What is the soul? Or maybe, who is the soul? Perhaps it's helpful to determine how the word has been defined by mankind. In the Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, the word for soul is defined as life, person, breath. The Hebrew word Nephesh is further described as the man himself, or we might say individual (as was a common old English usage of the word).
Although the usage of a word can drastically alter how we might describe it, however there are some words we don’t need to look up to understand – even if we don’t fully understand it.
When it comes to things we feel, we may not always understand how to describe the feeling, but we recognize it as something. Similarly, there is something within us that recognizes what our soul is regardless of how someone defines it. “We just know it deep within our soul.”
If Nephesh, soul, simply means life, then all living things have a soul. Is that important? Going back to Jesus’ summation of the scriptures in the iconic passage found in Matthew 22:37-39, we can see the importance our soul’s engagement into the things of God and things he created. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
We are therefore commanded to love life (Nephesh). 1 Peter 3:8-12 describes how the soul should be part of our nature. “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Hopefully we can see why loving God with our whole soul is key to showing love towards others. As an introduction into the nature of our soul, perhaps focusing on how my love for all life will be what helps my soul to thrive and be the part of me that God delights in.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Our New Altar
Have you ever thought about the purpose of an altar? It is a sacred place for sacrifices and gifts offered up to God, and the word Altar just means “high.” Therefore, it was upon these authorized “high” places where people under Mosaic law would offer up animal sacrifices as a gift to God. But animal sacrifices went away because Jesus’ sacrifice was greater, and He was ushering a new time when our offering to God would have less to do with our guilt, and more to do with serving God through our love for others. Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
But it took Jesus dying. Hebrews 9:28, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” He didn’t need to continue to offer Himself, because He was perfect! (Hebrews 10:1-18) But His sacrifice showed us a purer picture of God’s love, and that helps us know how to walk in a similar way. Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
It’s interesting to see how God used death as a way to help us show love towards one another. Jesus told His followers in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
It’s clear throughout scriptures that sacrifices had a deeper meaning than just killing an animal and cooking it (read Malachi 1:6-13). The sin (moral infractions) and trespass (contractual breech) offerings were intended to be eaten by the family and friends of the one offering the gift to God. (Leviticus 6-7). So that, just as Jesus’ death brought life to our lives, the animal’s death brings fellowship to those participating in that sacrifice.
Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is another thing that sets His sacrifice apart from the previous animal sacrifices – death wouldn’t stop Him! In the animal sacrifices, once it was totally eaten, it was finished. But Jesus is the lamb that never dies; therefore we never cease to feast on His grace and mercy. He served us so that we could better know how to serve each other forever. Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
His resurrection conquered sin and death once for all, and therefore those who trust in Christ (Matthew 7:21, Romans 5:1-5, John 14:15) will also share in His power over the grave. Remember the words of Paul to the Romans in Romans 12:1-2 and consider them instructions for our sacrifices today. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
But it took Jesus dying. Hebrews 9:28, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” He didn’t need to continue to offer Himself, because He was perfect! (Hebrews 10:1-18) But His sacrifice showed us a purer picture of God’s love, and that helps us know how to walk in a similar way. Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
It’s interesting to see how God used death as a way to help us show love towards one another. Jesus told His followers in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
It’s clear throughout scriptures that sacrifices had a deeper meaning than just killing an animal and cooking it (read Malachi 1:6-13). The sin (moral infractions) and trespass (contractual breech) offerings were intended to be eaten by the family and friends of the one offering the gift to God. (Leviticus 6-7). So that, just as Jesus’ death brought life to our lives, the animal’s death brings fellowship to those participating in that sacrifice.
Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is another thing that sets His sacrifice apart from the previous animal sacrifices – death wouldn’t stop Him! In the animal sacrifices, once it was totally eaten, it was finished. But Jesus is the lamb that never dies; therefore we never cease to feast on His grace and mercy. He served us so that we could better know how to serve each other forever. Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
His resurrection conquered sin and death once for all, and therefore those who trust in Christ (Matthew 7:21, Romans 5:1-5, John 14:15) will also share in His power over the grave. Remember the words of Paul to the Romans in Romans 12:1-2 and consider them instructions for our sacrifices today. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Sacrifice
What is the purpose of sacrifice? Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects, or the lives of animals to a higher purpose as an act of worship. But what does God want? Bloody corpse? Death?
The Old Covenant (Testament) was inaugurated in Genesis 15:8-19, where God tells Abram of his inheritance that will come someday in the future. Abram’s job in the meantime was to trust God. The Old Testament, therefore, focuses on Abram’s descendants’ failure to fully trust God. In other words, mankind broke their end of the covenant.
What were they trusting God to do? To bring a new kingdom, a new land where their enemies would never harm them, where peace was the theme, where God could once more fellowship with them.
The sacrifices were necessary to connect man’s guilt to God’s promise. The promise could only be fulfilled by God’s faithfulness. Our righteousness wasn’t going to do it. But, every time they had to kill an innocent animal, it was supposed to remind them of that covenant: the animal had to die because of their failure to keep the covenant).
One of the interesting things about many of the animal sacrifices was that the animal had to be fully consumed before the third day (except the entrails and certain organs). But how could one family fully consume the animal? Some portions were easier to eat than others, but the way to do it was to join together with other friends and family to share in the meal provided by this sacrifice.
Although the animal died because of man’s sin, the result of the sacrifice brought people together sharing an important reminder-feast of God’s promises expressed in repentance and fellowship. God’s plan has always been to unite His children together for the purpose of close, meaningful relationship (like it was in the Garden).
But as Hebrews 10:4 says, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” Those were just a shadow of the real sacrifice that was to take place by the perfect man AS the perfect lamb to be slaughtered. Isaiah 53:5-7 prophetically describes Jesus this way, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter… (11) He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”
Is there any doubt that God instituted animal sacrifices to show His people how terrible sin is? And Jesus, the Son of God, had to come down and fulfill our end of the covenant too. Take time to read Mark 11:1-11 to get a glimpse of the beginning phase of this ultimate sacrifice offered by Jesus, the Messiah. Then consider the importance of fellowship and repentance in what Jesus established in the church.
The Old Covenant (Testament) was inaugurated in Genesis 15:8-19, where God tells Abram of his inheritance that will come someday in the future. Abram’s job in the meantime was to trust God. The Old Testament, therefore, focuses on Abram’s descendants’ failure to fully trust God. In other words, mankind broke their end of the covenant.
What were they trusting God to do? To bring a new kingdom, a new land where their enemies would never harm them, where peace was the theme, where God could once more fellowship with them.
The sacrifices were necessary to connect man’s guilt to God’s promise. The promise could only be fulfilled by God’s faithfulness. Our righteousness wasn’t going to do it. But, every time they had to kill an innocent animal, it was supposed to remind them of that covenant: the animal had to die because of their failure to keep the covenant).
One of the interesting things about many of the animal sacrifices was that the animal had to be fully consumed before the third day (except the entrails and certain organs). But how could one family fully consume the animal? Some portions were easier to eat than others, but the way to do it was to join together with other friends and family to share in the meal provided by this sacrifice.
Although the animal died because of man’s sin, the result of the sacrifice brought people together sharing an important reminder-feast of God’s promises expressed in repentance and fellowship. God’s plan has always been to unite His children together for the purpose of close, meaningful relationship (like it was in the Garden).
But as Hebrews 10:4 says, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” Those were just a shadow of the real sacrifice that was to take place by the perfect man AS the perfect lamb to be slaughtered. Isaiah 53:5-7 prophetically describes Jesus this way, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter… (11) He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”
Is there any doubt that God instituted animal sacrifices to show His people how terrible sin is? And Jesus, the Son of God, had to come down and fulfill our end of the covenant too. Take time to read Mark 11:1-11 to get a glimpse of the beginning phase of this ultimate sacrifice offered by Jesus, the Messiah. Then consider the importance of fellowship and repentance in what Jesus established in the church.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Who Is God?
Who is God? What kind of answer do we expect to hear? When it comes to ourselves, we expect to hear things like: gender, ethnic background, personality, occupation, or religious affiliation. And each of these descriptions help us come up with an image of someone. However, God’s description is unique because His physical features are not really even comprehensible to us.
Human nature seeks long and hard to know more about the physical nature of God. First of all, is He real? Then, people start looking at what He looks like; much like the question some of the folks at Corinth were asking, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” But Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15:40, “There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” In other words, don’t try to understand the physical attributes of God so much that you overlook the spiritual nature of God.
Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” The part of His nature that He has spent the most time describing is the part that shows what He’s doing to help us.
God said at the inauguration of His covenant with Abram, in Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Since that time, God has continually shown us how much He is a shield to us, how much His life truly is our reward.
David wrote many songs recognizing God’s nature in various ways, like in 2 Samuel 22:3, “The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge…” Or in Psalms 3:3, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.”
All the way to the end of the Bible, after Jesus came to earth to offer Himself as a sacrifice, after the establishment of the church (the body of Christ), all the way to the end of the last book. Jesus says in Revelations 22:12-13, “Behold, I AM coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
In Exodus 3 God introduces himself to Moses as “I AM”, which ultimately has been defined as meaning the totally self-sufficient one, I AM able to provide for all needs (Psalms 50:8-15), I AM all powerful (Jeremiah 32:27), I AM loving-kindness (Psalms 117:2). It seems "I AM" is a perfect starting place to explore who God is and how He loves us.
Human nature seeks long and hard to know more about the physical nature of God. First of all, is He real? Then, people start looking at what He looks like; much like the question some of the folks at Corinth were asking, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” But Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15:40, “There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” In other words, don’t try to understand the physical attributes of God so much that you overlook the spiritual nature of God.
Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” The part of His nature that He has spent the most time describing is the part that shows what He’s doing to help us.
God said at the inauguration of His covenant with Abram, in Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I AM your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Since that time, God has continually shown us how much He is a shield to us, how much His life truly is our reward.
David wrote many songs recognizing God’s nature in various ways, like in 2 Samuel 22:3, “The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge…” Or in Psalms 3:3, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.”
All the way to the end of the Bible, after Jesus came to earth to offer Himself as a sacrifice, after the establishment of the church (the body of Christ), all the way to the end of the last book. Jesus says in Revelations 22:12-13, “Behold, I AM coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
In Exodus 3 God introduces himself to Moses as “I AM”, which ultimately has been defined as meaning the totally self-sufficient one, I AM able to provide for all needs (Psalms 50:8-15), I AM all powerful (Jeremiah 32:27), I AM loving-kindness (Psalms 117:2). It seems "I AM" is a perfect starting place to explore who God is and how He loves us.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
The Way God Sees You
Corinthians 6:20, “...for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.” (NLT)
It takes a lot of work to see yourself as God sees you. It’s easier to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. You see how you don’t say the right thing or do as good in school as a friend does. You see how no matter how hard you practice, you aren’t as good as the other players on the team. All the comparisons can make you feel discouraged.
However, there is hope. Regardless of whether you say the most intelligent or clever things or make the winning point for your team, you have value to God. God paid a great price for you. You have value because God was willing to give everything He had to make a relationship with Him possible, and He's completely worth it.
So, if you have struggled with insecurities, failure, and low self-esteem, be encouraged. God doesn’t love you based on your ability; He loves you because he does. Because God loves you in such a wonderful way, it causes us to want to honor Him.
Romans 8:31-37, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (37) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (NLT)
It takes a lot of work to see yourself as God sees you. It’s easier to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. You see how you don’t say the right thing or do as good in school as a friend does. You see how no matter how hard you practice, you aren’t as good as the other players on the team. All the comparisons can make you feel discouraged.
However, there is hope. Regardless of whether you say the most intelligent or clever things or make the winning point for your team, you have value to God. God paid a great price for you. You have value because God was willing to give everything He had to make a relationship with Him possible, and He's completely worth it.
So, if you have struggled with insecurities, failure, and low self-esteem, be encouraged. God doesn’t love you based on your ability; He loves you because he does. Because God loves you in such a wonderful way, it causes us to want to honor Him.
Romans 8:31-37, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (37) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (NLT)