I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to memorize the Book of James over the summer.
Ten years ago, when we hadn't been going to the Boise Vineyard for long, one of the pastors recited James. I will never forget how amazed I was, how wonderful it was to hear the words of this book (I consider it the "Book of Advanced Christianity") spoken from memory. They seemed to come from this man's heart, as if he really was James.
This morning, with memorization in mind, I read the first chapter of James in several different versions.
An aside: It's almost embarrassing, the number of Bibles I own. I have been given Bibles by the publishers I write for or have written for. I have bought others for myself because I've worn out a favorite Bible or because I wanted a particular translation or a particular study version or needed a small one for travel. (All of this in addition to my vast Logos Bible software.) I have also given away many, many new or gently used Bibles to local prison ministries and to a local women's and children's shelter. And yet my Bible shelf is still packed to the brim.
Anyway, after reading James 1 in the New American Standard (my preferred study Bible because it is one of the most literal, word-for-word translations), the English Standard Version (another word-for-word, though not quite as literal as the NASB), and the New Living Translation (a favorite dynamic equivalent translation for devotional reading), I opened the The Voice Bible (another dynamic equivalent translation). I reviewed The Voice in a past blog post. However, I was still amazed by how much I loved this version, how beautifully it renders the Scriptures into English, and I have decided it's the one I'm going to memorize.
Anybody care to join me? Pick your own version of the Bible, of course.
~robin
P.S. Here's a YouTube video of Psalm 23 from The Voice. Oh, the beauty of the Scriptures!
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