The Narrative of Relationship

Read the Bible as the Story of Relationship Initiated, Rejected, and Fought For: Genesis 1-3

If we are to use the Bible to nourish hungry souls, then we must hear the Bible’s story the way God tells it. And God tells it in story form, as a narrative of relationship. Over 75% of the Bible is narrative, and the rest of the Bible involves passionate psalms, wisdom applied to life, and personal letters to real people in real life situations and relationships. The Bible is 100% relational!

The Bible begins by telling the story of relationship initiated and rejected (Genesis 1-3). After those first three chapters, the rest of the Bible tells the story of God wooing us back to Him self, all the while fighting the Evil One who wants to seduce us away from our first love. Ever since Genesis 3, life is a battle for our love—the ageless question of who captures our heart—Christ or Satan.

Our biblical ministry is sterile and dead if we see the Bible as a textbook. But if we read and use the Bible as the story of the battle to win our hearts, then our counseling comes alive.

Relate God’s Truth to Human Relationships through Trialogues: Matthew 18:20

But what does this mean? Does dispensing God’s Word mean that we tell our counselees and parishioners to “take two Scriptures and call us in the morning”? Does it mean that life is so simple that it consists of a one-problem-one-verse-one-solution formula? No. Nor does it mean we make the Bible relevant. The Bible is relevant. We have to work hard to make it boring and irrelevant. We need to learn to use the Bible in relationally relevant ways.

Soul physicians do so by mastering the art of the trialogue. In a monologue, I talk to you, teach you, or preach to you. In a dialogue, the two of us converse back and forth. However, in a trialogue, you and I engage a third party in our interaction—the Holy Spirit by way of His inspired Word. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20, KJV). Counseling is a powerful trialogue interaction about God’s Word between three people—a counselor, a counselee, and the Wonderful Counselor.

We take the specific issue the person is struggling against, and with them we explore together specific biblical passages and specific biblical principles that relate God’s truth to their life. In preaching (the pulpit ministry of the Word), we “bomb the shores.” It’s like a shotgun because we have to share in a monologue truth to 100s of different people. But in counseling (the personal ministry of the Word), we engage in “hand-to-hand combat.” It’s like a rifle because we can zero in with one person, talking back and forth about how our friend might apply various Scriptures and biblical principles to personal issues.

So What in Your Relationships? So What in Your Ministry?

So what? What difference should nourishing the hungry soul with God’s Word make? In how you live and in how you minister, what difference could it make if you:

*Feasted on and helped others to feast on God’s Word?

*Made truth and love kiss as you ministered to hurting and hardened people?

*Read and shared the Bible as the story of the battle for our hearts?

*Related God’s truth to human relationships through trialogues—personally relating truth to life?

The Rest of the Story

*Return tomorrow when we explore how to nourish the spiritual hunger of the soul.

*For the full story, feel free to visit: http://bit.ly/7vaE