God doesn't care about you reading the Bible.

After this last semester at school I will have finished with roughly 1,600 hours of study time in God's word, having invested into almost every book in the Bible while memorizing my favorite verses along the way. Yet the question that keeps coming back to me is... so what? Increasingly I am becoming aware of the fact that spending time in God's word is not about spending time in God's word. What I do NOT mean by the title is that we shouldn't be spending time in God's Word. For the Bible it is THE primary means of growth along with prayer and fellowship which God has established. Yet it is just that: a means. I have heard of unbelievers who have memorized enormous sections of scripture, and could perhaps give a more detailed description of Christian doctrine than many Christians themselves.

Doctrinally, I can tell you that no matter how bad I screw up in this life God will still love me, but the point is not that I know this truth, but how this affects my own relationship with God and others. I could tell you that I am saved by grace through faith, but the point is how it impacts the way I treat others on a daily basis, and how it crushes my own pride in approaching God. I could tell you that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, the life, but the point is that the next time I meet a person beaten and broken from this world, I can point them to that very source of life: Jesus Christ. The point is not that I will have spent 1600's hours in the Bible, but that it will carry over into my relationship with God, others, and affect the decisions I make for the rest of my life.

Some of the most doctrinal talks I have ever had were completely and only for myself.

My point is not that talking about doctrine is unimportant, because doctrine is essential for living out every aspect of the Christian life. But more and more I realize my Christian life is not about cracking my Bible open for 10 minutes once a day, but it is about how that ten minutes in God's word affects the rest of my day. The question is not if you have been reading, but if while you were reading, you believe what you read, and reckoned it true in your life as well. God doesn't care about you opening your Bible every morning, what He cares about is relationship, what He cares about is me being conformed into the image of His son. Me reading the Bible must never become in and of itself the means to the end. What the Bible is, however, is the very base means by which my mind may being to change and conform into the image of Christ, and the tool by which I might come to know the all-knowing Creator God of the universe.

The Bible is not for our information, but our transformation.
-D.L. Moody

I went to youth group last Wednesday. So what? I went to church this Sunday. So what? How will those two hours in confrontation with God's word affect the rest of my life.

God cares about us knowing Him, which is only done through His Word, yet so many times for me, simply reading words on a page became the means to the end instead of engaging with the living God.

hm. I hope this wasn't heretical...

God is a person.

Well I was reading "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer this after when he said something that really struck me.

"We Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter (26)."

It is so interesting to think that to get to know someone better I usually will spend time with them, talk with them, listen to what they have to say. Yet when it comes to me getting to know God better, I like to adjust charts about how he loves me, and create a list about his omniscience, or create another unworthy comparison about the trinity and then realize it is still really confusing. Looking at my prayers they do not reflect the fact that I am communicating with a personality, but perhaps some calculating robot. My prayers recently have simply been reflecting some cold hard knowledge of Him, and instead of being real with my own struggles and faults I come forward with some analytic confession, with folded hands and a bended knee, yet lacking any heart of repentance. My prayers do not reflect the way I communicate in real life, as if I say someone's name ever 3rd word when I talk to a them, like when I talk to God. I look for growth and an increased love for God without prayer and without listenting to His word. Without communicating...

God is a person, a personality, personal. How could I have forgotten.

If I want to learn more about my parents I don't stand by and analyze them, record how they respond to situations, and the formulate it. I talk, interact with them, listen and respond to what they have to say. My interactions with God must be personal, because he has established a personal relationship with me.

Wayumi!

Well as a part of a school trip I was extremely priveleged to go to a New Tribes Mission "Camp" so to speak called Wayumi this previous week. Essentially it is a week long plunge into the world of Tribal Missions and what New Tribes Mission looks like on a very practical level.

At the core of the program is solid biblical teaching and a visit to a 'real' tribal village! The Tribal Village consists of previous New Tribes Missions who dress up in the full tribal attire of the people which they reached with the gospel. The assignment going into the village is to convert a list of words into the tribal language by communicating with the tribal person. It was quite intimidating trying to figure the word for "Machete" from someone with a completely different culture and language!

Indeed while I haven't had more fun in quite a long time, it was awesome to see many longing questions about tribal missions answered. Fear had gripped me that I wouldn't be enough of a super-Christian to be involved with tribal missions. So you can imagine the relief when the teachers there told us that they were not super-Christians. All they did was work diligently and trust the Lord to do something huge.

If there had been any doubt that I wanted to do tribal missions it soon vanished!

Pray for me!

and please visit http://www.ntm.org/missiontrips/wayumi.php if you have any more questions about the program or the mission itself

Be Transformed by the Renewal of Your Mind

So many times I find myself wondering what the point of doctrine is. Why does the Apostle Paul always talk about some kind of vague concept before he talks about how we are supposed to live?

I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that God cares so much about the thought process behind our actions, not simply the result. In Paul’s books he is constantly establishing doctrine BEFORE he starts talking about Christian living!

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Doctrine, our thought process, drives our actions. This is why it is so essential to have a strong, sturdy doctrine, because out of this flows what we, I, do. Paul never just tells believers “HEY STOP SINNING!” No, he wishes to change our modes of thinking; he challenges believers by explaining to them what God has done, that they may ACT in accordance with what God has done. If God did not care about the thought process behind a choice, then he would never have given the church doctrine with which to live by. He would have given us a set of rules, some ‘does’ and ‘don’ts’.

A solid understanding, grasp, on God's word is so essential because this is the element by which God begins to transform a Christian's mind, begins to transform a Christian's way of thinking. The Bible is not just a rule book to tell us what to do and what not to do, it is the tool by which God begins to make our thinking closer to His own.

A Future With New Tribes Mission

Well it has truly been crazy as to what God has been showing me here at school. It is a constant reminder that I must conform my thinking to God’s and be objective when I read His Word. So, while I came to New Tribes Bible Institute without any consideration as to continuing on in their mission program, having the Word opened up to me and seeing Jesus Christ’s commandments to his disciples to spread the gospel; I have become truly convinced that a lifelong pursuit to spread the gospel to those who have never heard is truly a life of value and completely in line with Christ’s command to his disciples.

Matthew 28:16:
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What exactly is New Tribes Mission then? Specifically an organization that specializes in bringing God’s word to tribal groups who have never heard it before. Unlike many mission organizations God’s word is only presented in the tribe’s own specific language, and not in the trade language. However, going on with New Tribes Mission is not a decision to be made lightly, and in many instances one such commitment is life-long. From learning the national’s language to seeing a healthy church established many times takes 20 years. So while so much of me does not want to leave what I find comfortable, such as the American culture, prosperity, Starbucks, it is my earnest desire not to waste my life building up wealth that will only burn in the end. I am by no means condemning the American life do not get me wrong, but I simply see a great need and opportunity to have the gospel brought to those who have never had a chance to hear. So, while I am not worried about being called a ‘missionary,’ a term not even found in the Bible, I am concerned about being a servant of Christ, whether that entails a future with New Tribes Mission or not. So… if you all would pray for me, that’d be sick!

Purpose found in Christ Jesus

Still hard for me to believe that it was a little more than a year ago that I packed up all my earthly belongings into a 1994 Saturn and drove 36 hours to a bible school with no more than 150 students in forsaken Jackson, Michigan. It is too cold, the town is boring, and I have to keep my room clean, but I have never been more challenged in my walk with the Lord through my time here and through an in-depth study of His word. I suppose the line that ultimately drove me here comes from Ecclesiastes in which Solomon exclaims, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” I came to New Tribes Bible Institute because I looked at my own life and the future I was setting up for myself and did not see a life of value. I was looking for purpose in wealth, pleasure, even in human relationships. Indeed, at this school I found a life of meaning, or purpose, although it is not in myself, but meaning is in a relationship with the one true God and his son Jesus Christ, a relationship which is found only through God's word. So with this understanding I can look with a great sense of clarity towards Solomon’s last words in Ecclesiastes, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” So, I will choose to live my life for the utmost glory of God and upon the commandments with which he has left the church.

Philippians 3:7-8
"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ."(NASB)