Above is a pic of my youngest daughter and me.
My Husband, My brother in Christ
...and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
When we read the Bible to our family during dinner, and decide to read it word for word, there are certain passages that I seriously think about skipping. Not because I am trying to skip it because I disagree with it, but because it will make me uncomfortable having to answer the questions that my 6 children, ages 5 to 14 will inevitably ask.
We are reading through the book of Judges right now. It was interesting to read chapter 1, verses 6 and 7:
Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. Then Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. --Judges 1:6, 7I heard a wave of yucks, eeeew and why? (at least they were paying attention)
That was quite a discussion. Go find out why yourself. It really is interesting.
And then my husband read Judges Chapter 3. Verses 16-25 made me squirm. For some reason we all wondered how Veggie Tales would portray that story.
All of this made me think of systematic exposition and the preachers dedicated to preaching THE Bible itself and not just FROM the Bible (maybe not even from the Bible nowadays). Wouldn't the biggest challenge with expository preaching come when a pastor gets to a passage that might be uncomfortable or not so popular to preach on? How can one be clever or culturally relevant with a passage like I Corinthians 6:8-10? Pretty straight-forward there.
It isn’t about, “Wasn’t that a great sermon?” It isn’t about, “Wasn’t that a great outline? Wasn’t that clever?” It’s always about, “What did the Word of God say?” And that makes it truly authoritative, because the Word is from God. No other preaching paradigm does this.--John MacArthur: Expository Preaching in a Postmodern World
Consider reading THIS POST. He writes, "A chief way to avoid browbeating or lording it over a flock illegitimately is simply to lay your cards on the table, and let the case stand on the evidence." I think when a preacher lays all his cards out on the table, it exemplifies a systematic exposition of the Scriptures he is preaching on. Here is an excerpt that really stood out to me:
...I'll utilize the fruits of my training to illustrate, underline, add color and focus.... The training is a tool to use for my own understanding, and to help my hearers. It isn't a meat chub.The honest and honoring approach to preaching is to lay it out for the priesthood to see. Make your case from facts in evidence. Lay out the texts, and look at them with your hearers. You're like an expert guide in an art museum, pointing out minute touches and flourishes — but as soon as you point them out, your audience sees them too! You aren't saying, "This is invisible to all eyes but mine, so you simply must trust me." Instead, you observe, "Maybe you didn't notice this stroke, this figure in the shadows, this perspective; but here's what that signifies."
