A Modern Day Translation

Sometimes I think it would be a whole lot easier to just go through life not thinking deeply about anything. After all, isn’t ignorance bliss? (as temporal as that bliss may be…) But we really don’t have the option to do that as believers.

My guess is that if you are a regular reader here, you are a thinking person. After all, the tagline for Growing 4 Life is “never satisfied with status quo”.

Of course,  all of our thinking has to begin with the premise that God’s Word is true. We can get ourselves in a pretty messed up place without that premise as thinking people. This is why the attack on God’s Word is so intense.

As I was reading yesterday’s Bible Challenge, I couldn’t help but think about how different Christianity is presented today than what is taught to us in Psalm 119. I know I wrote about this a bit on Monday, but as I meditated on the words of Psalm 119, the thoughts that filled my mind were almost like a part two to Monday’s post.

I love Psalm 119 and its emphasis on God’s Word and I thought it might be interesting to do a little comparison here today, using just a small portion of this chapter. The actual words of scripture are below, followed in italics by what I believe the mainstream modern day church is actually teaching instead. See if you agree with me–

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
    who walk in the law of the Lord!

Blessed is he who is not perfect,
who walks in liberty and continues to sin habitually.

² Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
    who seek him with their whole heart,

Blessed are those who say they love Jesus
but seek their own personal purpose with their whole heart.

³ who also do no wrong,
    but walk in his ways!

Who also do some wrong
And only walk in some of his ways.

⁴ You have commanded your precepts
    to be kept diligently.

You have commanded that we love our brother
The other commands (like keeping ourselves separate from the world and sexual purity) don’t really matter all that much.

⁵ Oh that my ways may be steadfast
    in keeping your statutes!

Oh that you may grant me happiness
Because that is what is most important.

⁶ Then I shall not be put to shame,
    having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

Shame and guilt are useless
And I keep my eyes fixed on myself.

⁷ I will praise you with an upright heart,
    when I learn your righteous rules.

I will praise you with a heart that looks clean on Sunday
When I sing the cool worship songs.

⁸ I will keep your statutes;
    do not utterly forsake me!

I will follow my feelings
Please keep me feeling good.

That’s probably enough. You get the idea. I confess as I was reading (and writing), I am absolutely amazed at how far the God-centered Christianity that we read of in the Bible is from the man-centered Christianity taught in the mainstream evangelical world today. They are polar opposites!

Can you see why we need to read and study our Bibles? How else will we know that what we are being taught is just a bunch of intellectual nonsense if we don’t know what God’s Word says? This is something to really think about for today.

I hope you are still reading with me. I am sure many of you have given up by now. Life can get crazy and reading through the Bible is a big time commitment. But I truly hope that you haven’t given up studying the Word. Even if it’s just a few verses each day, be sure to be in the Word so that you can tell the difference between True Christianity and False Christianity. They are really two totally different religions.