One of the premiere preachers of the good news of our generation, Paul Washer, was speaking to a church when he basically said he feared that within a hundred years MANY if not MOST of the attendees he was speaking to would be burning in hell. This was a church which claimed to believe the Bible (they had their mission statement written in their by-laws stating the whole Bible is the inerrant Word of God). Most of them had prayed a prayer to "receive Christ", made a profession of faith, and even participated in evangelistic outreach. These are the people who THUNDERED applause when Mr. Washer said the goal was not to be like Brittany Spears, but to be like Jesus Christ. Yet he was convinced many of them would perish.
Yeshua (Jesus)said it like this:
Mat 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Mat 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
MANY are on the road which leads to destruction! Why? How come we don't think it is US? Brother Washer was making the point that most Christians compare themselves to other so-called "Christians" (even though they my not be following Christ) and think they are ok. They think they are on the "narrow path" because they ask Jesus into their heart or believe in Him, yet do not repent and follow His ways. So when they compare themselves to people who seem more wicked than they are (Brittany Spears), they think they are safe from the judgement of God, never taking a look at His righteous requirements for living (those whose foundation is in the Old Testament Law, because 'Brother, the Law was done away with!') On the contrary! Jesus loved the law and expects us to compare our lives and behavior with IT, rather than the norms of society. Rather than the norms of even your church.
David said in Psalm 119 that he LOVES God's law and meditates on it day and night. And God said David was a man after His own heart! God would not come to earth clothed in earthly flesh (as Yeshua has done) only to abhor, alter, or in anywise do away with the law. For He himself said "Think not that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). In Hebraic terms, Jesus was essentially saying, don't think I have come to do away with the Law, no, I have come to correctly interpret it.
Let's see, if the American institutionalized churches don't teach the basics of God's moral Law, but rather teaches men to BREAK God's Law, then how will they stand in the judgement? The churches teach people that Jesus did away with the whole Law of Moses in favor of a law called "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself", nevermind that the whole Law of Moses teaches us HOW to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In their teaching and especially their example, they teach us how to break the first and foremost instruction on how to love God (abstaining from idolatry), by teaching and sanctioning idolatry through it's detestable practices of worshipping fertility gods and goddesses every year on Easter and Christmas. So then, how can they teach the finer points of the Law toward true spiritual maturity? If the churches in the West teach men to ignore the fourth commanment to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy (set apart), the Sabbath Day being the SEVENTH DAY, SATURDAY, NOT SUNDAY, (which to honor Sunday above Saturday is a nod of agreement to the detestable practice of sun god worship), how will those churches expect to enter the Savior's Sabbath reign on earth....the millenial kingdom?
Judgement is Near, Even at the Door
As it is, America stands on the brink of God's righteous judgement. He gave us a warning judgement on 9-11, but we did not listen. We did not repent. We went back to worshipping our gods, chasing after riches rather than truth, and did not seek the ways of God. We threw His mercy right back in His face. In addition to this, we have poked Him in the eye by touching Israel, his chosen people by siding with her enemies and we have conspired to dividing up His land, making it vulnerable to Israel's enemies, which is forbidden and punishable: Joel 3:2. Therefore, He will give US over to OUR enemies.
The Lord did something similar to His people, Israel, when they were first warned, but then refused to turn from their wicked ways, the sin of idolatry in particular. God unleashed some of the most brutal men on the face of the earth at the time, the Assyrians, to come and carry off His chosen ones into captivity. That group of people, the 10 Northern tribes, to this day have still not completely recovered from that judgement.
How, then, will America fair??
You can argue and fight politically all you want, but the fact of the matter is, a house divided against itself cannot stand and no political system, save one that is built upon (or in our case rededicated) deep repentance, an unwavering return to the principles of serving God and honoring Him only, can turn us back in the right direction. However well-meaning or truthfully sought, your politics will NOT save you.
No friend, we stand on the precipice of a string of judgements unleashed on the American people that will make the debt overhaul of the last year and a half seem like the "Golden Age of America" in the early 1900's and 1920's before the Great Depression. Now you can say I am "fear mongering" or even "hate mongering" all you want. It will make 9-11 look like a tea party (pardon the pun there). It is the watchman's responsibility to cry out the warning when he sees the sword coming, lest he end up with blood on his hands. What you do with the warning is up to you. Once I have called out the warning, you alone stand accountable before the God of Heaven for the information you now know. And by the recent censoring of my online activities, this just might be the last warning I am able to give you. I am not joking. I have been kicked off of more websites (hello Faceblock and YouScrub) than I care to count in the past couple months, just for viewing, reading, or writing material which those in power deem threatening. Freedom of speech will not save you. Say goodbye to the golden age of information and the internet. Those who do not listen to truth will no longer have access to it. Thus it will be for America.
In the coming months and years, we will be like Job in the Bible: we will be in the midst of hearing a piece of devastating news while another piece of news of devastation will be arriving. Subsequently and concurrently.
But many of you are going about your daily business, unaware this is even happening, just as Yeshua said you would. About a month and a half ago, the very DAY AFTER I read they had discovered Noah's Ark in Turkey, (however many disputes to the contrary you may have heard), I awoke after a disturbing dream, to a phrase resonating so deep in my spirit with such urgency. The phrase was, "As in the days of Noah....."
So I followed out the verse in my mind, referring to Luke 17:26-27 which says: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man."
V. 27: "People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all." And when I got to the phrase "up to the day Noah entered the ark", I knew inately that a very important door had closed. And that judgement was on its way. I knew then and there we were about to enter a new season- the very season which precedes the coming of the Messiah (because that was the context of the scripture).
The ark represents protection from judgement. It was as if the Lord was saying to me, "the season for mercy- the holding back of my hand of righteous judegments is passed. Now the flood of destruction is coming".
And I knew that even at my warning, many will write me off and ignore the warning or find something wrong with the messenger; some people might listen, but would take the attitude "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die". Some would be in shock, while (some) others would move quickly to repent. And I myself have grappled with fear, discouragement and the feeling of hopelessness for our country. I have even grappled with the attitude, get all you can, for tomorrow we die. However, knowing these might be part and parcel of a grieving process I must go through, I seek everyday to live in repentance. I seek to obey the Lord's command to be holy (set-apart) as He is holy (set-apart). This command requires some serious and oftentimes painful decision making. It might mean the cutting off of friendships or connections. I have since permanently deleted my Facebook account for various reasons. I need to be a better steward of my time. I need to devote more time to not only preparations, but also to the work of the ministry, which includes study and fellowship with like-minded believers. And last, but certainly not least, I have been seeking to remove the leaven from my life, those things from Babylon and the world which taint and defile my life. Seemingly inoccuous things, but things which displease my Lord nonetheless. For you see, I do not care what YOU think of these things. YOU did not die a horrific painful death for me. You did not take my place in judgement for my sins. He did. And He is coming back soon. And by the estimation of many respectable and knowledgeable men and women within the body of Messiah, it could be as soon as 7 years from this fall. More about that later, perhaps at another writing.
Practical Preparations
In addition to repentance, which is by far the most important thing you can do to prepare for what is coming, not only to America but to the whole world, there are some practical preparations you can make for you and your family for the tough times ahead. My family has already begun making preparations which are not huge, but will be needed nonetheless. Thing we will have wished we did later on.
Buy a good water filter. I have heard that Berkey is the best. They can even convert pond water into drinkable water. Store up food. I recommend storing at least 6 months' worth of storable food (watch those expiration dates!) and some drinking water. And remember to plan to share with others in need. We are expected to do that. If you have the means, plant a garden as soon as possible. Make sure you have the *G* word on hand, including ammunition. You may need to defend your family from robbers, looters, and the like. Trust me, the info I have dictates that life as you know it will NOT be the same in a matter of a few days or months. And people do desperate and foolish, even destructive things when disaster hits. The fallen flesh of man is not going to care about your precious loved ones when they need food in their own bellies. I am in the process of learning to shoot mine. And I will not hesitate to protect my family. If the Jews in Persia (book of Esther) were able to use the weapons of their conspiring enemies against them and be successful, we can too!
Also, I recommend always having on hand an emergency backpack with items necessary for survival for up to 48-72 hours. This is a good idea, even if a crisis never comes. Keep it in your car or an accessible place. Make sure to stock it with water, first aid, a light source, a change of clothes, a rain poncho, and a radio for receiving emergency communications. Meet with your family and develop a crisis plan to meet somewhere in the case you get separated from one another. Figure you will not have access to cell phones, land lines, main roads or even vehicles. It's great if you have a bicycle in your possession.
And now a word to all my "pre-tribulation rapture" brethren......First of all, let's not split hairs, but rather love one another an dpray for one another in this hour, seeking to please the Lord by building one another up. Please go about making the necessary preparations for disaster. It just makes sense. Jesus said in this life we WOULD have tribulation. And it is evil presumption to think we will have tomorrow, much less come through judgement unscathed (Esther 4:13). Don't be discouraged if the future doesn't necessarily pan out the way you have been taught. And above all, I pray you not fall away from the Lord. He is not to blame. The Bible says in Romans that the wages (payment) for sin is death. Sin brings its own reward. And God has been merciful for many years. He must judge rightly, or He isn't God. Cling to Him with all your might and trust in Him (His Word) no matter what. There is no condemnation to those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (the Holy Spirit, who leads us and guides us into all truth).
I leave you with the words of Yeshua Himself, who knows the end from the beginning and has declared it, words of comfort, knowing that He is sovereign over all and holds all things in the palm of His hand:
Jhn 16:1 "All this I have told you so that you will not go astray".
Jhn 16:4 "I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you".
Jhn 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Shalom.
**
Monday, June 7, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A Strong Delusion
Rarely do I post articles written by other authors or bloggers on my blog site. However, today I am willing to make an exception with the following article. The truths contained herein are important and need to be examined in our own hearts. Time is so short. Eternity awaits.
Barbara Johnson Sandefur: A Strong Delusion
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 7:45pm
WHEN discussing how to determine the truth and error of spiritual matters, people often make statements like: “I just follow my heart; I feel in my heart that this is right; I go with what my heart tells me; I trust my heart.” Such statements sound fine to most people, but the Bible plainly states that “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool.” [1]
Why is it foolish to trust one’s own heart? Won’t our heart tell us what is right? On the contrary: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” [2]
Daniel Botkin
If the Bible only said that our heart is deceitful, that would be bad enough. But it says more: the heart is deceitful “above all things.” If “all things” includes all things, then our hearts are more deceitful than the devil himself, which is a frightening thought.
Likewise, if the Bible only said that our heart is wicked, that would be bad enough. But it says more: The heart is “desperately wicked.” Our wicked heart is so desperate to continue ruling our thoughts and our life that it will go to any and all lengths to keep from being exposed for what it is, “full of madness and folly.” [3] In its desperation to survive, our heart is willing to masquerade as anything, even as a blood-washed, born-again Believer heart in love with the Savior. Jeremiah ends with this verse, “Who can know it?”
This diagnosis of the heart should also put the fear of God into anyone who takes the Bible seriously. Another sobering passage is 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12, where we read about what happens to those who refuse the truth: “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” If we are deluded by the devil, or even by our own heart, we might hope for pity from God. But if God Himself is the one who send the delusion, as a judgment for our refusal to love truth, what hope is there for deliverance from deception? Who can deliver us from a strong delusion that God has sent?
The problem with deception is that the deceived person has absolutely no idea that he is deceived. If he knows he is deceived, then he is not deceived! Deception, by its very nature, is impossible to detect in one’s self. Until the deceived person begins to see that he is deceived, he does not suspect that he is under a strong delusion.
In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua describes a multitude of people who will not see their deception until it is too late for them:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
Two things about this passage should motivate Bible-believers to examine their faith. The first thing is the fact that the people described here are not atheists or Moslems. These are church people, involved in church activities, doing what appear to be good works in the name of Jesus. They even call Him “Lord,” and fully expect to inherit eternal life through their relationship with Him. That is why they are stunned to find themselves excluded from the Kingdom. The second sobering thing in this message is the word “many.” This is not some small group of cult leaders and false prophets; it is a multitude that the Lord describes as “many.”
This should raise some frightening questions for a Believer: How do I know that I am not among this multitude of deceived people? Am I truly blood-bought and born from above, or is it only my own deceitful heart, in an act of desperation, pretending to be in love with the Lord? How do I know my salvation experience was not just an imaginary experience, a strong delusion sent by God as judgment for my refusal to love the truth?
We know from the Scriptures that our heart cannot be trusted to tell us whether or not we are deceived. If we are deceived, and look to our heart to tell us, our heart will simply continue to lie to us and give us false assurance of our salvation and our doctrines, complete with warm, emotional, religious feelings to soothe any doubts we may have. And the longer we remain rooted in our deception, the stronger these feelings will be.
If we cannot trust our own heart to tell us whether or not we are deceived, who then can we trust? A pastor or a prophet? A pastor or a prophet might give us the words of reassurance and comfort, but how do we know the pastor or prophet is not deceived? The Bible is full of warnings about false pastors and false prophets. God told Ezekiel that “if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet.” [4] So even a prophet may be among those to whom YHWH sends powerful delusion!
Fortunately, we need not despair. The same Bible that warns us of deception and false teachings also tells us how to discern the true from the false. In Isaiah’s day deception was rampant in Israel, and YHWH gave a simple formula for discerning truth from error: “To the Torah (“Law” or “Teaching”); if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” [5] All true beliefs and teachings will be in agreement with Torah (the Law God gave to Moses). Any belief or teaching that opposes or contradicts these commandments is not of the Light, but of the darkness.
If we look at the context of the passages discussed earlier in this paper, we will see that deception is, in these cases also, related to our attitude to God’s Law. When the Messiah tells the multitude of deceived church people to depart, He addresses them as “you who practice Lawlessness.” Likewise, Paul’s warning of the God-sent delusion in 2 Thessalonians is also presented in the context of our attitude to God’s Law. The passage speaks of “the secret power of Lawlessness (‘separating from Torah,’ Jewish New Testament),” which was “already at work” in Paul’s time. Two times in this passage, Paul (Rav Shaul) mentions “the lawless one (‘man who avoids Torah,’ Jewish NT).” Even Jeremiah’s statements about the heart are soon followed by a lengthy plea to honor God by keeping the Sabbath.
Of course, most Christians consider the Sabbath and many other commands to be, for the most part, irrelevant to those living under the New Covenant. Ironically, the Bible tells us that one important mark of true New Covenant believers is the keeping of God’s Torah! In Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant (31:31-34), the Lord describes His intended outcome in the lives of those who accept the terms of the New Covenant: “I will put My Torah (“Law” or Teaching) in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts.” (See also Hebrews 8:8-10.)
This new heart with God’s Torah written upon it was also prophesied in Ezekiel 11:19f. Here YHWH describes the results of receiving a new heart: “Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws.” Ezekiel later writes about the promise of the Holy Spirit: “I will put My Spirit within you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.” [6] Torah observance is not learned and developed overnight, but if a believer is not being moved in a Torah-obedient direction, he should find out why not. According to Ezekiel, being moved to obey God’s Torah is evidence of having received the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). Speaking in tongues is great, but tongues can be counterfeited. Obedience to Torah cannot. Either a person does it or he doesn’t.
There are also many NT verses that point to Torah observance as a mark of true New Covenant Believers:
“We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” [7]
“This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.” [8] “Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.” [9] In Revelation 12:17, God’s faithful remnant is described as those “who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Yeshua.” In Revelation 14:12, “saints” are defined as “those who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Yeshua.”
A love for Torah is not proof that a person is not deceived in other areas, of course. But in these passages about deception, it is clear that deception is closely linked to our attitude to the Law. We must not turn a deaf ear to the Torah. Proverbs 28:9 says, “he that turns his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.”
Any believer who feels any hostility toward God’s Law should seriously consider the possibility that he may be under strong delusion, and ask God to forgive his lack of love for the truth. He should ask God to release him from the secret power of lawlessness. If God has sent strong delusion to someone for refusing to love the truth, God can “undeceive” the repentant heart that agrees to embrace the Torah that he formerly ignored or despised. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Psalm 51:17).”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Mishlei (Proverbs) 28:26.
[2] Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 17:9.
[3] Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 9:3
[4] Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 14:9.
[5] Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 8:20.
[6] Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 36:27.
[7] 1 John (Yochanan) 2:3f.
[8] 1 John 5:3.
[9] 1 Corinthians 7:19.
Barbara Johnson Sandefur: A Strong Delusion
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 7:45pm
WHEN discussing how to determine the truth and error of spiritual matters, people often make statements like: “I just follow my heart; I feel in my heart that this is right; I go with what my heart tells me; I trust my heart.” Such statements sound fine to most people, but the Bible plainly states that “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool.” [1]
Why is it foolish to trust one’s own heart? Won’t our heart tell us what is right? On the contrary: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” [2]
Daniel Botkin
If the Bible only said that our heart is deceitful, that would be bad enough. But it says more: the heart is deceitful “above all things.” If “all things” includes all things, then our hearts are more deceitful than the devil himself, which is a frightening thought.
Likewise, if the Bible only said that our heart is wicked, that would be bad enough. But it says more: The heart is “desperately wicked.” Our wicked heart is so desperate to continue ruling our thoughts and our life that it will go to any and all lengths to keep from being exposed for what it is, “full of madness and folly.” [3] In its desperation to survive, our heart is willing to masquerade as anything, even as a blood-washed, born-again Believer heart in love with the Savior. Jeremiah ends with this verse, “Who can know it?”
This diagnosis of the heart should also put the fear of God into anyone who takes the Bible seriously. Another sobering passage is 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12, where we read about what happens to those who refuse the truth: “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” If we are deluded by the devil, or even by our own heart, we might hope for pity from God. But if God Himself is the one who send the delusion, as a judgment for our refusal to love truth, what hope is there for deliverance from deception? Who can deliver us from a strong delusion that God has sent?
The problem with deception is that the deceived person has absolutely no idea that he is deceived. If he knows he is deceived, then he is not deceived! Deception, by its very nature, is impossible to detect in one’s self. Until the deceived person begins to see that he is deceived, he does not suspect that he is under a strong delusion.
In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua describes a multitude of people who will not see their deception until it is too late for them:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
Two things about this passage should motivate Bible-believers to examine their faith. The first thing is the fact that the people described here are not atheists or Moslems. These are church people, involved in church activities, doing what appear to be good works in the name of Jesus. They even call Him “Lord,” and fully expect to inherit eternal life through their relationship with Him. That is why they are stunned to find themselves excluded from the Kingdom. The second sobering thing in this message is the word “many.” This is not some small group of cult leaders and false prophets; it is a multitude that the Lord describes as “many.”
This should raise some frightening questions for a Believer: How do I know that I am not among this multitude of deceived people? Am I truly blood-bought and born from above, or is it only my own deceitful heart, in an act of desperation, pretending to be in love with the Lord? How do I know my salvation experience was not just an imaginary experience, a strong delusion sent by God as judgment for my refusal to love the truth?
We know from the Scriptures that our heart cannot be trusted to tell us whether or not we are deceived. If we are deceived, and look to our heart to tell us, our heart will simply continue to lie to us and give us false assurance of our salvation and our doctrines, complete with warm, emotional, religious feelings to soothe any doubts we may have. And the longer we remain rooted in our deception, the stronger these feelings will be.
If we cannot trust our own heart to tell us whether or not we are deceived, who then can we trust? A pastor or a prophet? A pastor or a prophet might give us the words of reassurance and comfort, but how do we know the pastor or prophet is not deceived? The Bible is full of warnings about false pastors and false prophets. God told Ezekiel that “if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet.” [4] So even a prophet may be among those to whom YHWH sends powerful delusion!
Fortunately, we need not despair. The same Bible that warns us of deception and false teachings also tells us how to discern the true from the false. In Isaiah’s day deception was rampant in Israel, and YHWH gave a simple formula for discerning truth from error: “To the Torah (“Law” or “Teaching”); if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” [5] All true beliefs and teachings will be in agreement with Torah (the Law God gave to Moses). Any belief or teaching that opposes or contradicts these commandments is not of the Light, but of the darkness.
If we look at the context of the passages discussed earlier in this paper, we will see that deception is, in these cases also, related to our attitude to God’s Law. When the Messiah tells the multitude of deceived church people to depart, He addresses them as “you who practice Lawlessness.” Likewise, Paul’s warning of the God-sent delusion in 2 Thessalonians is also presented in the context of our attitude to God’s Law. The passage speaks of “the secret power of Lawlessness (‘separating from Torah,’ Jewish New Testament),” which was “already at work” in Paul’s time. Two times in this passage, Paul (Rav Shaul) mentions “the lawless one (‘man who avoids Torah,’ Jewish NT).” Even Jeremiah’s statements about the heart are soon followed by a lengthy plea to honor God by keeping the Sabbath.
Of course, most Christians consider the Sabbath and many other commands to be, for the most part, irrelevant to those living under the New Covenant. Ironically, the Bible tells us that one important mark of true New Covenant believers is the keeping of God’s Torah! In Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant (31:31-34), the Lord describes His intended outcome in the lives of those who accept the terms of the New Covenant: “I will put My Torah (“Law” or Teaching) in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts.” (See also Hebrews 8:8-10.)
This new heart with God’s Torah written upon it was also prophesied in Ezekiel 11:19f. Here YHWH describes the results of receiving a new heart: “Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws.” Ezekiel later writes about the promise of the Holy Spirit: “I will put My Spirit within you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.” [6] Torah observance is not learned and developed overnight, but if a believer is not being moved in a Torah-obedient direction, he should find out why not. According to Ezekiel, being moved to obey God’s Torah is evidence of having received the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). Speaking in tongues is great, but tongues can be counterfeited. Obedience to Torah cannot. Either a person does it or he doesn’t.
There are also many NT verses that point to Torah observance as a mark of true New Covenant Believers:
“We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” [7]
“This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.” [8] “Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.” [9] In Revelation 12:17, God’s faithful remnant is described as those “who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Yeshua.” In Revelation 14:12, “saints” are defined as “those who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Yeshua.”
A love for Torah is not proof that a person is not deceived in other areas, of course. But in these passages about deception, it is clear that deception is closely linked to our attitude to the Law. We must not turn a deaf ear to the Torah. Proverbs 28:9 says, “he that turns his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.”
Any believer who feels any hostility toward God’s Law should seriously consider the possibility that he may be under strong delusion, and ask God to forgive his lack of love for the truth. He should ask God to release him from the secret power of lawlessness. If God has sent strong delusion to someone for refusing to love the truth, God can “undeceive” the repentant heart that agrees to embrace the Torah that he formerly ignored or despised. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Psalm 51:17).”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Mishlei (Proverbs) 28:26.
[2] Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 17:9.
[3] Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 9:3
[4] Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 14:9.
[5] Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 8:20.
[6] Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 36:27.
[7] 1 John (Yochanan) 2:3f.
[8] 1 John 5:3.
[9] 1 Corinthians 7:19.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
A Hiding Place in the Day of Trouble
Psa 32:7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Psa 50:15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
Humanity is about to embark on the darkest hour known to all of creation. I am talking about various trials and temptations. I am talking about the beginning of birth pains (Matt 24:8; Mark 13:8). A day in which the wrath of the enemy is going to come down to earth and test the saints. (Please note and understand that the wrath of the enemy is not the same as the wrath of God). The time of Jacob's trouble. Unparalleled sorrow in the earth.
Most people are unaware that this is even about to happen. Consumed with their love for pleasure, sin, materialism and consumerism, most living day to day to fulfill the desires of their lustful flesh. And they are marching toward eternal destruction.
If you happen to be of the chosen, of Yah's elect, then you too stand on the precipice of great trials and temptations. If you think you will escape the time to come unscathed, think again.
Am I just being "fatalistic"? A doomsday prophet? That is what they accused Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all the prophets of being, and yet what they prophesied against Israel came to pass. But not because they woke up that morning on the wrong side of the bed. But because of Israel's gross sin. Because of God's awesome holiness (set-apartness). Because of the divine nature of Yehovah God which cannot and will not co-exist with wickedness. And yet He is merciful. He is merciful to allow us to repent. Even unto the end of the book of the Revelation Yahushua (Jesus) is longsuffering in bringing the just reward of sin into the earth, admonishing men to repent of their torahlessness and come back to Him. His ways are just and His lovingkindness is forever.
Sobering days ahead. We will see things which we could have never imagined taking place. Long-standing institutions falling to the ground. Foundations shaken to their core. Foundations of government, religion, infrastructures, and bedrock entities totally destroyed. Isa 13:13 says, "Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger".
And yet Yahushua tells us, His talmidim (disciples), to not let our hearts be troubled. To be not afraid nor dismayed. Even though Daniel and Revelation teach that the fury of the anti-messiah and satan will be unleashed against us, God's called-out ones, and will overcome them (Revelation 13:7), we are comforted knowing He is with us, even unto the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). YHVH promises to shelter us in the day of trouble. How can this be? Could it be because those who embrace and live in His Torah will experience that experience known to the psalmist as resting "under the shadow of the Almighty"? Even if we were to perish in the times of tribulation, if we hold to His teachings, His commandments, even unto the end, even if it costs us our lives, will it not only work toward our reward in eternity?
Rev 14:12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.
Just how long is eternity? Forever and forever and forever. It's mind boggling.
I am asking these questions because I also need to know. I also need ministering to. I need strengthening. I endeavor and yet struggle to do the will of God now and I am sitting here in my nice cushy bed typing on my high tech laptop, clothed in my nice warm jammies sheltered behind my electronic security system. And yet, according to my understanding of the scriptures, events so atrocious as the Holocaust 60 plus years ago will pale in comparison to what is coming upon the world. As believers, even our own lives will be impacted and forever changed. How can I prepare myself and those whom I love for such a time as the one that is to come?
The only thing I can come up with is to trust in Yahushua. And part of trusting, truly trusting, means to keep His commands. To obey Him as revealed in the whole counsel of the Word of God, both the Tanakh and the Brit Chadashah (Renewed covenant). What a sobering task. What an awesome priveledge it is that God Almighty HAS revealed His will concerning us. Many people don't wanna hear it, they want to hear things that tickle the ears, and my sinful flesh certainly doesn't want to obey it, but there you go. Not one jot nor one tittle will pass away from His Torah until ALL be fulfilled. They are our instructions. Our survival guide in the days to come. So let us learn them. All of them and walk them out by faith.
Start With the Basics
I have people who are starting to wake up to the truth and toss out the man-made doctrines they've been taught come up to me and ask about the Hebrew root of their faith. They now know and understand that the "Law" (Torah) is holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12), they know they are not SAVED by keeping the "Law" (Torah), that they are saved by the Blood of the Lamb of God (Yahushua) and NONE of their so-called righteous deeds can get them in to Heaven (for Yah says they are as filthy rags to Him), they have come to apply Messiah's sacrifice to their lives for the forgiveness of sins, now they want to repent and FOLLOW HIM. Now what? What does that look like?
That looks like Torah. Jesus lived Torah. He IS the Torah clothed in flesh (John 1:14). He did every word of the scriptures, not the traditions of men when they contradicted the scriptures (such as certain dictates of the Oral Torah, one of the foundational pillars of modern-day Judaism.)
I won't go into all the details here, but in a very brief and much-paraphrased explanation, the church teaches a man-made tradition called "we are under grace, not under law". Yes, this is true. You are freed from the Law. You are no longer under "the Law", but which law are you no longer under? The Law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). How do you get under THAT LAW? By transgressing God's Law, the Torah and by being carried into the captivity of satan. Torah means "instructions" or "teaching" in Hebrew and carries the idea with it to "hit the mark". What is sin? Sin means to transgress the Torah, or to "miss the mark". There is much misunderstanding of Paul's writings because many western gentile Christians do not yet understand: 1)That Paul, a former pharisee, continued to keep true Torah, the written Word which Jesus taught in it's Hebrew context, including keeping the Sabbath and Feast days, circumcision, etc in their fullest joy as revealed in the Messiah making them full 2)the political fallings out in the first century of non-Jewish-born believers and those who wanted to push the traditions of the Oral Torah on them, 3) the Tanakh (which includes the Torah, prophets and the writings) in it's proper context and 4) That there has been some meanings lost in the translation of the New Testament from the Hebrew to the Greek, during which some of the Greek does not allow for the dileneation of the various meanings of the word "law" in their contexts (either written nomos or oral tradition).
The Image of Messiah Formed in You
How can we "dwell in the secret place?" By producing fruit in keeping with repentance? Repentance, teshuvah, means to turn away from sin. Repentance back to what? Back to Torah. Jesus lived, fulfilled, and exalted it, Paul taught and magnified it, said it was our schoolmaster. Many men who were influenced by the devil have tried to pervert it.
What will YOU do with it? How will I live in it?
It is one thing to be growing in Torah during the good times, the blessing times. It is another to cling to it during times of duress. The only conclusion I can come to is that it is during those times of difficulties when Torah is formed, rooted, and established in us. Until the Messiah be formed in us (Gal 4:19).
Like gold in the refiner's fire, may the dross (impurities) rise to the top as our faith is purified. It will be a rare, precious thing in the earth in the days to come for those who allow the fire of trials, adversity, and persecution to burn out the sin in our hearts and lives. Also, remember the warnings of Messiah to not fall away:
"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly" (Luke 21:34).
The whole nature of deception is that the one who is being deceived is not aware that he is. Whether we are deceived by our own cares for the things of this life, or by "any man" (Matthew 24:4) or by vain and empty traditions, it does not matter. It is all still deception. And all deception's ultimate destination is into a ditch (metaphor for hell). Even religious theological structures will fall when they are not built upon the sure foundation of Torah:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Messiah. Colossians 2:8.
1Cr 3:11-14: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Yahushua the Messiah. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. (emphasis by the writer).
To know and understand the Messiah as He is, understanding He is a Hebrew of the tribe of Judah, a son of David and the Torah made flesh, one must understand the foundation of Hebrew thought, belief, and deed: the Torah of God. And thus we must understand Yahushua in His full Hebrew context in order to understand His message. Everything else is hollow and deceptive philosophy.
And so the problem remains, many deceptive philosophies based on human tradition abound in the church today where we are supposed to be learning the truth. Since churches teach a Christ and convert people to following Him, yet do not do or hold to what THE CHRIST SAYS, it begs the question, are many teaching a false christ? If that is the case, many churches are priming and grooming their congregants to embrace THE false christ, the anti-christ, the son of perdition, or lawless (Torahless) one when he is revealed.
How can we combat this? By learning the truth, living it, and teaching it as we learn it. If we want to return to Torah, and we are learning what pleases God and what does NOT please Him, we can start to get overwhelmed when we see how much our lives do not follow His plan. It does not mean the plan is bad. We learned from Romans 7:12 that the Torah is holy, good, and just and from the psalms that King David, a man after God's own heart, loved it and meditated on it day and night (Psalm 119). So what to do?
START WITH THIS ONE THING
In the book of Acts, we see a problem arise. The gentiles wanted to follow the Messiah. Many were saved and in the process of repentance. However, there were some who held to the Orah Torah who were telling the gentiles that they had to 1) be circumcised in order to follow the Messiah and 2) Hold all the teachings of Oral Torah in order to be saved. This was the main crux of Paul's railing against the "judaizers" (note: Paul was NOT against the fact that these men were culturally Jewish or the fact that they were teaching Torah, but rather the fact that they had added a bunch of extra-biblical commands which had nothing to do with Torah, against the explicit instruction not to add to Torah nor take away from it Deut.4:2)
So what did the apostles do in response to this problem? They gathered at what is now known as the Council of Jerusalem and came to a decision and sent word to the gentiles of their decision. In Acts chapter 15, the gentiles were admonished by the apostles to do FOUR things: to abstain from fornication (sexual immorality), things strangled, from blood, and from idolatry. This was so that Hebrew and gentile believers could have table fellowship together (remember that Yah taught the Israelites not to sup with idolaters). But this was a BEGINNING POINT the gentiles were to start with. They were not to stop there in their learning of Torah and repentance. They were to continue hearing the Torah and repenting, as it says in Act 15:21, "For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."
The followers of Jesus today would do well to follow the advice given by the apostles. Since the Almighty punished Israel for the transgression of idolatry by sending them into captivity not once but twice and it is a commandment that is reverberated throughout the Tanakh, I would tend to think that would be a good place to start. Get rid of the idols in the church. As I have stated in previous posts, I am not talking about our own conception of idolatrous ideas such as materialism, addiction, and the like although THOSE ARE A PART OF IDOLATRY, I am taking biblical cues to defining idolatry as the worship of Asherah (Easter, replete with sunrise services, eggs, bunnies, and the like), Tammuz and Ba'al (Christmas) and throw those things out FIRST. The modern-day practices built around these pagan idols. After all, it was the zenith of repentance when a righteous king of Israel would arise and DESTORY THE HIGH PLACES OF IDOLATRY. Today, those "high places" are Christmas and Easter, since history bears out that these practices are rooted in the pagan idolatry Yah told His children to have NOTHING to do with.
But you may be wondering: what would I tell my family, my friends, my coworkers? My children? How can I go against the grain and appear so "weird". Let me tell you, if you cannot stand for Yahushua, and take a stand for righteousness NOW, when things are cushy, what will you do in the day of persecution?? What will you do when the persecution fires are engulfing (some of) you, as they did with the martyrs of the Dark Ages who refused to bow down to their generation's anti-christ, the Catholic Church? It seems to me the lines in the sand are being drawn now. And those who seek to do righteously will only continue to grow more righteous, and likewise, those who are growing more wicked, will only continue to grow more twisted.
But consider this: it is a very real event when Jesus the Messiah will have "MANY" come to Him on that Day saying, "Lord, Lord...did we not prophesy in your name?...." (paraphrasing). But what will be His response? He will say the three words which will be the saddest words in all of history. He will say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. For I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). That phrase "workers of iniquity" means "transgressors of the Law (Torah)". And these were those who had operated in the "gifts of the Spirit".
That is a sobering thought!
What about me? Everyday I wake up and ask myself that question. "Self, are you going to carry your cross today? Are you going to stand for righteousness' sake and proclaim the truth, especially to your children?"
This, my friend, is the question of the hour. May YHVH assist you and me in answering faithfully in action and in deed until the end.
SHALOM!
**
Psa 50:15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
Humanity is about to embark on the darkest hour known to all of creation. I am talking about various trials and temptations. I am talking about the beginning of birth pains (Matt 24:8; Mark 13:8). A day in which the wrath of the enemy is going to come down to earth and test the saints. (Please note and understand that the wrath of the enemy is not the same as the wrath of God). The time of Jacob's trouble. Unparalleled sorrow in the earth.
Most people are unaware that this is even about to happen. Consumed with their love for pleasure, sin, materialism and consumerism, most living day to day to fulfill the desires of their lustful flesh. And they are marching toward eternal destruction.
If you happen to be of the chosen, of Yah's elect, then you too stand on the precipice of great trials and temptations. If you think you will escape the time to come unscathed, think again.
Am I just being "fatalistic"? A doomsday prophet? That is what they accused Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all the prophets of being, and yet what they prophesied against Israel came to pass. But not because they woke up that morning on the wrong side of the bed. But because of Israel's gross sin. Because of God's awesome holiness (set-apartness). Because of the divine nature of Yehovah God which cannot and will not co-exist with wickedness. And yet He is merciful. He is merciful to allow us to repent. Even unto the end of the book of the Revelation Yahushua (Jesus) is longsuffering in bringing the just reward of sin into the earth, admonishing men to repent of their torahlessness and come back to Him. His ways are just and His lovingkindness is forever.
Sobering days ahead. We will see things which we could have never imagined taking place. Long-standing institutions falling to the ground. Foundations shaken to their core. Foundations of government, religion, infrastructures, and bedrock entities totally destroyed. Isa 13:13 says, "Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger".
And yet Yahushua tells us, His talmidim (disciples), to not let our hearts be troubled. To be not afraid nor dismayed. Even though Daniel and Revelation teach that the fury of the anti-messiah and satan will be unleashed against us, God's called-out ones, and will overcome them (Revelation 13:7), we are comforted knowing He is with us, even unto the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). YHVH promises to shelter us in the day of trouble. How can this be? Could it be because those who embrace and live in His Torah will experience that experience known to the psalmist as resting "under the shadow of the Almighty"? Even if we were to perish in the times of tribulation, if we hold to His teachings, His commandments, even unto the end, even if it costs us our lives, will it not only work toward our reward in eternity?
Rev 14:12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.
Just how long is eternity? Forever and forever and forever. It's mind boggling.
I am asking these questions because I also need to know. I also need ministering to. I need strengthening. I endeavor and yet struggle to do the will of God now and I am sitting here in my nice cushy bed typing on my high tech laptop, clothed in my nice warm jammies sheltered behind my electronic security system. And yet, according to my understanding of the scriptures, events so atrocious as the Holocaust 60 plus years ago will pale in comparison to what is coming upon the world. As believers, even our own lives will be impacted and forever changed. How can I prepare myself and those whom I love for such a time as the one that is to come?
The only thing I can come up with is to trust in Yahushua. And part of trusting, truly trusting, means to keep His commands. To obey Him as revealed in the whole counsel of the Word of God, both the Tanakh and the Brit Chadashah (Renewed covenant). What a sobering task. What an awesome priveledge it is that God Almighty HAS revealed His will concerning us. Many people don't wanna hear it, they want to hear things that tickle the ears, and my sinful flesh certainly doesn't want to obey it, but there you go. Not one jot nor one tittle will pass away from His Torah until ALL be fulfilled. They are our instructions. Our survival guide in the days to come. So let us learn them. All of them and walk them out by faith.
Start With the Basics
I have people who are starting to wake up to the truth and toss out the man-made doctrines they've been taught come up to me and ask about the Hebrew root of their faith. They now know and understand that the "Law" (Torah) is holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12), they know they are not SAVED by keeping the "Law" (Torah), that they are saved by the Blood of the Lamb of God (Yahushua) and NONE of their so-called righteous deeds can get them in to Heaven (for Yah says they are as filthy rags to Him), they have come to apply Messiah's sacrifice to their lives for the forgiveness of sins, now they want to repent and FOLLOW HIM. Now what? What does that look like?
That looks like Torah. Jesus lived Torah. He IS the Torah clothed in flesh (John 1:14). He did every word of the scriptures, not the traditions of men when they contradicted the scriptures (such as certain dictates of the Oral Torah, one of the foundational pillars of modern-day Judaism.)
I won't go into all the details here, but in a very brief and much-paraphrased explanation, the church teaches a man-made tradition called "we are under grace, not under law". Yes, this is true. You are freed from the Law. You are no longer under "the Law", but which law are you no longer under? The Law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). How do you get under THAT LAW? By transgressing God's Law, the Torah and by being carried into the captivity of satan. Torah means "instructions" or "teaching" in Hebrew and carries the idea with it to "hit the mark". What is sin? Sin means to transgress the Torah, or to "miss the mark". There is much misunderstanding of Paul's writings because many western gentile Christians do not yet understand: 1)That Paul, a former pharisee, continued to keep true Torah, the written Word which Jesus taught in it's Hebrew context, including keeping the Sabbath and Feast days, circumcision, etc in their fullest joy as revealed in the Messiah making them full 2)the political fallings out in the first century of non-Jewish-born believers and those who wanted to push the traditions of the Oral Torah on them, 3) the Tanakh (which includes the Torah, prophets and the writings) in it's proper context and 4) That there has been some meanings lost in the translation of the New Testament from the Hebrew to the Greek, during which some of the Greek does not allow for the dileneation of the various meanings of the word "law" in their contexts (either written nomos or oral tradition).
The Image of Messiah Formed in You
How can we "dwell in the secret place?" By producing fruit in keeping with repentance? Repentance, teshuvah, means to turn away from sin. Repentance back to what? Back to Torah. Jesus lived, fulfilled, and exalted it, Paul taught and magnified it, said it was our schoolmaster. Many men who were influenced by the devil have tried to pervert it.
What will YOU do with it? How will I live in it?
It is one thing to be growing in Torah during the good times, the blessing times. It is another to cling to it during times of duress. The only conclusion I can come to is that it is during those times of difficulties when Torah is formed, rooted, and established in us. Until the Messiah be formed in us (Gal 4:19).
Like gold in the refiner's fire, may the dross (impurities) rise to the top as our faith is purified. It will be a rare, precious thing in the earth in the days to come for those who allow the fire of trials, adversity, and persecution to burn out the sin in our hearts and lives. Also, remember the warnings of Messiah to not fall away:
"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly" (Luke 21:34).
The whole nature of deception is that the one who is being deceived is not aware that he is. Whether we are deceived by our own cares for the things of this life, or by "any man" (Matthew 24:4) or by vain and empty traditions, it does not matter. It is all still deception. And all deception's ultimate destination is into a ditch (metaphor for hell). Even religious theological structures will fall when they are not built upon the sure foundation of Torah:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Messiah. Colossians 2:8.
1Cr 3:11-14: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Yahushua the Messiah. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. (emphasis by the writer).
To know and understand the Messiah as He is, understanding He is a Hebrew of the tribe of Judah, a son of David and the Torah made flesh, one must understand the foundation of Hebrew thought, belief, and deed: the Torah of God. And thus we must understand Yahushua in His full Hebrew context in order to understand His message. Everything else is hollow and deceptive philosophy.
And so the problem remains, many deceptive philosophies based on human tradition abound in the church today where we are supposed to be learning the truth. Since churches teach a Christ and convert people to following Him, yet do not do or hold to what THE CHRIST SAYS, it begs the question, are many teaching a false christ? If that is the case, many churches are priming and grooming their congregants to embrace THE false christ, the anti-christ, the son of perdition, or lawless (Torahless) one when he is revealed.
How can we combat this? By learning the truth, living it, and teaching it as we learn it. If we want to return to Torah, and we are learning what pleases God and what does NOT please Him, we can start to get overwhelmed when we see how much our lives do not follow His plan. It does not mean the plan is bad. We learned from Romans 7:12 that the Torah is holy, good, and just and from the psalms that King David, a man after God's own heart, loved it and meditated on it day and night (Psalm 119). So what to do?
START WITH THIS ONE THING
In the book of Acts, we see a problem arise. The gentiles wanted to follow the Messiah. Many were saved and in the process of repentance. However, there were some who held to the Orah Torah who were telling the gentiles that they had to 1) be circumcised in order to follow the Messiah and 2) Hold all the teachings of Oral Torah in order to be saved. This was the main crux of Paul's railing against the "judaizers" (note: Paul was NOT against the fact that these men were culturally Jewish or the fact that they were teaching Torah, but rather the fact that they had added a bunch of extra-biblical commands which had nothing to do with Torah, against the explicit instruction not to add to Torah nor take away from it Deut.4:2)
So what did the apostles do in response to this problem? They gathered at what is now known as the Council of Jerusalem and came to a decision and sent word to the gentiles of their decision. In Acts chapter 15, the gentiles were admonished by the apostles to do FOUR things: to abstain from fornication (sexual immorality), things strangled, from blood, and from idolatry. This was so that Hebrew and gentile believers could have table fellowship together (remember that Yah taught the Israelites not to sup with idolaters). But this was a BEGINNING POINT the gentiles were to start with. They were not to stop there in their learning of Torah and repentance. They were to continue hearing the Torah and repenting, as it says in Act 15:21, "For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."
The followers of Jesus today would do well to follow the advice given by the apostles. Since the Almighty punished Israel for the transgression of idolatry by sending them into captivity not once but twice and it is a commandment that is reverberated throughout the Tanakh, I would tend to think that would be a good place to start. Get rid of the idols in the church. As I have stated in previous posts, I am not talking about our own conception of idolatrous ideas such as materialism, addiction, and the like although THOSE ARE A PART OF IDOLATRY, I am taking biblical cues to defining idolatry as the worship of Asherah (Easter, replete with sunrise services, eggs, bunnies, and the like), Tammuz and Ba'al (Christmas) and throw those things out FIRST. The modern-day practices built around these pagan idols. After all, it was the zenith of repentance when a righteous king of Israel would arise and DESTORY THE HIGH PLACES OF IDOLATRY. Today, those "high places" are Christmas and Easter, since history bears out that these practices are rooted in the pagan idolatry Yah told His children to have NOTHING to do with.
But you may be wondering: what would I tell my family, my friends, my coworkers? My children? How can I go against the grain and appear so "weird". Let me tell you, if you cannot stand for Yahushua, and take a stand for righteousness NOW, when things are cushy, what will you do in the day of persecution?? What will you do when the persecution fires are engulfing (some of) you, as they did with the martyrs of the Dark Ages who refused to bow down to their generation's anti-christ, the Catholic Church? It seems to me the lines in the sand are being drawn now. And those who seek to do righteously will only continue to grow more righteous, and likewise, those who are growing more wicked, will only continue to grow more twisted.
But consider this: it is a very real event when Jesus the Messiah will have "MANY" come to Him on that Day saying, "Lord, Lord...did we not prophesy in your name?...." (paraphrasing). But what will be His response? He will say the three words which will be the saddest words in all of history. He will say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. For I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). That phrase "workers of iniquity" means "transgressors of the Law (Torah)". And these were those who had operated in the "gifts of the Spirit".
That is a sobering thought!
What about me? Everyday I wake up and ask myself that question. "Self, are you going to carry your cross today? Are you going to stand for righteousness' sake and proclaim the truth, especially to your children?"
This, my friend, is the question of the hour. May YHVH assist you and me in answering faithfully in action and in deed until the end.
SHALOM!
**
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Unholy Mixture
I would like to write about a topic today that is fresh on the minds of those whom I have been interacting with who are on Facebook, since yesterday was Easter Sunday.
I have many people come up to me or contact me online asking about Torah and Hebrew roots of the Christian faith. I get many questions ranging from "Is the Old Testament for today?" to "How do I say the blessing when I light the candles for Shabbat?" to "How can you say Easter is pagan? It is when Jesus rose from the dead".
That being said, I want to talk about an important issue within the Body of Christ (Messiah) today. The issue is one of utmost importance and will grow in importance as we near the end of all days, the time when the anti-messiah (anti-christ) will be revealed, when people will be deceived into taking the mark of the beast thus sealing their fate forever in a burning lake of fire. That issue is the issue of MIXED WORSHIP.
I find it interesting that the reason the book of the Revelation, (that's right,the word is singular- there is only ONE revelation- the revelation of Yahushua HaMaschiach, you may know Him as Jesus the Christ) the enemy of God and His set-apart ones is described as a beast. A beast is an amalgammation, a mixture of things, like a mutant. And it is U-G-L-Y! This beast and the woman who sits atop it is responsible for having the kings of the earth commit adultery with her and they are drunk with her adulteries. She is drunk with the blood of the saints. I have heard many down through the years say they believe this is speaking of the Catholic church. I believe it is much bigger and more vast than the C.C. But I do believe the C.C. has become part of it, having adopted her ways as has been much documented. And so I believe most protestant and evangelical churches are hooked up to this beast because they have not yet purged out the leaven of pagan idolatry. More on that later.
The scripture gives us clues to what this beast is. I believe it is a false (counterfeit) religious system as well as a political and economic system. She is very pervasive in the world. She is called the "Whore of Babylon". This titles was given to Semiramis, wife of Nimrod who established sun god worship as the order of the day. The myth goes that she became the fertility goddess who took on different names in different cultures after Yahuah (God) scattered the people of Babylon across the face of the earth for their sin (God had instructed men to fill the earth and subdue it, not congregate in one city and worship created things (sun) rather than the Creator. You may know this demon as Ishtar, Astarte, Ashteroth, Eostra, from which we get our word Easter. Make no mistake, whether this woman actually did all her followers ascribe to her, she is an abomination to the Lord and her ways are an abomination.
You may be saying, why is this such a big deal? I mean, we are celebrating Christ rising from the dead, and you are talking about statues, which is all that idols are. After all, there aren't idols anymore, idolatry to us TODAY means greed, selfishness, drunkeness, ADDICTION...and so forth.
Not so fast. Number one, it does not matter what idolatry means to YOU. What matters is what God thinks about it. What He thinks about it is written in His Torah, the holy scriptures. Number two, while I agree that those things I listed are sin (sin means transgression of the Torah, or Law), they are not the same thing as idols. Idolatry did not change definition after the cross of Messiah, just as sin did not change definitions.
God treats the sin of idolatry very specifically. He told the Israelites not to seek out the idols in the pagan nations he was disposessing before them (Deut 12:30), not to worship them (Ex 20; Deut 11:16; Deut 12:30), not to even have the mention of THEIR names on their lips (Ex 23:13) AND NOT TO WORSHIP YHVH IN THOSE WAYS (Deut 12:30) for it is written: Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God. The scriptures make it very clear that we are not to take the practices of the pagan nations and worship the One True God, YHVH, with those ways, declaring it a "Feast unto the Lord" (Ex 32:5). For such is an abomination. God sent Israel into captivity not once but TWICE for doing so. In fact, Israel was guilty of worshipping YHVH, the God of Israel on the high places of the idols, complete with asherim, or asherah poles (not unlike our stripper poles today) and the ensuing sexual immorality. Can't get the sexual sin out of your own personal life or church? Revelation 2:20 says Jezebel (Jezeba'al) was responsible for leading the people of God (Christians) into the eating of foods sacrificed to idols AND INTO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. Read it. Your sexual problem is not merely rooted in looking at nudie magazines too much, it is due to the fact that you and/or the church is in agreement with Jezebel. We would see far more deliverance and victory in the church if we simply GOT RID OF HER. For Ephesians 6:12 tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spritual wickedness in the heavenly places. One of these principalities is the spirit of Jezebel.
Who was Jezebel? She was the worship leader for Ashterah, Easter. That fertility goddess and the sun god (Ba'al. Ba'al means 'master' or 'lord'). Why does Yahushua rebuke the believers for tolerating her if she died in the old testament? Because behind her (and every idol) is a demonic spirit that is opposed to Yah and His Word and wants to take all who are in agreement with it (and who participate with it) straight to hell. Jezebel opposes the prophet (the one who speaks God's Word, His Torah), the same way she opposed and tried to kill Elijah. So it will be in these last days. Jesus says in Revelation 20 He has given her "time to repent, but she was unwilling". How much time? Well, the Catholic church and the protestant and evangelical churches who descended from her have inherited her sin because the early church fathers incorporated and combined pagan practices (including that old pesky sun god and fertility goddess worship in the forms of both Christmas and Easter) into the worship of Christ. I would say Jesus has given the church as a whole, a few centuries to repent of Jezebel. But she is unwilling. Are you?
Now do you still think the sin of idolatry doesn't apply to believers? For those of you who think the "Law" (Torah) was done away with at the cross and none of this stuff applies to us anymore, I encourage you to read the following article:
http://www.annomundi.com/bible/should_christians_observe_torah.htm
And also read the many scriptures in Matthew where Jesus Himself said, "Think not that I came to abolish the Torah" (Matt 5:17), that anyone who lives according to these commandments of Torah and teaches others to do the same will be called greatest in the kingdom of Heaven (Matt 5:19), and even that those who transgress the Torah will be told "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you" (Luke 13:27). What does "workers of iniquity" mean? It means "you transgressors of the Law (Torah)".
For the Christian who says, "Oh, but Jesus only gave us only 2 commandments: Love God will all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31) I say this: part of loving God IS TO NOT COMMIT IDOLATRY.
But we want to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. Why can't we do it on Easter Sunday? For one, Jesus did NOT rise from the dead on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is pagan, always has been (before Jesus even came to earth) and always will be pagan. Jesus said He would be THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS in the earth. How do you get 3 days and 3 nights from "Good Friday" until Sunday? Even my two year old can count to three. There's something wrong with that logic. The Sunday resurrection is a tradition of man, the root thereof is pagan. For a more in-depth study on this, go here:
http://apostlearthurbailey.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/did-jesus-yeshua-resurrect-on-sunday/
And here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/note.php?note_id=67079012108&id=533905209&ref=mf
The following article, then, begs the question, "Whose Resurrection are you celebrating?":
http://www.facebook.com/Lioness4Yeshua#!/note.php?note_id=71595887108&id=533905209&ref=mf
So when do we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus?? My answer to that is, how about on the actual day and Feast upon which He rose? The Feast of Firstfruits, which this year, as in the year He was crucified, was on Saturday (Sabbath), exactly 2 days ago (California time). NOT yesterday, which was "Easter Sunday".
The issue of this mixed worship is also echoed throughout the New Testament. The admonition to not be equally yoked with non believers (2 Cor 6:14) would certainly apply to the unequal yoking to pagan gods (such as Easter) for the verse goes on to say, "...or what harmony has Messiah with Belial (Ba'al)?" (vv. 15).
Which Jesus Are You Serving?
It is the tactic (scheme) of the enemy of your soul to gradually and oh-so-subtly change, twist, and pervert your pure devotion to the Messiah into the worship of ANOTHER god. For instance, if the Jesus you are serving is full of grace and not a whole lotta truth, contrary to what scripture says about the True Jesus, then you are serving a different Jesus. If the Jesus you are serving only loves, but does not chastize, judge, or condemn, then you are serving a different Jesus. If the Jesus you are serving says "what's right for you may not be right for me" (cultural relativism), then you are not serving the Jesus of the Bible. If you are serving a Jesus that says you must only believe in your heart (or mind) but do not have to repent, then you, my friend, are serving a different Jesus. If you are worshipping a Jesus who was "resurrected" from the dead on "Easter Sunday" the HIGH PLACE OF ANOTHER god....despite the clear teaching of scripture....well, you get the point. My admonition for you, then, is to repent. Turn to the One Who purchased freedom and eternal life for you with His own blood. Not so you could continue sinning (transgressing the Torah), but so that you may walk with Him, walk in His ways.
What Does This Mean For Me?
We are nearing the very last of the end of days. As from the beginning, satan has mixed his corrupt and wicked seed with the pure seed of Truth. But in the end, the Creator of the Universe is going to demand a harvest. And a separation of the wheat from the tares. All of our works will be brought into account and we will be rewarded according to those works. But not so fast. BEFORE that happens, the whole world will be tested. There will be a grand delusion, many deceivers (Matthew 24) arising and claiming "I am HE" (the annointed one) and such confusion and deception, that even the elect would be deceived if it were possible. (Matt 24:24). Satan will pull the greatest magic trick in all of history with the aim of taking as many people to the pit of hell with him as he can. And those who do not know their God according to His Word, will not recognize the lawless one (Torahless one) when he arises on the scene. Both groups: those who hold to Torah (such as unbeleiving Jews) but who do not have the Blood of the Lamb of God who is Yahushua HaMashiach on their hearts, and those who claim to have the blood but who refuse to follow His Word (Torah) have the spirit of anti-christ and will be misled into the lake of fire. They will be duped into following a counterfeit. Why? Because through their mixed worship, their unholy mixture, they will have been serving him all along. They will not know they have been duped. Their worship was gradually transferred over to a counterfeit who looked like the real thing. They accepted a lie, one untruth and one "flattery" at a time. Dan 11:32: With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him." (emphasis mine). Which covenant? The Torah. The way in which we know Him. Of which Jesus is the Torah made flesh (John 1:14).
The Bible says that men have abandoned the truth because they no longer tolerate sound teaching. 1Ti 4:1 says, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." The bitter poison is already in the mixture.
And so it is with sober love and intense desire for you that I encourage you with the words of Jesus in Revelation 18:4:
"Come out of her [Babylon], my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues" (clarification mine).
And also, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness (Torahlessness)." (2 Ti 2:19).
It has taken me awhile to "come out of Babylon" myself. Sometimes I wonder how long God was waiting for me to repent. I wonder if I had to go through all I have gone through: backsliding, trials, sin, and all, if I had just simply repented. Repented of idolatry. Repented of my pride.
Repentance is a process. We are all in that process of sanctification and repentance. It is an ongoing process as we are being conformed to His image. We are all in the transition of coming out of Babylon. But make no mistake...we MUST come all the way OUT. It is not enough to know the truths of scripture as head knowledge. A response is required. And most times a sacrifice as well. But usually that sacrifice is pride or the fear of man, which will burn up in the fire anyway. Oh so much depends upon it.
Shalom.
I have many people come up to me or contact me online asking about Torah and Hebrew roots of the Christian faith. I get many questions ranging from "Is the Old Testament for today?" to "How do I say the blessing when I light the candles for Shabbat?" to "How can you say Easter is pagan? It is when Jesus rose from the dead".
That being said, I want to talk about an important issue within the Body of Christ (Messiah) today. The issue is one of utmost importance and will grow in importance as we near the end of all days, the time when the anti-messiah (anti-christ) will be revealed, when people will be deceived into taking the mark of the beast thus sealing their fate forever in a burning lake of fire. That issue is the issue of MIXED WORSHIP.
I find it interesting that the reason the book of the Revelation, (that's right,the word is singular- there is only ONE revelation- the revelation of Yahushua HaMaschiach, you may know Him as Jesus the Christ) the enemy of God and His set-apart ones is described as a beast. A beast is an amalgammation, a mixture of things, like a mutant. And it is U-G-L-Y! This beast and the woman who sits atop it is responsible for having the kings of the earth commit adultery with her and they are drunk with her adulteries. She is drunk with the blood of the saints. I have heard many down through the years say they believe this is speaking of the Catholic church. I believe it is much bigger and more vast than the C.C. But I do believe the C.C. has become part of it, having adopted her ways as has been much documented. And so I believe most protestant and evangelical churches are hooked up to this beast because they have not yet purged out the leaven of pagan idolatry. More on that later.
The scripture gives us clues to what this beast is. I believe it is a false (counterfeit) religious system as well as a political and economic system. She is very pervasive in the world. She is called the "Whore of Babylon". This titles was given to Semiramis, wife of Nimrod who established sun god worship as the order of the day. The myth goes that she became the fertility goddess who took on different names in different cultures after Yahuah (God) scattered the people of Babylon across the face of the earth for their sin (God had instructed men to fill the earth and subdue it, not congregate in one city and worship created things (sun) rather than the Creator. You may know this demon as Ishtar, Astarte, Ashteroth, Eostra, from which we get our word Easter. Make no mistake, whether this woman actually did all her followers ascribe to her, she is an abomination to the Lord and her ways are an abomination.
You may be saying, why is this such a big deal? I mean, we are celebrating Christ rising from the dead, and you are talking about statues, which is all that idols are. After all, there aren't idols anymore, idolatry to us TODAY means greed, selfishness, drunkeness, ADDICTION...and so forth.
Not so fast. Number one, it does not matter what idolatry means to YOU. What matters is what God thinks about it. What He thinks about it is written in His Torah, the holy scriptures. Number two, while I agree that those things I listed are sin (sin means transgression of the Torah, or Law), they are not the same thing as idols. Idolatry did not change definition after the cross of Messiah, just as sin did not change definitions.
God treats the sin of idolatry very specifically. He told the Israelites not to seek out the idols in the pagan nations he was disposessing before them (Deut 12:30), not to worship them (Ex 20; Deut 11:16; Deut 12:30), not to even have the mention of THEIR names on their lips (Ex 23:13) AND NOT TO WORSHIP YHVH IN THOSE WAYS (Deut 12:30) for it is written: Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God. The scriptures make it very clear that we are not to take the practices of the pagan nations and worship the One True God, YHVH, with those ways, declaring it a "Feast unto the Lord" (Ex 32:5). For such is an abomination. God sent Israel into captivity not once but TWICE for doing so. In fact, Israel was guilty of worshipping YHVH, the God of Israel on the high places of the idols, complete with asherim, or asherah poles (not unlike our stripper poles today) and the ensuing sexual immorality. Can't get the sexual sin out of your own personal life or church? Revelation 2:20 says Jezebel (Jezeba'al) was responsible for leading the people of God (Christians) into the eating of foods sacrificed to idols AND INTO SEXUAL IMMORALITY. Read it. Your sexual problem is not merely rooted in looking at nudie magazines too much, it is due to the fact that you and/or the church is in agreement with Jezebel. We would see far more deliverance and victory in the church if we simply GOT RID OF HER. For Ephesians 6:12 tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spritual wickedness in the heavenly places. One of these principalities is the spirit of Jezebel.
Who was Jezebel? She was the worship leader for Ashterah, Easter. That fertility goddess and the sun god (Ba'al. Ba'al means 'master' or 'lord'). Why does Yahushua rebuke the believers for tolerating her if she died in the old testament? Because behind her (and every idol) is a demonic spirit that is opposed to Yah and His Word and wants to take all who are in agreement with it (and who participate with it) straight to hell. Jezebel opposes the prophet (the one who speaks God's Word, His Torah), the same way she opposed and tried to kill Elijah. So it will be in these last days. Jesus says in Revelation 20 He has given her "time to repent, but she was unwilling". How much time? Well, the Catholic church and the protestant and evangelical churches who descended from her have inherited her sin because the early church fathers incorporated and combined pagan practices (including that old pesky sun god and fertility goddess worship in the forms of both Christmas and Easter) into the worship of Christ. I would say Jesus has given the church as a whole, a few centuries to repent of Jezebel. But she is unwilling. Are you?
Now do you still think the sin of idolatry doesn't apply to believers? For those of you who think the "Law" (Torah) was done away with at the cross and none of this stuff applies to us anymore, I encourage you to read the following article:
http://www.annomundi.com/bible/should_christians_observe_torah.htm
And also read the many scriptures in Matthew where Jesus Himself said, "Think not that I came to abolish the Torah" (Matt 5:17), that anyone who lives according to these commandments of Torah and teaches others to do the same will be called greatest in the kingdom of Heaven (Matt 5:19), and even that those who transgress the Torah will be told "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you" (Luke 13:27). What does "workers of iniquity" mean? It means "you transgressors of the Law (Torah)".
For the Christian who says, "Oh, but Jesus only gave us only 2 commandments: Love God will all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31) I say this: part of loving God IS TO NOT COMMIT IDOLATRY.
But we want to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. Why can't we do it on Easter Sunday? For one, Jesus did NOT rise from the dead on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is pagan, always has been (before Jesus even came to earth) and always will be pagan. Jesus said He would be THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS in the earth. How do you get 3 days and 3 nights from "Good Friday" until Sunday? Even my two year old can count to three. There's something wrong with that logic. The Sunday resurrection is a tradition of man, the root thereof is pagan. For a more in-depth study on this, go here:
http://apostlearthurbailey.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/did-jesus-yeshua-resurrect-on-sunday/
And here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/note.php?note_id=67079012108&id=533905209&ref=mf
The following article, then, begs the question, "Whose Resurrection are you celebrating?":
http://www.facebook.com/Lioness4Yeshua#!/note.php?note_id=71595887108&id=533905209&ref=mf
So when do we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus?? My answer to that is, how about on the actual day and Feast upon which He rose? The Feast of Firstfruits, which this year, as in the year He was crucified, was on Saturday (Sabbath), exactly 2 days ago (California time). NOT yesterday, which was "Easter Sunday".
The issue of this mixed worship is also echoed throughout the New Testament. The admonition to not be equally yoked with non believers (2 Cor 6:14) would certainly apply to the unequal yoking to pagan gods (such as Easter) for the verse goes on to say, "...or what harmony has Messiah with Belial (Ba'al)?" (vv. 15).
Which Jesus Are You Serving?
It is the tactic (scheme) of the enemy of your soul to gradually and oh-so-subtly change, twist, and pervert your pure devotion to the Messiah into the worship of ANOTHER god. For instance, if the Jesus you are serving is full of grace and not a whole lotta truth, contrary to what scripture says about the True Jesus, then you are serving a different Jesus. If the Jesus you are serving only loves, but does not chastize, judge, or condemn, then you are serving a different Jesus. If the Jesus you are serving says "what's right for you may not be right for me" (cultural relativism), then you are not serving the Jesus of the Bible. If you are serving a Jesus that says you must only believe in your heart (or mind) but do not have to repent, then you, my friend, are serving a different Jesus. If you are worshipping a Jesus who was "resurrected" from the dead on "Easter Sunday" the HIGH PLACE OF ANOTHER god....despite the clear teaching of scripture....well, you get the point. My admonition for you, then, is to repent. Turn to the One Who purchased freedom and eternal life for you with His own blood. Not so you could continue sinning (transgressing the Torah), but so that you may walk with Him, walk in His ways.
What Does This Mean For Me?
We are nearing the very last of the end of days. As from the beginning, satan has mixed his corrupt and wicked seed with the pure seed of Truth. But in the end, the Creator of the Universe is going to demand a harvest. And a separation of the wheat from the tares. All of our works will be brought into account and we will be rewarded according to those works. But not so fast. BEFORE that happens, the whole world will be tested. There will be a grand delusion, many deceivers (Matthew 24) arising and claiming "I am HE" (the annointed one) and such confusion and deception, that even the elect would be deceived if it were possible. (Matt 24:24). Satan will pull the greatest magic trick in all of history with the aim of taking as many people to the pit of hell with him as he can. And those who do not know their God according to His Word, will not recognize the lawless one (Torahless one) when he arises on the scene. Both groups: those who hold to Torah (such as unbeleiving Jews) but who do not have the Blood of the Lamb of God who is Yahushua HaMashiach on their hearts, and those who claim to have the blood but who refuse to follow His Word (Torah) have the spirit of anti-christ and will be misled into the lake of fire. They will be duped into following a counterfeit. Why? Because through their mixed worship, their unholy mixture, they will have been serving him all along. They will not know they have been duped. Their worship was gradually transferred over to a counterfeit who looked like the real thing. They accepted a lie, one untruth and one "flattery" at a time. Dan 11:32: With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him." (emphasis mine). Which covenant? The Torah. The way in which we know Him. Of which Jesus is the Torah made flesh (John 1:14).
The Bible says that men have abandoned the truth because they no longer tolerate sound teaching. 1Ti 4:1 says, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." The bitter poison is already in the mixture.
And so it is with sober love and intense desire for you that I encourage you with the words of Jesus in Revelation 18:4:
"Come out of her [Babylon], my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues" (clarification mine).
And also, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness (Torahlessness)." (2 Ti 2:19).
It has taken me awhile to "come out of Babylon" myself. Sometimes I wonder how long God was waiting for me to repent. I wonder if I had to go through all I have gone through: backsliding, trials, sin, and all, if I had just simply repented. Repented of idolatry. Repented of my pride.
Repentance is a process. We are all in that process of sanctification and repentance. It is an ongoing process as we are being conformed to His image. We are all in the transition of coming out of Babylon. But make no mistake...we MUST come all the way OUT. It is not enough to know the truths of scripture as head knowledge. A response is required. And most times a sacrifice as well. But usually that sacrifice is pride or the fear of man, which will burn up in the fire anyway. Oh so much depends upon it.
Shalom.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
What's In a Name?- the Story of Sarah-Grace
The Holy Spirit has often ministered to me in the way of the meanings of names. I grew up hating my own name at times (there were no barettes, pencils, or coffee mugs with the name 'Vesteen' on them). So when I became an adult and started walking with the Lord, I wanted to find out the meaning of my name. I had read in the Bible many places where the meaning of a name was very important and revealed part of the plan of God. In Hebrew, every name, even every letter has special significance and is vital to the unfolding of this cosmic drama we are living out.
I knew I was named after my 2 grandmothers. My first name came from my father's mother. Her name was Ruby Vesteen. My middle name came from my mother's mother. My father's mother passed away when my father was 17 years old, so I couldn't ask her what my name meant. (My mother got my name from her headstone- romantic, eh?) So with the help of my dad, we asked every living close relative of his mother if they knew where the name came from or what it meant. No one knew. My maiden name was Williams. And I knew it meant "defender" or "strength".
So I decided to go straight to the Lord and ask Him one day. It was when I was single and I remember I was sweeping my kitchen floor. I came to Him with an earnest heart. I asked Him to reveal the meaning of my name. I felt the Lord speak to my heart, in that wonderful still-small voice which those who belong to Him are familiar with. In response to my question, He said, "You are an investor of strength". In this moment, I had the understanding that I had been invested into (by His goodness) and that I in turn would invest what had been invested in me into others. I took it that I had my answer.
Two years later, I happened to be working for an industrial construction company as a receptionist and office assistant. Part of my job was to file away papers, including those involving taxes and investments. Then one day, I saw it there on the page: at the bottom of a form from one of the companies we invested in. It had a line above it for someone to sign. It said "vestee". I thought to myself, Add one letter, and you have my name. I ran to my controller (with whom I had a positive working relationship) and I urgently asked him to tell me what this word meant. He confirmed what the Lord had spoken to me years ago. I often wondered what I was doing at that job (I usually worked in special education), if it were not to merely find the answer, in the natural realm, to my question. A true confirmation.
Ask. And you shall receive.
When I was pregnant with our son, we found out he was a boy and my husband jokingly said we should name him Guido Sarducci. (a nod to all the SNL fans). But seriously, he suggested the name Benjamin, which in Hebrew means "son of my right hand". I liked it. I have a story in one of my first blogs about how I had forgiven a former student of mine who caused me physical injury, and how I had forgotten his name was Ben. So I was not offended by that name at all. (see post from, IDK, a long time ago). I had 2 alternates for a middle name and I emailed them to my husband at work, knowing which one he would choose. Our son's middle name is Aviel. In Hebrew it means "God is my father". I am glad for my son's name. I believe it has prophetic significance to his life. I believe God chooses names. And inspires parents toward their children's names. If they are open and listening. And sometimes even when they are not.
Another Baby??
As I have written in previous posts, my son had a very rough beginning in life. Bonding was inhibited in the beginning because he was in the hospital. This was further complicated because he had colic once we got him home. I don't care how much of a saint you are (and I love my son to pieces), it is very difficult to bond with and form warm attcahment to a baby who spends 25-50% of his time crying and screaming. It is very difficult. But I was determined. So I breastfed. For a long time. And I wore him in a sling as often as my back didn't give out. I was terribly sleep deprived and slightly traumatized for over a year and a half. My son did not sleep through the night until he was a little older than a year and a half. I sent away for a copy of "The Fussy Baby" and the author signed it! Without me ever writing him or telling our story. I was so encouraged.
I always had the feeling that I didn't want my son to be an only child. I wanted him to have a sibling. But I couldn't forsee going through the difficulties we had gone through so willingly so soon. I didn't neccessarily want another baby. Another child, maybe, and so I toyed with the idea of adoption. You see, I thought it was possible that all babies could have the same temperament combined with the rough start my son had (he was premie and this can be the case with subsequent pregnancies). What did I know? He was my first child. So this made us not be in a hurry to seriously discuss having another one.
It was in the fall of 2008 I started to feel these nudgings. Some of it was rationale. You know: your husband isn't getting any younger. What will a child in grade school's friends and teachers think of a dad who was already collecting social security? And more importantly, I want my husband to be around to see his children (all of them) grow up, have their bar mitzvahs, go to college, get married.....
With the same earnestness I asked the Lord the meaning of my name, I (secretly) approached Him with this same concern. I knew if it was the Lord's will for us to have another child, He would certainly provide for us and be there with us. I knew this by faith in His Word and knowing His character. So I prayed one night. I asked Him, despite what I or man thought, what His will for us was. Did He have another child for us? THAT NIGHT, I went to sleep and I had a dream. I saw my son. Running around the coffee table, playing. Then I saw her. The back of her head....the most goldeness curls I have ever seen. Brassy, almost. Goldilocks! She was sitting next to me and I knew she was mine.
I woke up and thanked the Lord for His answer and asked Him to move upon the heart of my husband, who had no idea I was praying about more children.
In October, I watched, along with the rest of America, the campaign speeches of the presidential candidates. It was during Sarah Palin's speech, when the camera panned to a member of the audience holding a sign with her name, that the Lord spoke to me. He told me I would have a daughter and her name is Sarah. I dismissed the voice. I thought it may have been my own wishful thinking or maybe just a fleshly thought. Besides, although I agree with much of her foundational beliefs and platform, I wasn't particularly a fan of Sarah Palin. I was just tuning in to watch her speech since the media was making such a stink about her. I didn't know much about her. And so I shelved it. I mean, I don't have anything personal against the name Sarah. In fact, I have had friends with that name. I know of Sarah in the Bible. I knew in Hebrew the word means "princess". But I wasn't particularly fond of that name for my child if I should have one. And besides, I wasn't even pregnant yet. I hadn't even talked to Danny about it!!
Once I had received answer to my prayer, I prayed about timing. One evening, I heard His voice again. "It is time".
It is TIME?!- I thought. Uh, ok. Then something funny happened. Without going into too much detail so as to be crude or inapropriate, I will just say 3 days after He spoke that, the birth control method we had been using suddenly became ineffective and obsolete.
One night, on the way home from a rare date at the movies, my husband and I had the serious discussion of more children. We had just seen the movie "Defiance" about the 2 Jewish brothers who saved a campful of survivors during WWII and lived in the forest. At the end of the true story, there was a blurb about how both brothers lived, moved to the USA, and started a trucking company. Because of them, 5,000 lives were saved (the survivors plus their descendants). This was very moving and I saw it as a wonderful transition to talk about our legacy. My husband agreed. And so it was officially decided. We would begin trying immediately.
Once we found out I was pregnant (it took about 2 months. Getting rid of synthetic hormones was a factor), I began praying about a name. Since this child was ordained to be here by the Lord, I wanted the name He had chosen for the child. Again, a person's name is key to their destiny here on earth. That is how much God loves each and every one of us.
I had forgotten (or had chosen to forget) the Lord speaking to me about the name Sarah. I began looking at baby names sites and books and the meanings of names I liked. I had one in mind. And for a middle name, I couldn't get the name Grace out of my mind.
The Lord was not in agreement with my choice (of first name. My husband wasn't crazy about it either). And the Lord gave me a gentle, yet firm reminder one night in a dream. It was a time when the subject was not on my mind. I had a dream that I had made a phone call. To get through, it required me to use a password. I had forgotten my password, and so a recording asked me one of those safety-net questions. It asked me what I was to name my child when it was born (how a machine knew this over the phone is beyond me, but it was a dream after all). And then, without the slightest hesitation, as if someone else were speaking through me, I blurted out, "Sarah". End of dream. But I woke up very shaken up with the fear of Almighty God. He meant business about this and I had better listen. After all, if the Creator of the universe, who knows us each so intimately that every one of our hairs on our heads is counted (Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7) says a person's name is such and such...who am I to argue with Him?
I like the way the scriptures talk about this intimate knowledge God has of us:
Psalm 139: 13-16
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, {And} skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained {for me,} When as yet there was not one of them.
I knew I was named after my 2 grandmothers. My first name came from my father's mother. Her name was Ruby Vesteen. My middle name came from my mother's mother. My father's mother passed away when my father was 17 years old, so I couldn't ask her what my name meant. (My mother got my name from her headstone- romantic, eh?) So with the help of my dad, we asked every living close relative of his mother if they knew where the name came from or what it meant. No one knew. My maiden name was Williams. And I knew it meant "defender" or "strength".
So I decided to go straight to the Lord and ask Him one day. It was when I was single and I remember I was sweeping my kitchen floor. I came to Him with an earnest heart. I asked Him to reveal the meaning of my name. I felt the Lord speak to my heart, in that wonderful still-small voice which those who belong to Him are familiar with. In response to my question, He said, "You are an investor of strength". In this moment, I had the understanding that I had been invested into (by His goodness) and that I in turn would invest what had been invested in me into others. I took it that I had my answer.
Two years later, I happened to be working for an industrial construction company as a receptionist and office assistant. Part of my job was to file away papers, including those involving taxes and investments. Then one day, I saw it there on the page: at the bottom of a form from one of the companies we invested in. It had a line above it for someone to sign. It said "vestee". I thought to myself, Add one letter, and you have my name. I ran to my controller (with whom I had a positive working relationship) and I urgently asked him to tell me what this word meant. He confirmed what the Lord had spoken to me years ago. I often wondered what I was doing at that job (I usually worked in special education), if it were not to merely find the answer, in the natural realm, to my question. A true confirmation.
Ask. And you shall receive.
When I was pregnant with our son, we found out he was a boy and my husband jokingly said we should name him Guido Sarducci. (a nod to all the SNL fans). But seriously, he suggested the name Benjamin, which in Hebrew means "son of my right hand". I liked it. I have a story in one of my first blogs about how I had forgiven a former student of mine who caused me physical injury, and how I had forgotten his name was Ben. So I was not offended by that name at all. (see post from, IDK, a long time ago). I had 2 alternates for a middle name and I emailed them to my husband at work, knowing which one he would choose. Our son's middle name is Aviel. In Hebrew it means "God is my father". I am glad for my son's name. I believe it has prophetic significance to his life. I believe God chooses names. And inspires parents toward their children's names. If they are open and listening. And sometimes even when they are not.
Another Baby??
As I have written in previous posts, my son had a very rough beginning in life. Bonding was inhibited in the beginning because he was in the hospital. This was further complicated because he had colic once we got him home. I don't care how much of a saint you are (and I love my son to pieces), it is very difficult to bond with and form warm attcahment to a baby who spends 25-50% of his time crying and screaming. It is very difficult. But I was determined. So I breastfed. For a long time. And I wore him in a sling as often as my back didn't give out. I was terribly sleep deprived and slightly traumatized for over a year and a half. My son did not sleep through the night until he was a little older than a year and a half. I sent away for a copy of "The Fussy Baby" and the author signed it! Without me ever writing him or telling our story. I was so encouraged.
I always had the feeling that I didn't want my son to be an only child. I wanted him to have a sibling. But I couldn't forsee going through the difficulties we had gone through so willingly so soon. I didn't neccessarily want another baby. Another child, maybe, and so I toyed with the idea of adoption. You see, I thought it was possible that all babies could have the same temperament combined with the rough start my son had (he was premie and this can be the case with subsequent pregnancies). What did I know? He was my first child. So this made us not be in a hurry to seriously discuss having another one.
It was in the fall of 2008 I started to feel these nudgings. Some of it was rationale. You know: your husband isn't getting any younger. What will a child in grade school's friends and teachers think of a dad who was already collecting social security? And more importantly, I want my husband to be around to see his children (all of them) grow up, have their bar mitzvahs, go to college, get married.....
With the same earnestness I asked the Lord the meaning of my name, I (secretly) approached Him with this same concern. I knew if it was the Lord's will for us to have another child, He would certainly provide for us and be there with us. I knew this by faith in His Word and knowing His character. So I prayed one night. I asked Him, despite what I or man thought, what His will for us was. Did He have another child for us? THAT NIGHT, I went to sleep and I had a dream. I saw my son. Running around the coffee table, playing. Then I saw her. The back of her head....the most goldeness curls I have ever seen. Brassy, almost. Goldilocks! She was sitting next to me and I knew she was mine.
I woke up and thanked the Lord for His answer and asked Him to move upon the heart of my husband, who had no idea I was praying about more children.
In October, I watched, along with the rest of America, the campaign speeches of the presidential candidates. It was during Sarah Palin's speech, when the camera panned to a member of the audience holding a sign with her name, that the Lord spoke to me. He told me I would have a daughter and her name is Sarah. I dismissed the voice. I thought it may have been my own wishful thinking or maybe just a fleshly thought. Besides, although I agree with much of her foundational beliefs and platform, I wasn't particularly a fan of Sarah Palin. I was just tuning in to watch her speech since the media was making such a stink about her. I didn't know much about her. And so I shelved it. I mean, I don't have anything personal against the name Sarah. In fact, I have had friends with that name. I know of Sarah in the Bible. I knew in Hebrew the word means "princess". But I wasn't particularly fond of that name for my child if I should have one. And besides, I wasn't even pregnant yet. I hadn't even talked to Danny about it!!
Once I had received answer to my prayer, I prayed about timing. One evening, I heard His voice again. "It is time".
It is TIME?!- I thought. Uh, ok. Then something funny happened. Without going into too much detail so as to be crude or inapropriate, I will just say 3 days after He spoke that, the birth control method we had been using suddenly became ineffective and obsolete.
One night, on the way home from a rare date at the movies, my husband and I had the serious discussion of more children. We had just seen the movie "Defiance" about the 2 Jewish brothers who saved a campful of survivors during WWII and lived in the forest. At the end of the true story, there was a blurb about how both brothers lived, moved to the USA, and started a trucking company. Because of them, 5,000 lives were saved (the survivors plus their descendants). This was very moving and I saw it as a wonderful transition to talk about our legacy. My husband agreed. And so it was officially decided. We would begin trying immediately.
Once we found out I was pregnant (it took about 2 months. Getting rid of synthetic hormones was a factor), I began praying about a name. Since this child was ordained to be here by the Lord, I wanted the name He had chosen for the child. Again, a person's name is key to their destiny here on earth. That is how much God loves each and every one of us.
I had forgotten (or had chosen to forget) the Lord speaking to me about the name Sarah. I began looking at baby names sites and books and the meanings of names I liked. I had one in mind. And for a middle name, I couldn't get the name Grace out of my mind.
The Lord was not in agreement with my choice (of first name. My husband wasn't crazy about it either). And the Lord gave me a gentle, yet firm reminder one night in a dream. It was a time when the subject was not on my mind. I had a dream that I had made a phone call. To get through, it required me to use a password. I had forgotten my password, and so a recording asked me one of those safety-net questions. It asked me what I was to name my child when it was born (how a machine knew this over the phone is beyond me, but it was a dream after all). And then, without the slightest hesitation, as if someone else were speaking through me, I blurted out, "Sarah". End of dream. But I woke up very shaken up with the fear of Almighty God. He meant business about this and I had better listen. After all, if the Creator of the universe, who knows us each so intimately that every one of our hairs on our heads is counted (Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7) says a person's name is such and such...who am I to argue with Him?
I like the way the scriptures talk about this intimate knowledge God has of us:
Psalm 139: 13-16
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, {And} skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained {for me,} When as yet there was not one of them.
So I meditated on the name Sarah. And Grace. I told my husband about what I had felt the Lord saying to me. He liked the name (a good sign!) and he said let's keep praying and talking about it.
It was about during this time that a friend of mine sent me a link to a Hebrew names website and I saw the name Sarah written in Hebrew. Next to it, it said "princess". But then it offered another meaning for the name. It said "(female) minister". I liked that. Female minister of grace. God's grace, which is unmerited favor. Undeserved. But given freely. Would my daughter be a minister of His grace? I really liked that.
Meanwhile, friends and family were excited to hear our good news. I battled slight morning sickness (nothing like with my first pregnancy where I was nauseous all day and all night the entire pregnancy). And I remained fairly active and busy, especially during the second trimester, teaching a messianic dance worship group.
I also asked the Lord to confirm His choice for the name to me in the natural. He had done it with my own name after all.
Then, one day, after church service was over, I was manning the cd ministry table which my husband and I oversee. I was talking with a precious intercessor in our church and another friend. They asked me if I knew if the baby was going to be a girl or a boy. I told them that I knew from the Lord it was going to be a girl and what her name was. Then, the precious intercessor looked at me and said, "You know, that happened to a relative of mine. She prayed and the Lord told her the baby's name was Sarah Grace". Friend, I just about fainted on the floor!! It felt like lightening shot through my body! That was the exact name the Lord gave me and I had been praying about! Not just one of the names, not just Sarah, but both names. What are the odds? Leaving the parking lot that day, I told Danny what had happened and he was pretty blown away.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you", says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
As time went on and we kept saying the name, we would always say both names. Sarah-Grace. It occured to me one day, why not hyphenate the name? A friend of mine hyphenated her daughter's name and it is beautiful. And unique. So I asked my friend what she thought. (after asking my husband, of course, who liked it as well). She liked it. I considered it a mini-homage to her friendship and the fact that she is a blessing in our lives.
During the latter half of my pregnancy, the doctor kept sending me back to get sonograms because the placenta was low-lying and they were concerned about placenta previa. And wouldn't you know it, every time I went in there, to the same technician, he would try to also determine the sex of the baby and she would always be crossing her legs making it difficult to know for sure. So I really had to trust the Lord! I mean, what if I got into the hospital, gave birth, and it was a boy?! I had heard of people being surprised before! And after that wonderful pink baby shower my friends gave me! Oh my. I was really stepping out on this one.
Then, on December 24, 2009, at 10pm, my water broke as we were settling in for the night. We went to the hospital while my mom spent the night with my son who was already in bed. I told them I had a scheduled C-section on Dec 29th. They checked me and said I was going into surgery that night.
On December 24, 2009, at 3:26am, Sarah-Grace Blackman was born. A healthy 7 lbs 4.8 oz and 21 inches long. She is a blessing to our lives and a true minister of God's wonderful grace!
Shalom.
**
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Love and Repentance in the Time of Swine Flu
The title of my post today is really tongue-in-cheek. Many have heard of the novel and subsequent movie entitled "Love in the Time of Cholera". Well, this is my take off on that title. I have not read the book I allude to...but it sounds to me like a cesspool of contradictions. Love. And pestilence. A blessing. (albeit a blessing by the world's standard to possibly include adultery, which is not a blessing at all). Set against the backdrop of catastrophe.
This is the theme of today's entry. We are living in unique times. The times we are entering (and to some degree have been IN), are unlike any the world has ever seen. Sure there have been times of sickness and pandemics. There have been famines, earthquakes, all of the symptoms of the last days enumerated by Yeshua in His end-times discourse. But for those chickens who have been sitting idly in the boiling pot, enjoying the nice sauna-like atmosphere...you are about to be in for a rude awakening. For these are not times of prosperity. They are not times of victory. Nor are they times of desired "change". Oh, they are times of change alright, but not change for the better. Sometimes God wanted His people to feel the brunt of His judgement- a truly sobering experience. To be on the receiving end of His chastisement. A holy rebuke from the Holy One of Israel. He wanted them to sit there in their consequence and think about their rebellious ways which had led Him to turn His face from them for awhile. It is a cosmically tragic event for the Lord of Glory to turn His face against a nation. Just look at Egypt. My friends, I am sad to say that this nation is about to receive the brunt of the Lord turning His face against us for really the first time in our nation's history. I am not an alarmist. I look at the scriptures. And I look at how the decisions we have made and are making which God promised would bring judgement. And I speak up. That is all.
For the purposes of today's post, I have specifically pointed out the recent pandemic in order to give the reader something to anchor to. Something you are familiar with.
We have seen the unleashing of what will evolve into a major pandemic of sickness this year with the Swine Flu (I was recently corrected at a family function by a relative who happens to be a nurse for a major local hospital...' H1N1' she said. Oops. I stand corrected before the establishment. Now, before you think I have just written her off as drinking the Kool-Aid, I do not believe she knowingly would condescend to me or subscribe to an indoctrination which refusing to do so would endanger her job). The ensuing vaccine farce has only made things more comical. VACCINE!!! GET YOUR VACCINE HERE!! (said like a beer peddler at a Yankees game). Uh, no thank you. Not after I have read the ingredients in said vaccines and have seen the FDA cow down to the WHO (World Health Organization) and pass the vaccine without any clinical trials on the demographics of people for which they desired to treat. Not after the widely available info I have come across regarding vaccines in general and especially not after seeing their ingredients list.
I put my faith in God and His Torah. Period. Not the medical establishment. Not Big Pharma. If my God says swine is unclean and Big Pharma says it helps inocculate me against disease.....I think I will side with the Almighty. If God says do not cause your son or daughter to pass through the fire (an ancient form of child sacrifice not unlike our abortions today), then I will not willingly inject myself nor my son or daughter with a shot which contains aborted fetal tissues.
WAKE UP CHRISTIAN!! Learn to think again for yourself. Jesus told us to be watchful. This does not mean looking for the next ear-tickling prophet to come to town for a worhsip and prophecy conference to give you a word so you can be slain in the Spirit. Read your Bible. God allowed it to be written in your language so you could do so. That very same Bible tells us that the lawless one who is coming will have power to "overcome the saints". Are you standing bravely for the Lord, for righteousness where you are right now? If the anti-messiah practices lawlessness (Hebrew-Torahlessness- without God's teaching), are you practicing Torah-fullness? Are you full of God's teaching? Mindful of His ways? Able to detect when leaders and the influences in our society are not mindful of His ways? King David was constantly meditating on the law of the Lord. And God said David was a man after His own heart.
I know this approach for some people is very direct and can seem a little tearse. But the time for niceties has long past. The time for dire warnings is upon us. After all, most American Christians think that we just started a New Year and "Boy brother....is God gonna do something awesome this year!" No, a new year is not upon us. God's calendar is set by His moedim (His Feasts Leviticus 23) and His signs in the heavens- the clock-setters according to His scripture. And the Almighty's calendar is the only one that matters. It is the timeclock He has always gone by and it is the one He will use to mark events to look for in the last days. The new year will begin at Passover according to the Biblical Hebrew calendar according to the aviv barley harvest in Israel. Now, attmittedly, I am no expert on this subject. I am learning much of it for the first time. But I WANT to learn it. I want to make the switch. I want to be on Yehovah's agenda. Not the world's. And I have already made leaps in the general direction of repentance. A change of mind and heart to what is true. To what is right. I pray I continue to repent in the face of opposition.
In the midst of all of this, I have just this last week given birth to my second child, a girl. (Thus the 'love' portion of my title). She is adorable. She overtook me with surprise at how much I love her. I bonded with my first child, my son, while he was in the womb. Which was good because he spent the first 2 weeks of his life, the most critical for bonding, in a hospital isolette. Isolette- even the word conotates lonliness. Now I am doing all my bonding with my baby girl while she is here, in the flesh. She is a bright spot in my life. A reminder that LIFE is the most precious thing in this world. And LOVE is the most appropriate response to that life.
Love. And repentance. In the time of Swine Flu.
Many would ask...well, if you have such a bleak view of the future, what would make you decide to have a child for goodness' sake?! Well, this same God, the One True God, whom I have been telling you His ways are different than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts....convinced me. You see, to Him, life is so precious and valuable, it is worth a little tribulation. It is worth going through trials and temptations. And persecution. It is worth having the fear of the unknown and bringing a new person with you along for the ride. It is worth creating another human being who has an eternal soul. And besides....God is the author of life. It is up to Him anyway.
We forget the majesty and awesomeness of the Creator in a culture steeped with blasphemy, idolatry, and the taking of innocent life for personal gain. We have kicked Him out of our schools, marketplaces, and churches.
I am mindful of His sovereignty now, during a time I had not forseen, even a little more than a year ago. You see, after my son, I was not particularly planning on having any more children. At least not for a long time. I'll go into all the factors of our decision in a later post. The point is, even despite the (very well-justified) reasons I had for not wanting to have another baby right now, The Creator thought having another child would be the most fitting thing to do. And I will spend the next several years, as many as God blesses me with, finding out why.
So...you can keep your Shacks and your vampires and your Avatars. And even your transcendetal prayer and Christian yoga. I am not interested in the many ways the devil tries to get us followers of the Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth back onto the wide path that leads to destruction. I am more interested in this season of my life with preparing myself to be faithful in the grave times ahead. Not to panic. And to be prepared...taking care of my family. Integrity is not something you wake up one morning and decide to have. It is a discipline you exercise day in and day out. It is a lifestyle you make one decision at a time in the present moment. To listen and obey. Or not to listen and not obey. I am working on flexing those muscles now so I can be spiritually buffed when the critical time comes and all of my creature comforts are taken away and even my freedom and human dignity are on the line.
Those who heed and do the same- we need to encourage eachother and prod one another on in this critical time. Find someone on the narrow path which leads to life (someone who has gone through the Narrow Gate which is Yeshua HaMaschiach) and bless and encourage their faith. There is no other period in time as exciting as the one we are living in. And you never know when you will be seeding for your own encouragement which will return unto you in a most critical point in your future. During this time of love, repentance, and swine flu.
Shalom. (Peace).
**
This is the theme of today's entry. We are living in unique times. The times we are entering (and to some degree have been IN), are unlike any the world has ever seen. Sure there have been times of sickness and pandemics. There have been famines, earthquakes, all of the symptoms of the last days enumerated by Yeshua in His end-times discourse. But for those chickens who have been sitting idly in the boiling pot, enjoying the nice sauna-like atmosphere...you are about to be in for a rude awakening. For these are not times of prosperity. They are not times of victory. Nor are they times of desired "change". Oh, they are times of change alright, but not change for the better. Sometimes God wanted His people to feel the brunt of His judgement- a truly sobering experience. To be on the receiving end of His chastisement. A holy rebuke from the Holy One of Israel. He wanted them to sit there in their consequence and think about their rebellious ways which had led Him to turn His face from them for awhile. It is a cosmically tragic event for the Lord of Glory to turn His face against a nation. Just look at Egypt. My friends, I am sad to say that this nation is about to receive the brunt of the Lord turning His face against us for really the first time in our nation's history. I am not an alarmist. I look at the scriptures. And I look at how the decisions we have made and are making which God promised would bring judgement. And I speak up. That is all.
For the purposes of today's post, I have specifically pointed out the recent pandemic in order to give the reader something to anchor to. Something you are familiar with.
We have seen the unleashing of what will evolve into a major pandemic of sickness this year with the Swine Flu (I was recently corrected at a family function by a relative who happens to be a nurse for a major local hospital...' H1N1' she said. Oops. I stand corrected before the establishment. Now, before you think I have just written her off as drinking the Kool-Aid, I do not believe she knowingly would condescend to me or subscribe to an indoctrination which refusing to do so would endanger her job). The ensuing vaccine farce has only made things more comical. VACCINE!!! GET YOUR VACCINE HERE!! (said like a beer peddler at a Yankees game). Uh, no thank you. Not after I have read the ingredients in said vaccines and have seen the FDA cow down to the WHO (World Health Organization) and pass the vaccine without any clinical trials on the demographics of people for which they desired to treat. Not after the widely available info I have come across regarding vaccines in general and especially not after seeing their ingredients list.
I put my faith in God and His Torah. Period. Not the medical establishment. Not Big Pharma. If my God says swine is unclean and Big Pharma says it helps inocculate me against disease.....I think I will side with the Almighty. If God says do not cause your son or daughter to pass through the fire (an ancient form of child sacrifice not unlike our abortions today), then I will not willingly inject myself nor my son or daughter with a shot which contains aborted fetal tissues.
WAKE UP CHRISTIAN!! Learn to think again for yourself. Jesus told us to be watchful. This does not mean looking for the next ear-tickling prophet to come to town for a worhsip and prophecy conference to give you a word so you can be slain in the Spirit. Read your Bible. God allowed it to be written in your language so you could do so. That very same Bible tells us that the lawless one who is coming will have power to "overcome the saints". Are you standing bravely for the Lord, for righteousness where you are right now? If the anti-messiah practices lawlessness (Hebrew-Torahlessness- without God's teaching), are you practicing Torah-fullness? Are you full of God's teaching? Mindful of His ways? Able to detect when leaders and the influences in our society are not mindful of His ways? King David was constantly meditating on the law of the Lord. And God said David was a man after His own heart.
I know this approach for some people is very direct and can seem a little tearse. But the time for niceties has long past. The time for dire warnings is upon us. After all, most American Christians think that we just started a New Year and "Boy brother....is God gonna do something awesome this year!" No, a new year is not upon us. God's calendar is set by His moedim (His Feasts Leviticus 23) and His signs in the heavens- the clock-setters according to His scripture. And the Almighty's calendar is the only one that matters. It is the timeclock He has always gone by and it is the one He will use to mark events to look for in the last days. The new year will begin at Passover according to the Biblical Hebrew calendar according to the aviv barley harvest in Israel. Now, attmittedly, I am no expert on this subject. I am learning much of it for the first time. But I WANT to learn it. I want to make the switch. I want to be on Yehovah's agenda. Not the world's. And I have already made leaps in the general direction of repentance. A change of mind and heart to what is true. To what is right. I pray I continue to repent in the face of opposition.
In the midst of all of this, I have just this last week given birth to my second child, a girl. (Thus the 'love' portion of my title). She is adorable. She overtook me with surprise at how much I love her. I bonded with my first child, my son, while he was in the womb. Which was good because he spent the first 2 weeks of his life, the most critical for bonding, in a hospital isolette. Isolette- even the word conotates lonliness. Now I am doing all my bonding with my baby girl while she is here, in the flesh. She is a bright spot in my life. A reminder that LIFE is the most precious thing in this world. And LOVE is the most appropriate response to that life.
Love. And repentance. In the time of Swine Flu.
Many would ask...well, if you have such a bleak view of the future, what would make you decide to have a child for goodness' sake?! Well, this same God, the One True God, whom I have been telling you His ways are different than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts....convinced me. You see, to Him, life is so precious and valuable, it is worth a little tribulation. It is worth going through trials and temptations. And persecution. It is worth having the fear of the unknown and bringing a new person with you along for the ride. It is worth creating another human being who has an eternal soul. And besides....God is the author of life. It is up to Him anyway.
We forget the majesty and awesomeness of the Creator in a culture steeped with blasphemy, idolatry, and the taking of innocent life for personal gain. We have kicked Him out of our schools, marketplaces, and churches.
I am mindful of His sovereignty now, during a time I had not forseen, even a little more than a year ago. You see, after my son, I was not particularly planning on having any more children. At least not for a long time. I'll go into all the factors of our decision in a later post. The point is, even despite the (very well-justified) reasons I had for not wanting to have another baby right now, The Creator thought having another child would be the most fitting thing to do. And I will spend the next several years, as many as God blesses me with, finding out why.
So...you can keep your Shacks and your vampires and your Avatars. And even your transcendetal prayer and Christian yoga. I am not interested in the many ways the devil tries to get us followers of the Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth back onto the wide path that leads to destruction. I am more interested in this season of my life with preparing myself to be faithful in the grave times ahead. Not to panic. And to be prepared...taking care of my family. Integrity is not something you wake up one morning and decide to have. It is a discipline you exercise day in and day out. It is a lifestyle you make one decision at a time in the present moment. To listen and obey. Or not to listen and not obey. I am working on flexing those muscles now so I can be spiritually buffed when the critical time comes and all of my creature comforts are taken away and even my freedom and human dignity are on the line.
Those who heed and do the same- we need to encourage eachother and prod one another on in this critical time. Find someone on the narrow path which leads to life (someone who has gone through the Narrow Gate which is Yeshua HaMaschiach) and bless and encourage their faith. There is no other period in time as exciting as the one we are living in. And you never know when you will be seeding for your own encouragement which will return unto you in a most critical point in your future. During this time of love, repentance, and swine flu.
Shalom. (Peace).
**
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Awaiting the Blessed Arrival
We are scheduled to have our C-section on Tues. I sit here, uncomfortably swollen and fat, waiting for the birth of our baby. It's only 6 more days and with God's grace I think I can handle that.
A friend of mine laughed when I threw a Hanukkah party a few days ago. I was sore and tired, but it was worth it. My last hurrah with only 1 child. I cannot wait for my son to meet his new sibling. He walks around the house carrying a baby blanket with a "baby" in it and offers for me to hold it. Today, he was talking to the imaginary baby in the already-installed car seat. I'd say he's ready.
I will go into all the detail of our decision to have this baby in a later post. It is quite the interesting story no matter what your religious beliefs or worldview is!
Doc says heartbeat is good and my blood pressure is normal. I am already planning the stages I will go through to get off the 50 plus pounds I have gained with this pregnancy (I only gained 20 with my son). The doctor doesn't know, nor does he care that at the time of conception, I was in great shape, working out twice-three times a week, and taught a dance class until the middle of my second trimester.
Other than swollen ankles, hands, back and hip pain at night like you could never imagine (making it almost impossible to get out of bed for say, the many nighttime trips to the restroom), I am extremely blissful and anxious to hold the little one in my arms. A gift from God. So I try to focus on that. I keep telling myself, Don't be a weany...women have been doing this for centuries and the pioneer women had it the worst with all that was expected of them (hello...farming and washing clothes the snail way all day) and nery an indoor restroom for them to relieve themselves before the emergency floodgate opened! So there.
My husband is now off work, first for the holiday this week, then for paternity leave starting next week. We are hopeful he will get 1 week at the tail end to work from home to help with the transition.
Having my son 2 1/2 years ago was very difficult. He was premature, and we lived in a town away from family and not too many friends, and my husband had to go back to work shortly after. My son was VERY high needs and colicky. I was exhausted. I remember one day not having slept for 24 hours. I actually started to hallucinate. I consulted with a breastfeeding consultant or 2 (a life saver) and went to a semi-weekly new moms support group. Those foggy days of mommy amnesia seem so long ago. And yet, I know, to a certain extent, they are right around the corner.
Only this time, my husband will be home longer. Grandma lives closer, and I have wonderful friends I can call on if I need help, to like say, take a 45 minute nap.
And I am praying the temperament of this child will be milder than my son's. Not that I don't love my son to pieces, I am just glad that God gave me my son first. So I could focus on his needs and not have to divide my attention between 2 children, the youngest being the most needy, without a support system. I consider this His grace.
And I know His grace will be there for me with this child as well. He will not give us more than we can handle. We may not always have a choice in our circumstances, but we always have a choice in our outlook and our attitude. And those of us who believe and follow the Messiah Yeshua, we have the greatest gift of all.
We have His constant presence and abiding peace.
**
A friend of mine laughed when I threw a Hanukkah party a few days ago. I was sore and tired, but it was worth it. My last hurrah with only 1 child. I cannot wait for my son to meet his new sibling. He walks around the house carrying a baby blanket with a "baby" in it and offers for me to hold it. Today, he was talking to the imaginary baby in the already-installed car seat. I'd say he's ready.
I will go into all the detail of our decision to have this baby in a later post. It is quite the interesting story no matter what your religious beliefs or worldview is!
Doc says heartbeat is good and my blood pressure is normal. I am already planning the stages I will go through to get off the 50 plus pounds I have gained with this pregnancy (I only gained 20 with my son). The doctor doesn't know, nor does he care that at the time of conception, I was in great shape, working out twice-three times a week, and taught a dance class until the middle of my second trimester.
Other than swollen ankles, hands, back and hip pain at night like you could never imagine (making it almost impossible to get out of bed for say, the many nighttime trips to the restroom), I am extremely blissful and anxious to hold the little one in my arms. A gift from God. So I try to focus on that. I keep telling myself, Don't be a weany...women have been doing this for centuries and the pioneer women had it the worst with all that was expected of them (hello...farming and washing clothes the snail way all day) and nery an indoor restroom for them to relieve themselves before the emergency floodgate opened! So there.
My husband is now off work, first for the holiday this week, then for paternity leave starting next week. We are hopeful he will get 1 week at the tail end to work from home to help with the transition.
Having my son 2 1/2 years ago was very difficult. He was premature, and we lived in a town away from family and not too many friends, and my husband had to go back to work shortly after. My son was VERY high needs and colicky. I was exhausted. I remember one day not having slept for 24 hours. I actually started to hallucinate. I consulted with a breastfeeding consultant or 2 (a life saver) and went to a semi-weekly new moms support group. Those foggy days of mommy amnesia seem so long ago. And yet, I know, to a certain extent, they are right around the corner.
Only this time, my husband will be home longer. Grandma lives closer, and I have wonderful friends I can call on if I need help, to like say, take a 45 minute nap.
And I am praying the temperament of this child will be milder than my son's. Not that I don't love my son to pieces, I am just glad that God gave me my son first. So I could focus on his needs and not have to divide my attention between 2 children, the youngest being the most needy, without a support system. I consider this His grace.
And I know His grace will be there for me with this child as well. He will not give us more than we can handle. We may not always have a choice in our circumstances, but we always have a choice in our outlook and our attitude. And those of us who believe and follow the Messiah Yeshua, we have the greatest gift of all.
We have His constant presence and abiding peace.
**
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