage?
D: Don't be a jerk.
J: I'm serious. If it's me and Jesus then how can I know when I'm "saved."
D: When you believe that he died for your sins.
J: Yes, but after that, how much of me has to be in the equation to equal salvation.
D: You just have to be faithful for the rest of your life.
J: So if I'm not one day or if I'm faithful until I'm 50 and then I'm not surrendered for a while or not totally obedient I'm screwed?!
D: I can't believe you're being such a jerk. This is totally RIDICULOUS!!!
J: Exactly.

- The word surrender is not in the Bible, nor is the concept when it comes to salvation. Romans 12:1 is directed to believers, not unbelievers. And it has nothing to do with the salvation chapters of 1-5.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast," (Ephesians 2:8-9).
"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith," (Romans 1:17).
"What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," (Romans 4:1-3)
"Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?" (Galatians 3:1-3).

Don't let anyone steal the grace of God from you by telling you that you have to surrender so much or obey so much in order to be saved. It's a bunch of bunk. We are saved by grace through faith ALONE.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery," (Galatians 5:1).

Reading the Word...Click here for Money

There's no money...just needed a catchy title. If you're looking for cash, become an auto company and then go bankrupt, ha!

What do you think are the three most important things for a believer to learn? Honestly?
Personally, I'm no pastor, master of learning, theology expert, or person experienced in pastoral care. This is just my humble opinion.

The three most important things for a believer to learn, (particularly a new believer) are:
1. Who God is and what he is like
2. Who the believer is in Christ
3. How to rightly read and interpret the Scriptures

It is the third subject I want to talk about here briefly and hopefully in a few more blogs. How a person interprets the Bible is foundational to every believer's life.

I know someone might ask, (if anyone in fact reads this blog), "You mean we can't just open up and read the Bible?" "What about children? Can they not approach the Bible with a child's heart and learn from God's word?" "Do I have to have a degree from a seminary or Bible school to know how to read the Scriptures?" "How can I give you money so you can buy a fancy sports car?"

To which I answer, in order:
1. We can just "pick up and read" and yes we could still get something out of our reading of the Word. I'm not discouraging in any way casual reading of the Scriptures.
2. Yes, kids can read the Bible and God can still teach them things.
However, considering #1 and #2 together, (this sounds like a bathroom conversation), I have one thought. My first daughter Lillian loves to paint/color/draw. I have several of her creations in my office. They're beautiful to me. She can just pick up a paintbrush, crayon, or marker and make me or anyone else something wonderful. But the fact is she is no Da Vinci or Rembrant. A fancy art museum is not going to come calling for Lillian finger painting # 5, (but I would).

My point is that while casual reading and a child's reading of the Word is perfectly acceptable, there are masterpieces to be found, (not made), if we know better how to rightly read the Word.

3. No you don't have to have a degree from a fancy school to know how to read/study God's Word. One of my closest friends is a bona fide redneck from Gaffney, SC. And he has the sense to know how to read the Word. If he can do it, so can you.

4. Cash...(j/k).

I'm going to try and do a video blog on the site to talk further about this. Just wanted to start out the conversation here and hopefully it will be profitable for our relating to God and his Word.

Peace out for now.

God is holy and it's hard to understand

1 Samuel 6:19-20, "And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow. Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?"

Have you ever seen one of those mobster or cowboy movies where the bad guy just shoots someone just because they looked at them the wrong way? There was no rightness to it, no sense of the killing, just an irritation with the other character. I suppose that is how we must initially feel about the Lord from this passage. However, drawing the conclusion that the two parties are the same would be shortsighted.

First, the context of the story. The ark of God was captured by the Philistines. After God, for lack of a better word, "cursed/wacked" the Philistines, they sent it back to the Israelites. At first, the folks who found this were very happy. Then they got the stupid idea to look into the Ark. Some versions say God killed over 50,000 and this version, (ESV), says seventy.

But why? Was God cold, thoughtless, uncompassionate? Did he just do this on a whim?

No.

The reason why God killed those people was becuase they approached him directly, casually, and without righteousness. They treated God as if he was just like them, not that he was distinct, separate; in other words, holy. He is not a God that can be approached directly without righteousness. Think of the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. They had to be cast out after one sin becuase of the holiness of God. Sin cannot stay in the presence of the Almighty.

Be thankful that we have a God who is separate from us, who is worthy, and who is righteous. Be mindful that we cannot come to God anyway we want, but only through his righteous mediator, Jesus Christ, who provides the righteousness we need to approach a holy God.