Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (17 page)
Read Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set Online
Authors: Howard G. Hendricks,William D. Hendricks
Tags: #Religion, #Christian Life, #Spiritual Growth, #Biblical Reference, #General
See how imaginative Phillips’s version is? If you’ve grown bored by over-exposure to a particular translation of the Bible, I encourage you to pick up something fresh and stimulate your mind.
This is an extension of what we’ve just looked at. Translators have to use a lot of imagination to render the original text of Scripture into English. In the same way, it will challenge your imagination to rewrite the English text into words that make sense to you.
For instance, in the New American Standard version of Acts 17:16 above, the translators describe Paul’s feelings about the idols with the words, “his spirit was being provoked within him.” Phillips offers, “his soul was exasperated.” How would you say it? That “he was really upset”? “He was ticked off”? “He was churned up”? “He felt sick to his stomach”? “He was tearing his hair out”?
Try rewriting Acts 17:16–21 in your own words. See if it doesn’t spark your creativity—and your interest in the text.
If you know a language other than English, read a translation of the Bible in that language. You’ll discover all kinds of new things in the text. This has all the advantages of varying translations and paraphrases that I have mentioned.
I mentioned in an earlier chapter that the human voice has a way of bringing life to words on the page. Be sure to let your children read the stories of Scripture out loud. And if you know a foreign exchange student or someone else who grew up in a culture different from your own, invite that person over and ask him or her to read the text for you. The accent will dress the passage in altogether different clothing, to great advantage.
I’m a firm believer in the value of having a set time and place to study the Scriptures. But if you want to stir up the embers of your imagination, explore different environments in which to read the Word.
For example, many of Jesus’ parables were given by the Sea of Galilee. So if you live near a lake or the seashore, consider taking your Bible there to read and reflect on the Lord’s teaching. Likewise, many of the psalms were composed by David when he was a shepherd, out in the fields. You might drive out to the country to spend some time studying those passages.
The idea here is to do whatever it takes to see the Word from a different perspective. If we always read Scripture in the same way and in the same place time after time, we run the risk of making it into a routine exercise with little interest or excitement. What a tragedy! Especially when we consider that history’s greatest works of art and music have been created by people who learned to read the Bible imaginatively.
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ere’s a chance to stretch your creativity. See what you can do with these projects in imaginative Bible reading.
Acts 16:16–40
This is the lively account of Paul and Silas in Philippi. Carefully read and observe the events that happen in this section, and then act them out in dramatic form with your family or friends.
Psalm 19
This psalm praises the works of God and the Word of God. Observe it carefully, and then try rewriting it for a university physics or philosophy class.
1 Samuel 17
This is the epic account of David and Goliath. However, though most people know of the story, they know little of what actually happens in it. Read the chapter carefully, then rewrite it in a way that would relate to a gang of inner-city youths.
Acts 15:22–29
Luke reprints a letter that the church council at Jerusalem sent to new believers in Phoenicia and Samaria. Study the context carefully, then rewrite this passage as a fax to a new group of believers meeting downtown in your city.
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HRISTMAS
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ere’s a fascinating illustration of reading the Bible imaginatively. It’s the Christmas story (Luke 2:1–20) from Clarence Jordan’s irreverent paraphrase, The Cotton Patch Version of Luke. Writing from Americus, Georgia, Jordan gives a “Southern twang” to the familiar account. See if he doesn’t achieve his purpose of rendering the Scriptures in a way that “helps the modern reader have the same sense of participation in them which the early Christians must have had.”
It happened in those days that a proclamation went out from President Augustus that every citizen must register. This was the first registration while Quirinius was Secretary of War. So everybody went to register, each going to his own home town. Joseph too went up from south Georgia from the city of Valdosta, to his home in north Georgia, a place named Gainesville, to register with his bride Mary, who by now was heavily pregnant.
While they were there, her time came, and she gave birth to her first boy. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in an apple box. (There was no room for them at the hospital.)
Now there were some farmers in that section who were up late at night tending their baby chicks. And a messenger from the Lord appeared to them, and evidence of the Lord was shining all about them. It nearly scared the life out of them. And the messenger said to them, “Don’t be afraid; for listen, I’m bringing you good news of a great joy in which all people will share. Today your deliverer was born in the city of David’s family. He is the Lord. And here’s a clue for you: you will find the baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in an apple box.”
And all of a sudden there was with the messenger a crowd of angels singing God’s praises and saying,
“Glory in the highest to God,
And on earth,
peace to mankind,
The object of his favor.”
When the messengers went away from them into the sky, the farmers said to one another, “Let’s go to Gainesville and see how all this the Lord has showed us has turned out.”
So they went just as fast as they could, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in an apple box. Seeing this, they related the story of what had been told them about this little fellow. The people were simply amazed as they listened to what the farmers told them. And Mary clung to all these words, turning them over and over in her memories. The farmers went back home, giving God the credit and singing his praises for all they had seen and heard, exactly as it had been described to them.
SOURCE: Clarence Jordan,
The Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts: Jesus’ Doings and Happenings
(New York: Association Press, 1969), pp. 18–19.