Are Your Issues with the Fruits or the Roots?

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I have often had people say to me,  “Preacher you need to preach a sermon on ___________ .” Most of the time people fill in that blank with something they think others are doing wrong, or something right that others aren’t doing and need to get busy doing.

Two kinds of issues are at play in every person’s life – fruit issues and root issues.  Fruit issues are the visible evidences of root issues. Most of the time, people suggest preachers preach about fruit issues. Sure, I could preach about tithing, alcohol, church attendance and involvement, etc.; but the best that kind of preaching accomplishes is temporary, guilt-induced behavior modification.  As soon as the next temptation comes, the guilt subsides and the fruit issues re-emerge.

If we properly address the root issues, however, then we will see different and more permanently positive fruit.  We don’t have tithing, attendance, involvement, alcohol, or other fruit problems.  We have LORDSHIP and OBEDIENCE root problems.  The key is to get right at the heart level and the behavior level will naturally improve. That was the whole point of Jesus’ comment in the Sermon on the Mount, “…unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) Their piety was mere outward show, but Jesus calls us to a genuine heart.

I encourage you to ask God to work on you from the inside out.  Ask yourself why you exhibit some of the fruit issues in your life.  Ask God to set your heart right and watch the fruit issues take care of themselves.  Watch how God, as you submit to His Word, brings about genuine and permanent change in your life.

Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life. – Proverbs 4:23

 

Priorities and Prepositions

How do you determine what and who are important in your life and how do you rank their importance when they compete for your time and attention? We call these our priorities.  How do you determine your priorities?

If you were to ask most people to tell you their priorities, they would recite to you a list beginning with what they consider the most important followed by other areas of life in descending order of importance.  Most Christians would begin their list by stating that God comes first, followed by such items as family, job, church, hobbies in some order.  We feel good that we put God at the top of our list, but does the Bible encourage such a practice?  Consider the following:

And He (Christ) is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. – Colossians 1:18

The verse does teach us that Jesus is to come first, that is what it means to “be preeminent,” but notice the preposition that begins that clause.  He is to come first IN all things, not above all things.  When we assign Jesus a place, even the top place, on our priority list, we fail to recognize His lordship in every facet of our lives.

When we give Him first place IN all things, however, we recognize that Jesus is the deciding factor in all of our priorities and decisions: how we appropriate our time, spend or invest our money, carry out our family responsibilities, perform at our jobs, play at our leisure, and serve at our church.  The primary question we ask when we make decisions about our life becomes “where is Jesus in this, what does He want me to do, how can I serve Him?”

Let me suggest a new priority paradigm.  Rather than thinking of your priorities as items on a list, think of your life as a wheel, your priorities as spokes in the wheel, but Jesus as the HUB. What are some ways you can begin reprioritizing your life today to put Jesus at the center of it all?

 

priority wheel

Time to Ask Myself Some Difficult Questions

We’ve spent the last week celebrating the unique freedoms that we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America. With all of the internal problems we’ve had over the last several years, we are still the greatest and freest nation on earth. Yet, we have seen those freedoms slowly eroding over the last few years.

In the face of these eroding freedoms, Christians have been praying for God to intervene and restore us. We’ve prayed and prayed, but the erosion has continued. In spite of calls for reform, we have devolved from a slow drift away from God to a fast track of rebellion into godless selfism. Our prayers have gone largely unanswered because we are praying for the reformation of the wrong people. We’ve prayed that our “leaders” and our “country” would turn to God, when we should be praying for the group most in need of spiritual reformation – us, me, you.

As our churches have celebrated our freedom to worship, many believers have exercised their constitutional right to NOT worship, but to go someplace else. As we fight to defend our freedom of speech, we fail to use that right to speak freely of Jesus to those with whom we work, play, shop, and live. We bemoan the loss of freedom to pray publicly, but we neglect private prayer on a regular basis. Jesus remains a part of our lives, but He is not preeminent. (Colossians 1:18)

We have squandered the freedoms God entrusted to us. He has told us in His word, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” – Luke 12:48

It is time you and I recommit ourselves to a radical obedience to God and His Word. The time is here for us to once again recognize that God comes first and to put away the idols of play that we have erected in our lives. It is time to ask the difficult question: what have I done with the freedom God has given me?

 

Helpful Tools for Bible Study

A Good Study Bible

Study Bibles contain notes along with the text that provide the reader with cross-references, translation helps, and explanations of historical and contextual situations. My recommendation: The ESV Study Bible

A Notebook or Three Ring Binder

This is for taking notes and recording insights that God gives you into the text and how it applies to you. It is also helpful to keep track of what you pray for so you can see God’s activity in your life.

An Appointed Time and Place

You will be surprised how much more consistent you will be if you treat your quiet time like other appointments. It is never wrong to pencil God into your daily schedule! It may be difficult at first, but with time, you will look forward to your time with Him.

Biblical Language Tools

Since the Old Testament was written in Hebrew (and a little Aramaic) and the New Testament was written in Greek, many words have shades of nuance that are lost in translation. Below are a few tools that will help you unlock some of the kernels of truth locked inside of language.

  The Hebrew/Greek Study Bible by Spiros Zodhiates -important words have a number superscripted that leads you to a fuller definition and explanation in the back of the Bible. This is an excellent help for the Bible student.

  Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words by W.E.   Vine, Merrill Unger, and William White. Look up an English word and  find it’s Hebrew and Greek counterparts, where they are used in Scripture and what they mean in context.

 Commentaries – while I am not necessarily a big fan of commentaries, sometimes they are helpful. Look for one-volume commentaries that provide background information on the text rather than commentaries that give the author’s opinion on the meaning and application of the text. My recommendations: IVP Background Commentary on the New Testament and IVP Background Commentary on the Old Testament

Your Most Important Help: The Holy Spirit

One of the works of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to lead us into all truth. God alone is able to reveal Himself to us.

Online Tools

Bible Gateway

My Study Bible (Holman Christian Standard)

You Version.  You Version also has a very good app for your smart phone and/or tablet.

Biblia.Com

 

Seven Ways to Approach a Bible Passage:

1 .PICTURE IT!  Visualize the scene in your mind.

2 .PRONOUNCE IT!  Say the verse aloud, each time emphasizing a different word.

3. PARAPHRASE IT!  Rewrite the verse in your own words.

4. PERSONALIZE IT!  Replace the pronouns or people in the verse with your own name.

5. PRAY IT!  Turn the verse into a prayer and say it back to God.

6. PROBE IT!  Ask the following five questions :

S.P.E.C.K.  QUESTIONS

 Is there a SIN to forsake?

 Is there a PROMISE to claim?

 Is there an ENCOURAGEMENT to hear?

 Is there a COMMAND to obey?

 Is there some KNOWLEDGE to be gained?

7. PRACTICE IT! Find ways to immediately put what God has told you into action.

 

Some Practical Ideas for Bible Study

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One of the reasons many people do not engage the Bible regularly and intentionally is that they have no plan for doing so. Where to start? How to proceed? Today, I want to share a few ways I have found helpful in my Bible intake.

I like to read the Bible regularly in 3 different ways. First, I like to read large passages of Scripture to help me get a broader view of God’s Word. You might consider reading the Bible through in a year or even reading the New Testament through in a year. You can find several Bible reading plans online to help guide you in this process. Several good plans are available here.

I also like to read regularly through Psalms and Proverbs. I often alternate months reading one or the other in addition to my other Bible reading. In months with 30 days, you can read through Psalms by reading 5 a day, and in months with 31 days you can read through Proverbs by reading 1 a day, either easily doable during a lunch hour.

The most important reading, I believe, is Bible reading for devotional purposes – gaining immediately applicable truth and wisdom for daily living. This is best done in smaller sections. For this type of reading, I usually like to read through the Gospels or New Testament letters. I read a paragraph at the time – sometimes only one verse, and occasionally one verse over several days. During this time, I want to learn the truth of the text, in its context, and determine specific ways God wants to apply it to my life.

Often people use devotional books and materials to aid in this process. These are OK, but I find it more beneficial to allow God to speak directly to me through His Word without an intermediary source. I approach a text by asking and answering some questions to discover its truth.

One way to do this is called the SPECK method and asks 5 questions of the text. The keyword in each of the questions begin with a letter than when placed in succession spell the word SPECK.

    • Is there a SIN I need to forsake?
    • Is there a PROMISE I can claim?
    • Is there an ENCOURAGEMENT I need to hear?
    • Is there a COMMAND I need to obey?
    • Is there KNOWLEDGE I need to gain?

 

I also like to write what God reveals to me in my study. Often I even write prayers in response to what I learned. On a regular basis, I look back over my notes to review what God has shown me.

Hopefully these tips will get you on your way to intentional Bible study and unleash the power of God’s Word in transforming your life.

Tomorrow, I plan to share with you some tools I believe can help you unlock the truth of God’s Word, but until then what are some practices that you have found helpful in your Bible study? Click the comment button below and share with us.

How Seriously Do You Take God’s Word?

TheBibleWillChangeYourLifeI want to start off this week with a challenge to my readers to regularly and intentionally read and study God’s Word with the goal of allowing it to transform us into Jesus’ image. Consider the following verse fragment and its implications for our Bible study practice.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… Colossians 3:16a

“Let” – meaningful Biblical engagement must be an INTENTIONAL activity. For God’s Word to affect our lives, we must have a plan to regularly expose ourselves to Biblical teaching. The verb tense of this sentence is an imperative, a command. To be obedient children of our heavenly Father, we will read His Word. To neglect His Word is disobedience.

“word of Christ” – ALL Scripture, Old and New Testaments, is inspired by God, but for today’s believer, I recommend a steady diet of reading in the Gospels where we find the body of Jesus’ teaching and the lessons from His earthly ministry. I see an alarming number of Old Testament passages taken out of their original context and “claimed” by people to who they were not given as “promises” they were never intended to make. The Old Testament stands as a contextual background to help us understand the New Testament, but the New Testament embodies the instructions for believers in this age.

“dwell in you” – All to often, when we do read God’s Word, we read it, close our Bible, then move on without stopping to consider its meaning and its specific application for our life. Remember, Hebrews 4:12 teaches us that the Bible is alive. To all it to “dwell” in us is to allow it to remain in our thoughts, consideration, and ultimately in intour behavior. We call this meditation. We spend thoughtful time considering what God is saying through His Word and what He is saying particularly to us. The Word then continues to dwell in us when we obey it and make what we learn from it a part of the regular practice of our lives.

So…will you make an intentional plan to feed on God’s Word on a daily basis? Will you intentionally seek the truth of God’s Word, ponder it deeply, and apply it courageously? Will you get serious about God’s Word and let it DWELL in your life?

Souvenirs of Sin

The Old Testament relates the perpetual pattern that God’s people Israel follow throughout their existence.  They would live devoted to God for a time, but then grow find of the pagan cultures around them and begin to mingle their worship of God with the idol worship of their contemporaries.  Eventually, they soon would devolve into full-blown idolatry and eventually experienced the punishment of God.  After a time of oppression at the hand of a foreign king, God’s people would cry out to Him in repentance, and God would deliver them only to see the pattern repeated a few years later.

At least eight times in the Historical Bible Books of Kings and Chronicles we find this phrase: “But the high places were not removed…” These high places were locations where they once participated in idol worship.  They were souvenirs of their previously sinful life.

Maybe they left them there because they found it difficult to give up a place to lovely and relaxing. Maybe their High Places remained just in case worshipping God only didn’t work out too well for them. Maybe their High Places remained because they didn’t trust God to meet completely all of their needs. Whatever the reasons, the High Places stood as evidence of hearts that were not completely reliant on and devoted to God.

Where or what are your High Places? What souvenirs of sin do you keep just for comfort sake?  Is it a habit – just in case you get bored or God is not as much fun as you thought He would be? Maybe it is power, or pride, or plans, or a prejudice. Maybe your High Place is an attitude, an agenda, or an affection. What are you withholding from God . . . just in case?

Tear down your high places and trust God with everything in your life.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. – 2 Chronicles 16:9