"Imperfect people Serving a Perfect God"
Dateline: Minneapolis
I have been a fan of Games Magazine since I was a child. It combines pencil and paper standards like crosswords and word finds along with visual puns. logic problems and everything in between. The crowning achievement of any Games fan is to get a free T shirt by discovering an error or solving one of the published puzzles in a new and creative way (I accomplished the latter earlier this year).
Earlier this week, I came across a Games crossword puzzle which had the clue "Jonah- Nahum linkup." The answer was five letters long and I knew the second letter was "I." I knew these books. Matter of fact I have memorized bot Jonah and Nahum. Plus, I am a Games Magazine expert with a T shirt to prove it. My mind began to race. Okay, so the link is Nineveh (both books prophecies are about that city)... nope, too many letters. Is it the name of the king in each book? (no, Jonah's king of Nineveh is not named). I began to recite each book searching for a person who is encountered by both prophets, the name of a ship, a date, anything to connect to two stories. I believe I even tried to somehow connect "great fish" and "young lions" since they are both animals... I was stumped.
Then it dawned on me, perhaps the linkup was not in the pages of either Jonah or Nahum but another book of prophecy. Fortunately, before I began analyzing minor prophets looking for an answer I saw that the Micah (five letters, second letter "I") was the book between Jonah and Nahum in the Old Testament.
Here is the point- people (like me) have a tendency to overcomplicate things when it comes to the Bible. We begin to rely on deep mysteries and scholarly knowledge rather than the straight forward truths written in the Scriptures. Instead of aiding in the Gospel mission these efforts to be "deep thinkers" cloud the message and confuse, delay, and shield the Good News (that certainly does not sound like God's plan does it). I am currently teaching a class and the students constantly bring up the point that pastors and churches have become too "theological" for their own good.
By the way, this isn't the first time I have been confounded by a Biblical question in Games Magazine. I know there was one about Moses in a previous puzzle that caused a similar, and futile, effort on my part.
The world needs the Gospel message. The Bible is just fine "as is." Let's stop muddying the waters and be lights of the world.
