Musing – Is ‘just being there’ a ministry?

Hebraic Musing – Is ‘just being there’ a ministry?

"Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was." —Job 2:13

This verse reminds me of the story/lesson Arliss Freeman, my Escondido pastor’s wife, told years ago. Here is how I remember it: Little Mary was two hours late coming home from school and her mother was obviously upset, concerned and ready to discipline Mary. So her mother started the discipline process by asking “Why were you so late, what kept you?”  Mary responded “I stopped at my friend Suzy’s house and Suzy’s favorite doll was broken. We tried and tried to fix it but couldn’t. So I just sat with Suzy and her broken doll and we cried together.” 

Having gone through the funeral process for my wife of 52 years, I can vividly relate to the ministry my family and I received recently from all the friends that came by our side. Many tried to say things of sympathy, humor, wit, empathy, etc.  All I remember is that they were there. ‘Just being there’ was the best ministry we received.

A neighbor, retired pastor and chaplain at our hospital shared that his ministry was sitting with the family in the Surgery waiting room with the family members while patient was in OR (Operating Room). He did not have any set prayer; he felt his ministry was ‘just being there’ with the family.

Worthy of note – traditional Jewish mourning custom is to ‘sit shiva’; which basically means to go through a seven (shiva) day period of mourning with the family – just being there.

In High School, our group had a favorite, catchy, smart-alec question – “Are you unafraid of a conversational pause?”

Thank you friends for ‘just being there’ during our period of grieving.

Point to ponder

Why do we feel we have to say something
when the other person is thankful that we are ‘just being there’?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                 June 26, 2012

Author “Hebraic Insights – messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (published  June 2012)

Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings” blogging available at  www.InsightsByYosef.com
To be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net    

Musing – Are we facing an economic crisis? Or a moral/cultural implosion?

Hebraic Musing – Are we facing an economic crisis? Or a moral/cultural implosion? 

The news is awash with economic challenges and election news is economy driven. BUT the pattern in other news articles in recent weeks ought to raise an even greater concern. Have you read recent articles about cannibalism, mommy porn in Time magazine, a porn book as best-seller, gay marriages, right to life issues, teen pregnancies, shrinking church attendance, increasing teen suicides – to name a few? What in the world is going on? One of many scriptural examples in 1 John 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

•“Cannibals In The News: Five Bizarre Acts Of Human Flesh Eating In One Week” is a headline in Huff Post. And yes, I glanced over two of these articles in my daily news reading.
•“Church attendance” – While 40% claim to go to church, the actual attendance is closer to 20%; and declining! And teens are finding church to be irrelevant while teen suicides are increasing.
•“Fifty Shades of Grey” novels a.k.a. “Mommy Porn” have become the recent best-sellers! We no longer gasp at ‘costume malfunctions’!
•“Mommy Porn” on the front page of Time magazine, and defended by the editors.
•“Gay Marriage” -- President Obama finally revealed his stance; or his politically motivated position.
•“Abortions” -- Americans have aborted more than 53 million babies; far more human beings than the Nazis murdered during the Holocaust. And now our President and many in House of Congress have gone on the record in support of sex-selection abortions.
•“Teen pregnancies” -- the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of the Western industrialized world and 79 percent of teenagers who become pregnant are unmarried. About 820,000 teens become pregnant each year; 34 % of teenagers have at least one pregnancy before they turn 20. 

I repeat – What in the world is going on? America grew and prospered as a Christian nation built on a foundation of Judeo-Christian beliefs, laws and practices. As we look at the list above, we realize that the foundation is crumbling fast, especially recently. And since it is the people allowing it to happen without calling on God, what can or will stop us on this ‘slippery slope’?

 Point to Ponder 

How to prepare ourselves and those around us to deal with the ‘world’ to come? 

Yosef a.k.a. Joe Brusherd
Author “Hebraic Insights – messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”
Author “Biblical Marriage” (published June 2012, see Amazon.com)
Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings” blogging available at www.InsightsByYosef.com
To be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net

Definition of the “slippery slope” argument (definition from pg. 250 “Hebraic Insights”) 

Definition of the "slippery slope" argument is essentially that, if you make any exceptions to a rule, or if you make rules that depend on fine distinctions, pretty soon people will be ignoring the original rule entirely. If you allow exceptions to a rule, it creates a slope away from the absoluteness of the rule which people will slide further and further until they will not obey the rule at all. Have you heard the following statements? - If you give people an inch, they will take a mile. - If you let your camel put its nose into your tent, pretty soon the whole camel will be in the tent. A study of “slippery slope” logic points out that, when making laws that are exceptions to the rule, one needs to remain aware of the underlying absolute rule. Failure to do so will make the slope slippery.

Points to Ponder 

Question: Where are the absolutes? 

Answer: In God’s Torah, which is not well taught in most of our traditional Christian churches today. 

And Torah teaching is definitely not found in our public school curriculum.

Musing – What are we focused on?

Hebraic Musing – What are we focused on?

When asked “Are you satisfied with what you have?” many people say yes, but in their heart of hearts the real answer is no. They wish they had a different car, house, spouse, income, job…  Thus too many of us are living with disappointment with life; and sometimes that disappointment causes us to do things we regret. And we find ourselves doing things that God wishes we didn’t do.

Adam and Eve had it made!  God walked and talked with them and they had an awesome garden of fruits and veggies to choose from. They were okay until they began to focus on what they did not have. Satan’s temptation presentation is rather short in scripture, but in reality it probably took a period of time for Adam and Eve time to focus on what they did not have.

A few months ago we celebrated the feast of Purim and read the book of Esther. Haman is a key character, the bad guy, and we enjoyed ‘boo-ing’ at every mention of his name. What was the source of Haman’s problem? He was a blessed man; honored by the king; wore the king’s signet ring; drinking buddy of the king; family man; and possessed a sizable estate. What was his problem?

Haman (BOO) displayed his attitudinal problem when the king called for him in Esther 6:6-7 When Haman (BOO) entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Now Haman (BOO) thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?” And when Mordecai (YEAH!) became the one being honored, Haman (BOO!) became focused on something that was not his.

Interesting note – Haman in Hebrew is spelled  /mh  Hei Mem Nun.  In Genesis, when God accuses Adam and Eve of sinning, the forbidden or the ‘not yours’ item is also spelled and pronounce ‘Haman’.

What did Adam and Eve and Haman have in common with us?  Like them, we focus to often on what we do not have instead of enjoying what God has given us. And we Americans have been blessed with so much, why do we focus on what we don’t have?

Point to ponder

What would life be like if we were happy and thankful
and appreciative of the things we have,
instead of focusing on that which we do not have?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                             June 12, 2012

Author “Hebraic Insights – messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (published  June 2012)

Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings” blogging available at  www.InsightsByYosef.com
To be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net    

Musing - What will cause God to say ‘Enough’?

Hebraic Musing - What will cause God to say ‘Enough’?

Is God justified in being angry with His people if they:

            1. Worship idols?   and
            2. Disobey His commandments?   and
            3. Ignore the warnings of His prophets?

Our Bible study just analyzed 2 Kings 17.  God had to deal with the disobedient Northern Kingdom, Israel.  In vs. 7-13 They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.  The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. …. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger.  They worshiped idols, though the LORD had said, “You shall not do this.”  The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”   NIV

In 17:18  So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence.  

And finally in 17:23 …So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria,…

Points to ponder

Do we worship idols? 
(That depends on how you define…)

Have we disobeyed His commands and teachings? 
(What have we tolerated that God calls murder and/or abomination?)

Are we heeding the warnings of today prophetic voices?
(Or has the E-generation taken over?)

Shalom

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd

Author “Hebraic Insights – messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (published  June 2012)

Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings” blogging - www.InsightsByYosef.com
To be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net    

Musing – Who decides if we are ‘clean’ enough?

Hebraic Musing – Who decides if we are ‘clean’ enough?
May 29, 2012

I found this passage nested as #1,373 among 5,529 “Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim & Kabbalah.” (Rabbinic writings)  Before a priest could be admitted into active service in the Temple he had to undergo bodily inspection at the hands of the syndicate of the Sanhedrin. If they found the least defect in his body, even a mole with hair upon it, he was ordered to dress in black and be dismissed; but if he was perfectly free from blemish, he was arrayed in white, and at once introduced to his brother priests and official duties. 

A number of questions popped into mind:

1.      Does this apply to me?  Peter called me a member of the royal priesthood’ in 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,…”

2.      Since when does man decide who is a priest and who is not?  Who is welcome to serve and who is not? How does this reconcile with Acts 10 and Peter’s having to ‘learn to not call a fellow man unclean’.  On the other hand Paul tells us in 1 cor. 5:12-13  What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.

3.      Who of us would qualify to be dressed in white under these rules? Without the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua HaMashiach we would all be wearing black.

4.      Does this confirm our belief that only those dressed in the right wedding garments, white linen, will live in heaven with our God who cannot be in the presence of uncleanness resulting from sin?  (Or is it that sin cannot be in the presence of God?)

5.      Could the Christian’s Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) be the day they accepted Christ as their Savior?  Lev.16:30 … because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.

So, to me this confirms that while the Rabbis were trying to understand God and trying to define and apply Torah guidelines, they definitely understood the need to be clean and holy before Almighty God. Thus, the need for a savior was paramount in their minds, like Yeshua HaMashiach that we know.

Point to ponder

How can we be clean in God’s sight?

Are we responsible for inspecting, repenting and cleaning ourselves?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd

Author “Hebraic Insights – 95 messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (to be published in June 2012)

Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”  to be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net
www.InsightsByYosef.com

Musing – What is meant by ‘E-Generation’?

Hebraic Musing – What is meant by ‘E-Generation’?
          May 22, 2012

I have heard the term ‘E-generation’ bantered about and will propose three possible meanings.

1. ELECTRONIC – Today’s youth especially possess a knowledge of computers, iPads, iPods, cell phones, Roku, Wii, Play-stations, Blogging, texting, etc. that has their grandparents scratching their heads. And those with these Electronic gadgets are so wrapped up in using, playing, texting and gaming that they are (a) oblivious to the world around them, (b) not hearing their name being called [we used to call that ‘selective hearing’] and (c) even trying to use these devices while driving! The only Electricity understood in biblical times was lightning from Mother Nature, and sometimes attributed to Father God.  ‘Lightning’ is mentioned 46 times in the NIV and typically a form of communication from God, not Hollywood.

2. ENTERTAINMENT – Authors/developers of Hollywood productions, Apps and Video Games create captivating presentations that capture imaginations and implant powerful images in our heads by using Electronics to indelibly imprint memorable images in our brain. They utilize graphics that were here-to-fore not available. This encourages us to focus on the Entertainment world instead of the real world and/or the Spiritual world.  Hmmm…In biblical times one can picture the family gathered around the campfire together, without radio, TV or other entertainment media. They were either gazing at constellations or honoring the elders of the community by listening to stories of God’s deliverance or studying/learning the Torah. The first textbook in American education was the Bible, followed by Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, which uses the Bible to put words into context. In my book Hebraic Insights, #79 “What if you only had one book to read?” I point out that the Bible has a variety of genres –intrigue, history, wars & battles, gore, love, self-help and education to name a few.  But they are not as juicy as the Hollywood fiction – if juicy is what floats your boat. When I was young we only had radio and its primary purpose was to keep informed of the news, and some wholesome fiction. How much news is garnered by people today; and how can news and Education compare with the enhance appeal of today’s Entertainment?

3. ENTITLEMENT – It seems the younger generation was born with a silver spoon in their mouths and with big government support to facilitate ‘not working’. At the same time debt became the most marketed product since the 1970’s. Credit cards, student loans, auto loans, 100+% home mortgages and National Debt  provide us the opportunity to live in the ‘now zone’ while we avoid the future consequences of our actions. I hear Corporations have had to conduct indoctrination programs to get recently hired college graduates to understand that they are expected to pay their way in the company; not Entitled to a paycheck just because they live in America. If Wall Street Occupiers spent time in other countries, they might not feel so Entitled to whatever they feel Entitled to.

So what does ‘E-generation’ mean? Each E opens up topics, issues and reactions of its own.  Consider Jeanna’s response below.  What do you think?

Points to ponder

Are the three “E’s” inter-related?

Are we using the three “E’s” to draw closer to God?

Shalom Aleichem,

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd

Author “Hebraic Insights – 95 messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (to be published in June 2012)

Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”   Contact Yosef1@cox.net to be added to distribution.

Response from Jeanna, a home-schooler and missionary extraordinaire ministering in Honduras:
Even more important is what is NOT represented in the E-generation trends. Unfortunately, EDUCATION is not represented on the list of “E’s” – once again a tactic to weaken this generation. The three areas above are also eating away at the purpose we were given life – Relationship, first with God and second with others. The weakening of mankind is setting us up for the Great Awakening and ushering in His Kingdom.   
     Scary? – Yes.   Exciting? – Even more so.   Sobering? – Beyond words!    Are you AWAKE?

Hebraic Musing – Do young people know how a healthy Christian family functions?
          May 15, 2012

The May 3, 2012 Barna Group report[1] explored the degree to which Christian youth leaders expose teenagers to healthy Christian families as part of the youth ministry strategy. They concluded “most youth leaders view this as important but do not see this as a primary part of their task.”

Unfortunately, youth leaders and pastors are quick to point out that there are too few strong traditional families in their churches to provide effective models. We now have multiple generations of adults raised in broken homes; thus even the most well-intentioned parent(s) cannot give to their children what they do not have. There are fewer traditional families today than ever that have not been affected by divorce, single parenting or other significant challenges. It is estimated that less than 10%, or as low as 5%, of school age children go home to their original parents.

As I am getting ready to publish my next book “Biblical Marriage” the need for the book becomes abundantly clear.  BTW, the word ‘family’ appears 179 times in the NIV; and ‘divorce’ appears 20 times, always in a ‘do not’ or ‘God hates’ context. So the concept of family life being taught and instilled in the youth in biblical times was a given. On the other hand, the Bible provides a few examples of broken home problems and the resultant generational curses: (a) the expulsion of Hagar and her son Ishmael and (b) David’s rejection of Absalom.

My son Joseph and his wife Jeanna and their children have worked for 7 years as missionaries at a school of 600 students called Plan Escalon in Honduras. The school brings in poor students from the mountain villages and teaches them trades, leads then to salvation and provides a basic Christian education. Joseph, Jeanna and family work hard at maintaining the facilities, caring for medical needs, teaching, counseling, etc. etc.  But in my visits to the school I have observed them providing the students with something that I’ve never heard formally mentioned. The students observe a husband and wife and five children functioning as a traditional Christian family. Very, very few of the students have ever seen that example in their home or in their villages.

Points to ponder

Do you know a youth leader that needs encouragement
to teach and expose their youth to Christian Family values and examples?

Who are the Christian Families that can be held up and used as examples?

How would you interview a Christian husband and wife in front of the youth?

I wish I had more answers.  What are your thoughts? 

Shalom

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd

Author “Hebraic Insights – 95 messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (to be published in June 2012)

Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”  to be added to distribution -- Yosef1@cox.net
www.InsightsByYosef.com  Post blogs on www.InsightsByYosef.blogspot.com

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[1] http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/565-research-examines-the-role-of-healthy-families-in-youth-ministry