Paraphrasing and Translations

Bible15
In class this week, Dr. Loken talked about the different versions of the Bible. Quite a bit of it was stuff I had already picked up on in all my years of ministry, but there was definitely a part of it which was new to me. I’ve been teaching a series with the youth for our Wednesday Night Bible study lately that has been lots of fun, but I’m questioning it now. The series is called the “Paraphrase Project” and the idea is to teach the students about a certain Biblical text and then have them rewrite it in their own words. I’ve encouraged them to rewrite each phrase so they can understand it. It’s been a really good way to help them interact with the Scriptures and they’ve had a good time learning to express themselves like this. Anyway, after my class, I feel like I have a better grasp on the details of what it means to really translate the Scriptures. It’s a huge undertaking (probably not something for a student – we’re not really distributing ours though – it’s just to help us interact with the Scriptures.) ’cause one little detail could undermine the whole text.

Anyway, he showed us how the TNIV and the NRSV have tried to become “gender inclusive” and how it has totally changed the Scriptures. For example:
In Hebrews 2 the NIV says,
6But there is a place where someone has
testified:
“What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of
man that you care for him?
Bible087You made
him a little
lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor

8and put everything under his
feet?
In
putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet
at present we do not see everything subject to him.

These verses are clearly talking about Jesus and his Sovereignty with everything under His feet.

Now look at the same verse from the “gender inclusive” TNIV:
6 But there is a place where someone has
testified:
“What are mere mortals that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?
7 You made them a little lower
than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
8 and put everything under their
feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to
them. Yet
at present we do not see everything subject to them.

What?!?!?!? Humans now have sovereignty over all things?? It’s really scary to me that people could actually believe in being “politically correct” so much that they’d be willing to change the whole Manmeaning of Scripture. Wouldn’t want to offend a woman and call Jesus a man.
Sorry ladies, but just so you know – JESUS WAS A MAN!! What kind of man would change the scriptures like this? He must have gotten beat up by a lot of girls to be that afraid of women. I guess he’s more afraid of women than he is of God.

Rabbi??

     My understanding (possibly wrong) is that rabbis in Jesus’ day pretty much had memorized word for word the entire Old Testament and almost all normal Jewish boys memorized the Torah. There was another group of gifted boys who would study further and memorized the Law too. In addition there was a third group who were sort of the best of the best who went on to study  the rest of the Scriptures. Only the best of these boys would be considered  as possible rabbis.  They would then go to an existing rabbi and request to be their disciple or "Talmudim." If a rabbi thought he might be able to live as he did, he would accept him and begin training him to be a rabbi. Jesus bypassed this whole practice when he invited the fishermen to be Talmudim, but that also explains why they dropped everything so quickly to take advantage of a situation like this. It was an extreme honor to be considered for this kind of position.
     Anyway, all this is to say that I feel extremely honored to be able to sit in these classes with Dr. Loken. Last night, he did an overview of the entire Bible in a couple of hours. He never opened the Bible, and did it all by memory. He went over the structures of every book and discussed different points in each of them that I had no idea about. He even gave the specific verses in each where things took a turn or the theme of the book changed. I thought I had a pretty basic understanding of the Scriptures, but I don’t. I’m clueless. I don’t even have a foundation to build upon. I have something to build upon, but it’s certainly not a foundation yet. Rabbi Loken as I will call him seems to know everything there is to know about the Bible, but the crazy thing is that he doesn’t. God is so big. His Word is so expansive, that none of us will ever have a complete grasp on Him. Rabbi Loken (I still think it’s funny to call him that) is also very humble – as he was a couple weeks ago, he will be out of class next week for a conference to learn more. I hope that as I learn and grow in the Lord that I can remain humble and  teachable. I never wanna be that guy who acts like he knows everything.

Lord, teach me to be teachable. Keep bringing people like Dr. Loken into my life to expand my understanding of what it means to follow after you. Help me to remain inspired and encouraged to be faithful and attentive in these classes so I can continue growing. Give me extra energy to get all the homework done and allow me to even enjoy the process of it all. Guide me in balancing my relationship You, with my beautiful bride, my friends, my job, and these classes. Also, allow me to make some friends in Lake Jackson who would be willing to link arms with me as I go into battle. (I’m not planning any battles, but just need those kinds of guys in my life.) You’re so good to me Lord. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! AMEN!

Living by the Book

Livingby_1 Howard Hendricks wrote this book and we’re studying it in my Hermeneutics class. There is also a video series that goes along with it that we’re going to be watching throughout the 5 weeks of class. It’s a 19 part series and we’re gonna have to go to the library at the school to watch them. It’s an hour and a half drive for me to go to the school so I got on-line and was looking for a place I could buy the videos or rent them or something. Anyway, it looks like they have reworked the series into a 7 session video instead of the 19 sessions. It doesn’t look like there’s any place to buy the old version which is what my homework is written from, so I’m gonna be trying to find a way in the next few weeks to get up to the school – I hate spending $$ on gas right now – it’s about $2.80 gallon. (I’ll probably read this 20 years from now and think that’s cheap, but it’s not – at least not right now.)

Anyway, the video part is Howard sitting in front of about 8 other folks who are supposed to be students. It’s pretty funny to watch though ’cause they are definitely not actors. It’s clear that Howard has instructed them on what questions to ask and such. Anyway, I guess the content of the videos is pretty good – it’s all about the basics of studying the Bible. He divides it into three main sections. (1) Observation, (2) Interpretation, and (3) Application. It sets up a pretty good basic structure for how we should study the Scriptures. I hope that as we go further into it, I’ll have more to share. We’ll see.

Meridian State Park

Gosh, I’m not even sure where to start this post. That title alone – MERIDIAN STATE PARK – conjures up so many images and emotions within me. Meridian holds memories of friends, campfires, fried fish, rock climbing, hiking, Bee’s Ledge, Herman, water balloons, swimming, guitars, and singing. It makes me think of people like my dad, JET, Deason, James, Jackie Jo, Schlotzhauer, Chris, Bulldog, Chuck, Ronnie, Shayne, Robin, Todd, Dowdy dude, Brandon, John, Mary Francis, Joni, Wendi, Stephanie, Holly, Mike, Seabolt, Susan, Jaime Jo, and so many others. Connie, Tinker, Susan, Yvonne – truly the list goes on and on. And the crazy thing is that each item on this list is a memory. Most importantly, Meridian is the place I gave my life to Christ. It’s the place that everything else in my life hinges on. If it weren’t for the people and relationships that I made that Wednesday night (July 18, 1985), I honestly don’t know where I’d be.

By the way, this ID pic was taken of me just a month or so after that Wednesday night. As you can see, I was well on my way to a really great mullet – the 80s were so cool!

Joe, my youth minister, invited some folks to go to Meridian this past weekend. I was the first to arrive, and so I walked around the camp alone just praying for about 45 minutes before anyone else showed up. As I walked, everywhere I went, it seemed like every step I took my mind was flooded with these emotions and memories of something which had happened in that very spot. I thanked God for each of those events and for the people connected with them.

Joe talked Saturday night about the “Standing Stones” from Joshua 4 which were set up to memorialize what God had done in that place. (Stopped the Jordan river from flowing so the Israelites could cross and enter the Promised Land.) When people would come across a standing stone in later generations, they would ask the question, “What did God do here?” and then they would worship Him in that place. (No! These people are not bowing down to a standing stone, but to God. The stone only reminds them of the Lord’s work.)

Anyway, as I thought about Meridian this weekend, I realized that Meridian is the first “Standing Stone” Memorial that I have in my life. It’s the place that began my life with Christ. As I have continued to live my life with Christ, there have been many others. I can look back at quite a few other memorials and see where God has moved. Some of those include: Jan 3, 2004 and my Beautiful Bride, the day my dad died, the Godbolds, the Wesley Foundation @ A&M, Mike Mathews, The Wave, Throne Together, my trip to Israel, Mercy Ships, and now Lake Jackson. There are still many others both past and future, but it sure makes my life easier knowing that I can look back at each of these events and see very clearly that God moved. My faith almost doesn’t seem like faith, because I have had so many evidences or revelations of God in my past. Each of these memorials has made me who I am. When I step back and look at all of them together, each one adds to the other to point me down the road for my future. I still don’t know what my future holds, but with each of these anchor points it sure seems like God is leading a particular direction. His wind is mighty, my sails are up, I’m excited to imagine what’s next.

Welcoming or Welcomed?

Welcome I had a random thought today when I was in the shower. (The shower seems to be a good place to think.) Anyway, I’m not even sure why, but I was thinking about what it means to be a “Welcoming Congregation.” For some reason, that phrase “Welcoming Congregation” was in my head. I don’t know maybe it was an official title that my previous church was trying to obtain through some sort of higher organization, or maybe it was just a phrase someone used in a conference – I honestly can’t remember. Anyway, I think every church should be really good at welcoming, but I wondered this morning if we as the church might oughta strive for something else besides being a “welcoming congregation.”

Here’s what I was thinking: Instead of working towards being “welcoming,” what would the church look like if we worked towards being “welcomed?” Instead of focusing on welcoming the visitors that we have in church, what if we focused on being the visitors who were out and about the community serving others. Trying to be the kind of people that others would “welcome” into their lives. Instead of trying so hard to have our church services attract visitors so we could welcome them, what if we tried to be attractive people who sought to be welcomed? What if the church went to the community with blessings instead of blessing the community when they come to church?

Anyway, all this is to say: Lord, help me to be attractive and welcomed into the lives of the people I come in contact with. I truly want to be a blessing to others and it’s only by Your Spirit that this can happen. Fill me with You Spirit.

Check out this post too: 3rd Space

Final Exam

Theology Last night I took a final exam for my Theology class. The whole thing was really scary for me since it’s been 15 years or more since I was even in school. I’m a bit out of the habit of homework, studying, and test-taking. Anyway, I was also really pretty nervous about it all ’cause Dr. Loken gave us a quiz 2 weeks ago with 20 questions. Out of the 20, I think I got about 8 of them right. So I studied by typing up and reading through the questions that we had for our homework, and it paid off.

When Dr. Loken passed out the test and I started taking it, I was relieved ’cause I felt like I knew every answer. I also felt like I was kinda rushing through the whole thing with some sort of nervous energy. (It’s a bit strange that I can stand in front of hundreds of people and not be nervous, but sitting alone at a table with a test in front of me. . . . .) I literally laughed at some of the questions and even enjoyed the test as I was taking it. (One of the questions asked which of the 4 sins listed was not included in the 10 commandments, and the correct answer was “being a Dallas Cowboys fan.) We had an hour to take the test and about 20 minutes into it, I was finished. I looked around the room and no one else had finished, but I didn’t want to go back through and start second guessing myself so I just turned it in.

Later, when we graded it, I realized I had missed one question. I got 99 out of 100 right! I guess being old and going to school at my age isn’t such a bad idea. As a matter of fact, I feel like I’m really enjoying the process this time around. I still don’t like all the homework and I’m not sure how I’m gonna be able to keep up with it all and still work my more-than-full-time job. But I guess one day at a time is all I can do.

Prayer: Thank you Lord, for being with me yesterday in the midst of the test and for my beautiful bride and the patience she’s had with me in regards to these classes. Lead us as we figure out how to build our relationship with all my new school related responsibilities. Thank you for Dr. Loken who has taught me and helped me prepare for the test. Thank you for the guys who wrote the books we’ve been studying and for the way that You have moved throughout history to bring each of these men to a place that they would become your servants. As they have served You, I have been served too. Allow me Lord to take these things I have learned and serve You with them as those who have gone before me have done.

With Honors

Honors Not sure why, but tonight I was thinkin’ about an old movie called “With Honors.” It’s one of my favorites. If you’re ever in Blockbuster or remember when you’re putting together your Netflix Queue – it’s a good one. I’d give it two thumbs up!

The movie centers on a college guy who is really ambitious about graduating “with honors.” Through a weird series of events he ends up meeting a homeless guy and they become friends. I don’t wanna give it all away, but there are some great lessons about priorities and remembering that people are always important to God – even homeless, throw-away-and-ignore-type people. (To God that type of person doesn’t exist because everyone is important.) Anyway – check it out if you get the chance.