Observing the Church in action (anonymously)

Exploring something new can be a bit intimidating. The excitement to pursue an interest to learn or do something new is often accompanied by a level of fear. There can be the fear of looking foolish in front of friends or family members when your enthusiasm in starting a new hobby isn't matched by your skill at it.

There can be a fear that others might not understand your desire to explore something new. It is only natural that you might want to begin to explore this new interest without a lot of people watching you. As much as possible, you'd like to be anonymous.

This can be true particularly when it comes to attending a church. Walking through the doors of a church for the first time can be a rather intimidating experience. There are some churches who ignore new attendees while there are others, on the other extreme, which pay so much attention to newcomers that those visitors feel as if they are being smothered and have become an open spectacle for all to see.

There are many churches which have purposely sought to find a balance in their approach in welcoming visitors. It is a learned skill on the part of members of a church to greet newcomers but not try to become their new best friends within the first five minutes after meeting each other.

Christians have often been on the leading edge of using new technology to help spread the faith in new and interesting ways. When a revival which started in New York City in the autumn of 1857 began to spread to other places in the United States, pastors in New York, Boston and Philadelphia used the 19th century version of the Internet, the telegraph, to stay in daily communication with each other with news about the spread of the revival in their cities. When Americans started moving westward as pioneers, some evangelists began to use railroad passenger cars as "chapel cars" so that a chapel could come to the people even if people could not otherwise get to a chapel or church building.

In the same spirit, with the continued expanding role of the Internet in our lives, one local church has developed an approach to allow visitors a sense of anonomity and to be able to observe a church service in a way that allows interaction in a virtual community using the Internet. Toward that goal, Woodside Bible Church of Troy Michigan has recently launched an "Internet Campus." The purpose of their effort is to give those who want to know more about the Christian faith the ability to observe a worship service, sermon or a Sunday School class and to do so anonymously. It would be like attending a church service in a room with a one-way mirror. The visitor can see out into the church but others cannot see him.

You can link to the Internet Campus here. There are opportunities to watch a video of the most recent church service, participate in a chat room, read the Bible online, create a customized Bible reading plan and even to ask for prayer with one of Woodside's online staff. None of this is meant to replace the in-person gathering of believers for worship and hearing the Bible explained and taught. However, it is a great way to reach out to people who are curious about Christianity and the church by using the same technology that they now use to search for answers to life's questions, namely through an online presence.

The Benefit of Reading Multiple Bible Versions

During my seminary days back in the 1990s, one of the classes I was required to take was Biblical Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is a word we usually don't use in everyday conversation. Perhaps the class title should have been what the original class name really means...Biblical Interpretation.

The professor who taught the class was a man named Haskell Stone. He had been a Christian for many decades. I'm thankful for not only his academic knowledge of guidelines for correctly interpreting the Bible but also what he could teach us in the class based on his experience as a believer in Christ.

The one piece of counsel he gave us that has stuck with me over these years has been that we should systematically, over time, read through different translations of the Bible. Professor Stone remarked that the slight differences in the way in which a translation renders certain words and phrases could give us a broader understanding of what the Bible means in a given passage. I have taken up the challenge. Over the years, I have read through the Bible in the King James Version, New International Version and the New American Standard Bible translation. During this year, I have been reading through the English Standard Version.

Following through on Professor Stone's advice to us has really been a blessing. There are variations in these four translations which in many passages provide a depth of meaning of which I would not be aware had I not read that passage in a different translation. These variations can happen for a number of reasons.

One of those reasons happens to be the method in which a translation was made. Of the four translations which I have read, the King James version is probably the most literal translation (i.e. word for word) among the four. The New American Standard and the English Standard Version are also translated more literally, but in contemporary English and not the English of 400 years ago. The New International Version is translated as a "dynamic equivalence" work. This means that a priority is given to translating the Bible in an "idea for idea" method.

Sometimes, there are variations in the way that one biblical manuscript will read from another. These "textual variants" can occur for a number of reasons (which I may explore in this blog at another time). The overwhelming number of variations occurred due to a difference in spelling or simply repeating a word when visually copying a manuscript by hand. However, some variations reflect what a scribe may have thought a word meant rather than the word itself. One example can be found in Jude 1:5. In most of the translations I have read, there is a reference to the Lord saving a people out of Egypt. However, in reading the English Standard Version, the manuscripts from which it was translated used the word "Jesus" and not "Lord". That really grabbed my attention. Really early in church history, some scribe correctly understood that while God saved His people out of Egypt, since Jesus is God, Jesus saved His people out of Egypt.

In reading the Bible, one big help can be reading a translation with cross-references and a list of the textual variants all in one place. In 1 Peter 2:24, we read: "and He Himself (Christ) bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness." The versions of the New American Standard have those cross-references and alternate readings. In some manuscripts, the word "cross" is replaced with "wood." When I discovered this, the meaning of this verse took on a deeper signifance for me. Jesus was placed upon the wood of the cross. However, to read this passage as Jesus was laid on the wood, the imagery of the burnt offerings referred to in the Old Testament really comes out. Jesus being laid on the wood reminds us that of all the Old Testament burnt sacrifices which needed to be done over and over again, Jesus performed one sacrifice perfectly (once for all according to the book of Hebrews).

There are many other examples which I can raise. First, let me encourage you to read the Bible, in its entireity from Genesis to Revelation. Once you have read through the entireity of a translation of the Bible, please consider doing another full reading in another translation. You will be presented with a deeper sense of what God is telling you in the text. It is worth the effort.

My new book is now on Kindle

Today is a day of double reason for celebration for me. This is the 100th entry for this blog. Also, today is the first day in which my book Restoring All Things In Christ is available on Amazon Kindle.

The book can be purchased here from Amazon for $2.99. Turns out that you don't necessarily need to use a Kindle device to read a Kindle e-book. The app for Kindle is available for iPod, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android devices.

The idea behind the book got its start when I took a tour of President Rutherford Hayes' house in February 2007. Several sections of the house were under restoration during my visit. Seeing this work in progress gave me a number of ideas to consider. They reminded me how restoration is a central theme of the Bible. As the text for the book developed, there were many a Thursday night when I would visit a local Caribou or Starbucks, grab some coffee and turn on my laptop to work on giving a literary expression to my meditations on restoration.

I want to thank my wife Julie, Dr. David Hodge, his wife Michelle Hodge, Dorothy Riley and the Senior Pastor of Troy Christian Chapel, Dan Lewis for proofing various drafts of the book. I also want to thank my godson Anthony Veltri Jr for his insights after reading one of the drafts of the book. I could not have gotten this book into its finished form without them.

By now it's obvious that the theme of the book is on restoration. The chapters in the book discuss a number of Scriptural passages which point out to us that God is a restorer. We learn that He calls us to imitate His work of restoration. The book further develops these concepts in three key areas: biblical literacy, restoration of the study of theology on the level of the everyday person and the important role which prayer possesses in our lives. Please feel free to go to the book's webpage on Amazon and take a look Restoring All Things In Christ.

A Two Word Story Revisited

I try not to recycle the postings to this site. However, the time is right to update a posting from several months ago. This has to do with an initiative of several hundred churches in the metropolitan Detroit area to present the Gospel message to the entireity of this region in the forty days after Easter. This initiative goes under the acronym of E.A.C.H. - Everyone A Chance to Hear.

A key component of this initiative is something called the "Two Word Story."The website will be http://2wordstory.com/ The idea is that you will have a word which summarizes a personal aspect of how you came to faith in Christ. For myself, if I were to use a two-word story, it would be the standardized form of that word into a question and then and exclamation. Thus

Trust? Trust!

Let me offer what is my real two word story. It is "the gospel." The word "gospel" comes fro the old English for "good tale" or more literally "good news." Indeed, that is what the Gospel is. It is good news.

In the midst of many "two word stories" which you might be hearing, it must be remembered that, ultimately, this is the only one and actual "two word story."

It involves the announcement of what God did for us humans in the work of His Son, Jesus. While many may be anxious to tell others what Jesus did for them, the proper emphasis must be kept. It is not what Jesus did for ME. It is what JESUS DID for me and for others. In our very individual-oriented culture, my strongest concern about this movement is that fellow Christians might, inadvertantly, center in on the story of their own encounter with Christ and start and END with that. That would be a dreadful mistake. Their experience is the effect. What Christ did in history for us is the cause.

The good news of the Gospel will be (and is) true whether we have internally experienced it or not. When someone tells others of their subjective experience, what differs that experience from anyone else's experiences? Some might have have a "mystical moment" while looking at a sunset, scoring the winning basket in a basketball game or even while under the influence of alcohol or some other mind-altering substance. The Gospel is NOT an emotional personal experience.

Nor is the Gospel something which we are. We cannot "be the Gospel" to others. Such a statement, as it stands, is a category error. It would be similar to bearing the news to a worker that they just received a 100% salary increase effectively immediately. As the message bearer, you are not the salary increase. You merely pass along such good news to the worker. However, if stated correctly, EACH is trying to live out the effects which the Gospel has had on our lives and pass that along in a genuine desire to do good for others in the community. That is commendable.

The good news of Christ as presented in the Bible is an objective announcement. It would be just as true if you live or if you had never existed. It is not about us but rather what Christ did for us.

One of the best summaries of this ultimate good news (the Gospel) which I have ever read is found in an article by Michael Horton called The Great Announcement (linked here) I highly suggest you read it and reflect upon what it says. Christ's followers have been privileged to tell everyone about this good news. Once believed, this good news does bring us joy. We cannot help but inwardly (and outwardly) rejoice when we have placed our lasting trust in the living Jesus, whose work on Earth is the core of the Gospel. My real two word story is "The Gospel."

Wonderful In Our Sight

For those of us who are believers in Christ, there is a deep inner sense that we desire and pray for those who are closest to us, such as neighbors, friends and family members, who are not believers in Christ to join us in our faith. Perhaps a non-believer would look at that desire and see it as a matter of "misery loves company." However, I think that our desire for others to come to faith and trust in Christ is more than simply trying to make others like us.

Christians understand that we have a treasure by being in Christ. The old Puritans would refer to this as "union with Christ." There is in that relationship to Christ a delightfulness which we want to share with others. While there have been exceptions, the primary motive for a Christian to evangelize is not one of creating conformity, seeking dominance or being a kill joy. It has been to show others the utter delightfulness of life in Christ and to share that with others.

This delightfulness is not some sort of spiritual replacement for a drug high. It is not living a problem-free life (Often, when one comes to faith in Christ, some problems end but many new ones begin). This delightfulness is knowing, more, better and deeper, who Christ is. It means a deeper sense of joy that is not always the same as earthly happiness. A believer in Christ can stand by the graveside of a dead spouse or child and, in the midst of very real grief, continue to possess a deep sense of joy and delight in Christ, who sees us through all the circumstances of life.

It is not uncommon to face insult or rebuke for speaking about Christ to others. On some occasions, such insults or rebukes might be justified. Someone might be personally offensive in their presentation. Instead, we must be diplomatic and allow the message (not the messenger) of Gospel to be the expected source of offense. The Good News of salvation in Christ makes no sense if the bad news is not given too. Each of us has sinned and eternally offended the God who has created us. If we don't have a way of standing without sin and fault before God, we face eternal separation from Him. What's worse is that even if we could live a sinless life starting today, the sin of our past has already disqualified us. We need help. The Good News is that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to pay that penalty for every person who trusts & relies on Him. His perfect life is offered to us. Simply believe.

When this offer of the Gospel is presented, it might be met with rebukes or insults. We may be tempted to take this personally. However, words of rebuke or insult do not change what is. Christ is just as marvelous if He is rejected by one as well as being accepted by another.

Let me offer two comparisons. First, let me take Christ's parable of the pearl of great price and tweak it slightly. Let's say that you have acquired not a pearl but a diamond. You have heard about this diamond and have beheld its brilliance. The way that it refracts the light is a delight to behold. You begin to share accounts of this wonderful diamond with others. They begin to insult you or make comments about how they've never seen such a thing. Others might deny that a diamond can be so wonderful to look at. After all that, is the diamond less beautiful and delightful because others fail to appreciate it? Hardly. The diamond remains. Its' delightfulness to you remains.

A second comparison is taken from the life of the Italian astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642). While Galileo is not considered the inventor of the telescope, he is the first known person in history to make observations of the night sky using one. In January 1610, Galileo looked into the night sky and saw wonders no human eye is ever known to have seen before him. He saw the planet Venus go through phases like the Moon does. While his telescope was not powerful enough to make out the detail, he saw what appeared to be bumps on the sides of the planet Saturn (the bumps were really Saturn's rings).

One of those wonders which he was the first to behold was the motion of four moons around the planet Jupiter. See the picture above to get a sense of what Galileo saw. At first, he thought these four objects were simply dim stars. But as he watched night after night, he observed that these "stars" actually moved. He understood that these four objects were small moons in orbit around Jupiter.

Galileo's problem is that he was seeing things which were not supposed to be happening. The Roman Catholic Church of the time had bought into the philosophy of Aristotle. According to that odd mixture of Bible and ancient philosophy, the Earth was the centerpiece of God's creation and thus, quite literally, at the center of the Universe. All things out there were supposed to be revolving around the Earth. However, Galileo discovered exceptions that, according to the Catholic theologians in the land that he lived in in that time, could not exist.

As Galileo began to make known his findings, he ran into trouble with Roman Catholic Church authorities. He pleaded with them to look through his telescope to see these wonders too. They refused. According to them, because (as they reasoned), those things should not be there, they could not be there.

I leave this as the principle behind the second comparison. When we have beheld the glories of God in Christ by faith and seen the wonder of who He is, we often face from others what Galileo faced from the Roman Catholic Church of his time. Because something does not fit a set of pre-conceived notions, whatever seems to contradict those views cannot be there. Those who do not believe follow such a line of "reasoning." They refuse to look at these things.

In Galileo's time, the moons of Jupiters did not stop orbiting Jupiter simply because the Pope and the Cardinals of the Catholic Church refused to believe or to look at the evidence. Every uncloudy night, the evidence was there. In the same way, those who refuse to behold the wonders of Christ don't make Christ go away because they refuse to look and consider. We have these wonders in Christ that no one can take away. At those times when you are discouraged, keep this is in mind and take it to heart.

I'll close with a prayer which Galileo wrote after viewing what he did in the night sky. He was the first to behold the wonders of the night sky in such detail. We too might be the first of our family and friends to behold the wonders of Christ.

"I render infinite thanks to God for being so kind as to make me alone the first observer of marvels kept hidden in obscurity for all previous centuries."

Theology Network

Several years ago, when my two sons were much younger, I bought the book "If You Give a Mouse A Cookie." It's the story of a mouse who visits a young boy's house who, when one thing was asked for by the mouse, another need became obvious (If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll also need milk, if you give him milk and cookies he'll become sleepy and need a nap, etc.).

That often happens when visiting an Internet site. A search for one thing leads to the discovery of something completely unexpected. That happened to me early last year when I was participating in Tim Challies' "Reading the classics together" project. We were reading the book "The Bruised Reed" by Richard Sibbes. I thought that I had seen full electronic copies on the Internet of this title in the past. So, when I started searching, I found a full copy on the website for Theology Network. While I did use the electronic text from Theology Network for my reading of Sibbes' book, I began to look at what was available on the Theology Network.

The site, which is run by the Christian Unions in the United Kingdom, is a wonderful resource for learning about the Christian faith. There are text articles and audio recordings which cover a range of topics, such as learning more about the nature of the God's word, the Trinity, world religions, Christian history and numerous other topics. I'm not new to theological studies and have appreciated when topics which can be complex are explained simply and yet keep a depth of understanding that someone with advanced studies can appreciate as well as a novice to the faith. I suggest you take a look to see what some brothers and sisters in Christ in the UK are doing to promote Christianity not only in Britain but around the world. Their link is here.

One teacher at Theology Network who I've found particularly helpful is Mike Reeves. He is head of theology for UCCF (The parent organization for Christian Unions). He's covered a number of topics which even for myself have been eye-opening and enlightening. I particularly recommend his lesson on "Do It Yourself Theology". Link here.

A Two Word Story

In the very near future, the people of metro Detroit will become familiar with a new "catch-phrase", namely the "two word story." I won't elaborate on details here. Such details will become obvious in the near future.

Let me offer a two word story. It is "the gospel." The word "gospel" comes from the old English for "good tale" or more literally "good news." Indeed, that is what the Gospel is. It is good news.

In the midst of many "two word stories" which you might hear in the near future, it must be remembered that, ultimately, there is only one real "two word story."

It involves the announcement of what God did for us humans in the work of His Son, Jesus. While many may be anxious to tell others what Jesus did for them, the proper emphasis must be kept. It is not what Jesus did for ME. It is what JESUS DID for me and for others. In our very individual-oriented culture, my fellow Christians might, inadvertantly, center in on the story of their own encounter with Christ and start and END with that. That would be a dreadful mistake. Their experience is the effect. What Christ did in history for us is the cause.

The good news of the Gospel will be (and is) true whether we have internally experienced it or not. When someone tells others of their subjective experience, what differs that experience from anyone else's experiences? Some might have have a "mystical moment" while looking at a sunset, scoring the winning basket in a basketball game or even the influence of alcohol or some other mind-altering substance. The Gospel is NOT an emotional personal experience.

The good news of Christ as presented in the Bible is an objective announcement. It would be just as true if you live or if you had never existed. It is not about us but rather what Christ did for us.

One of the best summaries of this good news (the Gospel) which I have ever read is found in an article by Michael Horton called The Great Announcement (linked here) I highly suggest you read it and reflect upon what it says. Christ's followers have been privileged to tell everyone about this good news. Once believed, this good news does bring us joy. We cannot help but inwardly (and outwardly) rejoice when we have placed our lasting trust in the living Jesus, whose work on Earth is the core of the Gospel. My two word story is "The Gospel."