All scripture is God breathed

A verse from 2 Timothy has been on my mind this last week. A friend surprisingly made reference to the same verse in a recent email to me, and so I decided to post on what I've been thinking. I've begun to see the possibility of a different meaning to "all scripture is God breathed," beyond the interpretation that all scripture comes literally from the mouth of God as his words/breath.

God breathed into the clay. He breathed into the animals. That breath was spirit and life not literal words. It was truth. All scripture has truth, love, permeating it. I have never believed Gen 1-11 was literal. (part of my evolution/creationism journey...another story). It is beautiful and deep timeless poetry and story.

I think the greatest truths are held and passed down through story. It involves the creative right side of the brain. God is creation. Creation is love. I do not think it was by chance that Jesus taught truth in story. Story is not literal but it is timeless and it is truth. Reading the bible as a literal cookbook recipe robs much of the depth and passion..and breath..I believe God intended.

When we share our testimonies, we share them as stories and they are breathed by the Spirit as much as Paul's words were. I think Paul's words were exactly that...his words. His; but breathed by God. In my testimony some of my life and hurts color my delivery and my understanding at that moment, but it does not take away from the breath of the spirit blowing through the story that God is using to touch and awaken you. So to with the epistles of Paul, Peter, James, John... Only the parables of Christ were without "coloring" and were pure breath, because only Christ was one with his Father while still here on earth. Perhaps some, like the Pharisees who needed the external structure of the law and feared the "freedom" o fthe Spirit, need the external strucutre of the bible as literal because the alternative is uncomfortable.