Hi Brian! The word for this week is "mind". There are several words translated "mind" in the Bible. We'll be looking at two of them this week and maybe tackle the others another time! We'll be looking at theses verses: Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. KJV Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. KJV Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. KJV Romans 14:5 One man esteems one day above another: another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. KJV
In the first two verses we're looking at the Greek word "dianoia". Strong's Concordance says: deep thought, the faculty and it's exercise. Thayer's Greek Lexicon adds: the understanding or thought. Vine's Expository Dictionary says: a thinking through or over, a meditation, a reflecting, the faculty of knowing, This is actually a compound word. The first part is "dia", which Strong's Concordance says means: the channel of an act. Thayer's Greek Lexicon adds: through. The second part of this compound word is actually the Greek word used in the last two verses above. "Nous". Strong's concordance says: The intellect. Thayer's Greek Lexicon adds: the intellective faculty, the understanding, the faculty of perceiving, of recognizing, the power of considering and judging soberly, calmly and impartially. We know that we are spirit beings. When we receive JESUS as Lord and Saviour, our previously dead spirit is reborn, made new and in the image of God. A new creation that never existed before. While we ARE spirit beings, we also possess souls, which consist of our mind, emotions and will. THIS is where all of the decisions and choices are made! In order to make the right choices, we must do what Romans 12:2 above says and renew those minds with the Word of God! By meditating on God's Word as we are instructed in Joshua 1:8, the Word comes alive IN us so that we can obey that Word and then stand upon it in faith! Controlling our thought life by recognizing where the thoughts are originating from, and then either rejecting those thoughts and replacing them with the right thoughts, or accepting them and continuing to meditate on them, will cause us to grow in faith and in knowledge and understanding of God's Word! I love to learn the Word through music. That's one of the reasons that I like to post songs with all of my blogs. Here, for you today, is another kids song from Hillsong Kids' new album Can You Believe It? called "You Know Me":
