Do I Have to Read My Bible?

In response to this question, I would say, “No, but yes, yes, and yes!” (In case you didn’t catch it, that was a triple “yes.”)

Is reading the Bible necessary for growth as a Christian? Yes! This question would be the equivalent of asking, “Does a baby need food to grow?” Like a baby needs milk to grow, a Christian needs God’s Word to mature. (1 Peter 2:2)

Is reading the Bible something a Christian is commanded to do? Yes! While the Bible does not say “read your Bible” in as many words, it does say things like “crave pure spiritual milk” (1 Pet 2:2) and “let the word of Christ dwell in your richly” (Col 3:16). These commands are more at the level of desires, so if a Christian is obedient to long for God’s Word (and has access to it in his/her language the ability to read), he/she should read the Bible.

Finally, will a born again Christian have such an unquenchable thirst for and delight Scripture that they are compelled to read it? Absolutely yes! A Christian should not view reading the Bible as a “got-to” but a “get-to.” Once a redeemed soul has “tasted that God is good,” (1 Pet. 2:3), that taste should create such an uncontrollable craving for his word, that this person HAS to read it.

Is reading the Bible a requirement for salvation? Absolutely not. Salvation does not rest upon whether one checks the box of Bible reading off; it rests upon Jesus Christ. Also, reading your Bible is not a legalistic obligation. The act of sitting down with your Bible and reading it does not somehow earn you righteousness or favor with God.

Let’s sum it up. Do you have to read your Bible to be a Christian? No. But as a Christian, do you have to read the Bible because you need it, God wants you to, and you want to because you have tasted that God is good? Yes, yes, and YES!

Who Do You Trust?

Contemplate how incredibly bad a real epidemic disease would be.

I imagine it would begin with rumors and fear. You would begin to hear about the disease–where it is, how it is affecting people, how fast it is traveling, etc. While it may seem distant at first, the questions would begin to creep into your mind. Will it spread to where I live? Will people I know or interact with get sick?

Then, if the disease should spread to your area in a true and deadly epidemic fashion, I can only imagine how bad the terror could become. And more than that there would be an incredible internal conflict within each individual between fear and care. As loved ones began to get sick and even die, how would people decide whether to stay and care for them or to flee and avoid the contagious disease? The paranoia would be unreal.

That brings us to the swine flu–the current “epidemic” that is making headlines in our world today. How do we as Christians respond to the possibility of an epidemic? In the face of something so potentially scary, do we respond with worry or peace?

It’s easy to base our trust and peace merely on rational thinking. We tell ourselves, “The swine flu is not that big of a deal. People in America aren’t really dying from it. The statistics aren’t really worse than the regular flu, which kills thousands every year. Honestly, this whole thing is overblown.”

Personally, I would generally agree with those statements. It sounds like this swine flu thing is a bit over-hyped. However, I’ve been really challenged about the basis of my lack of anxiety. Am I not anxious because of rational thinking, or is there also an underlying foundational trust in a sovereign God?

Let’s face it. Someday we all might face something that we cannot reason away by saying, “It’s not that big of a deal.” Where will our trust be then?

Will it be in some comforting statistic we got from FOX News?

Or will it be in the God described in this Psalm?

1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be moved.

2 Your throne was established long ago;
you are from all eternity.

3 The seas have lifted up, O LORD,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.

4 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea—
the LORD on high is mighty.

5 Your statutes stand firm;
holiness adorns your house
for endless days, O LORD.

*P.S. I just wanted to be clear that by saying the swine flu is “over-hyped” I am not trying to negate or minimize the real people who are really suffering and dying from this disease. It is a serious thing that deserves our prayers and concern.

Earth Day: Remember Your Creator

Today is Earth Day.

Disney is coming out with a nature documentary from Planet Earth footage called “Earth.” It looks pretty sweet, it’s narrated by James Earl Jones, and it apparently contains no evolutionary material.

The cafeteria run by Bon Appetit here at The Master’s College celebrated by serving some kind of environmentally friendly lunch. I opted out of that and used an In-N-Out gift card instead.

But all of that is neither here nor there. The point is this: On this Earth Day in 2009, how many people will acutally think about, give thanks to, and worship the One who created this planet?

Don’t let Earth Day go by without giving glory to the Creator!

R&R

Don’t you just love returning home after being away for a while? That’s exactly what I’m experiencing right now. Just yesterday, I returned to Hotchkiss after three weeks of Christmas Break. Yes, I am psyched out of mind about being back, but this blog is about the break I was blessed to enjoy.

All in all, I would say this was the most refreshing Christmas Break I’ve had in college. Here are some of the highlights:

-Sleep. Yes. Sweet, uninterrupted sleep. In that sense it was a physically refreshing break. I thought about sleeping less and getting some more stuff done, but everytime I realized this could be the last break like this in my life, I continued to sleep in.

-My parents’ DV-R. (Ok, so I’m getting some of the more trivial things out of the way first.) Arsenal-Liverpool. The Dolphins making the playoffs. It’s a Wonderful Life. I was able to watch all these things thanks to the wonder of advanced technology.

-Time to read. To understand this, see the previous post.

-Catching up with high school friends. I was able to have some great conversations with some friends from high school. That was really encouraging and a lot of fun!

-Seeing “Frost/Nixon” with my mom. This is a film about a series of interviews in the 1970’s. Sounds boring, right? WRONG! I was fascinated by the story of Frost’s interviews with the former-President Nixon. The drama was thick, and the acting/directing was excellent!

-Watching USC beat the daylights out of Penn State in the Rose Bowl. Enough said.

-Visiting the Bolens and having a mini SPO’7 reunion. We stayed up late into the night discussing the ins and outs of Isaiah chapter 7. If you want to learn more about the book of Isaiah and see the story of redemption unfold from its pages, check this blog series out.

-Having time to reflect and remember priorities. After the fall semester, I was pretty tired and I guess you could say “burned-out.” Being able to read journals and the Bible and serve in church over the break all helped me remember what I am passionate about, and now I’m returning home refreshed and ready to serve the Lord!

-Revival: Winter Edition! This last weekend I went on the Compass Bible Church student ministries winter retreat. It was a blast. It’s the most fun I’ve had on a high school retreat since being a camper meself. The preaching was excellent, and I loved working with the guys in my cabin and the worship band. I also got to help choreograph a massive high school dance routine. If you want to see that, check out the latest video in the True North group on Facebook.

Well, that’s enough highlights. Back to living life in Hotchkiss!

PEACE!

The Road Goes Ever On and On

I have recently finished the busiest, coolest, and craziest summer of my life.

It started with a missions trip to Uganda, which was a whirlwind all by itself. In our six weeks their, my team went all over the country doing all kinds of things–from hacking through the bush with machetes to teaching at a pastors’ conference.

Immediately upon returning to the States, I began a six-week internship at Compass Bible Church. I spent three of those weeks camping with high school and junior high students. In the middle of this time, I made a trip to Washington with three of my closest friends to see two other close friends get married.

It never stops.

All in all, the Lord blessed my summer tremendously. He kept me busy, and in all the busyness of ministry he caused me to love him more and he taught me that love for him cannot be separated from a passion for his name and his kingdom.

Now I’m back at school and jumping right into another year of ministry in the dorms. I’m incredibly excited about one more year of serving in Hotchkiss–the happiest place on earth.

This afternoon, I am taking off to Palm Springs for the Servant Leadership Retreat, and we will all spend the week preparing to greet all the newbies to The Master’s College on Saturday.

All this to say, life and ministry never stop. But it’s all worth it because it’s all about the Lord and his glory.

Maranatha.

A Psalm for the Old, and One for the New.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever more.

My brother Billy shared this Psalm with me last January as I was preparing for IBEX. At that point, I was not sure about many things, especially IBEX. I was wondering why I had ever signed up. I was worried about leaving the country for so long. Billy pointed me to this Psalm, and it helped me to calm and quiet my soul before the Lord as IBEX approached.

While studying at IBEX, I constantly referred to this Psalm as I realized that I spend too much of my time trying to figure out things that are too great and too marvelous for me. And the Psalm followed me around all semester. On a couple separate occasions, this Psalm was randomly selected for me to read at dinner. At these moments, my roommate and I would just make eye-contact and smile.

This Psalm continued to comfort me throughout 2007. No matter what the circumstances or the how perplexing the future may be, the Christian can be calm and quiet before the Lord.

As 2008 begins, my attention has been directed to another Psalm by a new Bible reading plan.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does he prospers.

I pray that Psalm 1 typifies my 2008. I hope that I crave the Word like the man described in this Psalm. Certainly, when Christians meditate on God’s truth, we will be calm and quiet; we will be like fruitful trees by the river.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Oh…and did anyone see the Rose Bowl today?

From the Belly of Hotchkiss

For the past several Sundays I have had the privilege of attending and serving at Compass Bible Church. My brother Bobby is the high school pastor there, and I have been helping in the high school group by leading singing. Compass is a dynamic church. Their vision for ministry is aggressive. The teaching is scriptural, encouraging, and challenging.

This past weekend my brother finished a series on bibliology by talking about how the Bible should give us hope. He ended the message by taking us to Jonah 2. This chapter starts off with these words: “From inside the fish…” When you read this chapter, you are reading words that were spoken inside a fish! That’s pretty incredible.

This prayer of Jonah is full of hope, and my brother pointed out that it is full of direct references to the Psalms. This is just an example of Scripture giving hope in a dire circumstance.

Based on this chapter, Bobby challenged his high school group to write a prayer like this. So here is the Psalm-filled prayer that I put together not from the belly of a fish, but from my room in the belly of Hotchkiss:

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

My soul clings to the dust
and from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
Be still, and know that he is God.
He will be exalted in the earth!
Return, O my soul to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

My heart is steadfast, O God,
My heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!

The Bible is awesome, and it should give hope to believers as it takes their focus off of temporal circumstances and on the everlasting God and all that he has done for us. The Psalms give countless examples of this hopeful process, and I was amazed at how writing this prayer helped me battle doubt and worry by focusing on the hope that I have in the Lord.

Remember, the Bible is supposed to give us hope.

Shot of the Day

David Zimmer is the man.

Check out Chasing Cadence’s music at http://www.myspace.com/chasingcadence. And if you can possibly get your hands on one of their cd’s, do it!