We've done something horrible to God. We've turned Him into theology. We've turned Him into science. We have dissected God, and man, and the gospel, and in turn we have thousands upon thousands of facts, all of them dead and dry. It's not that these insights aren't true, aren't real - they just don't speak to us. God is omniscient, sovereign, all-powerful. Do you feel any closer to Him? A lot of us have gotten to the point where all our statements about God forget that He's a person. We turn Him into a machine, a pen on paper, a legalistic script or idea. We've done Him a second murder through institutions and text-books.

Guess what? God wills, thinks, enjoys, loves, feels, desires and suffers just like we do. He is not a machine. He is a Person. He is alive right now. And we can't get to know Him through just thinking about Him or knowing about Him, as so many - such as myself - have tried.

How do we get to know people? Through stories. All the wild and sad and wonderful and brave stories we tell - the stories reveal ourselves to others, and it is how others reveal themselves to us. We need to start looking at the Scriptures as several stories knitted together as one great Story. Stop approaching the Scriptures as if it is an encyclopedia, a dictionary of 'tips and techniques.'