Missional Musings - 11-14-2012

"Through believing the story, we are drawn in to the account and find ourselves caught up in the saving movement of God. We learn to "indwell" the story so looking our from within the biblical world with new eyes onto our postmodern live and world we stop trying to make the Bible relevant to our lives and instead begin to find ourselves being made relevant to the Bible. We give up the clumsy attempt to wrench the ancient text into our contemporary world and instead bring our world back into collision with and cleansing by, the strange new world of the Bible." Philip Greensdale.

"Who needs the Bible? I't's irrelevant. It's an outdated ancient bunch of nonsense written by old men. It's a fairly tale. It's irrelevant to my life. It's full of errors and contradictions. I don't need the Bible, I've got science." You have probably heard things like this but the problem is not with the naysayers. There have always been naysayers who have their hearts closed to truth (2 Cor 4:4). They are not our concern.

The problem is when those who say they follow Christ give credence to these naysayers, thinking "maybe they are right?"  They convince themselves that they can follow Jesus without the Bible or by only focusing on the "red letters." They stop reading the Bible altogether and get their spiritual milk somewhere else - like the plethora of Christian books and music - instead of drinking from the Source of true life and power. Today, many think they can move beyond the Bible."Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge." (Romans 3:4). In order to do that we need the Spirit of God to open our eyes and shape our hearts to make us relevant to the Bible. We don't fit the Bible into our lives We enter the Bible's story and learn to live in it, allowing it to conform us to the cosmic story it tells.

First, though we need to know the story it tells and where it is taking us. That's why I am blogging through Mission of God's People. I invite you to come along and invite others to join us on this journey. May God be true and everyman a liar.