The Bible – Touching the Glory

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:12-13)

Journal,

It is amazing how a quality decision about God’s Word can absolutely revolutionize a person’s life. What many people do not realize is that the ‘Word of God’ is a Person. And it is through the sacred Scriptures that we come to know Jesus Christ, the living Word of God.

The one thing Satan must do to disrupt a Christian’s life is to cast doubt on God’s Word. This is ‘bottom-line’ spiritual warfare. Satan begins by putting a twist on God’s Word. His goal is to undermine the truth of God.

Satan does this by twisting and turning, by adding to and by taking away, by distorting and by making crooked the straight ways of the Lord.

This is why it is so important to understand the place that the Bible has in our lives.

The Bible is a living book. It is the only book on this planet that can prove it is from God. It is the only book that records history before it happens. It is the only book that sets forth thousands of prophecies and allows man to see those prophecies fulfilled. It names nations that will rise and fall. It proves its origin in the millions of lives that are radically changed.

What I mean by the Bible being a living book, is that you will literally find God speaking to you from the pages of the Bible. According to the apostle Paul, it is through the Scriptures that we touch the glory of God.

This is why I am making a push for believers, or anyone else for that purpose, to take a fresh look at the Bible. With this in mind I wanted to share some information about Bible translations.

My advice is simple – The best Bible translation will always be the one you will read. (Excluding cult-sectarian bibles.)

The translation we use at Christian Challenge for all our courses and pulpit ministry is the New American Standard Bible. The reason is that the NASB is often seen as one of the most literal translations available today.

However, a point must be made. Word-for-word isn’t always the easiest to read. Some people are more comfortable with a translation that has a different flow in English. An example of this is the New Living Bible.

Yet, we should not confuse ‘literal’ with ‘letterism.’ There is a reason the NASB is so popular with conservative believers, and many conservative Christian organizations? The NASB seeks to keep the idioms of the original languages, whether they are natural in English.

And I love that. It presses me to reach deeper into my studies. And study in the original languages is what makes the Bible come even more alive.

Keep in mind what Paul said about the letter versus the Spirit. He said that the letter can kill whereas the Spirit gives life. The short side is that the more letter you know [Hebrew or Greek], without the benefit of spiritual understanding, the deader you will become.

With regard to literal translations, here are quotes from Charles Spurgeon:

“There are some passages in the present translation that are so dark, that no man can understand them without an explanation.” (Speaking of the King James.)

“Let us quote the words as they stand in the best possible translation, and it will be better still if we know the original, and can tell if our version fails to give the sense.”

“I do not say that either of our English versions is inspired, for there are mistakes in the translation; but if we could get at the original text, just as it was first written, I am not afraid to say that every jot or tittle—every cross of a t or every dot of an i—was infallibly inspired by God the Holy Ghost.”

OK – Enough on that. Here is a chart that will help you see the range of the more acceptable Bible translations. [/note]

Hope this has been an encouragement to you.

While you think on these things, take time for this song and this message. The song is titled, ‘By His Word.’ You will hear the message in English and in also in the Tamil. (The messenger is Tharmapandian P)

In Christ always, 

Buddy

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