Does the Bible seem relevant to you?

Does the Bible seem relevant to you?

I have often encountered people who look at me blankly when I talk about the application of the bible to real life. I think that they liken the bible to a grade ten math textbook or an instruction manual for a Mikita table saw. I can see how that can be a reality. I think that we often forget that the characters in the narrative of the Bible were real people with real issues, so often we think they are extraordinary in every way and therefore not at all like us. That is a challenge for any of us. One of my great loves is teaching Sunday School. I always have thought that if you can teach a group of grade 4 boys a truth about God and they get it, you can teach anybody!

 Last year I was teaching large group, grades 1-4, at my church and as I unfolded the account of Noah and his obedience to God’s command that he build an Ark with no water in sight, I began to create a scene for the children in regard to what it must have been like on the ark with all those animals...in essence, I wanted my young audience to understand the real life, real time circumstances that Noah and his family were experiencing…I asked the obvious question, “what do you think the ark smelled like?” With no hesitation a little boy in the front row put up his hand and boldly proclaimed that it must have smelled like “100 poops”. I told him he was absolutely right and then I was able to make the application that sometimes in life God calls us to do things that smell like 100 poops but we obey, like Noah, because God has a bigger plan than we can see OR SMELL in the moment. That lesson was not lost on any of us, “old Sunday School teachers” in the room and I was again reminded of the timeless transcendent truth of the Scripture. Yes, it is relevant to us in 2013!