MID WEEK MOTIVATION - May 28, 2025 (Marc Lewis & Grant Stegall)

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven Mississippi.

Here's your hosts Mark Lewis, david Burgess and Pastor Grant Stegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for Wednesday, may 28th, here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis, I'm Grant Stegall.

We hope this programming can encourage folks at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis, I'm Grant Stegall.

We hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

Be sure to subscribe and share our link on social media.

It is the end of another school year.

Summer is starting.

We're literally prepping for Vacation Bible School right now.

We've been working on it the past few days.

We're going to continue to set the stage for it today and tomorrow, probably into Friday as well, and then when y'all arrive here at church on Sunday, you will see that a lot of it is already in full swing.

Most of it.

There will be a few rooms that we can't really get to because of Sunday school, but most of them are done.

Yes, sets are going up.

Some of the rooms are being decorated already.

Obviously, we'll make sure that everything is set so that we can still have our normal Sunday mornings, but you're going to see some different things here around the building.

You're actually off for vacation right now.

So, for those who might be confused, we did record this ahead of time so Grant could take his vacation.

So right now, as you're hearing this, grant's actually in the mountains in Gatlinburg, so I'm sure that you're having a blast right now.

I hope to be.

I did want to mention that today also marks the official end of the Midweek Motivation Season 1.

So it takes a lot of planning and prep to bring this show to life each week, and I'll be on the road doing lots of different things this summer some camp ministry, some family vacations, lots of stuff and so we had planned to give the show a brief break throughout the summer months.

We will continue posting the weekly sermon each week.

So if you have gotten accustomed to listening to our Sunday morning message on the podcast, that will still happen.

There may be a few weeks where it's delayed more than normal just because if I'm out of pocket and don't have Internet access, I won't be able to get it up as quickly, but it will get up there.

So don't fret.

If you don't see it on a regular Sunday morning, we will get it.

We'll make it happen, chuck.

I actually already talked to Chuck and he's going to help me with that on the weeks that I'm not here.

But we are also making plans to return for the Midweek Motivation Season 2, which we will do sometime in mid-August.

So we look forward to many more interviews with our staff and church family.

It's been a lot of fun.

What is your favorite way to keep cool during the summer?

Are y'all a swimming?

family Stay inside.

Oh come on, you are a Mississippi boy.

You've got some way that you Are y'all swimming.

I'm assuming y'all are sort of a swimming family.

Yeah, we like to swim.

I mean, this isn't a way to keep cool, but one of my favorite things of the summer is cold watermelon.

I think you've mentioned the watermelon.

So I'll buy a watermelon and put it in the freezer or at least in the refrigerator.

If I want to eat it the day I buy it, I'll put it in the freezer, but if it's going to be a day or two I'll put it in the refrigerator.

So on a hot day you go out there and cut that cold watermelon.

Now who picks out the watermelons in your family?

If you didn't know our listeners, apparently Addison Ulrich is the queen of picking out watermelons.

The queen of picking out watermelons yeah, I've heard Brandon and Laura both tell me that she'll literally dive to the bottom of those huge bins where her legs are like flailing about digging towards the bottom to find the absolute best one, and apparently she is really good at it.

That is awesome.

I pick them.

I've heard of tricks along the way.

One if you want a really sweet watermelon you have to get seeded.

The seedless watermelons are not as sweet as the seeded watermelons and I used to get the seedless all the time because with kids it was just so much easier.

But all I buy is seeded.

Now they say on the belly of the watermelon it needs to be a little yellow that's one of the tricks.

I asked at some point blank and she gave me a whole little list of the yellow and then on the lines.

You need to have a couple of fingers distance between the lines it's something I learned recently.

I haven't really totally tested that out, but somebody told me that recently that you, you put two fingers together and and they fit inside the lines running on the watermelon.

That that's a good sign as well.

Interesting, so seed is going to be sweeter.

and then the lines, and then find a little bit of yellowing on the belly.

I've heard the yellowing.

In fact Addison will say it needs to look almost rotten.

The ones at the very bottom of the bin have a really, really brown and ugly look and she says those are going to be the good ones.

But then she talks about knocking on them too.

I always thump on them, but I can't ever tell the difference.

What am I listening for?

I thump on them because that's how my dad always picked them.

He would thump on it and go by the sound and he could tell by the sound.

I can't ever tell the difference, maybe because I can't tell pitch.

You ought to be able to do it.

Mark, but I don't know what anyone's no one's ever really told me what I'm supposed to be listening for and Addison tried to explain it to me and I was like, what is this kid talking about?

I have no clue what you about, but apparently that I mean it is a trick to it.

That's one of our big things.

We do like to swim, though, too well, my next question you've just answered it was if you could have endless supply of any summer treat, what would it be?

watermelon and homemade ice cream.

Oh man homemade ice cream is a simple delight, I'm telling you listen, and just the vanilla.

Oh yeah, I don't need flavors a good vanilla.

Now there's a zillion different homemade ice cream recipes, but a classic.

Simple delight, I'm telling you.

And just the vanilla.

Oh yeah, I don't need flavors, just the vanilla, a good vanilla.

Now there's a zillion different homemade ice cream recipes, but a classic, very good-tasting vanilla is you can't beat it.

My mom had a great one and I just used it.

And if I want to get crazy with my ice cream, let me do it with toppings.

I don't need the ice cream, just give me a vanilla and then one of my if I'm going to put something in crushed up Butterfinger is one of my favorite things to put in just vanilla ice cream.

But most of the time is just give me straight vanilla ice cream.

Homemade ice cream.

As I've gotten older.

Of course, when you're little it's chocolate chips and M&M's.

For kids M&M's is a big one and I still eat chocolate chip ice cream throughout the year.

That's my go-to Blue Bell chocolate chip, if I can find it.

Sometimes it's hard to find.

As I've gotten older, if I'm crushing up a candy to put into an ice cream myself, kitkat has become it Because KitKat does not get overly hard.

You know, some candies can get hard in ice cream and you can.

By the nature of a Kit Kat, it crushes because it's got that wafer inside of it and it kind of crumbles.

Oh my goodness.

I'll have to try that.

I do like Butterfinger crushed up in it, but I'll have to try Kit Kat Because I like Kit Kats.

Yes, so a lot of those candies have caramel in them Right when caramel gets in ice cream, it gets real hard, so try the Kit Kat.

It will change your life.

I know I'm going to go off topic here.

I'm going to throw you one.

That's fine, all right.

So homemade ice cream, you got it.

What about store-bought?

Like what's your store-bought?

You don't even have to give the brand.

What's your flavor?

It's chocolate chip.

Okay, I mean that's it.

Yeah.

And you know, I talked to Mark Manning and asked him about it, and before he could even answer, celeste jumped in.

Just vanilla, just plain vanilla, that's all he ever wants is vanilla.

And he looked at me and he said if I want chocolate, I'll put it in it.

Yeah, it's going to be vanilla.

Yeah so, but the Blue Bell.

Through the years I've changed from time to time, but I discovered Blue Bell may four years ago, during the pandemic, and Blue Bell's actual cream tastes very similar to homemade ice cream.

It does.

We do Blue Bell most of the time.

I like the homemade peach.

It's actually it's not peach ice cream, it's like the vanilla ice cream, but it's got peaches in it.

Right, good stuff.

And then we also really like the Area 51 blackberry goat cheese.

Let's see, I don't go to Area 51 because just there you just named it.

Yeah, there's no regular kind of flavors that they do?

they do have a sweet cream, that's good, just a plain, and you can mix stuff up in it and then, but I like their pontotoc peach too.

And you're going to say, because it's no, I like peaches, I like peach stuff, and so I love pe, but I'm very particular about it because there's a lot of bad peach stuff out there.

That is very true.

And peach-flavored stuff is not peach.

It's not the same, it's not peach.

It is absolutely not the same.

Hey, we want to touch on a few calendar things.

Vbs registration online has actually ended.

The pre-registration actually ended Monday.

Dbs registration online has actually ended.

The pre-registration actually ended Monday.

But, good news, you can still show up on Monday morning on the 2nd, and we can get you registered.

It may take you just a tad longer, but we still want you to show up.

Your kids are going to have a great time.

Get here early, because the lines may be a little bit longer and your kids aren't going to want to miss our opening celebrations.

So we are looking forward to it.

We put a lot of time and effort into Vacation Bible School.

If you've been here before, then you know our programming is top-notch and we work really hard at that.

So you're going to want your kids to be a part of that.

You're going to want your kids' friends to be a part of that.

So be sure, and invite your neighbors to come over with us.

It's going to be fantastic.

We do need some volunteers.

Our volunteer registration is in the Grand Hall.

I know it's the week of VBS, like.

Next week is VBS.

We're still always looking for volunteers, so don't hesitate to go and sign up.

We also have T-shirts that are on sale in the Grand Hall.

They're going to be $10.

We are going to be decorating this Sunday after church, like I mentioned earlier, we're already decorating here right now, but we need all the help we can get Sunday.

If you're willing to hang around after church and help us decorate, we would be grateful.

We'll give you some lunch.

Absolutely, we would be grateful.

We'll give you some lunch.

Absolutely.

So, looking ahead, ahead just a little bit, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, because it's hard for any of us to look at anything right now with VPS right here, but we do have Salute to Summer.

That's really right around the corner.

Grant it is, that's three weeks away.

Yeah.

So Salute to Summer is.

It's because of the way the calendar falls.

It's a tad earlier this year, but it's going to be on the 22nd of June and that is going to be from 530 to 730.

You may not realize, our time shifted just a little bit, but as a staff we talked through it.

It gets really hot and so we wanted to try to get it as late as possible so that we're as comfortable as possible out there.

So 530 to 730.

And then we're going to have the Side Street Steppers which it has been Side Street Steppers.

We looked it up 2018, I think is the last time they were here 2018.

So seven years, they came to a TNT event in 2022.

But for Salute to Summer it's been 2018.

So Side Street Steppers are going to be back this year and we're looking forward to it.

It's going to be a great evening.

We have really good food.

Is it barbecue that we're doing?

Barbecue nachos.

We'll have hot dogs and ice cream.

And for your kids.

Not homemade ice cream, sorry, yeah.

And for your kids, if you don't know, we also have lots of inflatables and slides.

It's going to be a really, really fun event, it's.

It harkens sort of to our small version of our fall festival, if you're familiar with that.

So a lot of fun, come on out it.

You listened to our podcast a few weeks ago.

We were talking with Sid McNeil and for just a brief second he mentioned some of the differences between the denominations as far as missionary Baptist church and regular Southern Baptist church, and for just Bible translations was part of that conversation, although it was very, very brief.

So I wanted to ask, grant, today, knowing that you have studied a lot of this stuff, because you've done a lot of schooling, I wanted to know more about the translations and a little bit of the history.

Of course, when I was growing up in the 80s, pretty much everybody was still King James.

And then I want to say, grant, was it maybe 88, 89, 90, right in there?

The very early 90s, it seems like, is when people started over to the NIV.

It probably actually started a little bit before that, but really kind of took off more, kind of in the late 80s, something like that.

So you get your Bible translations.

I mean, it is a long history.

I mean the first time we get any kind of translation of the Bible was about 400 AD and this guy named Jerome translated it into Latin From Greek, from Greek and Hebrew.

Okay, so he translated it into Latin From Greek, from Greek and Hebrew.

Okay, so he translated it into Latin, and so that was 400 AD.

Well, the next time you had anybody do anything really, and especially put it in English, was 13.

1480.

And question.

This is nerding, but that translation.

Did that come from the original translation?

Do we know if it came from the Latin or from the actual Greek and Hebrew?

Do we still have access to the?

We do not have access to the original manuscripts.

There are no I'll get to that in just a minute but there are no.

I'll just do that.

There are no original manuscripts?

Okay, there's a science called textual criticism Yep, textual criticism it attempts to discover original texts of ancient documents.

Okay, and it's a science that takes all these manuscripts that are found and tries to come as close as they can to getting to what would be an original document.

Okay, and studies have shown that 99% of the original New Testament can be reconstructed with a high degree of probability.

Okay.

So we don't have the original manuscripts but we can get really close to the original manuscripts At least we think we're really really close, high degree of probability that we have 99% of it.

Old Testament is a little bit different, but we think we have about 90% of the Old Testament with a high degree of probability.

That's pretty amazing statistics, yeah.

And so we think we have that.

But no, there are no original manuscripts.

Now, at 400 AD, you're not far off from that.

Jesus was I mean John was probably writing and probably didn't die the Apostle John until late 90s or until the 90s.

He is the only apostle that wasn't martyred and so he lived, we think, until the 90s.

And so at 400, you're only 300 years from that.

So I mean we still have the Declaration of Independence, right, and so I mean you may not have the original in 400, but you can get pretty close to that.

But from that time we really don't have anything.

And so in 1380, a guy named John Wycliffe he provided the first English translation, but he used Jerome's Latin.

He did not use that, did not come from the Greek, got you.

And then, a little less than 200 years later, a guy named William Tyndale.

He took the Greek into English in a New Testament.

Okay.

Okay, and then Miles Coverdale.

He did the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek into the Old and New Testaments when was that 1535, still about the same time?

Okay, so I mean we're getting a long way away from that original, though, right, and so there's no original manuscripts at 1535.

We're a long way from that.

Right so they're just doing the best we can.

In 1560, there was another translation called the Geneva Bible, and it's been called the Bible of Shakespeare, the Bible of the Puritans and the Bible of the Pilgrims.

Okay, but the Church of England didn't like the Geneva Bible.

Why?

Because it had some notes, some notations in it from John Calvin.

Some of them didn't like that Calvin.

Some of them didn't like that.

Some of them, this very famous guy named James.

He did not like that.

Some of the notes insinuated that the king of England wasn't given that right by divine authority.

Yes, it makes perfect sense.

And so, in 1611, he authorized that 50 scholars translate a new test, a bible from james.

Yes, that's where we get king james.

The first one was in 1611.

That story makes me like him less but here's two and the version less.

But no, don't, just because that was the, that might have been a motivation does not mean it's not a good.

It is a great translation of the bible.

So we've had scholars look back oh yeah it is a great translation of the bible and and for 1611 it it had the best scholarship that they took, the best scholarship that was available, the best manuscripts that were available and provided a great so he put a great translation.

He put good people on it, because he was going to put his name on it and did not want it.

Well, I don't know, but like do we call?

it?

Did we call it king james back then, or did we just call it because?

now we say we kind of call it the king james, but it's and some people still call it the authorized version.

He authorized that it was translated.

Here's what's interesting Most people don't know there were two printers who printed the King James Version, because the number of Bibles that were printed initially and we get upset when things are different.

But there are over 200 variations between the two King James original prints.

So you could be standing next to somebody in church and their King James reading.

Well, not today.

I mean then in 1611, yes, it could have.

Yes, but you probably didn't, because the printers were probably not together.

Regional, yeah, regional, but anyway.

And so that was 1611.

And the goal of the King James translators was to translate the original Greek and Hebrew text into the language of the ordinary people with enough dignity to be used in church, which is a great goal.

Well, here's what's amazing, then.

If that happened in the 1600s, that was sort of the gold standard of Bibles for over 300 years.

Oh, yeah, for over 300 years.

Oh yeah, so they did some revisions of it throughout the years, because language changes, right, and I promise you if you go pick up a 1611 King James Version, you're not reading it.

It's tough to read the King James Version from the 80s.

Well, true enough, because of the language.

But the 1611, it has a very Shakespearean.

Do you remember in high school ever having to read the Canterbury Tales?

I had to memorize whatever the prologue.

It was awful.

Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of English that we're talking about.

And honestly, that was always my argument to people who would say well, the King James version is the version you should be using, not the NIV.

And I would always say if I can't understand what I'm reading, why can't I use a version that's better, and we know more now than we did back then?

But they would always say oh, every time they translate this thing, it loses something.

It did something of the two printers of the original 1611.

I mean, there's 200 variations there, right, but it's still I don't want to knock the King James Version.

Really, 1769 was the last time that the King James was super updated and the King James really kind of works off that version today, which still I mean still a lot of language difference in that, like you were saying, right, it's a lot of tough stuff to read.

But see, I love to read the Psalms from the King James.

It almost has that rhythm and stuff that the original Hebrew, the King James, can almost provide, that separate from the Hebrew.

And so there's some things about the King James and it is a.

So you have three different types of translations.

You have a formal translation, which it is a word for word.

They take this Greek word and they translate it and just go word for word, okay, so formal translation, and the emphasis is on the Hebrew and Greek structure.

King James is a formal translation.

Okay, it is word for word.

Then you have a functional translation Okay, and what it is?

It is an attempt to keep the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew text, but they make it more readable or functional.

And then you have a free translation and it is an attempt to translate the idea of the biblical text.

It's like a paraphrase of the biblical text More of a study Bible, almost, in a sense.

I mean, if you're going to do study, my recommendation would be a formal translation.

Accompanied with something to explain what you just read.

Well, I mean, maybe, while the King James is a formal translation, the ESV is a formal translation.

The New American Standard is a formal translation.

The ESV is a formal translation.

The New American Standard is a formal translation.

So there are formal translations that are easier to read than the King James Version, but they're more that word for word.

If I'm going to do an in-depth study, I want one of those.

If I'm just going to go read for pleasure and just read it, right, one of your more freer translations.

I'm not a big paraphraser free, but there are people that are, and God bless you.

Like, if it'll let you read, then read it.

But like the message, it's a free translation.

The Good News Bible is I've translation.

The Good News Bible Okay, I've heard of the Good News Bible, the New Living Translation.

Some people have those it tends more towards the free and functional there.

NIV.

When did the NIV come in?

What's its?

history NIV.

When did the NIV come in?

What's its history?

So around the turn of the 1900s they did a more modern and a little bit before they did a more modern update of the King James Version.

But they used better scholarship on the textual criticism stuff.

They used some of the newer things and you got two translations from that.

You got the revised version, I think is what it's called, and then the American Standard and those kind of came and then they started updating that even more.

I mean so the NIV.

I should have gotten a date on that.

It was more towards the mid to later 1900s, probably around in the 1970s, and so it came along.

So here's what happened with the NIV.

It's a good translation.

I think it's a good translation.

I think it's a good translation to you.

What happens with the NIV is, in some of their revisions they began to make the gendered language not gendered.

Yeah, and when did this come up?

This was more recent, wasn't?

it.

Yeah, I mean, it was probably not as recent as we think it is.

We just started arguing it more recently, more recent than it did.

Does that make sense?

Because it probably lived in the world of scholarship for a little while and then, as it came down to people, but it was things like instead of saying brothers, they said brothers and sisters, and I don't think they ever did it and I could be wrong with this.

I don't think they ever did it.

For god, when they were using the pronoun for god, they used he, but in other places, when they, when it was not identified as a gender they would use, they might use, they are some things like that and and it, almost it, and and we used to use the NIV.

When I came here, your dad used the NIV and we talked about it some, and the reason he used it is because people could read it.

I want to say it was the 90s.

I want to say it was the early 90s when he started, I remember and it was a big deal back then, grant yeah.

And when he ended up at First Baptist.

It was a really, really big deal.

Yeah, yeah, they were doing more and more things like that.

And again, if they're not changing the pronouns of God and they're taking what could be non-gendered and making it non-gendered, do I have a huge problem with that?

Maybe not so much, but at the same time, there's just a check, and your dad and I talked about it and he was like it.

Just it feels like every time they come out with an update, we're having to fight some kind of battle and we're having to explain things and stuff like that.

At some point it becomes not worth it.

Yes, and so there were other conservatives who wanted a more functional translation of the Bible, readable translation of the Bible, but that still kind of kept that gendered language and things like that, and that's one of the reasons we have the ESV, the English Standard Version, which is what we use.

Now let me say this is the most pleasurable Bible I've ever version I've ever in my 44 years of living have encountered.

I love this translation.

And I didn't get an English Standard Bible.

I don't.

It's probably just in the last four years.

It's really when we started using it here more that I finally got an ESV because I had everything I had.

Pretty much was NIV.

I love this translation.

When did the ESV come, kind of in response to some of the stuff that the NIV was doing in making their gendered language and things like that and so they kind of it was kind of in response.

So it was probably the late 90s yeah, it is a more modern the late 1900s anyway, 80s, 90s, somewhere in there.

I consider that pretty new.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and there were lots of people that did that.

I mean Lifeway did the Holman Christian Standard.

I had one of those.

It wasn't bad.

It's not bad, it wasn't bad.

It is a good translation too.

Here's the question I always get all the time with translation what is the best translation?

The one you're going to read that's my first response is the one you'll read.

Like, if you pick up a King James Version and say I just can't understand it, well then that's not a good translation for you, correct?

But I have some people like even myself, honestly, mark, that's what I grew up reading in my formative years and learned I really don't have too much trouble reading the King James Version.

And so if that's kind of the Bible you grew up reading and when you read it it makes you feel and it makes you want to read it because of whatever, well then, by golly, read the King James Version.

I see there's merits in all of them, the one you're going to read.

And then I ask a question if somebody says what's the best translation, then I say what are you using it for?

Right?

And again I go back to if you're studying, if you're doing a Bible study where you're going to sit down and you're going to really study it, I recommend leaning towards the formal word-for-word translations.

Okay, those are.

The King James is one of those.

Doesn't have necessarily the new scholarship on the manuscripts, the textual criticism.

It's still a great translation.

It's good for study.

The English Standard Version while it is pretty functional and it is more functional and readable than the King James Version, it still is heavy on the formality of it, like the word for word New American Standard.

It is a great study translation.

Those would be my top ones if I'm going to just do an in-depth Bible study, then if I'm going to read it again I have a tendency the message is almost too far for me.

I'm not saying the message is bad, though.

The NIV is pretty functional in its readability.

Again, I think that the ESV that's one of the reasons I like it so much because while it's still formal it's pretty functional as well.

I think it reads pretty good for the most part.

But you know I mean again, there are people here in our church that I know have the New Living Translation, that I know there are some that have the Good News Bible.

Those again, what their goal?

The goal of those very free or leaning towards free they're probably not just totally, they're not totally free, but more functionality in those, functionality in those.

Their goal is to take the idea like what is this passage telling us and putting that in language that we understand, okay, and so you still should be able to grasp.

This is what the Bible was saying, so I can read that.

And so if you're just reading for a devotion or you just want to have something to read, you know like you want to read the Bible.

You just want to read the Bible more and you're not taking the time to do word studies, you're just reading it, which is a great thing to do.

Just read the Bible, like then, yeah, those are great translations for that.

Okay, on Sunday mornings you read from the esv is part of that, just because our former pastor had done, had been doing that, and that's just as a church we're there, or?

well, and I could be wrong in this, I were.

I think I remember brother james and I having the conversation of again a new, an updated NIV came out and he's like I'm just kind of tired of this.

I remember he told me that and so at that time I was in seminary and taking some seminary classes and all of my everybody was using the ESV there.

So I had gotten one just kind of for my study, just as I was going to class and things like that, and I really liked it.

And so I said, brother James, here's the ESV, I'm using it right now for this, and that I really like it.

And he looked at it and he liked it.

And so he was like and so we adopted it yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Okay, well, I mean again that SV has become my favorite translation that I have read through my entire life, so I love it and I'm very happy that we as a church, typically on Sunday mornings, use that Now for any of our listeners.

You read whatever translation you want to.

We do have to pick one, just read it.

Yes, I mean, that's my big.

Just read it.

We do pick one as one that we use on Sunday mornings, mainly because whatever the pastor's comfortable with, and then also because of any of our PowerPoint slides, whatever we're putting up on the screens, we have to obviously choose one and put that up on the screens for people to read in the MPC, and so we chose ESV, as y'all moved over to that several years ago.

Um but uh, fascinating.

I love the fact that you uh roll us through a little bit of the history.

It'll be interesting to see what what creeps up in the future, because the business side of this I mean, if we're honest is of these publishers.

It's in their interest to come up with something a little bit new, because they want to put them all out and sell all new versions.

Well, and you know, in that textual criticism, in that science too, we're still discovering old manuscripts I mean now, granted, it was I mean the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were 1960s, right, old manuscripts.

I mean now, granted, it was, I mean the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were 1960s, but they found in the 1960s.

They found in these caves outside of the Dead Sea.

They found these jars of manuscripts that dated back like super early, earlier than things that we had had before.

So if you have these new discoveries, you've got to have time to work through those, to use those, and if they provide a better look at the original you know what I'm saying If they come closer to get us to the original, you kind of have to adopt to that, right, I mean, because what we want and we say as Southern Baptists in the original autographs, we don't have those.

But if we can get to those, I mean that's the closest we can get to that.

Yeah, and so we're striving to Textual criticism.

I'm glad there are people way smarter than me that do it and I can trust them.

But, yeah, I mean, you got to be, you got to at least kind of be open to that some.

And so there is that as well.

Yeah, there is always the business side of it and stuff.

And you know, for the NIV, for those guys I don't know that their original goal was to make this political stance and we're not going to do gendered language, all this kind of stuff.

I think their goal was to make it readable Right Now.

You have to be careful in that, because can you take that too far?

Sure, absolutely you can, and so you've got to be careful in that, because can you take that too far?

Sure, absolutely you can, and so you've got to be careful in that.

And that was kind of what Brother James was going to.

It just feels like every time there's a little bit more and a little bit more.

I don't think the NIV's gotten there, but every time and it just like the ESV's not doing that, and so we're here.

But there's things with the ESV.

There's one guy in our church I know he loves the New American Standard.

The reason he loves the New American Standard is because when they use the New American Standard, when it uses the pronouns for Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit, they capitalize the H in he.

The ESV doesn't do that.

I love it.

And he just says you know, I like the reverence that it's paying to God on that.

Well, read the New American Standard then.

I mean, like you know, and so choose it on your convictions too, sure, and that's good.

But yeah, we're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.

So next week we're going to start the book of Psalms and going to be in Psalms, and so I wanted to take a moment, just kind of based on our conversation that we just had about the Bible.

And again, the important aspect is to read and study the Bible, and you need a Bible that you can read and study.

And so the Psalms I just want to look at Psalm 1 just real quickly today.

Here's what it says.

It says it blesses the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law.

He meditates day and night.

And so we're talking about a man, a godly man here.

Godly is the man who doesn't listen to what the world is trying to tell him to do and where the world is trying to tell him to go, but he meditates and his delight is in God's law and in God's word and that's where he grounds his life is in God's word.

And if we're going to do that, we've got to be reading and studying.

And then he goes on and tells us what that man is like.

He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away.

So I don't.

I I remember growing up we had dad had 80 acres that he farmed and there was a creek that ran through it and we would go down there and play in that creek and those trees mark that were by that creek were huge and they weren't going anywhere because their source of water was never dried up.

They always had plenty, even when we were in drought and things were going low, the creek still always.

It might not be as much, but it had some water.

So they were always having that nourishment.

That nourishment.

When we meditate on God's word, when we study God's word, when we read God's word, we become like that tree that we are always getting filled, we are always getting nourished and we prosper in life, in that and when.

Prosper doesn't mean you get rich, it just means you're able to live life and face everything that life comes our way.

But when we're not, we're like chaff that is blown away.

Let me translate that for you it's like a leaf that is just blown in the wind I mean, it's just gone or a feather that just blows in the wind.

There's no control and you can't do anything.

Therefore, he ends and he says Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation, there's no control and you can't do anything.

Therefore, he ends and he says therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

You know why the Lord knows the way of the righteous, because the way of the righteous are walking in his way and he knows that way.

So my challenge to you is find a good Bible, a good translation, that you can read and study and read and study and meditate on God's word, so that you may find real life.

Man Grant.

Thank you so much and thank you guys for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here Sunday morning.

You can catch our services online at desotahillscom, our YouTube channel at Desoto Hills Baptist Church.

For all of our church family, we love you.

We'll see you back here in August.

Have a fantastic summer, God bless.

This has been your Midweek Motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 am.