One of the
amazing benefits of combining ancient wisdom and scientific facts in our
research is that we discover things from them that are related and overlap. One example is
the TOV Standard from ancient wisdom and Baby Morals from science
(you won’t find a society where people don’t have some notion of Baby Morals). In
this case ancient wisdom and science overlap to reveal two standards that could
produce many benefits for individual lives and life in our society. Read the
complete blog at -- https://lives1st.blogspot.com/2018/08/two-standards-to-live-by.html
The TOV Center advocates the adoption of Life as the highest core value and 1st priority of individuals. This is called TOV in the First Creation Account of the Torah. The Creator measured all of His actions by the TOV Standard, We believe that as more people adopt the TOV Standard an emergence movement will create a paradigm shift in America's Judeo-Christian moral foundation.
Friday, August 17, 2018
Thursday, August 16, 2018
What am I?
What am I? Now that’s a
question a lot of people have asked in the history of humans. We (Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and former pastor Jim Myers) created two models for
working with that question – after wrestling
with it for over 25 years. You may have noticed that use models instead of answers.
Most questions about life are better understood
by using models that reveal potentialities than statements of either/or answers.
Our
models emerged from two sources in which our research and studies focused on
during our journey together – one source is
an ancient wisdom account embedded in our shared religious texts and the other
source is modern science. This makes our approach at the TOV Center unique in
many respects – we combine the wisdom of ancient
texts with the facts of modern science to maximize human experiences.
As
pointed out above, we created a model from each source to help us better
understand humans:
(1) Ancient Wisdom Model – Humans are creatures that share things in
common with animals and the Creator.
● Humans have many of the same appetites,
desires and longings as animals. Humans have the potential of behaving like
animals that live in herds (cattle, sheep, etc.) or like deadly wild predators.
● Each person has the presence of the Creator
with him or her. Humans have the potential of behaving like the Creator and
creating by changing things that exist by doing acts that protect and preserve lives,
make lives more functional and/or increase the quality life.
● Humans must
be taught how to control their animal impulses by developing their
abilities to reflect the Creator’s image through their actions.
(2) Modern Science Model – Humans are genetic memetic social creatures.
● Genes make humans what they are as
biological creatures.
● Memes create the reality models through
individuals view their worlds and give meanings to what they perceive.
● Social means that humans are completely
dependent on other humans for their existence and survival – from conception to death other humans are
involved.
We
use both models in understand human actions – completed and potential.
● The Ancient Wisdom Model makes us aware
that people have the potential of doing amazing things for others like the Creator,
as well as deadly destructive acts like predatory wild animals to people. We
use familiar stories from Jewish and Christian Scriptures to teach the values,
principles and standards of this ancient wisdom – without the conflicting theologies of the religions.
● The Modern Science Model makes us aware of the
roles that genes, memes and social structures play in the decisions human make
before they act.
And
of course, whatever our understanding of “what I am” is, it also provides us
with the models for another very important question – What are you?
Would
you like to learn more about the TOV Center models and how to use them? Let us
know by “Liking” our Lives 1st Facebook Page.
Also visit the TOV
Center website
and you will find more options for staying up to date on our blogs and being
aware of upcoming local and online events.
Would you like
to participate in a local group in the DFW Metroplex area that will be led
by Jeffrey Leynor and Jim Myers? We are looking for people to host monthly or
semi-monthly meetings and people to participate in them. For more information call
or email Rabbi Leynor (972-816-7281 / rabbi@tovcenter.org)
or email Jim Myers (jim@tovcenter.org).
These will be open safe environment for learning and interacting. The number of
participants is limited, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Leynor and Myers on Living Life as a Human
We,
Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and former
pastor Jim Myers, have learned a lot
about living life over the past thirty-years as congregation leaders in a
synagogue and church, chaplains of law enforcement agencies, teachers and
counselors. We have experienced the happiest moments in life – marriages, births, victories, successes
-- and the saddest and most feared moments – deaths, divorces, tragedies, failures. Read the complete blog at --
https://lives1st.blogspot.com/2018/08/leynor-and-myers-on-living-life-as-human.html
Monday, August 13, 2018
How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven
For
most Christians, one of the most important words in their religious vocabulary
is “saved.” Their mission is to save
as many people as possible. Why? They have been taught that only those who are “saved” will spend eternity in Heaven
with God. That was not the focus of Yeshua’s message. His goal was to bring as
many people as possible into the Kingdom
of Heaven -- while they are alive.
He taught that it will only be those that live in the Kingdom of Heaven before death that will ultimately enter eternal
life later. We will be learning much more about that in this series of discussions
that we call “Yeshua’s Kingdom of Heaven Handbook.”
We will reconstructing the teachings of Yeshua so we can understand them more
accurately by incorporating new information that we discover as we learn about
his language, culture and the time period in which he taught his followers. Read
the complete discussion at -- https://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2018/08/how-to-enter-kingdom-of-heaven.html
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