Glenn Paauw’s Saving the Bible from Ourselves.

Glen Paauw’s book Saving the Bible from Ourselves is a masterful book teaching us how to get out of our own way when engaging the Bible. He begins by explaining that our attempt to simplify our study of the bible has had an adverse effect. As humans, we have this broken ability to overcomplicate things, and in the first chapter, he tells us the history of Robert Estienne, a French printer who numbered the bible. Certainly, he had the best of intentions, but this began our complicating the bible.

Paauw professes that we should have an Elegant Bible, not a complicated one. Elegant, meaning one that “Breaks free of the overcomplicated” bible we have had for 500 years. This return to the original form will bring us into reading paragraphs as intended by the author, instead of reading a sentence.

Reading or memorizing a sentence in short order can cause an out-of-context misinterpretation. Paauw explains how we snack on the bible instead of feasting upon it as intended. These small chunks leave us with little to no satisfaction.

Paauw continues his book, teaching us about the various ways we treat the bible. From Finding God in the Historical Bible, to Our Ugly Bible, Paauw does not fail to explain with great fervor his views on all the ways we interact with the bible.

The purpose of his book is to get us to begin approaching the bible with intention and personability. He says in an interview, we must engage the bible by reading it first, and study later.

As of the writing of this paper, I have not completed reading the whole text. I have had tremendous fun with this text and look forward to continuing the study.

“God has wed his story to ours.”

-Glen Paauw; Saving the Bible from Ourselves

This might be the best line I have read in years! Why does God include us in His plans? Why does He care what we do, or who we are? Not only did the God of the bible create us, He walked with us in the cool of the day! Man was never created to be apart from Him. He gave us His name to know Him. The entire purpose of God sending His son was to reconcile us to Him! I could think of no more perfect words to explain the entire story of the bible as simply as this!

When God breathed life into us, He breathed His breath into us. Let that hit home for a second! The breath of God gave us life! When God created existence, He spoke it into creation, which would require him to exhale that which only God breathes out! With the same breath, He created man, it is not a mistake considering man’s body can not live without breathing. He gave us that which is critical for life. How intimate a concept is this? He is the very breath in our lungs.

The premise of Glen Paauw’s book is to save the bible from Ourselves, for it is our carnal minds, our flesh, that hold us to a state of our understanding, everything must be logical and make sense. By doing so, we overcomplicate the very purpose the Word of God was documented and passed on to us. What is that purpose? To simply spend time reading the word. Not study, not force a deeper understanding. Psalm 1 tells us that a blessed man’s Delight is in the Law/Word, and he meditates on it day and night. Do you have to force yourself to read the bible, or do you enjoy spending time with it?

I have heard it said that we need to let the Word of God “speak to us.” If we do not spend time reading, then we can never truly know God’s purpose with us, His desires for us, His heart for us. When we find our bible study burdensome, or when we try to force things, it’s like the verse “God resists the proud.” We are trying to do all the work, we are trying to find all the answers to the universe, instead of waiting on the Lord to give us revelation. Allowing answers to come to us in His timing. In this manner of prayer and meditation, we gain a relationship with God.

The most sincere, meaningful, heartfelt, and private type of relationship we refer to as “intimate.” To be “wed” to anyone is to enter into a marriage, where a groom and bride become one. In this fashion, we are called the Bride of Christ. As Glen Paauw said, “God has wed His story to ours.”

Is this what makes the Bible different from just mere books? That the Bible is telling us a wedding story that not only saves our soul, but satisfies them as well? That as Christ followers, we are the Brides of Christ? It’s one thing to be a lost sheep that the great shepherd leaves the 99 for, it’s another to know that Christ died to prepare us for our wedding feast.

Now, maybe I am being overly passionate about all this, perhaps I am taking this all too seriously and sounding like some fruitcake just rambling on, but if that is so, and I have not made my message clear, then let me ask one question. Why did God send His son to die for our sins?

A son is the most prized possession to a father, and a father does not exist without a son. God did this to show us how important we are to him. We were never created to be mindless slaves worshipping emptily, as man-made religion would convince us. God delivered his people from slavery to bring them into a promised land. He could have left them there, in Egypt, in chains, in pain, but he did not.

God not only cares for us, but he truly loves us. At times he has been quite pissed off at us, but he has not brought all of creation to oblivion yet. He has sent His son to tell us he loves us, he has given us His word to teach us of His Love. He has not let us go, why? Because he is wed to us. That breath of life, His breath in us, gave us life.

Glen Paauw’s book is teaching us to save the Bible from ourselves, but to what purpose? To know God, to truly know God, and his so very personal purpose in our lives.