experience

the world is so different now than it was when the bible was written. how are we supposed to be able to apply meaning and direction from these ancient texts to our lives today. i'm reading the bible online on my laptop, i heated my coffee up in a microwave oven this morning, my daughter's favorite toy is my cellphone, and she already knows how to navigate my ipod (she's 3 years old). the internet is used to lure young victims into slavery, steal identities, and distribute pornographic and otherwise destructive material that they could never have imagined when Jesus was walking the earth, handing out bits of wisdom and guidance. paul didn't write anything about dvd copyright infringement or meth-amphetamine abuse or identity theft. so what do we do about that?

what david says here is pretty great. no he's never fought a 9-foot man before, who's trained in warfare since he was a child, who has bronze armor and a spear with a 15-pound spear head. king saul is convinced that he won't know what to do, because david's not trained to handle this giant. but he had fought a lion. and he had fought a bear. without a sword. with his bare hands. like a freaking warrior.

tending and protecting those sheep forced him to be resourceful and creative. and that is how he prepared for his epic battle with the giant.

we may be facing things that our parents and grandparents never faced. we might not have a guidebook to tell us how to navigate the newest challenges of morality. but we have a guide that tells us about the essence of morality. we can know what evil looks like, and what good/righteousness looks like. we can train ourselves to spot temptation and deceit. then we can use our brains and our creativity and our hearts to know the truth and the best way to deal with what we're facing. we can mow down the oppressors of our generation. we can set our people free.

we can kill goliath. bring it on.

Created almost 2 years ago