φόβος / phobos

φόβος / phobos

It quite simply is fear. Phobos φόβος from which we get the phobias. arachnophobia the fear of spiders or arachnids, homophobia the fear and avoidence of homosexuals, claustrophobia the fear of small confined spaces. The list is endless. I guess more should be said though as there are different types of fear. This is the fear akin to dread. It is the word used often when humans come in contact with the angelic such as the women at Jesus' tomb, Zacharias' encounter in the Temple. and the shepherds in the fields being told of Jesus' birth. The proverbial fear of God. The proper response to encounter with deity or even the supernatural. This 'fear' doesn't always need to have a negative connotation. It can also be a fear that is in reality a 'sense of awe'. Either way, psychologically it can be mentally and phyiscally debilitating. Knowing Who and What God is should have us in both states of fear. Absolute awe/reverence and fear of what He is capable of. One needs only see the effect angelic beings had on humanity to understand the sheer enormity of what one would be confounded by in the presence of God. Ironically, the one thing that will dispel fear is perfect love.

References: Matthew 28:4, Luke 1:12, 1 Peter 4:18

Crossing Your Own Personal Jordan

There are just times in life when you know you have to cross your own personal Jordan.

Joshua 3:14-17 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Just as God parted the Red Sea to escape Pharoah, again performs the same miracle to usher his people into the Promised Land. Albeit with slightly less fanfare.

phone / φωνή

phone 

φωνή 

...from which we get the word phone (duh), telephone and headphone means voice, sound, or speech. The clamor of men. Can have a positive or negative implication. Related to φαίνω phaino which means to disclose or reveal something unknown. In this case through speech or utterance.

Reference: Matthew 24:31 1 Corinthians 14:7; Revelation 14:2

δράκων / drakon

δράκων / drakon 

...from which we get the word dragon. Just in time for the last season of Game of Thrones. The dragon is only ever mentioned in Revelation in all of its forms δράκων, δράκοντα, δράκοντι, δράκοντος. 

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon! Revelation 13:11

Is it a real dragon as portrayed in Game of Thrones and other Fantasy novels and movies? That's subject to interpretation. Revelation has a superscription that states right in the first verse that it was, "...The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John..." The word communicated here is actually ἐσήμανεν / esēmanen and means signs or symbols...again, its where the English word semantics finds its root. What the angel communicated to John was symbolic not necessarily literal. That means anything that comes after Revelation 1:1 has been communicated in semantics or word pictures/symbols (Ref: Dan 2:28-30, 45). So is it a real dragon? The ancient Greeks classified a "dragon" as a type of serpent and was believed to have incredible insight, able to spot prey in any hiding place. This in theory could be Satan himself. The passages are not entirely clear at times.