Book Review: Trusting God (5 stars)

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I've begun discovering some of Jerry Bridges' books and I find them somewhat relaxing like classical music or a folding chair on the beach. Although the themes he covers in his books can be somewhat heavy, he writes in such a way that he disarms his reader and instead allows him or her to fully embrace what the Bible teaches. He is biblical, and the amount of study he puts into each books is obvious and refreshing. He seeks to be biblical, and I doubt any Christian author would desire higher praise than that.

In Trusting God, Bridges brings the light of Scripture to some of the more challenging questions that plague our minds in the waning hours of the day when we face the challenges presented to us in our pain and suffering. Through careful examination of Scripture, Bridges shows that God is actively involved in His creation, and all of the sorrow and sadness we experience in our lives serves an ultimate and glorious end. He's not out to advance a theological position, he's out to discover the teaching of Scripture. And his conclusions, namely that God is good and sovereign, that we are responsible creatures, and even sin was part of God's plan, may come as a shock to some. But in the midst of doubts and suffering, the words of Scripture bring comfort and joy.

The narration is superb, somewhat grandfatherly and a joy to listen to.

As a gift to my readers, I'm going to offer a free download of this book during all of February 2012. Okay, so it's actually a free download on christianaudio's website. But you should take advantage of this offer. I'm going to be gifting it to a few people.

The opinions expressed are my own. I received an audio book download of this work from christianaudio.

How to Read the Bible

The Bible study last night was awesome. We had eleven adults—much more than what I was expecting. We talked about the gospel, so the non-believers had the opportunity ot hear about the heart of our faith.

One thing that we are trying to do is study Mark compared with the other Gospels. They have many stories in common and there are enough differences that you can see more clearly Mark’s emphasis. What we want to do is discover the main point of Mark. Why did he share this story? Why did he put it here? How would he finish this sentence: I, Mark, have written this so that…?

We look for the main point because there are many things that can be learned from a passage in the Bible, but not everying is primary. There are many secondary ideas in the narrative. Also, there are many ideas that have nothing to do with the passage—they originate elsewhere (another Bible passage or in my mind). For example, when Jesus calms the storm in Mark 4, the main point has nothing to do with “Jesus can calm the storms in your life.” At best this is secondary, but I believe it falls into the third category.

Looking for the main point is very important because it affects our conclusions and applications that we draw out of the text. “Jesus can calm the storms in your life” seems innocent, but consider a passage that we all should know is an essential foundation of our faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Suppose a pastor says, “God and revive your life’s dreams,” after reading about the resurrection in the Bible (cf. Rom. 5:6-11). Yes, it’s correct that God can revive your life’s dreams. He’s God Almighty. But this has nothing to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. The death and resurrection of Christ was so that God could punish sin in the body of Jesus and transmit His righteousness to all who believe in Him. The death and resurrection mean life and salvation for us, not life and salvation for our dreams. The focus is off base. If it isn’t acceptable to do that with the resurrection, why would we do it with other passages?

When we study the Bible and look for the main point, we are in a better position to apply the secondary truths to our lives. Then we can find an application that deals with our “storms” in a way that respects and proceeds from the passage, not just our minds.

Originally published on my Spanish blog as “Cómo Leer la Biblia” on January 20, 2012.

Facing Dark Spiritual Opposition

We're reading through Mark 1-8 in our Bible Study at Enfoque. One of the unique characteristics of Mark is his emphasis on Jesus casting out demons. I think that we in America tend to de-emphasize the dark spiritual forces at work in our world. C.S. Lewis wrote in his introduction to The Screwtape Letters,

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

I've known missionaries in Latin America who've encountered dark spiritual opposition to their work. I've experienced some of it myself on a trip to Peru some years ago. Please pray for the Ar people of Colombia, that they would find liberty in Christ from their spiritual bondage.

AR OF COLOMBIA (ahr). Pray for the R family, asking that the Lord will remove the yoke of darkness, fear and slavery to the evil one and that they will give control of their lives to the God of Scriptures and learn to depend upon Him. Pray also that they will realize that God is more powerful than the spiritual leaders (witchdoctors) and spirit world.

Shipwrecks, Italian or Not

I've been thinking about shipwrecks lately.

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Tim 1:18-20)