Ten Commandment Tuesday - Mom and Dad

Wouldn't it be great if they never grew up? I still look fondly back at the time my children were infants and wish that time stood still at that perfect moment when my infant daughter first really recognized me as Dad and smiled...

A little over a year ago grandson #2 was born but daughter had to remain in the hospital so while dad stayed in the hospital with my daughter, the new baby and his big sister moved in with Grandma and Grandpa for a little while. Oh wow! It has been 26 years since there was a newborn in a cradle next to me, but the rules haven't changed. While Grandma dozed on Grandpa took care of the newborn at 9:00 pm, 11:00, 1:00, and 3:00 AM. Luckily I leave for work at 4:30 AM so it was Grandma's turn. not sure how I made the 45 minute commute, but I did make it there. And that's what Mom and Dad does, they do whatever it takes to help the kids, and grandkids, and soon Great Grandma WideAwakeChristian will be moving in with Grandma and Grandpa WideAwakeChristian to help us in our time of need, and so we can help her in her time too. It's a love thing. And an honor thing.

 The Fifth of the Ten Commandments reads: "Honor your father and your mother."

This commandment is so important that it is one of the only commandments in the entire Bible that gives a reason for observing it: "That your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you."

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

What's worse: the fact that the DOJ is investigating the Roman Catholic Church, or the fact that the RCC made it necessary?

Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine announced he has launched a civil investigation into whether the Archdiocese of Washington violated the law by covering up the sexual abuse of minors

A Jesuit magazine defends ordaining gay men

Eugene Peterson, the man behind the mess of the Message, has died

Dr. John MacArthur steps aside as president of the Master’s University and Seminary

Andy Stanley is wrong, we need the Old Testament

Atlanta is going to pay $1.2 million former fire chief Kelvin Cochran whom they fired for being a Christian

A new bible has been released; for Roman Catholics in attempt to get them up to speed on what God really says

WWUTT Wednesday - Conspiracy Theories

When I retired from the Air Force I ran into something that I had never had to deal with before: Conspiracy Theories. Yeah, in the military we had stories floating about, but they were called "scuttlebutt", "rumors", "propaganda" and "#@%&!", most dealt with relatively simple things; upcoming deployments, new equipment, and why did the Deputy Commander of Operations go on leave so suddenly? 

Now that I've worked in the "real world" for a couple of decades it seems that the world is fueled by conspiracy theories, and some of this stuff is just nuts. Did FDR allow Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor? Did the CIA assassinate JFK? Did LBJ intentionally escalate the Vietnam War just to get re-elected? (actually that last one is a historical fact) 

The ones I hear from Christians are probably the worst because we know that this world is going to get worse, why make yourself sick about it? Obama did not round up Christians and ship us off to FEMA camps, and maybe the Pope really is the antichrist, so what? 1 John 2:18-22 tells us the world is crawling with antichrists. As a Christian stop and think: does it really matter that Google knows you watch cat videos?

Ten Commandments Tuesday - Remember The Sabbath

I'm sure that there will be comments and discussion over this one. There are many Christians who worship the Sabbath as fervently as our Hebrew brothers and sisters, whole congregations of Christians keep the sabbath. There are also many Christians who disdain the worship of the Sabbath.

Notice that I said "worship of the Sabbath". GOD is the only one or only thing that should be worshiped, in Jesus day this was a sin of the Pharisees - to worship the Sabbath as if the day itself were a God, and Jesus took issue with that. Also keep in mind that this is the only commandment of the 10 that Jesus did not teach. On one hand worshiping the Sabbath really is a sin, Mrs WideAwakeChristian and I know and love a Christian couple who got it in their head that worshiping the Sabbath was the most important thing in their Christian lives. They left our congregation for a Seventh Day Baptist church and cut off all communications with our entire congregation. Is Saturday afternoon worth hurting all those people? On the other hand God is wiser than people (much wiser) and He knows that we need one day a week to unwind from our toils.

Also keep in mind that this is the 10 commandments from the Jewish perspective, gaining that insight may be interesting for you, personally I love the points Dennis made.

 Many people who revere the Ten Commandments don't think that the Fourth is particularly important, let alone binding.  Once you understand it, however, you will recognize how life-changing, even world-changing, the Sabbath commandment is. And you will begin to appreciate how relevant it is to your own life. 

Father, Son, and Holy Guest?

Holey Ghost

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19 NASB)

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19 KJV)

I remember as a young, missal equipped, catholic lad performing the sign of the cross while genuflecting to show allegiance to the blood splattered plaster corpse that hung above the gleaming gold and marble altar, and calling on the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Ghost?

I don't think the Roman Catholic Church calls on Ghosts anymore, at some point after Vatican II the name of the third person of the Trinity was changed His name to Holy Spirit, but the name Holy Ghost held on in the hearts and minds of older parishioners and on the pages of the King James bible.

In the original Greek text the word translated into English as "spirit" is πνεῦμα pneuma which literally means "That which is breathed or blown". A tire filled with air or the air driven gun that tightens the lug nuts which hold that tire on your car are both said to be pneumatic. Or if you're very ill and can't breath your doctor may say you have pneumonia. But it is sometimes used in a way which emphasises a person's personality and character, their spirit. Which in God's case is Holy - His Holy Spirit. It can also be used to describe your soul, and even describe demons (evil spirits) or spirits which are higher than man but lower than God (angels). Is the term Spirit and Ghost interchangeable?

Spirit came from the Latin word spiritus which means the "animating or vital principle in man and animals". The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek pneuma to spiritus, which becomes spirit. 

Ghost came from the Old English word gast which came from the Proto-West Germanic gaistaz which means spirit, but not in a good way. The word denotes terror and fear and was never intended to mean anything good. It means bad spirit, angel, or demon. When speaking of a person, man, human being it means the essence or soul of a person left behind after death which we know from the bible is not possible.

So are the words spirit and ghost interchangeable? No. Ghost has always had negative connotations, while the connotations of the word spirit is determined by how it is used; IE Holy Spirit vs evil spirit.

The reason why I looked this up is because I have seen web pages that tell us the translation of Ghost in the KJV comes from the Proto-West Germanic word gaistiz which actually means guest, giving us the idea of a Holy Guest, which by Jesus' description of the Holy Spirit works better than Holy Ghost, but no, other than a close pronunciation and a very close spelling, the original words gaistaz (ghost) and gaistiz (guest) aren't related at all.

So properly we use the word Spirit which came from a Latin word in bibles translated from Greek texts (NASB, NIV, ESV), and we find the word Ghost which came from an old English/Germanic word in Mid-English bibles translated from the Latin Vulgate (KJV). Just a touch confusing