Martin Luther knew something about revival and a lot about persecution.

The primary reason he was persecuted was his uncompromising stand on the grace of God.

He explained his radical view of grace to his friend, Melanchthon:

If you are a preacher of grace, do not preach a fictitious, but a true grace; and if grace is true, carry a true, and not a fictitious sin. Be a sinner and sin vigorously…. It is sufficient that we recognize the wealth of God’s glory, the lamb who bears the sin of the world; from this, sin does not sever us, even if thousands, thousands of times in one day we should fornicate or murder.”

Now that’s some radical grace.

Interesting, isn’t it? His words are still upsetting the religious and the self-righteous today.

Do these words upset you?

How many fornications and murders in a day would you say the blood of Christ makes payment for?

Are you okay with maybe two or three?

How about lies? Is ten the limit?

What if we overeat only once or twice a week?

How about gossip? How many people do we need to hurt to disqualify ourselves from the grace of God in Christ?

Before you get too upset at the hyperbole from Luther’s pen and the ridiculous idea of someone actually having the time and the energy to commit murder and fornication thousands of times in one day, think about how upset God must be….

…when people who name the name of Christ actually claim to decide for Him what type of and how many sins His Son’s death on the Cross actually made payment for.

God’s words to you—the Bible

About forty men wrote the Bible over a period of approximately 1,500 years. Yet the Bible has one great theme and central figure—Jesus Christ. All of this would be impossible unless the Bible had one Author—God Himself.

When I read my Bible I have every confidence that I’m reading the words God moved men through His Spirit to put on the page.

Here is the primary verse that gives me this confidence:

2 Timothy 3:16 says all the words are breathed by God Himself.

Read 2 Timothy 3:16 very carefully: Every Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.

Inspiredcomes from a Greek word meaning “God-breathed.” This tells us that God breathed out words and they became Scripture.

Second Timothy 3:117 teaches that the entire Bible, every word in the original writing, came from God in order to show us how to live.

Though human authors wrote the texts, the Bible originated as an action of God who literally “breathed” it out.

There are three popular views of how much of the Bible is inspired by God. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, which is correct?

1. Some of the Bible is inspired by God.
2. All of it is inspired by God.
3. Only parts that speak to you in a personal way are inspired by God.

Question: Why do you think it’s important that Christians view the words on the page of their Bible as inspired by God? (Hint, read the next verse–2 Timothy 3:17!)

If you’ve read this blog for long, know me, or are one of the dozens who have bought my books, you know that I’m a little driven.

Okay, I’m a lot driven.

Recently I was in a Tampa hotel all by myself with everything I needed as a pastor and author to get a LOT OF WORK DONE!

Internet? Check! Free wireless and my trusty MacBook Pro.

Privacy? Check! I didn’t know anyone within a hundred miles. And to make it even better, I had left my cell phone charger at home, so I had to turn it off.

Great ideas? Check! Or at least I think they’re good. I’m working on my first fiction book, another Christian book, about five blogs, doing some editing for some author/publishing friends, and have about a thousand things to do as a pastor of a healthy faith community.

Energy? Focus? Attitude?

NOT CHECK!

I was exhausted.

So, I set my alarm and went to bed…at about 5:30 PM my time!

The next day, I knew that Jesus was saying, “Way to go, Ed. Way to trust Me with your life, your time, and your passion. Now, let’s get to it!”

If Jesus seems distant to you and you’re a hard charger like me, maybe you don’t need to get another assignment done or tell someone about Jesus or even pray.

Maybe what you need to do is trust Him enough to say, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul (life) to keep.”

…But reading the Bible matters more.

The challenge of finding the best translation of the Bible is a relatively new one, and it is an embarrassment in the English-speaking world where you have a smorgasbord of choices.

In that world, it’s clearly important to make a wise choice. But the best way to move forward as a disciple of Christ is simply to choose one to read and apply. After all, reading and applying the Word of God is what matters most, if we’re looking at the translation controversy from Jesus’ perspective.

But Christians have discovered that after translation number three or four there remains the need to actually read what you’ve chosen. Suddenly, you realize that you have to stop debating translation theory and starting trusting a few good translations.

What an insight! The Spirit is rewarding those who read the Scriptures honestly and openly, whatever the transition. He’s rewarding Christians who give Him access to their heart through the words He inspired. None of this is measured by the “correctness” of the choice of translations.

Billy Graham doesn’t read a better Bible than yours. Neither does Beth Moore. Finding the perfect translation is a silly question, just as finding the perfect church is a nonsensical quest. Instead of debating the nuances of translation theory, it might pay to devote your time reading and praying about what you’ve read.

Question: Am I the only one tired of all the “controversies” like what is the best translation? dominating the Christian landscape today? 

I’m asked that question a lot. Whether it’s a student at a Bible college, a young pastor I’m discipling, a brand new Christian, or a wounded lifetime church-goer, most people want to know, “Which translation of the Bible is best?”

I have a simple answer to that question, but it’s important to give you the background to the answer. There are three primary types of translations of the Bible:

1) Formal Translations (Word-for-Word).

These are the translations dedicated to giving the reader the “exact words” from the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament Greek texts. This is the type of translation I prefer for serious study. Formal translations attempt to translate the words from one language to another—word-for-word or formal equivalence. Their strength is that they are the least interpretive not only in vocabulary but also in form. The formal translators are concerned with both meaning and grammatical form. Their weakness is that they are sometimes hard to understand since they keep the historical distance from the modern reader intact, making them more difficult to read. Since the reader must interpret the word, the “literal translation” offers what it cannot deliver

The New American Standard is the most literal, but it’s so literal that it sometimes makes it hard to read in. The New King James Version, the ESV and the NET Bible are also formal. You can’t go wrong with any of these translations. My favorite is the NET Bible.

2) Dynamic Equivalence (Idea-for-Idea).

More dynamic translations strive to offer the reader an accurate representation of the ideas of the text rather than the literal wording. These attempt to capture the original text in precise modern equivalents—phrase-for-phrase. Their strength is the balance they strike between interpretation and accuracy. Since these translators are concerned primarily with meaning their sentences and paragraphs are more readable to the English reader. The corresponding weakness is that they can be highly interpretive because of choices concerning form and language. They too offer what they cannot deliver because accuracy is necessarily compromised.

The NIV is the most popular dynamic translation in the world today. I prefer the New Living Translation.

2) Paraphrase (Story-for-Story).

A paraphrase is the most readable because it doesn’t claim or strive to be accurate in the details. It’s the most interpretive and the most readable. My personal favorite is TheMessage.

So, which translation is best?

I think it’s important to use all three for Bible study. But as you read through the Bible with us over the next two years in our bible.cod series, the best translation is…

The one you’ll read!

Questions: What is your favorite translation and why? 

The Cults Say: Get to Work!!

A few years ago I was sitting in the Phoenix Airport listening in to a conversation between two cultists. They were talking about their hope of heaven. As they talked I was thinking that what they were saying isn’t that much different from a lot of so-called evangelicals today. It’s all about working hard and measuring up.

What do you say?

Here’s my question for those who tell me that telling people that eternal life is a free gift given to all who trust in Jesus is “just too easy”: What sets your gospel apart from the works-based message of the cults?

“He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” –Jesus Christ, John 6:47

What made the Jesus Movement move?

DISCIPLESHIP!

Recently I was discussing our revival–the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s–at a conference for church leaders when one of them asked, “What do you mean by ‘layered’ discipleship?” As I explained my personal conviction that healthier churches grow by connecting believers to one another on many different levels—maturing mentors with newer Christians, established leaders with emerging leaders, small supportive groups led my shepherding couples, and missional teams training one another, someone else asked a question I thought I would never hear from a pastor, “What is discipleship?”

I’m sure it was the Holy Spirit that kept me from saying, “What is discipleship? Are you seriously asking me that? It’s only the result of obeying the core command of our Lord Jesus to His church—make disciples of all nations! If you have to ask me to define discipleship, there’s not much I can do for you in the few minutes I have left.”

Not Growth!

Instead, I remembered how much pressure these leaders were under to “grow” their churches, how gaga the Christian community is over its megachurches, and how much we have bought into the bigger is better lie. So I turned him to the Lord’s final charge to the church in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Discipleship Worked

If we want to get the Jesus Movement moving again, maybe we should try what Jesus said to do. His simple plans always work!

Recently I had breakfast with one of the guys who mentored me forty years ago during the Jesus Movement. We were talking about our revival and I asked him a question I’ve been asking a lot of former Jesus Freaks the last few years. “If someone asked you why our revival happened, what would you say?”

He didn’t hesitate. “The leaders of our revival trusted God enough to handoff ministry to us. And there wasn’t much in us to trust. Think about it. A bunch of radicals-turned-disciplers. I bet you can’t find many leaders today who would do that. Today’s Christian leaders are all about control and credit.”

It was a great reminder of just how important it is to be a releaser rather than a controller, a risk taker rather than a fortress builder.

If you want to see a revival, and I do, you have to let go of most of the stuff you’re trying to control. God help us to risk revival.

The television celebrity impressed me deeply. I couldn’t help thinking that if he and I had grown up together or had served together in the military, we would have been good friends. I liked him in spite of all the rumors about his lifestyle. He joked about being a “backslidden” worshiper from his childhood church. God had cycled our lives together for one fascinating afternoon when he introduced me to his media world and I talked with him about the history of Church of the Open Door.

Just before our day ended he looked off and asked of no one in particular, “When did the church become so mean?”

I said, “We’re not mean, why don’t you come here and give us a chance?”

He laughed uncomfortably, and said, “I might just come and visit you some Sunday, Ed.”

I prayed for him and we shook hands. As I watched him drive away with his cameraman, his question haunted me.

On the drive home that night I turned my radio dial to Christian talk radio. Appalled by the snarling arrogance of the host, I prayed that the man I had met that day wasn’t listening. Whether he knew it or not, his “we’ll show those sinners when this bill gets passed” and “just wait until God deals with these idiots” sent a message to those outside of God’s grace: God’s on our side and He hates you.

The Bible teaches that God is on the side of the righteous and emphasizes that ultimately our side will win. But our victory will not come through favorable voting returns but at the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign on earth.

What the Bible does not teach is that God hates sinners. The New Testament says that the message of the church is the Good News of reconciliation “who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

If God hated sinners—those unreconciled to Him—this verse tells us He would have to start with us. Instead, He loves sinners and sent His Son to die in order to reconcile sinners like us. To us, the reconciled sinners, He has given this ministry of reconciliation, “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and his commit to us the world of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

So how would your non-Christian friends and acquaintances classify you? Do your life and words scream condemnation or do they whisper reconciliation?

This is an excerpt from my book, Reborn to Be Wild: Reviving Our Radical Pursuit of Jesus! It’s all about the Jesus Movement and the lessons we learned.

David C. Cook Publishers

With so much nonsense being trafficked in the Christian community today concerning leadership, I wish these theoretical-lead-the-church-like-a-business writers and consultants would try to look at spiritual leadership from the viewpoint of those being led. The ones God uses to lead us in the Way never make it about themselves.

Kind of like Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8!

Something wonderful happened to me the day my firstborn child, Aimee, came into the world. For the first time in my life, I had totally selfless thoughts. Suddenly, I was holding in my arms someone who meant more to me than, well … me. At that moment, I knew that no sacrifice would be too great for this little girl I had just met but instantly cherished. Before I could become too proud of how dear she had become to me, I placed her in the arms of her mother. From the moment Judy began to nurse our baby girl, I knew they were experiencing a bond I would never know and could never experience.

If you’re thinking of the birth of your child and your love for them or your father and mother and their love for you, then you are picturing the role of an authentic spiritual leader—a parent. Paul reminds his readers of the selfless motives of the team he brought to Thessalonica by describing their role. They were parents to their disciples, as gentle as a nurturing mother and as firmly encouraging as a concerned father.

That’s the measure of authentic New Testament leadership.

So who are the people in your life the Lord Jesus is asking you to lead in His name? Remember, it’s not about them following you; it’s about you selflessly leading them to follow Another. His name is Jesus.

“But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

Question: Do you have a story of someone who led you well? I’d love to hear it.