Saturday, September 24, 2005

Find God, Find Yourself




Here are two Awesome pieces of Scripture:

Jesus said, “If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.”
Matthew 10:39 (The Message)

If you are really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you don't have.
2 Corinthians 8:12 (New Living Translation)


I pray that you have a blessed day and that you look to the Lord in ALL situations and that in turn you may find yourself and desire to give back to the Lord with all of your heart!

8 comments:

Chris P. said...

The verse you used from the "message", is a good demonstration as to why it is the single worse paraphrase of the Scriptures ever dumped upon the Church.

IMO said...

That was not very encouraging Chris and really sensless to mention, don't you think? Our words are to be like salt and I don't really see the point to your comment but to dump on others.

Anonymous said...

Chris,

What was so wrong with that? I mean, seriously? I get that you're critical of "pomos" and have just accepted that as a given, but I'm beginning to feel like you're the Boy Who Cried Wolf with the battles you choose w/ other Christians. Why the hostility towards those verses, specifically?

Chris P. said...

I was commenting on the "translation" used. Compare to any good translation e.g. NASB; ESV and I suppose I will have to mention the KJV.
The Message completely alters the meaning of the text. My "hostility" is towards a lousy translation.
I asn't criticizing Stephanie. I would ask thoughwhere in the Scriptures does it say "find yourself".

You both can get off your pious high horses. If Stephanie finds my comments to be offensive, then she can delete them. However, that would say more about your ideas of "tolerance", than my lack of the same.

Stephanie said...

Chris,

I never thought you were attacking me. I know that The Message is a very controversial translation of the Bible and truthfully, I'm not sure where I stand on how I feel about it. I just was reading some daily inspirations on the internet and I saw this translation and appreciated what it had to say and thought I'd share it with others.

No one is on a "pious high horse." Please don't take our comments so personally. I know for a fact, Alex was just curious as to why you were so oposed to that translation. Honestly I expected to hear some people who weren't pleased with the fact that I used The Message, but I figured, I really didn't care, the same point was being made as in the NIV or NASB or KJV or the NKJV or the ESV.

I was trying to relish and take in the point of the scripture, not criticize it for not being in the translation of the Bible I read on a daily basis (NIV). Anyway, enough said....

Anonymous said...

Chris,

1) In your original comment, you specifically mentioned "the verse" used, which is specifically what I was responding to. The "translation" part of your original comment I got loud and clear (you don't like it).

2) Stephanie never has, and never would, delete your comments - offensive or otherwise - and I would never encourage her to do something so "intolerant". Nor did I say that you were criticizing Stephanie, or that you were “intolerant”. What I said was that you tend to be critical of "pomos" - which I accept - but that I didn’t understand your hostility towards a post that was more or less innocuous. And for your information, Stephanie didn't even find your original comment offensive. I personally found it petty, misplaced and unnecessary, but that's just my opinion, and is hardly reason to delete it (despite your urging). You will indulge me, however, if I choose instead to respond to one of your comments. If you find that too "intolerant", well, there's not much I can do about that. That's sort of how this whole "comments" thing works.

3) I find the statement "get off your pious high horses" curious, coming from someone who rarely misses an opportunity to berate other Christians when their beliefs (or preferred translations of scripture) differ in the slightest from your own. And this is the first and last time I will respond to gratuitous personal insults from you against my wife, who said absolutely nothing to warrant your rebuke. You're a pastor, Chris. Start acting like one.

Chris P. said...

How did I attack your wife?
I insulted no one. You are overly sensitive beyond belief. I made a comment about the version of Scripture used. I had no problem with the verse,just the bad translation of it. That is all. As usual you are making mountains out of molehills. As usual any who disagree are "mean spirited" What a tired old arguement. My pious high horse statment was directed at those who had commented up to that point, which Stephanie hadn't btw.
As for my pastoring abilities.The people I serve would laugh you out of town. In fact you could probably include the entire four corners area in that.
I am never shy about what I know to be true. Gee, I am even appreciated by some. Probably because the emergent error hasn't caught on here yet, especially in native-america, Thank God. The work here is difficult enough dealing with 400 years of inept evangelization.
I find it incredibly sad that those who proclaim God's Word as Truth are villified.
The prophetic is meant to encourage and edify. If pointing out a particular version to be a tainted translation is not good, for then come Lord Jesus.

Anonymous said...

Encourage and edify. That's you Chris. Uh-huh.

And if "you both can get off your pious high horses" isn't an insult where you come from, that would actually explain a lot about you and the apparently superior flock you so arrogantly boast of pastoring.

One last thing before I stop self-flagellating by responding to you. "[Y]ou both" (yes, those were the words you used) suggests that the intended recipients of your "pious high horse" barb were two: me (to whose comment you were directly responding to), and my wife (whose original post you were denegrating - unless you can tell me who else I was to understand you were talking about). If that's not what you intended, then you are in serious need of a 15 second delay between your brain and the keyboard.

As for your flock laughing me out of town, should I file that one under "edification" or "encouragement"? Try to comprehend this, Chris: no one on here thinks you're "mean spirited" (again, your words, not ours)because you "disagree" or "proclaim God's Word", so quit playing the martyr already, because it's also getting tired. We think you're mean spirited because, well, YOU ARE. And no amount of "pious" (to borrow a description) rationalization on your part can mask that very plain truth.