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Thirty Years of Serendipity

By Edmond P. Nash

In January of 1973 I began an exercise quite by accident that has led me on a 30-year adventure of inspiration, spiritual insight, and renewal. In 1971 The Living Bible had been published and, due to the fact that it was a paraphrase, was receiving much criticism in some quarters. I decided that the only way to really critique it was to read it from cover to cover. That I did with pen in hand. I began my exercise on January 3 and completed the reading on April 12. In 102 days I read the Bible completely through.

Several things happened that I did not anticipate. One was that due to my rapid reading I was able to remember and connect passages as never before. The flow and the big picture of God’s redemptive plan seemed to come to life in a fresh way. The interrelatedness of the narratives, Law, Psalms, and Prophets leading to fulfillment in the gospel of Christ brought a new spiritual understanding in my life, even though I was a religion major in college and a seminary graduate. Beyond that I discovered that I had more to preach than I’d ever dreamed. It was not as though I was trying to find something to say, but rather how to get into a twenty-five minute sermon all God was saying to me. It was as though the texts were crying out, “Preach me, preach me!”

From then until now over the last thirty-two years I have completed that discipline virtually every year with a different translation. Some translations or versions I have read more than once, but each has always been a brand new Bible that has never been marked until I began to work with it. At present, I am less than 100 pages (a few epistles and Revelation) from completing a version from the Aramaic. As in years past there have been some renderings and nuances that bring powerful insight to what God wants us to hear and to know.

I have read in different ways for the sake of variety and understanding, but never have I failed to experience the fresh sense of God’s power and presence in it all. Unquestionably, there have been some challenging passages that have baffled me over the years and at times caused me to question the purpose or even the validity of some particular aspect of a writer’s perspective on things. Yet as I have pondered the concerns of God I have found the Holy Spirit to be a faithful teacher, and at least partially to clarify some of the difficult passages.

One by-product is that I have become addicted to the Word. I am not a legalist in that I have to read it every day, although I try to do so. But I cannot go very long without my hunger being satisfied with the Bread of heaven. What began as an endeavor to see what something was like has evolved into a reality of being captured by the most important word ever revealed to humankind, God’s Word.

I have become profoundly impacted by the fact that the biblical writers were primarily interested in revealing the redemptive plan of God. They did not set out to “do theology” in that it was not an academic exercise. Their hearts and souls burned with the hunger to know the reality of God and to share it as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. For them it was a matter of life itself as revealed to them by their Creator. An illustration of this would be the kenosis passage in Philippians 2:5-18. This is one of the most significant theological passages in all of scripture. The Apostle Paul did not sit in prison one afternoon and say, “I am going to write a great theological passage today.” To the contrary, he was writing to his good friends at Philippi and was concerned about a situation or two in the church. While addressing the problem he uses the life of Jesus to illustrate his point. He then writes what we call the kenosis passage and leaves with us powerful ideas of the Incarnation, Trinity, atonement, eschatology, and more. Yet more important than a statement of theology was his passion for Jesus. The biblical writers always seemed to keep in focus the larger purpose of their work.

It has also struck me that none of the writers ever sought to play “devil’s advocate” with God’s plan. They understood that God had not called them to question, but to affirm. That is not to say that in our pilgrimage questions do not arise. It is to say that for the biblical writers all the answers were found in God’s truth and what they could not fully grasp they entrusted to Him. As St. Paul wrote, “. . . for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12). Also, “All things were created through Christ and for Christ. And He is before all things and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16b-17a). Paul was right in his understanding. Beyond that his admonition to us via his younger friend and colleague, Timothy, is as profound today as it was when he wrote it. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

As my late seminary professor, Willard Taylor, used to say, “We don’t sit in judgment of the Word. The Word sits in judgment of us.” After thirty years of reading the Word, I believe that more strongly now than ever. Amen!

Dr. Ed Nash is district superintendent of the Kansas District Church of the Nazarene.

(Scripture quotations from the King James Version)