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making jesus known by who we are
| A Story Approach to Understanding Scripture |
| Wednesday 24th September 2008, 11:50 am |
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A Story Approach to Understanding Scripture written by Matt Krick The Bible is a story. The Scriptures are the written and living account of God’s
big story that he has given us. When we view one isolated text in Scripture it
should be viewed in light of the whole larger narrative going on before and
after it. We should read the Bible as getting glimpses of little stories that are
part of the larger story. An approach to doing this that we have found to be
helpful is to apply four worldview questions to the characters in the stories
found in Scripture.
The four worldview questions are: 1. Who am I?
2. Where am I?
3. What is wrong?
4. What is the remedy?
It must be recognized that these questions can never be fully answered on behalf of the characters because we do not fully know them. There are certain things
we can be sure of, however, and other things that are implied. These questions
must also sometimes be answered more than once from each character’s
perspective as the answers may change as the story progresses. The questions
should always be answered by all the characters in the story, regardless of
whether the character is “good” or “evil.” Doing so will give us a much fuller
understanding of the story and what is going on.
This exercise works for all genres found in Scripture. It may seem easier to apply this method to Old Testament narratives or to the gospel stories. However it
works very well when applied to sections of Scripture such as the Psalms or the
epistles. There is always a story going on in a psalm or an epistle. You may need
to do some extra study to find historical and cultural background and content to
fill in some holes, but the worldview questions apply. Ask the questions as if you
were the Psalmist, the Psalmist’s enemy, or other characters in the psalm. With
the epistles, ask the worldview questions as if you were the writer of the epistle
or as if you were the one being addressed through the letter or other characters
that may be found in the epistle.
After answering the worldview questions on behalf of all the characters involved, proceed to apply it more particularly to yourself, your life situation and your
community. Some questions to consider are the following:
1. What is revealed about God in this story? 2. What character do you relate to the most in the story?
3. In what ways do you relate to each of the different characters found in the
story, whether protagonists or antagonists?
4. What might God be speaking to you through this story? What do you think
God might be trying to affirm in you about who you are as His child
through this story?
5. What areas of life may God be calling you to move forward in?
6. What sin areas may there be in your life that God is using this story to
cause you to confess?
7. How do you think this story might cause you to more fully experience the
healing, freedom and life Jesus came to offer us?
The four worldview questions were developed by Richard Middleton and Brian Walsh and presented in their two co-authored books-Transforming Vision and
Truth is Stranger Than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age.
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