In Defense of a Defenseless Text

I am working with a PhD student on an independent study in OT poetry.  In our reading I ran across an important reminder concerning reading the biblical text.

J. P. Fokkelman writes, “The text is completely defenseless against any form of abuse; for the text, the reader is either a blessing or curse” (Reading Biblical Poetry, WJK, 2001, 207).

Since God does “smite” the one who reads “against the grain,” let’s be careful that as we read and apply the Word we are not guilty of “text abuse.”

God, Trigeminal neuralgia & me

While it is more personal than one of my “normal” blog posts, below is a link to an article I wrote for Kindred Spirit.  It is a snap-shot of my continuing journey with trigeminal neuralgia and a few failed surgeries.  Here is the article link.  As a follow up to that article: I am currently home recovering from another failed brain surgery that I had two weeks on Long Island, NY.  So my journey with God, trigeminal neuralgia and finding myself on the “wrong side” of medical statistics continues….