I stood on the shoreline of a wide river that let out into the Bay of Biscay. Eyeing it over like a young and virile youth I knew crossing it would be a breeze. Taking a look up and down the gentle waters I ran at it, flying in with both feet flailing. Swimming as hard as I could I took to the water like a fish. After a minute of fervent work I looked up expecting to see the opposite shoreline greeting me. Instead I found myself in only a short ways across the river, but so much closer to the ocean.
I hadn’t taken into account the current, the silent force that rippled underneath the seemingly dulcet waters. Abandoning my fading goal and out of breath and vigor, it took me even longer to get back to where I had started. I will always remember the ride back home over the short bridge that spanned that river.
Reading the Bible can be just like that river. Often we dive in with both feet but haven’t taken into account what we are getting ourselves into. As we said last month, reading the Word of God requires us to step out of our time and culture. We must build a bridge across the teeming river of space and time over the current of cultural changes and paradigm shifts to see what was being written to the original audience and how that translates into our day.
Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays in their text Grasping God’s Word have given us four excellent questions to building a bridge that can span this river. Four questions that help us construct a bridge to access the ancient principles and bring them into the modern world.
What did the text mean to the biblical audience?
What are the differences between the biblical audience and us?
What is the theological principle in the text? How should individual Christians today apply the theological principle in their lives?
Over the next few articles we will look at these questions and see how they can be used to cross the divide from obscure antique stories to the living breathing Word of God that has great poignancy and power today.
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Diane and I would like to say, “Thank you” for the cards, notes and expressions of kindness that you offered us during the holiday season. We count ourselves extremely blessed to have the privilege of serving such a wonderful congregation of people who are so committed to Christ, committed to God’s purposes for Cornerstone and committed to us. We look forward to all that the Lord has in store as we continue to follow Him together. God bless you, we love you, have a great year in the Lord. How Fun!
This year the Lord wants to move us further along in His plan for us: Joining together in the power of the Holy Spirit, to be healed, transformed, and sent by Jesus to a world in need. The six sermon series for the year will unpack God’s Word to us in these six areas. On Sunday, January 4, we will introduce the theme and direction for 2009. This will also be a year of keeping the Scriptures central to our daily lives. We will have several options available for you to choose, ranging from a chapter a day, to going through the entire Bible either sequentially, chronologically, or historically. May it be a great year for all of us to see God’s vision more realized for our personal lives and our corporate life together.
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