CONSIDER THIS: PARADIGM

 “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life….Galatians 6:7-8

CONSIDER THIS: A paradigm is a set of values/beliefs etc from which a reality is viewed, as either a practical or intellectual discipline.  But in this verse, we have God’s paradigm which He made very simple for us to comprehend! God’s values are also God’s reality…and therefore, His paradigm.

ACTION: So now, search your heart. Then pray the Spirit sears your conscience. Follow this with a virtual crying out for forgiveness in Repentance about any sin. Finally, reexamine priorities this week, with an eye to seeing if the seeds you are sowing, are the very seeds of which Heaven will approve! Through the eyes of Scripture, discern if those seeds are the ones which will bear Fruit for the Kingdom! Amen.

Oh Holy Father, I pray You search the corners of my heart and reveal to me the things I need to correct, shift away from and repent of, for even considering doing, far less actually doing it. Lord, help me to be disciplined enough to line up my life with Scripture in the right literal interpretation so that the seeds I am sowing, are not from the world….masquerading as You, but FROM You, the One True God in Heaven. Thank You for working this through me. Be with me as I work through these new things in the coming weeks, months and years, so that my priorities and values will always be the same as prescribed in Your Word, in Jesus’ Strong Name, amen.

LIFE LESSONS FROM MOSES AT THE ROCK

The words "self-control" or "self-discipline" are mentioned many times throughout the Bible....and for good reason. They are actually put there for our own benefit, as we see from this very important lesson from the Life of Moses. This account, which occurred during the Exodus and is mentioned more than once in the rest of the Bible, speaks to a human emotion which, if we are not careful, can literally destroy us.

In Numbers Chapter 20, in the Torah (first five books of the Bible), we see almost two million Israelites in major distress in the barren desert. There was no food or water for miles and miles.  They are almost to the end of the forty years of wandering in the desert for not just disobedience against God, but complete rebellion. A trip that took between 2-6 weeks from Egypt to Canaan became 40 long years for a reason. 

The millions of Israelites had not only had it with the incredible God Who had fed them from the heavens with manna, brought water once before from a rock, parted the Red Sea and more, but they had it with Moses as well. Moses was at the end of his wits and went into the Tabernacle to meet with God, face to Face as he always did. They were wrong, of course, but that never stops those who lack Faith, when it is needed the most. A worried and stressed out Moses did what He always did in these times - he ran to seek the Lord.

Here are the instructions which God gave Moses, when the latter desperately sought His help: 
"Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink." (Numbers 20:8)

Here is what Moses actually said and did, as he returned to the multitudes: 
"...and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”  Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. (Numbers 20:10-11)

Here are the results of Moses' words and actions: 
"But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” "(Numbers 20:12)

Here are the facts as culled from these four verses above:
Number 1: Moses (and Aaron) were so overwhelmed by the giant of a problem they faced, that seeking an audience with God was the only answer. 

Number 2: God had the answer to the dilemma, as He always does, and gave Moses extremely clear instructions on how to get water to his people below.

Number 3: Moses was so filled with rage, while it is very understandable on a certain level, that he let his anger and temper overrule his usual sense of obedience to God and he acted irrationally. 

Number 4: By the aforementioned irrational act and momentary lack of righteous judgment, the Lord shortened Moses' physical life and did not allow him to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

What can we learn from this? There are some huge life lessons.

Lesson 1: There is nothing wrong with becoming very upset at a situation which seems virtually impossible to overcome.  It is one thing for we, flawed humans as we are, to find ourselves in difficult temporary fixes (financially, health-wise or otherwise). It is a whole other thing to thought to be responsible for everyone else.

How does one face these insurmountable odds which Moses faced, in order to look after the literal physical survival of two million plus people? He did the right thing- he ran to the Lord. We too, must go to God. We must NOT only go to the Lord in prayer and supplication as Moses did, but we go HUMBLY and flat on our faces! By doing this, we are acknowledging our complete inability to do anything except recognize the hopelessness of our own weaknesses.

LESSON 2: When we approach the Lord, in all humility in our utter helplessness, and we surrender all to Him, He will answer. When the Lord responds with specifics, it is to our benefit to take note of EVERYTHING He said to do - not just in the letter of His command, but in the spirit of it.

Sometimes the Lord will respond directly to us, that He is in control and has our massive problems in His capable Hands. Sometimes He will respond by sending help via others. Sometimes He will deal directly with the giants in our lives, Himself. Our part in this relationship, is to be constantly looking for His divine Hand in our lives, with the expectant Faith that He can and sometimes, will do, exceedingly above and beyond what He said He would/could do.

LESSON 3: Remember it is NOT about us. The fatal mistake which Moses made was equating Himself with God. Look at his statement again, just before he STRUCK the rock, instead of SPEAKING to it as the Lord instructed. Moses said "“Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Who is this "we" of which Moses spoke? He was not speaking of he (Moses) and God.  Moses stood in front of the multitude of people and made it look as if he and Aaron were the ones who were supplying the much needed water! He completely ignored what God told him to say and temporarily forgot Who sent him, Who he represented and Who gave the water, to begin with.

Moses enjoyed an access with the Lord, which only the disciples and the Apostle Paul could boast of, as we read in the New Testament. Therefore, he, most of all,  would be held more accountable than those to whom he spoke. The Bible mentions that to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48).  Then James 3:1 tells us "let not many of you (us) become teachers (pastors, leaders etc.)...knowing that we will incur a stricter judgment".

We Christians, of all people, should be very careful that we do not allow our close relationship with God, through Christ, to allow us to let our guard down and sin. We will be held to account! Attributing words which God did not say as being from Him (as in "God told me to.....fill in the blanks") is just completely ignoring His direct command and to make it look as if we have the power to some miraculous event.  When we do this, we not just dishonor the Father, but usurp His Glory, and thus commit a form of idolatry, by bringing attention to ourselves as the "source of some divine power". This serious error is deadly, as Moses discovered.  Let us all learn from to not do likewise. Let us exercise more self-control and discipline ourselves to be aware, at all times, of our surroundings and especially, of God's expectations of us, His people.

NEW LIFE: A MONTH OF VERSES: JANUARY 23, 2017

VERSE: "Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying" (Revelation 22:15)

EQUATION: Heaven will be MINUS YOU if immorality, sin PLUS participating in the occult persists.

ACTION: There has never been a time where the lack of any discernment about idolatry, sexual perversion and immorality and/or witchcraft is more widespread. All of this and more are promoted in cultural items (music, movies, social media etc.) and even worse, self-identified Christians plunge headlong into divination, equating paganism with Christianity, visiting graveyards on Halloween and still playing "dungeons and dragons". If you or anyone - from teenager to Gen X'er - you know is involved in this from your circle or church, do something about it. Do not just show them an Old Testament passage about visiting psychics or Long Island mediums, but WARN about the dangers of a REAL Hell. This is one of the duties of ANY serious follower of Jesus Christ.

PRAYER: Oh Great Father in Heaven, You are very clear about Who You are, oh Holy One of Israel and the standards You require of those who call themselves by Your Name. Lord, help the weak-minded among us to understand that the things of the Devil and the demonic structure of this world, are NOT compatible at all, with the Kingdom of Heaven and the Eternal Kingdom. Help those who do not read Your Word, in the book of Revelation, and those false teachers who preach that Revelation has already been fulfilled, to know that Hell is real and all who follow after the lust and shiny lights of the corrupt age will find themselves locked out of eternity with You. Give us boldness to walk in the Spirit so we can exercise the spirit of self-control (2 Timothy 1:7) to overcome any tendency to even condone or brush these evil things off as distractions, but to rebuke them and keep them as far away from our homes, loved ones and our mind's eyes as we can. Lord,You have given us Your eyes, when You saved us, now help us to use them so we will not fall prey, through letting our guard down, because some of our loved ones' eternity rests on it. We ask all these things in Jesus Strong Name, amen.

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NEW LIFE - A MONTH OF VERSES: JANUARY 8, 2017

VERSE: For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. (Romans 7:15)

EQUATION: Sin plus human nature plus opportunity is greater than our sanctified walk sometimes.

ACTION: Just as a Christian can make foolish and unwise choices, as we saw yesterday, Christians may also either slip up thinking by getting distracted and deceived by sin. Also, some can promise God never to cuss again, as an example, and then let an expletive fly if one of us gets cut off by a careless driver. Instead of reacting to the human side of us, let us buckle down to control emotions and actions - no matter how much we think we are missing out. It is the RIGHT thing to do!

PRAYER: Almighty Father, Ruler of Heaven and Earth, we are truly sorry for slipping up time and time again, even after we promised to not go "there"; or to watch our tempers, or tongues etc. We do not purposefully set out to sin but as the Apostle Paul above, says in Romans 7:15, the exact same thing he hated doing, is the same thing he went ahead and did anyway. Father, we repent right now and ask Your forgiveness.  Lord we know we can't walk the sanctified and holy life without You. So we ask now, not just for Your Grace in 2017, in abundance, but a growing Maturity to control EVERY aspect of our Christian walk that we both may not sin against You, but that we may easily discern a potential danger, avoid it and defeat it instead of giving into it. We ask for Your Strength and Your Power to defeat these sneak attacks, in Jesus' Holy Name, amen.

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PRAY FOR.....SELF-CONTROL

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers (1 Peter 4:7)
Serious times demand serious and focused conduct from the people of God. We should be identified by the Spirit of peace, compassion but intense spiritual maturity and this is only possible if we are functioning within the lines prescribed by Abba Father,  and pressing ahead in the paradigm of prayer.

The great Apostle Peter is speaking directly to the people of the Lord, and the message is clear. If we live as the world - full of corruption and double-minded, with no sense of who we are, Whose we are and what is expected of us, we are just howling at the wind like the pagan Israelites of the the Northern Kingdom after the Kingdom split, following the death of King Solomon.

This is what we call in the business - "preaching to oneself"! Therefore, there is no way anyone, spiritually mature or not, can speak about self-control without searching the depths of our owns souls to see if we are in alignment with the Word of God. Times are too critical and there is too much at stake to do otherwise.

Self-control, or self-discipline, is a gift from God. 2 Timothy 1:7 tell us that "God did not give us a spirit of timidity (a gift) but one of power (a gift); love (another gift) and a self-discipline (a tremendously important gift)". Without self-control or self-discipline,  we would be in constant trouble and totally out of the Will of the Father. 

Proverbs 25:28 tells us that "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls".
1 Corinthians 6:19 says "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own" - therefore "control yourself, man"!

We are told to control what comes out of our mouths as well.  Psalm 141:3 tells us as the Father to "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!" We are also encouraged to turn from lust and sexual sin here in Romans 6:12  as God warns us to "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions."

One of the Fruits of the Spirit is self-control. This means that the born-again, spirit-filled daughter or son of God, who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Master of our lives, is expected by definition to be not conformed to this world. We may have struggles to stay away from over-eating or the lust of the flesh/eyes etc. but because Christ lives in us, through the Spirit of God, we have no choice but to challenge ourselves to walk the "straight and narrow"....and succeed at it, in HIS Power. In other words, we - God's people - can do ALL things, and no bad things, through Christ Who strengthens us!

Any great woman or man of God, who has lived the life of Faith for any length of time, will tell you that their greatest fear is messing up...or losing self-control. This is why we are told to reboot our Faith daily, so we can die to the things of the flesh daily, in order to concentrate on the "things of the Spirit" - or God's Will, Way and Purpose for our lives. Just in case we think we are the only ones who have some sort of problem with self-control, the great Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament himself said  the following from Romans 7:15-20:
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

And so, we pray : "Oh most kind and gracious God and Father in Heaven, we thank You that You know us more than any human can ever know us. We thank you that You are our Creator, Giver and Sustainer of Life, Who holds our every breath in Your Hands- Your Mighty and Capable Hands and loves us so much to ever leave us to our own devices. We know that You have given over the corrupt, unsaved and perverted to their own lusts and devices because they have rejected You, where they will die in their sins. You said so in Romans 1:18-32. But because You loved the world so much that many like Your remnant, trust completely in You, You gave us a spirit and the ability to discipline ourselves to first see and understand the high standard of morality and Faith which is required of us, and then how to maintain this standard. 

Thank You so much Father, we are so eternally grateful that the Lord Jesus prayed for us in John 17 that even though we live in this world, we are not OF this world, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to keep us in right order so we are NOT disqualified by evil and immoral actions. But that our consciences will be seared, convicted and that we may see the potential consequences of any potential sin BEFORE it happens, so we are then able to redirect our actions, thoughts and focus to You, the Great God of Heaven, that we may never, ever, never disappoint You. Thank You for embedding this Fruit of the Spirit in us: self-control and self-discipline, that we may be like Christ - obedient even unto the Cross, Who considered Himself poor and humble even though He had cause to be otherwise. We love You too much to knowingly disappoint You, even though we have do so too many times in the past, to our shame. But now, we resolved to be sober-minded and serious, so sin will not reign in our bodies, but Christ will. Christ will! We believe that, with all our bodies, souls, minds and strength, in Jesus' Holy Name, Amen.

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THIRTY ONE DAYS OF BIBLE TRUTHS - DAY 6 (SOUND JUDGMENT)

BIBLE VERSE: The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer (1 Peter 4:7).

TRUTH: At the turn of each new year, among the new resolutions made by some Christians, is the promise to pray more. Some actually uphold this promise and their lives reflect it. In order to pray effectively, however, the Word of God is calling for a clean heart.  In this particular paradigm, the call is for Sound Judgment. How do we have sound judgment as maturing Christians? We have it through self-control. Twice in 1 Peter, God mentions the words “sober spirit” (1 Peter 1:13) and in this verse. Both times it means to be “clear-headed” and “well-disciplined”. This just not just mean to obey the letter of the law of God and man, but the spirit of the law – total self-control.  So why are we called to be intentionally so level-headed and completely alert? 

Well – look at the verse again: “the end of all things is near”!

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THIRTY ONE DAYS OF BIBLE TRUTHS - DAY 5 (FEARLESS)

BIBLE VERSE: "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7)

TRUTH: You know it’s easy to talk about being “fearless” or not afraid to promote the Cause of Christ and the Gospel.  Even the most battle-hardened Christian who can speak to both a drunk on skid row and a banker downtown about the need to “get right with God”,  gets nervous or doubtful at times. However there is a reason we see the following throughout the Bible “fear not”; “do not be afraid”; “have no fear” and many variations thereof.  These exhortations come either directly from The Father, the Lord Jesus or His selected Angels. Ultimately, we really have nothing to fear. As we lay on our deathbeds, knowing our eternal destiny is secure, we are the ONLY ones who have no fear. 

But the spirit of fearlessness is not given for that reason alone. God gave us the courage to be bold at the point of conversion.  It is so that we may bear fruit for the Kingdom. Not only are we to stand firm in the Faith and contend for it, but we must share the Gospel and its saving Power. Timidity implies cowardice. Jesus was/is not a coward. He is God. We are in His Image. He gave us Love. When we see others going to hell and can’t stand the thought of it, we love them to Jesus. In addition, He gave us self-control to control our hearts, minds, tongues, hands, eyes to align them ALL with His will to  put that Love into action.  
Bottom line – let’s all take a deep breath, dive in and Be Bold For Jesus.

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EVINDA LEPINS ON "SELF-CONTROL"

BERNIE'S NOTE:
What we witnessed during the Nike Shoe Riots of 2011, in the past five days, not just a complete breakdown of decency and humanity....but a glaring lack of SELF-CONTROL. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7 that "God did not give us a spirit of timidity (or fear) but of love, power and SELF-CONTROL". Self discipline and personal responsibility are gifts from God to ALL human beings! God has written His Law in the hearts of ALL mankind. Some just can't read it because their hearts are not right!


Also Galatians 5:23 tells us that one of the Fruits of the Spirit is self-control. The only people who even possess the Spirit are those who are saved and called to the elect as children of God in Christ. In light of all of this, my friend Evinda Lepins, author and conference speaker, has a very nice take on Self-Control or Temperance, as we get close to winding up yet another beautiful Christmas season!

EVINDA LEPINS:

EVINDA LEPINS

Did you know that in translations of long ago, the word “self-control” was translated as temperance? The explanation for the word change is this: “The various gifts given by God” – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness – “to us are capable of abuse.” 

Now let me clear that up a bit!

The right use of temperance/self-control requires the controlling power of your will under the operation and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it’s a surrendering and letting go and letting God, just like we talked about in the gift of faithfulness. See, when trying to do something within our own power and not under His power, we are either going to run into ourselves or run out of ourselves.

Here’s another really cool thing to understanding self-control/temperance: When we exercise temperance/self-control, this is our response to HIS Spirit. It suggests, not assumes, that what is learned must be put into practice.

And finally, self-control/temperance is the outer protective layer of all the other fruits, aka, gifts! Just like all fruits have a protective layer, so do the gifts. Some protective layers are thick; some are thin; some are soft, and some are hard, but the point is they protect the sweetness of the fruit/gifts within.

I don’t know about you, but I think that is so divinely ordered! Temperance to you, my friend!

Evinda

Chicklit Power!

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