Religion: Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead

Written by Rev. Saundra L. Washington

For many people, life has become as dull and despairing as death. We suffer from spiritual inertia. We have allowed ourselves to be paralyzed by shallow beliefs and shackled by repparttar

strong chains of discouragement. We have permitted repparttar 126441

sacred and holy to be eclipsed by repparttar 126442

secular and profane. Hearts that were once gay have suddenly become heavy. Men who were once optimistic have become pessimistic. Many who were once willing to greet tomorrow with a cheer, now regard repparttar 126443

future with nervous anxiety.

What we have here are powerless people who live in repparttar 126444 night of spiritual darkness. It is a spiritual calamity- a dead situation. It is people whose spirit and life has dried up and repparttar 126445 artesian springs of their souls has ceased to flow. They are, in essence, like a desert without a living stream of water. They are spiritual carcasses roaming around in repparttar 126446 night-ness of their wretched existence.

Not only have they lost confidence in our world, but they have also lost faith in themselves and in God. They have become like zombies—carcasses with no life, dry bones in repparttar 126447 valley, repparttar 126448 walking dead. Dead, but not dead dead, if you will. The body is alive, but void of spirituality; form without substance. They are like thousands of folks today who have allowed prosperity and privilege to destroy their spirit; destroy their lives – people with everything to live on and nothing to live for; repparttar 126449 living dead; people with repparttar 126450 stint of death on them ready for repparttar 126451 open grave.

Oikonomian

Written by Terry Dashner

Oikodomian

Terry Dashner……………….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

Does repparttar title look strange? It should unless you are a first year graduate student, taking New Testament Greek. Why repparttar 126440 title? No, it’s not to impress you with my limited knowledge of Biblical languages. You need to recognize this word, though. It is translated, according to Kenneth S. Wuest in his book entitled, Word Studies in repparttar 126441 Greek New Testament Volume II (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Reprinted, 1981): ‘edification.’

But, as is true of most words taken from one language and translated into another, much of repparttar 126442 meaning is lost by repparttar 126443 single translation: “edification.” Let me explain. If you’ve studied languages, you know that words common to one culture, tribe, or nation, can lose their richness when taken out of its culture. You know those idioms, cultural context, history, poetry, a culture’s literary history, and so on and so forth are all wrapped up in languages, and they are difficult to bring forth in another tongue. Since you know that, you will certainly appreciate oikodomian.

According to Wuest (a real scholar) repparttar 126444 word is correctly rendered, ‘household economy.’ It is rendered this way in “the sense of repparttar 126445 administration of repparttar 126446 affairs of a household. The word here refers to repparttar 126447 scheme or order of salvation as devised and administered by God [referring to its use in I Timothy 1:3-4], repparttar 126448 method of operation of God’s salvation in repparttar 126449 life of repparttar 126450 believing sinner.” Very good. But it’s used other places in repparttar 126451 New Testament, meaning “stewardship.” In Luke 16: 1 Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who had a dishonest “steward.” The overseer of repparttar 126452 rich man’s property or household was called on repparttar 126453 carpet by his boss to give an account of his mishandling of repparttar 126454 household affairs.

So oikodomian is starting to take on some flavor, is it not? As a believer, God has entrusted gifts, responsibilities, and ministries to us. He gives us much freedom and liberty in carrying out His affairs; however, he will never tolerate mismanagement. One day every man, every woman who has ever lived will stand before God and give an account of repparttar 126455 household affairs entrusted to him, to her. Now for repparttar 126456 good part.

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