A thirty second interaction led to ten months of intensive study, twenty-six hours of live teaching, seventeen years of walking it out, two of which were spent writing it down. 57,133 words later, Wind, Water, and Fire: Understanding the Holy Spirit through Biblical Symbolism is now a published work.
“I know what time is, but if someone asks me, I cannot tell him.” Augustine of Hippo.[1]
We discussed the differences between kairos and chornos time in the post “It’s About Time.” We begin now to grapple with the central questions of what time is and why it moves in only one direction. Both of these are troublesome and have been so to philosophers and scientists for millennia.
God speaks to Moses from a thorn bush. The holiness of God has invaded the curse of the ground and commands Moses to bare his feet in the presence of the Almighty. The Lord has plans for this prince-turned-shepherd, this child of Jacob from Egypt. He is to be a prophet, a savior. He will have mastery of snakes, power over leprosy, and call the wind to divide the waters. This encounter deals with who Moses was, what God intends him to be, and who he would foreshadow.
I spent the first two decades of my adult life installing office furniture for a living. The trade is project driven, particularly for independent contractors. It proved a tough business model because economies of scale were hard to come by. We made our money on skilled labor, not tangible goods. Widgets are scalable. Williams, Wades, and Wandas can’t be scaled into profits; they have to be sped up.
Modern nation states employ intelligence services to gather signal information from their own citizens and foreign governments in an effort to maintain security and attempt to forecast the future. Ancient kings dreamed.
“Immediately” is the spice-word of the miraculous. Any healing Jesus does is exciting, but the instantaneous ones carry exponential weight and wonder. To illustrate what I mean, let me begin with one that lacks this powerful adverb.
Luke 17:12-16
12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
Almost two decades deep into the exponentially increasing digital heights of the twenty-first century, I still wear an analog watch. I wake, sit on the edge of my bed, rub my eyes, and reach over to strap time to my wrist. This ticking machine keeps me partially bound to the illusion that the act of wearing a time ruler grants me some measure of control over its domain. With it, I can confidently push to be “on time” to meet my obligations or accomplish my desires. But the reality is that even as I press and discipline myself to be on time, I never truly am. Time is actually on me.
White linen is standard issue BDU[3] for the soldiers of the Lord. They cannot be had at any religious surplus store; the Lord is the sole supplier of them. Like Joshua the high priest, we were all clothed in the filthy rags of our iniquity.[4] But when we called out to Him in faith, He clothed us with salvation.
Dear Readers, Beginning in December 2016, I started posting on The Bible Philes from my book, The Blood of Jesus Christ, …
For Adam was not a helpmeet found. In His hour of need, all of Jesus’ disciples abandoned Him. The Lord caused a deep sleep to come over Adam. Jesus cried, “It is finished!” and gave up the ghost. While Adam slept, the Lord took a rib from His side and closed the place thereof with flesh. Jesus was pierced through His side and out poured blood and water.[1] Adam awoke to find his bride. Jesus arose to find that one could still reach into His side.
The Bible Philes 