The following is an excerpt from our book, "Rethinking the unthinkable in the light of Love"
There is a very real danger in
replacing God with the Bible. Instead of
seeing God as speaking to us through the Bible, we honor and revere the Bible
as having some sort of mystical power in and of itself. For many Christians, the teaching of the Holy
Spirit has been replaced with the Bible.
Many believe God does not speak to Christians personally today, but can
only have their hearts “illuminated” as they read the scriptures. In these circles(and we have been part of
them in the past), God is not seen as active or involved personally and
relationally in our reading of and application of the scripture. God is seen as simply setting a ball rolling
by having the scriptures written and now just sits back and watches from a
distance. In this type of mindset, a
close communion type of relationship with God is not attainable. Christians are
taught all they need to do is read their bibles and do what it says (in their
own strength and with much striving of course).
The
studious family
As the Father is nearing his home
after the completion of the business trip, he is excitedly anticipating the
time he will be spending with his family very soon. Oh, how he is longing to wrap his wife and
children in his loving arms and hear about everything that has happened since
he left. However, as he nears his home,
he begins to discover that his household and farm are in shambles. Most of the animals are dead, and the garden
is full of weeds from neglect. Not a
single member of his family hears him arriving as he enters the driveway in his
car. In fact, it almost seems his family
has forgotten about him. Sadly, the
father hears unkind words being spoken in the house as he walks up to the door. After coming into his home and greeting his
family, the Father sits down in a chair to spend some quality time with them. However, no-one seems to be interested in him. They are all too busy studying pieces of
paper. The Father asks his son, Paul, “What
are you examining?” Paul responds, “I am
studying part of your letter, of course!
Isn’t that what you wanted us to do!
It says right here, ‘Study to show yourself approved’…” As the day proceeds, he realizes that not one
member of his family is interested in spending time with him, either to hear
how his trip went, or to share with him about their lives. As evening approaches, the Father realizes he
must have a family meeting. As the
Father sits down with his family to talk to them, first and foremost he asks, “Why
haven’t you been doing the things I wrote to you in the letter”? His oldest daughter, Sally, pipes up, “But
Father, we have been studying the letter every day very diligently. In fact, mother brought out your letter each
morning and read it aloud to us before we started each day.” The youngest son, Billy, chimes in, “Yeah,
and mother has been having us memorize sections of the letter. In fact, we can even recite some of it to for
you now if you would like”. The Father
begins to respond, “I don’t think that will be necessary right now…”, when Sally
interrupts, blurting out, “oh yes, and we also have been doing some in-depth,
inductive studies of your letter. We have been analyzing carefully the words
you chose, and how the sentences are structured.” The Father interrupts his daughter, responding. “Yes, that is all very interesting, but my
main question is, why didn’t you do any of the things I wrote to you?!?” “If
you really knew me, you would have done the things I asked, and you would have
known that the purpose of the letter was not just for study, but to encourage
you to be the family I want us to be. To
love one another, to steward what has been given to us, and to be a light to
the world. Most importantly, I wanted
you to get to know me better so the letter would make more sense. I see that I will need to do some more
training to help you understand the original purpose for what I wrote.” He
paused and then continued, “Didn’t my friend come to you as I promised in the
letter. I told you he would come and help
you, and teach you many things.” His
wife responds, “Oh, yes, we did see a man who came to the door and introduced
himself as your friend, but we did not recognize him and he spoke strangely so
we sent him away.”
The
industrious, meticulous family
This family is well-known in
their town as a very industrious and hard-working family. When the father returns from his business
trip, he finds that certain areas of his farm are prospering and there is an
appearance of beauty, but he realizes something is dreadfully wrong as he gets
out of his car and begins walking up the sidewalk toward his home. He is surprised and saddened that not a
single member of his family greets him.
He had been looking forward to spending time with them, and had missed
them so very much while he was away. Although
he attempts to call them by name and ask how they are doing, each of them is
hard at work, heads down, focusing very diligently upon their tasks. Sadly, they don’t even seem to realize he is
there. As the father proceeds up the
sidewalk, he stops to talk to his second oldest son, Jimmy, who is hard at work
cutting the lawn with a pair of scissors.
The father asks him what he is doing, and Jimmy explains, “I am mowing
the lawn, of course. In fact, I have
hardly taken a break to even eat or sleep since you left, father. All I have done is cut this lawn since you
left. Doesn’t it look beautiful, aren’t
you proud of the great job I’m doing?”
The Father responds, “Um, yes, I am proud of you, son, but there is an
easier way, and you could have done so much more if you had understood my
instructions better…” Jimmy’s eyes glaze
over, he stops listening, and returns to his work, so the father proceeds
toward the garden. Upon arriving at the
garden, he finds his oldest daughter, Jill, hard at work pulling weeds. He asks what she is doing, and she replies,
“I am pulling weeds, Father.” The father
responds, “Yes, I can see that, but why aren’t there any vegetables planted in
the garden?” Jill exclaims in surprise,
“I didn’t know you wanted vegetables in the garden, I just thought it was
supposed to be kept weed-free.” By this
point, not much would surprise the father, but he was about to be shocked. He hears a small engine sound coming from the
back field, so when he walks behind the barn, he is surprised to see his middle
son, John, mowing the back 40 acres with a push-mower! It appears that he has been working on it for
a very long time, and only a small portion of the field had been mown. Shaking his head, the father walks back to
his house to see how his wife is doing, who is in the middle of cleaning the
kitchen with a toothbrush. His heart
aches to spend time with his family, but they are all too busy working. As he sits
down to ponder the situation, he can’t help but notice that even though much of
the farm appears to be beautiful, there is no fruit! Later, he discovers that all the animals had
to be sold because no wheat or corn had been harvested for them to be fed. His bank account is in ruins and debt is
piling up rather quickly. That evening,
the Father sits down to talk with his family about what he is observing. He
starts out by saying, “Much of what you have been doing has produced somewhat
of an outward appearance of beauty, but you are working much too hard on the
wrong things, with very little fruit or life.
The things I wrote to you in the letter were not meant to be kept
meticulously, it wasn’t meant to be a set of rules for you to keep in order to
maintain a polished appearance on the outside.
Besides, you only did certain things I wrote to you about, and
completely ignored other parts. Did you not ask help from my friend I had
promised would come in the letter.” His
wife responds, “Yes, your friend did
come, but we were too busy trying to do what you had written. We didn’t think we needed any help, we
thought we could figure it out, so we sent him away. We thought you would be so proud of us, but
we realize now how much we missed.”
“Yes”, the Father sadly responds, “Things would have been much different
if you had received help from my friend and let him teach you what I really
wanted. You did some good things, but you missed my heart.”
