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....March 8, 2021
During the past year, we certainly have had out share of struggles. Social distancing, masks, not being able to go out to enjoy our beautiful islands, etc. I wanted this week to bring you some encouragement for when we are in the midst of struggles. So the question is....Where Do I Find Hope When I’m Struggling?
1. Hardships are not unusual. This week my Scripture to focus on is...2 Corinthians 1:8-9
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
- 2 Corinthians 1:8-9
There can be resentment in our relationship with God when hard times come. “Doesn’t God love me?” “Why is God allowing this?” It can lead us to question God.
This is particularly true if we’ve been led to believe by shallow preachers or our shallow desires that God desires to make our lives easy. Too many believe that God’s job is that of a helicopter parent – ever attentive to remove the obstacles and nuisances. It’s not.
Hardships are part and parcel of the human experience. Becoming a Christian does not exempt us from that, although it does provide us with additional resources with which to face them.
So don’t give into that thought that God has somehow let you down or disappointed you just because you have a struggle to deal with.
2. God grows us in the struggles.
9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. - 2 Corinthians 1:9
This is a crucial point. There are a number of ways that God can grow us through struggles, but let’s focus on the one that’s mentioned in this passage. Paul tells the Corinthians that the substantial struggles that he went through served to “not rely on ourselves but on God.”
How does that happen? Well, for too many of us, we are often relying on ourselves to handle the obstacles of life. We look first and primarily to our ideas, our resources, our answers. Sometimes it’s only when we get to the absolute end of our rope, when we have nowhere else to look to, that we reluctantly cry out to God and His answers. Of course, it shouldn’t be this way, but it is, even for many Christians.
How exactly does He grow us?
a. It might be through realizing our need for Him.
b. It might be through learning to depend on prayer.
c. It might be practicing how to wait on Him.
d. It might be expecting Him to do things bigger than we can.
He wants us to become people with great spiritual power. Prayer warriors, believers of incredible faith, spiritual victors. So often victory comes by faith. And for us to have that kind of faith, it has to be built. That requires us to have to go through struggles and trust God to come through for us in those struggles.
3. We serve a God of impossibilities.
2 Corinthians 1:9
Paul mentions an essential fact about this God we are to rely on: He “raises the dead.”
There was no doubt to the people who saw Jesus die that it was game over. He didn’t just die – He was tortured and pierced. As the disciples mourned the loss of their teacher, there were a thousand things going through their minds. “What do we do now?” “Are the religious authorities going to arrest us too?” “How did Jesus do those miracles if He wasn’t the Messiah?” One question that didn’t go through their minds, though, was “Do you think His death might just be temporary?” Why didn’t they think that? They didn’t understand the teaching about the resurrection that Jesus had given to them and death is something that you know is permanent. Dead people stay dead.
But God’s power was greater than they expected or dreamed. God the Father raised the dead!
When you know you serve a heavenly Father who can raise the dead, it makes our problems look pretty ordinary by comparison. We serve a God who can do what we consider impossible, so that should give us great hope when we take our struggles to Him.
4. God has promised to stick with us.
10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. -2 Corinthians 1:10.
Paul tells us that God has been faithful in the past to deliver. That gives him confidence that God will deliver in the future.
One of the most powerful tools we have to increasing our confidence in God’s faithfulness to deliver us is the knowledge we have of the ways that God has delivered us in the past. Have we “found Him faithful”?
Because we can answer with a resounding “yes,” that gives us confidence for the uncertain future.
This is why we can “set our hope” on God. Our hope is not in our resources, our intelligence, our friends, our church, our resourcefulness, or our family. Our hope is in God
Many things fail us.
Our friends can be there for a season but then get distracted by their own lives. They’re not there when we need them most.
Our family can disappoint us.
Our money can fail us.
Our church can underwhelm.
But God will never leave us or forsake us.
5. We all get to rejoice together after the deliverance.
11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. -2 Corinthians 1:11.
It’s a wonderful thing when God’s deliverance comes through. And when we experience that, we get to share the joy that we feel with those who have prayed for us. I love you all:)
REMEMBER....Our Prophecies of the Bible class starts this Sunday. Via Zoom or in person. If you have not signed up please email me.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
"He didn't look like much at first. He was too fat and his head was so big his mother feared it was misshapen or damaged.
He didn't speak until he was well past 2, and even then with a strange echolalia that reinforced his parents' fears. He threw a small bowling ball at his little sister and chased his first violin teacher from the house by throwing a chair at her.
There was in short, no sign, other than the patience to build card houses 14 stories high, that little child would grow up to be 'the new Copernicus,' proclaiming a new theory of nature, in which matter and energy swapped faces, light beams bent, the stars danced and space and time were as flexible and elastic as bubblegum.
No clue to suggest that he would help send humanity lurching down the road to the atomic age, with all its promise and dread, with the stroke of his pen on a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, certainly no reason to suspect that his image would be on T‑shirts, coffee mugs, posters and dolls.....
Albert Einstein!"
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
This week we look at....Neopagan Religions
The Goddess is alive and magic is afoot.” Thus proclaimed an I-694 billboard in a Minneapolis suburb a few years ago, sponsored by the Goddess Committee, Northern Dawn Council, Covenant of the Goddess. The growth of Neopagan religions in North America and Europe has been one of the most significant expressions of new religious movements since 1950. Many today use the word pagan to refer to nonreligious people or those whose behavior is considered unacceptable, but Pagan actually is an umbrella term for the ancient religions of pre-Christian Europe. These did not cease to exist after most Europeans converted, at least nominally, to Christianity, but they did go underground and were often viewed with suspicion, as they frequently are today. Neopagan religions are a revival and repackaging of these belief systems with some contemporary additions.
Wicca is the best known of this large family of contemporary religious movements, though there are many different groups. Druidism, Celtic religions, Asatru, the Green Circle, and the Circle of Awen are a handful of the many examples. The variety makes generalizing difficult, but a few themes do characterize most. Neopagan religions view themselves as distinct from New Age religions, and outside observers typically agree. Neopagan religions are most closely related to the huge animistic family of belief systems; New Age religions usually draw their core beliefs from the Hindu worldview. But Neopagan religions typically express polytheistic beliefs rather than the deism of other animistic faiths.
Neopagan belief systems are usually described as “nature religions.” Mother Earth or an earth Goddess is often the central deity or highest spiritual entity. Environmental issues are often highly important, as caring for the earth is a direct or indirect form of worship. And feminine centrality, while not intended to exclude men from religious participation, can be deliberately emphasized in opposition to male dominance in formal religions.
As Neopagan religions have grown in popularity, their followers have made an effort to distinguish and distance themselves from Satan worship. When Wiccans, for example, speak of witchcraft, they are thinking in terms of rituals that derive power from nature or spiritual forces in nature, not from Satan; think Harry Potter rather than The Exorcist. In fact, many Neopagan practitioners don’t even believe in Satan’s existence. This is a particularly sensitive area for many Neopagans, who view the witch trials of past centuries as misguided persecution of the Pagan nature religions. It is common for them to view themselves as survivors of a movement that predates Christianity and was nearly wiped out in the past.
In common with animistic religions, Neopagan religions make frequent use of rituals and symbols; pentagrams, circles, and objects in threes are common. As with other animistic belief systems, rituals are about developing or using spiritual power. As a result, they are pragmatic, seeking what works. Wicca, for example, constantly develops new rituals as practitioners experiment with various methods.
Many Neopaganist forms make use of magick, intentionally spelled in the archaic form to distinguish it from modern illusionists, who use sleight of hand, visual distraction, and mechanical devices to produce “tricks.” Magick is the use of rituals to produce physical outcomes through spiritual power. Telekinesis is a basic illustration. Use of magick to put curses on people is rare, as it’s believed that whatever you do to others comes back to you thrice over. Wiccans follow an ethical principle that says, “And if it harm none, do what thou wilt.” Nevertheless, it is recognized that a few witches do practice so-called “black magic,” which is worked to bring harm to others.
In the dualism of most Neopagan religions, bad things are not “evil” but simply the necessary dark side of a good counterpoint. Star Wars popularized this idea with the two sides of The Force. This dualism does not mean, though, that there are no ethics in Neopaganism. It’s just that the ethics are based on the “three times” retribution principle rather than on a revealed or absolute moral code.
Neopagan religions have little formal organization or central leadership; groups are generally local and fairly small. Covens of witches in Wicca are an example, although each belief system has a different name for its local groups. They also tend to be egalitarian in regard to leadership. Priests and priestesses have more skills but not necessarily more authority. Due to this characteristic, few Neopagan groups have formal belief statements. While there is a basic worldview behind the rituals, specific beliefs often are left to the individual.
Although many Neopagan rituals and practices are passed along orally, there is a growing number of written information sources. Aleister Crowley, a British writer, published several books that formed the basis for much of today’s Neopagan beliefs and activities. Alexander Gardner’s Book of Shadows has become a textbook of sorts for the Wiccan movement. Many other authors have produced fiction and nonfiction promoting Neopaganism.
Beliefs on life after death vary among Neopagan religions. Reincarnation is common but not universal, because of the cyclical aspect of nature. None believe in a final divine judgment or a permanent heaven and hell.
Because of Neopaganism’s close connection with nature, many rituals and holidays are connected to cyclical natural events like solstices and equinoxes. Rituals typically begin in a “sacred space,” invoke the four Guardians (earth, air, fire, and water), and follow with chanted liturgies and prayers.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou