Celtic Odyssey

For several years now, I’ve only been reading the Psalms and Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) with a focus on the Gospels. In that vein, when I come across Old Testament passages — whether they’re referenced in a book or online article — I read them through a “Jesus lens.” That is, since I’m a (stumbling, bumbling) follower of Jesus, I believe that he’s the goal toward which the Old Testament was headed (Romans 10.4). As Jesus told some of the Jewish leaders of his day, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me” (John 5.39; NLT [1] ).  Not only does the Old Testament point to Jesus, the writers of the New Testament go a bit further. According to the New Testament he’s the only true image we have of Abba God. Saint Paul wrote, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1.15a; NLT). The writer of Hebrews stated that Jesus is “the exact representation of God’s being” (Hebrews 1.3; TI...

While reading through Keith Giles’ exceptional book, Jesus Unbound: Liberating the Word of God from the Bible , he quoted Titus 2.11 in a section about “sound doctrine” from the New International Version [1] — For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. The word “offers” jumped out of the page to me. I’ve never seen that before — God offering salvation. So I did what I’ve been doing lately and that’s looking up passages someone quotes or references in my new favorite translation, The Inclusive Bible (hereafter TIB). The TIB [2] translates Titus 2.11 as —  The grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all. Hmm… How have I not seen this before? Since the TIB is similar to the NIV, I thought I’d look up Titus 2.11 in other translations to see how they translated it. Here are a few of them: CEB [3] — The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ESV [4] — For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for...

A friend asked me for my take on Ephesians 1.18-19a. I thought I’d share my response with you all. I hope you enjoy it!                                     Ephesians 1.18-19a (TIB): [1] I pray that God will enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see the hope this call holds for you — the promised glories that God’s holy ones will inherit, and the infinitely great power that is exercised for us who believe. So there are a few things here. What initially jumped out at me was “the eyes of your mind” or “your mind’s eye.” The first thing that comes to mind here (no pun intended) is the idea of the “third eye” in some eastern practices. The “mind’s eye” represents the gateway to enlightenment; the ability to enter deeply into oneself thus accessing higher consciousness; the ability to engage with the Divine within oneself and within all life. And added with that is “so that you can...