Life | Logos Made Flesh

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Teach Us to Pray

March 27, 2025 — Leave a comment

I struggle with prayer.

Our Father who is in heaven

When you Pray “Say”

If you read the KJV you’re reading things the Biblical authors DID NOT WRITE. It’s not that it’s translators were in some secret conspiracy to deceive the masses. They weren’t. They were working with the best copies they had at the time. But these copies had errors – errors which entered the text over 1400 years of hand copying hand copies.

The vast majority of these errors were small and unintentional. If you’ve ever tried copying a lengthy handwritten document you may have experienced some of the following.

errors caused by sight.
errors caused by hearing and transcription.
errors caused by lapses in memory.

But some copyists intentionally changed the text – a fact that later copiers could not rectify because all they had was the copy in front of them. It’s similar to the errors created and passed on in the game of telephone. The famous 4th century Bible translator Jerome said,

“They write down not what they find but what they think is the meaning, and while they attempt to rectify the errors of others, they merely expose their own.”

These copyists made

spelling and grammar changes
harmonistic alterations
factual corrections
conflations
and even support for certain doctrines

The later is clearly evident in 1 John 1:7 where the King James reads,

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

It’s great proof text for the trinity. The problem is that no church writer quoted it when the doctrine of the trinity was being hammered out in the 3rd and 4th century. The reason: no manuscript contained these words until the late middle ages. It’s an insertion and not at all what John wrote.

And it’s not the only one.

Give us this day our daily bread

The King James Version may sound poetic but it’s not easily understood by the vast majority of modern English speakers. And it’s not just because of the thees and thous. You may have heard some of these words. But can you tell me what they mean?

abjects, afore, agone, amerce, artificer, bethink, bewray, botch, bray, by and by, caul, chargeable, concupiscenece, coping, cotes, cumbered, dissimulation, doleful, durst, emerods, fan, felloe, firkin, froward, gainsay, grisled, holden, holpen, ignominy, lade, lees, lucre, minish, mote, paps, paradventure, platted, quick, remission, requite, shambles, sheepcote, slow bellies, superfluous, thitherward, twain, unction, wimples, wont

OK, I’m sure you could get close to their meaning if you read them in context. But are you sure its the right meaning and not just your faulty guess?

You can learn a lot about the English language from reading the King James Version. But is that the point of reading the Bible? To broaden our vocabulary? I don’t think so.

The dedication to the King James version is the same love Catholics have for language of Latin. It’s traditional. It’s what we’ve always done. But stop and ask yourself does it still work? Is it helpful? Or are the people in the pews just hearing someone speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:19).

There are better versions available!

It’s perfectly acceptable to read the King James Version IF nothing better is available. I’ve often read it when it was the only Bible I could find. But that’s not often the case today! There are two other translations, the NASB and the ESV which are based upon more accurate manuscripts and that use the King James Word-For-Word method of translation. While the New KJV attempts to modernize some of the KJV’s language it still does not address the underlying manuscript issues.

What do you think?

In Bible, Life

The Best Method for Memorizing Scripture

April 16, 2013 — Leave a comment

I’ve never been much for memorizing bible verses. I’m referring to the typical way we go about memorizing the bible – a verse here and verse there – written down on a flashcard and placed on a mirror or fridge. Why? I think it trains us to think of the Bible as a book of isolated verses rather than a unified whole with a context that defines and gives meaning to each individual verse.

For instance we memorize and quote Matthew 5:13-15, “you are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world“, and in so doing we simply believe Jesus is referring to us. But the context clearly defines the “you” in those verses and it may or may not be us. Memorizing individual verses apart from their setting leads us to distort what scripture is actually saying.

Is there a better way to familiarize ourselves with the Bible? Yes! And it doesn’t require flash cards.

Think of the first time you took your commute to work. If it wasn’t already a familiar place, you may have arrived at your job and not remembered the whole of your drive. Maybe a certain curve stuck out in your memory, a landmark or a sign. But as the days and months went by that stretch of road became a little less mysterious. The bold sights that once attracted your eye began to fade with repetitiveness and more unassuming details took their place. Whole sections of the road began to fill in, anchored around those original markers. Eventually even the smooth flat road seeped into your mind. Unconsciously, bit by bit, it was there when you tried to recall it. So one day, without perhaps even realizing it, you knew the road like “the back of your hand.”

Knowing and understanding Scripture comes about in much the same way as our repetitive drives to work. On the first reading we may find a verse here and there resonating in our mind like an eye catching sign. But they hang isolated and alone, with nothing remembered before or after. Its only through repeated reading that these significant gaps begin to fill in.

So how should we go about acquainting ourselves with scripture. The answer is just keep reading!

In Bible, Devotions

Is that Promise for You?

April 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-16,

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

Who is the “YOU” in that passage? For those of us who apply the bible directly to our own lives its quite natural to see the “YOU” as referring to us. For instance, The Personalized Bible renders that verse for me this way

“Matthew is the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “Matthew is the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

Since the “YOU” is plural, we also might apply it to a particular Christian group. “My Church is the salt of the earth” or “those who say a sinners prayer are the salt of the earth…”

But Jesus’ “YOU” is more specific than that. It has a context which we all too often ignore. Jesus has already told us to whom that “YOU” refers.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are YOU when people insult you, persecute YOU and falsely say all kinds of evil against YOU because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is YOUR reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before YOU.

YOU are the salt of the earth…

The “YOU” Jesus addresses are those who possess these qualities. While I hope those qualities are represented in you and me, I recognize that’s not necessarily the case. Do you and I match the description? The promise is for those who in weakness demonstrate humble dependency upon God. It’s not for people who simply claim the promise by inserting their name.

In Bible, Devotions

Why I Write

March 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

There’s nothing I hate more than writing. You probably wouldn’t know it if you saw how much time I spend doing it.

But that’s exactly why I hate it. It doesn’t come natural to me. AT ALL! It’s a tedious life-sucking task that requires a great deal from me.

And yet I HAVE to do!

In the dark days of World War II, the U.S. government commissioned a series of documentaries called Why We Fight to fortify soldiers for the task that lay ahead. It may not be World War II but writing is my fight. Here are four reasons why I do it.

I write to teach.

In the movie Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell says, “God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.” Now replace the word “fast” with “teacher and “run” with “teach” you’ll know how I feel about teaching. There’s NOTHING I feel more delight in doing than communicating God’s word to people.

But teaching requires students and that’s where I have a problem. I don’t make a living teaching and I only occasionally get the opportunity to speak. Writing becomes my means to release the overwhelming compulsion building in me.

I write to learn.

Teaching and learning for me go hand in hand. The great Roman philosopher Seneca noted that “while we teach, we learn.” When I teach through writing I get to wrestle with a subject and in the process I become more intimately aquinted with it.

I write to clarify.

Writing allows for editing. Some ideas seem great inside my head but they lack clarity when expressed. I think Winnie-the-Pooh said it best,

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

Writing offers me the chance to see those confused thoughts and fix them before anyone has the chance to misunderstand.

I write to remember.

“The palest ink is stronger than the best memory” says a Chinese proverb. Spoken words are easily forgotten but the written word endures. I’ve said and thought many good things over the years but the ones I’m most likely to remember are the ones I’ve logged here in this blog.

In Life

Writing by Hand

March 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

I’m writing this post out by hand. Hopefully it will stop me from the constant self-editing which leaves most of my posts unfinished.

Writing by hand allows my thoughts to flow without the added pressure of making them immediately comprehensible. Could I say it better? Of course I could. But writing is first and foremost about putting words on page. And that only happens when I allow my mind to bypass the gatekeeper separating it from the page. With my keyboards “Backspace” so readily available most of what I write is quickly thrown away. The pen doesn’t let me do that.

I’m now thinking just how awesome an illustration writing is of the Incarnation (John 1:14). Just as the invisible Logos/Word became flesh in Jesus to make known the invisible God (John 1:18) so in writing my unseen mind must become one with the pen to make known my thoughts to you. The same could also be said of speaking but speaking isn’t visible like these letters you see here.

Jesus is God’s perfect and visible self-expression.

Too often I feel the gravity in the gulf separating my thoughts from their adequate articulation and forget just how perfectly God bridged and bridges the comprehension gap for me. My writing is an incarnation but it’s not the Incarnation. He and His Spirit has and will make up the gap in whatever my writing lacks.

I need to rest in that.

In Devotions, Life

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