14/12/09

Losing by taking away

Psalms 23:1 - The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.


Some of you may laugh when I tell you; in the start when I was not in the Lord the scripture we received for the day, was a great hurdle for me. I used to say the scripture without the semicolon and that changed the whole meaning of the scripture. Every time I used to feel odd saying the scripture, thinking why someone would not want the Lord as a shepherd.

You may find this silly but unknowingly may of us are doing the same with many of the scriptures by taking away a little of it.

Do you know that the Old Hebrew language had no punctuations so by argument I was not wrong, but then one should also be aware that the language is an expressive language, the way it is said is where the punctuations come. The Lord knowing this made it mandatory for the Israelites to literally teach their children the scriptures by heart verbally. It was during the times of Daniel and Joel, around 500BC to 300BC that the Greek version of the Old Testament was made (these are approximate dates and we actually have a full Manuscript copy of those times).

The Lord is our Shepherd but by not taking His Word literally, we deny Him as our shepherd. Just think if the sheep do not listen to very call of the shepherd to turn left or right; what will happen to the sheepfold?

This is exactly the reason why we have so many Christian denominations; we all are adding or subtracting from the Word of God.

Trust in the Lord and stick to the Word, even if we make a mistake He surely corrects us. What matters is; is our focus fully on the Word?

Yesterday I heard an acronym of the Bible - Basic, Instructions, Before, Leaving, Earth.

By taking away anything from the Bible we will not follow the instructions and land up somewhere else instead of Heaven.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord God, You gave us the Word to give us unto You. Lord, help us that we stick to every letter of the Word, having faith in You. It is your Word that guides and helps us see into the spiritual world. It helps us know You and your ways...

We make this prayer in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Deuteronomy 4:10
10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

Deuteronomy 6:4-12
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others.
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