Ditches and Canyons
As some of you may know, I am doing further study through the National Center for Biblical Counselling at PTC Melbourne. This involves reading, listening, thinking and chewing over new and old ideas that I pray will not remain in my head but lived out in the everyday. Part of living this out looks like sharing these things with others and I plan to write short reflections on some of what I find interesting, challenging or encouraging so that you too may benefit from what I am learning.
One helpful idea that I encountered in Mike Emlet’s book CrossTalk, speaks about how we apply passages of scripture to situations and problems we face. He describes them as ditch and canyon passages. The ditch passages seem straightforward to apply to us, and aren’t too much of a gap to jump over, for example a favourite of mine “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7). We can all relate this to many struggles that we encounter. But what about parts of the Bible that are less clear? These can seem like canyons, too wide to bridge to the here and now. An example of this could be chapters about the tabernacle, something less commonly used to encourage a struggling brother or sister in Christ (Ex 35-40).
Since we believe that ‘all scripture is profitable’ (2 Tim 3:16) how can we access more of God’s word not only for ourselves but as we encourage and build each other up, ‘speaking the truth in love’? I realise this article is too short to go into it all, but one point Mike Emlet makes is that how we view the Bible makes a huge difference to how we use it. If we see scripture as an unfolding story of God’s redemption, culminating in Jesus Christ, then we start to see things differently. Jesus is the ‘lens’ through which we understand all of scripture (Luke 24) and all of the Bible speaks about him. How does this help us connect the Bible to our situations? We need to see our place in the story. We have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, been given the Holy Spirit and live now awaiting Jesus’ return. Stories are about building relationships. We can zoom out from our own stories to see the cosmic story that God is writing. So more than just seeing the Bible as rules, principles or examples to follow/avoid we see a story of relationship, the God who comes down in Jesus Christ to humble himself and die in our place to deal with our sin and restore us to him. When I look at the big picture and see his personal love for me, it helps me engage with him, getting to know him more through all of his word, seeing more of who he is and what he has done for me in Christ. I pray it does for you too!
