Change and Context
By Rev. Rebecca Grogan, Minister of Adult Education
With the kids going back in school, I remember my first day of school and wanting to wear my new sweater. My mom wisely let me. It was too hot for a sweater, and I almost melted walking home from school that day. But it’s fall, isn’t it? Time for a change.
Change, even if it’s for a good reason, can be hard to handle. After overhearing a conversation in which one person was explaining a change to another, I wonder if communication isn’t the reason that change is met with opposition. Change needs to be clearly communicated and in defense of all, we just don’t hear all the same.
This comes to reading too. The Bible is not an easy book to understand at times. It was written a long time ago, in a culture far different from ours. However, people are people no matter what the century. In the Bible it’s important to understand what it meant to those for whom it was written before we can interpret that truth to our own time. We have to know the context of what we are reading.
With that in mind, I am beginning a class in September from a book entitled Context by Josh Scott. It is all about understanding scriptures from the Bible by examining the original circumstances of that time. It’s a great way to begin reading your Bible or to get better insight from your current Bible study.
I knew a woman in another church, who attended every Sunday and was active in Church Council. She confessed to me she didn’t know where any of the biblical stories I had used as sermon material. I was surprised. She relies on what she hears in church or anywhere for that matter to inform her faith and spiritual walk. That’s a good way to get hoodwinked into erroneous “truths.” We all need to know how we believe and what we do to walk in the way of Jesus.
I invite you to purchase Context by Josh Scott, bring a Bible, and attend this study on Mondays either at 10 a.m. or 7 p.m. Registration links are below. Come learn how to read your Bible and be inspired by the deep truths it has to reveal.
