About a year ago, I switched from the NASB as my primary translation to the ESV. I found the ESV easier to read outloud and easier to teach from. The gang over at http://englishbibles.blogspot.com/ seem to have some criticisms of the ESV. While no translation is going to be perfect there are some things that I particularly like about the ESV over some other translations.

1. Keeping with some traditional language even when it is criticized as archaic. For example, the TNIV says that Adam made love to Eve while the ESV says Adam knew Eve. The Hebrew comes from a verb form meaning “to know” and teaches us a lot about how the Hebrew culture thought of relationships and knowledge. It is obvious from the text what Adam and Eve did. But what is not obvious from a translation like the TNIV is the lack of insight it gives us to the culture and understanding their relationships and knowledge.

2. The use of older manuscripts. The NKJV uses some manuscripts that are not as old (older means closer to the original) as those in use by the ESV team.

3. Availability of the translation in formats that look like a traditional Bible as well as some formats that don’t look like a traditional Bible. It’s hard to find an TNIV that looks like a traditional Bible but one is due out in January.

4. Readabilty for both public and private study.

5. The ESV is not a paraphrase.

There are many more but the benefits fo the ESV are covered in many places on the web. But there are also some things I don’t like about the ESV and I hope they will offer an update that corrects these issues some time in the future:

1. Adding words for clarification when clarification is not necessary. For example, 2 Cor. 4:3, where Rodney Decker of Baptist Bible College (http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/documents/ESV_Review.pdf), points out that the ESV adds the word “only” to “it is veiled only to those who are perishing.” The “only” is superfluous.

2. I’d rather words not be added, but any added words must be pointed out to the reader.

3. Some awkward English phrases. I have sometimes stumbled over the wording when it seemed some words were out of sequence with what I normally expect.

I’m sure there are others but the critiques of any translation of the Bible are all over the web and there is no reason to rehash any thing here.

I would suggest that you give the ESV a chance. No translation is perfect but the ESV is easy to understand, beautiful in language is well-translated. The most important thing to remember is that all translations may have their issues, but all of them were created to help us to better know God. There are no committees out there looking to publish a Bible translation to lead you into false doctrine. And if one did crop up, the language scholars would be very quick to let us all know.

Adam and Eve knew God, they walked with him in the Garden and spoke with him in ways that are hard for us to imagine sometimes. And still they were tempted and sinned just like we do today. We live and move and breathe in the presence of God daily and we are still tempted and we still sin. In Genesis 3 we have the opportunity to watch the temptation and eventual sin of Adam and Eve unfold. From this account we should learn how to identify at least one of the weaknesses of our own nature.

In the first verse this passage, Satan, in the form of a serpent, says, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And Eve’s response was recorded in verses 2-3, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

But we know from 2:16, 17 that God said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God doesn’t mention touching the tree, but Eve changes the words of God in her response to the tempter.

Even here, in the Garden of Eden, we not only see that one of Satan’s devices is to move us to doubt the Word of God but we also see how eager men and women are to alter the Word of God.

In today’s western culture we, also, are much too quick to alter God’s own revelation of himself. We want God to say what we want to hear and so we change it slightly enough to sound right to the ears but distort the truth enough to make God into an idol of our own creation. Many ministers today choose to preach a politically correct gospel but the truth is that Jesus didn’t come to establish a political system, he came to be a sacrifice for sin.

But the primary way we alter the gospel is through our starting point. If we start our study of Scripture with the assumption that our understanding of ourselves is infallible, we completely miss the kingdom of God. God has revealed himself in Scripture and this must be our starting point for knowing him and knowing ourselves. Any other starting point, ignores God and builds on a foundation of sand (Matthew 7:24-27).

When we begin with our own understanding, we are taking a stance toward placing that understanding over top of Scripture. Our preconceived notions begin to shape how we study the Bible. But Bible study isn’t like studying history or math, we aren’t memorizing what happened, we are studying the very words of God himself and those words should change us. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

When the Word of God is encountered without preconceived notions of who we think we are and who we want God to be, then the Word of God really can pierce our soul and transform us. We want a world that is easy to understand, without mystery and without pain. Jesus, the Son of God, says, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:38).”

The cross, like the electric chair, only leads one place, to death. We must seek to put to death our own interests to discover the real God, as he has chosen to reveal himself, knowing that there will be hard truths along the way to grapple with.  One of the keys to navigating the hard truths in Scripture is to understand that they are most difficult when we choose to make assumptions about who God is rather than to seek the illumination of God through his revelation.

Several years, back during my Clinical Pastoral Education at Erlanger Medical Center, I read a book titled “Sacred Journey” by Frederick Buechner. It’s an autobiographical book, the first of 3 that Buechner penned, that reveals much of his childhood and those early events that have shaped this Presbyterian minister and author. I was hooked. Since then I’ve read a lot of Buechner’s writings. I’ve enjoyed everything from the “Book of Bebb” to “The Son of Laughter.” But the one Buechner book that grabbed me more than any other is called “The Hungering Dark.” The Hungering Dark is a sacred journey itself, guiding the reader to look within and see the Hungering Dark that lies within us, hungering for God.

This blog has had a few restarts since I first tried to begin writing here, and now I’m embarking on a new restart. Why? Because I believe my own sacred journey has restareted a bit. I don’t expect to write a three-volume autobiography or even think that any one would stop to read such a thing from my pen. However, after growing up attending church, wrestling with God through some very challenging times, grieving at the loss of my father,  and discovering an identity in God much different than the assumptions I started with, it seemed time to start this blog anew.

In this “Life with God” blog we are going to gather at the well (John 4) and listen as Jesus reveals not only himself, but also reveals ourselves to us. I hope you will participate in the blog by responding in dialog with the writings here. And if you feel compelled, write something yourself for this or your own blog.

My background includes roles as a writer, educator, minister and consultant. In those roles, I’ve learned that we don’t really know something until we teach it. But also, that the learning process must include community interaction and opportunities to discuss, dialog and repond to viewpoints similar and divergent from ours. How can we possibly improve our understanding of any thing, even ourselves and our God, unless we interact with others?

Before the invention of the printing press, great discussions took place in the public streets and forums. With the printing press, men and women exchanged ideas through publishing which allowed them to reach more people but also disconnected the dissenters from immediate response. The Internet is giving us the best of both. However, most of the stuff on the Internet is lacking in complete reflective thought because most Western cultures today have so relied on the slow printing press approach to responses that we are often poor at developing thoughtful responses quickly.

Our aliterate culutres have also reduced the amount information that we have to weigh in order to develop a good, thoughtful response. So rather than have clear, well-reasoned, critically reflective discussions we get flame wars and spam posts. The blogosphere is a fast-paced, ruthless place sometimes. But as our information increases again, and our capacity to better relate difficult concepts improves, we will find a produce a better educated, more thought-full culture.

The journey here will be focus on the contemplation of truth from the Bible and how God author’s our faith.

In John 17, Jesus prays for unity among those who follow him,

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me….” (v. 20-23).

I believe God’s own prayer is going to be answered. So the questions is of those churches who don’t believe that the bride of Christ is unified in him, just as Christ and the Father are united, then who is it that it outside of this prayer? When Jesus prays this prayer he says the prayer is for “those whom you [Father] have given me” (v. 9). 

In congregations and denominations where this type of unity is denied or worse, where it is kept from happening through teaching, then who is it that is given to Christ and who is it that is not?

Lately, I’ve become acutely aware of how much disunity there really is in the church between congregations and denominations. It’s utterly distrubing!

When a congregation of one denomination proclaims that a baptism is invalid because it wasn’t done in the right denomination, the unity of faith in one Lord is shattered.

Psalm 133 says,

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

If dwelling together in unity is good and pleasant, the disunity currently active among congregations and denominations must be a stench before God!

Jesus didn’t die on the cross to redeem men and women who then go and turn the gospel into a battle zone. He died on a cross to forgive sin, to pay the price of our sin and break the curse of death.

I have no idea how a congregation or a denomination can proclaim that another congregation who teaches Jesus Christ and him crucified is invalid. And quite honestly I’m sickened by it. It is not the name on the sign in front of the church that makes a church valid. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a church valid.

The heresy of Landmarkism and all of its tendencies must be removed from our congregations, denominations and teachings. And in its place we must restore the unity of the church. I know we are always going to disagree over differences in the interpreatation of some elements of doctrine. But when the essentials of theology are held in common, declaring another congregation or denomination does nothing to honor God.

When congregations and denominations dishonor God, his holiness is profaned. God is displeased when his name is profaned and he will vindicate his holiness (Ezekiel 36:22-36). I pray that God will corret the error of this disunity and vindicate the holiness of his name.

Obviously, Jesus tells us to go and make disciples, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20). But each disciple also has a responsibility to pursue his or her own discipleship.

Since 1992, I’ve been teaching at various colleges in the U.S. and Canada. During that time it seems that students have evolved from those who worked hard to learn to those who seemed to think that if they weren’t learning it was necessarily the instructors fault. Of course, I know that the instructor has a responsibility to teach and apply content to a variety of learning events. But students also have a responsibility to dig deep into the content and think deeply about it.

2 Peter 1:3-12 the Bible says, that we should make every effort to add to our faith virture, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v. 2 Peter 1:8)

The disciple of Jesus has the responsibility to add virtue (moral excellence) and knowledge to his or her faith. To add knowledge we must dig deeply into the Word of God and think about what it means for our relationship with God, allowing the Holy Spirit to illumine us and transform us. Growing in the knowledge of God is not like learning history, we must seek to be transformed by God (Colossians 3:1-4).

Growing in knowledge and faith requires that we apply ourselves to the Word of God and apply the Word of God to ourselves. No one can do these things for us, we must do the work with God. If all we do is sit on a pew or watch Bruce Almighty we are not going to grow in our knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10). Being a disciple of Christ is an active participation in a relationship. Discipleship involves a relationship with God and a relationship with other disciples.Being a disciple is also growing in faith. I believe that it is by God’s grace that we have faith. But I also believe that God allows us to be challenged so that we may grow in faith (Romans 5:3-5; 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). But faith doesn’t grow magically because we go through trials, we must learn to respond to the trials appropriately. If we complain, fight and blame others, we are not going to grow. But if we seek God and let him lead by his Word through the trail we will be able to look back and see what God has done in our lives.

A pastor I know told me that while he believes that Jesus was God before the incarnation and after the ascension, he doesn’t believe that he was God while he walked here on earth. In his mind, Jesus was only a man when he was borne of the virgin Mary.

This thinking is certainly nothing new, nevertheless it is wrong!

The early church dealt with this at the First Council of Nicea is 325 CE or AD.

Wikipedia states

The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first ecumenical conference of bishops of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. With the creation of the creed, a precedent was established for subsequent ‘general (ecumenical) councils of Bishops’ (Synods) to create statements of belief and canons of doctrinal orthodoxy— the intent being to define unity of beliefs for the whole of Christendom.

The purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements in the Church of Alexandria over the nature of Jesus in relationship to the Father; in particular, whether Jesus was of the same substance as God the Father or merely of similar substance.

With the creation of the Nicene Creed, a precedent was established for subsequent general councils to create a statement of belief and canons which were intended to become guidelines for doctrinal orthodoxy and a source of unity for the whole of Christendom — a momentous event in the history of the Church and subsequent history of Europe.

The importance of an orthodox understanding of who Christ is, is critical to faith and teaching. The incorrect belief in my pastor-friend has a significant consequences for his understanding of God’s work of salvation. Going back to the Council of Nicea, it should be noted that of the 250-318 attendees, all but 2 agreed that Jesus was of the same substance as the Father.

Jesus himself taught that he was equal with God the Father when he walked on this earth. That’s the crime for which he was crucified.

The following Biblical passages give evidence that the belief that Jesus was not God contradicts Scripture:

• Matthew 14:33
• Matthew 16:13-17
• Matthew 26:63-64
• John 1:1-18

Of course there are many others. But the Bible continually reminds us to be watchful for false teachers. And any one who teaches that Jesus was not divine is a false teacher. This has been agreed upon by the church drawn from Scripture from the earliest discussions.

For more info see:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoptionism

It is common for statements about the character of God to discuss the omni-words: omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (all-present). In thinking about God’s omniscience it is easy to consider his knowledge in the framework of our own time. But it is important that we are careful not to bind an eternal God by the limits of time, even though it is hard for us to think about knowledge outside of time. While God is present in the present, he is not bound by the things that limit us: knowledge, time, space, perspective, etc.

God’s knowledge is different from ours. He didn’t learn what he knows, his knowledge is at the core of his essence. He doesn’t know everything because he learned it or observed it, he knows it because he is God. He can’t not know.

For example, when God led Israel out of Egypt , he didn’t mistakenly stumble on the Red Sea . He didn’t forget where he put it. He knew exactly where the Red Sea was and he knew that on that day, Israel would have to cross. He knew this not 10 minutes before, not 10 days before, but he knew this from outside of the boundaries of time. He’s always known it.

There is nothing that God didn’t know in eternity. For if he didn’t know it — it would not happen. God is not an observer in the corner reacting to our whims, he is Sovereign God who truly knows all things. And while he is working on our behalf (Exodus 14:13), he is working to accomplish his salvation for us and in us. If God only looked into the future to see what would happen and then decide how he wanted to react to it, he would be little more than a fortune teller or time traveler

So for a thing to be known by God, it is ordained by him. It will happen. It can’t not happen.

I’ve become acutely aware that the God I thought I knew my whole life was a god I imagined him to be based on my perspective bound in my own time and space. The God revealed in Scripture is the God who we must strive to know regardless of whether what is revealed gives us a warm and fuzzy or keeps us awake at night.

I subscribe to the Truth for Life podcast and listen when I drive home from work most days. Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend a lot more time in my car and I was able to listen to an entire series by Alistair Begg called Life by the Spirt. This originally aired June 19-22 but you can download this through I-Tunes.

 This is a great series from Galatians 5 on what it means to live by the Holy Spirit. Some of Begg’s discussion includes the things we should do, the things we should avoid doing and what is normal for the Christian.

http://www.truthforlife.org

I once read a book titled “Five frogs on a log.” The book started with a simple riddle, “Five frogs sat on a log, 4 decided to jump off, how many frogs are left on the log?” Like me you probably answered “one,” but the answer to the riddle is “five,” because deciding and doing are not the same thing.

It is easy for us to say that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent but living our lives daily as if God truly has these characteristics is not as easy as saying the words. Deciding that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent is not the same as living as if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

If God is omnipresent then he is just as present with us when we are in a bowling alley as he is when we are praying alone in a dark room. He is present with us when we alone or in a crowd … or if we are lonely. He’s with us even when we put ourselves into situations or places where we know we shouldn’t be.

But God is not present with us, just to stand in a corner and watch. God is not a spy. So why is God with us. God is with us because he wants to do a work for us, in us, through us. He wants to transform us.

Proverbs 1:20-33 says,

Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.

Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you,
when terror strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have their fill of their own devices.

For the simple are killed by their turning away,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”