feelings

WHY ARE YOU FOUR DAYS LATE, LORD?

(July 29, 2024) Richard Winter shares food for serious consideration…

A long time ago — that is before Amazon Prime —  people actually went to brick and mortar stores and bought the necessities and joys of life.

Amazon and Covid changed much of how we live —

  • Amazon will deliver just about anything in a day.
  • Covid stopped you from being with people.
  • We all learned to change our lives.

Covid no longer has its tentacles on our lives, but Amazon does! Amazon has increased our expectations about delivery— ordered yesterday; delivered today. And if it takes four days, most people are having a fit.

Four Days!
That can seem like a lifetime! And in fact it was for two sassy sisters… they had a brother whom they loved, as did Jesus, but he became quite sick and although Jesus had been informed He hadn’t come to see him. And now he’s dead — dead and buried!

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WORD MEANINGS… NEPHESH AND LEB

(July 19, 2022) Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, explains …

There are two different Hebrew words in the Proverb 23:7 – nephesh and leb, that have in some English translations been translated by the word ‘heart.’  However, there a significant difference between the two Hebrew words.   

1) ‘Nephesh‘
This word is used many hundreds of times in the Hebrew Old Testament. In the KJV it is translated inmultiple ways such as, life, creature, soul, persons, mind, lust, heart, any, one, thing, yourself, dead, man and so on.

‘Nephesh‘ is a difficult word to translate into English, but its most frequent translation as ‘soul ‘ possibly comes closer to the meaning – although ‘soul’ is not an easy word to understand!

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FACTS, FAITH AND FEELINGS

Question: Sometimes I feel very close to God and at other times I feel that he is a million miles away. When I don’t feel that he is near, does that mean that I have done something that has offended him?

Jim McClureDr Jim McClure, noted theologian, responds:

This question raises the more fundamental question of how reliable our emotions are in experiencing God’s presence and in sensing his speaking to us.

First of all it has to be said that our capacity to have emotions is a gift from God. When he made us, part of the human package was what we call ‘feelings.’ Some of them make us feel good, such as happiness, love, wonder, and pleasure; other have a negative effect on us – such as, sadness, disappointment, shame, anger and envy. Still others include such feelings as sympathy, compassion and courage. On and on the list goes! It would be hard to imagine life without feelings. Yet… (more…)