Don't you love the excitement and giddiness of something that you've ordered being delivered? Whether it's something for a tackle box or new outfit that is adorable, we kinda get excited about the delivery don't we? Well, I had someone order me a parallel Bible last week and I have been anxiously waiting for it to be delivered. Every morning as I leave my house I think, "I bet it's coming today" and my stomach does a little flip! Isn't that crazy! A 38 year old woman getting butterflies because she THINKS a Bible might be delivered that day. And then at night, a little disappointed, I go to bed and think maybe tomorrow. Wake up, giddy, go to bed, disappointed. I wish I could tell you my Bible came today and my routine would stop tonight but it still hasn't so I guess I will crawl in bed in a bit and think, "maybe tomorrow".
I have fallen in love with the Word of God. I have used the NIV Life Application Study Bible for over 10 years now. I have actually worn one Bible out and and to have it rebound. I had to be away from it for almost 2 weeks while they were fixing the the cover and spine so I went and bought another one that had large print! I didn't mean to be cheating on my old Bible but while it was at the Bible hospital, I fell in love with the large print. So now I have two NIV Bibles that have tons of notes in them!
Last August, I bought my man a New King James Version Bible. I would get his out and read a section of verses and then compare the words in his to the words in my NIV. Doing that has really sparked my interest in other translations. I also love The Message although it clumps scriptures together. I have a Bible app on my iPhone called Blue Letter Bible and I LOVE IT! You can highlight a verse and then tap "version comparison" and it lists about 15 different versions to that one scripture. The app is FREE so if you are interested in a Bible app, I recommend it highly. Not only does it compare the different versions, it has a concordance and lexicon, dictionary and even commentaries. It totally rocks for me!
So this morning God had led me to Genesis 3 and I began reading in verse 1. It reads like this: Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made. "Really?" he asked the woman. "Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?" and that is the NLT version. I stopped and thought about that for a minute. Isn't that just like Satan to make us second guess things. Did God REALLY say... You know the devil knows scripture better than some of us do and he knows how to twist and turn it into a trap for us. And people that are not very familiar with The Word are an easy target for him. Anyway, skip on to verse 4. "You won't die!" the serpent hissed. Hissed. That word makes you wrinkle up your face doesn't it. I don't like that word. I do however, like how the NLT version replaced "said" with "hissed". It kinda gives us a feeling of how Satan really is. He hisses at people doesn't he? The Hebrew word for said is 'amar and it means to say, speak, utter, to say in one's heart, to think. WOWZERS. Satan doesn't audibly SPEAK to us, he puts things in our minds and in our hearts. Yes, even in our hearts.
We are told by many to follow our hearts but let me tell you, our hearts can get us in a world of trouble, especially when the devil has put something in there. Jeremiah 17:9 reads, " The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? " I don't know about you, but when I've "listened to and followed" my heart, I ended up in a M-E-S-S! Now God can take a mess and make good come out of it but if we will seek out the Holy Spirit instead of our heart, we will be sitting pretty! So just beware, you can't always take what your feeling because the devil can mess with those feelings. He can dangle something that looks good in front of us but if our gut is telling us it's not the real thing, then chances are it's not.
I want to encourage you to stop trusting in your heart, yourself, and things of this world and trust in Him. Your heart and its desires will allow you to do and think all sorts of things that do not line up with the Scriptures. You will be amazed at the things He will bring into your life when you continually surrender everything to Him.
I am.
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