Abiding in Sin

This is substantially a continuation or a further development of yesterday’s post.

In the time with the Lord this morning one of the passages to which I was directed was Jude (the reading plan I use had Jude yesterday but I misread it and jumped into Revelation, oops).  In Jude 4 (here @ Bible Gateway) we read that there are those in the community who turn grace into licentiousness.

Thinking through that, and there is much to which that applies, more than I want to explore in this post, several other passages came to mind.

Romans 6:1 – 2 (here @ Bible Gateway): Paul emphatically states that we are not to claim the grace of God as a covering to remain, continue, or abide in sinful behavior.  Which would, it seems, be what Jude suggests is turning grace in to licentiousness.  Interestingly, the word that is translated “continue” (NASB) here is in the same word group as the word that is translated “abide” in John 8:31 – 32 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Galatians 5:13 (here @ Bible Gateway), echoes the thought here in Romans 6:1 – 2 (here @ Bible Gateway).

James 4:17 (here @ Bible Gateway): James reminds us that if we know what is right and do not do it.  That is sin.

John 8:31 – 32 (here @ Bible Gateway): Jesus said that if we are going to be His disciples, we will abide, continue, in His Word.

Luke 6:46 (here @ Bible Gateway): Jesus asks a significant question.  Why are you calling me Lord if you are not doing what I tell you to do?

All of these together would seem to suggest that if we claim to be followers of Christ – note that in Acts 11:26 (here @ Bible Gateway), those who are called Christians were first disciples – one of the distinguishing marks of a Christian, a disciple, is that they are those who abide, remain in, continue in, His Word.

That would seem to be the right thing to do, would it not?  So, if we are not, are we not abiding in sin?

Change?

Six years ago, the Lord allowed me to study Jeremiah four times in a row.  Four different Bible studies with four different groups of men.  One of the major lessons, was that the leadership of Judah had abandoned the Word of God and began to proclaim to the people their own dreams and ideas.  Since most of the people did not have YouVersion on their phones, they were not exposed to the Word of God and had no access to it.

One of the applications from that study is I began asking men who were in leadership, “What is the Lord teaching you from the Word these days?”  It has gotten to the point that many now anticipate the question and tell me before I ask.

A few weeks back I was praying through the Church’s (note that is big C the entire body of Christ not a specific congregation) engagement with the Word of God.  I was reflecting on Isaiah 55:11 (here @ Bible Gateway) and Hebrews 4:12 (here @ Bible Gateway).  I was asking God why if His Word does not return void and if it is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, why then, have so many of His people abandoned it?  Why have entire Christian organizations chosen to ignore it?  Why have Bible publishers worked with secular publishers to make it more “attractive” to this generation?  Why does the Lord not draw people to Himself through His Word.

As I considered these, I will admit that I was struggling with some level of despair.  I am deeply troubled by the seeming lack of hunger for God’s Word in many professing Christians and equally disturbed by what is considered “good” Christian literature.  Thinking through this another question, really a subset of the first began to form.  I’m still working on the precise language, but it goes something like, “How has the Word challenged what you believe or how you live out your walk with God recently?”

If it is the case that Isaiah 55:8 – 9 (here @ Bible Gateway) is true (it is), then if I am in the Word, abiding in the Word as Christ said that His disciples would do (John 8:31 – 32 (here @ Bible Gateway)), then it would be a continual experience that my thinking and knowledge of Him would be challenged and corrected.  My world view would be continually being shaped, transformed, as Paul describes it in Romans 12:2 (here @ Bible Gateway), by my exposure to God’s nature and character as revealed in His inspired Word.

So, “How has the Word challenged what you believe or how you live out your walk with God recently?”  How has it caused you to change?  How has it transformed you?

Is Jesus Enough?

Learning to deal with the reality that my capacity has been greatly limited, at least for the next several months, has surfaced several issues that I have needed to process.

In the past 13 years the Lord has given me the opportunity to serve believers in 11 countries on 4 continents.  It has been a privilege.  He has given men and women in those places tools to understand the Bible in ways they have not done before.  He has refined the process and the message.  The material has been translated into four languages.  He has given me lasting relationships with significant people.  I have been asked back to most of the places He has allowed me to serve.

I was scheduled to leave this Friday for the second trip to a sub Saharan country.  The treatment canceled that trip along with a three-week vacation to South Africa and a large game reserve in eastern Africa in July.

While I still meet with three Bible studies and our small group at church online, and talk to men on the phone, I have not been able to meet with anyone in person since the middle of March.

As I was praying about this a sentence in a devotional I use from time to time stood out:

Thy goodness has been with me during another year, leading me through a twisting wilderness, in retreat helping me to advance, when beaten back making sure headway. (The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, page 204)

Reflecting on that sentence, I wrote in my journal, “This describes well my life, Lord please – don’t shunt me aside…”  As I wrote that down it became clear that I valued serving Christ more than Him.  It was a clear rebuke.  Two passages came to mind, Luke 10:18 – 20 (here @ Bible Gateway) and Luke 10:38 – 42 (here @ Bible Gateway).  The question for which I do not have a good answer yet is, “If all I have is my relationship with Jesus, is that enough?  Is He enough?

I know what the answer should be…

Long Lead Items

I am learning to deal with the effects of the chemo – not very well, yet – thus, the blog is sporadic.  Please pray Ephesians 5:15 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway) for me.

I worked, while in seminary, and for a time afterwards, in project controls, or management, or scheduling – a combination of all the above.  There were several different types of projects from significant infrastructure projects, to large automated warehouses, to technical development of software.  While all of the projects were different, they all had similar pieces that had to be tracked and managed.

One of the more impactful items in any of those projects were “long lead items”.  These are critical materials or functions that require a significant amount of time to either produce or acquire.  They vary from project to project, but their delay of one day, will delay the project by one day, they are that critical.

In the past several years, it seems like the Lord has identified several “long lead items” in my life.  Things I need that seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time to appropriate into my life.

As we were starting to put together this ministry from scratch, the thing that I kept hearing from the Lord was, “Trust me.”  When I prayed about any issue, whether financial, spiritual, opportunities to serve – whatever, the answer was always the same, “Trust me”.  I found that was easy to write in my journal.  To acknowledge as a direction from the Lord.  It was and is a whole lot harder to actually live.

Shortly thereafter, and currently, there has been another message that is similar.  Isaiah 40:31 (here @ Bible Gateway) tells me that if I wait on Him, He will give me strength.  Paul, echoes this in 2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10 (here @ Bible Gateway).  There he reminds me that Christ’s power is perfected in weakness.  So the message was I needed to rest in Him and live and serve out of His strength.  I have no idea.  Again, easy to record in the journal.  I can make observations about the text, even delve into the Greek or Hebrew – but to live it?  I struggle.

This morning the Lord took me on an extended journey through several passages on prayer.  Some of that I will possibly share in a later post.  But the “long lead item” that stood out for me this morning was the admonition in Ephesians 6:18 (here @ Bible Gateway) to “pray at all times in the Spirit.”  Confession, I do not think I know how to pray at anytime in the Spirit.  I pray.  I cling hard to Romans 8:26 – 27 (here @ Bible Gateway).  I do not know what else to do.  From where I am now in this journey, it seems I am completely dependent on His lavish grace to do any of this.  Which aligns very well with what I read in John 15:5 (here @ Bible Gateway).

There seems to be a lot in this journey with which I struggle.  A lot that I seem to understand but do not apply very well.  It is more than amazing that in spite of all that floundering, He loves me, died for me, and is working to perfect me, even when I can’t manage the “long lead items.”

Why Study the Bible Yourself

Two weeks ago, today, on our church's website and on Facebook, I shared why it is critical for each of us to study the Word of God ourselves.  Let me know what you think.  It is less than 30 minutes long.  It was too big to upload so click here to play.  Note the player is muted when it starts click on the speaker icon on the bottom of the video frame to turn on the sound.  Come back here to comment please.

Which Bible, Part 3

In this series we have looked at what versions are and what makes them different.  We will finish by looking at translations, paraphrases, and answer the question which of these three is better.

Translations
A translation, like the Wuest or Phillips is the work of one person.  They may be working from the original languages or they may be translating from a different language.  The advantage of a translation is the consistency of one individual.  That is also the disadvantage.  That individual’s work is not checked by other scholars.

Paraphrases
Paraphrases are, according to my College Edition of the Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, “a rewording of the thought or meaning expressed in something that has been said or written before.”  I cannot do better than that.  Paraphrases work off the original languages or the English translation of those languages.  Examples are The Living Bible and the Message.  The advantage is ease of reading.  The disadvantage is that it is much further away from the structure and language of the original.

Which is Better?
That depends on the purpose of the use.  For study I would stay with literal translations.  Further, I would use at least two to compare how the committees are handling the text.  If they are similar, you can be confident in the translation.  If, however, there are significant differences, that will alert you to the probability of either a difference in philosophy of translation or else some difficulty or obscurity in the original language.  There are some interesting ways to dig through this, even if you do not know the original languages, however that is beyond the scope of these posts.

If you are in a reading project, say to read through the Bible in a year, any of the above would be fine.  If during that reading a passage intrigues you and you want to go deeper, I would switch to a literal version.

Personally, I prefer literal translations.  Through my Greek classes at WKU and Dallas Seminary, I have translated all the New Testament from Greek to English.  I find that in most cases the NAS is closer to the Greek than other versions.

Let me know what questions you may have.

Which Bible, Part 2

Yesterday we started working through which Bible to use.  We broke off while looking at how the different versions are different and how we can tell.  We will pick this up from where we stopped yesterday:

Versions, Cont.
In some cases, for instance, the Douay-Rheims or the NASB, started with another version, the Latin Vulgate and the 1901 ASV respectively, and was then compared to the Greek and Hebrew to revise the earlier version.  Again, the introduction will tell you what process the committee followed.

Secondly, the committee works under a translation philosophy.  There are two: literal and non-literal.  The labels are not quite self-explanatory.  If you have any experience with multiple languages you know that a literal translation from one language to another is, if not impossible, it is definitely – well it would be difficult to read and understand.

A literal version tries to stay as close to the original languages as possible.  The introduction and preface will inform you how the committee will deal with the needs to make the translation readable.  Some well known literal versions are KJV, RSV, NASB, ESV.

Non-literal versions choose a different path.  They attempt to capture the idea behind the original text.  One illustration of this is the NIV.  This approach is referred to as dynamic equivalence.  Dynamic equivalence is a sense for sense translation (translating the meanings of phrases or whole sentences) with readability in mind (Wikipedia definition, 2020).  The advantage of this philosophy is its easier to read.  The disadvantage is that it can obscure the structure of the original more than the literal philosophy.

Tomorrow we will look at translations, paraphrases, and at least start on which is better.

Which Bible

In pretty much every seminar I do, someone will ask, “What is the best version of the Bible to use?”  Over the years I have developed a detailed answer to that question.  I will work thorough it here; it may take more than one post.  The focus here will be on English Bibles.  However, the descriptions fit all Bibles in whatever language.

First there are at least three types of Bibles available:

• Versions
• Translations
• Paraphrases

What are the differences?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Versions
At a top-level, versions are created with a team, a committee, of scholars who are working on translating the original texts into the language.  The committee works together to come up with the best translation based on at least two variables the choice of original texts, and the translation philosophy.

The first variable is the base texts on which the committee will base their work.  The decision is how much, if any, of the archaeological data they will consider and how they will use that data with the main resources of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  Most modern translations will use the archaeological data applying the principles of text criticism to get as close as possible to the original texts as possible.  This is a well-established and scholarly discipline that has greatly benefited all believers.  The value to us is beyond the scope of this post.  Suffice it to say that we have an embarrassingly accurate base text for both the Old and New Testaments.  That said there are versions that have chosen to not use the archaeological data or were developed when that data was not available.  In all cases the front matter, usually the introduction to the version will indicate what texts were used by the committee.

There is more about versions.  We will pick that up tomorrow.