Sometimes, a kiss just means more

When we see the word "kiss," we often think of a romantic kiss between lovers, a platonic kiss between friends, or the kisses between a parent and a child.  The Bible, however, lists six different types of kisses. 

The first type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of blessing. In the Old Testament, the father kisses the firstborn son, or the son kisses the father, to receive the blessing before the father dies. Genesis 48:10 tells how Jacob (disguised as Esau) kissed Isaac to receive his father's blessing before he died.  In 2 Samuel 19:39, King David kissed Barzillai and blessed him because Barzillai had provided David with supplies when he stayed at Mahanaim after David had escaped from his son Absalom, who had taken over David's throne.

The second type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of anointing. In 1 Samuel 10:1, the prophet Samuel poured oil over Saul to anoint him as the first king of Israel and kissed him. 

The third type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of greeting. This kind of kiss is found in ten locations in the Bible. In Genesis 29:13, after Rebecca told Laban that his nephew Jacob was at the well,  Laban ran to meet him and greeted him with a kiss. In the New Testament, in one of the most beloved parables, which is found in Luke 15, the father of the Prodigal Son ran to meet his son upon his return and kissed him. In Romans 16:16, Paul instructs the believers to greet each other with a holy kiss. In 1 Peter 5:14, Peter also instructs the believers to greet each other with a holy kiss. 

The fourth type of kiss is the kiss of betrayal. In 2 Samuel 20, Joab grabs Amasa by the beard to kiss him, but while doing so, Joab plunged his sword through Amasa's stomach and killed him. This was in revenge for Absalom appointing Amasa as commander of the army instead of Joab, who was loyal to David. The most well-known kiss of betrayal is when Judas kisses Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You can read about this in Matthew 26:48 and in Mark 14:45. That kiss was the signal for the Pharisees to seize Jesus, and you know the rest of the story.

The fifth and final type of kiss is the kiss of farewell. The kiss of farewell can be found in six different locations in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 20:41, David and Jonathan kissed each other farewell before David ran away from Saul. In Ruth 1:14, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi goodbye before returning to her people.   In Acts 20:37, the believers in Ephesus fell on Paul's neck and kissed him goodbye because Paul told them in verse 20 that they would never see him again. 

Neither the kiss of greeting, the kiss of anointing, nor the kiss of farewell is practiced in today's church, at least not that I've seen. We live in a different world today, where we are worried about propriety and/or lawsuits.  The COVID pandemic also put the kibosh on non-romantic or friendly kisses. When we all get to heaven (what a day that will be!), we will be able to greet each other with kisses for all eternity without fear. Won't that be nice? 

In case you didn't know, I have an author page on Amazon.com, where you can purchase books of my blog posts, and you can purchase a book of my Advent/Lenten monologues. The link to my author page is in the right-hand column. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

And thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

The big snip

In my previous blog post, I discussed the difference between the physical heart and the spiritual heart. In this blog post, I will discuss the difference between physical circumcision and spiritual circumcision. 

Physical circumcision is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 17:10-14.  God told Abraham that to keep the covenant between Him and Abraham's descendants, every male child was to have his foreskin removed. The circumcision was to occur on the eighth day after the male child's birth. God also told Abraham that every male child is to be circumcised, whether he was a family member or he was bought with money; otherwise, the uncircumcised male would be cut off from his people. This is important because in Exodus 4:24-26, we read that Moses was returning to Egypt when the Lord met Moses on the road. The Lord was going to kill Moses, since Moses didn't have his son circumcised. Moses' wife circumcised Moses' son and threw the foreskin at Moses' feet. Even Jesus was circumcised, because He was a Jewish baby boy (Luke 2:21).

God is the Creator, and He had a good reason for selecting the eighth day for physical circumcision.  The level of Vitamin K in the blood is highest on the eighth day, and Vitamin K controls the clotting factor that helps stop bleeding. Today, baby boys are circumcised a few hours after they are born. Jewish boy babies are circumcised on the eighth day after birth during a religious ceremony called a bris. 

Spiritual circumcision refers to the foreskin of the spiritual heart, which I touched on briefly in my last blog post. The first time the foreskin of the heart is mentioned in the Bible is in Deuteronomy 10:16, where Moses tells Israel to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts so that they would not be stiff-necked (a/k/a rebellious) any longer. Moses also tells Israel in Deuteronomy 30:6 that if they fall away from faith in God but return to the Lord, He will circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their descendants to love the Lord with all of their hearts and souls so that they may live. In Jeremiah 4:4, Jeremiah tells Israel to circumcise themselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of their hearts, lest the Lord's fury come forth like fire.

In the New Testament, Jews are referred to as "those of the circumcision," to differentiate them from the Gentiles, who weren't circumcised. In Romans 15:8, Paul refers to Jesus as the servant to the circumcision (the Jews) for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers (i.e., the Jewish fathers). 

So, how is the spiritual circumcision of our hearts accomplished? Paul states in Romans 2:29 that circumcision is of the heart in the Spirit. He then states in Colossians 2:11 that the spiritual circumcision is made without hands by Christ Himself. When we repent of our sins and put our faith in Christ, He will circumcise the foreskin of our spiritual heart so that we have a spiritual heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone.  

Dear reader, what is the condition of your spiritual heart? Have you experienced the circumcision of the spiritual heart but have turned away from God like the Israelites did? If so, the promise God gave to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:6 applies to you also. Repent of your sins and turn back to God so He can circumcise your spiritual heart and you can love the Lord with all your heart and soul, and truly live. 

Thanks, as always, for reading! See you next time!

Diane

The state of your (spiritual) heart

There are two types of hearts - the physical and the spiritual. Our physical heart pumps blood into the body's veins and arteries. When our physical heart stops working, we become ill and our bodies can die. But our physical heart cannot think. Our physical heart also does not control our feelings or our actions. Our physical hearts cannot desire. 

The Bible has many verses that refer to the heart. You will find a great majority of them in the Psalms. These verses, however, are about our spiritual hearts. The Scripture writers had to be writing about the spiritual heart because they wouldn't have been able to see the physical heart - the X-ray machine wasn't invented until 1895. Per GotQuestions.com, the heart is that spiritual part of us where our emotions and desires dwell. For ease of reference, I will refer to the non-physical heart as the spiritual heart in this post to avoid confusion.

Interestingly, the spiritual heart has a foreskin, which a physical heart does not have.  The spiritual heart's foreskin can be read about in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 10:6, Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4, and in many other places in the Old and New Testaments. I will delve further into spiritual circumcision in a future post. 

Those who believe in God have spiritual hearts that are pure, clean, and that glorify God. Our spiritual heart instructs us (Psalm 16:7). If we delight in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 17:3). Our spiritual hearts, however, can be dismayed because of sin or because of circumstances (Psalm 38:8(b)). If we do sin and repent of our sin, however, God will give us a clean spiritual heart (Psalm 51:10) Our spiritual hearts believe unto righteousness and we must believe in our spiritual hearts before we can confess with our mouths that Christ is Lord and Savior (Romans 10:10).  

As for those with spiritual hearts that don't believe in God? Jeremiah 17:9 reads: "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" This verse describes those who are unsaved and don't believe in God. They are tempted and lured by the things of this world. In Romans 1:21(b), the apostle Paul writes: "because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Their foolish hearts lead them into darkness and God will punish them for that, as explained further in verse 24: "For this reason God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves." 

But those who believe in God but depart from the faith are cursed, as it reads in Jeremiah 17:5: "Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man, And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.'" Dear reader, what is the state of your spiritual heart? Do you believe and trust in God with your whole heart? Or do you just know of God and do not glorify and believe in Him? (And if this is you, how did you find this blog?) Have you followed the Lord once but have departed from the faith? If this is you, return to the Lord and pray for forgiveness and reconciliation with Him. The time will come when it will be too late for you to make the choice to return to God. 

Did you know that I have an author page on Amazon.com? The link is in the right-hand column, but here it is for easy reference: Diane's author page on Amazon  I have self-published books of posts from this blog, and there is also a book with Lenten and Advent monologues. If you purchase a book, please leave a review; it helps the algorithm.  

Thanks as always for reading! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to publish a new post. I hope to start writing more regularly again soon. 

Diane