To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.
General
The Meaning of Marriage by the Kellers
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When approaching marriage a lot of people revert to anecdotes and pithy conventional wisdom. This is not necessarily a bad thing in its time. However, every now and again its good to get a biblical perspective on marriage. Is one of the best communicators I have ever heard or read. He presents the Bible well in this book while combining a healthy level of his own struggles. It really helps that this book was co-written by his wife, so there is no half sided stories or a hint of chauvinism. Keller is very real in this book as he presents the word and serves his readers with truth.
Pages: 282
Buy, own, rent? This is a great buy for those who are looking to be married and are married.
Best part: The Kellers’ dedication to presenting truth is great.
An Apology and a Change In Direction
0There comes a time where we are called by God to take stock. This is to say that we are in a position to review where things have been and where they are going. I am entering such a season with a 6 week break from schooling. I will be as unbusy as I have been in my entire life, which is really exciting for me. However recently I have been feeling called to apologize to those who read this blog and then correct the way I approach this blog.
Since the Dispersion started over three years ago my philosophy when approaching the subject matter has been what God is doing in my heart or what I think would be interesting to talk about. As a writer I know that it is easier and often better to write what you know. However as time has gone on I have been reconsidering this philosophy and have come to some conclusions.
The first is that this model may not be as beneficial to you as other ways of deciding what to write. From now on I will be taking a more biblical approach to the subject matter covered. That is to say I am transitioning from what I want to write or feel as though I can write, to what the text is saying. I learn from teachers who approach their sermons and blogs this way, so that is what I am going to do. I apologize because this is what I should have been doing all along. My not doing so is not malicious, but just a reflection of my continuing sanctification and natural imperfection as a person.
The second is that this method is of benefit to me. Recently I have noticed a disturbing trend. My time spent in study of the word is often focused on theDispersion, and not on God. By separating my personal study and the study I am doing for this website intentionally I hope to regain some of the intimacy that I feel as though I have lost with Christ. It’s like if I were married and every time I had alone time with my wife a good friend showed up. While having a good friend is not a bad thing, it’s a problem when you are trying to grow in intimacy with a more important individual. Having a blog about Jesus is not a bad thing, until it gets in the way of your time with Jesus.
I want to thank you for your continued readership. The Dispersion continues to grow and have an impact on more and more unbelievers, which is awesome. We are continuing to pray for other areas to expand, but we thank you for your continued prayer for us. Thank you for your readership and time.
Peace in Christ,
Jack
Ambitious or Why We Should Read the Whole Bible
0Usually when I go to a coffee shop I like to interact with the different baristas who are there. The idea of the barista is great for me, because I like meeting and interacting with new people. Baristas are paid to make drinks and be nice to coffee drinkers, so I have made many friends in Starbucks and local shops. Usually they will ask me what I am reading and most of the time it is my bible. Some of them end the conversation there but if they are Christians they will ask where I am reading. Recently I have been reading in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The reaction has greatly interested me, and it is the subject of this particular blog.
2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is God breathed and useful for a wide variety of things including teaching. A lot of Christians have been taught using a select few scriptures. There scriptures can probably be seen on a key chain, mug, or T-Shirt at your local Christian book store. These verses are not bad, actually they are very good when seen in the context of the larger bible and larger book that they are in. The problem is that when you limit your understanding of what the Bible says to a select few passages you lose the larger perspective of what God has to say both to us and for us about his son Jesus Christ. If I study 1 John it is a blessed book. It is filled with a variety of themes and powerful verses. It is one of my favorite books because it talks about grace, who we are in Christ, and how that changes our lives in such a clear way. However, if I only read 1 John I might know a lot about God, and could definitely come to faith in Christ (praise be to the good Lord Jesus), but I would not have a clear view of say what is coming in the age to come, or what the wrath of God looks like, or even miracles. I would have to look at more books in the bible to see those themes more clearly defined and played out in believers lives. Understand I am not saying that 1 John is any less of a book because it does not cover these themes, rather that the bible is meant to be read and loved as one volume, because it is written as God intended.
The reaction I got when I told people that I was reading Leviticus was surprise. The people I talked to couldn’t believe that I was reading such “heady material”. This is not to say that these particular baristas and baristuds were not acting as Christians, but they were surprised that I was reading these books. They thought I was serious because I was reading such “high level” material. I believe that this stigma towards these particular verses reflects how little we understand our good God’s goodness towards us.
The bible is 66 volumes bound together, and they are all about the same thing. If you read the bible you will hear the same thing over and over. God is good, powerful to save and create. People are evil, stained by sin. God calls on those he loves to follow him. They do for a bit until they get distracted by sin, then he calls them to himself through the sacrifice of his son, Christ Jesus, on the cross. One day things will be much, much better than they are now. One day we will see Christ face to face. (more…)
Creation Haiku
0Here at the Dispersion we mostly do blogs, but now we are going to shake it up with a blog of Haiku about creation as recorded in Genesis 1-2. Enjoy!
God said there be light
And there was, much light, bright light
Day and Night began
There is a domain
Which is not near to us, for sin.
God’s land is not ours
Missions in the Bible
0Immediately before Jesus ascended into heaven he told his followers that they would receive the Holy Spirit and that with the Spirit they would be witnesses of the gospel to the entire world. In the 2000 years since that commission countless theologians and scholars have wrestled with what it means to be a witness and what the emphasis should be when sharing the gospel. While each viewpoints has it’s own strengths and weakness what we must not do is try to decide who is right but rather what is right, and as Christians we have the great fortune of having the Bible which is God’s authoritative word given to us. An examination of the Bible can therefore give us an excellent starting point for conducting missions.
When looking at a the topic of missiology we must first establish a very essential fact. We must define what exactly our mission is. Christ told his followers to: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”[1] But what exactly is it that we are to testify to? In Luke 24 Jesus answers this question by explaining to his disciples that all of the scriptures – what we would call the Old Testament – is about him. He then goes on to reveal to them what the entire Old Testament was ultimately pointing to, namely that: “the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”[2] . With this simple proclamation we see what the heart of all missions work should be. To preach Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. (more…)
The Sign of Jonah
0The Jews were a religious people. They’re religious leaders memorized the Old Testament. They had rule after rule. They constantly upheld and told others to uphold these rules. Jesus ministry faced opposition, and most of the opposition came from religious leaders. In the end it was the religious leaders of Israel that wanted Jesus dead. Jesus faced their courts and though innocent was found guilty. Jesus faced the majority of his righteous anger and frustration from dealing with these religious people.
In Matthew 12 Jesus is confronting some of these religious leaders. They are on his case for healing a man on the day of rest. They condemn Jesus, but Jesus speaks truth to them saying that they were hypocrites. In Matthew 12 some of these religious leaders come to Jesus Christ and ask him for a sign. A sign is a miracle. Jesus had just healed a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees wanted to see Jesus make a trick. They wanted him to do things for them. They wanted him to perform.
After hearing this Jesus remarked that they were an evil and adulterous generation. The Pharisees were looking for Jesus to prove himself as the son of God. Other people who came to Christ were not coming to see a trick. The lady who had bleeding touched Christ’s garment out of desperation because she was tired of living the way she had been and knew that the only way she could be healed was through Christ. The men who lowered their friend through the roof of the place where Christ was teaching did so because they believed Christ could heel, not because they wanted entertainment. The people who received the miracles of Christ did so because they believed. They knew Christ would heal and so they were healed. The miracle reserved for those who don’t believe is the miracle of Jonah.
Jonah was an Old Testament prophet who lived in a fish for three days. Everyone who knew that he had been swallowed by the fish assumed he had died. Then he was spit out and through him a city was transformed. Jesus was killed, everyone assumed he was dead. Then he rose after three days and the world was transformed. This is the miracle for the unbeliever. This is the miracle for the religious. This is the miracle for the sinner. This is the greatest miracle that ever happened.
Some Christians chase miracles like healing or prophecy. These miracles can happen, but they must not be loved over the greatest miracle. The sign of Jonah is integral to our faith. Without the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ all the healing in the world is worthless. As we seek miracles let’s not forget Matthew 12:38-42 and the sign of Jonah, the miracle that Jesus gave to those in the church. Christ died and rose, performing the greatest miracle in history.
Refusal to Believe is Sin
0Oftentimes when we don’t want to look so bad we will say, “At least I don’t do (fill in the blank).” If I sometimes get mad at my parents I could say, “well at least I don’t do crystal meth.” I would be right in saying that I don’t do crystal meth, but of course it would be false justification. The good things that I do are not a reflection of how good I am, but how good Christ is. That realization hit me again as I was reading through Deuteronomy 1. The book of Deuteronomy is the last of the Pentateuch, the books of the bible that were penned by Moses. Deuteronomy summarizes what has been going on with the people of Israel and where they are heading. It includes a final speech of a dying leader, Moses, and a lot of laws, as well as a history of what the people of Israel had been going through up until that point.
The recap of the history of Israel at the point of when Moses penned Deuteronomy was centered around a singular event. That event was the proceedings after a report from twelve spies Moses had sent into the land that the Lord promised to give to Israel. Ten of the spies advised the people not to go into the land, and two of them said they should go in and possess the Lord had given to them. The people were so scared they refused to go into the land that the Lord had given them. The Lord was so angry that he led the people of Israel to wander in the desert until all of that generation had died. (more…)
The Dispersion Turns Two
0Happy 2nd Birthday Dispersion!
As I just typed that title I laughed. The dispersion of saints is a lot older than three years. The verse on the top of our website is a reference to 1 Peter 1:1, revealing that Peter’s book was written to the large church which had shot out from Jerusalem into the surrounding area. Eventually that church would move and settle in Europe. Some disgruntled Puritans would traverse the sea and disperse to America. Eventually the American colonists would disperse West, bringing the message of Christ to Colorado. Two churches would eventually be planted, and the message of Christ would be dispersed to Tim and Jack specifically. Tim being a super computer man, and Jack fancying himself something of a writer, would start a website, called www.thedispersion.net for God’s glory and your edification.
This has been a year of transition at theDispersion, also a year of growth for us. Our very first month as a website was the most viewed month for the first two years our existence, but now we regularly have more people review our articles, and have broken that monthly views record very many times. Another great transition is the variety of sources that we have views from. We have integrated theDispersion.net into Facebook (www.facebook.com/theDispersion) and Twitter (@thedispersion) and these bring many people to the site. However I would venture to say that nearly 50% of our views come from internet search engines, people searching different things for different reasons that end up at our site. We also get many views from StumbleUpon, a great service for searching the website. (more…)
Love of Numbers
0When people reference the Pentateuch, the five books of the Bible Moses wrote, they usually talk about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Genesis is famous because it is the very beginning of everything and has Noah and Abraham. Exodus is famous because of Moses and God parting the Red Sea. Leviticus is famous because it’s that book that people think that you are crazy when you read it because it is all about the Law of God and sacrifices. Dueteronomy is famous for much the same reason, and ends with a prediction of judgment on Israel. Lost in the shuffle is little ol’ Numbers. Numbers is the early history of the people of Israel as they went from Egypt to the wilderness outside of the Promised Land. Numbers is one of my favorite books of study, because it is one of the most practical to Christians who are new to the faith or don’t have much depth of faith. (more…)
Legal Proof vs. Scientific Proof
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Josh McDowell is widely regarded at one of the leading influential writers on evangelism and apologetics from the 20th century. This excerpt is from More Than A Carpenter, a book that McDowell wrote in 1973.
“Now if scientific method was the only method of proving something, you couldn’t prove that you went to your first hour class this morning or that you had lunch today. There’s no way you can repeat those events in a controlled situation.
Now here’s what is called the legal-historical proof, which is based on showing that something is fact beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words, a verdict is reached on the basis of the weight of the evidence. That is, there’s no reasonable basis for doubting the decision. It depends upon three types of testimony: oral testimony, written testimony, and exhibits (such as a gun, bullet, notebook.) Using the legal method of determining what happened, you could pretty well prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you were in class this morning: your friends saw you, you have your notes, the professor remembers you. (more…)