| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. " - John 1:1-5 Any man not raised or schooled in Christianity's teachings may come to understand this text as only God's attempt to communicate thoughts to us via language. This after all, is the essence of the written word - isn't it? Two points and a few examples. What may jump out at you with just a cursory reading, is the seemingly out of place capitalization, but this is exactly my first point. The word "Word" is capitalized because it is a name for Jesus. In verse 14, we read: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." speaking of His incarnation. Other places, the lack of capitalization might jump out at you - IE 2nd Cor. 4 where Satan is called the little g "god of this age". Something else you may notice as you study your Bible is that just occasionally, things are italicized which indicates that that word (while not hindering the intent of the original manuscripts) was added (probably when translated to English) to make the scripture grammatically correct. Am I boring you? Let's look at a couple of examples. In Psalm 14:1 we read: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God". Two words are in italics; There and is. So, ---- In the original language it might have better read - "The fool hath said in his heart No God". This could be a denial or a rebellion. Either way, the outcome is not good for this guy the Bible calls unashamedly, "The fool". Another place that fascinates me is at the arrest of Jesus as recorded in John 18. The entourage which would have been closer to six hundred men rather than the dozen you see in the movies, approaches Jesus who asks: "Whom seek ye?". "Jesus of Nazareth" they replied. Jesus answers: "I am he", and they all fell backward, pinned to the ground. You will note the word "he" in italics once again, as it was added later. Please know, I am not trying to alter Scripture, cause doubt or imply that the meaning is corrupt as a result. What I am saying, is that this makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I think of the Jesus who spoke the worlds into existence (text above as well as Colo. 1:16-17) said out loud to the badest dudes on the planet (a cohort or tenth of a legion of Roman Centurions) - "I Am" which was God's given name for Himself in Genesis, and means Self Existent One. That's what Jesus said that pinned them to the ground. Let's turn the Spiritual Switch: Are you seeking Jesus? Are you seeking God? He says he is near to you, even on your lips. He isn't hiding. "Seek and ye shall find". The question then becomes, what Jesus are you looking for? Do you seek a genie to liberate you from a situation or circumstance? There is but one, and He is The Great I Am. "God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is none other." C. S. Lewis We can deny, suppress, placate and procrastinate all we want to, but ultimately He is still The Great I Am. Come to Him on His terms. God Bless |
 |