The responsible oversight and protection of all that God has entrusted to us (or blessed us with) is called “stewardship”. When we hear this word, we usually jump to the conclusion that stewardship is all about money. It’s not our fault, we’ve been trained to think that way. Do a Bing search on “Biblical stewardship” and see how many of the sites are about finances – nearly all of them. Yet the phrase is much more broad than this and can include the environment, household items, our health and eating habits, even our work ethic and, yes, personal finances too.
The summer between my junior and senior year of college I took a Greek reading course – a one-on-one class between a professor and myself. On day one he stated we would translate an entire book of the New Testament and I got to choose the book. When I selected Ephesians, he smiled like the cat that ate the canary, which worried me. My first assignment was to come back to the next class having translated chapter one, which proved a very difficult feat. What he knew, and I learned, is that the apostle Paul has a propensity toward run-on sentences. In fact, all of chapter one is a single sentence!
We’ve just finished a four-part series on spiritual disciplines that are important to practice in silence and solitude (reading the Bible, prayer, worship and journaling). Equally important are four spiritual disciplines that take place in community. Christianity is not a “Lone Ranger” religion. Our faith stems from Judaism, and whether Jewish (Sabbath temple meetings) or Christian (Sunday church services), family and community are of paramount importance. Being involved in the lives of other believers through a local church isn’t just a good idea, it’s part of God’s plan for his children. Hebrews 10.24-25 tells us:
We’re in the midst of a series on Spiritual Disciplines, specifically those we enter into while in solitude. We have just looked at how to read God’s Word in times of crises, and today we examine how to pray. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert before beginning his ministry to pray and seek God’s council, a night in prayer before selecting the disciples, throughout the Gospels we see he periodically left the disciples to pray for an hour (or more), and he spent another full night in prayer on the day of his arrest. His example is one we should follow.
Fasting (also known as “a day of atonement”) is a practice that the western evangelical church has fallen away from, and it has been a perilous fall indeed. Our understanding of fasting is that it is a form of legalism little different than sacrificing animals or circumcision rather than an act of faith. This understanding incorrect. Was it legalism that caused Moses to eat and drink nothing for 40 days while on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34.28)? Was it legalism that caused Jesus to do the same (Luke 4.1-.4)? Obviously not. The truth is, fasting creates a powerful connection with God -- if we let it.
On a return flight to my home town of Denver an urgent message was delivered to the passenger cabin from the flight crew. “The plane is experiencing a problem with the hydraulic system…” My mind immediately began analysis; what does the hydraulics control? Wing flaps, tail rudder, and landing gear for sure. “It will make our landing,” the crewmember finished, “interesting”. Immediate concern spread throughout the passengers. The woman next to me began to weep, fully believing we were all in our final moments of life. I turned to her with a smile and repeated a favorite line from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
Pergamum, Turkey, 2BC -- Eumenes II invents a new process for manufacturing papyrus, a method that permits both sides of the leather surface to be used instead of only the one. While papyrus was expensive, this made it more accessible to more people as one needed to purchase only half as much. This was an important step in the writing and reproduction process, one that would aid in the distribution of the Gospels and other writings of the New Testament. Even with this advancement, papyrus was still difficult to carry and writing with stylus and ink time consuming.
It’s not every year that July 4th, America’s birthday, falls on a date that we publish, but when it does we enjoy taking the time to celebrate and to remind our readers of America’s Christian heritage. In light of the occasion, George Washington – America’s father – may have the best take of all when he stated, “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” Say what you want about Washington or the founding fathers, but do not say they were theists. Clearly they invoke not only God as creator, but state repeatedly the importance of the Bible.
This marks the start of a prolonged series on the Gospel of Luke. As we’ve already examined the book of Acts, it seems reasonable that the first Gospel we study should be Luke as both share a common author. Ask anyone to compare the gospels and two facts will almost always be mentioned: (1) that John is the Gospel of Love, and (2) that Luke is the Historical Gospel. While it is true that John gives us a look into Jesus’ personal struggles and relates stories not contained in any other gospel account, it is not true that Luke is purely a historical account.
When the phrase “spiritual gifts” is mentioned most Christians respond I one of two ways, either an uneasy “isn’t that for charismatics?” remark or an “I’m all about them and pray in tongues every day!” Both reveal a misunderstanding of what spiritual gifts are, their purpose, and our responsibility to them. Possibly the most shocking aspect of spiritual gifts (to all but the Pentecostal communities, that is) is that they are intended to be used frequently. Like reading the Bible and prayer, Spiritual Gifts are a spiritual discipline for every believer. What that looks like may surprise even the most charismatic.
Everyone has opinions about their church’s worship music, and nearly everyone thinks it could be better. This is not a criticism of worship directors, their teams, choirs or other musicians. Rather it is a result of the fact that we all have a yearning to worship in a way that is natural to us, and church worship services cannot appeal to everyone’s individual style. Yet with all the complaining, one should question not their church leadership but themselves; how often do I spend time personally worshiping my Lord? To put it another way, how much effort do you make to pursue his presence?
Yesterday we began a new series on the topic of spiritual discipline by introducing section one (of four sections) outlining the importance of silence and solitude in our walk with the Lord. During those times there are disciplines we can follow that help us focus our awareness of God’s presence in our lives and in the midst of difficult circumstances. The first of these disciplines, which we will take up today, is reading the Bible. We all have difficult circumstances in our lives, and whatever the situation, when we want to hear from God there is no better resource than his Word.