Next week, we'll be thinking about the first of our grittier questions: Is the Bible the literal word of God? (Eek - I think I preferred flicker books and Aslan...)
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
That has got to be open on Ecclesiastes... the best book in the Bible IMO!
For what it's worth, my favourite book is Esther. I like the way that God or religion isn't explicitly mentioned once in the whole book, but you still get a sense of God weaving through it between the lines.
Great that you turn to the Bible when depressed, Tim. I used to suffer from depression (I'm convinced it was linked to my then-vegetarianism) but God was the last person I turned to when feeling low.
Much easier to get grumpy and cold-shoulder Him along with everyone else!
Well I don't always turn to the Bible when depressed. I don't really turn anywhere nowadays! In the past I have found Ecclesiastes helpful, and it still strikes me as the most wise and common sensical book.
I'll be along this Thursday, but after that it will be just Helen on alternate weeks for the foreseeable future.
Paul's letters as scripture in his day... arguably so in this verse:
2 Peter 3 NIV
15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Speaking of moments when something suddenly makes sense, as if God is speaking. Well, illustrative of this is this revelation I recorded in my own blog last weekend.
Anyway, yesterday I had a moment of revelation with some of Peter Gabriel's lyrics from Sledgehammer. Oh yes, it's only taken 21 years to get it.
Now, I think it's about Peter saying he'd like to knock some sense into someone he likes, and would like to help.
"I want to be your Sledgehammer". "I want to knock some blinkin' sense into you"
But you need to help yourself first - like, get the emphasis I put on this:
*You* could have a steam train If *you* just lay down *your* tracks *You* could have an aeroplane flying If *you* bring *your* blue sky back
The first thing we need to do to get things how we want them is to take steps ourselves. Neat, eh? I enthused with Helen about the discovery of these deep things, and both agreed it spoke to each of us respectively.
8 comments:
That has got to be open on Ecclesiastes... the best book in the Bible IMO!
The best book? Really?? No accounting for taste, I suppose!
Mine's always been James - nice and easy to understand (and very short!)
Ecclesiastes is the book to help towards understanding life, and just a hint of the big picture. So much sense.
The key word to understand is that which gets translated at "Meaningless" or "Vanity", neither of which quite nails the meaning.
When depressed, Ecclesiastes is the only book which actually helps me get a grip, an angle.
Go for it, Qoheleth!
For what it's worth, my favourite book is Esther. I like the way that God or religion isn't explicitly mentioned once in the whole book, but you still get a sense of God weaving through it between the lines.
Great that you turn to the Bible when depressed, Tim. I used to suffer from depression (I'm convinced it was linked to my then-vegetarianism) but God was the last person I turned to when feeling low.
Much easier to get grumpy and cold-shoulder Him along with everyone else!
Well I don't always turn to the Bible when depressed. I don't really turn anywhere nowadays! In the past I have found Ecclesiastes helpful, and it still strikes me as the most wise and common sensical book.
I'll be along this Thursday, but after that it will be just Helen on alternate weeks for the foreseeable future.
Paul's letters as scripture in his day... arguably so in this verse:
2 Peter 3 NIV
15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Speaking of moments when something suddenly makes sense, as if God is speaking. Well, illustrative of this is this revelation I recorded in my own blog last weekend.
Anyway, yesterday I had a moment of revelation with some of Peter Gabriel's lyrics from Sledgehammer. Oh yes, it's only taken 21 years to get it.
Now, I think it's about Peter saying he'd like to knock some sense into someone he likes, and would like to help.
"I want to be your Sledgehammer". "I want to knock some blinkin' sense into you"
But you need to help yourself first - like, get the emphasis I put on this:
*You* could have a steam train
If *you* just lay down *your* tracks
*You* could have an aeroplane flying
If *you* bring *your* blue sky back
The first thing we need to do to get things how we want them is to take steps ourselves. Neat, eh? I enthused with Helen about the discovery of these deep things, and both agreed it spoke to each of us respectively.
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