Lessons Learned from the 90 Day New Testament Challenge

On Sunday our church completed a summer activity called The 90 Day New Testament Challenge. It was actually pretty simple. I asked our congregation to read through the entire New Testament over the course of 90 days beginning June 1. I believed that this would be an important piece of our summer strategy, given that we committed our Wednesday nights to serving our community though an initiative called "The Summer of Love." To encourage our people to stay with the task, we developed a blogsite, www.nt90.com, to give people a chance to read entries, find a reading plan, sign up for daily text message reminders, and to post comments. So what was the take away from this promotion? What did we learn from our shared experience? Here are a few things that I learned and hope that others learned as well.

First, the New Testament is a primarily missional document and should be read with that in mind. For example, the Book of Acts has no ending. The story just stops, as if to assume that the second and third generations of believers would continue to walk in the same path. As we read the New Testament, we were able to understand the mission of the Kingdom past and make associations with the mission of Kingdom present. Like those whose “sentness” has been documented in the grand story of the New Testament, we too have been “sent” into the world to be the presence of Christ.

Second, there is a unique power that comes when the people of God are immersed in Scripture together. I enjoyed every conversation that I had with others who were taking the journey. Bible reading is intensified when it is a shared experience.

Third, the people of God are informed and encouraged by the ancient story. We were able to identify with many of the experiences we discovered in our reading. We felt things, saw things, and shared in things that Jesus and the apostles felt, saw, and shared.

Finally, the mission of Jesus is sustained and energized by the written word. Scripture reading provided spiritual sustenance for the unique mission we undertook this summer with The Summer of Love. To intentionally engage our community this summer apart from the steady ready of Scripture would be the equivalent of an athlete going to the game with an empty stomach. In John 4, Jesus told his disciples, “I have a kind of food that you know nothing about.”

At the beginning of our challenge, I pointed out that it takes 28 days to create a habit, whether good or bad. My prayer is that the completion of the challenge will not be an end to an accomplishment, but rather serve as the initial steps of a lifelong discipline of daily Bible reading.

The 90 Day New Testament Challenge

We are wrapping up the Gospel of Luke this week and beginning the Gospel of John. If you haven't joined the 90 Day New Testament Challenge, it's not too late! To find out more, visit http://www.nt90.com!

Rediscover Your Spiritual Roots

Your life is rooted in story and those stories have shaped you to become the person you are today. Your life is surrounded by images that remind you of those stories. A birth certificate. A T-ball trophy. A tassle. A wedding ring. A scar. But our story does not begin with our birth and delivery into this world. It goes back to our parents story of origin. How they met, married, and lived influences your story as well. Of course, your parents story was shaped by their parents and so forth for generation upon generation.

The same principle is true of your spiritual life. Your story is not a story of faith in isolation. People from generations past worked and labored in faith, shaped by the breezes of the Spirit of God. Their stories of faith have led you to become a person of faith. Just as you have physical roots that run deep and long, you have spiritual roots that date back to the first century.

For the next 90 days I’m asking you to join me in a special challenge to read through the entire New Testament. The purpose is not so you can say you have accomplished a goal, though that’s never bad. The purpose is to help you rediscover your spiritual roots. The story of Jesus, the apostles, and the early church is your spiritual lineage. I hope you’ll find a readable translation and commit to 15 minutes per day. It could change your life. And who knows…your story may become part of an ongoing legacy that overlaps the story of one who has yet to experience the wonderful grace of Jesus! To learn more about this, visit http://www.nt90.com. There you will find many helpful resources to guide you through this experience. Enjoy!

On Bible Reading

This weekend I finished my five week series titled Living with Resolve with a discussion of how to identify the promises of God that are available to us today. As a part of that message, I spent several minutes describe how best to read the Bible.

While the Bible possesses a lot of great information, it’s best not to read the Bible with the goal of gaining information. I am genuinely thankful for those who know their Bibles “inside and out,” who can share a plethora of facts, dates, and statistics. Bible knowledge is good, but the problem is that knowledge creates pride (1 Corinthians 8:1). Knowledge for the sake of knowledge creates arrogance. And, more times than not, emptiness.

I also have come to the position that it’s best not to read the Bible with the goad of gaining inspiration. On the day of my ordination in 1985, the Chairman of Deacons of the ordaining congregation was charged with the duty of presenting me a Bible. As he held up the black, leather bound, King James Version Scofield Reference Bible, he said, “This is God’s inspiring Word…” I think he meant to say “inspired,” but “inspiring” was an apropos misfire. Is the Bible inspiring? Sure. The Bible is inspiring, but if the only time you read it is for a nugget that will get you through your present crisis, you really have become nothing more than a moral version of an alcoholic or drug addict, looking for a fix to get you through your day.

The purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us. When you read the Bible, look for God. Of course you’ll gain some wonderful information, and you’ll certainly be inspired on occasion. But neither one of those outcomes should be the goal of your reading. Read the Bible to know God.

The Bible as the Document of Mission

In his book A Concise New Testament Theology, I. Howard Marshall writes, "The focus of the New Testament writings is to be found in their presentation of Jesus as the Savior and Lord send by God, through whom he is acting to bring salvation to the world. More specifically, they are the documents of a mission. The New Testament," Marshall continues, "is primarily about God's mission and the message associated with it."

This evaluation of the Bible helps us interpret the Bible in light of its intention. Jesus is portrayed as the rescuer sent by the Father to inaugurate his kingdom. The missional church is subsequently sent to continue the kingdom mission as they proclaim him as such and call people to faith. Those who respond to the message of the Kingdom continue the mission through declaration and demonstration. The church, therefore, is a missional agent of the Kingdom which seeks to glorify God.

These words are encouraging to those who embrace the missional church movement. They provide a solid theological testimony regarding the purpose of Scripture and its relationship to the church. If Marshall is correct, and I think he is, we must consider how we treat the Bible. People who are serious about living missionally understand the Bible to be more than merely a book for academic consumption. Its words instruct all things missional, and when properly approached, give guidance for living life in the Kingdom of God to the fullest limit.

For those who are interested in New Testament theology, Marshall's book is a worthwhile investment. Marshall has written a chapter on each of the New Testament books and has highlighted the important theological contributions each book has made to the Bible. The book was recommended to me by my friend Dr. Bruce Corley (President, BH Carroll Theological Institute) and have I enjoyed its pages. In turn I commend it to both pastors and Christians who are serious students of Scripture.

NIV Translation Revision

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Reading the Bible

Today I completed reading the Bible through for the year. Reading the entire Bible through each year has been a practice I’ve been committed to since I entered the ministry in January, 1984. Granted, I’ve often wrestled with the question as to whether or not I do this out of rote legalism. But as a pastor-teacher, I have come to the conclusion that if my life’s work is centered on communicating the Scriptures, I should be committed to reading the written word systematically.

There’s nothing special about my particular discipline. Each day I read five chapters from the Old Testament and two chapters from the New Testament. I have read straight through from Genesis to Revelation, but have come to appreciate the variety of reading the Old and New Testaments simultaneously. I also read one chapter of Psalms per day, which allows me to read the book a little more than twice per year. Finally, I read the chapter from Proverbs that corresponds with the day. For example, today is July 30, so I read Proverbs 30. I read this book of wisdom 12 times per year. Over time I’ve read the Bible through in the King James Version, the New King James Version, the New American Standard Version, the New International Version, and my present personal favorite, the New Living Translation.

When I read the Bible, I read for the sake of reading it and listening for my own spiritual formation. That is, I don’t read for sermon ideas or teaching material. I would not call my reading Bible study. I do that as a part of the multiple preparations I do each week. My posture toward the Bible when I read is to read it for my own sake. As I read I have a pen and a journal which allows me to personally interact with the words I read on a given day.

Reading the Bible through each year always provides several blessings that are beneficial. The practice reminds me that all of the words of the Bible are important. My personal preference would not be to read Leviticus or the genealogies of Chronicles. But those chapters and verses are there for a reason.

Another blessing is the blessing of balance. Reading the Bible through keeps me from parking on theological hobby horses or camping on texts that might cause me to go to seed on a particular doctrine. Like you, I know people who have become single issue Christians, focusing on things like end times prophecy or election. In Acts 20:27, Paul speaks of declaring “the whole counsel of God.” Reading the Bible through helps me become God centered and not self-serving in the treatment of the Bible.

As I read I'm always blessed by the fact that even having read the Bible through 25 times, I still learn something new about God with each reading that draws me closer to him. Though the words are the same as last year, each reading makes my relationship with God richer and fuller. I don't want to get so caught up in reading about people, places, and history that I miss God!

The final way reading the Bible through has blessed me is that the discipline helps me to understand the big picture. My personal conviction is that the Bible is a unified book. There are many inter-related texts. The Old Testament points to the New, and the New Testament reflects the Old. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old while the apostles shed light on Jesus, to name a few examples. The Bible is one story. To neglect reading the entire story is like renting a DVD and randomly choosing scenes to watch.

If you’ve not read the Bible through in a year, I commend the discipline to you. Just don’t become a Pharisee in the process. And remember, the point is to know God.