Get in the Spirit

I have a very religious sounding question for you.

What is a religious sounding question? It’s the kind of question that only churchgoing folks really ask each other.

There are several things that could be brought up in this genre:

  • Does God predestine everyone to their fate, or does He allow human beings to have free will
  • Are contemporary versions of Scripture legitimate, or should we only trust the oldest most reliable versions… King James ,of course (please, note the sarcasm)
  • Can you really worship if there are drums in worship, because you know what drums lead to… dancing. And you know what dancing leads to… of course you don’t, you were raised to be good Christian children, you’d have none of that dancing stuff

Yes, unfortunately the list is potentially endless. There are so many in-house debates it’s kind of scary. But, here is the religious sounding question I have for you.

What’s the deal with the “filling” of the Holy Spirit? Continue reading “Get in the Spirit”

Set apart, or SET apart


Barnabas and Saul Sent Off

13 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ac 13:1-3

This is where I was studying this morning for my own devotional time. I thought I’d be clever (this almost never works out for me) and do a quick word study.

I know that the word ‘holy’ means to be set apart, so, I thought maybe that the Holy Spirit’s command to ‘set apart’ Saul and Barny (yeah, we’re that tight) was a derivation of that Greek root for holy. If it was the same word, then cool, I’ll look super smart someday preaching that and very insightful to boot.

Problem is, it’s not the same word. DRAT!

Even when I used other English versions, the Greek never changed, how can this be? Apparently my clever reserves are running low. Continue reading “Set apart, or SET apart”