We all know the joke: Fred was experiencing a very tough time in his life. He felt his faith slipping and was desperate. He pulled out his Bible and decided to open it randomly to get a word from God.
So he flipped pages and stopped at Matthew 27:5, which says, "Judas went out and hanged himself."
He thought he'd try it again and Luke 10:37 came up, where Jesus said, "Go and do thou likewise."
So he quickly flipped to another verse and landed on John 13:27, which says, "What you are about to do, do quickly."
This humorous take on an "inerrancy" reading shows up the self-destructive nature of shallow and tangencial engagement with the Word of God written.
What to do about Bible reading? In an age where biblical illiteracy is expanding as rapidly as the federal debt, churches who encourage communal bible study and reading are really swimming upstream. Yet this foundational text of Western civilization can hardly be consigned to the ivory tower or the fringes of Christian life for it to have the life-giving effect that it promises. Disciples must study scripture together if our common life is to have meaning. So I'm really happy to have a small group of pilgrims ready to re-engage with the bible in our little church. Reading through the Bible in 90-days was good. Studying together is really better. We'll use
Disciple . Beginning Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 pm.
