I never in a million years thought I'd be saying this: Our church service today had too much Bible in it.
I've felt it for many weeks since we've been here - the churches and ministries we've visited and been part of have a strong emphasis on Bible-reading, Bible-teaching, and Bible-believing. My children have been taught songs to sing about the Bible: "Read your Bible, pray every day..." is one of them. I have heard ministry leaders complain that people in their ministries don't know their Bibles like they should: "They don't even know the order of the books". And I've had to sit quietly while people are questioned about whether they've been reading their Bibles every day.
Sometimes I just want to shout - The Bible is not GOD! We do not worship it, we worship God who speaks in the Bible. We do not want to know the Bible, we want to know the Living God. We are not called to join relationship with the Bible, but to be reconciled to God and join relationship with Father/Son/Spirit.
I know there shouldn't be this dichotomy between God and his Word, but today I'm pretty sure I encountered the Bible in church without having much fellowship with the Living God.
4 comments:
True, we are not to aim at a relationship with the Bible, but it IS one important means to get to know God. He has given us this written revelation so that we can learn to know the God with whom we seek relationship. I agree that knowing the order of the books doesn't necessarily generate any understanding of the workings of the God who inspired the writing of those books, and that reading every day simply for the purpose of saying you have read every day is missing the point. But regular, deep, meditative reading and studying of the Bible is vital to an understanding of the character of the living God, and is important to each of us in learning how to respond to him. Teaching children the importance of daily time with the Lord is nurturing a life of discipline, something lacking in much of today's culture. If we encourage our children, or those "younger" Christians who look up to us, to find joy in a daily time of Bible reading, they will learn to love God's word as a way of entering into relationship with Jesus. Each new day can bring something new and exciting from the Word which can help us to know the Lord more each day. We do have the potential to worship much about the church that is not worshiping God - the music in the service, our Bible time, the sermon, a small group or mini-church - but kept into the right perspective, each of these can be a genuine avenue for entering into a time of worship in Spirit and Truth.
Love you,
Mom
I grew up in this American fundamentalist church that seemed to view the Bible the same way that you described. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what's wrong, but there seems to be this unhealthy obsession with knowing about the Bible and not knowing God.
At the same time, it's difficult to differentiate between the Bible and God's word. God's word is also the second person of the trinity, aka God. So while we don't worship God's word, one of the primary ways that we worship God is through his word and through the work of his son. (both manifestations of the second person) So how do you redirect this obsession with knowing about the Bible to focussing through the Bible to the God who is to be worshipped?
Wise words, both of you. Thanks for tempering my frustration.
Anybody else have a response? I'd like to explore Jason's comments a little more, especially the connection between the Word as second person of the Trinity and the Bible as Word of God. I think Barth resolved the difficulty by saying that the Bible is witness to the Word, but not the Word itself. Not sure we should go there (at least my training tells me steer clear of it). Thoughts?
It's hard. The Bible is God's way of telling us who Christ is. The way Scripture presents Christ is the way we should see Christ. I think I get caught up in worshipping the Bible at times because I don't want to take away from the integrity of how Scripture presents Jesus that I live in fear of being herectical. I then get so caught up in making sure I see Jesus accurately in the Scriptures that I totally miss Him all together. I guess that is why God has given us the Spirit.
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