Wisdom of Interpretation
Part 1: Interpretation:
Whatever we heard, whatever we were told by our parents, teachers, and neighbors or from elders in the community are considered as knowledge to be treasured. No ifs and buts! That is the truth and what they missed to recognize is that we deserve a full explanation and not just blindly pass it to us and make us believe.
(Go Back to Wisdom Series Introduction)
We are rooted in what they believe and we can only free ourselves if we are called and did not ignore it and allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us so it can use us. Then later in our spiritual walk, we will be enlightened and discover that the hidden message of God’s word was interpreted according to what was revealed to them at that time by those learned people before we were only half of the truth.
In defense to our parents, they may have only learned half of the truth from the evangelists at their time and it could possibly be one fourth lesser. In other words, the knowledge they acquired was only one-fourth of the truth.
With respect to our parents, the ministers who took advantage of their innocence learning the word of God, the lack or limited knowledge can also be the factor.
However, they were successful in their teachings when our parents passed it to us and we ignorantly accepted it. Did we have a choice? I guess none! We grew up what our parent’s beliefs were true. We followed their guidance, their teachings as well as their mistakes.
My mother made the same acceptance of what was taught to her. I was able to speak with her about the Word, about God through the Holy Spirit who gave me time to talk to her by heart without hesitation. She let me talked and she listened and accepted the truth of the word of God and knowing her mistakes, she paused and breathed a little deeper. Looking at her, I discerned that she had some regrets which showed on her face as if she was saying;” I should have known it before.”
And with the enlightened and humble heart she uttered “Oh! That is why God did not answer my prayers for 70 some years.” She walked all her life in contact with God, going to church 6 days a week, and rested on Mondays because there was no church that served mass on that day.
Throughout her life, her marriage life was a struggle, blessed with eighth beautiful kids but unfortunately, half died at a very young age. If she only knew that the part that she missed in following God’s word was to let God know that when we pray, God already knows what we are asking even before we ask.
My Mom whom I dearly miss does not have enough time to hear the rest of the truth. She was so glad to hear the truth about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Whatever she missed, that was meant to be.
Confess what our heart’s desires and He heard it. When we acknowledge God’s existence there will be a reward. What was hard for her to adapt was to attend a protestant service where the absence of the statues of the saints made a big difference and probably also the word protestant church. I will not deny protestant is not a good word for Catholic before. I do not know now. I have a very close friend in my heart and in my soul that after many months of conversion found out that Born Again church is a protestant she just said with an exclamation; Huh! We are Protestant? I said no we are Catholic Evangelicals. The difference being an Evangelical Catholic is the communion with the Holy See in Rome.
I admit I am rooted in the Catholic Church and it takes time to uproot it. Only the truth sets me free. I respect their belief and time will come if they are called to seek the truth and did not ignore it, the joy seems to be everlasting.
The true interpretation or clear explanation of the word of God will make a difference and the translation in a literal and in the language they could understand will turn the lost souls to be found. I still remember that the Catholic mass was being held in Latin which majorities of my age do not understand.
How a person could be saved when they do not understand what is to be saved? Why do we need to be saved?
All we understood at that time was that bad people go to hell and good go to heaven. We are not even encouraged to read the Bible.
Everything is dominated by the priest and his assistants.
When the Protestants promoted the evangelical world it was not easy for these missionaries because they are trying to convert people rooted in the Catholic faith.
As time progresses, those that were enlightened shared their joy of being free from the bondage of half-lies and deception and received the fullness of the Gospel. Many are called but few responded that they might receive the wholeness of the truth. Blessed are those who received the true revelation of the Word of God.
When the word that is being preached uses talent to entertain and not anointed by the Holy Spirit to bring people into the faith, only give honor to the preacher.
Talent can attract attention but if it didn’t reach the heart of the hearer, it is just like music in our ears; we laugh, we jump, dance and sometimes we shout out loud full of happiness and feel being blessed but after all those moments what is next? Do we need to show emotions and claim that the spirit did it or do we quietly enjoy the Spirit within us by not distracting others treating praise and worship sacred?
The Bible said that if we are going to pray (communicate with God), do it in our quiet place so we will not be distracted.
We go to church to be with the Body of Believers; to fellowship, to pray together, to share, praise, and worship God.
As believers, we must be in one accord to be blessed. If the Body is split into two, one does not enjoy loud and out of control responses, while others even shout, jump making loud noises and are not acceptable to others. Then, what does the church achieve? Did we interpret what is a quiet place and what is shouting out loud in the Bible?
When we are in our quiet place and reading His Word, are we talking to Him, and are we hearing His voice talking to us, meaning talking to our heart. If we are with the Body of Believers we may experience the brotherly love that Lord Jesus commanded us.
We can make a personal relationship with God and with the Son Jesus and not necessarily in public worship. We can declare God’s goodness by praising and glorifying Him in public to show unity among us, to display the joy we have with Him; showing humbleness and truthfulness can bring the unbelievers to be curious and enter the church. Most of all, our respect for everyone can have a big impact on witnessing our relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
If we are to be given a choice to choose, which one would you choose when praising and worshipping God? Screaming, shouting out loud, jumping and even witness a Pastor running from the pulpit to the door, back and forth. What does it tells us? What should we feel about it? Do we feel that it gives happiness to our soul? Or we feel it is extreme? Do we feel that the Holy Spirit will let others happy and others not? Praise and Worship is a sacred thing to do but we should do it in one accord?
If we want that kind of worship, then we can go to other church that do that, but there are also some churches that practice conservative style which could also be a choice. Unity in spirit will surely give joy to the body. How about praying quietly and one on one with the LORD, does it gives you joy and hear His voice talking to you.
I love every word of God which is discerning to be true. There are many people ministering the word of God based on the opinion of their chosen writers. When it comes to opinion there is nothing new under the sun. Yet there are still hidden truths that God revealed to His Chosen children and if we ignore the word that comes out of their teachings, then we p deny the knowledge that is meant for us.
Being human with imperfection we cannot blame one another for the mindset that many were rooted on and not open to accept new teachings. Since what they receive could be half truth; I believe when we tell them the word and they listen and not believing, it is okay we replanted the truth in them and without resistance we already fulfill God’s will to be with us through eternity.
Even the faith that they have is as small as a mustard seed that faith can serve and guide them to the next step of sanctification in the process of salvation.
We must have a full understanding of anything that was passed to us before taking action to pass it on to the next. Knowledge is power and power is control. Knowledge must be followed by understanding and wisdom which will then develop to boost our faith from uncertainties to full confidence that anything good or bad has to end. We are not here today to enjoy a luxurious life, but a living sacrifice to make the correction of the mistakes that the first believers made before us.
Avoid getting confused that the Word was meant and belongs to the culture of ancient Israel. If we feel that the Old Testament is for Israel and the New Testament is for the Romans, Greeks, Middle East, and part of Europe, then we still have part of the Bible which is the Revelation. It is wise to ask wisdom from God and we will find out that The Book of Revelation is for the whole world in general. The Old and the New Testament were written for our instructions so we can base the uncertainty that is coming that involve the whole world.
The economic issues in Africa like the lacks of food, famine, and health issues make fear become an uncontrolled behavior by many. Due to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes, viruses, and economic collapse all seem to be hints of foreshadowing of the End of the Ages. How are we going to describe the situation when the pandemic is on the way wiping out human civilization? Will we not take refuge to God of glory for solution? Are we not going to call out to God when every possible way to stop or slow down the spread has been exhausted to the limit that a human strength can afford to give? Our Father who is heaven, who is Holy and pure will never ignore nor let His children suffer when they call on His name? We do not need to go to a church building to come to Him. What we need is to unite and come to Him as one family of God at the same time following the distancing mandated by the government.
When we read, hear or see someone asking to pray for the healing of our land, we do not need to physically group together, wait for a certain day, time, and place to pray. Right at that moment, we can pause whatever we are doing and pray. Prayer doesn’t need to be a long line, but coming from our heart is loud enough to be heard. He knows when we are in one Spirit and He looks on our hearts to hear us. God is the Spirit that gives life and will heal our land. As we acknowledge Him, we should also acknowledge one another with the love and humility that we belong to Him and that we are His children.
The word of God has confirmation in the book of 2kings. The confirmation will give more endurance and confidence in the word of truth. Just ask for forgiveness if you have any doubt. God loves us and He is faithful and is just to forgive our sins. If you meditate on this passage 2Chronicles 7:28-31 you will be blessed from fear and anxiety of uncertainties to peace and tranquility as you feel His presence.
If ever Israel mentioned it doesn’t mean that the blessings don’t belong to non-Jewish there are many of us that are not Hebrews and yet received blessings from the Father e.q. Rehab, Ruth, Naaman, and more.
The word of God progressively grows and still growing to reach those who are lost in translation and those who twisted the truth but find themselves welcome to comeback.
When we turn away from wickedness and embrace righteousness, we must bear in mind that the fight doesn’t stop there. We will continue the fight until we completely finish the race and with the help of the most powerful within us, together we will proclaim victory. Our godly resilience has been proven and regardless of how powerful the opposition to deter our mission in this troubled earth, our faith must never end and our position to defend our faith will always have reinforcement from above with more power and authority and a new beginning to push the journey to a joyful ending.
Choosing to trust in the Lord rather than to rely on our own understanding is the way we can stay resilient. The enemy of our faith will definitely show strength and will keep on their attack, but that will be like a show. It means that when we uncover their sheep’s clothing all they have are strength to lie, a weapon to deceive, and corruption through temptations.
When we lose hope it weakens our faith and to reignite and energize our faith, we must believe what the Psalmist wrote: “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand”. We are not alone in this fight; we have a bigger and powerful supporter behind us, on our side and above us from head to toe, we are covered by God and He will not let us fall.
We must stay to be mindful that God’s promise is never to leave us nor forsake us in times of peace and in times of difficulties and rest assured the word of truth. We should not cease communicating with Him for better or for worse, the prayer of the righteous will not come void. When we are justified by our faithfulness we can claim the key to access His grace, the favor that He grants to His faithful and humble children.
When we feel that our body seems to give up, keep clinging with greater hope that His presence is enough not to worry and He will direct our path to a safer place.
We can overcome any evil thoughts in the arena of the mind and even is we fall many times, we will rise again, and again, we will fight until the wicked stumble on their own entrapment. When Job, one of the characters of the Old Testament lost everything, his fortune, family, and friends, he was in extreme physical and mental suffering and his spirit was in anguish yet he refused to give up and never blamed the LORD for his sufferings. Job knew that God was in control and that knowledge gave him the strength not to give up.
God is all in all, although we have our downside, our resiliency will bring our upside. There will be moments that would seem to be no other way but in the end, in any struggle, there is always success and joy.
There is a saying that my Mom told me, that it is better to start living the hard way like struggling to make ends meet, make little sacrifices but at the end of the journey, everything will pay off having a simple but happy life.
The beauty of all of these is at the end when we find out that life is a joy to be cherished and the happiness it brings when you see others made the fulfillment of their dreams with no jealousy and envy. Part of our life should be sharing and caring. We got it free and to express our brotherly love is to share our blessings that the Word of God is true and that He exists to be with us. We must acknowledge His presence and we will feel that He is around and no one can snatch you from His hand.
We must learn to accept that all God’s creations are on this earth to share and spare the space to others, rich or poor; young and old, plants and animals, and other kinds that deserve to co-exists with us. We are all equal in the eyes of God. If there is no poor how would you know that you are rich, without sadness how can you compare the feelings of joy and without failures how would you know success? Imagine without God how would this earth look like?
Do not think about it but we should just enjoy the involvement of God in our lives. We have to come together with confidence and trusting God is an acceptance that we cannot survive without His protection. When we stay under the shadow of His wings, our confidence will be whole with the assurance of protection.
Observers mistakenly think that our confidence is a sign of arrogance; our confidence is part of our trust and we humbly submit all the characteristics of being a human and that includes pride and hard headedness. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. He gives mercy to those who ask for mercy and He gives grace to those in need of grace. Imagine how great it is to be humbled and have wisdom than to have pride and become a disgrace.
Many observers judge us to be too dependent on our Bible and almost condemned us for idolizing the book written by human authors. Since the Bible was written centuries ago, it should only be applied to those ancient people that lived at that time. These observers do not have the knowledge we have and we have to understand what they missed and through the way we display our walk with God, they may come to us and seek guidance to have the same confidence we have to feel the joy of the Spirit.
Being in the confidence we have on hand is the same confidence they will receive until they will learn that the Bible is a love letter from the Father who loves His children and gave life to this book like a living organism that progresses the was humans progress. This means that the Bible is always updated.
There are many versions made by man and some were based on how their denominations interpret the word of God. God allows this to happen to give us more room to find the truth according to His Will. We must never be discouraged nor we have to abandon our faith, but we must continue the fight of faith in our own backyard.
This being said, we should not be ashamed for having an opinion different from them for we belong under the wings of the Almighty receiving a direct utterance of the truth. At this point in time, we walk with confidence that our version of God’s word is more defined and directly written into our hearts that no one can snatch it from us and twist it as humans did in some versions of the Bible.
When God anointed our soul, our spirit will have a big turn from small spirit to a bigger Spirit, from small “s” to a big “S”, from happiness to more joyful feelings. Although we may miss the mark for being imperfect, that which will be charged to our body will eventually see corruption the same as King David’s body.
Most of the prophesies had been fulfilled but the promises that God gave to His children continue to progress; meaning, it stays alive. We must never lose hope when difficult times come as we are made to overcome our own weaknesses. After one lonely day, expect the next day will be a joy.
We have to interpret human life as God’s possession, His way is the only way and God doesn’t need to prove it to us but He proves it anyway when He doesn’t interfere with our free will; we can correct what was made wrong; then and now, straighten the twisted road towards righteous living, to make a change from our selfish behavior or selfless beings.
We must stay focus where light is directing us and we will not see temptations and choose the narrow road where eternity can be found and our journey will end happily ever after.
Continue to Read Part 2: Wisdom of Translation