The other day William got to handle one of our garden visitors in these parts…
Don’t worry- I was not letting my son cuddle up to a snake. It is one of the lovely slow worms- which is actually a kind of legless lizard. They eat all sorts of things that you do not want near your vegetable patch, so they are doubly welcome here.
But it got me thinking about this-
“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
Mark 16:18 (although only in the later manuscripts.)
Mad.
Stark staring bonkers.
And yet, to anyone who has been part of a fundamentalist subculture- weirdly logical.
this fragile tent 
I was thinking only today, about how often we “prove” our point by using selected verses as proof texts, yet we forget to look at the big picture, and say does what we think this voice says fit within the bigger picture, that we can’t pull out spercific texts to support, but we can see revealed through the bible? We then so often say but what the “proof” texts say must be right. We real must remember to look at the big picture.
Well said Paula.
Because scripture has too often been used as a blunt instrument to ‘prove’ our own point of view…
Hope you are OK!
Cheers
Chris