"Sole Survivor: One Man's Testimony For Christ" by Rev. Paul Bern now available

Pastor Paul J. Bern's third book, a Christian motivational self-help work titled, “Sole Survivor: One Man's Testimony for Christ”, has been released in softback ($19.95) on Amazon.com or as an e-book ($3.50) on Kindle and Nook. This is a book about starting out in life as an orphan before being adopted into an abusive household, only to have my adoptive father die when I was 12, put out of the house at age 19, and wound up in prison for check fraud at age 26. Went back to school afterwards because I needed and wanted to change. Dedicated my life to Christ in 1992, became a successful business owner and a servant of the Lord as a musician. After 22-year computer/IT career ended in 2008, I was beset by long-term unemployment, eventually ended up homeless. Total collapse of my health ensued climaxing with a nearly successful suicide attempt, followed by a lengthy hospitalization. Read all about how Christ rescued me from all of the above and reestablished me. Today I'm in full time ministry and I've never been better. Thanks be to God through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! He has made me whole!!

This week's Bible study will be the second half of 1st Corinthians chapter 10

Doing Everything For The Glory of God

[1^st Corinth. 10, 18-33]

In this week's Bible study I will finish up the second half of chapter 10 in the first book of Corinthians. Our study will begin at verse 18, but to put it into better context let me quote verse 17, where St. Paul is comparing the breaking of bread to the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ when he wrote, “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” The 'one loaf' symbolizes the body of Christ who was sacrificed for all our sins. He then goes on to use the temple at Jerusalem as an example, since many of those to whom Paul was writing at this point were converted Jews. He begins at verse 18:

“Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” (1Cor. 10, verses 18-22 NIV)

In the first sentence above, Paul is referring to the live sacrifices offered by the Israelites when they were wandering in the Sinai desert, and especially after the first temple was constructed in Jerusalem. Since there was no banking system such as what we have today, those priests who “participate in the altar” ate from the animal sacrifices that were offered there as a form of partial payment for performing their duties. Pagan sacrifices, which were still common in those days, were made to an illusory god who did not really exist, and so their efforts were futile. I'm pretty sure that's what Paul meant when he wrote warning the early church at Corinth not “to be participants with demons”. Allow me to add some extra thought right here at this point in today's lesson.

There are those who would say that since there are no more pagan sacrifices in the modern world, then what Paul wrote about in the above passage of Scripture no longer applies to the world of today. I would strongly disagree with that, and let me explain why. First of all, demons are real, they are not something out of folklore. They actually exist, and they have installed themselves into positions of power and influence. There are a disturbing number of them working in Washington right now. They are also doing everything they can to try and stir up as much trouble, strife and conflict as possible, especially within the church where resistance to Satan is strongest. Paul wrote that we must all stand against these demonic forces in unity when he wrote, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons.” You can't play both sides of the fence with God. You can't have your life running both ways at once, because God and demons are polar opposites of each other. But just because we refrain from doing this, that doesn't get us off the hook, because there is still the related issue of idol worship that must be addressed.

Nobody builds altars to their idol gods anymore as far as I know, or at least not in the western hemisphere. And when was the last time you heard of the sacrifice of live animals and human beings for religious purposes? So one would think that this should be a moot issue, but in fact it is not. The idol gods of today come in vastly different forms than they did 3,000 years ago when the first temple was built at Jerusalem. Back in antiquity, idol gods were carved or graven images of wood and stone inlaid with precious jewels and metals such as gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds and sapphires. But in the modern world, idols tend to take the form of money (for its own sake), status (which is always temporary), power over others for the purpose of controlling or manipulating them ( which in the end is an illusion), and the craving for material wealth and luxurious possessions, which are vanity and selfishness personified. One thing is for sure; everybody is ultimately destined for death. Nobody gets out of the game of life alive. That being the case, it stands to reason that when we all eventually die, we're not going to be able to take any of our stuff with us. So all of the above examples are forms of idolatry, and any person who is engaging in any of the above activity should be warned that they are about to bring judgment upon themselves; not from other people, but from Almighty God himself! But there is still time to change! Ask Jesus to come into your heart today and dwell there forever, so that you in turn can dwell with Him forever when this life is over. Jesus is the Son of God, the only God who is real and genuine. Paul then uses the remaining verses in this chapter to further explain himself.

“'Everything is permissible'; but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible; but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for 'The earth is the Lord's and everything in it'. If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, 'This has been offered in sacrifice', then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for your conscience' sake – the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by anothers' conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God – even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.” (1Cor. 10; verses 23-33 NIV)

Paul ends this 10^th chapter of First Corinthians with a warning about how we are to be living. “Nobody should seek his (or her) own good, but the good of others”. Just because something is beneficial and agreeable to us (such as the pursuit of financial gain), or just because something makes us feel good (such as substance abuse or sexual promiscuity), does not mean it is good for us even if we believe that what we do does no harm to anyone else. The fact of the matter is that in cases such as this, when we sin against ourselves by engaging in any and all forms of idolatry, we sin against God who made us and we ultimately devalue ourselves. The most positive thing about this is that He loves us just the same without any prequalifications. You see, when Jesus died on the cross for us, He took care of all that for us no matter how many times we have sinned, and regardless of what we have done.

Paul warns the early church against knowingly consuming food and drink offered to idols, and I am thankful to say that this form of pagan worship is almost unheard of in the early 21^st century. But it is even easier than that to get caught up in the modern idols of our day that I mentioned earlier, such as the waging of endless wars by our US government that are based on greed, or the domination of others by manipulation or control such as in “corporate America”, or the trashing of our planet Earth's environment, also by corporate America and the US military for profit at the expense of future generations. And so Paul concludes this portion of his letter by telling the early Corinthian church to stay away from all vestiges of idolatry, closing with the admonition, “...whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” We are to focus on God when such issues crop up in our lives, and it is the responsibility of each and every believer to keep God first and foremost in our lives, above all else. The way to maintain a state of obedience to God is to “do it all for the glory of God”. That's how we should all be living, especially in light of the fact that His second coming could happen at any time in the near future. Therefore let us keep ourselves in a state of readiness for Christ, and to eagerly await His return. Let's spend each one of our days living for Him, and see what a big difference it makes in our quality of life. Today is the best day to start, so why not right now?

Has capitalism run out of gas? If so, greed is the reason.

Seven Reasons Why Capitalism Has Run Its Course

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

As world trade continues its anemic 1.2% average annual growth rate, politicians in most industrial countries, and particularly in the US, have an incentive to make exaggerated claims about the alleged ongoing economic recovery. The government wants us to think the Great Recession is over, and that we're on "the road to recovery," while the American people and other nations look on skeptically. The ugly truth is that more and more people have lost confidence in – and consequently no longer trust – the federal government. To make matters worse, 2014 turned out to be the year when the American public lost confidence and trust in law enforcement. The street protests in New York, Chicago, L.A., Atlanta and elsewhere attest to the factuality of that mistrust. Below are seven important social phenomena that point to a more realistic economic and political outlook for 2015. Let's start where it matters most by beginning with the economy.

1) The central banks are clueless. The usual tricks that U.S. and European central banks such as the Federal Reserve use to avoid recessions are long-exhausted. Interest rates cannot get any lower, and they've stayed that way for the last several years. And because cheap money wasn't working, the printing press was turned up a notch or two, into what the U.S. federal reserve euphemistically calls quantitative easing – flooding hundreds of billions of dollars into the world economy, escalating an emerging currency war between the US, the EU and the UK on one side, against China, Russia and the BRICS countries on the other.

2) Trade war. For the global economy to grow, global cooperation is needed. But there are too many countries engaging in a bitter struggle to dominate foreign markets so that their own corporations can export. These markets are won by devaluing currencies (accomplished in the U.S. by quantitative easing), installing protectionist measures (so that a nation's corporations have monopoly dominance over the nation's consumers), or by war (a very risky but highly effective form of market domination).

3) Military occupation and conquest. This is the part where I can't help but question some people's faith in God, or sometimes the lack thereof. If we are going to continue to call ourselves a Christian nation, then our nation's leaders – the ones who have been elected to take charge of the course of America – are going to have to find a better way of dealing with America's global problems and adversaries than by arbitrarily killing people by the hundreds of thousands. Besides, don't they comprehend that endless foreign wars are a telling symptom of economic decay? And then there are the economic wars, starting with the domination of markets – every inch of them – which has lately become an issue of life and death importance. "Containing" economies like China and "opening" economies like Iran and North Korea become more urgent during a major recession, requiring brute force and creating further global instability in all realms of social life. There's got to be a better way of doing this! The problem here is that America is not relying on God!!

4) U.S. economic strength overstated. The most important consumer market in the world, the U.S., is a nation of nearly bankrupt consumers. After enduring prolonged periods of unemployment following the 2008 economic crash, the greater majority of America's middle class fell into poverty, with a good number still there today. Nearly thirty million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, while further job losses are certain, due to nearly every state's budget deficit (unless it's minimum wage jobs – there are plenty of those to go around). As if that weren't enough, the student loan bubble currently stands at $1 trillion dollars 'plus', proving that America's educational system is broken. States are now bracing for more painful cuts, more layoffs, more tax increases, more battles with public employee unions, and more requests to bail out cities. And in the long term, as cities and states try to keep up on their debts, the very nature of government could change as they have less money left over to pay for the services they have long provided. Capitalism's infrastructure is falling apart, and no one is doing anything about it. There's no money to fix it.

5) Bailout Capitalism. First it was the banks and other corporations that needed bailing out, and now it's whole nations like Greece and Spain. Western nations bailed out their banks by falling into the massive debt that they are now drowning in. Greece and Ireland have been bailed out once, Greece just got a second one just a month or two ago, and Portugal, Spain, and Italy are all works in progress. The entire European Union is being called into question as the Euro takes a beating in the bailout spree. If the EU is dismantled, the shock waves will quickly reach other economies.

6) Bailout repercussions. All western nations – including the U.S. and England – are grappling with their national debts. Rich bond investors are demanding that these countries drastically reduce their deficits, while also demanding that the deficits be reduced on the backs of working families, instead of rich investors. This is tearing the social fabric apart, as working and poor people see their social programs under attack. In Europe mass movements are erupting in France, Spain, Portugal, England, Greece, Ireland, Italy, etc. Social stability is a prerequisite for a recovered economy, but corporate politicians everywhere are asking much more than working people are willing to give. People everywhere are sick and tired of being broke.

7) The emergence of the 'radical right'. To deal with working people more ruthlessly, the radical right is being unleashed. In normal times these bigots yell furiously but no one listens. But in times of economic crisis like we're living in they're given endless airtime on all major media outlets. The message of the far right promotes all the rottenness not yet eradicated by education: racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, violence, and a backward nationalism that fears all things "foreign." These core beliefs effectively divide working people so that a concerted campaign against the corporate elite is harder to wage. Meanwhile, labor unions, progressives, and other working class organizations are instead targeted.

The various reasons for capitalism's impending failure I have just elaborated on do not happen in a normal economic cycle of boom and bust. These symptoms point to a larger disease in the capitalist economic system, a disease that cannot be cured by politicians who swear allegiance to this deteriorating system and to the wealthy elite who benefit from it. To ensure that the economic system is changed so that working people benefit, the ones who do the real work every day to keep things moving, large-scale collective action is necessary based on demands that unite the majority of working people. What America needs is a massive job-creation program at the expense of Wall Street, no cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and a moratorium on home foreclosures. If the Christian community worked cooperatively with the unions in promoting these demands, working people could put up a real fight. After all, the Bible says, “The workman is worth his/her wages”.

This week's Bible study will be on 1st Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 through 17

Warnings From Israel's History

[1^st Corinth. 10, 1-17]

In this week's Bible study I will begin the 10^th chapter of the 1^st book of Corinthians. In the closing verses of chapter 9, Paul was exhorting the early church at Corinth to “run the race in such a way as to win the prize”, which refers to living our lives for Christ instead of ourselves with the ultimate goal being eternal life with Jesus in heaven forever. As the apostle Paul begins chapter 10, he uses the fate of the first generation of Israelites who came out of Egypt as an example of what can happen to those who don't live their lives as such. Paul begins in verse 1, and he minces no words with the Corinthian church and with the rest of us.

“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: 'The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry'. We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.” (1 Corinthians 10; verses 1 through 10 NIV)

In the above passage, Paul is talking about the exodus of the Jews – descendants of the modern-day Israelis and American Jews, among others – from Egypt where they had all been slaves to Pharaoh. The mass escape from Egypt by the Jews is a historical fact. Chariot wheels and the skeletons of humans and horses have been found at the bottom of the Red Sea. The ancient Israelites were led out of Egypt by God, who appeared in the form of a bright cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night (those who have Bibles can find this in the Old Testament, beginning in the first chapter of the book of Exodus. If you don't own one, don't worry about it, we'll cover it in another lesson some other time). This is what Paul is referring to when he wrote about being “baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea”. He was referring to the bright cloud that guided the Israelites, and to the parting of the Red Sea by Moses as the Jews crossed over to the other side. But since God was displeased with them due to their idolatry, He allowed that entire generation of Jews to die in the desert during the 40 years of wandering, and so none of them ever saw the promised land that God had reserved for them. Paul then finishes with these warnings; “We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel”. In fact, if you will go back and read Exodus, you will all see that every one of the above things actually happened. Paul then continues beginning in Verse 11.

“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fail! No temptation has seized you except that which is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so you can stand up under it. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10; verses 11 through 17 NIV)

The closing part of this passage of Scripture is classic Paul in every way. After admonishing the young Church that death is the certain payout for a sinful pagan life, he turns right around in the next paragraph and encourages the faithful and lifts up the church as a whole. Paul writes, “... if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fail!”. Be on your guard, he wrote, because when you think you are in good shape spiritually, that's when the enemy will come in and attack. But Paul then encourages the Church, writing, “No temptation has seized you except that which is common to man”, and again he says in the next sentence, “He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so you can stand up under it”. So we can conclude by Paul's words that we are not to give up and we are not to give in. If we are standing firm we do not stand alone because we know by faith that God is with us. If we are enduring temptation there is no shame in crying out for help, because God will be there for us. Most important – or at least it seems so to me – God will never, ever allow us to be tempted to sin or to be tried by difficulty to the point that it is more than we can withstand. Remember what Jesus said, “Never will I leave you, and never will I forsake you”. These words are just as true today as they were when Jesus uttered them nearly 2,000 years ago. Jesus prophesied this as well, when He said to His apostles, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. Jesus and His word will always stand through any kind of difficulty, through any kind of illness or injury, through any bad situation, and through any worry or despair. Jesus is the same today, tomorrow, and forever. If you have never put Jesus in charge of your life and you are ready to relinquish control to Him, just pray this prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, I am tired of trying to do things all by myself. Please come into my heart and dwell there, and I will make you my Lord and Savior. Please come and save my soul today, and guide me in the path that my life should take. In your precious name I pray, amen.

And next week we'll go over the second half of chapter ten. Shalom!