{"id":760,"date":"2012-10-09T16:20:49","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T21:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicebyrd.com\/?p=760"},"modified":"2012-10-15T22:17:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T03:17:09","slug":"book-the-blue-parakeet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/book-the-blue-parakeet\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sometimes a strange visitor like a neighbor\u2019s pet blue parakeet, an individual who speaks and acts in an unfamiliar way, or a different idea will insert itself into our lives quite unexpectedly.\u00a0 We may wish it would go away, facilitate its departure, or even ignore it, but we dare not try to cage it.\u00a0 North Park University professor Scot McKnight likens certain biblical passages to the blue parakeet he found in his backyard.\u00a0 How the sparrows in McKnight\u2019s yard responded to the blue parakeet mimics how we often read and respond to the confusing and controversial verses we find in the Bible.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are we to live out the Bible today?\u201d That is the big question all Christians must ultimately answer, says Scot McKnight.\u00a0 \u201cEvery one of us adapts the Bible to our culture.\u00a0 We adopt and adapt, pick and choose.\u201d\u00a0 McKnight runs through a dozen or so specific biblical examples where serious and sincere believers have adopted and adapted differently\u2014Sabbath, tithing, foot washing, charismatic gifts, surrendering possessions, capital punishment, war, and women in ministry, to name a few.<\/p>\n

McKnight deals with the how and why of what we choose from the Bible to apply to today.\u00a0 He does so in such an entertaining, humble, and reasoned way that even the most stubborn \u201cthe-Bible-says-it-I-believe-it-that-settles-it\u201d Christian can understand that even he or she selectively practices \u201cwhat the Bible says.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0McKnight examines the many methods people use to read the Bible–as a law book, book of promises, inkblots to personally interpret, or a puzzle to solve.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cUntil we learn to read the Bible as Story, we will not know how to get anything out of the Bible for daily living,\u201d McKnight concludes.<\/p>\n

God gave us the Bible in order to transform us, and He wants us to move the biblical principles into our relationships, character, and action.\u00a0 That process is called discernment.\u00a0 McKnight says that as we read the Bible and locate each item in its place in the Story, \u201cwe discern\u2014through the Holy Spirit and in the context of our community of faith\u2014a pattern of how to live the old way in a new day.\u00a0 Biblical principles are trans-cultural, but specific expressions are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul himself is an example of how the people of the Bible read the Bible that they had\u2014with discernment.\u00a0 Paul read the Bible as the gospel story, and that principle shaped everything he said and did.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s ways (all things to all people) seem messy, contradictory, and chameleon-like to those who read the Bible seeking to retrieve biblical practices for application today. \u00a0But, to those who understand that Paul submitted his every act and idea to the principle of what would further the gospel the most, Paul\u2019s methods seem Spirit-led, congruous, and pertinent.<\/p>\n

In his concise (230 pages) and well-organized book, McKnight uses metaphors, personal examples, stories from his students, and historical data to illustrate his points. \u00a0One case study he uses throughout the book and in a special section in the last one hundred pages of The Blue Parakeet <\/em>is \u201cWomen in Church Ministries.\u201d\u00a0 McKnight looks at critical biblical passages that deal with this controversial topic following his advice on how to read the Bible.<\/p>\n

Jesus was a \u201cblue parakeet\u201d to the people of his day, and the Bible itself is filled with \u201cblue parakeet\u201d verses.\u00a0 What happens when we encounter these passages in the Bible will determine how we read the Bible, and more importantly, how we live it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes a strange visitor like a neighbor\u2019s pet blue parakeet, an individual who speaks and acts in an unfamiliar way, or a different idea will insert itself into our lives quite unexpectedly.\u00a0 We may wish it would go away, facilitate its departure, or even ignore it, but we dare not try to cage it.\u00a0 North […] Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}