Water To Wine

WATER TO WINE

Jesus is turning the watered-down version of himself back into the rich, deep, vintage wine. What people are discovering on this journey is they all the sudden feel out of place with the status quo. People like drinking their watered down grape juice and will even fight for it to stay that way. Water to wine Christians often feel like they are collies invited to a pit bull convention. They are wide-awake to the complexities and real struggles of wresting with God in their faith. Shallow grape juice Christianity just won’t do anymore.
       A Brian Zahnd conference and Keith Giles book Jesus Unbound inspired me to pursue writing a new kind of water to wine book that deals with a topic it seems like nobody is talking about. Why have we censored Jesus words and approach to how he studied and applied the Old Testament? Why is nobody talking about this? Giles in his book quotes Benjamin Corey who said,

       The goal has never been for us to live biblically. The goal has always been for us to 
      live like Christ---and there is a massive difference between these two options (p.19, 
     Jesus Unbound)

We have substituted certainty for mystery, Bible facts for the Spirit of Christ, and modern scientific approaches to scripture rather than the ancient spiritual readings of the patristic church fathers. What we have done is muted Christ’s voice to reading the Bible like a flat one dimensional voice where earlier biblical texts can actually silence Jesus words and witness for us today.

          Listen again to Morgan Guyton who powerfully states,

          When you try to wrap your fingers around a beam of light, when you make try to 
        make God’s truth into your personal property, then all you end up with is a fistful
        of darkness. You can dance n God’s light; you can touch it; you can point to it; but 
        you cannot close your hand around it and      say, ‘Mine!’ (How Jesus Saves the       
        World, p.71)

When we loosen our grip on the Bible like it’s our life boat and hang onto Jesus tighter who is our life boat, we will find a whole new way of thinking and living our faith in Christ.

        When we examine the many ways Jesus read the Hebrew Bible, we will suddenly be faced with new ways of reading God’s holy word. Jesus intentionally quoted some scriptures and left others out of the equation. He would quote half a verse and leave off the rest of the verse to make a point. Jesus would radically turn some of the Bible’s teaching on their heads to reveal the tender heart of God and the paradox of our hard heartedness.