One comment/idea on the multitude of good stuff that you have written here…

I believe I was actually in class with you when the pretty little stick man and his studying of/application of the Bible was drawn. I remember being very frustrated and thinking that studying the Bible must include more than that. I too remember wondering where the Holy Spirit fit in. Where was the mystery? And what about the context? Isn’t that just as important as present application for understanding the Bible? I too have attempted some diagrams to fix the problem…but more and more have become convinced that we can’t fit God into a box or a diagram or a set of bullet points and expect that those things will help us figure him out. He doesn’t want to be figured out…he wants to know and be known. He wants relationship. It works the same way in my marriage. My wife doesn’t want to be figured out…she wants to be known…she wants to know me…and I’ll never be able to figure her out anyway! I accept that and try to know her intimately.

I like the idea of a dust cloud or comic book explosion “diagram”. I like the idea of an idea/analogy over a traditional diagram. The one that I’ve been slowly developing over the course of the last 5 or 6 years is a little different but close…let me know your thoughts…

The two missing key elements for me when it comes to the “Bible reading process” have to do with 1) the role of the Holy Spirit and 2) the context of the Scriptures. The same to elements that you’ve described. The aspects of mystery and setting are just as important as the stick man and the book.

My “diagram” (idea/analogy) goes like this…

Bible reading is like light.

We need light, we rely on it daily, we interact with it.

And light affects us. It enters into our lives…it reveals, it exposes, it illuminates.

It’s a two way street…we rely on it…it affects us (note the similarity between this and the stick man/ book diagram).

But here’s the thing about light. It cannot be understood. It cannot be figured out. We exist in relationship to it, but there is more to it than us interacting with it and it affecting us like stick men.

There has to be mystery (the Holy Spirit) and there has to be setting (the context of Scripture).

The Mystery

What is light? How does it work? Is it a wave? Is it a particle? Honestly, the evidence supports that is behaves like both. That is a mystery. Different people may take different approaches, but they each must concede that they just don’t know how it works. It is a mystery.

In the same way as we interact with and are affected by the Bible, we must concede that the way it works (via the Holy Spirit) is a mystery…we all may take different approaches to our understanding…but in the end we need to concede that we just don’t know. And that’s okay…what we need to agree on is that the Holy Spirit is playing a role (mysterious as it is).

The Setting

How does light travel? Scientists tell us that light travels in a straight line. But that’s a bit of a misnomer. Light only travels in a straight line when it’s in space…unencumbered by anything. In our atmosphere it’s different. It bends, it reflects, it splits into a prism (do you remember watching the Flyers on Prism?).

In a vacuum, we can expect light to look and act a certain way. And it is important to study it in its context. In the atmosphere, it’s different…it acts different, it looks different, it plays by different rules (so to speak)…but it’s still light.

That’s how the Bible is as well. In its original context/setting we can expect it to look and act a certain way. That is crucially importan and needs to be examinedt. But as it enters our “atmosphere” it often ends up different…it acts different, it looks different, it plays by different rules…but it’s still the Bible.

Well that’s my thoughts…my “diagram”…please add to, take away from, continue to explore…it’s far from accurate or complete…