Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....July 30, 2018
We live in a wrecked world politically, emotionally, family, mentally. However we don't have to live with a wrecked attitude. Ungratefulness will sabotage and strangle the full life that Jesus promises us. Begin with being grateful and you will be full.
It is not hard to see that we live in a broken and wrecked world. God told us that this would happen. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 He said that as the end draws near because lawlessness is increased the love of many will grow cold. It is very obvious we live in a wrecked world.
Wrecked marriages, wrecked homes, wrecked economy, wrecked political system and the promise is that as the return of Jesus gets closer it will get worse.
Jesus promised to give us life to the full. This life to the full is not defined by the things we have or don’t have. The full life is defined by how we respond to trials, temptations, tragedy and things. One of the main things that can sabotage and strangle the full life is an attitude of ungratefulness.
Dr. Adrian Rogers used to say, “God’s will is what we would want for ourselves if we were smart enough to want it.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 clearly tells us a right attitude we should have in a wrecked world.
“Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Gratitude is seeing that God is good
Gratitude comes from a clear vision of who God is. The devil has always tried to destroy God’s character. Psalm 100 makes it clear that an attitude of gratitude comes from seeing that God is good. Remember Jesus wants to give you a life that is full and joyful, peaceful, powerful, purposeful, useful and faithful. The devil also wants you to have a life that is full.
Satan wants you to have a life that is ungrateful. The devil knows when you ignore His will of thankfulness it will lead to darkness and destruction.
Romans 1:18-21, 22-32 God turned them over to their own ungrateful desires. God is good enough and loves you enough to turn you over to what you worship!
There is a non-believer study on the internet called 31 benefits of gratitude you may want to check out and see how it might effect your life:
http://happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude/
Two of the things that this person discovered were that gratitude makes you happier and healthier.
Family....God wants to give you a full life!!
“A five-minute a day gratitude journal can increase your long-term well-being by more than 10 percent. That’s the same impact as doubling your income.”
Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Psalm 86:5 “For You, Lord, are kind and ready to forgive, rich in faithful love to all who call on You.”
Psalm 145:9 “The Lord is good to everyone; His compassion rests on all He has made.”
Lamentations 3:25 “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.”
Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; He cares for those who take refuge in Him.”
There are many things designed by the devil to distract us from the graciousness of God. We must cultivate a mindset of looking for God’s goodness in the mess of our lives. Remember that all things are not good. However God makes all things work to the good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.
Don’t be distracted by the momentary!! We are preparing to spend forever with God. Set your eyes on the goodness of God in Jesus, this will give you a reason to be grateful!! When we see how gracious God is gratitude is our natural response!
Gratitude is sharing the Lord with witness (Hebrews 13:15)
According to the writer of Hebrews thanksgiving or gratefulness is a fruit. Fruit of any sort require cultivation and fertilization to produce fully. There may be nasty things you have to walk though in order to have your fruit of thanksgiving fully fertilized.
A grateful attitude doesn’t happen by accident. Giving thanks in this passage is in the present imperative which means it is to be a habit of attitude and action. God knows how this will benefit us and others and calls us to be disciplined to make it part of our daily routine!!
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” -Acts 1:8
What does a witness do? Witnesses tell about what they have seen and heard? We are called of God to offer a sacrifice of sharing the good things God has done in our lives. Witnessing is less about memorizing someone else’s way of evangelizing and more about sharing about God’s goodness and mercy in your life?
Has God done anything good in your life this week? Then share it with someone!
Has God done anything good in your church family this week? Then share it with someone!
Gratitude is serving the Lord with Gladness (Psalm 100:2)
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and other passages in the New Testament the Greek word used for giving thanks is eucharisteo and originally meant “do a good turn to.”
So gratefulness is a Spirit filled attitude that leads to an appropriate Spirit filled actions – serving the Lord God with gladness. Gladness here means delight, overflowing joy, festivity, mirth or laughter.
Serving God isn’t dull, dry and boring. When you get your sight right there is joy and laughter and festivity at seeing God’s goodness take root in others’ lives!!
Our gratitude cannot be simply tied to our good words. It is clear that God’s will for us is for our gratitude to be tied to good words and good works!!
You can’t serve God with grumbling inactivity
1) We have the example of the Israelites
Exodus 16:12 they complained about their food, Numbers 11:1 They complained about their hardships.
2) We have the instruction of Paul
“Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world. -Philippians 2:14-15
“Be hospitable to one another without complaining” -1 Peter 4:9
“Nor should we complain as some of them did,[f] and were killed by the destroyer.” -1 Cor 10:10
Ungrateful complainers are lumped in with idolaters, sexually immoral, and those desiring evil that were destroyed by God.
Life is a gift from God to be lived for God. When our mouths are full of thankfulness they can’t be full of grumbling
You can serve God with grateful activity
1) Give thanks in all things
Gratitude isn’t about the pain, pressure or problem you face. It is about a right attitude toward the one who controls all that is your life!! When we remember that God is in control and works all things to the good then we can give thanks in the worst and best of circumstances!!
We thank God because He causes many a tight place to open into the right place.
2) Give thanks by finding your place of service
We are taught that thankfulness should be part of worship, giving, relationships everything we do.
Your are not in the world by mistake you were called here by God to encourage, build up and give thanks to God through your service?
Serving God and His people and those around you is part of giving thanks always. Have you found your place of service?
It is obvious that we are to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
How do we actively make our attitude one of giving thanks?
1) Make it part of your prayer life, “let your requests be made known to God with thanksgiving”
2) Sing songs of thanksgiving to the Lord
3) Thank those that do the simplest and smallest things in your life
4) Serve God and others. This is one of the greatest ways to give thanks. Ask God where you are to serve His body?
Dr. Charles Spurgeon once stated:
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
I am grateful, each day, that God allows me to minister to my fellow brothers and sisters at a point in their life when they are the most vulnerable. It gives me a great sense of gratitude that our Holy Father would entrust this task to me.
What are you grateful for?? Let me know.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
What's mainly wrong with society today is that too many Dirt Roads have been paved.
There's not a problem in America today, crime, drugs, education, divorce, delinquency that wouldn't be remedied, if we just had more Dirt Roads, because Dirt Roads give character.
People that live at the end of Dirt Roads learn early on that life is a bumpy ride.
That it can jar you right down to your teeth sometimes, but it's worth it, if at the end is home...a loving spouse, happy kids and a dog.
We wouldn't have near the trouble with our educational system if our kids got their exercise walking a Dirt Road with other kids, from whom they learn how to get along.
There was less crime in our streets before they were paved.
Criminals didn't walk two dusty miles to rob or rape, if they knew they'd be welcomed by 5 barking dogs and a double barrel shotgun.
And there were no drive by shootings.
Our values were better when our roads were worse!
People did not worship their cars more than their kids, and motorists were more courteous, they didn't tailgate by riding the bumper or the guy in front would choke you with dust & bust your windshield with rocks.
Dirt Roads taught patience.
Dirt Roads were environmentally friendly, you didn't hop in your car for a quart of milk you walked to the barn for your milk.
For your mail, you walked to the mail box.
What if it rained and the Dirt Road got washed out? That was the best part, then you stayed home and had some family time, roasted marshmallows and popped popcorn and pony rode on Daddy's shoulders and learned how to make prettier quilts than anybody.
At the end of Dirt Roads, you soon learned that bad words tasted like soap.
Most paved roads lead to trouble, Dirt Roads more likely lead to a fishing creek or a swimming hole.
At the end of a Dirt Road, the only time we even locked our car was in August, because if we didn't some neighbor would fill it with too much zucchini.
At the end of a Dirt Road, there was always extra springtime income, from when city dudes would get stuck, you'd have to hitch up a team and pull them out.
Usually you got a dollar...always you got a new friend...at the end of a Dirt Road!
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
This week we look at the Book of Deuteronomy.
Who wrote the book?
Deuteronomy means “second law,” a term mistakenly derived from the Hebrew word mishneh in Deuteronomy 17:18.
In that context, Moses simply commands the king to make a “copy of the law.”1 But Deuteronomy does something more than give a simple copy of the Law. The book offers a restatement of the Law for a new generation, rather than a mere copy of what had gone before.
Deuteronomy records this “second law”—namely Moses’s series of sermons in which he restated God’s commands originally given to the Israelites some forty years earlier in Exodus and Leviticus.
“These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel,” says Deuteronomy 1:1. Mosaic authorship of this book finds the usual support from Jewish tradition (with the entire Pentateuch) but also from within the biblical text. Several times, Deuteronomy asserts Moses as author (1:1; 4:44; 29:1). Speaking to Joshua, Moses’s successor, the Lord referred to this “book of the law” as that which Moses commanded (Joshua 1:8). And when future Old Testament and New Testament writers quoted from Deuteronomy, they often referred to it as originating with Moses (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; Ezra 3:2; Nehemiah 1:7; Malachi 4:4; Matthew 19:7).
Some obvious editorial changes were made to the text sometime after Moses recorded the bulk of it. For instance, he could not have written the final chapter, which dealt with his death. However, these and other small changes do not affect the generally accepted authorship of Moses.
Where are we?
Deuteronomy was written around 1406 BC, at the end of the forty years of wandering endured by the nation of Israel. At the time, the people were camped on the east side of the Jordan River, on the plains of Moab, across from the city of Jericho (Deuteronomy 1:1; 29:1). They were on the verge of entering the land that had been promised centuries earlier to their forefathers (Genesis 12:1, 6–9). The children who had left Egypt were now adults, ready to conquer and settle the Promised Land. Before that could happen, the Lord reiterated through Moses His covenant with them.
Why is Deuteronomy so important?
Moses addressed his words to “all Israel” at least twelve times. This phrase emphasized the nation’s unity, initiated by their covenant with God at Mount Sinai and forged in the wilderness. In the midst of widespread polytheism, Israel was distinctive in that they worshiped one God, Yahweh. Their God was totally unique; there was none other like Him among all the “gods” of the nations surrounding them. Deuteronomy 6:4 codifies this belief in the Shema, the basic confession of faith in Judaism even today. “Hear, O Israel! The LORD [Yahweh] is our God, the LORD [Yahweh] is one!”
Deuteronomy also restates the Ten Commandments and many other laws given in Exodus and Leviticus. The book delivered to Israel God’s instructions on how to live a blessed life in the Promised Land. Chapters 27 and 28 specify the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience.
What's the big idea?Unlike the unconditional covenant God made with Abraham, the covenant between Yahweh and Israel was bilateral—a two-way street. God would keep His promise to bless the nation if the people remained faithful. The adult Israelites were too young to have participated in the first covenant ceremony at Mount Sinai. Therefore, Moses reviewed the Law at the doorstep to the Promised Land, urging this new generation to re-covenant with Yahweh, to recommit themselves to His ways.
How do I apply this?In Moses’s conclusion, he entreated the people.
“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” (Deuteronomy 30:19–20)
“This” in verse 20 refers to loving the Lord your God, obeying, and holding fast to Him. That is life! Our relationship with God is to be marked by faithfulness, loyalty, love, and devotion. Think of an ideal marriage—that’s the picture of how God wants us to cling to Him (Ephesians 5:28–32).
How closely do you cling to God? Pray and recommit your heart to that all-important relationship with Him.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou