{"id":1153,"date":"2015-10-30T15:53:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T20:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2015-10-30T15:53:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T20:53:35","slug":"what-do-dirt-and-the-bible-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/2015\/10\/30\/what-do-dirt-and-the-bible-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do Dirt and the Bible Have in Common?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"footprints\"<\/a>
Leaving good footprints in the dirt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Old as dirt. \u00a0We, Rick & Anji, are going to be old as dirt by the time our job is done. \u00a0At the current rate of progress it is going to take us 30 years, and we’re not spring chickens anymore. \u00a0What is our job? \u00a0We are partnering with a mature tribal church body, to reach another unreached people. \u00a0Our main job is assisting them in the things they cannot do, do not have the resources to do, in this case translate the Bible into the Lusi language.<\/p>\n

People ask us why we’re attempting to translate the whole Bible and not just the New Testament. \u00a0When we were young missionaries in training, we thought, “Hey, PNG has the whole Bible in the trade language, so we only need to translate the New Testament into the heart language.” \u00a0We have since needed to repent of that.<\/p>\n

Why? Because as we worked with mature believers (who have 20+ years of being Christians under their belts, who have the New Testament in their heart language and often put us to shame with the way they have memorized and can quote scripture), they would come to us with the trade language Bible, and ask us, “Here in the Old Testament, what does this passage mean?”<\/p>\n

We would look at that passage, and answer, “That is a good question. \u00a0Let me grab my English Bible and find out.” \u00a0You see, the trade language Bible wasn’t speaking to them and it wasn’t speaking to us. \u00a0Not that it is a bad translation. \u00a0Not at all, it is a good translation, but it is limited by what the trade language can communicate clearly. \u00a0So we would look at our English Bible and then explain the passage in question. \u00a0This didn’t happen just one time, but over and over again. \u00a0We may be slow, but we began to see the need for the whole Bible in the heart language.<\/p>\n

Then this last year we were translating the book of Romans. \u00a0What does Paul say in Romans 15:4? “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (NASB) \u00a0Was Paul talking about the New Testament? \u00a0No, there wasn’t a New Testament yet. \u00a0He was talking about the Old Testament, which lays out so many foundational things about the Messiah, the source of our hope.<\/p>\n

The Old Testament tells us that in the beginning Our Creator made man from the dirt and breathed life into him. \u00a0The Old Testament lays out God’s plan so he could be in\u00a0relationship with mankind. \u00a0In the New Testament Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of that plan. \u00a0So today we as Christians are kind of like dirt, small and insignificant in and of ourselves, in decaying bodies, but God formed us all together, into\u00a0the body of Christ, a very alive and life-giving thing.<\/p>\n

So what does dirt and the Bible have in Common? \u00a0Two translators who think that if we get to be as old as dirt, it won’t be a bad thing, because, Lord willing, that means that the Lusi people will have all of God’s Word in their language.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Two translators at work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People ask us why we’re attempting to translate the whole Bible and not just the New Testament. When we were young missionaries in training, we thought, “Hey, PNG has the whole Bible in the trade language, so we only need to translate the New Testament into the heart language.” We have since needed to repent of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":799,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[275,4,6818],"tags":[452,448,2547,2548,637,3024,6792,352],"class_list":{"0":"post-1153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-language","7":"category-ministry","8":"category-translation","9":"tag-dirt","10":"tag-ethnos360","11":"tag-lusi","12":"tag-mouk","13":"tag-new-tribes-mission","14":"tag-old-testament","15":"tag-romans-154","16":"tag-translation","17":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/799"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rick-zook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}