Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Context is Everything

Hello readers! I decided that my next few Blogs will be about books I’ve been reading. My book list of late has grown larger and my time to read grown less, but I’m still plugging away, one chapter at a time whenever I can spare a minute. Hope you enjoy!

First and foremost: Kings. In my Bible I’ve been reading through the book of Kings and boy were there some bad ones in the mix! At first I thought...”ok, what’s the point of reading about all these guys? How does that help me in my Christian walk or further my faith?” In the movie Collisions Doug Wilson at one point speaks about reading the Bible in context; reading the poetry books as poetry, prophetic books as prophecy, history books as history. All at once, it made sense. I needed to stop reading Kings expecting a doctrinal treatise and instead read it as I would any other History. Although to many people history is just a bunch of old dead guys, it can really be a useful tool in life. One of the best reasons for knowing your history is in order to learn from its mistakes. You can bet those Israelite kings made lots of mistakes, but it is fascinating to see God’s hand working through it and playing out His story of love and redemption. It is the same story He is writing now in my life...and yours. One of the primary purposes of these stories is so that we know how to live our own lives; imitating those who behaved righteously and being warned away from evil. Next time you find yourself slogging through some of the duller portions of Scripture and wondering how God is going to use it in your life, try thinking about it in context and perhaps it will make more sense.

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