Be Still

In moments of clarity, when all the world and everything in it ebbs away, leaving only the silent sound and presence of God, I marvel that Christ and the Christian life can have been so humanly tampered with—as if we could improve upon it—and at the same time, also be so humanly ignored.

I am amazed at how often I choose the inner world of myself over God and others.

I stand in wonderment looking out the window of the past, fat with answered prayers and God’s constant, gentle—and not so gentle—correction that saved me, at times, from some embarrassing and severe consequences, and allowed me, at other times, to experience those consequences because it was the only way I would ever learn, and thus, transform.

This is what I contemplate on this angelically-still aqua-pink morning, after waking to a pristine full moon suspended directly out my apartment window. 

Now the city, too, begins to wake. The golden light of the sun, rising opposite of the moon, surrounds the skyline in a warm burnish, the moon growing larger and a deeper yellow as it slowly sinks to the horizon. 

The words, “all is calm, all is bright” come to mind. The sereneness of God’s new day; the radiating of His rising sun and setting moon.

This new beginning of life, it happens every day. Not ever in the exact same way, but it comes. 

It is ours to birth in, over and over and over again: God’s gift of a clean slate; His amazing grace.

And in that I cease striving and am still, and know that God is God. (Psalm 46:10). 

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7



copyright Barb Harwood

Where Do People Get Their Bible?

It’s an irony I’ve never quite figured out: folks who self-identify as Christians yet don’t read the Bible.

They may go to Bible studies, church, Sunday school; they might pray to God; and they may even, at minimum, say the name of Christ in spiritual conversations. 

And yet, they can go their entire lives not knowing much about the Bible at all. 

See, when I wasn’t a Christian, I didn’t even know what a Christian was, because in my world, people never identified as Christians—they identified as Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians (In case you’re wondering why Evangelical isn’t in the list, it’s because I never even heard that word until I was 38 years old!)  

But once in a blue moon I would hear whispers through the “tsk-taking” grapevine about someone being this peculiar thing called “a Christian.” And it was never in positive terms. 

So growing up, Christian came to mean “those (always the word "those" as a precursor) Bible-thumpers, goody two-shoes, holier than thouers, and hypocrites.” 

And yet, God in His amazing grace and mercy, was, even back then with me at the ripe age of 7 or 8, instilling in me a huge curiosity for, and draw towards, these Christians, these “nuts.” 

I remember a family of Christians who lived next door to my parents’ best friend. Once in a while, members of this family would stop and chat with our friend while we were at his house. The kids were soft spoken and gentle, as were the parents. 

I remember marveling at them, mesmerized, not knowing why. But I liked them, just through observance. I wished I could know them. I wished I could be them. 

But it would be another 30 or so years before I came to understand exactly what these peculiar people were: Christians who were, in fact, not “nuts.” And I could understand what they were because now I was one, too. 

God, in those intervening years, had led me through what seemed an endless maze of New Agism, sentimentalism, platitudinal sound-bite ideology, nature worship and liberal Presbyterianism, to finally, Christ Himself. 

And God did this through His Word: through the preaching of it on Christian radio, through the modeling of it by Christians in the small town I had recently moved to and built my house in, and through the reading of the Bible.

I had begun reading the Bible about five years before I actually was born again in Christ. I read it in fits and starts, only as a “bucket list” thing to do: I loved literature and wanted to be able to have said “I read the Bible.”

It was during the perfect storm of circumstances—a perfect storm in a good way—which included the reading of Scripture, in which God reached down and sealed the deal in a lifetime of His calling on my life. And the capstone of this transformation from a dead life to a living one was the Bible.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

It is through the Bible that God ultimately called me, and through which His special revelation came to me. 

God’s natural revelation only goes so far. His creation points to Him, it isn’t Him. God is not a tree. God is not another author we revere. God is not a song—not even a hymn! 

God created the trees, the writers and the music. He is separate from what He created. God’s natural revelation always points back to Him.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

“For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen.” Romans 1:25

“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.” Acts 17:29

It is God’s special revelation—of Jesus Christ—that is only found in Scripture. That is what opens the Gospel to us. The Gospel is the light of Christ, shining in the world, and we go to Scripture to know that light. 

“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:14

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world.” Hebrews 1:1-2

It was in Antioch, on Pentecost, that people were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). 

And those Christians heard the Word through preaching, and through the reading of the Apostle’s letters and the other witnesses. 

The early writings are historically proven to be legitimate and accurate. And yet the writings in the Bible are readily dismissed by many people, frequently without taking any time to investigate further. 

It’s as if people don’t want Scripture to be true.

I’ve heard the Bible, because it contains some metaphors, described as only being metaphor. 

Same goes for poetry: because it contains poetry, people write it off as only being poetic creative writing. 

I’ve heard the Bible rejected as something worthy of being read simply because it was written by men long ago (yet people continue to read Plato’s The Republic even though a man wrote it long ago). 

I’ve heard those who look to ancient eastern mysticism for their daily dose of wisdom say that the Bible was only meant for the people who lived during that time, and therefore the Bible is no longer relevant.

Irony abounds in the discounting of Scripture.

I’ve heard people who call themselves Christians spend more time reading books about the Bible than the Bible itself. 

They believe they are “studying God’s Word” or that they are “learning about Christ.” 

And yet.  

They 

Never 

Read

the Bible. 

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’” Matthew 16:24-26

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4

This is the key point: we can decide what we want to decide, and we can be sincere in that, but we can be sincerely wrong (as someone somewhere once said).

And if we call ourselves Christians, that must stand for something, and it does—it stands for a person, the Christ we meet and come to know in the Holy Scriptures. 

The Bible is the Book of Christ—Old and New Testaments. 

That is where we meet Him, that is where we grow in the knowledge of Him and that is where we learn to die to self and are taught how to “make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy” (Hebrews 12:14).

And if we don’t like that, if we don’t like what “Christian” stands for, then we have all the freedom in the world to call ourselves by a different name.

So to answer the question in the title of this post: Where do people get their Bible?

Some get it from their own inner selfish desires, their sentimental sensibilities, their shallow definition of love, their worldly context of peace, and their fleshly desire to continue to live according to their own parameters. 

Or, from intellectualism, from numerous books other than the Bible, and from the latest zeitgeist craze.

Some get it from their pastor, priest or Bible study leader.

But that isn’t the Bible, and no matter how hard they try, it will never be the Bible.

Just as the emergent church is suddenly no where to be found, faded into the background like all the other faddish pop-ups of faith that came before, today’s current spiritual hit playing at the top of the charts will soon be displaced. 

Thankfully, there are those who receive the Bible directly from the Bible.

I know of a young American man, in a place he cannot disclose (although it is always warm there), who literally is sweating out the translation of God’s Holy Word in order that people who do not yet have the Bible in their own language can read it, cherish it and find new life in it. 

He is working with teams of people from within these people groups: men and women who God brought to Christ through missionaries, or the reading of Scripture in a language they could understand because they are bi-lingual. 

And these people are helping this young man translate the Bible so that the Bible can become their people group’s Bible too. They translate so others can find the freedom that the Gospel—the Good News of Jesus Christ—brings. 

These translators do this often at risk of their very lives. But they do it, because they know there are things worse than physical death: and that is, a living death that goes on and on and on without Christ—Christ, who willingly went to the Cross for us, so that we could have new life here on earth, and in heaven forever (Philippians 2:6-8). 

I watch these people work via email updates and photos with faces blotted out for their own protection, and I thank God for their love of the Word; that there are still people who love God’s Word, and read it and want others to read it and will go to unbelievable lengths to make that happen. 

I thank God for His Word spreading out over the globe in every tongue amongst every people, bringing life to whomever it touches in the Spirit of Christ. 

And I’m overjoyed that they will be receiving their Bible from the Bible—from God, the Word, Himself. 

copyright Barb Harwood

“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16

God's House is Not a Building

God's "house" or "church" is generally defined and accepted by almost everyone as being a building.

Sometimes people will understand the "church" to be more than a building: I have heard it described as "the ecclesia, the gathering." But this limits it to "the gathering" in a place, as if, once that gathering disperses, the "church" also disperses: it does not go out into the world, but stays put as the physical stone structure that it is, or as the woodsy outdoor chapel, and sits and waits to become the "church" again next Sunday.

I have often heard pastors in the pulpit (or on the stage, as it may be) say "God is in this place," as if God isn't in that place or in our place: our home, apartment, condo, school, office, mini van, SUV, camper (I think we get the picture).

Many people are under the impression, and will even say, that they "go to church."

But in reality, the church comes to us in the form of the Holy Spirit of Christ (hence, Pentecost).

To understand this, we must have a right comprehension of "ecclesia."

This word, in my experience (and as I mentioned above), has always been explained as meaning "the gathered; the church." But deeper investigation reveals that "ecclesia" actually means that we bring church with us wherever we go, because we are the church, all the time. And when anyone engages with us, they engage with the church too.

“…the word 'ecclesia' is a combination of 2 words: meaning (literally) out of from inside of and called. Thus, it is a reference to the body of Christ which is made up of people who are called out of this world into Him. Thus, ‘church’ is a reference to PEOPLE rather than a PLACE or a building.”

John Oakes, writing on his website, Evidence for Christianity

David Pawson, writing in his A Commentary on Hebrews, applies this to the word "house" as well:

"When we say 'God's house' we are not referring to a building of bricks and mortar, timber or stone. We are referring to people, as we talk about the royal family; our Queen is of the 'house' of Windsor... the word 'house' (in the Old Testament) means the house of Israel; the household; the family. So Hebrews is saying that Moses was part of the house, part of that which was built, whereas Jesus was the one who built that which was built, and inhabits that which was built, and lives in his people. Hebrews says, 'You are that house' and this is one of the most exciting thoughts. I once tried to get across this meaning to a Sunday school class. To test the children to see if they understood, I said, 'If somebody asks you tomorrow morning where is the church, the house of God, what will you say?' A little girl replied, 'I will say I'm it.'" 

Where does Pawson draw this conclusion from? Scripture itself:

"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all his house. For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house--whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." Hebrews 3:1-6

A physical church building (be it an actual church with a spire, or a high school gymnasium, movie theater or outdoor chapel), is simply a place where God's house is brought to.

The church, the house of God, ecclesia in its true form, is everywhere at all times in each person who confesses, and lives out, Christ as Savior.


copyright Barb Harwood



"David found favor in God's sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:
'HEAVEN IS MY THRONE,
AND EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET;
WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?' says the Lord,
OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REPOSE?
WAS IT NOT MY HAND WHICH MADE ALL THESE THINGS?'" Acts 7:46-50

"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.' Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man." Acts 17:24-29

Wisdom is Sincere

And now we arrive at the final quality of wisdom listed in James 3:17: sincerity.

Wisdom is sincere.

The New International Standard Bible states it this way: “without hypocrisy.”

The dictionary defines “sincere” as: 

“free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness; earnest,” “genuine; real,” “unadulterated.”

The dictionary defines “hypocrisy” as:

“a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc. that one does not really possess.” 

A second definition is this: “a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.”

So within Christianity, then, one can be a hypocrite by pretending to hold to the tenets of the faith while not having fully submitted to them through salvation in Jesus Christ. 

Or, one can be fully saved in Christ, but, yet being a sinner, appear to be a hypocrite when in fact they have failed in that instance of being a Christian. 

In other words, they are sincere in their attempt to live out what they believe, but have tripped.

The thing it has taken me a long time to fathom and come to terms with, is this: 

1. We can’t expect non-Christians—even church-going ones—to act like Christians.

2. Christians, especially ones who have just begun reading the Bible and learning what it is to live Christ—to not just believe in Christ but to live Christ—will always appear as hypocrites when we fail. And since we continue to learn and grow in the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout our lives, we will continue, at times, to appear to live in hypocrisy. 

And so two things result from the above two facts:

Since we can’t expect non-Christians to act or think like Christians, we need to stop expecting them to! That is one aspect of being wise!

And secondly, just because we as Christians appear as hypocrites, doesn’t mean we are hypocrites. 

Let’s look at the dictionary definition again:

“A pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.”

If we have a true salvation in Christ, we possess the mind of Christ, and everything attenuated with that:

“But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).

The problem isn’t pretense, if we have truly repented and accepted the forgiveness of Christ and died to our old self and risen with Christ in new life—the difficulty is that we have to begin that new life not knowing in advance how to do it perfectly. 

In short, we were sinners when we were saved and we continue to be sinners. However, the expectation—the command and will of God—is that we “run the race” toward spiritual maturity:

“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

This is Christian sincerity often misconstrued as hypocrisy by the non-believing world: as we are running the race we are bound to fall short. 

People in the world simply cannot comprehend this without the Spirit of Christ to lead them:

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

So then, we don’t pay the world’s accusations any mind. Instead, we just keep running the race:

“…let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1b-2).

When people snicker or turn awkward—or even judge us hypocrites—at our being Christians, we hold our pearls close and worship God right then and there, calling out to God in our hearts, 

“‘I love You, O LORD, my strength.’ The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:1-2).

The other alternative is to become consumed with defensiveness about being “hypocrites,” which only plays into the hands of Satan, the one who is named in the Bible as our accuser. He uses other people to do his earthly accusing so that we are made to feel bad about being Christians. Sometimes it is this feeling bad that leads us into the other definition of “hypocrisy:”

“a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.”

By worrying about what other people think of us, be they Christian or not, we are in dire danger of falling into the hypocrisy of jettisoning some of our knowledge of the Lord and His precepts because we desire to be approved by the world more than by God. 

This is what having an idol before God is, which Scripture clearly forbids, for our own good:

“You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).

Sin committed as a sincerely devoted child of God is not hypocrisy because we are not operating out of pretense; we are operating out of a fallenness that follows us into sincerely held salvation. We may not understand our sin until, over time, as we mature, God reveals it to us. Hence David’s plea to God:

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. 

Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins;

Let them not rule over me;

Then I will be blameless,

And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:12-14).

There is a hypocrisy which is indeed a hypocrisy for Christians because it is knowingly—with our full approval—turning our back on Christ while still professing Christ. I believe this is what David means by "presumptuous" sins.

Jesus says, in Matthew 15:7-9:

“You hypocrites, right did Isaiah prophesy of you:

‘This people honors Me with their lips, 

But their heart is far away from Me.

But in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”

In the end, there are two aspects of hypocrisy: in the one we are falsely accused by the public of hypocrisy.

In the other, we are accurately informed by God of hypocrisy. 

In all of it, then, we answer only to God. 

Sincerity, then, is not something we drum up on our own out of our own good intentions. As we have seen, it is quite a struggle to maintain sincerity as an underlying foundation. But duke it out we must, and win, in order to traverse to the full measure of Christ. 

One of the best verses that I feel encourages an attitude of sincerity is this:

“Then David the king went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, ‘Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?’” (2 Samuel 7:18).

Gratefulness towards others, towards our victories in Christ, and always towards God in Christ, is an unwavering element of sincerity. 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).

Copyright Barb Harwood