Hebraic Musing - Have You Ever Felt like Just Giving Up?

Hebraic Musing - Have You Ever Felt like Just Giving Up?

I think we have all felt ‘burn-out’ at times, and more so when working for the Kingdom of God.  Ever feel frustration at seeming lack of progress?  Pastors (and church leaders) from time to time say they are ready to give up, tired, frustrated, questioning whether they’ve failed God, failed their congregation and/or failed their family.  Rick Warren claims “It’s not a sin to get discouraged—it happens to all of us. Discouragement is a byproduct of spiritual warfare. It also happens when our expectations need to be readjusted.”

Maybe discouragement is just a form of the “suffering servanthood” we were promised in 1 Peter 4:12 when Peter consoled us  with “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;…”  NKJV

So when (not if) those feelings of discouragement come over you, consider these six remedies:

1.   Remember how much God loves you.  When you feel discouraged, why not “preach God’s love” to yourself for a change, like you preach it to others?  You can’t feel the love of God and feel discouraged at the same time.   Remind yourself “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16  NIV

2.   Refuse to “fake it.”  This is tough for those of us in leadership roles.  We feel our lives are on display.  If people really know me can I still be effective in church ministry?  Actually, the opposite is true.  Others are attracted to transparency, and that helps their openness to the Gospel.  Of course, you need to be wise about what you share.  When sharing one’s three part salvation testimony, the first part exposes who you were; and that helps others to know you and relate to you.  Even God wants you to know who you really are.  “But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’" Gen 3:9

3.   Focus on “others”, not on yourself.  Christian ministry is all about “others”.  Preaching that message years ago I explained that there are 7 billion “others” in the world.  My pastor corrected me in front of the whole church and said “No Joe, there are 7 billion minus one!”  He’s right; there’s more to life than just you. IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!   Nine times our Bible says to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  Discouragement will vanish as we broaden our perspectives to include “others”.

4.   Be realistic about your limitations. Ministry leaders are not going to solve all the problems in the world.  We are regular people “blooming where we are planted”.  We can’t bloom everywhere.  So let’s recognize:
 - We can’t keep everyone happy
 - We aren’t going to hit a home run with every message, sermon or outreach
 - We won’t successfully handle every conflict
Paul knew this.  “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinth 12:10 

5.   Take time for renewal.  We all need diversions and ways to recharge daily, weekly and annually.  Take a Daily walk; Honor or “Keep the Sabbath” (pick your 7th day if necessary); take your annual Vacation trip.

6.   Stay focused on eternity.  We’re all caught in the struggle between the urgent and the important.  Remember the Goal – “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” 1 Peter 5:4

Points to ponder

How many lives have you already touched?  Why stop now?!?!

How did you feel when first hearing God calling you to a leadership role?

♫ Make a joyful noise, sing unto the Lord, Tell Him of His love, and dance before Him. ♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 31, 2019

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Note – Inspired and excerpted from Pastor Rick Warren’s “What to Do When You Want to Give Up” July 23, 2019

Musing – What Keeps People from Talking Openly to Each Other?

Hebraic Musing – What Keeps People from Talking Openly to Each Other?

While we often say “Silence is golden” there is also a dark side to silence.  Silence is a good time for meditation, but do we really want to meditate on who we are?  Better to turn on the radio, headphones, music, TV, MP3, etc., anything to distract from listening to ourselves.  Social Media has a way of “chat”ting with others while not saying too much.  When did people stop talking openly?  The answer is in the Bible!

Adam and Eve had an ideal relationship with each other AND with Almighty God with whom they walked and talked in the Garden, conversing freely.  There was nothing between them and their nakedness was comfortable!  There was an ideal continual relationship between God and man!

We know the events leading up to Adam and Eve’s disobedience and how they tried to hide from God.  One cannot play “Hide and Seek” with an omniscient God!  But they tried!  Then came the famous line from God calling out "Where are you?" in Gen 3:9.  What was God’s tone of voice?   Was it…
 - Quizzical?    Like He did not know.                          
 - Angry?         Like they were hiding from Him.
 - Indifferent? Like God did not care that He didn’t find them. 
 - Idle curiosity?   No way!   I think God spoke “sobbingly”, crying because open conversational communication ceased with His creation.  God was heartbroken when asking Adam where he was and what he had done.  Man could no longer talk openly to God!  Brandon Cox* pointed out “But we were made by our Creator to connect with others, and intimacy is a deep and abiding need of every human heart.  We need to know and be known.”

How does sin keep us from talking openly to God and to others?  Why do we wear masks to church?  Where else do we wear masks?  Facebook and other social media!  Is it really “Social” if we only talk of things mentionable.  Are we hiding our true selves?  Why is it difficult to get accountability amongst our peers, even in small groups designed for fellowship?

What keeps us from getting close enough and honest enough with others to fully know them or to be fully known by them?  Answer – SIN.  When sin is present, communication is closed which leads to hatred, racism, prejudice and inequality in the world.  Sin is the obstacle preventing open communication with God as-well-as with fellow man.  Even among the “Saved” sin becomes an obstacle to openness. 

I wonder if Adam and Eve continued to have open communication with each other?  Husbands and wives struggle with silence resulting from sin and this leads to dissolution of over half the marriages and damaged relationships.  We were warned against silence - “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” Eph. 4:26   Sin and the resulting silence leads to all kinds of relationship breakdowns, including wars.  How do you feel as a parent when your child gets caught misbehaving and avoids talking to you about it?  And we carry the sins committed against us; they result in shame which seals our lips, causing us to go silent, further limiting our openness.

Do our sins and awareness of our sinful nature hamper us from the sharing of the Gospel as we know we ought?  In the olden days (from 6,000 years ago until my childhood) we only had face-to-face conversation as our Social Media.  But now we have powerful tools available – Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc. all vying for our thumbs.  What an opportunity to share the Gospel!

Points to ponder

Why are we afraid to “get real”?    RSVP
What happens to a relationship when you share the real you – the good, bad & ugly?

What are the advantages of face-to-face conversations?
Would there be so much “Hate Speech” online if people had to talk face-to-face?

How effectively do we use the available Social Media options to openly share the Gospel?
Would we be obeying Jesus if we “Go into all the world” with Social Media?

♫ Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere.  Our Jesus Christ is born. ♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 23, 2019

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

* Inspired and excerpted from “Rewired” by Brandon Cox, Chapter 2 “The Day the Conversation Died”

Musing - How Big is Your God?

Hebraic Hebraic Musing - How Big is Your God?

How we handle life depends on how big we believe God is.  If He’s too small…

1) You will live in constant anxiety thinking everything depends on you.

2) Your outlook will be dictated by your surroundings – or worse, your critics.

3) Without the acceptance of a loving God you’ll be a slave to other people’s opinions.

4) You’ll constantly crave recognition from the world, instead of from Father God.

All those debilitating tendencies result from our failure to recognize – "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,"   declares the Lord.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts….”  Isa. 55:8-9  NIV   Do we find ourselves relying on our thoughts instead of His? 

So why might God not answer our prayer(s)?  I heard somewhere that “when we make the mistake of shrinking God, we offer prayer without faith, work without passion, service without joy and suffering without hope – which results in fear, retreat, loss of vision and failure to persevere.” 

Let’s look at a classic example from the OT.  David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam.13:14) and David knew he served a big God.  When Goliath threatened the Israelites “Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” 1 Sam 17:11    We know what happened.  David arrived, assessed the situation and went out to fight Goliath.  “David said to the Philistine (Goliath), ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’”  1 Sam 17:45   And David finished the challenge by saying “…for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands." 1 Sam 17:47   How confident was David in the Lord’s battle plan?  He “Chose five smooth stones” so that he had four more stones, one for each of Goliath’s brothers!

We can face anything when we know what David knew – “the battle belongs to the Lord.”   Interesting, the Lord has never lost one yet!  So why do we depend so heavily on our own resources?  David may have felt small, but he knew his God was big enough for the job.  Do we really know that?   Enough to rely on it?

We’ve all recited Romans 8:31.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  An Eighteenth-century Anglican clergyman John Newton said, “If the Lord be with us we have no cause for fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer, His grace sufficient, [and] His promises unchangeable.” 

How big is our God?  Consider…

·          “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”  Isa 40:28 

·         “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.” Ps 147:5

·         “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”   Ps 8:3-4

Wow!  We serve a BIG GOD!

Points to ponder

Would God be more willing to answer prayers
if you acknowledge how big He is?

♫ Our God is an awesome God he reigns from heaven above
with wisdom, power and love.  Our God is an awesome God. ♫

Is your situation too big for Father God?

Reply SVP.

 ‘The battle is the LORD’s…he will give you into our hands.’  1 Samuel 17:47 KJV

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 16, 2019  

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Musing – Why People “Have To” Work? Who’s their Master?

Hebraic Musing – Why People “Have To” Work?  Who’s their Master?

Have you ever experienced the difference between having to do something vs. wanting to do something?  The problem often starts with the abusing of the Commandment re coveting back in in Deut. 5:21   "You shall not covet …."    And the Apostle John clarifies this even more in 1 John 2:15-16 – “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. ”   NIV

In the days when I was growing up, the working-man had a purpose for going to work.  He wanted to buy a car, or make the 20% down payment on a house, and to be the provider for a family.  These were worth-while reasons to go to work, to acquire desirable things!  I took on my first jobs so I could buy a bike and a camera.

God promised His children rich blessings, with a big IF – “For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations BUT will borrow from none.  You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.”  Deut. 15:4-6    And God had to say it again 13 chapters later – “The Lord will open the heavens,… to bless all the work of your hands.  You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.  The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.  IF you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God….”   Deut. 28:12-13   

Did you get the message?  God does not want His people to borrow, to go into debt, to owe to others…  “Debt” is mentioned 10 times in the bible and the inference is always that debt is “not good”!  And “Labor” is mentioned 92 times and it’s mostly in a “Forced” or “Harsh” tone!

The oppressed had to work and were taken advantage of, thus oppressed & depressed.  What did Nehemiah find the Jews saying when he returned from to Israel from the exile?   "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine."   … "We have had to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. … we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. … we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others."   When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.”    Nehemiah 5:3-6

Key point is summarized in Proverbs 22:7 -- “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”    And that is why the popular credit card is called a MASTER CARD.  When in debt, who is the master?  Those in debt become victimized slaves.  “Will not your debtors suddenly arise?  Will they not wake up and make you tremble?  Then you will become their victim.”  Habakkuk 2:7 

And do creditors show mercy?  NO!  “May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.  May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.” Ps 109:11-12

Points to ponder

Which is more motivating?
(A) Wanting to go to work to buy a car, earn up a house down payment, a vacation. 
(B)  Having to go work so you can make the next car payment,
or to try to pay down the credit card debt from impulsive
 material luxuries like last year’s cruise, and/or
at least to pay down some of the monthly usurious interest!

If you answered “B”, please go back to the top and read this musing again.

The Lord wants to make you the head, not the tail.  (Deut. 28:13)  

“Owe no one anything except to love one another,…”  Rom 13:8 NKJV

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 9, 2019  

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Additional references to consider - Isa 49:4,  Isa 55:1-2,   Ps 128:1-2,   Rev 17:12-13,   Matt 18:25-34

Musing - Does Socialism Violate any of the 10 Commandments?

Hebraic Musing - Does Socialism Violate any of the 10 Commandments?

Many nations and countries have adopted Socialism and they have all failed the people in so many ways.  Why?  Maybe Socialism does not fit God’s plan for His people?  God gave us Ten Commandments which are universally accepted by the Judeo-Christian community.  However we now have each of the Democratic presidential candidates promoting Socialistic agendas and claiming it will work for the good of the people. 

Does Socialism agree with or does it violate each of the God-given Commandments?

You shall have no other gods before Me – Socialism and its offshoots — communism, fascism, democratic socialism and Nazism enshrine the state above all other powers.  There is no room for God, which is why socialists are in a permanent war with the church while promoting a faith-free society.

You shall make no idols – Idols are valued higher than God.  Government power over fellow man is the idol.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain – Socialists openly blaspheme God and especially Jesus Christ in order to enforce their new order.  Our entertainment industry openly promotes immorality.

Keep the Sabbath day holy – Sundays are no different from any other day in socialist societies.  Going to church on a Sunday identifies one as Christian and invites persecution.  As Atheism becomes the official state religion, respect for the Sabbath wanes.

Honor your father and your mother – Socialism wars with marriage and family.  “The Communist Manifesto” promotes doing away with marital fidelity and assigning children to communal rearing, the “Village”.  The authors understood the family to be a mainstay of the church, but since families becomes a competing source of authority the family stands in the way of the collectivist regime’s thinking.

You shall not murder – Socialists have long promoted abortion as a way to “liberate” women and men from parental responsibilities.

You shall not commit adultery – In the 1960s, Americans began using the term “free love”; but socialists have been promoting it heavily since the 1800s.  Sex outside marriage, prostitution, pornography and abortion all work against marital fidelity.  Socialists deploy euphemisms like “free choice” to cover the sinful behaviors. 

You shall not steal – Socialism is grand theft.  The state takes earnings from productive people and redistributes it to create dependency on the political powers that are handing it out.  Socialist countries first control and then seize private property. “The Communist Manifesto” promotes “Abolition of private property.”

You shall not bear false witness – Marx wrote “the ends justify the means,” so they can do or say anything as long as it advances the revolutionists goal.  “You can keep your health plan if you like your health plan.”

You shall not covet – Socialism gets its support by using envy, stoking resentment against others who have more, even to the point of using violence to get it, i.e. Smashing windows.

Deut. 28 starts with “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands…” and then lists 14 verses of blessings.  Then verse 15 states another promise. “However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: …” and the next 53 verses spell out all the curses to expect!   Doesn’t “fully obey” mean all Ten Commandments?

Points to ponder

What’s the score?  How many of the 10 commandments are being violated?

“They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.”  Neh. 9:17  NIV

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 2, 2019

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”     Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Note – Inspired and excerpted from “How socialism violates all Ten Commandments” By Robert Knight