Apr 28, 2021
S
Don’t give up, You can Change! In past talked about Gods
mercies regardless what sin we’ve committed. I've been thinking
lately about God's mercies not just in terms of our sins of
commission, but also of our sins of omission, the good,
god-pleasing things we don't do. I was going to simply title
this talk "Don't give up!", I didn't record it last night and then
this morning I received a First Light devotion from Brother Brian
Biggers titled "You can Change" and believed God wanted me to add
Brian's thoughts to this message, so my new title is "Don't give
up, you can change!"
Recently we were meeting in our Messianic church to celebrate
the new moon for the month Ayar. In the Torah God commanded
that His people observe times and seasons, including the weekly
Sabbath, the new moon, and His 7 feasts throughout the year.
It seems to me this serves multiple purposes. For one thing,
it reminds us we are His people and it keeps us fixed on Him,
living our life connected to Him not apart from Him. In In
Dueteronomy and Nehemiah God commands us to observe and keep the
Sabbath, but in Exodus 20:8 He says "Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy".
Lamentations
3:22-23 NKJV says "Through the Lord’s mercies we
are not consumed, Because His compassions fail
not. 23 They are new every
morning;
Great is Your
faithfulness."
Lev 19:1-2 says
"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak
to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to
them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your
God am holy." God wants us to be holy,
because He is holy. He's promised to never leave us nor
forsake us. He gave his only Son to pay the penalty for our
sins and He gave us the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us in our
walk of sanctification.
We are not under
the law in the sense that we must obey the commandments to earn
salvation. Jesus took care of that once and for all.
But Jesus if you love me, keep my commandments, so we show our love
to God by keeping His commandments and living a life that pleases
Him.
So the
application of this is the same for all of us in some ways, and
very different in other ways.
We all have the same Bible and through it can learn of God's
commandments which are for all of us.
Yet our journeys are unique in so many ways, and so there are
so many things that God is leading us individually toward for a
life of abundance as He defines abundance, a life of peace and
purpose, surrendered to Him.
I'm going to share how I feel this applies to me and my life
in the hope that it may spark some awareness in you of what God is
calling you to, or calling you to return to something you've left
or stopped doing.
I recently finished my class in Hebrew. Now I have to
wait a while before the next class is available. But I don't
have to wait. I can occasionally review what I learned to
keep it fresh and so I can start to apply it now rather than
waiting until I learn more. This falls under the "Use it or
lose it" axiom.
This certainly applies to our work. I learned the basics
of AutoCAD a year or so ago, which is an amazing program that
allows you to create drawings. I haven't used it in a while
and so I've been thinking about how I can use that in one of my
projects, even if it's not essential at this time but in order to
keep my skills sharp.
How about marriage and relationship skills. How many of
us have read a book or heard a sermon on marriage and then
forgotten it because we didn't apply it. Through Covid I've
gotten away from dating my wife and am going to change that.
I spoke in the last Selah episode about a talk I
heard on Evangelizing and how I had gotten out of the habit or
handing out tracts or really any significant evangelism.
Don't give up, you can change!
I used to listen a lot to Dan Mohler and hadn't done so in a
quite a while, but recently listened to one of his messages.
Some key messages he shared where that God doesn’t want to just
save you He wants to transform you, no one owes you anything,
forget about your rights, hurt for people rather than be hurt by
people, pray for your boss not about your boss, wake up every day
and shine, don’t try to NOT sin but rather be like Jesus.
These are just life transforming ideas that I was fired up about in
the past but had forgotten about. It's a reminder that life
transforming ideas don't transform unless you put them into
action.
Another habit is memorizing scripture. I was reminded
about this in a recent interview with Tom Meyer the Bible Memory
Man. It reminded me how I've gotten out of the habit of
memorizing scripture.
A good daily habit which will also help you understand what
God thinks about which habits and behaviors are good and bad is to
read the book of Proverbs daily.
How about parenting your kids? I recently took
my youngest daughter out to pick out a purity ring and take
her to dinner, a tradition I began with my first 2 daughters. With
the first 2 I honestly didn’t prepare well and didn’t have anything
profound to say. This time I memorized the speech from the movie
Courageous since I didn’t think I could improve on it. I’ll add a
link to the video clip in the show notes. I cry whenever I watch it
if I haven’t seen it in a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w__jZbXYwCg
OK, that's it for my thoughts on this topic, now I want to
share with you this great devotion from Pastor Brian Biggers from
Lamb's Chapel in Burlington, NC. To sign up for this devotion
go to www.TLCAlive.com
You Can Change
No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will
burst the skins, the wine will be wasted and the skins will be
ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins and both will
be preserved. And no one having tasted the old immediately desires
the new for he says, "the old is better".
Luke 5:37-39
This
passage has nothing to do with wine. It is dealing with the
attitudes of people and their willingness to change for the better.
Our unwillingness to change even when we know it will be for the
better is portrayed as an "old wineskin". When wineskins get old,
they begin to stiffen and harden. They become resistant to change.
They become crotchety and stubborn. Since new wine is
still expanding as it ferments, the skin must be flexible
enough to change with the shape that the wine demands. I've even
met some "old wineskins" that are proud of their "hardness".
People that are content to stay right where they
are until they croak! You may wonder what's wrong with being
stuck in the fifty's? One problem. The God of heaven is always
(and I mean always) wanting to do a "new thing" in you. Contrary to
religious thinking in this country, the God of the Bible is
always working to take you from "glory to glory". He is always
orchestrating the details of your life to move you into a greater
revelation of His Son in you and for you to become a greater
revelation of His Son in the earth! Wine in the Bible always refers
to the Holy Spirit. It is His Spirit that is always
expanding His presence in my heart to change me more and more
into what I was created to be which is a reflection of Christ to
His world. To demand to stay like you are, where you are and always
be who you are now is comfortable, easy, familiar and
painless. It is also deadly! "No one puts new wine in old skins".
Want to take a guess at the spiritual revelation? God stops
working in lives that become stiff and set, refusing to
change. He won't waste His precious Spirit on lives and
churches that are stuck in the past refusing to change and grow
into His likeness. High price to pay for being stiff and
unbendable before His Spirit. The good news? New wine MUST be
put in new wineskins! The heart that is pliable in His great hand
and willing to be shaped and molded by Him will always
experience God at work to bring them into His best plan for
them! Change is uncomfortable. It is inconvenient. It can be
humbling! But the result is wonderful! Our Father has promised to
work in our lives to keep bringing us to greater levels of glory by
His Spirit. New experiences of His joyous plans in us
constantly. My part is to be willing to overlook the
discomfort that comes with change as God keeps moving me
toward His ultimate great plan for me! The slight pain is very
much worth the glorious gain! Let me admonish you, especially those
of you who are "well down the road" since age and stiff seem to go
together, that you will always be willing to be pliable in His
hand and be ready for any change He wants to make in you for
the greater glory!
Father, I don't want to become an old wineskin that you have
to shelve because I would not adapt to what you are doing today. I
will gladly give up yesterday's good for today's
greater!
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End Times (Eschotology) Nelson Walters Youtube Channel to help give
you insight into how prophecy may be playing out today. One
video in particular is titled "How the 7 Feasts of the Lord will be
fulfilled in the Tribulation"
L
... I have become all things to all men, that I
might by all means save some.
We work with all types of people in our work place.
Learn to listen to others at work, and adapt yourself to their
style and what's important and interesting to them. You
can do this without sinning and without compromising the
Gospel
A -
Apologetics-Something to say if topic comes up about getting
grey hair: "The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is
found in the way of righteousness." or if you're not quite that
bold maybe just the first half "The silver-haired head is a crown
of glory". It will probably take them back since they
probably never heard someone say that and they may wonder where you
got that from, and they may ask.
From Ben LaCorte
H - John Shirey - Time Management
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The rule of 13 divides the week into 21 time periods
and says if you're committed to more than 13 of
those time periods you're too busy. That's bondage,
captivity. You have no time for spontaneity, to
relax, time with your family. If you don't have
that bondage, you have more freedom to be creative and to respond
to opportunities.
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