Berean Community Church Blog

Do you believe that to be true?  I'm not necessarily speaking from a language point of view. Modern translations have been incredibly helpful in bridging the language barrier. There may still be many awkward phrases but we can at least get the jist of what is being said.  

I'm more talking about the fact that the Bible says things that are hard for us to read and have them make sense with what we know (or want to believe) about God. For example, this morning I was reading this in Deuteronomy 22…

“If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."

A virgin who is raped and does not cry out for help should get treated the same as her rapist?!?! What do you do with that? Honestly, when I first read this, I was offended. Now I have a choice of what to do with this:

1. Pretend I didn't read it and move on.

2. Chalk this up to "old testament stuff" which doesn't apply in the 21st century.

3. Refuse to move on until I can satisfy myself that this passage has a good and useful (relevant) place in the Bible and is consistent with God's revealed character and purposes.

I encourage #3. But beware, this is hard work! You may not even be able to do it in a single sitting, or maybe a lifetime. I could not let this passage go until I could satisfy myself that God is saying something about Himself and His people that is consistent with the rest of Scripture. I believe that God honors this kind of wrestling and inquiry. It is OK to question God's Word as long as you are willing to pursue it and hunt God down in the midst of it. Do not become a hardened skeptic; rather, be a teachable student who wants to learn what God has to say. 

So when you run across these kinds of passages, don't retreat! Do not drift into unbelief. Acknowledge the difficulty of the text and start doing battle with it. God will not mind if you are initially offended or concerned about what the passage is saying as long as you are ultimately willing to trust Him and let Him guide you through it to understanding.

I wrestled with this passage in Deut 22 and believe that I have an understanding of it that is satisfying and consistent with the character of God and the story of Israel. I won't get into it here. But I am grateful that God would not allow me to skip over this text as I would have much rather done!

~Jayson~ 

Today I was listening to the Albert Mohler podcast for March 18th and the discussion was on how to teach little children (preschoolers) about Easter, specifically, how to address the issue of Jesus' crucifixion, death, and resurrection.  How careful should parents be about shielding their young children from the violence of the cross and the issues of death that surround it?  My children are only 2-1/2 and 8 months so I do not have a tremendous amount of experience but I will offer these few things to think about.

1. Do not avoid the issue.  We have a cute story Bible where all the characters smile (even Goliath) and have cherub-like rosy cheeks.  When this Bible gets to Easter it says " One day some people who did not like Jesus took him away" and then (with nothing in between) "he came back!"  Telling the story this way is not helpful.  An inquisitive child will want to know what happened when the mean people took Jesus away.  The only thing a parent who is trying to avoid the subject of talking about the cross can do at this point is lie.

2. Do not think kids have to understand everything in order to tell them truth.  I do not think my 2-1/2 year old understands what the Bible means when it says that Jesus died.  He knows that it is sad.  He also understands what it means to be hurt.  We tell him that they really hurt Jesus or as our son likes to say, they gave Jesus lots of "owies."  Talking about WHY Jesus died is another story.  Again, I do not think kids need to understand everything in order to tell them about it.  I often thank Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins when we pray knowing full well that our kids probably don't have a clue what that means…but they do know it is worth thanking God for!  That's important.  

3. Do not forget…Jesus rose from the dead!  Tell the whole story!  Jesus died on the cross, but God raised him from the dead.  They put his body in a tomb and rolled a stone in front of the door.  But on Sunday, the stone was rolled away and Jesus was alive!  Mary ran as fast as she could to tell the others!  Peter and John raced to see for themselves.  Jesus ate fish with his friends and they could see the holes left in his hands from the nails.  It is an exciting story and it is captivating for children.  

I started reading Mark's account Jesus' death and resurrection at the supper table about a month ago.  I just took it in small 2-1/2-year-old-appropriate chunks.  I have to admit, I paused when I got the parts about how they hurt Jesus and crucified him.  My son was visibly troubled and I was tempted to water it down or move quickly to the resurrection.  Each night we reviewed what happened.  We didn't embellish or make it overly graphic.  Eventually, he could fill in the basic details.  Now he often asks to hear the story about Jesus dying on the cross.  My son built a cross and a tomb from Legos as "visual aids"…all his idea.  I'm encouraged by this.  I hope this was helpful.  

He is risen!   

When you heard Christo and Melissa Phillip share their plans to do medical missions in Northeastern India did your heart jump for joy?  Maybe you got excited about the idea that you can help reach distant pagans for Christ from right here in Rochester.  After all, "How are they (Christo and Melissa) to preach unless they are sent?" (Acts 10:15).  Sent ones need senders! 

Or maybe you got excited for a moment about the idea of becoming a missionary yourself.  But then the service was over and it was back into the normal routine of life, and besides, you haven't heard any angels singing lately, and there is plenty to do for Jesus here in the States.   

It is true: some are called to be sent, and others are called to send.  But none are called to do neither!  Which part is God calling you to do?  The Living God is a Missionary God, and He has an exciting purpose for you in missions.  Jesus left His "home" in heaven to seek and save the lost, and He calls each one of us to join Him in this GREAT Commission. 

As one author recently said: "We are within range of penetrating every people group on the planet with the light of the gospel with more momentum than ever before in history.  Be a part of it–find a place of historic significance in declaring His glory among the nations!"

If you want to whet your appetite for a greater zeal for the global cause of Christ, check out the link below and check out this blog in the future.  Lord willing, I will be posting some mind-blowing, heart-wrenching, and soul-empowering statistics, quotes, weblinks, and other blurbs that God might use to set you on fire for the nations!

But don't get me wrong: the ministry of the local church is just as important as missions.  They cannot exist without each other.  "Missions exists because worship doesn't.  The ultimate goal of the church is not missions.  Worship is!" (John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad).  In other words, we do missions so that other people can worship God with us around the world, and to establish new local ministries!

If the ministry of the local church does not thrive, then we will be less likely to raise up new missionaries, and we will be less likely to have the resources to send them, and we will miss out on God's plan to be glorified among the unreached peoples for whom Christ died.  On the other hand, as our local ministries thrive, may we guard ourselves against selfishness and never lose sight of the vision found in Psalm 67: "Let the peoples praise You, O' God; let all the nations praise You!  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!"

As mentioned above, the link below shares the day in a life of a street evangelist in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.  How would you like to have his job?  He gets scared when the bullets fly, but he's more afraid of not doing what God has called him to do.  Check it out here:

http://commissionstories.com/?p=25

Everyone is encouraged to take TWO copies of the Lee Strobel book, The Case For Easter.  They are available in the church lobby.  One copy is for you to read and the other copy is to give away to someone you know who does not know Jesus Christ.  While you are at it, invite them to join you for church on Easter!  Pray that God would open the eyes and hearts of unbelieving, perishing people that they would no longer see the cross as foolishness but truly see it as the power of God!

From Barnes & Noble's website:

Of the many world religions, only one claims that its founder returned from the grave. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very cornerstone of Christianity. But a dead man coming back to life? In our sophisticated age, when myth has given way to science, who can take such a claim seriously? Some argue that Jesus never died on the cross. Conflicting accounts make the empty tomb seem suspect.sHow credible is the evidence for the resurrection? Focusing his award-winning skills as a legal journalist on history's most compelling enigma, Lee Strobel retraces the startling findings that led him from atheism to belief. Drawing on expert testimony first shared in his blockbuster book The Case for Christ, Strobel examines: The Medical Evidence — Was Jesus' death a sham and his resurrection a hoax? The Evidence of the Missing Body — Was Jesus' body really absent from his tomb? The Evidence of Appearances — Was Jesus seen alive after his death on the cross? Written in a hard-hitting journalistic style, The Case for Easter probes the core issues of the resurrection. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead: superstitious myth or life-changing reality? The evidence is in. The verdict is up to you.