Daily Archives: October 9, 2008

Conferences, Discipleship, Questions, The Word, Wrestling With Scripture

Catalyst Labs: Scot McKnight

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Key Question: How do we apply what we read in the Bible?

How do we really live out what we read? Frankly, everyone picks and chooses passages that they choose to follow and we ignore what we don’t like or don’t understand. There are things that we read that Paul said that we don’t do. There are things that we read that Jesus said that we don’t do.

In essence, when we don’t live out what we read we are saying, “Sorry, I really don’t believe that passage.”

5 Ways We Read the Bible That Can Leave Us Distorted

1) Morsels of Law -reading the Bible in such a way as only looking for Yes/No commandments. Problem: This truly is an all or nothing endeavor but we don’t really believe that either.

2) Morsels of Blessings and Promises– reading the Bible in such a way as only looking for blessings and promises. Problem: reading in this way gives us “spiritual diabetes” (my phrase) and distorts the word of God. McKnight noted that you never see a calender filled with Wrath passages. 🙂

3) Rorschach– opening the Bible and looking for the “answer” much like an inkblot test. Problem: Reader projects their own agendas, desires, thoughts onto the Biblical passages

4) Systematic Theology Scatter-Shot Reading in such a way as to boil down the Word in to understandable statements of fact and theology. Problem: Peterson said that reading the Bible this way “Tames the Bible so that we no longer can hear its wildness.” Things get left out or minimized.

5) Seeking the Maestro– People read the Bible through the lens of their favorite “master voice.” Jesus is a Maestro. Paul is a Maestro. Ezekiel is usually not a Maestro. Problem: fails to take all voices into account.

So what do we do? How can we read the Bible in way that is faithful to the revealed Word of God and actually live out what we read?

The secret is to read in such a way and with such intensity that our lives are sucked up into the story.

Ruth 1:16-17- Where the Bible goes we will go…

1Corinthians 9:19-23- allow the HS to guide you to follow what you read in every context in which we live.

Conferences, Discipleship, Leadership

Catalyst Day 1

Today was a great day!!!

I literally sat at the feet of Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Steven Furtick, Seth Godin, and Craig Groeshel. I had a nice comfy chair right up against the stage for the entire first day.

While the chair was comfy the teaching was anything but. Messages ranged from how leaders must live out moral authority to moving your church from good to great to begging God to stretch, heal, and ruin you. It truly was an awesome day.

Oh yeah, and Jon Foreman from Switchfoot hit the stage (again right in front of me) for a few tunes. It was like a private concert just for me… and 12,000 friends.

I found myself unable to capture all the great teaching with just my pen and notepad. Good thing I purchased the tapes!!!

Tomorrow looks to be another banner day. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me… and my 12,000 friends.