Jude & Eli eating....fish! Yep, they are going to be real Florida boys for sure...
A couple of days ago I wrote about my enjoyment in reading the 'Message Bible'.
The simplicity of it 'blows me away' at times.....
For example, one place in the Psalms where it speaks of 'God rejoicing over His people' it expresses this as 'God throws a party for His people in happiness over them.'...Now that is something that I can relate with.....having a 'family party'.....
Some people, frown, at taking license with the Holy Word of God, but Jesus, Himself, understood this well by talking and telling short simple stories called 'parables' which was a language that the people could understand in simplicity of life...
.....Yes, I love reading the Bible.....it makes God real, to real people.....
I love reading the Bible since it enlightens my thinking.....always.
One of my favorite versions is 'The Message' Bible because it is kinda a 'Southern Paraphrase' which
I am very familiar with the wording.
Keep in mind that The Message is a reading Bible. It is not intended to replaced study Bibles.
You won't find 'thee' or 'thou' or any other such language in the Message Bible.
It uses the same language that we might use to talk to a friend on the phone or write in an e-mail.
It sounds less like Shakespeare and more like.....us.
A lot of people think that the Bible originally came out sounding like something from the Middle Ages, but in reality it was originally written in the language of the streets.
It was the language of fishermen, shopkeepers, and other regular people.
Eugene Peterson is a longtime pastor and teacher, and he is the guy who translated and paraphrased this Bible, The Message, from Greek and Hebrew (the languages in which the Bible was originally written.)
Eugene says this, "I began my work life as a teacher and for several years taught the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek in a theological seminary. I expected to live the rest of my life as a
professor and scholar, teaching and writing and studying.
But then my life took a sudden turn to pastoring in a congregation.
"I was now plunged into quite a different world.
The first noticeable difference was that nobody seemed to care about the Bible, which so recently people had been paying me to teach them. Many of the people I worked with now knew virtually nothing about it, had never read it, and weren't interested in learning.
Many others had spent years reading it but it had gone flat through familiarity.
Bored, they dropped it.
Few people were interested in what I considered my primary work, getting the words of the Bible into their heads and hearts, getting the message LIVED.
They found newspapers and magazines, videos and novels more to their taste.
I knew I had my work cut out for me.
I lived in two language worlds, the world of the Bible and the world of Today.
I had always assumed they were the same world.
But these people didn't see it that way.
So out of this 'necessity' I became a 'translator' (although I wouldn't have called it that then),
daily standing on the border between two worlds, getting the language of the Bible that God uses to create and save us, heal and bless us, judge and rule over us, in the language of Today that we use to gossip and tell stories, give directions and do business, sing songs and talk to each other.
"I did that for thirty years in one congregation.
And then one day (it was April 30, 1990) I got a letter from an editor asking me to work on a new version of the Bible along the lines of what I had been doing as a pastor.
I agreed.
The next ten years was harvest time.
The Message Bible is the result."
This is why I read and love the words in The Message Bible....
It speaks, Southernese for sure.....to me.
Proverbs 3:5
Megan's Bay in St. Maarten......
Wonderful Tour Van....
Travel Friends are the Best....Walker, aka:WW, and Pat, aka:PW
My wonderful husband, Charlie, & I....enjoying the Good Life!
Sweethearts for sure....for years and years :)
Approaching St. Thomas on Valentine's Day....
Tour Vans with a Theme....
Seven ships in port at St. Maarten....European as well
Oasis of the Seas is our next cruise in May for my 'Honey's' birthday...
St. Martin Airport is listed as one of the 10 most DANGEROUS in the world...
Two lane road and beach at end of runway....everything in the path gets
blown away....'dare~devils' cling to chain link fence when plane blasts
away....a sight to behold...
This is the beach at end of runway....Crazy! See video below....
Sign says:
DANGER: Jet blast of departing and arriving aircraft can cause severe physical harm resulting
in extreme bodily harm and/or death.....
