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Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Dead Sea Scrolls

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This cave is the first place the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

This cave is the first place the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

Often I hear people doubt the authenticity of the Bible. They don’t understand the role of the Scribe in Biblical times. These men spent long hours every day copying every jot and tittle of every word of scripture on to new scrolls.

When they finished, they proof-read each line of each column. If there was one mistake in their new copy, they took a knife and sliced the new copy to pieces because it was flawed.

To prove the high quality of their work, God allowed three Bedouin shepherds to discover seven scrolls squirreled away sixty-seven years ago this month. Eventually over the next ten years, 972 texts were discovered in twelve caves about a mile northwest of the Dead Sea. Thus, they became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The writings date from 408 B.C. to 318 A.D. Among them are pieces of Isaiah which are far older manuscripts than we had before. When scholars examined these passages of Isaiah, they discovered they were identical to the oldest manuscripts we had at the time.

I find great comfort in knowing that what God moved people to write so long ago has not changed. II Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

What He said then, is still true for today. To paraphrase what Dr. Seuss said about an elephant, I hear God saying, “I meant what I said and said what I meant. I am faithful one hundred percent.”

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Fasting Prayer

I grew up in the church but had only heard whatever snippit the pastor chose to preach on that Sunday. Besides, I didn’t speak King James so the Bible was always hard to understand.When I was about 30 I decided to buy a Living Bible and read it through, Genesis to Revelation, even if it killed me; and I was pretty sure it might. After all, if I called myself a Christian, I better know what the book said.It was a real revelation to me when I got to the part that said, “And when you fast . . . ” not if. Me? Fast? As a kid, I never thought much about fasting. My Catholic friends talked about it some, but it was never part of my practice. I figured that was something monks did. I decided I’d give it a whirl.At that time I’d wanted to play the autoharp. I borrowed one from my friend. When I played it, it sounded akin to cats on the back fence in a fight. A friend at prayer group said if you fasted you needed to have a stated purpose for the fast. Maybe I could make this my purpose. I’d ask God to help me learn to play the autoharp.The first day of the fast was terrible. My stomach growled. I though about food all the time. On the second day, my stomach gave up and decided no food was on the horizon. As I prayed and practiced the autoharp, I began to see certain cords like C, F, and G seemed to work together pretty well.I broke my fast at the end of the third day. By then, I had figured out some of the other patterns. I could actually play a simple chorus; not as quickly as it should go, but at least I picked it out.My family bought me an autoharp for Christmas and I continued to learn to play. To this day I’m no accomplished musician, but I can play simple choruses.Over the years I’ve fasted for different purposes. God never fails to teach me more each time I take time apart with Him.I still haven’t figured out how fasting prayer works. I just know it does.