This is my 300th Post! And with it, I have some changes to announce.
Recently, I haven’t been posting much. I used to post once a day, but now I’m lucky to post once a month. Part of this is because of some things going on in my life right now, but most of it is that I’m dissatisfied with what I write. I have 70 drafts sitting in my queue, just waiting for me to hit the “publish” button, but I just can’t do it.
In pondering why I have trouble publishing what I’ve written, I decided it is because what I’ve written in most of those 70 posts is not really worth saying. At first I thought it was because I had already said it, or somebody else said it better than me. Then I realized that the real reason was that most of my posts were for pride issues; I was trying to sound smart, edgy, and creative. The truth is that I’m none of those things. Yes, I read and think a lot, and work hard at learning, but I’m not what you would call a “wave maker.” I’m more of a “wave rider.” I ride along the waves that others create.
For a long time, I wanted to be a wave maker. As a child and teenager, I wanted to be an inventor. As a pastor, I wanted to lead the church in new directions, teach new ideas, attempt new things. But I eventually discovered that most of what I thought and taught was not original with me; I had picked it up from somewhere else. Sure, maybe I synthesized it, summarized it, or said it in a way that was new or creative, but wasn’t actually making or teaching anything revolutionary. But that’s okay, because people seemed to learn from my teaching, and I enjoyed it.
But I thought it wasn’t enough, so I set out to try to be a wave maker. Part of that attempt was this blog. Now I’ve come to realize that I am not a wave maker. I am a rider. And I’m good at it. Well, maybe I’m not so good, but I enjoy it. I love learning about the currants, and watching the wind play across the ripples of the sea. I get thrills out of trying some new approach on my board, and feeling it harness the power of the wave beneath my feet. I love the feel of the wind in my hair and the spray on my face as I hurtle toward shore.
This is me. This is who I am. This is what I love. I must embrace it.
By the way, I’ve never surfed in my life. So I am not talking about moving to California to become a “rider.”‘ Instead, I want to be a writer. Specifically, I want to study, teach, and write about Scripture. As I look over the last couple decades of my life, it is when I am studying, teaching, and writing about Scripture that I feel most content, most fulfilled, most at home, most connected with God and with who He made me to be. Remember in the movie “Chariots of Fire” when Eric Liddell said, “When I run I feel His pleasure”? Well, I feel His pleasure when I study.
So how does this effect this blog? I have decided to give up trying to write creative and witty blog posts, and just go back to what I enjoy doing – studying Scripture and writing about it. I am going to do this in two ways:
1. I am going to focus more time and energy on writing commentary. I am doing this at www.gracecommentary.com This is a free, online, interactive commentary. I am currently working on Luke. Though I try to write the text with simplicity and clarity, without getting bogged down too much in the details, it is still a commentary. As such, I am not doing much in the way of application. But I enjoy the research, the writing, and (hopefully) the interaction that is part of the site.
2. As a teacher, I feel it is never enough to just give facts and explanations. I also want to teach for life change. Sicne a commentary doesn’t frequently contain much application, I am going to use the blog here for that purpose.
I cannot predict how frequently I will post, since, as I mentioned, there is a lot going on in my life right now, and I don’t really have too much time for writing. Also, from time to time, I may post a random entry about whatever tickles my fancy. But generally, I am going to try to stick with Scripture.
Just wanted you to know that I am still reading your stuff. And whether you’re making waves or just riding them, I love how you think and appreciate your sharing your thoughts with the rest of us. Way to go, Jeremy.
AWESOME!!!!! I’m so glad to hear about this!!! I know that you are a gifted writer and teacher. I’m very excited about the commentary. I’ll be anxious to read it.
Praying for you now.
Your friend always because of Jesus,
Diane
🙂
Diane,
Thanks! I’m excited about this new direction.
Randy,
Thanks for still reading! I try to keep up with DE too!
Not sure what to say to reply to the post but just keep up the good work
We need more “grace” writers. Since Stam, Baker and others have gone to be with the Lord, there have been so few “stalwarts” of The Faith. I wish you the best in this endeavor.
Congrats on the 300th, pray you have time once a month still, and keep on challenging believers to be students of the Word rightly divided. If not, I will lose you on my front page of google Chrome’s ‘Top 9′ = )
I also pray that if the “things going on” in your life are jarring or emotional, that you may learn to be content…’til He comes…
~~Jim
I follow what you write.
Why not use http://www.youversion.com rather than reinventing the wheel?
There is already a community of people writing commentary on the Bible.
Mark,
the funny thing about YouVersion is that about two years before it came out, I had a website called “YouBible.org” It was designed to allow any contributors from anywhere in the world to write online commentary. I ran it for about a year, and not many contributed, and it was too much work to keep the spammers at bay, so I let it drop. Then YouVersion appeared. I am glad they are having more “luck” with it than I did.
I will probably include my commentary on their site, but for several reasons, I am going to keep mine. First, YouVersion is already getting somewhat unwieldy (too many contributors). Second, responding to contributions seems limited. Mine is set up in a forum, so people can freely interact. Third, the formatting options are severely limited. I want to be able to have paragraph breaks, bold and italics, etc. Fourth, how would I do a bibliography in YouVersion? Fifth, what if YouVersion shuts down?
6th probably 99.9% of those people probably don’t read the original language texts and probably don’t share the faith alone positions that are becoming so very rare today.
not that they can’t be helpful, but I really wouldn’t trust interpretations of completely random people of whom I have no prior knowledge.
Jeremy
Yes good points all. Hope you do add your contributions to YV as well.
In your role as “wave rider” I would appreciate your thoughts on the slowly emerging theology at my site kleros.net
Jeremy,
This was exhilarating to read. I think I felt some wind in my hair! It caused me to think about my desires and motives as well. It resonates with me in a big way. I have the same love of writing and studying and the same temptations.
Good for you, brother. Feel His pleasure!
steve
Thanks Steve,
The trouble, of course, is finding the time…
Jeremy,
I work full time but teach adult Sunday School. Ray Stedman’s library has been a resource for me and I believe given to me because of prayer, asking the LORD to really come to know HIM. Our current lessons are from the book of James. Ray taught through the bible, verse by verse most of the time, but only a summary of James. I started looking for other resources and after reading so many different opinions about the interpretation of James, still had no peace that the passages were accurately intrepreted. I began praying for the resource that would give me the truth as HE intended and somehow googled your website.
Your interpretation of the passages in my lesson made the most sense to me and I had a peace that this was the way the Holy Spirit wanted me to present it to my class.
I have just read your blog about the changes in your life. I am no authority but it sounds like you are where the LORD wants you to be and that you have found at least a part of your purpose and I’m learning that that usually means “riding the waves”.
Thank you for your insight again on James.
Phyllis,
Thank you for your comment.
I LOVE the teaching of Ray Stedman, also, and have found them to be of great help to me over the years as well. I don’t have his full library though. Wow, what a resource that must be.
Keep checking back at the http://www.gracecommentary.com website. The going is slow, but my hope is to eventually write commentary on the entire Bible there. I figure it will take about 20-30 years at my current rate! Ha ha.
But you could read some of it, and post some of your own insights, or those from Ray Stedman, in the comment sections of the forum.
Keep in touch!
I’m sorry if I mislead you. I don’t personally have his library but all that he has written is available on his website: http://www.raystedman.org. It took him a lifetime also, that was very clear to me when the LORD gave it to me as answered prayer.
I will have to complete the study in James, I wish that you had written more, but maybe the LORD just wanted the contact to be made for encouragement to both of us. I will definitely be checking back with you about passages that you have written on to get your insight.
I read your take on sharing the gospel. I’m in prayer concerning a mission trip in March 2010 and praying for the LORD to equip me for personal evangelism in a short period of time. My ministry has been more about relationship evangelism which sometimes takes years!
Jeremy,
I know this is an old post and I’ve never left a comment on your site before, but I have a question. What is new about the Gospel? Why does it have to be new? It wasn’t new, or rather, it didn’t change for over 1000 years until a corrupt Roman Catholic church changed it by saying that one man could come up with “new” doctrine by himself (even though he too claimed Holy Spirit guidance and high intelligence) and its been changing and evolving and expanding every since. The message of Christ, redemption and His provision for sanctification is not new. Why try to make it new? If something that is true and old is made new, is that not the same as changing it?
I hope you don’t find this offensive. Its not meant in that way at all.
Questioner,
Thanks for commenting. There is nothing new about the Gospel. It’s just that, as you said, various teachers and churches fail to understand it fully, and therefore, don’t teach the entire Gospel.
What happens is that someone comes along, and sees some truth from Scripture related to the Gospel which others seem to be missing or ignoring, and he/she begins to teach it.
So you are right, it is not a new Gospel, but a rediscovery of the old Gospel.