Response to Alyssa's Question -- Didn't really answer it but gives some perspective (I think) on the role different passages play as we journey through space and time and circumstances

Hi Alyssa – I think different portions of scripture resonate with me personally depending on my circumstances.  For example, when the summer starts I always feel intimately connected to Jesus sending the disciples into a storm.  As we send our lives each June “through the open door unknown” – thanks John Foreman – I feel intensely the restless exhilaration of Christ sending us out into the storm of relational ministry on the water.  So, that particular scripture communes with me in a unique way. 

Back in 2012 when odds were my wife was going to die and then God delivered her I thought of Lazarus and the many other stories where Jesus delivered people from hopeless circumstances.  I also felt acutely connected to the resurrection story.  One night when Sarah was improving but still unstable for reasons unknown to me I felt myself losing my mind as I left the hospital briefly.  I recall vividly walking alone down the streets of San Francisco at night quoting Psalm 22 and Christ’s words on the cross over and over – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? “

When things improved with Sarah I journaled these words:

"Sarah’s sickness literally began kicking in to high gear on October 1st.  October 1st was the spiritual/intuitive “cliff” that I felt for months was looming.  I am amazed at how the one who sustains and fills all things with His person and truth prompts, guides, and leads us as individuals and a group.  At this moment in a hospital room at UCSF I sit in wonder of the wonderful God who never leaves, forsakes, or fails in all circumstances, good or bad. 

I don’t know how God chooses the content of each of our unique stories.  I also don’t know why He writes our stories the way He does, but I do acknowledge and hopefully I proclaim through word and deed that He is the meaning and fulfillment of all circumstances to His praise, glory, and honor.

Whether we are celebrating a great victory or helplessly watching suffering and brokenness in a loved one, the mystery of the ages in all circumstances is Christ being formed in us. 

I listed verses below that are alluded to in my journal about being in the hospital with Sarah.  These verses illustrate how God’s incredible love letters (the scriptures) written to you, to me, and to His church can bring truth, meaning, significance, faith, hope, love, redemption, and salvation.

Possibly my favorite experience on houseboats has been and continues to be witnessing (or being a part of)  the spontaneous, authentic conversations/relating that happens out on the water.

Two kids can come on boats and by mid-week realize that they’d been in youth group together for years and never known they were second cousins or their parents lived in the same town in Nebraska decades ago.

I love the natural and (again) spontaneous and (again) authentic quality of these conversations.

Here’s the tie:   In the same way, we read God’s love letters – some happy, some sappy, some angry, some poetic, some confusing, some intensely passionate – not knowing when, why, where those letters will spontaneously erupt into intimate communion with our thinking and processing of space, time, and circumstances.

The following verses/passages were alluded to in my journal about Sarah:
1 Peter 1:3-7 - 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Ephesians 1:22-23 - And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
John 1:3 -  “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 - Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Revelation 21:5 – “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Philippians 4:6 – “do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:11 – “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”
2 Corinthians 4:17 – “for our light and momentary troubles.”
Colosians 1:26 – “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages….”
Galatians 4:19 – “until Christ is formed in you.”

Even though you’re not asking us to defend the bible, this quote from Charles Spurgeon I think gives great perspective on scripture’s role in our lives. He once said, “The way you defend the bible is the way you defend a lion.  You just let it loose.”  This is why we defend the bible with fudgey loving and panoreos, and banana boats.  We don’t need to (as can be the case with other philosophies and religions) defend the bible with a sword because the BIBLE IS THE SWORD!  We defend the bible by dying to ourselves and living for Christ. “And you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”  The word for witnesses in this verse in Acts is synonymous with “martyrs.”  We preach the gospel on boats by falling on God’s sword – the word of God – as witnesses to His resurrection and a few weeks later we see over 1,000 souls saying yes to devoting their lives to Jesus.  In my mind – that’s the reason the bible was written and how we embrace it for being a part of God’ plan/party/salvation history. 

The historical and textual evidence for the veracity of scripture is far greater than any other ancient literature.  The archeological evidence leads to this conclusion – “wow, all that bible stuff is true.” Those facts are impressive but what keeps me enthralled and supremely captivated by the scriptures is that no matter where I look you see a person.  

And the person (the word) is a plot. 

And the word/plot that lives in the bible and lives in and through all creation is telling and living out a love story.  

And in that story, I and you, are written into the plot/the word as His beloved.  

And then we, with the word, become the plot.  And that plot lives in us and through us. 

And, in one of THE most exciting seasons of my life, year in and year out, the plot in us and through us is turned loose on houseboats and THE WORD, THE SCRIPTURES, THE TRUTH becomes flesh in us and through us, year after year, and THE WORD IN US AND THROUGH US sets captives free as He writes young souls into His story through us on houseboats. 

TO SUMMARIZE ALL THIS CONFUSION -- THE WORD BECAME FLESH IN ALYSSA NEWMAN AND ALYSSA NEWMAN IS THE LIVING WORD OF GOD GIVING TESTIMONY TO HIS TRUTH AND SALVATION.