When I Don't Like the Bible

The Bible contains some of the most beautiful passages in the world. It has stories of love and adventure, amazing miracles, heart-breaking tragedy, and even comedy. Then there are the parts I don't like, the parts that can make you question the goodness of God. What do we do when those start to get to us?

Impassible Love

The Bible tells us God loves us, and that's a frequent theme of Christian music, books, and teaching. But theologians also talk about God's "impassibility", that he doesn't have emotions the way we do. So how does God really feel about us?

Let's look at a passage I'm surprised isn't one of the most popular passages in the Bible to answer that question.

Yes You Can

I know you feel like this sometimes: There are so many things that need to be done for the Kingdom. There's a world full of people who need to hear the gospel. There's spiritual warfare that needs to be fought. There are young believers who need to be discipled. There are children who need homes, hungry who need food, hurting who need comfort. But what can I do? I'm weak. I have no special gifts or talents. I don't know how to do things like that. I can't do anything.

Yes you can. Do you know how I know?

The Lord Knows Those Who are His

Let me tell you about "Bill." If you know Bill, he's the best guy you know. He's honest, generous, and hardworking. He helps everyone, even people he doesn't particularly like. If you're lucky enough to have him as your neighbor, he's the best neighbor ever. Bill's a better person than most of the "church people" he knows. Because of that, he has no interest in the gospel. He doesn't need Jesus. Christians have taught him that.

How Long, O LORD?

I managed to grow up basically untouched by the problem of evil. Whether I was blessed or just blinkered may be up for debate, but even into my young adulthood, pain and suffering was something that, in my experience, mostly just happened as you got old.

That illusion was ripped apart one day. 

The Contrast of God

Some time back we looked at the story of Jonah and how it illustrates God's preference for showing mercy. The book of Nahum is sort of a sequel to Jonah, and like a lot of sequels, it's a darker, grittier tale. But it's not all dark, and both the dark and the light tell us something important about God.

Who may live on your holy hill?

The old saying goes "familiarity breeds contempt." In my experience, though, it's more likely to breed complacency: We tend to take the people we know best for granted. We don't even notice street signs on roads we regularly drive.

And we rarely notice anything new in our favorite Bible passages. So it's nice, if a little jarring, when one of them jumps up and grabs us with something we've never seen before.

Our Proper Penance

What do you do when you've wronged someone?

Stereotypically, men who get themselves into trouble buy their wives flowers or, if they really messed up, a car. A wife may make her husband's favorite meal or buy him that fishing pole he's been eyeing. But what do we do when we really, really mess up?

Of Sons and Promises

Sometimes the smallest things in the Bible can pack a lot of punch.

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

The first verse of Matthew is easy to rush by. It seems like it’s a title or just introducing the genealogy that follows (that we also rush by). But it’s actually packed with meaning. The author is telling us quite a bit about the subject of the genealogy and the rest of the book.

The Lesson in the Stars

You don’t have to be an astronomy buff to love the stars. Most people, when they take the time to look at the night sky, are grabbed by the beauty and the scale. We now know there are billions of stars in each of billions of galaxies. Some, though, are put off by that. Why so much? What’s the purpose of all that empty space? If there is no other life in the universe — or even if there is — why do we need so many stars?

Remember the Gospel

Dear friends,

I do not know the world you will live in, but I know the Lord said, “In this world, you will have trouble,” so I want to give you some advice on how to continue to honor Christ when that trouble comes. There are so many things I’d like to be able to share with you, so many precious truths that can comfort your soul and transform the way you live. But if I only have the opportunity to tell you one thing, let’s make it this: No matter what happens, when life is easy, and especially when life is hard, remember the gospel!

Anything

In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped 20-40 inches of rain on the Houston area in just a few days. Thousands of houses were flooded, including the homes of some of the couples in our “newlyweds” Sunday school class. Our class of mostly 20-somethings descended on those houses hauling out furniture, ripping out carpet, and tearing out drywall.

Utterly Insignificant

Isaiah 40-45 is one of my favorite stretches in the Bible. When I’m feeling down, this passage picks me up. It paints several pictures of who God is. And those pictures are big, which is why I love it. Because when God is big, everything else seems small.

Pulling Weeds

As we read the scriptures, we will come across boring parts. In the Old Testament, we find long lists of numbers. In both Old and New we find genealogies. In the epistles we find sections that seem like filler, where the author is basically saying hi from everyone here to everyone there. It’s natural to want to skim or even skip over those parts.

Don’t. A little effort can sometimes find some powerful truths hidden in those passages.

A Predictable God

The story of Jonah is a staple of children’s Sunday school classes. However, the big fish gets more of the attention than the theology of the book. As adults, I’m not sure we do it much more justice. The fish goes from an amazing story to a topic of debate. We need to let Jonah teach us an amazing truth about God.

Begging Jesus

Familiarity breeds boredom. When you’ve read a passage in the Bible countless times, it’s easy to assume you know it and breeze through, just trying to make it to the end. Slowing down and reading closer can make the familiar new.

I’ve been reading through Mark, but only a pericope or two at a time, repeatedly. I’m trying to read it like someone who’s never heard of this Jesus guy before and to keep an eye on the broader story Mark is telling. When I came to the account of Gadarene demoniac, a familiar story I’m quite fond of, I saw something on my third pass through I would probably not have seen if I wasn’t reading with a pen in my hand.

Lost in the Crowd

When I was a child, I sometimes felt a bit lost in the crowd at home. I was the third of three sons. The first is the one you put all your hopes and dreams on. The second is your backup. The third is the redundant backup, only important if everything else goes south. It was silly, I know, but that’s the way kids think.

Sometimes I feel lost in the crowd of God’s children. Yes, God saved me, but I’m just one of millions, maybe billions. Just one unimpressive face is a sea of faces. One more sinner for his vast collection.

In such times I turn to one of the most amazing passages in the scriptures.

A Workaday Faith

We all want to do great things for Jesus. That’s normal and healthy. But we’re not all going to get to.

Pastors probably want to be the next Spurgeon or Billy Graham. Writers dream of being the next CS Lewis. The more politically minded hope to be our generation’s Wilberforce. Most of us won’t be.

How do we deal with the fact that most of us will live our lives and then go to our reward without anything impressive to be rewarded for?

What Does My Dog Think I Do All Day?

My dog lives to play. She likes tug of war and fetch — though she has yet to realize if she gives you the ball back, you can throw it again. Her very favorite thing is her frisbee.

She’s also fond of treats. Or people food. Any people food.

First thing in the morning, she wants to play. But I’ve got to work. She stares at me, wondering why we’re not playing. She can’t be in the room with me, because she’d be harassing me, trying to get me to play. I can’t get her to understand that toys and treats require money and I have to do things to get that money.

The Foundation of Christianity

Christianity stands or falls on whether Christ was really raised bodily from the dead. This isn’t an optional doctrine. Those who would demote Christ’s resurrection to being merely “spiritual” give up the whole thing. Christ himself pointed to his resurrection as the proof of his authority to teach and do what he did (John 2:19), and Paul made an extended discussion of the importance of the resurrection in 1Corinthians 15:

“If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. ... And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (v14-19).

If Christ has not been raised, preaching is useless, faith is futile, we have lied about God, we’re still guilty of our sins, and the dead are truly gone. “We are of all people most to be pitied.“ If Christ has not been raised, Christianity is a joke, a silly game we play every week. We’re more than ridiculous; we’re pitiful. We should pack this thing up and go home.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1Cor 15:20). This turns everything on its head.