Today I discovered that someone used the Three Lenses (No, four!) in their discipleship class. They have a nice summary of the four lenses:
Equipping The Saints: How to Read: Session I Summary
I continue to ponder that fourth lens. How can we look at the Scriptures and allow it to reveal our true nature?
James said it best:
Obey God’s message! Don’t fool yourselves by just listening to it. If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.
James 1:22-25 (CEV)
I am more like the women that Paul warned Timothy about who are ”always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7)
Here’s a startling quote by Søren Kierkegaard:
“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”
Emphasis mine. Source: Phil Smoke
Ouch. Ouch. And ouch! Maybe I’ll shut down my computer, put away the fancy Bible tools and just “be alone with the New Testament.” I’m not sure I’m up to the dreadful challenge this early in the morning.
Today no red sun, just overcast grey following last night’s loud lightning viewed from the window just beyond my computer screen. Blinds open – for the sun is veiled, I am looking East of course. Who sits here with me who is in me? If you withdraw you breath, can we live? Book or no book? Screen or no screen? Window or no window? If you awaken us – full measure pressed down and overflowing, can we live? Would not your glory crush us becoming so one with us? You hold us in your image, our mirror you, your mirror us – fully in love, celebrating your power to give and be given. “Follow me,” you say. “I will be with you.” Yes – the rest is commentary.
Thanks for getting things rolling on our class discussion! This is a brand new concept for us (both the class and the blog) and it may take some time to get the folks interracting online.