Challenging article here:
Leadership Blog: Out of Ur: Pimping Jesus 2: Is the language of “a personal relationship” biblical?
Not quite sure what I think of this on a first read – it has implications for all the ‘intimacy’ language so beloved of the Vineyard movement and others, some of which is based on a dodgy reading of the Song Of Songs.
But I suspect the article is a hyperbolic over-statement in some respects: it’s not entirely fair to speak of the ‘absence of Jesus’ in the light of the Pentecost, for example. The silence of Jesus, maybe. Which is not to say I disagree completely with the call to recover the language of lament from the Psalter. The writer is making an important point, but maybe the pendulum has swung too far.
What do you think?
Technorati Tags: faith, Jesus Christ, Vineyard, Song Of Songs, Pentecost, lament, Psalms
Big Circumstance 
Interesting article, it seems to me that we need to adopt a both and rather than an either or position as far as the language we use to speak about relationship with God is concerned.
The Bible may not speak of a personal relationship with Jesus, but clearly he lived personal relationships with the disciples both before and after the cross, their following sprang from a personal relationship, and in a way ours springs from theirs. God is both intimate and omnipotent…Jesus is persent with us and seated in the heavenly realms…how ?that is one of the mysteries of our faith!!!
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