Here’s a short video clip of Brian McLaren asking me a question about God’s EPIC Adventure. Enjoy.

Two important events have occurred this week. My first book, God’s EPIC Adventure, is in print and I’ve been Simpsonized!

It has been and interesting process starting a publishing company HarmonPress and publishing my first book, God’s EPIC Adventure through that imprint. It’s an interesting feeling to hold a book in your hand and seeing your name on the front cover. For years I have researched and written lots of material. I was used to writing things like, Sweet says, or McLaren says, or Wright says, but when I saw my name appear in that context in the ForeWord which is written by Len Sweet, Griffin says, it seemed a little strange. Brian McLaren wrote the Afterword. You can read all about it at HarmonPress.

Secondly, I received an email from someone who had been Simponized and followed the link to see how that happened. It was kind of fun and you can see the results to the above.

Endurance: The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress.

Last night my wife, daughter and I went to see a what is billed as a one-woman-show of a three part presentation of Endurance: faith, love, and hope by Linda Keeney. Linda and Colin Keeney participate in the same community of faith (Vineyard Community Church) in Shoreline, WA. These three acts were well written and acted out.

The first “The View from Here” is about the birth of her differently-capable daughter in search of an answer to the question: How on earth do you still have faith in a loving God who gives you a child like this? It is the story of Linda’s darkest hours and how previous life circumstances had built faith into her life. When she decided to run from God and the church, she ran up against what she refers to as her “singing elephant” which had, without her knowing it, become behemoth! This part of her presentation is built from the passage in Matthew 7.24-27.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Her “singing elephant” proved to be the “rock” on which she had built her life, and when the “winds” blew, she was sustained.

The second act is called “Snapshots,” in which Linda tells in short episodes the story of hope that helped her discover a route through the crises that come in life. This vignette is based on the parable of Jesus, often referred to as the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37, with special attention given to verses 30 and 33). She discovered how in different packages than she would have expected that God brought hope into her life when she desperately needed the upward pull in a feeling of life that was sinking around her feet.

The third and final act called “Soul Fabric” is built around the parable of Jesus in Matthew 21.28-32 about the two sons called to go work in the Vineyard. One says, “No!” but later goes and works. The other says, “Yes!” but then does not. Soul Fabric tells several small vignettes about Linda’s younger life and the fabrics, kinds of relationships, that came to her life that in the final repose built a beautiful quilt bringing warmth to those who snuggle up under it. Herein, she tells the stories in her life of saying “No!” but then discovering the beauty of saying yes. The final story of not “doing teenagers” is moving and poignant in its real expression of love in action.

Life is full of, well, life. It does not often go as planned, but one thing is for sure, with faith, hope, and love, we can find life fulfilling and, yes, even in the darkest hours, it can be lived for the sake of others. Faith, hope, and love impregnated in us by the Spirit of God makes endurance possible.

It was a wonderful and fun evening. Linda is a brilliant storyteller. Remember, stories shape our lives. She’s my hero!

For more information on these wonderful performances and a few video clips or to contact Linda go to Singing Elephant.

I have been working on putting the finishing touches on my book when I ran across The Books of the Bible project from International Bible Society. I was Googling a phrase something like “without additives,” when I saw the .info site listed and took a look. I wrote a post here about it.

Today, I called to inquire if I could get an advanced copy so I could key the pages of this Bible to my book. I met John Dunham, a WordWright at International Bible Society, via phone. I think we are kindred spirits. You should take a moment and read two post he wrote about this project: High Fructose Scripture and The Organic Bible. Don’t forget to read the comments as well.

I highly recommend this new publication from International Bible Society. It will enhance your reading of the Story of Scripture and it might even be the avenue through which you discover what your part his God’s EPIC Adventure is.

It is not often that one senses vindication of a belief that seems for most folks like swimming up stream. But, it does happen. For years I have been sharing with folks that their reading experience of the Bible would be far improved if they would read the text without any additives such as the chapters and verses and all the other stuff that publishers like to throw into the text.

Before it was easy to produce a personal copy with a computer and a Bible program of such an adventure, I handed out small portions of Scripture where I had removed all the chapters and verses. I was thrilled when The Message came along and rejoiced that a publisher would take the chance of moving Bible reading in the right direction. Kudos to Eugene Peterson.

Recently, I finished a second Doctor of Ministry degree in which a portion of it dealt with the fragmentation of reading Scripture which was aided and abetted by those “pesky littler verses.” I called it the disease of versitis. Reading Scripture through the lens of verses has kept the reading public from being aware of the overall Story that is presented in Scripture. Today, (07.07.07), I ran across a project that has been in the making for several years, it’s called The Books of the Bible. It will be released on August 1, 2007 by International Bible Society and is a Bible without chapters and verses. Here’s what they say about their product.

• chapter and verse numbers have been removed from the text;
• the books are presented according to the internal divisions that we believe their authors have indicated;
• a single-column setting is used to present the text more clearly and naturally, and to avoid disrupting the intended line breaks in poetic sections;
• footnotes, section headings and other supplementary materials have been removed from the pages of the sacred text;
• individual books that later tradition divided into two or more books are made whole again; and
• the books have been placed in an order that we hope will help readers understand them better. (From the Preface. vi).

Bravo for IBS. Yep! I feel vindicated! This will go a long way in helping the faithful readers of Scripture to comprehend the Story of God and live within its drama. Here’s their web site where you can get a sneak preview and download a sample or two. Who knows, you might even purchase a copy and have the reading experience of your life.

I’m in SoCal for a conference. While visiting my mother-in-law with my wife, I was listening to a DVD that was running kinda in the background. It was someone preaching and what he was saying hooked my attention for a moment. He was dealing with interpreting a “verse” by defining the words. He had come across a verse that began with the word “gather” but after reading it he said God spoke to him and told him that the word there wasn’t “gather” but “assemble.” So he was off to discover how that could be. He told his listeners that he checked out Strong’s concordance and on other word study tool only to find that the original word in the passage could be translated by “gather” or “assemble.” But, as he exclaimed to his congregation, “I heard God say it means “assemble.” He searched and searched to discover what God had told him. Then he found Webster’s Dictionary 1828 where he found that gather meant one thing while assemble meant something and because Webster’s Dictionary 1828, according to him, had been created based on the Bible, meaning on the KJV, he had found a way to confirm what he had heard God say.

It is this form of exegesis, or in my opinion, non-exegesis, that causes such anemic followers of Jesus. Think about it. The original language did not inform his conclusion, but an English Dictionary based on and English translation, which was translated in 1611. I used to tell folks “bad theology makes a cruel taskmaster.” Later, to be clearer I changed the saying to “bad theology makes you stupid,” or “bad interpretation makes you stupid.” I know that is “in your face,” language and surely not “politically correct, but there it is.

What always amazes me, it looks like I would get over this after a while, is that the folks listening to the speaker interpreting Scripture from an ancient English Dictionary were all cheering at his ability to confirm what God had told him. Suggesting that God has said something that he has not said doesn’t seem to bother these teachers. Keeping people ignorant of what God has said often gives them “authority to rule.” The picture that comes to mind when I hear this kind of stuff is God sticking his finger down his throat. I surely wouldn’t want to be in God’s faced when this event happens. I’m sure that I may have caused the same “picture” on some things I have said. Well there are just a few thoughts from a moment of watching a DVD and having a renewal moment to help folks get out of the “stupid” moments that comes with reading and interpreting Scripture.