Everyone Has a Box
I was asked a question this morning, “What religion are you?” I had to think for a moment about my answer. Not that I don’t know it, but I needed to think about the question itself and how I should respond to it. This person innocently wanted to classify me in order to know from what perspective they should interact with me. They wanted to place me in the proper box.
Everyone has a box, and humans need them in order to perceive the world and its people in an orderly and understandable way. When something or someone won’t fit into or get into a box, it causes us some distress. We don’t know what to do with that - it irks us.
One’s religious box is usually complicated. We may fall under some general category, but the details and particulars of one’s beliefs often vary widely from one person to the next, even within those categories. A simple single label will rarely suffice to sum up one’s religious beliefs. Also, many categories of “religion” are not well known or understood, sometimes even by those who say they belong to them. So, to be properly understood in regards to which religion a person belongs to usually requires a lengthy explanation. When people want to fit something or someone into a box, a lengthy explanation is most often not what they are looking for.
I thought about all these things in a flash this morning as I paused before answering the person’s question. I decided I didn’t feel like getting into a box today, and that a canned simple label would not help them. Instead, I referred them to our weekly YouTube Sabbath lesson, which last weekend and next happens to be about this very subject. I decided that if this person truly wanted to know the answer to their question, they would have to devote some of their time to obtain it. I didn’t do this to be irksome or to distress them, but because I thought it would help this person to better understand both me and possibly even themself – if they were interested in doing so. I also thought that, in the process, they might even discover a new box to place people in which they had never heard of or considered before, maybe even a whole new category of boxes. If not, then they’d just have to be irked and distressed, not having a proper box for me. Or perhaps they could just put me in some box of their own choosing by making assumptions about what they already do know about me. Whatever, and it wouldn’t be the first time that happened.
What box do you fit into? Do you really know? Are you sure? Do you belong and fit in somewhere or with some religious community or group of believers? What is it called? What label do you use? I’m curious.
If you don’t know, are uncertain, or even if you think you do know, why don’t you join us this coming Sabbath and talk about it? We had a great lesson and discussion last Shabbath with our study on “Who You Are Not,” and expect another this coming weekend with the study called “Who You Might Be.” Oh, and if you want to really be in sync with the discussion this weekend, watch the recording from last weekend first. Here are the links to both:
Sabbath Prayer & Study 07/27/2024 – Who You are Not – Sabbath Keepers Fellowship (youtube.com)
Sabbath Prayer & Study 08/03/2024 – Who You Might be – Sabbath Keepers Fellowship (youtube.com)
(Some of you will bridle at the term “religion,” and say you don’t belong to any. That is your choice, but religion isn’t a bad word, even though it has been described as such in recent years.
Religion:
• The belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a deity or deities
• A personal set OR institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
• The service and worship of deity or the supernatural
• Commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
Paul of Tarsos recognized and approved of the word “religion” in his writings:
“Clean and undefiled religion before the Elohim and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”)
A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.
Proverbs 29:11 ESV
"Don't hold it in" is usually bad advice. Hold your anger and frustration in when it threatens to break loose, and then find ways to alleviate the problem that caused it. Fools let their emotions out like children without regard to the consequences.
Everyone probably knows a pastor or ministry leader, and everyone knows a successful business owner. It’s likely that everyone has met a government consultant at some point. Those who meet Kevin Jessip have met all of those in one person – and they’ve also met a former gang member! Kevin comes from a long line of pastors, so it’s no surprise that he had a divine call on his life from birth. In this five part interview, we’ll hear how he was walked out that calling, starting with how redemption found him when he was a troubled youth.
Kevin’s story is one of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration. That’s the topic Barry and David address in their midrash called Reconciliation or Restoration, and what the Aleph Tav Band and Mason Clover sing about in their musical offerings.
https://thebarkingfox.com/2024..../07/29/kevin-jessip-
Everyone probably knows a pastor or ministry leader, and everyone knows a successful business owner. It’s likely that everyone has met a government consultant at some point. Those who meet Kevin Jessip have met all of those in one person – and they’ve also met a former gang member! Kevin comes from a long line of pastors, so it’s no surprise that he had a divine call on his life from birth. In this five part interview, we’ll hear how he was walked out that calling, starting with how redemption found him when he was a troubled youth.
Kevin’s story is one of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration. That’s the topic Barry and David address in their midrash called Reconciliation or Restoration, and what the Aleph Tav Band and Mason Clover sing about in their musical offerings.
https://thebarkingfox.com/2024..../07/29/kevin-jessip-
Midrash: day 2 (monday) 29 july / dag 2 (maandag) 29 julie 2024
This entire program is repeated the following morning at 09:00 / Hierdie volledige program word die volgende oggend om 09:00 herhaal
Please note that times indicated are SAST
Midrash with Eliyahu ben David:
18:00: Midrash with Eliyahu ben David: Brothers in arms (1)
18:55: Midrash with Eliyahu ben David: Brothers in arms (2)
Repeated on day 5 (thursday) at 18:00
Email/Epos: theway146@mailfence.com
Web: www.silvertrumpet.life
Broadcast links/Uitsaaiskakels:
Zeno: www.zeno.fm/silver-trumpet
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hearthis: https://hearthis.at/silver-trumpet/
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Just before I started my current walk, I saw a book in a local Christian bookstore that caught my eye: not a fan. by Kyle Idelman.
I will say, I never read the book. I did buy it and every time I saw it on my shelf, I thought to myself: I should read that.
It appealed to me because I was wondering: am I just a fan? Am I just a Christian because that was my “home team”? Am I truly following or do I just sit on the sidelines and root for Christian things? Am I a fan or am I a participant/player?
Before I ever read the book, the Father put me on this walk and showed me where I was failing. Maybe if I read it when I got it, He would have put me here sooner. IDK. But I do know, even with my volunteerism at my church and my tendencies to “defend the faith” (read argue) with others, I wasn’t a participant.
As of this writing, there are several sport type things going on. Many pastors will have sermons about how you’ll scream until you are blue in the face for your team, “but will you do that for God?”
I’m not worried about that. I want you to look at yourself and ask: why am I on this walk? Is it because everyone else is doing it? Because that is what I was taught growing up? Because of my social circle? Or because God is truly your first priority and you are doing everything for Him?
Mark 12:32-34 The scribe said to him, “Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from God’s Kingdom.” No one dared ask him any question after that.
https://thestraightandnarrow.cfw.me/comics/815
#bible #biblestudy #webcomic #cartoon #christian #church #messianic #hebrewroots #wwjd
Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against YHWH in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of YHWH.
#numbers 31:16
The Doctrine of Balaam is the luring of God's people into idolatry and other pagan practices, primarily through hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure. There's nothing inherently wrong with the pursuit of pleasure (or happiness, if you prefer), but passions are easy to manipulate into weaknesses and blind spots.
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Mark Price
Keep in mind that a religious label is designed to give the person inquiring about your beliefs a general idea of your beliefs and is not designed to give an exhaustive list of all you believe. If they want to know more, they will ask for it.
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Rhy Bezuidenhout
An athiesm believe that they are their own god. They or "destiny" are in full control of their own lives.
So how do I label myself when speaking with others: I am a follower of Jesus, just like His disciples were but not like the modern-Christians.
That then opens the door to discuss Jesus' Hebrew faith as Yeshua and what The Way was that Paul was the "ringleader" of...
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