´¯`•. September 16, 2013

More Four

…a Summary of past posts on the Subject

Upon my move from Xanga to WordPress, I found that there were links on my sidebar that I could not locate.  ALL of the ‘four’ posts were missing, because there was just too much to sort thru to find them.  This is the ONLY post that I could find.  So I’ve decided to re-post it, and add to it, to COMPLETE the picture of all the ‘more four’ posts.  So here it is… and I’ll add more at the bottom.

It all started with Josh McDowell, at a marriage conference simulcast that Brian and I went to, years ago.  He was talking about how to have a Biblical relationship that WORKS, and how God told us EXACTLY what love is.  And of all the people speaking at the conference (Tony Evans, Gary Chapman, Gary Smalley, etc.)… Josh was the ONLY one who green lighted and sent me RUNNING for my Bible.

He first asked everyone to define love.  It’s not a feeling, because the Lord commands us to love, and you can’t command someone to FEEL something, you can only command them to DO something.  So love is an action word.  But what is love?  Good question that everyone seems to have a different answer for.

But the Bible – and all of LIFE! – have ONE answer to the question.

Then Josh quoted Mark 12:30.  “And thou shalt love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength“.  Josh stated that this is ‘the greatest commandment’ – to Love.  And Yehovah doesn’t just tell us to love and leave it at that, He tells us HOW to love in this verse:  We love by nurturing others relationally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically.  Four ways. We are to make sure that we help others to grow in their ability to relate to each other, to grow closer to Yehovah, to grow intellectually, and to grow physically (to be healthy/stronger).  That BLEW me away!!

It also follows – in the next verse – that we must love others like we love ourselves.  Josh pointed out that the verse says we already are loving ourselves, BEFORE we love others.  Because if you don’t love yourself, nurture yourself in these four ways, you are not in a place where you CAN love others.  A person should not seek a relationship/marriage until they have nourished themselves in these four ways, or they will starve their partner, and the relationship WILL die.  My jaw dropped as he asked everyone, “Do you eat healthy?  Exercise?  Pray?  Seek to grow closer to the Lord?  Do you seek to learn more, experience things, grow as a person?  Do you seek to build friendships, to help others?  If you aren’t working to improve yourself, you aren’t in a place where you can improve someone else!  If you can’t even love yourself, how could you love a wife?”

And then he had us turn to Luke 2:52 and look at another ASTOUNDING verse:  “And Yeshua grew in wisdom and in stature; in favor with God and Man.”  Do you see the four?  Wisdom (mind) and stature (strength), God (soul) and man (heart).  Before Messiah did anything else, He nurtured Himself, loved Himself.  And with that established, He was able to move on to loving others.  THAT’S our model – and He expemplified it for us, right there in scripture.

I took it further, and started looking for ‘more four’… and found a ton.  Four sides of a square, God on top, man on bottom, and we serve him with our faith/mind and obedience (strength).  Four suits in cards, four elements in nature, four types of love, etc.  I made a chart:

MORE FOUR CHART

Mark 12:30 Definition of Love	Heart	Soul	Mind	Strength
John 2:52 Yeshua’s Application	Man	God	Wisdom	Stature
Our Personal Application	Relationally	Spiritually	Intellectually	Physically
Types of Love	Phileo	Agape	Storge	Eros
Mark 9: 42-48	Foot (focus/destination)	Whosoever (being)	Eye (thought)	Hand (action)
Rev 4: 6-7 Ezek 1: 5, 10-11	As a Man	As a Lion	As an Eagle	As an Ox
Four Gospels	John	Matthew	Luke	Mark
Card Suits
Square	Bottom	Top	Side #1	Side #2

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I read a Jewish historical work of fiction, and it said:

“A man’s health is maintained by the proper equilibrium of the four humors in his body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.  These correspond to the four elements: air, water, fire, and earth.  Blood, being like air, is hot and moist; phlegm is cold and moist like water; yellow bile is hot and dry, similar to fire; and black bile is cold and dry, as is earth.  … Old people become cold and dry as they age, so that if Lord Samuel were in perfect health I would recommend that his diet tend toward the warm and moist.  But since he probably has too much phlegm, I correct his diet toward the hot and dry… Since both sage and thyme have this character, your soup and herbal infusions are a good start.”  Miriam (Book 2: Rashi’s Daughters), Maggie Anton

From this, I learned that there were FOUR humors in the body.  You know… FOUR?!  While I was busy trying to figure out which humor of the body went in which category.  We have blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile, and air, fire, water, and earth.  And I couldn’t figure out which went with which.  Frustrating, much!  Then the novel (several chapters later) quoted 1 Kings:

1Ki 19:11  “And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.  And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”

Ah, a clue in scripture!  Here is wind/air, earth/rocks, fire, and then a ‘still small voice’… water, right?  And Adonai was in the latter – water.  Which goes with that little illustration about the Three-in-One: Water/Adonai, Vapor/Ruach haKodesh, and Ice/Yeshua, remember that one?  (link)  Although I don’t believe in the Trinity, per se (there are more than three in scripture, hello), it does fit.  Anyhow, back to my chart…

MORE FOUR CHART

Four Elements	Air	Water	Fire	Earth
4 Body Humors	Blood	Phlegm	Y. Bile	Black Bile

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Then last year (2012) I saw ‘more four’ in the feasts.  The fall feasts, anyhow – I haven’t explored how it applies to the spring feasts, yet (a project for another day).  But I was re-reading the posts I’d written on the sidebar about the feasts, and… my jaw dropped.  There’s More Four in the fall feasts… And it should be SHOWCASED on my sidebar.  Anyhow, here’s what I wrote in my Hoshanna Rabbah post:

I thought that they were three SEPARATE feasts (Rosh Ha’Shana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot).  But they’re not.  Just like Pesach/Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits are not three SEPARATE feasts, but all part of the SAME process.  Passover was the death, Unleavened was the burial, and firstfruits was the resurrection… ALL part of the ‘Redemption of Mankind’ package.  The same is true of the three fall feasts – only if you count Elul, there’s a FOUR-PART (think Mark 12:30-31 ‘more four’ of love) redemption plan here:  Elul is the relational separation (from the world).  Rosh Ha’Shana is the intellectual separation, Yom Kippur is the spiritual separation, and Sukkot is the physical separation.  Until all of these are complete, we are NOT ready, not prepared to come before the Lord … We have to be fully redeemed by the Word before we’re able to stand before Him.  Hoshanna Rabbah is the SEVENTH day of Sukkot – the culmination of all that is happening. 

So is that NOT amazing?  Another, vitally important, amazing apt version of love, seen in our final redemption as saints.  I just… these things FLOOR me.  I get so excited, seeing them, learning about them.  And you know when I get excited, I have to share.  And this needs to be posted.  So here it is!

Posted by annamatrix on September 16, 2013

https://annamatrix.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/more-four/