Strive for the Prize

Shalam, Brothers and Sisters

I pray that all is well with you and hope that you are striving to grow in the faith of our Lord Yahawashi, the Christ; who is the Son of God.

As we move forward towards the day of Christ, it is most critical that we examine the state of our hearts in order to make our calling and election in Christ sure. (2 Peter 1:10) It is easy to become enthralled in the philosophy and teachings of the modern mind, which primarily focuses on the attainment of gain and advancement. The drive behind this philosophy is to achieve self-actualization or the point of reaching one's human potential in any endeavor. On the surface, this seems harmless and even good for one to pursue continued advancement in life. However, this mindset leads to a life of discontentment because once a goal is achieved another goal must be set. A pattern develops of setting new goal after new goal with no lasting comfort from reaching any one goal. One never truly comes to a point of contentment. In the end, the focus of our hearts shifts from seeking God's will to seeking our own will, which can never lead to true contentment.

How can we guard ourselves from this mindset of discontent? We must renew our minds and not take on the mindset of this world. (Romans 12:2) This new mind can only be formed through the Word of God, as written in the holy scriptures. Through constant reading, deep reflection, application of the word, and by the power and grace of God's Holy Spirit, the Bible is able to change our very souls, give life promoting wisdom, bring true joy to the mind, and illuminate the heart. God's Word is perfect, sure, right, and completely true. (Psalm 19: 7-9) It is through the word of God that true change occurs in the hearts of men. This change leads to genuine satisfaction and contentment in life. The understanding then, is that true contentment is achieved through the pursuit of godliness, which is great gain. (1 Tim 6:6 )

The modern mind will counter this idea of contentment as mediocrity. How can one be content with just the teachings from the Bible? Many think there is more to be learned in the sciences and natural world. Many claim that human knowledge brings change and advancement and should be pursued continually as if gain would lead to contentment. However, striving for more and more human accomplishments leads to nothing in the end. Jesus said in Matthew 16:26, what profit is there if a man gains the whole world but loses his own soul? The things of this world and all human accomplishments will pass away only those that do the will of God shall abide forever. (1 John 2:16-17) A heart or mind that is set on the things of God transcends mediocrity. He that does the will of God actually strives for something more excellent than he who strives for worldly gain. Those who hold to this world and it's beliefs, saying God is not enough, obtain a corruptible crown that leads only to discontentment, emptiness, and hopelessness because this life fades away (1 Cor. 9:25) The believer, through discipline and self-control in the Word of God, seeks the attainment of the incorruptible crown of immortality through Christ resulting in true contentment and joy in life. (James 1:12) Let us then, who hold to the hope in Christ and those whose hearts have been pricked by these words, choose that which brings true contentment and life: the Word of God. (Isaiah 8:20)

May God bless you and keep you till we meet again,

Zarach

Love is Supreme

Shalam, Brothers and Sister

I pray the grace of our God, Yahawah, be continually with you, and may the peace that was given to us by God through our Lord Jesus Christ keep your hearts always.



Brethren, as we draw closer to that day-the day of judgment; we must strive to build up our faith and bring it to full maturity or perfection. It is not a time for us to retreat, nor compromise with this world, but to press forward. Yet, the Bible informs us, "... if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strives lawfully (2 Tim.2:5)." In essence, this passage reveals to us that one who desires to achieve full maturity or perfection will not be crowned with success unless he does so according to God's law, which is the Bible. Perfection only means doing something the way it should be done-in our case, keeping God's commandments the way he instructed us to. Therefore, if our goal is to achieve maturity in our faith in Christ, we must do it the way God says to do it. This process can not be of our own devices or self-improvement strategies, nor can it be based on the teaching of man's philosophies or theories. The Bible must be our primary source of instruction towards perfection.

The above scripture also implies that as followers of Jesus Christ, one should strive for or labor diligently to achieve mastery. As Christians or Christ followers, we should never be content with idle, repetitious worship base on customs and traditions of men. We should earnestly desire the best that our faith could bring us to. We should covet that most excellent way: the way of Love, which leads unto perfection. This is what Christ taught us through the apostle Paul, that we should earnestly yearn for the best gift of our faith, which he rightly calls the more excellent way. The way is the way to Love ( 1 Cor. 12:31 )

What does it take to get to this most supreme level of Love? To answer this question, we must go to the source of love: the Holy Bible. In the Bible we read in 2 Peter1:5-11 that a saint of the Most high God in Christ should give all diligence to add to his or her faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness charity (which is defined as love in the scriptures). These traits listed are character building traits, like the building blocks of a strong tower. They support and compliment each others, reaching to its highest level- love. One should never stop at faith on our journey with Christ towards the Kingdom of heaven. Faith alone wont give you the ability to endure to the end. The scripture states that you do well to believe that there is one God, who exist and is a living Spirit. The Devil also believes, and tremble at this fact ( James 2: 19 ). However, the Devil lacks Love; thus, he can never reach unto the perfection of holiness, but is given unto sin. This is why God encourages us, by his word, to develop our faith with diligence, laboring with a passionate and committed heart, moving through and adding to ourselves these first seven characteristics starting with faith and unto the final level of love. You will need the wisdom and understanding that each these character building traits provide to accomplish this.

Truly, the end of our faith is love, read 1 Tim.1:5. God's commandment and law if kept will lead us unto love. Because it is love, and obedience to it is love in action, read John 14:21. Our obedience to God opens the door for Christ to love us and make himself known to us, by giving us greater understanding of this way by the Holy Spirit through the word of God; and this is God's love towards us, so that we may be free from all sin. The Bible states that Love covers or protects one from all sins (proverbs 10:12).

According to 1 Tim. 1: 5, love proceeds out of a non-hypocritical faith in which we sincerely believe the word of God and put our hope in His son. It further states that love comes out of a good conscience and a pure heart. This implies that the mind, through learning and development, is able to judge what is right from wrong by applying God's standards. Thus, allowing them who possess this type conscience to avoid guilt and condemnation that occurs by doing what is wrong or sinning willfully (Heb.5:14, Heb. 10:22 ).
Our love must grow from the foundation of faith moving upward to its full maturity. 1 Peter 2:1-2 instructs us to do just this, by counseling us to put away all malice, all lies, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speaking. Similar to a new born, we should desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby. No one starts at the highest level of the faith, which is love, but through obedience to God grows and matures unto it.

Therefore, beloved brethren, as Jude, the servant and brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, has encourages us to build up ourselves in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy spirit- so let us do so continually. Let us take hold of this exhortation and add to our faith: Virtue, Knowledge, Self-control, Patience, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness, and finally arriving to the top of our spiritual quest, Love. Furthermore, he stresses that we should keep or guard ourselves in the Love of God. This means we should constantly examine ourselves to know if we are living according to the commandment of God, which develops the above listed characteristics in us. And once we arrive at Love, realize that you can fall from it if you don't daily attend to it through obedience to the word coupled with actions done through love. The greatest act of love, as taught to us by Christ and the apostles, is to “Love each other as you would Love your very self to the point of being willing to lay down your life for your brothers (James 2:8, 1 Peter 4:8, John 13:34-35, John 14:15, 1 John 2:10-11).” This is the demonstration of God in us, because God is Love and He willingly gave his life for us that he may free us from sin and death. And if the Love of God be in us, then we will do the things of God and so fulfill the law of God (Romans 13:10). Our constant labor in Love brings us unto the reward of immortality through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ at his second coming. If we endure, brothers, in this way of Love, we will have nothing to be ashamed of on that Day because, like the apostle said, “as he is, so are we in this world” ( 1John 4:17). Love truly is Supreme.

May God bless and keep you always

May His light shine upon you

May you be a light in this dark world to the Glory of our Great God

Amen

Shalam,

Zarach