So i’ve been thinking that I don’t really know too many people that think about God, the bible, etc. etc. in the same way that I do. I mean, my experience in the church is pretty much like any church kid. I grew up in the church, I grew up with parents that loved me enough to not really force faith on me, but at the same time, that church I grew up in is your typical upper class, conservative, church. God rocked me for something bigger. Something more than ‘one way’ to love god, to follow god, to be with god. But even as I set off to bible college i pretty much thought the way i’d always thought… it was never really real.
sometimes thinking back, it’s almost as if i can feel again the muck of religion. i owe a lot to my home church, the people there, my college, but what it did for me, just my experience, it wrapped me up in the muck of religion. but again, god rocked me. it doesn’t all look the same, faith… Ever have questions about faith, the bible, Jesus, god, or whatever that you can’t seem to make ‘fit’ in what you were taught? or what you thought you believed?
Rembrandt is a genius by the way, that’s his painting of Moses up there. The ten commandments, so shocking… haha… if rock tablets don’t make you follow god what will right?
Ever read genesis? Even if you don’t know anything about the Bible or whatever, you probably know that genesis is the first book of it. Moses wrote it. and here’s what triped me out, that is pretty much the foundation for this little journey of (what i think about stuff):
“God said…”
uh… come again?
“God said…”
right… that’s what I thought I was reading. God said… mess you up too? No? Follow the implications… God speaks… so god has lunges… breathes air… actually talks… so they talk in heaven? so there’s air in heaven? uh… so creation was really 7 days? what about the dinosaurs? haha… yeah…
here’s what i believe… creation wasn’t 7 days. god doesn’t have vocal chords. Genesis, and the bible, is a very sophisticated narrative. it’s not a flanal graph. The point is the narrative… the story. God’s redemption of man-kind. God reconciling people to Himself. It’s deeper… there’s more there than the words.
Now you’re probably thinking I’m a heretic… or have some kind of weird belief system (you’ll just have to stay tuned to see if that’s true) but what I know to be true is what I know to be true. I know my theology. I know what I believe. and it’s WAY bigger than anything anybody could ever tell me. I believe jesus is who he said he was. I believe we’re on this EPIC journey together. I believe that somehow, the God of the Universe intersected my life, and called me, and I jumped in. Him and I, we’re in this life thing together. and I believe that Genesis tells his story.
the bottom line is you have to engage. if you pick up the bible, and read it, and don’t engage it, it’s words on a page. but as you engage, you start to see the story unfold, the greatest story, the biggest story, this EPIC, that has been going on before the world was made. Genesis begins. Now we’re here.
God’s inviting us all into that same story. The one that begins in Genesis and the one that’s NOT OVER.
today… think on faith. think on words. think on forever. and read Genesis… the story of God begins…
cheers,
j
Genesis is Genesis. it’s narrative, it’s BIG, God will speak LOUD through it if you listen. But you have to get passed the words. read the words, love the words, but the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE is so much bigger then all the words in the whole world.
I hardly ever read long posts.
Glad I read this one.
hey man…nice blog you’ve got here…we should definitely talk theology sometime…we seem to have some thoughts in common..
I’m pretty sure we have some similar opinions… but that’s not saying much.
P.S. those two guys above me have quilt patterns for the pictures.
whoa… I have a quilt pattern too!
well, you at least need to have one person who disagrees with you in your comments. I can believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis without it “shrinking” my concept of God
It is narrative… but it’s like the prequel to the Jewish law. It is actually historical narrative… I’m sure if you ask a jew… they would hardly say that it’s “just” a story. It’s the history of why their law makes sense and who their God is… it also sets up the foundation for all Christianity. I do agree… however… that there can be debate about Gen. 1 because Gen. 1 does not jive with the rest of the book. It is one of the only parts of the book that deviates away from historical narrative. It is actually poetic narrative… and we all know what happens when you start to debate someone’s artistic expression.
Jerm, it’s not like i’m gonna hate on you for believing a literal translation of the Bible. I love that about you.
I just don’t think that God has vocal chords…
Sam, sometimes i think you forget you’re talking to a fellow bible college grad,
, Genesis is obviously a pretty significant piece of the Jewish Law.
And for the record I still belive God did what he said he did… create the world and stuff… haha… I just don’t think it happened in 7 days, I think Moses moves in a different historical direction post Genesis 1, but Gen. 1, IN MY OPIONION, is of pretty high narrative, much like other parts of the Bible… I.E. Moses wasn’t there at the beginning but God gave him the story…
maybe I should go on the book of Revelation next…
Set- i can’t say I’m surprised we think a like..
You gotta get rid of the quilt thing… and I’m gonna stop using these smiley faces so much. 
not saying that you wouldn’t think that… just helping clarify for anyone else reading… that’s all.
I’m just sayin…if he is an all powerpul omniscient God, then why can he not speak audibly, creating physical waves that move through the air and impress on our eardrums? What makes that such a theological debacle?