15The LORD has taken away His judgments against you,
He has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;
You will fear disaster no more.

16In that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not be afraid, O Zion;
Do not let your hands fall limp.

17“The LORD your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.


I friggin love these verses. In verse 16 Zephaniah says,"Do not let your hands fall limp." I picture myself defeated, beat up, exhausted, and about to lose all confidence. Then the encouragement of God being in our midst who is always victorious. He then shows how God delights in us and is quiet in His love. I love that as well. I was thinking how I get all those loud thoughts going through my head, the worry, and the frustrations I face that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere. A love that quiets, then the next verse rejoicing with shouts of joy. Shouts of joy because we are His beloved.

King James Only

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

We talked a bit on translations of the text today and I thought about this verse. I remember back when I was in Costa Rica and I was in a men's bible study. A discussion arose about which bible translation is the most accurate and some of the men were making fun of people who read the message version or the new living translation...ect. I was recently given a new living translation and I had it with me as this discussion arose. I found myself hiding the bible from the view of the men as the one who was most stark in his stance belittled the "lesser accurate translations" as if the one he chose was the most accurate. This is not the first time I had been in such a discussion. I typically think this view comes from selfish arrogance more than anything. Of course he had the King James version. This is not the first time I have been around someone who is a King James only type of guy. Whether or not this type of guy is right or not, I really don't care. What does bug the hell out of me is how arrogant, obnoxious, and self-righteous these people are. I do think that going back to the original Hebrew and Greek to understand the context is of the utmost importance to gain a complete understanding of what Jesus or the other authors were saying. I don't however think that God is limited to speak to us in whatever translation we choose to read. As a new Christian the first bible I was given was a NLT and God spoke to me many times and many times I received repeated confirmation outside of what I had studied in the Word. Years later I decided to use the NASB and I continue to use it, not because it is a more accurate translation, but because I like it. I don't think God is going to say to me,"Bryan, I will not speak to you if you do not pick up a King James bible." Nor do I think that someone who reads a King James only has more insight into God than someone who reads a "less accurate translation." The verse above is from John. I thought of it today while we were in class in relation to our discussion. Jesus was telling us that He was going to give us His Spirit and that He would lead us into all truth. I cannot find where He said that if you don't have the most accurate translation that He won't lead you into truth. Is God challenged to speak to His beloved or does He disapprove that His beloved choose to read a certain translation? I really doubt it.

One time I was in the midst of a King James only discussion and a friend that is absolutely hilarious said something like this,"I hate it when people claim that King James version is the best or most accurate, plus he was gay." Not sure if 100% accurate, but when you look up was King James gay, it appears so. Just a funny come back to someone who is a King James only type.

Well, I have notice that I have been all over the place these past few months. When I say all over the place I mean that I have been trying to figure things out with limited success. I have all these anxieties, irritations, and at moments I have felt like I wanted to explode. The ways I have tried to figure things out or better yet, pointed the finger at situations as being "the problem," has basically been futile. I have written and said things such as, "Maybe I need to move downtown?" Yeah, that's it! Or, "Maybe I need to stop going to house church and serve a couple times a week?" Nope. House church has been good for me and it just seems like a lot to do with training school and the extra class on Monday nights now added. Whenever I am experiencing emotions such as the ones I mentioned, like most guys do, I try and find the problem and fix it. I then think that I have found the problem, which is never me:), and then come up with a solution. Funny thing is, I never follow through with it, cause I know that it is not going to work. I don't know if that makes any sense. I know myself well enough and I have been through this enough times to know that there is no quick fix to the broken soul. I however want one and like to try and finagle a quicky, as if God would let my logic prevail. Finagle a quicky. LOL I gotta stop.LOL