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BIBLE STUDY 8/28/09
I will try to periodically produce a Bible Study from things I am studying for your information or use in your spiritual life. As many of you know I base my daily devotions in the Psalm and Proverbs so many will come from my studies in these books. I hope these cause you to think and encourage your own personal devotions.
Psalm 28 is a Psalm of David and it has a familiar tone for many of us. It is David calling upon God our rock and fortress. There is in this psalm some of the things that many of us deal with in our walk of faith. I think the most notable and condemning phrase to me is "Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place". This confronts me immediately in verse 2 of the psalm. It sounds a little like some of the prayers that I have offered over the years. It seems that when times are good my prayers can be of the drive through variety. I rapidly offer up my prayers so that I can get back to the task of life and to controlling my own destiny. When however, I find myself in the pit, I call upon God. I may not use the exact words of David which seem to almost chastise God for the possibility that He would turn a deaf ear to us but I do use the urgency that we hear from him. In the end when I am in despair and I call upon God out of my distress He is always faithful to hear and my reply is Praise the Lord just as David proclaims.
I am convicted in my despair that I have waited so long to call upon God. He surely never turns a deaf ear to us but often in the good times of life we offer up lip service and in real prayer we are mute.
Prayer: Lord like so many things in life, when things are going well we take them for granted. Lord let us never take you for granted and let us rely upon you to be our ROCK and our FORTRESS in the good times as well. Let us not always ask for you to bless us but let us instead realize the blessings we have and be grateful to you from whom all blessings flow. You truly are the strength of your people, and thank you for the grace we receive in that we are always your people even in the times when we have not been faithful to come to you as we should.
Hale Bishop
BIBLE STUDY 9/2/09
Psalm 2
In verse 2 we read the words "The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord"
In this world we say cash is king and the golden rule is he who has the gold rules. The idea here is not a repeat of the horrors of money and riches being proportional to a lack of spirituality. What I want to convey is the idea that there is a conspiracy going on in this world. It is the conspiracy that perceived power is greater that true power. You see when there is power perceived by any person or entity it is the perception that the power exist that insist on breaking loose and overcoming all other power. The perceived power must place itself above even truth otherwise it is subject to something else and therefore it is perceived rather than actual and no power at all.
There is power in truth and a good example of the conspiracy that I speak of is that just because we are aware of the truth doesn't always mean that we let that get in the way. Arguments in the home often illustrate this principle. The person who is in the wrong is often the loudest voice in the argument. If you think about it the person speaking the truth is more often than not calm and collected. We don't have to shout truth we have to shout our perception of false truths and scream that they are true!
In our world we have allowed the screams of society, achievement and power (which is perceived) to drown out the truth that we know. Psalm 2:4 says that "The one enthroned in heaven laughs".
If it were not so sad it would be laughable that we have allowed the finite to cloud our view and pursuit of the infinite and divine. I encourage you to identify TRUTH and learn to let it be the rule of your life rather than allowing the societal dictates and mores to rule your life. Verse 11: "Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling". Let us learn to fear (respect and observe the ways of) God.
Hale Bishop
BIBLE STUDY 9/8/09
Psalm
The Psalm today is appropriate because today is my mother's birthday and I can remember the gift of childhood as my mother taught me to memorize Psalm 8. "O Lord our Lord how majestic is thy name in all the earth". I love the word majestic it means to have or exhibit majesty which is sovereign power, authority and dignity. That is what God is! He has simply in His name power, authority and dignity and yet he is chooses to associate with the likes of me. Often I tell people that I out kicked my coverage whey I married my wife and if you have seen the two of us you know it is true. Those may be words we say in appreciation of our spouses but with God it is amazing that he loves us and as the Psalm say has placed us in a position of power and authority here on earth. It is an AWEsome thing to imagine God loving us so very much.
Yesterday Meg sang "I can only Imagine" in the early service and those wonderful words in the chorus lead me to think about our response to meeting and knowing this God who loves us so much.
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
What will we do when we are in the presence of God? You know these times in the morning when I am able to sit and meditate a little on the Psalm or a scripture verse I find often that in His presence quiet and stillness is soothing and inspiring. I am truly amazed at God who has revealed Himself to us and even though in comparison to His majesty we are but a speck and yet we are lifted up by God to be used by Him. I wonder what our response will be one day but even more I wonder what our response is today? The quote I read on sunday from Bonhoeffer "Discipleship is not man's gift to God" continues to rattle around in my mind and my soul. We certainly are not able to give something to God and the fact that He wants a relationship with us should lead us to stand in awe of Him. To respond to Him and His love for us.
I hope you have a great day and I hope you take a moment to think of the awesome no the majesty of God and the awesome fact that He loves us and wants fellowship with us. Stand in His presence or fall to you knees for a time today and enjoy the stillness before a loving God!
Hale Bishop
BIBLE STUDY 9/14/09
Pslams 14:2 in the Message, I love the Message for it's wonderful insight into the words of scripture, "God sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around. He's looking for someone not stupid- one man, even, God-expectant, just on God-ready woman."
I have to ask myself sometimes if I am God-expectant. Do I really expect to see God or to have God intervene or are my prayers and beliefs without expectation. I believe that the environment that we are in leads us to believe that we do it all ourselves. I don't believe that God tinkers around manipulating daily events, economic crashes, tornados and hurricanes etc. simply to thwart man or to punish our unfaithfulness. What greater punishment could there be than living a life not expectant of God. Once again, I am not talking about the tinkering with humanity but rather the ability to see God in creation and to experience and feel God in our hearts and lives.
Though I don't believe that God is smiting us or that he financially blesses us because of our relationship with him, I do believe that we can have a peace where we are in spite of situations that would cause despair and gloom. In the midst of the financial crisis of late many have not heard the cries of their brokers who have said it will come back don't get out now. Some sold everything when the market was near 6000 and now the market is near 10,000. I think that the advice of financial folk helped encourage many to remain and get back some of their losses.
God is not a financial guide, but I do think our relationship with Him in times of turmoil, despair and trouble work similarly and He shows us how we can overcome and how we can uses circumstances to draw closer to Him. That is the real purpose to me in this life, not to gain the world and loose my soul, but to grow to know the one that I will spend eternity with. I want God to stick his head out of heaven and see me as one who is expectant on God and waiting to find His purpose in life regardless of the situations I am in. God is there!
Hale
BIBLE STUDY 9/18/09
Psalm 18:30-31
As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield
for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the LORD ?
And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he enables me to stand on the heights.
I am absolutely loving the Psalms lately. This is a great psalm speaking of God as our rock and fortress but as I got further in the message of how he protects is more prominent. The the phrase, who is God besides the LORD? The answer is implied in the rhetorical question. It requires no answer on our part but is a statement of the most obvious fact that there is no God other than the one true God. We may try to lift things in this world to godlike status but no mater what they are they deal with the temporal and not the eternal. They can be gratifying but they are not able to make our ways perfect. Did you see the next line? God makes our way perfect! Nothing else can, not economic strength, not fame, not even friends. Our way is made perfect by the strength of God. He and He alone allows us to stand on the heights.
I hope that as these words which we all know because we have grown up in church become more real. I hope that we see that it is in God that perfection is found and in him that we have strength and in him that we can be more than we can ever be without Him.
I once heard or read that numerology behind the number 666. The numbers being repeated 3 times 666 is a notation or a emphasis on the importance of the number. We found this triple formula in Acts last week in our Bible study about God letting the sheet down for Phillip 3 times. This is done over and over in the Bible and in the 666 it is an emphasis on the number 6 which is everything man can be without God. 6 is the number for man, alone. In the Psalm today we can see that we don't have to be alone and we can be perfect or complete or in numerology we can be the number 7 with God because he makes our ways more than we can make them, He completes them and makes our way perfect.
Go with God and be perfected by allowing Him to lead you.
Hale
BIBLE STUDY 9/22/09
Proverbs 22
A good names is more desirable than riches or gold. Well, we all know this is a wonderful proverb and we have had our parents tell us about the good name that they have in the community and how we as youth were not to mess that up. That was important as we went into the world, you have heard me say that I remember my parents saying "remember who you are". Maybe this is not only advice that we should be aware of from our childhood and those turbulent years of growing up, but also for today. Sure we are aware of our standing in the community and therefore we don't show our bad side unless we are in safe company. We know how to keep a good name not matter what our feelings are about a situation. I am sure that all of us have kept our mouth closed when it was proper and politically expedient to do so. The real question is are there other places where we have not done the same? Are there areas of our lives that we claim to have a name and yet don't live in the world up to that name?
It has happened to everyone, we have been cut off by someone and as we are honking our horns we see their "Honk if you love Jesus sticker", or we remember the one on the back of our car. Maybe we give clearance to someone cutting us off if we recognize them as a friend but we are quick to point out that they are number 1 if we are in another city or don't recognize their car.
The reality is that our name is Christian! We claim that name in certain locations and certain conditions but we don't always remember and sometimes it is just easier to be one of the boys, part of the conversation, and the list goes on. The reality is that if my name is Bishop, it does not matter what I do and where I am that is my name. If we claim the name of Christian then we have to be ready to live that way in the church and the world. We need to be the salt and light to a lost and dying world.
What is your name?
Hale
BIBLE STUDY 10/04/09
Psalm 4:4,5 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord
Psalm 4 has many wonderful statements and much wisdom but the verses 4 and 5 seem to stand out to me. Maybe you are one who gets mad easily. I have always had a pretty bad temper. My uncle, just 4 years older, loved to get me mad and make me chase him. As well all do, we learn to control our temper the older we get. Well some of us do anyway. I have learned that if I avoid conflict then I don't get angry. I try to put time and thought into my conversations over topics that may cause my anger. The good part of my nature is that once I do get upset, I want to resolve the problem as soon as possible. It may be from my early teaching of my mother who seemed to quote the Psalms quite often, or it could be the brief parts of sermons that I paid attention to as a child. Regardless, the phrase don't go to be on your anger has always been important to me. I find that when I get angry it is often because getting my way is the most important thing at the time. Over time, I come to realize that my way is only one way and not always the best way. I encourage you to look at the things the cause you to hold grudges. As much as I dislike conflict and try to resolve it quickly there are always things, or people that we hold grudges against.
That leads to verse 5, maybe one right sacrifice is to give up our anger and know that we can trust God to accomplish His will which should also be ours. When I think of sacrifice in the society in which we live I wonder what we truly sacrifice. In one of Wesley's sermons he talks about money which is certainly something we may think of when we think of sacrifice. Here is an excerpt of that sermon;
Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then 'give all you can.'" …"I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, act up to the dignity of your calling! No more sloth! Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might! No more waste! Cut off every expense which fashion, caprice, or flesh and blood demand! No more covetousness! But employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree to the household of faith, to all men! This is no small part of 'the wisdom of the just.' Give all ye have, as well as all ye are, a spiritual sacrifice to Him who withheld not from you his Son, his only Son: So 'laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that ye may attain eternal life!'"
A right sacrifice may be for us to give of our abundance but more so to give beyond our abundance to the kingdom. Wesley lays it out well in the entire sermon, it does no good to make and save all you can if you then do nothing with it. It is important to use our resources of money, time, talent etc... to do good! That is a right sacrifice, to do all the good you can another Wesley truism: do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, in all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
Let us seek to offer right SACRIFICES and then to TRUST in the Lord!
Hale
Bible Study 10/18/09
Luke 14:10But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
This week I have been really drawn into some ideas on humility. If you are in church today, you will hear much of this, if not you can check out the Sermon's page to listen later. In the past week our Men's Bible Study class looked at Jeremy Taylor. You may not have had the opportunity to read his writings but let me encourage you to search him out. One of the books that Taylor wrote was entitled "The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living".
The points that he makes are certainly not something that we would disagree. They are rather strong insights into the behavior of Christians and deal a great deal with self-esteem and he is not a great proponent of self-esteem but a better term may be God-esteem.
Here are some of his points-
> Do not think better of yourself because of any outward circumstance that happens to you. Although you may want to because of the gifts that have been bestowed upon you and make you better at something than someone else, it is for the benefit of others, not for yourself. Remember that you are human and that you have nothing in yourself that merits worth except your right choices.
> Humility is not about criticizing yourself, wearing ragged clothes, or walking around with your posture submissive. Humility consists of a realistic opinion of yourself, namely, that you are an unworthy person.
> When you hold an accurate opinion of yourself be content that others think the same of you. If you realize that you are not gifted in wisdom or some other area, don be upset if others agree. If you truly hold this opinion of yourself you should desire that others do as well.
> Nurture a love to do good thins in secret, concealed from the eyes of others, and therefore not highly esteemed because of them. Be content to go without praise, never being troubled when someone has slighted or undervalued you. Remember, no one can undervalue you if you know that you are unworthy. Once you know that, no amount of contempt from another person will be able to hurt you.
My father was a proponent of Jeremy Taylor and didn't even know it. He often said tongue in cheek, "Son, you don't need to have an inferiority complex, you are inferior, it is just a fact". I know he loved me and it was a joke but the reality is there we are inferior beings lifted up and made worthy only through Christ not because we have a great self-esteem but because God esteems us worthy of the ultimate sacrifice. And he deems us as individuals no more worthy than anyone else in the world.
“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.” (John Wesley)
Hale
Bible Study 11/06/09
Proverbs 6:
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.
Sometimes like today, I wake up early and feel ready to go for the day. Other days when I awake it seems like I want to stay in bed all day long. The one thing that I have learned in life is that if I ever succumb to the wiles of the sheets and stay in bed, it is a long and tired day. It is better for my physical being if I get up and get going.
This morning as I read Proverbs 6 this came to mind as I read the words will you get up from your sleep? For you see I believe that our spiritual life is a mirror of our physical when it comes to sleep. If we lie around and wait until we feel like reading our Bible, praying or meditating upon God's Word then we become lazy and we become spiritual sluggards. A sluggard is defined as a habitually lazy person by Webster. If we begin the habit it is difficult to overcome and sometimes even when we are in a good habit it is easy to slip backward.
I am writing this study today for my own information but let me simply be a sounding bell for all of us as I say that if we roll over and doze off our day will be less productive. If we ignore the alarms at the beginning of the day then we may lie around and become lazy. The same is true in our spiritual life, let us hear the alarm that we must rise from our sleep and set about in our devotions and disciplines toward God.
Hale
Several people wanted me to put on the website the poem that I used in the sermon on Sunday. You will find it below, I apologize that I do not know the author so I can't give proper credit.
Six humans trapped by happenstance in dark and bitter cold,
each possessed a stick of wood, or so the story's told.
Their dying fire in need of logs, the first woman held hers tight,
for one face around the fire was one for whom she felt spite.
The next man looking "across the way saw one not of his church,
and couldn't bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes; he gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use, to warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought of the wealth he had in store,
and how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The next man's face bespoke his greed, as the fire passed from his sight,
for what he saw in his stick of wood he would need for himself the next night.
And the last man of this forlorn group did naught except for gain:
giving only to those who gave, was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death's stilled hands, were proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without, They died from the cold within.
Author Unknown
December 26, 2009
Today as I was reading Psalm 26 it dawned on me that first this Psalm was to intense not to share and second with the web page being down for a week or so and just my being sorry, I haven't updated a Bible Study in quite some time. Well here goes.....
I hope you get to take a look at Psalm 26 and see the wonderful and yet very challenging words of the writer. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. What a wonderful thing to be able to say. Blameless, that is my goal and my desire! It seem odd to look to lead a life of blame so let us certainly attempt to live a blameless life, but the writer says he has led a blameless life and still need vindication. To vindicate is to provide justification and defense of something or someone. It is pretty awesome to realize that if we like the writer lived a blameless life, we would still need help.
The Psalmist is looking for ways for God to try and test and examine so that God will show him how to be even better. I wonder if we really look to live a blameless life and if we by chance do are we really asking God, Okay, what am I doing that I can do even better, even though it isn't wrong?
That is a concept that I am having a hard time teaching my children and the problem is that maybe I don't know the concept or walk in the concept as I should. When my children are taking classes in school I want them to go ahead of the teacher and the class, I want them to learn things they will never need to know, I want them to be excited and interested and desirous of all of the knowledge available. With all of this desire which I am sure you have or one day will have for your children we still are not living in what we are asking of our kids. I don't think we are really looking to be perfect and certainly we are not seeking a life better than blameless.
Take a moment today and read this Psalm 26 and see if there are things that are done or required that we don't even consider and let us see if in the new year we can live a life that is blameless!
Hale
February 18, 2010
Psalm 18
Well this is the first new post of the year, sorry if you are keeping up. I'll try to do better. I was reading Psalm 18 this morning and thinking about the things of Lent. The problem is that Psalm 18 has or for me has nothing to do with Lent. It is a lot to do about times of trouble and overcoming the enemy. I don't really feel like I am facing that as a problem right now. With that said I read a chapter in "The Contemplative Pastor" by Eugene Peterson yesterday and he talks about business being the problem of many pastors. I enjoy what I do, I enjoy being busy even in the frustrating times but business according to Peterson is a problem. I had never really thought of this, I rather think of "idol hands being the devils tools..." but Peterson says that when we are busy we often don't take the time to visit with or comfort our membership and others. We can be so busy that we miss the beauty around us. Then it hit me verse 19 from Psalm 18, "He brought me out into a spacious place".
I think we often live in cramped and enclosed places and we forget to let God have the victory and we forget that we are brought by him into a spacious place. Where is your spacious place.
Hale
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