TASTE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF
Psalm 34
1 I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Focus in on the first half of the 8th verse:
"Taste and see that the Lord is good"
What is the Implication:
"Taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good"
What is the Interpretation:
"Ingest and know that the Lord is good"
Physical Illustration:
No matter how well I describe something to you as I eat it you will never fully understand what I am talking about until you eat it yourself. In addition to this, no matter how much of it I eat it will never help or nourish you until, again, you eat it yourself. In order for food to do any physical good you must personally ingest it. Likewise, in order for spiritual food to do your spiritual body any good you also have to personally ingest it. In other words, you must learn how to feed yourself.
"Give me a fish and I will be hungry tomorrow. Teach me to fish and I will never again go hungry."
The first thing that every Christian should strive for is to learn how to "feed" themselves through personal Bible study and communion with God. The reason for this is that once spiritual "independence" has been achieved you can, in turn, help others do the same for themselves. This is one of the main ideas behind the Bible's teaching of servant-leadership and disciple making.
While you might not have ever considered yourself such, at salvation, you automatically became a leader occupying at least one specific leadership position: the witness of Christ to others. As a Christian you are commissioned to be the light that shines amidst the world's darkness, a position with unfathomable potential for either positive or negative influence. Because of this it is of the utmost importance to grow and mature spiritually so that this intrinsic influence upon others is constructive not destructive.
The following are several reasons why leaders fail to empower others and cannot positively reproduce themselves. While the first two reasons frequently occur within all leadership levels it is the third which is most often suffered by those who truly desire to know the Lord and make Him known.
WHY DON'T LEADERS EMPOWER OTHERS BY REPRODUCING THEMSELVES?
1. They Don't Have Security
The leader who lacks self-confidence, in an attempt to secure his position indefinitely, will refuse to train those under him how to be self-sufficient; thus, producing eternally dependant followers rather than fellow leaders.
In the mind of such a leader he is producing job security. However, this is faulty thinking because the only way to truly make yourself indispensable as a leader of people is to make yourself dispensable. What I mean by this is that if you work yourself out of your role as a spiritual mentor you have just perfectly fulfilled its job description, thus, through success, placing yourself in higher demand. In truth, there will never be a lack of spiritual "babies" needing guidance.
Let me provide one modern-day example, the Catholic Church. This example is truly distressing because it is not just one isolate leader but an entire institution, which has fallen into the trap of this kind of thinking. Before the Reformation, which started in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, the leaders within the Catholic Church had a stranglehold upon Christianity. What I mean by this is that the common man had no idea what Scripture said and thus relied completely upon the church for religious instruction. This ignorance was further supported by the fact that all Scripture was jealously guarded; not only was it written solely in the original language, or perhaps Latin, but Bibles were also chained to podiums so that they could not be removed from the church. Only an elite few had access to and understanding of the Bible.
The statement that "absolute power corrupts absolutely" unfortunately became the truth within the church itself. By the time a handful of centuries had passed Christian theology had become so complicated and convoluted that the truth was all but snuffed out. The simplicity that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection brought to "religion" was soon forgotten. The church began to compound regulation after regulation and ritual after ritual upon the simple act of salvation. As a result the church finally declared that it, not Jesus, was the only way to the Father. Thus, salvation was obtained through church membership and strict obedience to church laws. Because of this the church was able to effectively control people from the cradle to the grave.
This horrible misinterpretation and free license under the guise of Christianity continued until several brave men placed reputation, vocation, and their very lives on the line in order to challenge what they knew to be unbiblical. Such men as Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and John Wycliffe championed the cause of the common man. They strove to place Christ's power back into the common man's hands by translating and distributing Bibles in a common language that the common people could understand. Needless to say, the Catholic Church did not smile upon any loss of authority over their people and vehemently persecuted many of the Reformers. [see BIOGRAPHIES]
Unfortunately, even after the Reformation, the Catholic Church and its heresy still abounded. Today their tactic of ultimate religious control over a person has not changed but is rather alive and doing well. A perfect example of this is the fact that, within the Catholic Church, a priest is needed as a mediator between the common man and the Lord in order to forgive sins, which is taught nowhere in Scripture. This, and many other such rituals, are nothing more than a insecure religious system afraid that they might become obsolete if they empower the average man with knowledge and freedom.
No true leader would ever want lead his followers in such a way that they would remain forever on the same level. Doing such defeats the purpose of leadership anyway and, in truth, is not "leadership" at all.
2. They Don't See Its Value
It is takes more effort, time, money, and patience to teach independence than it does to allow dependence, but, in the long run, the return from a productive fellow leader far outweighs any temporary advantage found in the reliant masses. However, because it does take additional effort to add to people rather than let them stay the same many leaders fail to challenge and raise the competency level of their followers.
Raising the competence level of those around you will, in turn, naturally result in their raising your own personal competence level. However, by pushing or keeping those under your leadership down you, by doing so, automatically move downward with them. This "stifling" of yourself along with your followers can occur both consciously and unconsciously. Again, those consciously participating in this destructive pattern often suffer from insecurity, but those unconsciously practicing this may suffer only from the fact that they see no use or value in actively helping others mature past their current position.
A lot of the times it is easier and seems more efficient to "do it yourself" rather than delegate the responsibility to another who is at the beginning stages of learning. Such a beginner may end up doing the job wrong several times before finally getting it right. This causes the leader more work because he now, instead of just doing it himself quickly, must take the time to instruct, examine, correct, and finally approve the finished product. On the other hand, a follower will never learn without this added instruction and help.
Seeing the value in empowering others means the difference between addition growth and multiplication growth. While the difference is not greatly noticeable right away, after time, it becomes unavoidable. For example, addition says that 2+3= 5 and multiplication says that 2x3=6, a difference of only one. However, addition says that 5+10=15 while multiplication says that 5x10=50, a difference of 35.
A practical example of this would be for me, as the teacher, to neglect teaching each one of you how do defend your faith or witness by saying that if anyone questions you bring them to me and I will deal with them. By doing this I might persuade one or two people but if I taught each of you how to have a ready defense for the faith then each one of you could perhaps persuade one of two people thus multiplying growth rather than adding. This principle of multiplication growth was instituted by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20, thus, I know that not only will it work but that it is also the best possible plan. The apostle Paul understood this principle well and took every opportunity he had to raise the level of potential leaders traveling with him. As you read through his many epistles observe who he sends, where he sends them, and what he sends them to do. His letters to Timothy and Titus are perfect examples of empowerment and reproduction.
If a leader does not see the value of improving others he will invariably not see any value in improving himself either. If this is the case he will probably not be able to help others anyway because, in order to raise someone to the next level, a leader must already be on the next level himself. Also, those who do not empower others will find that if something were to happen to them their organization or group would soon fall apart.
Life and ministry is not a 100-yard sprint but a relay race! If I refuse to hand off the baton I am carrying, regardless of how fast I may be, the race will be lost. Without leaders who see the value of pouring themselves into others the next generation will be lost to the gospel.
3. They Don't Know How
The real test of leadership is not found in taking followers to the top of the mountain but rather teaching these followers how to descend and take others to the top of the mountain themselves.
If you do not have a problem with insecurity-in fact you may wish that you could give your job to someone else-and you are able to clearly see the intrinsic value of teaching others, what is keeping you from empowering those who look to you for guidance? The simple answer, more often than not, is that you just don't know how. Without this "know how" you will be unable to teach others how to taste and see for themselves that the Lord is good. The rest of this lesson will focus directly upon the issue of preparing yourself in order to prepare others.
As already stated much earlier in the lesson, the first and most important thing that must be done in order to prepare yourself to prepare others is to cultivate, nurture, and develop a close, intimate, and personal fellowship with the Lord. This can only be done through the study of Scripture and prayer, which is essentially the Lord talking to you and you talking to the Lord. The greater your understanding of Scripture the better equipped you are in listening to the Lord and, as a result of this, you are then better equipped to respond to Him in prayer. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to learn how to "rightly divide the word of truth" which is "God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man [or woman] of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 2:15, 3:16-17).
The question then arises:
How do I learn to better understand Scripture so that I can both correctly apply it to my life and teach others how to do the same?
Perhaps this analogy will help:
The process involved in Bible study is much like that of gold mining. Logically, the first and most important issue when mining for gold is to find a place that contains gold, and the more abundant the better. Allegorically speaking the Bible is just such a bottomless gold mine containing more spiritual gold than any one man could ever hope to dig up in his lifetime. Then, after finding the mine, the next three things that are needed in order to dig the gold out of it are time, tools, and plain old-fashioned hard work. Each of these are needed because you don't find very much gold just lying around on the ground; you have to dig beneath the surface of the earth to get it.
First, there is the issue of time. There is no way around the fact that gold mining takes time but on the other hand, when done correctly and in the right spot, the longer the miner works the more gold is mined. Secondly, there is the issue of tools. To assist with the mining process, as well as speed it up, tools are necessary and keep the miner from digging with only his bare hands, which would be hard to do considering he would probably have to dig through solid rock much of the time. Thirdly, there is the issue of hard work. Even though tools are an invaluable asset it still takes effort, exertion, and perseverance on the miner's behalf to obtain the gold; tools do not do the work themselves but must be swung by the miner. Lastly, after the miner has finally dug out several loads of gold ore, the final step is to refine it by separating everything that is not gold from within and around it so that the finished product is 100% pure.
Now that we have looked at the gold miner's side of the analogy let us turn our eyes to the corresponding Bible studier's side and see how they are similar.
As I have already said, the Bible is a bottomless "gold" mine and therefore the perfect place to begin digging for gold of the spiritual kind. However, even if a person were to be sitting on the largest gold mine in the world they would gain nothing unless they first began to dig. Unfortunately, this is the position that many Christians are in by owning a Bible yet never opening and reading it. On the other hand, even if they do read their Bibles, many Christians are not able to understand or correctly apply what they have just read, which leaves them in exactly the same empty-handed position. Therefore, the frustration of reading but not comprehending may be the reason why many Bible gather dust.
Just as with mining, there are three essential items that must be present when studying the Bible, without them very little can be accomplished. In truth, even if the Bible student has two of the three necessary things, without the third, most progress will be stifled. Thus, time and hard work are not enough without tools, time and tools are not enough without hard work, and tools and hard work are not enough without time. However, the most commonly absent item of the three are tools, which will be talked about specifically later in the lesson.
The first of these, time, is always an issue where quality of content is concerned. Even with the best of tools and hard work any Bible study worthy of such a title will take time. While hard to find at first, time, after the initial discipline has been established, ceases to be a major issue because of the visible rewards received from investing it into study. The more time that a studier spends in the Bible the more familiar he will become with it and, as a result, will be able to draw a greater amounts of quality content from Scripture in shorter periods of time. Simply put, the more time devoted on the "front end" of Bible study will always yield greater results on the "back end".
As already stated, time alone will only take the reader so far and no further; this is where the biblical pickaxe, shovel, lantern, and wheelbarrow come in handy. Without tools the reader is forced to "dig" barehanded through the scripture, which is never easy with, among other things, so many unfamiliar names, places, and customs. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to work on something but not having any tools. Perhaps just as maddening is trying to work on something but having the wrong kind of tools. A third scenario, just as exasperating as the first two, would be to have the right kind of tools but not knowing how to use them. In each case it would take much longer than necessary to finish the job, if in fact it could be finished at all. Therefore, it is crucial not only to have the right tools but also to learn how to use them. Even though learning how to use the various Bible study tools available takes time, as with the previous item, the amount of effort put into becoming competent on the "front end" will pay high dividends later on in the "back end" of study. In this lesson we will look at several "formal" tools-those that are purchased-and in the next lesson several "informal" tools-those gained through observation.
The third issue, that of hard work, though less tangible and more relative than the just mentioned tools, is still utterly important to a balanced Bible study. Again, as mentioned earlier, time and tools do not automatically mean that the student will strike "paydirt". Another important statement relating to this item is that nothing worth having comes without effort or, as the old saying goes, "you get what you pay for". Those unwilling to labor for long hours in intense study over the word of God will never achieve the spiritual level that God has in store for every dedicated and faithful Christian. Before God would bless Jacob, Jacob had to wrestle with Him all night; but O how great was the blessing! More often than not, the effort, exertion, and perseverance exercised in Bible study stems from picking up and correctly wielding over and over again the various tools of understanding.
Lastly, like mining, once the student has pulled out several spiritual "nuggets" he now needs to refine them to make sure that they are pure; sometimes even a wrong conclusion can be harvested regardless of the tools used. The "refining" process, or second defense against error, also has tools of its own that are specific to this part of the overall procedure of Bible study. Therefore, the student needs to learn these tools and how to use them just as he did with the tools in the "mining" section.
With all of this in mind, it can truthfully be said that the process of mining gold has much in common with the process of reading and understanding the Bible. However, without trying to overly extend or wear thin the analogy, there are still two similarities that have, as of yet, not been addressed.
The first similarity deals with the driving motivation behind the action. Why would anyone want to spend so much time and energy in order to mine gold from the ground? Likewise why would anyone want to spend so much time and energy in order to gain understanding from the Bible? The answer is predictably obvious: because both are valuable, however, one is of temporal while the other is of eternal value.
The second, and last similarity, also deals with the intrinsic value of both items, but in a negative way. Unfortunately, due to the rarity of these two objects-gold and biblical understanding-the "miner" must always be on the alert for those who would give them something that looks real but in actuality is fake. In the physical case this is known as "fool's gold" and even though it outwardly appears the same it is completely worthless. Likewise, even though it is seldom called by this name, there is also such a thing as "fool's understanding," which is as equally worthless as its counterpart in gold. Thus, with this warning in mind, be careful where, as well as how, you spend your time and energy digging and refining.
BIOGRAPHIES
Innocent III (1160-1216) Pope, 1198-1216
By the late twelfth and early thirteenth century the papacy had become the most powerful office in Europe. The pope's government was truly a universal monarchy, steadily becoming completely centralized. All the bishops swore fealty to the pope, no religious order could be founded without his authorization, the papal court in Rome heard appeals from all over Christendom, and in every country legates from Rome watched over the execution of papal orders. In the hands of a strong leader, the papacy could-and often did-overshadow all secular monarchs. It was during this time that Innocent III became pope.
Unlike the popes of earlier times who were humble monks Innocent III, and many popes after him, were formally schooled and well trained in such things as canon law, church government, and politics. With this increased education came an increased demand for power. Dr. Shelly, author of Church History in Plain Language, writes:
Innocent III told the princes of Europe that the papacy was like the sun, while the kings were like the moon. As the moon received its light from the sun, so kings derived their powers from the pope. The papacy's chief weapons in support of this authority were spiritual penalties. Almost everyone believed in heaven and hell and in the pope's management of all the grace to get to one and avoid the other. Thus, the pope's first weapon in bringing peasants and princes to their knees was the threat of excommunication. The second weapon in the papal arsenal was the interdict. While excommunication was aimed at individuals, the interdict fell upon whole nations. Innocent III successfully applied or threatened the interdict 85 times against uncooperative princes.
Liberally exercising these two spiritual "weapons" in countries such as England, France, and Germany Innocent III led "Christianity" to its peak of political and cultural influence.
John Wycliffe (1329-1384) English reformer; Bible translator
A native of Yorkshire, Wycliffe attended Oxford University, where he received a doctorate of theology in 1372. Wycliffe, the most eminent Oxford theologian of his day, and his associates, were the first to translate the entire Bible from Latin into English.
Wycliffe has been called the "Morning Star of the Reformation" because he boldly questioned papal authority, criticized the sale of indulgences (which were supposed to release a person from punishment in purgatory), denied the reality of transubstantiation (the doctrine that the bread and wine are changed into Jesus Christ's actual body and blood during Communion), and spoke out against church hierarchies. The pope reproved Wycliffe for his heretical teachings and asked that Oxford University dismiss him. But Oxford and many government leaders stood with Wycliffe, so he was able to survive the pope's assaults.
Wycliffe believed that the way to prevail in his struggle with the church's abusive authority was to make the Bible available to the people in their own language. Then they could read for themselves how each one of them could have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ-apart from any ecclesiastical authority.
After Wycliffe finished the translation work, he organized a group of poor parishioners, known as Lollards, to go throughout England preaching Christian truths and reading the Scriptures in their mother tongue to all who would hear God's word. As a result the Word of God, through Wycliffe's translation, became available to many Englishmen.
Wycliffe was loved and yet hated. His ecclesiastical enemies did not forget his opposition to their power or his successful efforts in making the Scriptures available to all. Several decades after he died. they condemned him for heresy, dug up his body, burned it, and threw his ashes into the Swift River.
William Tyndale (1494-1536) English reformer and Bible translator
Tyndale was born in the western part of England. In 1515 he graduated from Oxford, where he had studied the Scriptures in Greek and in Hebrew. By the time he was thirty, Tyndale had committed his life to translating the Bible from the original languages into English. His heart's desire is exemplified in a statement he made to a clergyman when refuting the view that only the clergy were qualified to read and correctly interpret the Scriptures. Tyndale said, "If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost."
Tyndale completed his translation of the New Testament in 1525. Fifteen thousand copies, in six editions, were smuggled into England between the years 1525 and 1530. Church authorities did their best to confiscate copies of Tyndale's translation and burn them, but they couldn't stop the flow of Bibles from Germany into England. Tyndale himself could not return to England because he was considered an outlaw at the same time his translation had been banned.
In May 1535, Tyndale was arrested and carried off to a castle near Brussels, where he was imprisoned. While he was in prison, an associate of his named Miles Coverdale (1488-1569) brought to completion an entire Bible in English-based largely on Tyndale's translation of the New Testament and other Old Testament books. After being in prison for over a year, Tyndale was tried and condemned to death. He was strangled and burnt at the stake on October 6, 1536. His final words were so very poignant: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."