Romans, part 4, the Intimacy of the Holy Spirit

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 8, we find the ONLY place in all the Scriptures where we learn an intimate fact about the Holy Spirit – that the Spirit prays for the believer:

 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us! This is very comforting, as is another verse in Romans – 8:28:

 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

How is this comforting?

Romans, part 3, the Perfect Symmetry between Sin and Sacrifice

Here are some other really cool things about Romans. In chapter 5, verses 12 – 21 we find the explanation of the perfect contrast between Adam and Christ. Read this slowly and thoughtfully because it is really deep:

 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

 13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

 18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you understand the perfect symmetry between Adam’s sin and Christ’s sacrifice?

Romans, part 2, Obvious Connective Links with Genesis

When we looked at the 2nd aleph book (Isaiah) we saw the connective verses about the potter (God) and the clay (man) that were in Isaiah and then reappeared in Romans, now we’ll look at the story that started in Genesis, the first aleph book, and finished in Romans, the third aleph book. Watch.

Genesis 17: 1 – 5:

Romans, part 1, Israel Will Be Saved

There are 66 books in the Bible. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. If you match up each book with a corresponding letter the first letter, aleph, goes with Genesis (the first book of the Law), Isaiah (the first book of the Prophets), and Romans (the first book of the Christian Epistles).

Romans was written by the Apostle Paul. Its major themes are the gospel of God, the redemption truth and reconciling the promises to Israel with the promises concerning the Gentiles. Its greatest teaching is the doctrine of grace. This book shows us that all are guilty before God but can receive justification through the righteousness of God by faith.

Let’s look first at Romans 3:25, 26:

Acts, part 2, Acrostic Clues

Let’s check the acrostic verses for clues as to what we want to focus on in Acts. (If you don't know what acrostic or alphabetic verses in the Bible are, read this.)

Psalm 119: 175:

175 Let me live that I may praise you,
   and may your laws sustain me.

Let me live. Literally the Hebrew says “Let my soul live.” That kind of gives us a longer range plan, doesn’t it? The Hebrew word for “live” is the root for “resurrection.”

Lamentations 4:22:

 22 Your punishment will end, Daughter Zion;
   he will not prolong your exile.
But he will punish your sin, Daughter Edom,
   and expose your wickedness.

Punishment will end. The Hebrew word here is “tamam” meaning “completed.”

Psalm 25:21:

21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
   because my hope, LORD, is in you.

Integrity is the word used here to translate the Hebrew tav word “tom” which also means perfection, completion and moral purity. Taken together from these alphabetic verses we get the theme of living forever, all things being completed, finished.

Acts, part 1, a Quick Summary

Tav is the last of the 22 Hebrew letters and it links up with Song of Songs in the Old Testament and Acts and Revelation in the New Testament. The symbolic meaning of this letter is mark, sign or cross. We saw in the first tav book, Song of Songs, that there is a strong correlation between these books and this letter having to do with consummation and marriage. The number one major theme of the book of the Acts of the Apostles is the receiving of the Holy Spirit followed by the profession of Christ to the Jews at Pentecost and then to the Gentiles. This was the beginning of the Christian church which is, in all respects, the beginning of the Bride of Christ.

In Acts the first nine chapters recount the rise of the early church with Peter being the prominent character; the rest of the book follows with the conversion and ministry of the Apostle Paul. The book of Acts is written by the physician, Luke, who spent much time alongside Saint Paul, traveling and witnessing. In his previous book Luke wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the ascension. That book was written to a certain Theophilus, a man who was probably wealthy enough to help Luke get his information published, and Acts is also addressed to this same Theophilus. His name, by the way, means “lover of God” or “loved by God.” With that in mind I like to think that these books were written personally to me.

The thesis verse of Acts is found in chapter 1, verse 8, when Jesus says the following:

John, part 4, The Irrefutable Logic of a Blind Man

Jesus brings Light and Life. The blind man in John chapter 9 is in for the surprise of his life. Watch how he gets physical sight and how he gains another sense, too: spiritual sight. If you don’t know the story here it is in a nutshell:

Jesus and his disciples come across the blind man, Jesus heals him, the Pharisees are in an uproar because He healed on the Sabbath, there’s an investigation and the Pharisees kick the formerly blind man out of synagogue, and the story ends with Jesus revealing His divinity to the man who then gains spiritual sight.

Now, you be the blind guy:

You’ve heard the scriptures read, you know the prophecies, you hang around the temple all the time begging and listening. You hear some men talking about you. They’re asking their leader if you or your parents are responsible for your blindness. The leader says neither you nor your parents are responsible; he says that you’re blind so the work of God can be displayed in your life. You’re more alert. You hear them get closer and the leader puts something on your face over those rounds things that are called eyes, but have no function for you. He tells you to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. You have some faith so you do.

What is this?! Is this sight?! This is unbelievable! You cannot contain your excitement. You find your way home and your neighbors think you’re an imposter. You tell them what happened. They ask how this could be. You say it was “the man.”

John, part 3, Jesus is God

As I studied this book I found several outlines by various commentators. They tended to divide the book up into 5 or 6 parts: 1st the opening or foreword in chapter 1 with the theme of the pre-existence of Christ, 2nd the beginning of his ministry, the “big reveal,” so to speak, up through chapter 6. Then the 3rd section is the next year of his ministry and how his claims were rejected (through chapter 12). I noticed that the verses with the word light stopped abruptly then (see last week’s post). The next section contains Holy Week, the passion, the crucifixion, burial and resurrection. The last section (chapters 20 – 22) is of the 40 days following His resurrection.

Back in verse 1 of chapter 1 we found that Jesus was eternal, was with God and was God. Let’s look at his claims found in John that He is God:

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 6:32-35 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

John, part 2, The Light of the Son vs. the Light of the Sun

Remember how in Ecclesiastes we found more instances of the word sun than in any other Bible book? There is not one instance of the word sun in John even though both books are linked by the Hebrew letter shin. And look at how John compares with the other three Gospel books:

There is no reason for such an absence other than to show God’s precision in His design of the Bible. Despite the absence of the sun look how the light shines in John:

The following are from the KJV:

John 1:4: In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

John 1:5: And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 1:7: The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

John 1:8: He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

John 1:9: That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

John 3:19: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

John, part 1, the Pre-Existence of Jesus

The fourth book of the New Testament, JOHN, was written by the beloved apostle John around A.D. 90. This book is sharply different from Matthew, Mark and Luke. First of all it was written much later and most of the church already possessed copies of the other Gospels. These Christians wanted deeper truths and there wasn’t anyone better to write them than someone from the Master’s inner circle. John was the one who leaned on Jesus at the last supper, the one who didn’t flee from Christ’s judgment, the one who stood at the cross and received Jesus’ request to care for Mary.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they include many of the same stories in the same order, thus they are synoptic (one view, of the same eye), but John doesn’t follow that pattern. In fact, we don’t even find the parables that are so prevalent in the other gospels. In John the themes are deeper, such as the pre-existence of Christ, His incarnation, the work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ relation to the Father.

The book of John can be divided into several major parts. It begins with the pre-existence of Jesus.

EXOTIQA by M. Black

BOOK: EXOTIQA

GENRE: YA Robot Cyberpunk Dystopia

LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06WRWZRMN

BLURB: 

When the nation is controlled by a popular online program, those that deviate risk their lives. But that never stopped Fione. 

Read the second release by author M. Black, which fans of Divergent, Freelancer, iRobot,and The Glitch will enjoy. Filled with haunting questions of consciousness and artificial intelligence, identity and self-awareness, politics and love, life and death, the reader will be engaged in an entertaining story filled with futuristic technology. 

Set in the cyberpunk year 2055 in British Columbia, Canada, where humans are part robotic and robots are becoming more humanlike, the line dividing the two is becoming less clear. 

When sixteen-year-old Fione meets Maci, a twenty-one-year-old Flexbot who escapes from ImaTech located along the crust of the Coast Mountains, Fione’s life is taken on a roller-coaster ride of events that begins with trying to save Maci from ImaTech Corporation and ends with trying to save the country.

SCORPION from The Myriad Series by Cindy Stone

SCORPION from The Myriad Series by Cindy Stone

SCORPION 

An ancient power. A modern mystic. The enemy unleashed. 

It began as a day like any other, when Avery Adams, daughter of one of New York’s wealthiest and most influential men, is pushed from a crowded subway platform into an oncoming train. Is it chance, or the wheels of destiny set in motion, when Aiden Kane, expert martial artist saves her, and they are thrust into the apex of a ten thousand year old battle for power. 

Cool Words in the Gospel of Luke

Last week we looked at how Luke lines up and links with the Old Testament book of Proverbs. We saw how the word wisdom occurs noticeably in Luke and not the other gospels. I wondered if there were other words that would show up in greater numbers in the three resh books (Bible books that line up with the same Hebrew letter, in this case Proverbs, Luke, and 3rd John) if I did a search. Of course they would have to be words that started with this Hebrew letter. In The Bible Wheel by Richard Amiel McGough words such as physician (ropheh), to heal (rapha), friend (reyah), and racham (mercy, compassion and with different vowel points womb) are given as key words that link to these three books. I chose “friend” and did a search. Here’s my chart of what I found: