Archive for category christianity
Reading the Bible – A Simple Truth
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity, personal on May 18, 2009

I guess I’ve been in a reflective mood over the past few weeks, and have been dwelling on some of the things I have learned over the past few years. Since college, my view of the Bible has been drastically altered from a book filled with nuggets of wisdom to the narrative of the glory of God.
One simple thought that struck me recently is that reading scripture ONLY in a verse by verse way, it’s way too easy to miss out on the overall theme of the Bible. Similarly, reading Scripture without a theological foundation is like trying to put together a shelving unit without a parts list. This was, in part, why I think I struggled to really love reading God’s word.
Verse by verse, inductive study is very useful and helpful, but if you only study Scripture from the inductive lens, which is the predominant mode I was taught, it is very difficult to see the overall storyline of God’s redemptive work.
I think the best way I’ve come to understand this is by analogy. I need to have an overall vision for where my life and ministry is heading, while I also need to do the daily discipline of managing tasks that align toward that end. If I don’t have vision, I’ll be busy for the rest of my life without really accomplishing much, and if I don’t do the daily tasks, I’m never going to fulfill God’s calling on my life.
I think it is pretty similar with our reading of Scripture. If you only read the Bible as a great story, you’re going to miss much of God’s grace in momentary, day-to-day life with specific verses. If you only read it verse by verse, mining for nuggets, you’re going to miss the forest for the trees, and accomplish a ton, but never really “get it”.
The meta-narrative of Scripture helps me to understand each passage in the context of God’s overall plan, and the day-to-day discipline of reading and studying passages is when I receive very specific, applied encouragement, correction, or wisdom from God.
I am thankful for God’s divine inspiration of the Bible…it has, does, and will continue to transform me.
Redeeming Love
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, christianity, personal on May 11, 2009

At The Austin Stone today, Aaron Ivey led us in worship to song called “Praise for a Fountain Opened” or more commonly, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”.
The last line of the fourth verse, and the anthem we camp out on is:
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be til I die.
Additionally, Matt Carter preached from 2 Corithians 1:3-5 on comforting those with the comfort we have received from God himself. Through this song and teaching, a very simple truth echoed in my soul Sunday morning:
We are incapable of sharing love apart from the grace and love of Christ.
I have the tendency in my heart to extend my concept of love to people, which very rarely is tied to the cross. I wrote a little about this concept in Forgiveness in Marriage, but it’s been ringing in my life in a variety of ways–forgiveness, comfort, love, mercy, and justice to name a few. I am so prone to attempt to do these things on my own, and never tie the threads of my responses back to the power of the gospel flowing from my life.
We have two choices in how we define love: an internal sense of what it is, or an external foundation from the demonstration of others. Christ’s sacrificial, atoning death is, according to scripture, the greatest act of love in human history. Any act of love that doesn’t have this simple fact at its base, is establishing a concept of love outside the foundation of love.
We simply cannot divorce love from that which was demonstrated on the cross.
If I desire redeeming love to be my theme ’til I die, I must continue to dwell on the foundation of love that was demonstrated at Calvary. I cannot crave one thing in worship and ignore it in my life in the smallest of ways. I MUST go to the fountain of blood poured out for me if I am to forgive my wife, if I am to comfort a neighbor struggling in marriage, if I am to disciple a college student in the scripture, or if I am to demonstrate mercy to my son in his disobedience.
My secondary thought is that Christ’s love is redeeming what is broken. If I am to follow my savior, I must follow Him into brokenness, toward redeeming what is lost and broken. Specifically, this redeeming love leads us to be reconcilers and comforters in every single relationship we have.
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Do we desire to love well? Go back to the cross and be loved. Do we desire to forgive? Go back to the cross and be forgiven. Do we desire to comfort? Go back to the cross and be comforted. Do we desire to minister well? Go back to the cross, and be ministered to.
The Holy Spirit
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity, personal on May 8, 2009

I’ve been dwelling on the Holy Spirit as I read Jaeson Ma‘s book The Blueprint.
Here is my simple, yet difficult, thought that arose: the degree to which the gospel is central in my life is directly correlated to the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit in me and through me.
If I want to see how central God is in my life, I just need to look at the evidence.
I am too prone to work in my own power.
The Reason for God | Chapter 4
Posted by Todd Engstrom in books, christianity, theology on April 30, 2009
I just finished chapter 4 last night, which wrestles with the challenge of the church perpetrating so much injustice in the world. Keller approaches the question in a couple different ways:
- He addresses the common argument that Christian nations have been responsible for war, genocide, slavery, destruction of culture, and a host of other evils. Keller appeals to the universality of these injustices throughout secular and religious governments alike (using the examples of communist states, imperialist Japan, and few others), and ties this universality to the human propensity for evaluating some belief to supremacy, whether God or an ideal.
- Secondly, he takes the opportunity to speak about the comparative morality of many within the church, and their deficiency relative to secular counterparts. His argument leans essentially on one important point of doctrine: common grace. The idea that all good things flow from God, including those which lead to social and moral stability, is the explanation for how a completely secular individual could appear so much “better” than a Christian. Coupled with the inherent attractiveness of the gospel of grace to those who are broken, and the long road of sanctification, it is easy to see how this picture could form
- Finally, Keller deals with the idea of fanaticism by essentially pointing out those who practice the condemning form of faith do not have a full comprehension of the gospel. He does this biblically through the Sermon on the Mount, pointing out Jesus’ treatment of the “religious”.
The close of the chapter discourses through the idea that the capacity to critique the Christian faith comes mostly from within the faith itself, not outside it. A purely secular worldview has abject poverty to critique the faith because it is based upon self-driven motivation, which manifests itself in an honor/shame-based culture. This concept of selfish motivation has no intrinsic motivation to seek justice on behalf of the weak, and it is only because our cultural worldview is deeply built on a historical Christian base that we have any value for the poor and oppressed.
This chapter was an excellent, yet short dialectic that answers many common objections to rational assent to Christian faith. Keller has a way both intellectually and pastorally explaining his ideas from a position of great humility, and I have appreciated both the soundness and tenor of his ideas. This is indeed a great book thus far!
Retreat!
Posted by Todd Engstrom in christianity on April 27, 2009
I’ll be spending the next few days at a retreat with our staff team from The Austin Stone. It should be a great time of refreshment and encouragement as we seek God together for the future of our ministry. Please pray for our time there, that God would reveal Himself in power, and that He would give us vision and direction for the future of our church.
Thanks!


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