An Introduction

This year our pastor asked us to perform a Mitzvot as we read the One Year Bible together. As far as I am able to glean from a variety of sites, a Mitzvot is "an individual path to connect oneself closer to God." www.hanefesh.com/613_Mitzvot.htm

I have read the One Year Bible twice (over 2 years) and then read a regular bible a third time over a third year, changing to a new version but letting the readings guide how I read the different bible. I grew up in Nashville wondering, who are these odd people who call themselves "Christians?" I subsequently became one through this process of reading and study. As cerebral of a conversion process as this sounds, there was plenty of emotionalism that went with it. I find that the emotionalism does not lend itself as well to verbal description, so I will not dwell on it.

My most influential adult experience with Christianity was through the teachings of a Church of Christ pastor named Rubel Shelly. His life experiences shaped his interpretation of the text, and inspired my conversion to Christianity. One of his main goals, it seemed to me, was to decrease sectarianism. He preached these sermons inside what was (in my view) a somewhat sectarian environment. The tension that this dichotomy created fueled many inspirational ideas, ideas that still stick with me and will be the subject for many of my posts.

If one of the interpretations of the life of Christ is as a reformer to a Jewish religion that had become entrapped in a phariseeical legalism, how then do we worship Christ without falling into a similar legalism ourselves? And if we don't have some legalism, how can we have "accountability" in a healthy manner? And how do we tie the concept of legalism and biblical interpretation to the post-modern world in which we find ourselves, a world in which we are told there is no definable meaning in language? How do we use a non-definable communication structure to worship Jesus in a healthy, non-legalistic manner, establishing boundaries of behavior for which accountability can be ascertained?

It's that fundamental tension that fires my pursuit of faith. It's one thing to pursue Christ in a biblical manner because the Bible tells us to do that. It seems to be another thing to pursue Christ in the world outside the Bible, especially in these confusing times where we are given so many conflicting messages.

So, as I read the One Year Bible again this year, I have chosen, as my Mitzvot, to write this blog. My desire is to connect myself closer to God. I could journal this, and not blog, but I find that if I write for others, then my thoughts remain more focused and accountable.