A Psalm

The book of Psalms is very beautiful. “Psalms” means songs. It has songs and poems to represent every imaginable human emotion. In my Disciple Bible Study group last week, our text suggested that we write our own psalm.

Here’s mine:

O Lord my God, you are my rock and my defender.

I praise you early and late.

Your love is better than all earthly life has to offer.

Protect my spirit from the words of the unbeliever,

I pray. Give me courage to speak your name.

Your love holds me up forever, and

My heart will always seek the beauty and truth

Of your love.

A Psalm

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/psalm.html

The Saint John's Bible

In 1970, Donald Jackson, one of the world’s foremost calligraphers, told Diane Sawyers in an interview that his life’s greatest ambition was to write the Bible. Not long after that, Saint John’s University in New York City commissioned Jackson to direct the writing of the Bible as a series of illuminated manuscripts. This is the first time in about 500 years that a Benedictine Monastery has engaged in handwriting an illuminated Bible.

The Bible will all be written on vellum using quills, hand-made ink and pigments, and gold leaf. Computer technology is used only to set the layout measurements so the page content will be consistent in size. It is like the handwritten manuscripts made by medieval monks before the invention of the printing press.

Jackson has been working on this mammoth global project, directing and teaching, for over 20 years. A number of calligraphic artists from many countries participate in the work; Jackson himself is British. The Saint John’s Bible is scheduled for completion in 2009 and the total cost is estimated at around $4 million.

Saint John’s displays much of the Biblical manuscript online at this linked site. It is incredibly beautiful.

Why is Saint John’s doing an illuminated Bible? Here’s the reason, as the site’s author explains:

The goal of The Saint John’s Bible is to ignite the spiritual imagination of all peoples throughout the world by commissioning a work of art that illuminates the Word of God for a new millennium, in a way that is relevant to the 21st century. It is a prophetic witness to the Word of God in our day and beyond, an opportunity for learning and scholarship and a dignified expression of the Benedictine vision: "That in all things God may be glorified.”

The Saint John's Bible

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/saint-johns-bible.html

E-Mail: Ecclesiastes

This is an interesting e-mail exchange I had with my friend Maxey after my two entries about Ecclesiastes, “Ecclesiastes: Futility” and “Ecclesiastes: Meaning and Purpose.”


Maxey wrote:

Your information about Ecclesiastes was very good. As a matter of fact, I read the book first period, while my freshman students were watching THE ODYSSEY. I have always enjoyed Chapter 3:1-8. I guess we do live in a world of checks and balances, the good and the bad, the positives and the negatives---hopefully with more good people than bad ones.

We must realize that all of us must accept the truth, fear the Lord, and be accountable for our actions. It's too bad that we must FEAR so often in order to act properly.

Will you please explain Chapter 10:19 (A feast...)? I don't understand the part about the money.


Judy wrote:

I looked up Ecclesiastes 10:19 in several different translations, and here is the one that seems most likely to me--it's the NIV Readers version:

People laugh at a dinner party.
And wine makes life happy.
People think money can buy everything.

So it's probably not that money actually is the answer to everything, but that people think it is. What do you think?


Maxey wrote:

I understand now. The verse deals with man's thoughts, not God's. We often resort to food, alcohol, and the lust for money as an escape and alleviation for mundane problems. Instead, all we have to do is follow God and His ways, for He is the answer to everything. Sounds simple, doesn't it?


Judy wrote:

Yes, it does sound pretty simple. If only we could wrap our minds around this simple truth!

E-Mail: Ecclesiastes

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/e-mail-ecclesiastes.html

Ecclesiastes: Meaning and Purpose

The second week of the study of Ecclesiastes in the Disciple Bible Study is different from the first. I feel much more comfortable with it. This week, we are asked to read it through the viewpoint of hope and love—through sure knowledge of the grace of God and faith in him through Jesus.

The assignment says this:

As we discovered last week, many people see only futility, even despair, in Ecclesiastes. Now, look for the good things in life. Look for the joys, modest though they may be.

The human condition statement in the lesson describes us accurately, as they do in all the lessons:

Only five more days till the weekend. Only eleven more months till vacation. Only twenty more years till retirement. We’re preparing. One of these days, we’ll be able to enjoy life.

The writer of Ecclesiastes began to see life as meaningless, because it will just end in death. He hit an existential void of sorts, letting himself get weighed down by Satan’s messages of cynicism, depression, heaviness of heart. He tried all kinds of things to see if he could find meaning and purpose to satisfy his heart—huge projects, wealth, possessions, women, pleasure, work. But it all ends in death, no matter what.

He realized that happiness is found only in knowing and loving God. Some of his important conclusions are these:

God has put eternity—a sense of it—in people’s hearts, so they are capable of knowing God. People can comprehend that even though human endeavors all eventually end, what God does lasts forever.

There is too much evil and oppression in the world. Even so, there is strength in our connection with others; “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

It is important to stand in awe of God, to seek wisdom, to avoid love of wealth. Joy comes from following him.

Whatever you do, he says, do it with all your heart.

Share with other people; “cast your bread upon the waters.” It will come back to you, multiplied.

Remember God all your life.

Just because God often connects things for me, I looked up today’s (Dec. 2) My Utmost for His Highest entry by Oswald Chambers, and sure enough, it ties in. Ecclesiastes is timely:

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that hits you is the pointlessness of the things you have to do. The next thought that strikes you is that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives may leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary— that through your own human effort and devotion you can attain God’s standard for your life. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in such a perfect relationship with God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.

Ecclesiastes: Meaning and Purpose

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/ecclesiastes-meaning-and-purpose.html

Ecclesiastes: Futility

The Disciple Bible study, Under the Tree of Life, is the fourth in the Disciple series. This is my fourth year to participate with the group at my church, so I’m well engrained in the structure of it. Every time we read over some part of the Bible that we’ve studied before, I learn new things. Our group has grown very close, as we’ve studied, shared our concerns, and prayed together.

This week, we are reading Ecclesiastes; we’re reading it next week, too. This week, we are asked to read it with a pessimistic view, as if we didn’t know the hope of God through Christ, “from the perspective of futility.” Here is the assignment:

“Look for mystery, vain things, incongruities, ambivalence, irony, chance, punctured pride, injustice, tragedy, and death. Look at life as it really is. Consider your own death” (70).

Every week’s lesson gives us an assessment of the human condition that has us pretty well pegged. This week’s “Human Condition” is this:

“We live as if tomorrow were a sure thing. We accumulate. The next new experience, the next new possession—we gather them around us to distract us from the fact that nothing lasts. That we’re going to die” (70).

People who have been Christians for years need to remember how it was before they came to know God. They need to remember how it felt to be hopeless and to find life meaningless. I remember.

I find myself resistant to really getting into that perspective. I have vivid memories of that view of life, because I lived it for fifty years before I was rescued from myself by God. I really don’t want to re-live those feelings.

Wilke, Richard Byrd, and Julia Kitchens Wilke. Disciple: Under the Tree of Life Study Manual. Abingdon, 2001.

Ecclesiastes: Futility

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/ecclesiastes-futility.html

Little Lamb...er, Girl and 23rd Psalm

Little Lamb...er, Girl and 23rd Psalm

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/09/little-lamber-girl-and-23rd-psalm.html

Bible Translations--What's the Difference?

I work with an interdenominational college students’ Bible study that meets once a week. My job is to arrange the food—we always feed them dinner. That’s very important to a college student who is away from Mama’s cooking! I assure you, they are HUNGRY. Different churches in our community help out by providing food.

They are hungry in other ways, too. They need spiritual food. Four of our leaders take turns teaching from the Bible once a week. They need more help than that, so we decided to send out a mid-week something with devotional thoughts. My friend Janet has the job of group communications; she writes weekly devotionals for them. She takes this job seriously and does it prayerfully. I asked her to let me share last week’s mid-week devotional with you because it talks about some important things:

Janet wrote:

"Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself." Can you guess who said that? Dr. Phil? Oprah? Nice sentiment. But who said it? What? Matthew 16:25? You’re kidding. I don’t remember Jesus saying ANYthing about finding yourself.

These were my thoughts when I first encountered this verse from The Message. No, it is not a bible. It is a paraphrase. But it has been used liberally by writers, most notably Rick Warren, to establish the authority of their viewpoints. Paraphrases should never be used as a substitute for the Bible, but used like a commentary along with it as an aid.

But what aid? Can you trust a paraphrase that turns this: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.—Matt 16:25 NASB--into a self-actualization message? We are talking about eternal life, here, not finding your groove or getting the most out of this life!

The plethora of translations and paraphrases can cause confusion, especially to outsiders who gleefully conclude that the Bible is too “tampered with” to have any relevance to their lives. But what are believers to make of all of it?

I believe that we can say with confidence that the original manuscripts are the inerrant word of God. There have been enough manuscripts found to give us additional confidence that we are dealing with inspired words divinely preserved for us. There is much evidence to confirm the Scriptures as divine. But what of translations? There is no assurance that they are divinely inspired, thus each believer has to exercise some discernment. Each translation (not paraphrase) has a body of scholars who undertake their assignment with a set of underlying assumptions. The NASB, for example, attempts to be faithful on a word by word basis to the original text, while the NIV uses the meaning of the word from the original text to find a common English equivalent in order to make the text more modern and understandable.

Both approaches have merit, and you will benefit from reading both when you study. Just as we are not supposed to form our doctrinal beliefs upon only one verse from the Bible (called proof-texting), we should not ignore the fact that translations include biases from the people who labored over them, and so consult other translations (including also the NKJ and NEV) frequently.

The Scriptures themselves warn us not to take God’s word lightly (Rev 22:18-19). Your faithful attendance to a weekly Bible study shows how much you value God’s word. Pray for continued guidance and discernment as the Word is attacked by those who would deny its power. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.—Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

The worst attacks are the subtle ones from within. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.—2 Timothy 4:3 NIV

The more you know your Bible, the less likely it will be that you will be misled. Difficult verses often have to be interpreted in light of what the rest of the Bible says. Not surprisingly, we recommend the hard work of daily Bible study as a remedy for itching ears!

Bible Translations--What's the Difference?

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/bible-translations-whats-difference.html