16 I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.
We need all the tools that we can get our hands - and our ears and eyes - on in order to make the Word of God part of us. There are numerous influences that can serve to keep our minds on a myriad of other things, and that can challenge us to make the Bible and the study of Scripture a priority. His Word gives life to us, and we can certainly discover, as the Psalmist puts it, "Wondrous things!" In God's Word are treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and God offers them to us as we set aside the pull of the world and concentrate on Him.
I want to concentrate here on one verse from 2nd Timothy chapter 2, encouraging us to take the proper approach to the truth of God's Word:
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
In addition to the assortment of Bible translations and what might be termed to be paraphrases, enter another player into the world of Bible accessibility: "Bible Emoji," subtitled, "Scripture for Millenials" (that's how they spell it - with one "n"). According to Christianity Today, this is a King James Version with 10 to 15 percent of the text swapped for emojis; with about one or two symbols appearing in each verse.
The story says that a translator program substituted 80 icons directly representing 200 different words in the text; for instance; a tree for a tree, water droplets for rain, and a smiley face emoji with a halo for God. It is also written in all lowercase and makes some, as the article says, “text-friendly substitutions,” like changing “and” to the ampersand.
CT points out that:
The article also points out that users can themselves translate phrases from the religious book on a website. The address is www.bibleemoji.com. The site says: "enter ur fave Bible verse on the left" and that "emoji awesomeness appears on the right."
The Christianity Today website says that this new emoji version follows other lighthearted 21st-century translations such as the LOLCat Bible and the Lego Brick Bible.
But, can you take it seriously? One thing I can say, you could say it is a way to access the Bible in a more lighthearted way, and the exposure to God's Word can obviously be positive...after all, His Word will not return void, right?
But, the concept of the translation seems to lack seriousness. In a quest to do something different with the Bible, one has to make sure that he or she doesn't undercut the authority of the Bible - yes, these are God's words, and I would contend that perhaps they should be treated with more reverence.
All across our land, churches are attempting to reach children through the fun and effective device known as Vacation Bible School. And, there is a high degree of fun that takes place during that week, as children learn more about God, His Word, and the stories contained within it. It's fun with a purpose! But, is there a spiritual purpose for an emoji Bible translation? One could say that it is fun for fun's sake, fun for trendiness, and we have to be careful that we're approaching the Bible with the right spirit.
But, for a millennial with no experience with Scripture, this new "translation" could be an entry-level way for him or her to be exposed to the Bible, and hopefully to be inspired to go deeper. We should be striving for spiritual depth, digging deeply into the truths of Scriptures, so that we may apply them accurately and effectively into our lives.
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I want to concentrate here on one verse from 2nd Timothy chapter 2, encouraging us to take the proper approach to the truth of God's Word:
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
In addition to the assortment of Bible translations and what might be termed to be paraphrases, enter another player into the world of Bible accessibility: "Bible Emoji," subtitled, "Scripture for Millenials" (that's how they spell it - with one "n"). According to Christianity Today, this is a King James Version with 10 to 15 percent of the text swapped for emojis; with about one or two symbols appearing in each verse.
The story says that a translator program substituted 80 icons directly representing 200 different words in the text; for instance; a tree for a tree, water droplets for rain, and a smiley face emoji with a halo for God. It is also written in all lowercase and makes some, as the article says, “text-friendly substitutions,” like changing “and” to the ampersand.
CT points out that:
Especially in the past year, emojis have become a huge cultural force, with billions of the tiny icons texted and tweeted across the globe. The “face with tears of joy” emoji was declared 2015’s word of the year.
This iconic shorthand also gets incorporated into Christian expression. Emoji appear in about 3 percent of Bible verse tweets without images and about 13 percent of Bible verses tweets with images, according to analysis of the “emojipocalypse” by Stephen Smith at OpenBible.info. Popular emojis accompanying Bible verses—often as reaction, rather than transliteration—include prayer hands (No. 1), praise hands (No. 3), hearts, an open book, a pointed finger, an angel, and fire.The Daily Mail website featured some comments from the "translator," who told The Memo: "You start with emojis that are really common — for instance, the earth emoji can mean earth, world, or planet." He said, "I've received a lot of tweets, some very nice some very, not nice." But, he added: "But it's all worth the goal of making the Bible a little more approachable, to inject some levity, and to get people to look at it, with no particular agenda beyond that."
The article also points out that users can themselves translate phrases from the religious book on a website. The address is www.bibleemoji.com. The site says: "enter ur fave Bible verse on the left" and that "emoji awesomeness appears on the right."
The Christianity Today website says that this new emoji version follows other lighthearted 21st-century translations such as the LOLCat Bible and the Lego Brick Bible.
But, can you take it seriously? One thing I can say, you could say it is a way to access the Bible in a more lighthearted way, and the exposure to God's Word can obviously be positive...after all, His Word will not return void, right?
But, the concept of the translation seems to lack seriousness. In a quest to do something different with the Bible, one has to make sure that he or she doesn't undercut the authority of the Bible - yes, these are God's words, and I would contend that perhaps they should be treated with more reverence.
All across our land, churches are attempting to reach children through the fun and effective device known as Vacation Bible School. And, there is a high degree of fun that takes place during that week, as children learn more about God, His Word, and the stories contained within it. It's fun with a purpose! But, is there a spiritual purpose for an emoji Bible translation? One could say that it is fun for fun's sake, fun for trendiness, and we have to be careful that we're approaching the Bible with the right spirit.
But, for a millennial with no experience with Scripture, this new "translation" could be an entry-level way for him or her to be exposed to the Bible, and hopefully to be inspired to go deeper. We should be striving for spiritual depth, digging deeply into the truths of Scriptures, so that we may apply them accurately and effectively into our lives.
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