Happy Easter friends!

[SanDiegoSteeler]

Faith , Hope, Love, of those three Love is the greatest.
God is Love.

One psalm that begins almost every Lenten service in my Faith:
One that going forward I need to recite daily to remember I am broken
The need to change my focus is great.
Peace guys.
Lord Have Mercy on this world.

Don't be scared.


A PSALM OF REPENTANCE (Psalm 51)
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy steadfast love; according to Thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight, so that Thou art justified in Thy sentence and blameless in Thy judgment.
Behold! I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold! Thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice.
Hide Thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with a willing Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways and sinners will return to Thee.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Thy deliverance.
O Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.
For Thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, Thou wouldst not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Do good to Zion in Thy good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then wilt Thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Thy altar.

 

[Djfan]

Sorry if it came across this way, not what I meant, really. In the time of when the Vulgate was constructed, Catholicism was the largest religion in the world thus most would have read the Apocrypha books within their written bibles. My point was that over the years the Bible has been constructed, restructured, translated into different dialects whereby Hebrew words and letters had no equal and were associated to the closest in their language model. It's difficult for me to read the text firmly believing that it's 100% accurate and perhaps My understanding would then be incredibly wrong. I know that it's called faith for a reason, and I appreciate your dialog here DJ. Thank you.

And I appreciate yours. Honestly.

The reality of the Bible is that it is spiritually understood. I have seen scholars on it who have never been influenced by it, and uneducated who have been entirely changed by it. It depends on much more than good scholarship. If a person wants to be transformed by God, the Bible is an asset. If not, the Bible is probably annoying. Real scholarship on it prevents the "many translations" issues. When a person goes back to the original, and we have a ton of them, and then consults the previous translations into other languages, it helps with nuance, inuendo, etc.

The fact is that there are two major, and a few minor, types of translations used in the Bible. Because of that, I read a few different translations when studying, but teach out of the New King James Version. It just helps in understanding.

The vulgate was an historical anomaly. The Catholic Church at the time was not excited about the average Joe reading the Bible, and preferred that they masses just learned from the clergy instead. It had great scholarship for it's day. It is still consulted for translation help. But, it is not considered that THE translation by too many scholars.

 

[Djfan]

Faith , Hope, Love, of those three Love is the greatest.
God is Love.

One psalm that begins almost every Lenten service in my Faith:
One that going forward I need to recite daily to remember I am broken
The need to change my focus is great.
Peace guys.
Lord Have Mercy on this world.

Don't be scared.


A PSALM OF REPENTANCE (Psalm 51)
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy steadfast love; according to Thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight, so that Thou art justified in Thy sentence and blameless in Thy judgment.
Behold! I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold! Thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice.
Hide Thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with a willing Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways and sinners will return to Thee.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Thy deliverance.
O Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.
For Thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, Thou wouldst not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Do good to Zion in Thy good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then wilt Thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Thy altar.

This is my favorite psalm. It's just amazing. The intersection of man's desperate need and God's grace.