B.E.S.T. Shabbat

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:” (1Co 12:1) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Giving Opportunity Message   Last chapter, we began our conversation about the gift of God. We looked at the ancient Hebrew word for gift, Natan, which both begins and ends with a nun, the character for seed. In the middle is the tav, the symbol for the cross. From this picture, we realized that the gift we carry is one that begins with God and is completed through the cross. The cross represents releasing our gifting to death to ourselves and allowing resurrection life to bring the gift to its full manifestation. This chapter I want to delve deeper into the specifics of the gifts of God given by the Holy Spirit to each Believer and the Body as a whole. Of primary importance to God are the intentions or the motivations of the heart. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to t...

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. - Rev 12:11 KJV To listen to the audio-only version click below  Have you ever thought… What’s holding me back? What’s holding me captive? Could it be, FEAR? More specifically the fear of DEATH For many of us, just the word death or the discussion of death invokes emotions and fears in our hearts. For some we begin to feel anxious and worried. For some we want to run, hide, avoid the conversation all together. The images of death presented bring a sense of finality, incompleteness, hopelessness, despair and the like. These images are what is in our hearts which empowers the “fear of death”. I believe the Lord wants us to walk in freedom and liberty facing death all day long however experiencing eternal life. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. [We are] hard-pressed on every ...

"“Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." Joh 5:24 (NASB) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Death and the fear of death are ubiquitous in the human experience. Mortality frightens most of us even though it is common to all of us. Death shows us how weak we are and how vulnerable we can be in our human vessel. All of us must deal with death and the fear of it on our own terms. The atonement of our Messiah was enacted through His death. The writer of the ancient set of letters written to the Hebrew people in the dispersion, tells us: "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." He...

"… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Eph 6:17 (NASB) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Meditations of the heart are where we wage the true warfare of the spirit. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." Eph 6:10 (NASB) How do we “be strong in the Lord”? We do that by aligning the faith in our heart with the truth of His Word. "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called , and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 1Ti 6:12 (NASB) The “fight” of faith is an internal war. Paul tells Timothy that he needs to take hold of the eternal life to which he was called. Can you hear the effort suggested? Think of things you take hold of that have power in your life. If you ride horses, you take hold of the reins. If you ride motorcycles, you take hold of the handlebars. Taking hold of something of power means a conscious effort ...

""For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."   Joh 3:16 (NASB) Click here to listen to " The Secret of Being the Living Sacrifice " Clearly, we are in unprecedented times in our lifetime. Never before have we seen so clearly the power of the fear of death stop the world. Man, who has in one way or another rejected the love of God, has replaced Him, in many cases, with the fear of death.  The fear of death has a distortion effect on reality as perceived in the mind and heart.  It shifts our faith. The voice of the fear of death causes us to draw in and treat other people as a threat or a potential threat. You have only to walk into a grocery store during the crisis to feel, see, and sense the avoidance and extravagant grip that fear has on people. Why is this happening? Is it the correct response to the virus? Is this how God would have His sons and daughters res...