r/RecoveryVersionBible

First Thessalonians 1:9 says, "How you turned to God from the idols to serve a living and true God." I read this footnote from 1 Thessalonians 1:9 this morning:

>The living and true God is in contrast to the dead and false idols. God must be living and true to us and in us in our daily life, so that our present living will testify that the God whom we serve is living and true.

This made me pause and consider, is God real in my daily living? Do I contact God as I'm doing ordinary things, during my commute, as I'm cooking dinner, etc? If someone were to observe me, would they see that God is living and true? Or is He the same as a dead idol to me? This footnote encouraged me to pray today, "Lord, I want to spend this day with You. Remind me you're in my spirit all the time."

Today I pray-read over this verse:

“And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” — Revelation 21:23, RcV

I was really worried and stressed about what I should do about a certain situation, but all the ‘light’ of good ideas I had about it were actually just darkness. The more I prayed and mused over the ‘glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb’ I was inwardly illuminated that only light I need is the glory of God, made accessible to me in the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Its lamp IS the Lamb! It reminded me of 2 Corinthians 4:6, “…the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

I don’t need good ideas or pros and cons; I don’t need the ‘light of a lamp and of the light of the sun’ (Revelation 22:5). I just need the shining of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!!!

"As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation," (1 Peter 2:2)

Appreciate the footnote on "newborn":
Born through regeneration (1:3, 23), the believers become babes who can grow in life unto further salvation, and that for God's building, by being nourished with the spiritual milk.

Many times this verse comes to mind when I get disappointed on myself. The Lord reminds me that I just need to continue to receive His word into me and let Him grow in me 🤍

Revelation 2:8 And to the messenger of the church in Smyrna write: These things says the First and the Last, who became dead and lived again:

Footnote 2 In suffering, the church must know that the Lord is the First and the Last, the ever-exiting, unchanging One. Whatever the persecuting environment may be, the Lord remains the same; nothing can precede Him, nor can anything exist after Him. All things are within the limits of His control.

The natural end to all things is death - death is the end of all things. But here the Lord makes a contrast that death is not the last, but He is. This shows to the suffering church in Smyrna to not worry about death but to remember the Lord has all things within His control. The Lord will fulfill and carry out all things and will leave nothing unfinished. What a promise to the church in Smyrna!

Hi everyone! I enjoyed these three verses from Psalm 16 and one of the footnotes:

"Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You. I say to Jehovah, You are my Lord; / No good have I beyond You; As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent; / All my delight is in them." (Psalm 16:1-3) Recovery Version

I also was touched by the footnote on the word "You" in verse 2, which says "As a man, Christ took God as His Lord (Matt. 4:7,10) and had no good (no blessing, no pleasure, and no enjoyment) beyond God as His portion (cf. Luke 18:19).

Praise the Lord! He had no blessing, pleasure or enjoyment on earth other than God Himself. It reminded me of the hymn "My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace. Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God."

I did have a question after reading verse three and the footnote on the word "saints" which reads:

"In His human living Christ loved God the Father (John 14:31) and delighted not in the law but in the saints, the excellent people on the earth, because they are the members of His Body, the church (Eph. 1:22b-23; 5:30)."

What does it mean that Christ delighted in the saints in His human living on the earth? Would this refer to the disciples? Or maybe the people of Israel?

These feelings are the sense of death (Rom. 8:6) and in ourselves, we have no way to deal with death and are often overcome by it. But Christ has the keys of death and of Hades! He became dead and lived again! (Rev. 1:18) Here some more encouraging verses I enjoyed from the Recovery Version:

• Hebrews 2:14-15 "Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil, and might release those who because of the fear of death through all their life were held in slavery."
• 2 Timothy 1:10 "But now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who nullified death and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel."
• Acts 2:24 "Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it."
• 1 Corinthians 15:26 "Death, the last enemy, is being abolished."
• 1 Corinthians 15:54 "And when this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality, then the word which is written will come to pass, 'Death has been swallowed up unto victory.'"

As Christians we have this living One in us, and we can claim these divine facts whenever we feel the effects of death encroaching upon us!

Want to share this verse and footnote I enjoyed from the Recovery Version Bible:

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14)

Part of footnote for Immanuel:
..the content of the entire New Testament is an Immanuel (Matt 1:23; 18:20; 28:20; Rev. 21:3), and all the believers in Christ, as the members of Christ, are a part of this great Immanuel, the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11). The sign of Immanuel consummates in the New Jerusalem, which will be the aggregate of Immanuel, the totality of God being with us.

According to the book of Ephesians, the church is not only the Body, but also the new man. As the Body, the church needs Christ its life, but as the new man, the church needs Christ as the Person. For example, trees have life, but they do not have a person, and therefore have no personality. As human beings however, we have both life and personality. For this reason, Christ wants to become the person in our hearts.

In Revelation 1-3, the term often translated as “angels” is rendered as “messengers” in the RcV, and I think that is a thoughtful and meaningful choice. On the surface, both renderings may seem similar, but the RcV brings out a richer application.

A couple of simple questions help show why this word should not refer to angelic spiritual beings here. Does it make sense for John to send a written message to angels so they can relate it to the churches? And in Revelation 2 and 3, do angels normally function as part of local church life? Even casually, the answer seems no. “Messenger” fits the context much better.

If these are messengers, then the matter is not just about carrying information. It shows us that the Lord is looking for human messengers on earth—people who are living in fellowship with Him and are fit to carry His speaking. That also means we ourselves must be heavenly people on earth, partaking of His divine nature and regularly enjoying Him.

This is why I appreciate the RcV. Its rendering is not only more accurate in context, but it also opens up a deeper spiritual application. The Lord is not only concerned with the message being delivered, but also with the kind of people who carry it.

For that reason, I would strongly recommend the RcV here. Its use of “messenger” instead of “angel” helps us see the Lord’s desire for people who are heavenly in their living and faithful in transmitting His word.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 footnote 1 on eternity

“A divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy” (The Amplified Bible). God created man in His image and formed in him a spirit that man may receive and contain Him (Gen. 1:26 and note 3; 2:7 and note 5). In addition, God put eternity, an aspiration for something eternal, in man’s heart so that man will seek God, the eternal One. Hence, temporal things can never satisfy man; only the eternal God, who is Christ, can satisfy the deep sense of purpose in man’s heart (cf. 2 Cor. 4:18). See note 4^1 in S.S. 1.

"That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love," (Ephesians 3:17)

I’ve really been enjoying this verse, today Christ is making His home in my heart. He is the home-making Christ. He is no longer homeless, for He is making His home in our hearts. The more Christ settles down in our hearts, the more He can boast to Satan that He has a home in His believers.

What are some examples of Christ making His home in our hearts?