The Approach

"It doesn't matter what scripture means to you, all that matters is what scripture means"

You know I only had to listen to that statement halfway through before I felt very uncomfortable. Saying what it means to me isn't important... Is real shiza.

I believe it is true our only hope in this life is a living and active relationship with God. The last thing we need today is to experience God...that looks weird right. Maybe thats whats missing with alot of us. We want to experience what God has to offer us, but we don't want to do whats necessary to do that. Really what we need is to encounter God. Yeah, thats a completely different ballgame. Ok, so how do we encounter God? One way that we encounter this God of ours is in His Word. A major factor in encountering God in his Word has to do with our approach...

Martin Buber in I and Thou writes, "Every means is an obstacle. Only where all means have disintegrated encounters occur."

" I have realized that it is possible that I have never really encountered Scripture because I have always approached as a means to something beyond itself. I have historically come to the Scriptures in order to find something. I have not allowed the text to find me. The Scriptures have been a lot like a divine vending machine. As I come to the Scriptures, I put my problems or questions about life in and expect all of the answers to come out. Sadly, in so doing the Scripture has been nothing more than object, or means, to my own selfish ends. "-Bryan Nixon, my pal. Is it just me...or does Bryan's past experience sound frightingly similiar to your own.

I believe we need and have to admit that our "boxes" of interpretation won't and can't explain the mystery of God/Christ/Salvation/Truth/etc. I believe we all need a new freshness in our approach to scripture. I like the idea of guys approaching it like you would a women. Girls maybe you need to approach it, like you would a piece of chocolate cake...haha.