ExtraChristy

Do You Have a MacGuffin? The TV show, Burn Notice has a Bible everyone is trying to get for the last three episodes. This common dramatic theme is called using a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an object that everyone is trying to steal, buy, hold, or hide. What the object actually is or does is unimportant. It is the focus of the plots and pursuits of the characters in the story but is never used or changed by all the commotion concerning it. So no matter what version of the Bible on Burn Notice is on the inside, it has become the MacGuffin version. A Bible that is an object of much concern, a prop to stage a drama, but not read, studied or followed. (Some Sundays I'm tempted to take the large beautiful Bible off the communion table and read aloud from it.)

from tomatoproductions.com

People have their favorite version of the Bible. I like the Jerusalem Bible (original) for reading, The Message for meditation and the New Revised Standard Version for study. Many prefer the New International Version or the King James Version. The only one I reject is the MacGuffin version, one that is the object of fuss and feuds, instead of the Word of God written, witnessing to God's self-revelation through which the Holy Spirit speaks to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to give authoritative direction for the life of faith.

The Purpose of the Book

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. - John 20:30-31

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This work by J. Christy Ramsey is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Deed

Luke 14:25-33,
Philemon 1-21

Going after worthless things, brings no profit and makes us worthless.

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The Manual Says... My uncle was once assigned to go out into the field and "fix" problems at another factory. He decided to take the designer of the machine with him. As he expected, the local workers did not welcome the suggestions given by the out of towner from HQ on how they should change their ways. The objections began with "But the manual says..." My uncle appreciated their devotion to the manual. He then introduced his associate: "Here is the man who wrote the manual, let's see how he suggests we solve our problems." Things went much smoother working with the author rather than the text.

from alistairmcmillan on flickr.com

Even after a month, I'm sure my kind and gentle readers suspect where I am headed. Christians and others will go further overcoming challenges if they seek together the author of the sacred text rather than arguing over their interpretations of how they RTFM (”read the fine manual” ).

I hope Christians not only quote their operating manual but introduce people to their friend and traveling companion, the author.

The Word That Lives

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.- John 1:1-4, 14

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This work by J. Christy Ramsey is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Deed