spiritual growth

How Readers are Experiencing the Bible in a Whole New Way

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Available in Paperback, Audiobook, and Ebook

When I first released Experiencing the Bible, my prayer was that it wouldn’t be just another book on the shelf, but would instead become a companion that would inspire believers to fall in love with the Word of God. I wanted it to feel practical, personal, and encouraging, like I was sitting down with you letting you know that, “You can do this! Here’s how.”

The most humbling thing has been hearing back from readers about how it has impacted them. Today I’d like to share some of their words with you.

Inspired to Go Deeper

Peg wrote:
Her comments about reading through the WHOLE Bible have inspired me to start reading through the whole Bible, too, because it feels like I tend to reread only certain books. She explains how reading the WHOLE Bible helps you see a bigger picture of what God is doing and how the books come together to tell His Story.

This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to hear, that my readers would be nudged toward a bigger view of Scripture and a richer relationship with God.

Practical and Easy to Use

Yvonne shared:
Tammy Cardwell does a great job of explaining things in an easy to understand way. She gives you her thoughts and also gives you room for you to write yours. I really like the fact she lists different Bible types & different resources to help you in your walk with the Lord.

And Charlotte wrote:
I received this book as a gift for Christmas. I’m blown away! I appreciate the space to journal right here in the book. Knowledge and insight from the author is powerful. I am delighted to read and write about Gods promises for me.

I love hearing this, because a huge purpose in the book’s layout was to provide you the space to interact with Scripture in your own words!

Unputdownable!

Sherri said:
I found while reading your book that once I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. It is very much worth the read.

Sheri kept it simple:
Love this study!

I can’t tell you how much it blesses me to learn that people not only start the book, but want to keep going. I feel like I’ve helped friends along a life-changing journey.

Life Impact Beyond the Page

One of the most unexpected, and moving, testimonies came from Nancy Higgins, my audiobook producer. While recording and editing, she discovered something powerful.
Although I have often prayed Scripture out loud, something in my home shifted as I read your book out loud. God moved. Then every time the Word was played back out loud while I was editing, it cleared the air again. Wow, so thankful to have had the privilege of working on this project!!

Hearing how God used His Word, simply spoken aloud for my audiobook, to bring peace to a home… That’s priceless!

Readers are Sharing it with Others

Finally, I loved this encouragement from Tab:
For anyone looking to read and learn about the Bible I’m telling you now this is one book you will want to read. You should get one for you and a friend.

That’s the heartbeat of this project: helping people walk closer to God through His Word, and encouraging them to share that journey with others.

Ready to Experience the Bible for Yourself?

If you’ve ever felt like reading the Bible was hard or confusing, if you don’t know where to start, or if you simply want read the Word with fresh eyes, Experiencing the Bible was written with you in mind. It’s available now in paperback, audiobook, and ebook.

Get your copy on Amazon.

The ebook is also available in most of your favorite ebook markets.

If you’ve already read it, I’d love to hear your story. Your testimony may well inspire someone else to dive into the richness of God’s Word!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Our Advantage

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Once again, the Renner Interpretive Version of the Bible set my thoughts along an unexpected path. It happened in James 1:18b

God’s dream was for us to be a never-before existing type of people – brand spanking new, novel, and unlike anything that has ever existed – creations of His own making that entirely belong to Him.

These last words, “that entirely belong to Him,” paired with “a never-before existing type of people,” startled me.

What about Adam & Eve?!

What about Adam and Eve? I had to think on it a minute before it dawned on me. They had free will from the beginning. They could freely choose to either walk with God or disobey Him and face the consequences. The problem was that, unlike those of us who came to God scarred and battered, they had no comprehension of sin’s cost.

So, in reality, they didn’t “entirely belong to Him.”

Don’t stop reading yet.
I’m going somewhere with this.

Ride the train with me while it jumps to a different track. Track jumping is normal for me as I study the Word: Consider this an introduction to how my brain works.

I’ve thought a lot about the Millennial Reign and Eternity. One thing that has always interested me is that we will never stop having free will.

That being the case, what’s to stop us from deciding at some point that we won’t serve God anymore? Yes, I know there will be no temptation, but why?

If 1/3 of the angels changed their minds and fell with the devil, what’s to keep us from following suit?

If Adam and Eve chose the forbidden fruit, what makes me think we won’t make the same mistake?

The answer is in this verse, revealed by Renner’s more detailed interpretation. We are an entirely new type of people, and as such we have a distinct advantage over the angels that fell as well as Adam and Eve.

We started out in sin!

Adam, Eve, and the angels – before they fell – may have understood the disobedience we call sin on a conceptual level, but they couldn’t really conceive its cost.

Like travelers falling for a hotel’s fancy sales pitch, they thought they were entering into a life of luxury. But instead, they got a rat-infested, mold-consumed room. They all left perfection to dive headfirst into a life that could never truly satisfy. The world’s false promises are like that room, leaving you regretting your stay even before you’ve unpacked.

We have just the opposite experience.

We started out in sin. I certainly did, and ‘though I was a teen when I was saved I was aware enough to realize things had changed.

Before accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, we were intimately familiar with sin and its myriad costs. We know exactly where we came from, and the closer we get to God the less temptation there is to go back to that deceptive hotel.

So yes, because of where we came from and where we know we’re going, because we have accepted His lordship over our lives and walk in His salvation, we entirely belong to Him.

And that makes us unlike anything that has ever existed.

Which answers my previous question. Yes, we will still have free will in eternity; it won’t vanish, but it also won’t be influenced by doubt, uncertainty, or deception. We’ve walked in sin, lived in sin, and – praise God – been delivered from sin. Like someone who has survived a house fire, we’ll never be tempted to play with matches.

Romans 6:18 (NET) expresses it perfectly: “…and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.” That slavery brings ultimate freedom and eternal assurance; that’s our advantage.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Living Your Witness: The Quiet Power of Influence

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Do you ever think about those who have especially impacted your life?

For me, while untold numbers of people have helped me grow, three people stand out, people who have left eternal marks on my soul and had a definite impact on the direction my spiritual walk has taken. What strikes me about all three is that they weren’t preaching at me. They were simply living their witness.

Three People Who Changed My Walk

The Best Friend – Joy in the Spirit
Marilyn, my best friend, never tried to “sell” me on anything. She simply shared her excitement about what God was doing in her life. I’d been saved years earlier but wasn’t actively living like a Christian. I was what I call a “cultural Christian” at that point.

Her joy stirred a hunger that made me face my mostly in name only Christianity and recognize its inadequacy, how little it satisfied me. She expected me to get excited too, and I did.

The Stranger – Baptism in the Holy Ghost
At a Christian Student Union meeting Ms. Jeannie, a woman I’d never met, taught me about and led me into the baptism in the Holy Ghost. She was our speaker that night and I could tell she was like my best friend in that she had “it.” In spite of my introversion and insecurity, I’d gathered my courage and asked her, “What is the baptism in the Holy Ghost?”

The conversation we had, and the prayer we prayed, changed my life forever. And I’m happy to be able to report that she became a dear friend and is still a vital influence in my life.

The Evangelist – Intimacy with God
The last of my three, Jesse Duplantis, is an evangelist. His messages are always great, but his almost casual references to his conversations with God made me hunger for that kind of walk:

“I want that type of relationship with You, God!
You’re no respecter of persons.
I want that intimate relationship too!”

So I got in the Word more, prayed more, and focused on listening for His “voice,” God speaking directly to my spirit. Over time, that intimacy became my reality – and I love how we talk to each other all day long.

The 1 Thessalonians 5:17 command to pray without ceasing? This is it. Yes, I have a set time that I know I’ll be praying, talking to God about things that matter to us both, but the conversation doesn’t stop there.

The Quiet Power of Living Faith

Other than Brother Jesse, these are normal people you’ll most likely never meet, but their influences in my life still affect how I live and what I share with others.

And those key people reached me not through preaching at me, but by letting me see the reality of God in their lives, by giving me glimpses of possibilities I’d not imagined.

They also taught me one of the most important things about sharing the Gospel.

We start by living it.

Marilyn, Ms. Jeannie, Brother Jesse…
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”
Philippians 1:3

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Reading Scripture in Context: A Guide for Growing Faith

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Ronnie Trice, my pastor’s father, often said about reading the Word, “When you see ‘therefore,’ you need to see what it’s there for.”

I’ve never forgotten this instruction, but I must confess I sometimes forget to act on it. Little transition words like “so,” “then,” and “for” might seem insignificant, but they carry a lot of weight. And, sad to say, they’re all too easy to ignore.

Take the word “if.” It indicates conditions. That’s important when we’re talking about the promises of God. We get excited about God’s promises, and we should! But we too often overlook the conditions that come attached.

Let me give you a few examples.

John 15:7 (KJV)
Promise: “…ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
Condition: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you…”

2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Promise: “…will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Condition: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways then…”

1 John 1:9 (KJV)
Promise: “… he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Condition: “If we confess our sins…”

These aren’t hidden messages. They’re right in front of us in black and white (or red and white, if it’s Jesus talking), but we miss them when we skim the words or focus only on the parts we want to see.

Recently, I was reading from the Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude (RIV). In this version, Rick Renner takes the original Greek and brings out the meaning in a way that is both faithful to the text and alive with first century understanding. It made me appreciate transition words all over again.

Take a look at James 1:23. In the KJV it reads:

“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.”

The word “for” is small, easy to skip over, but it’s crucial to the message. It ties everything back to what James has just finished saying and leads into what he has to say next. In the RIV, that same passage begins like this:

“You need to understand that if — as I’m certain is the case concerning what I’m about to say — anyone finds himself among those who merely show up to hear the Word but are not committed to putting it into practice…”

In other words, James was alerting his readers to the urgency of both what he had to say and how it all fit together.

What had he just said?

The end of verse 22 (still in the RIV) makes it crystal clear.

“These kinds of people make the grave miscalculation of thinking they’ve done all that is required by just showing up. Don’t trick yourselves into thinking that merely showing up and listening is all that’s required.”

Then come verses 23-24 where he talks about a man who looks in a mirror, sees things in his reflection that need to be fixed, then turns and walks away, forgetting all about what he’s seen. James is saying, “Don’t be that person!”

That’s a big “for.”

Of course, this truth holds up no matter which translation you choose. Transition words are like important signposts. They remind us of where the author has been and where he’s going. But here’s the thing: We’ve grown accustomed to reading the Bible in bits and pieces, chapter by chapter or even verse by verse, usually without thinking about how it was originally written.

Did you even know the Bible didn’t always have chapter and verse numbers?

It’s true. The Bible was originally written as continuous text. The chapter divisions we know today were first introduced in the 1200s, and verse numbering came even later. While they undeniably help us find things quickly, these divisions can also lead us to read verses in isolation, and this causes us to miss much of the flow and intent of the text.

Take Romans 8:1 for example.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

That “therefore” is a clue. It tells us to back up and see what led to this beautiful conclusion. When we start at Romans 7:21 and then read through Romans 8:4, we get the full context. In sharing his personal struggles with sin as well as the triumph we have through Christ Paul gives us a message that is only hinted at in Romans 8:1.

And then there’s Hebrews 12:1.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…”

Wherefore? Which witnesses? To answer these questions, you need to back up to the Hall of Fame of Faith found in Hebrews 11. Read about these heroes of the faith, see how they stood through everything in their lives, and you will be encouraged that you too can “run the race set before you.” And to truly grasp the full impact of Hebrews 12:1, I urge you to keep reading through 12:3. It’s all connected.

Experiencing the Bible is about more than reading a verse or two here and there. Don’t get me wrong: Cards and calendars that offer a scripture a day are good, but they are no substitute for truly diving into the Bible. If you want to let His words live in you as Jesus said in John 15:7, slow down, read in context, take it in fully, act on it, and watch it change you from the inside out.

That’s one reason I believe reading the Bible from cover to cover is one of the most powerful things you can do to grow in your relationship with God. When you follow the flow of Scripture, those little words — if, for, therefore, then, wherefore — become keys that unlock deeper understanding.

So next time you’re reading and come across one of them, pause.

Ask what it’s there for.

You might just discover it’s pointing to something life-changing.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

PS: If my references to the RIV intrigued you, you might want to check out my review of The Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude.

Review: Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude 

Tammy M Cardwell2 Comments
RIV: James & Jude Cover

I’ve been waiting years for Rick Renner to release his interpretive version of the Bible, and at last we have James and Jude. I am thrilled!

For those unfamiliar with him, Rick Renner is not only an anointed Bible scholar and teacher, but he also has a tremendous grasp of Koine Greek, which was the form commonly spoken pretty much everywhere in the Roman Empire in Jesus’ time. Add to this technical knowledge his understanding of the culture of the New Testament period, and you have someone uniquely poised to help readers better comprehend this part of the Bible as its original readers would have.

This isn’t a task he took on of his own volition. It developed out of him exegeting the Greek New Testament for himself so that he would understand it better. Not surprisingly, God didn’t let him stop there and even today he’s working on expanding on and sharing what he’s learned. The result, which we have a small part of here, is the Renner Interpretive Version (RIV). Here’s an excerpt from page 1 to help you better understand the book’s intent.

The RIV is a conceptual interpretation of the New Testament that draws on concepts in the Greek language and brings them into the text in a contemporary way to provide a broader comprehension of what is being communicated through Scripture. To be clear, the RIV is not meant to be viewed as a word-for-word translation, but, rather as a conceptual interpretation of the Greek text.

If you are one who generally skips all front matter in favor of leaping directly into a book, I highly suggest you alter your actions for this one. “A Word About the Renner Interpretive Version” not only shares the hows and whys, but also pulls together some facts I’ve never considered before. One paragraph I have highlighted, on page 6, points out that Jesus came at a unique time in history when the Gospel would be able to be preached with relative ease throughout the known world. Why? Because, thanks to the Romans, Koine Greek was spoken by pretty much everyone at least as their second language. As Renner points out, this was the first time since the Tower of Babel that such communication was possible.

Now to the primary text.

Renner starts by introducing James, which lays a foundation for our reading. He then moves on to a parallel of the KJV and RIV, accompanied by extensive footnotes. I kid you not; James 1:1 affected me so deeply that I had to stop and head to my journal to record my thoughts. And then I couldn’t go on any further until I came here to share with you.

Yes, I’m writing this review even though I’ve not even read past page 18! This is unheard of for me, but I don’t want you to have to wait on me and this is a book with which I plan to take my time.

See for yourself.

So we have James 1:1 in the KJV, and immediately below it, shaded in blue, the first part of verse 1 in the RIV. As you can see, Renner has gone to great lengths to share helpful background information in this book. In his more than 1,200 footnotes, the man leaves me feeling like he’s sitting here talking directly to me.

So what sent me to my journal in the middle of my reading? It was seeing, for the first time, the full impact of “servant of God” or, as Paul referred to himself, “bond servant.” I’ve known what it meant to become a bond servant. It’s beautiful, really. It was common for someone to sign a contract to serve a “master” for a set number of years. When that time was up, he was given his wages and was free to leave. However, if he loved his master and couldn’t imagine being happier anywhere else, he could choose to make a lifetime commitment, to bind himself to that master permanently. I, in similar manner, have chosen to bind myself to Christ. But look at how the significance of calling oneself His servant is expressed in the RIV!

…this means my life is dedicated exclusively to doing His will and to faithfully carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me.

Too frequently, we gloss over things we see all the time. We may know, on an intellectual level, what words like these mean, but how often do we stop and genuinely think about them as applied to the writers or, vitally important, to ourselves? The writers of the New Testament were deadly serious when they used these expressions. In truth, considering how most of them died, “deadly serious” is pretty literal. These men had committed their entire lives to putting His will before their own. There was no room for them to disagree with their Master or fail to carry out any assignment He gave them.

So yes, I “knew” all of this but, using his understanding of the nuances of the language as well as the culture of the original readers, Renner has crafted a version that forced me to halt in my tracks and think about it, to apply it to my own life. I want to be able to say these same words, that my life is dedicated exclusively to doing His will and to faithfully carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me. God is my number 1, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that too often self likes to slide up into that higher position, to nudge God to the side for just a little while.

So yes, I find that even in this tiny sample the RIV is proving to be every bit as powerful and impactful as I had expected it to be. James and Jude just became my next focus and this time around this book will be one of my primary references in my studies.

But that’s not all. One feature I very much appreciate is that Renner chose to include two versions of each book. The first is what I’ve described. Immediately following this heavily footnoted copy of James is another copy of the full text without footnotes. In my case, I will start by reading straight through the book of James in this second section, and then I’ll go back to the beginning for my in-depth study including all the footnotes. Once I’ve completed James, I’ll approach Jude the same way.

I’m a big believer in reading and referring to a variety of translations and paraphrases as I experience the Bible. It helps give me a fresh vision, eyes that see things from a different perspective. This book is definitely a treasure to add to my Bible shelf.

The Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude
is 7.28 x 0.91 x 10.24 inches, and 288 pages

You can purchase it at
Renner.org and Amazon

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Who am I to be reviewing Bibles? I’m the author of Experiencing the Bible, which is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook on Amazon.

Faith as Precious as Peter’s: Embracing Your Spiritual Value

Tammy M Cardwell2 Comments

Timing is so interesting.

I make the anointing oil we sell in the church coffee shop. I’ve been making it myself because every oil I considered carrying retailed for more than I felt comfortable charging. Also, as I researched, I found myself wondering how most of the oils were made. By that I mean, were they simply another commercial product? Were they even prayed over?

My conclusion was that the only way I would be satisfied was if I took on the project myself. Then I could control the blending, the decanting, and how each bottle would be handled through the whole process. Yes, obviously this includes a lot of prayer, and usually worship.

Recently, someone was looking at our oils and asked me who anointed them, was it the pastor or intercessors or… I took the question to mean, “Who prayed over them?” and I explained what I’ve just told you. She seemed…less than satisfied.

She didn’t know who I was, of course, but apparently someone with an unknown title was questionable. At least that’s what I got from her withdrawal, and her reaction made me sad.

The sadness wasn’t because she doubted me; that’s no big deal. I was disappointed because she apparently believed you have to be “somebody” to qualify to pray over oil that will be used for anointing. That sort of assumption is dangerous. Too often, we fail to understand who we are in Christ Jesus, and that failure can really hold us back.

Which brings me to why I say timing is interesting. Shortly after that brief encounter I read 2 Peter, and in chapter 1, verse 1, Peter addresses his readers as those who “have been granted a faith just as precious as ours.” He’s serious, and he’s right.

Peter walked with Jesus and was one of those closest to Him throughout His ministry. He has worked for decades to help the Church grow and mature; at this point he is in prison and God has already told him he will die soon. Yes, his faith is precious, but in what is apparently his last letter he particularly wants his readers to understand that their faith is every bit as precious as his.

So is the faith of all those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. You don’t have to be “somebody” for your faith to have value. It was the first batch of oil I made that was used to teach me this truth. I had taken it to someone whose faith I know to be great and asked her to pray over it. She agreed to pray but also assured me that I could pray over it myself, that I was every bit as prepared as she was for the task. Until that moment, it had never occurred to me that I was “qualified.”

You don’t have to be “somebody” for your faith to have value. You have value as a child of the Most High God and you are very much somebody in the ways that truly matter. So don’t limit yourself. Do you make your own anointing oil? Pray over it. Do you write worship music? Use it to worship, both alone and with others. Does Holy Spirit teach you as you read the Word? If what you learn excites you, it may excite your friends as well. Share it!

Your faith, dear Christian, is just as precious as that of the Apostle Peter. Never discount what God has done in you.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Seeing Beyond the Now: Finding Strength in God’s Promise of Eternity

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

When a baby wants to be fed, he wants it NOW.

When a toddler races for a toy, obstacles that delay him frustrate him.

When a child is put in time out, a moment can feel like a month.

But children grow, and so does their concept of time. While “next year” seems impossibly far away, “tomorrow” eventually becomes acceptable, and then “next week,” “next month,” etc.

As adults, we can excitedly anticipate a vacation six months from now while understanding that we have things to do in the meantime. Depending on what those things are, we may walk through the days so busy that suddenly we look up to see that The Day has arrived. On the other hand, when life is in the process of throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us, we may be back to feeling like the clock has slowed and every moment is a month. Either way, we know that a special day is approaching, and the promise of tomorrow’s vacation empowers us to take each day as it comes.

Second Corinthians 4:17-18 reminds us that this life, even if it’s a life filled with trials and heartache, is nothing compared to eternity. First Peter 1:6 assures us that those “momentary trials” are helping us become the people of faith we are called to be. The more we’re in the Word, meditating on verses like these, and the more we are in fellowship with Him, the greater we understand this truth. Like the growing child who develops an increasingly accurate time sense, so do we who are children of God, as we grow spiritually, develop an increasingly accurate eternal time sense. It is this that makes life bearable even during the bad days (weeks, months, years…).

I explained in my Surviving Narcissism series that this one revelation was what made the difference in my ability to stay with and care for my disabled, narcissistic husband. I realized one day that, when compared to the eternity in which I’ll live, my life here isn’t even ten minutes. While thinking about it like that, I decided I can do anything for ten minutes.

And that’s what I told God. It went something like, “I can do anything for ten minutes, so if You want me here with him until the day I die, I can do it. With You helping me, I can.” If you know my story, you are aware that I outlived him, but with a true revelation of eternity I was able to say those words and mean what I said. Bible teacher TeDese Ross expresses it beautifully:

Hope for the future gives us strength for the present.

So, if you’re living in a world where a moment seems like a month, where hope is hard to come by, I advise you to turn to God and ask Him to give you that same revelation, to help you fully grasp the fact that while your problems and trials seem endless, they – and this life – really are “but for a moment.”

One revelation can change everything!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

My Bible Shelf Spotlight: The Message Bible

Tammy M Cardwell4 Comments
Here you have all of the Bibles I currently own.

A friend recently asked for a photo of my Bible shelf along with input on my favorite Bibles. I’ve been meaning to do this very thing for my readers for nearly a year. My apologies for the delay!

So here begins a tour. As you can see, my Bibles are shelved more by height than anything else. We’re “reading” from left to right, beginning with The Message, which is an excellent paraphrase.

I had been hearing about The Message for quite a while when I stumbled across a copy in the most unique “resale shop” I’ve ever seen. Everything was literally piled, and you crawled around and climbed over said piles in search of gems. My first copy of The Message was one of those gems, and it instantly went on my readthrough list. By this I mean I read it through from Genesis to Revelation. This is, as the publisher is quick to point out in the introduction, a fantastic “reading” Bible.

Unlike most Bibles, this one bears only one translator’s name: Eugene H. Peterson. His story is exceptional, and a little heartbreaking for people like me. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction that answers the question, “Why him?”

“I began my work life as a teacher and for several years taught the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek in a theological seminary. I expected to live the rest of my life as a professor and scholar, teaching and writing and studying. But then my life took a sudden turn to pastoring in a congregation.

“I was now plunged into quite a different world. The first noticeable difference was that nobody seemed to care much about the Bible, which so recently people had been paying me to teach them. Many of the people I worked with now knew virtually nothing about it, had never read it, and weren’t interested in learning. Many others had spent years reading it but for them it had gone flat through familiarity, reduced to cliches. Bored, they dropped it. And there weren’t many people in between. Very few were interested in what I considered my primary work, getting the words of the Bible into their heads and hearts, getting the message lived. They found newspapers and magazines, videos and novels more to their taste.”

Sadly, I see the same thing in the church today. It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to this one topic, leaning hard into the fact that we cannot afford to disregard the Word of God. We CANNOT!

As a pastor, Peterson learned to meld the old with the new – the original, common-man languages of the Bible (Hebrew and Greek) with the common language of today. He made the Bible come alive in such a way that the difference in his congregation was noticed by an editor, and he ended up spending ten years creating The Message, a Bible with a specific purpose.

It is meant to be read. Or, as the publisher expresses it, it is a reading Bible, not a study Bible. It’s a Bible designed specifically to get people into and invested in the Word of God. With this purpose in mind, Peterson crafted it very carefully. Not only did he select just the right words to make God’s Word available to modern readers, he also chose to list verse numbers alongside each paragraph rather than presenting verses individually. This can take getting used to but historically the Bible didn’t even have chapter numbers until early in the 13th century and verse numbers waited another 300 or so years to show up.

While chapters and verses are helpful when seeking specific text, they can also lead to reading passages out of context and, as a result, losing part of their richness and meaning. Not interrupting trains of thought with verse numbers, The Message enables us to grasp a more complete picture and, at times, see what the Bible is really saying as opposed to what we thought it said. This is one of my favorite things about quality, modern translations and paraphrases. They take verses that have become so familiar that, as he pointed out, they’ve reached cliche status and put them into words that wake us up and make us start thinking again.

One more note and I’ll move on. Although it’s not a study Bible, Peterson does offer helpful introductions to sections (i.e., The Books of Moses) and chapters. If you’re one who tends to pass over such introductions, I suggest you make an exception. It often helps to begin a journey, even into a new book, with an idea of what’s to come.

Finally, I do realize there are people who have a problem with any and all modern translations, especially paraphrases, but the intention is to make the text available to the reader. As beautiful as the King James is, and most of the scriptures I’ve memorized come from the KJV, it’s not really the language we speak today. As a result, it can be seriously challenging for modern readers. High quality translations and paraphrases like The Message can make a huge difference in understanding and appreciation.

Until next time, I’m…

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

God’s Question That Stopped Me in My Tracks

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I was thanking God for a friend a few days ago. Some time back, she volunteered to handle a specific task every month. It’s not super complicated, but it does take time and requires her to run an errand that otherwise wouldn’t fall on her. Month after month, she consistently covers this project for me. “I’m so grateful for her, “I told God. “I know I can hand her this job and she’ll get it done.”

I meant what I said, every word of it. My heart was full of gratitude. Then God asked me a question.

He wanted to know why, if I trust her so easily, I sometimes doubt Him and whether He will “get the job done.”

OUCH!

We’re talking punch-in-the-gut stuff here. I like to think I’m a woman of strong faith, but He wouldn’t have asked me the question if it didn’t apply. Do I really, at times, trust a human friend more than I trust my God? I mean, this is GOD we’re talking about. Of course He will get the job done, whatever that job is!

I do tell Him on occasion that it’s not Him I’m doubting, but me. More specifically, I too often doubt my own ability to hear Him clearly. Did I really hear God’s voice, or did I go off on a tangent of my own creating? Yes, I have those moments – more than I like to admit. I wonder if this is part of what He’s talking about, that in doubting my own ability to hear Him I’m doubting His ability to help me understand. Possibly?

I’m still thinking about this one, about how I have at least on occasion failed to trust The Creator of the Universe, how at times I apparently put more faith in the one who holds my project in her hands than in the One who holds my whole life in His hands.

This faith walk? One of its most important factors is self-assessment – making sure we are who we think we are, and repenting if we’re not. If we’re not listening and judging ourselves when He asks questions like this one, we’re not getting the job done.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Here’s Your Invitation: Subscribe to My Newsletter

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I published my December newsletter yesterday, and realized afterwards that I’ve never shared about it here…which is admittedly ridiculous.

So if you’re interested in a more personal contact, especially if you’d like to keep up to date on the books I’m writing, you’ll want to sign up for the Eternally Planted newsletter right here. Do this and you’ll receive one email a month, two at the most unless there’s something extra special I need to share. Among other things, these emails will contain snippets from my works in progress. These book samples will not be shared here on the blog.

I pray for you, today, that your Christmas will be truly blessed and Wednesday will find you…

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C