“Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” said the multitude of the heavenly host to the shepherds at Jesus Christ’s birth. OR DID THEY? (Luke 2:14)
Did they really say that? Sure they did. It’s in the King James Bible in just those words.
We hear this beautiful message during the Christmas season and we take it at face value in the English translation. We see it as: “Praise God who is able to give men on earth peace and good will.”
But it is fun to take a well known scripture and look up the root derivations of the original language in the well recognized Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. This is a very hefty reference book which takes every word of the original Hebrew and Greek and gives its basic meaning and usage.
Doing this with Luke 2:14 gives quite a different twist in the message. Let’s examine the derivation of the key words in this scripture.
The word GLORY is from the Greek word doxa, Strong’s #1391 which gives the meaning “dignity, honor, praise, worship”. That is pretty much the way we see its meaning now. But it comes from the root base of the Greek word doko, Strong’ s #1380 which means to THINK. The root meaning of GLORY is to THINK right.
So giving praise and worship to God really comes about by THINKING about what God has revealed concerning Himself - His love, His mercy, His justice, and above all His desires toward men.
How could you translate that section of the message of the heavenly host? Let’s see. “THINK about the characteristics of the Most High God . . .“ That alone is a great idea at Christmas.
Now let’s talk about GOOD WILL as in “good will toward men”. GOOD WILL is the King Jame’s translation for the Greek word eudokia, Strong’s #2107 which comes from the root base of doko, Strong’s #1380. You were just informed the word GLORY is from the same root base. That means GLORY and GOOD WILL are from the same base, or root word, commanding us TO THINK.
So is the message of the heavenly host seen on a lot of Christmas cards really a message about HOW TO THINK?
Look at the word “IN” as in “Glory to God IN the Highest.” This is the Greek word en, Strong’s #1722. What can possibly be wrong with that? Nothing, but now look at the word TOWARD in the Greek. That word TOWARD is exactly the same Greek word as the word IN. The translators agreed that GLORY is IN God, and so do we. But when they came to the next half of the message, they couldn’t believe that GOOD WILL is IN men, so they changed it to TOWARD men. The old familiar translation has a good, happy, and poetic ring to it - “GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN.” We’ve memorized it. We’re inspired by it. Nothing wrong with that!
But just consider the deeper, root meaning of the message:
THINK ABOUT THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOST HIGH GOD … AND THINK ABOUT THE GOOD POTENTIAL IN MEN … AND THOSE THOUGHTS WILL BRING PEACE TO YOU.
There IS a “good” which is present in all human beings from birth. That “good” is the potential within the human spirit to contain the nature of God through the indwelling union with Christ. The worst sinner on earth still has that “good” potential. The more we, as Christians, THINK about these things, the more we will stay in awareness of our position as a child in God’s Family. And the greater will be our desire to see the potential of the new birth fulfilled in unbelievers around us.
The words to a familiar Christian song seem appropriate:
Think about His love, Think about His goodness, Think about His grace That‘s brought us through. For as High as the heavens above, So great is the measure of our Father’s love - Great is the measure of our Father’s LOVE!
In order to enter into a profession - medicine, dentistry, nursing, engineering, cooking, building, or what not, it is necessary that you “yield yourself” to your training or apprentice days to obtain a fixed know-how of the profession. In due course, through these training days, your profession of know-how takes you over, and you call yourself by the name of the profession. Then, with that know-how settled in you as you, you are totally free to express your will by operating your know-how and making a living by it.
You start by choosing or taking over the profession, and you progress to having the profession take over you. You express yourself through the profession. THERE NEVER WAS A HUMAN WITH A “NATURALLY BORN” KNOW-HOW!
In my own case, I made up my mind during my teenage years that I wanted to enter a profession. I had always had a talent for science and math, so it seemed logical to me that some kind of engineering would be best. I had constructed balsa-wood model airplanes and thought that aeronautical engineering was a possibility.
Now my father was a professional, a dentist, and I had seen and appreciated his work. He never tried to push me toward dentistry but was wise enough to set an example and let me choose. He wanted me to be led toward my own desires. All that he would say was that “it was great to be your own boss!” Of course, he understood that no professional is ever his own boss, but rather that the people he serves are his “boss”.
After high school, I decided to enter a pre-engineering curriculum at St. Louis University with the intention of entering Parks College of Aeronautical Engineering. As it happened, many of the classes which I took were shared with pre-dental students and I came to know a number of them. When they heard that my father was a dentist, they suggested that I really ought to look at dentistry. There was a lot of science in dentistry and, as a practical thing, my father could really help me get established.
After consideration, I switched to a pre-dental course of study which made my father very pleased. His non-coercive approach and good example had paid off.
After my pre-dental work, I was accepted to St. Louis University School of Dentistry. Dental school was hard! I did good academic work in the sciences. The work with my “head” was very little trouble. But the practical work with my hands seemed very difficult. I had never had a talent for fine, delicate work with my hands. Even the work on the balsa-wood airplanes which I did as a child did not come easy. I was forever breaking the wood or messing up the glueing operation. But I enjoyed the finished product.
Finally a turning point came by which the profession which I had taken over TOOK ME OVER! As you know, dentists do much of their work looking in a small mirror image of teeth in the mouth. And in a mirror, everything is reversed - left is right, right is left. It seemed like I would never learn to work in a mirror. I inevitably moved my instruments in the wrong direction.
After fighting the mirror during three or four months of practical work on a model mouth, the turning point came. There came a day when, as I started working and looked in the mirror, my brain reversed everything and I just naturally moved my instruments properly. This “mirror-reversal” is a phenomenon which I have since discovered among my fellow dentists is almost a universal experience. From this point on, you feel like you are a part of dentistry and dentistry is a part of you.
I have gone into detail about my professional training for a purpose. CHRISTIANS BECOME PROFESSIONALS. A person chooses, because of his circumstances and by the influence of God, to become a Christian - to make Jesus Christ the Lord of his life and to be a devoted follower of Christ. He chooses to enter the Christian “profession”.
Now he doesn’t know much about this profession or his “talent” for it or how he is going to fit into it. But he sees that, from the way he was going before, he needs a way of life which is redeeming and fulfilling. And God reveals to him that the Christian “profession” is the only truly fulfilling spiritual profession.
In dental school, I had to learn from my professors and from practical situations. Well, at my conversion and new birth as a Christian, my Professor, Jesus Christ Himself, comes to live in a union with my human spirit. He takes what talents I have, and the many that I do not have, and proceeds to make me a professional. At conversion, I receive the nature of God, the nature of Christ, the nature of the Profession. The rest of my human existence is a growth in awareness of how the Profession has taken me.
I start out by looking in that professional “mirror” and invariably moving right instead of left, and left instead of right. I have to constantly think about the way things actually are compared to the way they seem to be in the mirror. I am now forever a child of God and not just a weak human, unprofessional slob who can’t seem to get things right in my own power and ability. I have the professional power of Christ within to teach me and lead me. The Profession has chosen me - but I must, on a daily basis, choose to operate my Profession.
Jesus said, “I can, of My own self, do NOTHING! As I hear, I judge. And My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father” (John 5:30). He said, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me ... the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works” (John 14:10). While Jesus lived as a man on this earth, He had to learn the Christian Profession from His Father within. And we must do the same, trusting in and learning from our indwelt Professor.
And what is the true function of a “profession”? It is to use the powers of the profession outward to others. There are tangible rewards to the workings of a human profession. A dentist has satisfaction in a finished product of a filling, a crown, a denture or just a healthy mouth. He receives a tangible monetary reward also. But the profession cannot and does not stop there. The true function of the profession is the relief of pain in others and the outgoing concern for their dental health.
The Christian Profession, in this respect, is the same. We receive tangible earthly and spiritual rewards by functioning within our Profession. But the basis of our Profession is outward to others. We are to demonstrate Christianity outward to others. We are to make them see, as it is possible, the reality of spiritual things.
Every human is born with a measure of neutral ability and a vast potential of application, somewhat like a computer which must have its programmer. In that neutral ability, once “naturally” driven by Satan’s self-for-self nature, but now equally driven by Christ’s self-for-others nature, we function freely in the Christian Profession as though ourselves. But ever inwardly, we know it is He, the Professor, as we.
THIS IS HOW ANY PROFESSIONAL OPERATES HIS PROFESSION: AS IF IT IS HIMSELF, THOUGH IT IS THE “NATURAL” EXPRESSION OF THE KNOW-HOW WHICH TOOK HIM OVER AND NOW OPERATES HIM.
If things are looking somewhat distorted and backwards in your Christian “mirror” right now, never fear. Apply yourself to your Profession and the reversal phenomenon will come. It is all part of professional growth.
Different cultures use a great variety of words and expressions for "God." In Madagascar, an island country off the southeast coast of Africa, they call God Andriamanitra. This means "the prince who smells good." The implication of Andriamanitra is that Jesus lives!
All the ancestors, to whom Madagascans would pray, are dead, and they would smell bad as their bodies rotted in the grave, just as Lazarus would have despite the use of fragrant oils in the embalming process (John 11:39).
However, Jesus, the greatest ancestor, whose sacrifice was a "sweet-smelling aroma" (Ephesians 5:2, NKJ), has risen from the dead, and he is alive, filling the believer with the breath of eternal life.
This idea has a direct application for us in our Christian walk. The apostle Paul reminds us that Christian workers are to God the fragrance of the living resurrected Christ. This fragrance is "perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing. To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume" (2 Corinthians 2:16, New Living Translation).
As we do the work of Christ we dispense the refreshing, life-giving perfume of the Prince who smells good! James Henderson
God Controls Everything - But Man Makes Free-will Choices?
At my church, we did a study of Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life”. In the book, it is stated that God has planned out purposes in a Christian’s life. The overall purposes are listed as: 1. To worship God for His pleasure 2. To be an actual member of His Family 3. To become like Christ 4. To serve God as he uses us to serve man and 5. To spread the Gospel of Christ among unbelievers.
It is also stated that each Christian has individual unique abilities that God has planned to specifically use through that individual.
This is all certainly true. But in small group discussions of the book, that two-thousand year old dilemma rears its head again. The question in the back of so many Christian minds comes to the fore when any discussion of God’s control, purpose and planning is active. The question is: “Where does man’s free-will choice come in if God is completely powerful and in control?” This question has been debated among Bible scholars for millennia without any definitive answer.
I presented the following reasoning to my small group discussion which, to me, is the only way that I, personally, can harmonize God’s control with my freewill.
Let’s take a down to earth example. Say that I am in New York city when I am born again into the new birth. God’s goal, God’s purpose, is to get me by a lifetime trip to the moral perfection of San Francisco, California (in reality, not so morally perfect!).
But God does not give me a AAA Trip-Tik highway map from New York to San Francisco. He does not tell me that this is my ordered route that I must follow. My only instruction is that I must head generally west toward my destination of San Francisco. But I have my total freedom to choose my own cross-country route.
I can take a southern route through Washington DC, St. Louis, and onto the old “Route 66” which is described in the song as “you go through St. Louie, Joplin Missouri, Oklahoma City is mighty pretty; you see Amarillo, Gallop New Mexico, Flagstaff Arizona, don’t forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino”, into Los Angeles and up the Pacific coast highway to San Francisco.
Or I can take the northern route through Minneapolis, The Dakotas, Yellowstone, over the Rockies through Donner Pass and down into San Francisco.
I can even take an all Canadian route through Detroit and the Canadian provinces to Vancouver, British Columbia, then down through Seattle Washington, Portland Oregon, to San Francisco.
The point is that there are many ways that I can go generally west to my destination of San Francisco. There is no one RIGHT way — one God ordained way. I have the freedom on a day to day basis to choose my own unique travel plan. The one thing that God will not allow me to do is to go straight north, east or south. This is not His purpose for me and He will correct me by forceful measures to go generally west. Read the book of Jonah in the Bible and see what can happen when you try to run the wrong direction from God. You can end up as whale-food!
But here’s the way my example makes good sense to me. God can take whatever gifts or talents that He has uniquely built into me and He can use them wherever 1 am on my chosen trip. God has things for me to do along the way, but I can do these things as well in Flagstaff Arizona, as in Minneapolis, Minnesota, or as in Vancouver, British Columbia. I mustn’t get the idea that I must take a particular route for my life in order to please God - I must just head generally west.
God wants to use me where I am best suited, where I am best motivated. And motivations come from my unique desires. In other words, when I am in union with Christ, I CHOOSE THE WESTWARD PATH OF MY DESIRE! And God will use me where I am!
One more thing must be said of my example: no one ever gets to San Francisco in this human life! San Francisco is Christian perfection. Mother Teresa probably made it to the Golden Gate Bridge on the outskirts of San Francisco. Billy Graham is probably heading up the Pacific coast highway toward San Francisco. I’m not sure where I am on my westward trip but I know that I am heading generally west and am being used along the way. I’ve made a few side trips along the way in which God has pointed out to me not to linger but to get back on the westward path.
We Christians are to live along our road of life, not constantly looking for the most convenient “Interstate highway system” to San Francisco. We are to take the route our heart desires as long as it heads generally WEST. We can enjoy the scenery that we choose to pass through. And God will use us in the cities and villages of our choice. As they said in the San Francisco gold-rush days: GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST!
It seems that psychology is catching up with the Bible in the area of love.
The Greek language of the New Testament has three words for “love”: “eros” which is physical sexual love. “phileo” which is social or brotherly love. “agape” which is godly unconditional love or commitment.
The following article appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Elizabeth A. LehnererOf the Suburban Journals Collinsville Herald 02/08/2006
Songwriters have become famous off of it. Poets have won the hearts of audiences from it. Battles have been won and lost because of it. It can put you on cloud nine or break your heart. And, with Valentine's Day right around the corner, we ask the question:What is love?
For centuries, psychologists have researched love and developed theories about the different types of love. Scientists have studied why our bodies and minds respond in certain ways when we come across that someone special.But is love really so simply broken down?
Dr. Paul Rose, a professor of social psychology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, seems to think so. He has studied psychology professionally since 2003 with his research mainly focused on relationships between dating and married people.
Rose said that there are three basic components of love: passion, intimacy and commitment and that the three parts, developed by Dr. Robert J. Sternberg in 1986, mix and match in different relationships.
For instance, romantic love, like the kind between Romeo and Juliet, is a combination of passion and intimacy.
People in love typically carry the same symptoms – they are carefree and happy and the world is full of possibilities. Rose said that the reason a human being finds pleasure in romantic love is because passion and intimacy fulfill two basic drives that all normal human beings have.
"We have this drive to reproduce and so we have these feeling of passion toward another person, and then we have this drive to socially connect with other people and feelings of intimacy help us fulfill that drive," he said.
Although passion may mean something different to everyone, in the psychology field, passion means sex. "When you feel passion toward another person it means that your body is physiologically responding to them," Rose said. "In a nutshell, what is happening - and we don't like to admit this in polite society - but your body is getting ready for sex; that heart pumping, that rise in body temperature and all those kinds of things are an indication that you are sexually attracted to that person."
When it comes to bodily response, being attracted to someone has been compared to fear. A person's heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and muscle tone all increase, pupils dilate, and the skin begins to perspire, giving off a healthy glow.
And no matter how little you may want to think about it, Rose said every normal human being has a sex drive. "Over the course of evolution, if we didn't have a need to reproduce, your genes would be selected out of the pool and you wouldn't be here," Rose said.
But there are different types of love.
"Companionate" love is a combination of intimacy and commitment. This is the type of love you feel toward a friend or family member. "You're going to be there for them and you believe they're going to be there for you," Rose said. "You have a sense of closeness with them and you talk about things that you wouldn't share with strangers.
"When your son or daughter says they're in love with the newest hunk or hottie in Hollywood what they really are infatuated – a mix of passion and commitment. "You're totally devoted to this person, you yearn for them, you're telling your friends, ‘I want to live with this person forever.' But you don't know anything about them," Rose aid. "Teenage infatuation is the typical combination of passion plus commitment but there's no intimacy." Rose said that the components combine to create a stereotypical relationship -- friend, lover, idol -- but just having one component in a relationship can lead to awkward or dangerous situations.
"Like when you meet someone one the bus who you will never talk to again in your life but for some reason for 10 minutes on the bus you just really got into a deep conversation. So you've got intimacy there but no commitment and no passion.
"Rose also said just having passion could have devastating results. "Let's take passion all by itself – if that's all you've got that may describe a rapist. They have no sense of compassion with this person, certainly not sense of commitment, all they're after is fulfilling their lust."
Although people have different goals in their relationships, the ideal situation seems to have all three components. "People definitely vary on what they want," Rose said. "I know a lot of 18-year-olds who are just looking for passion on a Saturday night and there are other people who have been in traumatic relationships over and over again who will willingly sacrifice on passion and intimacy if they could just get commitment.
"In my professional opinion, what's healthiest is having all three. I think that love fulfills basic needs. Every normal human being has a sex drive and to feel gratified they've got to fulfill that. "Every normal human being has a need to connect with other people -- intimacy and commitment fulfill that."
Much of Christianity seems strange - full of oxymorons. An oxymoron is an apparently self-contradictory statement. They usually point out a poignant truth with wry humor. For example, efficient government, military intelligence, friendly fire and bitter sweet. And "he who will save his life must lose it."
The Bible explains that in our human state we are dead to God and alive to sin, and that He wants to reverse this condition. He wants us alive to Him and dead to sin. He wants us dead AND alive.
So how is this changed life to be achieved? It can’t - not by us. But Christ has done it for us. He both represents us before God and substitutes for us before God. When we trust in Jesus, His death substitutes for ours, and He gives us new life in Him. When we are "in Christ" we are both dead to sin in His death, and alive to God in His life.
The idea is oxymoronic. That is just what Jesus intended - instead of the human life of sin we are born into with its death to God, He came to institute a new eternal life with its death to sin. Yes, an old life AND death exchanged for a new life AND death! Oxymoronic!
The Bible firmly reminds us that all have sinned, and have fallen short of the glory of God. Sin - now there’s a word that has lost its currency. But it still pays wages - which the Bible says is death. There is no escaping what that means. But Jesus Christ loves us so much that He has already paid the cost for our sinfulness. That means we can accept His love for us and in Him start the new, clean life He has already prepared for us.
In their quieter moments people all know that there are things not right with their lives and not right with their attitude to others. Many go to their graves with those feelings. But the best way to go to your grave is to do so voluntarily - accept Christ in His death for you, and to be born again into new life AND death to the power of sin over you.
Through His own Son who became one of us for this very purpose, our loving God provides our escape from the prison of sin and its death sentence, which has taken hold of us all.
Yes, God wants us dead AND alive – dead to sin AND alive to Him.
Christians have one of either two responses when they hear the weekly sermons at their church.
Response # 1: “I'm just not getting fed at my church. The pastor is a nice guy, but his sermons just don't hold my interest. I hardly get anything out of Sunday services and I'm just not growing spiritually. Should I find another church where I can get fed?”
Response #2: “I just love to hear my pastor speak at church. He has a way of presenting the gospel that really holds my interest and is practical for my everyday Christian walk. I don’t know what I would do without his sermons.”
In answer to response #1, picture this. You're sitting at your kitchen table. Your refrigerator is a mere four feet away. In it is everything from A to Z, apples to zucchini bread. Your pantry is five feet the other direction. It too is packed with food. You look up from your chair and say to me, “I'm just not getting fed at my home. I like my wife, but I don't like her cooking. I'm hardly getting enough to eat. I'm starting to lose strength and my weight is dropping. Should I find another wife so I can get fed?”
What would you say if you were me? This might be a little blunt, but I know what I’d say: “Get off your humpty dumpty and get yourself something to eat. You've got a Bible; go get yourself something to eat. You don't need a pastor to spoon-feed you.”
In answer to response #2, picture this. You’re sitting at your kitchen table. Your well-stocked refrigerator and pantry are the same distance away. You look up from your chair and say to me, “I know there’s plenty of food in the house but the only kind of food I like is what I get when I eat out at church once a week.”
What would you say if you were me? I know what I’d say: “That may be great food once a week, but your body requires daily intake of nourishing food. You’ve got a Bible; eat from it daily. Once a week food just doesn’t do it!”
Now, in fairness, some sermons are about as engaging as an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. Furthermore, unlike Jesus’ simple, down-to-earth, practical teaching style, many sermons today follow the model of the university lecture. I find this fascinating because studies continually demonstrate that we typically remember about 10% of what we hear; that is, until we hear another message (i.e. another sermon) then the percentage drops even more. The reality is, our minds retain information from sermons at a lesser rate than computers retain resale value.
Churches are perpetuating a system that began back when people depended upon clergy to bring them the Bible because they (clergy) were oftentimes the only ones in a congregation who could read and write. That all changed, oh roughly three to four hundred years ago. Yet, the typical church model still demands that pastors deliver “interesting” sermons/lectures to people who think that unless they go and listen to them, they can’t grow spiritually -- even though they won’t remember 90% of what was said come Monday morning.
The result is a paralyzing condition that the writer of Hebrews defines perfectly when he says, “By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one -- baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago!” (Hebrews 5:12-13)
The fact is, you'd be hungry if your pastor’s sermons were awesome. Besides the fact that you're going to forget most of even the best sermons, you still won’t be well fed if your only spiritual nourishment is eating-out once a week.
I suggest you start viewing sermons as vitamins that supplement your regular diet in God’s Word. Develop a habit of spiritual self-feeding just like you do with physical food. Get out your Bible and start reading it for yourself -- like pastors do.
That said, just remember that some sermons are better than others. Some sermons you will remember better than others. Some vitamins are easier to swallow than others.
