Scripture Meditation & Study pt 1- Spiritual Formations Series

The Cross and the Opening Welcome

Cling to the cross then put both arms around it. Hold to the crucified and never let him go. I'm a fresh to the cross at this moment and rest there now and forever. Then with the power of God resting upon you go forth and preach the cross.

Welcome to the truth and love podcast. Thank you for watching. If you have not Registered for the labor's conference coming up at the end of April. We would encourage you to do that. We'd love to see you there.

How much does that cost Rob? It costs nothing. It costs nothing. And that's fantastic. It does not reflect on the quality of the company or the speakers but it shows that we really care about God's kingdom and the local church that that we.

We're tired of paying for stuff so you don't have to pay for this. But what we would like for you to remember is that while you are not paying admissions to get into this conference the speakers are having to pay their way and And lodging though we are in the process of helping those folks.

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It's gonna be a new North Carolina vertical life Church. But tonight this is the truth and love podcast with Dan and myself Rob and we are going to be talking about or starting our spiritual formation Series spiritual formation series stick with us.

I mentioned that the camera is the only glitch but I just found another one. The mouse does not want to click tonight. So I did some rearranging and there's always always gonna be glitches with technology.

The comment line is open if you're watching it now listening now or watching listening later. We'd love to hear from you.

Dan.

How's it going?

It's going great. It started off cold and snowy this morning, right? It was. I thought it was one degree outside this morning because that's what my phone said and then I hopped in the truck and.

I.

Went went down the hill and come to find out it was 10 below. And then I got down the road a little bit further and it says 7 below. So I said why I better take a picture of the guys never gonna believe me.

So that's actual temperature not bills, yeah. Actual temperature was 10 below. Tonight is supposed to be about one below. Tomorrow's a high of eight goodness and then Tomorrow night. We're supposed to be Eight below and they're supposed to be some wind.

It's supposed to make the wind chill somewhere around 25 below.

So.

I.

Got the hoodie in the wood stove. I've got here. I've got a blanket up over my door over here. I got stuff. I got stuff insulated everywhere. Just trying to keep everybody warm, but We're doing all right.

Got snow on the roof that helps helps insulate stuff, right? But my beard this morning was about as white as yours.

Oh.

Well, I mean we're we're feeling that same Arctic blast from the north but. We've got the front end and we're nowhere near what you guys are but it's cool.

But oh, hey, it's it's it's relative. Like we're used to in January being in the mid 20s and lows and the teens and single digits and stuff. So we're only about 10, maybe 15 degrees colder than normal.

Yeah.

Now.

There's a possibility it could be. No, maybe 20 below on Wednesday morning just because I live a bit higher elevation. Yeah, 20 below is a magical temperature because at 20 below you can take boiling water outside throw it up in the air and Before it hits the ground it turns into snow and just.

It's really cool. Wow may have to do that tomorrow.

We'll see. I mean the same thing is true for us, you know, it's it's about that range of Difference in temperature between what it's been being but once it gets to a certain point, I.

Mean. Cold school. Yeah for us. That point is zero. What's the hit zero? It's just cold. It's just go.

Scripture as God’s Inscripturated Word

Let's let's start our spiritual formation series tonight. I think this is gonna be a good series because hmm. This is very practical. For us and for the local church. For all Christians, and so I'm looking forward to this conversation about spiritual formations tonight.

We're gonna be talking about scripture meditation and study. You know, there's some wings of Christianity Dan that that think other wings of Christianity elevate scripture.

To a.

Level that it shouldn't be raised to. I know a story was told and and I don't want to. I Don't want to paint him in in such a bad light because I I was never there. I don't know the context I don't know what was said before or after.

I just know the little clip of what what I was told about a professor at a school that I went to and.

He.

One of his demonstrations in his class, but he would take his Bible. He would put it on the floor and he would stand on it and he would say this is just a book. Because he was one of those who felt like there were some wings of Christianity that would elevate scripture to To a high level than it then it should be.

In some ways I get his point because there was there's a parishioner in our church that recently asked when you have a an old worn-out Bible What do you do with it? And and I can understand this the sentimental the The question the heart where the question comes from, you know, what do you.

Because this is God's Holy Word. This is Holy Scripture. What do you do with with a Bible that is worn and torn and it you really just need to Use a different one because it's unusable anymore. And so you you got to think through those things.

You so you send it to Jeffrey Rice and have a rebound. You can do that. You can definitely do that.

Or Troy Dickerson of the truth and love you do it, too. He he does it kind of as a hobby right now. I think he does do it. Yeah.

He does. Well, I got one. I may send it over to Knoxville. There you go. There you go.

But we do want to remember and then this is kind of in my perspective when it comes to scripture that God has communicated to us and.

I.

Want to hear from him and his his means is. And He's watching with us tonight. He says I'm not good just to clarify.

I'll give you one. I don't care about the practice on once you get good. I'll give you a good one.

But but it's God's it's God's means of how he chose to communicate to us. So there's a you know. There's a level of respect that we do offer the the words on the page. But it's also well.

The it was a Hebrew says that in in various times of various ways. God spoke to our fathers You know through the prophets through angels through all sorts of different things. But in these last days he's spoken to us through his son and we know that the Son Jesus is the Word of God incarnate right.

And what we have in the Bible is the word Inscripturated so it's written down and it's what Jesus has Revealed to us in written form. So so while the Bible is not a fourth person of the Trinity It does record for us what God has revealed to us, especially through his son.

That's right. That's right.

It's not an object to be venerated. But it's God's chosen means to communicate his word to us. So there there is a sense in which we should we should honor that means.

Yep.

Because he he has the words of life, you know to quote the song Our only hope is found in those words and so these are these are the most important words that That we could find on this earth and he is he has chosen to to preserve them all throughout history.

There you know, there's that argument.

On.

Translation. When it comes to God preserving his word, you know throughout history. But but he has preserved his word for us and so it's important and. And I think when it comes to spiritual formations It's got to be the first place to start God's means of communication hearing from God God's Word.

The Nature of Spiritual Formation and the Foundation of Scripture

Yeah, so Rob. What is spiritual formation.

So, so I think when it comes to spiritual formation, I would say that it is how we We are formed and molded into Christ likeness and in all the different ways that that we do that as a Christian.

Yeah, so you say it'd be just maturing in the faith and how we do that. Yeah, how we mature in the faith. I think that's a good way of putting it. Yeah, and so a great place to start would be with the solid foundation of God's Word.

Absolutely. It's got to be the foundation or else you are you're gonna Terribly steer off in the wrong direction.

Now.

We can still do that because we're humans and in our interpretation, but still yet. Without the right foundation. You're definitely going to go in the wrong direction.

Yeah, yeah, I was reading I forget who I forget. But my pastor brought it up as well that there there has to be a norm something that is is the standard and. Then we can have other norms. But they have to be standardized or checked against.

The norm so so scripture is really called A things are revealed by God, especially in scripture. It's called the the norm that norms all other norms.

It's.

Standard by which you hold up other standards. So if we have subordinate standards like say the Westminster Confession or the London Baptist Confession the 39 articles the Formula of Concord or the Book of Concord, you know, whatever it is that you hold to you can hold to those things.

That's good to keep you in line. Because you have the Tradition of godly men that went before you they were guided by the Holy Spirit. But ultimately if we find something in those things that is contrary to the Word of God We've got to you know be able to back up a second say hey.

Maybe we missed them on this one. No, maybe we were no. Guided by our history a little bit too much. Maybe we were.

No.

Maybe we're off base a little bit. No, I mean it happens. I'm sure there's things in my theology. That's not right. I don't know what they are right now, but we'll figure it out. I'm sure We anytime you get people who disagree somebody's wrong.

Yeah, maybe both of them. That's that's true.

I'm in the same boat. Absolutely. Speaking of the the confessions. Would would your branch your denomination and other denominations. I've heard the term or the phrase and I'm not I'm not gonna butcher the Latin, but the the phrase reformed always reforming and and to me that kind of.

Speaks to the confessions because they're they're not scripture. They're not infallible. And so and they've been tweaked over the years.

Yeah the.

The Americans Changed the Westminster Confession a little bit. They changed some things in there. They wasn't very very Big but it was it was changed when it came over to America the the RPC. The RPC and a Specifically has a whole other document that called the reformed Presbyterian testimony that Gives the the interpretation of the Westminster Confession in certain points, you know certain clarifications.

Or here's what may mean by it. That's where you find certain things like like we only sing the Psalms. We don't use the instruments things like that we we in the RP testimony talked about the Westminster Confession, which then points back to the scriptures themselves, so This is what we understand the scriptures to say basically what our documents say, right, right.

I think that's a good standard for all of us to hold to. Is the reform yet always reforming. Being humble enough to say that we can we can grow. There's room for us to grow. Change where the Holy Spirit needs us to change or desires us to change.

That that's every Christian every human being. And. And hit them going back to our topic tonight. That's the means God's Word is the means for that to happen through his Word. And we'll take a look at one of those verses in relation to that a little bit later, but I'm studying scripture the intentional examination and interpretation of God's Word.

Hermeneutics, Interpretation, and the Clarity of Scripture

So when we study scripture we want to intentionally and Examine it. To find the interpretation of the correct interpretation. And this kind of speaks to hermeneutics as well. What are some key key hermeneutic principles that you would share?

For the first thing we have to understand is The scripture is in the errant. That it has no error in it. It's it's it's infallible.

Mm-hmm.

Everything that's recorded for us has been preserved. Also scripture is it's called.

It's.

Perspicuous. It's got purse perspic perspicuity, but we have started these things earlier of a mouse. But what that means is that scripture is sufficiently clear on Everything that we absolutely Need to know so That we are sinners that Christ died for our sins if we trust in him we find salvation forgiveness of our sins.

That he is returning one day to raise the living and the dead. All those things are crystal-clear plain in scripture. So first start with that understanding that what you read is meant to be there. Yeah, and that The basics are crystal clear and then you just kind of let the things that are clear interpret the things that aren't clear and you allow the Holy Spirit to Lead you and guide you Into into all truth, which means that first off we look at the scripture and then we look at what?

The church has believed throughout history to know if we're Coming up with something that the church hasn't believed throughout all of history. We need to back up and say well, well, you know, maybe I missed this when you re-examine some things we can if you just focus on those you can spend your whole life just.

Doing that. Yeah. Well, let me define hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the art and science of studying scripture and there there's some basic principles that we need to understand when it comes to interpreting scripture.

We've talked about this before Dan in other episodes the grammatical historical method. We want to understand the context in its grammar its usage language usage and also also in the historical context of scripture so that we are not.

We're not interpreting with the glasses through the lens of our Context. We want to understand that through their context to get the meaning and then therefore then after that we can begin to apply those things that God wants us to apply to our lives.

And one of the comment that I wanted to made on so that you said about being Scripture being clear of the things that we he wants us to understand and know. We have to be humble enough to also say that you know There were times when Jesus was teaching everything in scripture where things weren't always clear.

There were some things that were unclear to folks and that was on purpose. The disciples said why do you preach in prayer or teach in parables? Will you will you help us to understand? The these teachings why what you're saying?

What do you mean? And he said well I'm teaching in parables. You know, I heard some so many times for so many years that Jesus taught in parables. So that the the common man can understand. Well.

Kind of but I.

Don't understand why I when you get to the point where you when you read the text for yourself when you research for yourself and And you begin to understand things. Yeah, again, I don't want to paint in a bad light fateful men of God.

There's just some things that I don't understand. From my own personal experience growing up a pastor a teacher Behind a lectern behind a pulpit, you know say certain things like that when it clear in scriptures when Jesus says I'm teaching a parable so that they Don't understand.

So that it's not heaping on them more judgment because of the knowledge that they have.

Yeah, now he does say that to to the Disciples they are given. They're able to be given the understanding. Mm-hmm, and then he interprets things for him so we can we can then we can look at the parables and understand them.

Yeah.

But they were given at first to be. Sort of a veiled truth, right?

Yeah, and and who's to say that the Holy Spirit doesn't work that way today with us. Teaching us at the place that we are where he wants us to be, you know. Maybe veiling some truth that we're not he's not ready for us to understand yet.

It he's worked that way in the past.

Maybe.

Maybe he works that way today.

Well, there's there's a couple schools of thought on.

On.

This sort of thing one of which is scholasticism which brings in reason now the you can do it rightly or wrongly. You can bring in reason and reason from the scriptures and back to the scriptures and have them be your norm or you can go off the rails and just use Reason and twist the scripture all around.

Oh, there's another vein of thought called mysticism where you you you understand that through your experience You gain wisdom and insight into the scriptures which you can do wrongly by having your experience trump and dictate what the scriptures mean or can rightly understand that that as You grow in the faith things that you are understanding through experientially learning and growing in Christ You can understand things in scripture in a deeper and more meaningful way, yeah.

Landing right in the in the middle of those tooth no reason and and Experience and tradition would be a good place to kind of Dwell with the scripture norming all of those things we start with the scripture We end with the scripture.

We understand that that Reason can inform but it can inform where the scripture doesn't speak. Experience can form but it can't inform where the scripture is not informing. The same with with our tradition.

Tradition can can be helpful to keep us on track with what God has revealed to us and previously but The scriptures trump any tradition we have.

See that's the second time that you've used that word. We're definitely gonna get flagged by mr. Z. Because he was at the inauguration today. We're definitely get flagged because you use that word twice.

What word?

From.

Definitely go get flagged tonight. Oh.

Come on now. We're a verb for a name oh.

Oh, well you you talk about mysticism, I think that's a good Transition into the the next bullet point which is which is meditation won't study scripture with good hermeneutics and we also want to meditate on scripture that we are studying and The the ditch that we can fall in.

You reminded me of it when you when you talk about mysticism. It's this the the area of meditation that we don't want to fall into is the area of Emptying your mind. Yeah, you want to speak to that? Yeah, that's a.

Pagan practice right. Meditation. Oh Meditation can be done a few different ways. The way that the pagans try to do it is They will take their mind and empty it out in order to have something come into it.

That's not Christian at all. In fact, that's how several books have been written. They empty their minds completely put their hand out and Allow the spirits to guide their hand as they write down things.

That's how the book God calling and Jesus calling were came about. Mm-hmm. Step on some toes there. I'm sure but.

Um.

Yeah, just not that's not Christian meditation. That's that's opening yourself up to the spirit realm in a way that you shouldn't do. Christian meditation is taking the Word of God putting it in your heart to seek to understand it praying over and Seeking to understand what it means and how to apply it to your life.

Was it the David said in the Psalms? Your word if I hid my heart that that what that he would change so that he might not sin against God. It should form and change the way that we we live our lives. So when we read things in the scriptures about loving our neighbor we don't just empty our minds to get a whimsical idea of how to love our neighbor we We pray we read the rest of the scriptures to say well, how is it that I should love my neighbor?

I should treat my neighbor with with respect and dignity to point them to Christ and show them the goodness of the Savior. So we do things differently because we we don't allow our thoughts to control How we understand things.

We allow the scripture to control how we think. Right. Don't get it. Don't get it backwards, right?

So.

Just to add to that from my understanding. Biblical meditation.

Good.

Faithful meditation on scripture is is feeling. Instead of emptying. Yep, and just to speak to the term that you used putting it in your heart. That sometimes we talk about Christianese Christian language.

Just want to be clear what we mean by that to put something in your heart put scripture in your heart. I think. That phrase to me is a word picture just saying.

In the.

Center of your being.

Well, it's interesting in Hebrew. Or Hebrew thought the heart is your thinking organ. So so if you hide God's Word in your heart, it's where you think. The feeling organ which we would call the heart in our culture is actually the stomach the gut.

So.

When the.

Cretans are called slow bellies and Lazy lazy beasts or whatever. It wasn't their call it's that they they are slowed down in their their actions and things because of their. They're led by their feelings.

They're led by their gut their appetite is what is what some of the feeling. So when we hide God's Word in our heart It's the thing that we we think with that we would know how am I going to act now? We're gonna act now because God has revealed himself to us in the scriptures.

So we're going to because we understand and Words escaping me. Because because we think we understand and we want to please God and honor him with with what he is revealed to us. We then act accordingly.

You know out of love and it's a love that comes from the head as well as the the heart. So it's the heart as well as the stomach. I guess you could say.

Yeah, which speaks to what we're talking about before a good hermeneutic to know the historical Language and phrases that they use and you give a perfect example. This is what this is our Feeling organ, which is odd to say but this is what it is.

We talk about I love you with all my heart. But they wouldn't have said that then that's not the heart was like you said there the thinking organ. It's good to know those those historical cultural context.

Scripture as Truth, Authority, and the Church’s Standard

Yeah, because I mean thinking thinking does. Thinking does bring about emotion. Mm-hmm. And so that I think that's why they they chose to use the heart. That it's it's a thought-based Emotional thing instead of a Feelings or desires based emotional thing, right.

And another reason that we want to.

Study scripture meditate on scripture and another thing that brings forth emotion is God's truth. The reason one of the reasons why we want to study and meditate is to to know God's truth. John 17 17 says sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

So.

One of the main reasons why we want to understand or Meditate study God's Word is so that we we know his truth. And this is In our culture the world that we're living in today and of course has been this way for a while.

Truth is is relative and you can't tell.

You.

Can't tell someone that they're wrong. Whatever your opinion is that. Do what? Yes, I can. And we can because we know God's truth. God is the standard and there is a truth and so yes once we understand that You know, we can we can speak and that's one of the reasons why at the end of the program I say speak with the authority of Christ.

It's not as an authoritarian but it it is as one who.

Has been granted the truth by God, right? Yeah, and that's why the scriptures were given to to the church. So that's why a pastor's Authority in the church is an authority. That's not not magisterial.

So so not Like the magistrates have but it's ministerial which means that when the pastor speaks to us and the pastor comes that say they need to correct us or they need to Encourage us or they need to.

You know. Whatever it is their authority isn't in browbeating us and controlling our lives. Their authority is that they've been given the right to be able to speak the words of God into your life and call you to repentance.

Now there's there's things that they can do after that if you know. Don't listen to scripture.

Which.

Really is just saying. All right, you're gonna not believe what the Bible says. So go over there. Here we listen to the Bible. That's right. So it's All the all the things that go on in the church. Come back to what has God actually said, right?

Which is really weird to put it that way since that's what Satan said, you know, what did God actually say but. But we asked that not assuming what God has said was wrong or Misunderstood. Because he revealed himself deceptively.

But what has God actually said because God has actually revealed it to us. So we don't go to this source or that source. We don't go to the snake or the tree. We go to the Christ the Son of the Living God who's revealed himself to us in his word and through his spirit.

Well, and we say that too because of our in capabilities. What did God actually say? I'm saying that because of my own Shortcomings my own incapabilities. I can only get so far. I Need the Holy Spirit.

Well, I I can't get anywhere. I. Speaking of those who have been given to us to lead us to be over us. Revealing truth to us teaching us. So is God's truth only for those who have those positions? This goes back to our conversation about reformed.

Yet always reforming at one point God's truth was delegated only to a select few. But is that God's? Is that God's will?

Well, it's not God's will that the only the only a priestly class would have access to the scriptures and to be able to to deal with them. One of the big things with the Reformation was getting The the Word of God into the language of the people so they can read it and study it for themselves.

Right now what a lot of people get wrong about that is that you can read it and study for yourself. Sure, but then they say well since I can do it by myself What do I need you for? What do I need the pastor for.

What do I need the the church fathers for. What do I need? No interpretations from history for and I can really just put them aside and go on my own. And so while we're supposed to be holding to solo scripture where we have Scripture as our highest principle where that is where we draw our life and doctrine from we end up in practice going down the road of solo scripture where we take scripture and ourselves and we sit underneath the tree and figure it out on our own which was never meant to be because the scriptures while given to.

While.

Available to the individual were given to the church collectively and we should that we do well to remember that if we could. Not that we should lose our Individuality, I mean we're still individuals but that we would do well to remember that that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and God deals with us on an individual level what he deals with us as a unit as well.

We are Christ Church. We are his bride. He's not married to Billions of people. He's married to the church. And we do well to remember that. We need to submit ourselves to what God has put in place.

Right and and we can follow the the apostles example where we're in. Peter says We should follow God rather than man. Well, how can how can I as an individual a member of a local church. I'm not a pastor.

Not a you know, not a teacher in the church. I'm just a regular member of the church. How can I do that if I don't know the truth myself? If the pastor is leading us Down a road that is unscriptural. How am I ever gonna know that unless I'm studying meditating on God's Word.

Seeking God's truth for myself. Yeah now on the flip side. While we're studying and reading the scriptures for ourself if our elders come to us and say You have missed the boat Turn back. We need to be willing to to look there as well.

And that's why it's good to have a either a plurality of elders or or in some people's cases there's some oversight there either mutual oversight of a plurality of elders or a bishop or something to where the the single pastor model is.

From from reading the Bible, it's not it's not there. Because we are we're called to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Right. And so yeah, if you don't have if you don't have any oversight you have gone off the rails and that goes for pastors lay people alike, right.

It works both ways. Just like you said the The leaders the elders they they should speak to Members and say you've gone astray and because they're in that position. You know, there's a sense of humility to listen, but also there's a sense of humility From the elders.

I think that's a good quality of an elder who is humble enough to say Thank you for coming to me with that. Let me study. Let me meditate on that so and just a part of spiritual formation from the Holy Spirit.

Growing in Christ is a sense of humility from both the congregant and in the elder and The more I look into this this idea of true biblical unity. We were told we're talking about people taking scripture Going going way off the rails and then leading or and pastors going way off the the rail Into a train wreck and taking their congregation with them and maybe in your mind.

I know in my mind I can possibly think of Places ministers that are doing this we think their theology is way off and they're they're going down the wrong path. And they're taking their congregation on the wrong path when it when it comes a true biblical unity, I'm I can't help but thinking and Maybe you can have some thoughts to this as well.

But I'm relating it a lot to Scriptural or scripture Translations Transmission throughout history, you know, we don't have we don't have just one book That was written by one earthly author that we go by God chose to to God chose for us to have the book that we have Through the means of transmission through many different men copy after copy after copy and we have so many different ancient copies and partial copies that we can Compare each one of those copies Although each one of those ancient texts to to narrow down to see which was the original Reading and so we can be confident that we have The true accurate transmission inspiration from the Holy Spirit to the original author to us because of so many different translations and I relate that to our our unity in that We come to the table with differing interpretations differing opinions.

But we can use those Conversations we can use those different ideas different interpretations and opinions to kind of get to the truth.

It's it's hard to steer a ship. That's not moving, right? So if you if you have Differing opinions you at least have something to look at and if you have a standard by which you're both Going to to figure out the truth.

Yeah, that's why you get some some some really keen insights into Doctrines when you talk to people of different faith traditions. You know Lutherans and Orthodox Eastern Orthodox to get together and talk about theosis you get some some wild stuff over here.

It's a weird stuff over there. And then you find some really key points know that they draw from the scriptures in between. You know, you get a bunch of different stuff like this, that's why I like our network.

I mean it is getting kind of Baptist heavy, but.

And and I'm like I said before that's not my fault. That's not my fault. Those these folks are are being introduced by Friends within the network and and I'm just going with the flow. I'm going who God sends us.