Bear with me here as this is a concept I am still trying to ‘flesh out’ myself, but I hope you can take something from it.
I was having a ‘Ministry’ chat with a friend of mine the other day and I really started thinking about some important things. Two of which relate to how we ‘perceive’ the Bible in today’s world and the ‘context’ in which the Bible was written.
DISCLAIMER: I want to start out by saying, yes, I know that the Bible is just as applicable ‘Today’ as it has ever been in the past…and I do think that God can ’show’ us, through his word, wisdom for our life and current state of affairs. I am not challenging any of those ideas or thoughts.
1) CONTEXT - How often to we read the Bible trying to find a proof-text for a certain attribute of God, or wisdom concerning certain decisions, or even to enhance a message…especially to make it fit into whatever ’series’ we are going through at church. Truth be told, alot. I do it all the time (not that it’s wrong) but it can become unhealthy. Lately I find it very beneficial to take a verse and the chapter before and after, just to get a basic sense of the context in which it was written…often times I find that the message being conveyed is not 100% about what I thought it was about. I would say what we do is similar to a newspaper or magazine interview article, where the writer picks a handful of quotes from the interview and formulates the idea he/she wants to convey with the article…it isn’t always a fair representation of the entire conversation.
PERSPECTIVE (To Be Continued…)
Can’t wait to get the “perspective” part. Its so goo do hear what the Lord is saying to you Chad, and hopefully through you to us.