If you read the notes in most study Bibles, or read very many Christian books, before long you will encounter a statement: “The oldest and best manuscripts say….” This statement is based on the area of study called “textual criticism,” and especially New Testament textual criticism. I’d like to take a few posts in the coming days to discuss why I believe this statement is deeply flawed.
Millions of people in the U.K. earn less than £26,000 a year, and pay taxes on their income.
As we continued the study on Bibliology, the nature of the Bible, my fifth sermon was on what theologians refer to as “Illumination” — the work of the Spirit in helping us to understand the Bible.
Because the Bible is a spiritual Book, teaching of spiritual things, it needs to be understood spiritually. Once we move into the spiritual realm, though, we are in trouble. It is like handing a book in French to someone who doesn’t know any French at all. He may be able to figure out some of the words, or use an on-line translator to get some sense of what is being said, but he can’t really follow what is going on.
This sermon dealt with God’s provision for that need for “spiritual translation” work.
Henry Kissinger reportedly said:
A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure.
Perhaps that was the motivation for this which has apparently been going around on Facebook:
It reminded me of I Peter 1:
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
pressure + coal = diamonds
pressure + “lump of coal” Christians = spiritual gold
Are you a “lump of coal” Christian? A weak, dirty, struggling, pathetic “lump of coal” who just isn’t very good at living the Christian life? Trials under pressure strengthen and purify us, changing us, hardening us, making even ugly lumps of coal into precious spiritual gold which will “be found unto praise and honour and glory.”
When God Works,
Pressure Makes Precious
David, the Son of Jesse
Writing a God-inspired song of praise
In or near the land of Israel
10th-11th century B.C.
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth;
Keep the door of my lips.– Psalm 141:3
Solomon, a Son of David
Writing God’s wisdom in God’s words
Jerusalem
10th century B.C.
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth,
And addeth learning to his lips.– Proverbs 16:23
The Apostle Paul
Writing God-given teaching to the church at Ephesus
From a prison in Rome
~62 A.D.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers.– Ephesians 4:29
Caroline Ingalls
Writing to her daughter Laura
De Smet, Dakota Territory
November 15th, 1881
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.– Little Town on the Prairie
Then laying down his paper he looked at Laura and said slowly, “It is time for you to explain what you said to anyone, that you could give Miss Wilder the idea you thought you could run the school because I am on the board.”
“I didn’t say such a thing, and I did not think so, Pa,” Laura said earnestly.
“I know you didn’t,” said Pa. “But there was something that gave her such an idea. Think what it could have been.”
Laura tried to think. She was not prepared for this question, for she had been defending herself in her mind and declaring that Miss Wilder had told a lie. She had not looked for the reason why Miss Wilder told it.
– Little Town on the Prairie
When someone says something about you that isn’t true, perhaps:
The Toughest Questions When we are Sinned Against:
How did I contribute to this mess?
How did I (through sin, incaution, or both) tempt someone to sin?
What lesson is God teaching ME?
I used those four words in my Covenant Eyes article to which I linked yesterday. One of my co-workers, Bobby Baucom, wrote the following in response:
It reminds me of the time I served on a grand jury. We got to see a bunch of cases during a 2 week period. I came away with the conclusion that criminals were either stupid and that’s why they choose a life of crime or that living a life of crime makes them stupid or, more likely, both.
They walk into a store to [pick your choice – use a stolen credit or debit card, shoplift, or holdup the checker] and the first thing they do is, with unmasked face, look directly at the camera. Say “cheese”. They use an ATM with stolen credentials and look straight into the camera as if to analyze what that round lens might be. Do they think to hold their hand in front of their face? No. Not one single time.
I saw dozens of video clips and every single time, the criminal was STUPID. They crawl through things no sane person would crawl through and do things that make no sense for even a criminal to do.
Jon puts it succinctly, “Sin makes us stupid.” And to some degree that’s true of every sin, not just sins that are considered criminal by the law of the land.
Just something to think about: how often in your life has a single sin led to various kinds of stupidity?
Mind Renewers 