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May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

John 17:21

God often speaks of human relationships as a part of His mission to redeem a lost world (John 13:20; Matt. 25:40). One reason He gives for a husband and wife to live in unity is so they can produce a “godly seed,” that is, children who love and obey God, who can be used in God’s mission to bring redemption to a lost world (Mal. 2:14–15). Similarly, the church is the body of Christ. A church cannot be on mission with the Father in our world if its members are waging war with one another (1 Cor. 12:12). There is a crucial connection between our relationships with others and the salvation of those around us. We might assume that during Jesus’ prayer before His crucifixion, He would have prayed that His disciples would have courage, or would remain faithful, or would remember what they had been taught. Yet He asked that His followers would remain united in their love for one another. Jesus understood that it is spiritually impossible to love God but not love others. A test of your love for God is to examine your love for others. Our tendency is to say, “Heavenly Father, the problem is not between You and me. I love You with all my heart. I just don’t love my brother.” And God says, “That is an impossibility. You cannot love Me without loving the ones for whom My Son died” (John 13:34–35). Your life will not convince those around you of the reality of Jesus if you cannot live in unity with your fellow Christians. 

see “Experiencing God Day By Day”

We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven

Colossians 1:4-5

Genuine faith gets noticed. There were no ad campaigns, no social media promotions, or direct mailers, yet Paul heard of the faith of the Christians in Colossae. He had never been there, and yet the gospel had spread and was bearing fruit, as it always does. Paul was thankful for them because of their love of all the saints, not just the believers like them, not just the Christians who were in their area, but all the saints. It is refreshing to find a group of believers who are not known for what they are for rather than what they are against. They were not tearing down other churches and pastors, they didn’t host discernment blogs, they genuinely loved the whole church. Why did they do this? Not because they knew every believer, not because they liked all the other churches, they did it because of Jesus, their hope which was waiting for them in heaven. We’re called to not only be nice to those we like, or those who are 100% correct on things, we’re called to love all the saints, not because of them, but because of Him… and that won’t change. Be kind today, love. 

see “Experiencing God Day By Day”

Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

When you were young, what was it that made you afraid? Maybe a fear of heights, a fear of clowns, maybe you were afraid of lightening? There is one fear that is near universal, the fear of the dark. It’s not because darkness itself is scary, but because you don’t know what’s there. Imagine swimming in the ocean in the middle of the night in your scuba gear and you’re deep enough that you can’t just surface right away. Then all of a sudden… your light goes out. It’s so dark you can’t even tell which direction the surface is. Wouldn’t that be scary? I’m a bit scared just thinking about it. Do you know what would make it better? Sure, getting your light back on, but to know you were not alone. If you had a dive partner who simply came over and grabbed your hand. You knew someone was with you. If someone could talk with you over a radio and you could have some personal interaction, that would greatly reduce your fear. We are not meant to be alone, that’s why God created Eve so that this world would not simply have a man, but people. When God says not to be afraid because He’s with us, that’s the most comforting thing we need. He will never leave us, He will never forsake us. He gives us strength just by us knowing no matter what we’re going through, he’s with us. He is going to hold on to us and will never walk away. You’re never alone in the dark, if you know Him, Jesus is with you, don’t be afraid. 

see “Experiencing God Day By Day”

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

It’s a popular verse and one that doesn’t typically break-in to the conscientiousness of one going through a genuine trial from somebody using it as a platitude… but it’s still true.

We know…

Our faith in Jesus has got to be rock solid, and it should be. Troubles in our lives reveal the genuine nature of our faith. We have to choose to get bitter or get better. We press into Christ or we run away. It’s in the days when life isn’t falling apart that we have to be shoring up our belief. We need to be in God’s Word and on our face in prayer constantly, not just daily. If your only interaction with Jesus is a casual prayer when it’s convenient, a “verse-of-the-day” Bible app, and then church 2-3 times a month, forget it. The storm will hit and your spiritual life will be damaged beyond repair. We’ve got to KNOW before the rain comes.

all things…

This includes your current circumstance. The job that you didn’t get. The person who left you. The physical, mental, emotional struggle that you’re going through, all of it, each of them. “All things” is a fairly inclusive phrase and you don’t even have to get into “the Greek” to realize that. There is nothing outside the realm of this description. What you’re dealing with today, next week, next month, next year, that’s included.

work together…

“Work” is a process, it’s progressive, it’s not all at once. “Together” means that any one thing is not the whole picture without the rest. When life is throwing you lemons, hold on, wait, it’s incomplete. There are things in your past and things in your future that God will join in the fabric of your soul to make something beautiful, don’t quit before He’s done, the masterpiece of your life is still in process. Trust Him enough to keep going.

for the good…

What makes something “good?” Unfortunately it’s all to easy to mistranslate “good” as “what I want.” This passage does not promise that if we hold on long enough and if we have adequate faith, we’ll eventually get whatever we wish for… that’s Disney, not Jesus. God’s concerned with something much better for us, what is actually “good.” Our purpose is to be conformed to the image of His Son, that’s “good.” We can’t be like Jesus without loss, suffering, disappointment, and those whom we love turning against us. We can’t be like our Messiah without opportunities for giving, endurance, encouraging others, and pouring ourselves out for others. These things are not good in and of themselves, in fact, they stink. But God uses them for your good, there is a purpose to our suffering.

those who love God…

Do you love God? It seems like an easy question to answer “of course I do!?” It may even seem a little offensive to be asked that question. If we love God, then He is enough. If we truly love Him, and not just what we think He will give us, then when life’s troubles come against us, we don’t have to be disappointed because things didn’t go the way we’d hoped, we still have God. We aren’t loving God as a kind of trick to get our wishes granted, as though Jesus is a cosmic genie. God is enough. When things don’t seem to go our way, it’s not even that we endure because we don’t need more than God Himself (which, of course, we don’t), it’s better than that. We have the promise of “good” beyond our relationship with God, and that’s amazing!

who are called according to His purpose.

God has called you in accordance with His purpose. The reason you are His child is because you are part of his plan. Everything is going to work together for good, but also for YOUR good. Hang in there. Hold on. It’s not happening for no reason. It’s not meaningless. God is for you! Who can be against you?

On Sunday nights at church #PHBCTN (when we don’t have something else like a business meeting, or when we don’t meet due to a holiday or something like that) we have been going through the whole Bible, book-by-book. We take one book of the Bible and cover it in about 40 minutes.

Here, I’m going to try to summarize that process as best (and quickly) as I can.

We started by doing an overview of the whole Bible, all 66 books, and it took me just under 53 minutes:

We don’t always record on Sunday nights (we’re running low on crew) but we did that night. This was back in March 2019.

Here’s the gist:

The whole Bible is divided into 2 parts, Old and New Testament… you probably know that.

Then it’s subdivided into Law, History, Poetry, Prophecy (in the OT), and the Gospels and the Letters.

The Law, or the “Books of Moses” the Pentateuch (first 5 books) promises a special relationship between Israel and the One God.

The History section has the “Pre-Kingdom” section of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Then there’s the “Kingdom” section of 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, and 1-2 Chronicles. Finally, there’s the “Post-Exile” section of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. This tells us how this special relationship plays-out. Not well.

The Poetry section has Jobe, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. This is all about worship and ancient wisdom, songs and theology.

The final OT section of Prophecy has the “Major” prophets (simply meaning they are longer) of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Then there’s the “Minor” prophets or “The Twelve” of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

That wraps up the Old Testament, which is a relatively new name for it. Maybe if it were called the First Testament or something else we might read it more. It is, after all, 3/4 of the Bible, we avoid it at our own risk. It’s impossible to understand Jesus and the world within which Jesus came without a good understanding of the Bible of the Hebrews.

The NT is where we move into what is usually more familiar territory for us Christians.

The Gospels tell the “Good News” of salvation, it’s the (true) story of Jesus, and Acts is really “The Gospel of Luke Part 2” as it is written by the same author and picks up where Luke leaves off in the Gospel. The rest of the NT is basically letters.

Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon make up the “Pauline Epistles.” “Epistle” means letter, and they’re “Pauline” because they were written by Paul. These are from him to specific churches/people in their real world context. We read over their shoulders to hear the words of an Apostle to the churches.

Then there’s the book of Hebrews. Some think it was written by Paul, the KJV even says so in the title, and others think it was written by someone closely associated with Paul, maybe Luke or another co-worker. The vocabulary is very different from all the other letters Paul wrote, of which we have quite a few for comparison, but the themes and concepts are very similar to Paul.

Then there are the “Catholic Epistles” of James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude.

Finally, there’s the strangest book in the NT, the “Apocalypse” or “Revealing” usually known as “Revelation.” It’s a book that contains very short letters to 7 churches then a section about judgment, the end of the world, Jesus’ triumph, heaven and hell, and how everything wraps-up.

There is no book like it, the Bible is amazing. I love it. It is life and truth.

Come and a Sunday night and hear as we walk book-by-book and check back here from time-to-time and I’ll try to catch-up.

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