Some find the Bible a dull read. As I have written elsewhere “the Bible is definitely not a dull book!”
It is one of the primary ways that God uses to help us know him better and to become more like him for the sake of the world. Our task as readers of HIStory is to understand what God has said. We are too often driven to study the Bible before we have learned to read it well. Study sounds so ominous, so foreboding, and it can be! As followers of Jesus we want to know God, so we jump in and begin our study without having a goal in mind, sometimes without knowing all that study involves. One of our biggest hindrances in our own culture is that we bring good old American foundational presuppositions about topics such as love, grace, mercy, hell, heaven, and many others to our study. America has taught us that “right is might.” Therefore, we often study to prove a point rather than hear what God wants to say to us. Instead of topics to prove, God has given us a Story to live within.
God chose to give us his Story through many different authors, media, and centuries. The Story comes through many books written over a 1500-year period with no fewer than forty authors. These individuals included kings, prophets, shepherds, philosophers, educated, and the unlearned. Each book, like all books, has a beginning, middle, and end. Together they all have historical context and together deliver HIStory.
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