Social Responsibility
““I know that there is nothing better for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. Still, the fact that everyone can eat and drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work, is a gift of God.” Eccl 3:12-13
““The person who blesses others will prosper; he who satisfies others will be satisfied himself.”
Mishlei, Prov 11:25
Donate
Encourage
Contribute
Employ
Prefer
Empower
Affirm
Appreciate
and
Celebrate
#responsibility #love #life #respect #motivation #freedom #inspiration #success #accountability #quotes #sustainability #covid #family #change #community #leadership #peace #awareness #truth #mindset #happy #yourself #believe #nature #environment #instagood #happiness #business #trust #bhfyp
The Preeminence of God
“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. Psa 90:1-6
He is the Everlasting God
The God who Is, was, and is to come.
He is Sovereign
He is Immeasurable
He is Immutable
He is past, present, and future.
He is Eternal
His existence is before the mountains..
Before the earth was formed
Before the worlds were created
From everlasting to everlasting…He is God
He is Immortal
He is Immovable
He Omniscient
He is Omnipresent
He is Omnipotent
His power is Irresistible
He is Superior
He is Righteous
He is Gracious
He is Kind
He is Merciful
He is Preeminent
Let us therefore, be thankful
Let us be trustful
Let us be fearless
Let us be certain in the Almighty God.
There’s purpose in ACCEPTING
There’s purpose in Believing
There’s purpose in Receiving
There’s purpose in Transitioning
There’s purpose in Laboring
Lastly, we have VICTORY through Christ Jesus our Lord.
#Ministry #jesus #bible #worship #faith #hope #love #church #prayer #gospel #christian #family #motivation #inspiration #holyspirit #power #christ #jesuschrist #purpose #godisgood #inspire #instagood #outreach #evangelism #bibleverse #encouragement #dailyinspiration
Pray for Afghanistan
Pray for Afghanistan…
“Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:17
#afghanistan #afghan #afghanwedding #kabul #afghanmusic #afghangirl #afg #afghanculture #afghandance #afghani #afghanzoom #afghanboy #afghandress #afghansongs #afghangirls #afghanstyle #afghanstar #afghancouple #pashto #afghanfashion #afghanfood #pakistan #hazara #afghansong #afghanclothes #iran #afghanhound #tiktok #love #bhfyp
Let the good times roll
“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Amos 5:24
Seedlings
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” Isa 61:3
#ministry #jesus #bible #worship #faith #hope #love #church #prayer #gospel #christian #family #motivation #inspiration #holyspirit #power #christ #jesuschrist #purpose #godisgood #inspire #instagood #outreach #evangelism #bibleverse #encouragement #dailyinspiration
Good Intentions
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Gen 50:20
A New Thing
A GREAT deal of what has never been ACCOMPLISHED is the BIRTHING canal of something NEW! Kingzown
A New Day is Dawning…
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.”
Is 43:18-20
#purpose #peace #discipleship #biblestudy #photography #unityinchrist #kingdommanga #motivation #lord #kingdomhearts #chosenones #godisnotdead #justjesus #gospel #jesusdisciples #christmightysons #ukeducation #columbia #studyuk #brazil #usa #believe #realgospeltalk #kingdomlifestyle #truth #magic #instagood #jesuschrist #kingdomfacts #japan
The Regality of Character
“And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.” 1 Chr 4:10
The Character of God
We’re All Unique
Everyone of us are unique.
Everyone of us are valuable.
Everyone of us are noteworthy.
No one should be taken advantage of.
We are to love ourselves.
We are to love one another.
Practice self love.
Practice self care.
Enjoy life.
Take time to REST.
Be kind.
Be tender hearted.
Honor others.
Honor thyself.
“The Character of God”
Leviticus 19:11-18
Eye Sores
“The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.” Lk 11:34
#visionary #vision #art #entrepreneur #visionaryart #love #psychedelicart #music #artist #motivation #inspiration #photography #hiphop #creator #psychedelic #creative #visionaryartist #goals #artwork #abstract #fashion #rap #nyc #business #nature #blessed #drawing #meditation #life #bhfyp
Rise to the Call
“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. “ Ps 42:7
Hyperactive Disorder
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Cor 14:33
Break the box
Break the box...
”There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. ” Matt. 26:7
Great honor
Great example
Great faith
Great love
Great sacrifice
#kingdom #love #king #jesus #god #faith #christ #church #life #bible #christian #art #royal #uk #anime #queen #unitedkingdom #united #follow #worship #manga #fellowship #monarchy #christianity #music #holyspirit #history #community #prayer #bhfyp
Broken Cisterns
” Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” James 3::11
Like as a lion
Like as a lion...
“For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.” Isa. 31:4
Such a time as this
“It’s like Mordecai says to Esther as she’s considering whether she should advocate for her people: “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:1
God is The Greatest
“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4
Stay Woke
“But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” Matt 13:25
#kingdom #love #king #jesus #god #faith #christ #church #life #bible #christian #art #royal #uk #anime #queen #unitedkingdom #united #follow #worship #manga #fellowship #monarchy #christianity #music #holyspirit #history #community #prayer #bhfyp
Dancing with wolves
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matt. 7:15
Parashat VaYakhel-Pekudei
Holy Place, Holy Time
Our double Torah portion concludes the tabernacle section of the Book of Exodus. It tells how the various parts of the tabernacle were fashioned, then it describes the erection of the building, the placing of all its appurtenances in their proper places, and finishes with a financial report on the amounts of precious metals used and an inventory of the special textiles incorporated.
Surprisingly, the Torah “interrupts” the account to instruct the Israelite on laws of Shabbat observance. The Torah tells us that labor (melakhah, dignified, creative work), that is, creation, is prohibited on the Shabbat (Exodus 35:2-3). The traditional commentaries scramble to explain the insertion of a seemingly unrelated set of laws. In his commentary Rashi suggests that the Shabbat instruction is inserted here—before the construction is described—to underscore that the work of building the tabernacle is prohibited on Shabbat.1 The holy work of building a house in which to meet and serve God, nevertheless, must stop on Shabbat. Getting the sanctuary done faster is not religiously significant enough to interfere with the global Shabbat instruction to live a day of pure being, dedicated to internal reflection and relationship. (Only pikuah nefesh, saving a life, is weighty enough to override the Shabbat prohibition of labor, because life is Judaism’s highest value).
There is another possible approach. These Shabbat laws are not an interruption but a juxtaposition. Shabbat represents sacred time. The tabernacle represents sacred space. These two phenomena are closely related. They are parallel to each other and they play an identical role in the ecology of Jewish religion. Hence they appear together in our Torah portion.
The key goal of Judaism, as I have argued in this series, is to repair and perfect the world so life will flourish to its fullest degree. In the Messianic age, human honor and dignity—the infinite value, equality, and uniqueness of every individual—will be upheld on a daily basis in real life. Living the Jewish covenant involves working in every generation to overcome the inequalities inflicted by poverty, oppression or discrimination, as well as to end the life-degrading effects of hunger, war, and sickness. We work on the present reality in an effort to improve it. There is a real tension between the ideal we strive for and what can be done in the present status quo. This tension is the dynamic which generates the energy to pursue our activities at an intense (covenantal) level and strive to live by the higher values in our daily lives. Given that the pace of covenantal improvement is incremental, we spend our whole lives in this work and the task is passed on to the next generation.
The challenge is: How do we keep up the present impact of the ideal, when its actual realization is so far away? The covenantal process generates a real danger, that one will participate in—and then accommodate—the present reality, so as to slip into its routine. One may even unconsciously come to accept the norms and expectations of the status quo. How can we avoid selling out the dream and the mission?
There is a second danger. “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”2 How do we not lose the intensity and drawing power of the dream? This is the Achilles heel of the covenantal method, with its commitment to function in the present reality while working to change it.
The Jewish tradition deals with this challenge by creating sacred time and sacred space. The future perfected world is brought forward into the present in the form of a “mini-cosmos,” a miniature version of the ultimate goal. In the realm of time, the Torah carves out one day of the week, Shabbat. A. J. Heschel calls it an “island in time.”3During these twenty-five hours, one experiences the ultimate reality-to-come. On Shabbat, there is no labor (melakhah), i.e. dignified creative work to upgrade the world. This is not so much a prohibition as it is an imagined future fantasy, turned into a present experience. On this day, the world is complete, so there is nothing left to do.4
In a perfect world, one needs only to be, to live, to relate to family and friends, to self-develop, to learn Torah, to make love, to have family meals with time for conversation, to sing songs, to learn, as well as to enjoy company and guests. On Shabbat, good food and wine is provided to deepen the pleasure. On Shabbat there is no war, no deprivation, no public mourning. In effect, one lives in Messianic time and experiences the joys of a completely repaired world and the delight of a fully human experience with no distraction or anxieties to mar the day. For now, this is only twenty-five hours and the peace and perfection are artificially created in that the rest of the world is not keeping Shabbat. But for the practitioner, the promised future perfection is present, vivid, and real.5
The same function is carried out in the creation of sacred space. In this building—be it tabernacle or temple—one carves out a mini-world. It is made of precious, permanent, non-decaying metals, like gold and silver, to symbolize eternity and the absence of decay and death. In this space, no human death is present. Even people who have been in proximity to death and as a result become ritually impure, cannot enter until they have undergone a purification and rebirth-to-life ceremony. In this space, the priests are perfect physical specimens, foreshadowing the Messianic era with full cure of disabilities that handicap people.6 Everyone is ethically on their best behavior.7 There is no war, no strife, no clashing interests. One feels the presence of God in the absence of evil and in the unity of the divine and human in common cause. Again the Messianic reality is only inside this one building. But the experience is vivid and real.
This is the covenantal method of keeping the dream alive. A mini-redeemed world is set up and experienced deeply in time and space now. The encounter is so powerful that the participant knows that this is real - not just an idle fantasy. Thanks to this present experience, the future is not some distant star that is too far away to exercise gravitational pull. Then when one walks out of the Temple or re-enters the weekday, one sees with fresh eyes all the flaws, the missing qualities, the compromises of the present. Energized by the taste of the messianic, the religious celebrant determines not to settle for the status quo but to change it.
This is the covenantal method of world transformation which the Torah portion holds up as twin tracks on the way to tikkun olam, world repair. Start by redeeming one day, then widen the liberation steadily into Sunday, Monday—until all seven days are perfected. Start with one ideal building, then extend it to one city, then into one country. Keep on extending the zone of life, freedom, perfection, get some allies along the way, and some day the whole world will be redeemed, a Garden of Eden with liberty and justice, love and peace for all.
Shabbat Shalom.