The Gospel Blimp and Other Modern Parables by Joseph Bayly

On first glance this book seemed ordinary and a little unusual at best! By the time I finished up the book, I was questioning my method of evaluation. To read stories in the parable format (modern parables at that!), made it a little difficult at times and awkward at ...others. But this book describes parables this way, "it is a story on target, set to shatter any listener", "unpredictable, except to one who knows a man's secrets" and "can say something different to a variety of listeners". "Jesus...told parables to those who were not chosen to know the mysteries of God's Kingdom, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand". Do I at times want my sermons, bible studies, books, etc. to come in small neat little packages that doesn't require much from me? Is my "response to truth mere intellectual assent"? "The one who is interested in pursuing the subject, or in seeking something beyond, wants the open-ended, the incomplete, the germ of an idea, the sort of situation that requires participation in depth". With this I see that scripture in it's entirety holds something far beyond the small "packages" that we receive from Pastors, teachers and leaders, etc. Failure to study it in depth, is the reason we often miss how high, high wide and how deep His love is for us and how Great and Sovereign our God is!! Reading these stories again, drove me to disect words and phrases to become enlightened to treasures of understanding, thereby, revealing truths that were not initially evident. With God's word we are to "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). As in these parables, our detriment would also be to: Trade convictions for comfort, Trade the extrordinary to be ordinary To be caught up in good things while missing the best, and To Choose towalk when we know how to fly!!