MEM

Our previous studies on being holy, holiness, and the holy Sabbath should help us understand that which is holy is set-apart from the common or profane. It is either dedicated for the use of the Holy Elohim (God) or belongs to the realm of Elohim. YHVH is Holy and that which proceeds from Him is holy. His very presence makes holy (the holy of holies; His holy hill). YHVH tells us to be holy as well.

Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

(In the O.T. He is generally called, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah; sometimes the Holy Spirit of Jehovah (Ps 51:11; Isa 65:10, 11); or the Good Spirit of Jehovah (Ps 143:10; Ne 9:20). In the earliest period of Jewish history the Holy Spirit was revealed as cooperating in the creation of the world (Gen 1:2), as the Source, Giver, and Sustainer of life (Job 27:3, 33:4; Gen 2:7); as resisting the evil inclinations of men (Gen 6:3); as the Source of intellectual excellence (Gen 41:38; De 34:9); of skill in handicraft (Ex 28:3, 31:3, 35:31); of supernatural knowledge and prophetic gifts (Num 24:2); of valor and those qualities of mind or body which give one man acknowledged superiority over others (Jud 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25). Smith’s Commentary)

Acts 2:17-18 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Romans 8:9 … But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Exodus 31:3 "I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,

1Corinthians 12:7-9 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

Nehemiah 9:20 "You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them …

Psalm 143:10 Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Ezekiel 36:27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Zechariah 4:6 … "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.

Psalm 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

1Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? (If the Holy Spirit is within a person would not that person be holy? And would we not be able to see the difference?)

Acts 10:38 "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Luke 11:13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 5:32 "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."

John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

John 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; …

Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

1Peter 1:2 … by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ …

2Corinthians 3:6 … but the Spirit gives life.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

1Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

1John 4:6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Galatians 5:16 … walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Ephesians 4:3 … preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 6:17 And take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:18 … pray at all times in the Spirit …

1Theselonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;

Revelation 2:11 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’

Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.

Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…

2Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, …

• God Himself is Spirit (John 4:24)
• In Ps 51:11, where the very presence of God is indicated by an abiding influence of the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit of Yahweh is Yahweh himself."
• At most points, however, context approves and the analogy of the NT strongly suggests that the ruah, YHWH, is the Holy Spirit, `in the fullest Christian sense' (A. F. Kirkpatrick, Cambridge Bible, Psalms, II, p. 293).

Genesis 2: 7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Job 32:8 "But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. (07306 ruwach roo'- akh (TWOT) (2131a) rûah. Wind, breath, mind, spirit. The basic idea of rûah is `air in motion,' … God creates it: `The rûah 'spirit' [s] of God (from God) is in my nostrils'. {#Job 27:3})

Proverb 20:27 The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being.

Isaiah 26:9 At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently …

Psalm 146:4 His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. (Ultimately breath signifies activity and life. In God's hand is the breath, rûah, of all mankind. {#Job 12:10 Isa 42:5} TWOT)

1Peter 3:8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;

2Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Be empowered to obey all YHVH has commanded. Humbly seek the Spirit of truth that we may reflect the true Spirit of holiness.

Proverbs 1:23 "Turn at my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

Wisdom cries out to turn at her reproof so we can have the spirit that will instruct us in the words of the Holy One.

"Enthusiasm is the propelling force necessary for moving forward."

One definition of enthusiasm is Divine inspiration or possession. And that is what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit of our Creator. When you look up the word spirit, it is moving wind or breath. James says in chapter 2 verse 26, "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." To move we need the spirit; to move in the right direction we need the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 42:5 Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,

Ephesians 3:16 … to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

2Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

1. What did Yeshua (Jesus) advise if your right hand causes you to sin?
2. Which two of the Gospels tell of the birth of Christ?
3. Where was Abraham buried?
4. It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around one’s neck than to what?
5. The fourth man with three Hebrews in the blazing furnace had a form of whom?
6. Name the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
7. Who said, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did."?

In our pursuit of humility: (Lesson from the lives of His disciples.)

"In His death, He destroyed the power of the devil. … In His resurrection He received from the Father an entirely new life, the life of man in the power of God, capable of being communicated to men, and entering and renewing and filling their lives with His divine power. In His ascension He received the Spirit of the Father, through whom He might do what He could not do while upon earth - make himself one with those He loved, actually live their life for them, so that they could live before the Father in a humility like His own." Andrew Murray

The whole purpose of the Holy Spirit, made available by the redeeming work of Messiah, is to communicate His humility to us so that we might be Holy as He is holy.

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit (the humble) In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

A drunk staggered upon a baptismal service one Sunday afternoon. He proceeded to walk down into the water and stood next to the Preacher. The minister turned and said to the drunk, "Mister, are you ready to find the Savior?" The drunk looks back and says, "Yes, Preacher. I sure am." The minister then dunked the fellow under the water for at least 30 seconds.  The preacher asks, "Have you found the Savior yet?" The old drunk wipes his eyes and replies, "Are you sure this is where he fell in?" 

Black and White
(Under age 40? You won't understand.) 

You could hardly see for all the snow, 
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set, 
'Good Night, David. 
Good Night, Chet.' 

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread Mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning. 

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e-coli. 

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. 

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system. 

We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. 

Flunking gym was not an option... Even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. 

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses?
Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations. 
  
Oh yeah... And where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed! 

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. 

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home. 

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. 

Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. 

Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck. 

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. 

How could we possibly have known that? 
We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes. 

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! 

How did we ever survive? 
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA. AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. 
I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING! 

We are so busy lamenting, bemoaning and decrying the effects of our disobedience, that we fail to see the cause. We have become cold and blind to our own sins as a nation, and as such cannot hope to right ourselves. The glory of what was will be a memory still for we refuse to do the one thing that would turn the tide. We refuse to repent! (Michael Boldea Jr.)

ANGEL IN THE CLASSROOM

A pastor read a letter from an elementary school teacher who attends East Hill Church.  The gist of the letter was as follows:

Last school year, her classroom was made up of little third graders, every one of which came from either a single parent family, or a dysfunctional family, was undernourished and/or uncared for, lived in an abusive home and was either beaten, bruised, or raped by other family members; one little girl's dad died of aids, and the list goes on.  Her heart bled for these kids.

Before the '99-2000 school year started, she and her husband went to her classroom and prayed over each desk in the room.  They prayed that God would place an angel behind each and every child throughout the coming year to watch over them and protect them.

A month or so after the year had started; she gave the kids an assignment to write about what they would like to be when they grew up.  Everybody was busy with his or her
assignment, when "Andrew" raised his hand.  When she asked him what he needed, he asked how to spell mighty."  After telling him how to spell mighty, she asked him why he needed to know.  Andrew said it was because when he grew up he wanted to be a "mighty man of God."  When he said this, little "Mark" sitting next to him asked, "So, what's a mighty man of God?"  The teacher, swallowing back her tears, and knowing she could not say anything in the classroom, told Andrew to go ahead and tell Mark what it was.  So Andrew says, "It's a man who puts on the armor of God and is a soldier for God."

After observing some conversation between Andrew and Mark, the teacher, with a lump in her throat, started to walk away when Andrew motioned with his little forefinger for her to come closer.  He whispered to her, asking if she believed in angels.  She told him yes, she did.  Then he asked her if she thought people could see angels, and she said she thought some people probably could.  Andrew said that he did, and he could see an angel standing behind each kid in the room.  .  .

I don't think there was a dry eye in the church that night!  We need to remember to pray for all of the teachers, that although there is no prayer in school, that they are dedicated enough to pray for the protection of God's angels over the lives of their students.  Maybe it wouldn't hurt, even at work.

PRAY FOR OUR CHILDREN’S PROTECTION

1. Cut it off and throw it away - Matthew 5:30

2 Matthew and Luke

3. In the cave of Machpelah - Genesis 25:8-9

4. Cause a little child to sin - Luke 17:2

5. A son of (the) god(s) - Daniel 3:25

6. Bathsheba - 2 Samuel 11:3

7. A Samaritan woman - John 4:7-29