Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Drawing the Plan Out of Your Heart by John Garfield Identity Network

Drawing the Plan Out of Your Heart by John Garfield

By Identity Network

Kingdom Manna

God's Plan for Our

Changing World

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By Lanny Swaim

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Drawing the Plan Out of Your Heart by John Garfield Identity Network

June 5, 2019

One of the keys to the kingdom is knowing God works through voluntary sons, who in turn work out of the desires Father wrote in their hearts (Jer. 31:33-34; Heb. 8:10-11). There is a distinct authenticity that is readily apparent in sons connecting with their hearts. Plus, it's fun! The blueprint for our kingdom assignment is both in our hearts and God's heart. I'll find the same thing in both places. Is it easy to figure out what that is? No! Most people struggle, and many give up and never connect with either their hearts or God's heart in a way that causes their life, ministry, and vocation to become an integral story that produces fruit and leads to an intentional objective. Many sincere believers spend their lives wandering and wondering through an unexplainable wilderness, bouncing off life's blessings and tragedies in an unpredictable, cosmic game of ping pong. It doesn't have to be this confusing.

Jer. 29:11-14 (NIV) – "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord.

Is There a Plan?

Yes, there is a plan. Where is it? It's in your heart and God's heart. How do I find it? Connect with a man of understanding to draw it out. So, who is the man of understanding? I don't think it's a coincidence that Understanding is one of the seven spirits of God (Isa 11:2-3; Rev 5:12, 7:12). A wise mentor can help us connect with our hearts, but they always point us back to the Father and the Spirit of Understanding. Running back and forth to a human mentor can help, but it isn't a permanent solution. The Father wants to talk to us Himself! … Regularly!

Prov. 20:5 A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, But a man of understanding draws it out.

The Context of the Plan

We can see the context of Proverbs 20:5 in verse 4. God's plan for us includes our vocation and finances, not just our spiritual ministry or the theme of our preaching. We are still transitioning out of the poverty of believing that God's call is a sermonic platform for us to tell others what to do – It's simply not! Our calling is always about providing value to other people around what they want to have; not around what we want to preach.

Prov 20:4-5 (NASU) The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing. A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, But a man of understanding draws it out.

The Degree of Difficulty

Is it easy to fish that purpose out of the deep water of my own heart? No, it takes faith (an awareness that it's in there waiting to be found) and persistence (to seek God for as long as it takes to find it). It's the nature of God to hide things from us to deepen our hunger for Him and our purpose in life. Most believers expect finding their purpose to be easy and automatic. It's not. Purpose unfolds over a lifetime of hunger for God and knowing where to look. In the natural, our hearts are unsearchable. (Prov.25:3)

Heb. 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Prov. 25:2-3 (NIV) It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

Deut. 4:29-30 (NIV) But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Prov. 8:17-18 (NIV) I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.

Hearing Other's Hearts

Once I can draw the purpose out of my own heart and God's heart, I'll connect with my ministry in terms of my life and vocation or business. The very next step in a prospering vocation or business is my ability to hear what's in another person's heart. If the product I have brings value to other people, they are more than happy to buy it, promote it, and celebrate it (and me) because they see the fruit of what I bring to their lives, whether it's a widget or a service. Hearing hearts is the secret to marketing and ministry!

Summary

The spiritual and business side of your life purpose flows out of three skills:

Our ability to discern the purpose that God wrote in our heart,
Our ability to prophetically connect with God's heart; what He is doing, and
Our ability to hear what's in the heart of other people and bring them value that furthers their purpose and makes their dream come true.

John Garfield

www.releasingkings.com

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Goodbye Middle Class: The Percentage Of Wealth Owned By The Top 10% Just Got Even BIGGER - Michael Snyder

Goodbye Middle Class: The Percentage Of Wealth Owned By The Top 10% Just Got Even BIGGER - Michael Snyder

June 4, 2019

The middle class in America is being systematically eviscerated, and it is getting worse with each passing year. As you will see below, one new study has found that 10 percent of Americans now own 70 percent of all the wealth. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world, but pretty soon we are just going to have the ultra-wealthy and everyone else. Our system has been designed to funnel as much wealth as possible to the very top of the financial pyramid, and that means that most of the rest of us are deeply struggling. And when you are just barely getting by from month to month, all it takes is one bad break to knock you completely out of the middle class and into poverty.

I have been chronicling the demise of the middle class for many years, but I didn’t know that the numbers had gotten this bad. According to a study that was recently conducted by the Federal Reserve, the percentage of wealth controlled by the top 10 percent of U.S. households has shot up from 60 percent in 1989 to 70 percent today…

Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Sløk says that the distribution of household wealth in America has become even more disproportionate over the past decade, with the richest 10% of U.S. households representing 70% of all U.S. wealth in 2018, compared with 60% in 1989, according to a recent study by researchers at the Federal Reserve.
The study finds that the share of wealth among the richest 1% increased to 32% from 23% over the same period.

The ironic thing is that the Federal Reserve has actually done much to cause this high concentration of wealth among the elite. In response to the last financial crisis, the Federal Reserve pumped unprecedented amounts of money into the financial system, and this has created the greatest stock market bubble in our history…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +2.06% has climbed nearly 300% since its closing low in March 2009, the S&P 500 index SPX, +2.14% has climbed 325%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +2.65% has soared 535% over the same period.

Meanwhile, wages have stagnated for ordinary Americans. According to the Social Security Administration, the median yearly wage in the United States is currently just $30,533. In other words, 50 percent of all American workers make at least that much per year, and 50 percent of all American workers make that much or less per year.

$30,533 a year breaks down to approximately $2,500 per month, and you simply can’t support a middle class lifestyle for a typical American family on $2,500 a month.

Meanwhile, the cost of living for middle class families has exploded higher over the past few decades…

Everyday expenses continue to rise, and as the shadow inflation increases, it also threatens to wipe out the middle class – what’s left of it anyway. In fact, middle-class life is now 30% more expensive than it was 20 years ago, according to a separate report by CNBC. The cost of things such as college, housing, and child care has risen precipitously: Tuition at public universities doubled between 1996 and 2016 and housing prices in popular cities have quadrupled, Alissa Quart, author and executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, tells CNBC Make It.

As the cost of living has risen faster than our incomes have, more Americans have been squeezed out of the middle class with each passing month.

As a result, an increasing number of Americans have become financially dependent on the government, and our rapidly expanding welfare state is a big reason why the federal government is now 22 trillion dollars in debt.

Of course many Americans are no longer able to make it at all, and the ranks of the homeless are swelling all over the nation. In fact, we just got some brand new numbers about the growth of homelessness in the Los Angeles area that are absolutely eye-popping…

The number of homeless people counted across Los Angeles County jumped 12% over the past year to nearly 59,000, with more young and old residents and families on the streets, officials said Tuesday.
The majority of the homeless were found within the city of Los Angeles, which saw a 16% increase to 36,300, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority said in presenting January’s annual count to the county Board of Supervisors.

Yes, it is true that we have a record number of millionaires on the west coast in 2019, but meanwhile our major west coast cities are being transformed into rotting, decaying nightmares right in front of our eyes.

During a recent interview with Laura Ingraham, Dr. Drew Pinsky admitted that there is “a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now”…

“We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now,” Pinsky told host Laura Ingraham. “We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, (and) rodent-borne. We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn’t have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down.”
Pinsky’s comments followed news that Los Angeles police officer had contracted typhoid fever, a rare and life-threatening illness that fewer than 350 Americans contract each year.
Los Angeles had a typhus outbreak last summer and will likely have another this summer, Pinsky said. Meanwhile, bubonic plague – a pandemic that killed tens of millions of people during the 14th century – is “likely” already present in Los Angeles, Pinsky added.

Despite all of our great wealth and despite all of our advanced technology, this is what life is like in our second largest city right now.

And if things are degenerating this badly during stable times, what are things going to look like once our society plunges into chaos?

Ultimately, the American Dream is about being self-sufficient. Most people want to be able to work hard and provide a nice life for their families, but that is becoming harder and harder to do.

No matter which political party has been in power in Washington, the middle class has continued to shrink and more wealth and power has become concentrated in the hands of the elite.

Now we stand on the precipice of the next major economic downturn, and many are deeply concerned about what that is going to mean for the future of our society.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News.

From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post Goodbye Middle Class: The Percentage Of Wealth Owned By The Top 10% Just Got Even BIGGER appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Synagogue and Church Join Hands to Combat Hate in North Carolina - RABBI DANIEL GREYBER CHARISMA NEWS

Synagogue and Church Join Hands to Combat Hate in North Carolina

6:00AM EDT 6/5/2019 RABBI DANIEL GREYBER CHARISMA NEWS

Last year, a few weeks before the congregation of Beth El Synagogue moved into Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church here, the Rev. Katie Crowe spoke at Shabbat services at Beth El.

She began by naming a concern at the heart of Christian-Jewish relations. "It is not lost on me that it was a Presbyterian who helped with your capital campaign," she said, "a Presbyterian who is one of your general contractors and Presbyterians who are hosting you during the transition.

"I think it is therefore worthy of note that we are not trying to make you Presbyterian!" she said, to laughter. "This is not some elaborate proselytizing initiative."

But as she went on, Katie unexpectedly and poignantly addressed a difficult history.

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"We are extending hospitality because we know that we stand in a tradition that has, at times, gotten it horribly wrong in relation to the Jewish community," she said. "But hate and division, persecution, prejudice, violence and injustice are antithetical to the person and teachings of Jesus.

"If we can enact any gesture, however small it may be, to stand as a counterpoint to the shameful narrative that people who share our faith have helped forge, and in cases still forge today, this is the work that we want to be about and that we must be about."

Many of us there that morning were moved to tears.

Beth El Synagogue and Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church were brought together for the past 15 months by a mundane need: Beth El was undergoing a renovation, and we needed a place to hold Shabbat services. Trinity Avenue enthusiastically offered to host us, thanks in part to a friendship that had sprung up between the two of us, both relatively young clergy, both new to Durham.

But what unfolded during Beth El's stay was beyond what either could have hoped. In an era when bigotry has caused synagogues, mosques and churches to be attacked and made to feel less than the sanctuaries they ought to be, we declare that a different narrative is being written by people of faith who refuse to let hatred and darkness have the final word in 21st-century America.

Being together created opportunities for us to act together. Our social action committees packed lunches for needy Durham schoolchildren, prepared workbooks for a local jobs ministry, sorted books for a local literacy project and co-hosted a fall festival with proceeds that included a gift by the church to a local mosque in honor of Beth El Synagogue.

Trinity Avenue Presbyterian became the first church we know of to host a Yiddish Song Festival, "What's Not to Like?" raising thousands of dollars to benefit local hunger relief. In February we joined a local black church for a lunch and discussion about the history and causes of housing segregation and racial inequities in Durham.

Being together also helped us learn about each other. For most of the year, Shabbat services were held in a social hall devoid of religious symbols, but for our bat and bar mitzvah services, we needed the larger main sanctuary. We moved our portable ark to the front of the room. A large cross hanging from the ceiling in front of the altar could not be covered, so when celebrations were held there—including my own son's bar mitzvah—we were given the gift of being challenged to see the cross anew, as representing a chapter in Christian-Jewish relations different than before.

Some moments were fun and funny: Beth El's love of sipping some scotch at our communal lunch after services led the church to reclaim the church's Scottish traditions and temporarily suspend the no-alcohol policy on campus. Other moments were more poignant, as we shared sadness over synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and San Diego.

As the year progressed, Beth El's rabbi emeritus shared Judaism's many stories about the Prophet Elijah and our unique way of reading Scripture—less as a problem to be solved and more as a mystery to be explored and enjoyed. On the second night of Passover—the night before Easter—Beth El families hosted Trinity Avenue members in our homes for Passover seders.

Jews have lots of uncommon rituals, new to Trinity's congregants, and Jews don't always understand Christian practices either. The many "why" questions asked in both directions and accidental offenses over the course of the year were received and answered with patience and good humor.

On a Sunday morning in May, Beth El held its annual meeting in the church social hall while the Presbyterians worshipped downstairs in their sanctuary. Our communities came together at noon as the Torah scrolls, the Jewish community's most sacred objects, were removed from their temporary ark in the church for the final time as we prepared to march them home.

Katie shared with us these words, "My sense of what was possible for the human family under the banner of God's love was expanded forever. We said at the outset of this adventure that one of the catechisms of the Presbyterian Church states that the chief end of humankind is to glorify and enjoy God forever. Looking back at this special season that we have shared together, I know that I speak for all of Trinity Avenue Presbyterian when I say that we have found ourselves more fully glorifying and enjoying God because of you."

We proudly marched through the streets of Durham with our Christian brothers and sisters back to our newly renovated home.

Our procession sadly, but necessarily, included some off-duty police officers hired for protection, but the march reminded us again that a different narrative is possible in today's America, one of peace, pluralism, tolerance—and hospitality.

Just days before Beth El moved into the church, Katie called with a question: A church member had purchased a mezuzah, the doorpost ornament described in Deuteronomy 6:9, "write (God's words) upon the doorposts of your home and upon your gates."

Not wanting to misappropriate a Jewish symbol, Katie asked if it would be an appropriate gesture of welcome to affix it to the Fellowship Hall. I was moved by the gesture but, as a conservative rabbi, wanted to ground my response within the Jewish legal tradition.

In researching this question, I realized that it had no precedent in Jewish legal history. Rabbis had never been asked if a mezuzah could be affixed on a room of a church that was welcoming its Jewish neighbors to pray there for a year. We affixed the mezuzahthat Sunday and, as we did, we recited a blessing of thanksgiving that we live in a time when such a question could be asked.

It is through this narrative that God is glorified, by building community across difference and, in doing so, building a better future for us all.

Rabbi Daniel Greyber leads Beth El Synagogue in Durham, N.C., where the Rev. Katie Crowe is pastor of Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Sharing My Israel Experiences at The Movement Centre with the Next Generation

Sharing My Israel Experiences at The Movement Centre

with the Next Generation at IgniteU

Fort Mill, South Carolina

June 4, 2019

June 4, 2019
Fort Mill, South Carolina

What a joy it was to be with these young people who have a desire to know more of Israel and our Christian/Jewish roots. Pastored by Lathan Wood, they have been meeting weekly for some time now, as they study and discuss Israelology at IgniteU.

I was asked by Lathan to come and share my experiences in Israel, of the friends whom we have there, through our Love For His People ministry, and how this next generation also can have the heart of the Lord Jesus (Yeshua) for His Chosen People, and support the Jews and Israel.

After sharing photos, video, and having a discussion between us of what it is like in Israel - the cultures, the land, the conflicts - the winners of my "followup questions" received gifts that I had brought back from Israel in May 2019. Each also received a copy of my book, "Ahava Love Letters", plus other books I have written that I wanted to share with them. (I hope they find time to read them!)

Someday may they journey with us to meet those the Lord continues to bring back from all the nations. I look forward to this September when their Pastor, Lathan, makes his 1st trip to the Land. Then he can receive a part of the Lord's heart too, and continue to share with them!

I hope to meet with them again, soon.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People ministry
Charlotte, NC USA