Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Greek Words




As part of my daily devotional, I have been reading Sparkling Gems From the Greek by Rick Renner. This morning's devotional discussed grieving the Spirit of God. In his text, Mr. Renner examined the Greek word used for grief which is lupete and comes from the word lupe, which indicates a grief that might be caused in a marriage relationship in the case of infidelity. When God said in Ephesians 4:29-32 not to grieve the Spirit of God, He was making reference to our closeness to and how the Holy Spirit feels about us. That is so amazing to me. How would I have ever known that without the examination of original text?

There are so many important things to know in the Word of God, things you can know and learn by just reading. But there is also a level of depth that cannot be achieved without knowing some history and some of the language originally used when penning the Word of God. I wonder often why people don't get healed like they did in the New Testament or even the Old Testament. There is a depth of knowledge that must be achieved for some to receive what God has made provision for in the area of healing. There are many provisions for healing in the Old and New Testament. All are because of Jesus. But people won't know this without some study. For example, as New Testament Believers, Jesus is our Passover. Everything the Passover meal was to the Hebrews leaving Egypt, Jesus is to us. That includes healing. It would require some study for a person to learn and recognize that healing is included as a part of our redemption through Jesus. The fact that Jesus is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) and what that means is visible through study. How much more can we develop our faith through diligent study of the original language and history and customs of the time?

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year's Resolutions




It is the time of year when everybody is making their New Year's resolutions. Usually, I don't join in with this tradition, but for some reason this year I felt compelled. I began thinking about what I wanted to accomplish this next year and where I wanted my family to go in life. As I was making these resolutions, it occurred to me I was not being specific enough, as most people usually aren't. Is it possible that is why people usually fail or do not follow through with their resolutions? Let me encourage you, be specific this year with your goals. Set them high. Even if you only achieve a portion of the goal, that is always better than nothing. Let me give you an example from my list. One of my resolutions was to read more. Well, that is not really a measurable goal. How am I supposed to know if I am accomplishing my goal? So, in order to be more specific, I decided to set my goal at one book a week, which in my opinion is achievable. If later on it seems as though that is not a reasonable or achievable goal, then I will modify, maybe to one book every two weeks. Either way I will have read either 52 or 26 books this year, which is considerably more than I did in 2009. I encourage you to set goals for yourself this year. Call it a goal or a resolution, whichever. You will achieve something new for yourself or your family and have a vision, and quite possibly develop a sense of purpose.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."-Proverbs 29:18 King James Bible