WordWalk

It has been said “that the Bible doesn’t always say exactly what it means and it doesn’t always mean exactly what it says.  But the Bible always means exactly what it means.”  Our mandate is to discover what the Bible actually states and what it actually means.  Scripture contains several different genres, and it makes use of various literary techniques.  These sacred writings also operate on multiple levels and even in different dimensions.  We must therefore reject a crude literalism when it comes to understanding and interpreting Scripture.  Also beware of forcing assumptions and prejudices upon the text.  The Bible is God’s revelation, not a Rorschach test.  Dinesh D’Sousa, Christian apologist states, “My way of reading is neither literal nor liberal, but rather contextual.  Only by examining the text in relation to the whole can we figure out how a particular line or passage is best understood.”  Treating the Scriptures with this sacred respect allows God’s Spirit to illuminate our understanding and ignite our imagination.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

What is real?

What is truth?

What is love?

What is justice?

What is good?

What is evil?

What is right?

What is freedom?

What is eternal?

But do this with gentleness and respect. (from Peter’s first letter)

Have the kind of life you deserve!  God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!

How would you like to never have to worry about finances again?!  God wants you to live a prosperous and healthy life!

What is stopping you from going to the phone right now?!  Just repeat this simple prayer after me…

How would you like to be on the winning team?!  Come and join our vibrant and dynamic assembly!

This can be yours for free!  How can you refuse that which costs you nothing and offers you everything?!

Are you ready for retirement?  If you were to die tonight…

The infinite and intimate life of God Himself took shape before us.  A child was born and a Son was given.

God’s Son is the medium of creation, revelation, and salvation.

The Son is our Priest-Friend and our Advocate, and He undertakes and champions our cause.

God, in His nature and essence, is love, and He imparts His nature to us.  This nature permeates our being by way of the anointing of the Spirit.

Whoever loves their brother or sister is in a continual state of dwelling and abiding in God’s light, and His divine nature is making itself strong, vibrant, and obvious in our lives.

The man or woman who continues to do the will of God will abide and experience the reality of perpetual life.  This means that we are presently and permanently secure for eternity.

Continue in the Son and in the Father via the unction, anointing, and enabling of the Spirit.  The Spirit is the source of both comfort and instruction.

We are intimately known by God and we are called His sons and daughters.  We are born of Him and named by Him.

All the seed possibilities of eternal life are in the Son.

The nature of true and eternal life causes us to have the desire and the capability to do the will of God.  We live in the love and the truth of God’s reality.

When we find ourselves in seasons of doubt and distrust, we come to the realization that God is greater than our worrisome hearts.

God’s Spirit guides us in truth and guards us from error.

We love because God’s love provokes, motivates and inspires us.

The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God is consistently coming away with the victory over darkness and evil.

Jesus’ blood is constantly cleansing us, the Spirit is our permanent possession, and we are being immersed into God’s kingdom.

We now have the boldness and the freedom to come into His presence with the absolute assurance that He listens to us and answers us according to His sovereign timing and purposes.

All of the implications above were gleaned from John’s first epistle.

You are called and known as sons and daughters of God.  Behold the marvelous kind of love that the Father has lavished on us and permanently extended to us!  We are not just saved from destruction, we are known intimately by God.

It is now possible for us to approach God with confidence.  This is the assurance and the cheerful courage that we have in our God.  We now have the boldness and the freedom to come into His presence.

We know that He is constantly paying attention to our pleas and petitions.  When we approach God, we are absolutely assured that He hears us and listens to us.

Based on the assurance that He hears us, we know that He answers us.  He answers us in alignment with His will.  We must humbly and gratefully seek to recognize and acclimate to these answers.

May the will of God be accomplished in and through our lives.  Let us realize the personal diminishment and the ultimate destruction that would occur if prayers were answered according to our own will.

The Incarnation is the most significant event in history, and it will remain as such into the infinite future.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sent in the flesh to rescue us from eternal destruction and to bring us into a participation in His kingdom.  He remains as undiminished deity and perfect humanity.  His personality is extravagant and revolutionary.  From Bethlehem’s manger to the cross in Jerusalem, we meet a disturbing and provocative Jesus who wants to radically transform our lives and stretch our faith.  No one who meets this Jesus will ever be the same.  He will shake your presuppositions and make you ask yourself the hard questions if you want to bear His name and follow Him.  Join with these suggested authors as they pursue insight into this fascinating, brilliant, challenging, compassionate, winsome, and very wild and unpredictable God-man.

1. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey.  He puts preconceptions aside to take a long look at the Jesus of the Gospels.
2. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg.  A documentation of Jesus in the first century Jewish context.
3. God Came Near by Max Lucado.  Travel back in time and relive Christ, the Son of God, becoming a man.
4. Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola.  This is their attempt to restore the realities of supremacy and the sovereignty of Christ as we perceive him.
5. Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright.  The Jesus – that we might discover if we really looked – is larger, more disturbing, and more urgent than we had ever imagined.  It is we, the churches, who have been the reductionists.
6. The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning.  He discusses the purity of the Gospel and the scandal of the cross.
7. The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren.  Jesus did not come to start a new religion, but instead to initiate a revolution.
8. Jesus, Mean and Wild by Mark Galli.  The author is focused on the militancy of a Christ who makes us feel decidedly uncomfortable.
9. The Challenge of Jesus by N.T.Wright.  He poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of our times.
10. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.  Keep exploring, keep arranging, keep shaping, and keep forming new perspectives about what it means to live in Christ and with each other.
11. The incomparable Christ by Oswald Sanders.  Comprehending the harmony of Christ’s person and His mission.
12. Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias.  He graciously and firmly attacks current pluralism about various faiths as well as subjective attitudes toward the truth.
13. Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldridge.  Jesus said the most outrageous things.

Jesus said and did many things.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25)