Nov 9, 2020
What You'll Hear:
S
The End from the Means
The Election - is Trump winning this election an end or a
means, have you fallen in love with Trump and he's the end, is he a
means to the end of his policies that you agree with, but are his
policy preferences an end or means, if the "end" we're pursuing is
God's Will and the advancement of His Kingdom, are conservative
policies perfectly in line with His will?, what is God's
will? We can learn from teachers whether it's your
favorite pastor with a TV or Radio Ministry, a teacher of
Conservative Ideas like Dennis Prager or Rush Limbaugh. But
are these teachers an end in themselves or a means to the end of us
learning truth, and are they best source of learning truth
consuming most of our time and energy, or should we prioritizing
reading God's word and spending time with Him in prayer as being a
better source of the truth than any teacher we listen to,
let's now talk about work - is work an ends or a means?
I believe it's unique in that it's both, it is an end in that God
gave us work as His first action after creating man, so that He
intends work to be a part of His plan for our existence here on
earth, but can also serve as an end to other means including
providing for family, loving others, serving God,
being healthy, my target is 160-165, was at 190, made
significant changes in diet and exercise and got to target, have
since fluctuated and am currently at 175 which is the result of
getting sloppy in some areas and making corrections to get back to
target, are my behavior changes the end or the means, they are
certainly the means, is my weight the end? No, it's so that I
have more energy and my body is healthier since it's not managing
extra weight, glorifying God by treating my body as the temple of
the Holy Spirit and I'm glorifying God,
Another example - we're now in a Messianic Congregation,
following the Torah, Christianity has erred by dismissing the
Torah, recognizing we're not saved by following the Law and we're
saved by grace, but it's still God's will for us to follow the Law,
am I following the Law as an ends or means, it's a means, Jesus
said "If you love me, keep my commandments" I follow the Law as a
way to show God I love Him, I'm learning in a class about Jewish
History, after Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were
expelled, there was a movement to create a new form of Judaism
which rejected "The Way" or what we call "Christianity", and they
started treating the Oral Torah as scripture equal to or even above
the written Torah, they created the Talmud in two parts, the
Mishnah is a commentary on the Torah, the other, Gemara, is a
commentary on the Mishnah, or you could say a commentary on the
commentary, even during the time of Jesus the Pharisees were
treating their traditions of men as equal or above the written law,
as I read scripture, I believe that Jesus didn't blast them for
following the Law, but because they were treating their man-made
rules as scripture, the Oral Torah were boundaries to give more
definition to how to keep the Torah, for example the Torah says
Honor the Saabath, the Oral Torah specified how to keep the
Saabath, this is not bad as long as they are still treated as
boundaries not the Law, we shouldn't be going right up to the line
and see how close we can get to the Law without breaking
it,
Another illustration of this is in statistics, I've spent most
of my career in manufacturing, we've statistically determined 2
levels on either side of a target, control limits and specification
limits. A control limit is a point at which you make a
correction, the limit farther out from the target is a
specification limit, and when you get beyond that limit it is
unacceptable. For example just for illustrative
purposes let's say we need to cook in an oven breakfast cereal at
100deg, we know that if it gets down to 80deg we won't kill
bacteria and it could hurt someone so we throw it out, if we go up
to 120deg we'll burn it and it will taste horrible. 80 deg
and 120 are the specification or spec limits. Based on past
history and some statistic formulas we set guidelines between
target and spec limit, for example if get above 100deg or below 90
deg we make an adjustment in the temp of the oven to prevent us
from getting out of spec, another statistical rule says even if we
don't go outside those control limits but stay too long on
either side of the target, for example we have 3 data points above
the target then we make a correction, ideal is to be fluctuating on
either side of that target, this system was developed because it
works and because it's a reflection of how God made the universe,
if we apply this to the other examples I've discussed, with health
I'm making a significant change when I get over 175 to keep me from
getting to an unacceptable weight, just saw documentary about Karen
Carpenter and how she died of a heart attack, probably related to
how she had gotten to such a low weight and was dealing with
anorexia but not addressing it, very sad story, she wasn't making a
correction in her life,
Christian Denominations - I've adjusted my negative opinion
about us having so many denominations, my pastor has shown me it's
not necessarily a bad thing, they are different ways of applying
principles from the Bible, most differences are not salvation
issues, they are a means to an end, the problem is when the
differences are so far away from our target which is God's truth
and God's will, in the same way Rabbinic Judaism has placed the
traditions of men above the Law and they have missed Jesus as their
Messiah, I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the Holidays
practiced in Christianity, I believe History tells us that
Christmas and Easter were created by Rome to make the new official
religion of Christianity palatable to their Roman Pagan citizens, I
believe by basing these holidays on Pagan Holidays they are missing
the mark and God did not tell us to do these, I know many of you
feel that because your intent is pure then these Holidays are just
a means to an end, I respect your opinion on this but respectfully
disagree and I encourage you to learn more about the history of
these holidays and a good place to start is the Playlist on Pagan
Holidays found on the TruthUnedited.com website, we should all be
like the Bereans, as described in Acts 17:11 "These were more
fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the
word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures
daily to find out whether these things were
so."
Before I finish up, I want to revisit the issue of politics
and the election. I'll just be blunt and say that I believe
this election was illegally stolen and Joe Biden is not the
legitimate winner of this election. That's my opinion, it's
not proven fact and I don't see how it will be possible to prove it
regardless what happens as we move forward with lawsuits, etc. I'm
very concerned about the policy changes that will most certainly be
coming as a result of Biden/Harris taking office, particularly if
they end up taking the Senate as well. At the same time of
all this craziness, I've been noticing a significant increase in
opportunities for me to share my testimony and speak into others
who are not believers. Romans 8:12 says "All things work
together for good, to those who love God". If we truly
believe that God's will is the end and everything else is a means,
we should not assume that a more socialist leaning USA will not in
fact be a primary driver toward revival and more people coming to
Christ, and if that is the case we should welcome it. We
should also be very careful not to make a savior out of any man
including Donald Trump. As I've discussed in the past, I've
been trying to lower my energy invested in politics and I'm using
the current situation as an opportunity to accelerate that change
in my life. I recently spoke with a man I respect who use to be a
political junkie like me but now checks in with the news a couple
times a month. Though that seems impossible for me now, I see
the peace in his life and the wisdom from his lips, and say there
has to be a connection between his change in focus to the change in
his heart. I want some of that.
E - James met just got out of jail, age 33, for me it took 3
years to give up on my failed business after I got saved and went
back to get a job and stopped running up my debt. After a
series of bad choices, James is now living with his sister and they
are helping him get a job in their local area. It struck me
that a job was a natural first step for him to set a new, positive,
Godly path for his life. What a gift God has given us with
work and our job and we should praise Him for it everyday.
Please be in prayer for James.
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L - ps 37:7-9
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A - remind you that my book "Jesus is at Work" is available on
Audible. Still have it as a goal to get it published on
Amazon as an ebook or hard copy. I'll let you know when that
happens.
H
Email-declare email bankruptcy to get to 0 inbox
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