Words--What Power?

“‘In the beginning was the Word (Logos),’ hearkens back to memories of God speaking the universe into being, God calling Abraham to leave his homeland, or Isaac uttering a blessing over Jacob instead of Esau. As these examples indicate, words had great meaning in the Jewish world. Once a word was spoken, the event was happening. Words couldn’t be taken back.”¹

Few have this view of words today. There was a time when a man’s word was as good as a signed contract. In those days, the idea of words not able to be taken back was understood. Today, it seems like words have little power—often because there is little meaning behind them. Yet I have no trouble understanding the power of words that affirm or reject—especially when directed at me. Far too easily, they make my day or ruin my week.

What power do my words have? Jesus said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea and it would. I can’t imagine my words ever having such power, yet God told Moses to speak to a certain rock and command water to come from it. Moses disobeyed, but God obviously had the expectation that Moses’ words could accomplish this task. Peter’s words had power when he told the lame man at the gate to get up and walk. Paul spoke and Elymas’ eyes became blind.

Jesus told his disciples, "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18 NIV) How was this binding and loosening accomplished if not through words?

So what is the power of words? Can I say anything and expect it to happen? That hasn’t been my experience. Besides, what if the person beside me says the opposite? Whose words have power at that moment?

Jesus is the Word and he has all power and authority,² which he has chosen to share with his followers,³ so we know we aren’t powerless. At the same time, our words are not magic so whatever we say comes to pass.

Somewhere there is a balance. Where that balance is, I don’t know. I do know I must pay attention to my words—both as a Christian and a writer. There may be more power in what I say than I realize.

Lord, I want all my words to glorify and honour you. Please remove all power from any words I speak or write that might diminish who you are.

In what ways have you seen the power of words—positive or negative, yours or someone else’s?

1. Learning from Jesus: A Spiritual Formation Guide by Renovaré. p.16
2. Matthew 28:18, 19
3. Luke 10:17-19

Breathing the Spirit

A week after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples, commissioned them to go as God the Father had sent him, and then "breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" John 20:20-22 NIV As I looked at that passage yesterday, I wondered: What happened when he did that? So today I went hunting.

The word "breathed" in Greek is emfusao, which means "to blow or breathe upon." It is used only here in the New Testament and, according to "The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon," is used only once in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament used in Jesus' day) and that in Genesis 2:7 where God "breathed into [Adam's] nostrils the breath of life."

God emfusao into Adam's nostrils the breath of life.

Jesus emfusao on his disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

John would have known the use of emfusao to describe that first breath from God into man and intentionally chose it instead of a more common word to describe what Jesus did in that locked room. Why? Did the disciples feel something new and different happening to them? Did it feel like they had suddenly been filled with life?

"Spirit" in Greek is pneuma, which has several meanings and is used 380 times in the New Testament. It is the word used for the Spirit--he who is God--but note that the word "holy," hagios is used to describe the kind of pneuma: that which is most holy (which is a whole other study for this word hagios is also used to mean "saints," something we, as believers, are said to be). Pneuma is also the word for that spirit in us that is life ("i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated."), for angels and demons and for wind and the movement of air including the act of breathing.

Jesus breathed breath, life, spirit into his disciples but not just any breath, life or spirit, but that most holy of spirits, God. In essence, he, being God, breathed part of himself, God, into them.

Augustine in On the Trinity and in reference to this passage writes:

For that bodily breathing, proceeding from the body with the feeling of bodily touching, was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a declaration by a fitting sign, that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son. For the veriest of madmen would not say, that it was one Spirit which He gave when he breathed on them, and another which He sent after his ascension (Acts ii.1-4). For the Spirit of God is one, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the Holy Spirit, who worketh all in all.

I have no problem with the second half of this quote but I wonder: Was Jesus' breathing on his disciples just a sign or promise of what was to come at Pentecost as Augustine suggests (and with whom most commentators agree) or did something substantial occur? If so, why did John compare it to God's first breath into Adam? And if something substantial did occur, what was it and how did it differ from the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost? Any thoughts?

I Am on the Cross

One year in (Christian) high school, our class was sent into the neighbouring town to knock on people's doors, hand them a tract and initiate discussion about Jesus. The one couple I found most interested in discussion was Jehovah's Witness and after we had talked at length, they invited me to return and continue our conversation. I was young and naive and so confident about my faith and biblical knowledge that I had genuine hope of converting them. They, older and wiser, had the same design on me and were better equipped. After meeting weekly for some time, they successfully planted a kernel of doubt regarding Jesus' divinity--a doubt that continues to haunt me.

Yesterday's study time focused on this. In an attempt to wrap my mind around three paragraphs from Augustine's On the Trinity I did some googling and came across the following statement:

“... there would have been no cross without Jesus’ claim to be equal with God the Father...”*

Is this true? I wondered. Since my time with the Jehovah's Witnesses, I have found many passages that leave no doubt that Jesus is God but I would like to look at that quote in light of John 8. The Jews were asking Jesus who he was. After a lengthy discourse with them in the temple, Jesus said, "before Abraham was born, I am!" The Jews were so incensed at this statement, they picked up stones with the intention of killing him but he snuck away. Why was this sentence of his so incendiary?

When Moses asked God at the burning bush who he should say sent him, God answered, "This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I am has sent me to you.'" [Exodus 3:14] "I am" is the name God gave to himself. When Jesus used it to describe himself, the Jews recognized his statement as a claim to being God. This was blasphemous and the law had only one instruction about blasphemy: Kill the blasphemer!

This is why they were ready to stone him; this is why, in the end, they insisted he be crucified: He claimed to be God. Dare we believe otherwise?

*Allen Ross in "The Son of God, Begotten, Not Made." http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=166

Sick Again!

Nine days after my visit to Emergency for a migraine, I was there again, this time for what turned out to be an intestinal viral infection. Being sick is no fun. Neither is being chained to the toilet, so full of gas that the tummy is bloated and rock hard nor pain so severe that it prompts the patient to rock back and forth for hours, crying out for Mommy despite her advanced age. There is nothing one can do for a viral infection, except to treat the symptoms. "Take Tylenol and drink lots of water," the doctor said.

A Google search produced information about the BRAT diet for those with upset tummies: Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast. These are the foods that are easiest on the stomach, apparently, and have binding properties. Thankfully, the predicted one-week duration of said infection was shortened to three or four days and I was able to eat my first proper meal last night in celebration of Father's Day.

I'm so glad I didn't miss it. Tom wanted a barbeque for his Father's Day meal and, since I was sick, went out and bought (and cooked) the best of his favourites:

New York Strip Steaks

Giant Prawns

Normal-sized Prawns

Pork Ribs

Sautéed Mushrooms

Steamed Asparagus Spears

Curried Rice

Sparkling Grape Juice

(from the vineyards of Branson, Missouri)

After we sat down, Tom took two bites, realized he was too nauseous to eat anymore and vacated himself to bed while the rest, none of us fathers, enjoyed the Father's Day feast and the reparté that inevitably occurs when the family gathers. I am glad to report that Tom's inability to eat turned out to be temporary and he consumed his by-then-cold dinner a few hours later, vowing to never again pay the price he did for the steaks he bought.

Being ill, combined with my dysthymia, has kept me from doing much of anything that requires thought or action, including spending time in my prayer room and writing. Hopefully, today is the beginning of change. I have spent much time this afternoon considering the Trinity but none of my reading and studying has formed into the cohesion of thought required to write about it. Maybe later. (Though I notice I'm writing in a slightly different style than usual, which I will attribute to my reading of Augustine.)

Water vs. Spirit

I may tread on toes with this post, but please bear with me. I want to explore a bit.

"I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come.... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Luke 3:16 NIV

What would this statement have meant to John's listeners? What would have come to their minds as they considered baptism with water? with the Holy Spirit and fire?

The Archaelogical Study Bible that I read has a short article entitled "Baptism in the Ancient World." It connects the idea of baptism to some of the temple rituals given by God through Moses to his people at Mt. Sinai. Water was an integral part of much that the people of Israel had to do in order to remain holy, a people separated from others. So many things made them "unclean" and therefore unfit to go to the tabernacle or temple or celebrate feasts like Passover.

When someone became "unclean" (having sex, women having their period, touching something dead other than an offering, etc.) they used water as part of the ritual to become clean again.

The "sea" that Solomon built for purification rites outside the sanctuary door of the temple was 11,500 gallons, the size of a backyard swimming pool (see first photo)! There were also ten basins on stands, each holding 250 gallons--enough water in each for a large kiddie's wading pool (as demonstrated in the second photo).

That's a lot of water! Presumably the priests would get right inside the "sea" to wash before entering the sanctuary of the temple. Otherwise, why have it so large?

A number of Jewish ritual baths, or miqvaot (singular miqveh**), have been excavated in Jerusalem, Jericho and elsewhere. By rabbinical law these had to hold at least 60 gallons (227 l) of water and be deep enough to completely immerse the body.

Therefore, it seems to me that in John the Baptist's day, baptism by water would be seen as a spiritual cleansing from all that separated them from interacting with God. It wasn't a one-time thing but something done as often as needed to ritually cleanse one's self from impurity.

What would they have understood, then, when John mentioned baptism in or by the Spirit and fire? Did they imagine themselves moving through a bonfire? Did it raise a spectre of times past when the people of Israel followed the pagan customs and "passed" their children through the fire? Did they assume it would kill and destroy them?

What was their view of the Spirit? I'm no scholar and the answer to this question seems a little more difficult to ascertain. In John 1:33b, the Baptist quotes what was told to him: "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." Who or what did they understand the Spirit to be?

The word "ruwach" used 375 in the NASB Old Testament can be translated in many ways, according to the one Hebrew lexicon I checked. Specifically, when referring to the Holy Spirit (because it doesn't always), the following apply:

Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son:

• as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
• as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
• imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
• as endowing men with various gifts
• as energy of life
• as manifest in the Shekinah glory
• never referred to as a depersonalised force

Two of these grab me. I think of the Shekinah glory that led the Children of Israel through the wilderness, that shone over the ark of the covenant and that made Moses' face so brilliant he had to wear a veil for the sake of the people around him. Is this what would happen to those baptised by the Spirit? (Remember, I'm trying to think from a first-century, pre-Pentecost Jewish viewpoint.)

I think about King Saul who was overcome by the Holy Spirit so that he was uttering prophecies along with the prophets. This happened numerous times in the Old Testament to more than just King Saul. Did they imagine that those baptised in the Holy Spirit would tear off their clothes and run around like madmen speaking out whatever God told them?

Perhaps there's a third possibility. Since the people held John the Baptist in high esteem and even wondered if he was the Messiah, it would seem natural for those listening to him that day about the one who would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire to think (correctly) that John was describing the Messiah. They expected the Messiah to be a warrior, so did they think that baptism in the Holy Spirit would impart "warlike energy and executive and administrative power"?

As I consider each possibility, the last seems most probable because it fits their expectations. The Messiah would impart this special power to the ones he chose and then lead all those so empowered to overcome the Romans and establish a free and eternal kingdom in Palestine. [Please remember that I'm simply puzzling this through as a non-scholar without any help except what's been noted here. I could be way off track.]

"I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come.... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

Could they have understood this to mean, "I'm facilitating personal spiritual purity but soon there will be one who will help cleanse the entire nation and country, not just the people in it"? I think they might have. Obviously, that's not what was meant at all and it's not what happened, either.

How do the two kinds of baptism relate to each other now? In that day, baptism with/in water meant immersing the whole body--like having a bath without the soap or going for a swim (did the priests in Solomon's day and beyond goof around in the water of the "sea" when theywent in it?). Water is physical but the Spirit is not. Baptism in the Holy Spirit: could it be that, as water temporarily washed away spiritual uncleanness, immersion in the Spirit would permanently destroy the spiritual uncleanness of those so baptised? I don't know. It's something I need to ponder more. What are your thoughts?

*"Baptism in the Ancient World." NIV Archaelogical Study Bible (Zondervan) p.1562.

Large pool: Dimensions: 12 feet by 33 feet / Capacity: 11,500 gallons / Depth: 3 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet http://www.aquamagazine.com/aquachoice/project.aspx?id=654

Small pool: 10'x 6', sides are 2' high http://www.beststuff.com/images/articles/062301a2.jpg

Mikveh: http://www.ianandwendy.com/slideshow/Israel/Masada/picture23.htm

"...when you come into your kingdom."

While reading Luke last night, I was struck by the request of the thief on the cross: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Jesus was hanging on the cross, dying. Who expects a dying man to "come into" a kingdom? Those who have kingdoms relinquish them at death yet the robber, who had mocked Jesus just a bit before**, suddenly realized Jesus was no ordinary man. This man, Jesus, would gain a kingdom with his death. Curious, that.

Regardless of how the insight came to him, it took a great deal of faith to make that request to a dying "criminal."

God, I want to have faith like that thief.

*Luke 23:42

**Matthew 27:44

Migraines

Let it be noted for the record: I hate migraines.

Tuesday night I had one so bad Mikael (24-year-old son) took me to Emergency--the first migraine-induced-visit in ten or fifteen years. He was a sweetie--supportive, caring and encouraging--and stayed beside me the whole time. I was taken to a less-brightly-lit examining room nearly right away but it took more than two hours before the doctor showed up. Taking one look at me pressing a pillow into my face, without further examination, he ordered the meds. Thirty minutes later I was discharged.

Perhaps I should have stayed longer (to let more medicine drip into me) because the symptoms didn't go completely away. Last night I thought I might have to return but felt well this morning--until I made breakfast and all the wooziness returned. I had been very sick with nausea and dizziness in the days leading up to Tuesday so now I'm wondering if that was the lead-in to the migraine.

Dysthymia

I had never heard the word "dysthymia" until two weeks ago when the psychiatrist I've been seeing for an hour each week for the past two and a half years used it to describe what I've been experiencing.

Dysthymia is a milder yet more enduring type of depression [than major depression].... The diagnosis is given when a person has had continuous depressed mood for at least two years.... Dysthymia is a condition that tends to develop early in a person's life.... At any point in time, 3% of the population may be affected by dysthymia. Within a lifetime it appears to affect approximately 6%.... Having dysthymic disorder increases the risk of developing major depressive disorder. Of those with dysthymia approximately 10% will go on to develop major depression. The presence of both conditions is sometimes known as "double depression." http://www.allaboutdepression.com/dia_04.html

Interestingly, my doctor told me that the death of a parent before the age of twelve is the leading cause of depression and no other cause comes close. My dad killed himself when I was nine, so it's not surprising that I struggle with this. I've had major depressive disorder as well, so life hasn't been easy. I haven't been sad or unhappy much, lately, but there has been an over-powering tiredness and exhaustion from the smallest things; I find it hard to concentrate; there are things I enjoy that I haven't done for a long time; I find myself withdrawing from others more and more and though I know in my head that I am of great value in God's eyes, there is an underlying sense that I'm not "good enough."


There are those who believe depression is a spiritual problem only, and who eschew any medical or therapeutic assistance. I disagree. That isn't to say there is no spiritual aspect to depression because our lives are intrinsically spiritual in every way, it's something we can't get away from, but God uses doctors to administer his healing power in a variety of ways. It's as foolish to avoid psychiatry as it is to avoid blood transfusions. It's also as foolish to ignore one's spiritual life as it is to ignore the symptoms of heart attack or stroke.

Historically, we in North America have tended to hide mental health disorders. It's certainly easier to admit having diabetes than it is to say, "I'm depressed," or "I'm mentally ill," yet both depression and diabetes have serious and even lethal consequences if ignored. I can't change society's views on this topic, but perhaps my admission of having depression will give others the courage to do the same. The more of us who do, the less stigma will be attached.


I seem to be going through a particularly difficult time with depression lately, which is why I haven't been posting here as often. There are things I want to share but I have to gather my head together a bit more before I can. Thank you for your understanding and patience.