Taking off the Filter

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Taking off the Filter

For the first time in public, last week, during our “Cure Experience” in Louisville, Kentucky, we tried out an exercise called, “Taking Off the Filter.” We took several verses of Scripture and imagined how they would be understood in the Room of Good Intentions or in the Room of Grace. Small groups, teams and couples grappled with the difference it would make.

We are convinced that many, if not most of us, have been reading the Word through a filter of our own shame or the religious moralism taught by other’s shame. It creates a presumed and inaccurate voice of God. It creates a presumed and inaccurate means to carry out the life offered in the Word. It creates a presumed and inaccurate view of ourselves and how God views us. It creates a presumed, inaccurate and artificial means to gain God’s favor and pleasure.

The exercise was a blast. We did it right out of the study guide for “The Cure”. For many of us, it was like we were wiping off windows covered with years of the grime and cloudy film that had for so long partially covered life-giving words. It was redemptive and freeing. Many were poking fun at themselves for how they’d read it and others joined in to admit their own folly. For some of us it was painful to begin to discover the deadening, man-made condemnation, or self-satisfied superiority we had built into our reading of the Bible years ago.

It’s a hugely important exercise and discipline this generation especially needs to learn. If the DNA of how I see the Word does not change, I will almost always default to either a Pharisaical or a self-condemning relationship with each passage I read. And the saddest part is that I will presume I’ve been transformed by the two-edged sword of the Living Word!

It is possible to read sacred words and denude them of power by my own presumption and not God’s intention. Ouch!

That’s why we finally devoted a huge section of “The Cure” study guide to such an exploration in every chapter.

I tell you, if you don’t take a group through “The Cure” study guide, you can still get to heaven, but you may have an obstructed view and there will be a two-piece daily limit on pie. (I could be wrong about this, but why take the chance?)

Truthfully, we can’t wait for you and your friends to discover whether you’ve been looking at Scripture with a filter or in unvarnished clarity.

We wrote on the cover of “The Cure”-“What if God isn’t who you think He is and neither are you?” As you begin to see God and yourself more clearly you’ll begin to see the Word more clearly. It may be equally true-if I read the Word more clearly, I will begin to see God and myself more clearly…and wonderfully.
John-one of the three amigos, part of the ever-growing tribe of grace.

Posted on Tue, April 24, 2012 by John Lynch

5 comments (Add your own)

1. Rebekah Grace wrote:
I just stopped doing the Christian thing alltogether at the ripe ol' age of about 13. Couldn't handle any of it. The legalism, the fundamentalism, the hypocrisy was so thick that only now can I see that it was God I couldn't see, not God I was seeing.

So many times since this prodigal daughter returned Home, has the Father been so incredibly gracious in showing me the numerous misconceptions I had of Him. My filter was plum broke. I've gotten good and angry over, what I viewed as, lost time. Nearly 3 decades of lost time. Agh!! Wandering around the world in all its muck and mire. Spending a good share of years in the pig pen, only to wake up and find a famine had hit my homeland, this world I'd made my home with all of its broken promises. And in His incredible grace, again (and always) He takes me Hand and walks me through the benefit of those years, with all He asks me to do now, all that He's making good, all the ashes He's making beautiful. And I weep with gratitude that nothing is lost. It's all found.

Oh, good stuff!!!

Tue, April 24, 2012 @ 4:48 AM

2. Tim Gifford wrote:
Wait.....only two pieces of pie a day?.....hmmmmmm........
no, really, this is good stuff. Thanks John.

Wed, April 25, 2012 @ 5:00 PM

3. Jonathan wrote:
I definitely am interested. I've read scriptures and panicked about them for years. Even to the extent of irrationality and allowing fear to own my heart and transform into the next fearful situation or scripture.

Sun, April 29, 2012 @ 8:34 AM

4. Scott Gamel wrote:
The folks at our church often hear me talk about "Grace Hermeneutics" - how we need to read the Bible with our "grace glasses" on and let grace become THE filter through which we read, study, and understand the Word. Needless to say, I LOVED this post today, and will eagerly share it with our folks!

Wed, May 2, 2012 @ 11:29 AM

5. Aman wrote:
, I believe God is taknig His church back to PLAN A...PLAN FREEDOM...PLAN GRACE Amen!! Zech. 12:10 says, And I will pour on the house of David, and on the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace It is via the internet, church plants, from house to house, person to person, download to download, blog to blog etc. etc.We are beholding "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth .

Wed, November 21, 2012 @ 2:43 AM

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