The Bible is about God. He has a message he wants to communicate to humanity, and he has revealed it through this collection of writings. Here’s how to interpret what it says.
How Should We Interpret the Bible?
Tag: Holy Spirit
Jesus Reveals God’s Kingdom Through His Life
In Jesus declaring the kingdom of God is at hand, we can lay aside our anxiety over sin and our efforts to conquer it on our own strength. There’s no need to fear or worry. God is becoming king again!
Is It The Holy Spirit, Or Just Me?
We have dreams or thoughts that they feel like revelations, but their meaning alludes us. We feel confused and lack confidence in what God has spoken to us. What’s frustrating about this is that Christians should be able to tell when God is speaking to them. Why does it seem so hard, at times? Here are a few things my wife and I are learning that help us better discern when God actually is saying something to us.
The God Who Scares Us
Many millennials are wanting to understand God’s Spirit better. I think that’s wonderful. But I also think some of us expect our discovery of Him to radically change something about Christianity. And maybe it will. I don’t know. I just know there are many thoughts and ideas about the Holy Spirit, and not all of them seem in-line with Scripture.
But ignoring Him, not facing the possibility of having our perspective of God rattled and reshaped, is not an answer. That only limits our understanding of God, and therefore, our relationship with Him.
So, I’ve been going back to Scripture and trying to understand the Holy Spirit from God’s perspective, not from what I’ve heard and been taught before. As a part of this process, and in helping other discover God at a deeper level, I will write out what I’m finding.
Theology, Pornography and the Holy Spirit
Most of the readers on this blog are (or at least come from) “conservative Anabaptist” background. And most of these readers find themselves in dynamic time of life.
Dynamic because there is a lot of motion in the conservative Anabaptist church world today. Deep, unspoken questions people are wanting to find answers to. Few people are as aware and tuned into these questions (even frustrations) as brother Frank Reed.
Recently, I got to ask Frank some questions about the Anabaptist church world, today. Following is the interview.
An open letter about the Bible, blogging, and why I choose the titles I do
A couple months ago I wrote an article titled, No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible. I received quite a basket of mixed feedback, so I thought it beneficial to follow-up and bring clarity where I may have failed to before.
This is an open letter. Quite long, to be honest. But necessary for clarifying a few things I deeply believe. The letter is separated into the following sections. Feel free to skip ahead to whatever interests you most by clicking on the heading below:
- Summarizing No, You Don’t Have to Read the Bible
- “What a title!!??”
- Intentional Blogging
- Relational vs. Intellectual, and an “ever-evolving message”
- The Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Inspiration of Scripture
- The Problem with Scripture in 2017
- What I Believe about the Bible in 18 Statements
No, You Don’t HAVE to Read the Bible
What if the modern approach to Scripture isn’t what God intended for it? What if saying you can only know God through knowing the Bible cripples people from knowing Him at all?
Today, more than ever we need to be grounded in Truth, but the way we worship the black, white and leather of the Bible doesn’t help us become anymore grounded.
When we put the Bible on a pedestal it was never supposed to have, we actually cultivate contempt for Truth and turn people away from God. In this post, I expose the wrong way to use the Bible, explain the right way, and share how to tell the difference.
Do You Agree with Every Book You Read?
Is it okay to learn from a book if the author has beliefs we’re not sure are Biblical?
I often refer books to my friends even though I have yet to read a book where I fully agree with the author. There is nothing worse the someone condemning a book who has not actually read it, or is not familiar with what the author teaches. Unless the author or speaker makes a significant theological or doctrinal error in his teaching, I think we benefit from hearing what they have to say.
I can’t promise that they won’t need discernment as they read the books I suggest, but there are a few thoughts I try to keep in mind that I believe can help all of us test authors in a healthy way.
