Use the whole verse

Pet Peeves. Everybody has them. Some of them are important (Yes, we all should wash our hands before we eat). Some of them are silly (what real difference does it make which way the toilet paper sits on the dispenser?) 

Like any other human being, I have my own set of them. (Don't worry, I'm only going to get into one today). 

But, the Pet Peeve I'm going to cover today, truly does matter and can have eternal consequences. 

First of all, give me KJV or nothing else. The other versions distort, twist, and nullify huge sections of scripture. I'm only going to give one example of this before I get on to what this post is really about today. (Okay, so I'm going to cover 2 pet peeves. Think of it as a two for one deal?)

John 3:13 is an awesome verse. It contains truth that many people do not truly know:

13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Here Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and tells him something amazing! Read it and see if you catch it. Did you get it? It's awesome!

Jesus told Nicodemus that he (the son of man) not only ascended to and descended from heaven, but that at that very moment- while he was speaking those sacred words to Nicodemus- HE (Jesus) was also in heaven! 

How can this be? Because there's only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4) and that one God is omnipresent (everywhere all at once). So, though he inhabited the body of the son of God and was speaking to Nicodemus, he was also still on the throne in heaven watching and controlling everything!

In short, he told Nicodemus, "I'm God. Do you truly understand who you are talking to right now?" 

Wow!

Now, what do a few other versions say?

NIV 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

NLT13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man[a] has come down from heaven.

The Voice: 13 No one has ever journeyed to heaven above except the One who has come down from heaven—the Son of Man, who is of heaven.

I could go on and on. The NIV and NLT are bad enough. They leave off the whole phrase "which IS IN heaven." This relegates Jesus' whole existence to inside that body- totally changing the whole meaning and context of the verse.  

But, the Voice is even worse: they leave the phrase in, but change one word. IN becomes OF. Again, this totally violates the actual scripture's meaning and relegates Jesus to existing only within that body- but it does admit he came from heaven. 

There are hundreds of changes like this. So, give me KJV or give me nothing. 

Next Pet Peeve:

When you quote a verse (I mean you as in anyone), please quote the whole verse.

There are Christian catchphrases that we all like to use that are nice to hear. But, they leave off the rest of the verse (or context) and totally distort the actual meaning. Here are just a few. 

"Resist the devil and he will flee."

 This catchphrase makes it sound as if the devil comes against you, you tell him no and wave him away. And he's so afraid of us that he takes off running with his tail between his legs. 

Then why doesn't this actually work in practice? Why doesn't he just leave when we resist temptation? Why doesn't he run away when we don't blow our stack at that person that deserves it so much? 

Because it's a partial verse. Here's what it actually says:

James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Read that, please. Yes, it does say that if we resist the devil he will flee from us. So, what's the problem, brother Winskie? 

The problem is that we skip the first part of the verse and think all we need to do is resist the devil. But, it says we are to "SUBMIT (OURSELVES) TO GOD first. THEN, we can resist in God's strength and authority. THIS will cause the enemy to flee! 

If we don't submit to God first, we can resist the devil all day long and he ain't going nowhere, bro. 

Do you see how leaving off part of it changes the whole meaning? 

How about this one?

"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." 

That sounds like an absolute guarantee! Once we're born again, it's a 100% guarantee that we will never be condemned. We have a one-way ticket to glory and nothing can stop us now!! 

Wait. There's one minor detail that they left off. What does Romans 8:1 actually say?

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

Did you catch the difference there? 

If, after we are born again, we choose (because we still have choices to make) to please our flesh rather than strive to please God's spirit, we can (depending on what we do) sin and bring condemnation against ourselves. It's NOT an absolute guarantee. It depends upon whether we follow our fleshly desires or the leading of God's spirit. 

Or, how about this one? 

"God will give you the desires of your heart." 

Holy Cow! What a deal! Let's make our list up right now! 

New Car.

New Truck.

Fix my spouse.

New home.

New job...

Wait. Before you go too far. Let's check out the verse where the phrase comes from.

Psalms 37:4

"Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Delight (in the Hebrew) means to be soft and pliable.

Lord (in the Hebrew) means the self-existent, eternal God. 

desires (in the Hebrew) means prayer or petition

heart (in the Hebrew) means the inner man: mind, will, heart, understanding.

So. If we allow ourselves to become pliable (easily bent, flexible- in other words moldable into any shape he cares to make us into) in the hands of almighty God, he will answer our deepest and most heartfelt prayers. Why? Because they will line up to his word and will. 

It's all about submission to God. We submit to him and let him change us. Then, when we pray, our prayers will line up with his will and he will answer them. 

It's not a blank check to get anything we may fancy. 

But, Lord, we really need a new truck. 

If he thinks we do, he'll make the way. But, just because we're a believer, doesn't mean he'll give us anything we want. If our parents won't do that, why would God?

But, the point is, when we use scripture, we must use the whole thing. 

If we shorten it into a soundbite that sounds good to people's ears, we could be setting them up for a potentially catastrophic event to their faith. This could cause the new believer to leave their faith. 

Absolutely, we should use scripture and claim the promises of God. But, when we do, we've got to use it complete and in context. 

If we do not, the results could be devastating. 

Making it through the trials: A lesson from Psalms 42- enjoy the roller coaster.

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. 

Let's face it folks. We humans love the easy road. We, especially we in the "western world", love things to go smooth and  

gently. How else can we explain the proliferation of the false "prosperity doctrine" that we see and hear in our society. These "preachers" are not stupid. They line their pockets by telling folks that, if they will just get with "God's"- really their- program, then God will flatten every mountain, dry up every quagmire, heal every disease, as you live your lives "happily ever after" (as long as you send the "preachers" your check. 

Yet, they ignore verses like 1 Peter 4:12, and the like. 

The truth is, it takes intestinal fortitude and a made up mind to make heaven. 

The prosperity preachers scream that Jesus came to give us LIFE, and that more abundantly. Yet, life is a series of good times and hard times. Jesus said we were going to have even more- of both good times and bad times.

With this in mind, I believe there's a pattern that can be gleaned through reading Psalms 42. So, please, pull out your Bible and have a look. Here are some notes to help us understand it a little better. By the way, I only use the KJV. If my wordings don't match what you read there, then you are reading a different version.

Verses 1 and 2 deal with the fact that we must have a hunger and thirst for the Lord. David wasn't called "a man after God's own heart" because he was such a perfect man. He was called that because he spent his life in hot pursuit (ever going AFTER) God's heart. He knew when he messed up, where to go in repentance. We must have the same attitude. Try our best. But, when we fall, we must go to God in full repentance.  

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But, just as a child with a godly father, there comes a point where the fear must turn to love. We stop doing good to avoid hell and start doing good to please the God who loves us. In other words, we must fall in love with him.

In verse 3, we see that in our hot pursuit of God, we run into some hard trials. This is not uncommon in scripture. Twice the disciples were in a boat going where Jesus told them to go (so they were in his perfect will) and they ran into terrible and life threatening storms. The prosperity preachers of our day, and even some hard liners, would say that, if you are having that much trouble in your life, then you are in sin- or at the very least, you have stepped out of God's perfect will. 1 Peter tells us to "think it not strange concerning the fiery trial" which is come to "try you." The word try in the Greek means test. Our trials are tests that we must pass to reach the next level in God. But, during this, our friends and enemies are all saying the same thing to us: "Where is thy God?"

"If you were right with God, you wouldn't be suffering like this, hurting like this, or be so broke, or (you fill in the blank)." Ever been told this by the "well meaning" believers in you life? Their "kindness" usually starts with some form of this phrase: "Brother (or sister), I want to tell you something in love." When someone starts a sentence like that, put on all your armor! You're about to get hit- hard. 

In verse 4 We must remember going to the house of God and pouring out our hearts to God with other worshipers. Check out the Greek meaning for "kept holyday." It's great!  It means, "song of thankfulness!" When we are going through, if we can just remember our God and our song, then we are beginning to see some light at the end of our trial. 

In verse 5, the words "cast down" mean "bow down." We need to shake ourselves. We must chide ourselves for submitting (bowing) to their interpretation of our trials. We must pick ourselves back up and begin to praise God. Notice the faith we must have: "I will YET praise him  for the help....," signifying that we must believe that in the future, this trial will be over (because we believe God is going to help us!) and we will praise him (afterwards) for the help he sends us. 

But, the meaning of "help" is really interesting. It means, in the Hebrew, "something saved, deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity." So, our deliverance comes when our faith and God's timing meet. Remember, there's a time for every purpose under heaven. God's purpose is to conform us to the image (representation) of the man Christ Jesus. So, he chisels away at our lives through the trials we go through. 

Our victory comes when our faith in God and his timing meet. Our prosperity comes when our faith and his timing meet. Please note: Prosperity does not necessarily mean wealth. It means the provision of what we need to accomplish his purposes in our lives. 

And why does our help come? Because we responded in faith (finally) and God's favorable countenance is turned on us! 

So, a) we go around in circles for a while in a pity party because we listen to the evil voices that chide us. b) Then, we shake ourselves and remember all God has done for us in the past. c) Then, our faith rises up and we believe this trial will end because God is going to send help. d) Finally, the trial ends and we receive from God salvation, deliverance, aid, victory, and prosperity. 

So, we can enjoy the mountain top- for a while- until the next valley. 

In verses 6-10, we enter another trial. This one is worse than the last one. (verse 10 says it is so severe an attack that we feel it in our bones!) Yet, in all this, our faith doesn't falter. Unlike the first attack and struggle, we don't lose our faith. We press through the attack. We are still holding onto our faith in God's help. 

In the midst of this trial (verse 7) God calls us by name! The word "calleth" here actually means "to call by name" in the Hebrew. Indeed, God uses this trial to change us. The words for "are gone over" mean, "transition, to cross over, cover." So the Lord changes us here (transition) and allows us to cross over into the promises he has given us in the past- and he provides us with a spiritual covering. So, now God has our back. 

But, the trial still goes on.

 The enemies are still yelling, "Where is your God?" We're still being tempted to give up. We almost do. But, in verse 11, we read the almost identical declaration as verse 5. We correct ourselves for doubting- though certainly not as much doubt as the first time. We place his focus squarely on God, pointing perhaps to the first trial(s) we went through to remind ourselves that God will bring us through again. We reach the point, again, where we say (in full faith of future deliverance), "I shall YET praise him..." 

But, this time, the outcome is different. Our HEALTH ("the health of MY countenance") is restored. Mental health? Physical health? Spiritual health? It's all under the broad term HEALTH. Our mental and physical health are made whole AND our relationship with God is made stronger than ever before (it says, "and my God.").

This, I believe is the true progression of a Christian's life. This is the true meaning of Romans 1:16-17:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith."

Did you catch that? From faith TO faith.

The Christian life is a a God ordained progression of trials and triumphs, good times and bad times. Why? Because that progression builds our faith and relationship with him! Because each trial exposes some flaw in us that we can repent if. And each victory places in us godly fruit.   

If we will learn to trudge on through the trials of our life, holding on to faith in God, then a) our individual trials may not last as long, and b) we will grow up in God faster to become what he is intending the trials to make us to be in the first place.

God is the potter and we are the clay. The trials we go through are intended to change us into the vessel he needs us to be.

So, we need to stop complaining about the roller coaster (the ups and downs) and enjoy the ride. The end of the ride will certainly be worth it all.  

What do you see in the midst of your troubles?

Isaiah 6

King James Version (KJV)

6 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah was a very important man. He was a prophet. He was also near kin to the king. As such, he had the honor of being in the kings court as an adviser. 

When King Uzziah died, the land was turned over to his son, Jotham. Uzziah was a righteous king. Albeit, he made one severe mistake and the Lord placed leprosy on him because of it. According to 2 Chronicles 27, Jotham was an even better king that Uzziah had been. 

But, in Isaiah 6, Isaiah (nor anyone else) had no idea what kind of king Jotham would be. Would he follow the Lord, as his father had? Or, would he, like Solomon's son, turn his back on God and the people. It certainly was a possibility. How many children of wealth and power turn bad? Many.

But, here, in Isaiah 6, you can imagine Isaiah's troubled thoughts. As a king's prophet, he was accustomed to living well and having the best of everything. He was also accustomed to having the king's ear. 

In many cases, in the ancient world, whenever there was a change of kings, those that were in leadership positions for the old king, were put out of their positions and left to fend for themselves. They also were, sometimes- killed. 

So, Isaiah had a lot on his mind. Would he lose his job? His life? He didn't know what would happen. 

So, he did what we should do. He went to the house of God and sought the Lord. I'm sure Isaiah wasn't expecting what happened. Sure, he expected guidance. He expected to hear from the Lord for a word to help him in his troubles. He didn't expect to be ushered into the very throne room of heaven and see God almighty in all his glory.

When he saw the glory of God, and the majesty of heaven, Isaiah just knew he was done for. You can hear it in his response: "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

"This is it for me," he seems to have thought.

Yet, unexpectedly, God didn't kill him- as he deserved. On the contrary, the Lord cleansed him. May we all learn from this.

Yes, God is holy. Yes, God expects us to be holy. Yes, God is judgement. But, as it was so eloquently worded in the book, The Harbinger (by Jonathan Cahn), "judgement is God's necessity. But his nature is mercy."

God cleansed Isaiah of his sins. Then, he acted as if they had never existed. And, as if Isaiah's problems really amounted to nothing at all, he ignored them. Rather, he offers Isaiah a promotion. He basically said, "Will you go and speak for me? Let me be your king? Let me worry about the future?"

In the midst of all of Isaiah's problems, the scripture declares he "saw ALSO the Lord." Herein lies the answer to our dilemma's. It doesn't say that he ignored his problems. It says that, though he did see his problems, he ALSO so the Lord.

He didn't just see him, however. He saw him "high and lifted up." He saw him as the ultimate being, on the throne and in control. He saw "the mighty God, the everlasting father." (Isaiah 9:6)

He also saw that "his train filled the temple." First of all, the temple was a huge place. This was not someone's living room, or a store front church. This place was so big that angels had room to fly (verse 6)!

In those days, royalty wore a train. But, it usually only hung down to somewhere just above the ankles. When a prince became a king, this was about how long his train was. But, every time he won a battle, the train was made longer.

Here, Isaiah saw the Lord in a huge temple. Yet, the Lord's train filled that temple! In other words, God had won battle after battle. And guess what? He's never lost a battle! So, when the Lord gave Isaiah a mission, he knew he could safely answer, "Here am I. Send me." Why?

Because he knew that by joining the Lord's mission, he was on the winning side.

So, in the midst of life's chaos and calamity, we can know we are right. In the middle of this worlds confusion and our troubles and problems, we can know that we are on the winning side. That, no matter what, if we stay with the Lord's will for our lives, we will be victorious.

So, rather than focus on our problems and worries, struggles and trials, lets see ALSO the Lord. If we can somehow pray our way into his presence and see that he is in control, then we can have hope that our trials won't last forever. And,we can know that we are on the winning side.

Who knows, maybe God will give us a mission, as well.