AUGUST 2006
Dear Mt. Olive family and
friends,
“Words are fun!
Just a single letter can change a word’s meaning. “I get to go to church,” communicates
quite a different mind-set than “I got to go to church.” “I get to help my neighbor,” expresses
a God-pleasing, Gospel-driven privilege.
“I got to help my neighbor,” conveys an unhealthy law-oriented,
duty-based attitude.”
That’s how I began my opening
devotion for the “Meditations” booklet (week of July 23, 2006). Since I was using as a weekly theme, “United or Untied,” I wanted to
emphasize how one letter can significantly change the meaning of a word or the
intent of a sentence. I even underlined
the words get and got to give them greater emphasis.
Imagine my surprise when the
booklet came out and the edited version read as follows:
“Words are fun!
Just a single letter can change a word’s meaning. “I get to go to church,” communicates quite a
different mind-set than “I have to go to church.” “I get to help my neighbor,” expresses a
God-pleasing, gospel-driven privilege.
“I have to help my neighbor,” conveys an unhealthy law-oriented,
duty-based attitude.”
The editors obviously missed
my whole point of a single letter
changing a word’s meaning. (Yes, I know
that “I got to…” is unacceptable English, but I was hoping to make a
point. If the editors
had corrected it to read, “I’ve got to…” that I would have understood.)
My daughter is an editor, so I do appreciate the work
that editors do. I know that they follow
specific rules and guidelines, and work hard at making that which is written by
others – (often a host of others) – readable and seamless, as though all
written by the same person. They spend
eight hours a day or more staring at words, studying sentence structure and
grammar. I applaud their diligent work.
As I
read the editor-revised version of my devotional article, it occurred to me
that we – consciously or unconsciously – tend to do the same thing with God’s
Holy Word. We become editors. Very deliberately, those who don’t accept a
literal six-day creation of the world put on their editor’s cap and rewrite the
inspired text. In their minds, each
24-hour day becomes a million years.
Very consciously, those who do not believe in miracles will “edit” God’s
infallible Word to fit their way of thinking.
Unconsciously, we all do the
same with challenging verses of God’s inerrant Word. So when we come upon Jesus’ words in Luke
14:26-27, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and
mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own
life-- he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and
follow Me cannot be My disciple,” we “edit out”
the undesirable parts and pretend that Jesus doesn’t mean what He says. And when we read Jesus’ clear words, “All
men will hate you because of Me,” (Luke 21:17), we
don the editor’s cap once again and draw a line through the statement. Let’s face it; we don’t want the world to
hate us. We long to be liked and loved
by everyone! We don’t want trouble in
the home – or anywhere else – because of Jesus.
Something else occurred to me
as I compared my devotional writings as written with the edited versions as
printed. The editors changed certain words
and phrases that I like to use, so that my week’s worth of devotions would come
out sounding like all the other devotions written by the other 51 authors. And I was bummed that my statement about the
raising of Lazarus was totally omitted: “Lazarus
either had to hop out of the tomb like a bunny or levitate like a spirit
because he was still bound in graveclothes.”
I
thought of the unique aspect of “Verbal Inspiration.” While God is clearly the author of all
Scripture, and has inspired not only the general content but the very words
used by the various penmen in the original language, at the same time He
allowed each author to maintain originality.
So John writes like John, Paul writes like Paul, and Peter writes like
Peter. And while all of God’s penmen
write one perfect, complete, consistent narrative, they are free to do so in
their own style. How amazing is that!
I like to write. I wouldn’t want to be an editor. When it comes to God’s holy Word of truth, I
don’t have to be either. What God has
already inspired to be written dare never be edited – by me, or anyone else.
“Sanctify [us] by the truth;
Your Word is truth,” (John 17:17).
Pastor Carl Henkel
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651.645.2575