WEDNESDAY'S WORD - KNOWLEDGE - Sadell Bradley - 08/30/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD KNOWLEDGE 8/30/2023 "To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the true meaning of knowledge." - Socrates TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY ACTING UP: ALL THINGS COMMON @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube       It takes humility to answer a question, "I don't know." We've been sold the idea that we have to know everything, or at least pretend we do...to have worth, value, or stature in society. Some can detect that notion is a sham, but it still spreads throughout the US, where we will argue a wrong point until our opponent succumbs and says it's right. You all know that's true. KNOWLEDGE is defined as facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. In philosophy, knowledge is true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion. In 1 Corinthians 8:1, a debate arose—should Christ followers eat food that was offered to idols? Paul wrote, "Now about food sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge [concerning this]. Knowledge [alone] makes [people self-righteously] arrogant, but love [that unselfishly seeks the best for others] builds up and encourages others to grow [in wisdom]." (AMP) It is the LORD who gives wisdom; from Him come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6 , (GNT) Solomon states that knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are important gifts we receive from God. I can know that diet and exercise is good. I can understand that if I eat better and move my body 30 minutes daily, it will benefit me now and in the future. But wisdom, is the application of what I know and understand, or as Yoda said in Star Wars, "To know...is to do." The prophet Hosea was commanded by God to marry a prostitute as a prophetic figure of Israel's adulterous and idolatrous ways. In Chapter 4, he bemoans that, “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, a lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed." (v.1,2) In verse 6 Hosea writes the often quoted verse, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children." Those are some harsh words! Hosea is not talking about knowing random facts or information about the world. He is preaching about Israel's lack of knowledge of God...that knowledge includes obedience. God says His people are completely cut off, perishing, ruined, and destroyed because they neither know Him nor obey Him

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - COMMODITY - Sadell Bradley - 08/23/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD COMMODITY 8/23/2023 “I wish Americans thought more like Europeans when it comes to money and work. We think work is the most valued commodity. Really the most valued commodity is time.” - Bryan Cranston - American Actor TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY ACTING UP: THE REPLACEMENTS @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube     A COMMODITY is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold, such as copper or coffee. It is also a useful or valuable thing, such as water or time. Another definition for commodity is something that brings a convenience or advantage. Sometimes people— for example, movie stars or athletes, can become brands or commodities. They are subject to ready exchange or exploitation within a market. The current news stories of songstress Brittany Spears and NFL player Michael Oher, who were allegedly exploited for their gifts by their guardians, prove that individuals can be both persons AND commodities in the wrong hands. Some of us remember the old trope of a cartoon character having greedy dollar signs in their eyes. Have you ever had a commoditized relationship? In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were going to the place of prayer when they encountered a slave girl with a spirit of divination. This young woman was making her masters a lot of money through fortune telling. 17She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” 18This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her. 19Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. 20“The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials. 21“They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.” These men were not concerned with her as a person...they were interested her gifts bringing them profit. Though her statements about Paul and Silas were factual, they derived from an unclean spiritual place. Paul and Silas were not just delivering her spiritually, but also naturally from being a misused and abused commodity. In the process, they had also taken these men's meal ticket away. 22A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. 23They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. 24So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. Then we find the familiar passage about Paul and Silas praying and singing praises to God at midnight. The LORD intervened with an earthquake to release them and other prisoners in the jail. The jailer holding them is saved by belief in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. His entire household is also saved. All this transpired because Paul and Silas chose to view a young woman as a valuable person and not a commodity.

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - PROVOKE - Sadell Bradley - 08/16/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD PROVOKE 8/16/2023 “People around the world now complain about stressors everyday...but in reality there is no such thing as a stressor. Why not? Because nothing has the inherent power to provoke stress.” - Andrew J Bernstein - American Writer

TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY PERMISSION GRANTED: WHEN GOD SAYS GO @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube

To PROVOKE means to stimulate or give rise to (a reaction or emotion, typically a strong or unwelcome one [anger, or annoyance]) in someone. Our culture is full of provocateurs in the media, in sports, in politics, and even in the Church. We say, "Don't poke the bear," meaning don't deliberately antagonize someone, especially someone more powerful. Provocation in the law is acton or speech held to be likely to cause physical retaliation. Once the bear has been poked, the antagonist is in true danger. In Medicine, provocation is testing to elicit a particular response or reflex. Have you ever been provoked? or provoked another? Nobel Prize winning Indian/Trinidadian writer, V.S. Naipaul, author of "Half a Life," wrote about colonialism, xenophobia (dislike or prejudice against people from other countries, immigration, and identity. He says, "Writers should provoke disagreement." Those who write are sure to field dissenting views and alternative perspectives. It's comes with the territory of choosing to be vulnerable, express a view, and put it out into the world. The hope of most creatives is not necessarily to sway everyone to their side, but to open intellectual, spiritual, or relational discourse—if not with others, within oneself. Good writing provokes us to ask questions that challenge our ways of thinking. How true is what I believe? Have I considered another interpretation? Provoke is a word found throughout Scripture. Deuteronomy 32:16 states, "They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger." There's not a bigger bear you can poke than God. This kind of statement about Israel's provocations runs throughout the Psalms and the Prophets. God's reply in Jeremiah 7:19 is, "But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? Something to consider... Paul, in Colossians 3:21 writes, "Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged." He reiterates this in Ephesians 6:4, "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." It seems poking even baby bears can lead to disastrous long-term internal and relational consequences. Provocation can also be positive, Hebrews 10:23-24 says we are to hold fast to the profession of our faith and to "consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." Question is...what are you provoking?

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - INVITATION - Sadell Bradley - 08/09/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD INVITATION 8/9/2023 “Prayer is our invitation to God to intervene in the affairs of earth. It is our request for Him to work His ways in the world.” - Dr. Myles Monroe TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY PERMISSION GRANTED: BY PERMIT ONLY @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube     A main ingredient of Christ following is our voluntary response to His invitations. In short, it's about our choice to worship Him with our lives or to refuse to do so. An INVITATION is a written or verbal request or action inviting someone to go somewhere or do something. We give and receive invitations all the time: to weddings, birthday parties, cookouts, and events. Invitations are about the pursuit, initiation, development, enhancement, or celebration of relationships. We invite folks to join with us because we believe the engagement will be of benefit to them, or will further mutual friendship, experience, love, or purpose. Jesus invited His disciples into relationship with Him with the words, "Follow Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17) They, like us, had the choice to respond or to ignore Jesus' invitation, the cost of which became more clear in Matthew 16:24, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." The invitation to follow Jesus in relationship accompanied His call for self- denial and sacrifice. Each time we read a command of Scripture, enter into the Lord's Presence, have an opportunity to serve, give generously, or follow God's call; any time we are prompted or convicted by the Holy Spirit...it is an invitation to fellowship more deeply with Christ, and to become more like Him. The Lord has given us free will to accept or deny—not just His existence, but His many invitations. Jesus declares, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." (Rev. 3:20) If we're honest, we'd admit there are times when we've refused the Lord's invitation saying, "Let me get back to You." Jesus likened the Kingdom of God to a ruler who holds a banquet and invites many guests who refuse to come for a variety of reasons/ excuses. (Matthew 22, Luke 14) They deemed their businesses, financial pursuits, and family situations higher priorities than dining with the king, and refused his invitation. This dishonor and rejection angered the ruler, who sent his servants,"...out into the highways to gather together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests." (Matt. 22:10) The ruler starkly deviates from his initial guest list without regard for the moral, social, physical, or economic status of his new attendees. Filling the room became more important than deciphering which guests were worthy. The ruler tells his servant, "‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame..." (Luke 14:21) After that had been done, the servant declared, "There is still room," so the ruler commanded, "Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my banquet." (Vs. 23-24) I wonder how many empty churches would be filled if we followed the principles of this parable from Jesus. Christ is still making His invitation, "Follow Me, and I will make you..." Will you accept or deny Him? Your reasons/excuses for refusing His invitation could cause you to be uninvited— your place offered to another. Jesus is calling us to go out into the streets and invite 'the others' to His banquet table, so His house will be full.

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - RECKONING - Sadell Bradley - 08/02/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD RECKONING 8/2/2023 “If you find great difficulty trying to reckon with the future or even the present, I think it's intuitive to start that process by reckoning with the past.” - James Spader, American Actor TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY PERMISSION GRANTED LAY DOWN YOUR ARMOR @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube         Some of you may know that I'm not really fond of being in photos or videos. Recently, a candid picture of me was taken at an event and displayed in a montage on a wide screen. I took a photo of it, but it was too large to share here. The image was in black and white. There was no Oprah lighting or filter. My hair and makeup were imperfect. The image was not front-facing, nor was it a profile. It was a 3/4 facial view, at a 45% angle. We don't see this view when we look in a mirror, unless we're in a dressing room with three panels. We really never see ALL of ourselves—the back of our heads, our double chins, our gait as we walk. On social media we curate ways to view ourselves favorably. What others see may at times be more real and complete. It was an honor be on that screen. Nowadays, being on screens is the norm. So, I chose not to run, but to reckon with what I looking at, and with how I saw it. RECKONING is the action of calculating or estimating something; a person's view, opinion, or judgment...in this case my own. I stared at the image, looking at my skin, hair, and the circles under my eyes. "Those should not be shocking...I've had them since I was a baby." At first, the photo seemed to show all the signs of aging. I thought, "Is this really what I look like?" My husband said frankly, "There's nothing wrong with that picture." He sees me all the time, from every angle. Was it the photo or my perspective on it? Or was it that I had no control over its presentation or how I might be viewed? Or was it that this is just how I look, but I rarely see it. The more I faced it, the more accepting I became that this is me, flaws and all, on this day, in this light, and it's ok. There are things with which we all need to reckon—some are not external, but internal. Isaiah spoke of a "day of reckoning." RECKONING also means the avenging or punishing of past mistakes or misdeeds. In the prophetic books we see cycles: God's people falling away in disobedience and idolatry; God using an instrument, in this case Assyria to inflict His judgment to get them to return; and a remnant returning and preserving Israel until the next time. In Isaiah 10, the prophet writes: 1Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. 3What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? 4Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. Welsh businessman Albert Gubay owner of the Kwik Save retail chain said, "My belief in a day of reckoning keeps me on the straight and narrow." Part of a mature Christian life is reckoning, which the Bible calls self-examination. Paul urges the church at Corinth to, "Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith." (2 Cor. 13:5) This reckoning is important because we will all have to give an account for the things we've done and said in the day of judgment. (Heb. 9:27, 2 Cor. 5:10)