THE KOINE KONNECTION

Greetings HuMANity and HuWOMANity... HuPERSONity.

NOTE: Koine is a Greek word meaning..."common". It is applied to the Greek language as opposed to the "classical" Greek language. The Bible is written in the "koine/common" Greek language (for the common
person)...and the root of words like fellowship, communication, communion (a common connection).

Today it was reported that planet earth was blessed with more people...to the number of over seven billion people. Of course if that troubles you...the options are that you could give up your place on earth...or you could find some non-productive people and eliminate their position. The Twilight Zone had an episode where they would eliminate the "obsolete"...which sounded like a pretty good idea until you realized that you were considered "obsolete".

This old world is filled with human beings who all have a couple of things in common (koine). (1) They were created by a Creator (Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2:5-7; Genesis 2:20-25 (2) They are a spirit, with a soul encased in a body (I Thessalonians 5:23). Of course depending on your mind set...this Creator/creation things is a load of hooey and you would more likely subscribe to a cosmic accident..from goo to you by way of the zoo (aka evolution).

As people we have these things in common (koine)...but we have so many things NOT in common.

Man...wo-man...hu-mans are made up of spirit, soul, body (I Thessalonian 5:23).

1. body/soma: (flesh, blood, bones, internal organs (brain, heart, liver, lungs, etc.)

2. soul/psyche: mind (our thinking component), will/volition (our choosing component), emotions (our feeling component)

3. spirit/pneuma: our human component of connection to God.

As common as these three things are to the 7 + Billion people on the 3rd Rock from the Sun...the swirling terrestrial ball, the Ball of Confusion, Planet Earth...we are as individual as the fingerprints on the tips of our fingers. When John wrote John 3:16 (which was really not broken down into chapter and verse when it was written)...he was speaking of God's love for the individual spirits, souls, and and bodies on Earth.

In my profession of Speech-Language Pathology...we study the development of language. One aspect of this study (also studied in other studies of human development) we have a concept called "nature verses nurture." We study the dynamic of whether we are born with everything we need for human development...or are we born with a clean slate and as we progress chronologically does our experience write on the slate and develop who we turn out to be?

My perspective is...and has always been...we are a combo package. We have everything we need to develop...but outside sources...aka our environment...develops and shapes WHO WE ARE...as INDIVIDUALS. This includes the (1) the good (2) the bad (3) the ugly of humanity. To add to the mix...we are born into sin... needing a Saviour. "Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin...and thus death spread to ALL men (us) because all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) The concept of a SOUL MAN...has been regulated to the African-American population...but since we all have a SOUL...it applies to all mankind. Our 7 billion souls...with our 7 billion experiences...results in 7 billion cause and effects in our lives.

The idea of Christianity versus other religions, sects, cults...is the concept of God reaching out and connecting with mankind...versus man trying to connect to God on their level. "Let this mind be in you which was ALSO in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God...did not consider it robbery to be equal with God...BUT made Himself of no reputation...taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the LIKENESS OF MEN. " (Philippians 2:5-7)

What does all of this have to do with anything? Well...It should impact the way that I look at, view, and yes even judge other human beings. Sometimes we Christians tend to get "saved from our sins"...and tend to forget where we came from... and think that our "fecal matter does not stink."
We forget that we are merely "one beggar telling another beggar where we found a piece of bread." (John Fischer from the album Dark Horse)

Everyone that we come into contact with has a story. Everyone has different experiences that shape the way the react to different stimuli. Everyone has habits (good or bad), mindsets, thought processes that manifests in their actions. This is not only true with non-believers in the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus the Christ...BUT also with those who claim the title "Christians".

When we realize that "He (Jesus) died for ALL, (Christians and non-Christians) that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." (II Corinthians 5:15-16)

"For God so loved the SEVEN BILLION HUMAN BEINGS...in the world...that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus)...that whosoever of the SEVEN BILLION HUMAN BEINGS...believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Well...if all of this is true...how does that affect the way I view and treat and love mankind?

"Therefore (because of what we read in II Corinthians 5:14-15)...from now on...we regard NO ONE according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." (II Corinthians 5:16)

As a NEW CREATION (II Corinthians 5:17)...I must begin to look at people with NEW EYES. It is when I begin to do this...I can become a MINISTER OF RECONCILIATION.
(II Corinthians 5:17-21)

We are called to be "ministers of reconciliation"...like God reconciled us to Him through Jesus Christ...and gave us this same ministry. (II Corinthians 5:18).

MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION DEFINED (II Corinthians 5:19)

1. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself
2. God was NOT counting/imputing their trespasses to them
3. God committed to us the WORD OF RECONCILIATION

It is so easy to count 7 billion trespasses against them...when we think we don't have anything in KOINE/COMMON. 7 billion differences...but 7 billion common things. We need the Lord. We need a Saviour. We need the Holy Spirit. We need to have a relationship with our Creator.

This was made possible by the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus.

Love and Reconciled Kisses
Rodney "Believing" Boyd

PEOPLE...BAH...HUMBUG!

Hello Fellow People...from one people to another people...how's life? I was talking to someone the other day...at work...and they asked me how it was going. My response was that it was going pretty good... if I just did not have to deal with my patients.

NOTE: For those who don't know...I work in home health...where the patients are our reason for having a job.

Back in 1968...there was an up and coming group called PEOPLE. They had a million seller hit called I LOVE YOU (a cover of a previous group...the Zombies). The lead singer was Larry Norman...who dropped out of the group when the album was released...to become a street preacher and is credited with being the grandfather of Christian Rock and Roll...aka Jesus Music. The album was originally going to be named after one of the songs on the album called...WE NEED A WHOLE LOT MORE OF JESUS...AND A LOT LESS ROCK AND ROLL.. but the executives at Capitol Records changed it to the title of another song...I LOVE YOU.

Humph...people...patients...church members...co-workers...husbands...wives...children...bums...illegal aliens...legal aliens...rich man...poor man...beggar man...thief...and any other classification and categorization and grouping of humans...are all PEOPLE. In the Bible...it is said...that where two or three (people) are gathered together...Jesus is in their midst. Sometimes I find that where two or three are gathered...you have trouble. It's like church hopping to find a perfect church...and every time you get their...you have to deal with PEOPLE.

As the Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly states..."We have meet the ENEMY...and the ENEMY is US." At the time the commentary by Kelly was about global pollution...manifested in the swamp.

Barry McGuire...who was one of the leads in the original Broadway production of HAIR...sang with the Christy Minstrel singers...had hits like Green, Green...Greenback Dollar...and the ever relevant song EVE OF DESTRUCTION...became a Christian after someone witnessed to him...and gave him a copy of GOOD NEWS FOR MODERN MAN...on of those "modern translations". After searching for years for truth in drugs, rock and roll, philosophy, various religions...found truth and life...in JESUS. His one problem...was... that he dug this Jesus...but it was his followers (people) that he could not stand.

I have found that the church (ecclesia...gathering of people around a common cause)...is NOT a grouping of P.P (Perfect People)...but a collection of people in need of a Saviour. As I sit on the throne of perfection in church...it is easy for me to look down on the non-church people and relish the fact that I am not like..."those PEOPLE." I tend to forget...that as John Fisher sings on his Dark Horse album..."I am just one beggar...telling another beggar...where I found a piece of bread." Oh I know...I know...I'M A KING'S KID...I'M AN HEIR OF THE FATHER...A JOINT HEIR WITH THE SON...I'M THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST...I'M THE APPLE OF GOD'S EYES...but humility reminds me that there but for the grace of God go I. If I am to be like and follow in the steps of Him...Jesus...I must have the same attitude towards those PEOPLE who rub me the wrong way.

"For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the WORLD (made up of man, wo-man, hu-mans, mankind) that He [even] gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son (Jesus)...so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies on) Him (Jesus) shall not perish---come to destruction, be lost--but have eternal (everlasting) life. (John 3:16 The Amplified Bible...with some Ruminator input)

God is not talking about the physical planet (however there are plenty of references of our responsibility to planet earth as stewards)...or the world system (with all of the various -isms that want control of this world...including the root of a lot of the -isms...satanism)...but He loves the PEOPLE of planet earth).

God demonstrated how we should love PEOPLE...if we are to love PEOPLE...like He loved PEOPLE.

"But God shows and clearly proves/demonstrates His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were STILL/YET sinners...Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One...DIED FOR US." (Romans 5:8)

Peter speaks of PEOPLE...the unjust and the guilty...and the action of God on the behalf of these PEOPLE.

"For Christ...the Messiah, [Himself] died for sins once...for ALL (not just Christians)...the Righteous (Jesus) for the unrighteous (us people)...the Just (Jesus) for the unjust (us people)...the Innocent (Jesus)... for the guilty (us people)---that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was PUT TO DEATH...but HE WAS MADE ALIVE IN THE SPIRIT." (I Peter 3:18 The Amplified Bible with commentary by me)

It seems that we were all drowning in a sea of sin...and some of us have climbed into the LIFEBOAT. That does not mean that we are now better than those PEOPLE still in the waters...we are called to compel them into the boat (Jesus).

"For the love of Christ controls us and urges and impels us...because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] ONE (Jesus) died for ALL (people)...then ALL (people) died...and He (Jesus) died for ALL (people)...SO (the reason for Him dying)...that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake (D.B.R...nothing more... nothing less). Consequently...from now on we estimate and regard NO ONE (people...the world) from a purely HUMAN POINT OF VIEW (judging based on how I feel about someone)...in terms of natural standards of value [NO] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man...YET NOW [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh]."
(II Corinthians 5:14-16)

We are called to CHANGE OUR POINT OF VIEW...of PEOPLE...and begin to view PEOPLE through the eyes of God...and then act accordingly.

If you follow the thought from II Corinthians 5:17 to II Corinthians 5:21...that if we listen to the LOVE OF CHRIST...that He has for ALL PEOPLE (the good (there is none good but ONE), the bad, and yes...the ugly)...we become NEW CREATIONS...and are now MINISTERS OF RECONCILIATION...with a WORD OF RECONCILIATION (namely that God was in Christ reconciling the WORLD (people) to Himself, NOT COUNTING THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM...and He has committed to us THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION (II Corinthians 5:17-19)

We are AMBASSADORS/REPRESENTATIVES/ENVOYS for Christ...as if God were entreating through us...we beg you on behalf of Christ BE RECONCILED TO GOD. (II Corinthians 5:20)

"He made Him (Jesus) who KNEW NO SIN...to be sin ON OUR BEHALF...that we might become... THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM." (II Corinthians 5:21)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

The next time someone rubs you the wrong way...either a Christian or a non-Christian...before you begin to grouse about how you hate people...take a minute and ALLOW the love of Christ to (1) control (2) urge (3) impel you....and begin to look at PEOPLE through the eyes of God and take on the role of a minister, an ambassador and begin to give out what you freely received...grace, mercy, and not take into account their trespasses against them (which is really being a minister of condemnation).

The boys (Jesus' followers) were called to go out to the house of Israel and preach a message (not to the Gentiles yet...that will come)..."And as you go...preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse the lepers; drive out demons...FREELY (without pay) you have RECEIVED; FREELY (without charge) GIVE."

As you rub elbows and shoulders with boogerheads...people...that God loves...give out what you received.

Love and People Loving Kisses
Rodney "Ex-Humbug" Boyd