Why First Person Messiah?

My new book First Person Messiah has been well-received—but I’m getting some questions about it.

One of the main questions is, “What made you think about writing this way?”

To be truthful—it was what I call a “Holy Spirit Audible.”

I was leading a Sunday morning Bible class called Seeing Jesus, Walking With.

It was early in the series and I had a lesson stressing the need to accept that perhaps because of our histories in churches and various teachings, we might have a skewed view of who Yeshua of Nazareth was and is. I had worked up a lesson outline to present on a Sunday in which I attempted to show the blessing of striving to see Jesus through new eyes.

I was excited about the lesson—I went to bed Saturday night looking forward to sharing what I had prepared.

But I suspect our Lord had a funny smile on his face as I went to sleep envisioning and mentally rehearsing how I would present this lesson I had worked so hard on—I prayed that it would touch peoples’ hearts and motivate them to dive into the Word and see our Savior on a more personal level.

So, about the laughing Lord. I have long had a standing request of him that he wake me up when he needs me to. I almost never set an alarm—but when I wake up earlier than I feel is really necessary I consider the possibility that my Lord wants to spend some time with me to teach me.

So yes, that Sunday morning, with my lesson all ready to go—I woke up a little before 5 am. I was wide awake—and a thought came to head. Or an impression.

It was of the Samaritan woman at the well.

I began thinking about her story and what it would have looked like through her eyes, heart, and pain. After a brief time lying in bed beginning to see what the Spirit was showing to me, I got up, made coffee, and went to my office and immediately began typing.

I had my Bible open to the story—and read it several times. Soon the story was flowing from my mind to the keyboard and onto the screen. I wrote nearly non-stop for two solid hours (unusual, I normally write in 45-minute to 1-hour blocks. At around 7 am, my “normal” get-up time—I printed the first-person story of the Samaritan woman encountering Jesus at the well, folded it into my Bible.

The Spirit had awakened me and called his “audible.” That lesson I had put so much into was now forgotten—and I had the first chapter (written) of what would become First-Person Messiah.

A Little Nervous—But This Was From Him

As I went to my classroom following worship-time, I did feel momentary twinges of nervousness.

I had never written or presented anything even remotely like this. It was partly Bible, partly fiction, and I was pretty sure that some of those in my class would not receive it well.

In my faith tradition, we make much of not “adding to or taking away” from what has been written.

Although I had been careful not to change anything of truthful essence—I suspected that some still would be a bit shocked that I “made up” part of a Bible story.

But then, I also knew from decades of walking with God that there truly is “no fear in love,” (1 Jn. 4:18) I had been in this situation as a teacher, preacher, and sharer of the gospel to know that I had nothing to fear.

These words had flowed from my hands, seemingly, as fast I as I could type. I had not done any proof-reading of substance, this was a raw and emotional account of what I saw in my heart and mind as the Spirit allowed me, perhaps, a possible glimpse of this powerful encounter between a desperately lost and maligned woman and the Savior of all.

The Response

I prefer learning what I speak on so that I do not have to look at my notes much. I prefer keeping eye contact and read from Scripture as I speak. My notes will lie on the lectern and sometimes will not be referred to at all.

On this day, because of the rapidity with which I wrote, all I could do was stand at the front of the class and read it straight though. I used proper modes of inflection and emotion as I could—but it was not a terribly powerful presentation in some ways.

But when I looked up—wow!

First, if you teach regularly you come to recognize when someone is tracking with you. I saw intense stares, tears flowing down cheeks, and heads nodding. There was absolute silence and an absence of noise, other than sniffling from those who were sobbing.

That audible by the Spirit—it was powerful, moving, and made such a huge impact.

After the class, so many came up and thanked, hugged, and made great comments.

“You wrote that in two-hours?”

That was sort of the difficult one—what to say to that.

In my faith tradition, many still struggle (honestly) with the idea that the Holy Spirit still works through people in powerful ways. It is a vestige of a doctrine known as cessationism, and truthfully, the doctrine is not without merit. I would actually consider myself to be a partial-cessationist. I believe that God works amongst his people today—but not precisely in the way he did in the New Testament. (More on that in a later blog post).

So to my friends compliment, I just gave a simple, ‘Yes, this story just flowed out me!”

Our pulpit minister who is a precious friend of mine was actually the one who first brought up the idea of a book called, “What if We Said it This Way.”

Being a preaching minister, he too was aware of the tensions over what some would perceive as “adding to” Scripture. His title in itself gave us a bit of up-front wiggle room to clarify that we would be writing historical fiction—that the stories would be based upon biblical realities but would use some imaginative possibilities plus some historical truths to make these true encounters with the Christ more personal and powerful.

The Result of Our Media Saturated Culture

Especially with the advent of the smartphone and streaming videos, brief and highly impactful content spews from our phones readily. The result of this has shortened not only the attention spans of nearly all of us but also limited our ability to create images in our head when we read.

What I mean is what I heard one young adult say. He was struggling in life with video games and other internet time—but he also loved to read books. When I asked him what reading a book was like for him, he smiled and explained that “in my head these images just explode into being, and I become unaware of time and the things going on around me.”

This is what some have termed “deep reading.”

It has been discovered through brain imaging that when someone who had developed the ability to read deeply, their brain “lights up.”

In other words, if you read of someone falling off of a precipice and hitting the ground, the areas of your brain that would be involved in falling and feeling pain and fear actually activate as if you were experiencing the event in real life.

Wow, think of it, in this first-person story told through the eyes and heart of the woman at the well, our brains can actually experience much of the same emotion, pain, and joy that this lady did.

That is, if we will actually read deeply.

Developing Deep Reading Capability

So if you struggle and perceive that your attention span is not very long—try this.

Set aside a time to read something substantial and commit to reading it through. Whether it be the Bible, First-Person Messiah, or some other work—commit to not just reading but digesting the book.

Then, set aside times to read in 20-30 minute blocks.

During this time, have no screens in sight. No television in your field of view, no smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer.

Remove any electronic device with a noise-making capability from the area—and then just read and only read for that 20-30 minute period.

If you have not been in the habit of reading—this will be frustrating at first. Do understand that this is a training process. You are training yourself to focus on something very good, and good for you. At first, you will not get much from it.

Stick with it.

You will find yourself getting more from the story, and likely within a fairly short period of time the 20-30 minutes will be gone before you know it—and you’ll just keep on reading.

Your brain will be exploding with images—a movie made from the little squiggles that form the words, sentences, and paragraphs you have read.

This is one of the most worthwhile endeavors you can invest in for the quality of your life, intellect, and your spiritual growth.

Back to First-Person Messiah

The real goal behind First-Person Messiah is to help readers to learn to read all of Scripture in a more powerful way.

Instead of just reading a chapter or two of the Bible and being satisfied with having done your reading, you will sit down with God and the Word he has gifted to us and watch the story unfold vividly before your eyes.

Our Great God had this book written so that we would come to know him more intimately—and as we come to know him, we begin to recognize him in our daily walk more readily.

So much so, that when he awakens you a little before 5 am, you know what he’s up to…