Stainglass window
Christmas 2011
3rd Dec Advent Party
12th Dec @ 2pm
Carol Service at Oak tree Court
16th Dec @ 2.30pm
Carol Service at Stratford Court
17th Dec @11am
Carol Singing outside Co-Op
18th Dec Nativity and Christingle Service and Carol Service
24th Dec @ 11pm (Service starts at 11.30pm
United Service at URC Etwall Rd
25th Dec @10am
Christmas Day Service
"Praise the Lord, O my soul"
Dear Friends,
A recent article in the press suggested the scientists are close to finding a chemical explanation for the human soul. But what do we mean by the word "soul"? The Bible uses the word 850 times, and its use falls into three closely related areas:
1) It can mean a LIVING PERSON, with the emphasis on the living. "Soul" is someone's natural human life. So we read in the creation story in Genesis that "the Lord God formed the man from the dust on the ground and breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life, and the man became a living being (literally, a soul) (Genesis 2:7). Other examples can be found in Psalm 35:4 and Acts 15:26.
2) The word is also used to mean "yourself" or "myself". It is a LIVING PERSON, with the emphasis on the person. So Isiah talks about Jesus making his soul a guilt offering (Isaiah 53:10), and Luke tells us that on the day of Pentecost "about three thousand souls" trusted in Jesus (Acts 2:41)
3) The third use of soul is concerned with personal experience, a LIVING PERSON, a whole being aware of himself and his surroundings. The psalmist encourages his soul, his whole self to praise God (Psalm 103);it is the soul, the living person that can keep God's law (Psalm 119:167); it is the soul; the whole person who is kept safe (Acts 14:22), purified (1 Peter 1:22), and saved (James 1:21)
The Bible NEVER refers to the soul in the way that the ancient Greek philosophers did, as a spiritual part of us that survives death and enters heaven. Not once does that idea find its way into the New Testament. Rather, when talking about the future, the Bible always talks about . What the Christians look forward to is life in a new perfect body with which God will clothe his people in the new heaven and new earth which Christ will establish when he returns. The Christian hope is not for a vague survival in a world of spirits (or souls), but for resurrection to a glorious, fulfilled life in a relationship with Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians, chapter 15).
The Bible always treats us as whole persons, not people that can be split up into constituent parts. Words like body, soul, heart, spirit and mind are glorious imprecise terms, that frequently overlap in the Bible. They are simply different ways of looking at the one person.
And that's why we have nothing to fear from anything that science may discover about our biological makeup. God is not just concerned with one part of us, but with every part of us. AS the psalmist says to God "You are familiar with ALL my ways" (Psalm 139:3)
Your friend and pastor,
Jonathan Calvert
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