God is a communicating God. Throughout Scripture, we discover that God speaks. By the power of His word He speaks creation into existence (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26). He takes the initiative to reveal Himself (Exodus 34:5-7). God calls people to fresh steps of faith and obedience, in line with His mission (Genesis 12:1-3; Acts 13:2). He encourages and offers hope (Acts 18:9-10). God is a communicating God.
Besides saying THAT God speaks, it's also important to note HOW God speaks. He is certainly able to speak directly, as seen in so many of the above Scripture passages. He speaks through human prophets in the Old Testament. These prophets calls God's people back to God's relationship with them, and how they ought to live in light of that. God has given us His Son. In the words of Jesus we hear God speaking to us, showing us how to follow Him and receive life to the fullest – life the way we were designed to live. God has given us His Word, the Bible. In the pages of this true, authoritative, divinely-inspired book we meet the God who speaks. In the pages of this living-and-active book we encounter truth that transforms our minds and equips us for every good work (cf. Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12). In all of this, we see again and again the God is a communicating God. The question is, are we listening? As we seek to listen well, I find it helpful to keep four things in mind:
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What Are Some Good Resources for Family Devotional Time? Here's a few to Have on Your Radar Screen.10/13/2015 As a Christian dad, one of the things I'm "about" is raising my four boys to know and love God. I can't create gospel-change in them, but I want to do what I can to cultivate a heart that responds to the gospel in them.
But (at least in my own experience) I also know how tough it is to do this. Schedules get crazy busy, and so good intentions don't pan out. When we do create time to gather for family devotions, it feels like there's always one or two kids that are creating distractions. Lightning doesn't strike often in terms of "aha moments" and profound prayer requests. And yet we keep doing family devotions - in all of their imperfections, and not always as consistently as I'd like. But we keep at it. And as we keep at it, I'm always on the look out for resources that can help my wife and I teach our kids the Bible and point them towards Jesus. Below I've listed some resources I've got on my radar screen that fit into this category of family devotions and discipling our kids. I recently wrote on some (potential) opportunities and dangers that go along with Bible apps. What's good about having easy access to God's Word in a mobile device format? What might be some dangers to be aware of? As I've continued to think about this, my simplified bottom line is this: Read God's Word. ENGAGE God's Word. Easy access to the Bible can certainly facilitate that, but not necessarily.
With this post still fresh in my mind, I was interested to read what Relevant magazine would have to say about "Moving Beyond Tweetable Bible Reading" by Chandler Vannoy. I'm grateful for how this post fleshes out how the value of engaging God's Word. I've included the four major points of the post below, with a bit of my own brief commentary underneath each. Prayer is one of those spiritual disciplines of the Christian life that I need to work at. I try to return to good books that help me think about and practice prayer, but I've also discovered the importance of meditating on certain Scriptural truths about prayer. These truths, I believe, help renew my mind and keep my prayer life moving in a forward direction.
Here are five mindsets that I've found propel my prayer life, and I'm hoping might breathe fresh life into your practice of prayer as well: In just a few weeks, Fall 2015 Institute classes will begin. (Woo hoo!)
The start of a semester always gives me lots of great opportunities to (re)introduce people to the Brookside Institute - what the Brookside Institute is, values that guide us, etc. As part of that, once or twice a year I compile a handful (or two) of links - most of them blog posts - that relate to these sorts of questions and topics. Consider it "speed dating" the Institute - learning a lot about what we do and what we're about in a short amount of time! Happy reading!
Many of you know that the Brookside Institute is all about building and reinforcing foundations of the Christian faith. A big way this happens is through classes we offer that ground and grow people in the faith - classes where people and Dig Deep, Learn Good, and Launch Well.
But let's be honest: We need a lot more than just classes to do this. One of the additional ways we can build and reinforce foundations of the Christian faith is by instructing our families and interacting with them about Christian truth, values, and behavior. Parents are not a cul-de-sac of equipping, where truth enters but can't proceed. In the biblical picture of families, parents are a conduit of a biblical worldview, "owning" Christian truths and value themselves, and then passing these same truths and values along to their children. (Check it out in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.) All this is why I'm so excited about Kevin DeYoung's new book, The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden. Talk with someone who's been following Jesus for a while, and it's likely they'll know Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."
And these two verses ARE worth knowing! These verses communicate great truth about God's grace, the inability of our works to make us right before God, and our response of faith. Earlier this week I was re-reading all of Ephesians chapter 2 (context is important!) and was reminded that - as great as Ephesians 2:8-9 is - when we include the surrounding context these verses are even better than we may originally think. So why is the truth we discover Ephesians 2:8-9 even better than we think? Let's let the rest of the chapter answer that question: Reading commentaries can be a great way to grow in our knowledge of (and love for!) God and His Word. I was recently reminded of the value of reading commentaries in this excerpt on Ephesians 3:17-18 from John Stott's God's New Society: The Message of Ephesians (InterVarsity, 1979), p. 137:
Looking for some good Bible study helps for yourself? Check out BestCommentaries.com for some good commentaries, or check out some online Bible Study helps and a list of helpful theological resources I've highlighted on this site!
When it comes to studying the Bible with a group of others, have you ever felt like it can be the blind leading the blind? Let's be honest: The Bible can at times be confusing. And so we can benefit from guides that help steer us in the right direction. This is where Bible study guides can play a valuable supporting role, as we dig into Scripture on our own or in groups.
A few times a year, I'm approached by an individual or a group that is asking something like the following question: "What study guides would I recommend for people who are studying the Bible?" I've already posted some online tools I point people towards, along with some tips for how we ought to read the Bible responsibly and faithfully on our own and books I suggest as people start building their own biblical and theological libraries. But what about print study guides that help us get into specific books of the Bible - the question-and-answer guides that can be useful at supporting group and individual study? Here are the five I generally recommend first: One of the land mines of responsible, healthy biblical interpretation is taking things out of context. Many of us have heard it said that we can get the Bible to say anything we want it to say if we divorce verses from the larger contexts in which they're embedded. In other words, as we read the Bible, understanding the larger context of verses is both important and valuable.
I was reminded of the value of reading things in their larger context earlier this week. |
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