March 26, 2014
Babes in Christ
A missionary friend from Columbia gave me some
interesting insight into discipleship. “In America when someone gets baptized
you give him a Bible.” He laughed, “It’s like, here you go, here’s your manual.
In Columbia we give the new believer a children’s Bible.” Andrew went on to
explain that the children’s Bible has lots of pictures, big words, and it gives
the reader a panoramic view of the Bible. “After they’ve had time to read the
children’s Bible and get the big picture, then they get an adult Bible.” It
occurs to me that even though I am a student of the Bible, I might relate
better to babes in Christ if I too took a remedial read of a children’s Bible.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----Frame of mind is giant. If you think about who you are, you think about your basic nature and beliefs, not however many minute details and specifics you can get in mind. You can’t get enough of them in hand at one time to see the overall picture they make. It’s like looking to see a tree; you pull your head out of it’s branches from seeing only twigs and leaves, and you back off until the entire thing is in your vision.
-----Now, a baby-Bible will help somewhat, but it is even a pretty long read. And even though the words are bigger and fewer, it does nothing more than trim out most of the tiny details so all of its bigger ones become less a tsunami and more a simple flood.
-----A genuine beginner’s Bible would present the entire import of the Bible in one, short, framing concept. Think about how much debate that would cause! What is the basic framework of the Bible? I think most people would vote for John 3:16. And I don’t think it could be left out. But of equal importance to a simple framework is the fact that this only Son given was also the Creator. And not just the Creator, but also the upholder by the Word of His power. Those three concepts together smack of sacrificial attitude. So also a couple, simple relationships frame this sacrificial attitude. One is Christ’s relationship to His Father. In short, He made every move, every thought, every feeling according to the desires and ambitions of His Father. This sacrificial attitude then is not a willy-nilly one. Instead, it yearns for all, honest correlation with what truly is. It becomes the ambition to search and know. Especially to know God. The second relationship is the one in which this defined, sacrificial relationship is reflected. These are the people His touch effected. Those around Him. They were the canvas upon which His expressions painted. Those around us are also painted upon by us. He painted according to His Father’s will. So should be our framework.
-----But of course, ten or fifteen carefully selected Scriptures arranged in order to present that concept are indeed arguable. Someone else may see different fundamentals at the base of our faith. And I think just about everybody does. But that shouldn’t be frightful. It merely indicates how large this tree is, how intricate and individually significant are its details, and how it all fails to fit entirely into any man’s simple purview.
-----This is one more fundamental point about the Bible: it is going to expose who you truly are by how you handle its intricacies. Are you searching the Word to find yourself? Are you searching to find the Lord? Or are you searching to find what your self should be in reflecting the Lord? Or should I be saying, “And?”
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Steve,
I love your last paragraph!
Very timely for me ... and thought provoking.
Gail
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