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| November - December 2009 | Life Precept - Ministry Update - Offer - |
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Honor your father and your mother: as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12 |
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Honor is seldom taught or understood in our culture today. Ironically, it is the very solution to some of our greatest hurts and needs. God has said that if children learn to give honor to their parents, their life will be good (the same root word is used when God created and it was "good"). In Hebrew this is a powerful concept. The Hebrew word for honor "Kaved", literally means heavy. To the modern reader this might not make sense, until we realize that in the ancient times, the Jews bought and sold by weight. Even their money, the shekel, was based on weight. How does this apply to us today? We live in a world where relationships are often based on feelings. When we say that we love someone, we are usually talking about a feeling. But the Biblical concept of love is based on the value of the object of our love. The feeling may follow the value but honor is much more than a feeling. Imagine driving a beat-up old car to the grocery store on a cold, miserable, rainy day. Where are you going to park? As close as you can get! Do you worry about parking next to the shopping carts? No, if the car gets dinged up, it might even look better. But now imagine that you are driving a million dollar car. Where are you going to park? Way in the back of the parking lot! Does it take willpower to park so far back? No, it would take more willpower to park up close; you would always be running out to check on the car. Value changes your actions. How does value change our actions? Great value changes everything. This is a basic precept of God's Kingdom. The Bible says in Matthew 13:44 - 46 that... "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. NKJV If a 14 million dollar a year customer were to call you at 2 o'clock in the morning - how much trouble would it be to have a good attitude, to be helpful, to even say "call again whenever you need to"? But what would your attitude be if a $50 a year customer called you at 2 AM? It would be hard, if not impossible, to have a good attitude. Human nature always respond to the value we hold for someone or something. If you are having trouble being patient, kind and grateful to someone maybe the trouble is not your character as much as it is the value that you see in that person. When you do see another person's value, 2 things change... The first thing to change is YOU. You become kinder and generous - because you see the others' value. How much effort did it take for the person who found the treasure buried in the filed to sell all they had and buy the field? The second change happens to the other person. His or her heart opens and he or she can now trust, love and receive love in an entirely different way, possibly even becoming less needy and less demanding.
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| What opens the inside door |
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Kaved |
Have you ever been honored? Been treated like a million dollar car or person? That kind of honor changes you. The concept of honor transforming lives and relationships can be seen in the pictures found within the word ka-ved or honor. |
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The picture, like the Hebrew meaning shows what happens when someone honors or is honored. |
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If you have experienced honor from someone who sees and treats you as heavy with value, even for a moment, you will know what I mean. The Hebrew word picture for Honor agrees with the Bible about the impact of honor in our life. When we are valued we open our heart and soul. Like the Israelites leaving Egypt, we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been freed; we can worship God and build a new life. But, for many of us something is still missing in our lives, families and marriages. It is as if we are following God through the desert, seeing His presence, maybe even His miracles, but we never enter the Promised Land. But God has promised that those who learn to honor, will live long in the land that He has given, "the Promised Land."
Entering the Promised Land
The best way for a child to learn to honor is from parents that have chosen to honor each other. The father for good or bad, teaches every child how to value their mother. The mother for good or bad, teaches them how to value their father. |
