Now I am going to get a bit weird. Satan does not like Marmite – did you know?
I have never liked Marmite. It would make me shudder! I never liked Cinnamon, it made me shudder. Yet both of these are extremely good for you though…. I continued to avoid them for years till recently. I have now discovered I love Marmite. I also hated Cinnamon and actually now I appreciate the flavour. Hmm how can that be? After 40 years I now like what I hated. Hmm what has changed? Perhaps it might be because I am a new person in our Lord, just a few years ago I was not a believer.
Satan hates God, and is at war with God and to hate someone and be at war with someone means you oppose everything that the person stands for. God is Good and that means Satan hates anything Good. It is Good for me to seek the Lord our God, but my body was a slave for Satan, he had his claws in my flesh and had my body lusting after pleasures that were not good for me.
You know what? My Dad loves Jam on toast or on bread – I do not like too much Jam it is full of sugar, it is very sweet and not too good for you. I prefer Marmite now, although I now find I love bread on its own too – suddenly I like to eat bread without adding anything on it. You know what? We should take the bread of God daily just as it is – on its own as God intended. We must not add to it. But so many people are trying to spread a sugary sweet coating upon the word of God to make it more appetising. Well as for ME I am hungry for the word of God as God intended it to be. I am not saying we should not read a good commentary, like Marmite a good commentary is good for you – but we should avoid adding anything to Gods word to make it appetising! We should instead let God into our hearts and clean up the inside spiritually and cast out the old man – and listen to the Holy Spirit within us.
Feast on Gods bread alone – and I would ask “What Bible are you reading?”- until recently I was irritated when I heard people repeatedly debate about other bible translations, if they are good or not. I agreed that many translations have faults but I did not feel it is right to be pressuring people. I still believe it is a personal choice and we can not pressure anyone but it is very important to raise the subject.
Many translations are FALSELY called translations. They are sugar coated versions of what should have been Gods word that are translated from deliberately corrupted manuscripts such as Codex Sinaiticus. In my time I owned many translations and was confused on which one really is the best. But Gods word does not change so why on earth all these translations? How is it we have created different categories of translations and saying there is a translation for everyone! I have my opinions but will not go into this right now but I pray you all will think about this and you will come to the same conclusion. It is ludicrous. If we lived back in the days of the Hebrews, they would rip out their hair to see one word altered in their scrolls. Our God is not an author of confusion but having all these English translations to chose from can only cause confusion. It is as if satan has been on the scene and up to his old trickery by saying “Has God Said?” and so he planted doubt into Eve’s own mind and she ended up questioning and then eating the forbidden fruit. So we also now question God’s own Word by listening to critics and reading the wrong manuscripts. It is satan opposing the Goodness of God and hindering believers.
I have lost count of the number of translations that exist but they have categorised them as “Word for Word” “Thought for Thought” and “Paraphrased”- well only a Bible that is “Word for Word” is a true translation, anything else is nothing more than a commentary – in my opinion it has become nothing more than someones thoughts. Also to avoid corruption, it should be translated from the same set of manuscripts as the KJV which used the Masoretic Text and Textus Receptus (Received Text).
I once read the NLT Bible from beginning to end because it was laid out as a one year reading. Then I moved on to a KJV and you know what? Suddenly I found God’s word is alive for me. The NLT was a dead Bible spiritually. They have removed verses, they have dumped gender differences and removed the truth that God has to say about immoral behaviours. The same has become true with what has been considered the better new translations such as the NIV – it is still not word for word, but it was one of the better. The newest versions of the NIV have took the same approach as the NLT version but many people do not know this. They are changing the text in each edition without making it obvious… Does God’s word change I ask?
Well sadly these people who produce these Bibles will end up suffering the curses that Jesus pronounced in the Book of Revelation.
I read the KJV and NKJV (note this is not because of the KJV being in the name) – these are the only two I can recommend to anyone because they are word for word. One is older English and the other one more modern. I use the NKJV because its what my parents read as they were complaining of finding the KJV language too awkward. But I found the Bible as a NKJV was still alive for me so I use it. When I study I typically use the KJV as that is where the best study material comes from.
Ultimately, the point is please use a Word for Word translation based on the Masoretic Text and Textus Receptus (Received Text). No translation is perfect, but the KJV and NKJV are the best two in my opinion. If you are not happy with that and want to eat the bread of God as unleavened then you better learn Hebrew and Greek.
Let us put on the new man daily, love God unconditionally with agapais love and eat the daily bread of God just as Jesus intended it – without any fancy spreads on top.
God bless
Leon Davey – 05 07 2020