I am pretty jacked! This Sunday I am starting a class called “Reading Your Bible”. I am passionate about this study because my life was changed due to my relationship with God and His love letter to us. Here’s how it all started.
Me and KJV – I remember being a High School student and making the decision, on my own without any sort of encouragement, to open my Bible and read it. I’m not sure why, but I felt guilty, I have a strong guilt reflex. I called myself a Christian (I had a cross on my Senior ring) but I knew very little about what the Bible said AND I did not have a relationship with Jesus. So I busted out a Bible that I had at home, probably KJV, and started reading…in 1 or 2 Kings somewhere. Not the best place to start reading your Bible.
When I did, I began reading passages about wars against surrounding nations. There was blood and guts. There were battles being fought and commands to wipe out a people group. I struggled with what to do with passages like that and then reconcile that with what I knew about Jesus. Which, if I’m being honest, was very little and somewhat elementary. I just knew the Bee Gee Jesus (or Jared Leto Jesus for the younger audience) that had long goldish brown hair and was white. He loved everybody and simply winked at you when you did wrong and encouraged you to do better. He was your buddy.
What I was reading didn’t jive with my limited scope of who God was, who Jesus was and what my role was in all of that. Because of my frustration, I put down my Bible and didn’t pick it up, I mean really pick it up, until four years later. When I did, it would change me for good. I’ll talk more about that at another time. I look forward to sharing that with you at a later date. Peace out homies.
We’ll use big words like “metanarrative” and “atonement” if that’s your thing but we’ll also cover some basic ideas about how to approach your Bible.
mlsnellings 