Tedward's Ramblings

Matthew 5:37 – Plain Speech

March 21, 2010 at 3:37 pm (Bible Study)

This week, my study has lead me to do things a little differently. Instead of reading through a section of scripture, I have been wrestling with a single verse. The concept really stood out as I was going through “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster. In the book chapter 6 deals with the discipline of simplicity, and Foster’s eighth guiding principle for simplicity is to “obey Jesus’ instruction about plain, honest speech.”  He references Matthew 5:37 and continues to explain how plain honest speech is uncommon in this day and age because we often fear what others think, and want the freedom that modern speech allows to change our “yes” for a “no”, or vice-versa. This got me thinking, ALOT. This whole chapter in Foster’s book was difficult for me to read at time, and I plan to write more on that at a later date, but this section stuck out because I have grown up with a tendency to embellish the truth.

I do not know when it started, or how it got out of control for me, but far too often I want to add to my story, or to a story I am telling to make me sound better, look cooler, be more important, or to seem to relate better to others.  I say that I want to do this because the majority of the time that is all it is a thought. Those times where I do not keep myself from speaking out can be very difficult for me. I feel like a failure for speaking them, and then I worry about “what if they find out?” To overcome my desire to speak these half-truths, or embellished personal histories I am setting in place a single rule that will help keep me in check (I had to edit this because the first time I wrote this I wanted to write it as if I already did this). “If I tell someone something that did not happen, I need to apologies to them, and explain what I did, made something up, lied(embellish the truth or whatever other nicer label you want to put on it), and then I have to continue to talk to the person and honestly answer any questions they have. For the record, this is extremely embarrassing to think about having to do, let alone actually doing it. I think this rule will keep me better in check, if I am honest enough with myself and with those I talk with to do this.

I know some people will ask me why I am doing this, the best answer I can give you is that God has called me to let my “yes” be “yes” and my “no” be “no”, and I cannot do that if anything in between is a lie or fabrication. Also, I can be very frank and open about my thoughts and feelings with some friends, and I am happy to say that I have added the least amount in my conversations with them, but I need to be more open and honest with myself about what I am doing and why.

I have some friends who might read this post and wonder what I have told them is true and what is not. All I can say is that I promise nothing major I have told you is fabricated, and if I discover through talking with you that I have misinformed you about something I will let you know. You are people that are closer friends, and I am sorry for any hardship this might cause.

I know that I have some people in my life that may or may not read this post that will not care at all if I added details, or made myself look better when talking with them about life, they do it themselves, because "everyone does it". They will not care, and I am not worried about going back to right anything I have misinformed them about, but with God’s help and strength I will not do that in the future.

To  those who are closest to me, or who I hope will eventually be very close to me, to you I want to right all miscommunications. They are not your fault, they are mine, mostly due to my own insecurity and desire to be “cooler” to you. From here out I have to ask a favor of you, help keep me honest. I plan to come clean with you, but it scares me and the idea of admitting I made up an event or conversation makes me queasy. I want to die of embarrassment that I would make up a stupid story when my life is full of so many great stories inspired and orchestrated by God.

That is the last part, realizing that by adding these details, and these fictitious encounters to my life’s history I am saying to God that I don’t think you have given me enough, you haven’t made my life interesting enough. That is not the case at all, but that is what I feel that I am doing. I do not know if this post will ever see the light of day, it very well may not, the idea of posting this and making it public scares me and makes me worry about having to be good on my vow to tell the truth or come clean.

P.S. I sit here over 24 hours since I originally wrote this post, while part of me doesn’t want to post this because I will have to answer questions about it,a far greater part of me realizes that I need to post this to be asked the tough questions. So, I have decided to post this and deal with the aftermath as it comes.

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1 Peter 3:8-17

March 13, 2010 at 11:01 pm (Bible Study)

I found reading and studying a single chunk of the Bible like this to be a lot more difficult than I expected.  Did I read through 1 Peter 3:8-22 multiple times, in different translations? Yes. Did I read through it every day? No. I found it difficult to make the time daily to read through and study this after work. In the morning I was consistent with my daily reading plan, but to set apart time to really dg into God’s Word , I was at best inconsistent.  However, I did get some good study in during the days that I did read this section of scripture. But, I realize I need to be more purposeful about this study. Because of this I am starting to read through How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stewart, again. My goal in reading this is to be better able to dig into God’s Word and share what I am learning from my studies. Ok, time to discuss what I took form my study this week.

Peter opens this section encouraging the believers to come together and be of one mind, through sympathy, love for each other, and a humble spirit. I can relate well to this section because of past experiences with my close friend Joe. Joe is an amazing Catholic youth pastor. Joe and I went to high school and Boy Scouts together, and we grew to be good friends. However, we would frequently “discuss” the differences in our faiths and some of these became rather heated at times, admittedly this was my fault many times. Now, as we both matured these arguments have subsided. I can not speak for Joe, but I know a big part for me was growing spiritually and realizing I needed to celebrate our common faith, what C.S. Lewis calls Meer Christianity, and to not focus on those insular beliefs that caused strife.

Peter then speaks to the believers and instructs them not to be hateful and insult people just because they are hateful and insult you. He goes so far as to call on us as believers to BLESS the people who are hateful and insult us. I know I need the Holy Spirit to do more work in me because my first reaction to this is to throw up my hands and say “What, you want me to bless the jerks who are hateful and insult me?” I continued to read through this, and consider this teaching in context of Jesus, his life and ministry. Jesus often did this, and one of the best examples I can think of is as he is being taken to the high priests house. Judas betrays Jesus, and the high priests thugs move in to capture Jesus. The gospel of John tells us that it was Simon Peter, the author of 1 Peter who took out his sword and cut off the ear of one of those who came to capture Jesus. Then in Luke we see Christ bless one who came to capture him and lead him to his death.

Luke 22:51  But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him.

Jesus knew he was being led away to be killed, he knew that he would be abused and tortured by these men and the Roman guards to come. Yet, he sees a moment to reach out and bless one of his captors, and he dose it, by healing their ear that was cut off by one of his followers. I know that goes against our culture today, and I have to imagine that it went against the norm even back in Jesus’ day. This challenges me, and makes me thoughtfully examine how I treat those who are hateful and insult me. How do you respond when insulted?

Peter moves on to say not only should we bless those people who insult and hate us, but if we want to love life, and be happy we need to stop saying cruel things and quit telling lies. I have a lot to say on this one, but for now I want to remind you

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

for a list of other scripture verses regarding our tongue look here.

When reading verse 14 all I can think of right now was a previous series we did at North Way called Fearless. Verse 14 calls out to me and challenges me to be fearless. "Peter tells us not to worry about what people might do, and to stop being afraid, do good things to glorify God regardless. For me this is a call to not be ashamed as well. I should not be hesitant to proclaim that I do not believe in sex before marriage, and because of that I will not have sex before my wedding night. I should not be ashamed to stand up for my faith, or explain why I am not swearing, or staring at women in skimpy outfits. I need to be proud of what sets me apart in Christ, but it is essential I remember what comes next in verse 15, I need to do this with gentleness and respect.

There are entire books written about Peter’s instructions in verse 15. The importance of verse 15 is so great that they have created an intelligent sounding word for it, verse 15 is about apologetics. As Christians, we each need to honor God by making Him Lord of our life, and always being prepared to give an answer to those people we know or meet who wants to know about our hope and faith. Peter warns us to do this with gentleness and respect (ESV), or meekness and fear (KJV and LIT). I have talked to people who have been turned off from Christianity because of people trying to shove their religion down someone’s throat, or by holding non believers to standards set for Christians. Christ calls us over and over again to love others, and to gently and lovingly share our faith with those we live, work, and relate with. Another important aspect of this is to keep yourself above reproach. If you do this when people falsely accuse you or slander your character you can stand back and let God defend you

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