[Discoveries] 09-24-07 Seeing the scriptures with new eyes 1-3 - Ephesians 3:20

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

*/What can you imagine?
How big can you think?
God thinks bigger...
Do you want to ask Him for something?
Ask big because you're dealing with a big God./
Ephesians 3:20 from the /Discoveries Bible/ *

I want to tell you about the /Discoveries Bible/ project.

I am concerned -- and have been for decades -- about something I see 
happening in the church. When certain words are heard or read, the 
listener (or reader) goes into "religious neutral" - the words have been 
used so often that they have been deprived of any real meaning. The rich 
meaning that was intended is lost because we "zone out."

A couple years ago I heard about a court case that demonstrates this 
reality. A separation of church and state advocate was suing a 
governmental agency because a prayer was said during that agency's 
proceedings. The court upheld the right of the agency to include the 
prayer because the words used in the prayer had lost any real meaning 
and therefore could not be construed to have religious significance. 
(Amazing, isn't it?)

Consider these biblical words and phrases: salvation, holy, worship, 
truth, praise, love, fear of the Lord, redemption, faith, sacrifice, 
blessed and so on. These words permeate the scriptures, but as 
Christians, most of us have heard them so often that they now carry 
little real meaning any more. Please understand what I'm saying: These 
are incredibly important realities that are being conveyed by words that 
don't work as well as they used to.

So do we need another Bible translation or paraphrase? No, not exactly. 
But I do think we need to see the Bible that we have with new eyes.

More tomorrow ...

Be encouraged!
Dwight



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