Time was when the big word in Christian circles was inspiration. It’s still a good word. After all, the Bible was “given by inspiration” – “God-breathed” as the Greek has it. I remember reading that the famous American evangelist D L Moody once preached on John 3:16 every evening for three weeks. That’s inspiration. Moody was inspired. After the first week, I would have expired!
There’s an old saying about the shortest verse in the Bible being like a very small window in a very big wall: the closer you get, the bigger the view beyond. Moody approached John 3:16 and saw a vast panorama, so I can only wonder what he saw in John 11:35.
What do you see in “Jesus wept”? Submerging himself in the gospels and the book of Acts for 30 days, Oral Roberts saw Jesus as he had never seen him before. Oral got up close, and came away with a ministry that has brought millions to Christ. Inspiration!
Nowadays we prefer information. But whereas inspiration is intensive, information is extensive. We live in the Information Age. Where once we travelled Inspiration Byway, we now travel the Information Super Highway! Click, and we’re in one place. Click again, and we’re somewhere else. “Faster than a speeding bullet”? Superman was a slow coach!
But all information and no inspiration makes Jack a dull boy indeed. As much as I appreciate great bible landscapes – overviews, themes, and the like – I recall my father’s artistic advice: “When you paint a picture”, he used to say, “always put in a person, because people are interested in people.” A woman in a field. A woodcutter in a forest. A wisp of smoke from a farmhouse chimney.
Ever marvelled at a colour plate in one of those coffee-table books on paintings by one of the Great Masters? And then read in the caption that it was merely a detail from the painting? “God is in the details” according to the old saying. Well, God is in the big picture, too. God is in everything. But let’s not favour information over inspiration.
I recently completed a study of what I called “Miracles That Changed Our World And The Way We Think” – my title for an upcoming series on the miracles of Jesus. A grand theme, yes; but think of all the unnamed persons in the panorama of the gospels. Unnamed persons who received miracles. A Canaanite woman, “A certain woman” with a worsening illness. A paralysed man. A blind man.
I need inspiration, not just information. So to see and appreciate the finer details, it seems I’ll have to exchange my telescope for a microscope. ————-