“Where the plural is used, the term is nautical, “frapping.””

This is a direct quote from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Without context it seems rather confusing. Some may have nautical experience and be able to tell you that the frapping lines are the ropes that are attached to the lifeboats. They are used to pull the lifeboats over to enable passengers to get into the lifeboat. That is a significant item in the natural world but how does it fit in the biblical sense?

Acts 27:17 King James Version (KJV) Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.

Hidden within this passage is the context in which the nautical term was found. It is the word “helps”.

While studying the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 it seemed rather ordinary to say that the gift of helps means nothing more than being available to help in service. Anyone can help without it being a gift of the spirit. What makes helps a gift of the spirit if it is nothing more than just being available?

“You’re a life saver.”

It is one of those comments we toss around trying to indicate gratitude for an effort which we struggle with doing on our own. Tying helps back to Acts 27:17 shows us that the act of the gift of helps takes on more than simple service. Undergirding is an effort to secure that which is weak thus reducing fear in others. Where the real help comes from is in the Greek word antilepsis which carries with it a sense of the laying on of hands. There is an anticipation within that act that the Holy Spirit is participating in the act.

Psalm 25:4 English Standard Version (ESV) Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.

“Walk with me.”

What does that comment mean to you? It should mean intimacy because there is a call to be alone for the purpose of sharing each other.

During a recent study on Revelations it occurred to me that knowing a thing purely for the sake of having knowledge is different than knowing the person Jesus Christ. We are complex people with many facets in our personalities. We might not even be aware of the motivations that drive us to act and react.

When it comes down to this relationship with Jesus Christ, this revelation of Jesus Christ is an invitation to get to know Christ on the throne of heaven in a way we have not experienced here on earth. If we treat the study as a way to know end times we are missing out on getting to know Jesus better.

We are meant to have an intimate relationship with God. God the Father sent His Son into the world to experience what it feels like to be human. He knows what it is like to be human. What do we know about being God?

So much of the Old Testament is about how God feels about sin and the pain of separation when we choose to pursue anything other than Him. He created us to be loved and to respond to that love by loving Him in return.

What kind of a relationship do we have with another if that person is using us to feel better about themselves or to use us to gain something? Yes God is gracious but that is no excuse to use up His grace to our own selfish ends.

God is the one saying, “Come walk with me!”