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.
Gene and I spent our first Christmas Eve together in Melbourne, Australia with several friends. On this warm summer evening at Manya’s apartment, we enjoyed fresh fruit, cold chicken, bread from a local bakery, jasmine tea, and champagne. As we were singing holiday songs, Gene and Terre disappeared for a bit. They returned as…Santa and the Christmas Fairy! Bearing gifts for all!
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.
Did God the Creator, Lord of heaven and earth, really give man dominion (authority and control) over the earth? Yes! (See Part 1.)
Did that old serpent, the Devil, really deceive Adam and Eve into handing their dominion (authority and control) over to him, effectively making Satan the god of this world? Yes! (See Part 2.)
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.