I believe that Frank Viola is one of the more critical thinkers in western Christian thought. His website “Beyond Evangelical” (www.frankviola.org) is one of my must read blogs. His books (especially Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ, which he wrote with Leonard Sweet) are among what I consider to be the most important contemporary writing for the western church.

Viola’s newest book: Revise Us Again: Living From a Renewed Christian Script, asserts the Christians need revising, specifically as it relates to certain areas vital to our life in Christ, issue Viola suggests are seldom address today. Christians believe that the scriptures give us a script for experiencing the life God desires. The problem is that this biblical script is often distorted by our religious, socio-economic, and political traditions. In other words, we read into the Bible the scripts of our traditions – and then assert that they are holy writ.

Viola’s challenge is that we continually revise our scripts to rescue them from these distortions and bring them back in line with scripture. Specifically Viola says we need to revise things like how we speak of God, our Christian code language, our semantics, our messages, Christianeze, our understanding of the Holy Spirit’s work, and our chief pursuit as Christ-followers.

As with Viola’s blog and previous books, I highly recommend that every Christian read “Revises Us Again.”

In his intro, Viola writes: “As Christians, we can safely assume that some of the script we have been handed matches the heart and mind of our Master. But typically, much of it doesn’t.”

If you are willing to have the part of your script challenged which DOES NOT match the heart and mind of the Master, then this is an important read. Just be aware that what you think might match the Master’s heart, may in fact be a false script. Read with an open heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit might “revise” you again.

billnieporte

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