B.E.S.T. Shabbat

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deu 6:5) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Giving Opportunity Message   The core of the Gospel is love. We all know the classic salvation scripture of John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (Joh 3:16) We know that not only does God love the world but also that God is love. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1Jn 4:8) If our salvation is based on knowing God, then learning to love is essential. The new covenant is marked by intimacy with God. Because finding fault with them, He says: "BEHOLD, THE DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH—NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM O...

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NASB) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Giving Opportunity Message   God has one overarching purpose in this world, to show forth His love. “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5, NASB) This is the central promise of God, His greatest hope, that we would come to know life through the leading of His Spirit which is true love. The challenge for most of us is trying to live the life of love. One of the keys that is crucial to covenant love is the place of weakness. I remember once, as I was haring about the gospel with a Muslim friend of mine, his difficulty with the concept of God sacrificing His Son for us. This man said, that he could never accept the idea that God wou...

"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (Rev 12:11 NASB) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Giving Opportunity Message  We have pressing in for breakthroughs in how to live in confusing and destructive times. We know that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with spiritual realities that seek to enslave us or liberate us. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Wrestling is a unique sport in that is often not about strength but about balance and technique. In order to succeed in a wrestling match, we need to be able to anticipate the moves of our adversary and wait for openings which allow us to shift the balance of power into a strategic advantage. ...

"“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34 (NASB) Last chapter we engaged with a radical concept. The Gospel of peace involves how we relate to others. How we relate to others sets boundaries in our heart which affects our relationship to God. The Apostle John tells us: "If someone sdidays, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister." 1Jn 4:20-21 (NASB) Every broken relationship we have fragments our love for God. As we erect boundaries and walls in our hearts to try to protect ourselves from pain, we also block out God. The preparation of the footwear of the Gospel of Peace requires us to be able to allow the Lord to bring peace and healing to the broken p...

   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) 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) Last chapter we spoke about meditation on honor. Honor is defined by who or what we listen to. We honor those to whom we have opened our hearts to. In a similar fashion dishonor is a state of disregard for the preciousness or value of another. The scriptures speak of vessels that are honored and contrast them with those that are common. Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? (Rom 9:21 NASB) An analogy would be the things we reserve for special and important occasions. You might hold back in reserve certain special china o...

Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the LORD and said,  "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"  But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, his strength  returned,  and he revived.  Therefore  he named it  En-hakkore , which is in Lehi to this day. So he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the  Philistines.( Jdg  15:18-20 NASB)   Click here to listen to " Samson 5 " I thirst. Where have we heard that before?  After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, "I am thirsty."   (Joh 19:28 NASB) Thirst is a primal calling from the place of life and death, the core of our marrow .   This is the first time we see Samson directly interacting with his true Father .  This is such a powerful interlude in...