Being the Best of the Best: Critical Topics Essential to the Christian Community

By Lemuel Baker Ph.D

This book is a sequel to my book 'Feed My Sheep.' To become the 'best of the best,' the religious community must take some time to wrap their arms around religious issues with causes that are not so obvious which create challenges which go unsolved. When we begin to understand the critical issues within the religious community, create definite action plans to resolve them, the religious community can then provide godly wisdom bringing change among all cohort groups represented. The ancient Statesman Daniel was an excellent example of bringing God's influence at very high levels only because he was assessed by his peers to be of an excellent spirit, well rounded, educated, intelligent, managing his weight, his emotions and spirit well. God intends the religious community to be the best of the best because religion advocates morality at the highest levels thus is scrutinized at a very high level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669855088

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Current List of Books by Lemuel Baker, PhD

1.Feed My Sheep - The Effective Christian Leader

2.Misunderstood - Difficult concepts of The Bible

3.Focused Praying - Shifting Gears from Passive to Fervent Prayer

4.Explanation - Christian Apologetics for The Busy Person

5.The Many Faces of Judaism - Jewish Studies for The Busy Person

6.Do Kings Drink Wine - Should Christians Drink Alcohol

7.Being The Best of The Best

8.Global Influence

9.The US-Israel Covenant Story

BEING

the BEST

of The

BEST

Critical Topics Essential to

the Christian Community

Lemuel Baker, Ph.D

Copyright © 2023 by Lemuel Baker, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture quotations marked AMP are from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified Bible, New Testament copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Rev. date: 01/13/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1     The Bible its Unique Psycho-Spiritual Effect and Trademark

Chapter 2     Knowing Your Primary Learning Style - The Key that Opens the Door to Your Maximum Potential

Chapter 3     God’s Protection for The Church - Psalm 91 Commentary

Chapter 4     Why Parishioners May Stop Going to Church

Chapter 5     Communicating Christianity Effectively -Why Millennials May Show Disinterest to Christianity?

Chapter 6     The Skill Set of Managing Church Attendance

Chapter 7     Getting Answers From The Past - 7 Events that Shaped The World

Chapter 8     Happiness A Scriptural Benefit Many Leaders Fail to Embrace

Chapter 9     Understanding The Great Tribulation

Chapter 10   National Elections - Two Biblical Models to Go By - How to Select God’s Person

Chapter 11   The Connection Between Global Wars and Ethnic Conflicts

Chapter 12   Understanding Where We Are in The End Times

Chapter 13   Managing Pride in Our Organization

Chapter 14   Understanding The Leadership Endowment You Possess - The Mystery of Gods Leadership Gifts Deposited in You!

Chapter 15   Essential Daily Prayer Times

Chapter 16   Understanding ‘The Lord’s Prayer’

Chapter 17   Understanding Psalm 23 Commentary

Chapter 18   Religious Persecution, Statistical Increase!

Chapter 19   A Biblical Perspective of Immigration

Chapter 20   Commentary on The Book of Proverbs

Chapter 21   Appropriating The Zoë Life of God - God’s Spiritual Life

Chapter 22   The Secret to Being Chosen by God

Chapter 23   Mental Health The Church and Society - Global and National Mental Health Trajectory

Chapter 24   Can God’s Presence Depart A Nation, A Region, A State, A City, A Human Being

Chapter 25   Engineering a Just Society

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my beloved grandmother the late Joyce B. Gould who herself had a great desire for missions, for scripture reading and for learning. Her descendants are fulfilling her dreams that were not completed each descendant gifted with portions of her giftings. I honor my grandmother keeping her name alive and her place in creation history. She has a yad v’ shem a place and a name in creation, in history and most importantly in my life. God bless you grandmother and forevermore. Amen

INTRODUCTION

If you are a leader or professional at any level or discipline the information in this book is of time sensitive importance to you.

To become the ‘best of the best,’ the religious community must take some time to wrap their arms around religious issues identifying subtle causes that are not so obvious and which create challenges that go unsolved. When we begin to understand the critical issues within the religious community, create definite action plans to resolve them, the religious community can then provide godly wisdom bringing change among all cohort groups represented.

The ancient statesman Daniel was an excellent example of bringing God’s influence at very high levels only because he was assessed by his peers to be of an excellent spirit, well rounded, educated, intelligent, managing his physical health, his emotions and spirit well. He was very intelligent, emotionally stable and intensely spiritual. His prophesies were accurate, he was known to be devout and yet on the ball with regards to his governmental duties. What a package! As a result he was well respected and was given great access to matters of great consequence.

Saint Paul also advocated being of an excellent spirit when he stated "let your magnanimity be known to all men." Saint Paul had the same profile as the statesman Daniel which also gave Saint Paul great access and great influence. This book addresses twenty three different topics and a considerable portion of this book discusses generational cohorts especially the millennial generational cohort, how they function in society and in the Church. The foundational document of the Christian belief system the Bible is presented underscoring the psycho-spiritual effect of scripture and addresses primary learning styles that are critical for parishioners when sharing scripture.

This book also discusses the term ‘endowment’ and provides understanding of our spiritual gifts. The topics of managing Church attendance, how to communicate Christianity as a belief system, managing pride in your organization, why should we schedule prayer times and commentaries of Psalm 91, Psalm 23, the Book of Proverbs and the Lord’s Prayer are discussed. Other topics covered are happiness is a benefit we fail to embrace, the biblical model for selecting an elected official and so much more. According to the United Nations World Health Organization - W.H.O., mental health disorders are increasing in the global population and I designed a chapter that discusses mental health and the Church. If you are a leader at any level and of any discipline this chapter is very important. You will benefit from a balanced presentation of the very practical, the very spiritual combined and from topics that we must be able to assimilate.

The chapter on the Book of Proverbs deals with wisdom and how critical it is as wisdom pertains to quality of life. As leaders we must grasp that when we implement good ideas these ideas plus confidence will allow us to succeed but if we omit the right ideas we may come close to winning but never succeed. Good ideas are needed for maintenance but the right ideas that come from God’s wisdom always get us across the line to win in life and to be successful.

God intends the religious community to be the best of the best because unlike every other discipline, religion advocates morality at the very highest level thus it is scrutinized at the highest level. This ascribed scrutiny is the cross every Christian is assigned to carry. Each person is obligated to be ‘the best of the best’ because of who we represent. Let us not be culpable of misrepresenting God to the world intentionally or unintentionally but instead from the bottom of our heart say to God ‘mea culpa’ Lord I confess my sin, I am guilty, please forgive me, then make the necessary changes.

CHAPTER 1

The Bible its Unique Psycho-

Spiritual Effect and Trademark

Substantially more distributed than best sellers such as Don Quixote, A Tale of Two Cities, The Little Prince, And Then There Were None, The Three Musketeers, Les Miserable, Pride and Prejudice, The Odyssey and more is the controversial book called the Bible. The word comes from the Latin word biblia, the Koine Greek word biblios meaning ‘book’ or books. So is the Bible really unique and in a class all by itself?

According to Karl Menninger millions of people in every age would be diminished in their abilities to handle life situations constructively without the stabilizing, under girding, nurturing, value-supporting ministries the churches provide. He further states individuals would have been much more vulnerable to mental, emotional and spiritual illnesses without the psychotherapy programs offered by the Church. This includes the message given to a group from the pulpit by a trained leader. As a society we miss the psycho-spiritual effect of scripture as it is read, spoken, heard and sung weekly during Church services, at home or Bible study.

The Bible is the only book that has a psycho-spiritual effect regarding all readers, Christian or non Christian alike whereby the words literally affect, influence, and or change the mind, will, emotions, makes us aware of short comings and brings remorse that leads to a deep heart change of all humans who hear the words, speak the words, read the words or meditate on the words. This includes all versions of the Bible that preserve the intended messages as translated from the original texts in Hebrew and some Aramaic as it pertains to the Old Testament and Koine Greek as it pertains to the New Testament.

As the main take-away no other book ever written has a psycho-spiritual effect on humans however warming and enjoyable the books are. The Bible is not just a book but a special document expressly given by God verified by its unique psycho-spiritual nature and effect. The Apostle Paul understood the psycho-spiritual ability of scripture when he wrote For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)

The Old Testament was given to man after the ‘fall of man’ from grace to take man on a daily psycho-spiritual journey to maintain good spiritual, mental, physical, relational, social, financial and comprehensive health first preventively and secondly restoratively. God’s goal was to prevent problems which occur in life but also heal and restore when we encounter problems. For example God would instruct Let not this book of the law depart from out of your mouth Joshua 1:8, or Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. Proverbs 4:21, This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs 3:8 (NKJV). The words of the Bible effect change of heart, mind and body uniquely as a signature sign to all that it is God’s express wish, instruction and word to mankind.

Remember, the Christian Old Testament is translated verbatim from the Tanak or the Jewish Bible which is an acronym that means ‘Torah - Neviim - Kesuvim’ or grouped as Teachings-Prophets-Writings in a different sequence but the books are the same. The Christian New Testament quotes much of the Old Testament and draws historic and cultural contexts all sourced in the Tanak. If you are in hearing distance of someone quoting words from the Bible whether you are aware of it immediately or not you are being influenced by its psych-spiritual effect in your spirit, soul and body. For this reason scripture reading is a central part of any Church service and given eminence.

Many people ask a valid question about the Christian Bible and that is how can I be certain the Bible we have today is the actual version that was penned by the original authors and are there mistakes in the texts preventing the true meanings from being conveyed. Can I trust the Bible? These are valid questions that are obstacles to a person’s acceptance of the Biblical World View.

The present text we possess of the Greek New Testament for example which we use today is among the 5,000 plus Greek manuscripts extant. There are approximately 150,000 variant readings. Don’t allow this data to scare you because this data seems as though the ancient scribes made many mistakes with transcribing copies of the New Testament. Not at all.

Of the 150,000 variants in the texts examined over 95% of these variants can be dismissed as changing the meaning of the earliest and best texts. These variants in no way affect the sense of the passages in which they were found. These variants are not influential to the original meanings simply because the variants consisted of minor spelling, grammatical and word order that do not change the intended meanings of the passages.

An example of the variants using English as an example is the sentence Mary plese walk the dog as soon as yu get home! The words please and you are spelled incorrectly but the intended message is quite easy to understand. The misspelled words in no way altered the message.

Most important to the Bible we have today textual critics by applying the textual criticism rule agree not one single historical, doctrinal and theological entry of importance was affected by any of the variations in the copies of the original texts in all of the New Testament. The truth is all of the scribes did a phenomenal job transcribing the original texts given the results we possess today. The scribes worked within very strict guidelines with severe penalties for making mistakes.

The New Testament we have today was scrutinized by the harshest critics who know the science of textual criticism. The scrutiny was not passive. The textual critics consisted of expert linguists, historians and scholars. To voice doubts about the Bible’s validity is senseless given the scrutiny it has endured as well as the validation process it was taken through.

The Bible meets every requirement of the original document rule especially because the original primitive documents exist in support of the New Testament versions we have today to test the accuracy of the versions we use today.

The original document rule is important because the time that passes between an original manuscript and a copy of the manuscript the more altered and less reliable the copy. Textual criticism shows clearly that very little time passed between the writing of the original documents of the New Testament written between 45 AD and 70 AD and the production of the copies we posses today. This is good news for the reliability of the document we currently accept as our New Testament.

What caused so many accurate copies of the New Testament to be available to us even today? The disciples intended their writings be widely distributed and commissioned copies immediately so that in a very short span of time from the original writings copies were sent to many parts of the known world. The more copies made the less chance of loosing the writing.

For example if there were only