Memory Verses

Memory verse of the week is in red. Previous weeks below in black letters for review.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2; NKJV)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1st Thessalonians 5:16-18, NKJV)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, NKJV)

How to Study the Bible

So, we've been talking about sanctification. Specifically about getting better at prayer and scripture reading so that we can be transformed into people who will be useful in God's plan. This week we're getting into how to study the Bible. Most of the following is excerpted from a five-part radio address by Dr. Chuck Missler of Koinonia House Ministries. The link is at the bottom if you want to check it out.

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The Bible is not one big book – It is 66 books of diferent kinds written in Hebrew and Greek over the course of thousands of years by about 40 people. But, it has one unified message (Jesus Christ) that is spread throughout it. The OT points forward through time toward Jesus, while the NT points backward through time toward Jesus.

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Prerequisites for effective Bible Study

You must already be a Christian. If you have not been saved then Bible study will be an intellectual exercise instead of a spiritual one. You can learn a lot about the Bible but this is not the purpose of Bible study. The purpose is to fall in love with God’s word and let it work its spiritual power on your mind and your life.

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. (John 3:3-6, NIV)

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor 2:14, NIV)

The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: " 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Mat 13:10-17, NIV)

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Mat 16:23, NIV)

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8, NIV)

Always start and end with prayer. Since this is a spiritual exercise, we need the guidance of the author of the scriptures, through the Holy Spirit. Don’t open or close your Bible without praying for guidance.

But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. (Job 32:8, NIV)

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Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared (Psalm 119:33-38; NIV)

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A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears. (Isaiah 11:1-3; NIV)

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Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. (Luk 24:45; NIV)

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Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. (2Tim 2:7; NIV)

Prepare to surrender yourself. You have to be willing and ready to put the spiritual lessons you learn into practice in your own life right away. Throughout the Old Testament you can see this pattern at work; call-obedience-revelation.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. (Gen 12:1-4; NIV)

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And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. (Acts 20:22-23; NIV)

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Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. (Romans 6:16-17; NIV)

Pitfalls

Avoid paralysis by analysis. Watch that you don’t get into an intellectual game of taking the scripture apart to the point that you can’t put it back together again. Read and study the Bible to get it’s message. Don’t get so deep into analysis that you don’t enjoy falling in love with the message and its author.

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Avoid arrogant skepticism. Watch out for so-called scholars that try to analyze one part of the Bible but just create doubt about another part. Like whether or not Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Some scholars will say he couldn’t have, but Jesus explicitly says he did (Mat 8:4; Mat 19:7; Mark 7;10). This sort of thing tears down the credibility of part of the scriptures in order to try to gain understanding of another part.

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Hints

• Study your Bible when you are at your best – when you’re mentally sharp and undisturbed. (Exo 22:29)
• Approach the bible like a child, not to prove a point or using worldly wisdom. (Prov 3:5; Mat 18:3)
• Strive for balance. Read in context and allow the scriptures to interpret themselves.
• Get breadth by reading through the whole bible regularly. You might go from front to back or chronologically or break it into pieces so that you get some OT and some NT and some poetry each day. Don’t get stuck on the parts you don’t understand but read for the big picture. Do this every day.
• Get depth by picking a book and studying it deeply. Follow all the cross-references and read related material like commentaries and study notes. Do this every day.
• Occasionally you may want to do special topical studies or word studies to deepen your understanding.

Good places to start

• In the beginning – Genesis
• The answers at the end of the book – Revelation
• A small book you can wrap your head around – Jude, 2nd or 3rd John,
• Stories about what Jesus did (Mark) or said (John)
• A book with a lot of action – Acts
• An amazing prophecy – Daniel

We will be selecting a book of the Bible to begin our book-by-book exploration - so pray about it and figure out which you'd like to see us work on first...

Other resources

• Koinonia House Ministries http://www.k-house.org/.
• John MacArthur http://www.gty.org/resources.php?section=articles&aid=231240

Why didn't i think to say it like that?

Our teen sunday school class is currently working on the idea that prayer and scripture reading are part of the sanctification process, in which God makes you ready to serve his purpose for you. We talked about how prayer and scripture reading and scripture memorization mold your mind along lines that God wants. Today I came across perhaps the perfect verse to support that...

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2, NKJV)

Certainy one of the more often-quoted verses in the New testament - especially with it being R.C. Sproul's slogan for Ligonier Ministries. Why didn't I think to say it like that, or at least to cite that verse? I guess because I'm not Paul!

But it is exactly what I was talking about. reading scripture and praying and memory work renews your mind and transforms your whole self so that you can figure ut what God wants you to do (...prove what is good and acceptable and perfect...) and get on the track that God wants you on!

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Memory verses

Today begins the second week of the memory verse of the week. The teens that showed up today pretty much had the first one down. I even enlisted one of my coworkers in the scripture memory plan. Here's this week's and last week's (you have to keep up with all previous verses - not just this week's.)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1st Thessalonians 5:16-18, NKJV)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, NKJV)

Great song

Thanks, Maggie for pointing me at this. It is so cute and awesome I had to paste it to my blog too.

Prayer gets answered, right?

We’re supposed to pray. It’s part of what Christians do that makes us Christian.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1st Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

God answers prayer, right? A couple of weeks ago we talked about how St. Augustine’s mom prayed so long and so hard that it turned her whole family’s life around. The bible also assures us that we’re not just talking to ourselves. Prayer gets answered.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:13-18)

At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel. (Joshua 10:12-14)

Sometimes it seems like our prayers are not as effective as these we see in James and Joshua. Why is it the bible says things like Matthew 7:7 and Matthew 18:19 and Matthew 16:19 when we don’t always seem to get what we want?

The following are several ways that Luis Palau says he has seen God answer prayer. Check out the whole article here. There are some good stories at this website of how God has answered prayers in each of the following ways:

• "No, I love you too much."
• ”Yes, but you’ll have to wait.”
• "Yes, but quite different from how you thought I would answer."
• "Yes, and here's more!"
• "Yes, I thought you'd never ask."

When we were discussing these, a couple of great biblical stories about prayer came up. First, compare Jeremiah 42:7 and Jeremiah 21:3 and you can see that sometimes prayer is answered right away and sometimes you have to persist in prayer for a while. Another great example is the parable of the unrighteous judge and the persistent widow.

One final hint:

We talk to God when we pray.

God talks back to us when we read the bible.

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More good websites on this topic:

• http://www.everystudent.com/wires/prayers.html
• http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/faq/does_god_answer_prayers.shtml

Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage,

And the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

And the rulers take counsel together,

Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

“Let us break Their bonds in pieces

And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

And distress them in His deep displeasure:

“Yet I have set My King

On My holy hill of Zion.”

“I will declare the decree:

The LORD has said to Me,

‘You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me, and I will give You

The nations for Your inheritance,

And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron;

You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;

Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,

And rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And you perish in the way,

When His wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Psalm 2 is ascribed to David in the Book of Acts and is also described as the second Psalm, indicating that the ordering of the Psalms is at least somewhat constant.

And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'--(Act 4:24-26, ESV)
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But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, "'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' (Act 13:30-33, ESV)

deToqueville on the Native Americans

In the first part od Chapter 1, deToqueville describes in poetical and boring detail, the 'Exterior Form of North America.' Where this chapter really takes off is when he begins discussing the social history of the North American natives...

...the Indians, although they are ignorant and poor, are equal and free. At the period when Europeans first came among them the natives of North America were ignorant of the value of riches, and indifferent to the enjoyments which civilized man procures to himself by their means. Nevertheless there was nothing coarse in their demeanor; they practised an habitual reserve and a kind of aristocratic politeness. Mild and hospitable when at peace, though merciless in war beyond any known degree of human ferocity, the Indian would expose himself to die of hunger in order to succor the stranger who asked admittance by night at the door of his hut; yet he could tear in pieces with his hands the still quivering limbs of his prisoner. The famous republics of antiquity never gave examples of more unshaken courage, more haughty spirits, or more intractable love of independence than were hidden in former times among the wild forests of the New World.

The Europeans produced no great impression when they landed upon the shores of North America; their presence engendered neither envy nor fear. What influence could they possess over such men as we have described? The Indian could live without wants, suffer without complaint, and pour out his death-song at the stake.

Like all the other members of the great human family, these savages believed in the existence of a better world, and adored under different names, God, the creator of the universe. Their notions on the great intellectual truths were in general simple and philosophical.
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An obscure tradition which prevailed among the Indians to the north of the Atlantic informs us that these very tribes formerly dwelt on the west side of the Mississippi. Along the banks of the Ohio, and throughout the central valley, there are frequently found, at this day, tumuli raised by the hands of men. On exploring these heaps of earth to their centre, it is usual to meet with human bones, strange instruments, arms and utensils of all kinds, made of metal, or destined for purposes unknown to the present race. The Indians of our time are unable to give any information relative to the history of this unknown people. Neither did those who lived three hundred years ago, when America was first discovered, leave any accounts from which even an hypothesis could be formed. Tradition—that perishable, yet ever renewed monument of the pristine world—throws no light upon the subject.

It is an undoubted fact, however, that in this part of the globe thousands of our fellow-beings had lived. When they came hither, what was their origin, their destiny, their history, and how they perished, no one can tell. How strange does it appear that nations have existed, and afterwards so completely disappeared from the earth that the remembrance of their very names is effaced; their languages are lost; their glory is vanished like a sound without an echo; though perhaps there is not one which has not left behind it some tomb in memory of its passage!

The most durable monument of human labor is that which recalls the wretchedness and nothingness of man.

Energy

I work in a cardiac rehabilitation center, so I often hear people complain that they are tired and don't have the energy to go on. This reminds me of a wonderful prayer in the form of a song. I can't remember if it's Jars of Clay or Third Day - I think perhaps Third Day.

Please take from me my life
When I don't have the strength
to give it away for you, Jesus

This prayer is one of the two that sustain me and energize me in my daily life and particularly in my job. The other one is Psalm 51:10:

Create in me a clean heart, o Lord
and renew a right spirit within me.

Sitting in front of a class

Another way to understand the progression of sin in Psalm 1 is the way my Reformation Study Bible describes it. Walking is a pedestrian, infrequent thing - not a way of life. Standing implies taking a stand, becoming settled into a way of life. Sitting implies being seated in front of disciples - teaching others to sin.

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I thought that was similar to the way I read it but I'd not picked up on the image of the teacher seated at the front of the class. I rather saw it as motion and potential for spiritual progress - one is walking, another is at a standstill, another is seated, inert.

Memory verses

At Sunday School today I also enlisted the teens' help in a spiritual discipline that I've been wanting to get better at - scripture memory. I figure to do one verse per week. The fisrt one is an easy one. I chose NKJV as the official standard simply to have a consistent reference so we can know if we have it memorized properly or not.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, NKJV)

I figure to write it out and say it a few times each day this week and we'll have a recital at sunday school next week.

ACTS Prayer Model

Today in Sunday School we talked about the ACTS model of prayer. Adoration - Confession - Thanksgiving - Supplication. I think it was mostly review for most of them, but I'm still trying to calibrate myself to their needs and level. We looked up some bible verses dealing with adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication and they all pretty much did better than I did at getting to the verse rapidly. Following are the notes for today:

Each week in church, we repeat the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

This is not because these are magic words, as if this is the only prayer we can or should pray. Jesus gave it to his disciples as a model for prayers – so they could learn to pray like this. Look at the pieces of this prayer.

The first and last lines are adoration. They tell of God’s greatness.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name... For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

The middle of the prayer contains a confession.

And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

The middle of the prayer is also a set of supplications, or requests, made in a humble, thankful tone

Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.

So, the four pieces of this prayer are:

Adoration – tell how God is great and how you love Him.

Confession – admit what you’ve done wrong

Thanksgiving – thank God for doing good things for you and others

Supplication – ask God for good things for others, then for yourself.

We call this the ACTS model of prayer. The first letters remind us of the four parts of a good prayer. Check out the following verses about each of these four parts of a good prayer. There are, of course, many many other verses about these topics, but these are good starting points.

Adoration (Isaiah 6:3, Psalm 95:3-5, 1Samuel 2:1-3, 1Chronicles 29:11, Psalm 29)

Confession (Isaiah 6:5, 2Samuel 24:10, Ezra 9:6, Psalm 32:5, 1Corinthians 15:9)

Thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4, Matthew 15:36, Romans 1:21-22, Revelation 11:17)

Supplication (Matthew 7:7-8, Matthew 18:19, James 5:17-18)

Godspell actor

Ok, unless you're a lot more hip on the Christian movie scene than I am, you're in for a shock... I was watching Godspell yesterday? Y'all remember that one, a 1973 movie adaptation of the Broadway adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew. Remember this fellow who played Jesus? What doyou suppose he's been up to lately?
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I'll even tell you the actor's name - Victor Garber. Now can you place him?

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How about now:

Yep, Same guy that played Jesus in Godspell and danced on the top of the twin towers when they were still under construction plays Jack Bristow in Alias after the towers were destroyed. I was totally surprised! So was my wife.

The Reformation Study Bible

I purchased a copy of this bible a few years ago, when it was only available in NKJV, and I can honestly say that it is the only translation I've ever seen that is LESS readable than the KJV. NKJV is awful, clunky, and stilted. In this video he tells us that they now have an ESV edition, which I would have to say is a VAST improvement!

This Reformation Study Bible is awesome in its study notes, sidebars, and essays. This is a great resource for bible study. Prior to the ESV translation becoming available I'd still say, go get this just as a reference about the bible.

Also, check out the great climax of this film, starting at about 7:00 minutes. Exciting!

The stream that sustains the godly man

Psalms 1 presents us an analogy. The Godly man is like a tree planted beside a river.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

If you rephrase this analogy in your mind, "a godly man is to a tree as ________ is to a river," the question springs forth, "What sustains the godly man like a river sustains a tree?" The answer is found in the previous verse - The law of the Lord. Scripture sustains us.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Weep, creep, then leap!

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalms 1, KJV)

Last Sunday we talked about sanctification, the process by which someone who has been set aside by God for a special purpose is prepared for that purpose. We said that God's part was grace and our part was prayer and scripture reading. But it is a process. It can take a while. The above verse in Psalms 1 says that the godly man will bring forth fruit in his season. That is, after this sanctification process progresses some.
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A friend told me a while back, regarding fruit trees, that it takes about three years after planting for them to get accustomed to their place and grow well. "The first year they weep. The second yar they creep, the third year, they LEAP!" Well, people are the same. We have to persevere in scripture and praying so that God, through his grace can sanctify us to our purpose. Then we will bear fruit in our season.
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Are you weeping, creeping, or leaping?

From the ungodly walk to the scornful seat

One of the really neat things about Psalms 1 is the progression of elements in verse 1:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

walk - stand - sit

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ungodly - sinners - scornful

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Apparently, the ungodly (i.e. amoral people , sins of omission, giving bad counsel but not actively doing bad) are still able to make some movement in life, but as they become true sinners (immoral, sins of commission) they come to a standstill. By the time their hearts are twisted in scorn for God's ways, they make no progress or movement, and thus have no potential for good work (work=movement). They just sit around doing nobody any good.

So, this verse is telling us that as sinfulness, allowed to grow rampant is inversely proportional to potential for doing good work.

Psalms 1

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The Grapes of Wrath

Some of my teens in Sunday school are juniors and are reading Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. We got off onto the topic of biblical literacy and they all knew that the title of the book referred to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but nobody, including myself, knew the biblical reference to the grapes of wrath.

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Well, it turns out it is Revelations 14:19-20:

And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (NIV)

Although I don't really like paraphrases, this passage really stands out in The Message:

The Angel swung his sickle, harvested earth's vintage, and heaved it into the winepress, the giant winepress of God's wrath. The winepress was outside the City. As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles.

There's a joke about Presbyterians not liking to study Revelations. A preacher was asked, "When are we going to get into the Book of Revelations?" to which he replied, "In the new millenium." I'm proud that our current minister has delved into Revelations a lot, particularly the messages to the churches of Asia.

Saint-i-fication

Today was my first day teaching teen Sunday school. We talked about sanctification, which is a big word that old Presbyterians like to use to mean 'saint-i-fication' or the process of becoming a saint.

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What is a saint? Many people might describe a saint as a good and pure person or a great church leader. Someone who really has their life together. Today we talked about a saint who was a smart alek, a gang member, and a thief. He lived with a woman he wasn’t married to, had an illegitimate child, and was a member of a cult!

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St. Augustine of Hippo was born in North Africa about 350 years after Jesus. He became famous for being a church leader and writer and for influencing the teaching and preaching of Martin Luther and John Calvin (who started the Protestant Reformation), and John Knox (who started the Presbyterian church and influenced the Puritans that settled America). So, a lot of these great ideas about Christianity can be traced back to Augustine of Hippo. So, how did such a messed up guy get to be a saint and do so much good?

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Three things: Prayer, Scripture, and Grace.

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Prayer

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Augustine wrote in his autobiography about his mother, Monica. Monica continually prayed for Augustine and tried to get him to go to church. Monica prayed so powerfully that her non-Christian husband and her mean mother-in-law became Christian and finally, so did Augustine. After Augustine finally got his life straightened out, he told Monica, “It was impossible for the child of so many tears to perish.”

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I bet your parents pray for you a lot like Monica prayed for Augustine
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Scripture

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It is impossible to read a page of Augustine’s autobiography without reading scripture. Augustine must have read scripture so much that he started to think and talk in scripture. Check out the first few sentences of his autobiography:

Great are You, oh Lord, and exceedingly worthy to be praised! Your power is immense and your wisdom is beyond reckoning. And so we humans, who are a due part of your creation long to praise You. We, who carry our mortality around with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud.

In this one little passage, he summarizes and paraphrases several passages of scripture. Compare the following verses to what Augustine wrote:

Psa 47:2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

Psa 48:1 ...Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God!...

Psa 96:4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.

2Co 4:8-10 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

1Pe 5:5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

And it is not like he was copying scriptures out of his bible – you can tell, since these are not exact quotes. He was writing what he was thinking but he was thinking along the same lines as scripture. Augustine has read scripture so much that it had molded his mind to be like scripture.

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We can start getting our minds like God wants them to be by reading the Bible regularly.

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Grace
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Also in his autobiography, Augustine writes that God gave him a vision in a garden.

I was … weeping … when suddenly I heard the voice of a [child]… chanting over and over again, "Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it." … I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible … I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof."

Even as messed up as Augustine’s life was, he could see that God was speaking directly to him through the words of the bible. God had chosen Augustine and had already set him aside to do some good work.

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That is what being a saint really means – being set apart for some uncommon, special use. So, you don't have to be holier-than-thou or perfect. You just have to accept that you are set aside for some special purpose for God's use, and that through prayer, scripture, and grace, God will be getting you ready to do that special work..

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In this process of being sanctified, or 'saint-i-fied,' the grace is the part that God does and the prayer and scripture reading is the part that we do.

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Over the next few weeks I want to talk about how we can get better at prayer and scripture reading.