6 posts tagged “bible”

It is the week after the latest Harry Potter book came out. Many of us have read it already from cover to cover, enjoying a wild ride of fantasy. As a young boy, I read every Superman comic I could plead for, later enjoyed the works of Mark Twain, and others who took me to places and times I'll never inhabit - except through their prose.

As a pastor, over the years I have received different responses from people about the Harry Potter series when they found out I had read them all. And at times I've had questions from parents about whether their children should read them - those questions coming not because of what they knew personally about them, but what they had heard.

Well after finishing the last of the Harry Potter series, I'm not sure that as time goes by we might see theologians treating the books and their author much more kindly. For in this book I found words I have always treasured in the most uncommon places.

When Harry ventures back home to where his parents are buried, he comes across the gravestone of his mentor Dumbledore's mother and sister. The Mother was killed trying to protect the daughter from herself, and later the daughter died too. On the gravestone were these words.

This of course comes from Christ's words in Matthew 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matt 6:19-21 (NIV)

Then Harry finds himself at the graves of his parents, who both died trying to protect him from an evil wizard, and the reader sees these words on their monument.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Coming again from Scripture - 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Cor 15:24-26 (ESV)

The themes of "the Greater Good", of sacrifice, of selflessness, of laying down your life for your friends run all through this last book. If you cannot see that, it's not that you have read too much fiction.

It's that you have read too little Scripture.

Reading for information isn't enough. You have to read the Bible with a sense of anticipation and wonder, relief and amazement that God - this God - the One and Only God - would sacrifice His One and Only Son - for you. And that through your love for Him, you would lay down your life for your friends - no matter what. You know you are flawed, but that He is able to use you to change lives for eternity. And you have to be convinced in your very soul that your life matters to God - that what you do matters. You have a part in the Big Story of God's reconciling the world to Himself.

If you can see that connection with your own life's walk, then it will be easy to spot it wherever it appears in any variation whether explicitly Christian or not - even in fictional books like the Harry Potter series.

I'm grateful for J.K. Rowling's work, and the treasures I found in The Deathly Hallows. But I'm immeasurably more grateful to the God who through the sacrifice of His sinless Son, gave me  freedom from  guilt and shame, a purpose for living, and the hope of eternal life with Him, when death will be destroyed and love triumph over all.

Shalom,

David

When he becomes king, he should write a copy of the teachings on a scroll for himself, a copy taken from the priests and Levites. He should keep it with him all the time and read from it every day of his life. Then he will learn to respect the Lord his God, and he will obey all the teachings and commands. Deuteronomy 17:18,19

There are something like 34,000 words in the Torah.

So the first hundred days of a Hebrew king would apparently look quite different than that of say - an American president. Whereas in America a president is concerned with getting his initiatives through Congress and his projects begun, so he can say he kept his campaign promises to the voters, the Hebrew king has different promises to keep. And a different way to get started. Instead of working outside for change, he begins by copying Torah so as to change his heart.

If you've ever crammed for an exam by writing your notes over and over again, you know how familiar you can get with a text. But once the test is passed, those same notes are often quickly forgotten. So God has given instructions that the king of His people should always have Torah near him, and read from it everyday.

Then the text says "then he will learn...".

Think of it. Most people, when arriving at the top, believe they know it all. But God knows that isn't true, and in His care for His people and those who serve them, He has given a requirement that He Himself guarantees will be met with success, if the king will only be faithful to the task.

What about us?

When's the last time we just sat down with the Scriptures and read and studied, simply to know God better? How much of the Bible have we committed to our memories? Are we in intimate contact with God's Word everyday?

Just wondering.

So we're strolling along in the Old part of the Bible, up near the front (Exodus 24)- just before those icky parts about not eating shellfish and not mixing fabrics. Moses is still doing his thing, and the people of Israel are getting prepped before leaving the Sinai jump-off point.

Then God does something pretty amazingly cool. He says to Moses and the leaders, "Come on up and see me." Now remember, seeing God means your relatives collect the life insurance early. But not this day. On this day He calls them near, they see His feet above them, and all the folks sit down for a meal.

You sure they weren't Baptists?

Remember our church motto - "If we haven't 'et', we haven't met."

What in the world must have been going through the minds of these people? How do you pass the peas while sitting at God's feet? Would it change the conversation if God was that close?

Guess what?

He is that close.

When you're trying to explain what happened to people in Jesus' day - how they lived, how they reacted to the amazing idea that God, that One Who... was beyond all... came down and lived as a man, you pray. Getting anyone to listen to 30 minutes of a one-sided conversation is tough. getting them to bring it into their world and consider what you are saying in light of it is difficult. But doing both those and having them examine their lives in light of it...

... that's when you know God is at work.

I build bridges.