Most of my students have mastered the Greek alphabet. Excellent! We're even venturing into understanding new words that help define better understanding of the Scripture. Let's take a look at another.

Romans 1:9 - "For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasinglyI make mention of you.."

The word for serving God in the above verse is shown in the Greek at the very top of this blog entry. You can pronounce it "lat-ryoo'-o". It is found numerous times inthe Greek New Testament and it has a pretty striking definition. It originally meant to work for hire, or to be under a master. The definition made it clear of the seriousness of the verb - you were not serving for your own pleasure - you were serving to please the Master.

Luke 4:8 - And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

In Leviticus 19 and Joshua 24 in the Old Testament, we see a form of the word service is to mean to make a decision to serve the Lord and forsake any other kind of obsession. You know what this means? It means a part of daily worship is SUBMISSION. You let yourself be under God's authority and you will be willing to let Him take control.

Let the power of the word Latreuo sink in.

Students: for extra credit, on Tuesday you will enter the word SERVE on your quiz.