The Word Sacred

As you know, I love words and especially I love to learn the origin or history of words which is called etymology. To me words are music but when I know their history and meaning they do more than pass through my ears with their sound, or enter my mind with their meaning, they pass into my heart with their ardent intention.  Learning meanings and history has enhanced my knowledge of the gospel-the Good News! That's why I can say that examining words has taught me more about the gospel than any other thing.

I am amazed how many gospel words that we use all come back to one Latin root, sanctus  which means sacred. Sanctify, sanctification, consecrate, consecration, sacrament, saint, and sacrifice are all from that same Latin root word.  

Sanctify means to free from sin so that you are sacred. Sanctification means the action or process of being sanctified. Consecrate means dedicated to a sacred purpose and consecration means the process of dedicating to a sacred purpose. In sacrament we find the root meaning of sacred combined with the suffix –ment which means “the concrete action or process of.” In other words the sacrament is the concrete action that makes us sacred. Sacrifice also means to make sacred, and a saint is a person who has been made sacred.

It is interesting that the gospel is all about making us into saints and the words we use in the gospel all point us in that direction. We do well to stop and think about the words!

Formula For A Satisfied Soul

There is an amazing promise found in the writings of Isaiah: “If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:10-11).

Most words here are translated very well, but the meaning is a little clearer when you know that in the first verse the word darkness could have been translated gloominess. What this says to me is that when we reach out to help and assist the poor and the afflicted, the Lord will heal our poverty and afflictions. But the most important promise is that when we help others, the Lord will guide us at all times and feed our hungry souls even in times of dire distress so that we won't be gloomy. His Living Waters will flow to us continually.

These verses are encouraging to me because they are doable. All of us have the capacity to reach out to others. We can give a smile, a note of appreciation, a hug, a meal, or whatever we have because we all have something to give. And in return for giving what we have, the Lord gives us more. He will “guide thee continually.” What a great blessing!