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3 Chapters A Day Will Keep the Dr. Away
There is an old saying that goes something like this: you are what you eat. So…what does that make the average college student? If you were anything like me then cold pizza, 1am runs to Taco Bell, ”left over casseroles”, and a red plastic cup full of frosted flakes every morning (sometimes with milk, sometimes with orange juice) were pretty much the norm. As college students, a “healthy, balanced diet” isn’t exactly a top priorty (or monetarily possible).
And although most of us can get away with eating anything we want whenever we want, I wonder if the same holds true when it comes to our spiritual diets and appetites. It appears as if one truth runs throughout all of Scripture – you cannot remain healthy and strong if there is something missing from your spiritual diet. Yes worship times are important; yes community and times of fellowship are critical; and yes confession and prayer are a must. But, the staple to any healthy spiritual diet is a giant portion of the Word of God.
If you do not “consume” God’s Word in large, consitent quantities (check out Ezekiel 3), then it seems improbable, if not nearly impossible for you to remain healthy, strong, joyful, holy, evangelistic, fruitful, etc.
So, what would happen if we as a community decided to entrench and engulf ourselves in God’s Word? What would happen to us, as well as through us, if we ate God’s Word every single day? What truths would God place on our hearts and reveal to us if we all decided to commit ourselves to putting God’s Word first, and hopefully allowing it to take root deep in our souls?
Well let’s find out. Join us as we read through the entire NT during the Fall Semester. And although it sounds a little daunting and uncomfortable (as does eating healthy – at least for me) it doesn’t take much time or effort at all. If you read only 3 chapters of God’s Word every single day, you will read the entire NT from the first word to the last in only 3 months.
As you embark on this journey, share with us what God is saying to you. Comment on what stuck out or confused or angered or liberated you from God’s Word. Allow your experiences and struggles and victories to bless and challenge the rest of us.
3 chapters a day will keep the Dr. away – and possible completely transform our lives and this campus.
A Clean Slate
Quick question – what if you were given a completely clean slate when it came to “doing church”? What if you didn’t have to follow or abide by any traditions or rules or guidelines? What if you were freed to recreate and shape the time/space where believers come together and seek to strengthen one another? What would “new wine skins” look like (Mark 2:21-22)
And I’m not asking the question because I hate all things church and want to start a riot. I’m asking because that is exactly the situation the first believers found themselves in. Jesus lived, taught, exemplified, died, and was resurrected. He then leaves a bunch of highly confused and rather unqualified folks to take his place and to continue his ministry. No rules. No traditions. No real guidlines. No order of worship. No denominational idiosyncracies. Just a devotion to and love for Jesus.
And what they decide to do is recorded for us in Acts 2 & Acts 4. I highly encourage you to read those chapters. What elements of those early church services stand out to you? Would you have done the same things? Which ones do we desperately need to recommit ourselves to?
So, if you had a clean slate, how would you “do church”?
(If you are intrigued by this idea, I highly encourage you check out the following posts – http://www.brianmashburn.net/?p=295; http://www.brianmashburn.net/?p=298)
Where Did Everybody Go?
My eyes were recently opened (thanks to the writings of Philip Yancey) to something that I had never really noticed before. Think about the tranquility and calmness, the peace & the stength that Jesus exhibited during his trials, the beatings, the torture, and the crucifixion itself. In the Gospels, Jesus is in complete control. When he offers himself to be arrested, the guards draw back and fall to the ground. When Pilate questions and then sentences him, Jesus replies with, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you.”
When did Jesus struggle the most during? It wasn’t during all of these events, it was earlier that night, in prayer, before any of these things had transpired. In that time of prayer, we read that Jesus was heavily burdened, scared, and possibly even terrified of what was to come. Sweat and tears and blood poured from his body that night.
In response to this, Philip Yancey says the following: “For most of us, prayer serves as a resource to help in a time of testing or conflict. For Jesus, it was the battle itself. One the Gethsemane prayers had aligned him with the Father’s will, what happened next was merely the means to fulfill it. In the words of Haddon Robinson, ‘Had I been there (in the garden with Jesus) I would have worried about the future. “If he is so broken up when all he is doing is praying, what will he do when he faces a real crisis? Why can’t he approach this ordeal with the same calm confidence of his three sleeping friends?” Yet, when the test came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage, and his three friends fell apart and fell away.’
These words and insights hit me like a ton of bricks. For my entire adult life, and throughout the last 8 years of ministry, I have approaced prayer as preparation for the battle that is to come. Prayer is that which will give me the strength and wisdom to go out and fight the darkness. And yet, it appears, that the real battle is fought in prayer. If I see prayer simply as the pep-talk before the big game, then when I speak or teach or “fight the good fight” as I have understood it, I am simply walking out onto a field, fully prepared to fight, only to see that the battle has been over for quite some time.
Could my life and my ministry lack power and authority, could renewal and passion and a longing for God be missing from the students I work with because I have “fallen asleep the night before” and not devoted myself to the real battle taking place in & through prayer?
Jesus shows us that what we seek to accomplish and bring about in/through our ministries and our Christian lives happens first and foremost (and maybe only) through the discipline and avenue and battle that is prayer.
Is All Truth “God’s Truth”?
Over the last several years, both in the writings of popular Christian authors and in the classrooms of religious colleges, a particular slogan has begun to appear more and more. Maybe you have heard the saying, it goes something like this, “All Truth is God’s Truth”.
When I first heard this principle, it was rather liberating. At times, believers (especially new/young believers) can feel as if studying or pursuing anything that doesn’t have the label “Christian” on it or doesn’t directly connect with or point to Christ, is somehow secondary to those things that do. I used to think and say to myself, “Learning more about mathematics is good, but knowing the gospels is better!” To me, it seemed like there was truth with a capital “T”, and then all other truths. I’m not sure if others can relate, but I felt like all lower case “t” truth was a waste of my time. So hearing that all truth is God’s truth, opened my eyes to the fact that big “T” truth is everywhere (not just in the bible). God’s power and presence and glory are found in everything from the bible, to calculus equations, to the study of the solar system. Jesus said, “I am THE TRUTH”, so I have come to believe that when you encounter truth, you encounter Jesus (period).
But, as I have recently come to believe, that isn’t entirely true. Listen to the words of John Piper on this particular issue -
Sometimes the slogan “All truth is God’s truth” is used to justify dealing in any sphere of knowledge as an act of worship or stewardship. The impression is given that just knowing God’s truth and recognizing it as such is a good thing, even a worthy end. But the problem with this is that the devil does it.
“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1Corinthians 8:2-3). Which I take to mean that until we know in such a way that we love God more because of it, we do not yet know as we ought to know.
Alongside “All truth is God’s truth,” we need to say, “All truth exists to display more of God and awaken more love for God.” This means that knowing truth and knowing it as God’s truth is not a virtue until it awakens desire and delight in us for the God of truth. And that desire and delight are not complete until they give rise to words or actions that display the worth of God. That is, we exist to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), and merely knowing a truth to be God’s truth does not glorify him any more than the devil does.
Wow – causes you to rethink the solgan a little bit. Is all truth God’s truth? Well, all truth does in fact point to God and find its basis and meaning in God, whether that is 2+2 or an understanding of how to build a computer, but the Scriptures make it clear that truth is designed for and grounded in the glory of God and its primary purpose is to cause us to grow in our love for Him. So if we simply allow truth just to be truth and not allow it to draw us or compel us to have a greater love for God, then it is not God’s truth. So, marvel in the precision of the universe, delight in how God has made everything, seek to discover more and more about God through his creation, or the laws of physics, or whatever. But don’t just stop there. Allow that truth to result in an even greater love for the God who is behind and in it all.
All truth is God’s truth (well, sort of).
Sorry Zebras
If I were to ask you to describe a Zebra to someone who had never seen one, you might say things like, “Well, it’s kinda like a horse, but smaller…it’s similar to a donkey, but more muscular…and it kinda has stripes like a tiger but less colorful…”. And although you would do your best and come close, most zebras would probably be a little insulted by the description (sorry Zebras).
That’s exactly what I see happening when I read Ezekiel 1:26-28. This morning I read a devotional by Andrew Wilson in his book “Incomparable” about this very thing. This is what he said.
The prophet Ezekiel is given a vision, a glimpse of the glory of God. The things he sees are pretty spectacular: windstorms, clouds, fire, gleaming metal, lightning, sparkling bronze, lions, oxen, eagles, wheels, rushing waters, an expanse of crystal, a sapphire throne, rainbows. Yet, after he describes all of this, he says, in essence, “It was kind of like all of that stuff. God’s glory looked a little similar to something that was ever so slightly like this, but it was so much more”. Why would he say this? Because the glory of our God is indescribable and too marvelous for us too ever fully comprehend.
Read that statement again because it is incredible important.
Our understanding of God is riddled with things we cannot explain properly, and this makes him more glorious, not less. Ezekiel combines all of these apparently contradictory elements when describing God – lion and ox, windstorm and rainbow, fire and water. And the Bible is full of even more of them – God being One, but Father, Son, and Spirit all being different persons. Jesus is perfectly man, and perfectly the living one who died, the High Priest and the sacrifice. God has created people with real choices, yet his sovereignty means that his choices are ultimate. God fills the heavens and the earth, yet dwelt in an ark, a tent, a temple, and now in individuals.
No wonder Ezekiel says it was “kinda of like this or that”. You try describing this God and it would probably sound a lot like Ezekiel, “fiery storm clouds, four faced living creatures, each with their own eye covered wheel, under a massive crystal wok, etc.” This doesn’t need to weird us out, it is designed to show us how beyond our comprehension God really is. Scoffer’s will always try to play off God’s attributes against each other, as if the Most High could be reduced to a few simple statements. But we worship a God who is everything Scripture says he is, even if we don’t understand how.
The point is this: God is at his most glorious when he is beyond our comprehension. The Trinity, the Word becoming flesh, the cross, the resurrection - these are impossible things to fully understand yet they are the center of our faith and the most glorious things we have ever heard or seen. Especially in a university environment where we are trying to “figure everything out”, we must not be surprised when we encounter truths we cannot grasp and depths we cannot fathom. We need not question or doubt or become frustrated. We simply need to stop and behold the glory of God.