Layout Image

Archive for Bible

An Important Lesson I’ve Learned as a Young Pastor

By michaelcriner · Comments (0)
Friday, January 11th, 2013

Let’s be frank – I’m a young pastor. I don’t really have a problem with that, and most really don’t either. Although, I often find myself telling people that I can’t do anything about my age until next year.

But I had this encouragement come across my desk the other day:

“I like listening to you because when I leave I don’t want to vomit like I do with most preachers. And your hermeneutics are pretty good.”

Thank you?

One of the lessons I’ve learned, and might even say is the more difficult tasks as a young pastor, is listening to the right voices. This isn’t a new reality, but one that pastors, no matter their age, struggle with on a variety of levels. There are those in our churches who simply gush with encouragement, praising everything that you do and say, and there are others that can’t find much good out of much.

With the compliments and the complaints – its important to listen. What becomes difficult, and the important lesson I’ve learned as a young pastor, is with all the competing voices, the ability for your mind to be swayed back and forth from encouraged to despair is tempting. It’s also dangerous.

As pastors, we must be steadfast to listen to One Voice – the Holy Spirit.

The best way I know how to do this is by way of the Bible. I want to ingest the word of God like I drink coffee (all day). I know that sounds “preacher-y” to tell you that the Bible is the best way to hear the Holy Spirit, but frankly, it is. Jesus prayed this way: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17).  I pray this verse like this: “Father, set apart and purify those who follow Jesus towards and in the truth; what You have spoken and handed down to us in the BIble is without a doubt, truth, and we trust it, Amen.” 

What’s my point – the lesson I’ve learned is not really anything new. As we follow Jesus, we’re to listen to the Holy Spirit… and the best way to hear Him is by His Word. So any time I received encouragement or critique, I filter it through the lens of the Bible – the Words of God – and each time, the Holy Spirit directs my ears to listen.

So Christian, are you listening?

Comments (0)
Categories : Church, Theology
Tags : , ,

Three critical questions Adele is asking right now from the Bible

By michaelcriner · Comments (0)
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

1. Who was Jonah married to?
2. Where are Zacchaeus’ puppies?
3. Does Jesus have babies?

Enjoy.

Comments (0)
Categories : Theology
Tags : ,

3 Scriptures that have shaped me the past 31 years #BLOG

By michaelcriner · Comments (2)
Friday, May 11th, 2012

I often joke with Baylor students about what they major in. Take for example:

Speech Communication – What do you do? Just talk to people all day?? There’s a degree for that?
Recreation – Wait, you’re telling me you’re paying $46,902 a year to learn how to kick a ball and play tag?
Great Text – How can you be a Great Texts class and not even read the Bible? BTW, you know what Great Text graduates do… they teach Great Texts.

This conversation is only in jest and motivated out of a deep love for our people and the people who are actually in those majors. But I say all that because I secretly wish I could have been a Great Text major with a double minor in Speech Communication & Recreation. I wish that I could have had the opportunity to study humanities in this way… and to find ways the Bible feeds into and actually is superior Great Text. Then go talk about it over dodgeball.

What I’m trying to get at is I love the Bible. I really do. Sometimes reading it has become a chore, but that’s usually when I’m being confronted on my sin. Sometimes reading it has been a joy, only to again find myself wallowing in the shallows. But listen, if we really believe that the God of the universe who speaks and quasars are created! If that God speaks and has now spoken to us in His word, then why would we neglect such a thing?

So as I was praying last night, God reminded me of some passages that have helped shape me over the past 31 years and I thought I’d share just three of them with you. Now, I’m not giving any commentary on them – I’ll let the Spirit of God handle that.

1. Psalm 16:11 – You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
2. Philippians 3:7-11 – But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
3. Acts 20:24 – But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Obviously, there are and have been more passages that have challenged and shaped me, but as I lay in bed and before I nodded off to sleep, these three were being seared in my heart once again.

So, what verses have shaped you?

Comments (2)
Categories : Theology
Tags : ,

Take the Bible Seriously #QUOTE

By michaelcriner · Comments (0)
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

To stay away from Christianity because part of the Bible’s teaching is offensive to you assumes that if there is a God he wouldn’t have any views that upset you. Does that belief make sense? . . . If you don’t trust the Bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God? In any truly personal relationship, the other person has to be able to contradict you.

Tim Keller, The Reason for God

Every Christian should read this book.

Comments (0)
Categories : Theology
Tags : ,

Which adventure will you choose? (Bible Reading Plans)

By michaelcriner · Comments (0)
Friday, December 30th, 2011

When I was a kid, I religiously read the Choose Your Own Adventure books (see http://www.cyoa.com). I loved the non-reality of making the “wrong decision” (which lead to death), or the “right decision” (leading to success, or the next page) the book brought me. It was well, and adventure. Psalm 1:1-2 states:

        Blessed is the man

                who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

        nor stands in the way of sinners,

                nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

        but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

                and on his law he meditates day and night.

Obviously, we could read more about this verse but for the sake of time, I want to jump straight to it’s application. The blessed person is the one who takes delight in the law of the Lord by meditating day and night on the law. In view of the context, he referring to the Torah, but I think it’s application bears out on for us the entire counsels of the Word.

The beginning of a new years affords us the opportunity to reflect on what we will delight in throughout 2012. My hope is that you would consider delighting in the majesty of God in His Word. There are magnificent things in the Bible, we just have to observe them as we watch the Holy Spirit revive our heart’s affection and mind’s attention to the glory of the God who made us.

So, it’s time to choose your own adventure through the Bible this year. You know your needs and your heart better than I, and there are numerous reading plans through the Bible you could take this year. But I encourage you to pick one, and stick to it, because as Winston Churchill once said; “he who fails to plan is planning to fail.”

Which adventure will you choose?

M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan (This plan is based on the M’Cheyne reading system, featuring four different readings each day; two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice.): http://www.esv.org/assets/pdfs/rp.one.year.tract.pdf

ESV Study Bible Reading Plan (This plan includes readings from four sections of the Bible each day: the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles.): http://www.esv.org/assets/pdfs/rp.esv.study.bible.pdf

5x5x5 Reading Plan (Read through the New Testament in 5 days a week, 5 minutes a day.): http://www.navpress.com/images/pdfs/9781576839768.pdf

Read it Historically (the order in which they were written): http://www.blueletterbible.org/reader/daily/PDF/Plan5.pdf

Read it Chronologically (the order in which they took place): http://www.esv.org/assets/pdfs/rp.chronological.pdf

Hope this helps as you plan how you engage the Scriptures in 2012!

Comments (0)
Categories : Theology
Tags :
Next Page »