Letter To Our Children

Hello friends.

On Monday morning I set some time aside to read. The book I was reading was a gift from my son. It’s a great book. When done, I want to loan it to a friend to read.

About halfway through my reading, I thought to myself two things. First, all the books that I enjoyed the most and helped me the best were gifts from my friends. Second, I thanked God I was able to read and understand these books.

Christians Read

Christians have almost always been called People of the Book. However, in the first, second, third, and fourth centuries, likely, 90 percent of Christians could not read. Think of that, really think of that. I imagine everyone you know can read, but that wasn’t the case then.

One of the ways Christians dealt with illiteracy was by memorizing the scriptures they heard read aloud. They also took classes, which were called catechisms. Catechism is a fancy word for instructing students from the Bible. Often these classes were to prepare Christians for their baptism. A typical catechism class would cover the nature of God, the person of Christ, the meaning of His death and resurrection, and a proper understanding of the Old Testament, which was incredibly important.

Christians Read the Old Testament

The Old Testament is a touch over 75 percent of the Bible. If we read our Bibles, we will read a lot of the Old Testament. However, the Old Testament is a book that can easily be misunderstood or mistaught. Historically and currently, it has happened. Therefore, not only do we need to read it but also understand it.

Christians Read the Whole Story

When you and I read our Old Testament, we are to set aside our cultural customs and learn how to listen to a voice in the text very different from our own.

Sometimes we want to think only about ourselves when we read, trying to understand our Old Testament. Some Christian programs and cartoons tell an Old Testament story with that in mind. So the person is the hero, and if we want to be the hero, we must model them.

To do that, they must take only a section where the person is doing something good, noble, and morally right and tell you something to avoid and something you must do. If that happens, they are not telling the whole story. They have to leave out the bad parts.

For example, King David did good and bad things in His life. He’s like you and me. We will do the same. David’s story is true of every person's story. We all need to be forgiven and given the righteousness of God as a gift to be accepted by Him.

Now there is something powerful in David's story to say to us that will shape our life, which is good. But, if you tried to isolate only a part of the story, say only the good parts. It may appear that David's the hero. This becomes the message. With the question, don’t you want to be a hero too? But as good as parts of David were, he lived a life that wasn’t good enough for God. He needed a savior.

Think of it this way. What if you told your parents that your sister pinched you but never told them you pinched her first? The story would be understood in a completely different way.

My story is like this. Sometimes I do what is right, and sadly there are times when I do what is wrong. But, if a story was told about me only when I did something wrong. You might think I was a terrible person. And if a story was told about me when I was doing something right. You might think I was a wonderful person. As a Christian, both would be wrong about me. All my goodness is from Christ, given to me as a gift. That’s my true story.

To tell only part is less than what we need to know. It's not the whole truth. To take only a part of the story where people are doing something good, righteous, and noble, that involves heavy rewriting. You are changing the writer's message in the story.

The Bible does not need a rewrite. It tells us the truth. In the Old Testament, it does this, mostly in story form (narrative is the fancy word). So we read the whole story to understand what God is saying.

I hope this helps.

God bless you this summer.

Pastor Joe