B.E.S.T. Shabbat

   Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:8-9 NASB) Meditation is counterculture. Most of us have been taught a culture of praying for our problems. A situation arises where there is some dire need, and we scramble the prayer chain. If we think about it, most of our prayer is anxiety-driven. We hear of a need or a crisis and to dissipate the feelings of concern that we have, we jump into prayer. Usually, our prayer then becomes an attempt to get God to solve the crisis. We quote scriptures at God or go into warfare regarding the issue at hand. What usually isn’t present is much peace about God and His will in the situation. I once heard someone say that ...

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:8-9 NASB) Meditation is hard work. This is the work of entering rest. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that it requires diligence to enter rest: Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. (Heb 4:11 NASB). Typically, we think of rest as a surrender from effort. While there is some truth to that principle, I believe the scriptures are indicating a different kind of rest. An analogy that might help us see behind the curtain of rest that is sometimes obscured by the flesh and its tendency towards indolence, is to think of rest as the c...

  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:8-9 NASB) Last chapter we looked at purity of heart and the opening of our spiritual eyes to see God. Yeshua told us: "“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Mat 5:8 (NASB) We realized that purity of heart is a transformative process that develops in us and develops us into those who walk with God. In this process, we achieve Tamim, or what is loosely translated as being blameless. Noah was described this way in Genesis 6. "These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." Gen 6:9 (NASB) The word translated ...

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:8-9 NASB) Meditations describe an intentional thinking process that brings together the mind and the heart. Intention is a tool of the heart. It is important to distinguish between our ordinary thoughts and intentional thoughts. Intentional thoughts are focused and are an activation of the thoughts of our heart. Look with me at 1 Chronicles 29. At this point in Israel ’ s history David, the anointed king of the kingdom of God ’ s people is about to do something that has never happened before. He is about to transfer his authority and anointing to his son Solomon "O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, kee...