Highs and Lows….
The Incredible:
Amazing chapel today. Jason Nightingale is a beast 
Seriously though, almost his entire message was him quoting various passages Scriptures, and then reciting the book of Philippians. He did it in such a way too, that made it feel like any other chapel speaker giving a message! It just felt like any other day in chapel, except that it was ALL Scripture!! I think teaching today (to point fingers especially at those who hold strongly to the self-understandability, or clarity of the Bible) would benefit a lot from straight up speaking the Word of God. Not speaking on the Word of God, but actually speaking it, reading it, making it come alive. Especially if we hold to the idea that the Scriptures are alive:
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” -Author of Hebrews
If you’d like to hear the chapel today, I’ll try to post the link once its up.
The Ugly:
If you read this and you are part of the blogging or news media arena, please, PLEASE leave my school alone! Large media outlets (mostly local) are picking up on the controversy going on at this campus. Its been blown so far out of proportion now that its getting ludicrous! This university is in no way going to hell in a hand basket as everyone seems so eager to paint it right now. So many uninformed and uninvolved people are trying to get their two cents in while doing nothing but damage to the name of Jesus and to our reputations as Christians. Please pray for Cedarville University, for the administration caught up in all of this, and that God would somehow come out as glorified in all of this mud throwing… Its really hard to see how that can happen as far as its come.
I’m one hundred percent with you on the power of pure Scripture. As important as exegesis and interpretation are, there is so much to just being covered in Scripture itself. Psalm 119 is just one place that talks about having a love for God’s word. And that doesn’t come from having it on your shelf! It comes from reading, and reading, and reading. Sometimes we think we need to add to Scripture to make it powerful enough to change people’s lives, but that is not true. Scripture is more powerful than anything we could ever come up with. Use it! Not only was I encouraged and convicted by today’s chapel, but I also loved when they did that chapel right before Easter that was just the redemptive story from OT to NT using chunks of Scripture for the whole chapel. One of the highlights of this year has definitely been God’s answer to my prayer for a growing passion for Scripture.
Kaitlin S.
March 31, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Hey Luke. I was accused a year or more ago of listening to much to what others said and not spending enough time in The Book. I thought at the time that there was some truth to that but at the same time I was spending a good deal of time reading and studying and generally without outside commentary. It was odd to me that the person who made that characterization of our church board, also attended a woman’s ministry on a regular basis, led Bible studies for other women, and attended conferences and seminars for women. In fact I would ask you as well. What have you read more pages of lately, scripture? or human authors about philosophy, the emergent church, postmodernism, etc. What have you written more about lately, quoted scipture or your own ideas of what you are exploring is right and wrong with society, the church, politics, etc. I’m not denegrating your choices there but rather trying to show you that there is a very real place for preachers, teachers, authors to take the word of God and help to contextualize it for the hearers. There are examples of that in scripture in Stephen’s defense before he was murdered. The book of James was a pastors notes of his sermon to his congregation. We have record of Apollos teaching with great ability even when his knowledge was limited and had to be filled out by Priscilla and Aquilla. Paul taught Timothy much that he needed to know so that he could pass it on to the church at Ephesus. Similarly he taught Titus to manage the church at Corinth (I may have the churches they were sent to wrong, I’m speaking without checking my facts right now). The danger of course is that there are false teachers out there. Paul knew that too and suggested that the church never accept blindly what is spoken by a “teacher” but take what is said and run it against the standard of scripture. Could God have chosen just to give us his word and supernaturally reveal an understanding of what it means and how it applies? Yes, but he didn’t do that. Instead he says “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news”. If you look at where that quote in Romans comes from, Isaiah 52:7, you see it was more than just a proclamation of scripture.
Gap
I’m a little over half way through McLaren’s book. I want to finish before I comment on it or your questions from a few posts ago.
Pete vdH
March 31, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Totally agree on the fact that speaking about a passage is very useful to people, especially in working to explain the history/background or original language of a passage. So I hope this post didn’t come across as condemning of that means of teaching. BUT, I think there should be more of letting the Bible speak as it is written, plain and simply. Its a story that is worth telling by letting it speak as it was spoken… Certainly we need to understand it for the purpose of making it live in our lives, especially as teachers, but I think there is great benefit to reading without feeling the need to draw all possible points possible from each word of Scripture. I would read the Bible far more, I think if I thought of it as something I can read for fun, instead of always needing to pull out application. The OT is a cool segment to read when I look at it this way.
Again, not trying to undermine teaching on passages, but I think there should be equal time for just plain ole reading too!
Thanks for the clarification. Sometimes I word things too blanketedly (thats not a word
plukevdh
March 31, 2008 at 4:40 pm