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"..Jesus has been given priestly work which is superior to theirs,..the covenant which he arranged between God and his people is a better one, because it is based on promises of better things. If there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, there would have been no need for a second one..By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear." (Hebrews 8:6-13 GNB)
paradigm, paradigm shift - From the Greek word paradhma (paradigma),... a paradigm is simply the predominant worldview in the realm of human thought..A paradigm shift occurs when cultures transform their way of thinking from one thought system to another. For instance, prior to Copernicus and Galileo (ca. 1600), most people believed that astral bodies revolved around the earth (geocentrism); but after the Copernican Revolution (ca. 1600), it became obvious that the earth revolved around the sun (heliocentrism) -- thus, a major paradigm shift occurred from geocentrism to heliocentrism..Simply put, then, a paradigm shift is a pivotal change in humanity's way of thinking regarding a particular worldview.
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In the series so far, we have established the following:
Here we finish off the series with some final thoughts:
[I]. The tendency to want to add to the finished work of the cross is a human tendency founded from the time of the fall. Lucifer, the first creation to want to self-direct has infected man with the same philosophy in his capacity as the god of this world system. From the cradle to the grave, we are rewarded or punished based on our performance. The hardest thing for us to do therefore is to cease from our own works and enter into the rest of His finished work and let Him live through us. This is why we are told to "...labour to enter into that rest..." Hebrew 4:11, the labour that faces us in this regard is renewing our minds with the truth of His word. Then we will cease from our works and enter His rest.
2. "You, the bright morning star, have fallen from the sky! You brought down other nations; now you are brought down. You said to yourself, "I'll climb to heaven and place my throne above the highest stars. I'll sit there with the gods far away in the north. I'll be above the clouds, just like God Most High." But now you are deep in the world of the dead." (Isaiah 14:12-15 CEV)
3. "God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil." (Genesis 3:5 MSG)
4. "In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn't obey God. Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else. But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God's wonderful kindness is what saves you." (Ephesians 2:1-4 CEV)
5. "As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day. For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith." (Hebrews 4:9-11 GNB)
[II]. One of the greatest catalyst for ceasing from our own works and resting His finished work is burnout, it seems no matter how much we are told that we cannot satisfy God through our performance, the more we want to try to prove everyone wrong. We ignore the fact that in all of history, no one has ever been justified by his or her own works and so we aim to be that illusive 1st. It does not help when we are surrounded by others who are caught up in the same vain attempt and none dare admit that their performance is not up to scratch. So everyone wears a mask to obscure their pain, dig in deeper into self effort till the wheels finally come off and they come to God helpless & broken, there we find God waiting for us to reveal the essence of the true Christian walk, which is Christ in us as us, not Christ with us. Like the prodigal son if we have too many recovery plans, we needlessly prolong the journey to the end of self. We are not called to produce fruits for God, just to bear them. The formula for burnout is to persist in doing what we have not been created for.
1. Click here to read a previous blog on the subject of repentance ( Repentance).
2. "Yet we know that a person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by doing what the Law requires. We, too, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires."
(Galatians 2:16 GNB)
3. "It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you;" (Luke 15:13-18 MSG)
4. "I know, GOD, that mere mortals can't run their own lives, That men and women don't have what it takes to take charge of life." (Jeremiah 10:23 MSG)
5. "I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is--when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples." (John 15:1-8 MSG)
[III]. Those who have come broken to God and found grace for living, are not immune to the Galatians syndrome (i.e. " trying to perfect in the flesh was begun in the spirit." Galatians 3:3). This is why we are to continue to encourage one another and admonish one another in love. Let us be gracious towards each other, giving room to fall while we learn to walk in grace. Lets watch each other’s backs and make each other aware of any indications that we are approaching God in the person of any other than Christ. With success; comes the temptation to get sleek and sophisticated, thinking we have systems that deliver and hence more towards creating formal structures that are often the bedrock of orthodoxy. We are to always keep our eyes on Christ, for in Him we live and move and have our being. Faithful is He who had begun the work; He will also finish it.
1. Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?
(Galatians 3:3 MSG)
2. "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves another has fulfilled the Law. For: "Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not lust;" and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love works no ill to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law. This also, knowing the time, that it is already time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed." (Romans 13:8-11 MKJV)
3. Galatians 5:1-6 MSG {my own words in brackets}
(1) Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. {This includes you; you cannot be harnessed with out your permission}
(2) I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. {If we approach God other than in Christ, we miss out on all the benefits of His abundant provision as we loose our confidence of faith}
(3) I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. {Performance is a slave driver, you can never satisfy it, it forever raises the bar and condemns you when you fail}
(4) I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. {In grace there is no condemnation, it gives life and peace, you miss out on all these when you enter the realm of performance}
(5) Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit.
(6) For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. {Love is ultimate manifestation of God's essence and the sum total of the law; it is achievable only by His spirit, for He is love}
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I'm on the solid rock
The rock is solid
It does not move
I'm learning to walk
On this rock
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I slipped; I fell
On the solid rock
I was afraid
Expecting free fall
Then I remembered
I fell on the rock
---
The rock is solid
It does not move
I got up again
Kept on walking
On the solid rock
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"It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom." (Galatians 5:13-14 MSG)
Selah
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