Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas evening will mark 8 years after I placed my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I am looking forward to being reminded anew and afresh of the grace of God. I am so grateful that God gave me a second chance!

Titus 3:3-7
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior
that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

In preparation for a weekly Bible study, I am "way over my head" it seems as I look at this passage in Hebrews 6. We are to be studying Heb.6:4-8. I have just begun to delve into the Greek on this particular set of verses, and am asking for much, much assistance!!

(my Greek knowledge being limited - please assist)

Some interesting things from verse 4 that I will share, and perhaps you will be able to direct me to other observations.

1. All the verbals in this verse are participles, and aorist.
2. Two are passive, and all three are accusative masculine plural.
3. I have personally limited my language / syntax searches to the book of Hebrews - a good idea?

What to do with this limited start?

• The verb 'fwtizw' (sorry, I don't know how to add the Greek font) only appears twice in Hebrews: 6:4 & 10:32.
• This verb 'geuomai' appears just three times: twice in this set of verses (6:4,5) and then in 2:9 as well.

fwtizw - to enlighten, in both passages seem to indicate a conversion experience.

geuomai - to taste, in both passages seem to indicate an experiential experience.

What I am trying to determine, is to answer the all-time conflict found in this passage: is this referring to a loss of salvation, etc or something else. Since I have just begun and really left you not much to work with, I would really appreciate direction.

Having said that, I will continue to wrestle through the text myself and see what I can come up with - fully dependent of course on the Holy Spirit -Who is my Helper.

side note: today was Mocah Gevalia in the pot - strong too! Since it is a chilly day, it was a good thing to warm my mitts on a mug of this joe!

God bless,

Get Your Health Diagnosed!

I just finished reading Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Dr.Donald Whitney. It is an extremely easy read, but very challenging at the same time. I would recommend this book to just about anyone needing a 'shot in the arm' spiritually.

Here are the titles of the 10 chapters:

• Do you thirst for God?
• Are you governed increasingly by God's Word?
• Are you more loving?
• Are you more sensitive to God's presence?
• Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
• Do you delight in the bride of Christ?
• Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly more important to you?
• Do you still grieve over sin?
• Are you a quick forgiver?
• Do you yearn for Heaven and to be with Jesus?

Just typing those chapter headings up - again, made me re-evaluate where I am spiritually. I guarantee that if you read this book, you will be challenged in your daily walk with Jesus. I know I was.

On another note, I am going deaf. Really. I am finding that it is getting harder and harder to hear things. I find that especially in a crowded room or a room with lots of background noise that I can barely hear at all. This really drives me (and my wife) crazy.

I was just reading Hebrews 5:11 and the author of this epistle speaks to the recipients and says, "...you have become dull of hearing..." Now, that is one type of hearing loss I want to stay away from. I always want to be sensitive to the things of Christ! Here the author states that they have much to say about Christ, but the readers just can't handle it! Oh my! May it never be said about me... about you... that we are not listening to the precious things of our Lord.

Read Hebrews 5:11 - 6:3 and study these things out to see if they are true about you.

Nothing jolts you back to reality like a good challenge from God's Word.