Bible study

My Favorite Bible Verse

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“Yahweh your God is there with you, the warrior-Saviour. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you” (Zephaniah 3:17).

That is my favorite verse ever. If I had a top 50 list of Bible verses, this one would be #1 with a bullet.

I still remember where I was when I first heard it and it really sank in. I was on a Union University Baptist Student Union retreat back in ’92 and Chris Rice was teaching that weekend.

I still remember being in awe of a God who was actually crazy about me. It was too good to be true. It is still too good to be true, but it is still true nonetheless.

God delights in me? God rejoices over me? God does a happy dance with loud singing over me? How can that be? It doesn’t always feel true, but it is true, and this verse is proof positive of that fact.

Read that verse in every translation you can get your hands on. It says the same thing. Meditate on it and let the fact sink in that your God delights in you. Your God doesn’t just love you out of an obligatory “I love people because I’m God and I have to love people” kind of way. No. He is crazy in love with you.

Not because you’re good enough or pretty enough or smart enough or talented enough or clever enough. He loves you because you’re you, exactly the way he made you to be.

I know this isn’t an original thought. It’s been said before (and said better) by many others. I’m just faithfully passing along to you the wisdom passed along to me by so many others through so many years.

I hope you wake up tomorrow morning and the very first thought in your head is “My Abba is very fond of me.” I hope that in your head you throw a day-long celebration over the fact that your God wants you and likes you and chose you and loves you very much.

It may not be new information, but all of us need to be reminded from time to time of these things. I know I do.

 

Why I’m Lovin’ the Book of Revelation

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I have been reading through the Book of Revelation, as well as reading a commentary on it. It’s in the Bible, so I’m supposed to love it, but I really do love it. I have a list of reasons why:

1) The Lord of the Rings nerd in me loves all the dragons and beasts. It’s very sci-fi.

2) I love the fact that even in the midst of total chaos on earth, there is unending worship in heaven. There are actually creatures whose job is solely to give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

3) No matter what happens below, God is still on his throne. From Revelation 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, God reigns over the universe and is in complete control.

4) For those who are living through hell on earth, who suffer hardships and persecutions, there will be and end to sorrow and pain and misery and one day God will put everything right again.

5) God rewards those who endure. It’s not about a 100% success rate. It’s about showing up and trusting that God knows what he’s doing. You keep showing up and keep trusting, regardless, and you win the prize.

6) Heaven will be more than worth it, not for all the streets of gold or jeweled gates or all the cameos by all the famous Bible characters, but because Jesus is there. The one we’ve waited for all this time will be there, waiting for us.

7) It won’t be the end. It will be the true beginning. Like C.S. Lewis said in The Last Battle, history will have only been the title page and the preface, but heaven will be the book that you never want to stop reading, the one where each chapter is better than the last and which never ends, but goes on forever.

See? It’s not such a scary book after all. Once you strip away all the arguments about when the tribulation comes in and what the millennium will look like and what all those numbers mean and you get to the core of the book, you find Jesus is already on his throne and he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That’s why I love this book!

There Be Dragons in the Book of Revelation

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I started attending a new Bible study led by Mike Glenn, pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church and lead teacher at Kairos on Tuesday nights. It’s all about the mysterious book of Revelation. Yeah, that scary book at the end of the Bible before you get to the maps.

It’s really not about how things are eventually going to turn out one day. It’s about how they already are. It’s not about how one day Jesus will ascend to the throne, but how He’s already there.

I confess I’ve missed the point of the book in the past. It’s not about who the anti-Christ will be or what day the end will come. The reason John wrote the book was to encourage believers who were facing intense persecution by a very hostile and anti-Christian government.

It’s about how evil forces in the world will try to rise up against God and His people, but how God in Christ has already overcome the enemy. The outcome is not in doubt. Jesus has already won the battle at Calvary.

The best takeaway from tonight’s study was that this book was written in worship to communities of worship about whom to worship. Not Caesar, but Christ.

Revelation is a reminder that the ending to my story is already written and it is a happy ending. No matter what I’m currently facing or how hopeless my situation seems sometimes, the best really is yet to come.

So I suppose I really will be spending a lot of time in that last book of the Bible. I could read all the commentaries and bible study guides and Tim LaHaye books in the world, but I’d be much better off just reading the book itself. Only God’s Word is living and active. Only God’s Word is God-breathed.

There will be more about those dragons and seven-horned beasts and other special guest appearances from the Book of Revelation in blogs to follow. I’m looking forward to it.

 

By Faith

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I am an optimistic and positive person for the most part. I usually see the glass half full. Unless it’s when I’m really thirsty, then the glass is empty, ’cause I just drank it all.

Sometimes, I have serious doubts. Sometimes, it feels like my dreams and goals are just out of reach and nothing will really ever change. Sometimes, I’m not even really sure what it is I’m reaching for.

Everybody has those times, if they’re honest. Everybody doubts, everybody questions, and as the old R.E.M. song says, everybody hurts.

The question is, Will you still believe even when common sense tells you not to? Will you speak your faith even when you don’t feel it and the words coming out of your mouth feel fake and fraudulent? Will you still hold on?

The old cliche is true. It really is darkest just before the dawn. I’ve found that just when I feel like I’m at my lowest ebb, that’s when I see God moving in my circumstances and in my life.

The promises of God are just as true in the dark as they are in the light. He is just as faithful in the storm as in the sunshine. He is just as near when you can’t feel Him as when you can.

I’ve said it before many times, but it’s true. What you think may lie to you. What you feel may lie to you. But God won’t. Ever.

So many people in the Bible had times when they felt God’s promises were hopelessly out of reach. I think about David and Abraham as examples. David when he was running for his life from Saul and Abraham when he and Sarah were still childless and eligible for Social Security.

But they held on to the promises of God even when everything in them (and probably everyone around them) told them not to, and that faith was rewarded in the nick of time in God’s perfect timing.

May you and I hold on as tenaciously and as stubbornly as they did.

It will be so much more than worth it in the end.

 

Lee Majors Need Not Apply: Lessons from Another Great Kairos Roots

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A good friend of mine spoke from Colossians 2 about Christ being all-sufficient, being everything we could ever need or even hope to need.

One thing he said that stuck out to me was that Christ didn’t come to make us better, but to make us new.

He didn’t come to make us like Lee Majors– faster, stronger, taller, better-looking. He came to make us completely new creations. He came to make us into men and women who are everyday being changed into the image of Christ Himself.

Maybe you remember how you were before you came to Christ. You remember the decisions you made and the priorities you lived by. Now you have a completely different way of living. It’s not just an upgrade on an old system; it’s a new system.

Do the people you live and work and play with know that you’re different? Can they see the difference? Do your actions match your words? Could people tell you belong to Christ solely because of how you live (even before you open your mouth?)

Too many times I am not different enough. I blend in too well. I am too much like the people around me for them to see any difference.

I bet you’ve felt the same way.

It’s not about trying harder or being better. It’s not about me finally being strong enough in my own power to change.

It goes back to Jesus being all I need. He will be my Strength. He will be my Wisdom. He will be the Transformation in me that makes me think and act and speak in a way that points people to Him.

By the way. Colossians 2 has that great verse about how all the fullness of the deity dwells in Jesus in bodily form. Jesus isn’t a great example or a great prophet or even a great man. He’s 100% God who is also 100% man who lived out a perfect life and died in our place.

All that to say that in every situation, good or bad, trial or blessing, Jesus is enough.

A Good Word

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I thought that since it was Monday and I wasn’t feeling particularly creative, I’d have a guest blogger for the day. You might have heard of him. He’s King David, best known for writing a few songs we call Psalms. Here goes:

“O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!

O my soul, bless God,

don’t forget a single blessing!

He forgives your sins—every one.

He heals your diseases—every one.

He redeems you from hell—saves your life!

He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.

He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.

He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence.

God makes everything come out right;

he puts victims back on their feet.

He showed Moses how he went about his work,

opened up his plans to all Israel.

God is sheer mercy and grace;

not easily angered, he’s rich in love.

He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,

nor hold grudges forever.

He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,

nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.

As high as heaven is over the earth,

so strong is his love to those who fear him.

And as far as sunrise is from sunset,

he has separated us from our sins.

As parents feel for their children,

God feels for those who fear him.

He knows us inside and out,

keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.

Men and women don’t live very long;

like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,

But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly,

leaving nothing to show they were here.

God’s love, though, is ever and always,

eternally present to all who fear him,

Making everything right for them and their children

as they follow his Covenant ways

and remember to do whatever he said.

God has set his throne in heaven;

he rules over us all. He’s the King!

So bless God, you angels,

ready and able to fly at his bidding,

quick to hear and do what he says.

Bless God, all you armies of angels,

alert to respond to whatever he wills.

Bless God, all creatures, wherever you are—

everything and everyone made by God.

And you, O my soul, bless God!”

All kidding aside, I hope this speaks to you as it did to me when I first read it. By the way, if you don’t recognize it, it’s Psalm 103 in The Message translation.

An Awesome Definition for Worship

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“Worship is extravagant love and extreme submission.”

I love that definition.

Too often, worship is all about singing songs. It’s all too easy to sit back and critique the song choices and musical styles and whether or not those around me are worshiping the “right” way.

In Nashville, it’s easy to let worship become all about the level of musicianship and charasmatic personality. It’s easy to manipulate a crowd into a frenzy if you’re talented enough, but that’s not worship.

Worship is extravagant love. I can’t help but thinking about the woman who poured the expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and then wiped those feet with her hair. That was more than inconvenient. That was extremely costly and humiliating. That’s worship.

It’s also extreme submission. It’s surrendering my own illusion of self-control and admitting that I have a desperate need for God. And it starts long before you enter the sanctuary and the church service and doesn’t end when you pass the exit doors on your way out into the parking lot.

Worship is not an event, but a lifestyle of saying, “Not my will, but Thine.”

I don’t normally do this, but I posted a link to a fantastic blog about the nature of worship that I ran across today.

http://allsonsanddaughters.com/2012/03/26/art-in-worship-join-the-conversation/

I challenge to you read it and let it soak into your very being.

If I’m truly worshipping in Romans 12:1-2 fashion and being transformed by the renewing of my mind and offering my body as a living sacrifice, then it won’t matter whether I’m singing the most current and trendy modern worship songs or the old, old hymns.

It won’t matter if there’s a rockin’ worship band, or a guy with a guitar, or an orchestra and choir, or just a piano and organ.

It will be worship. It will declare the great worth of God to the world.

After all, like the song says, it’s not about me. It’s all about You, Jesus.

My Big Honkin’ Bible

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The following was inspired by what I heard at Kairos tonight. In case you’re wondering, Kairos is a worship event and Bible study that meets every Tuesday at 7 pm at the Connection Center at Brentwood Baptist Church off I-65 exit 71 in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Do I have the Word of God on me or do I have it in me?

There’s a really big difference.

Do I carry around a big honkin’ Bible that looks impressive or do I live it out through my words and deeds?

Do I have God’s Word snugly under my arm or hidden in my heart?

Jesus didn’t overcome the devil’s temptations by braining him with a big Bible. He used the words, “It is written” and used the Scripture he had memorized and ingrained into His life. He used Deuteronomy, to be specific.

I have to be honest. I have a LOT of Bibles. Some are big and leather and good for knocking people upside the head (theologically, not literally). Some are small and portable. I have just about every major translation.

But what I don’t have is God’s Word in my heart. Sure, I have a few verses here and there memorized, but nowhere near enough to say that I KNOW God’s word.

Something that stuck with me was that sometimes you have to BE ready because you won’t have time to GET ready.

In other words, you don’t want to wait until you’re in the middle of a battle to get your sword out. You don’t want to wait until you’re in the midst of spiritual warfare and face with temptation to decide to start committing Scripture to memory.

Hopefully, this won’t be something else I blog about then forget about. I really want to hide God’s Word in my heart.

I remember something a pastor wrote in the first Bible I ever received. “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”

I have found that to be very true in the years since.

May you and I start a love affair with the Word of God that lasts both our lifetimes and where we are not conformed to our culture and the world around us, but transformed into people who can help change our culture and the world.

 

Dollhouse: The TV Show and My Thoughts From It

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Dollhouse was a fantastic show with a very unique concept that ended way too soon.

The concept was that people “volunteered” to have their own memories and personalities erased and became blank slates that could be fitted with other personality imprints to be lovers, assassins, companions, or whatever else the very, very rich and well-conntected clientele wanted.

The concept is technologically far-fetched, but in some ways it happens on a daily basis.

People spend so much time trying to be what other people want them to be, to fit the image that parents or spouses or significant others put on them, that they too often forget who they really are.

Maybe you became someone else to please a boyfriend or girlfriend and gave away something precious to you. Maybe you became someone you used to dislike to gain the approval of so-called “friends” who wouldn’t have liked you for you.

Maybe you have a whole collection of masks that you wear during the week: the pious one for Sunday, the ambitious one for Monday through Friday, the anything-goes one for Saturday night . . . . until you feel completely fragmented.

1 John 1:12 says regarding Jesus, ” But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves,       their child-of-God selves.”

The way to get rid of the masks and the role-playing is to let Jesus tell you who you really are. After all, He’s the one who saw you in your mother’s womb and knows you intimately, more than you know yourself.

In Him, you find your true identity as a child of God and find your true purpose and meaning in being a part of what He is doing in turning the upside-down world right side up again.

I’ve said it before, but no matter what names anyone else has called you or even what you’ve called yourself in anger and frustration, the only name that ultimately matters is the name God in Jesus has given you and calls you now– BELOVED.

May you and I live in that reality and show our world the way out of the dollhouse.

 

Thursdays are Good Again

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Thursdays usually don’t get much respect. They’re always the day before Friday, which gets all the credit for being for being the start of the weekend.

But for me, Thursdays are good again.

I particupate in Kairos Roots, a Thursday Bible Study for those who want to go deeper into God’s Word and God’s community. I am a table leader, which means I facilitate discussion. In simple terms, I ask a question or two and sit back and watch and learn.

Mike Glenn, the main speaker at Kairos, a related Bible Study on Tuesdays, always says that as a believer you need three things– worship, service, and community. I need community because the first person I lie to is me.

I’ve found that sitting at the table, someone next to me or across from me may have a different way of looking at a verse or a doctrine or an application. They may have an insight I’d never thought of before. Something I say may have an impact on someone else, although it seems I am usually the one who gets impacted the most.

I never leave quite the same person. I walk away wiser and more aware of how inter-connected we as believers all are. We all need each other. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. No one makes it through alone. No one who wants to stay sane, anyway.

Also, if you spend the week ministering and serving others, you will eventually be drained. You need a place to recharge and revitalize. You need a place where you can grow and mature and learn how to serve better.

If you’re in the Nashville area on Thursday nights, drop by the Connection Center at Brentwood Baptist Church at 7 pm. There’s always good worship to start things off, good teaching, and good table discussion afterward. You will be blessed.