Friday, October 2, 2015

Peripeteia (Matthew 13.10-15)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “peripeteia.”  I figured that all of you English majors out there would appreciate this one.  I think what really drew me close to the Bible early on in my Christian walk was that stuff was pretty easy to understand, when it came to stories anyway.  And, that’s the way that Jesus lived most of his ministry.  He did not try to sound all important and smart.  He looked at the audience, figured out what they needed to hear, and said it the way that they would best understand it.


The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?” He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. ~Matt 13:10-15

My question is: how do you best receive the word of God?  I know for some people, relationships are very important because the conversations with others help them understand their own faith.  For some, the experience they have with God brings better clarity to the way they should be living. What I love about reading the Jesus stories is that his readers think they know what he is talking about, then he all of the sudden he takes you on a kind of peripeteia.  My prayer is that you seek to find information on how you best learn and understand God’s plan for your life.  Take today to ask someone you trust to help move you through that.

Praying for you,


MO

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