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I was looking through Galatians 6 the other day and came across that verse that perplexes so many scholars; See with what large letters I write unto you with my own hand, v 11. If scholars do not know what it means, I certainly don’t, but this is the way my mind wandered that day.
Is Paul talking about writing something with large letters? Did he have a hand injury? I had surgery on my right hand when I was in college. For two months I took notes in classes with my left hand. As a right-hander, I had to write larger than usual in order to maintain any control and be able to read the product. Still, it looked like a kindergartner’s printing, but at least I could study for my finals.
But what if, as is more in keeping with my predicament these days, he had to use large letters so he could see what he had written? Maybe that was the case and maybe not, but it made me think of the day I discovered how to change the font size on my PC. What a wonderful day! By upping the font to 18 or 24 point I could actually write emails and articles I could proofread myself. Hurray!
And then I thought, what if poor vision was his problem? In spite of that, without a PC, without a mouse to click on a larger font, without even a typewriter for all that, he managed to write (or dictate) epistles that still leave us studying more and more deeply. That might not have anything to do with Gal 6:11, but you can see how my mind kept traveling, because that led me to wonder about all those first century brothers and sisters of ours. Without copy machines, they managed to copy those epistles and send them on to the next church. Without airplanes or automobiles, they managed to travel miles and miles on foot, or risk life and limb in a boat no one could possibly mistake for a cruise ship, and carry those messages and minister to those evangelists. Without television, telephone, or radio, without film strips or DVDs, tracts or lesson books, they managed to teach their neighbors and families.
And what happened? Within 30 years they spread the gospel to the entire world according to Col 1:5,6, and 23. Those people, who had every excuse we don’t have, turned the world upside down, Acts 17:6.
And here we sit whining because of what we’d like to do if only we could. How many churches, after thirty years, have the same number or less members because they have not managed to spread the gospel to just the town they are a part of, much less the whole world? Those people toiled for hours a day just to survive, and still managed to spend time on the WORD. When we finish “just getting by,” we spend our time on the WORLD. Only one letter difference in those two words, but it certainly is a “large letter,” isn’t it?
What will you spend your spare time on today?
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an ensample to all those who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you has sounded forth the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we need not to speak anything, 1 Thes 1:6-8.
Dene Ward
I was looking through Galatians 6 the other day and came across that verse that perplexes so many scholars; See with what large letters I write unto you with my own hand, v 11. If scholars do not know what it means, I certainly don’t, but this is the way my mind wandered that day.
Is Paul talking about writing something with large letters? Did he have a hand injury? I had surgery on my right hand when I was in college. For two months I took notes in classes with my left hand. As a right-hander, I had to write larger than usual in order to maintain any control and be able to read the product. Still, it looked like a kindergartner’s printing, but at least I could study for my finals.
But what if, as is more in keeping with my predicament these days, he had to use large letters so he could see what he had written? Maybe that was the case and maybe not, but it made me think of the day I discovered how to change the font size on my PC. What a wonderful day! By upping the font to 18 or 24 point I could actually write emails and articles I could proofread myself. Hurray!
And then I thought, what if poor vision was his problem? In spite of that, without a PC, without a mouse to click on a larger font, without even a typewriter for all that, he managed to write (or dictate) epistles that still leave us studying more and more deeply. That might not have anything to do with Gal 6:11, but you can see how my mind kept traveling, because that led me to wonder about all those first century brothers and sisters of ours. Without copy machines, they managed to copy those epistles and send them on to the next church. Without airplanes or automobiles, they managed to travel miles and miles on foot, or risk life and limb in a boat no one could possibly mistake for a cruise ship, and carry those messages and minister to those evangelists. Without television, telephone, or radio, without film strips or DVDs, tracts or lesson books, they managed to teach their neighbors and families.
And what happened? Within 30 years they spread the gospel to the entire world according to Col 1:5,6, and 23. Those people, who had every excuse we don’t have, turned the world upside down, Acts 17:6.
And here we sit whining because of what we’d like to do if only we could. How many churches, after thirty years, have the same number or less members because they have not managed to spread the gospel to just the town they are a part of, much less the whole world? Those people toiled for hours a day just to survive, and still managed to spend time on the WORD. When we finish “just getting by,” we spend our time on the WORLD. Only one letter difference in those two words, but it certainly is a “large letter,” isn’t it?
What will you spend your spare time on today?
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an ensample to all those who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you has sounded forth the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we need not to speak anything, 1 Thes 1:6-8.
Dene Ward
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