In a course I am taking on Preaching as Transformation, we were asked to name 10 passages of scripture we couldn't live without. Here are the first three:
I. Genesis 1 - God created by speaking, and then called creation good, even very good. For me, this is the original blessing. "The fall" hurts so much because in the beginning it was soooo good.
II. Exodus 15:20-21 - Miriam's Song. Last fall, I preached myself into understanding that Miriam and the women not taken up their tambourines and danced this refrain of Moses' song, the Israelites would have turned around and gone back to Egypt where they at least had homes and food. In other words, the people needed to get these words of liberation into their bodies before they would believe them.
III. Psalm 139 - This is my favorite psalm, hands down. It begins, "You have searched me and known me..." The most powerful phrase, for me, is "the darkness is not dark to you." I usually jettison the final 6 verses because they don't fit with the rest of the psalm: "O that you would kill the wicked..." However, I am not a person who has suffered much at the hands of violent people (ie. abusers, bullies). If I were, I might be able to hear this plea on behalf of a powerless person appealing to powerful God.
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