Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 95

Reading the Bible to Meet God

In my book Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt is Not the Enemy of Faith I wrote about how important it is to read the Bible to meet God, to read it relationally and as sustenance for the soul. Often we simply read it for information, to follow a rule, or as an academic pursuit. Reading to meet God sounds like a great idea and the ideal for a Christian, but how do we actually do it? How can we change our mind-sets to view Scripture as a living, rich revelation instead of a religious tome of instructions and history? Here are seven ways.

Read the whole story.

Many of us learned to read God’s Word from children’s Bible storybooks made up of individual stories—Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Jonah and the big fish (of course it was Jonah and the whale back then), the boy’s five loaves and two fish, and so on. We learned to look for stories, snippets of Scripture. And usually these came with a moral lesson about trusting God, making the right decisions, being honest, serving others, or something else.

The other main way we heard the Bible taught was character centric, like a series of mini-bios. We studied the lives of Abraham, Joseph, Ruth, Saul, Solomon, Esther, Peter, and Paul. We were taught about their shortcomings and their faithfulness. We learned that they were examples for us to follow, just not perfect ones.

While we gleaned a lot of truth from these lessons, the teaching method actually misguided us. We learned to read the Scripture similar to how we skim through a magazine: a story here, skip the boring bits, a profile there, and some good info throughout if you know where to look. But the Bible is not like that at all. It is a narrative made up of different parts. It must be read in full.

We must learn to read the whole story of Scripture from beginning to end. The Bible is God’s story of redemption, the revelation of Himself and His plan for the world. All those stories and all those characters are parts of the whole, characters in the drama, but none of them are the point. They all point to the point: Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life, died an innocent death to save sinners and kill death and sin, and will one day return to right all the wrongs. Sure, some parts of the Bible are confusing and dry, but they fit in the whole too. And when we understand that there is a whole narrative, even those parts start to make sense in their context.

Reading the Bible this way may seem like a tall task, especially if you haven’t been in the habit of reading it much at all. If so, start small, bit by bit. Take notes. Ask questions. In the next appendix, I recommend several books, some of which can help explain how it all fits together. Piece by piece, little by little, you’ll begin to see the big story of the Bible and it will become so much greater than you thought possible in Sunday school.

Look for Jesus.

It was the advice that helped change my perspective on Scripture and the advice I would suggest to any Christian who finds the Bible to be stale and lifeless: look for Jesus. So much of what we miss in Scripture is because we look for characters and themes and lessons other than Jesus. But He is both the primary character and the primary plotline of Scripture. To look for anything else first is to rip out the heart of God’s Word. Because Jesus, as John 1 tells us, is the Word made flesh.

Every page of Scripture points to Jesus. It all fits together to point to Him and to glorify Him and depict Him and reveal Him. In the first point I said to read the whole story. Well, that’s because the whole story is the story of the need for Jesus, the promise of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and ultimately the victory of Jesus.

When we read the whole story and see Jesus throughout the pages, we see Him afresh, not as whatever preconceived notions we had. We see Him as more than a teacher, more than a healer, more than a model character. We see the breadth of Jesus from the man who sat with children and loved widows to the sword-wielding King of justice and glory.

When you see Jesus, get to know Him.

Observations about Jesus are the stuff of sermons and Sunday school lessons and Christian books like this one. But in the Bible we have the means to get to know Jesus. We have the means to move past observation and awareness and fact finding to a real, personal connection with Him. How? Like we do in any relationship.

Make it a regular thing. Go back to those Gospels over and over again. God’s word is inexhaustible and can always deepen your understanding and belief. We don’t limit ourselves in conversation with our loved ones because we “talked to them already” and neither should we limit ourselves in the reading of the Bible because we “read it already.” It is as dynamic and deep, in fact even deeper, than any person we seek to know.

Ask questions of Jesus in Scripture. Ask about His character. Ask about His values. Ask about His life. Ask about His priorities. Ask about His weaknesses. And let Scripture respond to you. The answers you find will lead you to want to know more, to be closer, to be with Jesus. And the more we are with Him, the more we will find ourselves wanting to and learning to be like Him.

Don’t shy away from the hard stuff.

One of the most significant weaknesses of most Bible teaching in the traditional church is the void where all the hard stuff in the Bible happens. Not until I got to college did I ever hear mention of the rape of Dinah or God commanding the destruction of entire people groups. Nobody talked about the flood except as a means to a rainbow. Nobody answered questions about where Cain found his wife if his parents were the first people ever. Nobody explained what it meant for an omnipotent, omniscient God to relent and change His mind or how He could harden Pharaoh’s heart, then judge him for rebellion. What in the world are we supposed to do with that stuff?

Well, I can tell you what we’re not supposed to do: ignore it. Pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t delete it from the Bible. If God hadn’t wanted us to see it, know it, and think on it, He wouldn’t have filled up His self-revelation with it.

We must read it and consider it. We must be willing to wrestle with it. We have to look at it not as a bunch of isolated incidents and texts that might be problematic but as part of the whole. If we are going to read the whole story and look for how it all points to Jesus, then we need to see how the hard stuff fits in. It likely isn’t a straight-line connection, but each difficult passage connects to something else that connects to something that points to Jesus. It is all there on purpose because it all paints a picture of God.

Just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean we can reject it. As we looked at throughout the book, thinking that way is to determine who God is based on our own intellectual abilities. We don’t get to do that. We must see what Scripture says, look at it in context, see it as part of the whole, and recognize that it is all part of a portrait of God that expands far beyond our minds and hearts.

Start small, perhaps with children’s books, and mix in other resources too.

Sola Scriptura: by Scripture alone—one of the foundational doctrines of Protestant Christianity. It means that our only holy book is the Bible, our only word of God is the Bible, our only doctrine is found in the Bible. The Bible is the foundation on which our faith is built. But it does not mean we read only the Bible. In fact, other books by godly writers can serve to open up our minds and hearts to Scripture.

Some of the best materials are those written for children. (I know, I know; I pointed out the weaknesses in children’s Bibles earlier.) In appendix 2, I recommend two children’s Bible storybooks in particular, The Big Picture Story Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible. After graduating from college and gaining a theology degree, after working in Christian publishing for several years and reading mountains of biblical teaching books, I still find these the freshest, best entry points into the message of the Bible. They make it fun by bringing out the story, and they make their points with clarity and gentleness. I am sure other similar resources are out there as well. They make an ideal starting point to begin enjoying Scripture and piecing together its message.

Additional resources and books will be helpful too. Some will prefer commentaries; others will gravitate to Bible study curriculum. Each serves a great purpose in helping us dig in and understand more. Don’t shy away from them. Find the ones that fit your learning style and take full advantage of them. The thing to always remember is to not let the study of the Bible become the end. Knowledge of Scripture can be an idol all by itself, but it must always be a means to closeness to God.

Don’t read the Bible as a set of rules but rather as a book.

So many Christians lose touch with the heart of Scripture because for so long they have approached it under the rule of law. “You must read your Bible every day.” Reading your Bible every day is a great thing, but within its very pages it describes how the law introduces us to sin. When we make rules out of things, we tend to take the life out of them, no matter how good they are.

We need to approach the Bible as a book. After all, that is the form in which God gave it to us. For those who love to read, this means conscientiously moving it to the category of great literature in our minds, a great story, deep philosophy, a rich biography. When we think of it that way, we will see different things in its pages, yes, but more importantly we will practically be able to overcome the greatest mental block to reading it at all.

For those who do not enjoy reading, I wonder how you made it all the way to this point in a book! More seriously, though, think of the Bible the same way but find a different format in which to consume it. Reading is not for everyone, but the Bible is. So find a way to eat up this wonderful story, teaching, and biography. Audio Bibles are great tools. They may be the perfect answer for you or they may be the gateway you need to get into the written text. Either way, avail yourself of them!

Regardless of how you do it, though, no matter the medium, distance yourself from the legalistic guilt of reading the Bible as law. That robs it of its wonder and steals the joy from your heart. It is so rich and deep; read it to discover and wonder!

Pray for the Spirit’s help.

We have a helper and a teacher. Jesus even said we would be better off if He left because this helper is so amazing. Really? We’re better off without Jesus on earth with us? Yes! Because the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christian, moving us toward being more like Jesus, teaching our minds, and softening and convicting our hearts.

Only by the Spirit will anything I just wrote about reading the Bible matter at all. If you seek to do any of this in your own power, you will dry up, run out of motivation, get bored, become arrogant, lose faith, get confused, and turn from God. It is inevitable. The Bible is not a normal book. It is a book spoken out by God to be interpreted to our hearts by God the Spirit. It is a supernatural book.

To connect with God through His Word is a miracle of the Spirit and not something that can be formulated. All the suggestions I just made are not the equation that adds up to relationship with God. They are ingredients that must be present, but only the Spirit can mix and prepare them in such a way that we see God in His glory and are moved to follow and honor Him. So beg the Spirit to open your eyes when you read. Plead with the Spirit to give you the inspiration to read. And He will. Maybe not in a flash, but He will. And as you delve deeper into God’s Word, you will find that the Spirit and God’s message in the Bible will change you.

This post is modified from the appendix in  Help My Unbelief.

Sermon in a Song

Humor is a way to state hard truths in a palatable fashion. It’s easier, for example, to point out all the silly aspects of modern worship choruses by satirically praising them than by constantly griping about them. Nobody wants to read a “13 Reasons Modern Worship Music is Terrible” article. What a downer. Especially because it’s not true. Only some modern worship music is terrible.

Recently I’ve been listening to This Glorious Grace put out by Austin Stone Worship. It is phenomenal. And by phenomenal I don’t just mean catchy or memorable. I mean it is what worship music ought to be, a means and method of worship.

(Austin Stone is one of a growing number of churches and church networks writing and producing their own music rather than just leaning on the offerings of A-list songwriters in the CCM world. Others include Sojourn Church, Red Mountain Church, RUF/Indelible Grace, and Sovereign Grace. There are many others too.) 

What sets apart great worship music from, well, everything else? The same aspects that make a sermon strong. The best church music – be it hymn, chorus, or whatever other style – is a sermon in a song. Except it only takes four to six minutes instead of forty-six!

Truth

It says true things about God, about humans, about life. This is basic, but essential. It’s discouraging how many “worship” songs say nothing at all or even untrue things. Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, this is true of sermons as well.

Depth

A lot of sermons and songs say true things, but not enough reveal deep things. The best songs and the best sermons push the worshipper to depths of reflection and learning and experience they haven’t experienced. They take truth and push it deeper into hearts than it ahs been before. Depth doesn’t mean being complicated. It means being cognizant of the bigness and of God and His work and then taking people exploring in it.

Clarity

The best sermons and the best songs have a theme or a point that they express with clarity from the get-go. Nobody needs to wonder what the message is. It is unveiled early and expressed without meandering. It uses language with teeth, not meaningless truisms to make people feel better. If you leave a song or sermon feeling nice but unsure what the point was it failed.

Power

Power and volume are not the same thing. You can whisper with power. O Sacred Head now Wounded and It Is Well are powerful hymns. Mild mannered preachers can speak with power. Power drives forward inexorably, pushing God’s truth deeper into hearts. Sometimes this is with a thumping kick drum pile driving truth into hearts and sometimes it is truth softly expressed over time to wear away a hard shell. Sometimes power explodes and sometimes it shows itself with consistency over time. But in both cases it drives and drives and drives.

Efficiency

Truth is best expressed in an economy of words. This means using as few words as possible to say as much as possible. The best church music is a few verses with a book’s worth of truth about God.

Artfulness and Craftsmanship

(Not to be confused with arts and crafts)

Build tight sentences. Use metaphor well. Paint pictures with words. Leave images embedded on minds and hearts. Make subtle (or obvious) references to other biblical truths. Craft makes truth clear and compelling. Art sets truth ablaze with emotion. Both are necessary for profound worship.

Repetition

Yes repetition can be overdone, and often is both in sermons and songs. No, this is not a call for more 7/11 songs (7 words 11 times). It is acknowledging that people learn by repetition. We’re slow. We’re stubborn. We’re rebellious. We’re forgetful. Repetition gives God (and the worship leader/preacher) a chance to overcome that. It is reminds time and again of truth we need to hear. Remember the “It’s not your fault” scene in Good Will Hunting? (NSFW language) Repetition is part of power, it methodically massages what we need to know and feel into our minds and hearts.

Delivery

You can make a bad song or sermon sound good with excellent delivery, but the effects over time are nil. But when strong delivery is matched with the characteristics above it rounds it out. Delivery has its own set of characteristics that set it apart is good, but much has to do with style and comfort level and audience and culture. I leave it to the leader to recognize what is needed in his or her context to deliver a sermon or song well. Just know that when you do it sweeps away the distractions and confusion that comes with people into worship and elevates the one about whom you are speaking or singing.

Death Comes One Layer Closer

From my 10/30 article at WorldMag.com:

Death comes in layers, bit-by-bit, closer to our center. As a child it isn’t conceivable. Fluffy the hamster mysteriously disappears and the dog goes to live on a farm far, far away. As a youth it is a concept, a reality for those far older. We lose a grandparent or a great uncle. Or maybe we lose a classmate in car accident. We feel the pain—one layer closer—but not the reality.

As adults, we pretend death is distant when really it hovers in the corner, not quite visible but obvious if we choose to look. Our parents age, and all of a sudden they are our grandparents’ age. A friend loses a child. A co-worker battles cancer. Suddenly, death has entered our lives. It has broken through another layer.

. . .

Sometimes death breaches that layer in an unexpected way. For me it was hearing the news that Flip Saunders passed away from cancer last Sunday. Saunders’ name might not ring any bells for many of you, but he was an institution of my youth. From 1995 to 2005 he coached the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, from my junior high years all the way through college. . . . Everyone liked Flip. Even players who shouldn’t like him liked him. The media liked him (and they tire of coaches quickly). He was a Minnesota guy, a community fixture, a beloved, one of us.

I didn’t realize until I heard the news of his passing just how much his coaching and quality as a man meant to me as I matured. I felt like I got punched. I never met Saunders; I just absorbed appreciation for him. And when he was gone I felt loss. Genuine loss, the erasure of something that I respected and appreciated and was connected to.

Every day we hear of people dying, but the human mind has a remarkable capacity to compartmentalize that news so that it doesn’t overwhelm us. It’s not callous; it’s survival. But sometimes the news slips through a layer and we feel it instead of just hearing it. We’re no longer able to keep death at bay, to ignore its presence.

Painful as this is, it’s good for us. I recently heard Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church, talk about it this way: “Life is short; we’ve got to make it count. And life is long; we’ve got a long time to keep our heart right and keep our testimony.” When death comes a layer closer, we know the shortness of life.

. . .

Read the full article HERE.

New Happy Rant: Stephen’s Retirement, Adult Halloween Parties, and Adopting a New Team

We come to you with heavy hearts and some sad news. Stephen has decided for personal reasons and to spend more time with his family and to pursue other professional endeavors and to deal with some undisclosed issues and because he’s lost the love of the game to step away from the podcast. He is retiring in the George Foreman/Michael Jordan sense. We could see him back when he feels the time is right (or when the pay day is big enough. Or when his gambling debt is paid off. Or when he gets out of rehab.)

Stephen will be missed. He is welcome back to the team at any time. And the show will go on. Ted and I will bring in a new co-host, and while Stephen can never be replaced we will soldier on, find a new dynamic, and continue bringing you the in sincerest of takes on the most arbitrary of subjects.

In this episode, after shedding a few tears, we also managed to talk about the following.

Why do adults think it’s ok to dress up like children or hookers for Halloween?
Adult Halloween parties are the most awkward thing ever.
When is it ok to adopt a new team as your own? What are the rules?

And, of course, we want to highlight our sponsor – Lemon Street Mobile. Lemon Street Mobile is a local business run by an awesome guy named Brian who takes fantastic care of customers and also uses his business as an opportunity to reach his community for Jesus. Now he’s taking the business national and wants you to be part of it. He offers a sweet protection plan for phones (including repair and/or replacement options) for just $5/month and a $69 deductible. That’s less than 1/2 the price of the ones offered by service providers. AND for podcast listeners Brian is offering a 10% discount of that killer price All you have to do is use promo code HAPPYRANT at checkout. Visit Lemstreet.com.

Not only this he does trade-ins. Use the same code at checkout to get a 10% increase on your phone’s trade-in value.

To listen to the podcast you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Consume What’s Best, Not Just What’s Christian

Christians like investing in cultural goods simply because they are “Christian”. From literature to music to football, many of us have our tastes shaped by the beliefs of the producer of a product. Entire industries are built around “Christian” products, and oftentimes these products are of a lower quality than what you’d expect for their broader industries. But this is deemed acceptable (and often goes unnoticed by consumers) because the label “Christian” apparently makes up for these shortcomings.

It seems to me that the consumption or promotion of goods based on their “Christian-ness” contributes to that false and prevalent mindset of a divide between sacred and secular. We have imbued cultural goods of various kinds with a supernatural value which allows them to be “better” than other “secular” goods whether or not they are qualitatively so. In so doing, we have determined their value based on criteria that aren’t inherent to their respective mediums and have praised work that is qualitatively deficient by the standard of the field.

The reason doing so is such a problem is because it deducts from the beauty of creation and from the significance of creativity and thus from the glorification of God. God gave humans creative and athletic and entrepreneurial gifts and when they are exercised he is reflected whether or not the person intends to do so. And the greater the creative gift or the higher quality the good the more God is reflected. However, when we promote lower quality “Christian” work over higher quality work that isn’t explicitly such we have depreciated the reflective quality of the creative gift in the non-Christian.

There are obvious complicating factors in this. It’s not as simple a formula as “higher quality work = worth consuming 100% of the time.” The message of the work matters. Many of the most gifted writers and musicians produce goods that can harm souls if consumed unwisely. Many of the world’s savviest entrepreneurs are self-serving money grubbers who should be wholly imitated, which is also a description that fits many athletes. There is a familial inclination toward supporting those who produce goods from a place of Christian faith. All this must be considered and valued.

But Christians need to feel freer and more inclined to appreciate and consume the best of the best in any field or craft. God made us to enjoy and benefit from creation, from the creative gifts he has infused in the people he made. Read the best books, listen to the best musicians, watch the best athletes, view the best art galleries and movies, and study the best business practices. God created them to reflect himself. Bring those gifts and that quality into our world of faith so that the reflection they offer can be truly appreciated. Nobody should be more appreciative of the highest quality than those people who recognize truly who made it and why it was made.

This column originally appeared at WORLD News Group’s website ( wng.org ). Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2012 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved.

More of My Favorite Podcasts

Several months ago I shared my top 10 favorite podcasts. That list remains largely unchanged, still my favorites. But I have come across several new podcasts that I enjoy almost equally as much. Here’s why should try them out too.

Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah

Daniel Jeremiah is a former college QB and NFL scout who, along with co-host Bucky Brooks, breaks down NFL games and players from a scout’s perspective. It is a fast moving podcast that offers a TON more insight into how football works than typical ESPN “commentary. They compare players, talk about matchups, and break down all aspects of actual football (as opposed to the off-field stuff). Both hosts are exceptionally likable and the banter is enjoyable. If you’re an NFL fan you’ll almost certainly appreciate this.

 

SI Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch

Dietsch is a long-time writer for SI, and in this podcast he interviews other media members about their work and careers. As a media member himself, Deitsch knows insightful questions to ask and gets pretty deep into controversial and personal topics. He does not shy away from conflicts, past or present. He draws out answers about behind-the-scenes stories. What makes this podcast so fascinating is not the big names, though he does have those. It’s the picture it paints of how journalists and media members at the highest level go about their work. It’s not tabloid. It’s behind the curtain.

Song Exploder

Song Exploder is on the avant garde side of things. In it musicians break down how they composed and performed their songs. Many of the artists are ones I’ve never heard of, but it is fascinating hearing how they put together a piece of music bit by bit. I love learning how creative people do creative things, and this the most elemental form of that – from the idea that sparked the song to the stacking of the musical elements to make an entire piece. As you’d imagine, some episodes are mind blowing and others are snort-inducing. But it’s always worth a listen.

Longform

Calling all writers (and serious readers)! Longform is one of my current favorite sources of learning about writing. It doesn’t cover the craft except tangentially. Instead the hosts sit down with writers and authors of long form (get it?) pieces and talk about their work. They talk about how they come up with stories, their work habits, how they got published, what made them want to write in the first place, and more. They get some of the best and most notable writers, young and old, as guests. If you have any interest in the writing life or in reading the work of fine writers you must listen to this one.

The Tim Ferriss Show

I don’t really want to like Tim Ferriss. He comes off as somewhat self-satisfied and smarmy. But I can’t help but acknowledge that he is one of the best question askers I have ever listened to. He does his homework. He digs out fantastic insights. He’s annoyingly smart. And no matter the guest (and he gets the A-list of leaders and creators) he makes the interview interesting. He is in it to learn and that means listeners learn too. For those with a hunger to sponge knowledge of people who are good at stuff, this is a fantastic podcast.

BONUS PODCASTS
The Happy Rant
5 Leadership Questions

When the Tail Wags the Dog

From my 10/23 article at WorldMag.com:

“One of the great frustrations I have is when the tail wags the dog … [when the] policy is now the end instead of the means … the policy is why we’re here,” said Thom Rainer, the president of LifeWay Christian Resources (and my boss), when I interviewed him for a recent podcast. His words caught my attention because I find such situations frustrating because they can undermine organizations and their employees.

Just a few days later, Rainer’s words came to mind again when the story came out about LSU running back and Heisman Trophy candidate Leonard Fournette being stymied by the NCAA in his efforts to auction a game jersey in order to donate the proceeds to flood relief in South Carolina. The NCAA has a policy against such actions with the intent, for better or worse, of keeping athletes from profiting off merchandise sales. In this case though, the policy stifled the generous desire of a prominent athlete. But the NCAA eventually came to its senses and allowed Fournette to auction the jersey after thousands of people tweeted and otherwise attacked the organization for its initial decision.

Just a couple days after that, the NFL got in on the wagging act when Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams announced the league was refusing to let him wear pink socks, shoes, and arm bands for the entire season to honor victims and fighters of breast cancer (something the NFL allows only in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month). Williams’ mother and four aunts all died from the disease. The NFL has an image issue when it comes to support for and respect of women. Yet its policy still interfered with decency.

. . .

Some policies exist for good reason. Many, though, were put in place to protect a value that isn’t valuable or to combat behavior that isn’t prevalent.

. . .

Values should determine policies. People should outrank them. And organizations should be willing to bend or eliminate them as soon as they become a hindrance to good. Dogs wag tails, not the other way around. That’s what God intended.

Read the full post HERE.

New Happy Rant: Chaz Marriot Cameo, Draft Kings Craziness, and Why We Need Losers

The long awaited day has come. The one, the only (the pretentious and obnoxious) CHAZ FREAKING MARRIOT is on the podcast. If you want to blow your own mind and come away a marketing genius this is the episode for you. But of course we don’t stop there.

We take on DraftKings and FanDuel and all those other hideous and insidious one-day fantasy football platforms,
We ask whether losers make life better (not losers like you in seventh grade; losers like the Chicago Cubs).

And we have a brand new sponsor – Lemon Street Mobile. Lemon Street Mobile is a local business run by an awesome guy named Brian who takes fantastic care of customers and also uses his business as an opportunity to reach his community for Jesus. Now he’s taking the business national and wants you to be part of it. He offers a sweet protection plan for phones (including repair and/or replacement options) for just $5/month and a $69 deductible. That’s less than 1/2 the price of the ones offered by service providers. AND for podcast listeners Brian is offering a 10% discount of that killer price All you have to do is use promo code HAPPYRANT at checkout. Visit Lemstreet.com.

Not only this he does trade-ins. Use the same code at checkout to get a 10% increase on your phone’s trade-in value.

To listen to the podcast you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

What is True?

Truth is a difficult thing to define, especially in an era when it’s been turned into a choose your own adventure story. Remember those? They were the dumbest things. It’s like the writers couldn’t decide how to end the story so they just wrote five mediocre endings, one of which was happy and four of which ended after two pages with a gruesome death. Entirely dissatisfying even if you figured how to avoid plunging off a cliff or being eaten by a shark. Fittingly, that’s what it’s like when we pick our own truth too – a terrible ending.

We don’t get to define truth or select it. Instead we must recognize and adhere to it. Truth is what is real and what is, but it is more than this – much more. If all we did was look around and determine truth by what we saw we would end up exactly where are, in a society where truth shifts, morphs, changes, and loses credibility and value each day. Instead we must recognize that truth expresses reality as it ought to be. It is a standard for reality not just a reflection of what currently exists and happens.

Who determines this standard? Not you or I or scholars or priests or politicians or popes. It emanates from God, and is expressed by Him in His word. Or, I should say, His Word. For “the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” For Jesus is the Word of God. He is the “image of the invisible God.” Jesus is God’s Word incarnate.

So God the Father sent God the Son, the Word, to live among men as truth embodied. But, wait there’s more. (As a rule, there’s always more when it comes to God. Infinity is like that.) The Son didn’t stay on earth, He ascended to His throne and prepare for His return as rightful king. But in the meantime He did something remarkable. He gave us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, a Spirit of Truth. This Spirit is the revealer of truth, the teacher of truth, and the infuser of truth into untrue hearts.

Yet again, there is more, for God did not send His Spirit with a disembodied message. He gave us His written word, the Bible. It is these words, this revelation of God’s character, creation, plan, and work that the Spirit makes alive. It is not an exhaustive description and explanation of God, for that would be impossible (again, infinity). But it is the essential; Scripture enlivened by the Spirit is precisely what we need to know truth.

Truth is Trinitarian. It reflects some aspect of God’s character, persons – all three of them – plan, work, or creation as He intended it to be and will one day make it again. Anything that contradicts this is untrue, a lie. We see may lies around us. Much of life is untrue.

But all truth is God’s truth.

This is an excerpt from the book I am currently writing, The Curious Christian (working title) that is due to be released in early 2017. 

Bill Simmons, Sour Grapes, and Leaving Well

From my 10/16 article at WorldMag.com:

When Bill Simmons left ESPN in May, it was very clearly under unpleasant circumstances. He and ESPN president John Skipper, as well as other management, had been at odds for some time. Simmons, the “Sports Guy,” was known during his tenure of 13-plus-years as the voice of the fan, which sometimes meant he drew fast and shot from the hip.

. . .

Amid significant speculation, Simmons has since signed with HBO to host a program and produce documentaries. He also relaunched his popular podcast, which had gone off the air since May. In his very first episode back he came out with guns blazing, firing at ESPN management and insulting former co-workers. In a subsequent episode he attacked them for not supporting a sports and pop culture website he started.

Simmons knows how to offer fair criticisms. He can sort through an issue in an evenhanded way. But this wasn’t journalistic criticism or levelheaded parsing of business decisions. It was sour grapes and slinging mud.

. . .

Here are five ways to leave well and maintain dignity in the process:

Speak the truth in love. If you must address issues within the organization, do so forthrightly and honestly, but only do so to pertinent ears and with utmost respect for any individuals involved. If an individual was the problem, point that out without insult.
Don’t speak all the truth you know. Airing all grievances and emptying out the company’s underwear drawer is poor form and gossip. . .


Answer not a fool according to his folly. If you were let go unjustly or departed on unfriendly terms not of your own making, then a wrong was done. You were sinned against. Someone made a poor decision, a foolish one. Firing back in kind will not make the situation better, nor will it ingratiate you to any future employers. Defend your character and professional reputation as needed, but don’t be a fool in kind.
Leave no collateral damage. No good except perverse satisfaction comes from bringing the company down or humiliating someone. . .
Imagine Starbucks. No, not because caramel macchiatos make you happy, but because that’s where you might run into a former boss or co-worker. . .

Read the full article HERE.

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