Good. Bonne. Bien.

"We are to make the Word more simple."

FOR 55 YEARS I’ve heard my mother teach the Word of God, and there’s something she always says that rises up within me right now. When teaching different topics, she frequently says, “The Word of God says the same thing in many different ways.” Some like to nitpick between words, and definition is needed from Hebrew to English and Greek to English. Yet, take teaching on faith, for instance. I’ve chosen not to use the word “faith” much, and I’ve explained why. But when studying God’s Word, we can know to “have faith” is the same as “to believe”, and “to believe” is the same as to “trust God”. We can do the same comparison with the words “joy” and “happiness”. There isn’t a difference between them. We can throw in the Hebrew word “shalom” which means well-being. There again is joy and happiness.

The issue with nitpicking words and making them not alike is it causes people to spend too much time picking between them, and they can get confused. It makes people sin-conscious. We are to encourage people. We are to make the Word more simple, not more difficult. This was the purpose of the Law. It was full of rules that created more rules, all of it to make man see they couldn’t earn salvation. That said, the reason God outlined the Law the way He did was to prevent idol worship. Israel was so easily led astray by the nations around them, specifically at the start, the ways of Egypt. Egypt was doing some serious witchcraft, and Israel was in bondage there for hundreds of years. Idol worship is very “me centered”, another term from my mother. If you consider it: the idol was created the way men wanted it to be, the worship was done the way men wanted it to be, they wrote the story of the idol from their own imagination. God wanted His worship to be selfless. So nothing He gave them could be duplicated, the anointing oil, for instance. They were forbidden to copy it. He would not have it used in any other way.

A study of the Law will show this clearly. But for here, I used it as an example to show God’s wisdom and our need to focus on Truth and not get lost in the details. To praise Him is to worship Him, is to spend time in the secret place, is to exalt Him. These are all ways of saying the same thing. Think of it this way. Whether a song is sun in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, or English, it has the same message. Sometimes, there is a different inflection in the words, but the heart of it is the same.

Jesus loves you. God delights in you. The Father has pleasure in His children. The Spirit is love, joy, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). All the above.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“For this is how much God loved the world—he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.” (John 3:16, TPT)

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” (John 3:16 MSG)

“God loved the people in the world so much that he gave his one and only Son to save them. As a result, everyone who believes in the Son will not die. Instead, they will live for ever with God.” (John 3:16, Easy)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com