I was in a meeting all day today, as were all of my team mates here in our city. Sometime during our meeting, I realized something. Something very sad to me.
Sometime in the past few years the Bible has become boring to me.
I ask myself: What? How could this happen? What is going on? Oh no!
And I realize that somehow it has become a book, oh a very important book, yes! but just a book where you go to find the answer to a list of questions. In fact, knowing the list has somehow become more important than knowing the Bible. Except, I rebel at learning the list and feel like a complete failure.
Some guys a bunch of years ago sat around in a big meeting that lasted several years and decided that everything that the Bible is and contains can be summed up in a list of questions and answers. Rules. The New Law for "Good Christians" to memorize and follow. Know this and you'll know all you need to know.
I did not grow up in that kind of church. Instead, I grew up in a church that emphasized End Times. End Times until everyone in my family was sick to death of charts, the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation. I could draw charts and give sequences of events with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back.
BUT - that church was very good in one area. I grew up knowing my Bible very well. I could find verses at the drop of a hat (I always won in those old "Sword Drills" that we'd have). The preacher would take a text and draw in other Bible texts from all over the place (it wasn't all End Times :):) ). I knew my Bible - the whole Bible very well. When I went to Bible College I actually had an advantage over several of the other students in my classes because I'd had such an overall good Biblical education in my local church (End Times not withstanding).
Somehow, though, over the past few years something else came to be the 'right thing to know.' A list of questions and their answers. I've never made it through a whole study of these questions and answers because (whisper - I'm whispering this) they mostly bore me to tears.
The Bible used to be a living book to me, full of adventure and excitement. It used to be a book that I could turn to when I hurt inside and find comfort from it's pages. Now, however, more often than not, it has been distilled into this list that is (yawn) boooooorrrrriiiing to read through. Reading the list I learn a lot about theology and a lot about God, but I don't get to know God Himself very well. Reading through the list I read what the "TRUTH" is, but I have lost the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who smiles at me, laughs with me, let's me cry on His shoulder, puts His arms around me, guides me, who is Himself all truth. Instead, He has become a list of attributes that are foreign to me because they are so 'other.'
Church has become a "right way to do this and no way else." Robert's Rules of Order rule!
Now, I remember a Bible study I was involved in way back in the early '80's in a non-denominational church. It was a women's Bible study on the attributes of God. Many of these things I had learned in Bible college, but here we approached them in a different way. I remember how excited I was the first time I realized that God is sovereign - this meant something in MY LIFE, it was personal and not just an answer to a question that needed to be memorized.
I'm having a hard time writing this all down, trying to explain what I mean.
God has been put in a box, neatly wrapped and whenever we need an answer to a questions, we pull out the box, sift through the questions and find the appropriate one and read it's answer. Sometimes the answers make no sense to me in conjunction with the questions. Sometimes the verses used to prove the answer make even less sense to me. Everything is ripped out of context and bits and pieces of verses are used to prove points. And the language it is written in is, sorry to say, not my mother tongue, but the language my ancestors spoke.
So - call me a heretic. Bring me up on charges. What can I say, other than -
TELL ME A STORY!
Tell me the story of an axhead that floated. Teach me about God through the life of His prophets. Tell me the story of a woman who took her life in her hands to protect her worthless husband and ended up the wife of a king. Tell me the story of brothers who hated each other so much they sold the youngest into slavery - and he became the second most powerful ruler in the world of that time. Tell me the story of how much God loved a woman who had had 5 husbands and sent His Son to show her Truth and forgiveness. Tell me the story of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. Tell me the story of how God uses a man's disobedience to show His power through a shipwreck and a snake bite, while preserving his servant.
Tell me a story! God gave us a book of stories! Wonderful stories. Teaching stories. Beautiful stories.
Don't give me a boring list of questions and answers.
The Bible is a living book! Not boilable (is that a word) down to a list of questions and answers to be memorized.
Oh my.
Now here is a story for you: Here is a word picture that is far from boring: Here is LIFE:
Sharper than any double-edged sword,
it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,
joints and marrow;
it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
Oh my! I can feel that sword hanging over me, I can feel it piercing me, cutting against the bones, working it's way inside me very being. The WORD of GOD is living.
Now, this problem I now realize that I have is not my husband's fault. Nor is it the fault of my team mates. Nor is it the fault of the organization for whom we work.
No, I think the fault lies in the fact that I have tried to live by a completely foreign to my personality kind of religion. Rules. Regulations. Lists to do, think, believe. Wrap it all up into a neat package and satisfaction occurs. Or, it's supposed to. I can judge between good and evil by this list. You are right or you are wrong by how you line up against this list.
No - I am more messy than that. I don't like neat little packages that have no surprises. I don't like cut and dried. I don't want to listen to dull facts when there are incredible stories to read/hear instead.
Give me color! Give me blood and guts! Give me wars and feasting! Give me passion! Give me - The Word Of God, the Holy Bible.
Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell how the angels in chorus,
Sang as they welcomed His birth.
“Glory to God in the highest!
Peace and good tidings to earth.”
Refrain
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Fasting alone in the desert,
Tell of the days that are past.
How for our sins He was tempted,
Yet was triumphant at last.
Tell of the years of His labor,
Tell of the sorrow He bore.
He was despised and afflicted,
Homeless, rejected and poor.
Refrain
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in anguish and pain.
Tell of the grave where they laid Him,
Tell how He liveth again.
Love in that story so tender,
Clearer than ever I see.
Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
Love paid the ransom for me.
Refrain
1 comment:
You GO girl! Good post! thanks for making me think again. love you.
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