Archive for the 'Bible Study' Category

The Risk of Generosity and Con-(wo)Men

Published
by
Dan
on 9/25/2008
in Bible Study and Urbia
. 1 Comment

It’s been quite a week in our neighborhood.

Tuesday night we had about 50 Jr. High kids come down and help out on our street. They picked up tons of sticks and bundled them all up and raked a lot of grass and leaves into bags. It was good to walk down the street and see them all working so hard, and then talk to my neighbors some that had come out to see what was going on.

Last night we had a prayer night and some friends from church and our whole family went to two nearby schools and prayed for the surrounding neighborhoods. I was especially glad to take the kids along so they could participate and witness what we’re doing.

Tonight seemed normal enough. We called it our “night off” since we didn’t have any events planned. I was out in the back yard getting the grill going when one of my neighbors came out to his back yard and we both met in the alley and started talking. He said that the house behind us and over one has been empty for 6 years, and was a crack house before that.

I think in a few days another crew from church will come and clean it up. I told him I would like a corner of it for a garden. He said he’s already done that! He grew corn and tomatoes in somebody’s abandoned yard!

He went back into his house and there I was trying to cook my burgers medium well and figure out where I’m going to put a fence between my yard and the alley. I heard a bike approach and it startled me.

I told the person on the bike it startled me and they just laughed. They asked me what I was doing. I commented about the fence and our wall, etc. THINKING that I was talking to a teenage boy.

Well I was wrong.

It was a woman.

After my comments about the fence, I repeated her question back, “What are you doing?” (looking back, I realize that I speak with a different level of respect to a woman than to a teenage boy)

She said, “I’m just needing some food. I’m homeless-I sleep down by the river-and pregnant and I have diabetes and I just need $5 to get something to eat.”

That is a tough call. In the past I haven’t been able to mix relief w/ the gospel. At the same time I’ve seen that relief w/o the gospel just helps wicked men in their wicked deeds. But here was a beggar, humiliated I could tell, begging.

I gave her two McDonald’s gift cards and she said she smoked too. “I’m not going to help you with that, that’ll kill you. Of course, that McDonald’s might too.” I said. I know it’s hard to be thankful when you’re desperate. She also darted off about as fast as she could after I gave it to her, looking embarrassed.

It’s really embarrassing being poor. It’s humiliating to ask and it’s humiliating to take a handout. I know about all kinds of long-term plans to help people out of poverty, but I also know what it’s like to be hungry and not have enough money to buy the food you need.

I think I would rather give $500 away to 100 con men tricking me into giving them drug money, than say no to a single mom trying to figure out how to get dinner.

Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
1 Corinthians 6.7 ESV

There is a fine line between being foolish and generous. Risk it.

Jesus and the Ubiquitous Poor

Published
by
Dan
on 9/23/2008
in Bible Study
. 1 Comment

When Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you.” He was not giving an excuse or being overwhelmed. Many people read this like it’s Jesus’ commentary on how we should care for the poor.

“Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.””

(Matt 26:10-13 NIV)

It’s not a commentary on caring for the poor, it’s about the timing of His death. His death is coming soon, and He won’t always be around. Look at how Mark tells it.

“The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”

(Mark 14:7-8 NIV)

A little different, isn’t it. You can help the poor any time, but you can only annoint me for burial within the next few days.

The section Jesus is quoting here is pretty interesting. It’s from Deuteronomy 15.

“Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”

(Deut 15:10-11 NIV)

It’s like Jesus is saying, “you should always give to the poor, and you always have the opportunity to, but right now I’m preparing for burial, and she knows it because she believes the things I’ve said about how I’m going to die, and she’s mourning and celebrating all at once”

That’s why Judas immediately left. Partially because the expensive ointment was wasted, but here’s Jesus talking about dying again! Where is that ever going to get us!?

A really wild thing is that 10 verses back, God says that there shouldn’t even be any poor people, because there will be enough money to go around. In ancient Hebrew culture, the most degrading thing you could do for a person was to give them money. That’s why it’s so disgraceful to beg throughout the bible, and beggars are ashamed of what they do. The next tier up from that is to give someone money for doing some pitiful thing. To make up a silly job as an excuse to give them a handout. The best way, Hebrew culture wise, was to employ someone with some real task. Give them a real job to do and then pay them a fair wage for it.

I’ve developed a love for Goodwill lately, because they do this. They hire all kinds of people, and they accommodate them however they can to help them work in their shop. Some people may say there are restaurants EVERYWHERE that are hiring all the time. The truth is that if you’re homeless and don’t have an address for the application, they won’t hire you. There is no shower at McDonald’s, so if you don’t have water at your house, you can’t clean up for work. As the obstacles pile up, the motivation to work atrophies. After 3-4 days, discouragement wins out and hope is lost. I’ve talked to several people that have fallen into this spiral, and I’ve tiptoed around it’s edge a lot.

The poor you will always have with you, so be generous to them.

Talking about Money

Published
by
Dan
on 9/22/2008
in Bible Study, Bookstore and Short Quotes
. 1 Comment

I did a bad thing by starting off my quiet time reading “The ABC’s of Financial Freedom” this morning. It is a book on Christian Stewardship. It immediately put me into a critical mode when I read a few quotes:

You and I should do some Christ-centered vision casting of our own and start thinking about what we could do if we were totally debt free…

Here are just a few suggestions to help you get started:

[there is a list of 10, but here are the whoppers-ds]

6. You could finally have that “dream” vacation
7. You could fix things up around you house or even get a new one.
8. You could get some new furniture or a new vehicle.
9. You cold surprise people with secret acts of kindness and generosity
10. YOU COULD DO ALMOST ANYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE. (emphasis mine)

I’m not even going to comment on that. I think that pretty much speaks for itself.

All of that said, my church is about to have a few weeks of messages on “financial stewardship.” When I heard that we were going to be talking about money (it’s ok to say MONEY, it really is) I was interested. In light of the current economic state of the world, we need to really focus on our earning, spending, and buying with the Life of Jesus in us. There are a lot of people that need help unlearning the habits of the world and learning how to use their money for the Kingdom of God. Now more than ever is a time to speak up for the poor and use our overflow to wisely help them instead of blowing it on the new furniture we need or our “dream” vacation.

I think the hardest thing for me during this coming series will be to keep MY focus on Jesus, and not keep harping on all of the stuff I see wrong. But that focus is terribly important, because if I lose that focus, I will have done the same thing as the people that make finances and resources (money) the focus.

I can already tell that this is going to be hard.

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Luke 16:13

Following the Unclear Blatant God

Published
by
Dan
on 9/21/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

There is something about this discourse on bread that makes me not so much want to talk about bread and what the bread means or what it means to eat His flesh, but just about the more general idea of how Jesus taught. These parables almost put you to the point that you could know every single parable and even know the interpretation of it but still not have any understanding or idea of what He was talking about.

It seems like the Father wants people to come to Him that care about getting to know Him. People that will take the time and trouble to learn from Him. He makes things unclear at first, and then if people don’t want it explained, he moves on to other people.

When the disciples were sent out, they were to declare peace to a place, and if it didn’t rest on that place, they got took their peace and went home. As I put that with “the heavens declaring the glory of God” and “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?” it seems like God is constantly hiding Himself in all that we do, hoping that we’ll see that He’s been there and wants to be chased. It’s not a greedy or vain chase for the sake of frustrating us though. It’s almost like a lover’s pursuit or a mentor’s trail.

We follow him, and he leaves us clues for the journey. Sometimes when we’re in trouble, He hides out and shows us how to get through, then He darts off in our sleep, leaving more clues.

Preach the Gospel in a Clearly Confusing Riddle

Published
by
Dan
on 9/20/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

“Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

(John 6:52-57 NIV)

I think the bigger the crowd Jesus spoke to, the more cryptic his language.

I have a friend that works at a sort of camp/retreat center. He said that when they had the chance to expand and enlarge their ministry space, they decided not to because whether they had 150 people or 350 there, only about 3 people would ‘get it’ and be able to take part in the one-on-one ministry that they value.

3 people!

I don’t think this is all that crazy as I look at the way Jesus taught. “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” That’s crazy talk if you just listen like a monologue.

But Jesus wasn’t into monologues, he was into teaching.

Matt. 13:9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matt. 13:10 ¶ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

Matt. 13:11 ¶ He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

Matt. 13:12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Matt. 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

Matt. 13:14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

Matt. 13:15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

When Jesus told a parable, it weeded out a lot of people. The people that were there to see a show would become frustrated. “This guy talks nonsense! How can we eat his flesh? How is the kingdom of God like a mustard seed! That’s so tiny!” and then they would leave. After all of those people left, there would be a few that would say, “Jesus, explain to me what you meant by that….” and they were the ones that would be His disciples.

In a lot of world cultures, age equals authority. If there is a man with 10 years experience in electricity, and an older man walks up and says “put those two wires together” it would be a great dishonor to not do it. I have heard stories of men in ancient Persia that let their hands be scalded rather than tell their father he grabbed the teapot to wash their hands and not the pot of cool water.

It takes a lot to admit you don’t understand something. It takes even MORE to ask someone to explain it to you. You are at their mercy. You are putting them in a position of authority over you. When Jesus tells a parable, he is sifting. The people that are too proud to try to understand the Kingdom, the people that are too hardened to hear something new, get sifted out. The humble ones that aren’t afraid or too proud to ask come closer and learn more.

A lot of people think they know it all. They have life figured out and there isn’t much mystery or wonder in it. The pride of life keeps them from following Jesus even today. Western culture ESPECIALLY guides us against asking for explanations or help. In the workplace you can’t show any ignorance or weakness, for fear of getting a bad employee review or worse-getting fired and replaced.

There is a LOT more I want to say about this, but I’m out of time. I think if we explored this a little more, we’d see why the modern church has gotten into so much trouble with the pride of know-it-all-ism.

When the church is the know-it-all about creation and evolution and when life begins and why the earth is flat…we begin to take on the appearance of the world, not our riddle-telling Master. When we begin to talk in a way so that everyone understands, using cute stories, and pleasing chicken soup tales and poems, we actually stop teaching in the way Jesus taught.

My point in that is this. If our teaching is too easy, and off the point of what Jesus taught (Jesus didn’t address creationism, but taught about the PEOPLE in need that God created; Jesus didn’t address the horrible horrible act of leaving children out on the mountainside to die if they were unwanted, but told the disciples to let them come to Him and not hold them back)

If our teaching is too easy and off the point of what Jesus taught, we will have a lot of people with a head knowledge and even a belief of all of the tertiary things that Jesus may or may not have believed. They will fight for issues and ideas, but not know Jesus.

Matt. 7:21 ¶ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Matt. 7:22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

Matt. 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matt. 7:24 ¶ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Matt. 7:25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

These people KNEW about the Lord, and even knew how to work miracles in His Name, but did not know Him.

May we NOT make a bunch of disciples that know all about Jesus and all of our temporary movements for which we stand, indivisible and all-knowing.

I heard a story of a priest in south america that was a missionary. Unable to convert a tribe to catholicism, he snuck into their temple and hid a cross behind their golden idol. “Now,” he said, “Now they are bowing down to worship the savior.” I think that is exactly what we do today when we try to convince someone of a certain issue or get them to come to church without first bringing them to Jesus.

May we speak in riddles, display God’s power, and be surprised at the things that we need explained to us. May we join with the people that find Jesus’ teaching confusing and want Him to explain it, and not waste our time changing Jesus’ message to reach people too proud to receive Him.

Jesus is Real Food

Published
by
Dan
on 9/18/2008
in Bible Study
. 2 Comments

“Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

(John 6:53-56 NIV)

Whenever I eat communion, I think about this verse, but not in the way that you would think. I was raised Catholic, and even now communion is very very important to me. I even have trouble considering Pez communion real communion, but I know it’s not the shape of the bread that matters, really.

When I eat the bread and drink the juice, I think of the two things that are going into me, and what I want to come out of my life. When I eat the communion bread, I pray that the life of Jesus, what He did in His flesh, would be in me and in my life.

When I drink the juice, I pray that the death of Jesus, the blood that was spilled out for this sins of all people, would would be in me and in my life. I pray that the death of Jesus would be a present reality all of the time in my activities.

It’s not a condition of salvation. If I never have communion again for the next 50 years I’ll be ok. But it is a little ceremony, a ritual, that helps us remember where we get our life from.

I’m in no hurry to get my kids to eat it. Just as there wouldn’t have been any power in Peter grabbing Jesus by the heal and biting him in the calf, there isn’t any power in us eating our Pez communion bread. At the same time, there is no other prayer time for me, when I feel as close as can be to the Father, as when I’m in a monestary w/ a bunch of monks, eating communion in big flat disks and drinking real wine. Go figure.

 


Jesus, the Thief King

Published
by
Dan
on 9/16/2008
in Bible Study, Family Life and Urbia
. 0 Comments

So last night it was a cool night and I thought it would be good to open some windows and let some of the cool night air fill up our house. I went around and, since it was well after dark, opened each blind, pulled the window open a bit, and then closed the mini-blinds back again. Two of the windows in our living room open out to the front porch. I stepped over my daughter that was sitting by the window and opened the mini-blinds. There, running away, was a man with a camcorder in his hands. I only saw his silhouette because there was a white pickup truck parked in front of my house. It was running and the headlights were on. I closed the blinds real quick and stood there, kind of shocked, kind of worried, while I realized what had just happened.

In case you are far away or are reading this months from now, some context. This past weekend Hurricane Ike hit a front and sent major major winds into our town. I put up a gallery of tree damage on my smugmug (http://dansullivan.smugmug.com click events, then Sept. something windstorm) All of my neighbors were without power for at least 24 hours, and the park was pitch black. We, however, had all kinds of power.

So I stood there for a minute. Was he videoing the trees that came down…or how dark the park was??? the media had been around all day…no, he was running away!

So anyway, who knows what he was doing, but he certainly destroyed a lot of our peace. All day today we’ve been wondering if he was sizing up our belongings so he could come back another day or if he was filming our daughter as she sat on the floor watching Madagascar or what.

Needless to say, he wasn’t doing anything fruitful.

So tonight I was cleaning up from my evening housework and I started thinking about how Jesus talked about theives coming in the night. If you don’t like theives, it wasn’t very reassuring. If you don’t like Jesus, the thing He said wasn’t very reassuring either.

Matthew 24:42-44

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Whenever Jesus returns, be it before some trib or after or after all of the people disappear and Kirk Cameron videos pop up everywhere, all of that is arguable, this is clear, whenever Jesus returns, it will be a surprise.

It will be just like when you open your blinds and see that there was a thief there, that came in w/o you knowing it, but now he’s there.

Got a gun? No time to go get it. I have a friend 2 blocks over that walked into her house, thought that someone had been there and saw something sitting on the back porch. She walked back through the house, realized that YES, someone HAD been there, and went back to the porch and the something was gone. They were there at that moment and she didn’t realize it. The thing on the porch? The family shotgun.

Got an alarm system? It only works if you turn it on. Car alarms have become so common now that no-one responds to such an annoyance.

When a thief comes, you don’t know it until it’s too late. That is how it will be when Jesus returns. Never mind when it will be or how many nuclear wars we’ll have to if the Temple will be built.

Whenever he comes, it will be a surprise to us all.

It is so wild that Jesus compares himself to something like this. A thief is evil, hidden, tricky! Aha, but that’s where Jesus gets you.

Tricky, yes, because it’s too late.

Hidden, yes, because you didn’t see Him coming.

But evil, no. A thief is evil because he takes away something you want.

This Divine Thief won’t take what you want. If you try to save your life, you’ll lose it, He said. He is coming to take whoever would give themselves up for Him, and there is nothing evil about being joined with perfect perfection for eternity.

I’m Telling You, Jesus Really Does Meet All of Our Needs!

Published
by
Dan
on 9/15/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.””
(John 6:54-58 NIV)

I think a lot of people really can’t believe that Jesus provides for all of our needs. It really is easier not to, and to just go on miserably trying to provide for yourself, just like everyone else. And I don’t just mean food, shelter, and entertainment. Jesus provides for our deepest needs. If Jesus just provided for our feelings, I think he would have said he was the living jacket or headscarf.

Jesus is as simple to believe in as it is for a child to eat bread. But it’s only when somebody believes in Him that they can see His work. I know a few guys who have left the faith. I don’t know all of their stories, or how they went down that road, but I remember at one stage in my walk I was terribly afraid that someday I would give up on Jesus and turn away. I remember sitting in my car in the BuyLow parking lot across from Harrison, praying and crying out to God that He would not let me turn away. There wasn’t any particular temptation or some dancing girl luring me or anything like that, I just remember that’s where I was when I my fear of that reached a peak. At some point I came across something by John Piper where he talked about how we aren’t afraid of falling away from marriage to our spouse as long as we are courting their love and feeding our marriage. He said it’s the same way with God. We need not fear falling away as long as we’re running after Him.

I think it’s this same way w/ Jesus talking about being the bread of life. As we go to him and feed on Him and drink Him in, we are full of Him. Ok, make it practical.

I gripe and moan at my wife after working on the house because she didn’t carry on about what  a good job I did. I am THIRSTING for some attention and some gratitude and I went to her to get it. She is HUNGRY for some peace while she is trying to keep 4 kids satisfied for the whole day.

Day two: I work on the house and fix things up because I KNOW that it will bring peace to my wife to have two rooms transformed from construction sites into bedrooms. I work hard and look to Jesus for help and energy and find I’m NOT THIRSTY for attention and credit at the end of the day. Cindy see’s the completed rooms and sets the kids loose in them to play, goes downstairs and sits in her chair w/ a tall glass of water and tells me what a hard working husband I am. She is FILLED UP with some time with Jesus while the kids play along in their room.

I would love to paraphrase this stuff using words different than HUNGER/EAT and THIRST/DRINK because it’s been so confused, but those are the best words to describe it. Jesus really does meet and continue to meet our every need.

When All Else Fails, Show Grace, and Grace Again

Published
by
Dan
on 9/15/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
I am the bread of life.
John 6:44-48

THE FATHER draws people to Jesus, and no one can go to Him unless the Father draws them.

““I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.”
(John 17:6-7 NIV)

The Father had people, He has prepared people, He watches and is with people, and He gave them to Jesus when Jesus showed up on the scene.

This doesn’t give me a hopeless or helpless attitude towards people that avoid God, but a bigger grace towards them. I know that even when God draws people, they can reject Him, but His followers should still show grace to them, in case they should change and accept Him.

Jesus’ Main Mission: Eternal Life

Published
by
Dan
on 9/13/2008
in Bible Study
. 1 Comment

John 6:29 ¶ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
John 6:39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
John 6:40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:43 ¶ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.
John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
John 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
John 6:47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.

In light of these verses, it seems like Jesus’ mission on Earth was to do the will of God, which was that Jesus would not lose any of the people that God gave Him, but raise them up at the last day. Could it be that EVERYTHING Jesus did and everything the Father did before that is all to point to the resurrection at the last day? Wasn’t the resurrection the most incredible miracle that Jesus did? When Paul talks about Jesus, he does not say that His power was fully revealed in any of the other miracles except being raised from the dead. (Ro. 10.9, Eph. 1.19-20, and not Paul, but Acts 2.24)

I am very intrigued by this. The resurrection on the Last Day will be great, because it will be the end of death and those that are with God will be in un-obstructed fellowship with Him forever and ever. I am curious about what I would see if I read the Gospels from the perspective of the whole point of Jesus’ ministry being to point to knowing Him so that you would be raised w/ Him in the last day. This will take some more reading…