The Shift by Colby Martin

The Shift by Colby Martin

Author:Colby Martin [Martin, Colby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5064-5550-1
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2020-03-04T16:00:00+00:00


A Dusty, Old Gift

Ten years ago, I would’ve read those last three paragraphs and rolled my eyes, annoyed at the interpretations and offended by the loosey-goosey, esoteric, overly sentimental applications. I used to believe the Bible had one possible truth, one interpretation, one meaning for every verse, and the Christian’s job was to study, memorize, understand, and live it. As a pastor and author, I’m clearly not opposed to studying the Bible or trying to understand it, but my posture toward what the Bible is (and is not) has completely shifted.

No, it’s not a perfect account of history or a perfect recording of the voice of God declaring divine revelation for all time. No, it’s not immune from leading us astray, nor does it hold all the answers for all of life’s problems. Yes, it has been used to justify great harm toward many people. Yes, it can be triggering to hear old, familiar verses and phrases. As mentioned earlier, I completely understand if you need to leave the Bible behind altogether.

But when (or if) you’re ready, you can hold the Bible in such a way that it frees you up to rediscover fresh insights, profound truths, and ancient wisdom within its pages. If you’d like, you might try pushing through your resistance to all the ways the Bible has been misused or leveraged to control and manipulate, and perhaps discover on the other end an openness to hear these words in a new light. Who knows what you might find?

I like to think of the Bible as this hard-fought gift that took thousands of years of psychological, emotional, and spiritual struggle in order to unearth some of the deepest truths of what it means to be human. And this gift, against all odds, now sits at my fingertips thanks to hundreds of years of men and women compiling, curating, and preserving such wisdom.

All complications and questions aside, millions of people have found this gift to be a lamp unto their feet and a light for their path. Seeing as how I often find myself stumbling around in the dark, perhaps I too might receive the gift of the light waiting to be discovered in these old, dusty books.



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