Monday Morning Music Ministry

6-8-26

I suppose every generation of human history thinks it has discovered a better way, or even the perfect way, to communicate the truth. Or truths… via legends, epic sagas, poetry, art, literature, song, allegory, comic strips. Contemporary post-modernists congratulate themselves for discovering “story” as the greatest mode. Yet Aesop and even the Lord Jesus made effective use of tales and parables to amuse, inspire, and educate.

Sharing the Gospel – the “good news” of Jesus Christ – is often regarded as a unique skill by Christians, perhaps even a spiritual gift, like prophecy or imparting wisdom or a healing ministry. And many times when it is employed by Christians, stories are shared of God’s great power, or lessons that Jesus taught, or events and incidents – even miracles – that are cited to make powerful points.

Indeed there are lessons that can be shared in these ways. Not everybody needs a miracle, but a story about someone else’s miracle might be effective in certain situations.

… But wait. Are we nervous about calling down a miracle? Who are we to decide whether a miracle is needed in a person’s life? In fact, who are we to decide what a miracle is? Some folks enduring anguish might be moved in a major way by a little ray of sunshine, a reassurance, a word of faith. Many times I have witnessed a change in someone’s spirit, even body, by a simple smile, prayer, or the sharing of a Bible verse. A story, perhaps about someone who had been in their situation, has had a great impact.

Christians should think beyond that. Stories about others, no matter how pertinent to your friend’s situation, are never as powerful as when the story involves yourself. There scarcely is a situation that is unrelated to something in your life. Anguish, yes; doubt, fear, challenges, crises, desperation, loneliness; even a toxic confusion when no friend is present.

In those moments, all too common, the personal empathy – not calling upon something you read or heard about – can connect your soul with a hungry person.

It is not difficult, yet we seldom rely on the mode. Are we shy? Do we feel presumptuous? Can we “close the circle” with the point we attempt to make? No matter: everyone appreciates the connection, the sympathetic outreach, the humanity when invoked in the Name of Jesus.

I recently returned from a postponed honeymoon, three weeks in Europe. My wife and I encountered several opportunities to share the Gospel or a brief prayer. God arranges these moments… if we choose to recognize them. I returned to America and was in the hospital and quickly found myself in the hospital with a travel-related malady, and encountered five opportunities to share and pray; two with Christian hospital staffers, three with staffers who saw my Bible and were moved to ask questions about faith.

Each of us has uncountable opportunities to share, pray, “be Jesus” to someone. We disobey God when we let chances go by!

I think some of the most powerful prayers I have shared was during my family’s hospital ministry years ago, with transplant recipients or survivors of surgeries gone wrong. Through tears people would ask, “Why me?” or “Why is this happening to my family?” and, having at one point been through those challenges myself, I was moved to say… “I don’t know!!!”

And then I followed up, after sharing what I could, with invitations to pray together for answers, and to search Scripture together. No offense to wise stories or anecdotes, but real stories proved more powerful than hearsay.

I don’t believe that God sends sickness and disease to His children; He is not a child abuser. Yet there is evil in the world, and we are all victims at times. It is our job – our privilege – to share with others how we have coped and triumphed. And a hint: sometimes sharing and discussing our own trials helps us grow even as we minister to others!

Get personal! And if you pray with someone whose details don’t closely track with yours… tell him or her the story of Jesus. “Can I remind you that He loves you?” – How personal can you get?

All things are not good, no; but All things work together for good to people who love God and are called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28

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Click: Tell Me the Story of Jesus / I Love To Tell the Story

10-3-22

There are many Holy Bibles “in the market,” in stores and online. It seems there are new translations every year. Actually there are, certainly if you count the world’s many languages and dialects. It is hard to comprehend, but the number of languages including sign-languages, and distinct dialects are more than 3300 that have translations of the Bible, in whole or in part.

There are approximately 1700 versions of the Holy Bible available online alone. Christians rejoice at this evidence of evangelism. Skeptics will suggest that the message of Gospel likely is diluted or manufactured during such processes. Are Bible translations like the parlor game of “telephone,” where mistakes are rife and misunderstandings endemic?

It is an odd word, “translation,” when I focus on new (and ever newer) versions in English. A very incomplete list of English-language “versions” of the Bible available today include:

King James Version, New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, The Holy Bible in Modern English, Young’s Literal Translation, Douay, The Geneva Bible (“Breeches”), Knox Translation, Today’s English Version, The New English Bible, The Moffatt Bible, New International Version, The English Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, Contemporary English Version, Good News Bible, The Living Bible, The Amplified Bible, Phillips Translation, The Message…

I am not including the plethora of Commentaries and Concordances like time-honored, multi-volume Strongs, or excellent study Bibles like Ryrie and the Expositor’s Study Bible.

For centuries the Roman church forbad any translation of Scripture from Latin; indeed it frequently opposed the personal reading or ownership of the Bible, even in Latin, to anyone but clergy. These policies were enforced under penalty of death, and the list of martyrs, both famous in history and anonymous, is long.

The honor roll of those who believed God wanted every believer to have access to God’s Word (and were cruelly persecuted) is long: Wycliffe, Tyndale, Hus; Luther’s offense was not only criticizing the corruption of the papacy, but daring to translate the Bible into German. He escaped the death sentence.

One of the first English translations followed Luther’s, that of the Frenchman living in Switzerland, John Calvin. It was his “Geneva Bible” that was standard in English and was relied upon by the King James translators – and was the Bible carried by the Pilgrims and read by the Colonists in North America; those who designed our government

I was honored to be on the editorial team that produced, after centuries, the first reprint (changing nothing but thees and thous and grammar) of the 1599 Geneva Bible.

Reverting to the inevitable carping of skeptics, the great number of translations, versions, and updates is not necessarily evidence of a diluted message, but rather the reinforcement of truth and integrity. How the Bible came to be, so to speak, is either a miracle, an implausible coincidence, or proof of Holy Spirit inspiration.

The Bible includes 66 books, written by many different people over different centuries and on different continents. Yet they have common themes and references; prophecies and predictions made and fulfilled; and – when you think about it, maybe the most profound distinction – this Book has affected millions of people. Changed lives. “Spoken” to multitudes from wildly disparate backgrounds, circumstances, and… languages.

It is a Miracle Book, a book of miracles, written in so many ways “under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Inspire means to “breathe into”; God whispered to the hearts and minds of those who wrote Scripture.

I will confess here that I am not a fan (not quite a rejectionist, but sometimes close) of recent translations. Some projects are so concerned with contemporary readers’ inability to understand big words; or they are so motivated by Political Correctness, that they corrupt Scripture. It is not yet the case that the Ten Commandments are being changed to the Ten Suggestions… but, for instance, “gender neutral” translations are dangerously close to claiming that “In the beginning, He, She or It created heaven and earth…”

No, the message is simple. The Eternal God created everything; His children incline toward sin and rebellion; we cannot be reconciled with a perfect and a just God without a remedy; He provided means of forgiveness, redemption, and sanctification by offering His Son as a sacrifice to put the punishments we deserve upon Himself; and by believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, rose from death, and ascended to Heaven… we are assured of eternal life with Him.

Yes, that is pretty simple. Humankind – those darn intellects and pride and jealousies – make it complicated. Denominations get in the way. Publishers need product.

In the 1930s, the Limited Editions Club published, unbelievably after several centuries, the first major Holy Bible in the original King James format – that is, without verse numbers, citations, notes, and superscripts. I read “that” Bible (there have been others since) and was thunderstruck. Study-formats can help us, yes; and bless us. But reading only the texts – God’s story; His conversations; in many places reading like a novel – was like reading some familiar passages for the first time. I recommend it!

I was a little snarky above about the motivations of Bible-revisionists. As with the Geneva Bible reprint project, it can be useful to have access to contemporary language and grammar. Of course. I have a set of Shakespeare’s folios, and the spelling and language of those times make them virtually inaccessible, requiring modernization. But, again, that is the language, not the message.

So. People try to change the Bible for a variety of reasons, some good, some bad; some sensible, some questionable. But I pray that we never lose sight of the very pertinent issue.

We are not meant to change the Bible. The Bible is meant to change us.

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Click Video Clip: Tell Me the Story / I Love To Tell the Story