Neighborhood Ministries

Time, Truth, and Education –God places great value on time, both past, present, and future. We must remember past events and learn from them, we must experience His presence in the present through celebrating the past, and we must look forward to the future when He will fulfill what He promised. God told the Jews to  celebrate three events as a way of doing that and to do it forever. Many say we are not under the law any longer and do not have to celebrate them, however that is only partially true. They were designed to teach the major tenets of the faith. By celebrating them, it reminded the Jews of what God had done and showed them what God would do. They continued to celebrate them, but forgot the meaning of them, so they did not recognize Jesus when He came.  God has fulfilled two of the celebrations so we no longer look forward to their fulfillment, yet they should now be a part of our experience and worth celebrating. We celebrate our birth, why not celebrate being born again. We celebrate when God gave the law to guide the Jews, why not celebrate when the Holy Spirit came into our lives and became our teacher and guide. I am glad Jesus came to save me and that the Holy Spirit came to guide me, and I celebrate those events. Do you? God has not fulfilled Rosh Hosanna. Jesus said he will come again and take those who are His, to be with Him. However, He said if we are not ready when He comes, we will be left behind, so it is important to remember that He is coming and to be ready. How can we be ready, if we don’t remind ourselves that He is coming. If we forget, we will not be ready and we will be left behind like the Jews that forgot He was coming the first time. Just about everything I do is designed to prepare myself and those who are willing to listen, to walk with Jesus. What do you spend most of your time for? Time is important. The time to prepare is now. When time ends, there won’t be a second chance.

God’s Values vs Man’s values   Man looks at things from his own perspective, while God sees the whole picture. Man’s values are those that appear to benefit him and fail to realize the fact that what benefits others will ultimately benefit him. Without God, we are centered on getting things for us. If there are four people and one pie, man sees the benefit of getting the whole pie, but everyone can’t have the whole pie. There will be a struggle and only the strongest will get the pie. They all will only benefit if they divide the pie. God laid down His values in the Ten Commandments and throughout the Bible, to provide for the benefit of everyone, but they seem foolish to man. Why should we give in order to receive when all we have to do is take it. If we give, the other person may not give back, but if we take it, someone else will want to take it from us. We will only find peace and happiness as we understand the love of God and see things from His perspective. In the weeks ahead, I will be examining the various values and how God and man see them differently.