What Is the Bible?

We continue our occasional series answering questions about the Christian faith for all who are curious and/or seeking a faith of their own. Today, we delve into the Bible, that library of 66 books covering multiple genres (including Law, History, Wisdom, Poetry, Gospel, Epistles, Prophecy, and Apocalyptic Literature) that is the foundational document of our faith. This will be a fairly long blog post as the Bible is many things.

• • The Bible, comprised of the Old and New Testament canons, is at the core of Christian belief.
  • Through the scriptures, God speaks to us most directly.
  • At times a passage, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, will speak to us in a way it never has before.
  • Reading and rereading scripture also provides valuable insights as to our place in God’s plan.
  • With these insights, we are changed from individuals seeking our personal interests into God’s servants, more concerned with our neighbors than ourselves. 
   Is that all?
  • No, there's more ...
  • It is through Scripture we learn most fully who God is and what God has done in the long history of humanity.
  • In the Old Testament, we learn God created from the small tribe of Israel a missionary people destined to show what it means to be followers of the one true God and to strive to honor God in both actions and beliefs.
  • In the New Testament, we learn of God’s great mercy and saving grace from the narrative of Jesus’ entry into human history. We learn of Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
  • In the New Testament, we also gain an understanding of the struggles of the early Christian church and the ultimate destiny of humanity.
  • God’s revelation of God’s-self through the written Word. 
  • Through Jesus we best know God and through the Bible we best know Jesus.
  • The Bible must be used in its entirety to be understood well ... both Old and New Testaments are needed. 
  • God is moving throughout the Bible, from beginning to end. John opens by telling us Jesus “the Word” was there at the beginning and everything was created through Jesus. God’s Holy Spirit makes an appearance in creation, guides Jesus through his life, and upon Jesus’ ascension begins the Christian church by filling the apostles with Spirit. The Holy Spirit also inspired every Bible writer. Today, through Scripture we know we all have access to the same Spirit, to salvation through Jesus, and to God the creator who is personal and continues to work in our lives. All of this is captured in Scripture.   
  I've heard some Bible texts are contradictory to each other. Is that true? No, and here's why:
  
  • Each and every author in the Bible is writing for a particular people in a particular time facing a particular set of issues.
  • No two authors will ever approach the same material in the same way.
  • Each will choose to stress different aspects of a story to make the point that author needs to make for that author’s particular readership.
  • Also, each author will speak in the language and using the references of his/her age. 
  Finally, the Bible is a miracle.

• The chief archaeologist of Colonial Williamsburg for many years, Ivor Noel Hume, states that 90% of everything created by humanity in the last 300 years has been destroyed. In that light, the Bible, whose first books were written roughly 4000 years ago (c. 2000 BC), have survived against staggering odds. That is miraculous.

Weekly Bible Verses: Acts 17:22-31: The Unknown God

Acts 17:²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Prayers for All Who Suffer

In these troubled times, our prayers go out to all who are suffering from disasters, natural and of human origins. We stand with you in your suffering.

Father of Our Missionary Reflects

As the “Father of the Bride”, I have been largely pleased with what my “little pizza pie” (my favorite name for Sue  when she was a baby) has accomplished in Cuba under the direction of the Holy Spirit.  Often working under pressure and in adverse circumstances because of numerous inconveniences and lack of communication tools, along with the poor mode of travel to get where you want to go, she has done well.

Leading a group of Christian writers and editorial workers in producing Sunday School and youth materials despite the foregoing handicaps has been a challenge but greatly rewarding.  This important project has been highly successful because lessons written by another country just don’t fit the need, because of the differences in culture.  Even getting the lessons printed has been a problem because of the lack of resources there. 

Her other contribution to the Christian cause has been off-and-on teaching at the Seminary.  Besides teaching courses in Christian Education, she has taught a number of courses on Greek, a real challenge to students with little experience studying other languages.  Reports we have gotten from the academic and theological community have given high praise for her work there…..and all of this while carrying out the role of a pastor’s wife and a mother in the home. 

Please continue to pray for her future involvement in ministry, and if you are led to give regularly, please do so!

--Dean Hegarty

Summer Hours for Worship at ECBC

Sunday school: 9:00 AM

Sunday worship will begin at 10:00 AM effective June 19.

We will return to our Fall/Winter schedule effective September 11.

All are invited to come and worship with us.

Summer Sunday School Offerings for Adults: All Are Welcome

Effective June 19, Adult Sunday School will begin at 9:00AM for a 50 minute class.  Two different classes will be offered:

Class A – Fundamental practices of the Christian faith.  Prayer, scripture study, church membership, outreach and how they are contrasted with those of other faiths. 

Class B – A study of Old and New Testament verses.  

Come and join these summer explorations of the Christian faith.

Press Release: New Pastor Called to ECBC

On May 1, 2011, the congregation of Exton Community Baptist Church, Exton, PA called Joseph T. Sum to serve as their pastor beginning August 1, 2011.

Pastor Sum received his Master of Divinity from Palmer Theological Seminary in May 2010. He also earned a Master of Education from Eastern University. For the past three years, he has served in local church ministry in mainline Philadelphia. Previously, he served for several years as Missionary in Residence for the American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire. Pastor Sum was born in Myanmar (formerly Burma).

He is married to Anna, who is currently working as a nurse for a local rehabilitation and long term care center. Anna is a graduate of Eastern University with a Master of Science in Health Services.

Pastor Sum is excited to serve God with a congregation that cares deeply about being the body of Christ in the Exton community and beyond. He is committed to preaching, teaching, pastoral care, family ministry, missions and leading the congregation in their commitment to share the love of God in Jesus Christ both locally and globally. 

You are invited to join us as we welcome our new pastor ... AND every Sunday

Who Is Jesus?

No one description can adequately sum up who Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior, etc. is to the faithful. Whole books have been written on the subject, along with the Bible texts of course. However, Henri Nouwen, in this devotional book, Bread for the Journey, gives admirable insight into one facet of Jesus. On page 63, he states,

            “Jesus, the Blessed One, is gentle. Even though he speaks with great fervor and biting criticism against all forms of hypocrisy and is not afraid to attack deception, vanity, manipulation, and oppression, his heart is a gentle heart. He won’t break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick (see Matthew 12:20). He responds to people’s suffering, heals their wounds, and offers courage to the fainthearted.

            Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, and freedom to prisoners (see Luke 4:18-19) in all he says, and thus he reveals God’s immense compassion. As his followers, we are called to the same gentleness.”

Christians are to follow Jesus' example, approaching the world with Jesus' gentle heart. 

Praying for Others, Healing Yourself

These days everyone seems to be angry. Every slight against us is held as a grudge. Tempers are on short fuses and violence is often the result. If you want to take yourself out of this spiral of resentment, grudge, and anger ... often impotent anger ... there is one thing you can do that is known to work.

Pray for the person who has provoked you. [If someone is intent on harming you, take proactive measures to keep that individual from doing so first.] Prayer is a powerful tool, for the provocateur ... and, counter-intuitive though it may seem, for you. Pray regularly for this individual (or group). In time [patience is required], this prayer for others will slowly, slowly heal you. Your anger will bleed away as you pray for the improvement of the other person. In time you will find yourself at peace and free to move on with your life in a way the grudge holder never will. Carrying all that anger around hurts you, badly. Pray for that aggravating individual in your life, pray for his or her healing, for his or her coming in right relationship with you and the world. Free yourself. God loves you and that is the life, the free life, God intends for you. It is the life God intends for us all.

Good luck. Start praying now.

Weekly Bible Verses: 1 Peter 2:2-10: You Have Received Mercy

1 Peter: ²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
⁴Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” ⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” ⁸and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. ⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Weekly Bible Verses: Psalm 116: I Love the Lord

Psalm 116: ¹I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
²Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
³The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
⁴Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”
⁵Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
⁶The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.
⁷Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
⁸For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
⁹I walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
¹⁰I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”;
¹¹I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar.”
¹²What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?
¹³I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,
¹⁴I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
¹⁵Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
¹⁶O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
¹⁷I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord.
¹⁸I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
¹⁹in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

Weekly Bible Verses: 1 Peter 1:3-9: Blessed Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

1Peter 1: ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
⁶In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, ⁷so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

Exciting Day In the Life of ECBC

Today pastoral candidate Joseph Sum will give a sermon to the entire congregation, deliver communion, and then step out of the room. In his absence the congregation will vote on whether Pastor Sum should be ECBC's new pastor. We had an opportunity to meet with Joseph and his wife Anna yesterday and the meeting was a delight. In a few hours, God's will in this matter will be revealed. This is an exciting day, indeed. Listen well and vote, ECBCer's!