Remembering God’s Faithfulness Together

Stones, photo by Robbie Pruitt © June 2012

Remembering God’s Faithfulness Together

Quisqueya Christian School’s Staff, 2012-2013

“What do these stones mean? These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”  –Joshua 4:6-7

“I would like to learn, or remember, how to live” –Annie Dillard

1. Christ has died
2. Christ has risen
3. Christ will come again
4. We are thankful
5. We are knowledgeable
6. We are fruitful
7. We are projecting His image
8. We are spreading the good news
9. We are promoting His greatness and goodness
10. We rebelled, He loves us
11. We are blessed
12. We have a place to sleep
13. Our Jesus is awesome and dependable
14. Our marriages are a blessing (for those married)
15. We are alive
16. We are gifted and blessed to teach
17. We get the privileged to tell others about Jesus
18. Many have been or are broken, God heals
19. God has provided for us
20. The Lord disciplines us, because He loves us
21. We have bread without scarcity
22. He gives water to the thirsty
23. He is compassionate toward us
24. God is loving toward us
25. He is merciful, His mercies are new each day
26. God gives us our heart’s desire, when we desire Him
27. Our families bless us
28. God gives us our daily needs
29. He gives us good sleep
30. He brought us out of slavery
31. God is our comforter
32. God is always faithful
33. He cares for us
34. We are nothing without Jesus, but we have Jesus
35. He is our rock
36. Jesus is our teacher
37. His death is our life
38. God is first before all things
39. We have jobs and our needs met
40. We are comforted when we are hurt
41. God heals us
42. God does great things
43. God is our provider and our strength
44. Never once have we ever walked alone
45. God has been there for our families
46. God was faithful during the earthquake
47. God finishes what God starts
48. Our children are a blessing from God
49. God is powerful
50. God is faithful and good
51. We have hope in Christ
52. We have much to be thankful for
53. God is our comfort
54. God is our provider
55. God gives us relationships with each other
56. He is risen!
57. He gives us our daily bread
58. God loves us
59. God speaks to us
60. God desires us
61. God carries us when we are weak
62. God provides, protects and comforts
63. We are not alone
64. We are forgiven
65. God has a plan
66. Christ sacrificed for our sin
67. We have a great cloud of witnesses
68. God is faithful
69. God desires a relationship with us
70. Praise Him! God is here.
71. We remember His death
72. We proclaim His resurrection
73. We wait for His coming in glory

Understanding Scripture

Puzzles In The Air, photo from Into Thy Word

“No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” –1 Corinthians 2:11-12

When it comes to interpreting and applying the Bible, two extremes seem to be a common trend. This first extreme is approaching the Bible without care or concern for the true meaning of the text. The second extreme is an elitist view which holds that only the experts who understand the original languages of the Bible and have been to seminary can study understand the true meaning and application of scripture.

In the first extreme, the Bible is treated like an advice column. Scripture is utilized or taken out of context to support someone’s presupposed ideas, beliefs or desires. Someone who disregards scripture like this may flip through the Bible at random and point to a passage with their eyes closed to randomly select a word from the Lord. In this extreme, scripture verses are ripped out of context to illustrate a thought or idea, to arrive at a desired outcome, or to justify a preconceived notion. This is proof texting.

In the second extreme, the scriptures are looked at as untouchable or unknowable, unless you are part of the elite class who has been theologically educated, and only if you know Hebrew and Greek, and only if you have been to seminary, can you rightly interpret and apply the Bible. Those who hold this view believe that scripture reading should be left to the professionals. They believe the average layperson cannot accurately interpret and apply scripture unless they have a mediator from the elite group of experts. This group believes the Bible is not for the commoner.

These two extremes are very dangerous and prideful. Both center around the individual or group and not on God or His Word. There is a third or middle way to look at interpreting and applying the Bible. This third way is a humble acceptance that we have been given the Bible as a gift from God in our own language. And because of this gift, we should not take the responsibility of reading and applying the Bible lightly, nor should we arrogantly assume that the scriptures are only for the educated elite who know the original languages and have been to seminary.

It is very important to read and rightly interpret and apply the scriptures. We should always carefully read the scriptures as a whole and we should read them in their intended context. Reading and understanding our Bibles is hard work and we should be thoughtful in how we interpret and apply it.

While the Bible is for everyone, it is not some fortune cookie we can take lightly or flippantly read and disregard. We must treat the scriptures with the respect they deserve as God’s Word. We must also do the hard work in interpreting the Bible as we read it. We must rightly handle the scriptures.

In the short article Seven Keys to Understanding Scripture, by Tremper Longman III, Longman says:

Everyone who reads the Bible interprets the text. Unfortunately, however, the Bible is not always easy to understand. Even when the text seems straightforward, we may feel uncertain that our interpretation is right. All of us want to treat the Word of God with the respect it deserves, and we certainly don’t want to read into it things that are not there. For these reasons, we need to apply the basic principles of hermeneutics—the science of interpretation—as we read the text.

In the short article Seven Keys to Understanding Scripture; Longman gives seven simple guidelines to help the reader of the Bible to comprehend what God’s Word is saying. These keys help the reader to think through important factors of Biblical interpretation like the author’s original intended meaning, the context of the passage, the literary genre of the passage, the historical and cultural background of the passage, the grammatical structure of the passage, interpreting experience in light of scripture, and looking at the Bible as a whole.

The seven keys to understanding scripture are:

Principle 1—Look for the Author’s Intended Meaning.
Principle 2—Read A Passage in Context.
Principle 3—Identify the genre of the passage you are reading.
Principle 4—Consider the historical and cultural background of the Bible.
Principle 5—Consider the grammar and structure within the passage.
Principle 6—Interpret experience in light of scripture, not Scripture in the light of experience.
Principle 7—Always seek the full counsel of Scripture.

Recognizing that the Bible is a gift to us from God, we should give the Bible the prayerful respect it deserves in reading, interpreting and applying it to our lives. We should avoid the extreme of prideful and passive self-service in our reading and the prideful extreme of arrogant elitism. May we choose the third way, reading our Bibles responsibly, reading them with discernment, and reading with thoughtful consideration and research, while taking comfort in what Longman asserted, “The God who gave us His Word longs for us to understand it even more than we do.”

Prayer of Saint John Chrysostom Before Reading Sacred Scripture

O Lord Jesus Christ, open the eyes of my heart, that I may hear Your word and understand and do Your will, for I am a sojourner upon the earth. Hide not Your commandments from me, but open my eyes, that I may perceive the wonders of Your law. Speak unto me the hidden and secret things of Your wisdom. On You do I set my hope, O my God, that You shall enlighten my mind and understanding with the light of Your knowledge, not only to cherish those things which are written, but to do them; that in reading the lives and sayings of the saints I may not sin, but that such may serve for my restoration, enlightenment and sanctification, for the salvation of my soul, and the inheritance of life everlasting. For you are the enlightenment of those who lie in darkness, and from You comes every good deed and every gift. Amen.

Bibliography

Seven Keys to Understanding Scripture, by Tremper Longman III:

http://www.cosnet.org/media/docs/community-life/articles/Seven%20Keys%20to%20Understanding%20Scripture.pdf

Prayer of Saint John Chrysostom Before Reading Sacred Scripture:

http://saintnicholasraleigh.org/prayer_before_reading_scriptures

The Fruit of the Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit, photo from here

“The Christian life, the fruit of the Spirit, is a constant reckoning of the flesh as dead and a constant relying on the present Spirit of Christ to produce love, joy, and peace within.” – John Piper

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, [patience], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” –Galatians 5:22-25

The fruit of the Spirit is fruit a believer bears as a direct result of the Spirit of God at work within them. God’s Spirit works in us, through us, and despite of us. If we bear any of the fruit of the Spirit, it is God who is at work bearing that fruit.

If we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit, we must not live according to our sinful or fleshly desires. We must die to our self-centered passions and desires if we are to live in the Spirit and keep in step with God’s Spirit. Those who crucify the sinful nature and keep in step with the Spirit bear the fruit of the Spirit. We cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit on our own; it is the Spirit’s fruit.

A tree can be known by its fruit

“Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” –Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus

Jesus stated this plainly, “Every good tree bears good fruit.” If we are walking with Christ, and keeping in step with His Spirit, we will bear good fruit. If we are walking according to our sinful or fleshly nature, we will bear bad fruit. As Jesus clearly said, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” We can clearly see where we stand with Christ and how we are relating to God by the fruit we bear in our lives.

We cannot bear fruit on our own

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  –John 15:5, Jesus

“The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” –Galatians 2:20

We cannot bear fruit on our own. Scripture is clear on this. If we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit, we must abide in Christ and live by faith in Him. If we abide in Christ, we will bear much fruit, but if we do not abide in Him, we can do nothing.

Paul also stated in Galatians 2:20 that the lives we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God. We cannot live to our sinful selves and keep in step with God’s Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit. We must walk in faith and keep in step with the Spirit of God to bear the fruit of His Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the fruit of the Spirit and perfectly lived out the fruit of the spirit for us to observe. It is only in Christ, and through the Spirit of Christ in us, that we can bear the fruit of the Spirit.

The word embodiment can mean personification, picture, example, or expression. Jesus certainly embodied or personified the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus is also the perfect expression of God’s Holiness and the fruit of God’s Spirit. In Jesus we see the perfect picture of the fruit of the Spirit, through the perfect work of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot look to Jesus as merely a picture or example, which we must follow, however. No. We must be taken over and Jesus must control us. We must allow God to be God and submit to His Lordship over our lives. We must allow God’s Spirit to indwell us and to produce the fruit of His Sprit in us. It is in Jesus Christ alone that we are able to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus embodies these fruits in us by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

The following is the fruit of the Spirit God produces in us by His Holy Spirit:

Love: We have love in Christ alone we

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  –1 John 4:8, John

• Jesus is the embodiment of love 
• We love because God is love 
• We love because He loved us first

Joy: Our joy is in Christ alone

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” –John 15:11, Jesus

• Our joy is complete in Christ alone
• Jesus is the embodiment of Joy

Peace: Our peace is in Christ alone

“And through [Jesus] to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” –Colossians 1:19-20, Paul

• Jesus has made peace through the cross 
• Jesus is the embodiment of peace

Patience: In Christ we have patience

“Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.”  –Colossians 1:11, Paul

• Jesus empowers us to have patience
• Jesus is the embodiment of patience

Kindness: Is found in Christ alone

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  –Ephesians 4:32, Paul

• We can show kindness because Jesus has shown us kindness 
• Jesus is the embodiment of kindness

Goodness: Christ alone is good

“’Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good--except God alone.’” –Mark 10:18, Jesus

• We are only good in Christ Jesus 
• Jesus is the embodiment of goodness

Faithfulness: Christ alone is faithful

“But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” –Hebrews 3:6

• Jesus is faithful when we are not 
• Jesus is the embodiment faithfulness

Gentleness: True Gentleness is in Christ alone

“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  –Colossians 3:12, Paul

• Christ is the embodiment of true gentleness 
• We should be gentle in Christ’s gentleness

Self-control: True self-control comes through Christ alone

“Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  –Romans 7:21-25, Paul

• Jesus is the embodiment of perfect self-control 
• We can control ourselves through Jesus Christ alone

Transformation

Transformation, photo by Hoot Owl from Flickr

The following blog post, Transformation, is an excerpt from an article on transformation posted originally on Preaching Magazine’s website. You can read the article in its entirety here.

Being transformed and transforming our world for the glory of Jesus Christ is an important mission and this transformation is at the heart of Christianity. Paul emphasized transformation in Romans 12:2 when he said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Here, Paul is directing us away from conformity and towards transformation. What a glorious mission!

In The Message version of Romans 12:2, it says, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” The essence of this passage is the reality that we all will be shaped by something. How we are shaped will affect the world around us, for better or for worse. We should always be mindful of how we are being shaped and how we are affecting the world.

Paul goes on to say, “fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (Rom. 12:2, Message).

God desires to change us from the inside out. We are changed by learning what God wants from us and by responding to it, in obedience to His will. While the culture and the sinful world around us attempts to stunt our growth and keep us in sinful patterns of immaturity, God desires for us to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ, bringing out the very best in us.

As Christians, we should recognize this high call of transformation. We should realize, as Paul did, that transformation is at the heart of the gospel. We should recognize that transformed people transform people and transformed people transform the world for the glory of Jesus Christ.

A Prayer of Self-dedication: Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to You, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly Yours, utterly dedicated unto You; and then use us, we pray, as You will, and always to Your glory and the welfare of Your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (Adapted from The Book of Common Prayer, Online, p. 832, 833)

The following blog post, Transformation, is an excerpt from an article on transformation posted originally on Preaching Magazine’s website. You can read the article in its entirety here.