What Do You See When You Read the Bible?

Because life is experienced in the context of people, it’s so very easy for our perspective to be shaped by others.  It even happens when we read the Bible.  I saw this for myself the other day as I was reading Judges 9.

(vs. 52-53)  Abimilech followed them to attack the tower.  But as he prepared to set fire to the entrance, a woman on the roof dropped a millstone that landed on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull.  (vs. 56) In this way God punished Abimelech for the evil he had done against his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 

As I read, I thought to myself, what a great story about the power of a single idea.  Here’s a woman in the top of a tower and she’s about to die.  But before she (and others) are killed, she gets an idea.   And in the execution of that single idea, she not only saves her own life, but the lives of others, and turns away an entire army.  The power of a single idea is indeed amazing.  As my friends in full time ministry would say, “That will preach!”

Another possible perspective would be a kind-of “least of these” interpretation.  A wicked king is brought to his end by a lowly woman.  Moral of the story: Never disqualify yourself from doing great things.  Wow, I feel a sermon coming on right now.  

While both interpretations have merit to them, they do not present the full spectrum of the event.  Yes, the woman had an idea and she put it into action and won the day.  Yes, a person of low social status brought down a great and mighty king.  But behind both these perspectives are the hands of a sovereign God, at work bringing His will to pass.  In the end, our perspective determines the object of our hope.  Do I want my hope to be in ideas that seem to seldom come my way?  Is my hope found in the fact that I can do anything I set my mind to?  In the end, I’m going with hoping in God, because He is faithful, gracious and merciful to those who call on Him.

When you read the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to show you where God is found in the text you’re reading.  As the Spirit reveals God’s presence to you, you find your hope in God growing day by day.

Think Opportunities, Not Problems

I’ve just about finished the book Mastering the Management Buckets, by John Pearson, former director of the Willow Creek Association. Early in the book Pearson quotes management guru Peter Drucker, saying, “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.” In one sentence, Drucker nails a common problem with so many church leader’s linear way of thinking. Let me elaborate.

• Thought #1: The church is not doing well because we have problems.
• Thought #2: If I can just solve the problems, the church will do better.

The results we want (for us at Jubilee this means Connecting People to Jesus, Resulting in God-honoring Life Change) are never gained through solving problems. They are gained by “exploiting opportunities”. So why do so many leaders set around thinking about what to do with the problems they face? We need to be spending our time praying and thinking about the opportunities before us. Let me give you an example from my situation here in Wentzville.

In the month of March our attendance plateaued, which is obviously not where a new location wants to be long term. There are some reasons on the surface, but there could be some underlying reasons of which I’m not aware of. Rather than analyzing the situation to death, I began to think of opportunities for connecting with more people in Wentzville. With volunteerism at an all time high, why not put together some sort of program that joins local volunteers with local nonprofit organizations that need volunteers? I’m in the early stages of discovering the volunteer needs of the community, along with opening up lines of communication with city officials and people in the school district (some high school groups require community service). When it’s all said and done, I hope to have an ongoing program in place that will offer people community service opportunities, while at the same time help make Wentzville a better place to live. Through it all I’m hoping and praying that Jubilee Church in Wentzville will experience an increase in the number of connections we have in Wentzville, with the ultimate goal of helping others connect with Jesus.

So what do you say? Quit spending all your time thinking about your problems and start praying and thinking about opportunities.

Walk away from the manual

If I hear another church leader refer to the Bible as a “Manual for life” I think I’m going to throw up in my mouth.  A manual for life; are you kidding me?  If the Bible is a manual for life it’s a very bad manual.  For example, today I made the decision to fix my 196,000 mile Camry rather than leave it alone and let it ride off into the sunset.  It would have been helpful to have a chapter and verse out the Holy Manual that would have helped me make a sure-fire, can’t miss decision, but it just wasn’t there.  Believe me, I looked. 

Aren’t manuals supposed to help us fix things when they break?  Therein lies one of the problems with this perspective.  Allow me to elaborate.

1. If the Bible is a “Manual for Life” we develop a mindset that we really don’t need it till something breaks with our life.  Honestly, when was the last time you read your refrigerator manual?  Do you even know where it is?  Manuals aren’t needed till something goes wrong, and unfortunately that’s how many people respond to the Bible.
2. When the Bible is regarded as a “Manual for Life” it makes “me” the center of life.  The whole reason for going to the manual in the first place is so that “I” can know how to live, so “I” can get things fixed in my life, so “I” can do better, so “I” can experience life to the fullest.  The manual becomes a means to an end and the end is always bettering self in some way.
3. Manuals are boring and irrelevent because they are informational, and informational is never transformational.  The Bible is one big story of God’s desire to connect with humanity for the sake of His glory.  The main character is God and He can be found on every page of the story.
    
4. There is a subtle legalism that comes with regarding the Bible as a “Manual for Life.”  Following Jesus is reduced to principles that we apply.  You have a problem, follow these principles!  If the problem persists, you obviously did something wrong becasue the principles work.  In the end the relationship and the mystery of following Jesus is taken out of the picture.

If you hold to the “Manual for Life” perspective of the Bible, my suggestion is that you walk away from the manual and ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to see that first and foremost the Bible is about God and not you.  And the thing about God is that knowing Him comes only through revelation, not information.  That’s where the manual just won’t cut it.