September 2, 2022 - Good Morning! It's Friday, September 2. Bro. David's on vacation this week and is reprinting some devotional favorites from the past. This one originally ran on September 21, 2021.
Mary Stuart was Queen of Scotland and the rival of the first Queen Elizabeth of England. Mary had a son that she named James, and when he was 20 years old, Elizabeth had Mary executed. Sixteen years later Elizabeth died and James Stuart became James I, the King of the British Empire. James was highly intelligent and well educated, but not a particularly successful monarch, often at odds with Parliament and unpopular with his people.
Four centuries later, we remember James I primarily for two things. He actively supported the arts, particularly playwrights like the young William Shakespeare. And he ordered his theologians to produce a new translation of the Bible, a translation using the beautiful language of his time, the language of Shakespeare - Elizabethan English - named after his mother’s executioner. The King James Translation was first published in 1611. It is the Bible that I grew up with, and even though I use several modern translations today, it is the words of James Stuart’s Bible that I still hear In my head.
Here are a few of those words... about The Word.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. I Timothy 3:16
The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart... Hebrews 4:12
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth... Romans 1:16
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35
Meet you back here on Tuesday,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
