Thursday, January 1st, 2009 begins our fourth year of reading through the Bible. It started as a result of a growing conviction that I needed a regular discipline of Bible reading. I have never been able to sustain any discipline beyond eighteen months. I started George Fox Evangelical Seminary in September of 2004. It did not make sense to be in Seminary, but not in God’s Word. I have yet to make a sustainable commitment to the classic Christian disciplines, but when it comes to reading the Bible every day I came up with the idea of accountability to others.
I am motivated by responsibility, accountability and sometimes guilt. My plan was to use a Bible reading schedule to read the daily scheduled Scriptures in Bibleworks and email them to those who had agreed to join me on the journey. The possibility that I was actually helping someone to read their Bible and draw closer to God was/is powerful.
The first year was extremely difficult. More than once Lily had to remind me to get out of bed to do that day’s Bible reading. The reason I should read God’s Word is worship. Whether others are reading with me should be secondary. Sometimes it is a joy to read the daily passages and sometimes it is a sacrifice of time I feel I don’t have. One part of this process is about me submitting to God’s will. Study to show yourself approved is not primarily about gathering information, it is about submitting to the process of allowing God’s Word to sift your heart, daily. It will do just that if we allow it.
This past summer I decided to post each day’s reading to my web site. A Greek project for MaryKate helped me learn a little html. Anyone reading with me can click the date below. I don’t keep track of hits on my web site, but the occasional emails I receive encourage me to continue growing this web presence.
I received two different emails asking why I don't comment; reflect on the reading. I am not a scholar, but at the request of a friend, who has been with me from the beginning, I occasionally write short reflections which help me process. These should show up in green.
Later I received an email asking if I could start leaving the pages on the web site instead of taking them down each day. I bought more bandwidth and started doing that in August.
One of the great blessings of going to George Fox is the professors stress everyone needs to think for themselves. Don't accept something just because a professor, book, article or whoever or whatever says it. That certainly applies to my comments, links, and footnotes. History and context are important. They help our understanding and our discernment. How can anyone understand Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah, if you don't know something about the divided kingdoms? We do need information, not as the final goal for reading the Bible, but to help us appreciate the mystery of the Bible.
Many web sites provide teaching, but they all insert their own 'spin.' You, me, we are all biased. Dr. Delamarter took time in Old Testament to demonstrate and warn us that because of how we are raised, where we live, who and what experiences we come in contact with, we are all different. Each of us has a different perspective. If we are seeking God, God will meet us where we are, but Dr. Delamarter will still ask, "Where do you see that in the text?"
I find Scripture more and more exciting. Like any relationship, the more you put into it the more you receive. If you are new to reading the Bible, take it slow. Ask yourself questions, explore the links. There are many, many great resources for anyone brave enough to ask them self why they believe or don't believe what they do. Some people in the church are afraid of questions. God is not.
I use the New Revised Standard Version because that is what my professors used in class. I follow an outline that Pastor Stan Russell gave his church four years ago and that he is still using today. I was told it originated with a pastor from the Foursquare denomination, but I don't know who.
Is there a reading outline that coordinates with the Second Temple period at the time of Jesus with the addition of the New Testament on a schedule that corresponds to Advent?? I would like to read the Old Testament passages on the same day that Jesus read them.
You can contact me at rsaofyap@yahoo.com
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June 6 - It grieves me to listen to some liberal friends say the same thing about conservatives that I hear my conservative friends say about liberals. We know enough about ourselves to condemn ourselves, but we do not know enough about anyone else to condemn them. If we think we do then we have condemned ourselves already. See Rom 14:10. As I've said before, we all have a story and only the Lord knows our story.
I don't understand the finger pointing, judging who is on the straight and narrow and who isn’t. Doesn't this attitude come from trying to justify our own failings? In his Preaching Class Dr. Chuck Conniry taught about praxis. Thinking about Jesus in one situation after another leads me to believe how we treat one another may be more important than our theology.
The Bible teaches of a general revelation of God. What is right and what is wrong is written on our hearts, whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, we react or respond to it. Wherever we are we are without excuse for our actions. Thank God for a merciful God who forgives if we too will forgive. God's commandment is that we love God and love others. In the measure that loving God and loving others is practiced in our lives we respond to the Spirit of Christ. Anything short of this, regardless of nomenclature, is just not Jesus. (IMHO)
I respond to Scripture with faith that what I read in Scripture, written by humans, is inspired by God, and truly reveals God. Beyond the plethora of nuances regarding time, place, author, audience and intent there remains a personal, intimate message for me. Who has not been disappointed when unable to communicate to another how a passage of Scripture, frequently read, suddenly comes to life?
Scripture is my compass, (fides quaerens intellectum) not my God. It is my grounded foundation that rightly understood and rightly incorporated into my spirit allows the second leg of the compass to stretch, explore and embrace other responses to God without becoming a victim of syncretism, swallowed in universalism. As Dr. Shelton says, "The Bible is Covenant. It is all about relationship and how we maintain relationship."
God “surpasses human wit and speech. He knows God best who owns that whatever he thinks and says falls short of what God really is” (Thomas Aquinas, Opuscula X, Exposition, de Causis VI, Saint Thomas Aquinas Philosophical Texts. Edited by Thomas Gilby. London: Oxford University Press, 1951, p. 89).
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Today is the start of Advent, the new year of the Christian Church and the church season that leads to Christmas Day. This is a time for us to remember the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many Christians are not aware of the origin of Christmas; the yule log, the Christmas Tree, holly etc., but for those who do know the dark pagan history of Christmas ... may I suggest that we focus, as Pastor Gregg Koskela said this morning, on Micah 6:8. He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (practice)
Advent is a time for remembering, loving, worshipping our Lord, and then we can love one another. I liked Gregg's use of bookends as a metaphor. These are the two great bookends through which everything else should be understood. Despite the misunderstandings and battles over dates, history, origins ... blah, blah, blah ... Christmas can still be a marvelous reminder that Jesus Christ was born to do the will of the Father and the Father's will is for us to be in Jesus as Jesus is in the Father. I believe if we keep that at the front of all we do then it is ok to enjoy the lights and songs and festivities of the Christmas season. The lights and decorations are nice, just remember peace on earth and good will toward all is not meant to be a slogan, but a life style.
Want to get involved? Check out the Advent Conspiracy.
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