Foreword
I am so excited to introduce you all to one of my very, very, good friends – in fact someone I am so proud to have resemble a little brother in my life. His name is Alex Kearney. I am so proud of this young man of God, he is currently waiting to find out whether he will be attending Bethlehem Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota starting this coming fall. I have watched Alex grow over the last few years and am so proud of his pursuit of the Lord, his strong character, and the Godly foundation he is rooted in. I asked Alex awhile back to help me with this overall project and I thought of no one more fitting to be my first guest contributor to The Fire & The Flood. I pray you are moved by his words and his passion for the word of God – I know I am.
Have you ever asked yourself, “Who am I?”
If you have, there is hope: at your disposal is an endless supply of books, websites, and personality tests to help you discover you.
There’s the Enneagram (I’m a 1). There’s the Myers-Briggs (I’m an INTJ). For the Harry Potter fans, there’s the Sorting Quiz (Hufflepuff). There are all those wonderful Buzzfeed quizzes to help you discover which Disney Princess you are (Belle), which character from the Office you are (Stanley), or what fried food you would be, if perchance you could become fried food (I’d be an onion ring, apparently).
Let’s face it: we are obsessed with self-discovery.
This makes sense, really. There is a certain uneasiness when you don’t really know who you are. We are often told the root of our problems is a lack of self-awareness. If you could just discover yourself; if you could only figure out what makes you unique, then you would, so they say, be set free to live a fulfilling life. You would know how to satisfy your specific wants and needs.
You see, the most essential question you could ever ask yourself is not “who am I”.
The most essential question you could ever ask yourself is “who is God.” And the Church at large is not asking this question.
Who is God?
Walk into most book stores today, take a stroll through the “Christian” section, and you will find an abundance of self-help material beaming with the image of the smiley, tuxedo-donning, touched-up-with-makeup author on the cover. Grab one of the books, open to the table of contents, and you may find some chapters such as “Become What You Believe”, “Be Happy With Who You Are”, and “Understanding Your Value”.
Now, return the book to the shelf, and take a seat on the floor. On the bottom shelf, tucked between some books about your destiny and your calling, you may be fortunate enough to find a book about God. Not about what God can do for you, but a book that’s really about God. You come across chapters such as “The Majesty of God”, “The Grace of God” and “The Wrath of God”.
The trouble with much of the modern church is not that she is ignorant as to who God is, but that she does not seem to care!
Millions upon millions of dollars are pumped into the cash cow industry of self-absorbed, self-help positivity. Meanwhile, there is a relatively slim demand for God-centered, God-exalting books.
Theology (the study of God) has become stigmatized. If you study theology, you probably think you’re smarter and holier than everyone else. If you study theology, you probably are as emotional as a doorknob, since you’re more of an intellectual type. If you study theology, you probably don’t have a vibrant social life. You should probably go outside and smell the roses.
Many are dismissive of the knowledge of God, emphasizing the experience of God as far more vital. This is deadly, because you cannot experience a God you do not know.
Our Irrelevant God
Some who do ask the pivotal “who is God” question will ask only out of an interest to know what God could do for them. This is most evident at a typical evangelical bible study.
Take a text of Scripture, and typically the first (if not only) question asked of the text is “how does this apply to me?” We are not so concerned with what the text tells us about God, but what it tells us about us. If God is in the text, we ask what He is doing for us. Is He giving us peace? Breaking our chains? Loving us? Guiding us?
These are all magnificent things God does for us, but we must ask ourselves this: Is God only relevant when He can do something for me? Do I love God because He provides for me? Or do I love God for Who He is? Do I love God because He gives me gifts, or do I love God because He’s the type to give gifts? There is a subtle but enormous difference.
Take this interpretation of Scripture for example. This comes from a book written by a very prominent pastor. Notice how he applies the text of Scripture:
“As ambassadors we live in one world while representing another. An embassy is the headquarters of an ambassador and his or her staff. It is actually considered a part of the nation it represents. So it is with the believer/ambassador. The Bible promises: ‘Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you.’”
What is this text about? It’s about God’s faithfulness to Joshua and the people of Israel to provide the land He promised He would provide.
And yet, the author pulls this text out of thin air, playing fast and loose with the holy Word of God, and acts as though it had no other application but to say you have been given every inch of this earth by God, and you need to take hold of the authority God has given you. It tweets well, but it is not faithful to Scripture.
The Bible is Not About You
You are a key part of the story of God. But you are just that: a part. You are not the whole. The Bible is about God’s outstanding plan of redemption for sinners like you, so that His name would be glorified for such unbelievable grace.
The Biblical story is God’s love song to Himself, written so that all the world may listen in and exult in Him. It is a song that breaks forth from silence with the melodic chimes of creation, builds suspense in the prophetic verses to the people of Israel, crashes into the chorus of the cross of Christ, bridged by the Body of Christ after Pentecost, and culminates with the crescendo of the Second Coming and New Earth. His redemptive song is about Him, and it is for Him.
And too often, like a bad Weird Al parody, we mangle up the otherwise delightful lyrics to fit ourselves into the very center of the song. We wonder, “Am I a Joseph? Am I a Samson? Am I a David? Am I a Jonah?” Like a dog obsessed with its own shadow, we are quick to see ourselves cast over every character in the Old Testament, when in reality these figures are shadows not primarily of us, but of Christ.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a 20th century Welsh preacher in England, put it well:
“The essence of Christianity is not that it calls you to do something, but rather that it tells you what Jesus came into the world to do for you.” – Acts 1-8 Volume 1 by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
If you come to the Bible looking for a to-do list that will tidy up your life, you are missing the point. The Bible is not merely a playbook you utilize to win at life. The Bible tells you the victory that has already been won. It is news, proclaiming to you the glorious victory Christ has achieved for His people, and the obedience His people must live in as a fruit of this victory.
“Lord, That I May Know You”
If you want to experience God, start by getting to know Him. Read the Word; not to find yourself at every turn, but to know God. Don’t just ask “Where am I in this text? What am I supposed to do?”. Instead ask “What does this passage tell me about God? What does this tell me about the Gospel?” Once you have meditated on this, you can then ask what it tells you about yourself and what to do about it, because you are now properly fitting yourself within the context of God and His big picture story (the Gospel).
Don’t skim through chapter after chapter until you find that one verse that really pops. Meditate on a passage, even if it doesn’t “pop”, and watch what God can do through that passage in your life. The most popular verses tend to be those that emphasize what God will do for us or how we are to live. Verses that tweet well. Verses you can make an image out of on the Bible app and post to Instagram. God has more for you than those beautiful verses. He said everything He said in Scripture for a reason. It is all profitable.
When you have plumbed the depths of God’s Word like this, you may be pleased to discover that you no longer have such an aching curiosity to know what fried food you would be, if perchance you could become fried food.
The Fire & The Flood 