Hello ,

To help explain the challenges people in the West face reading the Bible, authors E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien refer to a social experiment in "The Forgotten Famine" by Mark Allan Powell.

Powell had twelve students in a seminary class read the story of the prodigal son from Luke's Gospel, then close their Bibles and retell the story as faithfully as possible to a partner. None of the twelve American seminary students mentioned the famine in Luke 15:14, which precipitates the son's eventual return. Powell then had one hundred people participate in the same experiment and the results revealed that only six of the one hundred mentioned the famine. The "famine-forgetters," as Powell called them, had only one thing in common: they were from the United States.

Later Powell tried the experiment in St. Petersburg, Russia. He gathered fifty participants to read and retell the prodigal son story. This time an overwhelming forty-two of the fifty participants mentioned the famine. Why? Just seventy years before, 670,000 people died of starvation after a Nazi German siege of the capital city began a three-year famine. Famine was very much a part of the history and imagination of the Russian participants.*

We must be very careful that we don't communicate the idea of God's realness in such a way, that He is only seen from OUR perspective...but from a perspective that is framed by the perspective of the person we are speaking with.  

...to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.  1 Corinthians 9:22-23

Let us remember to really think about the person that we are speaking with today. Everyone that we meet NEEDS Jesus.  How will we show them Who Jesus really is?  We'll need divine help!

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word 

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