When I was in university, I tried to tackle some of the Russian classics on my summer break. At first, I found the complexity of them overwhelming. The challenge was that they had so many characters and they all had multiple names and different people used different names to refer to each other depending on the nature of their relationship. I came to the conclusion that you need to be prepared to just spend the first hundred pages trying to figure out who everyone is and how they’re connected. Once you get past that, they’re fascinating stories. Those books showed me the importance of a reading strategy.
It’s easy to keep doing the same things without thinking about what you’re doing. That’s not a recipe for personal growth, though. This week, I’m taking a course called “Preaching the Narratives of Scripture.” There were a couple of books that I had to read in preparation as well as papers to write, summarizing their contents and my reflection on them. On Wednesday and Thursday, I’ll take in day-long lectures with the instructor, Kent Edwards, who will come to us from California by Zoom video call. On Friday, I’ll preach to my computer screen and then have the professor, and fellow pastor-students analyze and critique everything I’ve said and done. Pray for me! In the follow-up to the course, I’ll submit another three sermons for written feedback from the others and in turn, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the other participants. Having gone through the same process for the course I took in the winter, “Preaching Old Testament Poetry,” I know the value (and the stress!) of the feedback and reflection. You can’t grow in the echo chamber. Let me share some of the lessons I’ve learned so far.
These are not easy days to be a parent of young children. Having kids home for summer holidays can be difficult enough to plan for, but the COVID-19 school closures were too sudden to allow for planning and there are no camps to send them to or programs to enrol them in. Educators are doing what they can to provide online learning options and, as a church, we’re working to launch an online children’s ministry for our families. But still, many parents see this time as an opportunity to invest in their children’s faith and discipleship and are looking for tools and resources to help. The best place to start is the Bible itself. There’s nothing that can replace reading the Bible to your children and helping them to read it for themselves. You want to make sure that your children’s Bibles are well worn. But as you do that, you may want to supplement the Bible reading. Let me share what I feel are some of the best free materials available right now to encourage your child’s spiritual growth.
Tim Challies recently chronicled, “How the Church Worshipped on One of the Most Unusual Sundays in Church History.” People all around the world were gathered in front of laptops and television screens as preachers spoke into cameras and phones. God’s Word was being proclaimed through YouTube, Facebook, and Zoom. It was a wonderful display of the flexibility and unstoppable power of the church. It was an important start. And if COVID-19 was going to be over in a week or two, that would probably be enough. But there’s more that’s needed if we’re going to ride out this pandemic over the long haul. Let me give some suggestions for how we can be the church in the midst of this global pandemic.
The actor, Jared Leto, recently emerged from a silent meditation camp only to learn that COVID-19 had become a global pandemic. After close to two weeks in a desert retreat, it was a shock for him to learn what had happened while he had been unplugged. With the constant barrage of troubling news reports and alarming developments, escaping to a desert hideaway may sound tempting. Meditation sounds like it may help deal with the uneasiness that many people are feeling. But does the Bible say anything about meditation? Is meditation Christian? And, if so, is it any different than Hindu and Buddhist forms of meditation?
The biggest difference between Christianity and other religions and philosophies is that the Bible declares that what God has done for us – not what we have done for Him – is the basis of our forgiveness, acceptance and salvation. By contrast, other religions teach what we have to do in order to go to heaven, be acceptable to God or achieve our potential. Many Christians bring a non-Christian mindset to how they live the Christian life. When they hear a sermon, they only hear what they have to do. When they open the Bible, they only see God’s commands. And, ironically, Christianity can become a non-Christian religion in the process. There’s a simple pattern that the Scriptures give for correcting this: start with DONE before you move to DO. Let me explain.
On Sunday, we started a new series in 1 Thessalonians entitled, “Living Life in Light of the End.” I’ll be away camping with my family this week so instead of my regular post, I want to encourage you to watch this video overview of 1 Thessalonians from The Bible Project. I hope it gives you a better feel for the letter. I’ll be back on Sunday for a look at 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6.
At this week’s FEB Central Regional Conference, Mike Bullmore gave an exposition of the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. His teaching did what all good teaching should do: move me to look closer at the Bible. The result was four questions to help get more out of Bible reading. Reading the Bible is not only one of the most important things a Christian can do to grow, it’s also for many one of the most difficult things to do. Psalm 119 provides some help.
Love your God; love your neighbour. God’s desire for the way we live our lives couldn’t be more clear. And yet there are obstacles. We can have good intentions for our lives but if we don’t address some of the habits and patterns that stand in the way, it’s easy for us to live in regret. Loving God surely involves listening to Him through His Word and speaking to Him in prayer. You can’t love someone you never listen to nor speak with. Loving our neighbour begins in the same place. We take the time to connect and listen and speak with the people around us. There’s one obstacle to both of these things that we probably think too little about. Getting a handle on this one thing could revolutionize your spiritual life in 2018. Yes, I’m talking about our beloved cell phones.
This week, I’m at the national convention of The Fellowship and in between reports and business sessions, Dr. John Neufeld has been speaking about the Reformation. In Tuesday morning’s talk, he touched on the influence of a man named Origen on Bible reading and interpretation in the Christian church. That talk sparked my interest to learn more. Origen had a rare determination in his faith and he had an incredible intellect. Despite that, he made some terrible blunders that are repeated by many in our day. Let me share three things we can learn from his mistakes.
