7 7 03

10:40a

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.

Proverbs 29

Arg. Every time I read something that reads the way the first verse does �A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes�, my first thought is almost always of the paternal parental unit. Of course, the second thought, following immediately upon the heels of the first, is of me.

Throughout my childhood I�d had various verses throughout proverbs quoted at me as warnings. It was a very pessimistic sound in my child-ear. Because of the child-ear understanding, I was under the impression that God was a very mean-spirited and somewhat bear-ish God. The adult-ear, however, recognizes the difference between God�s inspired word (and the meaning thereof) and a human being�s interpretation of said word.

Having gained a little experience in the �communicating via written word� thing (internet) sans benefit of facial expression, inflection or volume/pitch, I understand better how the Bible can be interpreted so many different ways. Atop that, I believe that the interpretation you hear says far more about the person than the Bible itself.

Don�t understand that? Try this� try reading some passage, not necessarily of the Bible but of any book. Read that passage many different times when you�re in different moods. When you�re feeling pessimistic, I�m sure that passage will sound negative. When you�re feeling optimistic, I�m sure that passage will sound more positive.

There is tone to words, written as well as spoken, which communicates meaning. To communicate God�s meaning, one needs more than just the written word, which is why a relationship with Jesus is so very important. Jesus provides the tone� When you read the Bible without asking God to reveal the meaning, you get just flat words, which translates to whatever you�re feeling at the moment will be the tone you read into the words.

Okay, that may be a little confusing. This is what I mean: Without hearing the tone of the scripture � often the tone can be discovered by reading previous verses to get the whole picture, like foreground/background things � it reads like a grocery list; no emotion, no intent, no interpretation. If I�m feeling angry, I�ve noticed that the scripture has a negative, angry sound. If I�m feeling sad, it has a woe-ful sound. If I�m feeling happy and optimistic, the scripture has a joyous sound. It�s an �unspoken but� kind of thing.

You know, when someone looks at you and gives you a �compliment� that you know has an unspoken �but� tagged to the end of it. �You have such a pretty face.� *pregnant pause* �anyway�� That kind of thing. You know what they were actually saying is, �you have such a pretty face, but��

Well, when I�m in a mood, I tack �unspoken but�s onto scripture. (when I�m reading the scripture, rather than letting God read it through me/to me.) You know, like in a negative mood it would be something like this�

Proverbs 29:9 �If a wise man goes to court with a fool, the fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace.�

When just letting God translate for me this verse means: If you go to court with a fool who rages and mocks, you won�t have much, if any, peace. So, don�t go to court with a fool.

When in an optimistic mood, but translating for myself: Sometimes there will be foolish people around you who will make life difficult, but it is your responsibility to avoid being the fool in the scenario. And, it would be a good idea for you to avoid choosing fools as friends, because your life will be made unnecessarily difficult if you have to tolerate people like (insert name of irritating friend of the week here). Just be a good girl and� well, solve the problem entirely and avoid any situation where you�ll have to go to court, and oh, isn�t that flower pretty? (heh. The optimistic me is more verbose and less focused than other me�s.)

When in a pessimistic mood, translating for myself: �First off, don�t be so stupid that you have to wind up in court. On top of that, don�t be a fool. You know you�re going to be the fool in that scenario and you will cause those around you to be ticked off and aggravated at your stupidity. So just shut up and sit back. You�re a fool, you�ll always be a fool.�

Doesn�t quite sound the same does it?

Though it is my job to avoid being a fool, it is also my job to avoid putting words in God�s mouth. *shrugs* Yeah, it may seem to be an elementary thing, but still� I would imagine I�m not the only one who has noticed this about themselves.

In my opinion, it is of vital importance to have God translate His Word to me rather than me interpreting His Words. You see, God has much greater understanding than do I. Heh, yeah, that�s a �no brain�er. But still� God knows what He meant. I should listen to Him, not me.