Hebrew Word Study: Nešer Eagle

The Lord of the Rings series is one of my favorites, the movies, absolutely amazing, I never did read the books, but I did read the Hobbit, but anyway, after the movies came out and people began to talk about the series, many on the web would ask the question, why didn’t Frodo and Sam just use the Eagles to fly to Mordor?

If you recall, Gandalf escapes from his fight with Saruman with the help of one of the eagles. Eagles came to the rescue at the battle for Minas Tirith in the 3rd film, and eagles come and bring Frodo and Sam safely out of Mount doom at the end of the 3rd film as well.

Eagles in the Lord of the Rings to me seem to represent God’s helping hand in times of great need. There are times in our lives when our cause has become hopeless. There is nothing more we can do. Our only hope is that God would do the impossible. It’s at those times, that we have to let go of our own strength, and allow God to rescue us.

As it says in our scripture today, from Isaiah 40:28-31, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Our Hebrew word for today, is “neser” Pronounced “neh'-sher”

In ancient Hebrew this word means eagle, or vulture, or other varieties of large, powerful birds.

So, those who continuously wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will rise up on wings like eagles. It’s important to understand the Hebrew word here used for “wait” or as my translation renders it “hope.”

The Hebrew word here is qāvâ “kaw-vaw” and it pictures waiting expectantly.

I.to wait, look for, hope, expect
A. (Qal) waiting (participle)
B. (Piel)
i.to wait or look eagerly for
ii.to lie in wait for
iii.to wait for, linger for
II.to collect, bind together
(Niphal) to be collected

Interestingly this Hebrew word can also relate to the binding of rope. Rope making was a common profession in the ancient world of the middle-east. There were many uses for rope. And rope makers would bind tightly together strands of cloth or animal hair to make rope. Often the rope would come unbound and have to be rebound together, renewing the strength of the rope.

How interesting that our battle with waiting on the Lord is often quite similar. It’s like we slowly bind together a long length of rope. And we’re traveling along the length of the rope toward God’s arrival, his answer. But from time to time, we lose our grip and the rope looses and begins to break apart. This is comparable to those times when we despair in the waiting and struggle to trust God. But as we seek God in the waiting, he helps us to tighten up, and continue waiting, our strength is renewed and we continue our journey along the length of rope.

We’re expectantly waiting then, for that moment when God renews us, and raises us up on wings like neser, like eagles.

Eagles are interesting creatures. They are one of the most powerful and strong birds. Eagles can lift almost twice their body weight. They can live up to 70 years. A male and female eagle that have mated will stay together their entire lives, building their nest in the same place every year. Eagles soar on the winds, they are able to sense the movement of air, and winds, catching updrafts to reach great heights, and travel at very great heights as they migrate from location to location.

As we hope in the Lord and wait on the Lord, binding ourselves to God and trusting in God to help us in time of need, we find ourselves protected under His wings, protected by his feathers, as he carries us to safety. The eagle flies, a rare gift, something we cannot do. Only God can lift us up and bring us to places that we could never otherwise get to.

During the time of the prophet Isaiah, who carried this word from the Lord to Israel, the nation was in great peril. The northern kingdom, Samaria, had been destroyed and captured by the nation of Assyria. Only Judah remained. And Judah was facing harassment and intimidation from Assyria, who were mocking them from the walls of the city.

How could the Lord save Judah from Assyria? Assyria had hundreds of thousands of soldiers. They couldn’t trust in flesh. They had to trust in the Lord. And God would deliver them, on wings like eagles, they would be victorious. And indeed, the Assyrian army was destroyed in the night, and they returned to Assyria. They never again tried to attack Judah. It was miraculous.

Are you waiting on the Lord right now? You can trust Him. I’m not saying God will necessarily give you everything you want. But God will do what is right, for his kingdom and glory. He has plans for you, plans for your blessing, not to harm you, but to give you hope and a future.

Trust in God. Wait on God expectantly. And you will rise up on wings like Neser, riding up into the skies of hope and victory and deliverance. God will certainly be with you as you seek Him and follow His will for your life. Amen.

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant: The Power of Forgiveness, the Danger of Unforgiveness

"In "The Christian Leader," Don Ratzlaff retells a story Vernon Grounds came across in Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . . The incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: "No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness." Sacrificial love has transforming power." -Don Ratzlaff, "The Christian Leader".

So today we come to the parable of the unforgiving servant. The central topic being, forgiveness, and the power of forgiveness.

As we examine this important concept I’d like you to keep in your mind the question, “How am I doing at this? Am I practicing this principle?” Because sometimes we start thinking about others, oh my mom needs to hear this message, oh I know a friend who needs to hear this. That’s fine, but today, focus on you and how well you forgive others. To forgive means, to not count it against someone’s record any longer.

We don’t invite further abuse, however, we live as if it never happened, their slate is clean as far as we go. It’s not written anymore. That’s radical. If you struggle with this, invite God to help you forgive, but ultimately it’s your choice. So don’t act like oh I just “can’t” yes you can. It’s a choice, what you’re really saying is I refuse to forgive. And for a Christian that is very dangerous, and you’ll see why in a minute.

This is a common with any sermon I preach, but God gives me opportunities over the week to practice what I’m going to preach about. And boy is that stressful sometimes. But hopefully I succeeded.

So lets take a look, at the genius of God in human form, sharing this parable, in Matthew 18:21-35 it says, “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

He’s asking this question because Jesus is talking with his disciples and he was sharing about the process for church discipline when someone is sinning you go to them and correct them in private, if they still don’t stop sinning you go with another person, and so on and so forth. So then it says, “Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

So we see this in many of the parables, this phrase that Jesus uses, “the kingdom of God is like…” God’s depiction of how to live our lives as Christians, and how to enter paradise are all described through parables, which describe the kingdom of God. It’s what you might call the rule book of the kingdom of God, how everything works in regard to morality, truth, heaven, hell, forgiveness, sins, righteous, all of it, the rule book is written in the parables.

This particular chapter of the kingdom of God guidebook is dealing with forgiveness.

We are all like the servant, who has sinned against his master, the God of the universe. We’ve all sinned in terrible ways. And what’s right for the master to do? To throw us in prison, to hell, forever, sadly. It’s a rough situation. But, instead God, through Jesus Christ, offers us forgiveness.

Just like the servant who owes 10,000 bags of gold. That is a high bill. Mine was a high bill, of sins, probably like 100,000 bags of gold worth of sins. Yours may have been lower, or higher, who knows, but we all owe that debt. And instead of throwing this servant in prison, the master instead sees his repentance his request for mercy, and instead forgives his debt and lets him go free.

That is what we find in Jesus Christ. Our debt is forgiven and we’re set free.

However, we very very much want to avoid the example of this servant. Because in the parable what do we see? He’s set free, then he runs into someone who owes him 100 silver coins. That is such an incredibly small debt, compared to 10,000 bags of gold. And we all think well he should be merciful to this person right?

But he isn’t! He grabs him by the neck and has him arrested.

Now stop right here and ask yourself, how often have I been unforgiving to people who have done wrong to me? Because as much as this unforgiving servant disgusts us. We’ve all I’m sure done the same thing. We have to be forgiving, because we’ve been forgiven so much.

I bet we could all think of a time where our hypocrisy was severe. We refused to forgive. We mistreated someone. We came down hard on someone. We held hatred in our hearts. That is not acceptable for us as Christians.

Then the master finds out about what has happened. And it’s not good.

It says, “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

So Jesus tells the parable, then in verse 35 he concludes the parable by explaining it. He says, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

If we come before God on judgment day, having been unforgiving toward our brothers and sisters, toward our friends or even our enemies, God will say to us, since you refused to forgive others, I’m not going to forgive some of your sins.

Then what happens? We would go to hell, because we have sins outstanding that are unpaid by the blood of Christ. So forgiveness is serious stuff. And Jesus importantly adds the distinction that we must forgive people “from the heart.” Meaning it can’t be a surface level forgiveness, but a full and complete forgiveness within our heart.

That is convicting and difficult it’s true. But we must do it. And if we are struggling to forgive someone, which I’m sure some of us are, for deeper hurts, for betrayals, and such, there are some tips I would give you:

1. Pray for that person, for every blessing you want in life to be given to them instead. It’s hard to hate someone you’re praying for. Do it for 2 weeks straight every day.
2. Pray and ask God to help you forgive. God will soften your heart.
3. Write down your own worst sins. Then realize God forgave them. Now, consider what that person did to you, and you will realize what a small thing it is to forgive.

“A childhood accident caused poet Elizabeth Barrett to lead a life of semi-invalidism before she married Robert Browning in 1846. There's more to the story. In her youth, Elizabeth had been watched over by her tyrannical father. When she and Robert were married, their wedding was held in secret because of her father's disapproval. After the wedding the Brownings sailed for Italy, where they lived for the rest of their lives. But even though her parents had disowned her, Elizabeth never gave up on the relationship. Almost weekly she wrote them letters. Not once did they reply. After 10 years, she received a large box in the mail. Inside, Elizabeth found all of her letters; not one had been opened! Today those letters are among the most beautiful in classical English literature. Had her parents only read a few of them, their relationship with Elizabeth might have been restored.” -Daily Walk, May 30, 1992.

And I mean people who did terrible things to you. I mean forgiving people who hated you. I mean forgiving people who bullied you. I mean forgiving people who hurt our feelings. I mean forgiving people who even raped, or physically attacked us. We must forgive because God has forgiven us.

In conclusion today, remember the parable of the unforgiving servant and what it teaches us about the kingdom of God rulebook: We must, must, must forgive, because we’ve been forgiven so much more. Those who are participating in the kingdom of God, found in the grace of Jesus Christ must being gentle, soft-hearted, forgiving those around us for terrible wrongs done to them. Go out and do that everyday. It isn’t easy. But God will help you. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Amen.

I want to share one more illustration with you, from Corrie Ten Boom, the woman who hid Jews from the Nazis, and was later put in a concentration camp. After the war she struggled with forgiveness and letting go of anger.

“Corrie ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn't sleep. Finally Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest. "His help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor," Corrie wrote, "to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks." "Up in the church tower," he said, nodding out the window, "is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there's a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope. But if we've been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn't be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They're just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down." "And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force -- which was my willingness in the matter -- had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at the last stopped altogether: we can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts." -Corrie ten Boom

Hebrew Word Study: Ahaveth ‘Olam ‘Ahavethik, Love everlasting Love

ahaveth ‘olam ‘ahavethik = Love everlasting Love

How many of you have a pet, a dog, a cat, a bird, or some lovely creature God created? Many, many of us do. I always had dogs and cats growing up. We even briefly had ferrets, gerbils, and even a turtle for a while.

Animals are wonderful aren’t they? I really love animals. My life would be incomplete without the fellowship of animals. And that is how God made us, to love and care for animals.

We love our animals. They love us back. It’s a constant flow, love given, love received.

It’s similar, though deeper, with our family members, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, close friends, a deep love, in which we give love, and receive love from them. Back and forth, back and forth it goes. Give love, receive love.

What is it exactly, this thing we call love? A feeling, a commitment, a desire, a calling, a joy, a true thing, a right thing.

So it is. That brings us to our Hebrew phrase for today, from Jeremiah 31:3.

ahaveth ‘olam ‘ahavethik = Love everlasting Love

“The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

Our context is found within the pages of again, the weeping prophet’s words from the Lord, the prophet Jeremiah, who saw the nation of Israel destroyed and dragged into the Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah’s book contains some of the harshest judgments against the wayward nation of Israel. Yet we find nestled within the pages of Jeremiah, in chapter 31, a hopeful future, despair turned into joy.

“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

2 This is what the Lord says: “The people who survive the sword
will find favor in the wilderness; I will come to give rest to Israel.”

Then in verse 3 Jeremiah seems to be visiting a dream that he had of God’s love.

In fact if you jump down to verse 26 it says, “26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.”

So really Jeremiah is detailing a dream from God he had while he was asleep. And in this dream he perceived the love eternal love of God. The ahaveth ‘olam ‘ahavethik of God. But how does one perceive eternal love in a dream or vision? How is that possible?

Jewish scholars have tried to understand how various deep truths of God can be perceived by prophets and priests in the scriptures. And the conclusion some Jewish scholars drew was that perhaps in these experiences the biblical prophets were experiencing all five senses rolled into one panoramic depiction of God’s truth.

All senses, brought together into perfect, eternal sense, limitless, infinite in all directions. Then the challenge for the prophet must be, to take that infinite view, and translate it into words us finite beings can understand.

Love can be something difficult to understand, don’t you think? We’ve each been hurt in this world in different ways, which damage our ability to give and receive love. Perhaps our parents neglected us. A lover betrayed our trust. We were bullied in school. People we thought were friends used us. Enemies defeated us. Dark times seemed to surround us. And we suffer the inability to receive love and give love effectively. These are wounds only God himself can redeem and repair. Turn to Him. God, heal my broken heart. My heart, become so rock hardened, it seems impassable. No one can enter, nothing can leave. Only God can change that hard heart into softness, freshness, with wide hallways to enter in, and to pour out.

Let me see if I can help you perceive what true love is.

Five senses… touch, see, hear, taste, smell.

Touch – A deep long hug with a dear friend or family member. Warm embrace

Sight – A beautiful sunset, a star filled sky, glorious green valley, sunny day

Hear- the whispered words of a lover, I love you.

Taste- the sweet taste of a kiss from your lover, or the sweet taste of fresh fruit, or honey.

Smell- the smell of autumn, or, the smell of a fresh flowers, the smell of Christmas tree.

The feeling of being completely loved, in all these ways, eternally, in both directions forever. God’s love, eternal love.

ahaveth ‘olam ‘ahavethik

The famous Christian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, born in 1806, wrote, “You were made perfectly to be loved and surely I have loved you in the idea of you my whole life long.” -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You were made in the image of God, perfectly, to be loved, and to receive love from God.

And I imagine even before God crafted your soul and placed you into the body you have now, while still inside the womb of your mother, he loved you, even simply the idea of you, the dream of all you could become. And for those who ascend to paradise in heaven, God’s everlasting love will always be with us.

And even for those of us here who descend into the torments of hell, God may yet still love the idea of who we could’ve been if we’d only listened to his calling before it was too late. What sorrow it must cause God when one of us he loves chooses to reject Him and drop down into the sorrows of hell.

Ahaveth is a verb form of love, to be loved, the action of being loved. And in-between the two loves, we have o’lam, which means infinite, eternal, perpetual, without end. Then the second love is ‘ahavethik which is love in feminine noun form. God’s love for his people. Both Hebrew words for love can mean God’s love for man, and man’s love for God. So you have this two way give and take happening.

God loving us, us loving God, God loving us, us loving God, and in the center, infinity. God verb love God’s noun love, for us, us for him.

Recently God revealed something to me, that he loves me, he has never left me, and indeed he indicated that he is close to me, so close to me, closer than my carotid artery.

Now there are two carotid blood vessels, major blood vessels on the neck one on both sides. One sends blood into the brain from the body, the other sends blood back from the brain to the rest of the body. He’s that close with me, always giving me love, and receiving love from me. It’s the same with you if you truly know Jesus as your savior, he’s closer than your carotid artery, giving love to you, and receiving love back from you.

That my friends is ahaveth ‘olam ‘ahavethik, Love everlasting love. Perfect love, given and received forever.

As Christians it overflows from us, the waters of life bubble out of us, and toward other people, down from God, out of us toward others. This is perfect love. I think a beautiful example is that of the love for a child. Children are innocent, unknowing, a blank canvas you might say, that is why the enemy targets children with things like abortion, and transgenderism, trying to destroy children in the womb, and destroy their minds with transgender ideology.

As I was thinking about this… I kind of drifted back and wondered, at all the people who would be here in this country, if it weren’t for abortion. Over 63 million people have been cancelled from living on Earth in the United States since the day abortion was legalized. 63 million, there are 330 million people in the USA today. And I wondered at all the people who might be part of this church, or living in my neighborhood or even friends of mine, who were never born, because they were murdered before they could be. Worldwide, since 1980, 1.6 billion abortions. Truly tragic, and terrible beyond reckoning.

Our enemy, demons and Satan, try to destroy our ability to receive love and give love. They destroy these things through crime, violence, household abuse, domestic violence, abortion, pornography, sexual immorality, and adultery, to name just a few. All of this damages our ability to give and receive perfect love.

So in conclusion today brothers and sisters, if you are hurt in your heart, from past pain and abuse, and struggle to give and receive love, seek God’s help in this. Ask God to heal the broken places in your soul. Ask Him to help you receive love and give love. God will help you. If you have past sorrows, consider writing them down on paper, and sharing them out loud with someone, like your pastor, or a trusted friend, if necessary, consider seeing a Christian counselor who can help you work through past pains. But it all starts with Jesus, whose perfect love, grand love for us, brought Him to the cross, where he suffered and died not for anything he had done, but for your crimes, he was crucified, to pay off our debt of sin, and make an open way for us to heaven, where we can live in perfect love forever. Amen.

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Being a Salvation Army Officer

The views on this blog do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Salvation Army, it's employees, or partners. The views on this blog are solely of those making them, based on the teachings of the Bible, in the Spirit.

Very often we can focus too much on the negatives and difficulties of ministry work. And yes, ministry work is challenging. But it's also a huge blessing.  It's really important to focus on the positives of serving God's people and the people of the world.

In the ministry world, I'm a Salvation Army corps officer. But what is a Salvation Army officer? A Salvation Army officer is much like a pastor, administrator, social services coordinator, and charity leader rolled into one. It's a very unique position in society. So without further meandering, here are the top ten reasons why I love being a corps officer in The Salvation Army!

10. Walking closely with God - One of the great blessings of being in ministry is learning to walk very closely with God. I mean really close. Super close. And it's my job to cultivate that relationship and draw near to God, as He draws near to me. It's beautiful. The joy of it is overpowering. 

9. Be a voice for Christ in the public sphere - One of the main reasons I wanted to be an SA officer was because I wanted to be able to influence the community, not just the few people who showed up on Sundays. 

8. Being in position to help people I would never otherwise meet - In the SA world, we have incredible access to community leaders, hurting people, impoverished populations and other people I would never ever meet if I was a pastor at a church. 

7. Meeting people at their lowest moments - when someone is struggling, suffering, miserable, hurting and confused, this is an often a vital moment, when someone is willing to listen to the word of God unlike they would otherwise.

6. Using Social Media to Spread the Gospel - The Salvation Army is very active on social media which is great and I'm so pleased to help get the gospel out there on the internet where so many billions of people interact everyday. It's a powerful tool to get the word out there! 

5. Providing Food by the hundreds and hundreds of Pounds - This is really amazing to me, especially with food prices going up, we give out food daily at the corps where I serve, and we move about 3500 lbs per month, sometimes more. It's great to help those who are in need, and it's a great way to have conversations about Jesus and share literature, tracts, books, and dvds with Christian themes. 

4. Drug and Alcohol Recovery - TSA gives me the opportunity to help provide drug and alcohol recovery. We host a weekly recovery group and TSA harbor lights and ARCs can help provide long term in patient care to those struggling with alcohol and drug addction. 

3. Fasting and Prayer - hosting prayer groups has been my single favorite ministry activity at the church. Praying together with other Christians for an hour or more, has been an experience that blew me away. It's so powerful when God's people pray together. When it's combined with full or Daniel fasting, it's even more powerful. God is good. 

2. Leading Small Groups - There are many administrative duties in the ministry but what's great is weekly getting to lead groups like bible study, recovery, men's ministry, and other groups. Sitting down with other Christians and digging into the word is so wonderful, I always love it, and it helps me grow as much as anyone else there! 

1. Empowering others to share the Gospel - I thought that when I became a pastor my main job would be sharing the gospel, but more and more I've realized, my job is to empower the people I serve to share the gospel.  It's been extremely powerful to watch others learn and develop a missional approach to sharing the word.