I often find inspiration for writing on Twitter. I came across this tweet by Allie Stuckey, and found that the truth of what she spoke needed greater expounding. There are many ways to read the Bible. Some people read it sarcastically. They seek to disprove or find fault. Some people read it for perspective. They just want to see what it says, for comparative reasons. It almost goes without saying, that people read God’s word in order to fit their own narrative. It’s most often for political or self promoting reasons. And then there are those who read the bible to seek truth and understanding. These people have the best of intentions. However Allie Stuckey correctly points out two schools of thought within this broad category.

I think it’s dangerous to read the Bible as if it’s primarily about us. It’s not. It’s about God. It’s what we learn about HIM—his goodness, faithfulness and power—that benefits and changes us. Focusing on ourselves doesn’t lead to sanctification; focusing on Christ does.

— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) August 9, 2018

Motivational Quotes

One can read the Bible for themselves. What exactly does that look like? Allow me to provide a stereotypical example:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 NASB

This verse is taken out of context for self empowerment everywhere. But if asked to explain the context of this verse, how many could fully articulate the verse they flaunt on their Twitter and Instagram bios.

10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. 14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. in my affliction.

Philippians 4:10-14 NASB

This is a very empowering passage, but the hyper-focus on verse 13 takes away from the previous climax in verse 11. This passage is about being happy in times of suffering, living with joy in all circumstances because of the transforming power of Jesus. This isn’t about your workout grind.

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

This is another verse often read with one thinking of themselves and not God. The context of this verse is almost sad. The only thing prevents this from being sad is the fact that the king and his people refused God. The Israelites had fallen and were about to enter into captivity. Yet Jeremiah prophesies a hope for the future which includes the destruction of Babylon. But the context of this verse is God’s wrath.

Taking verses out of context leads to a very superficial understanding of the bible. It is the direct result of reading the bible and misunderstanding its primary subject. The bible isn’t made to be picked apart for motivational quotes. Instead the bible is a much more powerful story about God’s search and rescue for man.

Every Page is About God

I like how a lot of churches are emphasizing the continuous and unified message of the bible. Indeed, the Gospel message is not limited to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus is the story all along the way. He is first prophesied in Eden, and He comes back in Revelation. The book of Ester is perhaps the least theological book of all the bible, yet the masterful plan can still be seen. When Ester learns of Haman’s plot to kill the Jews, out of faith in God’s plan Mordecai points out that God will not let His people be destroyed.

13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

Ester 4:13-14 NASB

We should read the bible in order to find a deeper understanding of God. It is not a contradiction to turn to scripture in order to seek answers to prayers or receive strength in the face of temptation. For in these purposes, the focus is on God and not one’s self. Another word for this would be meditation.

Reactions and Discussion

This is what bothers me with the modern western version of encouragement. It’s all about making us feel good. We should be encouraged by focusing on Christ.

— Brian Moore (@moorekb98) August 9, 2018

Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life.. first line "It's not about you."

— KLAID (@maddgrandma) August 9, 2018

What is dangerous about reading the Bible is the false belief in 'personal interpretation.'

— Richard (@DiegoPancerni) August 9, 2018

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is the story of Jesus and how he came here to offer us salvation through grace alone.

— Beebly (@SoarMore) August 9, 2018

Timothy Keller: There’s only two ways to read the Bible. It’s either all about you and what you have to do, or it’s all about Jesus and what God has done.

— Chris Egner (@relevantbelief) August 9, 2018

Final Thoughts

The Bible is primarily about God. Many Christians often use the Bible to find motivation and encouragement. This isn’t inherently wrong, but only reading the Bible for these purposes is not a close supplement for meditation. Meditating on scripture is how one grows closer to God. In contrast, using the Bible to meditate on one’s self may start out as seeking encouragement but later lead to a mystical, or even gnostic, understanding of God. You may also be susceptible to the Prosperity Gospel which preaches daily about reading the Bible with a self-serving purpose. The Devil is well versed in scripture and without focusing on God in reading scripture, these concerns are real. With these concerns in mind, Allie Stuckey is right to call reading the Bible, thinking it is primarily about us, and not God, dangerous.

This post was originally publishd on Startup Christ. Startup Christ is a website for business and theology articles and columns.

Leftists incessantly issue lists of demands for the restriction of Liberty, It’s time to reverse the trend towards freedom.

Every ‘serious crisis’ involving firearms sees the same pattern of exploitation by the Liberty grabber Left. They immediately mount their gun confiscation hobbyhorse issuing lists of demands for restrictions on freedom. As soon as they get these new limitations, Leftists reset the rhetoric for the next go around. The pattern has always been one of compromise on behalf of the Pro-Liberty Right, only to see new demands made whenever the Left can exploit any new crisis.

Now is the time to reverse the trend of the incessant attacks on Liberty.

Millions of innocent gun owners in the country deserve a break in seeing ever tightening restrictions on their freedom because of the actions of criminals or terrorists. There are estimated to be 150 Million innocent gun owners that have upwards of 400 to 600 million firearms with trillions of rounds of ammunition. As the saying goes, if they were a problem, we would have known it by now. Despite the oft-repeated emotional argument foisted by the Liberty grabber Left, It is patently obvious that more guns in the hands of the innocent means less crime or governmental tyranny.

The past few years have seen record-setting gun sales, while that type of violence has diminished. The story has always been one of the Pro-Liberty Right compromising, while the Socialist-Left responds with new demands. It is time that they ‘gave back’ (to coin a phrase), for once they should be the ones making the making the compromises.

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” Thomas Jefferson

The degradation of Liberty should in no way be considered to be ‘progress’ or ‘progressive’. Those who claim to be ‘Liberal’ should be advocating Liberty instead of tearing it down. It should also be patently obvious that depriving the people of their means of self-defense does nothing to protect them.

Recent events here here and here, should also make it patently obvious that people will find a way to inflict violence on others. The ever-increasing limitations on Liberty pushed by people who are supposedly ‘Liberal’ on serves to make the situation far worse, with an example of an attack  in a place with severe restrictions on the possession of firearms.

Our List of Demands to reverse the trend towards Liberty.

In light of the recent ‘serious crisis’ that clearly demonstrated that Liberty Control only serves to endanger the innocent, this is our list of demands for the Conservation of Liberty.

1. Background checks should only be on the purchaser, leaving off the data on the firearm.

Ostensibly, the purpose of a Federal background check is to ‘Keep guns out of the hands’ of a laundry list of prohibited persons. So why does the 4473 form include information on the gun being purchased?

If this is supposedly only for the buyer of a gun, why do they need that information? If it is a true ‘background check’ on the purchaser, the information on the gun should be irrelevant. And yet that information is collected under tight controls, why?

Federal law “specifically forbids the government from creating a national registry of gun ownership”,  so why are they collecting that data? Unless they are lying about the purpose of the program.  It is time for the government to be finally true to it’s word, a Background check on a purchaser should just a Background check on a purchaser, nothing more.

2. The Left needs to stop wasting everyone’s time on provisions that violate the commonsense human right of self-preservation.

This includes trying to repeal or virtually rewrite the 2nd amendment based on their twisted interpretation of it’s wording. The Liberty grabber Left needs to be aware of two important points:
One, the 2nd amendment isn’t going anywhere.
Two, it only affirms the common sense human right of self-defence. This means that even if it were to carry out the Herculean task of repealing the 2nd amendment, it would have no effect.

3. Media: Stop pretending snapshot polls taken at the height of hysteria represents steady state opinions.

Any news coverage of a ‘serious crisis’ will invariably include some sort of instant poll, exploiting the raw emotion of the moment that will have ‘90%’ supporting Intergalactic Background Checks or some other restriction on Liberty. It should be obvious that a snap shot glimpse into the psyche of the moment will have wildly inaccurate results, but these are subsequently trotted out to show that ‘everyone’ wants just about every limitation on Liberty under the sun. It is also axiomatic that polls taken during normal periods that don’t exhibit the desired results will be ignored.

4. Liberty grabber Leftists need to acknowledge that background checks already exist.

Those notorious instant polls will also display the anomaly of high polling numbers on ‘background checks’. Often times this vague phraseology will be used to exploit confusion on the issue. This provides an entry for the Liberty grabber Left to interpret this to mean that just about everyone (even NRA members) are demanding Intergalactic Background Checks [Or whatever terms the Left uses to exploit this issue – enhanced, universal, etc].

In point of fact, Federal Background checks have been around for over 25 years, so when a pollster asks about ‘background checks’ many will answer in the affirmative since they know they already exist. While many on the Left will answer the same, not knowing that fact, but are desirous of even more controls on Liberty.

5. Implement the reforms on suppressors.

Despite all the research they’ve done on the subject in the movie theatres, guns with suppressors do not emit a soft ‘Phft’ with each shot. While they cut some of the noise associated with the discharge of combustion gases in the firing of a weapon, they do nothing for the mechanical noise of the cycling of the weapon or the noise emanating from the passage of the round through the air.

So while they can’t turn every handgun into a silent killer, they do protect the hearing of those practising their marksmanship as well as keep the ancillary noise level down for the neighbours of firing ranges. This is why there is no reason to restrict the sales of essentially a muffler for a firearm .

Part II will detail the rest of the items to reverse the trend away from Liberty.

A little over two months ago, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Jack Phillips, the Christian baker who refused to bake a custom wedding cake for a homosexual couple, claiming that doing so would violate his religious liberty.

The decision was hailed by evangelical Trumpservatives as a victory for religious liberty and a confirmation that their support of Donald Trump—an immoral man they believe was chosen by God to bring morality back to America—was God’s will and an answer to their prayers.

We thank God for answered prayer! Today the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex marriage ceremony. This is a huge win for religious freedom!https://t.co/jXX6pd6xaQ

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) June 4, 2018

As I and other conservatives who refused to drink the orange Kool-Aid warned at the time, the apparently lopsided victory was, in reality, a narrow decision because it failed to protect religious liberty after the question on whether the government can pass laws forcing Christians to violate their consciences in the marketplace remained unanswered.

Folks, this opinion is insanely narrow and the fight against religious liberty and the codification of rainbow jihad as the religion of the land has only begun. We need legislation pushing back. Yes, it could have been worse, but this is hardly reason to celebrate.

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) June 4, 2018

These warnings were rejected by the army of cheap grace evangelicals and Trumpservatives goose-stepping their way down the road of compromise that leads to the abyss of tyranny. Our predictions about how religious liberty was still in danger proved true yesterday in a new “bake the damn cake” case.

And believe it or not, the parties involved are, once again, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Jack Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Phillips, a transgender lawyer asked him to bake a gender transition cake—apparently mental illness and cutting off certain body parts is an occasion to throw a party—which would be pink on the inside and blue on the outside to symbolize the transformation from one gender to another. Phillips refused based on the same religious grounds as before, and bada bing, bada boom, a new discrimination case was born.

Of course, Phillips will fight this new government attack on his Christian faith in court, and the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Phillips in the prior case will defend him again.

Many evangelical Trumpservatives will feel a sense of optimism based on the Supreme Court ruling in the prior case, but they shouldn’t. After all, that ruling was essentially made irrelevant once Colorado filed new charges based on the same scenario.

In another brilliant analysis, Daniel Horowitz warns us that even the optimism being felt with the prospect of Bret Kavanaugh replacing Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court is misplaced because “victories” from the high court aren’t always as they appear. We can’t rely on the tyrannical courts to do what “we the people” need to do for ourselves.

The problem with much of the conservative movement in a nutshell: You can’t turn around a bad situation unless you fight for it, and you won’t fight for it so long as you think you’ve already won. https://t.co/9HHQ6dbzZR

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) August 15, 2018

I hate that my conservative friends and I were right about the first Masterpiece Cakeshop case, but the fact that we were needs to serve as a wakeup call to evangelical Trumpservatives. As it was in the days of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Nazi Germany, America won’t survive on her current course of lukewarm spirituality and political indifference.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

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