From: Ben Kelley
Subject: What translation are you?, part 2
The last e-message challenged
you to consider what "type" of Bible translation your words represent to
those around you. You probably know that as Bible translation teams go
into a new language area, they learn the language with its various idioms and
then begin to translate a portion of the Bible at a time. Usually,
they will complete individual books until they finish the New Testament.
Later they will try to do the Old Testament also. I would like to go
a step further than the last message and ask, "how complete is your
translation?"
I realize most modern day
Christians see little benefit in studying what we call the Old Testament.
They say, "that's the Law and we've been set free from it! Why should we
get mired down in it?" Therefore, all they read, most of what they hear
preached, and even sometimes all they carry is the New Testament. They
forget what Jesus, Paul, the Disciples, etc, all taught and preached from was
the "Old Testament." They forget the basis and foundation for the new is
the old. They lose out on all the powerful reminders of God's continuing
love and mercy. They fail to see the powerful prophecies of God and the
fulfillment of several of them found in its pages. Since they
don't read and remember this glorious part of God's Word, these believers
are "New Testament only" translations; they are unable to share
what they don't contain themselves.
A number of believers become so
focused on one thought, or teaching, they lose sight of all the
rest. A few of the most prevalent examples are "healing", "prosperity",
and, "works". Every conversation with these brothers and sisters about
God, Scripture, work, the weather, or anything else, it seems, turns into a
recitation of a well worn list of verses on their particular focus. All
their "spiritual" energy is expended in this one area of Biblical
teaching. These brethren have become, not a translation, but a
teaching pamphlet on whichever subject they have focused
on.
I used to have a number of
little booklets someone had given me that contained one verse from each book of
the Bible. Personally, I never saw the benefit in them. Many of the
verses chosen seemed to have been done so by random selection. I read all
through it and never gleaned any point, nor was I led towards any conclusion;
again, it was just random verses. I know a number of Christians who seem
to be like that within the front and rear bindings of their own personal
"translation." They randomly throw out a verse or two, here and there, but
they never seem to take those around them towards any spiritual conclusion
or goal. Any subject that's brought up, they only know one verse related
to it, if any. It almost seems like they want to have a little bag full of
Scripture to wave around when the "boogeyman" comes around, so they can scare
him away. Believe me, Satan is not afraid of how much of the Scriptures
you have, but of how much of you the Scriptures have. You want to be a
translation, not just a booklet.
My premise for this and the
previous e-message has been that, individually, each one of us represents "the
only Bible some people will ever read." I hope to have challenged you to
be the most thorough and understandable "translation" of God's Word you can
possibly be, and to speak in language others will understand. No matter where you and I are in our spiritual walk, we
always have room for growth. May we each open our hearts and minds to God,
as we open His Word, asking Him to fill us and teach us, that we might live it
before others, becoming that "salt" that will make them so thirsty they
will long to drink from His well. May He grant our
prayer.
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I guess you're
expecting me to launch into another spiel about how you should study the entire
Word of God, from cover to cover. Well, I'm not going to. Maybe
you're not ready for that, or you just need to try something different to spark
up your reading of Scripture If so, I would like to lead you towards
another aspect of Bible study. I want to encourage you to try reading a
book of the Bible by rote. Those of you who went through grade school,
before, probably about the mid to late 1960's, learned your "reading, writing,
and arithmatic" in this manner. You went over and over and over it, until
you knew it. Have you ever tried reading God's Word that way? If you
want to try this, I would suggest you take a short book, 2 Peter is a good one,
and read it 4, 5, or 6 times per day for 30 days.
(actually, I learned it doing it for 2 full months) If you are married, or
have a close friend or family member who will do it with you, you can alternate
reading it aloud to each other. It sounds like it might get dry or boring,
but I've done it with a number of shorter books. I even mix it up by
"reading it" onto a cassette (1 side-reverse it and read it on the other) and
listening to it a few times on the way to and from work. It just might
surprise you how much these Scriptures will soak into your life, and how you
will begin to recognize their living fulfillment in the day to day life around
you.
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Back to the message,
what translation are you? How complete a
translation are you? and what are you going to do about
it? The world is full of people spiritually starving to
death for lack of God's Word. Will you help feed them?