The Town

How is it possible to know that the Bible is true and that it has any authority in our lives? What makes the Bible so different or more important than the Quran, ancient Hindi writings, the Jewish Scriptures alone, or the latest book in the Twilight series? In essence, the question that many asked in our Religious Questions survey was why any of us should trust the Bible? I want to set out to demonstrate several things about the Bible. We will take a look at how the Bible came together throughout history. We will look at the claims of the Bible about itself. And finally we will seek to understand what we are called to believe concerning the Scriptures.

During the 2008 presidential election, Rick Warren hosted an interview with Barack Obama and John McCain in which he asked, "Does evil exist, and if it does, do we ignore it, do we negotiate with it, do we contain it, or do we defeat it?" This question is more complicated in our current generation where evil is not a common term and its existence is often questioned. The aim of Christians should be to come to a biblical understanding of evil and its origins, in order to decipher the proper ways to respond to it.

What is going on in churches and in the Christian faith today? What exactly do we believe and why? Can Christians articulate their beliefs and does it really matter? So what if a person prays a prescribed prayer? Anyone can do that! What are the fundamentals of the faith? To be a right-wing Republican? To be a theological conservative? To be a "Reformed Christian"? Does it really matter what we specifically believe if we already have the "basics"? Why bother with the minutia of theology if all we really need is simple faith? Is it true that a person who simply "prays the prayer" and "lives the life" is saved? Saved from what? Saved from hell? A conscious hell? Really? Do Christians truly believe that all people who don't "believe the way we do" are going to suffer eternal and conscious punishment? If we believe that, why are we not out pleading with our friends and relatives to "come to know the Lord"? What are the fundamentals of the Christian faith?

God has given us parameters for sex. We shouldn't be afraid to talk about them. We should embrace them and celebrate them. Our culture, family, teachers and friends all attempt to dictate what we think and act concerning sex. Rather than allowing these people to dictate our view on sex we should turn to the Bible—God is the author of sex and therefore He knows best. We will all have a choice when we discuss biblical sexuality: We can either obey God or we can ignore Him. In this case, I'm going to go with God, and I hope you will too.

Christianity used to be so easy. All you had to do to be a Christian was to hold on to the fundamentals of the faith. Over time more rules were added as the culture shifted and produced new problems that the church needed to address. For many, Christianity became a list of rules rather than the story of redemption found in Scripture. God was no longer pursuing his people; instead, his people were pursuing their own brand of righteousness. In response to what became known as "legalism," many Christians turned to a newfound freedom in Christ, and abandoned the strict rules the church had created. Unfortunately, many of these freedom-infatuated Christians also abused the gospel message. In their so-called freedom, they gave license to take part in many sinful acts. They too had their own faulty version of the Gospel. Where can we draw the line when we are asking questions about what is permissible and what is sinful? What questions should we be asking when we are making seemingly harmless decisions?

There is no doubt that God designed marriage. Genesis 2 shows God creating a helper and completer for Adam because it was "not good" for man to be alone. In all of his creation, this was the first thing that God declared was not good. So he created Eve, and the Bible states in Genesis 2:24, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." God designed marriage from the beginning, and God does not design anything without purpose.

It's probably a safe bet to say that every Christian, at some point in their life, has asked what God's will for them was. Since we look to him as the Creator and master over all things, it makes sense to consider what he would have us do, where he would have us go, and how he would have us live. Recognizing this aspect of God's lordship is not a stretch for most Christians. But there are two big aspects to God's will that become a concern for us. The first concern orbits around how we go about determining God's will for us. Is it by reading the Bible? Praying? Talking to godly friends? Elders? Going to the pastor? Reading extra-biblical material? Looking for certain circumstances to align? The second concern is closely related to the first, and that is what God's will actually is. Basically, how do we truly know that whatever conclusion we've arrived at is indeed his will for us? Is there ever a way to reconcile these things?

What sometimes gets lost in this story, as we focus on how bad Jonah was, is how evil Nineveh was. They weren't the poor, innocent neighbors who just needed to hear about Jesus. Assyrians hated Israel. They eventually would help undo the entire nation. Eventually, the northern ten tribes of Israel, because of the actions of the Assyrians, would never be heard from again. Jonah had good reason to hate Nineveh. At least he had good human reasons to hate Nineveh. When Jonah was finally obedient, he would only offer an eight word sermon. It is almost as if he thought about it five minutes before he began. Even after the great storm, the great waves, the great fish, Jonah still didn't put much effort into his sermon when he saw the great walls of Nineveh. Who knows? Maybe he just whispered it gently and tried to walk away before anyone started asking questions. Jonah was obedient and only did what was required. Jonah 3 demonstrates what happens when God's people are obedient and love their enemies. It's easy to pi

Jonah 1:17 through all of chapter 2 tell us the story about Jonah's spiritual and physical death. So far, the entire book of Jonah has taken us on a downward journey to Hell itself. There has been no little debate about whether or not Jonah was actually in the belly of a fish for three days. It would be hard to remain dogmatic about certain interpretations. The focus of these verses is that Jonah, the disobedient prophet, from the time Yahweh spoke to him up unto this point, continued to spiral downward until the point of death. The message here is that Jonah was a dead man in need of rescue. God, in his patience and love, appoints a great fish to rescue his disobedient servant. Jonah, suffering a horrible ordeal, is transformed. Many teachers have taught that the great fish was God's way of punishing Jonah. We focus on the smell, or the pain and suffering. But the fish is meant to show us salvation through the death of ourselves. When we come to the end of ourselves, there is either darkness or there is ligh

In Jonah 1:4-16, we continue to learn a lot about the man Jonah, about ourselves, and about Jesus. We'll get to the Jesus part in just a moment. But first let's talk about us. Just like Jonah, we try to thwart God. We have gone astray. Psalm 51 tells us we were sinful from the time we were conceived. We didn't have a shot at being perfect. For some reason, we continually try to thwart God. Paul explains this best when he talks about our flesh (sin loving part of us) continuing to win some battles in this life (see Romans 7). Even though the Christian has been saved from sin and desires to do what is right, we often still do what we know is wrong. In these sinful episodes, we find ourselves trying to thwart God. For some reason, whether out of ignorance, defiance, or plain stupidity, we think we can outrun, out-maneuver, and out think God. We do this by trying to make God's commandments friendly so that we can be comfortable with our hypocrisy and disobedience. Jonah, like us, was a sinner who needs to be save

Like Jonah, we are prone to disobey, despite the clarity of God's call on our lives. Our rebellion is often based in fear, self-righteousness, a wrong understanding of God's character, or some combination of the three. Whatever the case, we can see in Jonah that God's plans will be accomplished despite our disobedience. God's sovereignty, patience, and desire to save all people will not be swayed by our desire to flee, our resistance to being on mission, or our selfishness in thinking that God's blessings are somehow reserved only for us.

The main message of Jonah is often missed because of much debate around whether or not the story is historical or a fable. We have already devoted much time to discussing the nature of Jonah. Let's look into the message. Jonah reveals much to us about God's character. We learn through this amazing story that God is a universal God, He desires to bless us rather than blow us sky high, and that He is patient with us even though we are selfish and imperfect. Before we begin to take a look at ourselves, we should begin with who God is and how He loves His people. As we begin to understand this overarching message, the rest of Jonah will make more sense to us. Ask yourself what you believe about God's character. Compare your understanding of God's nature and character with what the book of Jonah reveals.

The Gospel of Luke has often been likened to a manual on true discipleship. Luke 9-19 explores the journey to Jerusalem that Jesus took with His disciples. Jesus knew He was heading to the cross. It would be a burden of unspeakable pain and misery. And yet, Jesus was to fulfill the will of the Father. On the road, Jesus teaches His disciples what it means to be a disciple of the Savior. Luke records several instances when people express initial interest in Jesus, but, upon learning about what it takes to follow Him, decide to head back to their homes or their ordinary lives. In this passage we find that Jesus wants His disciples to leave possessions for experience. Jesus wants a trader to "live dangerously" so they can see God work in and through them.

Every church has a mission statement. Well, at least they are told they are supposed to have a mission statement. You will notice that the mission statements of Bible-believing churches look very similar to each other. That is because Jesus gave the church its mission statement in Matthew 28. It is Christ's desire that His church should proclaim his name, baptize His people, and teach them all that Jesus taught. The Church's purpose is to "get, gather and glorify." Our mission statement at Stone's Throw is to participate fully in God's mission and purpose as we introduce people to Jesus and mobilize them to change the world. This involves introducing new people into situations where they can hear about the Good News of Jesus, being purposeful in gathering the whole church together for kingdom building and discipleship, and glorifying God through worship that is of the Spirit and in truth.

There are many churches popping up all over Middletown. One question we will have to ask ourselves is whether or not we are valuable to the community. What makes a church valuable? Our value is in how much of Jesus people see when they see us. Are we leading people to the Savior? Our motto says that we want people to "come as they are." When people come, they will want to know if we really mean what we say. Are we willing to demonstrate to people that we practice what we preach? Will we come as we are? Our value will be measured by how transparent we are. Because when we are transparent, open, and honest about what we have been saved from, people will see Jesus rather than us.

Luke records for us in Acts 2 that the church met together with four main purposes. They devoted themselves to apostolic teaching, fellowship, eating together, and prayer. What was the result? It went beyond just being a close-knit group of believers or even having felt needs met. It was much more! These first community groups rocked their community. No church member went without having his/her needs met. The church was glad and sincere; it was worshipful—and it influenced the community. People were added daily to the number. The book of Acts is all about the growth of the church and the resulting "going" of the church. Through the growth of Community Groups, our church will learn to "go" into the community. This is where we understand our motto best, "Come as you are. Go as Jesus says."

The resurrection screams out that God cares about this world and His people. We know that God wants to save His people from sin, but we also must realize that God is saving us TO something. We have to live in the reality and power of the resurrection. Many Christians only focus on avoiding sin but miss the whole picture of how God is moving. Our God desires us to trade our old life for resurrection life. He desires to use us to affect the world. The best way we can affect the world is to be "agents of reconciliation".

Peter's audience were suffering for the cause of their mission. This isn't the case for most American churches. When we do suffer, many Christians view the trial as a punishment or inconvenience. Yet Peter tells us to neither be surprised nor hurt by suffering, but rather joyful. The early church members were no strangers to suffering, and neither should our local congregation be strangers. They were told that their suffering was a cause for rejoicing because they were actually sharing in the suffering of Jesus. Are we willing to be involved with the mission of the church, to find our calling, answer the call, and get beyond our own comfort? A trader is someone who is willing to get beyond comfort and into the fray. A trader is willing to trade comfort for trial.