Stay Woke

“But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” Matt 13:25

#kingdom #love #king #jesus #god #faith #christ #church #life #bible #christian #art #royal #uk #anime #queen #unitedkingdom #united #follow #worship #manga #fellowship #monarchy #christianity #music #holyspirit #history #community #prayer #bhfyp

Parashat VaYakhel-Pekudei

Holy Place, Holy Time

Our double Torah portion concludes the tabernacle section of the Book of Exodus. It tells how the various parts of the tabernacle were fashioned, then it describes the erection of the building, the placing of all its appurtenances in their proper places, and finishes with a financial report on the amounts of precious metals used and an inventory of the special textiles incorporated.

Surprisingly, the Torah “interrupts” the account to instruct the Israelite on laws of Shabbat observance. The Torah tells us that labor (melakhah, dignified, creative work), that is, creation, is prohibited on the Shabbat (Exodus 35:2-3). The traditional commentaries scramble to explain the insertion of a seemingly unrelated set of laws. In his commentary Rashi suggests that the Shabbat instruction is inserted here—before the construction is described—to underscore that the work of building the tabernacle is prohibited on Shabbat.1 The holy work of building a house in which to meet and serve God, nevertheless, must stop on Shabbat. Getting the sanctuary done faster is not religiously significant enough to interfere with the global Shabbat instruction to live a day of pure being, dedicated to internal reflection and relationship. (Only pikuah nefesh, saving a life, is weighty enough to override the Shabbat prohibition of labor, because life is Judaism’s highest value).

There is another possible approach. These Shabbat laws are not an interruption but a juxtaposition. Shabbat represents sacred time. The tabernacle represents sacred space. These two phenomena are closely related. They are parallel to each other and they play an identical role in the ecology of Jewish religion. Hence they appear together in our Torah portion.

The key goal of Judaism, as I have argued in this series, is to repair and perfect the world so life will flourish to its fullest degree. In the Messianic age, human honor and dignity—the infinite value, equality, and uniqueness of every individual—will be upheld on a daily basis in real life. Living the Jewish covenant involves working in every generation to overcome the inequalities inflicted by poverty, oppression or discrimination, as well as to end the life-degrading effects of hunger, war, and sickness. We work on the present reality in an effort to improve it. There is a real tension between the ideal we strive for and what can be done in the present status quo. This tension is the dynamic which generates the energy to pursue our activities at an intense (covenantal) level and strive to live by the higher values in our daily lives. Given that the pace of covenantal improvement is incremental, we spend our whole lives in this work and the task is passed on to the next generation. 

The challenge is: How do we keep up the present impact of the ideal, when its actual realization is so far away? The covenantal process generates a real danger, that one will participate in—and then accommodate—the present reality, so as to slip into its routine. One may even unconsciously come to accept the norms and expectations of the status quo. How can we avoid selling out the dream and the mission?

There is a second danger. “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”2 How do we not lose the intensity and drawing power of the dream? This is the Achilles heel of the covenantal method, with its commitment to function in the present reality while working to change it.

The Jewish tradition deals with this challenge by creating sacred time and sacred space. The future perfected world is brought forward into the present in the form of a “mini-cosmos,” a miniature version of the ultimate goal. In the realm of time, the Torah carves out one day of the week, Shabbat. A. J. Heschel calls it an “island in time.”3During these twenty-five hours, one experiences the ultimate reality-to-come. On Shabbat, there is no labor (melakhah), i.e. dignified creative work to upgrade the world. This is not so much a prohibition as it is an imagined future fantasy, turned into a present experience. On this day, the world is complete, so there is nothing left to do.4

In a perfect world, one needs only to be, to live, to relate to family and friends, to self-develop, to learn Torah, to make love, to have family meals with time for conversation, to sing songs, to learn, as well as to enjoy company and guests. On Shabbat, good food and wine is provided to deepen the pleasure. On Shabbat there is no war, no deprivation, no public mourning. In effect, one lives in Messianic time and experiences the joys of a completely repaired world and the delight of a fully human experience with no distraction or anxieties to mar the day. For now, this is only twenty-five hours and the peace and perfection are artificially created in that the rest of the world is not keeping Shabbat. But for the practitioner, the promised future perfection is present, vivid, and real.5

The same function is carried out in the creation of sacred space. In this building—be it tabernacle or temple—one carves out a mini-world. It is made of precious, permanent, non-decaying metals, like gold and silver, to symbolize eternity and the absence of decay and death. In this space, no human death is present. Even people who have been in proximity to death and as a result become ritually impure, cannot enter until they have undergone a purification and rebirth-to-life ceremony. In this space, the priests are perfect physical specimens, foreshadowing the Messianic era with full cure of disabilities that handicap people.6 Everyone is ethically on their best behavior.7 There is no war, no strife, no clashing interests. One feels the presence of God in the absence of evil and in the unity of the divine and human in common cause. Again the Messianic reality is only inside this one building. But the experience is vivid and real.

This is the covenantal method of keeping the dream alive. A mini-redeemed world is set up and experienced deeply in time and space now. The encounter is so powerful that the participant knows that this is real - not just an idle fantasy. Thanks to this present experience, the future is not some distant star that is too far away to exercise gravitational pull. Then when one walks out of the Temple or re-enters the weekday, one sees with fresh eyes all the flaws, the missing qualities, the compromises of the present. Energized by the taste of the messianic, the religious celebrant determines not to settle for the status quo but to change it.

This is the covenantal method of world transformation which the Torah portion holds up as twin tracks on the way to tikkun olam, world repair. Start by redeeming one day, then widen the liberation steadily into Sunday, Monday—until all seven days are perfected. Start with one ideal building, then extend it to one city, then into one country. Keep on extending the zone of life, freedom, perfection, get some allies along the way, and some day the whole world will be redeemed, a Garden of Eden with liberty and justice, love and peace for all.

Shabbat Shalom.

⚠️ Under Construction

“GOD ’s the one who rebuilds Jerusalem, who regathers Israel’s scattered exiles. He heals the heartbroken and bandages their wounds. He counts the stars and assigns each a name. Our Lord is great, with limitless strength; we’ll never comprehend what he knows and does. GOD puts the fallen on their feet again and pushes the wicked into the ditch.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭147:2-6‬ ‭MSG‬‬

https://www.bible.com/97/psa.147.2-6.msg
#kingdom #love #king #jesus #god #faith #christ #church #life #bible #christian #art #royal #uk #anime #queen #unitedkingdom #united #follow #worship #manga #fellowship #monarchy #christianity #music #holyspirit #history #community #prayer #bhfyp

How to pray when you are tempted by anger

Five Things to Pray

I do not know if you, who are reading this, are struggling with anger. If you are, I do not know what is making you angry. It may be something very deeply distressing. I cannot, therefore, write to you as a pastor could speak, having listened to your heart and prayed with you and perhaps wept with you as you weep. I want simply to offer five pointers from the Bible, five things you might focus on in your prayers as you seek to do the heart work necessary in your own circumstances. You may wish to talk this over with a brother or sister in Christ or with a pastor.

1. Pray for a deeper conviction of your own sin.

I want—with fear and trembling—to begin with something deeply counter-intuitive. I want to encourage you to ask God to show you as never before the depth and misery of your own sin. Wow! you say. That is outrageous! I come to you with some terrible grievance, some story of how another has wronged me, and all you can do is try to tell me how bad I am. That is pastoral insensitivity indeed!

And yet that is, as I understand it, what the Lord Jesus does in Matthew 18:21–35. A brother or sister in Christ has offended me. I am struggling to forgive them. And Jesus tells me a story in which, however big the debt the wrongdoer owes to me (and it is not trivial), the debt on which I need to meditate is the astronomical debt that I owe

Astronomical! Lord, show me more of my own sin. And that—paradoxically—will begin to put my heart in the place where I can address the bitter anger that is eating me up. Help me grasp how much you have forgiven me in Jesus. Please.

2. Pray for the Holy Spirit to make you angry about the right things.

My problem—and it may be yours—is that I am naturally angry when my own treasures are attacked, my own reputation damaged, my own comfort threatened, my own control compromised, my own projects opposed. What I want is all directed the wrong way, to spend on my own desires and passions (James 4:3).

The Bible tells me I ought to be furiously angry—with the anger of Jesus and the anger of the Spirit of God—when the honor of God the Father is attacked (John 2:17), when the wicked turn away from God’s good law (Ps. 119:53), when Jesus is dishonored and the Bible despised. I am not to be angry because this might damage my own reputation as a pastor, but because I care for the honor of God. Because I long deeply for his righteousness and his kingdom.

It is easy enough to say this but an extraordinarily deep and difficult task to achieve it, for it means a change deep in my heart. And such a change cannot even begin except the Spirit of Jesus should work radically in me. Only God can do this. I need, therefore, to make it a definite focus of my prayers. Lord, change me so that I care less about myself and more deeply about your honor and glory in your world.

3. Pray for the wisdom from above.

James promises that “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). That is a wonderful promise. I used to think it meant I could ask God to know which way to go in life’s big and little decisions. But when James talks about wisdom again in chapter 3, it is clear that wisdom is not so much knowing what decision to take as growing in godly character (James 3:13–18). In particular, if I am struggling with ungodly anger, then only the wisdom that comes from above will shape me to be “pure . . . peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruit.” So I can claim the promise of James 1:5in my struggle with anger because God has promised to give me a slow-growing, long-lasting, deep-rooted wisdom from above that will change the person I am. That is a very wonderful promise indeed, and one worthy of some intentional praying!

Because God is angry with injustice and evil, you and I can leave space for his anger by not taking the law into our own hands.

4. Pray for the ability to leave room for the anger of God.

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves,” writes Paul, “but give place to the wrath of God” (Rom. 12:19). People often say they don’t like the idea of an angry God. Behind this is sometimes the thought that an angry God leads to angry Christians who with then act with violence like the religious fanatics of some other religions. But when we understand the Bible’s teaching about the wrath of God, it has precisely—precisely!—the opposite effect on us. If God is not angry at wrong, then it is all down to me and my fellow religious fanatics: we must put things right; and if necessary, by violent actions. But, precisely because God is angry with injustice and evil, you and I can leave space for his anger by not taking the law into our own hands. This is what the psalmists repeatedly do as they pray for God to act in judgment on the wicked.

If I, or one dear to me, has been wronged, the bitter anger that can eat up my heart is fueled by the unspoken thought that only I—or we—can put this right. The more terrible the wrong the deeper the resentment and bitterness digs into our souls. Some wrongs are just so destructive and dark that it feels that only a lifetime of bitter anger can hope to address them. Such would be true, for example, of the wickedness of physical or sexual abuse of a child. In many parts of the world and at many times in church history, the sufferings of the martyrs have been such that only hope in the last judgment of God can take away this gangrenous bitter anger. If this is you in any measure, please hear again the word of Romans 12. You do not need to avenge yourself because you may be completely confident that “vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19, quoting Deuteronomy 32:35).

5. Pray for Jesus to return soon.

For my final pointer, I want to come back to the letter of James. As we read through the letter it becomes clear that many of the Christians to whom James writes are suffering bitter injustice. They have plenty of reason to be angry—very angry, furiously angry. In James 5:1–6 we meet some of the oppressors and hear a vigorous—terrifying!—word of imminent judgment on them (a word which ought to encourage us to search our hearts lest we too be guilty). And then, in James 5:7–11, he stirs his hearers to “be patient . . . until the coming of the Lord.” For Jesus will return very soon. He is “standing at the door.” Pray that he will come soon, for this is what he has promised: “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20).

Reading the Megillah

 Reading the Megillah 

The Scroll of Esther, which tells the Purim story, is chanted in synagogue twice on Purim.

The Scroll of Esther, known as the Megillah, is chanted in the synagogue on the eve of Purim and again the next morning. It is the last of the five scrolls that form part of the third division of the Bible, known as the Ketuvim, or Writings.

Megillat Esther tells the story of the salvation of the Jews of the Persian Empire. The Scroll of Esther is universally known as the Megillah, not because it is the most important of the five scrolls, but due to its immense popularity, the prominence that is given to its public reading, and the fact that it is the only one that is still generally read from a parchment scroll. At one time, it was normative for every Jewish household to possess a Megillah, and much time and skill were devoted to the production of beautifully illuminated texts and elaborate wooden and silver cases that would house the scroll.

The primary synagogue observance connected with Purim is the reading of the Book of Esther, called the Megillah (“scroll”). It is traditionally read twice: in the evening, after the Amidah prayer of the Maariv service and before the Aleinu, and in the morning after the Torah reading.

The Megillah is read from a parchment scroll that is written the same way a Torah is written — by hand, with a goose quill. If there is no such scroll available, the congregation may read the Book of Esther from a printed text, without the accompanying benedictions.

The Book of Esther is chanted according to a special cantillation used only in the reading of the Book of Esther. [This cantillation parodies the tropes used for reading at other times of the year.] If no one is present who knows this cantillation, it may be read without the cantillation, as long as it is read correctly. According to the Code of Jewish Law (Orach Chayim 690:9), it may be read in the language of the land. In practice, however, the usual custom is to chant the Megillah from the scroll in its original Hebrew.

Before the reading, the custom is to unroll the scroll and fold it so that it looks like a letter of dispatch, thus further recalling the story of the great deliverance.

• The Megillah must be read standing and from the scroll, not by heart. During the reading, there are four special verses, called “verses of redemption” (pesukei ge’ulah) that are [traditionally] said aloud by the congregation and then repeated by the reader. [Esther 2:5, 8:15-16, 10:3]

• At certain key points in the Book of Esther, it is a custom for the reader to raise his or her voice, adding drama to the story. [Esther 1:22, 2:4, 2:17, 4:14, 5:4, 6:1. In this last verse the king cannot sleep and commands that the book of records of chronicles be read to him. This is considered to be the turning point in the Esther story.]

• Another interesting part of the chanting of the Book of Esther is the four verses (Esther 9: 7-10) enumerating the 10 sons of Haman. The custom, already mentioned in the Talmud (Megillah 16b), is for the reader to chant the names of Haman’s sons in one single breath, in order to signify that they died together. Another reasons for this custom is the fact that we should avoid the appearance of gloating over their fate, even though it was deserved.

Congregational Participation

It is a widespread custom for the listeners at the Megillah reading to make noise, usually with special noisemakers called graggers, or in Hebrew ra’ashanim, whenever Haman’s name is mentioned. Some congregations also encourage the use of wind and percussion instruments as noisemakers.

The custom of blotting out the name of Haman appears to be the outgrowth of a custom once prevalent in France and Provence, where the children wrote the name of Haman on smooth stones, then struck them together whenever Haman was mentioned in the reading so as to rub it off, as suggested by the verse “the name of the wicked shall rot” (Proverbs 10:7).

Many modern-day congregations today are known to hold concurrent readings of the Megillah, each reading specially tailored to a particular age group or level of understanding. The singing of Purim songs during the reading of the Megillah, dressing up in costume, and other acts of frivolity are also part of today’s modern Megillah-reading festivities.

Rabbi R. Isaac’s

Holiness, Living in the Fullness of God

In the second of four weekly Torah portions that focus on the tabernacle and the realm of the sacred, Parashat Tetzaveh is primarily dedicated to the establishment and consecration of the priesthood, and the creation of the priestly vestments worn during the sanctuary services. To understand the nature and function of the priests, one must draw on the description of them in Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21-24). There we are told that the key concept associated with priests is holiness. “They shall be holy to their God… You shall sanctify him [the priest]... he shall be holy to you for I—the Lord who sanctifiesyou—am holy” (Leviticus 21:6, 8). Being holy has to do with being more like God, whose very nature is holy. What aspect of God are we to imitate to become holy? What does holiness actually mean?

The key to understanding holiness is found in the Torah’s teaching of Creation, which includes the concept of multiple levels of existence. Genesis opens with the assertion that this world is not an accident or random outcome of a blind material process. Reality is formed, and its patterns and processes are shaped, by the Creator who has certain goals and outcomes in mind. “It was not made to be void; it was created to be filled with life” (Isaiah 42:18). Humans are called to fill Creation with life and to repair the world so it will support life to the maximum, in all its dignity and value. This mortal realm is real, not an illusion. This world is a precious creation and it is a religious calling to participate in it.

However, the material level is only the surface of reality, like the tip of an iceberg. Physical reality is floating in a sea of spiritual matter, that is, God. The Lord is invisible, immeasurable, yet is the very source of existence. This means that there are unseen depths, realms of existence, that are just as real as the physical, visible, measurable surface. The key to living properly is to participate in the physical life affirmatively and purposefully, but not to absolutize it. One should know its limits and be able to go beyond it and experience other aspects of reality.

Human beings cannot access God via physical channels. Moreover, people can live entirely on the surface, physical level and never encounter God or the spiritual depths. However, if people live that way, they are missing whole segments of reality. The Torah rejects the reductionist psychology that treats the inner life as illusory, as nothing more than epiphenomena of physical matter in motion.1 The Torah tells us to drill down to the depth dimension of life where we encounter God—through intuition, inner experience, and relationship. Likewise, the Torah blesses and commands going inward to receive and give love and enter into relationships. These experiences are real, perhaps the most important and enriching aspects of life.

Holiness is arrived at when one lives life in its fullest dimensions, when one experiences the physical and the spiritual in interaction with each other. When I meet another person and interact casually, even if I treat them honestly and respectfully, I am living properly. But when I deepen the exchange into a relationship, into caring and loving the other, then I get to know them in depth as an image of God. I experience them not just as another person, but as a wondrous creature that is of infinite value, equal and unique. This is a moment of holy encounter. Then, if I go deeper, on and through and beyond meeting the other, I encounter the divine medium, the God in which the image is rooted. This too is the experience of holiness.

Leviticus (19:2) tells us that, as God is holy, so are all people to become more like God—that is, be holy. God represents life in its most intense form with all of its capabilities. God possesses consciousness—Infinite Consciousness—as well as Power in omnipotent form on the side of life. God has the capacity for Relationship, i.e. Infinite Love. God has Freedom—that is, total, uncontrolled, non-manipulatable free will. Humans are instructed to become more like God. They become more holy by developing their consciousness, by creating and applying more power for life and good, by deepening their capacity for love and relationship, by exercising free will to choose life and do good. In all these areas, living a life of Torah and mitzvot really means embracing the fullness of life: savoring life, loving more, and nurturing more. Living in the fullest dimensions of life is attaining holiness and holiness is found in the fullness of life.

Actions of living life deeply bring one to holiness. The Talmud (Sotah 17a) says that in a moment of committed partners making love, the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) is present and this is a holy occasion. Similarly, when guests are welcomed with friendship and treated with genuine hospitality, this is a holy moment equivalent to greeting the Shekhinah (Babylonian Talmud Shevuot 35b). In a moment when two (or more) people come together and immerse in the meaning of a Torah text, minds and hearts are intertwined and all aspects of existence and reality are woven together—the Shekhinah is present and this is a holy moment.2

In most of life, these experiences are real but they are of fleeting duration; in much of the rest, God is present but we are oblivious. We meet the others in the present but we are engaged only at the surface level. The ideal is to treat the life before us, in all its forms, with the fullest dignity and value which it deserves. The Torah projects that in the Messianic age, where the world and society is fully repaired, people will be honored at the level of value and dignity to which—in their fully rounded existence—they are entitled. In the current world, we reach that state of holiness only occasionally, and only when we live life to its fullest depth.

Living in a state of holiness is what priesthood is about. To anticipate the future and to model how to behave to get there, a section of the population is set aside—sanctified—as priests. They live life in its fullest dimensions, i.e. in a state of holiness. The environment around the priests (the tabernacle) is structured so that there is no presence of human death is permitted. Ethical integrity and genuine affection is standard operating procedure. Here, God is manifestly present all the time.3 The priests accept the task of living in this setting and meeting its standards all the time: they accept more limitations on behavior than the average person; they strive for physical excellence and emotional and ethical perfection; they serve God all the time. They turn themselves into a conduit to lovingly4channel God’s blessings—the blessing of vitality and depth in life—to the rest of the population living in the not yet fully repaired society.

In a way, this is an artificial existence, living a filtered life in a controlled environment. Priests are able to live this way because they are relieved of the burden of making a living, or running the general policy and repairing the ordinary messes in society. Still, they function as an avant garde, living now at a depth level and at an emotional and ethical excellence that is meant to inspire all the people. The priests and the sanctuary are created to engage the rest of society to visit, view, and imitate.

That is why the Torah moves to assure that priesthood is not seen simply as a genetic hierarchy. Priests are living examples, who earn their distinction by their behaviors and role models. To allow others to join in uplifting society, the Torah provides a model of joining a kind of priesthood for a temporary period—the Nazirite.5

Maimonides writes that every person in the world (including non-Jews) who is inspired to stand before God and who gives up the preoccupations and distractions of daily life to serve God all the time, i.e. lives like a priest, a life of full-time holiness, will be “sanctified as kodesh kodashim (holy of holies).”6 I believe that this is Maimonides’ application of Isaiah’s prophecy, that in the end of days, God “will also take of others [Gentiles] to the priests and Levites” (Isaiah 66:21). At that time, every Jew will be a priest, fulfilling the divine promise of Israel becoming a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Then the whole earth will be like the tabernacle (or Temple) and all will live a holy existence: life to its fullest, in ethical and physical wholeness, in a permanent state of holiness.

Shabbat Shalom.

Fixed Fight

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 15:57

Magic Kingdom

The Believer’s Acknowledgment

  I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.  Job 42:2

New Beginnings

New Beginnings...Is 24:15

Acquiesce His Power

Recognize His wisdom

Acknowledge His Goodness

Quadruple Grace

Manifest Presence

Inspired By Praise

Praise God

Praise courageously 

Praise confidently

Praise fearlessly 

Praise fervently

Praise intelligibly 

Ascribe glory to the honor of His name

Rejoice in His renewing work 

Rejoice in His reconciling work

Rejoice in His redeeming work

Rejoice in His supernatural providence

Rejoice in His Indwelling Presence

Rejoice in His Manifest Presence 

Rejoice in His Sovereign Power

Praise Him among the people 

Praise Him among the nations

Praise Him because His mercy is great above the heavens 

Praise Him because His truth is above the clouds 

Honor God

Resolve to believe 

Celebrate the Victory in His name

Anchor Of The Soul

Heirs of the promise 

Eternal life and abundantly life

Eternal blessings

Sealed 

Confirmed

Assured

A solid declaration

Solid assurance 

An unbreakable lifeline

Encouraged 

Strengthened

Gracious design

Absolute confidence

The impossibilities of men are possible with God

Condescending grace 

The Immutability of His counsel

The Steadfast and unwavering purpose of God

Sovereign authority 

Divine promise

Strong consolation 

Jesus, the forerunner

The Great High Priest

Hope as an anchor

The Anchor of our Soul

Abiding in Christ

Partake of Him

Become new in Him

Trust in Him

Live in Him

Dwell in Him

Remain in Him

Ye are Christ’s 

Continue in Him

Let Christ’s words abide in you

Know them

Believe them

Remember them

Persevere through them

Allow His words to sanctify you

Allow His words to be productive in you

Abide in Christ 

Keep His words

This investment leads to eternal blessedness

Prepare For War

Prepare

Sanctify yourselves

Wake up

Assemble

Come up

Get Going

Draw near

Come up

Don’t hesitate

Don’t fear

Fight

Conquer

Quit yourselves like men

Hasten yourselves for battle 

Come speedily

Gather yourselves together

Draw closer

Be decisive

Don’t delay

Now is the acceptable time

Judgment day is coming

You are a living sacrifice

Beat your plow shares into swords

He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.

Put on, therefore, the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand

Come, all ye heathen.

Prepare for judgment 

The day of the Lord is near

Believing To See

Believing to see...The Lord above all

Believing to see..God’s promises

Believing to see...God’s Providence

Believing to see..What I’ve hoped for

Believing to see..What my soul desires

Believing to see...Heaven’s felicity

Believing to see...Eternal weights of glory

Believing to see...Triumph over trials

Believing to see...Manifestation over misery

Believing to see...Commendation over reproach

Believing to see...Certainty over confusion

Believing to see...Peace on earth

Believing to see...Righteous distinctions

Believing to see...The doings of God

Believing to see...The salvation of the Lord

Believing to see...The treasures of His grace

Believing to see...The unsearchable riches of Christ

Believing to see...The Hope of glory

Fully Committed

Consider your old life of sin dead

Consider your old passions crucified

Consider the old mind cleansed 

Consider yourselves alive through Christ

Live by the dictates of the Spirit

Surrender your desires to the will of Christ 

Be decisive

Overcome evil with good

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

Rely upon His leadership

Walk in the Spirit

Live purposefully 

Live by faith through Christ Jesus

God loves you

He proved His love by offering himself sacrificially

He only is the propitiation for our sins

Hold fast the pattern of sound words

Our redemption draws nigh