I’m a Cheater

Well, it’s confirmed, I’m a cheater.

I was shocked. I mean, I try to do my job with sincerity and integrity, but it looks like, to at least one prominent preacher, how I do my job makes me a cheater.

This came up recently on a blog from a rather famous US preacher. Don’t worry about WHO,I am not attacking or criticizing him. Everyone has their thing, everyone has an opinion. My point isn’t about who it is or fighting back – I am just evaluating this opinion because it applies directly to me. Specifically, my commitment to expository, verse-by-verse preaching. Here is an excerpt from the blog:

Question: What do you think about preaching verse-by-verse messages through books of the Bible?

>Famous Preacher<: Guys that preach verse-by-verse through books of the Bible-- that is just cheating. It's cheating because that would be easy, first of all. That isn't how you grow people. No one in the Scripture modeled that. There's not one example of that.

Eh, I’m not really convinced that I am cheating. And I am not going to change what I do. Here are 6 Reasons I Believe in Verse-By-Verse Expository Preaching:

1. Preaching verse-by-verse lets me preach like Paul, declaring the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). The only way to get the whole counsel of the Word is to preach through all of the Word as it presents itself. The Bible is written in books, with themes and ideas. And the only way to catch the totality of these themes is to work through the texts as they were written.
    
2. Preaching verse-by-verse keeps me from just preaching my favorite things. I think it would be easy to pick what I want to preach. Mercy, grace, love – and while these are important doctrines, they aren’t everything the Bible has to say. Which leads me to...
    
3. Preaching verse-by-verse makes me preach on things I would otherwise avoid. I don’t particularly enjoy talking about hell or judgment or sin – and I wouldn’t seek these themes out if I just preached on what I prefer. But they are there, and verse-by-verse preaching makes me deal with them – and God has them in His Word because He wants them dealt with!
    
4. Preaching verse-by-verse makes me avoid taking things out of context. I don’t want to misrepresent God, and it’s easy to make the Bible say what I want it to say – or misunderstand what it actually says – if I just rip a passage out of its context and preach on it.
    
5. Preaching verse-by-verse helps me have a plan about where we are heading as a church. I let the Word of God guide us as a church rather than use the Word for some man-centered agenda. I can only do that if I walk through a passage and let the Word speak for itself! And most importantly...
    
6. Preaching verse-by-verse helps people become better Bible students for themselves. What confidence do people have to read the Bible for themselves if they look at it like a buffet we walk through and pick out what we want? It wasn’t written that way and it should not be read that was. Going verse-by-verse gives people confidence to walk through the Bible themselves. They can do at home what I model in church Sunday mornings. Let’s walk through this passage. What does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean in light of what was said in the last passage? How can I apply this truth?

So I have to respectfully disagree with this preacher. Let’s be committed to be not just Bible respecters, or Bible fans... but Bible students.

p.s. - not a cheater... and not cheating my people

Should We Eliminate Books of the Bible that Don't Line Up with the Rest of It?

I have read that Martin Luther wanted to exclude the epistle of James from the canon of Scripture, probably because of one apparent contradiction between James and Paul on justification by works vs faith. Should we be willing to exclude one of our holy writings as a result of contradictions or other evidence?

First off, Luther was wrong to want to omit James, because there is no contradiction. James isn’t saying that works save you - he is saying works prove you ARE saved (See James 2:14-26). 

We believe that God wrote the Bible, and we believe God put it all together - all 66 divinely inspired books God made certain were put into one volume. Read God Wrote a Book by James MacDonald for an excellent answer to this, particularly chapter 2.

Gotta Haveta Want It!

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 
Proverbs 2:1-5

One of the most common things I hear from people when I share the Gospel with them is this: “I tried to read the Bible, but I don’t understand it.”

There are a lot of reasons for this:

I am not sure where to start, so I start anywhere.

If you pick up the Bible for the first time and just pick a random starting place (ie jump right into the middle of Leviticus), I can see why you are having problems. (Why do people do this with the Bible? They wouldn‘t with any other book!)

A difficult Bible translation.

I have no problem with the KJV, but it is a very difficult translation to read for “first timers”. And because KJV is the most widely distributed translation, this is the one people use to start reading (sometimes by jumping in the middle of Leviticus).

These things must be spiritually discerned.

We can’t accept these things naturally. (1 Corinthians 2:14) Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned.

But here is another thing: You gotta haveta want it.

When it comes to pursuing the wisdom of the Lord, this can be no half-hearted interest.

Look at the way the Proverbs writer describes going after it: receive, treasure up, ear attentive, heart inclined, calling out, raising voice. Not a casual approach to God’s Word! Going after it like my son goes after Starburst candy! (Editor‘s note: Jeff‘s son likes Starburst candy.)

You gotta haveta want it. Want. It. Like how? Like, to what extent? Notice he says to go after God’s Word as you would go after hidden treasure.

If I gave you a treasure map that leads to 5 billion dollars in hidden treasure, would you simply fold it up, stick the map in a drawer, and say, “Maybe someday…” NO! You would drop everything and go after it!

What if this map were written in Spanish? Would you just discard it. “Bummer. I don’t speak Spanish. Oh, well.” NO! How quickly would you learn Spanish? For 5 billion? You would do whatever it took to learn the language to use the map to get the treasure.

Go after God’s infinite, eternal wisdom with the same gusto

… then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (v5).

Would you go after the wisdom of the Almighty with the energy and effort you would use to go after money?

p.s. - would totally become a spokesman for Rosetta Stone.