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Thursday, March 18 2010
The pages of the Holy Scriptures that we read are flat sheets with length and width (the same principle applies to computer screens). Apart from the mere physical thickness of a page, they are, for the purposes of understanding, two dimensional. That's why, before conversion, people can have great knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, but relatively little genuine understanding. With the Holy Spirit comes the third dimension (see the Fact Finder question below), the depth of what was actually written, for Christians, by Christ (that's why He's also called the "Word of God" i.e. "1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" John 1:14 KJV).
"11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." (Romans 11:33-36 KJV)
Satan's spirit (i.e. influence) has "depth" too, but the devil threw away his light long ago (before he became a rebel loser, his name was Lucifer, which means light bringer). While Satan is now deep in spiritual darkness (which can exist in physical light - Satan's deception happens just as much in daylight as at night), God's depth is all Light.
"1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:5-10 KJV)
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God"
Christ's "parable of the sower" was about depth, the roots by which one grows, by means of, and toward, the Light (very curiously, the English word "root" originated from an old Anglo-Saxon word which was pronounced wrote).
"4:3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 4:5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: 4:6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 4:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 4:8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred." (Mark 4:3-8 KJV)
The Messiah further explained the parable, in how the "word" needs the third dimension (or the fourth, considering that the Holy Spirit is not confined to three dimensions), the "root" for the depth of understanding.
"4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 4:17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended." (Mark 4:16-17 KJV)
A plain statement that the Holy Spirit is vital to be a fully-dimensional Christian, with "length, and depth, and height" (height there referring to depth - again showing how, with God, everything is upward):
"3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19 KJV)
Fact Finder: How does the Holy Spirit make change possible in the physical lives of people?
See The Cure For The Carnal Mind and Conceived Again
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This Day In History, March 18
37: Accession of Caligula, the 3rd Roman emperor (see New Testament Roman Emperors).
978: English King St. Edward the Martyr was murdered at Corfe Castle in a plot by his stepmother who wanted her own son Ethelred made king.
1123: The First Lateran Council opened in Rome. It was the Ninth Ecumenical Council, and the first held in the West. Lateran I settled the right of investiture (i.e., the right to choose replacement clergy) by a treaty between Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V (see Emperors and Popes).
1229: During the Sixth Crusade (see The Crusades), Emperor Frederick II crowned himself king of Jerusalem.
1286: Alexander III, 45, king of Scotland 1249-1286, died. He was the last major ruler of the dynasty of kings descended from Malcolm III Canmore (ruled 1058-1093), who consolidated royal power in Scotland.
1584: Ivan IV, the first czar of Russia, died. His cruelty and oppression earned him the nickname Ivan the Terrible.
1673: Lord Berkeley of England sold his half of the American colony of New Jersey to the Quakers.
1834: In Dorset, England, 6 laborers were sentenced to 7 years banishment to a penal colony in Australia for forming a trade union. They became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
1913: King George I of Greece was assassinated.
1916: On the Eastern Front during the First World War, the Russians countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans 20,000.
1921: The Treaty of Riga was signed between the U.S.S.R. and Poland. It fixed the Russian-Polish frontier. It awarded Poland large parts of Belorussia and the Ukraine. The treaty was superseded by a Polish-Russian treaty of 1945.
1922: Mahatma Gandhi was sentenced to 6 years in prison for civil disobedience.
1940: Hitler and Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agreed that Italy would eventually join the war.
1965: The first "space walk" by a human, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
1965: King Farouk I of Egypt died in exile in Italy.
1967: The oil tanker Torrey Canyon was wrecked off the Cornish coast of England, spilling 919,000 barrels of oil into the sea.
