A Timely Message

In the preface to the "The Message" (the Bible in contemporary language) the author Eugene Peterson says... he taught the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek in a theological seminary. He expected to live the rest of his life as a professor and scholar, teaching and writing and studying. But then his life took a sudden vocational turn to pastoring a congregation. He was plunged into a different world. Nobody seemed to care much about the Bible, many knew virtually nothing about it, had never read it, and weren't interested in learning. Many others had spent years reading it but for them it had gone flat through familiarity, reduced to cliches. Bored, they dropped it. They found newspapers and magazines, videos and pulp fiction more to their taste.
He saw a great need for getting an understandable version to his congregation and so after ten years of arduous work, "The Message" was born and published.

My reading through the book of Romans took on new meaning when I read Chapter 12 the way Peterson interprets it. I wrote in my journal, "This is for me!!!"


vs. 8 ...if you help, just help, don't take over......if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy. (ouch)

Just can't miss that message!