Using the right words . . .

Yesterday we had a good laugh. We had been eagerly looking for wildlife, common on the road we were driving. I saw a deer. We both saw several mountain sheep. Then we rounded a corner and my hubby said, “There is a moose.” But he quickly retracted and corrected it: “Oops, it is just a cow.” I agreed. Moose was the wrong word — it was just a cow.

Witnesses do not always agree on what they see. Maybe that is why Bible critics are quick to point out their ideas on why Scripture agrees with itself. They assume that people naturally do not agree about everything. Perhaps the various authors are copying each other rather like witnesses to a crime would collaborate on their stories. In their assumption, this is how the Bible is unified even though written by many authors. They dismiss the idea that God reveals the same truths to His people throughout the centuries or the idea that He is one God and the various words that describe Him will agree because the witnesses have seen the same things. His words reveal who He is, the same yesterday, today and forever.

Today’s reading compares the similarities between Colossians and the book of Ephesians. No assumptions are made, but as I read it, I think of how Christians all over the world agree on the basics about Jesus Christ. While we might differ on many minor issues, our faith and doctrinal statements would be in harmony with these New Testament thoughts about Jesus, each of which agree with the others:

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:18–20)

For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. (1 Corinthians 15:27)

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18–19)

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22–23)

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:13–14)

From these few verses, a host of information about Jesus is revealed. The author is the apostle Paul and just because he says the same thing in other letters does not mean he is doing a ‘copy and paste’ to express his understanding. He met Jesus on a road and spent several years learning from Him. His knowledge comes out in similar words to his readers because they are the best way to express what he knows.

I’m rambling a bit because this floods my mind with ideas. How do I tell others about Jesus? Do I use my own words? Words that I think might be more easily understood by whoever is listening?

Translators continually come up with what they call ‘modern’ language versions of the Bible. I can see their reasoning but am wary; if they use words that offer only one perspective of the meaning of original language words, then are readers in danger of having a misguided or narrow view of Jesus? I’m reading one of those modern versions and find that it falls short of the many facets presented by the more literal versions.

Part of the issue may be a failure of both the critics and those who want to simplify the Bible — they fail to realize that understanding it is by revelation from the Holy Spirit, not by intellect or education. Paul repeated his thoughts, not so we could have varying presentations of the truth, but so God could impact us with the same truth many times as we read through His Word.

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Jesus, Your story is amazing. I’m fascinated by the way I can read it every day and see truth that I’d not noticed before. After forty plus years (plus a dozen or so years of reading without the illumination from the Holy Spirit), You continually open my eyes to the beauty of who You are, what You have done, and how You have changed my life and keep on changing it. What a joy to know You as Lord and Savior and to see You in the pages of this amazing book of books. May Your people be very careful how they translate it for today’s readers. May I be very careful that I describe and talk about You the way that You have been revealed to me.

Today’s thankful list . . .

God revelation of Himself; in creation, in the written Word and in the Living Word!

A cloudless, sunny day with great roads and easy traffic.

Trees! All kinds of trees!

Finding a superior restaurant using GPS.

Our home away from home for the next few days — perfect!

Contacting former neighbors, arranging time together.

Pizza and fresh veggies.

Jesus knows all about the brat in me . . .

Recently I noted that Jesus knows all things except when He will return, showing that He is our example in how the things of God are known. They are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. I believe that this is true about Jesus when He lived here on earth. In becoming a man, He showed us what we should be as His children, relying on God for everything.

For instance, Jesus does not know the day of His return but He was totally aware of the day of His departure.

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. (Mark 9:30–32)

Even though He told the disciples, they didn’t get it. The Holy Spirit needed to open their minds to this truth. This explains why people can read the Bible, even the very words of Jesus Christ yet not understand them.

Jesus also knows our hearts and ambitions. He and the disciples were on their way to Capernaum. When they got there . . .

He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (Mark 9:33–37)

Jesus knew what they were doing and told them what was wrong with their attitudes. The passage does not say that they understood this either. What part of being like a child and receiving Him like a child did He mean? How can receiving Jesus be the same as receiving the Father who sent Him? This must have been puzzling to these twelve men. Their lack of understanding is revealed in what Mark wrote next:

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. (Mark 9:38–41)

John, perhaps the most loving and gentle of the twelve, wanted to stop others from doing the work of Christ because that other person was not in their group. This attitude has been repeated throughout history causing division such as church splits and even wars. The sinful human heart is all about “us four, no more, shut the door” creating cliques and exclusiveness that is far from childlike and far from the will of God. We need to be like children who, if not instructed otherwise, don’t notice differences on the playground; they simply play together.

Jesus knows the human heart, the causes of our divisions and the pride that keeps us from acting like the children of God that He declares believers to be. However, my experience is that I can read His words many times, but not understand it until He gives me that understanding. His truth is not about IQ or any other human attributes; it is about having my eyes opened by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Jesus, while it isn’t spelled out in these verses from Mark, the New Testament often shows that what You reveal to me is connected to my obedience. That is, if I do what I already know, more is given. If I get hung up on a truth and fight it with a proud “I don’t want to” heart or the attitude that “I can do this myself” then usually You will show me only what I need to get over this impasse and obey You as I should. I’m glad to be Your child. At times the word ‘brat’ might be a better description, yet Your loving grace and patience is always there, treating me from Your big loving heart, the heart of an all-knowing and good Father.