You shall not marry your wife's sister...

Let's face it, the Bible is weird. It's filled with spectacular stories, mystical beings, and strange laws, such as:

You shall not marry your wife's sister
You shall not trim the corners of your beard
You should not lie on a bed where a menstruating woman has lain, and you can't sit on a chair where she has sat
You shall not wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of materials

It's a wonder the Bible has stood the test of time. With baffling statements like these, we have to remember that what is familiar to one is foreign to another. In this modern age, the Bible is still confusing, often misunderstood, and misquoted. As a follower of Jesus, it's easy to forget that. My hope is that people would just 'get it' and embrace the Bible with open arms. But why would they? Should they just because I said so? No way.

Easter is a few days away. It's the most important event of the year on the Christian calendar and every church in America is preparing for myriads of ‘non-believers' to walk in their doors ready to accept Jesus as their savior. Because of today's skeptical generation, I believe it's harder to accept anything at face value anymore. Most don't have the time or the desire to investigate if the Bible is true or not. In a world of too many choices, all they have time for is good ‘word of mouth'. That's why it is so important to understand what is in the mind of a skeptic when it comes to the Bible.

Creative leadership is about opening people's eyes to new perspectives. This is why I have included a link to a 17 minute video (at the very bottom) by secular author AJ Jacobs. He wrote a book called “The Year of Living Biblically”. As a non-Christian, he experimented with living out EVERY rule, law, and command listed in the Bible for an entire year. I not only found his journey humorous but surprisingly insightful and refreshing. There is no ‘Christianese' and no church talk, just honest exploration of Biblical values. His conclusions were fascinating. I wished I could have shared a conversation with him afterwards.

I hope you enjoy this video (again, down below), but more so I hope that are reminded that Easter is just the beginning of the spiritual journey for many. Easter won't change the fact that the Bible is still filled with spectacular stories, mystical beings, and strange laws. But perhaps through a relationship, you can help someone not only discover the truth but experience it in a loving way.

Your word of mouth has more power than you think.

You can watch the video of AJ Jacob here:

Published 08 April 2009 09:35 AM by Tony Kim

Filed under: Church, Life in Ministry, Tony Kim

Comments

# Teresa said on 09 April, 2009 08:35 PM

AJ Jacob’s recount of his year long journey of living biblically was interesting and humorous but sadly, he seems to have completely missed Jesus. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed that he didn't give the bible full representation. He said he was living out the bible but it seemed to be limited to the Old Testament, although I have not read the book. What about the New Testament? If he’s going to live biblically, shouldn’t both parts be included? Did he not realize that that the terms Old and New Testament didn’t imply two separate books but rather a part 1 and a part 2 of the same bible. It’s like only reading the first chapter of a book and claiming to know what the whole book is about. Christian faith extracts most of its ideas of “living” from the New Testament. AJ equates his biblical living to Christianity or Fundamental Christianity, but what he really lived out was Judaism. Had AJ given as much effort into reading and learning the New Testament as he did to “living out” the Old Testament, he could have enjoyed the good news about Jesus’ extraordinary birth and life. He may not necessarily believe Jesus is the actual son of God, which is okay, but he would have learned that to some degree the New Testament was a revision of the Old Testament because those laws the he so poignantly points out as absurd are unattainable by Man, as he discovered. That is why Jesus came; to abolish the laws; leaving only one law to obey…Love; love God and love others. In essence, this is the whole conclusion of the Bible. Basically, AJ lived as a Pharisee. He lived the letter of the law, obviously to his best efforts, without understanding the heart of the law. What a tragedy.

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# Bear said on 10 April, 2009 02:25 AM

I highly admire and respect his project and his conclusions (for the most part). However... 1. It seems he only focused on the Old Testament rules and not the New Testament which is significant. 2. He didn't mention any reasons why those rules were in place. Many of them are for cleanliness (e.g., dietary) or to apart from pagan beliefs (e.g., mixed fabric). I think he wd gain a lot from that based on the way he thinks. 3. Picking and choosing beliefs is dangerous - can't choose the gov't laws we follow or what words mean (grammar rules) or laws of physics. B/c we're not the source of truth/laws/etc. Well, we can, but a) that's certainly not following the given system and b) there are consequences (e.g., criminal acts, not being understood, etc.). Again, I really enjoyed his talk and so very much admire what he did and most of his findings. It's just that *doing* something w/o *believing* it is somewhat empty and, I believe, what Jesus accused so many of in the Bible - lip service.

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# Tony Kim said on 10 April, 2009 02:37 AM

Teresa and Bear, great insightts. Thanks for the thoroughness of your feedback. I admire his willingness to immerse himself in another world before passing judgement. One thing I lliked was his discovery that being good and lovig others really did change him. Goes to show you that love matters regardless of your faith. I don't know many Christians that would have gone to his great lengths to experience another religion or culture.

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# propecia said on 27 May, 2009 11:22 AM