John 10:10 says, "... the thief only comes to steal; and to kill; and to destroy..." DEVIL'S PURPOSE Keeping in mind that these statements are not only related, and emphasize similar concepts, but culminate in increasing intensity and purpose, demonstrating the strategy of the devil; the challenge, as always, is to try to communicate accurately not only the literal meaning of the words from the Greek text, but to successfully convey the picturesque cultural and practical thou

John 10:10 says that "...the Thief's only purpose, (his primary objective in increasing intensity) is to STEAL (what belongs to you; what is valuable in your life; and what defines your existence); KILL, (or more properly, render your life like a blood sacrifice of first fruits to him; honoring him; demonstrating his "creative" handiwork of destruction and perversion, for all to see and bear witness to, that he has caused this distorted result in our existence); DESTROY ( ren

JOHN 10:10 says that the primary purpose of the thief is to steal what is valuable to us; and the value in us, to render our lives a sacrifice to himself of his making; an object of worship to him, demonstrating his twisted "creative" ability, to the point that we lose out in our God given destiny; neutralized in purpose and power, for the kingdom; wandering generalities, living with the open festering wounds of a life crushed and devastated, seemingly useless to effect any p

Matthew 5:47 asks the compelling question, "...what do you do more than the people of the world?" This is obviously a paraphrase, to grasp the thought conveyed. The real question, within this question, is "What do you do for the people of the world, more than what the world does for their own?" [Though not intending to elaborate on this verse, the scripture cried out for attention, and so it finds it's way onto this page]. BEYOND THE ORDINARY The Greek word is (perissos) and

JOHN 10:10 states, in the Greek, that the only reason; the primary purpose that the thief comes, is: 1) to STEAL [take away, our identity; our focus; our God-given destiny; every thing we are; everything of value and worth, from our lives, legally if he can, or illegally]. 2) to KILL [render our lives as a sacrifice of first fruits to him, rather than God; making us an offering of praise/worship to himself; depriving our Father of the honor due Him and placing himself as the

God wishes to satisfy our every need. He is a Father, and like any caring Father, His primary concern is the welfare of His children. Many scriptures that we are familiar with emphasize this desire of our Father to completely care for His children: 1 JOHN 5:14-15 says, "And this is the confidence which we have with Him, that if we should ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we should ask, we know that we have the requests

JOHN 10:10 says, "...I am declaring emphatically, with the strongest assertion possible, that the only reason I am come is so that you might have, and keep on having My life, and have, and keep on having it, to the extent that, like a swelling river, this life over flows it's banks, and in exhaustless measure, continues to flow and exceed all conceivable expectations or conceptions." ABUNDANTLY An aspect of this word (perissos), translated in the KJV as "abundantly", is the c

Proverbs 3:9-10 says, "Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your increase. So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine". HONOR "Honor" is a word that everyone is familiar with and no doubt conjures various images as diverse as the people contemplating it's definition. The Hebrew verb (kabed) or(kaved), depending on the transliteration, is rarely translated with the literal meaning of "heavy", other t

Proverbs 3:9-10 says to honor the Lord with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase: so shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine. HEAVY To review, the origin, or most common translation of the Hebrew word (kabed), relates to what is "heavy", or "weighs down", often in a negative sense, of sin or actions, that are severe; weighty; or extreme, but also in a positive form. Other than one or two literal uses [Ab

Proverbs 3:9,10 says to honor the Lord with our substance and with the first fruits of all our increase, so shall our barns be filled with plenty and our presses shall burst out with new wine. SETTING A PRICE The Greek word used here in the Septuagint (LXX) is (timao), which is colored by the Hebrew usage to mean, "to set a price; value; or estimate of worth upon something, or someone". [The Greek word (timao) is a translation of the (Piel) form of the Hebrew (Kaph-Bet-Dal),

LOVE Everyone wants love, to be loved and have someone to love. That seems to be universal to the human condition, and as the humorous expression states,  anyone that says they don't want love and someone to love, would probably lie about other things too. MEALS John 21:3-14 records the 3rd encounter of Jesus with the disciples, after His resurrection, and when the disciples came ashore, after recognizing that it was Jesus that just gave them a "multitude of fish" (21:6), "th

[It was not the original intention to do the following study, as specifically, the focus was on the names of God, but obviously, He wanted this aspect of His character declared. Enjoy.] In EXODUS 34:6-7, God declares, before Moses, His eternal character. "And the LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin..."

BEHAVIOR Eventually, you learn, that when dealing with people, even though you give them the benefit of the doubt, you understand their true character, by their behavior. It doesn't really matter how emphatic someone may assert that they are a certain way, it is their actions that reveal their true nature. Jesus said, either make the tree good, and it's fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and it's fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by it's fruit. For out of the abund

GOD The word transliterated as (El), is one of the most ancient terms for "God", appearing most frequently in Genesis; Job; Psalms; and Isaiah....and not at all in some books of the OT. It is frequently used with other nouns or modifiers, to lend description and identity to the word. [eg., man of God; house of God; ark of God; rod of God; angel of God; etc]. All of these demonstrate origin and authority, but also ownership and possession. PERSONAL GOD  God is more specificall

GOD The Hebrew word transliterated as (El) [El Shaddai; El Elyon], is generally translated as "power"; "might"; or "strength", and also has the meaning of "one who holds authority over others". The word comes from two pictographic letters, the one being the picture of the head of an ox or bull, and the other being the picture of a shepherds staff, with the hook at the end. The word is commonly used in the scriptures, for God, or any god. AL The ox represents strength, being t

There are 3 Hebrew words that are translated into English as "God", and these words are a composite of one another; they are transliterated as El; Eloah; and Elohim. FIRST The first of these words has been dealt with quite extensively under "Lost in Translation: Introducing Al [Understanding God] (Part 3)"; used over 200 times in the OT. SECOND The second word is predominantly found in Job (41x's), believed to be the oldest of the Old Testament scriptures, with a smattering o

As stated in previous word studies, there appears to be a progressive revelation of who God is, in the development of His name, first as El; then as Eloah; and then as Elohim, demonstrated especially in the pictographic origins. EL El speaks of His unlimited strength, or power [the head of the ox or bull, (Al)], and His authority, or right to rule [the shepherd's staff, (Lam)]. El was also power harnessed, as the ox was harnessed, in the yoke, or staff, representative of cove

EL (El) is the most common representation of "God", among all ancient Semitic people. In review, there are two pictographic letters that compose the transliteration, from the Hebrew, to form the word (El), the essence of "God". They are (El), the pictograph of the ox or bull, meaning "strength", or "unlimited power"; and (Lam), the pictograph of the shepherd's staff, representing not just "the staff", but "the symbol of the yoke of the ox". (Lam) is 'the illustration of coven

Genesis 17:1 says, [to Abraham] "...I (am) the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect". This is the first instance in the scriptures where the word "Shaddai" occurs, translated consistently, in the KJV, as "Almighty". It occurs 48 times in the OT, 31 of which, are in the book of Job. Even though the LXX translates it as "pantokratos" ["all powerful" or, "all mighty"]; "Theos" [God]; and "Kurios" [Lord]; and the Latin Vulgate translates it as "omnipotens" [from which the

Genesis 17:1 says, "...I am El Shaddai...walk before me and be perfect..." EL SHADDAI In review, (El) is the covenant God, but (Shaddai) is the demonstration; expression; or fulfillment, of that covenant. In other words..."Yes, I am the God that you are in covenant with, and as your covenant God, this will be the results you can expect, because you are hooked up with me". SHADDAI To reemphasize, (Shaddai), in its scriptural usage, means 'fruitfulness; multiplication; blessing