Why are there so many Bible versions?

I counted fourteen versions of the Bible on my computer. I use two or three of them in my studies.  Unless you are proficient in ancient Hebrew and Greek, you will be reading the Bible  from a translation.

Here are the first two verses of Psalm 23:

King James Version  (KJV) 
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. [2] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

New King James Version (NKJV) 
The Lord is my shepherd;  I shall not want.  [2] He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
 He leads me beside the still waters.

Both the KJV and NKJV are literal translations of the Bible. They try to translate word for word from the original text. Modern literal translations include the New American Standard Bible and New Revised Standard Version.

New International Version of the Bible (NIV) 
 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.   [2] He makes me lie down in green pastures,
 he leads me beside quiet waters,

The NIV is a dynamic equivalent which is an  attempt to go phrase for phrase from the original text in order to smooth out the flow of the language.

The Message  (MsgB) 
 God, my shepherd!  I don't need a thing. [2] You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
            you find me quiet pools to drink from.

The MsgB is a paraphrase. The goal is to put ancient vernacular to modern vernacular.  A paraphrase would be more appropriate for reading, than for in depth study.

There are many Bible versions because of the long history of the English language and different goals in the translation process.                   
Is one version of the Bible better for me than another version? 

For  greater readability, I encourage people to use a more modern translation of the Bible like the New International Version or the New American Standard Bible.

I have met many people who are committed to the King James Version. To these people I would ask them to check out the New King James Version because it updates some of the more archaic language while keeping the beauty of the original.

The bottom line is to find a Bible version you are comfortable with and spend time reading and studying it.

Funerals - thinking of eternity and teachable moments

Many years ago we attended the funeral of a young man who had committed suicide in his father’s home. ‘Tragic’ is the only word I can think of to describe the situation where such a young person reaches a point of hopelessness and takes the steps to end their life.  The church that had the funeral for this young man was filled with high school classmates, friends, and family who were there to say goodbye to this young man.  The youth pastor that conducted the service tried to make the situation as positive as possible when describing the life of this young man. The elephant in the room that was not addressed was this young man taking his own life and its devastating impact on those he knew and loved. By not addressing the issue of suicide this youth pastor performed a tragic disservice to family and friends

I’ve conducted many funerals over the years. The most enjoyable one (if that is appropriate to say) was that of my aunt who loved Jesus for many decades. Her prayers kept my dad alive in Vietnam. If he is in Heaven, her faithful and fervent prayers, along with the grace of God get the credit.  Her life and funeral reflected the grace and goodness of God amidst difficult circumstances.

Most of the funerals I that have done were in a sense more standard where the desire was to speak God’s truth in words of comfort to family and friends.  The most difficult funeral I conducted was for a bad guy. My desire was to acknowledge the value of his life to his estranged wife and teenage sons. And at the same time I did not want to gloss over how poorly he led his life and hurt those around him.  The family seemed satisfied with what I said.

More recently some celebrities have died under less than normal circumstances. Deaths related to drug abuse are common. It is even more of a tragedy when those who knew and loved them do not speak to the drug abuse that led to their early deaths.  The same is true when issues of mental illness and suicide are not addressed by those who knew and loved them.  

Funerals are time when people in the normal busyness of life take time to think of death and eternity.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (ESV) 13  But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

 Christians are not to grieve as those who have no hope. We are to grieve in light of God’s goodness and grace. We are to have confidence know that for the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. [2 Corinthians 5:8]

In our present reality may we look to God’s eternal purposes (John 3:16).

True Persecution

Years ago I got into a discussion with someone who said I was persecuting him. I said my disagreement with their religious views was not persecution. It was just disagreement. In the years before the internet I suggested he read "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" if he wanted to understand true persecution.

Organizations like 'Voice of the Martyrs' (http://www.persecution.com/) has a lot of detail on current Christian persecution.

On Christian radio a few weeks ago I heard about Paul Schnieder who was a pastor imprisoned in the prison camp Buchenwald. So later I googled his name and found out more of his story which is shared below.

[The following was copied from http://www.perryville.org with their notation "adapted from an article in the Kairos Journal;
For those interested in more details - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Schneider and http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Schneider-Buchenwald-Christian-sourcebook/dp/1887732098]

The Buchenwald Apostle—Paul Schneider (1897 – 1939)

   As the Nazi swastika was raised over Buchenwald prison camp, the command, “Caps off!” blared through the loudspeakers. On this May morning in 1938, every prisoner instantly obeyed, except one scrawny pastor from the Rhineland, Paul Schneider. His fellow inmates glanced fearfully toward the guards. These prisoners knew the young preacher was no coward, but this was madness.

When the formation was dismissed, his friends rushed to him, urging him to cooperate. He calmly replied that he must bear faithful witness to Christ and must protest the brutality he saw around him.1 That witness would soon be tested, for the loudspeakers then directed the prisoner who kept his cap on to report to the gate. If he did not, the whole camp would be punished. Schneider responded by heading to the guardhouse at a fast trot.

Schneider was in the camp because he would not accommodate Hitler’s heresies. He refused to give communion to two local Nazis, who were members of his church.2 At the funeral of a member of the Hitler Youth, a leader spoke of enrolling the deceased in the “Storm Troopers of heaven.” Schneider publicly rebuked the man and was imprisoned for a week. During the winter of 1935-36, the mayor’s office summoned him twelve times for speaking out against the party. Following another arrest in July 1937, the Nazis banished him from the Rhineland. They drove him outside his parish and warned him never to return. Instead Schneider walked straight to the station, threw his exclusion order in the bin, and caught the next train home.3

Schneider was neither a brilliant intellectual on the order of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, nor a colorful, national celebrity like Martin Niemoeller. He was only an ordinary pastor, faithful in the conduct of his day-to-day ministry. That faithfulness carried over into the camp, where he was severely beaten for refusal to remove his cap. Cast into solitary confinement for a year, Schneider nevertheless continued to protest. When escaped prisoners were captured and then executed, the pastor cried out from his cell, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I witness against the murder of prisoners . . .”4

Each time he spoke up, he was brutalized once again, and on July 18, 1939, he succumbed to his injuries. His life—and death—were so inspiring that even the atheists in the camp joined in calling him the “Buchenwald Apostle.” Later, the Communist government of East Germany would build a memorial to honor this Christian pastor.

Shortly before his final arrest, Schneider warned his congregation about the peril in the land: “[W]e can no longer close our eyes to the high towering waves which we see rolling in from our ‘folk-life’ in the Third Reich.”5 He called Nazism “naked paganism” and proclaimed it incompatible with the Christian faith.6 There could be no middle ground. It was time for fearless confession, as in the early Church, for Jesus Himself said, “Only the one who confesses Me before men will I confess before My heavenly Father.”

Though many Christians around the world today suffer severe persecution, few in the West must sacrifice their very lives for the integrity of the Church. But even in Europe and the Americas, there can be a cost, so all must decide whether they will stand with Jesus and confess His Truth or continue to look the other way and allow evil to triumph by default. If they stand true, they do so in the tradition of Pastor Schneider. Though he paid a dear price, he gained the title “Buchenwald Apostle.” Christians doff their hats to him—and to all whose graceful, yet unbending witness, honors the kingdom of God.

Footnotes:

1  Claude R. Foster, Jr., Paul Schneider – The Buchenwald Apostle (West Chester, Pennsylvania: West Chester University Press, 1997), 786.

2  Arvan E. Gordon, “Between God and the Gestapo,” Church Times Website, http://copies.anglicansonline.org/churchtimes/990716/feature.htm.

3  “A Twentieth Century Martyr,” Free Church Foundations Website, www.btinternet.com/~s.j.mackay/foundations/martyr.html (accessed May 27, 2004).

4  E. H. Robertson, Paul Schneider: The Pastor of Buchenwald (London: SCM Press, 1956), 112-114.

5  Rudolf Wentorf, Paul Schneider – The Witness of Buchenwald, trans. Franklin Sanders (Tucson: American Eagle Publications, 1993), 50.

6  See also Kairos Journal article, “The Pulpit at Le Chambon.”




See

Mountain Top Experiences

Our perspective on life may change. Sometimes we need a perspective adjustment from the Lord.  In the book of 1 Kings Elijah has two mountain top experiences.

In chapter 18, his mountain top experience was on Mt Carmel.

In chapter 19, his mountain top experience was on MT Horeb, the mountain of God

On Mt Carmel, Elijah had a rather amazing experience where he challenged King Ahab to bring out 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah.

Elijah then went before the people of God to challenge them.

1 Kings 18:21 (ESV)  ²¹ And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

This amazing challenge was set up between Elijah and the prophets of Baal and Asherah to call down fire on a sacrifice.

1 Kings 18:24 (ESV)
²⁴ And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.”

In this rather dramatic scene, these false prophets agonizingly try, but fail to call down fire.

Elijah’s turn comes up and he has people pour water three times on the sacrifice that he set up. 

1 Kings 18:36-38 (ESV)
³⁶ And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.
³⁷ Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
³⁸ Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

The people of Israel acknowledge that the Lord is God.

Elijah commands the people and they wipe out the false prophets.

This was a very dramatic mountain top experience where God worked clearly and visibly. You might then think a revival would break out. 

What happened immediately after this was that Ahab told Jezebel what happened and she sent some men out to kill Elijah.

Elijah did the sensibly thing and ran for his life. He traveled forty days and forty nights. He is now at Mt Horeb and he is very tired and depressed. He told the Lord that he was the only one left.

When we are tired and discourage life can be overwhelming. We think things will happen one way and when they don’t we get discouraged. It can be hard to see what God is doing when we feel overwhelmed with the circumstances of life.

How does the Lord respond to Elijah?

1 Kings 19:11-12 (ESV)
¹¹ And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.”

 And behold, the LORD passed by,

and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD,    but the LORD was not in the wind.           

And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
¹² And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

1 Kings 19:13 (ESV)
¹³ And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The Lord spoke to Elijah in the quietness of the moment and the stillness of his heart. The Lord spoke words of comfort to Elijah and told him that there were many more people who had not bowed down to Baal.

Sometimes we want the big, the flashy, We want to think and say that ,”we are doing great things for God, look at all of this.”

God may or may not do something big and flashy in our lives, but that does not mean He isn’t working significantly.

I HATE CARS

More precisely, I hate trying to fix cars. My youngest son and I in the three weeks before we sent him off to college,  worked on our two vehicles -we changed a transmission shifting cable bushing, replaced a water pump, and replaced a radiator. The minivan's issues are not solved, but dumping more money into it with 218,000 miles on it starts to seem unreasonable. So we are putting more coolant into it every few days, while praying that God gives us wisdom in finding a replacement. We sent the car off with our oldest son to help him in his student teaching and ministry involvement.

The Bible states the absolute imperative of faith in the Christian life in
 Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

What does God-pleasing faith look like--

       ---when you need to fix or replace a vehicle and the money is tight?

"Just Keep Praying"

"Just Keep Praying"  James 5:16-18, April 27^th , 2014

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A.  Why is it so hard to Pray?

1. Inappropriate view of Life.

> When we attribute God’s providence to coincidence.

                   “That wasn’t God Working, that was just chance”

>>Everything cause and effect. No outside forces.

2. Inappropriate application of theology

         

Omniscience – “God is all Knowing”   Matthew 6:32

“If God knows everything already, what profit is there in telling Him these things through prayer.”

The Answer:  “God does not ask us to tell him our needs that he may learn about them, but in order that we may be capable of receiving what he is preparing to give.”  Augustine

>Sovereignty - God is in charge of everything

If everything is foreordained and no one can change God’s mind or decree, why pray?

The Answer.          James 4:2

Prayer is a God-ordained means to reach a God-ordained ends. The means are never separated from the ends. Prayer gives us significant participation in the outworking of God’s plan.

3.  Practical Frustrations

Talking to an invisible (and seemingly silent) God

Laziness.  Prayer takes work. With the effort it takes, it is easy to skip it.     

Activism. Sometimes we feel like we are doing nothing when we are praying.       

Distractions.

Disillusionment

We get disillusioned with unanswered prayer, We think too narrowly about how God answers. We don’t like taking NO for an answer.

Self-sufficiency. Praying only when we get into a jam.

4. Satanic Opposition.

The devil does not want you praying.....  Ephesians 6:10-13

B.  What does God-pleasing prayer look like?

1. It acknowledges God’s options.

>Grant as requested

>Grant,  but in a different way.

>Grant, but at a different time.

>Refuses to Grant.

2. It avoids some negative conditions

>Wrong attitudes  Prayer that is self-serving, superstitious

Matthew 6:5-7
>Wrong Motives -  motives focus on the why we do something.

James 4:3

>Wrong life-style    Proverbs 28:9 ; Mark 11:25;1 Peter 3:7 What else does

3. It focuses on positive conditions

 “God -honoring prayers are shaped by a proper recognition of who He is and springs from a sincere and trusting heart that seeks only that which he Wants to give.”  Randy Roberts

>Faith     Hebrews 11:3

>Getting in line with God’s will1 John 5:14-15

>Obeying God   John 14:15

>In the name of Christ   John 14:13-14

In the name of means in the authority and power of that name. It is not to be a superstitious  addition

>Sincerity. 

>Importunity   Genesis 32:26

C.  Finally  Remember

>If you are feeling guilty about prayer,   DON’T. Start from where you are at.

>If you are feeling comforted about prayer, DON’T. Presumption is not                                            helpful. Thinking you have it all figured out.

>Remember: it is much more important to DO PRAYER, than it is to FEEL GOOD OR FEEL BAD about Prayer

Life lessons from Chuck part 2

Life Lessons from Chuck Part II for Lehi Rotary October 23rd,   2013

I.  Don’t waste your pain. Don’t deny it.  Learn from it. Medicating your pain with alcohol, drugs, etc... will only make it worse.  We don’t tend to make positive changes until we hurt enough. Time does not heal all wounds. Time only heals when issues are dealt with in constructive manner. Ignoring an issue never solves it. Some issues can’t be solved (i.e. there is no coming back from sexually abusing a child).  We can redeem the past, but not change it.

II. Don’t try to explain away (and thus minimize) the pain, suffering, and loss of others.
Job’s friends were helpful until they opened their mouths. Their wrong thinking:  “All suffering is punishment for sin. Job is suffering. Therefore, Job is a sinner.” Your presence, not your explanations, is what will bring comfort.  The Lord never condemns Job for sin. Ultimately, it was God’s presence which satisfied Job.  Bad thinking: if only I knew “why”, then.......

III. To respond well to a difficulty, don’t waste your time assigning blame; its needlessly stirs up negative emotions. It also needlessly wastes energy that could be used to address the problem.
An “out of the box solution” is not helpful if can’t be evaluated by the good judgment of others.

IV. There are unresolvable tensions in the world.  God’s sovereignty - Human responsibility.
Acts 2:23-24.   Christ’s death was part of God sovereign plan, but the people who crucified were fully responsible for what they chose to do. There are such things as genuine accidents.

V. There are other difficult issues in theology.  The Trinity. The Bible teaches it, I believe it, but I also don’t understand it.   Is God is Immanent (over all)  or is God Transcendent (through all and in all)? Answer:  God is both. When you loose the tensions clearly presented in the Bible, you get distortion. There is tension between grace and law. Law can be distorted with “If I do this, God owes me that.”  Grace can be distorted as a license to sin. An unresolvable issue is unresolvable.
VI. Cute does not last, but character does. [Liz Taylor in 1960 vs 2000].  Be around people who are going to encourage you to think about and do the right thing. (think Rotary 4 way test).  Being honest does not mean you have a license to be cruel. Most of life (including marriage) is a calculated risk, but it is worth it. Not making a decision is making a decision. Avoiding risk is still a risk.

VII. Wisdom does not come from the amount of knowledge a person has. Wisdom comes from skillfully using the knowledge you have to face the specific situation you are in. Wise choices improve the chances of success but does not guarantee it. In the Bible wisdom is the practical and successful application of God’s truth to life’s experiences.

VIII.  Don’t spend a lot of time comparing yourself with others. Its gets too depressing (for most of us anyway) and it is unproductive.  Be honest with yourself in life.  Strive for excellence, but remember that excellence is doing the best to “your ability.” Avoid woulda, coulda, shoulda.

IX. Hurried decisions tend to be poor decisions. If someone is pushing you to make a decision quickly, walk away more quickly. Putting off needed decisions tends to reduce your options. Seek the advice of people whose character and competency you trust.

X. Regarding finances, what you do with what you have is more important than how much you have.  Money is a tool, it is not an end.  Security does not come from money. Security comes from knowing God’s will and purpose for your life and seeking it. Very few people handle wealth skillfully that did not earn it (consider lottery winners and professional athletes).  We can know what a person truly values  by looking at where they place their time, talents, and treasure.