Church Leadership

Recently a friend of mine has been posting about how the Alcoholics Anonymous traditions could be a model for the church. Although there are some things that will readily cross over, I find that we are not comparing apples with apples.

In the first place, the church is where God dwells by His Spirit. It is more than a volunteer organization that helps one another. Because of this, there is authority in the church placed there by the Lord as gifted people to serve and to guide the church into obedience to and worship of the Lord. Additionally they guide and are examples of how to love one another.

In AA no one rules. In the church the elders do rule. Yet their rule is not like the world. Their authority is not for their own use - so they can have a group of people in their image, but only to build up the church in the image of Jesus.

This requires authority. True, respect and trust are earned. It is not like a job where you can hire someone to fill a vacancy. It is only by God that a person should have this authority. Yet it is fashionable in our culture to disdain authority. This has come from the pendulum swinging away from those who abused authority. But authority is still there.

When I was first a christian I belonged to a church that taught that their are o positions of authority in the church. It got so that if a person called themselves a pastor then they couldn't be one because pastoring was a verb and not a noun. So if they didn't know this they were not qualified to actually pastor. We were taught of the equality of the saints, about the priesthood of believers, and of body ministry. All good stuff. But it was applied in such a way as to stop anyone from leading with any authority, or so we thought.

In actual practice, the dominating personality was in charge. No one could stand up to their "wisdom" and "insight". Because of their experience and verbal abilities we wound up doing things their way. Additionally, some people would hold the group almost hostage because of their powerful responses to things they didn't like. So in my experience a true egalitarianism was never reached.

Later I found that God put leaders by gifting in His church to lead the church with love and godliness. This stopped the mob rule and the dominating personality rule. When done by the Holy Spirit, it produced good fruit. But I have never seen anything like a perfect leader. I have never seen leadership done perfectly - including my own.

I do not want to go back to the "good old days". I believe God has set people in His church to lead who have been given authority to do so in the name of Jesus. In this way the church is not like AA. We are not a volunteer organization. There is authority in the church. Just because the authority has been misused is not justification to ban it. It is motivation to discover how Christ wants it used and to use it for His purposes and not our own.

Forgiving Divorce and Remarriage

When I think about divorce, I rarely think about the kinds of divorces that are ‘allowable’. I see all divorces as a failure. True, it is rare when only one party failed. But even if so, the marriage did end because of failure. It seems to me that divorces that come about because of ‘incompatibility’, or ‘we just drifted apart’, or a mishandling of money are sinful in itself. A refusal to love would be a better way to express it. Sin is that which undermines or refuses to love. Sin and love oppose each other, they are opposites. Hate is a subheading under sin – and not all hate is sin.

The question I want to look at in this post is what does forgiving a sinful divorce and remarriage look like? In the book Remarriage After Divorce in Today’s Church – 3 views Gordon Wenham, William Heth, and Craig Keener wrestle the issue of whether or not divorce for Christians is allowable and if consequently remarriage can also be allowed. They did a fine job of presenting their views. Yet none of them really dealt with the more common issue of how do we relate to people who get divorced and remarried and messed it all up? Those who were already adulterous and those who remarried anyway?

It is easy to say to someone, oh you’re the innocent party, you are free to remarry. What do you say to the guilty party? How are they restored?

What I say depends on when I am asked. If someone who is married comes into the church and desires to love God by loving people and I discover that they wrecked their previous marriage(s) by sinning against their former spouse(s), I don’t banish them to the back row. I do not declare their present marriage a false one, devoid of the blessing of God, and shun them. I treat them like Jesus did to the woman caught in adultery. I expect them to sin no more. I will bless their marriage. I won’t go back and try to undo the mess they made with their former marriages. I simply see them as bankrupt and encourage them to reestablish credibility. I will love them and show them how. I’ll explain, if asked, how to discover the weakness in their faith that put them in a place where God’s love for them did not satisfy. I’ll try to teach them how to grow in their faith so it won’t happen again.

If someone comes in who has just wrecked a marriage, is divorced, and asks me what to do, I’ll encourage them to seek to be reconciled to their former spouse. I’ll help in any way I can. If reconciliation doesn’t happen, I will view the divorce as final. Hardness of heart will have its way. The marriage will be over. The unbelieving will have departed and they are no longer bound to that marriage. To this person I’ll encourage to stay single. But not all will stay single. Many will have young children and want a spouse. In some circumstances it might even be best to marry again, but only to a person who loves Jesus.

Yet even here, again and again, people fail. Many marry outside the faith. Many sin and live with someone without marriage. Do we, as the church, toss them out? Shoot them? No, we start all over again.

Did you ever notice that God did not put a fence around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden? Why didn’t He? I would have chopped it down and burned it. But God wanted us to trust His word so we would learn to love Him. This is all we have now. I will not put a fence around sin. I will continue to hope that people will get tired of sin and its wages and desire to trust Jesus’ word. Like the Nazarite who broke the vow, you can always start over. Where sin abounds, God’s grace does abound even more.

Marriage

Jesus makes it very clear that marriage, as intended, was for life between one man and one woman. This is because marriage was an union between two people whom God Himself joins together. Since God put them together, let no one break it apart. Apart from death, sin is the only way a marriage can be broken. But marriages can be broken by sin. This sin is either hardness of heart or unchastity. This sin can destroy the relationship that God put together. Yet if one person is truly loving, and the other is willing, a marriage can be preserved.

A marriage provides the context in which love can grow. Since Jesus commanded us to love even our enemies, and to turn the other cheek, we can certainly love our mate. We love not because we feel loving, but because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. A marriage is a bond made by covenant between two people, man and woman, wherein they can learn to love.

Yet even God came to an end of His patience. When Israel sinned continuously against him and His covenant, He divorced them. This is how it reads:

This is what the Lord says: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. Isa 50:1NIV

I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Jer 3:8 NIV

It is clear that no one walking in the flesh can walk with God. And how can two walk together unless they are agreed? So in the end the covenant between God and Israel was destined to failure unless Israel could walk in the Spirit, which it can through Christ. Yet my point is, God Himself went through divorce. As He says in Isa 5:4 NIV “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?” There could be no blame on God for divorcing Israel.

[I have been asked if God is all powerful, can He create a rock so big He cannot move it? My answer is that He can if He gives it free will.]

Even though God hates divorce, He Himself divorced Israel. Additionally, when a greater need made it so, Ezra commanded Israel to divorce their foreign wives as the will of God. Ezra 10:11 NIV “Now make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives." See Ezra 9-10. Although God hated divorce, the integrity of the people as the people of God had a higher value. This tells me that although marriage is of the Lord and binding, there are still higher values.

Regardless, it is sin that ends marriage. In the next article I’ll try to deal with the implications.

Divorce and Repentance

Recently I was taken to task over my view of divorce and remarriage in the church. This came about because I had publicly in our church prayed over a newly wed couple where the wife had been divorced and the previous husband was still alive and unmarried. This appeared to have been an official acceptance on my part, and the church’s part, of their marriage – which it was.

I thought it would be good to get my views down in digital format (no longer paper and ink!) so we could discuss these things.

There are several issues that have to be looked at. First of all, what is marriage? Why do we have marriage since it is not essential for procreation? How does marriage fit into God’s plan for mankind? Is it more than itself i.e. a sign of something greater? If so, what? Are polygamy and polyandry always wrong? How does the church relate to those new converts who are in such marriages?

Secondly there is the issue of divorce itself. What is it? Can it be done without sinning? Is it always because of the hardness of the heart? If it is always sinful, how do you repent of it? What does repentance over this sin look like? How can such a person be restored? If it is not always sinful, how can we tell the difference? Do we need to always be able to tell the difference? Is it ever the right thing to do?

Then, after coming to an understanding divorce, we need to see how this applies to remarriage. Can a divorced person remarry? Is this always adultery? If it is adultery, how can this be repented of? What does forgiveness of the sin of remarriage look like? Can a remarriage be blessed by God? Under what conditions, if any, can a remarriage after divorce be proper? If never proper what do you do about it? How should the church relate to those who are married improperly?

These are some of the questions that need to be addressed in order to answer the question of divorce and remarriage. I will try to simply address these issues over the next few posts. Wish me luck.

A Christian

There are 3 verses in the New Testament that refer to believers in Jesus as Christians. These are Acts 11:26,26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16. The word means a Christ person. Some have expanded this to mean a Christ follower or follower of Christ, but that is not what the word means. In the Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament they write that "The name itself presupposes that confession of Christ constituted the characteristic feature of Jesus' adherents". They base this on Acts 26:28 where Agrippa confesses that Paul nearly persuaded him to be a Christian.

But is this all? I can't help but think that there is more to it. Although a confession of Christ is essential and primary, is this the only 'characteristic feature'?

Throughout the book of Acts there was one other characteristic feature of a Christian that was needed. That is the presence and anointing of the Holy Spirit. At Samaria Phillip was concerned that the holy Spirit had not come upon any of the new and baptized believers. The Apostles had to be called in to finish the job. At Ephesus Paul found some followers, some disciples, but noted their lack of the Holy Spirit. A situation he quickly remedied.

The word christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for messiah. The English word is anointed. We capitalize these words because they are names and refer to Jesus. So if we translated Christian, the Greek word is Christianos, it would be anointed person. In my way of thinking a Christian is an anointed person who confesses and follows Christ Jesus.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is the sign and seal of the New Covenant, much like circumcision and the sabbath were of the first covenant. It is the evidence that a person is a partaker of the covenant. hey were first called Christians because as confessors of Jesus they were anointed by the Holy Spirit.

The point of this is that the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not a spiritual elite, or for the more deeply dedicated, but for all who confess Jesus as their Lord. May the time come when all Christians live up to their name and are baptized in the Holy Spirit. If that phrase is a problem for you, how about saying may the time come when all Christians, ALL CHRISTIANS, are consciously anointed with the power of the Spirit to help them be a true witness of Christ's resurrection to the world. Not only with miraculous demonstrations of power, but with miraculous demonstrations of the fruit of the Spirit. O Lord, may that day come soon.

Confidence

I have been thinking about how this trip to Kamchatka, Russia, has affected me. In so doing I am reminded of all the prophetic words I have received over the years that have encouraged me to have confidence. Confidence in God and confidence in the ministry that He has given me. If there was any area that I was truly weak in this was the area.

The fear of man has from time to time restricted the flow of the Holy Spirit in me to a trickle. Yet when I am in Kamchatka, they expect me to be a prophet. They expect me to have good sermons and prophetic words. They expect me to have wisdom from the Lord. This expectation made a demand on the anointing within me and the Holy Spirit responded.

I have been amazed over and over again just how deeply the Lord has moved through what I have said. At the first Sunday service at which I spoke a young woman was leading the congregation in worshipping God through music. She was new to me and she had a wonderful spirit. Her face shown with the presence of the Lord. Afterwards, she came to me and, through a translator of course, told me that I had prophesied over her about nine years ago when she was a young girl that one day she would lead the congregation in worship. And this was the very day that that word was fulfilled. That Sunday was her first time leading the congregation, and I just happened to be there to witness it.

I was so blessed. I vaguely remembered prophesying over her yet the reality of what the Lord had done for both her and me was stunning. She knew that God has been guiding her life and that she was in his will, and I had my confidence in the Lord’s anointing elevated.

So I have determined not to fear man. I have determined not to be overly concerned what others may feel about me so that I am afraid to be me. Why? The issue is not me, but the Lord’s anointing. And the Lord’s anointing rests upon me. Me, as I am. So for the Lord’s sake I will be confident – confident in Him and His anointing in my life. He has proven to me that the anointing is real.

I am so grateful to the Lord for opening this door for me in Russia. Through it He has blessed both me and those to whom I have been sent. His is worthy of all praise. Lord, you truly amaze me with your ability to bless and help us see your love and be your love extended to others in this world.

Fear or Faith?

Our visa has not yet arrived. Since we are planning on leaving very early Tuesday morning, it would be nice to have it. It is amazing how my emotions react to imagined scenarios. What will I do if it doesn't arrive on time? Can my tickets be adjusted? What if I can't make it? All the money for the tickets wasted. And so the anxiety goes - a circle of ineffective thought around a center of fear.

Will fear be able to cut in on my relationship with the Lord? No. Nothing can separate me from the love of my Lord. I will not fear what man can do to me.

So often I think of that verse only in the context of death. But I see now that it's import extends much wider than the single fear of death. It extends to anything that brings fear from what man can do to me.

Fear is such a strong motivation. Yet faith in the truth will win out over it. If I keep my eyes by faith beholding the truth then fear begins to loose its impact. Jesus is Lord over all.

In Russia

I'll be in Russia starting next week until November 1st. Because of this I won't be able to post anything until I get back. Internet connections there are not so hot and they are expensive - besides, I'll be way to busy.

So I ask for your prayers.

Thanks

The Death of Christ

Have you ever wondered why Jesus died the way he did? Many might say that he died for our sins. That is true - but why die the way that he did? And besides, what is the logical connection between Jesus' death and the phrase "for our sins"?

If it was only Jesus' death that mattered, why didn't Jesus just die in his sleep, or of old age? Why a brutal death on a cross?

Some would say because he needed to spill his blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. True again. But he could have had his wrists cut and simply bled out. Besides, what is the logical connection between the blood and the remission of sin?

When I was first a Christian, I was told that Jesus died for my sins. Although I believed it, I know I didn't understand it. I knew that somehow Jesus showed us the full extent of his love by dying in our place. But I never understood how this exchange of places was made. Was it because God just decided to except Jesus death as mine, or was the connection more intrinsic and organic? Or both/neither?

Then I happened upon something that Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians. It reads like this: So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 1 Cor 15:45-48 NASU I saw that Jesus was the last Adam. Last because when Jesus died, all in Adam died. How did this happen? I'm not sure. I think that in the way we are all in the first Adam is the way we were all included in the last Adam. God treated Adam as the human race, and Jesus too was the entire human race.

Things brings us to the reason why Jesus died the way he did. The human race deserved it. All of the evil and wicked stuff that has ever been done by the human race was scooped up by Jesus in himself. In one day God judged us all in Jesus. It was not enough to die a painless death. It was not enough to die a moderately painful death. Justice needed to be served from the Pol Pots and Hitlers to the backstabbing girls on a playground, justice needed to be done. The only act that could be just, that would satisfy my desire for someone getting what they deserved for murdering nearly all my Jewish relatives who died in Hungary during WWII, for stealing wealth and peace from the earth, was accomplished in the death of Jesus on the cross.

The cross is a statement to all, God hates sin. He hates sin because sin destroys love. Sin is the perversion of the will that makes love impossible. In the cross God put and end to sin for the human race for all those who agree with God's judgment and will believe.

This is also why Jesus is called the second man. A completely new beginning for all those who are found in him. A new creation; God's children - not Adam's.

May you be found in him.

Church Government

I think that even my title begs the question. We are so used to thinking that the church needs government that such a title passes under gaze so easily that we do not even give it a moments thought. But do churches need government?

My answer is yes, they do. Any time you have more than one person doing things, joint decisions have to be made. The larger the group, the greater the need to be able to coordinate and decide. Who sets the meeting times? Consensus? Ever try to set a meeting time that everyone wants? Someone always has to give in because it will not be the optimum time. What happens when a dominating person, someone who loves to be first as John wrote, keeps hijacking the meetings and trying to draw disciples after themselves? Who deals with this person? What of a person who is sexually seducing people and won't quit, although they have tears when caught? Someone needs to have the authority to handle these situations for the group.

But this is not the type of government that pops into your mind when you read the title on this article, is it? The kind of government that has a sole purpose of serving the group through leadership. The kind of government who's delight is finding and doing the will of our Lord Jesus - not in ordering everyone around so the governors vision and hope gets accomplished to the expense of everyone else's.

But is even this vision of leadership simply a product of the egalitarian age we American's are now living? It very well could be. I can see how in some other culture you can have loving, servant leadership and yet have it come in the form of a hierarchy. It is remarkable how little the Bible actually teaches on how to implement church leadership in practical ways.

But the Bible has lots to say on the ATTITUDES of a leader. We can know the heart of a leader. As so often the case, the Bible is interested more in the attitude by which we do something that what we do. I doubt if we be judged on what we accomplished as much as by the motivation from which we did them.

Jesus warned us of those who would do great miracles and prophecy in His name yet he would tell them that He never knew them. Nothing wrong with what they did, just the way they did them.

We can have all sorts of culturally relevant ways to govern - to provide leadership. What is more important is how and why are we doing it.

Forgive

"He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." Romans 3:26

"In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1:14

Forgiveness as at the heart of the gospel, the message concerning Jesus Christ. Since forgiveness is so vital in our relationship to God and to one another, I thought it would be good to look at this topic again.

What is forgiveness? On what basis does God forgive us, and we forgive others? How do we know we are forgiven?

WHAT IS FORGIVENESS?

Inability To Think

In a recent chapel service bulletin from Chaplain Wendell C. Hawley, comes a classic illustration of forgiveness. When the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they could not find a word in their language for forgiveness, so they had to compound one. This turned out to be: Issumagijoujungnainermik. It is a formidable-looking assembly of letters, but an expression that has a beautiful connotation for those who understand it. It means: “Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.”
—Minister’s Research Service

Forgetfulness is often thought of as a problem. Yet when it comes to forgiveness, forgetfulness is a primary ingredient. As it says in Heb 8:12 “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” We know we have forgiven when the sin against us no longer affects our relationship. If we are stewing we have not forgiven. If when we think about that person we do so in light of the sin, we have not forgiven. But on what basis can we expect to forgive? How we can say, it’s OK, I won’t think about it anymore, when it is not OK? After all, isn’t there any justice?

ON WHAT BASIS DOES GOD FORGIVE US?

Recently in the war in Rwanda between the Tutsis and the Hutus, one side simply slaughtered the other. Demonic rage was let loose in the streets. Hundreds of thousands of people where hacked up and left dead with no one to bury them. Hatred thrived on all sides. Yet afterward the leaders of the country who still lived called for national forgiveness. Since nearly everyone was involved, justice would be impossible to serve. So let’s just forgive.

The problem is that this kind of forgiveness is that it is only on the surface. Some Tutsi or Hutu would only have to have a bad attitude day and fear would spring up in other people’s hearts. Are they going to kill again, or get revenge? Are my children safe?

Indeed, there must be some villages or neighborhoods where some child has to look each day upon the killer of their mother or father and deal with the thought, “That person got away with murder - the murder of my family.” Forgiveness without justice is sentimentalism, and justice without forgiveness is cruel. Forgiveness and justice must work together, as demonstrated by God on the cross. Then we can have real love which then forms the basis for justice and forgiveness. It is only the cross of Christ that provides any basis for true forgiveness. Justice is served by the death of Jesus, who offered himself to die as the head of humanity. When Jesus died, we all died.

If you are having a difficult time forgiving because it seems that they are just getting away with it, remember the cross. When Jesus died for us, we all died in his death. The person who is to be forgiven has already been given what they deserve with Jesus on the cross. If that person by faith avails himself of that death, he will live. If not, then he will die that death. Justice is mine, I will repay, says the LORD. Romans 12:19

HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE FORGIVEN?

Many pictures of the atonement show that although the forgiveness is given to all, it must be received. The communion has to be individually received. The Passover must be individually partaken of. All those who were outside the house where the blood was applied were given over to the destroyer. On the day of atonement all the nation's sins were individually named over the goat. So all are provided for, but we must partake. John wrote “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

How then do we partake of this forgiveness? In 1 John 1:9 John writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Confession of sin is crucial, both for us to be forgiven and for us to forgive others. This confession must be made from a heart touched with the gravity of sin. As the parable of the Pharisee and the publican tells us that, “God be merciful to me a sinner” is sufficient for justification. Declaring bankruptcy is often the only way to go. Like the thief on the cross who said, “We are getting what we deserve while this man (Jesus) is innocent.” This is how we are forgiven. To receive it we must believe the scripture. And when we believe, we act on it by confessing our sins, and the Holy Spirit gives us assurance that we are truly the children of God.

1 John 3:18-20 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Persection in Kamchatka

Persecution can take many forms. In Kamchatka, the peninsula hanging down from the farthest east of Russia, it has been burdensome regulations and regulators. Churches are not allowed to rent, yet cannot buy property. Why can't they buy? Because they must buy from the State who owns it all and won't sell. I know of one instance where a large church, about 500 or so, had been meeting in a theater in Petropavlavsk. They wanted to buy their own land and build. So the government sold them a trash pit behind some buildings. Then they were told that they had to build it to be able to withstand a 9.0 earthquake - same as a nuclear power plant. They were building it to seat 1500 people. Each of the supporting pillars had to have its own foundation that went two stories deep. Additionally, it had to be made with a continuous pour method. Since such methods needed delivery trucks that were not in existence there, this church ran a 1/4 yard mixer 24/7 for two years making these foundations. The cost was astronomical. They had support from people outside Russia, but the lions share was raised by the local church themselves.

In the middle of this building project, the theater was slated for demolition. So this church tried to lease a facility. Having found one, they went to use on the first Sunday morning and found it chained and locked. The new manager of the building told them that unfortunately the church would not be able to use it.

"Why not?" he was asked.

"Because the last manger lost his job for renting it to you and I can't let that happen to me" was the reply.

The only alternative was to meet in the basement of the unfinished building. The basement was safe and could be warmed. So for two years or so this church has been meeting there while they try to complete their building.

During all this time the trash pit they were given to build in's location became prime real estate. It was right in the middle of the high rent district. Fees and costs continued to skyrocket and harassment from the media grew intense. Just recently, in June, they were told that they cannot meet in the basement anymore for violation of codes.

So they bussed the entire congregation, at the cost of $800 each Sunday, to another facility they had that was used as a camp and a school. Now they find out that all of a sudden they are in violation of fire codes and will be sued and closed down there too. The whole country is in violation of fire codes! It could easily be worked out or dismissed if anyone were so inclined. But not with these folks in the government.

So now this church is in a dilemma. They need to come up with over $1,000,000 to finish the project before the end of the year and the powers that be want this land for themselves. Most people there make just over a few hundred dollars a month. If everyone gave all their income from now to then it wouldn't even be close to enough. So they are asking for prayer.

Pray for the money and the workers (both there and for those who are willing to go), but also pray they they wouldn't be distracted from their real call of reaching the world with the gospel and establishing churches. They have already established more than 25 other churches in the midst of all this turmoil. People are still coming to the Lord each week. They need the help of the body of Christ around the world to pray with them to our God who answers prayer.

Our God is faithful and He can do anything - nothing is impossible to God.

Ordination of Women

When we were planning on ordaining Malana, I was asked if this was something that I came to by my own reading of scripture or was I more influenced by what I may have recently read. Actually the answer is more in a third category, an experiential journey, while scripture and what I have recently read (like in the past few years), have both contributed.

From my perspective this journey into the understanding of the ordination of women started in Bible School. From time to time we would have visiting ministries, some of whom were women. We were in the Pentecostal tradition which usually did not have a problem with this, although ordination was still controversial. The Pentecostal tradition saw ministry as a ministry of the Spirit where the vessel had little or no influence on the message. So what if women were used by God? It was the message, not the bringer of the message, that mattered. Pentecostals also saw the ministry as a matter of calling, character, and charism (anointing of the Spirit or gifting). There was also a precedent of women used by God, like Amy Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, and the like.

Yet there were these verses in scripture that seemed to stand against such ordination. Verses like “I do not permit a woman to teach a man”, or “women must be silent in the church”, or “an elder must be a husband of one wife” (a one woman man) all seemed to controvert the view that women can and should be ordained. So I began a study of women’s role in scripture. At that time I decided that God can and would use women for any ministry as long as she maintained her femininity. Although I had a hard time defining ‘femininity’, this answer stood me in good enough stead to get through Bible school with it’s acceptance of women’s ministry that seemed in contrast with direct statements of scripture.

As time went on, I began to see that this view was inadequate. I saw that women were as capable in every way with men. My experience with life caused me to ponder my understanding of scripture. I have learned that when my experience and my view of scripture don’t match, there is a reason why. And this reason is worth finding. Sometimes my view of scripture needs adjustment, sometimes my interpretation of my experience needs adjustment. But something needs adjusting! This is frequently how our understanding of scripture is adjusted. When the first Christians saw the resurrected Jesus, they had to adjust their understanding of scripture to account for this reality. I do not believe that they went back looking for proof-texts on resurrection. I believe that they had to readjust their view of the topic of certain passages in order to account for Jesus. When all else fails, read the manual. They discovered that they had actually misunderstood what God intended them to understand by the scripture. This is because the context in which they viewed the scripture was itself incorrect. When their worldview changed, their understanding of scripture changed. Yet what they found was that this new worldview, based on the resurrection of Jesus, was actually better supported by scripture than was their old worldview.

This is what happened to me. Through life I saw women, through Malana, in a different light. I also saw that my understanding of scripture did not support my new worldview that well. I tried to find out why. In so doing I found what I believe is a better understanding of scripture, one that seems ‘more true’ to the apparent intent of the scripture.

There were two books that have helped the most in this pursuit of a better understanding of scripture. One is titled “Why Not Women” by Loren Cunningham and some other guy(YWAM Press). In this book they take the view that the scripture passages that seem to be strongest against women in ministry as equal with men are mistranslated and misunderstood due to this mistranslation. They make a good case, although some of their exegesis is forced. The other book that helped was “Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals” by William Webb (IVP). His point was that Paul’s injunctions against women’s ministry was a local cultural affair and need not, indeed must not, be transferred translocally. He points out that all Paul’s instructions on men and women presupposed a culture where the family unit was often father, mother, children, and slaves. Further, it was a patriarchal society where the father had a god-like status in the home, often with the power of life and death over its members. Webb shows that many other things that Paul said, when allowed their full force, would over time change the culture where this idea of the family held sway.

It is to these verses that I now look for Biblical support for my changing worldview. Gal 3:26-28 NASU “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female ; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

It is clear that Paul intended this statement to affect our daily life. He is not just speaking of equal access to God, but of a real equality in Christ. We no longer have a problem with the abolishment of slavery because slavery is inappropriate for human relations. Yet in Paul’s day such a view would be, practically speaking, impossible. Yet over time we have seen that slavery and equality cannot go hand in hand, both theoretically and in everyday life. We have also seen that nationality has no bearing on who can minister, or on status in Christ. Now we can see that it makes no difference. I submit that the third couplet, of male and female, deserved the same recognition. That whether you are a male or female has no bearing on your function or status as a Christian. This, to my way of thinking, includes ministry and ordination.

Ordination today has so much ecclesiastical baggage that it is almost impossible to use this word and mean something that the Bible speaks of. In the New Testament there are no offices per se but functions, responsibilities. The word translated “ordain” is not a special word, but a normal word used to indicate the placement of someone to do or be something.(see Heb. 5:1, Mt. 25:21, Mt. 24:47, Rom. 5:19)So ordination is simply a giving of responsibility in the church for service (ministry). This responsibility is recognized by the laying on of hands. With the responsibility is the authority to make the necessary decisions to get the job done. This authority is not used for any personal gain or status, but only to serve and discharge the duties given to her.

In Malana’s case, she was given most of the pastoral duties in Tree of Life Church. She is responsible for the meetings, some counseling, money, organization of other ministries, among other responsibilities. She is not a preacher, although she does a fine job when so inclined. Tree of Life Church has been greatly blessed by her ministry.

Ask whatever you want

Here following are 14 promises where we are enjoined to ask anything. If you just look at the words in bold type you will miss the qualifications, except in the last promise. We can get anything we ask if only it is God's will. This is because prayer is not a way for us to manipulate God to get Him to do stuff we want - it is how we enter into His work as co-laborers. God's work is that we might believe and come to trust and love Him and others. This is a purpose of prayer, that we can grow in trust and our love of God. It is not magic. Nor is it a way to inform God of stuff He doesn't know. Through prayer His kingdom, not ours, is manifested. "Your kingdom come."

1.If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22

2.Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

3.Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9

4.Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:19

5.And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. John 14:13

6.You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 4:14

7.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. John 15:7

8.You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 15:16

9.In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 16:23

10.Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. John 16:24

11. In that day you will ask in my name. John 16:26

12. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

13. And receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 1 John 3:22

14.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14

Ministry in Russia

When I first went to Russia in 1997, I only went to support my friend Nikolai P. He had asked me to go with him because I was his homeleader and he thought that I would be a help. I was a decent enough teacher and had been gifted by the Lord with a prophetic word. But I told him that I didn’t have the money. He gently corrected me by saying that I must ask the Lord first if it was His will, then, if it was, God would provide. I prayed and the Lord spoke to my heart telling me that whatever I could do to help Nikolai I was to do. On the day before our team was to leave the Lord brought in the $10,000 we needed to make the trip – I still don’t know exactly how. I have since gone about 20 times.

The Lord sent us to Kamchatka, a peninsula about the size of California hanging down above Japan from the farthest eastern end of Russia, across the Bering Sea from Alaska. It is lightly populated with four indigenous tribes mixed with European Russians, Koreans, and others. It had been a closed area, even to other Russians,due to military operations during the Soviet years. The gospel had hardly ever been reached there and it was Nikolai’s burden to see the church of Jesus Christ established in that land.

Nikolai, his wife, and his close friend Anatoly P. had been sent by their church in the Ukraine to plant churches in Kamchatka. When I first came to the church in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, there were about 500 people, all new Christians. Churches were already beginning to be established in some other towns too. There are now over 25 churches established with more on the way.

God was moving in power by His Spirit. One woman bought her grandchild to us for prayer. This 2-year-old lay limp as a rag doll in his grandmother’s arms. His muscles weren’t working very well. She handed this child to us and we all laid on hands and prayed. As we prayed, the child’s toe touched the thigh of the one holding him and his legs began to move in that automatic bicycle pedaling motion that infants have. The child began to cry and we handed him back into his grandmother’s arms. We all watched as he then raised his head by his neck that was now gaining strength and he stood, perched solidly, looking around with wide, fearful eyes. I noticed that the look in his eyes began to change from fear to an “I-can-get-into-this” kind of look. We had handed back the child healed to his joyfully crying grandmother.

Later that week, Nikolai and I flew to Palana, a small town in the middle of Kamchatka. The first night in town we had a meeting with about 20 young adult men. As Nikolai and I raised our hands in prayer and worshiped the Lord,these young men began to do the same. We all sang our praise to God. It was years later I found out that, when we did this, the Spirit had fallen upon these young guys filling them all and granting them the gift of tongues. I had no idea at the time because I didn’t know their language. We never taught them about this, God just did it like he did in the book of Acts at the house of Cornelius.

It was during this period that God began to establish me as a prophet. Nikolai would take me to many meetings and counseling sessions. Since I didn’t speak Russian, and they tended to feed us too much food, I often grew very sleepy at these times. They would talk and talk and I would try to stay awake. I would usually be told what the topic was, like marriage or church. Every time we had one of these sessions I would get a thought or a verse of scripture. At the end of the session Nikolai would ask me if I had something to say. I would then say what was on my heart and hope that it at least applied to what they were discussing. They didn’t tell me until later that, every time I spoke, I used the same verses and said the same thoughts confirming what had been said.

On one of these earlier visits I was speaking to them inside a theater at a conference. I had a vision in which I saw behind me and to the right, a large dark wall of clouds. It was coming down the peninsula with the intent of hiding all the light. Yet where we stood at the southern end, the light remained very clear and bright. After a while, the cloud was pushed back up the peninsula by the light. The light then went across Russia to the west going across Siberia, the steppes, and south into the neighboring countries. I shared this with them and we all cheered a lot and that was that.

When I left the building with my translator, we noticed that, in the direction I had ignorantly pointed inside the closed theater, there was in fact an extremely large bank of very dark clouds sitting like a wall with the edge of the front over the volcanoes to our north. The light around us was very bright and super clear. My translator told me that he had lived there his whole life and had never seen such a cloud formation.

For years I thought that the picture the Lord had shown me was only of their ministry. Yet in 2005 Bruce M., a friend of mine who is known to have accurate prophetic dreams from the Lord, called me and told me the Lord had given him a dream concerning me. In that dream I was on a peninsula in a tent like Moses’ tabernacle and I was covered by the glory of God. Yet beyond the glory was darkness. The Lord said to Bruce that He was pleased with me and that I could ask Him for anything I wished. Bruce asked the Lord what I should ask for. The Lord answered that I should ask for the nations. Then the Lord indicted to Bruce the verse in Isaiah where the Lord told Zion to expand their tent for people are coming! Don't hold back! Yet when Bruce told me about the dream the first time, he did not tell me of his question of the Lord and the Lord's answer. So that night I was deeply affected and I believed the word Bruce had shared. Without knowing the Lord's response I prayed, believing I could actually pray for anything I wanted. I decided to ask the Lord for the anointing to preach the gospel with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. In addition, I prayed that this anointing would come upon me in the context of a mighty outpouring of His Spirit upon all His people with thousands of people who would have the same anointing I had.

Gradually it dawned on me that that the vision I had received in Kamchatka and the dream my friend had was about the same thing. This was confirmed when the leaders in Kamchatka asked me this spring of 2009 to pray and consider working with them to extend the ministry across Russia. I believe I am called as a prophet and a teacher to these people. I have it in my heart to help them establish churches all across Russia and the neighboring countries. My wife and I desire to go to the places that are out of the way, to the forgotten, to help lift the shade on the 10-40 window. And I would still be doing what the Lord had originally asked me – to help Nikolai in whatever way possible.

This is where you come in. If you would like to see this vision come to pass and the Lord disposes you so, would you consider supporting this ministry? If so, get in touch with me.

Christmas Break Coincidences

One winter a friend of mine named George and I decided to drive home to Michigan for Christmas break. George wanted to take back an old pick-up because he thought that they were worth more in Michigan than in Oregon. He figured he could make some money by selling it when we got back. So he found a 1945 Dodge pick-up and put a sheet metal canopy over the back in which we could store our stuff and sleep. He also put a stove in there for warmth.

On the day we were to leave George received a letter from his father. In the letter was a check, made out to George, for $127.10. We looked at each other with wonder on our faces trying to figure out why his Dad would send a check for such an odd amount. Stumped, he just folded the check and put it into his shirt pocket.

We were off. There were three cars in our caravan. Two were going to Michigan, while one was turning south at Cheyenne to go to Denver. Just to the east of Pendleton, Oregon, are some very large steep hills, about ten miles of six percent grade. I was driving the car behind the Dodge pick-up. At the top I saw what looked like oil spray out of the rear axel. I pulled in front and stopped the caravan. After inspection we decided that it would not be safe to drive the Dodge any further. One of the young ladies, Judy, had some relatives who lived nearby. She suggested that we stay there while we get the pick-up repaired.

A little further up the road we found someone to replace the axel. After having it towed to the repair guy we discovered that the local junkyard had three axels from 1945 Dodge pick-ups to choose from. Two of them were already out! After picking out the best, we all went over to Judy’s relatives for the next day or so, awaiting the repair.

Judy’s relatives raised beef cattle. We had steak. Did I say we had steak? The meals were tremendous. Soon, the repairs were done and we went over to the shop to get the vehicle and pay for it. George and I were walking together towards the shop office where the repairman was writing out the bill. We both looked at each other with a faith gleam in our eyes and knew what the check from George’s Dad was for. We stood at the window to the office and George said to the guy, as he was finishing adding the column, “Don’t tell me. It’s $127.10 isn’t it?”

“How did you know?” he replied as he turned the clipboard around so George could sign it. Not only was it for $127.10, but the guy took an out of town check, made out to and endorsed by George, for the payment. Did we ever rejoice!

Yet our troubles were not yet over. When we neared Evanston, Wyoming, the truck began to leak oil. The mechanic told us that it was the main seal between the engine and the transmission that needed to be replaced. He wanted to charge us $600. This is the kind of incident that re-coined the phrase “highway robbery”. No way could we afford such an expense. George made a decision. He went and bought a case of oil and a case of STP™. We were going to pour oil through it until we got home. Our plan was to stop every 50 miles or so and put more oil in. I checked it the first time or two and the oil never went down. The oil never went down until we crossed the Mississippi river. Then it used the last quart as we pulled near Port Huron, Michigan. George didn’t tell us that he had spent the last of the money to purchase the oil. What we had in oil was all we could have. Thank you Jesus!

One of the young men on the trip with us was a new Christian named Ramon. A hippie, he smelled like he bathed in patchouli oil. I had met him in Ypsilanti before I had ever met Jesus. That fall he had come down to visit some of us Portland Bible College from Alaska and just recently met the Lord. One night as we walked into a restaurant in Wyoming we asked Ramon what he would do if he ran into some of his old drinking buddies. Has he really put his old life behind? He contemplated his answer for a while. Once inside the restaurant we heard some raucous laughter and someone yelling, “Hey Ramon! You wanna go out and have a few beers?” Against all odds some of his old Alaskan drinking buddies were in that very restaurant, in December, in the middle of Wyoming, when we walked in. Ramon looked surprised and embarrassed. He told the guys after joyfully greeting them that he did not want to go drinking. He came and ate with us instead.

These coincidences are amazing. A friend of mine at our church likes to say that it is odd that when she stops praying those coincidences seem to stop happening. Keep trusting in God and the may those happy happenstances happen!

Being Testy For Christ

Let me give you an example of what I mean by testing the spirits. Let’s pretend that one day the world was at war again. Someone had released a pathogen that was killing off hundreds of thousands of people a week. It looked like mankind was really going to destroy themselves this time.

In the midst of all this strife some scientist noticed on his telescope that an object, very small, was coming towards earth at an incredible speed, faster than any comet. The militaries of the earth were alerted. Talk shows had experts tell us of the devastation that a small object could do if it struck the earth. This object was coming straight for earth. They calculated that it would hit the earth in two days. The people of the earth wondered if it was judgment from God.

Just hours before the object was to hit, radio messages were received all over the earth that were purported as coming from the object. “Stop the war! I am coming! Stop the war! I am coming!” This was repeated over and over.

The object turned out to be some kind of spacecraft. It landed in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives. It landed with such force that a small earthquake resulted, cracking the mount in two. The spacecraft was so hot that it glowed.

It took only a few hours for the craft to cool. As it did, camera crews, the curious, military people, and politicians gathered to it. After it was cool, a door opened, and a man walked out. He was bearded, wore blue jeans, and smiled a lot.

He said he was Jesus.

People who were dying from the plague were brought to him, and he healed them. Many miraculous signs were done. An uneasy peace began to pervade among the warring nations.

What would you do? Everyone seemed to be amazed. The question you would ask yourself is, does what this person say square with what is written? If it did not, even if you could not explain how these miracles were done, you would not accept this person as Jesus. Yet you would review all you had previously understood. You would make sure.

Then came the announcement. “All nations are to worship me, or judgment will follow!” The Islamic nations that would not bend had fire come upon them from what seemed like outer space. All governments were abolished. The control of all the world's money was unified under his command. Allegiance had to be sworn in order to participate in any way in society. Now your life and the lives of your children depended upon your decision. Would your decision hold? Could you be swayed?

This may be an extreme example. But every day we have to make similar decisions, yet on a much smaller scale. Jesus taught us that if we’d be faithful with little we’d also be faithful with much. I’ve noticed that this works in all areas of responsibility. In discernment there are just a few elements that need to be balanced.

Is what I see consistent with the scripture or not? If what I see challenges my understanding of scripture, after further review do I find it consistent or not? Who gets the glory? Is it consistent with the God I know? What is or would be the fruit? Do I have peace? What is the Spirit saying inside me? What do others, whom I regard as spiritually mature, say? What are the immature saying? In essence, is this activity consistent with the Spirit and the Book?

Unless you are convinced that the Spirit stopped doing the things we see throughout the Bible, there will still be, from time to time, miraculous signs and wonders done by God’s people today. The gifts of the Spirit are manifested still.

Let’s look at a test case. Take the stuff that went on at the Toronto Airport Vineyard (now Toronto Airport Church). I went to see it for myself. I was negatively predisposed. At first I was bored, yet after observing those around me have experiences from which they would come away with the praise of God on their lips and with a fervor to serve Him, I wondered. At one point there was a general call for those with lower back pain to come forward to be prayed for. I laughed to myself saying maybe everyone is going to go forward for this one. Since I had back pain, and had for years, I went forward, pressured by my wife, despite my skepticism. I stood in a circle around the platform with many others. As someone came near me to pray for me, and as that person lifted their hand to lay upon me for prayer, yet before I was touched, I found myself ejected backwards in a ‘graceful’ arc, landing on my lower back.

My back pain was gone, and stayed gone. I had other encounters with the Holy Spirit throughout the week, yet none of them were particularly emotional.

I remember one afternoon, while standing on a balcony at the back, being asked by the Holy Spirit if I would want this fruit in my ministry. Would I want people to more willing to serve God and make positive strides in their confession of faith? I said that yes, I would. But what if it came with all these different reactions, I was asked? Then I saw what was going on. The things that people did, the falling, laughing, groaning, etc., were their reactions to the Holy Spirit, not manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of these encounters with the Spirit was not the reactions, but the strides people made in their faith.

The fruit of these encounters with the Holy Spirit in my life gave me faith to believe God for the time and money for short term missions. This is with 5 kids still at home. Sometimes my wife or one of my children would accompany me. Beautiful fruit for me and my family. I can trace this fruit back to my encounters with the Holy Spirit at the Toronto Airport Church. Does this mean that I endorse all that went on? Of course not. Few do. But after testing I can keep the good and avoid the evil.

This is what Paul was steering us towards with these words in his letter to the Thessalonians. Paul wanted us to discern the intent of God in what is happening around us. This will take a familiarity with God has said and done in the past coupled with a openness to the Spirit. Even if we are not 100% correct in all our judgments we can at least move ourselves out of the place of debilitating deception into the range of non-dangerous differences of opinion.

Testing Prophecy

Paul exhorted us to test all things and to hold fast to the good. Because of the context it is clear that Paul wanted us to test prophecy given by fellow believers. Jesus also wanted us to test the prophets, even those in sheep’s clothing. Additionally, it appears that this testing could be extended to all ‘Spirit’ ministry. The purpose of this testing was for the believer to be able to tell the difference between what has truly come from the Spirit of God and what has not. This testing is so that we will be able to separate the good from every form of evil, preventing our deception.

Why be so concerned about deception? Jesus and his apostles taught us that in the last days deception would be the main danger. When we are deceived we believe a lie, but are not aware of it. Since belief is the basis for all action and relationships, wrong beliefs result in destructive actions and relationships. Ultimately we will be judged on what we have believed as evidenced by our actions. True beliefs lead us into a love relationship with God and others while false beliefs do not. Deception then is a means by which our healthy relationships with God and others are broken.

Because of this we can see how important it is that we are not deceived. Now it is true that not all false beliefs are equally dangerous. Believing that Jesus is not our savior is far more dangerous than believing in, say, a limited atonement. (I can feel a discussion brewing!) There are areas in which differences of opinion are not necessarily debilitating and there are other areas that will destroy our relationship with God. It is important that we maintain a sense of proportion.

How then can we tell whether or not some ‘spiritual’ activity is from the Holy Spirit or not? We will have to have some authority guide us here. We will have to be taught. Why do I say this? How would any of us know the answer to this question, for sure? Who has the right to say anything about this but those who undoubtedly have known this Spirit? This is why I propose scripture, the Old and New Testaments. No one in scripture has our cultural biases. And for my money, they are ones who undoubtedly knew the Holy Spirit.

Throughout time people have had to deal with the problem of who speaks authoritatively for God. Prophecy is where someone speaks for God as God directs, often in the first person singular. (Rev19:10, 22:6-9; Amos3:8) People who wanted to know the truth have always had to choose between those who spoke for God and those who claimed to speak for God. How were they able to distinguish between the two? What happened in the past and what can we learn from them?

The first situation that comes to mind is when Noah tried unsuccessfully to warn the world of the impending flood. Only his family listened. Even with the evidence of all these animals coming to the ark in pairs, people didn’t listen. No one had ever seen what Noah was talking about. Noah spoke of rain, floods, worldwide judgment, and cataclysm of a degree never before known. Besides, people didn’t want to repent. So Noah got no converts. Was Noah’s message from God? Yes. But people couldn’t tell because their hearts were hardened. They wanted their own way regardless. Noah’s message was right and he persisted with it for 120 years. He built an ark and gathered the animals (maybe even miraculously) and his family, demonstrating his sincerity. Still, his message went unheeded.

This shows us several things. The first is just because the message is strange and no one is listening does not prove that the message is not from God. It also shows that the reason we are not listening may have more to do with our hard heart than some flaw in the message. Herein is a ‘key’ to knowing the voice of God – the receptivity of our heart. Do we really want to hear from God, or do we only want God to confirm our own opinions? Unless we are open to correction we will have a very hard time hearing from God. Does this mean that when God speaks he only speaks correction? Of course not. But unless we are open to whatever God might say, we will have trouble hearing. Unless we hear, we cannot decide whether the message is from God or not.

Since Moses was afraid that the people would not believe that God had met with him, God gave him confirmatory signs. This method was used throughout the Bible. Jesus, the prophets, the apostles all had miraculous signs to confirm that their message was from God. Yet signs were never given total confirmatory power. In other words, signs could confirm the message, but the message had to conform to the standard already given. Signs alone, or signs with a suspicious message, confirmed nothing. Signs alone cannot accredit the messenger. But signs can confirm that the message, when the message was consistent with previous messages from God, is indeed from God. (Dt 13:1-3, 18:21-22)

Why the need for signs if the message was consistent with previous messages from God? Sometimes it is because the people who are being communicated with have not understood the previous messages. Take for instance the coming in of the Gentiles into the people of God. It took many signs from the Spirit of God to lead Peter to the house of Cornelius. It also took a mighty demonstration of the presence of the Spirit in the lives of those Gentiles for the Jewish believers to accept the Gentiles and baptize them. Even then Peter was called to task by the leadership in Jerusalem. His answer was simple. Who am I to resist God?

Sometimes signs are used when the message challenges our accepted beliefs. If it weren’t for the signs, we would not reconsider our beliefs. Yet signs do not have the strength to change our beliefs on their own. The message must be, as the Bereans noted, consistent with what God has communicated before in the scriptures.

Jesus also taught us to “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” Matt 7:15-20 NIV So we can tell if the Spirit is working through someone by their fruit. This presupposes a few things. One is that we know this person life well enough to test for fruit. The second is that we know what good fruit looks (tastes?) like. Knowing the person who ministers by the Spirit is essential.

I suggest that the fruit Jesus mentions is the same as the fruit that Paul lists in Gal 5:22 as “love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. So also in Eph 5:9 the "fruit of light" is found in "all that is good and right and true." Contrasted with this are "the unfruitful works of darkness" (v. 11), the "fruitless trees" of subversive teachers in Jude 12. One of the characteristics of the "wisdom from above" is that it is "full of mercy and good fruits" (Jas 3:17, 2 Pet 1:8). In order to see such things we need to actually know that person. The more a person is disassociated with the local church the harder it is to assess fruit, and the easier it is to hide bad fruit.

If the prophetic word is consistent with scripture and is being communicated through a person of good fruit, it passes the initial test. All of this needs to done through a relationship with the Holy Spirit. You might remember when Agabus warned Paul of the binding he would receive by the Gentiles in Jerusalem. Paul wasn’t hard of hearing, he knew that what was said was true. He also knew the Lord was sending him and that he was willing to suffer for the Name. How the prophetic word given to Paul was to be interpreted by Paul, not others to whom this word was not addressed. So how the word is to be applied needs discernment.

Paul warns the Thessalonians not to put out the Spirit’s fire by looking down on prophecy. Instead they were to test everything and hold on to the good. Prophecy is one way that God mediates his presence though his people. If there is a need for anything now, it is for God to lovingly intervene in people’s lives. Prophecy is one way God does this. Let’s avoid evil by not putting out the Spirit’s fire.

The Spirit's Fire

One of my deep disappointments regarding the emerging church movement is its apparent rejection of the practice of the gifts of the Spirit. In its effort to distance itself from the excesses, doctrinal immaturity, exclusiveness, and fundamentalism of some of the previous ‘Spirit’ movements in the church, it has turned a deaf ear to many of the more dramatic types of genuine Spirit manifestation. This is not without justification. Yet Paul’s exhortation to us that we should not despise prophecy is applicable to us here.

The passage in Thessalonians reads like this: “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

As with all of Paul’s exhortations, there are good reasons for giving them. If we could not put out the Spirit’s fire, why he would have exhorted us not to put it out? But what did Paul mean by the Spirit’s fire? Does anyone besides me hear the echoes of the words of the prophets? Without the fire of the Spirit the distinction between the holy and the profane would be blurred. Fire marks the line of that which is totally devoted to the Lord and that which is not. The concept of radical zeal and devotion applies here. But it is the Spirit’s fire, a fire not of our own generation. Yet that cannot mean that the Spirit’s fire can burn without our consent and complicity. If it could burn in such a way, without our consent, how then could we put out the Spirit’s fire? So then for the fire of the Spirit to burn in us we need to agree with the Spirit. This results in a passion for the things of God – love, holiness, compassion, forgiveness, truth, justice, fidelity, and so on. By agreeing to live in these things we agree with the nature of the Holy Spirit. The more we are consumed by these virtues the more we are ‘on fire’ by the Spirit.

Yet there is an aspect of the Holy Spirit that manifests itself in the supernatural - things that happen that defy natural explanation. This will bug the confirmed rationalist that must have all things explained in a causative way. The difficulty in explaining the supernatural is that it ain’t natural. How come everyone isn’t
healed, or why did God answer that prayer but appears not to have answered this other prayer? The rationalist wants rules so it will work each time the same way. There probably are rules and purposes governing the manifestation of the supernatural power of the Spirit of God, but they are not natural rules. This is not magic. It is a relationship with the Being who made it all who desires to share His person and power with His children. God makes the rules and does what is holy and right every time.

In addition to rationalism, the mystical approach leaves much of what God is giving into this relationship still on the table. It receives well enough but seems to be weak on cooperating with the Spirit in the Spirit’s desire to express himself through people to other people. Jesus said that if we want to be his disciples we must take up our cross and follow him. This means, among other things, that we are to enter into Jesus’ work. This work is the work of giving our life to others through the power of the Spirit. God wants to do this work with us, not just pour into our lives. There is a difference between a friend and a siphon.

Here, in entering into the work of God, we discover the Spirit’s fire. The gifts of the Spirit are birthed in us by faith and compassion, also of the Spirit. The gifts are given to us so each of us can give a supernatural manifestation of the Spirit to someone else. As we participate in the Spirit’s desire to touch the heart of people at their point of need, the Spirit works in and through us, both with virtue and with power. By closing ourselves to either the Spirit’s virtue or power, we begin to put out the Spirit’s fire. We drift back into the gray area between light and darkness.

Why would we ever want to close ourselves off to the Holy Spirit, quenching the Spirit’s fire? Few of us willingly close ourselves off to the Spirit’s virtues. It is the Spirit’s power that is the sand in our sheets. Like with natural fire, we only feel safe if it is controlled. Yet the Spirit will not be controlled by us. Who is the Lord here anyway? The Spirit is the Lord, not us.

In the past the Holy Spirit had the people of God do many strange things. Ezekiel laid on his side for much too long, enacting the siege of Jerusalem. Hosea married a harlot. Jesus spat on people sometimes when healing them. How can we tell what is of the Spirit and what is because someone is nuts? Worse yet, what if I prayed for someone and they were not healed? What if I declared something in faith, waiting for the mountain to cast itself into the sea, and it didn’t go? What if I looked foolish and other people thought less of God because of me? Because of this many say that going down this ‘Spirit’ road is not worth the risk.

It is in this way prophecy and other Spirit manifestations are devalued. Because of the problems, the craziness, and the doctrinal uncertainties, the teaching and practice of the power of the Spirit is reconfigured to avoid these pitfalls. One way to reconfigure the teaching is to say that these gifts are no longer for today. Another is to say that they are not necessary, but you can practice them at home if you like. The problem is that it is by these very gifts, and the loving context in which they are supposed to be used, that God’s word is confirmed to those who are yet to believe. Additionally, it is also by these gifts that God intervenes in peoples lives to help them know Him better, to meet their needs, and to help people participate in the work of Christ.

So then how are we to differentiate between the Holy Spirit and the kooks? Do we need, like some early Pentecostals and some modern Charismatics, to accept everything that says it’s from the Spirit of God? Including barking? Do we need to accept all kinds of fanciful exegeses that say they are Spirit inspired? How do we ‘test everything’? To describe that will take another article. For now it will be sufficient for us to know that we can test everything, we should test everything, and that God wants us to test everything. There are controls on the gifts which need to be in place. These controls, when properly used, will not put out the Spirit’s fire. Indeed, these controls are themselves Spirit inspired. These controls are not controls on the Spirit, they are on us. The problem is not with the Holy Spirit’s manifestations, the problem is with our ‘manifestations’.

Because we are participating in the Spirit’s work, there are, at least, two sources for our activity: the Spirit and us. Since the Spirit wants to work with us and through us, we are always involved. The plan is for us to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Yet when people are involved, mistakes will always be made. It is important to remember that the supernatural does not come naturally. To some, it will always look wrong and be offensive. Jesus did get nailed to a cross. And so will we who, through the Spirit, endeavor to participate in Jesus’ work.

Just because some people are put off by the power of the Spirit does not mean that we are to abandon the fire of the Spirit. Paul exhorted us to hold on to the good. Today he might have said “Don’t through out the baby with the bath water”. The gifts of the Spirit are intended to build up, to encourage, all those who are seeking God. Surely this is a work that still needs to be done. The gifts are intended to confirm the source of our message, the gospel. They are intended to heal people who are ill, deliver people who are in bondage, to reveal the plan and purposes of God, to cut through satanic opposition, to reveal some of the power of the kingdom of God.

Now what is wrong with that?

Comparative Hermeneutics

Here is an old e-mail that floated around years ago. Found it again, liked it, and thought I'd post it. Thanks to whoever wrote it, a name now shrouded in mystery.

Suppose you're traveling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you interpret the sign.

1. A post modernist deconstructs the sign (knocks it over with the car), ending forever the tyranny of the north-south traffic over the east-west traffic.

2. Similarly, a Marxist refuses to stop because he sees the stop sign as an instrument of class conflict. He concludes that the bourgeois use the north-south road and obstruct the progress of the workers in the east-west road.

3. A serious and educated Catholic rolls through the intersection because he believes he cannot understand the stop sign apart from its interpretive community and tradition. Observing that the interpretive community doesn't take it too seriously, he doesn't feel obligated to take it too seriously either.

4. An average Catholic (or Coptic or Orthodox or Anglican or Methodist or Presbyterian or whatever) doesn't bother to read the sign but will stop the car if the car in front stops.

5.A fundamentalist stops at the stop sign and waits for it to say go.

6. A seminary educated evangelical preacher might look up 'stop' in his lexicons of English and discover that it can mean: 1)something which prevents motion, such as a plug for a drain, or a block of wood that prevents a door from closing; 2) a location where a train or bus lets off passengers. The main point of his sermon the following Sunday on this text is: when you see a stop sign, it is a place where traffic is naturally clogged, so it is a good place to let off passengers from your car.

7. An orthodox Jew does one of two things: 1) take another route to work that doesn't have a stop sign so he doesn't run the risk of disobeying the law; 2) stops at the stop sign, says "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast given us thy commandment to stop," waits 3 seconds according to his watch, and then proceeds. Incidentally, the Talmud has the following comments on this passage:
Rabbi Meir says: He who does not stop will not live for long.
R. Hillel says: Cursed is he who does not count to three before proceeding.
R. Simon ben Yudah says: Why three? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.
R. ben Isaac says: Because of the three patriarchs.
R. Yehuda says: Why bless the Lord at a stop sign? Because it says, "Be still and know I am God".

8. A scholar from the Jesus seminar concludes that the passage "STOP" undoubtedly was never uttered by Jesus himself because, being the progressive Jew that he was, he would never have wanted to stifle people's progress. Therefore "STOP" must be a textual insertion belonging entirely to stage III of the gospel tradition, when the church was first confronted by traffic in its parking lot.

9.A New Testament scholar notices that there is no stop sign on Mark street but there is one on Matthew and Luke streets, and concludes that the ones on Luke and Matthew are both copied from a sign on a street that no one has seen called "Q" street. There is an excellent 300 page doctoral dissertation on the origin of these stop signs, and the difference between signs on Matthew and Luke street in the scholar's commentary on the passage. There is an unfortunate omission in the dissertation, however; it doesn't explain the meaning of the text!

10. An OT scholar points out that there are a number of stylistic differences between the first and the second half of the passage "STOP". For example, "ST" contains no enclosed areas and five line endings, whereas "OP" contains two enclosed areas and only one line termination. He concludes that the author for the second part is different from the on the first part and probably lived hundreds of years later. Later scholars determine that the second half is itself actually written by two separate authors because if similar stylistic differences between the "O" and the "P".

11. Another prominent OT scholar notes in his commentary that the stop sign would fit in better into the context three streets back. (Unfortunately, he neglected to explain why in his commentary). Clearly it was moved to its present location by a later redactor. He thus exegetes the intersection as though the stop sign were not there.

12.Because of the difficulties in interpretation, another OT scholar amends the text, changing the "T" to "H". "SHOP" is much easier to understand in context than "STOP" because of the multiplicity of stores in the area. The textual corruption probably occurred because "SHOP" is so similar to "STOP" on the sign several streets back, that it is a natural mistake for a scribe to make. Thus the sign should be interpreted to announce the existence of a shopping area. If this is true, it could mean that both meanings are valid, making the thrust of the message "STOP (AND) SHOP".

13. A "prophetic" preacher notices that the square root of the sum of the numeric representations of the letters S-T-O-P (sigma-tau-omicron-pi in the Greek alphabet), multiplied by forty (the number of testing), and divided by four (the number of the world - north, south, east west) equals 666. Therefore he concludes that stop signs are the dreaded 'mark of the beast', a harbinger of divine judgment upon the world, and must be avoided at all costs.

A Church of Believers

I had heard about a church in a nearby town that called itself the Church of Believers. They were endeavoring to restore New Testament Christianity. This meant, above other things, that they were to be led by the Holy Spirit. This was manifested by eschewing institutionalism in all forms (i.e. no formal leadership in picking out songs to speaking messages), emphasizing the gifts of the Spirit (especially prophecy), and freedom to dance and spontaneously sing together for long times our different personal songs harmoniously to the Lord. I had experienced this type of singing in Corvallis, Oregon, and was looking for a church who knew what this was and practiced it.

The Church of Believers was an offshoot of the Later Rain Revival that began at a Bible school in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1948. Prophecy, both to individuals and groups, the “song of the Lord”, and a strong desire for the ‘restoration’ of the New Testament church as seen in the book of Acts, were some of the main emphases. The Church of Believers also baptized in Jesus’ name, and were Jesus ‘only’ theologically. This meant that they had a non-traditional view of the trinity that taught that the Father was Jesus, the Son was Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was the Spirit of Jesus. This was how they protected the unity of God from tri-theism. Since when I had met God I learned that God’s name was Jesus I gravitated towards this type of thinking. Later the Holy Spirit through the Bible adjusted my understanding.

One time I was at Denny’s, a man in the Church of Believers. I needed some gas to make it home. It was late and I knew that no gas stations were open for many miles. I didn’t think I could make it home as I was past empty. Denny kept a large tank for gasoline for his farm stuff. I looked at the tank, it had been painted red, and it somehow looked full to me. I asked Denny if I could have some of the gas in his tank. He told me that he had tried that morning to get some gas and it was empty. But it really looked full to me. So I asked again if he would just humor me and pour some gas into my tank. He protested that this was foolish, as only a German could do, but would do it any way because I insisted. He reached for the nozzle and with a look of disgust on his face, probably because I didn’t believe him, he put it into my tank and pulled the trigger. Whoosh went the gasoline into my tank. Denny was absolutely shocked and surprised. My tank was filled and he had plenty to spare. Years later I asked him if he it was really empty and he assured me that it was.

There was one girl my age, Peggy, who went to church there with me. It was obvious to us that we were destined for each other. Although I had not yet emotionally healed from my breakup with another young lady earlier that year, I became attached to Peggy, and she to me. When I asked her to marry me, she said yes and we went to tell her parents. It was late and they had already gone to bed so we woke them up with our good news. Her parents were less than enthusiastic. They cautioned us to wait a year before we tied the knot. We happily agreed, oblivious to their implicit warning.

Sometime just before Easter, 1972, a man came into our assembly wanting help and some of us discerned that he needed to be delivered from demons. So we, as a group, gathered in a circle around him as he sat in a chair, often called the ‘hot seat’. I got this idea that I was supposed to, as in acting out a prophecy, grab above this man’s head and throw the demon away. This thought was very strange to me and I did not act upon it. Later, when walking Peggy to her car after the service, I shared with her what I had received. She said that she didn’t think that it was odd as she had seen others do that before. I filed this information in the back of my brain for future use.

That Easter there was a big get together in St. Paul, Minnesota for all the churches that were in some way associated with each other. The Church of Believers was a part and most of us were going. On the first night the worship was freewheeling. After the singing and dancing were over a person was brought forward who we were told had demons that needed to be cast out. They asked for spiritual male volunteers to come forward to pray. I decided I was spiritual enough and male, so I went up front.

As we gathered around the guy who needed the ministry I began to get the same leading that I had received earlier at home. I was to reach out my hands above the guys head, grab as if I were grabbing demons, and throw them as far as I could. This time I did it. Yet when I threw two odd things happened. The first was I let out a yell. This was no ordinary yell. This yell was fueled by all the anxiety that had been building up in me since I disobeyed God (another story) hitchhiking from Corvallis, Oregon to Michigan. Contained within was the anxiety of my earlier break up, through spiritual immaturity at all levels, all the way to the stress of Peggy’s parents not wanting us to be married. Not only did I yell, but when I threw I almost hit one of the elders on the chin with my fists, clenched as they were from 'grabbing the demons'.

Not surprisingly the rest of the group figured that there was something wrong with me. They bound demons left and right and had me sit down on the front pew. They left me there and ignored me. While sitting in front the thoughts came to me that if I have demons, Jesus can cast out demons, I have nothing to worry about.

Yet I was left alone. The next day I gathered some of the non-leaders who were leaders in the Church of Believers. I asked them to solve the problem, do I have demons or not? They responded by gathering some of the other leading non-leaders who tried to help discern what condition my condition was in. They asked me probing questions. I responded by confessing every sin, real or imagined, leaving no sin unturned. By the time they were done, they had discerned seven demons. They also decided that it was the demon of lust, discerned through the confession of some of my dreams, that had caused my relationship with Peggy. So they brought her into the room and I had to confess to her that our relationship, on my part, was caused by these demons. She cried and they ushered her out of the room. She was to stay in St. Paul. I never saw her again or have communicated with her since.

These leading non-leaders now had a problem, how to get the demons out of me. I tried to cooperate as best I could. I had heard that sometimes when demons are exorcised the victim vomited. So, on my hands and knees, I tried to vomit, but I couldn’t. Nothing would happen, no demons came out. After a long while, may have been an hour or two, one of the ladies performing the exorcism said that she knew why the demons were not coming out. They were not coming out because I had blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Although I had not been a Christian very long, I knew that this was bad, really bad. Fortunately, the rest of the people did not agree with her, and escorted her out of the room.

In the end they could not cast the demons out. The reason they couldn’t, I was told, was that I had sin in my life. Yes, that really was the reason I was given. I was also told that the demons would try to deceive me and draw me away from the fellowship. If I left the church I would loose my salvation.

I was pretty glum. Someone handed me a book by Merlin Caruthers called Prison to Praise. I read it on the way home. It impacted me deeply. The gist of the book is that God is worthy of praise regardless of the situations we were in. Mr. Caruthers took very seriously Paul’s exhortations to praise God in and for everything.

After I arrived home I decided to put into practice the stuff I had learned reading this book. I stood in the middle of my living room/bedroom, lifted my arms and hands into the air, and began to praise God with all my strength. I praised and thanked God for the seven demons which He, in His wisdom, allowed me to have. This outburst of faith, expressed in praise and thankfulness, must have really tickled God. God filled me with so much joy that for the next two weeks it was all I could do to walk instead of dance wherever I went. The grin on my face was so wide and perpetual that the back of my head behind my ears continually hurt. If God would have injected me with any more joy I would have exploded all over the walls.

When I communicated with the Church of Believers what I had been experiencing, about the joy that didn’t quit, they looked at me with condescension and said that they noticed that I had some measure of joy. I was intimidated by their comments and the intense joy I had been experiencing began to ebb away. Before too long I was depressed and shriveled spiritually.

A friend of mine from another church came over one day and noticed my poor spiritual state. He said that I needed to leave that church. I said I couldn’t, I would loose my salvation because of the demons. He said that he did not believe I had any demons. It never occurred to me that what I had been told might not be the truth.

I began to think about this. How could I be sure it was not just the demons trying to deceive me? It was a logical conundrum. Yet one day I happened to be reading the book of Acts in the Bible. I came across the passage in Acts 8 where Simon the sorcerer believed, confessed Christ, and was baptized. Yet when he saw that the gift of the Spirit was given through the laying on of hands by the Apostles, he wanted to do it too. He offered to pay Peter for this ability to impart the Holy Spirit. Peter took offense and noticed that Simon’s heart was still bound up in iniquity. Before I read the next sentence I thought, now here is the perfect time to establish once and for all that Christians can still have demons from their previous life of sin after they have become Christians. Here is a guy with all the requirements: He was a sorcerer, he believed and was baptized, and now he sins in a big way. Cast the demon out, Peter! Yet Peter didn’t cast a demon out. He commanded Simon to repent. Repent, that was all. Ask the Lord to forgive. I had done that. I then knew that I did not have any demons, and that I was right with God, regardless of what the Church of Believers taught! So I quit my job, left the Church of Believers, and moved to Portland, Oregon.

Understanding the Bible

“Faith and integrity are the foundations of a relational hermeneutic.” David Mackin


It is impossible to come to the text of the Bible without preconceptions. Our language, our various cultures, our questions, our way of reasoning, what we have been taught, our history, all these and more will color what we read. Because of this, how we interpret the Bible will probably reflect just as much on who we are and who we are willing to become as on what the Bible says. We need to remember that we may start off approaching the Bible as a discerner of truth but, in the end, the Bible will be discern the truth about us.

Does this mean that no one can know with confidence what the Bible means? Definitely not! My main premise is this: If we believe the Bible, the Holy Spirit can teach us, over time, how the Bible is to be interpreted and understood. Understanding the Bible is more than a process of reading the words and trying to figure out what they mean. Of course what they mean is of utmost importance, yet what they mean needs to be coupled with belief in order to be understood. Learning to understand the Bible is like getting to know a person who grows into your best friend or marriage partner. It is a continual process of discovery. Sometimes you are confused about their behavior, but with careful listening, trust, humility, and patience these problems can be worked out. If we approach the scriptures relationally, instead of as a mere observer, we put ourselves into the best position to genuinely understand them.

Millions of people over the centuries have discovered that through the words of the Bible a relationship with the true God, the one who made it all, can be experienced. It is this relationship that the understanding of the Bible fosters. Of course, this assertion is open to contradiction and a need for proof. This is also recognized within the pages of the Bible itself. Elijah had such a controversy with the prophets of Baal. Elijah and those followers of Baal agreed that the god who answered by fire would be the true God. So today, the god who listens and responds is the true God.

So this relationship with God through the Bible is not a philosophy, although we can develop philosophies about it. Nor is it a religion, although religion can and should be formed around it. It is a relationship with the true creator of it all, with God who responds to us – answers prayers, guides our steps, corrects our behavior, teaches us truth, demonstrates love, becomes our friend and our God. My contention is that all this can come through a belief of the content of the Bible.

To understand what the authors of the Bible wanted us to understand by their writings we must believe what they have written because they expected to be believed. Just like when we are getting to know a new person criticism does not provide a framework for friendship, so approaching the Bible with a disbelieving, critical frame of mind will close the book to us. True understanding is firmly rooted in believing what is written.

As philosophers have taught us, all learning takes place in a context that is in itself defined by a larger context, and so on and on. Experiencing the intended reality of what was written is both the Biblical writers' and the Holy Spirit’s context and goal. The Apostle John is explicit about this when near the end of his gospel we read, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” This experience of the reality of what the Bible refers to is a product of faith, integrity, understanding, and obedience.

Paul taught that we are to use his teaching as a pattern for our teaching. In order to see his pattern we need to be aware of how we affect our interpretation. It is vitally important that we become aware of who we are and how we affect the information we take in. Too often we are tempted to conform Paul to our own way of thinking. By allowing Paul the freedom to be Paul we can then have him teach us. This is true of all the scripture. Approaching scripture as a learner, a disciple, will bring us into the arena in which the authors of the Bible wanted us to be. More than that, approaching the Bible as a newborn child of God will assure us of a set of preconceptions that conform to the Biblical writers hope for us, and will thereby help us greatly in understanding the scripture in the way intended by those authors.

I want to give you an idea of what some of my preconceptions were. Since none of us can avoid them, you should know which were mine. I was not raised as a Christian, but as an atheist who, wanting to be open and broadminded, called himself an agnostic. Still, I was competitive enough to show those people who did believe in a ‘god’ how unfounded their beliefs were. I was even asked to leave the Boy Scouts because I was irreligious. If I had to pick a religion or philosophy to believe, Christianity would be well after the last on my list!

One evening when I was about sixteen I was lying on the floor listening to some music it occurred to me that there must be some kind of objective reality, some kind of ultimate truth. That night I started my quest. I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I did not know. I searched drugs to “expand” my consciousness. I read about and dabbled in some of the “--isms”: Buddhism (Zen and Tibetan), Taoism, Shamanism, hedonism (if it feels good, do it) and Epicureanism. I also searched philosophy, astrology, palmistry, I Ching divination and the writings of Madam Blavatsky. Whatever I was looking for, it was not there. I grew depressed. The Viet Nam war was taking its toll on our society. The phoniness of the society screamed at me from the type of houses people lived in, to the way the streets were laid out, to the way money was adored. They all shouted nothingness. The depression became profound.

It was about 8:00 p.m. on December 28, 1970 when my sister called me on the telephone from Port Townsend, Washington. I was in Detroit, Michigan. She led me to the Lord over the telephone. I confessed that it was my sin that had separated me from God, while asking God for forgiveness with an appeal for Him to become the Lord of my life. When we were done with the conversation I knew that I knew just three simple things: I met God, His name is Jesus, and the Bible is true. My quest was over.

These three simple things now formed the bedrock of my Christianity. The part that is most germane to our present discussion is the realization about the Bible being true. I came to the Bible as a believer. Prior to my conversion I remember reading only three portions of the Bible. One portion was the first few chapters of Genesis. I had a friend who, as a Catholic, believed the Bible. I knew from my parents, who were Unitarians, that the Bible was filled with contradictions. I told him so and he protested. I decided to prove it to him right then and there. So I began reading the Bible at the beginning, in Genesis. Before too long I had my first contradiction. It read that on the first day God made light. Yet on the fourth day the sun was made. Now how can you have light without the sun? I pointed this out to my friend. I was as smug as I could be. I had just succeeded in taking one of the more difficult passages of scripture and twisting it to my own ends.

The second portion of the Bible was Ecclesiastes. The person who recommended it felt I could identify with its sentiments. Since I was already depressed over the meaninglessness of life, they were right. After reading this book of the Bible I dropped out of High School and society and the alternate culture of the day caught me. I did not truly understand what was written, I could only see those parts with which I could empathize. Since I could not see the hope at the end of the book, I was left with a vision of life ‘under the sun’, a life without the light of God. I agreed with its sentiment that life seems meaningless. I received no light there.

The third portion of the Bible that I read was 1 John. Someone asked me to read it, so I did. It made no sense at all. It was like random words on a page, left by someone for who knows what reason. All it did was leave a guilty feeling. Who needed that? I certainly did not appreciate these guilty feelings. The philosophy of the age rejected guilt as something from the ‘uptight’ Victorian era. I was a modern person who knew that guilt was a feeling based on false premises like right and wrong. We all knew that right and wrong were relative concepts, thus making guilt a pain that had no meaning. Consequently, guilt must be rejected. So I did not reread 1 John.

These perceptions of the Bible, which I had before I met God, never could provided an adequate foundation for the interpretation of Scripture. My primary preconceptions are those that I received when I became a Christian. The Bible is true, and Jesus, whom I met, is the Son of the God of whom the Bible speaks. This is what the Holy Spirit taught me. My approach to the Bible from this beginning was one of a believer who wanted to learn. Over time, this basic presupposition has proved itself correct over and over again. Therefore, I am unabashedly Christocentric in my approach to the Bible. Reading the Bible in the light of the faith provide by the Holy Spirit, I believe, is a must in order to understand it. This is the great premise upon which everything stands!

So you, as a potential interpreter, need to first examine your own heart and see what your motivations are in approaching the Bible. Remember when Jesus was asked by the lawyer in Luke 10:25-29 (NIV) about inheriting eternal life. Jesus replied, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" And the lawyer answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Jesus replied, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Our motivation is critical for understanding. Is your motivation to be a believer and love God, or something else, like justifying yourself? Where you start determines much of where you will end up.