Challenge Ideas:
Quick Dip - Listen to the podcast called Experience the Word (God's Word) on The Art of Following Jesus page (https://riversouthbay.org/jump-in/the-art-of-following-jesus).
Buoy Swim - Listen to the podcast and go through the worksheet, "God's Word", under the "Resources" tab.
Pier to Pier - Listen to the podcast, go through the worksheet, and go through the entire gospel of Matthew tracing how often Jesus alludes to or quotes scripture/use one of the additional materials listed on the podcast description.
When you hear the phrase, “read your Bible,” what emotions emerge? Joy? Guilt? Boredom? Curiosity? Freedom? Obligation? Clarity? Confusion? It’s probably a mixture for many of us and it probably depends on our past relationship to the scriptures and those propounding them. For me—a church kid, youth pastor, and now Bible professor—I have nurtured a complex and often contradictory range of emotions around the phrase: “Read the Bible.” Though I was never directly taught this, for much of my young life I thought of reading the Bible like it was somehow “doing God a favor” or something that if I didn’t do I would “let God down.” Rather than marshal out my own socio-emotional-spiritual relationship with that sacred compilation of ancient texts we call “The Bible,” let’s turn our gaze to Jesus’s relationship to these sacred scriptures. This Sunday, I want to do two very simple things: 1) showcase Jesus’s personal relationship with the scriptures, and 2) provide everyone with a handful of super practical tips for effectively soaking in the scriptures. Join us as we open Matthew’s biography of Jesus and consider the real estate the Bible occupies in our own lives!
James
