Understanding Confusion

Mark 4:13 “And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?”

Have you ever felt like a stranger in a strange land? Have you ever felt like everyone around you is speaking a different language one that you don’t quite understand? I imagine that that is what many felt like when Jesus was out there speaking in parables and they just didn’t get the message.

I understand their confusion because that’s what gets me confused when I see fifty different translations of one verse in the bible. That is why I only read the King James Version because it is the most understood version by ME. Take for example the simple verse below:

King James Bible
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

New International Version
For God is not a [God] of [disorder] but of peace--as in all [the congregations] of the [Lord's people.] 

Isn’t that basically changing the words of God?

New Living Translation
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God's holy people.

English Standard Version
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

Berean Study Bible
For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints,

Berean Literal Bible
For He is not the God of disorder, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

New American Standard Bible 
for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.


There were too many more to list but you get my meaning, right? Why all of the translations?

Here I go digging and researching. I apparently am not the only one confused by so many translations, apparently hundreds of years before me there was confusion on the rewriting of the original bible.
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/

This link led me to more digging and understanding. Not that my brain can store all of this information but on some level, I’ve had it stored already for many years, go figure. I found it interesting that the original bible contained 80 books instead of the ones we’re fed, 66. 

“Up until the 1880’s every Protestant Bible (not just Catholic Bibles) had 80 books, not 66! The inter-testamental books written hundreds of years before Christ called “The Apocrypha” were part of virtually every printing of the Tyndale-Matthews Bible, the Great Bible, the Bishops Bible, the Protestant Geneva Bible, and the King James Bible until their removal in the 1880’s”

Not everyone was happy with the inclusion of the Apocrypha. Before my internet days I had read the Apocrypha and had no idea that they were part of the original KJV of the bible. I didn’t have the enormous amount of information at my fingertips as I do today. 

I found this paragraph most interesting from greatsite. Com:

“As Christians, we must be very careful to make intelligent and informed decisions about what translations of the Bible we choose to read. On the liberal extreme, we have people who would give us heretical new translations that attempt to change God’s Word to make it politically correct. One example of this, which has made headlines recently is the Today’s New International Version (T.N.I.V.) which seeks to remove all gender-specific references in the Biblend whenever possible! Not all new translations are good… and some are very bad.”

And this:
“Let’s be ever mindful that we are not called to worship the Bible. That is called idolatry. We are called to worship the God who gave us the Bible, and who preserved it through the centuries of people who sought to destroy it.”

I think people miss this point entirely thinking that the book is to be held as a sacred piece of paper even if it was a newly printed version of all that they believe in. That made total sense to me; we are not to worship the Bible we are to worship God alone. I think that is a fact many lose sight of in their search to be Christ-like and preaching ‘the Word’.

In conclusion I’ll end with this: We must decide whom it is we worship. Do we worship words, man or God? We are allowed free will so really we can worship whom we want, do what we want and believe what we want. But remember, your soul is counting on you to do the right thing whatever that means to YOU!

Apostrophe S

Okay, I’m going to admit it; apostrophe s trips me up daily. Just when I think I’ve got it nailed, I misuse it, and someone QUICKLY calls me on it. So I misuse commas too, but nobody really cares about them; they’ll overlook them but not apostrophes no way!!

I don’t depend on spellcheck but often times I’ll see that squiggly line, fix it to what it recommends, only to have a grammar pro point out I misused the apostrophe S. I’m going to work on just where that comma goes in quotation marks also, but right now I need to work on apostrophe S!

My son said to me last week, “Mom, the apostrophe S shows possession.”

I really need my son to teach me what I learned in grade school? Apparently!

I found this helpful grammar site:  Grammar Book 

Did you know there are THIRTEEN rules of the apostrophe??? Well color me blonde!

I’m going to practice, refresh, if you will:

  

Rule 1

Use the apostrophe with contractions. The apostrophe is always placed at the spot where the letter(s) has been removed.

My example:

It’s – it is

Doesn’t – does not

Isn’t – is not

Rule 2 

Use the apostrophe to show possession. Place the apostrophe before the s to show singular possession.

This is where my confusion begins.

Their example:

one actress's hat
one child's hat
Ms. Chang's house

My example:

Billy’s hat

Mr. Roper’s hat

NOTE: Although names ending in s or an s sound are not required to have the second s added in possessive form, it is preferred.

Their example:

Mr. Jones's golf clubs
Texas's weather
Ms. Straus's daughter

Confused! I was taught that we’d add an apostrophe AFTER the S. See rule FIVE.

Ms. Jones’ house

Texas’ weather

But if I read what Grammar Book is saying, I’m wrong.

  
Rule 3
Use the apostrophe where the noun that should follow is implied.

Their example:

This was his father's, not his, jacket.

My example:
His father’s home never felt like his own.

Rule 4

To show plural possession, make the noun plural first. Then immediately use the apostrophe.

Examples:
two boys' hats two women's hats
two actresses' hats
two children's hats
Okay, there’s the S’ !!! Are they TRYING to confuse us? Is this legal?!? (denote sarcasm)
One more:

Rule 5

Do not use an apostrophe for the plural of a name.

Examples:
We visited the Sanchezes in Los Angeles.
The Changs have two cats and a dog.


I have no examples! I need to go off and drink all of this in. I’ll continue tomorrow with the rest of the confusion. Don’t worry, I’m just refreshing what I THOUGHT I already knew!

ENJOY!

Accomplished Writer?

Pr. 1:5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
***

The term leaped out at me like a fish springing out of water. ‘Accomplished writer’ stood there staring me in the face. “Wow,” I thought, “We have an accomplished writer among us?”

What does that term mean to you? Well it means more than being a writer. To me an accomplished writer means they have accomplished many goals in the writing world, such as having novels published by a literary firm, having many stories (short or flash) published, and having many years of study under their belt.

Being published in an anthology does not make you an accomplished writer. Having a book self published, does not make you accomplished, and not being paid for your writing talent does not make you, or give you the right to boast, “I am an accomplished writer!” If this were the case then by all means, I am an accomplished writer!

My goal AS a writer is to be published. Not just take the easy routes to publication but by tried and true efforts in advancing my writing. I want a publisher for my novel, I want to be paid for my poetry, even if it is five bucks and a free copy of a magazine, being paid for writing is my set goal.

I googled Accomplished Writer. A man came up with 68 articles and three novels published. He is an accomplished writer. I think of Stephen King as an accomplished writer, I think of  Dean Koontz, Orson Scott Card and oh so many other writers. But to be in a beginners course study, have a book self published, this does not make you an accomplished writer.

To even use the term as if you WERE an Accomplished Writer is deceptive and misleading the reader, falsifying the truth, boasting of something that just isn’t so, and thus leaving me, the reader thinking you’re a phony, who’s trying to be something that you are not, yet.

In writing, there is no shortcut to success. You can’t buy it, you can’t plant it in the garden and force it to bloom, and you can’t just say the words, and it will be so. People will find out the truth and you will be called on it and then you’ll be standing there holding a slimy ball of wax and all that Accomplished writing that you’ve never earned will melt away quicker than it took shape.

So please writers, wait until you really are an accomplished writer, before touting that you ARE an accomplished writer, then just maybe, I’ll believe you and read your book(s).