Ash Wednesday is only two weeks away. As we enter into this time of reflection on the church calendar, the Common English Bible has once again come up with great resources. Check out THIS NEWS RELEASE for more information. Use these resources in your churches or for your study groups or even for personal time.
I am a confessed translation junkie. As I read the Common English Bible and the NIV, I come across different ways certain phrases are turned.
Mark 1:41 is a good example. The leper comes to Christ and says, “If you are willing you can make me clean.”
The response is so interesting.
CEB:
41 Incensed,[a] Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do want to. Be clean.”
NIV:
41 Jesus was indignant.[a] He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
ESV:
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” (And no textual note. Probably because they know they are right.) 
The text note of the NET Bible indicates most manuscripts use the Greek word for “moved with compassion.”
Yet, some other texts would use the word for “indignation.” Those texts don’t seem to carry the “numbers” as the other manuscripts.
So… why did the CEB and the NIV go with a “minority” view on this point?
Paul’s passion for the ministry, his passion for souls, is amazing. He wanted Christ glorified so much he was willing to give up so much in his life to make sure the way was clear to Christ. It was not about his rights. It was about others being able to see Christ as clearly as possible.
The metaphor of “winning” was not for him as individual. It was for the glory of Christ. If others are coming to Christ, and they aren’t stumbling over him… he wins. Run to win.
24 Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. 25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. 26 So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing. 27 Rather I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others. (1 Cor. 9:24-27, CEB)
I have been part of the Common English Blog Tour for about two months now. They began the tour before Advent and I think today is the last day of cycle.
For over two months I have gone through the exercise of building devotional thoughts while reading the Common English Bible. I have also used the CEB a bit in the college classes I teach. From time to time I have used it in leading our adult Bible study on Wednesday night.
I have continued to have our public reading in our church use the NIV. I have used the NIV as my main text to prepare my sermons.
At the end of the day I truly enjoy both translations. There may be a day when “Human One” for “Son of Man” may finally settle in. Perhaps there may be a day when the translation team for the CEB may say, “You know what, it’s not worth this headache. Let’s switch it back.”
They probably won’t. Just like the NIV should do one or two editions with the Apocrypha, but they won’t.
I deeply appreciate the CEB team. When I have had questions on choice of wording on passages they have responded. Translation in a digital age is an interesting process. It could lead to much quicker translation turnaround (which the CEB has already shown to be true).
I think their marketing and their social networking is far superior to the NIV. I mean, I got a new CEB with apocrypha out of this deal! 
The CEB is probably the best translation for new believers, or those just not used to older language, like the KJV. In my adult Bible study, when I use the CEB, people will stop and listen. They will say, “Read that again! That was interesting!”
It does help freshen up our Bible reading.
While it is clearly more to the “dynamic equivalent” side, I like it far more than the New Living Translation. It is evident that translators didn’t just want modern idioms. They still wanted to communicate truth in a very clear way.
Moving forward I will probably stay with my NIV and the CEB. (I actually pulled out my TNIV with the Renaissance Leather cover again so I can have a Bible where I can jot notes from time to time.) But the CEB, in my opinion, should be considered by all believers as a viable translation for use in reading and study.
I had a guy in my church one time who had a favorite saying: “It’s all gonna burn.”
It was his way of saying, “The stuff of this life just isn’t that important.”
He wanted to keep the things of the Kingdom in focus.
Peter reminds us that this temporal side of life isn’t going to last. So, in light of that, how should we live? He returns to his main theme: holy and godly lives.
Our lives count. We need our hearts and minds fixed fully on the One who is the Author of our salvation. He will complete that work. And in that day, may we be ready.
9 The Lord isn’t slow to keep his promise, as some think of slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wanting anyone to perish but all to change their hearts and lives. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a dreadful noise, the elements will be consumed by fire, and the earth and all the works done on it will be exposed.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be? You must live holy and godly lives, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Because of that day, the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. (2 Peter 3:9-13, CEB)
When the Kingdom of God invades your life there is a decision to be made. The disciples hear the call of Jesus in Mark 1 and by the time he calls to them, they have determined he is worth it. They set aside the distractions of nets, and boats, and servants. Jesus was worth their full attention.
The Kingdom comes calling. The Kingdom invades our world. Are we ready to give up the distractions to give him the attention he deserves? He is worth it.
16 As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,”he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 18 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 19 After going a little further, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. 20 At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers. (Mark 1:16-20, CEB)
I love sports, and I LOVE the Kansas Jayhawks in basketball. On my bucket list is going to a game at Allen Fieldhouse once before I die. Just once. I was in there one time years ago. Roy Williams was in his first season. They had won the national championship the year before. A friend and I walked into the fieldhouse for a practice. We were promptly chased out. Didn’t matter. We looked at each other and said, “Was that cool or what?”
But a game… I would LOVE to get to a game.
Duke is another school passionate about the game. I’ve always equated Duke with crazy fans. This article seems to 
indicate it is just not the same anymore. Students aren’t filling up the student section any more. Top ten program. Fans aren’t coming. The author of the article speculates it’s because things get old. Chants are the same. Songs are the same. (Even winning is the same.) So… are fans bored?
The article sparked another thought in me: Do we get bored of the Kingdom of God?
Do we reach a point where we think: “Same songs. Same Bible. Same church (or series of churches).”
So… we… yaaaaawwwwwnnnn.
Does the Kingdom get old? If it does… why? And if it does… do we change up the routine? Or… hold on now, this may shock you… is it US?
Nawww… couldn’t be us. It MUST be the worship team… or the pastor… or the Bible… or…
You know what? For some reason, if we’re “bored”, or things so to have slipped into a rut, and we keep on looking… and searching… and not finding any solutions with outward stimulus… the answer just may be us.
WE may need to get right back into that Word… right back into that worship service… right back on our knees… and stay at it until we understand what may be wrong inside… not outside.
Just. A. Thought.
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap faithful love;
break up your unplanted ground,
for it is time to seek the LORD,
that he may come
and rain righteousness upon you. (Hos. 10:12, CEB)
In Mark 1 there is the story of Jesus casting out the demon in the synagogue. While we focus on the power encounter, Mark focuses on the authority. Twice in the same story he mentions the authority of Jesus to teach.
22 The people were amazed by his teaching, for he was teaching them with authority, not like the legal experts.
27 Everyone was shaken and questioned among themselves, “What’s this? A new teaching with authority! (Mark 1: 22,27, CEB)
When we walking in the authority of the Kingdom, the enemy recognizes it. Jesus never went hunting for a power encounter. Power encounters found him.
The apostles never went hunting for power encounters. So it is with us.
When we are walking in the authority of the Kingdom, our priority is Matt. 6:33. Whatever happens after that is something we are truly prepared for. We need not worry or fear. The tools have been given.
When the people of God show up and are walking in authority, just know that sometimes that means the spiritual waters stir. Don’t seek it out specifically. And don’t shy away from it when those waters stir.
The end of Revelation is a picture of longing. Paradise is restored. The tree of life that was guarded in Genesis is now found in the city of God. From its leaves come healing for the nations.
It is home. These verses make me long for the home I know I have, yet have never visited.
Come, Lord Jesus.
1 Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, shining like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb 2 through the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life, which produces twelve crops of fruit, bearing its fruit each month. The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more. They won’t need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will rule forever and always. (Rev. 22:1-5, CEB)
The end of Revelation is one of my favorite places to camp. I honestly love the entire Book of Revelation if I can read through it without the voices in my head. (You know: Tim LaHaye, Jack VanImpe, Hal Lindsey, etc.)
In Rev. 22:15 I noticed different ways translations have tackled the Greek word pharmakos over the years. Last night I was reading the passage out of the Common English Bible, which is why I noticed.
In the ESV, which followed the King James, the word is “sorcerer.”
In the NIV it is “those who practice magic arts.”
In the CEB it is “the drug users and spell-casters.”
It is obviously a difficult word to translate, so newer translations are using phrases rather than trying to wrap it up in one word.
I think of the line out of the movie Super 8 where the kid is saying, “Drugs are bad. Very, very bad!” (You would have to know the scene for it to be funny, I guess.)
At any rate, yet another interesting phrase brought to you by the Common English Bible.
