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Version 2.0 of our new bible reading groups website is now online.  Check it out at www.biblereadinggroups.com.  Thank you Ryan and Scott for all your hard work!

“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.” (Ex 23:14) The first is the “Feast of Unleavened Bread,” the Third is the “Feast of Ingathering.” This Sunday begins the middle celebration, which our English Bibles call, “The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot).”

One of the central features of the ‘Feast of Weeks’ is the remembering of the receiving of the 10 Commandments, which is expanded in celebration to including the receiving of the Torah (first five books of the bible.)

Christians remember this holiday by its Greek name, Pentecost, when the believers of Jesus received the Holy Spirit, which was for them and all whom the Lord will call (Acts 2:39.)

Part of the ‘Feast of Weeks’ is a reaffirming of our commitment to the received words of God. And so, this week we have set aside, as a church, to read through the entire bible, cover to cover, in one hour shifts. This morning I began with the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And sometime Friday evening we will end with the words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all God’s people. Amen.”

I find myself earnestly praying that the Holy Spirit will unveil (2 Cor 13) hearts and minds so that this generation can respond to the words of God and the great news about Jesus Christ.

Father, I thank you for the Bible and I thank your for Your Spirit. Make us a people of Your Word. Fill us with Your Spirit. Make us a generation who love you. Revive! Reawaken! Our eyes are on you, our only hope is in your Sprits working. Reveal and intervene, rescue and redeem because of your great love and for the sake of your great name. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

This morning I was struck by how much I simultaneously love and need my bible reading groups. I love the bible and enjoy reading it, but I know that I am much less likely to read in a given week if I am not in a bible group.

I love how these bible groups are not about guilt or insights but about loving the Word. We don’t ask, what did you learn, or what did you not read, or what questions did you have… it is all about what did you love from whatever book or books we are reading together.

Last week, one of my bible groups started the New Testament again. These groups are so basic, and yet so powerful, as if the ‘Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword.’

I wish you all a group of people who will spur you on and help cultivate an ever-deepening love for God and his Word.

While reading Acts today I came across this passage where Paul is recounting what Jesus has commanded him (Paul) to do.

“…I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. So that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” - Acts 26:17-18

Personally, as “a sent one,” sent from my homeland, across the planet, I too have this same calling for Scotland. I am also called to…

1. Pray and speak so that the spiritual eyes of this nation will be opened.
2. Pray and teach so that these people will turn from darkness to light.
3. Pray and Help them break free from the power of Satan as they dedicate themselves to God in the power and name of Jesus.
4. So that these people can be forgiven.
5. So that these people can be made holy by faith in Jesus.

Watching Paul throughout the book of Acts he stays on this mission, but he doesn’t keep the job to himself. All the way through Acts, Paul is calling men and women to join him in his Jesus given mission.

If you are reading this from the States join us and intercede in prayer with me on behalf of Scotland for the 5 things above, as well as for an ever-increasing amount of people on this side of the world to join with me in the ministry of the above 5 things.

If you are reading this in Scotland. This is at the heart of our mission, it is why I am here, it is why Re:Hope started. To see people become saved and set free from the power of Satan so that they can be both forgiven and made holy. Join with us on Tuesday evenings at 8pm or Sunday afternoon at 2pm to pray this over the people of our nation and let us encourage each other to be bold in speaking of the greatness of Jesus.

Prayer is powerful!

Living and leading a church in the shadow of the University of Glasgow, I have felt challenged by divinity students of the university and a professor who attends Re:Hope to research ‘higher criticism’ and ‘biblical authorship’, especially with the first 5 books of the bible. The Universities in Glasgow are teaching the same as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. namely, that Moses didn’t write the first 5 books of the bible, instead they were written by at least 4 different authors 500-800 years after Moses lived.

Knowing the calibre of universities teaching the higher criticism approach to the bible I was expecting a highly scholastic and tightly packaged theory and found myself shockingly disappointed. At times, in my study, it felt a bit like reading the Da Vinci Code, one part conspiracy, one part institutional cover up. It felt like the Da Vinci Code but with much larger holes and leaps than I ever imagined.

Although there are lots of little issues one could address pertaining aspects of the higher critical approach, ultimately it all boils down to one premise. Either God is who the bible says he is, or not. The Critical approach begins with the premise that God is not who the bible says he is, if he even exists at all. And all we have been told about God via the bible is merely the work of disgruntled, historical revisionists, re-slanting their history to forward their political interests hundreds of years later.

There is only need of such a theory if God is not who the bible says He is. There is only need of such theory if God cannot do supernatural things, if he cannot both lead people to prophecy and then see prophecy fulfilled. If God is not who the bible says He is, what was the deal with Jesus? Good thing God is.

Abraham Heschel says in his book, God In Search of Man, that while the Greeks studied to comprehend, and western thinkers study to apply their knowledge in a practical way, the ancient Hebrews studied to revere God.

I guess that begs the question do I stumble into moments of reverence and awe, overwhelmed by the amazingness of God, or do I pursue them? Do I read the bible only to understand it, or do I also have times I read it just to be blown away by how incredible God is? Both are important. Maybe it is time to revive the lost art of reading to revere?

I was reading Exodus this week and this one thing in Chapter 33 just jumped off the page.

Moses is talking to God and he says, “What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

He was talking about “God’s Presence.”

May ‘God’s Presence’ once again distinguish me and the people of the kingdom of God from all the other people on the face of the earth.

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfil every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thes. 1:11-12)

As I type this I am sitting outside of our church building. I am keenly aware of the fact that tomorrow I am flying away from Glasgow for almost 6 weeks, during which the church building we meet in is coming up for sale. It is one of those moments where I have to walk away surrendering the future to God. I can’t make anything happen. I can’t do anything else, but attempt to raise funds and pray.

As I was praying this passage came to my mind.

“If I find favour in the Lord’s eyes, he will bring me back and let me again see it and his dwelling-place again. But if he says, ‘I am not pleased with you,’ then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to Him.” — 2 Samuel 15:25-26

I feel I am in that place today. If God wants to see his name revered and lifted up in this old church building then he will make it happen, but if he has something else in mind, then I am ready to let him do to us whatever seems good to Him.

And so I leave with my hope in a God who does do amazing things even in my day.

“As we advance through the centuries, light and life begin to decrease in the Church. Why? Because the torch of the Scripture begins to grow dim and because the deceitful light of human authorities begins to replace it.” — Merle d’ Aubigne. (1794-1872)

Who will stand up in our generation to lead people to both love and whole-heartedly seek to obey the bible?

“…For I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands o your commands, which I love, and meditate on your decrees…My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.” (Ps 119)