How Does a Church Become a Museum?
This last Monday was family day. My wife, daughter and I went the San Diego Zoo. We had a great day traipsing around checking out all the animals, riding the long escalators, and just hanging out together.
One of the last things we did before we left was take a ride on the sky buckets. It’s pretty sweet. You get an amazing view not only of the zoo but of San Diego’s cityscape and the ornate buildings of Balboa Park.
My wife made a comment about how great San Diego is and how much we love it and how much cool stuff there is here with all the beaches and parks and the zoo and the wonderful museums that we have. I responded to her this way, “Yeah, I love San Diego, but the Balboa Park museums make me sad.” She was confused and asked me why.
Bible Reading 101
Ocular acquisition, otherwise known as reading, is the process through which our eyes gaze upon symbols (we call ‘em letters) and are decoded into meaning. Reading. Interestingly, nowhere in the Bible does it straight out say “read the Bible.” Instead, it assumes that we will and indeed must read and rather than telling us to read focuses on telling us how to read.
I’m a Bible guy. I love the Bible, live by the Bible, eat with the Bible, sleep with the Bible, preach the Bible…basically I’m all about the Bible. So if anyone spends any amount of time with me we’ll probably end up talking about the Bible. Which means I get a lot of questions about it, how to grow in one’s love for the Bible and how to actually read it. I’ve discovered there is a lot of fear and frustration when it comes to people developing the habit of reading the Bible. Knowing you need to read the Bible and actually reading it regularly are often worlds apart from each other.
Some of that is a spiritual hurdle and some of it is simply because many have never been told how to read the Bible. So if you do actually sit down to read the Bible you don’t know what to read or how to read and usually end up doing it Russian Roulette style…where you just open it up, let the pages fall where they may, and read whatever is in front of you. Sometimes God has grace for that and through it but generally it’s not a good idea…when you’re playing roulette eventually a bullet will end up in the chamber and kill you.
So this blog is devoted to ocular acquisition…reading. Reading isn’t just for smart people, it’s for sinful people who are being saved by Jesus. If we’re going to grow spiritually, know God, love Jesus, care about people, our church and our city…it’s not going happen apart from us reading his Word, the Bible. God’s Word does his work. So no Word in us = no real gospel work happening in our hearts and lives.
That’s the reality, but how do we develop a habit of reading? What are the different ways to read the Bible? Are there practical tools to make reading easier? Do some things ways work better for some people versus others? Are there any good online aids? Does the Bible itself give advice on how to read it?
Nehemiah Series (Part 8): “The Centrality of God’s Book in God’s Vision”
This is the eighth week of our sermon series, “Nehemiah: Building God’s Church in the City.” Part 8, this week is an exegetical sermon of chapter eight and is about The Centrality of God’s Book in God’s Vision. This sermon addresses the following issues in the context of church planting: assembling to study the Bible, receiving instruction from the Bible, understanding the meaning of the Bible, and responding to the message of the Bible. This sermon was originally preached March 15th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
The Good Book
This last Sunday one of the main verses in our sermon study was Romans 15:4. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragment of the Scriptures we might have hope.” So I thought it would be appropriate for us to spend some time thinking further about the nature of the Bible this week in my Pastoral journal entry. An important practice for those of us living here in San Diego is to be aware of what the various views are in our culture regarding the Bible so that we will best know how communicate the gospel.
Controversy
What do you do when two “scholars” or “theologians” or “pastors” or “people” disagree on something? What do you do with controversy? There are three main views. 1) Balance. Some think the truth is always somewhere in the middle. 2) Unity. Some think truth pertains only to the things there is no disagreement. 3) Conviction. Others think truth must be worked for by considering both positions and settling on one with a full conscience.
Romans is for Us
This is an exegetical sermon on Romans 1:14-15 titled Romans is for Us and looks at various views of the Bible and argues for verbal plenary inspiration, total inerrancy and infallibility. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Duane Smets on May 1st, 2005 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. Audio unavailable.
