Dear Friends,
As most of you know we are privileged to own what we think is a first edition of the King James Bible. Some years ago, we had a visit from an American Pastor who asked to see it, and as we examined it together, we noticed what appeared to be a big mistake in the text. Part of the Book of Micah appeared to be missing!
A few days ago, I had a phone call from this same Pastor from Texas. He had been puzzled by this discovery and had made some enquiries with learned colleagues in America. He discovered that it would appear that in the first edition of the King James Bible of 1611, those who were setting the text made a mistake and headed the second page of the Book of Micah as the Book of Joel! He asked me to check if this was the case with ours. It was. We should have read the text not the title and I have written to him to tell him so.
There is a lesson to be learned for all of us here. Things are not always as they seem. We sometimes are tempted to make superficial judgements about all sorts of things and people can be very good at covering up their true feelings. You cannot always tell what pain is behind a smiling face. Jesus says “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you”.
We hear a great deal these days about the fragility of the feelings of so many people. As disciples of Christ, we are called to be Christ-like in all our dealings. Sometimes that is harder than others, but if we can always reflect the light of his love, we will be going a long way towards answering our calling to spread his light in what is an increasingly a dark world.
With love and blessings,
Marion
Categories: Minister's Blog