When my friend’s daughter was in the foot-stompin’ twos, an important attitude change took place. That’s when her daughter quit saying “Mommy help?” and declared with a pouty voice, “Do SELF!” That stubborn streak of independence follows us way into adulthood. Rather than ask for prayer, we insist, “Do SELF! Me do it!”
That’s not quite like the Bible says to do it. Life is hard, seek support! Or, as the apostle Paul put it: “Be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:6). “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too….” (Col. 4:2).
In reading through Paul's letters, I'm amazed by how he wasn’t shy about asking people to pray for him. Even though people might hear his letters read aloud months after he wrote them, he sought prayer—holy co-involvement—in his life and ministry. He would have loved the immediacy of E-mail to get the word out!
The other thing I noticed about Paul’s letters is how he prayed BIG for others. His letters to the churches are marked by bold requests for their growth in spiritual character. Check them out: Ephesians 1:16-19. Ephesians 3:16-19, Phil. 1:9-11, Col. 1:9-14, Philemon 4-7, 2 Thess. 1:11-12.
Among contemporary authors, I appreciate how Stormie Omartian has compiled scripture for bold, character prayers for loved ones. I’ve given copies of her “Power of a…” series as gifts.
If you want a simpler approach to praying for the adults in your life (parent, sibling, spouse), here are the character-based petitions that I drew out of one of my favorite prayers of Paul, from the first chapter of Colossians.Incorporate them into your Sunday-through-Saturday sections by writing them on the back side of the tab page for that day’s prayer section.
SUNDAY: To follow God’s will, for spiritual wisdom and understanding. Scripture: “Asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9).
MONDAY: To live worthy of God and to bear spiritual fruit. Scripture: “to live a live worthy of the Lord and…[to]please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work” (v. 10).
TUESDAY: To continue to grow spiritually and to love the Bible. Scripture: “growing in the knowledge of God” (v. 10b).
WEDNESDAY: To experience God’s strength for spiritual, emotional and physical challenges. Scripture: “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might” (v. 11a).
THURSDAY: For endurance and patience in life’s hard places. Scripture: “so that you may have great endurance and patience” (v. 11b).
FRIDAY: To have gratitude for God’s gifts. Scripture: “joyfully giving thanks for the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” (v. 12).
SATURDAY: To love God wholeheartedly. Scripture: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (vv. 13-14).
Are the adults for whom you pray not walking with God? All the more reason to pray for them. They may have few, if any, believers in their support network. Offer to pray for needs they express to you. And while you also pray for them to know God, pray that they’ll desire the hope and relationships expressed in Paul’s Colossians 1 prayer.
Right now, they may be saying, “Do SELF!” But they’ll find out it doesn’t really work out. We have a Savior who is waiting and watching, and who yearns to help them.
Next blog post: Alphabet praises
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Praying by the book, Part 3: Special prayers for your children
Central Washington, where I live, is a high desert area with inspiring mountain views, irrigated and fruited valleys, and a moderate climate that gives us four seasons without too many extremes. We don’t have hurricanes (though sometimes a wild wind storm), tornadoes (just dust devils in the wheat fields), blizzards (though a few significant snowfalls), or major earthquakes.
But we do have fires. Whether lightning- or man-caused, they quickly churn through dry forest or brush lands toward homes and towns. Sometimes smoke settles on our valley like a dirty shroud, hard on those of us with asthma and other breathing issues. I remember a couple summers when our urban area of about 40,000 was put on notice for possible evacuation because the fires were rampaging our way. Thankfully, it never happened for us.
As a result, those who live in rural areas prone to wildfires have learned what not to do, like not planting trees near a home where they’ll just act like torches. Instead, they create firebreaks with cleared, bare land, often ringing homes with gravel.
This whole scary fire scene is a picture of the need to pray for our children. They’re out there in a fierce world where sudden gusts of opposition or trouble can put them at risk. Spiritual battles aren’t fought well with the garden hose of wimpy prayers on the order of “Bless Billy” or “Be with Jane.”
For years, I prayed with my kids at bedtime and privately when there were crises, like a health issue or a difficulty at school. But I wasn’t consistent in prayers for the “big picture” of their lives. When they got to high school, I realized that needed to change. Every time they entered that big, gray, almost windowless building, they were in a battlefield of standing for God in a culture that for the most part ignored or dishonored God in word, deed, and purpose.
That’s when I decided I would pray for character issues for my children on a daily basis, in addition to whatever immediate need they faced. I came up with seven big areas on which to focus their prayer, one per day of the week. These I wrote on the back of each divider page of my personal prayer notebook, as follows:
Sunday: growing faith, place of ministry.
Monday: to delight in God’s Word.
Tuesday: purity, future mate.
Wednesday: health and safety.
Thursday: careers, values
Friday: positive attitude, gratitude
Saturday: true, godly friends.
My son and daughter are now in their late twenties. They upheld purity and married Christians. They’re active in their churches. They survived hundreds of miles driving to and from a college four hours away. They prepared well for their careers. They value simple things, like growing a garden or enjoying a community park. They express gratitude to their parents and others. They’re helpful. They have chosen good friends. They are good friends.
As I write this, I thank God for His care as they navigated those turbulent teen years. Many of their peers got too close to the fires of bad choices and continue, as young adults, to grieve their parents.
I still pray for them daily, revising those big areas for the needs I’m aware of in their lives. For example, instead of “future mate,” I’m praying for the mate they now have.
A special note to those who have no children or may not be married: carry the prayer burden for the children or a relative or special friend. God will honor that. Just as dozens of fire fighters stave off destruction in a real fire, there’s lots of room for those who intercede for the next generation.
But we do have fires. Whether lightning- or man-caused, they quickly churn through dry forest or brush lands toward homes and towns. Sometimes smoke settles on our valley like a dirty shroud, hard on those of us with asthma and other breathing issues. I remember a couple summers when our urban area of about 40,000 was put on notice for possible evacuation because the fires were rampaging our way. Thankfully, it never happened for us.
As a result, those who live in rural areas prone to wildfires have learned what not to do, like not planting trees near a home where they’ll just act like torches. Instead, they create firebreaks with cleared, bare land, often ringing homes with gravel.
This whole scary fire scene is a picture of the need to pray for our children. They’re out there in a fierce world where sudden gusts of opposition or trouble can put them at risk. Spiritual battles aren’t fought well with the garden hose of wimpy prayers on the order of “Bless Billy” or “Be with Jane.”
For years, I prayed with my kids at bedtime and privately when there were crises, like a health issue or a difficulty at school. But I wasn’t consistent in prayers for the “big picture” of their lives. When they got to high school, I realized that needed to change. Every time they entered that big, gray, almost windowless building, they were in a battlefield of standing for God in a culture that for the most part ignored or dishonored God in word, deed, and purpose.
That’s when I decided I would pray for character issues for my children on a daily basis, in addition to whatever immediate need they faced. I came up with seven big areas on which to focus their prayer, one per day of the week. These I wrote on the back of each divider page of my personal prayer notebook, as follows:
Sunday: growing faith, place of ministry.
Monday: to delight in God’s Word.
Tuesday: purity, future mate.
Wednesday: health and safety.
Thursday: careers, values
Friday: positive attitude, gratitude
Saturday: true, godly friends.
My son and daughter are now in their late twenties. They upheld purity and married Christians. They’re active in their churches. They survived hundreds of miles driving to and from a college four hours away. They prepared well for their careers. They value simple things, like growing a garden or enjoying a community park. They express gratitude to their parents and others. They’re helpful. They have chosen good friends. They are good friends.
As I write this, I thank God for His care as they navigated those turbulent teen years. Many of their peers got too close to the fires of bad choices and continue, as young adults, to grieve their parents.
I still pray for them daily, revising those big areas for the needs I’m aware of in their lives. For example, instead of “future mate,” I’m praying for the mate they now have.
A special note to those who have no children or may not be married: carry the prayer burden for the children or a relative or special friend. God will honor that. Just as dozens of fire fighters stave off destruction in a real fire, there’s lots of room for those who intercede for the next generation.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
PRAYING BY THE BOOK—Setting up a prayer notebook, continued
In my Oct. 3 blog post about setting up a prayer notebook, I summarized the nuts-and-bolts of dividing prayer requests among days of the week, including missionaries or Christian workers you know. I promised to detail later more about praying for your children and for adult family members.
I forgot something! As you spread out your heart concerns among days of the week, consider adding some other prayer areas. Mark them on the back of each day's divider tab. Here are ones in my notebook:
Sunday: specific needs of my church. For example, mine had two extended pastor searches. Now, our church is being challenged to participate more in serving the local and global poor.
Monday: my own work and ministry. Even though praying happens in front of my computer when I really struggle with a piece, I also pray about the big picture of my writing/speaking ministry.
Tuesday: the 10/40 window (the greatest concentration of Islam between these latitudes on the globe) and a child in Haiti we sponsor in a compassion ministry.
Wednesday: government. This includes local and national leaders. How much we need to do this! Check this web site, sponsored by a non-profit group, for some specifics: www.presidentialprayerteam.com
Thursday: neighbors. While praying, I imagine walking around my block and stopping to pray for each household. Addictions, broken marriages, spiritual apathy—there’s lots to pray about.
Friday: the spiritually troubled, including specific prisoners I know of, others with addictions, and those family members and friends who don’t see their need of Christ.
Saturday: long-term special needs. My list includes friends and relatives with rebellious children and others struggling to “do life” in their Christian journey. Most are not aware that I am praying for them.
Next post: praying for your children. Is this helping you? Please forward the blog link to others: http://jeannezornes.blogspot.com
I forgot something! As you spread out your heart concerns among days of the week, consider adding some other prayer areas. Mark them on the back of each day's divider tab. Here are ones in my notebook:
Sunday: specific needs of my church. For example, mine had two extended pastor searches. Now, our church is being challenged to participate more in serving the local and global poor.
Monday: my own work and ministry. Even though praying happens in front of my computer when I really struggle with a piece, I also pray about the big picture of my writing/speaking ministry.
Tuesday: the 10/40 window (the greatest concentration of Islam between these latitudes on the globe) and a child in Haiti we sponsor in a compassion ministry.
Wednesday: government. This includes local and national leaders. How much we need to do this! Check this web site, sponsored by a non-profit group, for some specifics: www.presidentialprayerteam.com
Thursday: neighbors. While praying, I imagine walking around my block and stopping to pray for each household. Addictions, broken marriages, spiritual apathy—there’s lots to pray about.
Friday: the spiritually troubled, including specific prisoners I know of, others with addictions, and those family members and friends who don’t see their need of Christ.
Saturday: long-term special needs. My list includes friends and relatives with rebellious children and others struggling to “do life” in their Christian journey. Most are not aware that I am praying for them.
Next post: praying for your children. Is this helping you? Please forward the blog link to others: http://jeannezornes.blogspot.com
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Praying by the book, Part 2: Setting up a Prayer Notebook
Ready to be more proactive in your prayer life? In this blog I’ll explain, as promised in last week’s blog, how to set up a personal prayer notebook.You’ll need:
*A small ringed notebook and at least about 30 sheets of filler paper. I prefer a six-ring notebook that measures about 4 ½ by 7 inches, small enough to fit in the pocket of my Bible cover. Mine was second-hand; my local drug-etc. store sells them for $5 in the stationery aisle. For some reason, I haven’t found them in office supply stores in my town.
*Small photos of people you pray for regularly, such as missionaries
*Heavier paper, like card stock, to make dividers
*A paper punch
*Stick-on colored tab dividers. I cut them in half, which means several people could share one package for the 10 sections I suggest. Instead of the heavier plastic dividers, you could use self-adhesive blank address labels (the 1x3” size), folded over to make a tap on the outside of the paper.
*Sticky notes (like Post-it ®)
*Paste
*Scissors
To assemble the notebook:
1. Using the heavier paper, cut ten dividers the size of your filler paper.
2. With your filler paper as a guide, punch ring holes.
3. Prepare divider tabs: one for each day of the week plus one labeled “A-Z” and another “Jordan Stones.”
4. Attach tabs to divider pages. Your first divider will have no tab (it’s for daily prayer reminders). The second one will start with “Sunday.” Your last two dividers will be “A-Z” and “Jordan Stones.” [These last two involve praise reminders.]
5. Add filler paper behind each tabbed section.
6. Consider putting an address label on the front inside cover of the notebook, just in case if gets lost.
7. Place a sticky note on the front blank tab and write on it the names of those in difficult situations that you decide you will pray for daily. This may be people with serious or terminal diseases, the grieving, and those in troubled marriages. When someone I know loses a spouse or loved one, I tell them that I will commit to praying for them daily in the first year of being alone. I mark after their name the date of their loved one’s death, so I know when the year is up. At that time I write them a note of care.
8. Behind each divider for a day of the week, use separate pages for people you will focus prayers on. For example, on Sunday, I pray for my church and for a pastor. I divide missionaries and Christian workers among other days of the week. Each person or family has its own “page” with a photo, contact information, birthdays, and a sticky note for current prayer needs. (The sticky note enables me to make changes without re-doing the whole page.)
NEXT BLOG: Praying for children
Monday, September 27, 2010
Praying by the Book, Part 1--Persistent in Prayer
My husband had brought home a “fixer” bike that came with a four-number combination lock and security chain tightly looped through it. Enter his assistant, the Great Bike Chain Sleuth, aka me. I methodically went through all possible combinations of the six-number reels. You math whizzes, that’s six to the fourth power, or 1,296 possibilities. Actually, I did that three times. Somehow, I didn’t have the winning combination exactly lined up, and the chain stayed shut. Only on the third try—my “entertainment” as a passenger on a long road trip- did it fall apart at 6214.I looked up, rested my bruised thumbs, and said, “Thank you!”
Diligence. Perseverance. We need them in life’s daily tasks. We also need them in our spiritual lives, particularly in the calling to pray.
I’d like to suggest that a little hand-size notebook that costs about five dollars (or less if you find a used one) may help you be more consistent and fervent in prayer. I started using a home-made “personal prayer notebook” sometime in the Eighties—yes, that era of fluffy hair, huge shoulder pads, and ankle-length skirts. Styles may change, but the need of purposed prayer doesn’t.
Even with the availability of today’s electronic personal calendar and reminder devices, there’s still nothing like the paper version.
Some of you may remember how the personal planner craze of a couple decades ago popularized notebooks that got as big as a book. Their binder rings captured everything from a comprehensive daily schedule to shopping lists, family sizes, wish lists, personal goals (like “get organized”), financial records, addresses and maybe a personal journal. Some included a calculator and ruler. As I browsed office supply stores, I thought a few seemed huge enough for the agenda for the National Security Council of the United Nations!
I never went for the donkey-cart size. I made my own with a palm-size six-ring notebook. Just the basics, ma’am, to survive life with a busy family, which meant a calendar, to-do list, and a place for coupons. I also had one back section for “prayer requests,” all lined up with columns for “date asked, date answered.” But after a few years, that approach to remembering who and what to pray for just wasn’t working for me.
It seemed, too, that my prayer life was dropping to the level of a snack machine. You know the type: insert money, pull a lever, enjoy-empty-calories-that-plunk-into-slot. Plus, to be honest, my lists were getting so long. I was rushing through just to “finish the list,” not genuinely speaking to God about the people and things that I cared about.
For me, the solution came in separating it from the other “organizing” stuff of life. I started another small six-ring notebook, just big enough to fit in the pocket of my Bible cover. With stick-on labels, I divided it into daily sections, Sunday through Saturday, assigning prayer commitments to certain days. In the next few blogs I’ll explain just how it’s set up.
In recent years I’ve been sharing the specifics of this “personal prayer notebook” concept when I speak at women’s weekend events. Many find it helpful and buy up all the little notebooks I’ve created for them. My handouts disappear. What works for me seems to be what other women want, too.
Okay, I’m old-fashioned, still using paper. But it never fails me. It never needs recharging. And I don’t wear out my thumb knuckles looking for elusive information.
Over the next few blogs I’ll cover:
*Setting up a notebook
*Special prayers for your children
*Special prayers for adult family members
*A-Z praises
*Jordan Stones (got you curious on that?)
I’ll try to post them every Monday. Hope after visiting, you’ll forward the link to others.
(Did I say “link”—as in chain?)
Friday, September 10, 2010
DEVO your Bible
You’ve probably heard this saying about Bible reading: “A chapter a day keeps the devil away.”
Well, if you tried that and got stuck in the Old Testament genealogies with all their “begats,” you know that’s not true. Not that you can’t find some fascinating truths in those lists! One of my former Bible school profs, Bruce Wilkinson, became famous for a book on the “begat” that produced “Jabez,” a poor fellow whose name means “pain.”
But if you’re trying to read the Bible and it sometimes seems like you’re checking off a list of what you ought to do, but it’s not getting through to you, take heart.
It was in Bruce Wilkinson’s class on Bible study methods long ago (1977, if you really want to know) that I did a paper advocating a devotional methodology with the acrostic DEVO (the first four letters of “devotions,” if you didn’t notice). I still have the paper I did on it. (Yes, he gave me an A+.) Since then, I’ve had articles based on DEVO published in about a dozen magazines.
Though I didn’t know it then (hey, I’m slow), the Bible reading approach that worked for me is much like that from ancient church history, called Lectio Divina (“divine reading”). Basically, that involves reading a passage aloud several times and thinking it through (lectio), reflecting on the text (meditatio), praying a response back to God (oratio), and resting in God’s presence (contemplatio).
Here’s the DEVO approach—preceded by prayer that God will open your heart to understand:
DELIGHT in it. The passage you choose from scripture need not be long. Savor it as you read it, as you might stretch out a bowl of your favorite ice cream with tiny spoonfuls. The famed preacher Charles Spurgeon once remarked, “I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses [of the Bible] all day than rinse my hand in several chapters.” You might feel “fed” in a chapter, or a paragraph or even a verse or two.
ENGRAVE it. Long ago before computers there were clay tablets in which scribes twisted sticks to make crude letters. Zoom into 21st century with pens and pencils and highlighters. Interact with something you write down. You may choose to write insights in a journal or write right in your Bible. As a kid, influenced by grade school rules that said NO WRITING IN TEXTBOOKS, I had the cleanest Bible around. Then my life intersected with a godly older woman who personalized her Bible by starring verses, writing dates by them, circling key words, drawing lines between similar words or passages, adding notes from sermons….you get the idea. She wasn’t checking off a reading schedule. She was interacting with the passage.
VERSE it. Go back and choose a key verse of that day’s passage. Decide how it spoke to you. Did it encourage you? Chastise you? Remind you of something to do? Do you need to put it in a bank? (The memory bank, that is.) Keep a supply of 3x5 cards in the back of your Bible to write out those special-to-you verses. Start reading them repeatedly until they become part of your memory.
OBEY it. Close your Bible-reading time with prayer. If the passage prompted a prayer for yourself regarding an area of your life which hasn’t been on board with God, confess it, and ask for help to change. If it reminded you of another person’s need, pray about that. The other morning I was in Isaiah 40. Oh my! That chapter is PACKED with good things. When I read it, it’s like the days we have storms blowing through. There’s sunlight, and then storm, then the sun peeks through again. Here, there’s judgment and hope, hardness and tenderness. I stopped at verse 11:
He tends his flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
Well, if you tried that and got stuck in the Old Testament genealogies with all their “begats,” you know that’s not true. Not that you can’t find some fascinating truths in those lists! One of my former Bible school profs, Bruce Wilkinson, became famous for a book on the “begat” that produced “Jabez,” a poor fellow whose name means “pain.”
But if you’re trying to read the Bible and it sometimes seems like you’re checking off a list of what you ought to do, but it’s not getting through to you, take heart.
It was in Bruce Wilkinson’s class on Bible study methods long ago (1977, if you really want to know) that I did a paper advocating a devotional methodology with the acrostic DEVO (the first four letters of “devotions,” if you didn’t notice). I still have the paper I did on it. (Yes, he gave me an A+.) Since then, I’ve had articles based on DEVO published in about a dozen magazines.
Though I didn’t know it then (hey, I’m slow), the Bible reading approach that worked for me is much like that from ancient church history, called Lectio Divina (“divine reading”). Basically, that involves reading a passage aloud several times and thinking it through (lectio), reflecting on the text (meditatio), praying a response back to God (oratio), and resting in God’s presence (contemplatio).
Here’s the DEVO approach—preceded by prayer that God will open your heart to understand:
DELIGHT in it. The passage you choose from scripture need not be long. Savor it as you read it, as you might stretch out a bowl of your favorite ice cream with tiny spoonfuls. The famed preacher Charles Spurgeon once remarked, “I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses [of the Bible] all day than rinse my hand in several chapters.” You might feel “fed” in a chapter, or a paragraph or even a verse or two.
ENGRAVE it. Long ago before computers there were clay tablets in which scribes twisted sticks to make crude letters. Zoom into 21st century with pens and pencils and highlighters. Interact with something you write down. You may choose to write insights in a journal or write right in your Bible. As a kid, influenced by grade school rules that said NO WRITING IN TEXTBOOKS, I had the cleanest Bible around. Then my life intersected with a godly older woman who personalized her Bible by starring verses, writing dates by them, circling key words, drawing lines between similar words or passages, adding notes from sermons….you get the idea. She wasn’t checking off a reading schedule. She was interacting with the passage.
VERSE it. Go back and choose a key verse of that day’s passage. Decide how it spoke to you. Did it encourage you? Chastise you? Remind you of something to do? Do you need to put it in a bank? (The memory bank, that is.) Keep a supply of 3x5 cards in the back of your Bible to write out those special-to-you verses. Start reading them repeatedly until they become part of your memory.
OBEY it. Close your Bible-reading time with prayer. If the passage prompted a prayer for yourself regarding an area of your life which hasn’t been on board with God, confess it, and ask for help to change. If it reminded you of another person’s need, pray about that. The other morning I was in Isaiah 40. Oh my! That chapter is PACKED with good things. When I read it, it’s like the days we have storms blowing through. There’s sunlight, and then storm, then the sun peeks through again. Here, there’s judgment and hope, hardness and tenderness. I stopped at verse 11:
He tends his flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
A lot of things came to mind—for one, how that passage inspired a magnificent solo in Handel’s Messiah. I thought of the Shepherd Psalm (Psalm 23) and Jesus’ declaration that HE is the good shepherd (John 10). One of my read-again-and-again Christian books is Phillip Keller’s A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. As a shepherd he brought wonderful insights into each verse.
But mostly I thought of a mom with three college-age kids, left alone after a divorce. I closed my eyes and pictured Jesus picking her up in her trials and sadness, and then scooping up her lambs (yes, as teens/young adults they’re still “lambs”) in one big, comforting hug. I prayed that she would know how close to His heart she really is.
But mostly I thought of a mom with three college-age kids, left alone after a divorce. I closed my eyes and pictured Jesus picking her up in her trials and sadness, and then scooping up her lambs (yes, as teens/young adults they’re still “lambs”) in one big, comforting hug. I prayed that she would know how close to His heart she really is.
Does that make sense for you? Does it help you? I’ve often shared DEVO when speaking at women’s retreats, where my feedback is always positive. Feel free to give me some feedback, too. Below these blogs there’s always a place to do so.
P.S. I’ve noticed some “followers” from Malaysia. Welcome! At Wheaton Graduate School about 1980 I had a roommate from Malaysia. I still have the “Star of David” pin she bought for me on a Holy Land tour and I’ve wondered through the years what she is doing. I believe her name was Jeanette.
P.S. I’ve noticed some “followers” from Malaysia. Welcome! At Wheaton Graduate School about 1980 I had a roommate from Malaysia. I still have the “Star of David” pin she bought for me on a Holy Land tour and I’ve wondered through the years what she is doing. I believe her name was Jeanette.
Some burning questions
Hi! I usually aim for something light and hopeful in this column, but this subject weighed on my heart even before the recent news about a Florida church's controversial plan to burn the holy book of another religion. For comment on that, I commend a column by Christian author and pastor James Watkins: http://www.jameswatkins.com/toptentopten.htm#5.
Now, my thoughts....
The magazine’s cover photo is compelling: a woman in Laos cradling her charred Bible. The accompanying story in the September 2010 Voice of the Martyrs explained how villagers who opposed her faith ransacked her home for Christian materials and burned them.
This is not a feel-good magazine. It’s full of reports of people paying dearly for being Christians. This woman is from the Khmu tribe, considered the original inhabitants of Laos but called by other Laotians the khu, a condescending term that means “slave.”
Even though the world looks down on slaves, the Bible exalts slavery as symbolic of living for Christ. The Greek word doulos, which means “slave,” is found more than a hundred times in the most authoritative Greek manuscripts, many times referring to Christians.
Hold on with me. This will get a little technical, but you’ll be glad you did. Translation is a complicated science. Even within language families, the variations and rules are diverse. For example, we might look at the sky and say, “See the bird.” But go a few more layers. What is its specie? How is it flying? Is it male or female and in a certain cycle of life? Would you need the specific word, for example, that names a male red-winged blackbird that soars in mid-sky but is now chirping in the cattails for a female to mate with? Some languages can get that picky.
While serving with another mission group years ago, I remember hearing of a well-meaning but naive elderly woman who wanted to help Bible translation efforts among tribal groups. She said if they’d just send her the dictionary for a language, she’d sit down and translate from her beloved English-language Bible. It just doesn’t work that way. Languages have different grammar rules and layers of words for concepts.
That’s especially true in translating New Testament Greek into English. The King James Version, for example, uses only one word, “servant,” for several very different Greek words, depriving us of a deeper understanding of the text. Some words it translates “servant”:
*diakonos--one who serves or ministers (like the helpers who drew water in John 2’s water-to-wine miracle).
*therapon—derived from therapeuo (“to serve, to heal”—origin of our word “therapy”) and considered a term of dignity and freedom, used only once of Moses, faithful as a servant of God (Hebrew 3:5).
*huperetes—an “under-rower, underling” (like the high priest’s guards in Mark 14).
*oiketes—a “house-servant” (“a servant can’t serve two masters”--Luke 16:13).
*doulos—one who serves under bondage, a slave. Doulos comes from the verb deo, which means “to bind, be in bounds, knit, tie or wind,” and used of those bought for a price. The closest words in English are “slave,” “bondman,” or “bondservant,” all used in newer translations. The First Century doulos held a lowly position, serving completely at the will of the master. Its frequent use in the New Testament reflects how slaves comprised half the population of the Roman world.
The Voice of the Martyrs article suggested that the first translators of the New Testament (from Greek to Latin) toned down the shocking term “slave” for the more socially acceptable “servant." Even today, servant is a more pleasant term, making us think of Fifi the laundress, Helen the cook, or Jeeves the chauffeur.
But doulos-servanthood is more intense, costly, even darker, a difference you won’t catch unless you read a Greek New Testament or do a word study. It’s also the role believers assume in love for Christ, who paid the price for them on Calvary. In the Upper Room before His crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples to expect persecution, as no servant (doulos, or slave) is greater than his Master (John 15:20). In many of his letters, the apostle Paul referred to himself as “Paul, a doulos of Christ Jesus.”
For the Khmus, persecution is losing homes, being beaten, having Bibles burned. Asked how they felt about that, they said their persecution is just what Jesus said would happen in the Bible, and their suffering proves He is God.
What more can I say, except ask if my faith hears the call to be a doulos for Christ?
Now, my thoughts....
The magazine’s cover photo is compelling: a woman in Laos cradling her charred Bible. The accompanying story in the September 2010 Voice of the Martyrs explained how villagers who opposed her faith ransacked her home for Christian materials and burned them.
This is not a feel-good magazine. It’s full of reports of people paying dearly for being Christians. This woman is from the Khmu tribe, considered the original inhabitants of Laos but called by other Laotians the khu, a condescending term that means “slave.”
Even though the world looks down on slaves, the Bible exalts slavery as symbolic of living for Christ. The Greek word doulos, which means “slave,” is found more than a hundred times in the most authoritative Greek manuscripts, many times referring to Christians.
Hold on with me. This will get a little technical, but you’ll be glad you did. Translation is a complicated science. Even within language families, the variations and rules are diverse. For example, we might look at the sky and say, “See the bird.” But go a few more layers. What is its specie? How is it flying? Is it male or female and in a certain cycle of life? Would you need the specific word, for example, that names a male red-winged blackbird that soars in mid-sky but is now chirping in the cattails for a female to mate with? Some languages can get that picky.
While serving with another mission group years ago, I remember hearing of a well-meaning but naive elderly woman who wanted to help Bible translation efforts among tribal groups. She said if they’d just send her the dictionary for a language, she’d sit down and translate from her beloved English-language Bible. It just doesn’t work that way. Languages have different grammar rules and layers of words for concepts.
That’s especially true in translating New Testament Greek into English. The King James Version, for example, uses only one word, “servant,” for several very different Greek words, depriving us of a deeper understanding of the text. Some words it translates “servant”:
*diakonos--one who serves or ministers (like the helpers who drew water in John 2’s water-to-wine miracle).
*therapon—derived from therapeuo (“to serve, to heal”—origin of our word “therapy”) and considered a term of dignity and freedom, used only once of Moses, faithful as a servant of God (Hebrew 3:5).
*huperetes—an “under-rower, underling” (like the high priest’s guards in Mark 14).
*oiketes—a “house-servant” (“a servant can’t serve two masters”--Luke 16:13).
*doulos—one who serves under bondage, a slave. Doulos comes from the verb deo, which means “to bind, be in bounds, knit, tie or wind,” and used of those bought for a price. The closest words in English are “slave,” “bondman,” or “bondservant,” all used in newer translations. The First Century doulos held a lowly position, serving completely at the will of the master. Its frequent use in the New Testament reflects how slaves comprised half the population of the Roman world.
The Voice of the Martyrs article suggested that the first translators of the New Testament (from Greek to Latin) toned down the shocking term “slave” for the more socially acceptable “servant." Even today, servant is a more pleasant term, making us think of Fifi the laundress, Helen the cook, or Jeeves the chauffeur.
But doulos-servanthood is more intense, costly, even darker, a difference you won’t catch unless you read a Greek New Testament or do a word study. It’s also the role believers assume in love for Christ, who paid the price for them on Calvary. In the Upper Room before His crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples to expect persecution, as no servant (doulos, or slave) is greater than his Master (John 15:20). In many of his letters, the apostle Paul referred to himself as “Paul, a doulos of Christ Jesus.”
For the Khmus, persecution is losing homes, being beaten, having Bibles burned. Asked how they felt about that, they said their persecution is just what Jesus said would happen in the Bible, and their suffering proves He is God.
What more can I say, except ask if my faith hears the call to be a doulos for Christ?
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