Bird Family Christmas 2009

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7 Lessons from my "Reading the Bible in a Year" Experience

I have read the entire Bible before, however I had never done it in a year.  So I decided in December last year to make 2009 the first year I read through the entire Scriptures in a calendar year.  As I blogged in January, I decided to read a certain amount of pages per day.  If my chapter didn't end at the "3 1/2 page mark," I would keep reading until the end of the chapter.  Then on my monthly spiritual retreats, I would usually read double or triple (or even more).  This method allowed me to complete the entire 66 books last week.

Here's what I gained from this experience:

1. I saw things in context more.  Context is important to me.  I was pleased to see how much my understanding of the context of a passage improved by reading three-and-a-hald pages each day.

2. I grasped the bigger story. This goes along with the previous idea.  By reading larger portions each day instead of just a chapter or a section, I could see the bigger picture more clearly.

3. I couldn't avoid the troubling passages.  Many times this year I hit passages that really challenged my theology or seemed to grate against other passages.  I'm glad I had to work through these sections and not just skim over them.  Some have been resolved, but some still are bugging me (which I actually think is a good thing).

4. I had motivation to read.  Having a goal to read the whole of Scripture in twelve months increased my desire to sacrifice the time to read.  I found myself eager to get to the Word daily, and if I missed a day, I gladly read 7 pages to make up what I had missed the day before.  But I realize my motivation only stayed high because I stayed disciplined to read regularly.  If I had gotten a couple of weeks behind, I might have lost motivation.  Thankfully the most I ever got behind was two days.

5. I had to persevere.  I'll admit - I started to get a bit antsy to skip to the New Testament while trudging through some portions of the Old Testament.  Parts of the Pentateuch got long.  The first half of Ezekiel was brutal.  The Minor Prophets weren't filled with very many "happy-warm-fuzzy" verses.  But I am VERY grateful I read each word of these portions. Many of these tough sections helped me see and appreciate the amazing grace of God more than I had previously. Plus, James 1:4 tells us that endurance/perseverance is good for us.

6. I realized I forget too easily.  My 12-year-old has been reading through First and Second Kings.  One day she was telling me about what she had read.  I couldn't recall much of the story she was sharing! I had read that section just months before, but I couldn't have repeated the story to her if my life had depended upon it.  This was convicting! (And ever worse - I almost forgot to include this point!)

7. I worshipped God. This isn't unique to reading the Bible in a year, but it was a wonderful experience I feared might not happen.  I had an unconfessed worry that reading the Bible in a year would feel more like a duty than a delight.  Yet day after day, God continued to impact me.  I was regularly humbled, in awe of Him and His plan for me and His Church.

If you have never read through theScriptures in a year, I recommend you do it at least once in your life.  With a new year just around the calendar corner, why not make 2010 the year you gain your own seven lessons on reading the whole Bible in twelve months?

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Primal by Mark Batterson (Book Review)

Rating: 4 out of 5 torches

From the outside, the [Church of San Clemente] appeared weather-beaten and time-worn. But the frescoes, statues, and altars on the inside were remarkably well preserved. We quietly explored every nook and cranny of that twelfth-century church.  Then we discovered that for five extra euros, we could take an underground tour…

I’ll never forget my descent down that flight of stairs.  The air became damp, and we could hear underground springs.  We carefully navigated each step as we lost some of our light.  And our voices echoed off the low ceiling and narrow walkway.  Almost like the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia, that flight of stairs was like a portal to a different time, a different place.  It was as if those stairs took us back two thousand years in time.  With each step, a layer of history was stripped away until all that was left was Christianity in all its primal glory. (pg. 2)

This excerpt from the first chapter of Primal, Mark Batterson’s latest publication from Multnomah, lays the illustrative foundation for the book’s premise. Just as Mark’s walk down those stairs helped him see an ancient Christianity stripped of its religious flourishes to a place where Christians worshipped from pure hearts, Mark wants to pastor modern Christians to a place where they, too, can love God purely.  And the “primal” foundation for Batterson’s Christianity is the same verse Jesus lays as the foundation when asked in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark to sum up the Mosaic law:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Mark 12:30)

For my review, I’ll use the same framework as the book:

Heart
I appreciate Mark’s pastoral heart.  It is evident to me that he has a genuine passion to follow God (as if that wasn’t obvious from his previous books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase), and an equal passion to see others follow God with the same passion.  If I could hope anything, it is that Mark’s readers (including myself) would capture this heart: a heart to worship God purely, to follow Him willingly, and to enjoy God through the valleys and mountain-top experiences of life.

However, I feel like Mark (and perhaps his editors) tried a little too hard to reach the heart of the reader.  While I appreciate the vision-casting closing of chapter 10 (The Next Reformation), true reformations happen as an act of God, not because an author says we need one.  When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg Doors, he was merely trying to help the Church he loved move in a more biblical direction.  I doubt the Reformation as we know it was exactly what Luther longed for.  If we are to see another Reformation in our day, once again it will be something that is a move of God, not something from the dreams of men.

I know Mark would agree with me based on this paragraph from Chapter 9 (The Hammer of a Higher God):

Here is the great irony when it comes to loving God.  And maybe I should have revealed this at the very beginning of the book, because this is the crux of the matter.  In and of ourselves, we’re not capable of loving God.  We cannot manufacture love for Him.  We can only respond to His love for us.  And I hope that sets you free.  Religion is all about doing things for God.  Christianity is all about receiving what Christ has done for us on the cross and what we do for God is a reflection of and response to what God has done for us. (pg. 155)

Likewise, we are incapable of ushering in a reformation to modern Christianity.  We can submit ourselves to God individually, but it is only by HIS grace that changes like this take place.

Soul
I really enjoy Mark’s writing.  Just as in his previous books, Mark’s style is very easy to read, comprehend, and remember. In other word’s, Primal has a good soul.

Part of this “soul” is the framework for the book. Mark uses the four aspects of loving God from the Great Commandment as his template.

However, Mark’s treatment of “heart” left me wanting.  Mark turned “loving God with all your heart” into “having compassion for your neighbor.”  I don’t disagree (after all, Jesus captures this idea when he tacked on the second part of the Great Commandment), but to me this concept isn’t complete.

I’m of the opinion that when Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart, he is telling us to fully love God with our emotions.  When we find joy, we exalt in God.  When we experience sadness, we fall on our knees with tears before our Father. When we have anger, we submit it to God and unleash it in God-glorifying ways.  And when we love God fully with our heart, THEN we find ourselves overflowing with compassion for our neighbors.

Mind
Mark is one REALLY smart dude, but you never feel ignorant while reading Mark’s book.  Mark’s excitement for what he has learned helps you get excited about the insights he has and the spiritual parallels he is able to draw. (More on this under “Strength.”)

I also appreciated Mark’s approach to “loving God with your mind.”  I have heard pastors and seminary professors in the past claim this is the area lost by American Christianity, and they trumpet this aspect so loudly the begin to ignore the other three.  Mark heralds the intellect and loving God with your mind, but not to the exclusion of the other three ways.

However, a couple of Mark’s quotes in this section could be dangerous if taken out of context.  For instance:

“God ideas often seem like bad ideas.  But that is when you need to allow the Holy Spirit to override your intellect.” (pg. 140)

Sentences like this can give people permission to do hair-brained ideas that are not originated by God.  Hopefully Mark’s readers will have enough discernment to understand Mark is trying to say we have to submit our human intellects to God’s, because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, not abandon reason altogether.

Strength
One of the strengths of Primal is Mark’s masterful use of illustrations.  Mark leverages his strength of learning from many different realms to turn scientific insights and historical stories into spiritual analogies.

But the greatest strength of the book is what I have already acknowledged – Mark’s heart.  Mark truly believes this stuff – he has poured much of himself into this book. Primal is truly the overflow of his role as a pastor.  Just as he longs for his church family to worship God purely from a primal understanding of Jesus and love, Mark can’t help but long for that same thing of the universal Church.

And I have to admit – I long for it, too.

Conclusion
Primal releases nationwide on Tuesday, December 22nd.  I feel honored to have been chosen as one of 750 bloggers to be given a pre-release copy to read and review. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and will probably recommend it to a few people.

However, I don't feel that people must make it the first book they read in 2010.  It’s fine if they do, but I don’t feel overwhelming motivation to get this book in the hands of everyone.  Part of the reason is that I had such high expectations. (I think I bought into the marketing a little too much – see the website for an example – “this is more than a book.”) And so, I found myself slightly disappointed.  Like Mark, I long for a reformation, a revival, to sweep across the world.  But a human book isn’t going to accomplish it.  Only the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit will bring that about.

With that said, if Primal gets even a few Christ-followers to get back to Scripture and back to worshipping God wholeheartedly (and whole-soulfully, whole-mindfully, and whole-strengthfully!), then I will be thrilled, as I know Mark will be.  That’s why I will still highly recommend Primal to the young adults I have the privilege to pastor.

For more info, visit http://www.theprimalmovement.com/

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2010 Kids' Christmas Program

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Small Group Christmas Party (after the food, we assembled a gift basket to give to a grieving family)

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Yellow snow, anyone?

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Sharing the Story in the Language of the People

In the video above, a talented girl paints a story with sand on the Ukraine's version of "Britain's (or America's) Got Talent." It is clear to me the story has to do with the history of the Ukraine.  And as the camera pans the audience, you see women with tears in their eyes.  The story in the sand is part of the story of their lives, of their country, of their people.  And because it is their story, it moves them.

While the painting and soundtrack is graceful, I wasn't moved to tears a bit.  Why?  Because it is not my story.  I do not understand the language. I am not familiar with the tale. The story on the table does not resonate with my heart.  Because it is good art, I'm touched, but clearly not in the same way as many of the audience members.

However, there is a story that DOES resonate with my heart.  And I want to tell it.

I want to paint the story of the gospel in the lives of the people around me. I want to speak this good news in the language of the people.  I want to communicate the soundtrack of God that will touch hearts and move minds.  And when they understand it, people will jump to their feet to applaud the One who went to the cross. Then HIStory will become their story, a story about freedom, life, and love.  

I'm convinced, though, they won't understand the story of Jesus if I speak in a "foreign" language.  I need to speak Iowan.  I need to paint the Iowan way.  So as the video concludes, I find myself praying for God to help me share His story in the language of the people.  Just as I don't know the artist's name, I don't care if my name is known.  What matters is that HIStory is told and is written on the hearts of His people.

One last thought: just as painting with sand gets one's hands dirty, sharing the story of Jesus is my local context is messy.  But if Jesus could be born in a dirty stable with smelly animals and laid on a bed of donkey food, I think I can handle the mockery, the rejections, the failings, the messes, and such.  Because out of the sandy mess, God will paint something beautiful.

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Snow Day!

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Untitled

via twitterrific

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Invention Convention 2009

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'Tis the Weekend to be Jolly (Two Christmas Open Houses)

I'm REALLY looking forward to our TWO Open Houses this weekend:

The first one is our annual Christmas Open House for the young adults of our church (and those who help me in ministering to them).  Every year our house is stuffed with singles, young married couples, young parents, kids, and friends who enjoy catching up with one another, or meeting a new friend, or enjoying the fire, or having a deep conversation by the Christmas tree, or enjoying a game of ping-pong in the basement, or tasting some of the amazing food my wife makes.  Always a good time, and I'm looking forward to seeing people tonight.  Come anytime between 6:00 pm and midnight tonight.

The second open house is a neighborhood event.  Last year, my wife said, "We already have the house decorated and food made for the young adult open house, why don't we invite neighbors over for an evening and do the same thing?" So this year we are opening our home up for a couple of hours to catch up with neighbors.  We've been hosting a summer neighborhood BBQ for several years, but we rarely get to see our neighbors once the weather turns cold.  Hopefully a few will venture out in the freezing temps tomorrow night, and we'll all have fun hanging out for a little while (as long as they don't mind me sneaking peeks at the Big 12 Championship game - Go Huskers!).

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So Am I (My family's conspiracy plan this Christmas)

Each Christmas, my wife and I give our children three presents modeled after the gifts the magi gave to the Christ-child as recorded in Matthew 2.  I've blogged about this gift tradition before.

This year, my wife and I decided to handle the myrrh (practical) gift differently.  Rather than giving them socks, or winter gloves, or tooth brushes, or whatever else we think they need for daily practical use, we decided to allow our kids to choose their own myrrh gift to be given to a child who truly doesn't have the basic practical necessities in life.  We used the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog, allowing them to choose any of the gifts under $15.  They had fun choosing balls, meals, and mosquito nets!

As my wife was filling out the Samaritan's Purse catalog order form at the kitchen table, my 9-year-old daughter looked at my wife and said "I am SO glad we are doing this!"  With my throat in a knot as I type this because of the wonderful, sensitive, giving nature God has given my children, I say in response to my daughter, "So am I..."

"...so am I."

(It just so happens that our church family is doing something similar through Advent Conspiracy by taking an offering on December 20, and giving the money to clean water initiatives in East India. I love being part of such a generous church!)

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I'm published! (Sort of) A ministry article on the death and birth of an ABF

If you find articles about the life cycles of mid-sized groups exhilarating reading, then you can see a piece I wrote for abfresources.com about the "death" of the 12:30@Eleven ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) and the "birth" of the current BE[cause] ABF here at New Covenant Bible Church.

However, if you find such articles sleep-inducing, then follow the link right before your bedtime to receive a blissful night of Zzz's.

Here's "The Death and Birth of an ABF."

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