‘The Message’ paraphrase of the Bible came out of Eugene Peterson’s frustration that so many ordinary people in the United States of America had no real connection with the Bible. As a pastor of a local church, he longed for people to share his love of the Bible, and so he set about translating it into ordinary language they could understand. The Bible – God’s word to us – is worth understanding. It has a revolutionary message of good news; it explains the world as we see it and as we long for it to be; it tells us that God loves us and has done things which can have a lasting impace on our everyday lives if we believe.
All of us at all times need to read the Bible in language we can understand (one reason for the many different versions of the Bible we find nowadays.) There is no point simply admiring the Bible from a distance. It’s a book which needs to be opened, read and re-read, digested and lived out, because it contains God’s heart, the fount of wisdom and the good news that Jesus Christ has made a way for us to become children of God.
Yet few people take the time to read this book and dismiss it as irrelevant or merely of historical interest.
There is little point admiring a beautifully presented meal or a magnificently decorated cake if you don’t then eat the food. The Bible is daily bread for us, nourishing us, nurturing us.
There is little point admiring a glass of ice-cold water in hot weather without imbibing it and being refreshed. The Bible is water for our souls, refreshing us, restoring us.
Don’t leave the Bible as an unopened keepsake on a shelf. It’s not meant for decoration. It’s meant to change the world, one person at a time.
