Horizons - Beginning at the Wrong Place

“What happens when women study scripture together? We look at relationships among women, between wives and husbands, between mothers and children. We try to read between the lines, to uncover and untangle what surely were complicated dynamics within families and with God. We look for reflections of our stories in their stories. We understand that the God who worked in and through the lives of our matriarchs and patriarchs, long ago and far away, is the same God who seeks to work in and through us today.” (Horizons Bible Study, In the Beginning, page 46)

As with most mornings I am blogging at my office away from my office – The Oasis. There are two Bible studies meeting this morning. It should make no difference if these Bible studies are composed of men, women or a combination of men and women. A Bible study is about God—it’s not about you, me or the Man-in-the-Moon. There are times in studying the Bible that relationships between women will be the focus of the passage. There will be times in studying the Bible that family dynamics will be the focus of the passage. However, these are NEVER the starting point of the Bible study. God is always the starting point!

You may ask, “What about topical Bible studies?” Topical studies are appropriate as long as the passages are not taken out of their historical and literary context. Yet, the starting point of these studies is God. Period! God, it would seem, is never the starting point in the Horizons Bible Study, In the Beginning.