Looking into the Bible

Having just published two very wordy posts, this one is picture based.

I’m posing the question: what are you looking for when you open the Bible and read it?

For many the answer is this:

You are looking for some light in the darkness, a bit of ‘green pasture’, some sustenance, a bit of blue sky, some hope… a rainbow of promise.

In short the opportunity to step, albeit temporarily, into an alternative reality.

Sorry to disillusion you but that is not how the Bible sees itself. Instead you should be doing this:

or this:

tidying your eyebrows, squeezing your spots, trimming nasal hair, sorting out a riotous mane, washing off muck… in short looking closely and then working towards change/improvement.

You are not meant to look ‘at’ the Bible, seeking only things that prop up your self image. You are meant to look into it and by looking in to it you are meant to change: becoming a truer picture of who you are and how you are.

So open your Bible… if you dare.

James 1: 22-25

^22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

²⁵ But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.