Lots of people have a love/hate relationship with Scriptures. While comforted with such passages as Psalm 23 or John 10, they are also terrified by passages where God appears to be a demanding and destructive presence in the Creation. Those interpretations have come from religious institutions that want to hold people with fear instead of freeing them to live in God’s love. When you let the Scriptures speak for themselves, without the angry voice many preachers add to it, you will discover just how amazing it is.
Don’t let the abuse of it by others rob you of the wonder of it for yourself. I have been reading these Scripture almost daily since I was twelve years old. No book has encouraged me more as it has given me a regular touchstone to be invited into God’s truth and his unfolding purpose in our world. It helps me lean into God’s way of thinking and provides essential signposts on my journey. Every word I’ve written or spoken about God is deeply grounded in these pages.
The Bible was given so we could sort out truth from error, learning how God thinks so we’re not left to our own opinions. It also holds great encouragement to lean more deeply into God’s presence and purpose. It is the common story that the family of God has explored together throughout generations as we seek to know him.
What if you stopped reading the Bible as a rule book to live up to and saw it as a treasure map helping us discover the living Christ? This is his story, revealing himself to many different people over thousands of years. You’ll see that some writers occasionally got God wrong, making conclusions from incomplete evidence that turned out to be unworthy of him. As you continue reading, however, you’ll also see that those get adjusted by others. God was making himself known throughout the whole of the story with greater clarity through each passing generation. Thus, as we encounter that story, our view of God gets progressively clearer until he is revealed in all his fullness in Christ himself—the Word made flesh.
Learn to read it that way, and you’ll find yourself enlightened and encouraged every day by adding a steady diet of the Scriptures to your journey. To help you do that, we provide the following resources:
Audio/Video
- The Jesus Lens is a nine-hour video series that can change the way you view Scripture and give it a valuable place in your heart.
- The Jesus Story – is a simpler version for the same material Wayne recorded for his grandchildren to help them discover the rich heritage of Scripture.
Wayne’s Books
- A Man Like No Other – This collaboration with Brad Cummings along with the artwork of Murry Whiteman retells of the Gospel Story stripped of the religious overlays we unfairly put on Jesus.
Articles
Wayne’s Podcasts
For a Deeper Dive
Use the search windows at the top of Lifestream.org and TheGodJourney.com for “Scripture” and “Bible” to find other resources that may be helpful to you. Better yet, explore the Bible on your own. Don’t worry about answering every question or understanding every passage, as you begin look for something that you find that teaches you something new, reminds you of something you need to know, or encourages you to live in him.
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