I judge the Bible by Jesus. I do not judge Jesus by the Bible.

My final authority for these things is the living, loving Christ and not a collection of words, no matter how holy they claim to be.

When I meet the unconditional love of God in the Bible, I celebrate and cherish it. When I do not, I ignore it. The Bible has no power for me then. It is just another book.

To proclaim that the Bible contains the Word of God is not to say that all its words are the words of God. God has given us minds that we have the responsibility of using. If all Christianity means is memorizing a kind of religious Robert’s Rules of Order, then there is no real reason for worship or prayer, study or service. There is no need for spiritual growth or prophetic announcements. We could all become mindless, but well-programmed computers. Computers for Christ.

Give me freedom.

Give me choice.

Give me the living presence of Christ breathing inspiration into my body, mind and soul.

But such a prayer demands responsibility. It demands that we take our faith seriously. It demands that we do all that we can to travel far on our spiritual journey.

Christianity is not for the faint-hearted. It is a call to courage, where looking down deep into the depths of our souls is the order of each day. We are being invited to wrestle with God the way Jacob did long ago. Such an awesome invitation brings with it the wonderful reward of divine discernment, of discovering when the Bible is holy and when it is not.