Greetings, dear ones.
I think I’m not off to a good start. For example, I have no explanation for how in the world I made such a blooper in my last post so as to put forth the month as being September. That makes no sense at all. A couple or so weeks ago, Thano was mishandling a log with my excavator that whipped up and bashed me in the head—momentarily knocking me out—with blood squirting all over the place. Maybe I was more impacted by that impact than I know (Smile—nice to have some kind of excuse).
Then my little struggle as indicated below was a time-consuming speed bump. Oh well—I’ll proceed with launching this—since it has been approved by Becki—then head out for a little old man jog with Tazzy before I take on my breakfast which is setting untouched here on the table—and before I attempt doing up a devotional for today.
May your day generate proper results.
Love and prayers—Ray.
I was profoundly inspired this morning as I read this familiar passage in my copy of The Passion Translation New Testament. I actually circled the key words that are represented in the King James Translation as “blessed.” Then I underlined the corresponding causes for those desirable effects. It occurred to me that all these effects/qualities of life that Jesus lists are the very ones desired, even craved, by virtually everyone. After all, who, in their right mind, would turn down happiness, wealth, delight, enrichment, satisfaction, bliss, blessedness, ecstasy, or joy?—and say, “No, thank you—I’ll pass. I prefer to seek other stuff to fill my life.” That would be an unthinkable response. I have no difficulty agreeing with Jesus—concluding that these qualities are only available in their proper measure by means of personally loving God and following Christ passionately—in other words, by means of a genuine HEART AFTER GOD.
Then I think I made a kind of mistake that seemed to threaten the internal climate of my soul—generating a temporary storm of confusion and discouragement. What was my mistake? I clicked a link for THE PASSION TRANSLATION that put me online. There, opening up before me was a bunch of criticism and antagonism against THE PASSION TRANSLATION—posted by what I now believe to be the very “religious scholars and Pharisees” that Jesus was warning about. But at that point I was suddenly smitten with embarrassment over even disclosing that I had been reading and even inspired from the TPT. The implication imparted was that I was an ignorant, naïve, and vulnerable reader to be subjecting myself to such an inferior translation of God’s Word. After all, they would have me believe that they are the superior authorities over this challenging arena of Bible translations. It was as though I had no right to be benefited and inspired by such contaminated scholarship.
Oh, phooey! Here I am falling again into the big Bible translation controversy! But rather than let myself get kicked around as a victim of someone else’s arrogance, bias, or opinion, I choose to draw my own general conclusion. I would state it something like this: GOD’S ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE HIS WORD (His essential truth, revelation, and will) IS BIGGER THAN TRANSLATIONS. So the vital activator that causes God’s Word to be much more than a bunch of black print on white paper is, again, a genuine HEART AFTER GOD.
I trust we can all agree that the revealed WORD OF GOD is the pathway access to the KINGDOM OF GOD. In that regard, I find stability in the simple point of clarification Paul presents in Romans 14:17—“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (NIV). This confirms for me that my real relationship with my God and Savior is not based on or demonstrated by traditions, ceremonies, liturgies, or translations. Instead it is confirmed and demonstrated in the form of results—or fruit. In this case they are RIGHTEOUSNESS (right relationship with God), PEACE and JOY (the wonderful byproducts of right relationship with God).
If translations and versions are so all fired important, I guess I could compose some questions of my own: What version of Christianity or discipleship do you practice? Do you do it in KJV, NIV, or TPT? Do you believe and worship a KJV, NIV, or TPT God/Jesus? In what way is your KJV, NASV, or AMPLIFIED VERSION of RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, AND JOY superior to mine? Are you going to a KJV or NKJV heaven? I’d better stop this.
I’ll say it again—I firmly believe that the safest antidote for my getting all tangled up and neutralized by this kind of non-essential stuff is for me to pursue, to the best of my ability, an essential passionate HEART AFTER GOD.
PS: Granted, this is a different approach. But just to offer a little taste of the The Passion Translation, I’m choosing to stick on with this message an attachment containing today’s reading in that version. You can have a little read for yourself. It will include the accompanying footnotes.