Job 40:3-5: Listening Is An Opinion

Yesterday, a friend and I were sitting down at our local hangout when another gentleman (a "Michael Bolton" look-alike) overheard our discussion and joined in on the topic of coffee while he waited for his drink to be readied. Sipping his specially concocted brew from a cup, he held forth on hangover remedies, herbal medicines and the evils of the FDA. Sitting down in the next chair, he continued on to sustainable living, solar energy and  monopolies and the sad state of the education system. After an hour, we said good bye. I have a lot of sympathy for him, because he is me on another day.

These past several days I have been reading through the book of Job as he and his "comforters" have attempted to reason out the cause for all of his suffering. Job cannot understand. But if he was to bring is case, as in a court of law, to whom would he bring it? God. Job recognizes this problem early on when he says: "If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both...Then I would speak up without fear of him but as it now stands with me, I cannot." - Job 9:33, 35

In our Men's Group a few weeks ago, we talked about all of the different aspects of fellowship, the sharing of our lives together before God. We looked at many of the "one another" passages which describe how we interact. Then we were asked to rate ourselves, where we do well and where we struggle. My confession, before our group, was in the command to "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Eph. 5:21) I always have an opinion. And, it seems, I always have to speak it. I struggle to submit and leave my opinion unsaid. Speaking is part of my idolatry of self.

Listening is an opinion. Listening is an opinion that shows my respect for a person. Listening is part of my submitting.

Job finally gets what he wants. The Lord "answered Job" and gives a few case examples (Job 38-39) of why Job might want to reconsider bringing charges. Now it is Job's turn.

"Then Job answered the Lord: I am unworthy-how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer-twice, but I will say no more." - Job 40:3-5

Listening is about respect. Does God want to hear our opinion? Surely. That is part of what prayer is about. But at other times, our prayers and proclamations are an attempt to bring God into court to stand charges. At the heart, it comes back to that key question-God asking, "Do you trust me?" Listening is an opinion.

I wrote in my journal earlier this week: My only prayer is to speak in order to build up, with gentleness. But I have been reminded of that old proverb: Don't speak unless you can improve upon silence.

Listen. It speaks volumes.

Prayers of Blessings

When we went to Turkey, one of our goals was to pray over entire cities where there were few, if any, known local believers. What to pray for? The advance of the gospel, certainly, and a breakthrough in receptivity to the gospel. What else?

As part of our training, we were asked to study a useful little book, Blessings: Ways to Pray In Hope, which described 7 ways to pray blessings for a person, a people or a place. Sometimes we would pray as teams walked up and down the streets of the small cities in the province of Cappadocia. Other times we would pray God's blessing from the top of a hill, overlooking the houses and businesses of thousands of residents. "Prayers of blessings are usually expressions of God's intended goodness prayed by ordinary people who pray in the power of having their hearts aligned with God's heart. Blessings bestow a future. Prayers of blessings are always prayers of hope."

1. Peace. Pray that the Lord of peace extends that over a city, over the leaders, over individual lives and that those who work towards peace would be encouraged. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." - Matthew 5:9
2. Increase. Pray that God will bring prosperity, body and soul and abundance without grief. "The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it." - Proverbs 10:22
3. Family Fullness. Pray for flourishing families and integrity of the generations to follow.
4. Abundant Life. "God's gretest desire is that people be alive with his kind of life" Jesus said he came "that they may have life, and have it abundantly." - John 10:10
5. Provision. Pray that God may provide and protect in every way.
6. Transformation. Pray that God's design for a person or city or a nation be revealed, making all things new.
7. Presence. The best blessing may be to recognize him with welcome as he comes, finishing all he has promised. Pray for the personal presence of God, and that the earth is filled with his glory.

When we stopped stop before a business, or a mosque, or a home, or a garden, we could see some of the people, imagined their lives and prayed blessings over them. Prayers like we would pray for our friends. Not just prayers of rescue, but prayers of blessing.

 

Blessings: Ways to Pray in Hope, WayMakers, http://www.waymakers.org/

God Speak: Change My Life

God Speak: Change My Life

 

This is the transcript of a talk I gave as part of a 4 part "How To Study Your Bible" seminar given at our church. It was designed to follow "Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods".

Part 1: Introduction

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

There are four ideas I want you to walk away with tonight, and I’m going to tell you up front so that no one thinks I have a hidden agenda:

1. The most important thing on Earth for me is to find God and do what He wants.
2. The best place to find out about God and what He wants is in the Bible.
3. God changes my life through the Bible.
4. God changes the world through my life and your life.

 

1. The most important thing on Earth for me is to find God and do what He wants.

 

I grew up mostly in a Baptist church and we looked forward to the day when we would be in heaven and there would be no more divisions. Some Lutherans would be there, represented by Martin Luther. Methodists would be there, represented by John Wesley. Some Catholics would be there (though this idea was a little more controversial), represented by the pope. And we Baptists would be there, represented by….Jesus. [1]

 

Sometimes people want to know, if there are so many religions and denominations, how can they know which one is the right one? But they miss the underlying truth of their question: there are so many religions because (a) we are spiritual beings, (b) the desire for the divine was built into our spiritual DNA and (c) we are spiritually lost.

 

I am so tired of people whining that God doesn’t meet their expectations, how they couldn’t believe in a God like this or that. We want to fashion a religion where our faults are virtues and our pet peeves are sins; where God conforms to the opinion page or Oprah’s guest. I don’t think God sits around fretting because he is not living up to our high standards.

 

Instead, it is our job to find God and do what he wants. The Bible says:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. – Hebrews 11:6

 Did you catch that? God rewards you when you plunge after him; when you are sold out in pursuit of God. An apathetic, gee-I-guess-looking-for-God-would-be-a-good-thing search for God will result in finding a God who is apathetic about rewarding you. The Bible says: 

Come close to God and he will come close to you. – James 4:8a (NLT) 

If you honestly seek God, you will find God. But once you have found God, what will you do with Him? Wilbur Reese once wrote:

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a foreigner or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth. I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I'd like to buy $3 worth of God, please." [2]

God is not content with a paper sack. He is not just the adrenaline rush of a mountain-top experience to be forgotten when you decide to go bungee jumping. Finding God is not enough, you must find out what he wants, because a true encounter with God is life-changing.  

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. – Romans 12:2a (NLT) 

Take off after the truth and see where it takes you. Because the most important thing on Earth for you to do is find God and do what he wants. The second point is:

 

2. The best place to find out about God and what He wants is in the Bible.

 

How can we find out about God? God is not seen. God is not heard. God is not tasted or touched or smelled. The Bible says that “God is Spirit” (John 4:24a) but the last time I looked, “spirit” wasn’t one of the 5 senses. The songwriter Chris Rice tries to find God and said, “Sometimes finding you is like trying to smell the color 9. 9s not a color. And even if it were you can’t smell a color, no. That’s my point exactly. ” [3]

 

In order for us to find God and do what he wants, God must reveal himself. He must translate. He must interpret because otherwise everything he wants to show us is invisible and everything he wants to say is unintelligible.

 

How God longs to speak to us-to communicate with us—in a way we can understand. Try to explain purple to a blind man; Beethoven to a deaf woman; the scent of strawberries to someone with a cold. And he has tried every trick in the book: visions, miracles, disasters, donkeys, handwriting on the wall and even his Son Jesus. 

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… (Hebrews 1:1-2a)

There are a lot of letters and books and histories and proverbs that didn’t make it into the Bible. God took his “greatest hits” and had them write it down in the Bible. Why there are so many different types of books and styles in the Bible? Because he was trying to find some angle, some style, some turn of phrase, some way past your defenses so that you would open up and let him come in and change your life. 

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. – Romans 15:4

The most important thing for me on Earth is to find God and do what He wants. The best place to find out about God and what He wants is in the Bible.

 

3. God changes my life through the Bible.

When I was 10 years old, I was an expert on the Guinness Book of World Records. Sonya Thomas, aka the “Black Widow” downed 36 dozen oysters in 10 minutes. The world’s largest pizza was 122 feet in diameter. The tallest man in recent history was Robert Wadlow at 8 feet, 11 inches and he ate over 8000 calories a day. I spent hours poring over the latest edition. I was proud of my specialized knowledge. People used to tell me how smart I was.

 

The Bible can be like that for us. We can listen to the best preachers, quote the most verses, tell the worst Bible jokes (the shortest man in the Bible was Bildad the Shuhite, Job 2:11), but if it never changes our life, alters our habits or makes us more like Jesus, it is wasted.

 

We can say that we believe something, but until what we believe changes what we do, it is just hot air. John Ortberg mentions three kinds of beliefs:

1. Public beliefs are convictions I want other people to think I believe, even though I really may not believe them. Steven Colbert calls truthiness the degree to which something sounds true, even though it may not be true, allowing people with his or her sincerity. (Herod)
2. Private beliefs are convictions that I sincerely think I believe, but it turns out they may be fickle. (Peter)
3. Core beliefs are revealed by our daily actions, but what we actually do. At our core, we have a set of values—a set of assumptions-we cal l that your worldview. These assumptions control what you will pay attention to, what you will ignore and how you organize your mental world.  

God wants to change your life. The words of the Bible are God Himself speaking. He is not speaking just to hear himself talk. He doesn’t just write the Bible to see his name on the front cover “Holy Bible by God” He put His best down because he wants to change your life.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

1. Everything in the Bible is God’s
2. Everything in the Bible is useful. It teaches us, giving us the goods on the right way to live. It rebukes us. It tells us straight up when we’re doing something wrong. It corrects us, helping to get back on God’s track. It trains us, building in us the habits so we can shine for God in any circumstance.
3. The Bible sets you up for success. You are thoroughly equipped. You may not know what life is going to throw your way, but you can be ready when you listen to what God says.

First, the most important thing on Earth for you is to find God and do what He wants. Second, the best place to find out about God and what he wants is the Bible. God changes my life through the Bible and

 

4. God changes the world through my life.

You are just the start of something special that God is doing right where you live. God is able to do so much more than I can know or imagine, and I have a pretty active imagination. And God’s strategy is you and me, together with all of the followers of Jesus, working together. The collective passion and energy of so many changed lives in a room like this one should shatter the status quo. We are the start of the quiet revolution; where the power of God and the people of God change politics and families and marriages and broken lives forever.

 

When I started tonight, I pointed out how difficult it was to find God and to see him. The Bible says:

No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. – John 1:18

When Jesus came, it was God speaking to us. Nothing was kept back. But Jesus is gone. Where is the love and compassion of God? Look at what happens, in John’s other book.

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. – 1 John 4:12

We are the hands and feet of Jesus, continuing on his life-changing work in our neighborhood. He is the light of the world and we are the light of the world.

 

Conclusion

Just before giving a lavish party at his estate, a tycoon had his swimming pool filled with poisonous snakes. He called the guests together and announced, "To anyone brave enough to swim across this pool, I will give the choice of a thousand acres of my oil fields, 10,000 head of cattle, or my daughter's hand in marriage." No sooner were his words spoken than a young man plunged in, swam across the pool and climbed out--unscathed but breathless.

 

"Congratulations!" the tycoon greeted him. "Do you want my oil fields?"

"No!" gasped the guest.

"The 10,000 head of cattle?"

"No!" the young man shouted.

"Well, how about my daughter's--" "No!"

"You must want something," said the puzzled host.

"I just want to know the name of the guy who pushed me in!"

 

You have to want to hear God’s voice for yourself; otherwise the Bible is no reward. I can’t force you to make it a priority and I can’t give you any more promises than God has. But I can tell you, from my own experience, that the most important thing on Earth for me is to find God and do what He wants. The best place to find out about God and what he wants is the Bible. God changes my life through the Bible and God changes the world through my life.

 

Training

These next weeks, we will be studying seven different ways that you can use to dig into the Bible. I am going to introduce one, one of my favorites and one that you can use again and again. It is called the “Devotional Method” and it really focuses on how to read the Bible and focus on using what you learn in real life.

 

The Bible was designed for real life. It is not an abstract theological treatise designed to explain a system of epistemology. It is a manual for living. If you just read the Bible it is just information. And “Information without application is abortion.” [4]

 

I’m going to give you four steps for digging in, then we will walk through two actual examples and then I’ll give you a little homework.

 

Step 1: Pray. Pray for insight on how to apply the passage. God is speaking. We are listening. So we (a) ask God to show us what he wants us to do and (b) tell God that we are ready to obey and share the application with other people.

 

Step 2: Meditate. Find a way to fill your mind with the passage. When we read verses, it doesn’t always catch, so we need to concentrate on it in different ways. Here are four suggestions:

 

1. Visualize. Try to picture the situation being described in your mind. Or try to visualize the images in the words. “They will soar on wings like eagles, they will walk and not grow faint.”

 

2. Emphasize. Read through a verse several times, each time emphasizing a different word. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

 

3. Paraphrase. Rewrite the verses in your own words. I have a whole journal where I rewrote the Psalms in my own way. Taking it out of the formal language helped me grasp the feelings. “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.” “God why are you leaving me all alone. Why don’t you pay attention to my pain even though I keep yelling at you about it all day long.”

 

4. Personalize. Put your name in the place of the pronouns in a verse.

 

5. Ask Questions. 

1. Sin to confess? Promise to claim? Attitude to change? Command to obey? Example to follow?
2. Prayer to pray? Error to avoid? Truth to believe? Something to praise God for?

Step 3: Apply. Write out an application. I can’t emphasize this enough. Write down what you have learned and what you are going to do about it. If you can’t write it down, it probably means that you haven’t thought it through clearly enough.

1. It should be personal. Use I, me, my, mine. No use writing applications for other people.
2. It should be practical. Put down a definite course of action.
3. It should be possible.
4. It should be provable. Can you check up on what you have done.

Sometimes you will come across a verse that doesn’t apply to you right now. What do you do? It is about death and how to overcome grief and sorrow? Write them down anyway, because you may have to use it in the future.

 

Step 4. Memorize. Pick a key verse and memorize it. Many times God will work on one area of your life for weeks or months. It takes time to change the old habits. It takes time to build in new habits. The verse can be a reminder on what to do. Some of you claim you can’t memorize Bible verses. But you can quote me the box scores for the Kings game or what your spouse said, word-for-word, before you went to bed six years ago. You remember what is important to you. Give God’s word priority in your life.

 

[1] Faith and Doubt, John Ortberg, Zondervan (2008), p. 28
[2] As cited on http://www.theseeker.org/. Accessed December 28, 2008.
[3] Smell The Color 9, Chris Rice, Smell The Color 9, © Clumsy Fly Music
[4] Howard Hendricks, cited in “Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods”, p. 34