And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
— Deuteronomy 10:12 KJV
Finding my soul … To start this blog off it might help to discuss what a soul is and if you or I can find it—if it cannot, this site will have a very brief run.
Soul means different things to different people. For music lovers, soul is the rhythm of a song’s living heart beat; those living for BBQ perfection, it is the right combination of meat, spice and smoke; a painter strives to his pour out his heart on a piece of canvas with an assortment of paints. For me, it is the life in each of us that will live on long after we this body we call home dies in the passing darkness of night—it is at the heart of this website.
If the soul lives on and is eternal, you would think one of the best reference books on the afterlife might have a few things to say. Of course I am referring to the Christian Bible, and yes, the Bible does have something to say and says it often enough that it is impossible to miss.
The word soul is found sixty-one (61) times in the New Living Translation (NLT); ninety-one (91) times in the New International Version (NIV); English Standard Version (ESV), a whopping two hundred and sixty-three (263) times. For those who believe the King James Version is the only translation you should read, it is used four hundred and fifty-eight times, yes, that is 458. So the Bible does have something to say about our souls and not just in passing. As a side note, being the ADD type of person I am, I could not help but wonder how often the term sin turns up, darkness as opposed to light. Much to my surprise, where the NIV translation contained soul ninety-one (91) times, sin turned up four hundred and eighty-six times (486), yet the King James only four hundred and forty-eight (448) times.
In case you are wondering if soul is simply another translation for heart, the Bible uses them often together within the same sentence, one hundred and eight (108) times in KJV version to be exact.
Please do not be put off by all these translation references and word counts. Their are used in this post only to underscore that the Bible is concerned about the state of our hearts, but our souls as well. These differences in English translations are also one of the reasons I use various Bible translations throughout these pages. Although Bible passages may translated as the same concept, the differences in one that you normally do not look at may catch you off guard and impact you in a totally new way.
After several decades in my Christian walk, I still find myself examining my heart, hoping to better understand God’s heart, that I may truly find my soul, and the reason He created me.
That in a nutshell, is why I am here on earth and here searching for my soul.
Blessings in the name of Jesus Christ,
Rob Nimchuk
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