one of my hives threw a swarm this morning. so now i'm up to 15 hives. i hope that they all make it through winter.

My Sabbath study buddy.. Sebastián

#deuteronomy 28 spends a lot of ink on curses for disobedience, but little on blessings for obedience. Perhaps this has to do with the ambiguous and subjective nature of many blessings.

The light of God desires to shine through us into the world, but it can't if we are only focused on ourselves. The ultimate goal of every righteous man must be to become an effective conduit of God's Light into his community and even the whole world.

https://www.americantorah.com/....2018/08/21/the-pursu

PUSH
=========
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room
filled with light and God appeared. The Lord told the man He
had work for him to do and showed him a large rock in front of
his cabin.

The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock
with all his might. So, this the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders
set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving
rock, pushing with all of his might.

Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out,
feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan),
decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary
mind:

"You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it
hasn't moved."

Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was
impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts
discouraged and disheartened the man.

Satan said, "Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your
time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good
enough. That's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to
make it a matter of prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to
the Lord.

“Lord,” he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service,
putting all my strength to do that which you have asked.
Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by
half a millimeter.

What is wrong?

Why am I failing?”

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you
to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to
push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have
done.

Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.

Your task was to push.

And now you come to Me with your strength spent,
thinking that you have failed.

Is that really so?

Look at yourself.

Your arms are strong and muscled,
your back sinewy and brown;
your hands are callused from constant pressure,
your legs have become massive and hard.
Through opposition you have grown much,
and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have.

True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be
obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My
wisdom. That you have done.

Now I, my friend, will move the rock."

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own
intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God
wants is just a simple obedience and faith in Him.

By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains,
but know that it is still God who moves mountains.

When everything seems to go wrong...just

P.U.S.H.!

When the job gets you down... just P.U.S.H.!

When people don't react the way you think
they should... just P.U.S.H.

When your money is "gone" and the bills are due... just P.U.S.H!

When people just don't understand you... just P.U.S.H.

P= Pray
U= Until
S= Something
H= Happens

~Author Unknown~

GENTLENESS – PART 2

Yeshua:

There is also the profound example of Yeshua Himself who proclaimed in Matthew 11:28-30: -- Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. When Yeshua refers to Himself as gentle, it is the same word translated [Meek] in -- Matthew 5:5. Now let us think about this for just a moment: You remember when Yeshua saw the merchants in the Temple, He was angry. They were making a mockery of the place of worship and Yeshua drove them out with force. Or consider how Yeshua denounced the religious leaders for their hypocrisy; He was very angry with them and let them know it. Yet Yeshua could say with complete honesty: I am gentle and humble in heart. Yeshua was angry at the right time and for the right reasons. Near the end of Yeshua' life when He was beaten, when He was ridiculed, spat upon and nailed to the cross, He was Meek and compliant. Do you think He acted that way out of weakness? No, He acted that way because He had His strength under control.

2 – Involves Integration:

A mother was concerned with her oldest son's use of profanity. She was counselled by some friends to slap the boy each time he cursed. The next morning as her sons came to the breakfast table, she asked them what they wanted to eat. The oldest son replied: I want some *! £$%^&* Corn Flakes. The mother slapped him as hard as she could. As the oldest boy sat dazed on the floor, she turned to her younger son and asked what he wanted for breakfast. The young boy replied: Well, one thing is for sure, I do not want any Corn Flakes. The mother did not quite have a grasp on this gentleness concept, did she? How we can integrate gentleness into our lives:

A —Be Gentle With Those Whose Faith is Weak:
Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. -- Romans 14:1. We have an opportunity to demonstrate gentleness when we can readily accept people who are not at the same level of spiritual maturity that we are. In other words, people do not have to live up to my standards in order for me to love them. The one thing that angered Yeshua the most was self-righteous religious people who spent all their time judging others.

B – Disagree Agreeably:
The real test of a believer’s maturity is how you handle disagreeable people, people who irritate you, people who like to contradict you and people who like to get in arguments and quarrel with you. You have three alternatives: You can retreat in fear; you can attack in anger or you can respond in love. Meekness is not compromising your convictions. It is not being a doormat for everyone else, giving in and always letting the other person have their way. It is being able to respond with words of peace, even when the person opposed to you is in your face and angry. A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. -- Proverbs 15:1.

C – React With Grace:
It is a fact of life that you are going to be hurt by other people. The issue here is how do you respond to it? What is your normal reaction when people hurt you intentionally? Retaliate? Get Even? Seek Revenge? But to respond with forgiveness, even when they have not asked for it, that is gentleness and grace. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. -- Romans 12:21. Booker T. Washington, the great black scientist, faced prejudice all his life. He said: I will never allow another man to control or ruin my life by making me hate him. When you say: You make me so mad! you are admitting that the other person is controlling your emotions. The other person has the power to control you. The moment you start retaliating, the moment you start seeking revenge, you give up control of your life. That is a position of weakness; Yeshua said the meek person knows how to let it go.

3 – Involves Inheritance:

In case you missed it, there is a promise here: For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon Adonai, they shall inherit the earth. -- Psalms 37:9. I believe there are two ways we can understand this promise; both of them are correct:

A – We Are To Inherit The Earth Now:
The meek have the greatest capacity to appreciate the blessings that YHVH has given to us. Now, if you are controlled by your own anger or by vindictiveness, you cannot really enjoy YHVH's Creation. But if you are YHVH-Controlled, you may have less in the way of possessions than others in this world, but YHVH enables you to enjoy it more. You inherit the earth in the sense that you really possess it more than the other person. To inherit the earth is to grow more and more alive in the presence of YHVH in the world. And that awareness allows you to prosper in the ways that really count.

B – We Are To Inherit The Earth For Eternity:
Nevertheless we, according to His Promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. -- 2 Peter 3:13. The meek will have their ultimate reward in heaven in the land beyond. YHVH wants us to look toward eternity and we allow that picture of our eternal home to help us to focus and to control our actions here. So, what is it like to live a life of meekness, gentleness and humility? It is living a life of total peace and surrender to Yeshua Moshiach. It is living with the understanding that YHVH is in control. It is demonstrating to the world that I have only one master, Adonai Yeshua Moshiach. It is a life that involves insight; integration; and inheritance.

GENTLENESS – PART 1

Do any of you remember those advertisements for the [Charles Atlas Body Building Course] that used to be in comic books? The ad had a picture of the 97-pound weakling on the beach and while he is sitting there with a girl, along comes a big muscular bully. The bully pushes the weakling around, kicks sand in his face and then walks off down the beach with the weakling's girlfriend and the weakling cannot do a thing about it. The caption on the ad reads: [Are you tired of being pushed around? Are you tired of having sand kicked in your face? Just write to me.] And so, you could write to Charles Atlas and in 90 days you could learn to become a big bully yourself. Charles Atlas made a fortune on those ads because of [the male ego.] Believe it or not, I considered buying the Charles Atlas kit myself when I was much younger. I never was a picture of machismo. Now I wonder how much money we could make if we were to place an ad that said something like: [In 90 days we will teach you to be a meek person. Are you tired of pushing people around? Are you tired of always winning the fights? Well just write to me and in 90 days you can become meek.] I doubt we would make enough money to pay for the ad. Yeshua said: Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. -- Matthew 5:5. Yeshua is talking about the art of learning gentleness. There are three basic areas of involvement we need to be aware of and adopt if we are going to be the meek people Yeshua describes:

1 – Involves Insight:

We really need to get a grip on what meekness is before we can go any further. Out of all of the Beatitudes this is probably the most misunderstood. Let us consider some definitions:

A – Meekness Is Not Weakness:
It takes strength and power to be meek as we will see in a minute; Yeshua is not calling on us to be wimps.

B – Meekness Is Strength Under Control:
The word translated Meek here is the same word that was used in New Testament times to describe a wild animal that had been tamed or domesticated. Imagine for a moment a wild stallion that has never been ridden by anyone. He has never worn a bridle and bit, he is as wild as they come and he is full of energy, strength and spirit. Now you take that horse and over time you tame him, you domesticate him. He becomes meek. You can put a saddle on him, his master can ride him you can put a bit in his mouth and reins over his neck and he is meek. Now what have you done to that horse? Have you taken away any of that horse's strength? Have you taken away any of that horse's spirit or his power? Have you taken away any of that horse's energy? No you Have not! The only difference between the domesticated horse and the wild one is that now, that horse's strength and energy are being controlled by his master and channelled for a useful purpose. While the stallion is wild he is controlled by himself, his wants and his passions. But the domesticated, saddled horse is controlled by his master and he has learned to obey his master's touch on his reins. When Yeshua says: Blessed are the meek, He's not saying: Blessed is the person that has no strength; that has no spirit; that has no personality and that has no energy. He is not saying: Blessed is the wimp, the timid or the coward. He is saying: Blessed is the person who has all of his strength and all of his spirit or all of his personality or energy, but they have allowed someone else to control them. And of course, for Moshiach follower this means we have placed ourselves under the control of YHVH.

C – Meekness Brings Blessings:
Why does Yeshua promise we will be blessed if we are meek? He promises the blessing because we are no longer at the mercy of our own passion, at the mercy of our emotions, our anger or our temper. We can take an insult without giving one back; we can turn the other cheek, not because we are weak, but because we are stable and strong in Adonai. We are blessed because we are free; free from bitterness, free from the need to seek revenge when we are wronged. We become YHVH controlled; we have allowed Ruach HaKodesh to direct our spirit.

D —Meekness Biblically Described:
There only two men specifically described as [Meek] in the Bible although there are others who would fit this label; the two are Moses and Yeshua:

Moses:

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. -- Numbers 12:3. No one who has studied the life of Moses would consider him a weak person. Do you remember when Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments and he saw that the people were worshipping a golden calf? Moses was hot, he was fuming and he was angry at the right time. He was angry because the people had insulted YHVH. But in -- Numbers 12:1, it says that Miriam and Aaron were speaking against Moses and personally attacked him with their words, but Moses did not respond. In fact, that is the context of the Bible saying Moses was the meekest man on earth. When YHVH was insulted, Moses was righteously angry, but when he was personally insulted, he was completely under control.

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There is yet another chiasm on blessing and protection for obedience to God's #torah in #deuteronomy 28:8-11.

.God blesses all you do in the land.
...He will establish you for himself.
.....If you obey.
...People will see you are God's.
.God blesses all you do in the land.

You don't have to be perfect to be blessed by God, but can't ignore your sins either. Keep working it out. Keep striving for perfection. See also Deuteronomy 28:13-14.
#kitavo #biblepatterns

On this date in history, 09/13/1971: After four days of a hostage standoff, New York State Police raid Attica prison, sparking a riot that kills 48 staff and prisoners. #otd #tdih #newyorkhistory

Defining words directly from the Bible doesn't allow for interpretation. 1 John 3;4, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: FOR SIN IS the transgression of the law."