For most of my life, I have been very drawn to and interested in Israel and in the Jewish people. So, in saying that, I have recently in the last 1 1/2 years become connected with a fellowship of Messianic people. I feel like I've blossomed into a full understand of the whole bible. I've been saved since 1978 and have been a student of His Word with passion, but this has launched me into a really full understanding of the Law of God and the realization of why the Law is so important for us that believe, for today. In knowing Yeshua (this is the Hebrew name that Yeshua's mother would have called Him. Jesus is Greek for His name) I have truly come to really understand from the back part of the Bible that we call the 'New Testament', what Yeshua (Jesus) truly came to fulfill. It was not to make a new religion we call 'Christianity' but it was to complete the First Covenant, Old Testament, and give us the fullness of Truth. We have a covenant with God through His whole Word. One Covenant did not void out another. A covenant is for life and does not stop functioning. The writers of the 'New Covenant', or continuing Covenant from the First (O.T.) did not intend to void out the First Covenant with the writings from the Newer Covenant. The followers and disciples of Yeshua were Torah keeping believers of Yeshua. They did not have a 'New Testament', they were the New Testament of the life of knowing and following Yeshua. Their time with Him was a testimony written down for us that is the Gospel, the Good News, of the Messiah and what He did in coming here to save us. So, this journey has really opened up my eyes to the full understanding of the power of the First Covenant that Moses and the Prophets of God, wrote down for us. In studying the Torah and learning even more through the eyes of the historical part of the Bible, just how amazing His Word is and in so exploring all that I am learning, I am amazed at what I'm learning and how solid and confident, even more now, that I am from where I've come from in my years of Salvation. Thank you , Lord for teaching me and for learning the deep understanding of Your Word and the power of the Law in my life.
I will probably really frustrate some people that read this. I have had this on my heart for so many many years that I felt I had to sit down and write about it. I want to say first, that I have no degree and do not have education to this degree of mental counseling, however, God gives us the discernment and knowledge of His Word in renewing our minds and as it says in Colossians 1:9-14: We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,e10so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified youf to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So, all wisdom and knowledge comes from the Father through His Word and His Spirit in us to discern what we see through our understanding in Him and in the fruit of what it bears in the world. I've watched this 'movement' of the lie of 'self-esteem' play out in the past 40 years and its has not proved to be good, in fact, its done great damage, in my opinion, watching the Body of Christ, slowly accept this way of thinking that has even crept in to our churches and sermons and in using the phrase and wordage in bible studies too. This disciplining tool of those who are just connecting to the world of Believers in Yeshua, is not biblical and will in fact, keep someone confused and in deception in growing into Him and finding the full confidence in Him and not of ourselves.
My intentions are not to frustrate or to upset, but to help others see how we so easily follow the thoughts and ways and thinking of the world's point of view and take on their belief systems.
Long ago, there was no encouragement to build up "self". People who knew the Word of God realized that the message was to deny oneself and put others first. In that, we fulfill the message of what Jesus/Yeshua came to give to the world.
Here is a link to the Scriptures in Matthew, the Words of Yeshua and it is saying that when we give our lives over to Him, we now focus on Him, His Word and His teaching of caring in a different way, and our focus is taken off ourselves and put on Him. We "take up His cross" and deny ourselves. He took up the cross, on His back, allowed Himself to be crucified and denied His whole self for the plan of giving up His own life for us. http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-24.htm New International Version Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Somewhere around 1970, there was a turn to 'self-esteem' and the message of having 'low-self-esteem' starting cropping up. The people that were counseling others, started pushing the thought of us being less, because we our 'self-esteem', 'self-worth' was too low.
It sounded so good. Doesn't that sound good? You are so sad, so down, so low, so grieved, etc., because you are not esteeming your'self' enough or others aren't esteeming you either. You are low in your dose of 'self' thinking of how great you are or how much better you can be.
Basically, this is taking on "man's" thinking and putting aside the words of God, through His Word, in saying that we esteem ourselves higher than we ought. American Standard Version For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. http://biblehub.com/romans/12-3.htm American Standard Version Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time;
Humility is part of the fruit born in us, through knowing God through Yeshua and emptying ourselves of ourselves and making others around us more important. Our focus on God then removes the self centered focus of ourselves and we are more likely then to see others as more important and remove the notion of being not enough and shift it to God.
In focusing now on God, it takes the focus off ourselves and we then stop esteeming ourselves too high.
In believing the message of the world's point of view, we still find ourselves empty and confused and never filled up enough within ourselves because there is too much self esteem of ourselves. We are constantly focusing on "Me, Myself and I". It really is the opposite of what people think it is. When we try to raise up our "self-esteem" we become so focused on our limitations, our weaknesses and our deficits, that we start believing we need more esteem, when the problem is we esteem ourselves too highly.
God is telling us through His Word and in following the teaching that Yeshua taught in the Gospels, to not esteem yourselves higher than we ought. We as human beings, born into the lost state, are selfish by nature.
What baby have you ever known is born ever behaves like , "Oh, I better not cry to disturb my parents". "Oh, I better give all my toys over to that little boy sitting by me on the floor"... NO, they grab, they bite, they push others down, they hit and they throw things at others... I don't call that others minded, I call that self minded. I want what I want.
So, we as parents teach them to learn how to put others first. It is the first things we teach.
We correct them all the time to consider our rules, our societal rules, thinking of others, etc.
We by nature, esteem ourselves TOO highly.
So, your sad, your upset, your depressed... yes, those are valid feelings and rule us in despair and feeling unworthy or lonely. All of us have felt that, its a common thing in us human beings.
So consider this to follow, the opposite of this worlds message.
So, in steps the truth... Jesus/Yeshua, our Savior, our example in living.
He came from Heaven and left all He created to enter into this life as a man and do the Father's will. He stepped down into this world of gravity, hunger, pain, living... and He set aside His life in Heaven with the Father and did the Father's will.
He did what His Father wanted...
He denied His own self.
He came to fulfill the Word and was about everyone else. Not to do His will, but the will of the Father. Berean Study Bible For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.
So, in knowing Yeshua, we now learn to focus our lives on Him and His Word. We start to realize that putting others first and learning to undo all the things we have believed and the lies of the world and the things the enemy, satan, has put in our path to cause us confusion and stumbling, to now be free to live for Him and in His Truth.
We are no longer obsessed and focused on "ME...ME...ME!!!!!" What's wrong with me? What kind of loser am I? What hope is there for the rest of my life here?
We now know, auuuuuhhh, I see, its all about Him! Wow, I've been focused all the time on me!!!!
You see, satan wants you all centered on yourself. If all you see is you, you will see all your faults, all your weaknesses, all your failings and you will NEVER EVER be able to rise above yourself to a height that will bring you satisfaction. He knows this will keep you hopeless and feeling defeated because you can't rise above all your downfalls, because it takes Jesus to rise above it all.
When you look into yourself, you won't find it my friend.
Being focused on you, will only bring despair. You will always be feeling inadequate. It is because you were born inadequate, there in lies the self-esteem lie and he doesn't want you to find out the truth... that you will only find life, fulfillment and confidence when you find Yeshua/Jesus and turn to Him.
Christ, Yeshua Ha Mashiach (The Messiah), The anointed One, is the only way, the only truth and when you focus your life on Him and deny yourself and live for Him and consider others higher and do for others and help others and encourage others, you will be lifted up.
He will lift you up out of the 'self-centered' obsession of not being good enough.
Because you see, the secret and mystery to being lifted up out of your feeling of lack, is realizing you are lacking, you are weak, you are 'not enough'... that is the revelation. It is in knowing you need something and SomeOne greater than yourself. Greater than your need of esteeming yourself more. Its in letting go of esteeming yourself that you find freedom.
What we lack, is our confidence in Yeshua because we are trying to find our answers in ourselves and building us up even more.
Our confidence is in Him not ourselves and we need Him so we stop esteeming ourselves too much.
Self-esteem is our deficit, not our answer. You see, in our 'sin nature' that we are born into, we are self centered beings and in need of a Savior to focus on Him and stop esteeming ourselves too high.
When we esteem God in our lives, higher than we are, when we bow to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and step aside from our self centered focus and focus on Him, we will find our confidence will grow, our lack of feeling not enough will be filled in Him, because He created us, He made us and we will no longer lack because our fulfillment comes through Him and in Him.
He is standing at the door of your life, He is knocking. The doorknob is on the inside and He has given you the choice to open it or not. So, when you decide to open up that door, step aside and let Him in and stop trying to find the strength within yourself, then you will find He is the One to lift you up and you can walk in confidence in knowing who you really are, a follower and believer in Yeshua, Jesus our Savior and our King.
I just think that the matter to spay or neuter is not to lean on a premise on it ending the problem we have with the shelters and the euthanizing of millions of animals yearly across the country. I am just making point to an underlying issue that no one seems to address.
As one who hardly spays or neuters, the only thing about this that I don't agree with the notion of SPAY, SPAY SPAY...
NEUTER NEUTER, NEUTER as the basis for all the problems of over population. It is simply this: Lack of Responsible Dog Ownership.
Our society lacks being responsible. We make it easy for people to keep making the same wrong decisions over and over again because we enable them by setting up groups and things that keep allowing for repeat irresponsible ownership. It blankets and covers up the real issue. We truly do need to educate more and teach how to take on an animal as a serious addition to their lives. This is like giving someone a fish and you've fed them for that moment, teach them to fish and you've fed them for a lifetime. Lets teach being responsible and not just try to fix the problem by thinking that spaying and neutering will end all the problems of people just breeding to make money or "we want our kids to see how a puppy is born". I really don't have any answers as to go about it except to do it in my life as much as I can with all that I meet to help them understand the importance of taking a dog into their lives and keeping it for life.
Part of the problem with the way thinking goes today is, neuter it, spay it... that is the
golden answer. This same animal can still terrorize the neighborhood and still bite and still rip up a garden, pee on trees, chew, and irritate your neighbors who hate dogs.
Now before you blast me, please... I get it. I worked in a shelter.
What I'm talking about is commitment to something... taking responsibility for the dog you have purchased/rescued adopted, etc. In the 3 years I worked at
the shelter, I saw many many neutered and spayed dogs come in to the shelter and turned in because of all sorts of weird reasons. They think that coming in and turning in the dog is responsible behavior, when really it is a lack of commitment to the purchase of that dog in the first place. They didn't count the cost and just figured, "Oh well, if it doesn't work out, we'll just turn it in to the shelter and give it up to be adopted out.
So, I guess what I'm trying to get at after 40 years of raising dogs, bitches in
season, male dogs, litters, raising children, running a home, being pregnant, baby sitting other children for families....etc., is I took responsibility... plain and simple.
So, my issue is more of the lack of being responsible and then the mindset is,
oh well, if "it" don't work out, I'll just call rescue... I'll just take it to a shelter/pound or worse, just open the door and let it go.
This is what I am most concerned about.... lack of responsibility. It has changed in our society so much in this area. Commitment takes on its responsibility to the decisions it makes and we are seeing the fruit of the lack of taking an account to the serious purchase/adoption of a dog by how full up our shelters are. People just need to realize when they adopt/purchase a puppy or dog that they are now responsible and that takes a commitment for the life of the dog. If you think for any reason that you should not take in a dog as a pet because of any future unforeseen reason that is rather obvious in the present, then don't get the dog. Take on this wonderful addition to your life seriously. Take on this dog as an addition to your family and commit for life.
