Questions to Ask of Biblical Texts

Part of my daily blog reading includes articles from Justin Taylor who is an uber blogger extraordinaire in Christian circles. This morning, I read this helpful blog post regarding how to engage and approach our Bible reading, and three questions which are helpful in understanding and making application of Scripture texts. Gerald Bray, a Research Professor at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, and director of research for the Latimer Trust shared with Justin Taylor the following:

What are the questions we should ask when approaching a passage of Scripture?

The first question we must ask of every biblical text is simply this—what does it tell us about God? What does it say about who he is and about what he does?

The second question is: what does this text say about us human beings? What are we meant to be and what has gone wrong?

The third and final question is: what has God done about this and what does he expect of us in the light of what he has done?

Asking these questions and seeking answers to them will help us interpret the Spirit’s message to Christ’s people and to each of us as individuals.

These days I am reading through 1 and 2 Chronicles which can be more challenging in terms of making application, especially the genealogies. Taylor asks Bray this very question and he provides helpful answers in terms of what we learn from the reading of texts such as these.

What about sections of Scripture that seem hard to apply? I’m thinking, for example, of the genealogies of 1 Chronicles.

These genealogies bring us a message from God even if they appear on the surface to be barren and unprofitable. All we have to do in order to understand them is to ask the right questions about them and their meaning will be quickly opened up to us.

Let me ask you, then, to answer the three questions you posed above. What do they teach us about God?

They tell us that he is a faithful God, who keeps his covenant from one generation to another. Whoever we are and however far we may be from the source of our human life in Adam, we are part of his plan. Over the centuries we may have developed in different ways, lost contact with one another and even turned on each other in hostility, but in spite of all that we are still related to one another and interconnected in ways that may go beyond our immediate understanding or experience.

What do they tell us about ourselves?

They say that most of us are nobodies from the world’s point of view. We live and die in a long chain of humanity but there is not much that anyone will remember of us as individuals. At the same time, without us, future generations will not be born and the legacy of the past will not be preserved. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, a long chain of faithful people who have lived for God in the place where he put them. Even if we know little about them we owe them a great debt of gratitude for their loyalty and perseverance when they had little or nothing to gain from it or to show for it.

What do they tell us about God’s dealings with us?

They tell us that we too are called to be obedient and to keep the faith we have inherited, passing it on undiminished to the next generation. They tell us that there is a purpose in our calling that goes beyond ourselves. Even if we are not glorified and leave little for posterity to remember us by, we shall nevertheless have made an indispensable contribution to the purposes of God in human history.

CraftMondays

Some Quotes to Chew On

C.S. Lewis on Beauty and Longing:
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of the worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."

Charles Spurgeon on Happiness:
"What a blessed time it will be when having moved beyond every secondary cause we rest upon the bare arm of God! What a glorious hour when God, and His creatures - the Lord, and not His works - will be our daily joy! Our souls will then have attained the perfection of bliss."

Paul E. Miller on Prayer:
"Don't be embarrassed by how needy your heart is and how much it needs to cry out for grace. Just start praying."

Tears of the Saints

HT: JT

VBS 2009 Summary Video

Investing in the Next Generation: Recounting His Faithfulness

Upon the Rock

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry blog,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
Psalm 40:2

"Don't Look Back"

This coming Sunday, Wellspring Church will be moving to Pleasanton, CA where we will worship at Foothill High School in the multi-purpose room. Our church will be a "mobile church" which will require set-up and shut-down each Sunday. The very process of preparing for this move has already taken a colossal amount of preparation and effort - which explains why this blog has been quiet for the past few months. But I know that this is only the beginning as we move from a church building to a high school, and to the community where the majority of our church members live. I'm not sure what to anticipate, but already, the Lord has been teaching me that He alone is sovereign and in control. My job is to look to Him for help and wisdom, and to trust Him along the way so that many will see how great a God He is and that He alone is worthy of praise.

As I reflect upon this moment in the life of our church, I am grateful for the exhortation given last Sunday on the eve of our move by John Bruce, Senior Pastor of Creekside Community Church (where our church used to rent its facilities). And I wanted to share them here (as written up by Meg on the church forum), so that I may look back and remember, especially during those times when things do not go "according to plan" and I find myself longing for the "good ol' days":

1. Don't look back. Look forward to the purpose set forth in moving; don't keep looking back as the Israelites did in Exodus, foolishly longing to be back in Egypt. For sure things will be less convenient and you may go through difficulties, but don't lose sight of why you're moving. [Creekside also used to meet at a school. One time, their service was canceled because the school was flooded; another time because the janitor didn't show up to open the doors for their service. It was week to week at times, so it was important to not lose sight that they were moving to reach the community better from where they were.]

2. Protect Sam (Pastor Sam). Cover him with prayer, bless him, encourage him. He will have to deal with even more in coordinating and overseeing the church in this time. Make sure he cares for his family, for himself and his spiritual needs - this is important so that he can be a pastor.

3. Be a blessing to Foothill High School. Be the best tenants you can - and by this, you will start gaining a reputation with the community. Don't just see the school as a facility you are renting, but seek ways to be a blessing to the school. If there are opportunities to serve the school, that will be one of the best ways the community will hear about church, about the Gospel.

Through this process, I pray that God may be glorified and exalted in the Bay area!