Those Days, Those Ways In 'The Blue Parakeet', Scot McKnight sums up a theme of his book about how we read and live out the bible today in this way: God spoke in Moses' days in Moses' ways, and God spoke in Job's days in Job's ways, and God spoke in David's days in David's ways, and God spoke in Solomon's days in Solomon's ways, and God spoke in Jeremiah's days in Jeremiah's ways, and God spoke in Jesus' days in Jesus' ways, and God spoke in Paul's days in Paul's ways, and God spoke in Peter's days in Peter's ways, and God spoke in John's days in John's ways, and we are called to carry on that pattern in our world today. In the previous post we looked at how when we read the bible we all pick and choose which bits we apply to our lives.  In other words we apply the seven words formula - That was then and this is now.  In other words, we can't retrieve all of what is said in the bible and apply it to our lives.  Rather Scot McKnight say 'the biblical way is the ongoing adoption of the past and adaption to the new conditions and to do this in a way that is consistent with and faithful to the bible.  I've been teaching this idea for a long time, and I have learned to anticipate the next question: Who decides on what to adopt and how to adapt?  Will it be you alone, will it be you and your friends, will it be you and your pastor, will it be your pastor and the elders, or will it be your denominational leaders?  Will it be the Pope or the Patriarch?  Who decides? This might be the million dollar question that will determine how you will live out the Bible today' Scot McKnight explores answers to these questions in the rest of his book and we will be having a look at it on Sunday morning 26/6/11.

David Wanstall, 23/06/2011