WATER OF LIFE

In my opinion, the New Testament should be read before venturing into reading the whole Bible. I started out by reading all of the New Testament over the last four months of 2007. At Christmas I received a Daily Bible and began reading that from January of 2008. IN THE DAILY Bible, the Old Testament is covered from January 1st to October 15th. During times of trials in my life I found myself laying down the Daily Bible and picking up the New Testament. I gained a lot of spiritual strength and support in going over the portions in the NT that I had underlined in 2007. There were times when I lagged behind or got ahead in my reading schedule by about a week or so but I managed to completely read all the Daily Bible by the end of the year.

At the beginning of this year, 2009, I began re-reading the Daily Bible from the beginning. This year I found that I needed a regular infusion of the New Testament along the way because I started to get a sort of law mentality from reading only the Old Testament—a combination of a legalistic and an unrelenting bent against sin, a sort of ‘Jeremiah mentality’ (thats the best I can describe it).

Last Christmas, at a bookstore closeout, I got a good deal on the Life Application Study Bible. I felt it was really God’s hand because that Bible has been an incredible addition to reading the Daily Bible. Not only do I turn to the LASB in times of trials but in the last couple months, in an effort to avoid an OT mentality, I have tried to read the OT one day and the NT the next. The LASB has notes on most scriptures on how to apply it to our lives.

This month I have finished the OT and now I start on my third reading of the NT. For me reading the Bible a second time was like I was reading it for the first time. It so long that I forgot a lot of what I had read and God showed me just as many new things the second time around as He did the first time.

The Daily Bible is 1800 pages which is five pages a day over the course of a year to complete. The average book is 300 pages so it’s like reading six books—which isn’t too much to read over the course of a year. Many people read more than six books in a year. This year I decided to only read the Bible and I’ve got to tell you I haven’t felt anything was missing in my reading diet. It has been a testament to the sufficiency of the Bible alone.

The Daily Bible is about 15% commentary which is partly scriptural interpretation but mostly historical and cultural background information. The Life Application Study Bible is about 50% commentary which is mainly scriptural interpretation. Based on my experience, I believe the Bible should be read instead of Christian literature. I would estimate Christian literature is about 15% Bible scripture and 85% scriptural interpretation.

Instead of reading another man’s interpretation of God’s Word, read and interpret it for yourself—that’s ultimately what God wants us to do. Don’t fear misunderstanding it, trust the Holy Spirit as our guide, teacher, and counselor. There are many times that God creates circumstances in my life that resonate with what I”M READING IN THE Bible, giving me an experiential understanding instead of just intellectual knowledge of His Word.

So these messages from the Lord
have made me a household joke.
But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord
or speak in his name,
his word burns in my heart like a fire.
It’s like a fire in my bones!
I am worn out trying to hold it in!
I can’t do it! Jeremiah 20:8-9

Prophecy can be a righteous anger on our heart that just has to be spoken.

Here is a great article on the gift of prophecy:

“Today the motivation of a prophet would be to use scripture to reveal the unrighteous motives and actions of others.” “They have the capacity to identify, define and hate evil.” A prophet must, “Take great effort to speak the truth in love and be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit when correcting or pointing out another’s weakness. Be aware that listeners may reject the message if not spoken with love and compassion (and sometimes even when it is!)”

When we speak God’s truth out of “Holy anger” some react with a fleshly anger. This is what Paul is speaking about when he says to be angry but don’t sin (Ephesians 4:26). The enemy will try to drag you into a fleshly battle by having the person react in anger to your righteous words even if they are coached with love. Paul’s method of writing stern letters then being a softy in person is an example for today. It’s easier to get into fleshly anger in-person but not as easy in an email, especially if we write it and come back to it later in the day to send it.

Before I came back to Christ I felt Christians didn’t seem any more spiritually enlightened than buddhists, hindus, etc. On a scale of who was more friendly I felt Asians in general were more friendly or accepting than even the American Christians I knew.

Church is not a house of saints but more a hospital for the sick. Accepting the Holy Spirit into our spirit means a rebirth of our whole self (heart, mind, body, soul). The fruit of the Holy Spirit isn’t spiritual enlightenment. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22,23). This is the sign of a victorious and mature Christian. Dr. Charles Solomon estimates that only five percent of Christians are living this victorious life so that means the rest are culture Christians. I don’t know if that estimate is true or not.

Back to the point on being accepting. God is inclusive of everyone with no exceptions. The Bible, especially Jesus, teaches how we are to love others. We don’t have to agree with or condemn one another. For example, according to God’s Word homosexuality is a sin. We all struggle with different kinds of sin. The point is that we love the person and hate the sin. C.S. Lewis said this is easy to do because we do it with ourselves everyday. It’s not for me to convince you that something is a sin that’s the work of the Holy Spirit and reading His Word. The Holy Spirit may even speak to you through my words. When God’s truth is spoken (and in a loving way) our spirit senses it. Christians are to be the salt of the world and salt makes people thirsty for the Lord.

One reviewer of my book said I raised more questions than I answered. I suppose there is some truth to that even in this blog entry. One Christian told me when he first came to Christ he saw everything black and white and rejected anything worldly. He gave the example of being offended by a pastor listening to secular music but that now, years later, he doesn’t see that as a problem. On the other hand, it may be that as we mature as Christians we leave behind (for good) things of the world including man’s wisdom and deceptions. Its only been two years since I rededicated my life to Christ and my blog has been an attempt to show people how God is moving in my life and how He is transforming me week by week into His character and image. So what is God showing me? Im not sure. Am I just going to a necessary extreme and as I mature in Christ? Will I come into a greater balance with worldly things such as personality type? Or is it that God’s plan requires me to surrender that, but that maybe his plan for others doesn’t necessarily require that. 

I’m on my second reading of the Bible, and as I go deeper into His Word, He shows even more through the Holy Spirit and I begin wonder why personality type is needed at all. My stand a year ago was that God can use anything, including type, to glorify Himself and work in our lives. And I still believe that. I came to Christ through a mix of psychology and Christianity but maybe I’m finding out that as I mature I NATURALLY SHED THE WORLDLY PARTS AND JUST FOCUS ON His Word and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, counseling, and teaching. Since His wisdom is limitless at what point would I need to turn back to man’s wisdom? Life is so short, especially now that I am forty, so why would I WANT TO SPEND MY TIME ON ANYTHING OTHER THAN EXPLORING AND GROWING THROUGH His unlimited wisdom and teaching? So why study anything at all? No, I’m just talking about psychology, which cross-cultural communication also falls under because its a categorization of behaviors. I still have a strong longing to explore the richness of other cultures but somehow applying categories and Jungian theory doesn’t seem right anymore. I sense a great deception in psychology and its derivatives. 

Recently, my boss sent me to a training and it turned out to be for the mini-DISC (another personality type system popular for leadership training). Even yesterday I was in a meeting with my bosses and everybody was sharing their DISC type. Coincidentally, after that type training class, I negatively stereotyped someone at work based on what I thought was their type and it created a huge conflict. Not everyone is as stupid as me but it makes me wonder what sort of spirit (of God or of the enemy) personality type introduces. I used to think it was a spirit of appreciation (of differences) but now I think its more of one that clouds our eyes under the guise of opening them—and that is exactly how the enemy works!  I may have abused or misused personality type but am I IN THE MINORITY OR THE MAJORITY? If the majority, then thats a confirmation that its a tool of deception used by the enemy. And its not because of a lack of training or understanding. I took the MBTI qualified practitioner course and passed the test with a score in the upper ninety percent. And I’ve read a stack of books and academic research on personality type.