Multiple Choice

Situation: You're reading your Bible and you come across verse(s) you don't "like." Perhaps they make you squirm, perhaps they make you feel uncomfortable, perhaps they make you feel--dare I say it?--ashamed or guilty. What do you do? Do you...

a) Close your Bible, put it back on the shelf, and decide that that is enough. The Bible isn't for you after all.
b) Start making a mental list of people whom this verse to applies and conveniently forget to add yourself to the list
c) Place limitations on the text. Sure, that "might" have been true a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, three thousand years ago, four thousand years ago. But times have changed, right? Surely, this verse has reached its expiration date!
d) Hope that God grades on a curve, look around, and decide that relatively speaking you're doing a good job of it after all
e) Become argumentative--with God, with others--become stubborn that your way is the right way and that if you don't like what the Bible says, it's time to change what the Bible means. Instead of just ignoring it, you relish the opportunity to engage it with hostility sure that you'll come out the victor.
f) Make fun of people who take the Bible seriously--as if it were all supposed to be true and relevant
g) Decide that you'll think about it next week, next month, next year. What's the rush, after all? Push down those uncomfortable feelings and go do something FUN, something that will distract you.
h) praise God for grace
i) realize your sinfulness, cry out to God, open yourself up and allow God to act on your heart, mind, and soul.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible