II Corinthians 5:17,  “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Creature? Who wants to be a creature?  The Greek word used is ktisis which is creation or something founded by nothing. That sounds a little extreme.  Perhaps Paul wrote this in Greek but he was of a Semitic origin and thought like a Semitic person, perhaps he had the Aramaic word that is used in the Peshitta in mind when he said this.  The Aramaic Bible uses the word breritha. The could come from the root word for bara which also means creation or the root word ba’ar which means an engraving.  Within the context I would go more with the idea of a new engraving or new image as once you become this new image new engraving, old things are passed away and all things become new. Granted there is still that idea of being a new creation spiritually.  I think the Apostle Paul had both ideas in mind, we are created anew spiritually and we have a new name now engraved in the book of Life.   Which means all our past sins, failures and mistakes are wiped away, we get a clean slate.

In four weeks all my books entitled Hebrew Word Study will be taken off the market and go out of print as Harper Collins/Thomas Nelson prepares for the release  of my new book under the Thomas Nelson imprint in August of 2015.  However, we will be releasing a new book on how to do a Hebrew Word study which will be accompanied with a manual/workbook in April of this year. We will also begin doing webinars’ to offer training on doing Hebrew Word studies that will take you beyond the back of Strong’s Concordance and your Lexicon. With this we can include many our international friends who follow our blog in live classes.

Plus I will retain one other book on the market, which unfortunately has had dismal sales. As the royalties from my books have been pledged to missions, without any books to sell, I fear our commitment may take a hit.  So I am going to make a pitch to sell my one remaining book on the market, Biblical Truths from Uncle Otto’s Farm.  These are a series of animals stories I used to tell when I worked as a ventriloquist.

Uncle Otto was really my great uncle, grandpa’s brother. Before he bought his little farm and retired from the Used Car business down in Southern Missouri, he was the town drunk.  Uncle Otto was a big powerful man and every Friday you could find him at the local bar getting drunk and on Saturday morning in the local jail sleeping off his drunk after having started some barroom brawl the night before.

Aunt Ruth belonged to the local Baptist church in the community and attended a little woman’s Bible study and prayer group.  Each week Aunt Ruth would ask the ladies in the group to pray for Uncle Otto’s soul salvation and each week they prayed fervently.  One day the leader of this ladies prayer group walked in and announced, “Well, Old Otto is gonna get saved today, so we just was well postpone our meetin and go and get ‘em saved.”  Nobody argued, they just picked up their Bibles and hymn books and marched off to Uncle Otto’s used car lot. Uncle Otto was sitting in his little used car office shack with its wooden desk, wooden chair and pot belly stove. His legs were resting on the desk as he was reading the local newspaper when in walked these church women with their Bibles and hymn books. The leader simply announced, “Well, Otto, God said you’re getting saved today, so you just as well get on your knees and start prayin.’

I kid you not, after Uncle Otto pass away they discovered he kept a diary and they read this portion of his diary at his funeral.  He said the women then sang a hymn and he felt so bad for being a dirty old sinner and rotten husband that he began to cry.  He got on his knees and cried out to God to save him.  He then wrote, “I stood up and shouted three times, ‘Praise the Lord.’  I then ran out of the office got into my car and drove through town shouting out the window of my car, ‘Praise the Lord.’  Some people waved, some said ‘Praise the Lord’ back to me and old Ben from the Feed Store said, ‘Otto, you’re drunk.’”

But Uncle Otto was not drunk “as ye suppose.”   That Sunday he walked into church, right up to the pastor and said, “Preacher, I’m a Christian now and this har is my pew.”  He said pointing to the front row pew.  “I will be in that pew every Sunday.”  And he was.  Uncle Otto wrote further in his diary, “Today the offering plate came by and I put $5.00 in the plate.”  That was the money he usually spent in the bar on the weekend.  Uncle Otto loved to sing.  I remember as a kid visiting Uncle Otto’s farm when he would be out riding on his horse King. You couldn’t see him but you could sure hear him as he sang out in his booming voice, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”   In fact people used to comment when they passed by that old Baptist church  while the people were singing their hymns that the one voice they heard over all the others was Uncle Otto’s.  Uncle Otto believed that when the man said let’s heist this number he believed in comin on with it.  I overheard one of our kinfolk’s comment that God cleaned up Uncle Otto’s language so much that he lost complete control of his hound dogs.

Of course all this happened before I was born.  I remember Uncle Otto as a good hearted rough, tough man who used to give use grand kids some rather rough head massages. I also knew him as a man who retired on a small farm where he keeps animals more as pets. By any definition I believe that day in that little used car lot office Uncle Otto  became a new ktisis, bara new creation and his name was ba’ar engraven in the book of life and all things became new.

Of course you can read further about Uncle Otto in my book, Biblical Truths from Uncle Otto’s Farm found on Amazon or our website. Also, if you enjoy our studies please give them a thumbs up and page like on FaceBookhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Chaim-Bentorah-Ministries/247943868651243?ref=hl Thank you!