The Wow effect ...

Wednesday, January 25, 2012. What do you need to understand the bible? I have met many people who do not understand it. Some know a little bit here and there, but they have never started to explore what is meant … but when you do it, the Wow effect is not far!

Wow effect …

The bible can have a fantastic Wow effect, the more we understand. It is a very dense book. It is extremely connected - past and presence and future become one network of meaning. It is deep and sincere, but still full of joy and peace.

For example, when you read the gospel of John. It starts with the words: “At the beginning there was the word. And the word was with God. And God was the word. And it was at the beginning with God.” What does it mean? What is the word? These questions have been picked up in contemporary literature, they have been discussed by experts and normal people.

But the passages of John continue. “The word became flesh and lived among us”. Here, when a Christian reads this, it becomes clear what or who “the word” is in the text. It is Christ Jesus. It is the saviour who is the son of God. The gospels all start with the birth of Jesus, with the child in Bethlehem. John puts it into an artistic form. He even reaches back to creation itself, where Jesus was with God before be became human in the Jesus baby.

Biblical Perspectives …

We need to go into more details. We need to read the bible. We need to discuss biblical perspectives on our life. Discussion has to be personal as well as general. Our life is not completely alone, we live in a society and we cannot separate from it!

But we need to keep in mind that we are not just us. God is there. God has been there 2000 years ago, when Jesus lived on earth. God is there today, by his holy spirit, as he was all the time. We need to realize that he is there, it is not just us.

I think that the Wow effect comes when we read the biblical words with the light of the holy spirit. It is not just our worldy reason which would be able to grasp the deep truth which is given to us in this collection of biblical books. We need to enter the realm of faith, personally. We need to turn to him, listen to him, believe in him and then … Wow! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts