Dec 2007
About Story Two Zero
Monday December 31, 2007 | Filed in: About
Story Two Zero is a blog about the Bible. The Bible
is an exciting and vibrant book for anyone regardless
of his or her faith (or lack thereof). As a
Christian, I believe God inspired the authors of the
Bible so that it would speak to all generations,
including those of us alive today.
Not as many people nowadays are hearing the
Bible come alive as folks were in earlier times. We
often think of it as a boring, unreadable, irrelevant
and ancient book with no application to our lives or
to today's complex problems. These notions are far
from reality, but too many of us just don’t know any
better!
Many Christians who should know better have been conditioned to think that there is no virtue in studying the Bible. Instead, they should “just love Jesus." Compounding this problem, the Bible is often not presented (nor believed by those teaching it) as the authoritative narrative it is, so it is not faithfully interpreted in the contexts of geography and history, nor as a unified story. The Bible gets "dumbed down" because the masses supposedly can't understand it. Not only does that notion stink of elitism but also, when you dumb stuff down, you end up with dumb people!
I'd like to correct some of this faulty thinking and I hope to make the Bible come alive as it is suppose to. I shall be writing in the form of emails to Sydney. Sydney is a young friend of mine. I was supposed to marry her mother but ended up best man to her father. Ah, well, that's life. Syd shares her emails with one and all and won't mind if you look too. Our emails will cover the Bible verse-by-verse and will take about seven years. This is a conversation with a friend, so I'm not telling Sydney (or anyone else for that matter) what to believe. I'm just sharing with her what I believe and why.
Syd wants me to move back and forth between Old and New Testaments. We’re starting in Genesis then moving on to Matthew, then going back to Exodus, jumping forward again to Mark, and so on. I told Sydney that approach might make me feel like I'm going up and down on a bungee cord, but she tried to plow through the Old Testament once before and got bogged down in all the details of the law. Sydney never finished it and thinks a change of pace now and then will help. Regardless of what Testament we’re in, I want the people of the Bible and their stories to burst from the pages as if we were watching a good movie!
I am using the English Standard Version (ESV)
of the Bible for the text on this site. The ESV is a
literal translation that captures the precise wording
of the original ancient manuscripts yet preserves the
literary style of each Bible writer. It also has the
readability of more recent modern translations and is
good for an academic-type study.
It was edited by some seriously smart folk who love God and whom I respect quite a bit. You can find out more about the ESV on their website. If you prefer, there are many other good translations of the Bible available. Check out the Blue Letter Bible or Bible Gateway for more choices.
The first post to Story Two Zero was on January 1, 2008. Additional posts were to follow every week. I didn’t have time for weekly posts, so I changed to a monthly format instead. Unfortunately the constraints on my time have only increased to where I can’t even do that, so I have put this blog on hiatus for the foreseeable future. Sorry, Sydney! Thanks for all your support!
Many Christians who should know better have been conditioned to think that there is no virtue in studying the Bible. Instead, they should “just love Jesus." Compounding this problem, the Bible is often not presented (nor believed by those teaching it) as the authoritative narrative it is, so it is not faithfully interpreted in the contexts of geography and history, nor as a unified story. The Bible gets "dumbed down" because the masses supposedly can't understand it. Not only does that notion stink of elitism but also, when you dumb stuff down, you end up with dumb people!
I'd like to correct some of this faulty thinking and I hope to make the Bible come alive as it is suppose to. I shall be writing in the form of emails to Sydney. Sydney is a young friend of mine. I was supposed to marry her mother but ended up best man to her father. Ah, well, that's life. Syd shares her emails with one and all and won't mind if you look too. Our emails will cover the Bible verse-by-verse and will take about seven years. This is a conversation with a friend, so I'm not telling Sydney (or anyone else for that matter) what to believe. I'm just sharing with her what I believe and why.
Syd wants me to move back and forth between Old and New Testaments. We’re starting in Genesis then moving on to Matthew, then going back to Exodus, jumping forward again to Mark, and so on. I told Sydney that approach might make me feel like I'm going up and down on a bungee cord, but she tried to plow through the Old Testament once before and got bogged down in all the details of the law. Sydney never finished it and thinks a change of pace now and then will help. Regardless of what Testament we’re in, I want the people of the Bible and their stories to burst from the pages as if we were watching a good movie!
It was edited by some seriously smart folk who love God and whom I respect quite a bit. You can find out more about the ESV on their website. If you prefer, there are many other good translations of the Bible available. Check out the Blue Letter Bible or Bible Gateway for more choices.
The first post to Story Two Zero was on January 1, 2008. Additional posts were to follow every week. I didn’t have time for weekly posts, so I changed to a monthly format instead. Unfortunately the constraints on my time have only increased to where I can’t even do that, so I have put this blog on hiatus for the foreseeable future. Sorry, Sydney! Thanks for all your support!