This is a topic I have mostly avoided for the past 20-plus years, ever since I first heard it discussed. I’ve heard about “soul fragments” for years, but never really considered the Scriptural foundations for this area of teaching – and in fact thought folks who ministered in this area had really gone overboard, stretching the Word into an area that didn’t really exist. This is an area of understanding where I have had some blinders on – and thankfully the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes.

Many of you know that I had to visit the dentist to have seven teeth extracted. A few weeks ago, my normal dentist removed two teeth, but discovered that the infection under the teeth was so severe that she had to spend a couple hours with major removal of cysts that were growing into the bone.

We wrapped up last week with my comments concerning the medical profession. Guess I need to clarify a bit. Two of our daughters work in health care. Our oldest son was born under the care of one of my cousins, who was a medical doctor.

Let’s retrace some of what we ended with last week and continue on. We ended last week with the following statements. The Father and Son merge with one another. You see one — you see the other. The Holy Spirit is the energizing power — the same power that upholds everything in the universe — of God the Father and God the Son.

For those of you who’ve been with me from the beginning, you know that throughout the past 14-plus years of publishing this column, we’ve talked about the meaning and significance of the Greek word, onoma, on numerous occasions. This is an important piece of understanding.

It has always been a source of astonishment to me when I look at what God had developed in David's life. The fact that he could show mercy to his betrayers in the way that he did, and then show mercy again and again to them in the face of their crimes against him is why, I believe, Jesus made it clear that if our brother offend us, we are to forgive seventy times seven -- and that was in a single day.

Continuing on with the picture of the goodness and mercy of the Lord that follows us, let's pick up today where we left off last week and see how Jesus viewed the concept of mercy.

For the past three weeks, we've looked at the "goodness" portion of David's statement that, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

his is the third week of our study in the life of Abraham and considering the goodness of the Lord that followed him. Now we will see the final overcoming of fear in Abraham's life -- specifically, the Fear of Death -- and just how the goodness of the Lord brought Abraham to this place.

We were just getting started last week in the picture of God's goodness and mercy in the life of Abraham, and the constant display of that goodness and mercy as Abraham slowly but surely overcame the fears that had so programmed his life during his early years in Ur of the Chaldees, and the subsequent 25 years he spent in Haran prior to his father's death. Let's pick up this narrative where we left off last week.