2018 Maryland Men of Faith: The Want of Men

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Maryland Men of Faith

Frank Hasel

Reading and Practicing Scripture with Heart and Mind

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Our faithful Father in Heaven and gracious God, I just want to invite your presence for this afternoon.

You know that we've come here to learn, to learn from you.

And we ask for your Holy Spirit that you will open our minds, that you will help me, guide me in what to say and what to present and that the things that we hear be an inspiration for each and every 1, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

So let me just briefly as a word of introduction say something about my person.

Somebody asked me earlier today, are you related to that story in that book?

Have you ever read the book A Thousand Shall Fall?

Well if not, you might want to have a look at that book.

It tells the story of my family, my father, my grandfather, during World War II in Nazi Germany.

And you can get the book at ABC or Amazon.com, you know, a thousand shall fall.

And it tells the story of my grandfather and his family during World War II.

In his unit, 1000 men, 1000 German soldiers, there were only 8 who survived World War II.

And out of those 8, there were only 3 who were never wounded.

And if you want to hear some real inspiring faith inspiring stories you go to that book but I warn you don't start reading that book at night just before you want to go to bed because once you start you will have a hard time putting it down again, right?

But you will be inspired about those stories.

I would listen to those stories with my grandmother as a little child and I just could not get enough.

And she would tell the stories and once it was finished I would say, Grandma, tell it again.

You know there are some stories that we cannot tell often enough and we should repeat them.

Well, what I would like to share with you this afternoon is something very basic.

It has to do with reading the Bible and practicing what we read, really.

And rather than talk about some abstract techniques and exegetical steps.

I want to go a little deeper and talk about some fundamental basic attitudes that I think are needed if you approach the Word of God, if you want the Word of God to be a blessing to you.

What I share with you really has grown out of that book here.

I don't know whether you know that book, Longing for God.

Just came out with Pacific Press in November last year.

And that book has grown out of my own experience of significant loss in life.

This month it has been 9 years since my wife died.

She had breast cancer and she didn't survive that.

And If you go through a significant loss in life, that's a tough 1.

And if you experience that, you can go shipwrecked in your faith.

And what I did is I practiced the things in this book and that really helped me to stay spiritually sane, even joyful.

Now if you look at the book, most of the book is empty pages.

That's why I could write it so easily, you know.

For every page, for every day in the year, you have a short passage from the Old Testament and from the New Testament, the Psalms, and you have a little space where you can write down your own thoughts that came to you while reading and studying the Bible and then on the other side for every page you have a little space for prayer requests and prayers.

And at the end of every month 12 times Throughout the year I have a short, very practical, down-to-earth chapter on prayer.

Not the kind of prayer, Lord, please give me, give me, give me, please do, do, do this and that, you know.

More meaningful, What does it really mean to pray?

And very practical suggestions for you to ponder and to experiment with.

And I also tackle some tough ones like what do you do if your prayers are not answered?

Maybe you don't have that experience but it's in there.

So if you want to get an inspiration for your own spiritual life, have a look at that book.

And at the beginning of the book I have a short chapter on reading the Bible for all it's worth.

And I would like to share a few things from there with you.

But before I do, let me tell you a story.

The story is told about a young pastor, an intern, and he was assigned to preach in a small, tiny, little country church way out in the countryside.

He'd never been to that church, he didn't know anybody in the church, nobody knew him, it was his first assignment, so he was a little nervous and excited at the same time, and he makes his way to that church, drives all the way up Country Road, Third Road, arrives at that little church, opens the door, looks around, and realizes there's no 1 there.

There's nobody there except for 1 old man in the front row.

So he's a little irritated, you know, he's a little, what shall I do now, you know.

So he musters all his courage and he goes up to the front row and he goes to that old gentleman and he says, excuse me sir, I'm, I'm, excuse me, yeah, Now I have your attention, right?

He says, I'm the preacher, I'm supposed to preach today, but I see the church is empty.

And the old man, he just graciously smiles at that young preacher, looks at him and he says, you know, he says, I'm just an old farmer.

I ain't know much about theology, but this I know, if I were to come to my farm and go to the stable and see that all the horses have run away, except for 1, I would still give him something to eat.

So the young pastor, he's all encouraged, he goes to the pulpit and he just preaches.

He preaches his heart out, he preaches everything he's learned in seminary, just preaches the sermon of his life and is all excited.

And at the end of his long sermon he stands at the door to greet, to say goodbye to his 1 audience, 1 man audience, and of course he's curious, he would like to know, how did I do?

So he says to the old farmer, he says, well, how did you like my sermon?

And the old farmer, he just graciously smiles at the young man, and he says, you know, I'm just an old farmer.

I don't know much about theology, but this I know.

If I were to come to my farm and go to the stable and see that all the horses have run away except for 1, I would still give him something to eat, but I wouldn't feed him everything at once.

Gentlemen, there is wisdom in this old man, so I will not feed you everything at once this afternoon, all right?

What we talk about is a vast, broad subject and we'll just touch on a few important things that I think are well worth to reflect for all of us and to learn.

But it's not everything that could be said about this.

So when I talk about these important attitudes towards scripture, I would like to start with 1 that I think is essential and absolutely important as we start, as anybody starts to approach the Bible.

And I would call that, if I may use this old-fashioned thing here, you know, I don't have any PowerPoint.

For me this is the power word, you know, there's power in the word.

So here's the first fundamental attitude.

See the Bible is not a book that just wants to be studied.

The Bible is not just a book that wants to be understood.

The message of the Bible wants to be embraced.

And for that to happen, you need to approach the Bible with a certain attitude, with a certain perspective.

And these are the most basic things about which we are talking now.

And 1 of the most fundamental is what I call All those in the first row have an advantage, okay?

Unless you have good glasses, you can read it.

Openness means that you come with an open mind towards the Word of God.

You come with an open mind willing to learn what the Bible has to say on a given subject.

Rather than bringing your preconceived ideas to the Bible and reading them into the Bible, you have an open mind that is willing to be informed by the Word of God.

If you don't approach the Bible with an open mind, you will realize that you can do many things with the Bible, But you will not grow with the Bible.

You will use the Bible, you will even study the Bible in order to prove to somebody else that you are right.

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Reading and Practicing Scripture with Heart and Mind

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