translatable insights

About Translatable insights

God’s Word has exerted an enormously beneficial impact on my life. (More about this later and the impact it can have on you too.) The scriptures have made all the difference in my character, conduct, marriage, attitude, outlook, peacefully and joyfully enduring adversity, eagerness for the future, and enjoyment of life. I awake at 2am every morning; I don’t lie in bed; I pop up like toast; I’m eager as a beaver to have my personal study in Holy Writ. I was a college professor for forty one years. The main area of my instruction was New Testament Greek, and secondly in English Bible classes. It was my custom to begin each class by giving a brief scriptural devotion before the lecture. In those 41 years, students maintained that these devotions were their favorite part of class. And they were my favorite part too. So on the website Translatable Insights, I have taken passages from the Bible that I have thoroughly studied, know well, and which have been very meaningful and helpful in my spiritual journey, and passages that I think may help other people as well. Thus in each devotional video, a Bible text will be taken either from the Old Testament or New Testament. If from the Old, the original Hebrew text will be given with my English translation beneath. If from the New, the original Greek text will be presented with my English translation under it. I will then explain how the original languages help us to better understand the scriptural meaning, interpret the text and draw practical applications from it to our daily lives. The intent is to make the Bible as clear as possible and as helpful to the audience as possible. The videos attempt to combine the academic, the spiritual, and the practical. Integrated into these videos will often be real life stories and events from either my life and marriage, or from my students or the people that Sue and I have dealt with. If I have not asked their permission, I do not use their real names or identify them at all. Such stories demonstrate how relevant scripture is to daily life, its circumstances, trials and opportunities.

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About Ronald Sauer, Ph.D.

I was born in Missouri, but raised in Mississippi by an unbelieving dad and a Christian mother, with one sibling, a sister Debbie. Conversion to Christ came as a Junior in high school, through a hymn written by William R. Newell, a former professor at Moody Bible Institute. As a new Christian, books written by Kenneth S. Wuest came into my hands. He was the Greek teacher at Moody. His books were written for people who did not know Greek but were interested in it. These books explained the Greek text of selected verses, providing me with a window into the New Testament which otherwise I could not have. Wuest’s books wetted my appetite for this language. In the providence of God I ended up replacing Wuest as a Greek teacher at Moody Bible Institute for 35 years. I owe a great deal to the Institute, and perhaps my serving on the faculty there was a small pay-back to this special school.

Undergraduate studies were taken at Mississippi College, majoring in history, minoring in Bible and Greek, resulting in a BA degree in 1968. After military service, graduate studies began at Dallas Theological Seminary, majoring in New Testament Greek, earning a ThM in 1975. This, in turn, was followed by enrolling in the University of Manchester (England) and awarded a PhD in New Testament with an emphasis in Koine Greek. When all academic studies had been completed, mixed with experiences in life, heaven then kindly granted the privilege of being a college professor for 41 years. I was on the faculty of Liberty University (Virginia) for six years, and on the faculty of Moody Bible Institute (Illinois) for 35 years. Additionally and simultaneously while at Moody, for thirty years,I served as Interim pastor of nineteen local churches. I am in my second year of retirement from the classroom, and am currently the pastor of the Brynford Bible Church in Chicago.

Subsequent to graduating from college, I strongly wanted to attend seminary. But in seeking the Lord’s will, the conviction was given “seminary not now, maybe later.” On the heels of this conviction, was that of going into military service. The Lord opened the door to Officer’s Candidate School in the U.S. Marine Corps. After a year of training, I volunteered for the war in Vietnam, and was given orders and sent. My assignment was as a platoon commander of the 1st Battalion 9 th Regiment 3 rd Marine Division. God was very gracious and protected me from numerous dangers. Three years were given to active service and three years to inactive.

When an undergraduate senior at Mississippi College, I met my wife-to-be, Susan, a sophomore at Belhaven College. After a year of dating, I entered military service. Twelve months later, Susan put me on the plane to Vietnam. We did not know whether we would see each other again in this life, but we trusted the Lord. (More about this later in the devotional videos.) After returning from Southeast Asia, Sue and I were engaged and married on June 4, 1971. I call her “Sweet Sue” because she is the sweetest, most loving, cheerful and hopeful person, who has the heart of Jesus and is a servant as He was. Heaven has granted us 53 years of marriage thus far, and I’m asking for another 23! Then at age 100, we’ll be ready to die, but our conviction is that at age 77, she and I have far more to offer people now than at any point in our lives; so why retire? We’ll do that in Heaven.

We have been divinely granted four precious little lambs. The Lord gives and the Lord takes. We have lost two (more about that later). Our two surviving children are Joseph, a physician in Illinois and Jeffrey, a businessman in Colorado, both fine Christian young men. We have one grandchild, Theodore Arthur.

Two have become my delight. Firstly, since 1967 I have been running for physical exercise to stay fit. This is followed by weight lifting. As a result, although I’m 77 years old, I feel so good like a 27 year old. The other hobby is walking with my spouse. In our walks, we often discuss scripture and pray.

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