Soma

If you’ve taken the Bible Study Methods class that I teach at Shoreline, you’ve probably already read this book (or at least you were supposed to).  However, for those that haven’t, there are few resources that I could recomend more for those who want to begin to learn how to study the Bible.  In fact, I think that understanding the principles that are laid out in this book are so foundational to being able to understand and learn from Scripture that I’m going to make Living by the Book, by Howard and William Hendricks, the second member of the “Shoreline Must Read List.”  For those of you who are just tuning in, the first member is Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands.

The thing that I love most about his book is that it’s sole purpose is to help equip the reader to be able to study the Word of God for themselves.  There is no overarching “lesson” to be learned, no pet issue to be discussed, Hendricks simply desires for men and women to be able to come to the Word of God and hear in its pages the very voice of God.  And this is founded upon a deep conviction in the power, sufficiency, inerrancy, and clarity of that Word.  Hendricks wants people to know God’s Word, but not just so they can know stuff about His Word.  Through this Word, he desires people to come to know God Himself!  Hendricks explains his heart this way:

My appeal to every young person using this book is this: the only sure way to experience authentic Christianity is through firsthand acquaintance with the Word of God.  Don’t just let a friend or a DVD or a blog tell you what the Bible says - read and study it for yourself.

The book basically breaks the study process into three steps: observation, interpretation and application.  These steps can be inredibly helpful, especially for someone who is just learning how to read and study the Word of God.  Basically, if anyone in the church desires to know how to study the Word of God for themselves, this is one of the best places to start.  Here is what Hendricks says about each step:

Observation

The first step in Bible study is Observation, where we ask and answer the question, What do I see?…What makes one person a better Bible study student than another?  He can see more.  That’s all…The difference between you and the other person is the difference that Sherlock Holmes was fond at pointing out: “You see, but you do not observe.”

Interpretation

I like to refer to the step of Interpretation as the re-creation process.  We’re attempting to stand in the author’s shoes and re-create his experience - to think as he thought, to feel as he felt, and to decide as he decided.  We’re asking, What did this mean to him? before we ever ask, What does it mean to us?

Application

Application is the most neglected yet the most needed stage in the process.  Too much Bible study begins and ends in the wrong place: It begins with Interpretation, and it also ends there.  But we’ve learned that you don’t start with the quesiton, What does this mean? but rather, What does this say?  Furthermore, you don’t end the process by asking, What does this mean? but rather, How does this work?  Again, not does it work - but how?

Living By the Book truly is a great resource to get the new Christian (or even the old Christian who is new to really studying the Bible) off to the right start.  This book will definitely not answer all your questions, and it will not address every interpretational issue you’ve wondered about.  It’s not that kind of book.  What it will do, is give you the tools you need to begin to find the answers to your questions yourself.  You have the Word of God.  You have understanding.  If you’re reading this blog you have been blessed with literacy.  It’s time to take advantage of all you have been given, and this book can be a great tool to help you truly do that.

I love small books.  As someone who grew up hating to read, small books (and those with pictures!) were always a welcome sight.  At 93 pages and measuring about 4 inches wide by 6 inches tall, The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn may be small, but it packs quite a punch.

There are definitely more exhaustive treatments of the battle with sexual temptation out there, and many of those are very helpful tools.  But, for someone who is in the midst of the battle with purity (in other words, for anyone reading this blog), this book is a great place to start (or to continue).  Alcorn lays out the foundational truths of treasuring Christ and the idolatry of sex in such simple and practical ways that we are drawn into the joy of purity as a result.  In addition, Alcorn in a fun writer who (unlike many Christian books) is a pleasant, easy read.  And he loves to state things as plainly as possible.  In fact (at the risk of giving away “the secret”) Alcorn identifies the “Purity Principle” as simply this:

Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid.

Not sometimes.  Not usually.  Always.  You’re not an exception.  I’m not an exception.  There are no exceptions.

Flowing out of this very simple priciple (that he demonstrates clearly from Scripture), Alcorn then goes on to flush out what this battle looks like in all kinds of different situations.  He talks specifically to single people, he talks specifically to married people, he talks to people in the midst of a struggle that seems “hopeless,” and he talks to people who feel like they have achieved “victory.”  No matter where you are at in life, this book can be a great tool in your battle against sexual sin and lust.  Even if your problem is only with your roaving eyes, or your secret fantasies, leaving sin like that alone is a disasterous choice.

There is definitely much more to be said regarding this incredibly important topic than Alcorn can fit into these 93 pages, and you will not be “cured” by reading this book, but nevertheless I would strongly suggest grabbing a copy and allowing its focus on Scripture to inform your heart and your own battle.

And to help demonstrate the combination of gravity and humor with which Alcorn tackles this overwhelmingly important topic, I would be remis if I didn’t share one of my favorite quotes.

While other urges exist for our physical maintenance, sex does not (see 1 Corinthians 6:12-13).  We will die without food and water.  We will not die without sex.  No matter how strong the desire, sex is never an emergency, never a necessity.  A friend told me, “No body has ever exploded due to toxic sperm build up.”

See…some of you just learned something already!

Last week Brian mentioned this book, and called it “one of the most important books any Christian can read.”  I would heartily agree and, to take it a step further, would like to add Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp as the inaugural member of the “Shoreline Must Read” list.  Pastors have a tendency to call just about anything with solid theology and decent application a “must read,” inundating people with stacks and stacks of books that they could never read even if they wanted to.  That is why the “Shoreline Must Read” list is going to be limited to 5 books (Why 5? I don’t know…it just seemed right).  If I want to add another book to the list once it’s full, I promise to take a book off of the list first.  How does that sound?

So, why is this book so important?  One of my favorite descriptions of this book is the subtitle: “People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change.”  That is the church!  Instruments (as I like to affectionately refer to it) is essentially a book about discipleship and counseling.  However, it wreaks havoc on the idea that counseling and discipleship in the church are to be done by the “professionals” or those who “have figured it out.”  Scripture paints a very different picture than that when it comes to how we are to grow in godliness and deal with the issues, disappointments and temptations in our lives.  Galatians 6:1-3 comes to mind:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Scripture tells us that there is no actual “professional” class of Christians and that none of us have “figured it all out.”  As a result, all we’re left with as a messed-up person who needs help are other messed-up people who need help who can point us to Christ through the ministry of the Word and the Holy Spirit.  Tripp puts it this way:

The problem is that most of us think that God is carrying around a very small toolbox!  A successful carpenter uses many tools, each one designed for a particular job.  God has a huge toolbox, and his principal tools are his children.  Sadly, many people in the church do not see themselves this way.  They think of ministry as something for the paid professional.  When they think of their own involvement, they don’t think very far beyond saying a prayer or making a meal.  Yet their adoption into the family of God was also a call to ministry, a call to e a part of the good work of the kingdom.

In this book, Tripp starts from the assumption that we are all counselors, and that we should be less concerned about “the thousands of hours of formal counseling that are not based on God’s Word” than we are with the millions of hours of “counsel” that goes on between Christian friends.

If you are alive on this planet, you are a counselor!  You are interpreting life, and sharing those interpretations with others.  You are a person of influence and you are also being influenced…The issue is not who us counseling.  All of us are.  The core issue is whether that counseling is rooted in the revelation of the Creator.

Tripp does an incredible job of not only demonstrating the core and heart of the issues, temptations and disappointments in our lives, but he also is uniquely helpful in laying out how we can combat the sin in our hearts and the pain in our lives with the truth of Scripture.  In addition to being the most Scripturally sound book on this topic I have come across, Tripp is a writer who is very easy to read and whose insights are uniquely practical.  There is no way that you can read this book and not be changed in radical ways in how you view God, your problems, and the world around you.

I will say, there is one characteristic of this book that does seriosuly frustrate me.  Although Tripp talks, over and over again, about how this kind of “personal ministry” is for all Christians to be done in all of life, almost every one of his ministry examples takes place in a formal (clinical?) counseling setting.  I know that a clinical setting is not the only (or even best!) setting for personal ministry, and so it is frustrating that in addition to his encouragement to all Christians to live this out, Tripp cannot provide many of them with an example that they could see taking place in their own life (most of us do not have “counseling offices”…even if we’re pastors!)  However, this is an easy shortcoming to overlook in light of the incredible truth laid out in Instruments.

Towards the end of his book, Tripp sums up the heart he would desire to communicate regarding personal ministry and discipleship.  It sums up the reason I would love for you to read this book as well:

I am hit with the utter simplicity of biblical persnal ministry.  It is not a secret technology  for the intervention elite, but a simple call to every one of God’s children to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of others.  It is living in humble, honest redemptive community with others, loving as Christ loved, and going beyond the casual to really know people.  It is loving others enough to speak the truth to them, helping them to see thmselves in the mirror of God’s Word.  And it is standing with others, helping them to do what God has called them to do.  It is basically just a call to biblical friendship!…At the same time, there is a grandeur to personal ministry  that cannot be captured with words.  God is painting his grace on the canvas of human souls.  One day we will stand with him in Glory and see that canvas completed, and we won’t be able to do anything but worship. (emphasis added)

I haven’t always loved reading.  In fact, when I graduated high school I had only read one book (that didn’t mainly consist of pictures) cover to cover in my life (Jurasic Park).  By the time I graduated college that number had ballooned to a whopping 4 (The Firm, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Boy Meets Girl…Josh Harris and I were tight!).  You may ask me how I got through school without reading (apparently) any of the assigned books cover to cover, and I have two words for you…Cliff’s Notes.  Man I loved those things.

On the other hand, Lara has always loved reading.  When she was a little kid punishment would consist of taking away her books for a day.  When we took classes together in college, I would always let her do the reading and then ask her what parts she thought were important (I would read those…I mean, I was literate).

After we got married, and I began seminary…everything changed.  While I could justify skimming over a book that I was asigned for a “Sociology of Dying” class is college, doing the same for a theology class or a class on how to study the Bible just wasn’t quite as easy.  So I began to read.  And read.  And read.

Those who are closest to me will tell you that reading is still not my favorite leasure activity in the world.  I still find myself having to re-read pages two or three times because while my eyes hit every word, my brain was thinking about what Manny Ramirez would look like if he shaved his head.  But I have been converted.  I love reading.  Reading is one of the greatest ways for us to fill our minds with truth.  Begining with the Bible, and extending to books that reflect on the Bible, and even secular books that cause us to think critically and practically about the truth in the Bible, there are few more profitable things for us to do with our spare time than to read.

In addition, there is a significant stewardship issue to deal with as a member of the less than 1% of those who throughout the history of the world have been both literate and had access to books.  We have been given the tools, ability and intelect to learn…to stop doing so is not only lazy, but I would possibly even say sinful.  Proactively learning is not a season in life that ends when you have a Bachelor’s Degree to hang on your wall…but that’s a topic for another post.

The topic of this post is simply this: Read.  Learn.  Wrestle.  Question.  And not just blogs…read the good stuff: books!   They’re so much more thought through and helpful that the random online rants of anyone with an internet connection.  If you have the opportunity, don’t waste it.  And to help you out I’m going to institute a weekly book review here at Soma.  If you like what you see, buy it!  Read it!  Let’s discuss it.  I’m not the most well-read person in the world (incredibly far from it actually), but if we can read more and more together maybe it will spur all of us on to actually use the faculties and opportunities that each of us has been given for the glory of God.