The dust off their feet [oh and some more thoughts this time inspired by chapter 7 of a new kind of christian]...

One of my quieter new yrs resolutions is try and start to re-engage with the bible.  Just to read it, enjoy it, be shaped by it and yeah let it read me...  It was one the great things about when I read the whole of the new testament in The Message paraphrase, it was alive, vibrant and it actually changed me - certain parts of the sermon on the mount, ephesians [love is about giving not getting] and Galations [power of grace] just blew me away and left me changed as a result...

But of late I feel I have only engaged with the bible when I want something, when it is something to support what I am saying/thinking - like calling up an old friend cos i'm after a favour and not cos i want to reconnect and renew our friendship/relationship.

Of course part of my problem is that old one of familarity breeds... well in this case arrogance, which is why the Message with its paraphrase was so shockingly good - it actually meant i read, listened, reflected, bathed in the words and wondered at possibility of what they suggested - somewhere a hunger woke up...

The bible is not the sole foundation of christian life/experience and it is more than just an answer book - infact when i go looking for answers i usually find i have already determined the answer when i let the bible read me i tend to find it throws up a whole lot of Qs about me and my life/experience.   It's an interesting dynamic that I am inspired/informed by christians, by theology, by experience and community and the bible - but the bible in turn inspires all these things... it awakens hunger for the things of God.

But with all hungers it dampened down, my life got different rythm, space got compacted and i went back to resting on bible laurels, don't read me i'll read you...

But now I'm back - i look at the morass on the inside of me and think yes I need God to be searching me, transforming me, shaping me - I need something to help me encounter God more, to inspire me,to challenge me, to bathe in, even to alter my brave waves the way a piece of music will - the flow of words, entwined with the Spirit.  And to help me I decided to pick something with a little structure - in my case: the dust off their feet.

The dust is a retelling of the book of Acts [ok Brian McLaren does that part] and the book has thoughts/insights/comments/reflections/view points etc to help make it an immersion rather than just a read... 

I've only just started so i'll let you know how it goes... if you've tried let me know what you think and if you have any other good recomendations of books that let the bible read you then i'd love to hear them...

Comments

[Joshua Case]

Paul- do let us know how it goes. I saw this book this Christmas while in the US and resisted buying. However, I have since thought about purchasing it.

Also, I understand what you mean by wanting to experience the bible a fresh. I actually found the discipline of going through the lectionary day by day added quite a bit of refreshment as i experienced the bible in the context of the global church and in the context of my life. Amazing what happens when you find "predecided" passages harmonizing and speaking into what feel like "unexpected" circumstances of life. Can really effect your theology;)

[Mrs Wibbs]

Paul - I can so identify with all you said: with reading the Bible, instead of letting it 'read me'. With the whole familiarity thing...
Like you, I have also found that the Message has reawakened my hunger for God's living word in an amazing way...It's really refreshing and real, wonderful stuff :)
Yet it is, like you say, so easy to allow my hunger to die down, my thirst to become quenched by the rythms of life, and the wrong kinds of things too - and I'm ashamed of myself but in awe of God at the same time, because, time after time, His Grace calls me back to His word and I can see myself grow in spite of myself!!
The book sounds like a good read - might get hold of it sometime.

[sonja]

Hi Paul ...

I've got this book in my pile. I haven't been able to get through the intro because it just seems confusing to me. But after reading your take on it, I think I'll give it another go. If I can get through "Philosophy and Theology", I should be able to get through this, huh?

[Paul]

Thanks Josh, i will let you know how it goes :)

I like the idea of a lectionary - we were talking about it in small group last night and one of the things said was that before modernity and its printing revelations that was how people would hear the bible - each wk in church.

Maybe I'll work my way up to that, lol

[Paul]

thank you Rach, I think i did the whole ashamed thang but after awhile i have figured that there are other ways to connect to God - the bible is awesome but i have gone through a whole bunch of different relatiohships with it - from divine answer book, fortune teller, promise cheque chk book, to just ignoring it... lol

i think i keep coming back to it though cos it has been so sweetly shaping, at its best i've encountered exciting life changing dynamic love that infects me somehow, in only the way the Spirit can.

I tend to come to points like now and think man i got a whole lot of mush in the void and rather than keeping filling it with mush i'd like to let God soak in and the bible seems like an old friend waiting at the door with a mischievious smile and a spare stout walking stick... :)

[Paul]

Hi Sonja, yes i know what you mean about the intro - i just looked at it and thought ok, skip :)

the retelling is good - i like the way they've presented this project as a film script dialogue - in fact i like the way the other projects in this series seemed taylored in different ways such as psalms set to music etc...

[Katie]

Paul- In the book, Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell, he talks about the terrible analogy of the Bible being like an instruction manal. He compared it to how you would have the instruction manual for your toaster-- you don't have a relationship with your toaster's manual-- you only read it when you need to fix something. It's not living or impactful at all (unless you have the worlds most amazing toaster, I guess ;-) The Bible needs to be part of your everyday life and you need to grow and mature the relationship you have with God. The Bible is the best way to do that. I will definately take the advice to read the Message version cuz it sounds like it will really give me a lot more insight instead of being "the same ol' thing." The Bible is alive, so it should be treated as such-- not stuck on a shelf (or in a drawer) for emergency use only! Thanks for the insight! And I'll look into that book... sounds interesting!

[Paul]

thanks katie, i've got some more info on 'the voice' project that this bk is part of so i'll post that soon...

i like that analogy for the bible, i've heard others like a phone book or a legal law code which convey the same thing, yes you'll get something from the bible like that... but what others ways can we also read the bible, or let God romance, challenge, search, explore with us rather than us trying to be so objective and one directional?