All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. Oh, that God would listen to me! When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. Take Psalm 77:1-3: “I cry out to God yes, I shout. He intended the Bible to speak to people where they’re at, caught up in the stark reality of life on a fractured planet.ĭozens of Psalms are complaints and heart-wrenching cries of despair to God, not holy-sounding, reverently worded soliloquies. God’s message was not meant to be run through some arbitrary, holier-than-thou politeness filter. They feel the need to tidy up God.įor example, look in any modern translation of Isaiah 64:6, and you’ll find that, to a holy God, even our most righteous acts are like “filthy rags.” The original language doesn’t say “filthy rags” it says “menstrual rags.” But that sounds a little too crass, so let’s just call them filthy instead.Īnd let’s not talk so much about Jesus being naked on the cross, and let’s pretend Paul said that he considered his good deeds “a pile of garbage” in Philippians 3:8 rather than a pile of crap, as the Greek would more accurately be translated.Īnd let’s definitely not mention the six times in the Old Testament that the Jewish writers referred to Gentile men as those who “pisseth against the wall.” (At least the King James Version got that one right.)ĬNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Yet despite that, it seems like Christians are uncomfortable with how earthy the Bible really is. It deals with people just like us, just as needy and screwed up as we are, encountering a God who would rather die than spend eternity without them. Editor's note: Steven James is the author of more than 30 books, including "Flirting with the Forbidden," which explores forgiveness.
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