What Do You See?
Sometimes, the hardest portions of Scripture to study are the ones we've had memorized since childhood. Once you see a passage a certain way, it's nearly impossible to see it any other way. Nearly. For example, when I read about Jesus teaching in the temple, in my mind, I see a stage and an audience. Never mind that the priests hated Jesus and wanted Him silent and dead. Even though the last thing Jesus would have been granted in His time was a platform, that's still what I see. When I read about Paul speaking to the church, or letters being read to the church, in my mind, I see buildings with carpeted altars and rows of chairs. Never mind that the early church met in homes until a politician declared it some other way a couple of hundred years after the birth of our ekklesia. Even though there is no such thing as a brick and mortar Christian church in Scripture, that's still what I see. When I read about a tithe or giving, I s...
