So.

Handing a bible to a random person in the hopes that it will 

"win" a lost soul over to Jesus is really naive at best and disrespectful at worst.

I know that it is done with the best of intentions.

But I keep having to apologise for your behaviour,

explain why you did that and distance myself from you.

I wrestle because I really love Jesus, with everything I am, and it feels wrong not defending what you have done.  Like I am betraying Christ by not condoning what you have done.

But handing a bible to a person is not spreading the gospel.

It's handing out a book to a person, who did not ask for one, with the assumption that all the answers for life are found in the bible if they would only read it.

(Side note: This is true, all answers are in the bible, but it is also not true.  The bible is a complicated book with nuance, truth and culture.  It was written over centuries and there is a reason people spend entire careers dedicated to understanding it and teaching the rest of us about what they figured out.  Just handing out a bible without any relationship or teaching about it makes little sense to me.)

In the year 2017, handing a bible out to a person (you have just met!)because you know they do not follow Jesus puts me in a really awkward position if I am friends with that person.

Especially when their response is anger.

Especially when I agree that anger is the appropriate response.

It seems to me that blindly handing out a bible 

carries a level of arrogance from the giver.  

The assumption is that everyone wants what you have, 

they just don't know it yet, so you can open their eyes. 

The unbeliever must be dumb and need convincing so they understand.

Assumptions are made about what a person believes and what their history with Jesus is.

And what exactly do you believe about the 
bible & life if your answer to hearing someones beliefs is to hand them a book and walk away?


This begs the question, Rachelle, 
what do YOU believe about the bible?

Good question!!

Truthfully, I have thought long and hard about this.
There was not an immediate response that jumped to mind.
Sunday school answers, yes.
But soul answers? That has taken some time.


Good or bad, 
right or wrong, 
this is what I believe about the bible.



1) It's a complicated book.

2) Because it's complicated I believe it 
can be misinterpreted and often is.  

3) This leads me think that ordinary lay people should not approach it thinking they can understand anything in it.

4) I disagree with point 3 on some levels but I do believe it.

5) The bible was written by humans.  Humans make mistakes and are affected by culture.  Many things in the bible are cultural truths, not eternal truths.

6)  God does not need the bible to speak to me.  But he sure does use it anyway.  With that said, it's usual by other people explaining it to me.

7)  Everything I think and believe must 
hold up to what the bible says is true.

8)  Some books of the bible are metaphor or stories, 
not actual events.

9)  The bible says that God holds all my tears in a bottle and I love that picture.  It speaks so much to me about who God is and how much he cares about me.  I need the bible to teach about the character of God.
(You keep track of all my sorrows.[a]
    You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
    You have recorded each one in your book.  Psalm 56:8)

10) It's scary to read the bible, because I might get it wrong.  What if I misinterpret it?  I don't trust myself to get it right.

So reading the Psalms is a safe place to go for me.

These are some of my thoughts.

Incomplete as they are, I will hit publish because this is taking a very very long time to wrestle through.

And dinner needs making, hugs given and laundry folded.