God’s Building His Church

One of the things that has been amazing in our journey here in India is seeing how God works.  We once thought that teaching doctrine to uneducated pastors and church leaders was a daunting task. We knew that first we needed to lay a solid understanding of who God is and of the need for faith in Him.  We decided to do this through chronological Bible story telling.  The amazing thing is that through what we thought was foundation laying, we’ve seen God teach people deep theological truth.

Pastor Charles Kujur

Recently, Charles, a pastor we’ve been training,  said, “Joseph passed by many temptations and he did not even commit sin against God. He abides in the Word of God. God blesses us in our lives abundantly, and His blessings are a light which is lifted up that others can glorify God and have respect for God’s people.” It’s amazing that through Bible storytelling, which we sometimes call oral inductive Bible study, Charles understands the preeminence of God and His glory.  He understands that God’s blessings are given so that we might glorify Him. This is an example of the kind of observations many church leaders are now making. 

We go chronologically through 49 Bible stories to help them clearly see God’s redemptive story.  We use an interactive method where we go through the story 3 times. Then we dig into the story to find the spiritual truths. Finally, we make practical and personal application from the story and the spiritual truths.   

The results in the last few months are that many of the participants are digging deeper into God’s word. They understand deep concepts like the sovereignty of God, His faithfulness, the way He plans and accomplishes His plans, His mercy, and the way He foreshadows or gives examples of things to come.  One student observed that just as there was only one door onto Noah’s ark by which men could be saved from destruction, there is also only one way to be saved from the penalty of our sins – entering into God’s salvation through Jesus Christ.  Another realized that the tar that covered the inside and outside of the ark provided covering and protection.  In the same way Christ’s blood provides us protection and covering.  These aren’t lessons we taught them.  We simply taught them how to meditate on scripture and ask the right questions and they came to know the truth by meditation and revelation of the Spirit of God.  This is exciting to us, because they are learning to feed themselves, a necessary step towards being able to teach others to do the same.

Just as Charles said, God blesses as people abide in His Word. The result is that the church is built up.  God is building His church.  Through the people who are His church God is exalting Himself.  We praise God for the opportunity to be a part of this. We also thank Him for all who are participating in making this possible.

Delighting in His Law

"His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in the Law, he meditates day and night."

This is part of Psalm 1, which I'm teaching on in our home fellowship this Sunday. I memorized the Psalm and have been meditating on it quite a bit. I also have listened to 4 sermons on Psalm 1 in the last 3 days.

I thought I would share some of my musings with you.

Psalm 1 is full of contrasts: There's the wicked vs. the righteous. There's those that are firmly rooted vs. those blown away by the wind. There's the path of the righteous vs. the path of the sinner. There's the path that is known (approved and preserved) vs. the path that perishes. There's delight in the Law (instruction) vs. the counsel of the wicked.

There's the question of who is righteous. Many will so, none are righteous (Ro 3:9-10). Yet, in the Psalms and elsewhere in scripture, there's a clear distinction between righteous and unrighteous and between godly and ungodly. In Romans 3, Paul is obviously talking about the fact that there is no one righteous apart from Christ. However, in Christ we are made righteous.

There seems to be a progression of sin, where you go from moving in sin to standing in sin to sitting in sin. The progression is towards being more stuck or fixed in sin.

That raises the question of being fixed or firmly planted. Even though someone is fixed in sin, they are like chaff which is blown away by the wind and they will not be able to stand in judgment. Whereas, the righteous man - the man who delights in the law, will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. That man will be firmly fixed and the implication is that he'll be able to withstand judgment.

Sometimes people think that living a sinful life is more free than the Christian life which is filled with rules and regulations. The fact is that there is life in the tree that is firmly planted. It yields fruit, it's leaf doesn't wither (read into that a person who is full of life even in a dry period) and it prospers. The one that is "free" is blown about. They are subject to their environment and therefore less free than the one who is firmly planted.

Finally, let's look at Delighting in the Law. This I think is the key to the passage and the thing I'm still meditating on and wrestling with. What does it mean to delight in the law other than that it includes meditating on it? How does one come to the place of delighting in the law?

So far, for the second question the two things that strike me are that prayer is one way to delight in the law and that actually spending time with the law is key to seeing its value and beauty which will result in delight. Psalm 119:18 is an example of someone praying this very thing.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these two questions, this chapter or on delighting in God's Word.