I came to know Jesus personally in 1979 and coming from an unchurched background I was pretty much clueless about the finer (or even the broader) aspects of following Christ, so I began reading the Bible. I got a King James Version which seemed to be written for scholars of the English of William Shakespeare, and it wasn’t long (moments really) before I realized that I was only understanding about half of what I was reading. I went out and found a copy of The Living Bible Paraphrased which was a very contemporary and simplified version of the scripture and I began reading my KJV while keeping the Living Bible open on my lap. When I read something I didn’t understand, I would put down my KJV and pick up the Living Bible to find the meaning.
This worked until I got to a verse that the Living Bible paraphrased into “and these were the laws of Moses in a nutshell.” I was incensed! I was sure that there were no nutshells in the scriptures and decided that these people were just a little too casual in their paraphrasing of the Holy Word! So I went back to the trusty old King James Version and learned to appreciate Elizabethan English.
Did you know that Shakespeare used a working vocabulary of roughly 24,000 words in his plays and that each of those words had a separate and unique meaning? I read that the KJV uses a vocabulary of approximately 15,000 words and the NIV pares that down to somewhere around 8,000! Think of the gems that have been lost in the effort to simplify the message!
There is a whole lot packed into the Bible, and it can be unpacked and looked at in many different ways. It can be read as literature, as a storybook, or a book of poetry, as a manual to mystic arts, as a safety manual for those who worry about testing God’s patience, as fodder for the weekly feeding of God’s sheep. Personally, I am fond of reading it the way I heard it described right after I got saved: The B.I.B.L.E. – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth! It is a collection of wisdom about what has gone before and what always is, given to us to read so we might be prepared for what is to come. There is just one big stumbling block.
In the immortal words of George Michael of Wham, “You gotta have faith!”
Okay, but what does that mean…really? This is where vocabulary becomes so important. I’m using the Amplified Bible here because it gives the definition of the words used in parentheses right next to the words.
Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses. Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified)
The eyes of faith see facts where our physical eyes see nothing. That is how Paul was able to write to Timothy and say,
This is why I suffer as I do. Still, I am not ashamed; for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him]. 2 Timothy 1:12 (Amplified)
There are things going on every day in our "new normal" that seem to defy God and His ways, but we are encouraged in the Scriptures to remember that
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 (NASB)
Remember we are reading about what was so we can understand what is and be confident (or full of faith) about what will be. So receive the following account as, if nothing else, a glimpse of the character of God.
"Now Jesus was telling the disciples a parable to make the point that at all times they ought to pray and not give up and lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and had no respect for man. There was a [desperate] widow in that city and she kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice and legal protection from my adversary.’ For a time he would not; but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will give her justice and legal protection; otherwise by continually coming she [will be an intolerable annoyance and she] will wear me out.’
"Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says! And will not [our just] God defend and avenge His elect [His chosen ones] who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay [in providing justice] on their behalf? I tell you that He will defend and avenge them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [this kind of persistent] faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1-8 (Amplified)
Well, will He, or won’t He? A question that needs an even more immediate answer is one we all need to ask ourselves.
Do I, or don’t I have faith? Will I or won’t I…?
…for I assure you and most solemnly say to you if you have [living] faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and [if it is God’s will] it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Matt 17:20 (Amplified)
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