In my lifelong study of the Bible I have looked for an overarching theme, a summary statement of what the whole sprawling book is about. I have settled on this: “God gets his family back.” From the first book to the last the Bible tells of wayward children and the tortuous lengths to which God will go to bring them home. Indeed, the entire biblical drama ends with a huge family reunion in the book of Revelation.
(taken from Vanishing Grace by Philip Yancey, p. 51)
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Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen ask and answer an important question:
Why have Christians who claim to believe the Bible not seen what treasure they have?
The problem is that (especially under the pressure of theEnlightenment story) the Bible has been broken up into little bits: historical-critical bits, devotional bits, moral bits, theological bits, narrative bits. In fact, it’s been chopped into fragments that fit into the nooks and crannies of the Western cultural story!
When this is allowed to happen, the Bible forfeits its claim to be the one comprehensive, true story of our world and is held captive within another story–the humanist narrative. And thus it will be that other story that will shape our lives.
The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig M. Bartholomew & Michael W. Goheen.
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How do we approach Scripture? Do we feed on it? Does it transform us? Eugene Peterson, in his book Eat This Book has an encouraging and challenging thought in regards to the role of Scripture in the life of the believer…
Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nourishes the human body. Christians don’t simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus’ name, hand raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.
(Eat This Book, p. 18)
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