A Tale of Two Houses

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“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’ Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great!”—Matthew 7:13-27

I was thinking about the houses built on sand and on rock the other day, so I looked it up. I noticed that it started with the word therefore, which I have been told to back up and see what it is there for. I found it quite interesting how the verses fit together. One thing that really stuck out to me as I was reading and meditating on His Word is this: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock.” “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” It clearly shows that there should be action involved…James 1:22-25 comes to mind. “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works—this person will be blessed in what he does.”  If we take on the name of Yeshua, we are called to act like it, by keeping His commands, and walking as He walked (1 John 2:3-6).

Then I began thinking about the storm…”the rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded the house.” Is that the “storms of life”? That’s what I always thought, but I began to dig a little deeper and was led to Isaiah 28:16-17, “Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable. And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the mason’s level. Hail will sweep away the false refuge, and water will flood your hiding place.”” And also, Ezekiel 13:10-13, “Since they have led My people astray saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, for when someone builds a wall they plaster it with whitewash, therefore, tell those who plaster it that it will fall. Torrential rain will come, and I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will be released. Now when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, ‘Where is the coat of whitewash that you put on it?’ So this is what the Lord God says: I will release a windstorm in My wrath. Torrential rain will come in My anger, and hailstones will fall in destructive fury.” It sounds like the storm represents Yahweh’s judgment. And the person who hears and doesn’t act will not be able to stand in judgment; but the one who hears and acts on the Words of Yeshua will be able to withstand the time of judgment.

Now, about acting on the Words of Yeshua…”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”(John 1:1) “Yeshua is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God remains forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18) When I look outside, I see the earth is still here…actually I found in the Word where the heaven and earth do pass away…hint…it’s not until the end…Revelation 21:1.

Here’s the point…”His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.”—2 Peter 1:3-11

We have everything we need to pursue holiness. A paraphrase of something I read the other day…The cross is the beginning of our faith walk; not the place where we plant our chairs and remain until His return. Yeshua said, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) We must make Yeshua our Lord, not just our Savior. Are we allowing Him be Lord of our lives? There is action required. Which foundation are we building our houses on? Are we sand dwellers or Rock dwellers?

Carnally Minded or Spiritually Minded?

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light behind dark tunnel of trees

I have finally found where the word says we are not subject to God’s law. Here is the entire passage of Romans 8:1-11. But pay special attention to verse 7.

Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You however, are not it the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. If you are led by the Holy Spirit, He will not lead you anywhere that is contrary to God’s Word. If you are being led to something against God’s Word, check the spirit that is leading you.

Diminishing the Holiness of God

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More and more I am seeing the holiness of the Most High God, Yahweh, being diminished in the eyes of people that profess to know Him. I am seeing and hearing things like you do not need to repent in order to be saved; and it doesn’t matter how we live our lives after we take on His name.

The Word of God clearly has something to say about these things. Let’s start with salvation and repentance. I’ve recently read, “We don’t need to preach about repentance. If we preach the goodness of God, people will repent.” There are some great men of God that had something to say about that.

 “They will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy law.” –Charles Spurgeon

 “Before I preach love, mercy, and grace, I must preach sin, law, and judgment.” –John Wesley

 While finding these quotes was quite interesting, I really wanted to know exactly what the Word of God itself had to say about the subject. So here goes…

 “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” –2 Chronicles 7:14

“The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.”—Proverbs 28:17

“If a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of this.”—Ezekiel 33:19

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the Wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”—Matthew 3:1-2

“No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well!”—Luke 13:3 (Yeshua speaking)

“”Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”—Acts 2:38

“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent.” –Acts 17:30

“Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”—Romans 2:4

“Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.”—2 Corinthians 7:9-10

“For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance, though he sought it with tears.”—Hebrews 12:17

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”—James 4:8-10

“The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”—2 Peter 3:9

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”—1 John 1:9

“As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent.”—Revelation 3:19

It seems that repentance is certainly a theme throughout scripture. There are many more verses where those came from. Read the word for yourselves!! While still on the subject of salvation without repentance…what seemed to come through in the article that I was reading was that we just need to believe Yeshua is the Son of God and we will be saved…which is true…in part. However, I have come to realize that the type of belief that is talked about is not just mental assent…after all even the demons believe Yeshua is the Son of God (James 2:19)…are they saved? Do all dogs go to heaven?

Now, how are we to live our lives after we take on the Name of Yeshua? Can we live any old way we want to? Well…we can…but should we? The bible has some clear commands and warnings about this.

Let’s start in Exodus 20:7…yeah you know, part of the big 10! “Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.” I used to think that just meant cursing. But think about it…we have taken on His name. We represent Him…we are His ambassadors. (2 Corinthians 5:20). If we represent Him…and others are supposed to be able to see Him through us…and we are not setting a Godly example…wouldn’t that be misusing His name? Misrepresenting our Savior?

Some “Christians” seem to think we have no duty or responsibility to set a Godly example and walk as Yeshua walked. However, a couple of verses sprang into my mind when I read that. In Luke 17:7-10, Yeshua is speaking to His apostles about being a slave and meeting our obligation. Verse 10 says, “In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, “We are good-for-nothing slaves; we’ve only done our duty.” Are we not slaves to Christ? (Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 3:24; 1 Peter 2:16). Another verse that came to me was Romans 12:1, “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your reasonable service.”  Hmm…our reasonable service? What about working out our salvation with fear and trembling? (Philippians 2:12) What does God’s word have to say about trampling the blood of Yeshua? Hebrews 10:29 is quite clear. “How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” Clearly, we need to regard the blood of Yeshua as holy.

Now, before you get all up in arms, I am in no way implying that we are saved by the works that we do. We are saved because Yeshua has given us His righteousness. However, if we truly believe something…shouldn’t our actions line up with our beliefs? Here’s where our belief becomes more than the belief of the demons.

While we are on the subject of salvation, why did you want to be saved? Is it because you don’t want to go to hell? Is it your fire insurance card? Is it because you want God’s blessings? Or is it just maybe because He is the holy, just, and righteous God who sent His Son to die for us because He deserves the reward for His sacrifice…because He is worthy? Because He is holy?

 “For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.”—Isaiah 57:15

 “Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You have created all things, and because of Your will they exist and were created.”—Revelation 4:11

Lemmings on the Road to Rome

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Lemmings in migration

A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn’t the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. – Dresden James

LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited only lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.” Can one make gods for himself? But they are not gods. Therefore, I am about to inform them, and this time I will make them know My power and My might; then they will know that My name is Yahweh.” –Jeremiah 16:19-21

I am sure that most of you have heard the saying, “All roads lead to Rome.” What about The Lemming Condition by Alan Arkin?  The Lemming Condition is about a lemming named Bubber. Bubber is ready to follow all the other lemmings on their march to the sea and their eventual jump off the cliff into the sea. All is well until his friend Crow asks him if he knows how to swim. Bubber isn’t sure, so he begins to question and search. During his quest, he finds out he can’t swim. So he tries to stop all the other lemmings from jumping off the cliff. They were all hypnotized and he could not stop them. Eventually it looks like Bubber is the only lemming left; but soon other lemmings start popping out of their holes. He was not the only survivor, and so there was hope for the future of the lemmings.

Daniel 7:25 tells us, “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law…” These deceptive changes to Sabbath and Yahweh’s appointed Feast Days have come about through many centuries, and over the torture and dead bodies of millions of followers of Yeshua. And, the lie is followed by dare I say millions of “bible believing” Christians today. They will tell you that Sunday is the Sabbath, that they observe Sunday because that’s the resurrection of Jesus (although that He resurrected on Sunday is in and of itself questionable, but that is for a later post), that God does not care which day you worship Him on (which is true to some degree…you can and should worship Yahweh every day; but He Himself has commanded that the Sabbath (7th day) be set apart, holy, and blessed). They will tell you that it was “nailed to the cross”. They will tell you that following Yahweh’s commands is legalism. There are many excuses as to why the fourth commandment is not followed. And yet…are any of these excuses based on the powerful, holy, eternal, unchanging Word of Yahweh?

Most people have no idea that Sunday worship did not start with the dawning of Christianity.  It was in fact a practice two thousand years before Yeshua. It goes all the way back to shortly after the flood with Tammuz, Nimrod and his mother/wife Semiramis founding the pagan religious system of “sun-god” worship/Baal worship. From the tower of Babel, “sun-god” worship spread throughout the entire ancient world. With the exception of the worship of the One, True God, all other religious systems come from Babylon. They also all worshipped the sun, which correlates with Satan, otherwise known as Lucifer which means “light bringer”.

When Babylon fell, and was taken over by the Medes and the Persians in 539 B.C. the Babylonian priests made their way to Pergamum and Egypt. They taught their religion in these places and eventually saw an opportunity and made their way to Rome. The Romans readily took on the ways of this religious system. By the time the “Christian” Church came into existence, the practices of the Babylonian religious system blended right in and mixed with the Christian church. The blending of these two religious systems made it quite easy for people to “convert” to Christianity. Eventually the Roman Catholic church was born. As it grew in power, it came to oppose the 7th day Sabbath and changed it to Sunday. Historical records show clearly that the Catholic Church made the change official at the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD when they handed down 59 Canon laws.

Canon XXIX: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Percival Translation).

Samuel Bacchiocchi in “How Did Sunday Keeping Begin”,  which summarizes his thesis From Sabbath to Sunday, tells us, “Both anti-Judaism and Sun-worship contributed to the change from Sabbath to Sunday. Anti-Judaism led many Christians to abandon the observance of the Sabbath to differentiate themselves from the Jews at a time when Judaism in general and Sabbath keeping in particular were outlawed in the Roman empire. Sun-worship influenced the adoption of the observance of Sunday to facilitate the Christian identification and integration with the customs and cycles of the Roman empire. The change from Sabbath to Sunday was not simply one of names or numbers, but authority, meaning and experience. It was a change from a holy day divinely established to enable us to experience more freely and more fully the awareness of divine presence and peace in our lives, into holiday which has become an occasion to seek for personal pleasure and profit. This historical change has greatly affected the quality of Christian life of countless Christians who throughout the centuries have been deprived of the physical, moral, and spiritual renewal the Sabbath is designed to provide. The recovery of the Sabbath is especially needed today when our souls, fragmented, penetrated, and desiccated by a cacophonous, tension-filled culture, cry out for the release and realignment that awaits us on the Sabbath Day.”

The Roman Catholic Church itself brags and throws it in the face of Yahweh the fact that it alone changed the Sabbath.

“The authority of the Church is illustrated most clearly by the scriptures, for on one hand she recommends them, declares them to be divine, and offers them to us to be read, and on the other hand, the legal precepts in the scriptures taught by the Lord have ceased by virtue of the same authority. The Sabbath, the most glorious day in the law, has been changed into the Lord’s day. These and other similar matters have not ceased by virtue of Christ’s teaching (for He says that He has come to fulfill the law, not to destroy it), but they have been changed by the authority of the Church.” – Gaspare de Posso Archbishop of Reggio, Council of Trent.

 And they mock Protestants that follow Sunday keeping.

“They [the Protestants] deem it their duty to keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. They have no other reason…The observance of Sunday thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the divine law of Sabbath observance…The author of the Sunday law…is the Catholic Church.” – Ecclesiastical Review, February 1914.

 “It was the Catholic church which…has transferred this rest to Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Therefore the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the (Catholic) church.” – Monsignor Louis Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, p. 213.

 “I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ The Catholic Church says: ‘No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.’ And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church.” – father T. Enright, C.S.S.R. of the Redemptoral College, Kansas City, in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, February 18, 1884, printed in History of the Sabbath, p. 802.

 “Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:

“1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.

“2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws.

“It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible.” Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975),Chicago, Illinois.

Yeshua never once mentioned the first day of the week. As followers of Yeshua, we must diligently seek the truth and line up our beliefs and behavior with His Holy Word. We must strive to enter the narrow path that leads to righteousness no matter what the cost. People argue that Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life…not a truth, a way, or a life because of the definitive article THE. Well, doesn’t the fourth commandment say, “Remember THE Sabbath…”

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of His appearing and His kingdom: Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, be serious about everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. –2 Timothy 4:1-5

May we all be found as the Bereans in Acts 17:11, “The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” May we examine the Scriptures daily and find ourselves workmen approved. May we look beyond the way things have been done and not blindly follow the crowd in order to find THE Truth.

Ten Shekels and a Shirt

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I listened to an amazing sermon today. What a timely message!

How Ten Shekels and a Shirt Came to be

By Paris Reidhead

 In over fifty years of Bible teaching and preaching “Ten Shekels and a Shirt” is the only message that I feel constrained to explain how it came to be preached.

During a Bethany Fellowship Summer Conference in the mid sixties I was preparing to speak at the Tuesday morning Bible hour. Upon returning to my room after breakfast to meditate and pray about the message for that morning hour, I felt strangely impressed that I could not deliver the message that had been prepared for the session. Instead, I felt that there was some other message that was needed which I was to bring.

After prayer, the message that came to mind was one which I had begun preparation for the ministry at the church in New York City of which I was pastor at that time. My notes were not with me, but were in a file folder in my study. An empty envelope was on the desk in my room, on the back of which I wrote the scripture texts to be used and one or two ideas that came to mind. With the envelope in my Bible marking Judges, Chapter 17, and my self utterly cast upon the Lord, I went to the auditorium where between four and five hundred people waited to hear from the Lord through me.

I remember praying, “This morning I am utterly cast upon You because I am not really prepared.” In my heart I seemed to hear His response, “Well is that so bad, already” (being from New York City it was given in a idiom I would understand.)

I delivered the message and gave an invitation. Shortly the altar across the front of the auditorium was filled with broken people seeking God.

The summer conference was soon over and I returned to New York City and the ministry there.

About ten years later, one of the Bethany Fellowship staff was in Washington, D.C., where we had moved and from where we still minister. His word was, “Paris, I want to tell you that God has repeatedly used your messages, but the exact message itself was preached only that once.

A week or two later Harry Conn from Rockford, Illinois was in Washington. He invited me to have dinner with him. In the course of the meal he said, “I buy that message of yours ‘Ten Shekels and a Shirt’ by the dozen to give people. God is really using it in lives.” My response was that if you have a copy, I would like to have it sent to me so that I can find out what it is I have said. In a few days the cassette arrived.

Since I don’t have a tape player in my office, I put the tape into the Sony dictating machine on my desk and listened through the little playback on the hand-held microphone. The element of distance in terms of time, and the distorted sound through the miniature speaker, let me listen to the message with no real awareness of who was speaking. From time to time I felt like exclaiming, “That’s right! I wish I had said that!”

Then it dawned on me that it was my voice, but God was speaking through me. I realized that on a Tuesday morning during a summer conference, God had been able to get His message across because of my utter and complete helplessness. Here it is, just as the Lord gave it.

Paris Reidhead                                                                    ©2013 Bible Teaching Ministries Inc.

A Parable on Christian Theology…

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This poem reminded me of a post I wrote about a year and a half ago, “Missed by a Mile or a Fraction of a Degree”. I am amazed as I research and study things out exactly how many of the traditions we follow and the things we do to “worship” Yahveh are not scriptural and in many cases are in direct opposition to His Word. Why do we do the things we do? Because that’s how it has always been done…2,000 years of tradition can’t be wrong…or can it?

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Been very busy lately and have notes on topics I desire writing about, but have had little time.  Thankfully, things should change next week and I’ll be back to regular posting…  In the meantime, here is a neat poem by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911) that, through parable, explains how Christian Theology got so far off the track instead of simple obedience to Scripture.

Ponder this deeply.

_____________________

The Calf-Path

I.

One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;

II.

But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day,

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From the Heart

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Big Heart of Art - 1000 Visual Mashups

“Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men, but as slaves of Christ, do God’s will from your heart.” –Ephesians 6:6 As I was meditating about this verse and being a slave to Yeshua, and how it is our duty (Luke 17:10) to obey His commands, (Good-for-Nothing-Slaves), the second part jumped out at me. “Do God’s will from your heart.”

It’s one thing to obey out of obligation and duty. After all, what else should we do in light of all that Yeshua has done for us. It’s another thing entirely to obey from the heart. Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.”

I’ve seen this transformation, obeying because it’s my duty to obeying from the heart, take place in my own life. While I have always been grateful for Yeshua’s sacrifice for me…His atoning blood…my salvation…I have not always done things for Him from the heart. For the longest time, I didn’t even realize there was anything to do. But once my eyes were opened to all of Yahweh’s word, and I began to see that we should be obeying His commandments, I started walking them out. I’d like to say that it was all just perfect and my attitude and motivations were pure…but I can’t say that.

Yahweh would reveal something to me and I would begin walking it out one faltering step at a time. Let’s take Sabbath as an example. So my eyes were opened to the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” I jumped right on that train and lived happily ever after….NOT!!! I questioned, “Well, how do we know Sunday’s not the seventh day?” “Why can’t it be any day I choose?” “What?!! No work on Sabbath?” “What?!! No buying and selling on Sabbath?” You see, I came from the mindset that going to church for two hours on Sunday was setting the day apart. After church you would most often find me grocery shopping and then doing lesson plans for the upcoming week.

As I questioned and researched, read the Word and prayed, I took a step, and then another, and another…My pastor and his wife had seen Sabbath and began to offer services on Saturday and Sunday. I chose Saturday. (As a side note, so did the rest of the congregation so it wasn’t long before it was just Saturday service.) I chose to stop shopping and doing my lesson plans on Saturday. At first, these were choices because I saw it in the Word and felt it was my duty to obey. Gradually my sense of duty turned to a sense of longing and joy. How refreshing it is to have a day totally set aside to rest…but not just rest, rest in Yahweh! Isaiah 58:13-14 really came alive for me, “If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on My holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, seeking your own pleasure, or talking too much; then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride over the heights of the land, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob.”

As Yahweh circumcises my heart (Deuteronomy 30:6), and changes me from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), my attitude about following Him and His ways is transforming from following His ways out of a sense of duty to following them from the heart. May we all bring glory to Yahweh as we serve him with the right heart attitude.

A couple of other verses about the heart to meditate on:

“The pure in heart are blessed, for they will see God.”—Matthew 5:8

“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”—Psalm 24:3-5

What Is Man…

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English: Pleiades Star Cluster
English: Pleiades Star Cluster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever had an experience like you know something, but then whatever it is hits you right between the eyes in a fresh, new, powerful way? Well, this very same thing happened to me recently. Two things happened. First, I was teaching my students about astronomy and we were discussing light years, stars, galaxies, etc. Secondly, my husband and I went on a walk on a crisp, clear night where we could see forever (or so it seemed!). All of a sudden, Psalm 8:3-4 became a reality to me. “When I observe Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that you look after him?”

Here are some facts that when I stop to think about them and ponder them, my mind just can’t quite grasp them.

  1. A light year, which is the speed light travels in a year, is approximately 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). Stop and think about that number for a moment. It’s easy to say, but can we really grasp the enormity of the number… (It would take about 32,000 years to count to 1 trillion; assuming you could say 1 number per second.)
  2. The sun is 93 million miles from Earth. It takes 8 minutes for the light from the sun to reach us. Therefore we see the light from sun as it was 8 minutes ago.
  3. The second closest star to Earth (after the sun) is about 24 trillion miles (4 light years) away from Earth.
  4. There are between 200 and 400 billion stars just in the Milky Way Galaxy.
  5. The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years wide. (Think about that, 100,000 x 6,000,000,000,000). In other words, traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take 100,000 years to get from one side of our galaxy to the other.
  6. The closest galaxy to the Milky Way is actually within the Milky Way Galaxy. It is called the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy and is about 42,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way. It is 25,000 light years from Earth.
  7. The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light years away from Earth. (Think: 2,500,000 x 6,000,000,000,000). Mind boggling!
  8. There are at least 100 billion galaxies in the known universe.
  9. Even on the clearest of nights, we can only see about 3,000 stars.
  10. It is estimated that the number of stars in the known universe far exceeds all the grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth! So on a clear night, we can only see the equivalent of a handful of sand.

As I pondered these facts, while gazing at the heavens I felt so small and insignificant in comparison to our awesome God. Here are some other verses that speak of the awesomeness of our God. Take some time to meditate on these scriptures.

Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.”

Psalm 147:4, “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.”

Isaiah 40:5, “Look up and see: Who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls them all by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.”

Amos 5:8, “The One who made the Pleiades and Orion, Who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth – Yahweh is His name.”

Psalm 33:6, “The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the stars, by the breath of His mouth.

Job 9:8-9, “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.”

Psalm 90:1-2, “Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation. Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God.”

What is man that He remembers him? All praise and glory to our eternal, immortal, invisible God!

How to BE a Sheep

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English: Sheep

I recently felt led to write a post, “How to Spot a Goat”, in response to what, in my opinion, was a poorly written, scripturally-unsound article entitled “How to Spot a Legalist”. However, I think the most important idea that should come from that post is how to BE a sheep.

Throughout His ministry, Yeshua makes the comparison between wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30), sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46), and ready and unready virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). I’ve always thought these were interesting teachings, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized that He is comparing believers. This realization combined with Matthew 7:21-23 that says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’”, has given me great pause for thought, reflection, prayer, and studying the scriptures. Our focus should be on how to be wheat, how to be sheep, how to be ready, because not everyone that says they believe in Yeshua and has done things in His name is going to go to Heaven. Yeshua said it Himself.

So here is a list for “How to BE a Sheep”. This is not an all-inclusive list, but some important guidelines on our journey with Yahweh.

 1. We must enter THE door. John 10:7-10 says, “So Jesus said again, “I assure you: I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. We must be saved by grace, through faith, for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10).

2. We must love Yahweh with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength. Absolutely nothing should get in the way of our love of Him. And, our love for Him must be His way. (Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Matthew 22:34-38; 1 John 2:3)

3. We must love each other. We must be willing to put others ahead of ourselves and love them with the heart of Christ. (Mark 12:31; John 13:34-35; Romans 13:8-10; 1 John 3:11-18; 1 John 4:7)

4. We must be totally souled out and committed to Yahweh. We must be willing to take up our cross and count the cost. We must be prepared to follow Him no matter what may come our way. (Matthew 10:32-39; Mark 8:34-38; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 2:20)

5. We must hear and obey His voice. It is more than mere mental assent. We must have a saving faith that leads to obedience to His Word. We must understand that if we are living by the Holy Spirit, He will not lead us to do anything that is contrary to God’s Word. (Matthew 7:24-25; John 8:31-32; John 10:27; Romans 2:13; 1 John 2:3-6; 2 John 1:6)

6. We must bear good fruit. We are known by our fruit. What kind of fruit are we producing? (John 15:1-17; Luke 6:43-45; Galatians 5:16-26)

7. We must be servants. We must have a servant’s heart. If our Messiah was willing to wash His disciples’ feet, how much more should we be willing to serve Him and each other? (Psalm 119:125; Mark 10:42-45; John 12:26; 1 Corinthians 4:1-2; Galatians 5:13; Philippians 2:5-7)

8. We must forgive. We must be willing to forgive others if we want Yahweh to forgive us. (Proverbs 17:9; Matthew 6:14-15; Mark 11:25; Ephesians 4:31-32; Colossians 3:12-14)

9. We must be humble. We must stay away from self-righteousness and a proud and haughty attitude. We must be humble before Yahweh and realize that every breath we take is because it is from Him. (2 Chronicles 7:14; Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:12; Luke 18:9-14; Philippians 2:3-11; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:6)

10. We must be holy. Holiness is not optional; we must pursue holiness or we will not see Yahweh. (Isaiah 35:8; Leviticus 20:26; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 2 Timothy 2:21; 1 John 3:6-10; 1 Peter 1:14-16)

 Are you a sheep? Are you wheat? Are you ready?