https://vimeo.com/70812255

I'm Wayne Jacobson and this is Engage. After our last video, I got an email from someone named Angelus. This is what she said. I was brought up in a school led by nuns and they really made the Bible boring to me. Now I'm starting to live in God's love and I sometimes feel I have to read the Bible. But it turns me off to God. Psalms are okay. The Gospels are okay. But to be honest, reading them does not teach me anything and I find them uninspiring. Don't get me wrong. God's love a lot of the time and often I feel his love for people around me. So I'm not saying that I don't feel a connection to God. I'm just bored by the Bible. It does nothing for me. Angelus, you're probably not alone. Whether it's from nuns or Sunday school somewhere, sometimes people trying to help us love this book may have bored us to death with it or may have turned it into a rulebook that makes it intimidating to read or maybe we hear the voices from the pulpit telling us how evil and horrible we are and we read this, that's all we see. That man falls so short of God's expectation and for many this book either becomes boring or at least not even helpful to their journey. I mean more and more believers who tell me they really don't need the Bible. They have the Holy Spirit. Well you know what? We get both. We get this incredible book written over thousands of years by a variety of men who were seeing God make himself known over a great span of time as God's revelation unfolded in the world. Nope, this isn't a rulebook. This isn't the owner's manual to the DVR. This is the revelation of God, his life, his purpose, his wisdom in the world. But you've got to read it in a way where that unpacks. It's been used for a long time. Boy a lot of religionists have used this to beat people to death to make us feel unworthy of the God who loves us. Instead of this is the God breaking through our brokenness, how we've lost sight of him and how we thought him to be this angry taskmaster only to discover in Jesus that he was a God of great love and mercy. It's that story that you want to capture. If you don't know that story you might want to check out the Jesus Lens also at the lifestream.org website. It kind of helps people view this book through the eyes of Jesus who interpreted it in a lovely way for people to come to know God as he is. This is the book that grounds us in knowing him. It's not an obligation. I'd say this to Angelus. You don't have to read this. We get to. And when you're ready to be invited into this book, not because someone says you must, but because the Holy Spirit is saying come and discover God here, then he's ready to lead you through it in a way that will be helpful and transforming to you. Otherwise, we're kind of just left to following our own impressions. And though I love that the Spirit of God speaks to us and we've been talking about how God makes himself known in a variety of ways. That's still never complete, never full, never absolutely clear. To be honest, neither are our interpretations of Scripture. Sometimes we can interpret things very wrongly. But when you put the voice of the Spirit alongside the revelation of Scripture, now you've got two things that work together to help us understand God as he really is. So how do you find that life in here if it's boring to you? Or if you feel like it's just a condemning book, well I'd say first of all, don't rush into it. Learning how to read this book, learning how to draw life from it is a journey. For me, most important book I own. I look at it almost every day and every time I'm reading a Scripture, I'm listening to see is there something in here God's making known to me? Here's some things that might help you. Number one, why don't you begin in the Gospels? Start there. I tell people, read two or three years maybe. Just get to know this Jesus and how he treats people and how he reveals God to us. Then maybe move on to Acts and then maybe the Epistles and then eventually go back to the Old Testament and see how the stage was set. I like saying this about the Old Testament. I think it's the story of God's rescue. Oftentimes through the eyes of people who are scared of God, who regarded him as mean and doing horrible things to his people. We find out in Jesus that God's not the cause of destruction in the story. Occasionally he intervenes in history to further the purpose of salvation. But he's the God whose loving kindness is better than life. He's the God whose mercies never end. He's the God who wants to reveal himself every day to us. Now when you read the Old Testament with that in mind, I like this analogy. Sarah used to rescue a lot of stray dogs from the home we lived in just outside of town in Visalia. We'd have to, particularly those that had been abused, you can't just invite them into your home. They're afraid of you. Don't come near you. If they do, they're mean and they snarl. To win into their affection, Sarah had to open up her heart and life and put a bowl of food close and keep bridging that gap. And I think the Old Testament is the story told from the abused dog's perspective who are hiding in the bushes. And the New Testament are those who've come to now know God through the revelation of the cross. They're kind of like the dogs inside the house. They look at God in a whole different way. Not through the eyes of shame or fear but through the eyes of affection. Don't take the difficult words of Scripture as commands. Take them as promises. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, He knows there's no way we can do it without Him. That's a promise. I'll teach you how to love your enemies the way my Father does. When you find things that are too difficult to understand, you know I like to encourage people to do, take what's here that you understand clearly. What makes sense to you? You might have a lot of questions about things that don't make sense. Don't worry about those. You can sort those out down the road. Instead, look for what's clear. Find a way to love. Search for the voice that speaks to you. Something in here checks something you're doing, invites you to live a little different way and it's the Holy Spirit opening you up, helping you see what God's doing to change your life. Maybe someday this book won't be boring to you. This will be encouragement to all the wisdom and knowledge that God wants to pour into your life.