Power to the People!

One school of thought in church leadership is that preachers must not talk of Greek and Hebrew lest the congregation believe that Biblical interpretation is best left to the "experts."

While it is true that people who have gone to seminary or Bible college may be better equipped to understand the Bible, it is definitely NOT true that unless you go to said school you will not be able to interpret and understand the Bible at all. In fact, I have encountered people without any formal training to be extremely knowledgeable in God's Word through their own reading and personal study.

Honestly I think the problem lies in the fact that many Christians have not learned to feed themselves in the Word daily, for whatever reasons. They neither study nor read the Bible on their own. Is it any wonder that people will automatically defer to the "experts" then?

It will always be natural to question whether or not we are interpreting the passage correctly, but it should not cause you to abandon your own personal Bible reading and study. If anything it should cause you to read and study even more. Otherwise you'll always be at the mercy of someone else to interpret for you.

Don't forget that Satan knows the Bible better than you do, and he will do all he can to twist and distort God's Word in your mind to help you be at best ineffective and at worst, harmful to God's Kingdom-work. If you know your Bible well, then you will be able to counter his attacks just as Jesus did during his temptation in the wilderness.

If you are having difficulty with your Biblical interpretation, stick to the 20-20 rule. This rule means that you read 20 verses before and 20 verses after your passage. That way you will have a better grasp of the context in which the author wrote the verse or passage in question.

Reading big chunks of the Bible daily and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the Word will change your life more than any sermon ever will. When you learn to feed yourself in the Word daily (as opposed to being fed weekly by someone else) spiritual maturity will not be far away.

Don't take God's Word for granted. Learn to love it and you will go far in your walk with Jesus.

Which Soil Are You?

One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him: “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.

The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.

The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.

The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.

And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.

Take time to honestly reflect on this question: Which soil best describes you? If you are not bearing fruit, sow God's word into your life as much as possible. Soon you will show yourself to be the good soil.

The Deity of Christ

For those of you who are still wondering how orthodox Christianity came to the conclusion that Jesus is God (because you were too lazy, uh I mean busy to do your own research) consider these. They are not exhaustive by any means, but not too shabby being off the top of my head. I will let you find the references if you need them.

Jesus called himself, "I am." Doesn't mean much to us, but the Jews definitely knew what he was trying to say, that's why they wanted to stone him for blasphemy.

Jesus also never refused anyone's worship. For example, when "Doubting" Thomas responded to seeing Jesus' wounds, he said, "My Lord and My God." Jesus did not correct him, which would have been normal for all servants of God.

All the other heavenly beings (the good ones, anyway) always refused when someone tried to worship them, saying stuff like, "Do not do it, I am a servant just like you."

The Father was pleased with Jesus, which he would not have been if he were truly blaspheming.

Read your Bible! Know what you believe and why. It will make a difference in your life.

What Would You Say to This?

Imagine talking to a Muslim person and he says that he can prove that Jesus is not God, even using the Bible as his authority. He tells you to watch this video:



After watching the video with him, how would you respond? Would you be like the vast majority of believers whose strongest response would be, "You should talk to my pastor." Or would you be able to answer these arguments on your own?

Of course it should be the latter. You need to be able to defend your own faith, knowing what you believe and why you believe it!

I found this video on YouTube last week and was thinking about how important it is for us as Christians to know what the Bible says. I should not have been surprised to find that there exists such a thing as Muslim Apologetics.

The book I mentioned in Sunday's sermon about people from different walks of life coming to faith in Christ, called The Unexpected Journey by Thom Rainer, also mentions how important it is for believers to know the Bible.

How can you be a good witness to people of other faiths or even answer their questions if they know the Bible better than you do?

True, their interpretation may be faulty, but unless you know how to explain what the fault is and why it is faulty, in the worst case scenario, instead of drawing the other closer to Jesus, you may end up losing your own faith!

Spend time in God's word. Truth matters.

What's It Say?

In doing some research for last week's sermon, I came across a quote that was attributed to Robert Fulghum: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”

Hopefully you know the original author of that quote. And if you don't, I would recommend you read your Bible more.

It's amazing how many people want to know God and want to hear from him yet will not open their Bibles. There is nothing more concrete about God than his word, so if you are not hearing from him, open the Scriptures and read!

Don't Walk in Darkness

So we are about a month into our "Read the Bible in a Year" plan and if you are like most people, you probably have fallen behind. And it's only been a month!

This post is not to beat you up over that, but to encourage you. The prospect of trying to catch up if you've missed a significant number of readings is enough to make many people quit. For those who are in that boat I have one word for you: Don't!

You do have a couple of options here. One is to catch up slowly, either on Sundays and/or maybe even a little bit every day. But I would encourage you to read the current day's assignment, then for your "catch up" time, you can go back. You do have 11 more months to do it, after all.

One other option is to forget the past and start anew. Just read what everyone else is reading and you'll "catch up" when we start the process again next year.

Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Let's not walk in darkness!

Press On!

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path...

We are now just about two weeks into the new year, and this is the time where people begin to waver on their commitments to their new year's resolutions. But hopefully this is not so with our commitment to read the Bible through in a year.

One Bible reading plan I saw was for the Bible to be read in three years. The reasoning was that reading about three chapters a day is unrealistic and going through the Bible a chapter or so a day was much more realistic.

On average, I take about 15 minutes to read through my daily assignment. 15 minutes! Isn't it a sad time when people aren't expected to devote even 15 minutes a day to reading God's word? I speak for myself as well, as I know that reading through the Bible in a year is not easy.

Interestingly enough, the other day I actually read farther than I was supposed to because I was getting into the story of Jacob in Genesis!

If you are experiencing difficulty keeping up with the daily readings, hang on! God's word is not just for show, but he uttered them with a specific purpose.

Isaiah 55:10-11

10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Read the Bible in a Year

One of my goals for the upcoming year is to start reading the Bible through every year. Ambitious, I know, but is there a better way to familiarize myself with the Word of God than reading it consistently? Of course, I'll just take it one year at a time, but that's my plan, anyway!

In seminary I met a man who had read the Bible through some 80 times or something ridiculous like that. Is it any wonder that he would possess a first-rate knowledge of the Bible?

I have a plan that combines both OT and NT reading at the same time, with assignments on M-Sat. only, with Sundays being a day of rest or for catch-up. If you would like a copy of it, please email me at gregg.morita@tccbc.net and I'll send one out to you.

May God's Word bless you this year!

Worrying and Complaining

Jesus, after telling the story of the man who spent his life storing up good for himself only to die without a chance to enjoy it, said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear." (Luke 12:22)

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?", he queried (Luke 12:25).

It's a good point; why do we worry about things we can't control? And when examined closely, do we really even have that much to complain or worry about?

In today's Wall Street Journal Opinion, Gregg Easterbrook points out some interesting statistics about the state of our Union.

Unemployment is 5.5%, low by historical standards; income is rising slightly ahead of inflation; housing prices are down, but the typical house is still worth a third more than in 2000; 94% of Americans do not have threatened mortgages, and of those who do, most will keep their homes.

All forms of pollution other than greenhouse gases are in decline; cancer, heart disease and stroke incidence are declining; crime is in a long-term cycle of significant
decline; education levels are at all-time highs.

Sure, gas prices are up, the dollar is weak and credit is tight – but these are complaints at the margin of a mainly healthy society.

So why are we so worried? Why do we spend so much time fretting over frivolous things like gas prices? (Did you know that California gas prices are still cheaper than in the UK, Germany, or France?)

Could it be that we, as sinful humans, are proned to complain and worry? I think our worry and our discontent comes from an inability to see all the good things that God has blessed us with. Worry is a form of unfaithfulness and complaining is ungodly discontent.

Take a moment today to consider all the wonderful things that you do have instead of focusing on all the bleak forecasts we hear around us. Remember Jesus' words; "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" (Luke 12:24)

Press on!

Testing the Spirit

I recently came across a YouTube video of a man named Todd Bentley who is a part of a new "ministry" that is unlike any I've ever seen.

While I was initially shocked by the graphic violence he talks about as being inspired by the Holy Spirit, I ultimately did not feel threatened or disturbed by his claims. In the short video below, Bentley describes tackling, punching and even kicking the faces of people he alleges the Holy Spirit asked him to.

Though I personally don't believe the Holy Spirit is behind this new "movement", I don't have a lot of evidence to prove it is unholy. All I have in my defense is the record of what miracles the Spirit has taken part in as described by scriptures and my own gut feeling. Neither of those defenses are particularly strong when held under scrutiny because many of the miracles that were performed in Jesus' time and during the time of the early church were all without precedent. (I'm sure the whole speaking in tongues thing was pretty strange to those observing for the first time!)

But my comfort is found in Paul's exhortation that as mature Christians, "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (Ephesians 4:14)"

New fads of ministry will come and go. Whether they are legitimate or not, we needn't be swayed by what the current crop of popular Christians might be involved in.



Paul says to a young Timothy,

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned {them,} and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I don't know if the whole Todd Bentley thing is real or not (I suspect it is not) but it doesn't matter to me. According to what Paul says, I am to continue in the things I have learned... things that I am convinced of and have known since childhood. My theology is clear. The scripture that I know is adequate - I don't need a new add-on.

The new trends of the season may be legitimate additions to God's repertoire of ministry techniques, but if all I ever do is hold on to what I already know to be true, then I needn't worry about the latest fads. I don't have to worry I'm missing out on God's "new instructions". I already have His old instructions.

And those will work fine from now until He comes again.

Press on.

Can You Take the Bible "Literally"? Part II

Previously, I posted part of a letter from Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason. In his letter, Greg discussed the most practical way to read the bible is not unlike the way you read the sports pages.

If it states a fact or an event, take it literally. If it states something metaphorically or poetically, take it that way. Greg suggests that we don't think one sports team LITERALLY "crushed" another team when we read that in the sports section of our newspaper - we take it to be a metaphor for "defeating the other team decidedly." Likewise, we don't literally think God's Holy Bible can shine a light onto a darkened path at nighttime. We would use a flashlight or lantern for that purpose.

So now one might ask, when do you take the Bible "literally" and when do you take it - say, "metaphorically"? Greg has an opinion...

Let's see the rest of his letter... (click image to enlarge.)

Can You Take the Bible "Literally"?

Greg Koukl from Stand to Reason has a great approach for answer the question, "can you take the bible literally?"

Here is a portion of a letter I received from Greg's organization.


To learn more, visit the outstanding Christian apologetics website, Stand to Reason at http://www.str.org/
click on the image to enlarge





I will post the rest of the letter soon...