A Lesson From The Axehead

“They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axehead fell into the water. “Oh, my lord,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”

- 2 Kings 6:4b-7 (NIV)

To the Jewish culture, the Jordan was never considered a sacred river, like the Nile was to the Egyptians, for example. It was something crossed at significant times indicating profound change and challenges for a person or people with their walk with God. God has had some of us cross the Jordan in our spiritual lives, but sometimes we are just brought to the Jordan, to be reminded of how great God is. One such case is preserved in the scripture above, involving Elisha and a company of prophets.

They went to the Jordan to build some kind of dwelling, perhaps a meeting place. In the process of this work, an axehead, something of great value was lost. Iron was a new technology at this point in time, and as such, tools made of this material were expensive and few could own them.

The scripture above indicates this particular tool had been borrowed for the work at hand. The loss of this tool brought about great despair to the one responsible for its care, for if it could not be found, he may have had to work off the debt; a most unsettling prospect. We see this despair as he cries out to that great man, Elisha.

The tool was lost in the Jordan, a river that for the most part, does not have gently slopping banks as we are often accustomed to. One who steps in is immediately up to their shoulders in water, and often fast moving water at that. A man who steps in could be at great risk.

Elisha, as great a man as he was, could no more find the axehead than any other man present that day, but he was a faithful servant of the one who could. Upon inquiry by Elisha, the man points to the spot in the river where the precious item was lost. With faith, Elisha cut down a stick and threw it in the water, and the axehead floated. All the man who had lost the tool had to do was reach out and take it. What a mighty God we have!

We too, if we are not careful, can fall into the very same kind of despair at the Jordan's in our life. When we can't help ourselves we must remember the cross, for there we can find one who can, if we only have faith and reach out.

An Interesting Quote

I found the following in my readings from "The Portable Seminary":

The worst moment for an atheist is when he is genuinely thankful, but has nobody to thank.
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti

More Writings Added!

I finally took the time to go through some of my old college papers and have posted them in the sidebar. Keep in mind that they were originally written with the intent of meeting classroom objectives and may not drill down the various topics in extreme detail, but if nothing else I figure someone may be able to use them as a jumping off point for further study.

The paper I have started is concerned with the idea of taking up the cross. I was messing around on youtube a while back and stumbled on some clips of Gail Riplinger, a noted KJVOnlyist (an individual who believes the King James Bible is the only translation for English speaking people and any other English translation is spawned by the devil). There are many who hold a preference to a particular translation and there is nothing wrong with that, but some go on to believe that a believer cannot be saved if they use a modern translation. I have not written on the topic myself, but read what others have to say about it and heard some speakers as well and I personally don't believe the argument holds much weight, if any. I won't say much more on that that as there are a vast number of websites and books on both sides of the isle that can be referenced for a deeper study. I am a big believer in studying both sides of an issue and if you are interested in that debate, I encourage you to do the same.

Anyway, Riplinger, in the clip I saw was going on about the phrase to take up the cross in Mark 10:21, and I thought it would make a good study, from the textual, exegetical and application perspectives. I am just getting started so don't expect it next week or anything, but I believe it will make for an interesting read! :)

The Old Deacon And The Kid

I read this today at www.fundamentalforums.com from a poster named Mario and thought I would post it here...enjoy!

There is a story told about a man named Bill. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He was brilliant, kinda esoteric and very bright. He had become a Christian while attending college.

Across the street from his campus was a well-dressed, very conservative church. They wanted to develop a ministry to the students, but were not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decided to go there. He walked in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service had already started and so Bill started down the aisle looking for a seat.

The church was completely packed and he couldn’t find a seat. At this point, people were looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Bill got closer and closer to the pulpit and when he realized there were no seats, he just sat down on the carpet. The people became tense.

About this time, the minister realized that from way at the back of the church, a deacon was slowly making his way toward Bill. The deacon was in his eighties, had silver-gray hair, a three-piece suit, and a pocket watch. He was known as a godly man— very elegant, very dignified, and very courtly. He walked with a cane. As he started walking toward Bill, everyone was saying to themselves, “You can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?”

It took a long time for the man to reach Bill. The church was utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane. All eyes were focused on him, and it was absolutely silent. And then, the people watched as the elderly man dropped his cane on the floor.

With great difficulty he lowered himself and sat down next to Bill. The deacon worshiped alongside him so he wouldn’t be alone. When the minister continued, he said, "What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget." The deacon surprised the whole congregation by choosing to worship alongside Bill. He was not concerned with worshiping in the same pew in which he’d probably worshiped for years. The tradition of the place of worship did not matter. Instead, the deacon worshiped, and he did so in spirit and truth.

When Jesus told the woman that the true worshippers must worship in spirit and truth, he made no claim as to the right place to worship or the right dress for worship. In a way, Jesus reminds us that worship is not confined to these four walls, that true worship takes place whenever we see and feel the work of the Holy Spirit in and around us.

New Writings Links Added

I have added some links to material I wrote, the most recent of which is regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls. While reading various exegetical material, I kept encountering references to the scrolls and decided to learn more about what they are about. It has been a very interesting study that I hope to do more of soon.

The other documents I added regarding Philemon and Education were papers I originally wrote while completing my B.S. degree from Colorado Christian University. I have a number of others I will be adding over the coming weeks, but this is a good start. I figure after doing so much work on them, maybe somebody else can benefit from them as I have. :)

What Is Meaning?

While reading an article some time ago, a question was asked, "Where does meaning lie-in the words of the text or in the audience reaction to the text"(Problems of Translations, by Harvey Minkoff)? I have given much thought to this question and how it relates to the study of ancient texts generally and the Bible in particular. While on the outset, the question above seems simple enough, there are many facets to it one must consider.

On one hand, there is the literary text. This text is composed at a most basic level of letters (symbols) that make up words, combined by some structured syntax into sentences and paragraphs (thoughts), that in turn combine to preserve the idea (message) the writer is trying to convey to the reader. Just bringing across a message from one language to another is difficult enough as these thoughts and symbols rarely translate in a straight forward fashion given the differing symbol patterns and thought structure. These messages come to us often from very ancient times, from languages now dead or nearly dead, and to complicate matters even further, the people who wrote them certainly had very different ways to view their morality, their communities and their place in it. We today refer to this lens of interpretation as a world view and whether you think you have one or not, you do.

A translator of a text must take all this into consideration and decide what to do, translate as close as possible word-for-word (formal translation) or do something more oriented towards ensuring the reader leaves with the same idea the original reader would have had (dynamic translation). He or she must decide, where does the meaning of the text lie.

I am new at blogging and I am not sure I will be very good at it, but I do enjoy writing and exploring issues like those above. Over the coming weeks, I hope to begin exploring some ancient texts and relaying those thought to you, and I hope after reading them you have found this area to be as interesting as I find it!