Ninang'ara



In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
John 1:4

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
Isaiah 60:1

Serving God

Serving the Lord means,

  • To do what He says in a way that makes Him look supremely valuable in Himself;
  • Submitting to Him in a way that makes Him look thrilling.
There are ways to submit to God that only make Him look threatening, not thrilling. There are ways to do what He says that only call attention to the fact that He is an authority not a treasure. 

That kind of service is not the service God commands.

God has not told us to serve Him as though He needed anything.

He is not served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Acts 17:25

The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45

The kind of service that makes God look valuable and thrilling is the kind that serves God by constantly receiving from God. 

Whoever serves, [let it be] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies - in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:11-ff

We receive this supply by faith. That is, we trust moment-by-moment that we need, in serving Him, He will supply ("life, breath and everything"). This is the opposite of being anxious. Such serving is happy. And it makes God look no less authoritative, but infinitely more desirable. This is the glory He means to have. The giver gets the glory.

Therefore,
Serve the Lord with gladness
Psalm 100:2



Running


After Watching Porn - 001

We too often allow unattainable ideas to dictate what we allow ourselves to say.

God can and does act in that moment of regret.

It is often in the moment after the act that Satan spins his most eloquent web: menacing thinking patterns, bargaining with a distant and disapproving God.... It is in this moment that Satan does his finest work. It is in this moment that we need God to do His finest saving.


  1. Know your enemy. Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret; but worldly grief produces death (2 Cor.7:10). Recognize that you have a powerful personal agent who is singularly focused on your destruction. Do not forget that Satan is at work. If you do, it is easier to believe hidden, subversive, subtle, destructive lies. Evil gains power when it is forgotten. Don't forget: After you indulge, you are still mid-battle with a tenacious, evil person bent on stealing your life, and he has not yet gotten it.
  2. Fight self-hatred. Porn is the twisted manipulation of innocence for the raw crave of erotic appetite. To have a grieved conscience is a good thing... [but] wallowing in self-deprecation and feeling like paying penance to God for sin is a sad and ironclad torture. It is false, and it is a wicked oppression. Not surprisingly, suicide rates are high among porn users. 
    • No wonder David uses such deeply physical metaphors when he pleads with God for grace over sexual sin: 
      • Blot out my transgressions;
      • Wash me;
      • Cleanse me;
      • Purge me;
      • Blot out my iniquities;
      • Create in me a clean heart
    • Scream that, with David. Replace the groan of human self-hatred with an unbroken war cry of divine love.
    • If you are tempted to wallow, don't let your (good) intuitive hatred of sin lead you to hate yourself. 
    • Be patient with yourself, because God is patient. He is fighting for your life. He has not forgotten you. He has not left you. Keep fighting with him. Keep gasping for the air of divine life - the Life-Giving Spirit.

  3. .

True Riches

When the apostle Paul thinks about "wealth" or "riches" what springs to mind? What should spring to ours? Where should our efforts at enrichment be invested? Paul thinks of:

  • The riches of God's kindness, forbearance and patience (Romans 2:4);
  • The riches of God's glory for vessels of mercy (Romans 9:23);
  • The riches, wisdom and knowledge of God, (Romans 11:33);
  • A wealth of generosity, (2 Corinthians 8:2);
  • The riches of God's grace, (Ephesians 1:7);
  • The riches of God's glorious inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18);
  • The immeasurable riches of God's grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 4:19);
  • The riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, (Colossians 1:27)
  • The riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. (Colossians 2:2);
  • The rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17).


Yeshua Ha Mashiach


Be not a Pharisee

Matthew 23
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 


  • Obedience to known truth is crucial. Clarity in the vision comes with obedience. It is a journey.

Praise Adonai


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