Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Bible

David Isn’t a Role Model

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Not everyone in the Bible is a role model. For example, who looks at Goliath and says, “I sure want to be like him when I grow up!”

However, how many times do we look up to David and try to emulate our lives after his? After all, he was the King of Israel, the greatest poet of all time, and the author of the psalms–including the famous Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…”

Now there are many honorable things in David’s life that we can learn from, but unfortunately, he doesn’t teach us morality. He’s the one who committed adultery, killed a man to cover up his tracks, and lied to get his way.

The fact is, David doesn’t teach us morality, he teaches us how to be human.

He teaches us how to be real and he teaches us how to have a close, intimate, and living relationship with our Lord God.

How To Choose A Children’s Bible

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Children's Bible

Being a father of three children and a pastor, I take my children’s spiritual life seriously. After all, Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” As important as it is to be a part of a church that has a good children’s program, I cannot fully rely on the church to cultivate my children’s spiritual life. It’s first and foremost my responsibility.

In fact, when you look at Joshua 1:8 and Deut 6:4-9, you discover the critical connection between Bible reading and a child’s spiritual life.

Joshua 1:8 – This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do

Deut 6:4-9 – Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

So my hope, through this post, is to help you navigate through the plethora of children’s Bibles out there. Now obviously, this isn’t all there is, but I do believe that this is a good sampling.

When you look at the image above, I’ve plotted the Bibles according to their difficulty/maturity level and the level of engagement that my children displayed when I read it to them. As a father and a pastor, a good children’s Bible does not only have to be theologically accurate, but it also must convey the Scriptures in an engaging manner at the right maturity level.

So here are my reviews:

[Read more…] about How To Choose A Children’s Bible

the 21st century north american church (part 3)

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The New Testament and Multi-Ethnic Groups

When examining the incarnation, the apostles, the early church, and the eschatological vision in the New Testament, the ethnic picture is unambiguously multi-ethnic. This is best portrayed by looking at the very first multi-ethnic church.

The Church in Antioch as a Model for the Multi-Ethnic Church

The very first multi-ethnic church in the history of Christianity was not established by the Holy Apostles, but it was a handful of “Christians” (Acts 11:26) who, obeying Jesus’ words in the Great Commission and the Ascension, traveled to the “ends of the earth” – Antioch – to “make disciples of all nations.”

Antioch, the “religiously pluralistic and pleasure seeking” urban port city was “the provincial capital of Syria,” and “the third largest city in the Graeco-Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria.” As a result of the city’s multi-ethnic demographic, there was constant interaction between “Syrians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Persians, Armenians, Parthians, Cappadocians, and Jews,” which created a cultural ethos of “hatred and fear rooted in intense ethnic antagonisms.” Thus, in this global and urban port-city, the first multi-ethnic church was formed.

The church in Antioch was multi-ethnic because it was a community of faith that was composed of more than two different ethnicities, where not one ethnicity held a significant majority. For example, the leadership of the church consisted of one Jew from Jerusalem (Barnabas), another Jew from Tarsus that was also a Roman citizen (Paul), a black African (Simeon who is called Niger), a man from “the capital city of Libya in northern Africa” (Lucius of Cyrene), and the step-brother of Herod Antipas, a Roman tetrarch (Manaen).

Not only was the leadership of the church multi-ethnic, but so was the congregation. And not only was the congregation multi-ethnic, but so was the city.

Obviously, a multi-ethnic church isn’t something that can be realized everywhere, but should they not be much more evident in multi-ethnic metropolitan cities?

(Sources Cited: Ken Shigematsu, Thomas V. Brisco, Michelle Slee, Crutiss Paul DeYoung, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey, Karen Chai Kim)

the 21st century north american church (part 2)

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Is the debate between mono-ethnic and multi-ethnic churches merely a twenty-first North American phenomenon, or is there wisdom to glean from the Israelites and the early church?

The Old Testament and Multi-Ethnic Groups
Despite the assumption that God developed a multi-ethnic vision in the New Testament when the risen Christ commanded the apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), God was actually concerned with all cultures from the moment he created the first one!

Even though God chose Abraham and his lineage to be the specific nation to bring about his redemptive plan (Genesis 12:1-3), nowhere does God state that this nation should be exclusive or ethnocentric. This specific nation, later named the Israelites, had always been multi-ethnic in makeup, beginning with the patriarchs. For example, Jacob’s family had “Aramean, Amorite, Canaanite, and Egyptian elements within it.” Also, Moses and many of the other Israelites married non-Israelite women (Moses married a Cushite). Even when studying Jesus’ genealogical history (Matthew 1), one notices that non-Israelites, such as Ruth and Rahab, were incorporated, not only into the nation of Israel, but also specifically into the genealogy of the Messiah.

In addition to being a multi-ethnic nation, one notices that God is deeply concerned for all cultures in the Old Testament, just as much as he is in the New Testament (Psalm 24:1; Isaiah 66:18-19). This multi-ethnic vision in Isaiah 66:18-19 is very reminiscent of the biblical vision in Revelation 7:9-10. Ergo, it is evident that God, as described in the Old Testament, is a multi-ethnic God, and his chosen nation is a multi-ethnic nation