4 Questions I Ask Myself When I Read the Bible

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One of my deepest joys in life is to read and study the Bible with my small group. Sermon questions, Christian living resources, and discipleship curriculum all have their place in the life cycle of a small group, yet, there is nothing like the experience of reading and studying through the Bible with others. The community and accountability in small group helps to keep me on track. The way God speaks to me when I read his Word is incomparable. And the joy of seeing the Scriptures shape people I love is encouraging to my soul.

The first time I led a small group all the way through the Bible, I realized that coming up with new discussion questions each week was a lot of pressure, and people in the group didn’t know what to be prepared for. So, I decided to pick a set of questions that we could use as a guide, no matter what part of the Bible we were studying.

I’ve found that these questions work whether you’re reading the Bible alone or with others, occasionally or daily. I hope you find them useful.

Where am I in the Bible?

This question is all about context and opens the door to many more questions. Is this passage in the Old Testament or the New Testament? Is it historical or poetic or correspondence? What did the author and original audience have in mind?

Context is most helpful to have before jumping into a passage. It shapes the way we understand the Scriptures and helps us apply them more faithfully. A good study Bible is the best tool for this. We recommend the ESV Study Bible.

How does this text point to Jesus?

If you’re new to the Bible, it’s okay to not know how to answer this one. Jesus is the focus of the Bible, but it isn’t explicitly clear how every passage connects to him. The more you read the Bible, and the more you learn about the story of Israel, the more you’ll see the unity of the story and the connections to Jesus.

It might seem silly, but a great resource to get you started is The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones. She paraphrases stories from the Bible in kid-friendly language and ties each one to the story of Jesus. You aren’t too old for a children’s Bible, I promise!

Another great tool is the book God’s Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts.

How should I live differently in light of this text?

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

– 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Bible can be challenging to read because of the work it takes to understand it, but it can also be challenging to read because of the way it exposes us. Getting acquainted with the story of Jesus isn’t enough.

The Bible requires a response and asking yourself this question opens your heart to the prodding of the Spirit.

My favorite resource for this is a journal. You don’t have a write a novel each day, a few bullet points will do. Looking back on your notes months or years later will encourage your soul in ways you can’t expect. Keeping a record of God’s faithfulness is worth the effort.

How will this text help me reach my Top 5?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

– 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

This question is all about mission. God has called us to join with him and to share his message of love and reconciliation. Reading the Bible with your Top 5 in mind will equip and motivate you to be intentional with them. The Bible is about Jesus, and your loved ones need to hear the truth about him.

A great resource for this is the Top Five app. It can be found wherever you download apps. This app allows you to keep notes for each person, including thoughts about Scripture passages you come across that may be meaningful for them.

 

I hope these questions are helpful for you. The Bible is worth exploring!

What is Heaven Like?

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I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

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There is a deep nostalgia I have wrapped in Christmas songs. I remember the huge stack of Christmas vinyl records that we would put on our family record player, letting them roll while the fire crackled in the fireplace. We’d listen to the classic carols and then also some really goofy songs that always made us laugh like, “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

I love when songs have a story that roots their meaning in more than just a rhyme and the Christmas season is full of them even amidst songs about Santa and hippos.

There is one song in particular that I rarely listen through without being moved. The turn of the lyrics is so strong and purposeful. It doesn’t tell the original story of Christmas, but is more about what the birth of Jesus meant and continues to mean.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was a song written from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow back in 1863. No doubt, you ran across Longfellow’s works such as “Paul Revere’s Ride” back in high school or college in an English class, but the poem entitled “Christmas Bells” was written from a moment of epiphany in his own life on Christmas Day in 1863.

The United States was squarely in the middle of the terror of the Civil War. There was a lack of unity across the whole country. Loss, pain, and frustration were everywhere. Longfellow himself had lost his wife in a fire two years earlier, and he had just received word that his son had been badly wounded in battle. He was struggling with severe depression over these losses. But then on Christmas morning, ringing through the cold air, he heard the church bells playing, inspiring him to pen these words:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play, 

and wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom 

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South, 

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said; 

“For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; 

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

I love how he spends most of the piece outlining the utter atrocities of the world around him. He paints a picture of how the world felt: bleak and hopeless. But that depth makes the turn of the final refrain all the more beautiful because we know that the truth of the line “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep” destroys any depth of pain. The God of Heaven sits enthroned above any act here on earth.

Hope is what Christmas is all about. Hope that was born to a virgin. Hope that took on flesh.

It might feel like this poem/song seems to be reading the headlines of 2020.

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said; 

“For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

 

But, if we can be reminded of anything this Christmas, it’s that the true hope we find in the advent of Jesus was not only greater than the darkness that Longfellow faced when he wrote those lines, but that it still shines the light of hope into our world and hearts today.

 

066: Stories of Generosity

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Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is coming. It’s officially the holiday season. And with that comes lots of talk about gift giving and generosity. But what is biblical generosity and what does it look like? Is it something special we do this time of the year? Is it simply tithing? Or is it something even more? On this episode, Jon Coffey sits down with two representatives from Clear Creek’s Generosity Team, Matthew Horne and Nicole Daniel, to talk about the concept of Whole-Life Generosity, and hear real stories of people from Clear Creek Community Church putting it into action in order to reflect the generosity God first showed to us.

Resources:

God and Money by Gregory Baumer and John Cortines

22 Ways to Live Whole-life Generosity During Tough Times (article)

Grit, Grime, and Gratitude

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We have a rug next to the tub in our bathroom that is fluffy and white. Very fluffy and very white. I dropped something on it the other day and it just disappeared into the fluff. I searched and searched. I raked the rug with my fingers but all I could find was white rug. I was starting to get frustrated but then I got a brilliant idea. At least, it seemed like a brilliant idea.

I picked the fluffy white rug up and shook it out over the tub.

It was startling.

This fluffy white, clean looking rug was filled with grit and grime and all kinds of… stuff. You couldn’t see it at first – I didn’t feel it when I searched through the rug with my fingers. But, when I turned the rug over and shook it out it looked like someone threw a shovel full of Galveston beach in the tub. I still didn’t find what I was looking for, but I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to hurry and clean it up before my wife, Kay, came along and asked why I had turned her bathtub into a hazardous waste site.

I was busily wiping up the grit out of the tub when it struck me: this rug is very much like my life. It looks so fluffy and clean. From the outside it looks completely unsoiled. You can even spend some time with me up close and you might not notice any grit or grime. But, way down deep, trapped in the woven fibers of thoughts, attitudes and desires that makeup who I am, there is grit and grime and all kinds of… stuff.

You might think such a stark picture of how much grit and grime remain inside my heart and mind would be depressing, and maybe it should be.

But, it isn’t.

First of all, I know that stuff is in there. Sometimes when there’s a big enough problem, or if I get my feelings hurt by someone, I get shaken enough for some of that grit and grime to come out of my mouth. So not only do I see it, but so do the people who live closest to me.

Still, instead of being depressed it actually makes me thankful.

As I stared at the grit in the tub, and thought about grit that still resides in me, I felt a rush of gratitude because I believe deeply that God has judged me and declared me “not guilty.” God has declared by his will and his power that in Christ I am righteous and even holy unto him. I’m not indifferent to my need to be more like Jesus tomorrow than I am today, but I am overwhelmed by the wonder of knowing that I share anything with in common with him at all! And I am grateful because I know whatever traits I share with Jesus have been given to me.

Listen to how the apostle Paul says, “thank you.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight…

– Ephesians 1:3-8

God chose us. God adopted us. God blessed us in Jesus. God redeemed us. God forgave us. God lavishes grace on us.

I didn’t do any of that.

I just receive it as God lavishly ladles grace over my grit.

How can I not be thankful?

For a long time, I have thought that the real appreciation for Thanksgiving starts when we see what falls in the tub when we shake out our rug. The roots of genuine gratitude for turkey and family and jobs and pumpkin pie sink deep into the soil of Ephesians 1. Gratitude thrives in us when we see our personal, sinful grit and grime and wonder where we would be without the cross of Jesus. Gratitude transforms us when we look at our grime and reflect on why we need to be adopted in the first place and why we need to be forgiven and redeemed.

It seems to me that so many things the Scripture commands we do – forgive, bear with one another, be generous with other people, etc. – are things that blossom out of a heart overflowing with gratitude. One who knows they have been forgiven for much can forgive. One who knows they have been given riches is free to share.

I always look forward to Thanksgiving. It’s great to be thankful at Thanksgiving. But this year, before I start eating, I might go shake that rug into the tub again, and read Ephesians 1 again, just to make sure I remember why I am most grateful. If I start there, I won’t forget that the myriad of other physical and relational blessings I enjoy are really just the gravy on top of the peace with God that Jesus bought for me.

I invite you to join me this year taking some time to think about being thankful (before you eat yourself into the annual pumpkin pie coma).

 

065: Post-Election Unity

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However you view the results of this election, there is no question that we are a divided country. But through it all, Jesus calls us to unity in his church. How can we be passionate about politics, true to our values, and still love those who disagree with us? On this episode, Rachel Chester sits down with Yancey Arrington to discuss how we can move forward as followers of Jesus.

Resources:

5 Reflections on Life After an Election by Ryan Lehtinen

5 Tips for Keeping the Peace Through the Holidays by Stormy Lungaro

Pride and Unity by Rachel Chester

The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Conflict by Ken Sande

051: Christianity and Politics (Podcast)

5 Tips for Keeping the Peace Through the Holidays

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Tis’ the season for celebrating our blessings, eating way too much food, and spending time with family. But, even more than the long to-do list, the financial strain, or the crowds and traffic, the most stressful part of the holiday season for some people is spending time with their family.

It’s a blessing to celebrate together when we enjoy the company of our family. But many times, grudges, estranged relationships, or policy and personality differences can make family gatherings a minefield for potential conflict.

So, what can we do to navigate this high-tension season in a God-honoring way?

 

Pray Continuously

Many times, we can have huge blind spots when it comes to familial interactions. We fall into conflict unsure of why we got there or how to get out. But God has a perfect perspective of our family gatherings. He understands what we are going through, what the person that we’re interacting with is going through, and what it will take to foster peace between us. Prayer orients our heart to the gospel and aligns us with the Spirit.

Know Yourself

Our response to challenging situations is often to get defensive, make excuses, or pass blame because we don’t want to see our own part in the conflict. Honest self-reflection can be difficult because most of us have our brains on autopilot, hardly being aware of the “why” behind our thoughts and actions. Being aware of our own thoughts, feelings, and emotions at any given time is vital for navigating high-stress situations and conflict.

Pick Your Battles

Proverbs 19:11 says “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” One tool available to us to self-reflect and discern whether our emotions are enticing us to overreact is business writer, Suzy Welch’s 10-10-10 Rule. To use 10-10-10, we think about our situation on three different time frames:

  • How will we feel about it 10 minutes from now?
  • How about in 10 months?
  • How about in 10 years?

Thinking in this way can help us count the cost of conflict and discern whether or not we should overlook the offense.

Focus On People, Not Positions

Our families can have some widely varying perspectives and make some outrageous statements. But, instead of spending our efforts on debunking their belief or trying to convince them of our own viewpoint, we should attempt to understand the person behind the position. Ask clarifying or open-ended questions and listen without judgement or interruption. Saying, “this sounds like it’s important to you,” or “tell me more about that,” can go a long way towards helping us understand the motives, fears, and desires that are beneath the surface of a statement. The main objective in our family interactions shouldn’t be to win arguments, but to love others as Christ has loved us.

Apologize First

Sometimes, conflict can’t be avoided. Though unpleasant as it is, conflict has the potential to help us grow and mature. Matthew 7:5 admonishes, “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Many times in conflict, the hurt we experience can blind us to our culpability. The fact is, it takes two people to cause conflict, and you only have control over one of those people. Prayerfully seek God’s perspective about your role in the conflict and why you feel as you do about the situation and then take the first step towards reconciliation by apologizing first. Taking responsibility for our own sins and seeking forgiveness from others can dissolve huge stumbling blocks in the relationship and draw us closer to reconciliation not only to each other, but also to Christ.

 

As you navigate this holiday season, remember that nothing tries us quite like relationships do. Managing conflict and then committing to reconciliation when conflict arises is a constant struggle.

But the grace that the gospel extends to us isn’t limited to the forgiveness of sins, but includes the promise that God would transform us into a new person with a new nature. Through our struggles, we can become more like Christ.

So, step into those difficult family gatherings with the hope and confidence that as you strive to love people well and keep the peace, you are being transformed into the image of Christ and reflecting his gospel and grace to those around you.

 

5 Reflections on Life After an Election

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As a country, we are coming off a presidential election that has consumed much of our attention for a long time. A very. Long. Time.

It’s been so long that many of us may have forgotten what it’s like to live without the constant feed of political drama. Like our favorite Netflix binge, we can’t help but watch one more episode.

But at some point, the conclusion had to come. The election day arrived, votes were counted, and even that unfolded in a dramatic style befitting 2020.

So now, roughly half of American voters are happy, and half are disappointed. But such was the inevitable result regardless of who walked away with the most electoral votes.

Here are five reflections that might help us to live life after the election no matter how we voted.

1. There is life outside of politics.

In a world where even minor, apolitical issues inexplicably turn bitter and partisan, we should be reminded that seeing everything divided along party lines is not only unhelpful, but often not even true.

In the last 12 months, whether or not you wear a mask, support racial equality, appreciate law enforcement, or even where you eat your chicken sandwich aligns you with a political ideology. But not everything is a partisan issue.

Now that the election is over, take some time to enjoy the apolitical parts of life by keeping them apolitical. You might consider limiting or even completely cutting out any political news for the remainder of the year. I promise it’ll still be there for you when you return.

2. Elections are not a zero-sum game for citizens.

It’s true that in an election, one person wins and another loses. However, once an election is over, the newly elected officials are supposed to serve their entire constituency.

In a democracy, there shouldn’t be winners and losers among the citizenry. If the candidate you voted for won, you don’t get extra privileges for their term. If the candidate you voted for didn’t win, you don’t need to stew over it until the next election. You can still live, work, serve your community, and pray for those in office no matter if you voted for them or not (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

3. Loving your neighbor is better than being right.

Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor (Mark 12:30-31). Unfortunately, the commandment to prove your neighbor wrong didn’t make the list.

You might have a friend, coworker, or neighbor with whom you have significant political disagreements. It might be hard to move on from things you’ve seen them post on social media. Frankly, they might say the same thing about your posts. But the gospel compels us to lay aside those differences, be reconciled, and find ways to serve others. Instead of getting into a debate or distancing yourself from them, seek opportunities to love them.

If you’ve filled your social media timeline will political posts in the last six months, go reread some of them. Do your posts show a heart of love for your neighbor or a desire to be right? Ask yourself if God might be calling you to humbly and possibly publicly repent.

4. We have more in common than we think.

The media portrays the political divide as a bitter battle between values diametrically opposed to one another. We tend to buy into that narrative because extremes are easier and more convenient than nuance. Nuance requires actually talking to someone and having a genuine conversation.

The truth is, your neighbor with a differing political ideology likely holds dear most of same things that you do. Finding common ground, shared values and beliefs, and mutual interests is far easier than you might think, especially if you don’t make everything political.

So, make friends with people different from you. Invite someone over for a socially distanced dinner. Reject the cynicism of the age and seek to rebuild your trust in humanity.

5. The gospel does what no government or elected official can do.

It’s easy to fall victim to the lie that life and death hang in the balance in an election. If your hope and your identity is wrapped up in a candidate or a political party, you will be sorely let down, especially if your candidate or party wins.

I said that correctly.

I’ve always been intrigued by stories of celebrities or extremely wealthy individuals who remark that the fame and fortune they devoted their lives to doesn’t satisfy the deepest longings of their hearts. In fact, they only serve to highlight a greater need for what can’t been earned — acceptance and love.

Whether it’s fame, fortune, or political victories this is true for anything we set up as a god in our hearts.

 

If a political victory is your greatest aim, you will likely be disappointed by your candidate or party. Even if they win, they cannot give you what your heart ultimately needs. Public policy can do a lot of good things, but it cannot save humanity from our brokenness. It’s only through faith in Jesus does God restore our relationship to him and reconciles us to one another. Your hope and your identity must be rooted in the gospel of grace.

Politicians will come and go. Put your faith in the God who will never let you down and is always in power.

 

064: When Only God Knows – The Jon Black Story

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In the Clear Creek message series Unstoppable we learned that God, his gospel, and his church are an unstoppable force for good in the world. But sometimes, even though we know we should trust God, it’s hard to believe that he’s working things out in the here and now. On this episode, Clear Creek Story Team writer Jon Coffey sits down with Jon Black to talk about his checkered history with church, his years of wandering, and his battle with addiction. Through Jon Black’s story, whether we’re confronted with a tumultuous season of life like COVID-19, or a person who just can’t seem to get it right, we learn that God is always at work, even when we can’t see it.

RESOURCES:

Pathway to Peace

Hear more stories from Clear Creek Resources

Does Church Membership Matter?

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