Joy... in the Lord

(Hab 3:18) Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my
salvation.

There is joy in the Lord... (ok, who's got the song in their head now?). I was thinking about joy, and the joy in the Lord, and came to realize that you can't just say, I have joy. It doesn't work that way - that's not real joy. Instead, real joy comes when you are walking in the Spirit (another fruit of the Spirit). That is, when you are in a close communion with God, then the result will be Joy. We can "rejoice in the LORD," and "joy in the God of my salvation." But when we are not walking with Him, then we are to turn our laughter into mourning and our Joy to heaviness.

John Piper's most-known teaching is probably what he terms: "Christian Hedonism." That is, God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him - or something like that. The idea is that when we are finding our joy in Him, and in doing what He has for us, then He is most glorified. (On the subject of John Piper, his website: http://www.desiringgod.org/ is having a book sale today where every book is $5. I suppose that's why I wasn't able to connect to the store part of his site a little while ago.)

George Mueller, the great man of prayer, wrote this in his booklet, Soul Nourishment First : "I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit."
That booklet is fantastic, and if you have never read it, I recommend it: http://www.biblebelievers.com/george_muller/g-m_appendix-l.html will get you to it.

Be glad in the LORD and rejoice ye righteous. And shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart!

Joy in the Lord, sorrow outside of Him... what a contrast.

Forgotten Fruit

So, I'm preparing my lesson for Couples Connection this Sunday - if you're going to go to Couples Connection, this post will be the gist of the message (maybe you won't have to go any more!)

Eli the Priest, 1 Samuel 1-4: Much has been taught about Eli. He was the guy that began to rebuke Hannah because she acted like she had been drinking alcohol. He also taught Samuel the ways of the Lord. He had a couple of sons, Hophni and Phinehas who in 1 Samuel 2:12-17 we find were taking more food from the offerings that the people were bringing to the tabernacle than they were supposed to take. Later on in verse 22 we find that they were committing fornication with women that were assmebling there at the tabernacle. Eli is often give the bad rap that he failed to rebuke his kids, and that was his downfall. Here's my observations and thoughts...

When it says that Eli heard about the fornication with the women, in 1 Samuel 2:22, we find in the next three verses the he rebukes them for it. We already saw that he spoke up to Hannah when she appeared drunk. He seemed to be a man that was willing to stand up against those "big" sins - fornication, drunkenness, etc. He had his boundaries set firm!

It's interesting, when the man of God came to Eli with his curse, the charge that God laid on him (found in 1 Samuel 2:29) is: "Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?" The rebuke was not for his sons fornication, or for anything else - but that Eli was making him and his sons 'fat with the chiefest of all the offerings.' The reason behind it was that he honored them above God. Here's the thing, we know from 1 Samuel 4:18 that Eli himself was a "heavy" man, and he was included in the rebuke from God: "make yourselves fat."

I think that Eli was not an ungodly man. I think he trained his kids up to know what was right and wrong. But I think that Eli forgot one of the fruit that comes from the Spirit: temperance. He was willing to compromise a little. (I mean, the priests, in fact, were supposed to be fed by the offerings of the people.) But his not restraining himself spilled over to his boys.

Temperance is not just manifested in food - though that does appear to be a great way to gauge it. We can show temperance when it comes time for shopping. We can go without, or buy less of something, and in turn we would be able to use the money saved for buying things of eternal value. We could show temperance in turning the air conditioning down a bit and living with the heat, or in the winter turning the furnace down and living with the cold. We can show temperance with our tongues - refraining from saying things that could have negative consequences (by the way, even a fool, when he holdeth his peace is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding). There are many other ways to demonstrate temperance.

Remember, though, temperance is a fruit of the Spirit. You can manufacture "Self-Control" (which is a close definition for temperance, but not exact) in your self, but you can't manufacture fruit from the Spirit in your self. When you walk in the Spirit, temperance is one of the fruits from that - but often a forgotten fruit.

KJV-Only Reason # 3

Just a reminder what I mean by KJV-Only, see: KJV-Only Reason # 1.

Reason # 1: Because a man of God challenged me on the issue when I spued my ignorant challenges against it.

Reason # 2: Because the KJV has all of the verses that are supposed to be in there.

The third reason has to do with a comparison with the translators of the KJV and the critical revisers of the other translation - specifically I refer to the Revised Version of 1881, and many of the textual critics that have followed since.

You see up until 1881, the KJV and the underlying Textus Receptus were the "Received Texts" of the Bible. Then in the 2nd half of the 19th century, some very old manuscripts were found - I'm sure I'll get into the specifics of those manuscripts some other time - a couple of textual critics by the name of Westcott and Hort, used these corrupted manuscripts and put together a new Greek Text from which the Revised Version New Testament of 1881 was translated. In their preface to their Greek edition, they write:

"We dare not introduce considerations which could not reasonably be applied to other ancient texts, supposing them to have documentary attestation of equal amount, variety and antiquity" (The New Testament in the Original Greek, p.277.).

That is, they say the Bible should be treated as if it were any other book!

Reason #3: Because the Translators of the King James Bible treated the Scriptures as the word of God.

The text in the image above, written in the old English typeset says this:

"But now what piety without truth? What truth (what saving truth) without the word of God? What word of God (whereof we may be sure) without the Scripture? The Scriptures we are commanded to search. Joh. 5:39. Isa. 8:20. They are commended that searched & studied them. Act. 17:11 and 8:28, 29. They are reproved that were unskillful in them, or slow to believe them. Mat. 22:29. Luk. 24:25. They can make us wise unto salvation. 2 Tim. 3:15. If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us."

No, it's not just another ancient text - the Scripture stands apart from the rest of the books in the world. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold! The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is Profitable! For doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works...

Attention!! Attention!!

ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!

We have a new blogger in our midst! Michael Barone is going to be chronicling his deputation on his new blog at: http://www.prayforitaly.com/. He's already got a couple of posts up so you can stay up to date with him right from the beginning. His missionary website: http://www.gospeltoitaly.com/ still has information about him and his ministry plans, but the blog will be how he keeps people updated more regularly.

No other thoughts for today. I'm in training class again all day, but feel free to check out all the links on my site - including the heresy seeking ones :)

Let God be magnified!

2nd Post today

Don't miss out on my thought for the day in a previous post...

So, to clarify my vague post yesterday about needing a domain name: I had been thinking on Ephesians 1:6 which says in the BIBLE "to the praise of the glory of his grace..." I started thinking about that phrase: the glory of His grace. It made me realize that His grace has glory, that it is glorious grace. Because of that I started planning: http://www.gloriousgrace.com/. However, later I realized that the NIV and a bunch of modern versions (not all) use that phrase, "glorious grace" in Ephesians 1:6. I don't want to mistaken as supporting that translation of the verse, so I'm dropping that domain name. That being said, I need a new one... What do you all think about: ObserveToDo.com? It comes from Joshua 1:8, this book shall not depart out of thy mouth... that thou mayest Observe To Do according to all that is written...

What do you all think? Other suggestions? I'm in a training class all day today, so I'm posting my lunch-time thoughts early!

Oh, and by the way, since I'm goofy, I added this script to my site so that you should be able to double-click on any word on my site and it will give you a dictionary definition for that word. That's pretty perspicacious if you ask me!

Magnified Word

Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

Would you stop and just consider that for a minute...

What does the Bible say about God's name - His great Name? There are things that God does or does not do, simply for the sake of His Name - for His reputation - for His glory. He values His name, His reputation, His glory, so that He will not do anything to tarnish it. There is no other name like His...

But wait a minute. He has magnified His word above His name. The only thing that God gives more value to than His own glory - is His word. He will do ANYTHING for His own glory, except go against His word.

To think that He has magnified His word so much, and that He has given it to us, but we don't value it as much as even ___________ (you can fill in your own blank there).

KJV-Only Reason # 2

To make sure you understand what I mean when I say I am KJV-Only, you may want to go back and read my first reason for being KJV-Only to be sure you get my position right... KJV-Only Reason # 1

One of the biggest surprises that I had when studying the King James issue was when I learned that there are complete verses missing in the other translation. You can go to: http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/nivdelet.htm to see which verses they are... So why am I KJV-Only?

Reason #2: Because the KJV has all of the verses that are supposed to be in there.

Now, the other translation defenders will say that the King James Version has added those verses, not that they have taken them away. What they're saying is that they think the Alexandrian manuscripts behind the other translation are the "most reliable manuscripts." That will be another one of my reasons later on, but the issue to take note of here is that the other translation is based on different manuscripts than the King James - they were not translated from the same thing! So much for the "updating the language" argument.

Recently the "ESV" has been getting a lot of attention... It is endorsed on their website by R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Max Lucado, Ravi Zacharias, Albert Mohler, Erwin Lutzer, Paige Patterson and Steve Green - and those were just the names that I recognized. It was billed by some as the "replacement" for the KJV. When I read that, I got interested that maybe it was an updated KJV or something like that --- Nope, it was just another Critical Text-based translation that leaves out the same words, phrases and verses as the rest of them do. It's just an updated RSV... In other words, it is just a part of the 'other translation.'

Could I remind everyone what God thinks about people adding to or taking away from God's word? I can't get around thinking that somebody - on one side of the issue or the other - is going to be in some serious trouble come time for Judgment...

One last reminder - tomorrow morning is Missionary Prayer Meeting...