What If?

What if we are all "living epistles" as Paul said, living letters (hopefully love letters) that God is writing to be read by those who don't yet know Him? Or what if we are each "a word from heaven" (as Jason Upton puts it in song) and therefore none of us shall return to Him void? (meaning each of us will accomplish that for which we were sent or created)...."So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." (Isa. 55:11) Doesn't the Bible say that God "spoke" the world into existence?

OK, so what if the Bible is actually a story book? What if it is a book filled with "lore" (acquired knowledge) and it was given to us for the purpose of reading stories about the lives (words?) that have gone before us....in order to learn how God intervened in these lives, and about the Author and His character (He is good!!)? And what if the story isn't "history" but rather His Story....and His Story continues...in each of us? What if His Story is still being written in you and in me?

What if we are all a part of His Story, but some of us just haven't had our eyes opened to this fact and can't read God's story....yet?
What if those who don't yet know about His Story need to read us to find out about Him? What are they reading when they look at us? Are our lives a good read? Do people read us and want to know the Author?What if this story, His Good News Story about His great love for mankind (remember He created us in His image....so He must think we're really cool) is still going on, making us all part of the current story?
What if God wants us to enter into His Story, so that we can live with purpose, and know what our "character's" role is?
Have we taken this Book, the Scriptures, and made it into an idol, when it was intended as the greatest ongoing Love Story of all time?!

Maybe we are each a chapter in God's big "Book of Life". What if, by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve read ahead in the story, they jumped ahead and that's what got them into trouble? What was Satan's downfall? Wasn't he trying to re-write God's story and make it about himself? Yikes, don't we do that all the time?
We have been plopped right smack in the middle of an action-packed adventure. But do you see it in the lives of people who's eyes haven't been opened to His Story?
"This is the Chapter of John Doe's Life on a Bar Stool" or This is the Chapter of Jane's Life on the Sofa in front of Reality TV" don't seem like chapters worth reading, and sure don't reflect a great Author!
If my life and your life is being recorded as a chapter in His book, what do we want our chapter to be titled? That's something to think about right there!

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us....." (John 1:14)

What if we don't fight evil with the written word, but with the Word (Himself) living....and loving....through us?
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) What is John saying here? That the Bible was there, in the beginning of time? Or that the Story has always been, Jesus, the Word;  God's story lived through His Son Jesus.....was there in the beginning, in the mind and imagination of God! "He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together." (Col. 1:17) And so we read the story that has always been, and of which we are now a part because we were born into it, and we learn about the Author, and about love because He originated it!

What if the Truth that sets us free is a Man, not a book? "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free"....."I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life...." What if the Good Book is a Great Story about True Life?
What if this amazing Story is a prequel and a sequel all in one? (prequel: a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting. sequel: a narrative or other work that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work.)

What if the "Word" cannot be contained in the pages of a book? What if instead of worrying so much about what the Bible says, "Is it in the Word?", we remember that Jesus is the Word. "Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him." (John 1:3) What if rather than looking things up in the pages of a book, we spend more time with the Person who wrote it? Is a book greater than the author? What if the reason the Bible was written in the first place was to lead us to Him?

The B-I-B-L-E

Remember that song from Sunday School? "The B-I-B-L-E....that's the book for me...." Well, I don't remember it because I never went to Sunday School. But I heard it when my boys were little.
Sometimes I think we have re-written the song...."The B-I-B-L-E....third person of the Trinity...." (Thank you, Graham Cooke for that wonderful insight.)

I have often heard people say "I love my pastor. He only teaches THE WORD." I wonder if they think God is trapped within those pages? They must  be saying that their pastor just reads the Bible aloud on Sundays. What else could they mean? Because if he reads the Bible and then expounds on it at all, then he is also teaching his interpretation of the Scripture, and sharing his revelation. And isn't that OK?

Does the New Testament say "Do not forsake going to Bible studies..."? Instead it says "Do not forsake the fellowship of the saints". I think what God's saying is "Don't forget, you need each other. You need to constantly encourage each other because life is hard." Sometimes we would rather beat each other up with our personal knowledge of the Bible, which usually doesn't leave us feeling very encouraged at all.
I wonder why Jesus said He was sending us a helper, a teacher, someone to guide us through life.....someone even greater than Himself. Why would we need such a Person, when we have the Bible to refer to?

I wonder what happens to people who can't read? Or to people whom Jesus visits, in countries where there are no Bibles? I wonder how they manage?

One time I was prayed for by a severely mentally handicapped woman. I mean, she has the intellect of maybe a toddler.....and she certainly can't read. But when she prayed over me "Jesus.....Jesus.....Jesus....Jesus" I felt His manifest presence in a way I haven't felt Him since. How did she know Him, and why did He move through her when she can't even read the "Word"?

Sometimes people quote Scripture to me, during a conversation. I never know quite how to respond. Do I say, "Good job! Great memorization skills!"? Do I try to think of a passage to quote back to them? Sort of a Scripture memory verse ping-pong tournament? I don't ever find quoted Scripture during conversations makes me feel very encouraged.

Why did Jesus tell the religious people of His day:
"You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to Me!" It's almost like He was saying "Put the book down, you idiots. I'm standing right here!" I wonder if He is still saying that today?

I love my Bible. I read it all the time. Not because I have to, but because I like to. And sometimes I don't read it. I don't read it every day at exactly the same time though. I also don't pray in a closet. The reason I read my Bible isn't to worship it, to memorize it, or to find within the pages a "road map for life". I read it because it seems like I continually need reminded of Who Jesus is, why He came, and how extravagant His grace is. The Bible reminds me of God's character. Just like in our Savior's battle with Satan while in the desert for 40 days...it isn't quoting the Bible that saves us. It is knowing who God is, and what He is like....and it is His kindness, displayed to us by His grace, that saves.

Pocketful of Poo

Tiffy and I just got home from our walk, which is the highlight of our day. It is kind of a procedure getting out the door though. I have to strap on Tiffy's pack that I carry her in when her little legs get too tired, and remember to bring my house keys so we can get back into the house. I have to determine the temperature so that I can decide what jacket to wear, and if Tiffy needs her sweater. I must remember to bring a ziploc sandwich bag for Tiffy's poo. And now I have added one more thing to my list, my recently purchased canister of mace. The mace isn't for my protection mind you, (I figure how much protecting could I need when I usually have a pocket full of dog poo?) but Tiffy....well, she is very small and vulnerable and hubby insisted that I get the mace just in case one of the many large and mean sounding dogs we walk by ever got loose.

So......once I go through my mental check list we are off. While enjoying the southern Oregon sunshine today, with my pocketful of poo and mace in my hand, my thoughts drifted back to a video I had watched right before I departed. It was Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding, and he was sharing about how we are all an "open heaven", and that we just need to remind ourselves of that fact. We can practice living in and sharing the heavenly presence, by just taking a moment and reminding ourselves this truth.

I loved what Bill shared, and was pondering it (which I do a lot, hence the name of this blog).....and I found myself laughing out loud (which I probably shouldn't do so much while walking by myself)....because I realized that there I was proclaiming to be an open heaven, with mace in one hand and a pocketful of stinky poo. (See? You would have been laughing too!!)

It occurs to me that is often what we are like! We pray and want to be the Good News displayed to everyone around us, yet we are so stinky because we have sin that we think we are hiding (like a pocketful of poo). And we want to be a light, but more often than not we sting others with our self-protecting remarks (our mace). But He chooses to come and live in us, and allow His glory to be displayed through us! I am an open heaven! Oh man, God is so funny sometimes!