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Sanctification: Restoring the Soul through Prayer
During our previous exercise in Sanctification, we learned that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to… Birth us as the spiritual children of God; then, Mature us into sons and daughters of God who are committed to carrying on the work of Christ in the world. While the birthing part of the Spirit’s work is accomplished at the time of our Regeneration, the maturing part is something which takes place over time, as the Spirit works relentlessly yet lovingly within us to restore our souls to their original function as mediators between our spirits and bodies—or, as the conduits through which the knowledge of God’s will is transferred from…
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Sanctification: The Work of the Holy Spirit
As promised in our introduction to Sanctification, this workout time will be given over to becoming better acquainted with the Holy Spirit, our Trainer and Coach for this entire series of exercises. The way in which we will do this is by asking and answering the following questions… His Person—Who is He? His Position—What does He do? His Power—How does He do it? and, His Presence—How does He relate this to each one of us? His Person: Who is He? Although some may have mistakenly thought of the Holy Spirit as nothing more than an emanation of God’s power, or some impersonal spiritual force from God, in reality, He is a Person—the equal, yet distinctive third…
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Searching for Truth in the First Book of Begats
Although I now use the English Standard Version as my study Bible, when I first started out so many years ago, I used the King James Version—a translation that I loved because of the more poetic language it used in the presentation of the Bible Story. The one aspect of that translation that I did not care for, though, was its use of the word “begat” in the many genealogies recorded for us in scripture. “Begat” always sounded so harsh and impersonal that its use made those already tedious and uninteresting passages all the more difficult to get into and to appreciate. And yet, when I was finally able…
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Treasures of Truth…
During the course of our previous two visits, we learned two important things: that for some reason, God has chosen to use trees to tell His story of redemption; and that for some reason, He has chosen to use me, a very reluctant prophet, to give you an explanation for that choice. But that presents something of a challenge, doesn’t it; I mean, how is it possible for any of us to know the mind of God concerning issues of this or any other kind? After all, God is Big and we are small, God is Spirit and we are flesh, God is Infinite and we are finite, and…
