In the Know ???????

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does[a] deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, 2nd Corinthians 1:8-10

Wouldn’t most of us have to admit that there are books in the Bible about which we do not know anything? Aren’t there sections of the Bible with which we are unfamiliar? I mean, doesn’t a title like “the Minor Prophets” come right to mind? Wouldn’t we have to admit that we couldn’t be sure if some ancient sounding name were or were not the author of a Book included there?

Come right down to it, isn’t it true that 63 books are a lot of books to remember when most of what is written talks about people and places that aren’t ever mentioned anywhere else- even in any of all the history you had to take in school? I mean, maybe if you study the Bible, you become a better person, but nothing written there changes anything that is going to happen, right? If it did, then people who wanted to know stuff would read it, not just people who want to be good, right?

To be real honest, which we know we are supposed to be, many of us who are Christians think these very thoughts. We know that we share these thoughts with people who make no claim to being Christian. Sure it makes us uncomfortable. Mainly it makes us uncomfortable around pastors, Sunday school teachers, and people that carry around Bibles on the week days in backpacks, briefcases and pocketbooks. Knowing stuff about the Bible is like remembering the code to the combination lock you used in 8^th grade gym class when you are a senior in high school. Some kids do, but you don’t want to go their parties or even have to give them a ride home when your practice ends same time as their club meeting.

Many of you reading this are saying, “Well all that is true, but I know that Corinthians is a book in the Bible, and I know it was written by Paul. It’s read at weddings and funerals Corinthians says really quoted stuff: what’s most important is faith, hope and love-and love is most important of all; or, we know some things now, but when we die and go to heaven we come directly before God everything will make sense. It’s good stuff to hear when you’re hookin’ up with someone for life, or when someone you know just died.

The rest of it is like Paul talking to the people in his day and times. He’s going over stuff with them that leads him to say those famous quotations. It’s a letter and it starts out like letters in those days and ends like letters in those days. It’s how people talked to people not right there in front of them before there was such a thing as texting. How people talked to people before texting?”

Exactly! I like that. Paul was in like NOW mode, “Wazz up? Chillin with my homies?”

The pastors, Sunday school teachers and people carrying Bibles on the weekdays may need Paul to have said, “The greatest of these is Love,” or, “though now we see in part, then we shall see face to face,” but Paul didn’t need to get into history like he needed a good Blackberry. Stuff had happened and more stuff that everyone expected should have happened didn’t happen and he suddenly saw why it didn’t. So he was hot to tell the people he thought were most affected.

Generally, when we hang onto something from the Bible we do it because something that mattered has happened and we want to know if, here, now, talk about God makes any difference. The short answer is that it doesn’t. Talking about God doesn’t make a difference-at least not for the good. Instead, Paul texts about himself and what has happened to him: “Supposed to be with You, NOT. Really weird stuff went down. So whacked out we are like hanging on to God for our lives.” God makes the stuff that matters happen. Paul found it out over and over again. He knew it like a fist in his face: SO HE TEXTED HIS FRIENDS.

Forget all that cranking about God creating the world or working in history. Who is history? It’s like remembering the combination to your eighth grade combination lock in your senior year of high school. What is going on now is what makes anyone talk about God. You talk about God when you can’t help it. He does stuff that matters and you tell people because the stuff matters - not because God did it. Because the stuff matters to you - not to pastors, Sunday School teachers and people who carry Bibles around on the weekdays in backpacks, briefcases and pocketbooks. Ditto, Paul.

I am going to bet you two things. The first big bet: God makes stuff happen in your life.

The second big bet: He does it for reasons really only you can tell us about.

People can guess. And surely they do. Pastors, Sunday school teachers and people who carry Bibles around on the week days in backpacks, briefcases and pocketbooks are real eager to tell you why God does stuff in your life. Maybe they really can ask God or maybe they suggest reasons to you that seem to explain everything. But, if we out here in TV-land are going to know anything about what God does in your life, you gotta tell us. Like, tweet us! “Yo homies, talking real smack ‘bout how this day supposed to go down & the wacked out way it did go down. Can’t all be on me, so listen up!”

So what if I am wrong, and I lose my bet? I lose my credibility with you. You will turn me off like a water faucet. If I win my bet, you are matching stories about God with Paul, and you are the one telling people about stuff that God has done which actually matters that has happened to people we can know and ask questions. Not dead old timers with goofy names.