ESV+ app for iPhone

iPhone and iPad users should find the new ESV + app from Crossway extremely helpful. In addition to ESV Bible (which you can get for free), the ESV + app offers all the ESV Study Bible notes and the ability to write your own notes. The interface is slick and I think the best out there. The ESV Bible app has become my Bible on the go, and this is just a nice upgrade. The app cost $9.99 for a limited time.

Breaking Through the Fog: Questions

Solomon said, “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” It takes no skill to humiliate and offend, and it takes little more to win an argument. But living in peace with those you strongly disagree with, that is a divine talent. Christians can sometimes wear their offensiveness like a badge of honor. After all, Jesus was offensive. Of course, he mainly offended the religious self-righteous who claimed to represent God and was generally patient and winsome with religious outsiders, but whose keeping track.

Offending in an Unoffensive Way. I have a radical question perpetually nagging me. Is it possible to unashamedly present the gospel, to proclaim a message that is fundamentally offensive to the religious and irrelegious (1 Cor. 1:23), to actually offend with that message, and still live at peace with the offended? In another words, is is possible to have only the message (the gospel) offend while the messenger (me) remains thoroughly unoffensive. To a degree, I think it is possible. And the method that helps make it possible is asking questions.

Asking Questions. Questions was Jesus method. When asked a question, he responded with a question. Think of all his questions: “Who do you say that I am?” “What do you ask of me?” “Do you see this woman?” “Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say?” “What does the law say?” “Which man proved to be a neighbor?” “Why do you call me good?” “Who made me a judge over you?” “Is it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath?” And on it goes. So why are questions so helpful? Why did I just ask that question? And why did I just ask the question to follow up the question? Okay, getting a little out of hand. Here are some reasons question asking is so beneficial

1. Questions are an indirect challenge to another’s position - With a question you simply bring up the possibility of their error without flatly calling their ideas rubbish.

2. Questions invite a person to think through their position - A question is really an invite go underneath the surface of their belief.

3. Questions allow us to treat others like real people - Instead of treating people like propaganda machines to be crushed, we treat them like real thinking, feeling images of God. After all, you didn’t come to your position by someone trashing your argument.

4. Questions allow us to assume the best about others - We aren’t talking to morons. Well, not usually. People have genuine reasons for their beliefs, and asking a question assumes that that is true. “I guess I’m not sure why you believe that. Can you explain it to me?” Such a question in itself can be wonderfully winsome.

5. Questions appeal to a most cherished desire, to tell others what I think - Listening is a lost art. I’m not sure it was ever found. People aren’t used to someone genuinely interested in their opinion, or to sharing it without someone constantly trying to one-up them. If you give them that chance, they will love you for it.

6. Questions exude humility - What better befits a Christians attitude than the asking of questions? By asking a question I assume that there is much I don’t know, that I don’t have everything figured out, that another’s voice is more important than my own, that the Spirit’s work on another’s heart and mind is more essential than my words.