The crowds in Jerusalem were huge and festive, and they were clamoring to get close to Jesus. Day in and day out during the great Festival of Tabernacles, Jesus taught those who were listening. Consider carefully one of His most significant points:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31).

If being a follower of Christ involves having for Him a love so vast that love for anyone else seems like loathing, then the place where this love is shaped is in the Word of God. Spending time in the Scriptures is a chief mark of a disciple. And as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:17, it helps you “be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Wouldn’t we all like to be competent and equipped for every good work? The natural question, of course, is “How?” And the answer is much simpler than you might expect. Ponder these helpful suggestions.

First, get a helpful translation of the Scriptures. The New International Version (NIV) is a good translation that, while faithful to the original languages, offers a helpful flow for readability. The New American Standard (NAS) is recognized as probably the most literal translation of the Hebrew and Greek texts, and for this is preferred among many serious Bible students. Also laudable is the New Living Translation (NLT). I use all of these in my studying, but the one I favor above them all, and from which I do nearly all of my teaching and preaching, is the English Standard Version (ESV). It is an excellent blend between the readable NIV and the literal NAS. Regardless, a good version is important. One with wide-margins for personal notes and anecdotes helps too!

Secondly, make a daily habit of reading your Bible. Consider reading three chapters a day. If you started with Genesis and average three chapters a day you can easily read the Bible in an entire year. Give it a try!

Thirdly, while reading the entire Bible in a year is a worthwhile goal, don’t box yourself in. The most important goal is knowing God better. If you come to a point at which you need to stop to prayerfully scrutinize the ramifications of a particular truth, then, well, stop. In my own personal Bible reading this is what I am doing right now, and I find it to be immensely helpful during this season of my life.

Jesus uses the word “abide” intentionally. It means to accept or submit . . . to endure or continue . . . to remain. A committed disciple abides in the Scriptures. That is what helps him or her to follow Christ valiantly, joyfully and with impact.

Will you do that?

I’m totally pumped about the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit being hosted here at Bethel Church August 5-6, 2010. Tony Dungy, Jim Collins, Jack Welch, Andy Stanley, and many other world-class leaders will be speaking into the elevation of excellent leadership in a culture that is desperate for authentic and quality leaders. You’ve absolutely GOT TO COME to this two-day video-simulcast.

Register Right Now for the Bethel Church site! (click here to find a site near you)

This timely and inspiring event is an absolute must for you and any team with which you participate regularly. It has helped transform the leadership culture of Bethel Church, and countless other organizations around the world that participate. And, as importantly, it has inspired individuals from all walks of life to (re)discover their passions while discerning how those passions can be given shape by the life and legacy of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 46 offers a timely presentation of facts that encourage us though “the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea” (v. 2). When flood-weary communities are seeking to rally themselves to once again throw sandbags you and I must not forget what the sons of Korah penned in this great song.

Take time and read through Psalm 46. When you do you will identify some needful thoughts for the soul. First, one is reminded that God is ever-present. The psalmist states clearly, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (v. 1). Also, verse 7 offers, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” God is involved in the here and now. He has not withdrawn. He is not reclusive. He is every bit as occupied with our current circumstances as He was with Israel’s liberation from Egypt or Jonah and the fish. Do you believe this? Have you bought into the theme of the old Bette Midler song that declares, “From a distance, God is watching us”? He certainly is not looking onward from a distance.

A second thing with which to grapple is that God controls all things by His word. Nothing escapes His attention. The psalmist writes, “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts His voice, the earth melts” (v. 6). So much time and energy is spent on what man should do and can do, and yet in the end it is the God of Heaven and Earth who ordains all things. The writer of Proverbs says clearly in Proverbs 16:9, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Thirdly, the Lord brings about peace. The psalmist writes in Psalm 46:9, “The Lord makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.” The peace that our world constantly cries for will only come by the hand of the Almighty. The same is true for the peace that my heart longs for. In another psalm it is said, “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength” (Psalm 33:16). Only the Lord saves, and therefore, only the Lord wrings peace out of the community that is broken and weary. He may use us and our leaders for this task. But it is ultimately His task.

Because God is ever-present, because His word rules over all, because He is the One who brings about ultimate peace, we can and must “be still and know that [He] is God” (46:10). Great as we are, our people and leaders are not God. Worthy as a given effort may be, the effort itself cannot replace God. We pray and support and encourage and hope for the very best of things to transpire, but in the end there is only one God—the maker of Heaven and Earth, who holds all things in the palm of His hand.

Including our community.

And the rivers.

And you.

In his book entitled,  An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives,Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen referred to the church as the altera civitas, that is, the other city, an idea in which the church is “an alternate community ready to challenge prevailing assumptions about the way of life and beliefs.”

To be such a unique city, to be the altera civitas, there must be a standard by which it may be realized, and the premier standard for a definitive and impacting community is the Triune God. Because God is Community, and particularly Community on a mission, whatever qualities that could make the altera civitas special are found with him. Three of those qualities, or what I would call core values, are authenticity, accountability andavailability. For our purposes now, consider that first one carefully: the quality of authenticity, or being real.

To own this particular core value is to own undisputed credibility. Latent within authenticity is the notion of genuineness; even integrity. Whatever person or thing is said to be authentic is utterly true. Such words perfectly describe the Trinity. Consider, for example, Isaiah 65:16, which twice references God as “the God of truth.” Or, consider Romans 15:8, wherein one reads of Jesus becoming a servant “to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.” Furthermore, 1 John 5:6 declares that the “Spirit is the truth.” These select passages reveal the Persons of the Trinity as ones with undisputed credibility. God is true.

With God being true, it is thus obligatory for the church to be such—true to itself, true to God, and true to the world within which it resides. The only way in which the church can be the altera civitas is for it to courageously yet humbly challenge the prevailing beliefs and mores of time and space. It is the church’s radical commitment to truth wherein this challenge is put forward, for this readily distinguishes it from a world perceiving that the only absolute is that there are no absolutes. Adhering to God’s pattern of authenticity is the starting place for such a radical commitment. One prominent way in which the church can practically do this is by harmonizing the reality of its existence in a broken and sinful world with its identity in the person and work of a once-suffering and now resurrected Jesus Christ, who, being true, or genuine, therefore invites the church to be so real. Reaching out as servants to the disenfranchised within a given church’s neighborhood is one example of this, for it replicates the intentionality of our Lord Jesus who, for example, intentionally sought out the man at the Pool of Bethesda in order to heal him (John 5:1-17).

As such harmonization takes place, those passing by the altera civitas will have to deal with the compelling (though, perhaps at times repulsive) reality that the God/Man, Jesus, is genuinely on display, in real time, by redeemed rebels . By dealing with him they are then forced to reckon with all that Jesus Christ represents. They may choose to keep going, or they may choose to enter into the city. But as the altera civitas is the true portrait of the Incarnate God before whom all will one day bow (Philippians 2:10), they will make a decision. And it is the authenticity of those displaying Jesus that rightly creates this tension, as well as the correlated invitation for all passers-by to come.