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My Struggle with Productivity

Meredith Beatty1 Comment

I have a love hate relationship with the whole productivity industrial complex. Why do I call it that? Because it’s a thing. You see it all over social media and the publishing world. How to maximize time. How to get things done most efficiently. This appeals to a lot of us, especially people like me who are prone to perfectionism. Mondays are the perfect day for me to plan, strategize and make lists. I love lists. On Mondays I usually make a list called a ‘Brain Dump’. This is where I just list everything I can think of that I want to get done in the week. It helps to download all of it onto paper.

But how does God see productivity? I have been asking myself these questions lately. Going back to school has added a lot to my list and the old perfectionism rears its head when I look at the syllabi for my classes filled with hundreds of pages of reading and parameters for research papers. How to get it all done? How can I schedule my day in a way to not get behind? What about all the other responsibilities in my life? Someone has to cook dinner and clean toilets after all.

The first class I took in seminary was called “Redemption Unfolded”. The class covered the overarching story of Scripture and while the subject matter made an impact on me, the teacher also left an indelible mark. He wasn’t a professor at the seminary, but a local pastor, and this was his first class. After introductions he had us read out loud the following Scripture and meditate on it silently:

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.

Colossians 3:23

Work heartily? Yes! This was why I was in seminary. I was eager to work heartily, to read widely and deeply from authors I’d not been exposed to, to learn the original languages in order to peel back and expose the beauty and depth of God’s word, and to enjoy all kinds of theological conversations with my professors and classmates. But wait. There’s more to this command.

Work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. This is what cut me to the quick that day. The Holy Spirit put his finger so to speak on this area of my heart, this place that still needed to undergo his refining work. And this area is still under construction, two years later, as I make my way through another semester. This semester has been very difficult because of the added stress of caring for my aging parents and grieving the loss of my father-in-law. As I saw the amount of work in front of me, I began to panic, and I grasped for ways to perfectly organize my time and my assignments. Being organized is good, but panicking is not and the Lord showed me exactly where that panic was rooted – in idolatry. When I work heartily for man and not the Lord, I am motivated by grades and reputation. I get consumed with anxiety about what others will think if I don’t maintain a certain standard. Not only that, but what will I think about myself?

I don’t know all the answers when it comes to a faithful approach to productivity, but I have begun to recognize the traps that I fall into. One of those is the idolatry of achievement and reputation as I described above. The other is believing the lie that I am the master of time. If I could only organize each hour perfectly according to the priorities that I have established, then I could lay my head down on the pillow at night fully satisfied. But this mindset encourages us to live contrary to our natures as limited creatures. We are not master manipulators of the minutes of our lives. We are not God! And it also goes against how God sees growth and productivity in our lives. First of all, he is in charge. Yes, we are called to work out our salvation but that is rooted in and empowered by the work that God continually does in us for his good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12-13).

We are the clay and not the potter.

We are the branches and not the vine.

We are the sheep and not the shepherd.

Second, growth is slow. While we’re focused on speed and efficiency, God is calling us to learn from his creation about faithfulness and perseverance over a long period of time. Clay takes time to be molded by the careful and loving hands of the potter. Branches take time to develop and grow until the buds form and fruit appears. Sheep take time to learn their master’s voice and follow his commands. Think about how ridiculous it would be for the potter, the gardener, or the shepherd to stand over his work, hands on hips, impatiently crying out, “Will you just hurry up!” But we look at our lives, our children, and our work like this, as if everything could be microwaveable and should progress onward and upward in an unbroken line.

There’s a fig tree planted in my backyard. We planted it almost five years ago and it still hasn’t borne fruit. Last year it came close. As I observe the tree out of my kitchen window this spring, again putting out buds and then leaves, I think about the patience and kindness of God and I ask for wisdom. Wisdom to realize that I am not a machine but a limited creature who is dependent on the Lord for life, health and breath. Wisdom to see when my work becomes more about me and less about him and those I’m called to serve. With my mind renewed I can then reframe what productivity means. I’m coming to realize that it has much more to do with faith-filled patient work that bears fruit over the long haul.

Why Seminary?

Meredith Beatty5 Comments

This is a question I receive regularly when people learn I am going to seminary. For those who don’t know me, I am a middle aged woman with adult children who has an undergraduate degree in music but has also homeschooled her children and cleaned other people’s houses for a living. So why am I going to seminary? And why now?

In the early years of my Christian life, back in college, God gave me a desire to learn. I joined a women’s small group and did fill in the blank Bible studies by Cynthia Heald. I dove in head first, eagerly absorbing all the truth I could. The leader of that small group was going to seminary nearby at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She brought me to the bookstore one day and I remember buying this big blue book.

Not the typical book for a new Christian, I know, but it intrigued me and in the following decades I made my way slowly through most of it as I got married and had kids and had time for more theological reading. I was drawn to deep theology because I saw the difference it made in my own soul.

About ten years ago I started teaching Bible study in my local church, desiring to share what I had learned. But it became more than that. After reading Jen Wilkin’s book Women of the Word, I was convicted that teaching wasn’t about showing off how much I knew, but loving the women God had given me to teach. Did I love them? That has changed the way I teach for the better. Instead of filling my lessons with cool Bible facts, I try to focus on the women in my classes and what they need. That requires a lot of prayer and a lot of editing.

This gets me to why I decided to go to seminary. During those days of cleaning people’s houses I would binge on podcasts, especially Nancy Guthrie’s How To Teach the Bible. There were many times while I was vacuuming or cleaning a kitchen when I would have to stop and pray while listening to her podcast because there was this deep and overwhelming urge in my own spirit to teach more and to serve women better by giving them the Word.

Several years ago, I happened upon a Facebook group dedicated to encouraging women in the Bible. I can’t remember the name of it or who was sharing this post, but I do remember my reaction to the post. The best word to describe it is visceral – it was a deep angst in my spirit. Let me explain the post for you and then hopefully you can understand my reaction. The post centered around an obscure verse in Nahum 3. Verse 13 says, “Behold, your troops are women in your midst…” The woman commenting on this verse ripped it out of its context declaring that the Lord had given her this verse that day and wanted her to communicate to her readers that they should have courage as women warriors for God.

I hadn’t studied Nahum, but I had read enough of the Old Testament to know that this verse was never meant to be understood as a way to say, “You Go Girl!” It’s actually an insult! Nahum 3 is a declaration of woes from God upon Nineveh and to say that your army is a bunch of women is not meant to be a compliment and it’s certainly not meant to be an empowerment message to modern women. And guess what, the woman who wrote the post knew that too! But she pushed back against those who would question her interpretive methods by marginalizing those who desire to handle the Bible responsibly according to things like context, and elevated her own experience and what she thought the Lord was telling her.

As I said, my reaction to this post was visceral, it was like a boiling over in my spirit. No! This is not what women need! They don’t need to learn irresponsible ways of handling the Scripture. It’s not about plucking verses out of their context and then applying them to yourself according to how you feel that day. Responsible Bible study methods are not boring and dry. They actually get you deeper into the text and deeper into the heart of God. And they also honor the God who gave us his Word. He wants us to know him but he also wants us to handle his Word rightly.

Sadness accompanied my visceral reaction as I read the comments on this post. Most of the comments were filled with thankfulness for the message of empowerment. It was obvious that many were focused more on the immediacy of application instead of the priority of rightly handling God’s Word.

Soon after reading this Facebook post I began researching how to go to seminary. I wasn’t sure at the time whether I was experiencing a true calling or not, but I knew that God was doing something in my spirit, stirring up a passion that had been growing in me for a long time. That passion centers around helping women understand the importance and the benefit of rightly handling God’s Word. I want them to be anchored in the whole truth of Scripture, rooted deeply in the complete picture of God. This is how I want to love women well and this is why I’m going to seminary.

The Deeper Magic

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

In The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis uses the metaphor of deep magic to describe the atonement Aslan accomplishes on Edmund’s behalf at the stone table.

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

With poignant power, Lewis creatively recasts the death of Christ in a way that children (and adults!) could never forget. What happened at the Cross was a deeper magic, but how many of us have really plumbed the depths of that holy transaction?

Puritan theologians were active mostly in the late 16th and 17th centuries. I affectionately call them “the good old dead guys.” One of their common strategies was to take one verse and wring out of it every drop of gospel sweetness. These were men who plumbed the depths, who took the time to think deeply about every theological implication. John Owen, in his exposition of Psalm 130, spends 227 pages exploring the depths of verse 4. Yes, you read that right. Over two hundred pages on one verse. I encourage you to read the whole psalm for context because verse 4 begins with an important transition word: “But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.” The psalmist is crying for mercy and knows that if God were to mark our every iniquity, every single transgression in thought, word, and deed, we would rightly perish. What Owen does in his lengthy exposition of verse 4 is explore the inner logic of the gospel, what Lewis called the deeper magic. How can a holy God who demands perfect righteousness, forgive sinners?

Have you ever thought to ask that question? Have you presumed God’s forgiveness without ever realizing what it cost? These are the questions Owen asks as he challenges his readers to go deeper. Here is one quote that stunned me:

To see into the mystery of the love of the Father, working in the blood of the Mediator; to consider by faith the great transaction of divine wisdom, justice, and mercy therein,—how few attain unto it! To come unto God by Christ for forgiveness, and therein to behold the law issuing all its threats and curses in his blood, and losing its sting, putting an end to its obligation unto punishment, in the cross; to see all sins gathered up in the hands of God’s justice, and made to meet on the Mediator, and eternal love springing forth triumphantly from his blood, flourishing into pardon, grace, mercy, forgiveness,—this the heart of a sinner can be enlarged unto only by the Spirit of God.

Go back and read that again, and maybe again, not only because of the clunky 17th century English, but because of the profound truth that’s contained there. Take time to savor the sweetness like a Werther’s Original melting in your mouth. We may think that our generation especially doesn’t have time for this, or it’s just too hard, but look at what Owen says about his own! Few in his time attained to this understanding of what the blood of Christ accomplished and so few came to a deep understanding of the mystery of the love of the Father. A shallow understanding of forgiveness will lead to a shallow understanding of God’s love.

Let’s pray that the Spirit of God, who alone can stir within us to desire this, will work in us to enlighten the eyes of our hearts to comprehend this deeper magic.

Melodic Line of Revelation

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

One of the most helpful things I’ve learned from the Simeon Trust workshops is how to find the melodic line in a book of the Bible. As a Bible nerd, I love digging into the details of a passage, pursuing cross references and doing word studies, but hadn’t considered the value of looking at a book as a whole unit. What is the main theme of a book? How does that guide us as we dig deeper?

As a musician, this concept also appealed to me because it was taught using the illustration of a music staff, like this:

If you don’t read music, most of these notes are a different pitch and different lengths. Each music note is supposed to represent a key component of the book of the Bible. It could be a repeated word or phrase. It could be the way the book is structured. Your job is to find these notes and examine how they relate to one another. Which ones are more important? Which ones are instrumental (pardon the pun) in developing the theme? But how do you do this? Here are some strategies that I have used in studying Revelation.

Read and Reread

Repetitive reading is a highly underused Bible study skill. One of the reasons for this is because we have all been conditioned by our culture and technology to read in a way that is fast and reductive. We want to get to the point and right now! This creates readers who skim on top of the surface of the text instead of deep divers who go below to explore the depths. Slowing down and taking the time to read a passage over and over again helps you notice things.

Listen

I used to think that listening to a book didn’t count. I still prefer reading silently over listening to someone read aloud, if only to be able to control my pace, but listening is how most Christians took in the book of Revelation until only a few hundred years ago. People just didn’t have access or were not literate. How blessed are we to have so many options! Let’s take advantage of them. One of the main benefits I have found in listening to Revelation is catching the tone of the book. Every book has a certain tone, mood, or if we’re talking music, a key signature. The book may start in a minor key (sad, dark, or ominous) but then modulate to major (happy and peaceful resolution). Lament psalms often do this. In my many trips over to South Carolina to help my parents, I have taken advantage of that 3-4 hour drive (depending on Atlanta traffic!) to listen to Revelation straight through multiple times.

Epic.

That is the first word that came to mind when I thought about the tone of this book. It is a grand and monumental story that sweeps the reader up into visions of worship and judgment, an enemy dragon and a redeeming Lamb that was slain but is standing! There are dire warnings but also wonderful assurances of reward for those who conquer. If I had to choose a composer to write the soundtrack of Revelation it wouldn’t be Mozart. It would be Mahler. This book is meant to move us.

Repeated Words

As I read through the book I began noticing all the repeated words and phrases. This is a prophetic vision given to John so the words saw, looked, heard, and show are repeated over and over, more than 70 times! This helps us understand the kind of book this is. It is not a historical narrative that John retells in chronological order. He is showing us in highly symbolic language different pictures of the same period of time between Christ’s first and second comings. And what image is at the controlling center? This gets to another repeated word – throne. This word is repeated over 40 times in the book, especially in chapters 4 and 5. After the letters to the seven churches and before the cycles of judgment begin with the opening of the seven seals, John is whisked up into the heavenly throne room of God. Why? God wants him to know and his readers to know that whatever happens in this book, the Lord is in control. He is worthy and he reigns over it all.

Speaking of sevens, that word occurs over 50 times in the book. Numbers play a big role in Revelation and none more importantly than the number seven. Seven is the number of wholeness and completion. It is fitting that the book that brings every theme and every promise of the story of Scripture to fulfillment contains so many sevens. This is a book about ultimate consummation.

Top and Tail

Top and tail is a strategy that looks at the beginning and end of a book to see any parallelisms. If an author begins and ends by repeating similar words or phrases or repeating a purpose statement, that gives us a clue as to what the author is wanting his reader to focus on.

If we compare the beginning and end of Revelation we see a few things highlighted:

  • Christ is the central focus as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
  • The message is given to show what must soon take place – Jesus is coming!
  • There is a blessing for those who keep the message of this book.

The purpose statement of the book is also repeated at the beginning and end. In Revelation 1:1-3 and 22:6 we read that the Lord has sent his angel to make known to his servants what must soon take place. This book is an unveiling, a revealing, not a puzzle to unlock with a secret decoder ring.

What then?

There are several other strategies I used to help find the melodic line, but for now let’s take what I’ve mentioned above and try to put it together. One thing to remember is that this melodic line is tentative and open to refinement. As you go along in deeper study, you will see things that you’ve missed and you’ll want to adjust your melodic line. But doing this before getting into that deeper study, will give you a strong sense of what the author is trying to communicate. It will also keep you on track. If you come up with an interpretation that clashes with the main purpose of the book, you may want to rethink that interpretation.

If you explore the Simeon Trust website you’ll find a wealth of resources there including audio recordings of past workshops. I pulled one up on Revelation and heard the speaker guide some pastors in coming up with a tentative melodic line. Here are two ideas they came up with:

  • “Blessed is the one who keeps his words for Jesus is coming soon.”
  • “Jesus is coming soon and will reward those who endure.”

Notice how they both include the main event the book is pointing toward – Jesus’ second coming. They also include the ideas of blessing and endurance. What’s important is that you include words from the text in your melodic line so that it carries the identity of the book. If you make your melodic line too general it could apply to several different books. Your melodic line for Revelation should carry with it the distinct flavor of this book.

What did I come up with? It’s still tentative and probably needs to be edited, but my first stab at a melodic line for Revelation is this:

Blessed are those who patiently endure in the testimony of Jesus, for the Lamb has conquered and is coming soon to judge his enemies and usher his bride into the New Jerusalem.

In doing this exercise, I am a lot less confused about how to approach this book. I am able to see the overarching purpose and themes that God wants his people to see. And that fills me with excitement as I get into deeper study.

Has this helped you understand Revelation better? How can you use this concept of a melodic line in your own Bible study?

A Southern Baptist Goes to the Anglican Catholic Church

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The past two months have been very stressful for my family. The details are not important to this post, but because of these events I have found myself attending my parents’ church more often. It is a small Anglican Catholic church made of stone and the inside is filled with beautiful dark wood and floors that creak. Here is a picture of what it looked like over the Christmas holidays.

I grew up in the Episcopal church but didn’t come to faith in Christ until I was in college. After college I moved to Atlanta and since then I have been a member of two very large Southern Baptist churches. I met and married my husband at the first and then we raised our family at the second where we’ve been members for the past 28 years. One thing we love is being involved in the music ministry, he in the choir and me in the orchestra. Over the years the style of worship has changed and evolved resulting in a more traditional service in the sanctuary with pews and hymn books and a more modern service that takes place in the activity center. That venue has become the most popular over the last five years. There’s a band and lights and all the things that are common in American evangelical megachurches right now.

The small Anglican church has two services on Sunday. The early service is called a prayer service and there is no singing and no sermon. This is the only service my parents attend. The priest leads us through a liturgy that includes the corporate recitation of prayers, creeds and Scripture and culminates in coming to the altar, kneeling, and receive communion. The readings of Scripture change each week but it is generally the same each and every Sunday.

When I first started going I had mixed feelings about it. I love to sing. No wait, I need to sing! It is spiritual food for my soul. Not singing in church feels wrong. I’m also a Bible nerd and love good preaching. So each time I would go to this prayer service in the small Anglican church I would always leave feeling like I was missing something. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about all the sameness, the rote nature of it every week. It struck me as cold and insincere. But I also could appreciate it in a way that I never could when I was a child and an unbeliever. Now I understood everything I was saying and realized how much Scripture was packed into the liturgy! We were reciting psalms and creeds and prayers that were chock full of wonderful truth. In 28 years at my large SBC church I can only remember reciting a creed in the worship service one or two times.

But if I’m being honest, I still looked down on it. My church was better. My way of doing church was superior. There was more life, more warmth, more sincerity.

Over the past two months I have started to change my mind a little bit. Some of that has to do with a new priest at the church who I’ve gotten to know. He is young and vibrant and just as much a Bible nerd as I am. I’ve noticed that he is very intentional about how he recites the liturgy. When he quotes the words of Christ to the disciples at the Last Supper, he slows way down.

This………….is…………my………….body.

And likewise,

This………….is………….my………….blood.

I haven’t asked him why he does this yet, but it’s spurred me to ask this question: Have I ever meditated deeply on these words? His intentionality is encouraging me to do so. Speaking of communion, the small Anglican church offers it every Sunday. Can this encourage someone to take it for granted? Yes, if you’re not careful. But what about the large SBC church? There’s a danger there in celebrating the Lord’s Supper too infrequently. Someday I’ll finish my draft of a post about the formative value of the sacraments, but for right now, I am appreciating the thoughtful intention of this new priest who has encouraged me to slow down and contemplate more deeply.

But what about the sameness of the liturgy? I have a vague memory as a child being involved in our Episcopal church as a kind of junior acolyte. Every Sunday it was the same recitations, the same prayers. I almost had it memorized. But I didn’t understand it! As I’ve been attending the small Anglican church more often, I’ve started thinking about the significance of the sameness. This world is full of change which only seems to be getting faster and crazier. What if the sameness of this liturgy is a kind of polemic in our cultural chaos, calmy and consistently preaching the faithfulness of God and his word? One of the ministry philosophies at our church is an unchanging message but ever changing methodologies. I can see the wisdom of that, up to a point. At its best you make sure to be creative in how you reach people. But I can see how this philosophy can easily become unbalanced where the church ends up sticking its finger in the wind to see what will appeal best to a consumeristic community.

Not many people attend this early prayer service at the small Anglican church. And following the liturgy is not always easy. Some don’t know when to stand or what to recite. I’m still getting lost trying to figure out what page we’re on in the prayer book and when we’re supposed to stand and sit. But despite the awkwardness and imperfection, despite the seemingly timid and lackluster voices around me, there’s a simple yet powerful beauty to the corporate experience of reciting the ancient creeds and standing silently as the deacon comes to put out the candles at the end of the service. There may be something missing in this service that’s present in my Southern Baptist megachurch, but my church isn’t filled with as much soberness and dignity. It has been calming to me to enter into this small space and enjoy the silence of just being in God’s presence.

One of those Sundays when all was seemingly unpredictable and crazy in our family, my dad and I drove back to the house after the prayer service. I told him that his church may not be the same as mine, but I was beginning to appreciate many things about the liturgy that I hadn’t understood before. The sameness that seemed boring and lifeless to me now stood as a comforting reminder that some things remain the same: God, his Word, and the free invitation to partake of the sacrament of communion. The predictability of the liturgy was serving as an anchor during the storm we were experiencing.

“Exactly,” my dad responded.

How to Calm and Quiet your Soul

Meredith Beatty1 Comment

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 131

Unless you’ve nursed a child you can’t understand the intimate and visceral connection that exists between mother and child. A simple cry of her infant at just the right time can cause a mother’s body to produce milk. As the baby nestles into the crook of her arm he roots around using sight and smell to find the source of food. When the baby is only weeks old, still learning the steps of this dance with his mother, he is fidgety and frustrated until he successfully latches on.

This is not the picture that’s painted in the second verse of Psalm 131. Here we see the picture of a weaned child with its mother. But in order to understand the image of a weaned child it’s helpful to dwell on the negative image, the one of an unweaned child: fussy, hungry, and impatient.

Weaning represents an important stage of growth for the child. He is now no longer dependent on his mother for food. But that doesn’t mean he’s completely independent of her. It just means that his relationship to her has changed. He has learned to trust his mother and be content in her arms, no longer impatiently waiting to be fed. Calmly and quietly, he can rest knowing that she will provide.

How does this picture help us? If the weaned child with its mother is a picture of a soul who has found rest in God, how do we get there? Bookending this image are three things the psalmist doesn’t do and then a command of what to do. (I am indebted to Jim Hamilton’s excellent commentary for many of the following insights.)

Some Things are Beyond Us

One of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry is to use parallelism, a device that compares and contrasts in order to give meaning. The three things spoken of in verse 1 are actually three ways of speaking about the same thing. He says that his heart is not lifted up, his eyes are not raised too high, and he doesn’t occupy himself with things too great or too marvelous for him. Did you realize there are some things we are just not meant to understand? Proverbs 25:2 may declare that it is the glory of kings to search out the things God has concealed, but Deuteronomy 29:29 assures us that the secret things belong to the Lord. We may be able to peer into the far reaches of the galaxy and map the human genome but we are not God. We are not omniscient, nor omnipotent. But the temptation is to act like we are and to even assume God expects this of us. No. We are limited, time bound creatures made for dependence on our Heavenly Father.

The next time you are filled with anxiety about all the things you think you should be able to handle, or are overwhelmed by the news of the day that’s just a swipe away on your phone, say to yourself, “I am a limited creature and that is good.” (See this excellent book for more on that.) Question the expectations you place on yourself and the messages you receive through the media. Do they appeal to a desire to know everything and accomplish everything? Push back against that with the good news that you are not God! To constantly live in a way that denies this makes us like that unweaned child, always fussy and never trusting.

Hope as Trust

There are some things that are beyond us, things that we should be content not to know and not to be able to handle. That would unsettle us if not for verse 3 which says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”

We oftentimes say things like, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” or “I hope the Braves win the Word Series this year.” But meteorologists are often wrong, and don’t even get me going on the futility of hoping in Atlanta sports teams. But true, Biblical hope is not wishful thinking. It has deep roots in the character of a sovereignly good and loving Heavenly Father. It is a firm trust that God is who he says he is and will do what he has promised to do. Hope equals trust. Psalm 130 ends in a similar way. The focus there is on the promise of forgiveness, but it elaborates on the reasons why we can and should hope in the Lord. Notice how it focuses on the character of God: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” (Psalm 130:7)

An active hope and trust in the Lord adjusts our perspective. Instead of straining our eyes and hearts to figure out the universe and our place in it, the child of God who consistently sets the Lord before him, cultivating communion with him, realizes like David in Psalm 16:8 that God is at his right hand, he is near, and because of that he will not be shaken. Let us continually remind ourselves of who God is in comparison to who we are. Let us accept these truths as good. This will free us to exhale and settle down into the place of quiet trust, both today and forevermore when we enjoy our ultimate Sabbath rest in the arms of God.

Reading Revelation Aloud

Meredith Beatty1 Comment

Almost every night as I settle into bed I pull out my book light and a book and read until my eyelids get heavy. Silent reading seems second nature to us and essential to every day life, but did you know that this is a rather new practice and something that used to be frowned upon? For hundreds of years, reading was a communal activity where people would gather to hear someone else read aloud. It was a shared activity with others who may have been illiterate but also didn’t have access to scrolls or books. With this in mind, look at the blessing that is proclaimed in the first chapter of Revelation:

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Revelation 1:3

There is a blessing here for those who read aloud, for those who hear, and for those who keep the words of this prophecy. Focus on the first descriptor – those who read aloud. Some of us have heard portions of this book read aloud. How many of us have heard the whole book read aloud? How many of us have read it aloud ourselves? The original audience would have likely heard the whole book read to them out loud. What was that experience like? More on that at the end of this post.

Last summer I took a day to get away and fast and pray and part of that time I devoted to reading the whole book of Revelation aloud. Granted, this is probably not the way John meant it to be read aloud – one person, by themselves and to themselves. But this is the only book of the Bible that proclaims a blessing on those who read it, and read it aloud. Because of the length of the book and the intensity of the language, I had been intimidated to do it. I didn’t want any distractions or feelings of self-consciousness. But now was the perfect time.

What was my experience? Was I blessed? What constitutes a blessing? Is it a rush of emotion, a spiritual high? Is the blessing something that comes not instantaneously but over a long period of time? I don’t know all the answers to those questions yet and I still have a lot of studying to do in this book, but here are my first impressions.

A Thrilling Ride

Revelation is in the genre of apocalyptic literature which is very important if we are to read it and understand it for all its worth. This kind of literature was well known to the original audience but us moderns can be uncomfortable with the imagery and symbolism, trying to fit every piece of this puzzle into its proper place. Reading it out loud forced me to move faster through all the parts that confused me and as I did that I began to appreciate the thrill of it. There’s a roller coaster at Six Flags over Georgia called Goliath. This hypercoaster reaches speeds of up to 70 mph, but what is most thrilling is the steep climbs followed by precipitous drops paired with the restraints on the seats that don’t seem to be enough for what you’re about to experience. As you crest the hills you can look off to the west and see the Atlanta skyline before the drops force you to rise out of your seat as you plummet down. The tracks of the coaster go outside the park at one point completely disorienting you. But suddenly, you arrive at the end, breathless and wondering whether you should go again.

Revelation is a literary roller coaster, taking you to the heights of heavenly worship then immediately plunging you to the depths of man’s depravity and the coming judgment on Satan and those who worship the Beast. This happens several times over the course of the book, telling us the same story from different angles, until at last you get to the wedding feast of the Lamb and the glorious New Jerusalem. By the end of my reading I was left breathless and in awe of God. I wanted and needed to read it again.

A Humbling Experience

One of the temptations we all face in this world is to shrink God down to our size while at the same time inflating our own egos and importance. Revelation will have none of that. From the beginning vision John has in chapter 1 of the glorious son of man with eyes like a flame of fire and a voice like the roar of many waters, we are encouraged to see ourselves rightly and take our place with John humbly worshiping at the feet of the Lord.

As John gets whisked up to the throne room of heaven by the Spirit, we get a vision of who the hero of this book is. It is not us. Yes, the Lord desires to see his church witness faithfully and endure patiently through every trial on this earth. And there are glorious rewards promised for those who overcome. But we have not written the script and we are not worthy to open the seals. We don’t overcome by clever church growth strategies or by “taking back America” (whatever that means). We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony having loved not our lives even unto death. (Rev. 12:11)

A Sobering Experience

Many people are scared to read this book. The imagery of the beast and the false prophet, the dramatic visions of judgment and the picture of the church suffering for their witness of Christ makes people afraid for their own salvation and for their children’s futures. They would rather be raptured out of all of it! But as I read the book out loud that day and have continued to read or listen to it being read, it has had the effect of downing a strong cup of coffee or being splashed in the face with ice cold water.

If the events of this book are describing the experience of the church throughout what’s called the inter-advent period (between the ascension and the second coming of Christ) from the perspective of heaven, then we should not be surprised by, for example, Christ’s words to the rather wealthy church in Sardis – “Wake up!” Perhaps the over the top imagery of this book is John’s way, and God’s way, of changing our perspective, not so we would fear, but that we would look at the world around us through the right lens, being equipped and prepared to endure.

Read This Book!

I highly recommend reading this book out loud, preferably in your church or another group setting. Imagine how it must have felt being an original recipient of this message. Perhaps you were a member of the church in Smyrna, poor (but rich in God’s eyes!) and about to suffer severe trial, or maybe Laodicea, at ease and rich but sorely deceived about your true spiritual condition. Christ had a message just for you. He knew your works, he was walking among you, and offered encouragement, rebuke, and a promise of reward for those who overcame.

Many scholars believe that these seven churches represent the whole church throughout history. If this is so, then we should also take to heart Christ’s words. He speaks them as the Lamb who alone is worthy to open the seals, who is the faithful witness and ruler of kings on earth. He has given us the true story of the world and how we are to endure patiently as those who are the much-loved, blood-bought kingdom of priests to our God.

Reading this book will be difficult, but in all the best ways. Yes, it will confuse you. It has confused the church for many centuries and no one has unlocked every truth contained in it. But remember, the promised blessing is not for those who understand Revelation but for those who read and hear and keep what is written in it.

The time is near! So join me for this thrilling, humbling, and sobering journey through the book of Revelation.

Teaching Revelation?

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

I’ve read the book of Revelation many times as part of a Bible reading plan, but apart from trying to memorize parts of chapter 4 and 5, I couldn’t say that I’d spent more time in it than that. Like many believers, I have found the books of Ephesians and Psalms to be more beneficial for my walk with the Lord. Revelation has always felt like a big puzzle that could never be solved. I certainly never contemplated teaching it until recently.

I attended a Simeon Trust workshop last year and we learned about teaching apocalyptic literature by working through various passages in Revelation. I didn’t know what would come of this workshop. In the past I’ve used one of their workshops as a jump start in teaching specific books of the Bible. Did I think I would teach Revelation? Not at all. There were many reasons in my mind for why I wasn’t ready to teach this book: it’s too big, I haven’t studied Greek yet, there are too many differing interpretations.

But a curious thing happened that weekend as I listened to others teach from the book and learned more about it. The themes in it struck me as vitally important. I realized there was a significant hole in my understanding of who Jesus is, of what he is doing right now, and of the identity and mission of his church. Think of it this way – if the Bible is one story of God creating a people for himself and then working to redeem them in order to bring them back to himself in a restored and renewed creation, why would we ignore the end of that story? What if we’ve asked the wrong questions about this book and spent too much time being fearful and confused instead of using the book’s message of hope to fuel our endurance right now? After attending the workshop I knew I needed to teach this book. But where to even start? As I prayed and thought about it, I knew I needed a good chunk of time to prepare and some other people to come alongside and help.

Since last summer I have been reading and rereading the book, listening to podcasts and lectures, checking out commentaries, and talking with friends who are also curious to understand this book and teach it to others. It seems the book is getting more attention these days and people are eager to learn. (See Nancy Guthrie’s book and Jen Wilkin’s bible study.) This is exciting but also daunting. The daunting part has to do with the baggage that we all bring to the book. Many come to it with preconceived ideas, charts and diagrams, and already formed interpretations. Many are intimidated and fearful and throw up their hands at the prospect of ever understanding this book. My friends and I are thoroughly humbled by the task in front of us but also look forward to the opportunity. We are not Nancy Guthrie or Jen Wilkin but we know our women personally and love them. Our goal is to help our women learn how to read this book for all its worth and without fear. We long for Jesus to be revealed to them as the hero of the whole story. We pray that they would understand who they are as the beloved, blood bought people of God, a kingdom of priests who are called to endure patiently until Christ’s return.

As I continue to study and prepare to teach this book later in 2025, I hope to share my thoughts about what I’m learning, the questions I have, and the way I am going about structuring and writing this study.

Overthinking

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

I tease my husband quite a bit about his favorite Bible verses. It seems he’s always referencing them no matter what the issue is. I used to get annoyed by it, but lately I’ve been seeing the wisdom of it. Especially with the above verse, Proverbs 3:5-6.

I have a problem, a hang up. I call it overthinking. It happens quite often. I question myself, my motives, my plans. I worry about what people think and what will happen. I sometimes even script out future conversations so I’ll be prepared. I constantly question myself as to what is the best way to do things. It could be as simple as my daily to-do’s or I’ll reach back into the past and question how I’ve parented my children. In our 21st century world, we have a glut of resources at our fingertips that promise to optimize our lives and make them more efficient, more comfortable and just plain better. Who wouldn’t want that? But at the end of the day, all those choices leave my head spinning and my heart sliding into anxiety.

Overthinking, at its root, is about wrong belief. I was going to say unbelief, but we all believe in something, or someone. Notice the contrast in Proverbs 3:5 – trusting in the Lord is set against leaning on our own understanding. When I lean on my own understanding, trying to account for every possibility, anxious to make sure I’m prepared for any eventuality, I’m really trusting in myself. I’m believing that my knowledge of every situation is complete and without error. But our understanding is finite and flawed. And Proverbs tells us straight out to not depend on it. What does it say instead? Trust in the Lord. So the opposite of overthinking, of leaning on your own understanding is trusting in the Lord. It’s leaning on him, it’s acknowledging the vast, multidimensional, infinite difference between my understanding of what is going on in my life and in the world, and God’s.

The creation contains lessons about these differences. An ant may be one of the most diligent of God’s creatures but it will never ascend to the heights where eagles fly. The eagle may soar to great heights but it has no idea of the depths of the oceans where the whale swims. But God is the one who created all these things and more out of his infinitely glorious mind. Things seen and unseen. Wonders known and not yet discovered.

So when you are tempted to lean on your own understanding, look up to the sky and remind yourself of the God who holds everything together and gives to us our next breath. He is worthy of all our trust.

Expectations

Meredith Beatty2 Comments

At the end of 2022, while I was contemplating some big changes in my life, a dear friend of mine encouraged me with these words,

“Expect God’s kindness.”

In my contemplation of these changes I had become filled with worry that I wasn’t on the right path, fearful of making a mistake. Being a perfectionist and an overthinker doesn’t help me when it comes to seeking God’s guidance. I tend to see the ideal path as a road that’s hidden in the fog. Am I on it? Am I going the right way? Is God with me in this? But my friend’s words acted as a gentle yet firm corrective for me. If I am sincerely seeking the Lord’s guidance, I should expect his kindness. I should expect him to lead me like the good Shepherd that he is. The counsel of my friend makes me wonder what I have been expecting from God and if that lines up with his character.

“If I am sincerely seeking the Lord’s guidance, I should expect his kindness.”

Many times in prayer, I’ve noticed that I expect a negative answer, or that his answers will always be long in coming. I come to his throne almost as if I’m hoping to twist his arm, instead of falling into his gracious lap. Sometimes I even falsely suspect that God works according to Murphy’s Law – if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. I assume that God will always choose the hardest path for me. That he will always wait decades to save lost loved ones. I pray for the miraculous healing, but do I really expect it to happen?

My expectations reveal who I really believe God to be. If I expect the negative answer or the hard answer, then I really believe that God is stingy and severe. That he is not the good and gracious God that is revealed in Scripture. Now, a good God does say no to our requests, just as a good parent, but what I’m getting at here is the hidden expectations I have concerning God’s disposition toward me. Is it kindness or severity? Indifference or steadfast love?

If we truly know God as our Father, our expectations should align with his character and the gracious salvation he’s given us through Jesus. Because of our adoption into God’s family, as fellow sons and heirs, we have every right to expect what is good from our God. Our dear brother and Savior, Jesus Christ, has earned for us an infinite treasury of merit and untold spiritual blessings! So why is there this inclination to fear and doubt, to assume the worst? I think it comes down to this – my knowledge of God is deficient. I’ve allowed earthly experiences to override what is true. And I’ve succumbed again to the original lie, “God isn’t good.” My mind is in need of a deeper renewal.

For sure, we must not be too hard on ourselves. We are, after all, just dust. And praise God that he knows that and responds in compassion. (See Psalm 103:13-14) He is good and full of goodness toward us. He is not the forever-frowning taskmaster, eyes full of disappointment.

Let us build ourselves up with the truth of who our God is. Let us scour the pages of Scripture and absorb into our souls the picture of our gracious Father, our glorious King, and our unconquerable Savior. How might things change, our prayers change, our affections change, if the spiritual inclination of our hearts was to believe and to expect good in accordance with the goodness of our God? For the eyes of faith look down at our feet where we see the solid Rock. They look up and see the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on. And sometimes, like Stephen, these eyes of faith can also see our glorious elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.

Lord, let this vision change our hearts and our expectations.