Welcome! If you arrived here via BlogExplosion, please read this earlier post and share your own experience with BE. As mentioned in that post, I conducted a mini-experiment in the past week or so, and I have some preliminary findings which I will post later.

Something else has frustrated me recently and it is not with BE or with that 30-seconds-which-seem-like-an-eternity thing, or the clicking-at-28-seconds-and-losing-the-friggin’-credits-twice-in-a-row thing, or opps-clicked-wrong-number-by-mistake-again! thing, or worse, oh-here’s-the-10-mystery-credits-won-but-oh-shit-I-press-the-wrong-key-and-now-its-gone thing. In fact nothing to do with BE.

My problem is with Blogger. Tried to get on to it a few times over the past week. By deliberatedly not surfing for credits it was supposed to give me more time to blog! But, Blogger gave up on me a few nights this past week. After logging in, and clicking on my blog link it just wait for many seconds before coming up with an internal server error! Whazzupwidat!?!

In fact, while trying to fix this post up, I found another problem with Blogger. I had an older window up and hit the publish accidentally and it overwrote my fixed post! Worse, after fixing it and trying to republish, I get this "Waiting for www.blogger.com" message sitting there staring at me! Can I go to sleep yet????

So, that is why I am thinking of changing and need your opinion. Please go here if you have done something like this, and especially if you have experience with the providers I mention in that post.

For those who didn’t come via BlogExplosion and if you have no idea what I am tlaking about, go here and have a gander and if you wish to join, click here. As some of the folks who posted their comments earlier, apart from getting more traffic, even though most are just credit-earners, you will get some new readers and some will become regular, and you do get to know a whole lot of other bloggers out there. So it is worth it, if you don’t let it run-and ruin-your life!

Recently, I posted a meditation on a passage of Scripture in Exodus chapter 3. I used an often, but easily, overlooked instruction that God gave to Moses to remove his sandals, as a springboard to finding out both what the instruction might mean or perhaps, what it entails, or implies, and also, more importantly, to describe the implications of an encounter with God.

A commenter suggests that what I wrote, while in principle is true, and is taught in other scriptures, was not explicitly taught in the text from which I was quoting. This is no just any ordinary commenter, but Jeremy Pierce, aka Parableman, a well-loved blogger described by The Bible Archive, as a blogger who “offers philosophical thought-flow balanced with strong convictions making something which is often completely engrossing. I may not agree with all of his positions but this dear Brother can deftly argue from philosophy and Scripture.” Like the author of TBA, I do not agree with everything Jeremy says, but I respect him as someone who thinks deeply and carefully about these things.

So, that started a series of comments back and forth between Jeremy and myself, and also started me thinking about the legitimacy of much of our meditation upon scriptural texts and about the legitimacy some kinds of devotional Scriptural reading. Jeremy pointed out that the principles that my extrapolating from an often overlooked instruction from God to Moses to remove his sandals contains a biblical principle taught elsewhere in Scriptures but not necessarily taught by the text under consideration.

While I believe that the point I made in my meditative post did not contradict the principle Jeremy highlighted, I believe Jeremy’s point is very instructive and insightful. Often it is very tempting to proof-text our doctrine, or favorite teaching, by mis-reading and mis-quoting Scripture. You may or may not have heard about the man who sincerely desired to be led by Scriptures. He decided to use a little bit of "finger lucky-dipping" by opening the Bible and letting it fall on a page and closing his eyes, he points with his finger onto a verse at random. He assumes that whatever he points to contains the biblical mandate for his life. When he opened his eyes, he was chagrined to find his finger at a rather unpalatable verse: "So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself." Disturbed, he decided to give it another go. The second time his finger fell on the following verse: "Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’" Exasperated, he tried a final time, and this time he was really distraught for his finger fell squarely upon, "What you are about to do, do quickly!"

While our proof-texting may not be as humorous and outrageous as the story, it nonetheless involves a distortion of scriptural principles and is contrary to what the scriptures teach. It is especially dangerous to take a verse out of context and build doctrine out of it. A good example of this can be seen in the nineteenth century when even ministers argued that slavery is not only acceptable, but approved by God because there are scriptural verses on the duties of slaves, and masters. (Note: I know this brief statement about scriptural support for slavery might open a can of worms, as Jeremy pointed out in commenting to my rough draft, but I will leave it here without further comment as an illustration of how misquoting and misapplication of scriptures can lead to unpalatable consequences).

So I am thinking of doing a series on How to Read the Bible. I believe there are many different ways to read the Bible. Here are some of the main ones:
(1) Reading the Bible devotionally
(2) Reading the Bible as part of a Bible Study exercise
(3) Reading the Bible as part of an Exegesis

These are just three of the different ways to read the Scriptures, I will expand on each of the types of Bible reading methods in up-coming posts. For now, the most important point to come away from this article is that the Bible is given to us not to decorate our coffee table, nor is it as a fashion accessory, but it is given to us to be read.

One of my mentors used to lament the fact that while we have a Bible on our bedside table, or on our book shelf, we seldom stretch out our hands to take it and read it, yet we will travel miles, navigate thick bumper-to-bumper traffic and go through sun, hail and rain to listen to the visiting bible teacher or itinerant preacher to listen to their preaching. Yet, all the time, God is waiting to speak to us through His word. So, stop reading this blog already! Open your Bible, and read it! J

Next time, I will write a little more about how to read it devotionally.

UPDATE: You can find Part II of this series here.

In my meditation on the first commandment I said that it is easy for me to get the prohibition against idolatry, but relatively harder to understand the commandment for having no other gods. Actually in thinking of the first two commandments, it almost seems to me that they are two sides of the same coin. That these two are part and parcel of the same commandment (It is interesting to note that the Bible doesn’t refer to the "Ten Commandments" anywhere). On the one hand, God commands that Israel shall have no other Gods except the LORD. On the other hand, they are not to make nor bow down before any graven images of anything in heaven or earth.

In considering the first commandment, one might be tempted to think that it all but makes the second commandment unnecessary. If the first commandment prohibited Israel from alegiance to any other gods, why is there a need for the proscription against the making of, and bowing down, to any graven images? Doesn’t the prohibition against worshipping any other gods also preclude the worship of graven images? One might think that this is exactly the case since in this context the graven images were understood as a substitute for God, and the restriction on making and worshipping graven images specifically prohibits substitituting God with graven images.

Perhaps God wanted to underscore the exclusivity of His relationship with Israel. He is the LORD their God. They are to have no other Gods before Him. And, if they did not really get that, God spelt out what that means. They are not to have any substitute for Him - they are not to worship any graven images:

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above
or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them
or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those
who hate me."

Perhaps, there is more to just not having no graven images, or not to make for themselves any idols. Why is it important that they were to have no graven images? That they are not to make and bow down before any idol?

As a kid, I grew up with all sorts of gods around me and my family. There was the God of the Earth, the God of War, the God of the Kitchen, the Monkey God, the Goddess of Mercy Mere and the King of Heaven. Throughout the year, special days were set aside for different celebrations and worship of these gods and goddesses. Many of these gods are represented by idols and graven or painted images. I still remember some of these gods have terrifying appearances and I did not like to look at them. Still, we worshipped these gods and ask for their favor, blessings and protection.

So when I became a Christian, I was able to relate to not making any idols and bowing down before them. I understood what it means to be an idol-worshipper. It seems that we creatures have a peculiar proclivity to replace God in our lives with an idol. Just as Augustine says, we have a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts and we are restless until it is filled with Him. While it remains void, we will continue to seek a substitute in order to fill that emptiness. Call that a search for meaning or a search for significance or a search for ultimate purpose, whatever you call it, it is a search to fill that void that only He can fill.

We chase after substitutes and if it is in the form of a graven image, or a painting that reminds us of a mythical or legendary figure that can bring us wealth, peace or safety we will bow down before that idol and devote ourselves to serving that god.

That type of idol worship may not be as powerful as what we have also identified as idolatry. That is another form of replacement for God that can be an attractive power that has a hold upon our lives. This can be anything from a past-time, a person, a thing or a passion. A more powerful, and insidious form of idolatry is the idolatry of turning God into something other than Himself. This kind of idolatry is the act of reducing God to a sub-standard image of our own mind’s creation. Rather than making a graven image with our own hands, we make this image with our mind and fixate our worshipping of the One True God, with this "god-wannabe" that we have created.

Sometimes idolatry involves seeking God’s blessings rather than God Himself. Recently at a dinner party, the friends we were with made a statement that made me raise my internal eyebrows a bit. Referring to their grown son who found a dream job with Disney, they said, "God is good to Him." Although I refused to judge them but instead try to understand what they said in the context of popular beliefs, I cannot help but wonder if our popular beliefs have been unfortunately tainted with misconceptions.

I wonder if sometimes we have the danger of attributing to God’s goodness only when we find good results in our life. When things go exceptionally well, when we are in good health and when we have that dream job or when we win that scholarship or get that sale, we say, "God blessed me" or "God is good" but when we suffer, and when we have pain, and when things go terribly wrong, we respond differently. Questioning doubts arise in us, "Why me God?" or we shake our fists against God and say, "Why couldn’t you have acted?" Or some such… We may not go through these extremes, but very seldom do we say in times like these, "God is good to us/me". Oh, we may still say, "Thank God in (or for) everything" in our more sober and spiritual moments, but we rarely respond to evil, or bad experiences with a spontaneous, "God is good to me/us."

And, that is the most dangerous form of idolatry. In his famouse sermon on idolatry, J.C. Ryle said, ‘idolatry is a worship in which the honour due to God in Trinity, and to Him only, is given to some of His creatures, or to some invention of His creatures.’ The worst form of idolatrous creation is the creation in our minds of something that is less than God. It could be a creation of some idea, or concept of God that is less than God Himself. It could be a creation of a blessing, a special gift or something that we desire from God, but as long as it is something else other than God, and it shifts the focus of our relationship with Him, it is idolatry - idolatry of the most dangerous kind.

A particularly dangerous form of such distortion and creation of a replacement for God is what is known as Biblioatry - the worship of the Bible instead of God. This is insidious and misleading, for we then replace the primacy of our relationship with God with a distorted devotion to scriptures, doctrine and "truth."

Instead of realizing that God wants us to relate to Him, that when He gave Moses the Commandments, He began by underscoring the history of who He is and what He had done for Israel, before announcing that He is their God and then going on to give the logical consequences of that relationship. "No other gods" and "no graven images" must be set against the backdrop of "I the LORD am your LORD who rescued you out of Egypt". Also, He needed to give both injunctions for we are created in His image. By nature we are creative, and if we do not harness our creativity within the context of a dynamic relationship with our Creator, we may be tempted to distort the Real by the misapplication of our creative juices.

So when we read God’s commandment against idolatry we may conjure up images of pagan idol worshippers that happens in non-Christian temples and places of worship, and say, "I am not guilty of that!" Or we might conjure up modern day replacements of divinity such as the T.V., Football, or something mundane, "worldly" and non-spiritural, and we might have this to say, "I used to be carnal but now I no longer practice such idolatrous sins." However, when confronted with the reality of the other kind of insidious idolatrous behavior is, we need to be extra careful that we don’t fall into the idolatry trap ourselves. For we may all be guilty of that sin daily and need to be vigilant against our sinful nature.

As we have seen idolatry can be that tendency to replace the focus on relationship with God with any other form of spirituality. Or it could be a frivolous seeking of His gifts, blessings and other good things, rather than an intimacy with the holy God. Or even a reduction of God to some other distortion of who He is, and the replacement of the dynamic relationship with the Trinity with a stringent adherence to a Book, even the Holy Scritpures.

When we realize the full scope and measure of idolatrous behavior we see then the need for an additional measure of His grace and mercy so that we are able to follow the admonishment of Paul to "flee from idolatry" (I Cor 10:14).