2nd Timothy 4: 1In thepresence of God and of Christ Jesus,…

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Posted by: KateeLee1 Original: 7/9/2009 1:09 PM Views: 26 Comments: 12 eProps: 4 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

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2 eProps from: AOK4WAY Biblerapture

Thursday, July 09, 2009

2nd Timothy 4: ¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For 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.

I so found that out to be so very true yesterday at work. I met a man that wanted a to by a Bible for a new believer. Great! The conversation went like this..."This is what we have...
"I don't want that bible - it has the sinner's prayer in it." "And there is a problem with that, why?" "Well, that's not scriptural- its just something that a some man made up!" At this point he was no longer interested in a Bible but was intent on pushing his theology on me.

Needless to say he was the epitome of the words "there is none so blind as those who refuse to see" and I now have a permanent grove across my tongue from trying to stay on task- finding him the "Perfect Bible." I still gave a small nudge, to get him out of his very tiny theological box, I could not help myself! But it was truly a battle to not say what was really on my heart!

How was it that he could trust a the study notes that is based on historical fact but not the Prayer that is based on Biblical concepts? Simple- his theology was based on limited fact and scriptural literalism and not on concept. It would be the same as if he had torn out one page of the Bible and said, "this is what I believe" and tossed the rest in the trash!

I was so shocked by what this man was saying that only wished to I had thought of what my hubby suggested to me later:
Just sell him the new believer's bible and a black magic marker and tell him any thing he doesn't like mark out! :)

I SOOOOooooo loved that idea! But as it is, I walk a fine line between doing what my overly passionate theological heart is telling to me to tell him and doing my job to company regulations (ie. keeping on task of retail only)

How is it that a person who has a Bible can only trust little bites and pieces of it and forget the rest that is in the same binding?
And worse yet...Who is teaching this crap to this pour soul? Its a probably a good thing I don't know - I'd have to fight the urge of smacking him up side the head for his stupidity! I now "get" that verse in Jeremiah 20:9 ever so much.

And I don't think it would have bothered me near so much except for the fact that he was dealing with a new believer! And Heaven only knows what he was filling that pour soul's head with! That fans the flame in me, like right now!

What is hardest for me is silencing the flame - putting that man and the one he is supposedly witnessing to into the hands of God and walk away and cool my jets. This is what I do, but is hard. (as you can tell from this post LOL!)

And at the end of my day, I'm again amazed at the Grace and tender Mercy of God. For He sees not just that one man and his "witnessee" but All those like him... and all those like me. Sometimes, I think that maybe the River of Life is formed from the tears He sheds for us all. Oh, for the day of His return so His grieving could end!

Posted 7/9/2009 1:09 PM - 26 Views - 4 eProps - 12 comments

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12 Comments

I dunno friend, maybe you're being a little hard on the guy. I'm pretty picky about Bibles too. All Bibles are not created equal, not by a long shot. Regarding the sinner's prayer, I don't really see the value in having it in a Bible. Salvation doesn't come by reciting something you read somewhere or repeat after someone, and a person who is already looking to own a Bible has probably already done a good deal more heart-work and gained much more benefit from it than they'll ever get from reading or reciting the "sinner's prayer". Know what I mean?

Posted 7/9/2009 1:21 PM by AOK4WAY - reply

@AOK4WAY I understand exactly what you mean but the man doing the bible purchase was not a new believer - he was giving it to someone to lead them to Christ. It was for a seeker who had yet to make a commitment to Christ. If you looked closely at the text of the Bible where the prayer is located, it specifically says it is an example, not a "rite of passage."

The whole purpose of this kind of Bible is to help a person come into a personal relationship with Jesus on their own with Biblical/scriptural references as apposed to denominational doctrine. And also to do it without having another person there to help you. The idea being that you could hand or send the Bible to a person and the person could come to Jesus completely their own.

The man that was buying the Bible, didn't like the idea that you had to do something besides put up your hand at a church service invitation to get saved- he actually told me that. Lip Service Salvation- who'd a thought?

Posted 7/9/2009 4:01 PM by KateeLee1

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You are describing what I call a "buffet Christian". They pick and choose what they want to believe. Have you ever seen someone go through the buffet dinner line and slowly pick only what they want? Some people do that with biblical principles. They choose to believe what they want to believe and disregard the rest.

He is in for a rude awakening...

Posted 7/10/2009 9:27 AM by Biblerapture - reply

@Biblerapture -

Yes, I have heard that before and that is so accurate! And as hard as it is for me to say in all my humanness- I pray his wake up call comes before the "last trumpet call!"

Posted 7/10/2009 11:46 AM by KateeLee1

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For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12-13)

I think the best Bible is one that a) is a faithful translation from the original language (which counts out most commonly used translations ie KJV) and b) is comprised purely of the properly translated Word of Truth without anything added, with the possible exception of a decent concordance in the back of the book to help someone find words or topics that the Spirit leads them to investigate. It's the Holy Spirit that leads us to repentance, that leads us into all knowledge, and preserves us once we come to know Him. Give someone with a repentant heart the Word and a good concordance, and they'll find exactly what they need to find, when they need to find it. A Bible that uses Strong's numbers is a great thing to have too, but only for studying in greater depth, not for reading and just letting the Word speak for itself. Nothing wrong with them, but they can distract from the natural flow of words if you're just trying to read normally.

Peace be with all reading

Posted 7/10/2009 4:39 PM by AOK4WAY - reply

That's really strange... for the past week or so, the top half of my comments have been disappearing from time to time when I hit submit! Now that I've read what survived the process though lol, there wasn't really anything lost, which has been the way it's worked out almost every time.

Posted 7/10/2009 4:42 PM by AOK4WAY - reply

@AOK4WAY -

I understand about Xanga and posting- have had my own issues with it from time to time too!
I'm rather curious as to which Bible you read? I use multiple translations depending on want I need it for. There are a couple of new ones I'd like to own. But as for daily in depth reading I use the NLT and lean fully on the Holy Spirit to get its full meaning. He's never let me down yet! :)

Posted 7/10/2009 11:14 PM by KateeLee1

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I'm not familiar with the NLT, but I've just checked it against two benchmarks that I use to determine if a translation is even worth looking further into, and the NLT passed. If you're curious, those benchmarks are matthew 7:7-8 and Rev 6:8. Like you, I use a variety of translations, and I'm constantly refining my understanding of scripture in the process. When I encounter a variance in translations, I jump into the original Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek and search out the originally intended meaning. I've just started using the ALT in addition to all the other versions I use, and have so far found it to be faithfully translated, although somewhat difficult to just read at times due to a lot of parenthetical and bracketed possible alternate translations of words and/or phrases. It's great for study, but it loses the flow for plain old reading. Believe it or not, the only print version of a Bible I own is the KJV, and even though it makes some horrendous errors in translation, I still use it for reference purposes when I'm trying to find a verse or word in other versions that I can't find due to the difference in translations. I started out with the KJV long ago, and my mind usually remembers things the way I originally learned them. Hope tyhat answers your question (kinda lol).

Posted 7/13/2009 1:22 PM by AOK4WAY - reply

@AOK4WAY -

Yes that does, and thank you so much! It's always interesting what verse people use to check a translation with.

What is amazing to me, is how many translations there are - we carry between 23-25 in the Christian bookstore where I work. There is one on the shelf that one day when I'm "rich and famous" I'd love to get- it is a Hebrew & Greek/English Inter-liner Bible.That is a sweet read!

Posted 7/13/2009 10:28 PM by KateeLee1

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@KateeLee1 - Yeah, those are nice! Have you downloaded e-Sword yet? It can do exactly the same thing! If you don't have it just click that link, then get whatever Bibles (and dictionaries, encyclopedia, commentaries and other extras) you like. Once you have 'em all installed, click the "parallel" tab, and select up to four versions or translations to be viewed side by side. It's really cool. You can also click the "Compare" tab to have a verse listed in every single version you download and install. Also very cool!

Posted 7/22/2009 5:17 PM by AOK4WAY - reply

BTW the word "e-sword" is a link in the comment above

Posted 7/22/2009 5:19 PM by AOK4WAY - reply

@AOK4WAY -

Thanks I'll be checking it out!

Posted 7/22/2009 11:27 PM by KateeLee1

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