Push yourself:  Strive to be better than you are today.

Be Kind to Yourself:  Relax and enjoy the life you have.

Somewhere in the middle of those is where you need to live.  

The year is half over. 

Six months are gone, and a little less than six months lie ahead. 

How did the last six months go for you? Did you accomplish some of your goals coming into the new year? Are you halfway toward your dreams?

If you are like most people, you are probably not completely happy with your accomplishments so far. That means that now is the time to reassess your life, your dreams, and your goals. It is time to reapply yourself to make changes or grow in the direction you want to go. Now is a great time to realign your life with your desired future.

The year is half over, is one viewpoint. The other is that half a year lies ahead, and you have so much you can do with it.

Most Bible translations, with two notable exceptions, result from a group of linguistic scholars working together to understand the original languages of Hebrew and Greek (and a little Aramaic) and put them into English.

The results can be literal and more of a word-for-word translation, or they can be more interpretive and thought-for-thought. There is room for both methods, and I encourage everyone who reads the Bible to look at multiple versions when reading difficult Biblical passages. Often one will shine light onto the others by the way it is handled.

Let me encourage you to own several Bible translations like the New International Version (NIV), English Standard Version (ESV), New American Standard Version (NASB), and New King James Version (NKJV). Hard copies are easy to find, and most Bible software programs will offer at least these four as part of their standard package. They should be vital tools in your studying of scripture.

With that said, let me give you one final thought. Please be wary anytime a preacher says, “That is how that should be translated,” and you can find no English versions that handle it the way they suggest.

One example: Recently, I heard a preacher tell his congregation that in Matthew 28:19, the word “Go” can also be translated to “As you go.” No English version of the Bible translates it that way. The word is the participle “going,” but because of its placement in the sentence, it is best rendered as “Go,” as all modern Bibles do. His words are well-intentioned and repeated in numerous books, but no Greek scholar would agree.

There is a long list of verses I have heard people make claims like this, and I admit that I have said something similar a couple of times. Preachers and teachers are well-intentioned, but be skeptical anytime one of them (even me) tells you it should be translated one way and no English Bible has it that way.

Trust the scholars who pour their lives into these modern versions of the Bible. Use a few English Bibles to study and check your preacher’s work.

She said, “That is my favorite book in the Bible,” as she told me the story of Esther. He quoted a verse from James and then confidently added, “That is my favorite Bible passage.”

If all scriptures are God-breathed and useful for us, why do people have favorites? Should it not all be accepted as equally important?

The difference is how that passage or story speaks to me and my journey of faith. We see and hear something in those accounts that touches, inspires, and encourages us.

As a pastor, I love it when someone tells me about their favorite Bible anything. It means they are learning and growing in their walk of faith. It means God’s word has penetrated their soul and spirit. It means their faith is alive and active.

If someone asks you about your favorite part of scripture and you do not have an answer, it is not because the words are always the same; it is the result of your journey being stagnant. 

Today is Independence Day in the USA. 

The New Testament gives us two essential passages about enjoying our freedom in our nation and Jesus.

“Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” (1 Peter 2:16 – NIV 2011)

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” (Galatians 5:13 – NIV 2011)

We are blessed in the USA because we have freedom that we can use to serve God and others.

Knowing about God.

Knowing God.

There is a difference. 

One can be achieved through reading the Bible. The other is through experience.

Learn all you can, but be sure it moves from your head to your heart and hands. 

We are reaching that point in the summer where it is easy to slump into the fall. Summer is here, and the days are at their peak; the Fourth of July and all the parades with fireworks are right around the corner. 

This time of the year is the absolute worst for Church attendance. Our Church shuts down most of its activities during this stretch since no one seems to have time or be interested. 

So you can blow off this time and spend the next few weeks away from anything religious and slump into fall. You could also use this time to have a bump in your faith.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Invite a new person at Church to your Fourth of July gathering.

2. Open your home up for some friends from Church to come over and connect.

3. Pick up a Christian book and read something meaningful while traveling.

4. Visit a Church when you are out of town and share any insights and ideas with your pastor.

5. Start listening to a new podcast, or catch up on one, that helps inspire your faith while you are outside.

6. Catch up on listening to all the sermons from your Church this summer through YouTube or a website.

7. Serve a neighbor and share the love of Jesus by helping with an outside project.

8. Download an app like Gottman Card Deck and use the chance to learn more about your spouse while in the vehicle.

9. Register your children, grandchildren, or neighbor’s child for Vacation Bible School (VBS).

10. Walk out into nature and spend some time in prayer.

These are just a few of the hundreds of ways to connect to God while on vacation, enjoying the holiday, or making the most of these long warm summer days. 

This season could easily be a time for you to move away from God, or it could be a time for you to grow in your faith. The only question is about how you choose to use your time.

The easiest person for you to fool is yourself.

Have you ever watched a sport and convinced yourself you could do it? In fact, it looks easy, and you could do better than the people you are watching. And then you walk out of the stands and try it. Only to find out that it is much more complicated than it looked.

In your head, you knew that this task should be easy, but the reality was much more difficult.

We do it with officiating, coaching, managing, and playing when it comes to sports. We do it with almost every other activity in life too. If we had that job, we could do it better. If we were building that thing, we could do it better. On and on it goes.

We are experts in things we have never tried.

That is, until we do it. Then it suddenly becomes much more complex than we imagined.

This is even true in matters of faith. If we had their job, we would handle it in a more Godly way. If we had that spouse, we would never be unhappy. If we taught that class, led that small group, had given that communion thought, preached that sermon, served those people, or organized that thing, we are sure we could do it better.

Just because you think you can do it better does not mean you can. Doing it is always more complicated than you realize.

Let me begin by stating that I am a Bible-believing Christian. I trust it as God’s infallible, inerrant word that is authoritative for our lives. I preach and teach it as the foundation of all I know to be true.

With that said, I need to address my thoughts on John chapter 8 and the story of the woman caught in adultery. Even the most conservative Bibles have a mark denoting that the story recorded in John 7:53-8:11 are not found in most manuscripts. Basically, that means that when you get the oldest Bible copies, this story is not present, and it was added in later centuries as something Christians thought might be true. Once a few accepted it, addressing its presence in the scriptures was difficult. But I want to do that now, knowing that some will be angry and others disappointed in me. I am convinced I need to do this more and more as I hear this story quoted in Christian teaching. 

I am convinced this story is NOT an original account, and we must be cautious in using it. Let me give you some reasons I have developed through the years. 

1. The story is not found in the most reliable manuscripts. Just because we like the story is not a reason to keep it. The 1800-year-old documents give us the Bible as the first Church read it, and we must accept that as reliable.
2. Upon careful investigation, this one story gives us numerous words only used here in the gospel of John. John uses simplistic writing throughout the rest of the book, and this section reads thoroughly differently (you will have to trust me here).
3. The passage says there was a “woman caught in adultery.” That implies she was caught in the act. Basic knowledge of human reproduction would inform you that she was not alone in this. So where is the man? He would be as responsible as her, possibly more in their society. The Old Testament law required they both be stoned and not her alone.
4. The Old Testament law did not require a person to be sinless to perform capital punishment. Since we know all have sinned, that would make humanity unable to execute the law. And if Jesus lets her off the hook, is he not violating the law he came to fulfill? 
5. The Pharisees considered themselves flawless. The Apostle Paul describes himself this way, “…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the Church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. (Italics added / Philippians 3:5-6 – NIV 2011). No respectable Pharisee would have hesitated to stone her.
6. Roman law forbids the Jews to kill someone without their consent. Remember the trial of Jesus and how Pilate needed to give the final approval? So even if Jesus provides the mob with the green light, there are other things to consider before the story moves forward.

These are some of the reasons I do not preach and teach this passage. I cannot do it with a clear conscience. Romans 3:23 is still valid and tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Perhaps this is a good illustration of that truth. Definitely do not build a theology based on this passage alone.

I believe the words of the Bible are true and good, but this story made it in when it should not have been allowed. Now that we know, we move forward using the other 99.5% of scripture.

The children’s Church song leader taught the kids in our Church a simple praise chorus.

“I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart.”

There were more repetitive verses with the lyrics, “I’ve got the peace that passes understanding” and “I’ve got the love of Jesus.” Always followed by that one question, “Where?” The children shouted the robust response, “Down in my heart!”

What is in your heart?

Over a lifetime, it is easy to move from that enthusiastic child to a cynical adult. We fill our hearts with guilt, shame, hurt, failure, and pessimism. Life teaches us to replace joy with skepticism, peace with anxiety, and the love of Jesus with the pain of sin. And we bury it down in our hearts.

One challenge of someone who follows Jesus is to replace the junk that fills our hearts with God’s truth. The song possibly reminds us of an easy way to do that: Repetition. Maybe we need to wake up daily and say, “I’ve got joy, peace, and love in Jesus.” Then repeat it in the morning, at lunch, in the afternoon, at dinner, in the evening, and before bed. Continually reminding ourselves of what God’s word teaches is a helpful strategy to get the truth down into our hearts. Where?