Sam of samwrites2.wordpress.com tagged me with a “favorite book of the the bible” meme. Sam’s favorite is John with Revelation a close runner-up.
For me (me) 
it has to be Galatians. No hesitation. With Mark the close second place finisher. I returned to the church at age 38 after leaving at age 12. In an adult Sunday School class we read Mark, Jonah, and then Galatians. These would be the first three books of the bible I read. In Galatians I learned about a church trying to win God’s favor by their level of religiousness. This was me. I had been trying to appear religious.
When I got to Galatians 5:6 I read, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” The Message has it as: “For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.”
For me this was the last puzzle piece in a large life-long jigsaw puzzle. So yeah, that verse in that book wrecked my life as I once knew it. Thank God.
…
There are no instructions on tagging anyone with this but I will tag a few folks out of curiosity:
Bad: http://b4dguy.wordpress.com/about/Ed: http://edfromct.wordpress.com/about/
Love: http://lovewillbringustogether.wordpress.com/about/
Joe: http://www.iamlivingproof.org/2008/04/07/about-the-author/
William: http://petruzzo.wordpress.com/about-me/
oh yeah and
lazrus2 aka D… who will have to comment it or email it
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Just so we’re clear: No rules beyond naming your favorite book but the why would be cool. Tagging others is optional… actually everything we do is optional now that I think about it.
Galatians is wonderful! I like the paraphrase given in the Message,”What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.”
At Bible Study this week we had some “legalism” trying to push its ugly head into the group…that verse would have squashed it like the bug it was!
I’m likin’ this meme — don’t usually care to be tagged, but this one, no qualms…
Michelle, I hear you on the meme thing but yeah, this one is teaching me a few things about the bible and people’s take on the word. Likin’ it.
Ric,
I like your selection and reasoning. As soon as I got to “foolish” in Galatians I knew there was something in there for me.
Meanwhile, I can no longer read Jonah with a straight face after repeated viewing of the Veggie Tales movie.
“Compassion and mercy
from me to you and you to me
exactly what God wants to see
and yes that is the point!”
-Sam
Sam,
I don’t think I’ve seen the Veggie Tales movie… I have to check it out sometime.
Well, I thought I was safe from ‘tags’ being ‘blogless’ and all, but I can’t excuse not answering a question from a friend =).
I’ve been thinking about it alot, and just can’t settle on ‘one book’ that’s my ‘favorite’. I even got out my old NIV Study Bible (from 1986) to see which ones had the most highlighted verses, but it was too close to call on too many of them. (My husband says I should just use a ’spray can’ =}).
So, I’ll go with my original thoughts (while mowing the lawn earlier today =). I find so much to relate to in the Psalms, and see it as man expressing his heart to God. On the other side of that though, I get a lot out of Isaiah that is more God expressing His heart to man (though there’s lots of warnings there, there are also soooooo many promises of restoration and reconciliation–including Is. 53 that relates HOW it will all be made possible =).
Then in the New Testament, my favorite has to be the gospel of John. I took a summer class in college on that book, and learned to love it even more than I already did. There are so many insights there that go far beyond just a narrative of events, and come from a ‘kindred spirit’ I strongly relate to (on occasion the ’son of Thunder’ part too).
So, there’s my long answer to your short question, but I’m sure no one’s surprised by that =)?
Thanks for asking,
D-
Ric, I just spent four days thinking as little as possible. I will get to the meme, but first I had to post about my first love, chocolate.
Hey Ed, whenever. Priorities take priority.
[...] Tagged by Ric Booth for a very cool conversation starter: [...]