I have a woman in the Sunday School class I teach who reads exclusively from the Message. Now, if she had come to me to recommend a translation, I would never have suggested the Message alone. Nevertheless, I would also never say anything to her now about it because this is the Bible from where she hears God's voice most clear.

Very often in our class, if I've had the time in my preparation to take a look at our passage in the Message ahead of time, I'll ask her to read a particular verse out of the Message because very often there is a clever turn of phrase or "just right" wording that really drives a point in Scripture home. 

Eugene Peterson is one of my favorite Christian writers because he can so easily combine theology and church life together. Granted, these two should never be separated anyway, but it seems that they usually are. Since Peterson translated the Message directly from the original languages, to me, it's put on a level different from that of earlier paraphrases such as the original Living Bible. Sometimes, when I question a rendering in the Message, I will dig into the original language text and come away understanding exactly where Peterson was coming from. The man knows his stuff.

Reading unfamilar translations can do that too, I just find that the Message makes me do that a lot. ;-)