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SOUL TREKKING
WITH 

PASTOR STEVE

bierly1

Truths about God and life can be found everywhere, even in non-traditional places.

 Check out my Pop Culture Soul Trekking Pages to see what truths you can learn from movies, comic books, golden oldies, and TV shows. 

Even if you have little interest in spiritual things, but are a FAN of any of the above, I think you'll have fun checking out the pages.
 

Truths about God and life can also be found in Traditional sources.  And they are not as boring as you might think they are.

 My Traditional Soul Trekking Pages have Bible Studies, book listings, pastor's columns, and an explanation of my Christian beliefs using easy to understand language. 


  


 

POP CULTURE SOUL TREKKING

Your favorite entertainment choices may be good for your soul!

REVIEWS!!!  ESSAYS!!!  PICTURES!!!

 


 
 

TRADITIONAL SOUL TREKKING

As a pastor, I also Soul Trek following more "regular" channels and I help others do the same.


Click on the links below to find out more:

BOOKS BY ME

Help for the Small Church Pastor
and
How to Thrive as a Small Church Pastor
and
wrestgod

Studying With Steve

bible

Studies in The Book Of Job - Why is everybody always pickin' on me?

question

What I Believe

Easy-to-read Questions and Answers about the Christian Faith

 

Pastor's Corner

Seed Thoughts - short devotionals on various subjects

AMERICAN REFORMED CHURCH
 

 

My current "home" church

Book Reviews 

My Comments on 
Christian
Nonfiction

 


 
 
 

On Being Alone

 

In his classic book, "Life Together," Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that Christians must learn how to be alone and also how to live in a community of faith.

 

If we can't be alone - that is, if we can't live and think as believers when we are by ourselves and can't find fellowship with God to help us ward off loneliness - then those times when we are with other believers are only distractions to make us forget our essential aloneness.  Bonhoeffer says that we cover up our problems when we are with other believers with feelings that are crowd generated and with high-sounding words.  Were Bonhoeffer writing today, he might include lively music as one of the vehicles we sometimes use for our cover-ups.  Not that these things are wrong or are unspiritual in and of themselves, but the person who has never learned to stand before God alone is tempted to use them in wrong ways.

 

But Bonhoeffer also says that if we can't live in community and believe that we can serve and love God totally on our own, and find being with other Christians a drain and a bore, then we run risks of becoming vain, self-absorbed, infatuated with our thoughts while believing we are hearing from God, and filled with despair during those inevitable times when we are unable to lift ourselves up by our own spiritual bootstraps. 

 

He sums things up this way, "Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.  Let him who is in community beware of being alone."

 

I have no studies or surveys to back up this next thought, but it seems to me that most Christians, myself included, continually have to struggle to avoid two errors.  We err in either being too willing to be alone or in being always too anxious to meet with others.  There are believers who ignore the assembling together of other Christians because they say they can serve and love God on their own without "church."  But there are also believers who are fine Christians when they are with likeminded people, but their faith disappears when they go out into the world.  There are believers who are so busy working for the church that they never have time to contemplate God in their hearts.  And there are believers who would paraphrase Linus from the old Peanuts comic strip, "I love God, it's people I can't stand!" 

 

St. Augustine used to get so discouraged when members of his parish in need would interrupt what he considered to be his ministry - praying, writing, wrestling with his sins, meeting God.  It took him a while to realize that other people were part of his ministry.

 

Are you currently balancing being a Christian alone and also being a Christian along with others in a community of faith?  If so, then be careful to maintain that balance. 

 

If you lean more toward practicing your faith alone or toward having to be with groups to find meaning as a Christian, then ask God to help you get balanced again.  And move toward the other side of the scales.

- Pastor Steve -


 

 


Change in the Summer of 2008

 

We are in a season of change.  The warmer weather means that different entertainment and work options are now available to us.  We are trying to decide who our next president will be.  And the Classes of 2008, from high schools and colleges, will be moving on to he next phases of their lives.

 

When we consider how we handle change, we might find a clue about how to harmonize some of the seemingly contradictory passages in the Bible.  Parents of students in a Class of 2008 probably are having mixed emotions right about now.  They want their sons and daughters to go out into the world and find their own ways.  They want them to continue along the path toward independence and maturity.  Yet there's a part of their hearts which wishes that their children could stay young and live with them at home forever.  It's tough to say, "Goodbye."  But with tears in their eyes and with hearts both breaking and swelling with pride, the parents will do the right thing and let the young birds leave the nest.

 

If we have conflicting desires and yet can choose to do the right thing, how much more would a complex being like God have conflicting emotions and thoughts, yet choose to do the right thing?  For example, the scriptures teach us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  And that is true at some level of God's heart.  But on another level, he is a God who will justly punish evildoers and won't let people mock him and his laws forever.  The Bible tells us that God desires that all men be saved.  Again, at some level of God's heart, this is true.  But it's also true that another level, he chooses who will find salvation in Christ.  Our all-wise God will always be able to choose the right thing to do and will always know how to balance, and express, his emotions.

 

I realize I'm using human language to describe the indescribable and that much about God will remain a mystery to us.  But these ideas, taken from Jonathan Edwards and John Piper, have helped me.  And I hope they will help you, too.

 


 

 
 

Pastor's Corner

 

SEED THOUGHTS

Thoughts and questions about God based on Bible verses.

I hope and pray that God will use these in your life.

 

The God of Dreams

 

Read Genesis 28:10-22 - Why do you think God chose to communicate with Jacob in a dream?  How did Jacob know that this dream was really a message from God and not just an ordinary dream?

 

Read Isaiah 45:15 - Has God ever been "a God who hides himself" in your life?  In history?  What do you think Isaiah means in this verse?

 

Read Matthew 13:1-8 - Pretend you are hearing this parable for the first time.  Would you know what it meant and what Jesus was talking about?

 

Read Matthew 13:9-15 - Jesus says that the purpose of parables was to hide truth from people!  Why would God want to do that?

 

Read Matthew 13:16-23 - The disciples had asked Jesus a follow-up question to the parable.  And they were then privileged to learn the meaning of the parable from Jesus himself.

 

Read Daniel 2:1-23.

 

 

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Lord

 

Read Joshua 6:1-14 - How do you think the people of Jericho viewed the parade that circled their city day after day?  If you were an Israelite, would you be trusting God or wondering if your leader had gone crazy?  This was certainly a strange battle tactic, but the city would fall because of God's power, not humans'.

 

Read Joshua 6:15-21 - When you read such passages in the Old Testament, are you troubled at all?  What do you make of God's people going to war and utterly destroying their enemies?

 

Read Judges 3:1-6 - Why was is important for the Israelites to learn warfare?  How does God teach us about warfare today, and what kind of warfare is it?

 

Read Judges 7:1-8 - Does our nation thank God for its victories, or do we claim all of the credit ourselves?  Did God help us in our victories?

 

Read 1 Timothy 2:1-4 - How should a Christian view his or her country and its leaders?

 

Read Zechariah 9:9-12.

 

 

No One Is Like God

 

Read Isaiah 44:1-5 - Has the lord ever poured water on your thirsty soul?  Do you believe that you belong to the Lord?

 

Read Isaiah 44:9-11 - Why do you think God calls people who make idols "nothing."  If a "nothing" makes a god, how powerful can that god actually be?

 

Read Isaiah 44:12-20 - Here Isaiah builds a great logical case against idolatry.  What are the main points of his argument?  Does idolatry make sense?  Why then do people worship idols?

 

Read 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 - Here Paul gives us his opinion of pagan gods.  But, in the name of love, a believer may choose not to eat meat that has been sacrificed to them.

 

Read Revelation 22:12-15 - Idolaters are outside of the New Jerusalem.  Should this concern us?  After all, we don't bow down to statues!  But does idolatry creep into our lives in other ways?

 

Read Isaiah 44:6-8.

 

 

The Presence Of The Lord in the World Today

 

Read 1 Corinthians 12:27 - What does Paul mean by calling The Church "the body of Christ"?  What does it mean to you to be a part of the body of Christ?

 

Read Acts 2:1-4 - Today's scripture reading describes how God came to the believers on the day of Pentecost.  In what ways does God come to us today?

 

Read Psalm 144:1-4 - Why is it that God cares about humans?  We know He does indeed care because He sent Jesus to live among us and to die for us.  How confident are you of God's care in your life?

 

Read Psalm 144:3-10 - From what does God deliver us today?  Who or what are our enemies?  Does God deliver us in spectacular fashion or in quieter ways?  Notice that the responses of the one delivered is praise.

 

Read Psalm 144:11-15 - Is material property a sign that God is blessing us?  How do people today know that God is with them?  How does the world know that God is with The Church?

 

 

A Strange Parable

 

Read Matthew 21:28-32 - People who have lived disobedient lives, yet repent and change, enter the Kingdom of God.  But people who pay only lip service to God do not.  Do these words of Jesus comfort or challenge you or both?

 

Read Luke 15:11-12 - The younger son in this parable is basically saying to his father that he was impatient for his father's death!  He wanted the money now that he would normally get after his father had died.  How do you think the father felt?

 

Read Luke 15:13-16 - Not only did the younger son take his inheritance prematurely, but then he left the family and its land and way of life behind and squandered everything he had been given!  Jesus means for us to understand, especially given the culture of his time, that this kid was a real jerk.

 

Read Luke 15:17-24 - Can you relate to how the Father in the story is feeling here?  Do you think the younger son was surprised by the Father's actions?

 

Read Luke 15:25-32 - Can you relate to how the older brother felt?  The Father is throwing a party for the jerky younger brother who had to come crawling back because he had blown it so badly.  Who do the Father, the younger son, and the older son each stand for in this parable?

 

 

The Divine Supermarket

 

Read Isaiah 55:6-8 - God urges us to come to him when we have failed him and He will forgive us.  He's not like humans who hold grudges.

 

Read Isaiah 55:9-13 - For what purpose does God send his word into the world?  Will that purpose ultimately succeed or fail?

 

Read Isaiah 56:1-8 - These verses put an emphasis on doing good works and obeying God's laws.  How do these verses fit in with the emphasis on grace that the previous chapter in Isaiah had?

 

Read Isaiah 57:14-20 - In these verses, God not only calls for repentance, but promises that He himself will bring it about!  Do you have the peace in your life that verse 19 talks about?

 

Read Isaiah 58:6-12 - How we treat those in need is extremely important to the Lord!  In fact, our relationship to him depends on it!

 

Read Isaiah 55:1-5

 

Spiritual Depression

 

Read Psalm 80-1-7 -  Have you ever felt as the Psalmist does in these verses, as though God was against you?  How did you snap out of it?  Or have you been able to snap out of it?

 

Read 1 Samuel 23:15-18 - What people have helped you find strength in God?  How can you help others find strength in God?

 

Read Mark 9:14-29 - Does Jesus seem somewhat weary and maybe even discouraged in this passage?  Could Jesus ever be weary and discouraged?  Is it a sin to be weary or discouraged?

 

Read Mark 6:30-31 - How important is rest for our Christian lives?  Do you get enough rest?

 

Read 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 - Have you ever gotten to the point of "despairing even of life?"  How did God deliver you?  If you are at that point right now, do you believe that God is able to deliver you?

 

Read 1 Kings 19:9-18

 

HORSEPOWER

 

Read Genesis 1:24-26 - God not only created the animals, but gave humans the power to rule over them.  Think about that the next time you drive past a farm.

 

Read 2 Kings 2:1-12 - There was a popular movie years ago named Chariots Of Fire.  But in today’s scripture reading, there are also horses of fire.  Chariots and horses represented military might and nobility.  The strong Lord came and took Elijah away.  The Lord, the general of his army, can move us around where He wants us.

 

Read 2 Kings 6:8-23 - Here is another mention of horses and chariots of fire.  The Arameans had their own chariots and horses.  But why should Elisha’s servant be scared of them when the Lord has chariots and horses made of fire?

 

Read 2 Kings 13:10-19 - Why does Jehoash call Elisha, “My Father?”  And why does he mention the chariots and horsemen of Israel?  What is he referring to?

 

Read Psalm 20 - Today if we were writing this Psalm, instead of saying, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses…,” we might say, “Some trust in automatic weapons, missiles, smart bombs, and tanks, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.”  Horses and chariots were instruments of war in the ancient world.

 

Read Job 39:19-25 and Revelation 19:11-16.

 

 

Being Faithful Can Be Lonely

 

Read Jeremiah 15:10-11 - Jeremiah is often called "the weeping prophet."  And, indeed, he knew his share of sorrows, some of them stemming from the fact that he was called by God to stand against his nation, and his own people didn't understand him.  So, God had to give him encouragement along the way.

 

Read Jeremiah 20:1-6 - Jeremiah brought an unpopular message of judgment to his country and because of this he was persecuted, even by the religious leaders.  God didn't spare Jeremiah from suffering, but he always ultimately delivered Jeremiah from the hands of his enemies.  Does he ultimately deliver us from our enemies too?

 

Read Jeremiah 20:7-18 - Jeremiah is really depressed in this passage!  He goes from accusing the Lord, to feeling used and abused by the Lord, to trusting in the Lord, to praising the Lord, to despairing of his life!  Whew!  Why do you think a passage like this is in the Bible?  Have you ever felt the ways Jeremiah felt?

 

Read Lamentations 1:1-16 - Jeremiah is also called "the weeping prophet" because he mourned over the fall of Jerusalem and expressed his thoughts about it in the book of Lamentations.  Jeremiah knew Jerusalem was being punished for its sins, but still was deeply affected by, and sorry for, its fall.  Jeremiah hated the sins and the consequences of those sins, but still ultimately loved the sinners.

 

Read John 6:53-69 - Jesus knew what it was like to have friends and followers desert him.  He knew what it was like to experience loneliness.  When you are feeling lonely, turn to Jesus and you'll find a sympathetic ear.

 

Read Jeremiah 15:15-21

 

Who Are The People Of God?

 

Read Matthew 8:1-4 - There are two amazing things in this passage.  First, Jesus is able to cure leprosy.  But second, Jesus reaches out and touches a leper!  Jesus touches someone that society had labeled “unclean.”

 

Read Matthew 8:5-13 - When reading this story, it’s important to remember that a Roman centurion would have been hated by the Jews.  Yet Jesus praises his faith and heals his servant!

 

Read Mark 2:1-12 - Why do you think Jesus forgives the man’s sins before healing him?  Why didn’t Jesus move straight to the healing?

 

Read Mark 5:1-20 - What sort of life and future did the demon-possessed man have before he met Jesus?  What did society think of this man before he met Jesus?

 

Read Mark 5:25-34 - The woman may have been afraid to approach Jesus because her medical condition made her “unclean” to the Jews.  But when someone “unclean” touches Jesus, he or she gets cleansed.  Jesus doesn’t become “unclean.”

 

Read Isaiah 56: 1-8

 

Looking Around You

 

Read Genesis 12:1-5 - God says that He will make a great nation out of one individual, Abram.  And Abram obviously believes this promise, because he acts on what God told him.  Why do you think Abram believed God?

 

Read Genesis 15:1-6: - What is it that the Lord required from Abram?  What does He require from us?

 

Read Deuteronomy 30:1-10 - Even after the Jews turned against the Lord and He punishes them by sending them into exile, they can still turn back to God in repentance.  And the Lord will turn back to them.

 

Read Revelation 6:12-14 - Some branches of science tell us that the end of our world and our universe is inevitable someday.  But the Bible tells us that this, too, is under God’s control.

 

Read Revelation 20:11-21:4 - Does such a passage fill you with joy, awe and expectation, or with dread?

 

Read Isaiah 51:1-6

 

To Be Truly Rich

 

Read Psalm 73:1-5 - Why would envying prosperous people cause the Psalmist’s faith to slip?  In our culture, isn’t it common to envy the prosperous?  How can we make sure that our faith doesn’t slip?

 

Read Psalm 73:6-11 - Because rich, prosperous people are so well off, they don’t believe they have a need for God.  And they don’t think God is very concerned with how they are living because they always seem to get away with whatever they are doing.  This certainly describes many famous people in our world today.

 

Read Psalm 73:12-14 - The Psalmist believes that he has been good for nothing, in other words, that serving God has been of no benefit to him.  He expected to be blessed.  Instead, he is always in trouble.  Have you ever felt the way that the Psalmist does?

 

Read Psalm 73:15-17 - The Psalmist was getting depressed, but didn’t share his thoughts with anyone, lest they be tempted to abandon the faith.  But then when the Psalmist went to worship God, he realized that all was not the way it appeared to be.  The rich don’t get away with murder.  God is indeed watching them!  Worship often helps us put things in the proper perspective.  Does worship help you in this way?

 

Read Psalm 73:18-28 - The Psalmist realizes that the blessings which the rich have and that cause them to snub God are actually traps that will lead them to God’s judgment.  God is always faithful and just.  And God held on to the Psalmist, even when the Psalmist wasn’t sure he wanted to hold on to God.

 

 

Thoughts About Choices

Read Revelation 9:17-21 - You can almost hear the incredulous tone in John's voice as he writes these words.  Why wouldn't humanity repent and turn from false gods and wicked deeds during the time of the plagues? Wouldn't we expect that a time of disaster would lead people to turn to God?  But this isn't always the case.  Why?

Read John 3:19-21 - Some people will choose darkness instead of light so that they won't be exposed.  But notice that John doesn't go on to say that people who come to the light do so because they are so great.  They come because God is working within them.

Read Proverbs 2:12-15 - There are people in this world who "delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil."  We can see them when we turn on the television.  Maybe we see them everyday at work or at school.  What is it that you rejoice in?

Read Hebrews 11:24-28 - Sin does indeed offer pleasure.  But it is only temporary.  We can say, "No," to sin by having faith that the pleasures of God are coming and that they will be eternal.

Read Matthew 27:15-26 - Like the people of ancient Jerusalem, we are faced with a choice.  Christ or the world?  What is your answer?

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This page was created using Corel Word Perfect Suite 8 and Netscape Navigator Composer. All characters and images are legal properties of their respective companies and are used here without permission for entertainment, review, and informational purposes only. All other material is copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 by Steve R. Bierly.