This past weekend I had the pleasure of jammin' with my older brother Michael, who years ago taught me to play guitar.
While we were exchanging songs, he started playing a song that had lyrics that were really beautiful. I played along, but it wasn't until the end of the song that I realized I knew that song very well.
It was, "She Loves You" by The Beatles; a song may of us are familiar with.
But he played it slower and with a slightly different rhythm. Those changes allowed me to hear the song as if for the first time and I was struck by the meaningful lyrics.
The same could be said about reading the Bible. It's good to pick up a different version sometimes just to jar our understanding. Often we see things in a different way.
For example. John 3:16 in the New International Version (NIV) sounds very familiar.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
But consider that same verse in the Amplified Bible (AMP)
"For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life."
Keep in mind, the Bible was not originally written in English, and often the deeper meaning of the words are lost in one translation, this can be a great exercise to see the Word of God in new ways.
