Monday, January 27, 2020

The New English Bible - Mark 11:24 - 2020 "Receive Quest" Challenge (002)


Mark 11:24 The New English Bible (NEB)*
24 I tell you, then, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

Believe—what a big word! Of course, the context is so important to the final point of receiving. It's not just verse 24. I like how the previous verse says, "has no inward doubts" and takes it even further: "but believes that what he says is happening."

Recently someone suggested I listen to Bruce Lipton. This verse makes me think of the "Biology of Belief" (one of the concepts from his research) and epigenetics. To me, it's the science side of God's design ... where we see the architecture behind the principles and powers God put in place.


*The New English Bible. Cambridge, Great Britain: Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press, 1961.

Monday, January 13, 2020

King James & Wycliffe Bible Commentary - Mark 11:24 - 2020 "Receive Quest" Challenge (001)


Mark 11:24 King James Version (KJV) 
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Verse 24, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary
24. Believe. A present tense imperative, calling for persistent, continuing faith.
Receive. Superior manuscript evidence favors the aorist tense—you did receive. In other words, we are to keep on believing that God has already given us our request.

My white board has Mark 11:24 as one of the branches of receiving. I, too, honed in on "believe" and "receive" like Wycliffe (great minds think alike - LOL)! Actually, just the detail of what to do when is what is so helpful. "When ye pray" is when we do the believing. THEN - in prayer - believe you receive. The shall have is in the future.

BUT ALSO NOTICE: Wycliffe brings out what probably many "Word nerds" have discovered: The receiving mentioned here is a one-time fact. Once it is done, it is complete - sort of like when something happens now in the present tense, then you look back on it yesterday as past tense. But the believing mentioned is different. It is present tense, but it doesn't stop and go into past tense. It stays present tense.

I guess you could say it in two views: Believe that you receive when you pray (present) ... and continue to believe that you received when you prayed (past).



The New Testament and Wycliffe Bible Commentary. 1st ed. New York: The Iversen-Norman Associates, 1971.
The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Translated out of the original Greek and with former translations diligently compared and revised, Set forth in 1611 and commonly known as the King James Version.
Pfeiffer, Charles F., and Everett F. Harrison, eds. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary. 1st ed. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962.

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