Tag: Yeshua

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.

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

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?

Good-for-Nothing Slaves

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“Which one of you having a slave tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? Instead, will he not tell him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, get ready,and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink’? Does he thank that slave because he did what was commanded? 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.’” –Luke 17:7-10

I came across this passage last week; and verse 10 really stuck out to me. “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.’” That’s exactly how we should be in our walk with Yeshua. We are to do what He commands because we are His slaves…it is our duty. It’s not about working to earn salvation, righteousness, or anything else. It is our duty. When we have received the free gift of salvation through the Messiah’s shed blood, we then become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Sin no longer rules over us, because we are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14).

But wait you say…weren’t you just talking about following the commands of Yahweh and then you just totally switched trains and now it’s all about grace? Absolutely not…because if you keep reading the rest of Romans 6 you will be amazed with sudden clarity. Keep reading…

“What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the end is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:15-23).

Saved by grace through faith for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10)…to take on Yeshua’s ways, follow His commands, and walk as He walked (1 John 2:3-6).

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping Your word. I have sought You with all my heart; don’t let me wander from Your commands. –Psalm 119:9-10

Grace and Law Collide

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You’ve heard the story…

The woman taken in adultery
The woman taken in adultery (Photo credit: gwilmore)

“At dawn He went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began to teach them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. “Teacher,” they said to Him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” They asked this to trap Him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse Him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with His finger. When they persisted in questioning Him, He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only He was left, with the woman in the center. When Jesus stood up, He said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (John 8:2-11)

I would like to take a closer look at verse 11 where Yeshua says, “Neither do I condemn you, go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

Hmmm….”Neither do I condemn you.” Sounds like grace to me. She deserved death. After all, she was caught in adultery. But, wait…Yeshua said, “Neither do I condemn you.” Grace … unmerited favor…undeserved mercy. However, He goes on to say, “Go and from now on do not sin anymore.” What? That can’t be right…don’t sin anymore? Wouldn’t that be following …………wait for it………the Law? I mean if sin is transgressing the Law (1 John 3:4), then wouldn’t it stand to reason that not sinning would be following the Law? (1 John 3:7)

And then…why would Yeshua tell someone to go and sin no more if it was not possible not to sin? Just some food for thought.

Walk This Way

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Footsteps
Footsteps (Photo credit: Admean)

But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him: The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked—1 John 2:5-6.

How did Yeshua walk? Well, scripture tells us that He was sinless (Hebrews 4:15). It also tells us that sin is transgressing God’s Law (1 John 3:4). So, that should lead us to the logical conclusion that Yeshua followed God’s Law…to the letter…so He wouldn’t sin and could be our atoning sacrifice.

So if we are to walk…just as He walked…shouldn’t we follow God’s Law…Genesis to Revelation? Shouldn’t we be willing to give up our ways and the traditions of man to obey our Father who has adopted us and called us into His glorious kingdom? (Mark 7:8-9; Ephesians 1:5-6; 1 Peter 2:9-10) Shouldn’t we be willing to walk in the footsteps of the One who gave His life for us so we could overcome sin? (Psalm 119:9-10; Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 5:8-9) Shouldn’t walking as our Master did be our joy and privilege? (Psalm 1:2; Psalm 19:7-11; Romans 7:22) … not for our gain, but because of all He did and continues to do for us … because we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20).

In the end, I would rather give my all to following in the footsteps of Yeshua and pursue holiness (Hebrews 12:14) and strive to go through the narrow gate and stay on the difficult path (Matthew 7:13-14), and work out my salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), than to have Him say on that day, depart from me you who practice lawlessness (Matthew 7:21-23).

In John 12:44-50, Jesus tells us, “The one who believes in Me believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me would not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My words and doesn’t keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects Me and doesn’t accept My sayings has this as his judge: The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a command as to what I should say and what I should speak. I know that His command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” (John 12:44-50)

What standard are we going to be judged by?

Holy Days vs. Holidays

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What’s the difference? Well, to be honest, I had never really thought about it. As a matter of fact, I never even knew about Yahweh’s feast days. Growing up, I noticed some odd holidays on the calendar that we didn’t celebrate…those are Jewish holidays I was told. I grew up celebrating the “traditional” holidays…Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and on the list goes. And I learned the “true” meaning of the holidays in amongst all the extra fluff…you know…Santa, the Easter bunny, coloring Easter eggs, all the important traditions that go along with celebrating. And I taught them to my children as all good parents do.

Fast forward to 2010 and I was presented with the fact that some (or even all in some cases) of the holidays and traditions that I had been celebrating came from pagan roots and were not scriptural in the least. Well, let me tell you, that rocked my world. Really…how can that be…that can’t be right…I was happy and comfortable in my traditions…my family’s traditions. But, I also knew I had to investigate for myself. What I found out turned my world upside down. I discovered that it was true! Great…so what do I do now? Well, through much prayer and study, I decided not to celebrate Christmas and Easter. (I had given up celebrating Halloween many years ago…that was a no brainer!) But, I didn’t stop there. I continued to study the bible and pray, which led me to studying about the Feast days.

The first thing that I discovered was that when Yahweh told Moses about His appointed times, they were permanent statutes throughout the generations. The next thing I discovered was that He gave those eternal statutes to the Israelites, the people, that if we claim to be believers in Yeshua, have been grafted into (Romans 11:17)…adopted into His family (Romans 8:14-16). Think about that…if you adopt a child, do you follow the child’s traditions or does he/she become part of your family and take on the teachings and traditions of your family? If we are Yahweh’s children, we are to take on His ways…His traditions. And the Feasts of Yahweh are just that…His appointed times. He did not say they were for the Jews, the Christians, etc. They were His feasts, His appointed times (Leviticus 23:1-2).

But, you cry out, “Those are part of the old covenant which is a shadow. Jesus is the substance.” And I say, “EXACTLY!!!!!” How much more depth and meaning do these appointed times have now that we have the substance of them? Yahweh’s feast days tell the story of Yahweh and His people. It begins when Yahweh called His people to Himself and continues through to the end of time that John saw in his vision and wrote about in the Revelation. They identified special times throughout the year to give glory and honor to Yahweh for specific acts done on behalf of His people. But they also have a spiritual meaning as well.

The first three feasts of Yahweh have been fulfilled through the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. Let’s start with Passover as it is the first feast day of Yahweh’s calendar. Passover not only represents the Israelites rescue from Egypt, it is also the day of Yeshua’s sacrificial death. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 tells us, “Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” He is our Passover! This feast has certainly been fulfilled through Messiah Yeshua and is observed on the 14th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. (As a side note, did you know that Christians commemorated the death and resurrection of Christ on Passover until the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, in its quest to rid Christianity of anything Jewish changed the date to coincide with the pagan carnival Easter which celebrated the goddess of fertility Ishtar?)

The next feast, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, has also been fulfilled by Yeshua at his burial in the tomb on Nisan 15. Yeshua is our bread of heaven. John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

Next is the Feast of Firstfruits. This was fulfilled by Yeshua at His resurrection. (One thing that I noticed when studying these appointed days, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits, there is actually three days between the death and resurrection of Christ, unlike Good Friday to Easter.) 1 Corinthians 5:20-23, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ.”

Fifty days from the Feast of Firstfruits, we are to observe the Feast of Pentecost. This feast was fulfilled by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1-4, “When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech.”

The last three feasts of Yahweh, the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles, have yet to be fulfilled by Yeshua. They represent future events in Yahweh’s master plan. They point to His return, judgment, millennial reign, and final triumph over evil. The last feast, the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as the Feast of Booths or Feast of Ingathering), represents the fulfillment of Yahweh’s plan. The Messiah will return to “tabernacle” with His people. Zechariah sees the ultimate fulfillment of this feast, Zechariah 14:16, “Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths.” See also, Revelation 7:9-17, Revelation 21:1, and Revelation 22:5.

But you cry out, “Christmas and Easter don’t mean anything about paganism to me! It’s how I celebrate Christ’s birth and resurrection. God knows my heart.” First of all, the heart is deceitful above all things…(Jeremiah 17:9) Jeremiah 17:5-8 also says, “This is what the Lord says: The man who trusts in mankind, who makes human flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord is cursed. He will be like a juniper in the Arabah; he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives. The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.  He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” Colossians 2:8 says, “Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.”

I will be the first to tell you that celebrating Yahweh’s appointed Holy Days is not a matter of salvation or acceptance by Him. However, as a child of the Most High God, Yahweh, I have been adopted by Him and as such, I am going to follow His ways and His traditions. Since Yahweh says His feasts are to be celebrated forever and He never changes, it is quite clear to me that He still desires to be worshipped the way He has outlined in His Word. “Therefore, let us keep the feast…”

“As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.” (Joshua 24:15)

Law vs. Grace

psalmnineteenfourteen11 Comments

So which is it you ask? Law…or grace… So here is my opinion, take it or leave it. I believe the debate/argument about law and grace is the most useless, unprofitable, and worthless debate going on in “Christian” circles today. So there it is, and here is why I believe what I believe.

But…before I proceed, I just want to unequivocally state that I firmly believe no one can be saved by works of the Law. That was never the purpose of the Law…ever. We are saved by grace through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua alone. (Ephesians 2:8-9).  If we try to obtain salvation through works of the Law, we become legalistic which is strongly cautioned against by the church today, and rightfully so. However, many have become so caught up in anti-legalism, anti-Law, that the “church” has swung on the pendulum way too far in the opposite direction.

So, now here it is…why I believe what I believe. The Holy scriptures themselves tell us in several places that the Law of God is eternal: Ecclesiastes 3:14, “I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him.” Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.” Matthew 5:18, “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.” Luke 16:17, “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the law to drop out.”

The Word of God also tells us that when the Messiah came there was a change in the priesthood.  And Hebrews 7:12 says, “For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must be a change of law as well.” Hebrews 9:11-14 then tells us, “But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come in the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?” This was a change in how the Law was manifested, not an exchange of one set of laws for another or to abolish the Law. Messiah’s words in Matthew 5:17 reiterate this point, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”

Here is an example. The Law of sacrifice is still in effect today. The death of Yeshua on the cross did not cancel the sacrificial law. It is true that because of Him we do not need to sacrifice animals to atone for our sin. Yeshua took care of that once for all. However, there is still a definite need for the Law of sacrifice to be in effect today. Romans 12:1 commands us to, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.” The manifestation of the Law changed…i.e. animals to humans…dead to living…but did not cancel the Law. God’s Laws are eternal.

What about the “Law” of celebrations…Feasts of Yahweh? Some say they are for the Jews only. Some say they were done away with when Yeshua fulfilled them. Well, both of the arguments are not scriptural. When the feasts are commanded by Yahweh he states very clearly they are eternal, permanent statutes throughout the generations. He gave those eternal statutes to the Israelites, the people, that if we claim to be believers in Yeshua, have been grafted into (Romans 11:17).  Not only that, He did not say they were for the Jews, the Christians, etc. They were His feasts, His appointed times (Leviticus 23:1-2). Divine. Godly. The New Testament even shows us that the feasts were kept after the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 tells us, “Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Yeshua is our Passover. So much more depth and spiritual meaning are added to Yahweh’s appointed times in light of Yeshua. Again, our observance of these biblically appointed times are not a matter of salvation. They are a matter of worship; a time of remembrance and reverence for what He has done for us and is continuing to do. (For more on Yahweh’s feasts see Holy Days vs. Holidays.)

What about the dietary laws? Following them does not lead to salvation, however they are proven to be healthy guidelines to follow…the proper way to treat our “temples of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The bottom line is science can confirm the health benefits of following them. God gives us His Law for our health and benefit.

One of the purposes for Yeshua’s sacrificial death was to change the heart of man, not abolish the Law of God. Ezekiel 11:19-20: And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.” Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.”

James 2:12 tells us, “Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom.” I have heard this verse used to “prove” that we are free from the Law of God. The reality is that this verse is speaking entirely to our freedom from sin by the mercy and grace of Yahweh. “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 of death.” (Romans 8:1-2).To develop a theology that is based solely on grace and nullifies the Law of Yahweh is to commit a gross misunderstanding of the scriptures. To develop a theology that is based solely on the Law nullifies the sacrifice of Yeshua. The conclusion of the matter is this: There is no such thing as law versus grace. You must have both. You can’t have one without the other. It is law and grace.

All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep His covenant and decrees. – Psalm 25:10

Lip Service

psalmnineteenfourteen4 Comments

As my husband and I were reading Matthew 22 together this morning, verses 34-40 caught my attention. “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” So I got to pondering…what does it mean to love the Lord? A lot of people profess to “love the Lord”. But…what does that mean? As I was praying about it, the verse in John 14:15 was impressed on me. “If you love Me, obey My commandments.” So there is action involved…love is a verb. God wants us to show our love for Him by obeying His commandments.

In the past, I used to pay the Lord “lip service”. I would tell Him I loved Him with my words, but my actions didn’t always show it. I was a member of the Matthew 15:8 club, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” How many of us today still do the same thing…tell Yahveh we love Him and then go and live as we please? Then Yahveh reminded me what it feels like to be told that you are loved when the actions didn’t always match the words. In my first marriage, I would be told, “I love you” and then be called horrible names and be physically abused. The words didn’t match the actions…and actions definitely speak louder than words. 

Praise Yahveh!!! I have been delivered from the Matthew 15:8 club, both giving “lip service” and receiving it!!! As the veil has been lifted and my eyes opened to the whole word of God, I can honestly say that I do love the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. I am obeying God’s commandments because I love Him. “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” (2 John 6)

Let’s revoke our membership in the Matthew 15:8 club and stop paying Yahveh and each other “lip service”. Let’s start truly loving Yahveh and one another, not just in word, but in deed also, not the way the world loves, but as we are commanded to in the Bible…by obedience (which is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22))…by loving as Christ has loved us (John 13:34-35)…by being devoted to and giving preference to one another (Romans 12:10)…by esteeming one another (Philippians 2:3). Let’s love according to Yahveh’s way, not man’s.