The Gift

The Bible. Gods Word. Gods gift to humanity. His instruction, His law, His inspiration to us. Full of life, hope and "Good News" and yet also head scratching, pulling your hair out frustration!

I have heard it said many times by the well-meaning, "I just want to find a church that teaches the Bible!".

If only it was as simple as that!

"Just teach the Bible!" They say?

That is great, but whose Bible do we teach and preach? Whose interpretations of those words written down so long ago within a whole different world and culture do we trust?

Words interpreted throughout the ages with thousands of different voices, theologies, teachings and beliefs woven into those interpretations.

Thousands of different churches, beliefs and even religions have been built upon this ONE book.

So, yeah it is not as simple as it sounds to say "just preach the Bible!"

For one thing it is a book that sadly throughout the years excluded the female voice in teaching, interpreting, molding or even writing about the Bible and the faith. Tragically fifty percent of the human population was silenced from having a voice and bringing their own incredible perspectives of the mystery of God and faith!

We are less for it to be sure!

I have recently discovered another, more modern twist in understanding (perhaps misunderstanding) our study of the Bible.

As I have found myself within the busyness of work and life and family, I have found myself with less and less time to sit down and read the Bible to be honest.

My solution has been listening to the audio version of Eugene Peterson's The Message Bible while driving my 20 minute commute to and from my work.

I have found it interesting and enlightening to listen to the Bible as opposed to just reading it.

One of the reasons for this is that consciously or not the speaker has his own personal way of interpreting how and where to passionately place his inflections on certain words within the passages. Subsequently many stories, parables and verses have taken on a whole new meaning by the simple thoughtful or dramtic pause within a sentence, or perhaps even in raising and lowering of the volume of his voice.

You begin to see how easily (and dangerously) the incredible words of God can be minipulated and crafted to say what someone wants them to say.

We can all find our own truths in the Bible if we look hard enough and piece it together just right. Obviously history has been littered with people doing just that as they justified their own horrendous atrocities with the backing of scripture.

The Bible...I believe to be all truth, but the question is whose truth?

Sometimes we can even miss the truth or fail to see it wether intentionally or by deception or mistake.

Gods word is a lifetime study in questioning, doubting, believing and in the end sometimes just trusting and hoping that through it all we at least get the gist, the important stuff right.

If you find yourself studying the Bible and it doesn't produce for you incredible wonder, troubling questions and even gnawing doubt then you are not "studying" the Bible.

"Just give me the Bible!"

And then give us wisdom to sift through the different voices and the filters of our own experiences to find inspiration and hope!