Spirit

  • Night Tremors

    Now a word was brought to me secretly, and my ear received a whisper of it.  Amid disquieting thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people,  Dread came upon me, and trembling, and made [f]all my bones shake.  Then a [g]spirit passed by my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.  Job 4:12-15  NASB Dread…

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide (16)

    But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 NASB The desire of the flesh – “We are defined by the way in which we orient ourselves to desire.”[1] Paul wasn’t a Platonist.  At times he certainly sounds like he believes in two separate worlds: the…

  • Uncreated

    then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.  Ecclesiastes 12:7  NASB Spirit will return – Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher-mathematician, invented the doctrine of the eternal existence of the soul (in Greek psyche).  The ancient world did believe in life after death (e.g., Egyptian burial…

  • Substitutes of Consequence

    But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.  Romans 8:11  NASB Him/ He/ His – Who is the active agent in this verse?  Who is “He, Him, His”…

  • Knee Bends

    God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  John 4:24  NASB Worship – Have we ever made mileage with this verse!  I can’t count the numbers of times it has been employed in apologetics, sermons, and intense discussions of doctrine.  Most of our focus seems to be on the first…

  • History Lesson (2)

    Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  James 1:27  ESV Religion– In recent conversation a young man expressed his determination for spiritual truth in this way:  “When I rely on the Holy Spirit to lead me to the truth, I know…

  • Sunburned (5)

    O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 NASB Weary – Exhausted. Ever feel like that? Physically and spiritually. Just too tired to go on. Just want to sleep,…

  • A Fatal Epistemology

    But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  John 16:13 NASB All the truth – Gnostic thought is alive and well in the…

  • The Case of Faulty Memories

    But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. John 14:26 NASB Remembrance – We often read this verse as if it is Yeshua’s eternal promise that the Spirit will somehow ensure we will never forget what…

  • The Genesis of Psalms

    Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Psalm 103:1 NASB Within me – What is within? The immediate temptation is to answer with a Greek worldview. What is within in my spirit. But how would we answer this question as a Hebrew? First, we would look…