As God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ was longed for since the time of Adam. He is the subject of God’s Word, even though he is not specifically named in every book of the Bible. Our savior knew that the scriptures spoke of him, and that he could declare, make known the Father (John 1:18).
Ephesians 5:22,25,33:
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence [respect] her husband.
I went for a walk this morning up a beautifully paved street. I crossed avenues named “Dauntless” and “Exultant” and “Stalwart.” It reminded me of the “ways” that we can walk in when we listen to our heavenly Father—by reading His Word with meekness and using the spiritual connection He gave us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Originally, God set up special days to recognize His goodness to His people. Yet, God has always wanted every day to be a holy day, set apart for Him. That is where we get the modern word “holi-day,” meaning a holy day. The word “holy” in the Bible means to be set apart for another. We are set apart to love and worship our heavenly Father every day! Every day is a holiday.
In Part 1, we saw that our eyes are to be flooded with God’s spiritual light, just as a mighty laser can focus photons into a brilliant stream of power and energy. We also learned that humility opens our eyes to see what the Father has for us to learn. And we saw how to keep His light in our hearts.
My father-in-law has worked with lasers for most of his adult life. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960.
Part 1 showed how God gave revelation to holy men of God to write down what we have as the Bible today. We saw that prophets, including Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Ezra and Nehemiah, David, and Solomon, made known what God wanted them to. Part 2 will show how we got the other books of the Bible from our heavenly Father, and how we can trust His Word for a sound, true foundation in our lives.
As I leaned over the side of the Pedro’s Plaza Building in downtown Agana, I realized that the only thing holding me up from a seven-story plummet to the concrete sidewalk beneath was the rope around my waist. Being a reporter with the Pacific Daily News, I loved getting directly involved with a story. The Guam Police Department allowed me to join their S.W.A.T. team for a practice exercise down the side of the building.
God, our heavenly Father, has given us so many wonderful things. One thing we can always give back to Him is thankfulness for what He’s done. That is “thanks giving” at its finest. Here are a few places the word “thanksgiving” appears in the King James Version of the Bible.
In Part 1, we learned about our “soul” responsibility to wait upon God and maintain our souls. In Part 2, we saw how God designed our souls to be the connection between our physical and spiritual life. We will see the how of keeping our souls: seeking God first, staying our minds, knowing how much to know, setting our thoughts on things above, and not setting our thoughts on earthly things.