I remember practicing daily in the athletic field before sunrise.  During this time, I discovered why you don’t throw boomerangs horizontally like frisbees — it whizzed straight up then down, smacking a deep red welt on my hand as I tried to catch it.  After more practice, the boomerang began coming back.

The day of the speech came.  I spent ten minutes presenting the history of the boomerang and  the theory of throwing it.  Then we went outside to the parking lot.  The lot was full of cars.  With windscreens in mind, the teacher began expressing second thoughts.

I confidently assured her of no danger, saying “It’s all right, I’ll aim it away from the cars.”  As the whole class gazed on, I took aim and threw the boomerang.

We all watched as it spun away then circled back — clonk, right into a tree.  I retrieved it and had another chance, so I aimed it in another direction.  Again, the boomerang spun away and circled back in a grand arc.

It hit the same tree.

I felt like the experience was an epic fail, in today’s words.  Amazingly, the teacher still gave an A for the assignment, probably out of pity!

In our hands, a boomerang may not do exactly what we want.  We can send it out and we don’t know how it might come back.

In the same way, our words often do not achieve what we want.  We struggle with miscommunication, using the wrong words or an unhelpful tone or bad timing.  Even when we express our intentions clearly, we are limited in accomplishing our purpose.  The apostle James says you cannot even speak confidently of tomorrow since “you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

But the Bible teaches that when God sends out His Word, the result is exactly what He aimed to achieve.  What He says is what will happen.  God’s Word always comes back.

Isaiah 55:10-11

Ben Kwok

Ways to Interpret

Through pretty much any artistic medium you have essentially 2 ways to interpret the message conveyed. The medium could be anything like music, art, poems or even books. On the one hand you can look at a piece of art and say “What this means to me is this” or “What this means to me is that” and the same can be said of music lyrics “Hey, you know when he says that line? For me I imagine he actually is talking about this”. People get careers in looking at something and giving their spin on the situation and telling people what they think this or that is really about.

On the other hand people can read the lyrics of a song and say “You know this speaks so much more to me when I found out what he was going through when he wrote this” or they can look at art and say “I was reading his biography the other day and he mentions why he used these unnatural shade of colors; he wanted to convey this”. When you and I receive a bill in the mail or see a sign on the road we all seek to find out what message was the person trying to convey rather than inputing what I think it means. We want the intended meaning because if we get it wrong it could have consequences.

Ways to Read

The same processes exist in the field of Hermeneutics. They are called “Reader Response” and “Authorial Intent”. When we read scripture we come to it with one of these 2 methods. We can either look at the scripture and say “Well, what this passage means go me is..” or we can say “Looking at the context, and the way he uses this word elsewhere we can say that Paul meant this when he said..”

When the authors of Scripture (both man and God) penned their words they had an intended meaning behind it. It had a purpose. It is our job today to bridge the gap from their time to now and find out exactly what they were trying to say. It’s when we find out their message it’s then that we can derive a principle to apply it to our life.

We all can sit around in a Bible study asking the question “What does this passage mean to you?” and we we may very well get some wonderful testimonies and wonderful scriptural truths about God but if the meaning we’re giving isn’t found in the text, then despite the harshness of this I say: Who cares? Our authority is found in scripture alone and we very well may be teaching truth but if it ain’t found in the passage we’re in, move on.

Rather when we look at a passage we should ask “What message did the author intend to give in this passage?” When we begin asking this question of the text we begin to learn the messages left to us in scripture and can begin applying them to our lives.

Quick Tips

Before we leave I would like to offer *some* quick tips to help your reading of the Scriptures.

• Use a translation you understand. Don’t use one simply because everyone else is or because of the fact it’s the most popular one out there on the market. I’ve settled on the ESV after going through a couple but don’t take my word; do a little research and find the right one for you. Ultimately, you may stick with the translation you have already. In the end, the last thing you need to do is to go to a dictionary for every other word to help you understand what’s going on. You might as well learn the Greek and Hebrew*
• Stick to one translation. Consistency is key. Don’t jump around all the time, you will find it hard to get familiar with the text. If you stick to one even if it isn’t the best of translations over time you will develop familiarity and grasp the text better.
• Use  a well designed Bible. Most Bibles are 2 columned and are paragraphed according to verses. This is one of the biggest hindrances to actually understanding your Bible. No where else do you see books organized in such a format. Get a Bible that is single margin and broken into paragraphs, it will immensely improve your comprehension of the text. If you can’t find a single margin, get a double margin and if you can’t find that then as a last resort get one with paragraph markings but trust me you can get single margin Bibles in pretty much any translation, including the KJV. Though the paragraph markings are fallible, so are the chapter and verse markings but unlike those they will generally improve, rather than hinder understanding. This will be one of the best investments you will ever make.
• Use whatever medium works best for you. Given your circumstances your best time for reading might be on the train or bus to work, reading a book then might be a tad hard. Try reading on your phone, iPad, laptop or even your iPod. I found when I was traveling my phone worked best. Some people are more receptive to sound rather than visual input. Do not be afraid to try something out of the ordinary if you find it works better for you.
• Read at the most suitable time for you. I generally read best in the evening but I can also do the morning if I give myself enough time to wake up. If I try straight awake I will either fall asleep or not absorb anything. There is no point reading when you cannot grasp what your eyes are gazing at. Find the best time for you. Despite popular opinion it isn’t sin to read at another time besides 5am when the Sun is still down.

Until next week,

*I’m not bagging out any translation in particular but some translations like the KJV or the NASB can be hard to read. On the other hand some translations can be too loose and you get little to nothing of real meaning. Such translations like this I would stick away from include The Message and the New Living Translation. This topic deserves a post on its own so when looking for the right translation for you get advice and do some research before making a decision.

It probably comes as no surprise but the Bible literacy among the unchurched has fallen drastically over the years. In the time of the big name evangelists like Graham, Sunday and Moody everyone knew the Bible but now only those who grow up in the church know it to any degree. I can testify in my own experience that most of my knowledge of the Bible came from the episodes of the Simpsons. I knew of Noah, Moses and Adam and Eve. I knew of Jesus as the “Son of God” but not knowing He was God. I could not name a book of the Bible and all I essentially knew of its contents was their was a “Old” and “New” Testament.

Unfortunately, Christians today are not much better today. Statistics are readily available online to see that the vast majority of church going Christians do not read their Bible and therefore do not know it. This is a sad state of affairs and I think a lot of it has to do with the Bible not being seen as relevant. People read the Bible and do not see how they may make practical use of their reading and they do not understand a lot of what they read. This I think also ties in with the lack of grammar knowledge amongst people today as well but that’s another rant.

That is the reason I wish to do this series, I wish for us in this overview to look at at some of the principles behind Hermeneutics that we all can apply so we can dig into the word of God and let it grasp unto us and change us! This post has just been a summary and an introduction to the series but I hope I have whet your appetite. Until next week,

Something most unusual happened today.   I was worried about a work issue – and I told God about it.

For the sake of this article, I would like to make a distinction between my prayers and talking to God.  Theologically – there’s no difference.  The Bible tells us that God knows our needs even before we express them.  In comparison, our closest human relationships cannot predict our needs and discern our motivations (especially without saying anything).

Here’s the difference I’m making between my prayers and what I did today – when I was worried – I just told God what I was worried about.  I also asked for God to be glorified in the issue – that’s it.  Just talking with God. The whole process took less than two seconds and I repeated it at least several times throughout the day.  Upon further reflection, here are my thoughts:

God is more accessible than anyone or anything else. David wrote, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”  This is a comfort to everyone – especially to the ones who are afraid and lonely.  Remember the woman at the well who wanted to draw Jesus into a conversation about the right location for worship?  Jesus told her that the location was no longer important – you could worship God anywhere.

God knows what’s going to happen next. Worry and the fear of the unknown are good friends.  We worry about circumstances, consequences, and relationships. One of the most powerful examples of God’s omniscience occurs when we are invited to listen to the communication within the Trinity – the secret councils of the Almighty.  Jesus said, “My Father, if this cannot pass until I drink it, your will be done.”  Jesus knew the mind of man and the betrayal of his closest followers before He freely gave Himself for us.

God’s plan is for His glory and our good. Worshippers of God can have full confidence in God’s plan.  So many times the issue is not the issue – the issue is the response to the issue.  How many times do we publically voice this truth while inwardly wishing that God’s glory equaled our preference?

My father often tells me this truth “Son, you need to practice the presence of God.”  By talking with God I am growing closer to this truth.  Do you have trouble praying?  Do you have trouble connecting the physical life with the spiritual life?  Perhaps you need to start talking with God.

Do you remember the first time you had the opportunity to teach the Bible in a public setting?  Preparing for your first teaching opportunity introduces a strange mixture of fear and anxiety.  Beyond public speaking itself – you might be nervous about your content or who will be listening (for example – the pastor in the back of the church).  Chances are that you will write down exactly what you want to say and spend far too long saying it.

Unfortunately, there can be an inverse relationship between your personal comfort with the teaching opportunity and your preparation for the opportunity.  Imagine that you are a Sunday School teacher looking at a ten week opportunity.  For weeks 1-3, you imbibe the message of the text through careful study, mediation, and prayer.  Week 4 is a review week.  Week 5+ comes in on a wing and a prayer.  Why is it that we always have time to watch Masterchef and no time to spend 30 minutes preparing for the bi-weekly group Bible study?

I’ve had all of these opportunities and experienced all of these pitfalls.  Here are some suggestions for making the most of your teaching opportunity:

1) Start with the big picture – If you don’t know where to start, try reading the five chapters before and after your text.  Understanding the context is crucial to good exegesis.  Prayer for illumination and meditation is very valuable at this point as well.  Well-defined context goes a long way to answering the “why is this applicable to me” question.  Don’t rush to the commentaries on Logos – breath the Word.

2) Think carefully about your audience - Have you ever delivered an inspiring quote only to be met with blank stares?  It is very possible that your audience wasn’t reading Spurgeon, Guiness, or Dever in the week leading up to this teaching opportunity.  Make sure you think specifically about the appropriateness of your message.

3) Break up your prep time into manageable chunks - Saturday night is a tough time to prepare for a teaching opportunity.  It’s a great time to review what you have prepared.  15 minutes per weekday with prayer and mediation will lead to thoughtful, efficient preparation.

4) Don’t apologise for your lack of preparation – It’s actually quite insulting to apologise and then take up an hour of someone’s time with teaching that you yourself have labeled as suspect.  It’s like offering someone the mango seed after eating the cheeks.  The best thing you can do is to tell people honestly and then facilitate an inductive Bible study that is focused on the actual text itself.  Break down the sentence structure and marvel together at the power of the Word spoken.

5) Watch out for these teaching pitfalls - Don’t spend too much time repeating what you said last week.  Don’t spend too much time talking about your own life and/or soliciting examples from other people’s lives (keep it closely tied to the text).  Don’t be a sluice gate by spending all of your time on the early text without addressing the whole text.

Rather than assume the Bible is our most influential book (and move on to “more interesting” titles), we should stop and consider what parts of the Bible have influenced us.  In my early Christian years, I was guided by specific phrases or verses, often memorised in AWANA, church or school.  For example:

• “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9) As a child, I learned that salvation was given by God’s grace, not obtained by my works.
• “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  (John 10:27-28) As a young man, I found assurance in Christ’s promise to keep me secure.
• “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”  (Isaiah 40:6) As a young adult, this verse helped me to value God’s Word over other interests that would not last.

In my twenties, I began benefiting more from whole passages, i.e. from the Psalms and the Epistles.  I also read through the Bible multiple times, tackling books I had never read before.  Books like Isaiah and Ecclesiastes opened new insights into the rich glory of God and the poor state of my own soul.

With help from teachers, I began seeing the Bible as one story with various genres, all pointing to Jesus Christ as the hero.  No other book reveals Jesus like the Bible does.  The Scriptures are also the light by which we discern all other influential books (and movies and TV shows!).

So as a Christian, you should be able to point to specific Bible verses, passages or books which have affected you by increasing your understanding, or correcting your sinful thinking / unbelief, or showing the right way ahead.  Here’s a quick test to ask yourself: in the past week, what specific Bible text has influenced you?  If the only sound in your mind is crickets chirping, then it’s time to open the Bible.

Writing notes in your Bible is a great way to record its influence in your life.  Assuming your Bible has space for notes, you could write down a helpful explanation during a sermon, or write how the verse may apply to you.  Over time, your Bible will look like a personal travel map, showing landmarks in your journey through the Word.

Next time, we’ll discuss about other influential books.  But the Bible is always the best place to start.

We then heard 3 strong Bible messages (about an hour long each sermon) on personal holiness interspersed with breaks, lunch, songs, etc. It was a great day.

I tried to talk some kids out of coming as I thought it might have been too much given where they are currently at spiritually. It was almost like ‘Will ye also go away?‘

Bible preaching is worth listening to for intensive and extended periods.

While not every Saturday but certainly a couple of  times a year. We think nothing surfing the net, watching tele- for hours on end. Ad infinitem. So let’s get excited about gathering around the Book that should mean everything to us!

Young people can sit through demanding Bible preaching without the best stories and funniest jokes. We just need to develop their appetite for it.

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, ….. 2 Timothy 4:2-3

Jason Harris with p91 (in glass plate on table)

Here are a few thoughts I took away from the day.

1. Don’t get too caught up on the form

I was reminded of the wisdom of God in not allowing the original autographs to survive to today. Kneeling there looking at that ancient fragment, I could see how easy it would be to treat the form of God’s Word as if it were higher than the words of God’s Word.

I may seem inconsistent here since I just made a big fuss about a scrap of papyrus, but the key is in the reasoning. What got me excited was not merely the form of this fragment, but the fact that this fragment powerfully corroborates the reality that God has done exactly what he said He would do!

He promised to protect His Word, and He did! And on occasion He left a small fragment of papyrus lying about just to demonstrate to us that we have indeed received the same New Testament Scriptures that the apostles wrote all those centuries ago.

2. God has indeed powerfully preserved His Word

I just said this, but it’s worth repeating because it’s a reality that is under attack both from within and without our churches. God promised to look after His Word, and He did exactly what He said He would do.

The New Testament that was preached in the churches of Egypt in the third century is the same New Testament that we preach in our churches in Australia in the twenty-first century!

There was no conspiracy. There was no cover-up (a la Da Vinci Code). The Church didn’t manipulate it. The heretics didn’t alter it.

No. Instead, it was passed down with stunning accuracy. The few variants between copies easily traceable to scribal error. God did exactly what He said He would do and we can stand up to the scoffers with joy and confidence as we humbly preach God’s powerful Word.

3. Keep learning

This experience has given me new insight into the details of how God preserved His Word for us. My confidence has been strengthened and my joy renewed.

We cannot be afraid to ask hard questions and wrestle with hard issues. Christianity is strong precisely because Christians can ask hard questions. We don’t have to burn our manuscripts like the Muslims did. We don’t have to avoid translation like Muslims do.

We have a faith that is robust and credible. We can pursue knowledge with honesty, faith, and humility.

Grace to you.

Praying in the Holy Spirit

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God…” (Jude 20-21)

One way you can keep conscious of God’s love is when you pray in the Holy Spirit.  This phrase is unique in the New Testament and it means to pray “so that the Holy Spirit is the moving and guiding power.” *  He enables you to pray and gives you direction in your talk with God.  How does this happen?

The Spirit enables you as you trust in the truths of God’s Word.  When the word of Christ dwells richly in you, the Holy Spirit works powerfully in you. (Col. 3:16, Eph. 5:18)

Most Christians tend to come to God with needs such as health, work, safety, children, a reliable car, and so on.  These are natural prayer requests — and there are millions of unbelievers who pray sincerely to their gods with these same requests!  But when you pray from the Bible, the Holy Spirit shapes your desires into something different.  You become more passionate for what God wants overall, for Jesus to be exalted through your health or work or family, and for others to know Him.

Praying with an open Bible

I believe the main method for prayer is to pray the Word: to read the Word and turn it into prayer as you go.  Reading the Word in prayer helps you to draw from the Holy Spirit’s power and direction.  After ten years of struggling to concentrate in prayer, George Muller was transformed by this practice:

“…the first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching…to get blessing out of it.  …The result I have found…that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not…give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.” *

The best way to learn is through the prayers of the Bible.  Starting with the Lord’s prayer, there are many prayers in the New Testament you can pray concerning yourself or others.  The Psalms are also an excellent text for prayer.  Talking with God is not natural communication but by grace, it is communication that you can learn.

* From “The Practice of Prayer in the Fight for Joy,” When I Don’t Desire God (John Piper)

.

.

t was a once in a lifetime experience for me. The only ancient copy of the New Testament that is held in Australia^[] is held in Sydney and I just happened to be headed that direction for the weekend. I contacted Dr. Don Barker, of Macquarie University, who kindly agreed to show me the document.

On the agreed day, we set out for Macquarie University—me with my Greek New Testament, my close friend Farid Wardan with his Google Maps-armed iPhone, and his father Tony with his camera. Don Barker took us through a museum area full of hundreds of ancient pieces, most of which I could have spent considerable time taking in.

He led us to a back room which contained a wall of cabinets which house the over 700 ancient documents held by the Museum of Ancient Cultures. After putting on gloves, Dr. Barker opened one of the cabinets and carefully removed a glass plate containing the early papyrus fragment (pictured right, both sides).^[]

This ancient document is referred to as a Papyrus fragment because it was copied onto a thin “paper” which was made by weaving together the Egyptian Papyrus plant.

This particular fragment is among the oldest in existence, dating back to the third century.^[]

I wish I could put into words what went on in my heart as I looked at this tiny fragment of God’s Word. The God of Adam, of Abraham, and of David; the God of Peter, of Paul, and of John; this God has spoken to us! And He has graciously protected and preserved His Word over four millennia!

It staggers the mind to think that this tiny Egyptian fragment from the AD 200′s is part of a book that was in 2009 the best-selling book in the world.

As I knelt solemnly gazing at this fragment, I was reminded that this book is the book I have committed my life to study, to understand, and to preach.

I hope to post a few more thoughts about this on Friday, but for now I’ll close. May you and I grow in our passion and love for the Word of God. May we rejoice that He has kept it for us through all these centuries.

Farid Wardan, Dr. Don Barker, Jason Harris (Photograph: Tony Wardan)

If you would like to learn more about this fragment and other ancient findings that relate to Christianity, I would encourage you to consider organising a group from your church to attend the Face to Face with the New Testament.

.

^[] At least in papyrus form. It is my understanding that there are no New Testament manuscripts held in Australia, but I cannot be certain of this.

^[] P91 contains portions from Acts 2:30-37, 2:46, and 3:2.

^[] The oldest portion of Scripture discovered to this point in history dates to the second century and is also a Papyri fragment.