Logos and Rhema

LOGOS and RHEMA

 

Both of these words in Greek are translated into our English language as "word", but are not the same in meaning. That is why the English language can be considered a very poor substitute to represent either Hebrew or Greek.

Thank God He used these two languages to have His Word, the Bible written in, and not English! The Greek words [Agape] and [Eros] are two other examples of the same thing. Agape is really the God type of love, which is always "giving" unconditionally, with no thought of receiving anything in return. Whereas, Eros is nearly the opposite in meaning and is a love that has the intent of "taking", or always with a hidden motive. It can be considered sensual or sexual, and is often used in that context!

 

"LOGOS" always applies to the complete Word of God, as represented by Jesus in the first chapter of the gospel of John (John 1:1-14), where He is called the "Word of God". It is always used when referring to what we know as the Bible, the written Word of God.

 

"RHEMA" refers to a portion of the Logos that is spoken, or revealed to us for special occasions. We might say that God spoke a word to us, either verbally or revealed to our spirit, but we "know" it was from God. This often happens to followers of Jesus, but however it comes to us it "must" be in line with the Logos! If it is does not line up with some concept that is clearly outlined in the written Word, then it should be discarded! This is especially true if some other person gives you what they consider to be a "word from the Lord" for you. Don't accept it, unless it only serves to confirm some Rhema He has already revealed to you personally! If you are a follower of Jesus, you can hear His voice for yourself (John 10:14, 27), and don't need some so-called "prophetic voice" to speak to you. Perhaps they could be one of the "false prophets" that Jesus warned us would appear on the scene in these last days. (Matt 24:5. 11, 24). In every case, we need "discernment" from God to determine the spirit operating in the various different situations.

He has made available to us a specific gift of His Spirit (1 Cor 12:10), for just such occasions!! PTL!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

 

A NEW NAME FOR CHURCH

A NEW NAME FOR "CHURCH"

 

I recently read an editorial in the magazine called Mission Frontiers, by Ralph Winter, in which he quotes a man named Bob Goldman. Mr. Goldman makes the point that we should no longer use the term "church planting", but instead we should adopt the term "movements to Christ", or in other words fellowships built on families, not groups made up of loose individuals. His point is well taken because of the misunderstanding of what "church" really means to the average person in our Western society in this 21st century. In recent articles about the church we pointed out the scriptural meaning of the term church, and how it has come to mean something completely different in our day. To quote Mr. Winter "We Americans live in a country where families are almost expected to drift apart, creating artificially 'individualized' people. Thus as a result, we produce artificial 'church' fellowships which collect loose individuals or family fragments into a surrogate family--which we then call a 'church'".

 

In much of the world this fragmentation of the family unit hasn't happened. There we still see families that are truly "multi-generational", which is more like those from NT times. In the scriptures we often read about whole families becoming "worshipping households" when one person from that home accepts Jesus as Savior. This is more the pattern of a local "church" as we see them in the NT. They didn't have buildings called "churches", so they met in each other's homes. This all changed of course in the 4th century when the church became part of the Roman Empire, and large cathedrals were constructed and called churches.

 

Today in our Western world we are seeing a definite move toward so called "house churches", where people can experience true "koinonia" which is more like that mentioned in the NT. Perhaps these groups should even drop the term church from their name, and simply be known as "home fellowships". At least until we understand that the scriptural term "church" does not mean a building, a denomination of churches, or anything other than a group of followers of Jesus meeting for fellowship with their Lord. Jesus did say that wherever "two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among you" (Matt 18:20). It seems to me that is a proper description of "church" as it should be held, according to Jesus. And He should know because He said "I will build My Church" (Matt 16:18). 

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                    2/10/11                                                                      

Forgiveness

FORGIVENESS

The Word of God has a lot to say about the act of forgiveness, but there are certain "myths" that have been circulated throughout the church about forgiveness that are not true! I would like to mention a few that come to mind, and comment briefly on them. The first one that is often heard is "Just forgive and forget!", but this is impossible for us to do in the natural. Yes we can forgive the other person who offended us, but to forget about the damage it did to our relationship is a completely different matter. God forgets, or actually chooses to not remember, our sins once they are confessed, but we humans cannot do that. Our memory bank is such that once that offence has been registered in our brain it is there to stay. To forgive requires an act of our will, but the damage has been done to our emotions and recorded in our memory. So although we may forgive with our mind, and be very sincere about it, the damage caused to our emotions is not healed, and we may never be able to trust that other person again to have a close trusting relationship.

 

Another other thing I consider to be a myth, is believing that you cannot forgive the guilty party unless, and until they confess their wrong actions, and ask for forgiveness. Lots of times they are not even aware that their words or actions have offended you. So you could wait for a very long time, and continue to be offended. The important thing to remember is that you are the one who is suffering, but forgiveness will end this. Someone has said that forgiveness is simply "letting go" of the offense, and beaming out forgiveness in the spirit toward the party involved. They are certainly not suffering, if they are not even aware of the incident, but the act of forgiveness will release you from the pain. After all forgiving actually is the act of canceling out the offense, or writing "paid in full" over the record we have been holding! After all, this is what our loving God does with the record of our sins against Him! (Col 2:13-15)

 

In order to accomplish this however, we must first forgive everyone for every sin ever committed against us. (Matt 6:14-15). Then in (Matt 18:21-35) Jesus tells a very important story of the man who owed his master an enormous debt, but in mercy he forgave it completely. Then he had a friend who owed him a very small debt that he refused to forgive. This man was turned over to the "torturers", or Satan's demons, for not showing mercy to his friend! This is meant to be a warning to us!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer