Tag Archives: word

There is no Frigate Like a Book from the Pen of Emily Dickinson

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The more I try to learn and understand how prose and poetry works, the more I realize that I can’t recapture the the years of ignoring virtually all literature from my childhood. It’s like starting in grade school again and working your way up, only now you don’t have time to do so because of bills and life and work and school and family and so on. This part of literature now gets relegated to learning a tiny snippet then when another writer (Lenard Sweet in this case via Viral) points out how important poetry is, then picking it back up again and learning a little more. I’ve done this for almost 5 years now, and I’m not sure I’ve learned a whole lot, but I’ve learned more than if I never picked up poetry at all.

Lenard Sweet in his book Viral spends a great deal on the importance of poetry in one chapter, and then goes on to show how much the Google generation has rejected this form of literature (and mine too for that matter), to replace it with the world of images and graphics. But the more our world, culture, and societies as a whole forget how to write in cursive, the more we should continue to write in cursive ourselves, lest we forget the power of words. Same goes with poetry, and especially in our churches!

If you are a Christian, no matter how much you try, you can’t get away from the fact that God’s way of communicating with us is in words, and the greatest poetry ever written is found in Scripture. It’s no wonder. Poetry, in one form, is a way to say something that can’t be said in words, and much of Scripture is just that, too great for words. There are countless examples, but I like the this reason from the book of John… “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (3.12). The Spiritual world of God uses poetry for a good reason, it helps to explain the unexplainable, something that needs a parable to show its depth.

I love short poems that are easily digestible at this point, it will take me years to work up to appreciating Shakespeare, but here Emily Dickinson explains the power of a book.

There is no Frigate Like a Book

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll.
How frugal is the chariot
That bears the human soul!

~Emily Dickinson

It just conveys so much more meaning to compare the power of a book to a warship of immense power and beauty. Much like a product of my generation, I know my weakness in understanding literature is the image. Being a photographer for so long, the image is what I created through capturing light, not an image in my mind through capturing words read. Trying to relearn how words express their own images, without the need for a graphic is quite hard in the 21st century, I can’t imagine how hard it will be in the 22nd century, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Intentional and Consistent Time in God’s Word :: Friday Feet

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Friday Feet with the Word

Normall for my Friday Feet posts, which I know has been a while, I like to take a shot of what I was doing out and about during the day. After being outside for about 30 minutes in this heat I realized I wasn’t going back out again. Something that has been on my mind is this notion of being intentional about spending time in God’s word.

I use to get sick of hearing pastors tell me I should be reading the Bible, that is until I actually started reading it for all it’s worth, then I totally understood what in the world they were talking about. The Christian life, our daily walk, must have some component of daily strengthening in our relationship with Christ.

If praying is God’s way for us to talk to him, God’s word is His way of talking to us. How would our relationship with our spouse or children be if we listened to them as often as we listened to God through reading his Word?

Yesterday it hit me when I read this tweet by D.L. Moody (and The Resurgence). Then after that, still yesterday, I received a video from a friend of mine who basically said everything I was already thinking, so I stole his title and wrote my thoughts down as I tend to do.

While the conclusion Moody was probably making in the tweet may be true, the reality of 1% of men reading the Bible is… alarming, tragic, pathetic, pitiful, ridiculous, or whatever other adjectives you want to use here for us men.

It just made me wonder how can we truly lead our families without being grounded in God’s instruction? This isn’t a condemnation of everyone else, I have struggled with this for years. Every day I pray I have an overwhelming desire to spend time in God’s word.

There is no better time than today, right now, and it has never been easier in the history of the world to read God’s word. We have more access to the Bible and read it less than probably any generation before us. If you are busy, like most of us are, YouVersion’s selection of reading plans is outstanding. As far as online, web, mobile, and Internet resources that give you countless ways to read the bible, YouVersion has no match.

This morning, right before I took the photo above, I finished the Psalms in 31 Days YouVersion plan, which I have read a few times this year. Since going to work for the church in 2008 I had never had a more difficult time trying to stay grounded in God’s word, until I went through a spiritual disciplines study in one of my seminary classes in 2009-2010. Since then, I have been very intentional about spending time in God’s word every day (with a break on a specific routine in Saturday).

This was not something that was a light switch event, it took time, it took effort, and it was far easier to let it slide a day or two here or there, but now it has become routine, and when I miss a day, I really long for that time back. It’s no longer a dreaded, oh now I have to read, it’s a desire that makes me look forward to this time every day. I truly believe this desire to read came from my prayer for God to give me that desire, so prayer to read is important as well.

I am personally a canonical reader, I have a specific personal reading plan to read through the entire Bible each year, and this year I finished that in June, so I decided to just start over. I do this using three different reading plans on YouVersion, one for the entire bible called the Canonical Plan, one for the NT called New Thru 30, and one for Psalms I listed above. I do not use the time frame on the plan, just the order to keep me on track, but there are hundreds of plans to chose from. Trust me, there is one that fits within your schedule. If you don’t want to use YouVersion, there are countless other resources available, just pick one, and create a habit around it.

Anyway, there you have it, I wholeheartedly agree with those pastors who say daily reading of God’s word is important, very important. After all, your wife probably expects you to listen to her today, right? And God is supposed to be ahead of everything. There is no more important time in the day than the time we spend in God’s word. It affects everything else we do throughout the day and into the evening, even if it’s just a short time amount of time at first, it adds up over time.

It may not seem like it at first, but being intentional and consistently spending time in God’s word will strengthen your relationship with Christ, but also with your family, your spouse, your coworkers, and those who still haven’t heard the Good News.

Do We Hide Our Testimony While the Faithless Share Their’s?

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I’m not sure where we modern evangelicals get the idea that our personal testimony is a “private” thing. We may not actually say that out loud, but by not sharing our personal testimony with others that is in essence what we are saying. It’s my testimony, something between me and my God. No where in scripture does it say this, so in light of hoping to be a doer of the Word and not just a reader of the Word, I went ahead and posted my own personal testimony on my blog today.

The Story of the Woman and the Well

I don’t know how many times I have read through the story in John 4:39-42 about Jesus and this “despised and immoral” woman at the well, but today, as I contemplated the reaction of the woman I thought about my own personal testimony and how many times (or I should say how few times) I have done what this woman did in verse 4:28-29. She left her water jar (her purpose for being at the well), went into town and gave her testimony to anyone who would listen.

This story is contrasted by the story of Nicodemus in chapter 3 who was a “religious” person of faith in that day, compared to the woman who was a despised by society, an immoral Samaritan. But look at the end result from the BKC chart below (click pic to see full chart), the woman was converted, she gave her personal testimony to others, and then others came to believe in Jesus Christ.

The “Faithless” in our Culture Today

Putting it in post-modern terminology we can understand, it was recently presented to me like looking at a modern church-goer (the Jew) and the homosexual or atheist (the Samaritan) of our twenty-first century society. While we evangelicals are quick to point out the sins of homosexuals and argue with the atheists who possibly represent to us the antithesis of faith and religion, it was this person who received the call of Jesus, and then proclaimed it to the world, not the church-goer.

When you look at our culture today the two groups I mentioned above probably know more about Christianity than evangelicals do, and they give their testimony loud and clear to whoever will listen. Those two minority groups in particular have educated themselves well in the arguments for their way of life, and how to oppose Christianity. Evangelicals though often stumble and fumble with what to say when asked simple questions about their own faith. Many today will not respond to apologetical arguments because they know their talking points so well they can refute all those common points of contention, but it’s hard to argue with a truly changed and transformed life. That’s the point of your personal testimony.

During part of my time in seminary it was required for us to actually write down our personal testimony. That exercise alone was an eye opener to me. I had to take a real look at what actually is my testimony, and until then, I’m not sure I was prepared defend my faith or give a proper testimony when needed.

True Faith Moves to Confrontation with Jesus Christ

Look what happened when she shared her faith with the town. “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony”, but the key to this verse is understanding the next set of verses in 40-41 where the “witness of the woman led to the Samaritans’ personal confrontation with Jesus”, giving them true and lasting faith in Jesus.[1] Jesus didn’t need the testimony of this woman (John 5:34) but because of the rejection of Israel in chapter 3 her testimony was more effective than the “religious” person.

As we move into verse 42 we see that ultimately the person coming to faith solely based on the testimony of an individual is secondary. These Samaritans proclaimed for themselves “for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this [Jesus] is indeed the Savior of the world.” Moving from the personal testimony of an individual, true faith then moves to it’s own experience and the “confrontation” with Jesus Himself.

If We Claim a Saving Faith We are Called to Share It

While this isn’t one of those traditional “share your faith” set of verses for the modern church-goer, it was a call to me to make sure we don’t just play “religion” and end up totally missing the point. This post could head in so many different directions from here but it really was meant to be a simple straight forward post. If we claim to be believers in Christ, we are called to share our faith with others.

[1] John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, , The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty, ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Vol. 2, 2 vols. (Chicago, IL: David C Cook Publishers, 1983), 284-288.

Throw the Bible in the Trash, Literally

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Have you ever thrown away a bible before, literally, in the trash, the garbage, never to see the light of day again? I have, probably in the order of over 100 bibles, when I was in the book business. That did get me to actually think about why we have any problem at all with doing the proper thing to a book that needs to be culled, even if it is the word of God.

The Bible is More than the Sum of It’s Parts

Perhaps my other working title would have been a little better; “Is the Bible Your Idol?” Not [idol] worship of the living Word (who is actually God), but of the ink and paper. Because what we hold in our hand is just that, ink, paper, leather, and glue, made from the hands of men, just like Aaron’s golden calf (see Exodus 32:4).  Not in the same respect of course, but both were physically made by men.  I come across believers, and even non-believers for that matter, all the time that when faced with an old, literally worn out (not generally from use), torn, water damaged, bible, they just refuse to throw it away.

It makes me wonder where we have placed our trust, and what do we place our trust in, the bible (paper and ink), or the Word of God. A friend of mine has a small bible he has used for years and years.  It rarely leaves his side ever, and I might guess it is one of his most valued earthly possessions, but I am certain that he would tell you the value is in the power of the relationship, not the physical book.

I am sure he would never think of throwing it away, so when it had worn out from use, he had it recovered. A great option, especially when you have made the book your own, through daily conversation and worship, years of notes, folds that open to exact pages, and a history that reminds you of your walk with God.  But there is a huge difference between a bible that is worn out from study, prayer, and contemplation, and one that is damaged beyond repair due to neglect.

God’s holiness does not reside in the ink and paper. Crossway when they began to print the ESV several years ago did not go out and get some special printer that only prints holy. They are a publishing company. They put together one of the best literal translations we have seen in the English bible in recent decades, but they didn’t just come up with a way to make paper, ink, leather, and glue sacred.

God’s word is a living breathing thing, that was present before creation. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God (John 1:1) and the word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). John tells us that the word is not dependent on paper and ink, the word was God before we had the scribes translating the scrolls, before Gutenberg’s breakthrough that gave the bible to the world, and God’s word is not dependent on anything we can or can’t do.

Two Examples from Jeremiah and Moses

The two quick examples that come to mind are Jeremiah and Moses. Jeremiah was a prophet who was told by God to write down the words God has spoken to him (the large part of which became the book of Jeremiah), and have those words read in front of the king, Jehoiakim. Jeremiah then dictated those words to Baruch his editor, who wrote them on a scroll for Jehoiakim. Jeremiah then tells Baruch to take the scroll to the king and have it read to him, and this is what happened.

As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot (Jeremiah 36:23). Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Take another scroll and write all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned (Jeremiah 36:28).

Another great example is with Moses when he came down the mountain with the 10 commandments. These tablets were “the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets” (Exodus 32:16).

Unlike our bibles, the 10 commandments was actually physically written by the hand of God. When he “saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain” (Exodus 32:19). When Moses broke the 10 commandments, he knew that God’s word was not destroyed. God then told Moses to “cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke” (Exodus 34:1).

What is similar in both examples of course is that God had His words re-written. In a round about way it reminds me of a recent movie called The Book of Eli, which showed a world intent on destroying all existence of God’s word. No matter how hard our culture, society, or any other force, tries to remove the word of God from His people, it will be unsuccessful. God’s word is not dependent on us to keep it alive, it IS alive. The physical book has meaning to us only because God has breathed life into His eternal Word, not because we currently digest it through the limits of ink and paper.

The Position and Argument for the Inerrancy of the Bible

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I had to give a working definition of Inerrancy today so I thought I would post an excerpt of the results here as well.  If you are just interested in the conclusions just jump to the bottom, if you want the full text there is a pdf download at the bottom as well (or from my writing section).  This post is by no means meant to be exhaustive.

Biblical inerrancy is an important part of Christianity, and any theology.  Because the Christian faith has firmly rooted its authority in that of the Holy Scriptures, the inerrancy (or infallibility as some refer to it, though the terms are not totally synonymous) of the Bible plays a central role in the authenticity of Christianity and its message.  The issue of infallibility has come to be used as an alternate definition from that stated below, meaning more that the Bible was not always factually accurate but that the purpose, meaning, and overall divine nature was accomplished.

Concluding Definition of Biblical Inerrancy

There have been countless theses and dissertations written on the subject of the inerrancy of scripture, so this working post can only serve as the most basic introduction into the material of inerrancy.  Erickson in Christian Theology explains inerrancy as…

The Bible, when correctly interpreted in the light of the level to which culture and the means of communication had developed at the time it was written, and in view of the purposes for which it was given, is fully truthful in all that it affirms (see full text Position and Argument on the Inerrancy of the Bible for qualifications).

Why is Biblical Inerrancy Important Today?

There are many reasons why inerrancy is important, especially today, when we live in a pluralistic society that is intent on defining truth as whatever you make it out to be.  From a scholarly viewpoint, there are theological, historical, and epistemological reasons for inerrancy.

From a theological point of view, Paul, the disciples, and Jesus among other people, all called on the authority of scripture.  Jesus quoted scripture throughout his ministry and took the view that scripture was the inspired work of God.  If God inspires the work, and God is all-powerful, all knowing, and completely Holy, He certainly could influence the final canon to be completed accurately.  If the Bible was not accurate, our own view of inspiration, among many other theologies that come from the Bible, would not be accurate either.  In other words, without inerrancy, much of what we believe in scripture could not be held out as truth either.

Historically, the early church long held to the inerrancy, dependability, and authority of Scripture.  History has a way of being testing by time, and to disregard the history of the church would itself be in error.  The early church had far fewer questions about the inerrancy of scripture.  It was known to them to be true, and fully trustworthy.  If we depart from inerrancy, we also must depart from many other doctrines formed by the early church.

An epistemological view would state that some assertions in the Bible are at least potentially independently verifiable.  Viewed as a type of domino theory, if one falls, they all fall, if we hold certain propositions taught by the Bible to be true that are not, we cannot continue to hold any of the propositions taught by the Bible to be true.

How Do We View Inerrancy Today

As stated above, this topic is so far reaching, so broad in scope that any of the information above can only be taken as the most basic and brief overview.  In our own personal walk in Christianity the inerrancy of the scriptures has to play an important role in what we believe as Christians.  If the Bible is the inspired word of God, given to us by divine revelation, we must conclude it is inerrant.  If we don’t, all we can do is proceed down a slippery slop of discerning which parts are and which parts are not accurate.

We hold to almost no absolute truths in our culture today.  Society no longer allows for absolute truths, they are far too exclusive, far too judgmental.  Truths have to be open for debate, flexible, changeable, and able to be managed and manipulated into our own culture and times in a way that benefits our desires and sinful nature.

If the Bible is inspired, and also found to be errant, then we can not conclude that the God of the universe, the God of creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of Jesus, is inerrant either.  That is a simplistic way to make a conclusion, but if we as Christians do not hold the Scriptures as the ultimate inerrant authority, then how can we hold that Christianity is the only way, the truth, and the light.

[For a full version of this essay in pdf please download Position and Argument on the Inerrancy of the Bible]

Consume More, Creating is Like Paying Taxes

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You may be thinking you don’t create anything but I wanted to know, do we pay attention to the difference between when we consume something and create something?  I listened to an album by Chris Tomlin this morning on the way to work, but I didn’t create an album.  I also consumed a message by Rusty during our Tuesday men’s meeting, breakfast, read several blog posts, and bought something at Best Buy (none of which I created).

If you say initially, no, I don’t or haven’t created anything, I would ask then, have you taken a photo, written a blog post, spoken at a conference or meeting, or given birth to an idea?  Creating can be like paying taxes.  You go throughout your day and once the day is over, you don’t even realize how many times you paid taxes throughout the day.  Every time we buy something, download something, eat, fill up our gas tanks, use electricity, we pay taxes, so like wise, we create in various ways throughout the day too.

This country in particular is all about consuming, but what are we consuming compared to what are we producing that others will consume?  Most of our consumables today are in the form of mass produced items made in China (thanks Biscuet), but that is not all we consume.  Most of those are physical products, products “where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19).  So is creating something what we I should be more focused on, right? Depends.

As with everything, we need a balance, but what if all we did was consume?  Can we live by only consuming in one area, like information?  What if that information was God’s word?  Of course, the idea is how often do we consume God’s word.  Where is the balance, and when do we need to take what we have consumed of God’s word and start creating?  Do we create from consuming God’s word?  Absolutely.

Just ask your worship leader or pastor.  Part of their job is directly converting the consumption into a creation.  For most of us, we have to consume more.  Drink in the Word like a Coke or cup of coffee and have it become a part of us until we have the ability to grow the coffee beans, ship them to a manufacturer, grind them up, sell them, and brew the coffee without ever thinking about what steps it took to get from point A to point B.

This is one of the things I am trying desperately trying to focus on this year.  I am amazed at how hard that is to do when working inside the walls of the church.  Initially, I was thinking, ok, now I can be immersed in God’s word all day since I am working in “ministry” or at the “church”.  Oh course I knew this wasn’t going to be the case but I have found it no easier to go deep into God’s word and consume Him now, than I did before I walked into the building with a staff label instead of a attender label.

So I am telling myself to consume more, but can you really have one without the other?

What's in a Wordle on The Damascus Blog?

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I thought I would start off with something light hearted for the week here on The Damascus Blog, and then I came across wordle again. If you haven’t seen or used a Wordle yet, it can be very interesting and a little eye opening. I have looked at these now and then but I always try to guess what my most used word will be, and I never seem to be able to get it right, and I wrote every word. [As created on Wordle]

The Wordle Tag Cloud

The word cloud below is a comprehensive look at this blog in total by the words I use (click on the image to see it full size on Wordle). I only wish it was clickable to each word, but perhaps next time. So what stands out in my cloud?

For my faith blog, is it the word Jesus, or faith, or Christ, no, this go around, it is the word time. Also appropriate to me since I think time is so important, but I did not know it was my most used word on this blog. Others of note wedding, think, life, Christian, read, and can.

What Does Wordle Say About our Words

What wordle does that I find very interesting, is that it doesn’t lie (it a computer how can it).  The randomness of my words, put in the format I chose, and I find that the small words little and God are in order right on top of each other (lower right), and the word Jesus?

Our church did a series a while back on how we use our words. I love the Wordle, it reminds me once again how our words are used, how important they are, and also what is small or absent in our vocabulary.  Does this translate into our heart, or into our lives.  Well I am not going to make the leap from Wordle to life just yet but it does point out to me what may or may not have importance.

The word Jesus shows up on this wordle, in the very lower left hand corner in tiny little text.  Should be front and center on this tag cloud, bigger than everything else?  I have actually used the name Jesus less, and He, or Him, or Creator more in total, and some times by design for specific reasons, so I don’t think Wordle quite tells the whole story.

What does your wordle say about your blog?