Overcoming the Cares of Life–STAR-94

by | Sep 16, 2017 | Blog, Podcasts

Overcoming the Cares of Life–STAR-94

Overcoming the Cares of Life

by Rod Thomas | The Messianic Torah Observer's Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections

 

 

The Cares of Life—For Some a Daily Challenge; For Others A Frequent Distraction

 

From a general, let’s say, secular standpoint, the cares of life (or cares of this world as interpreted by some Bible translations) are the many elements of everyday living that consume and occupy much of our focus. I would say that jobs, careers, children, relationships; issues and things of everyday life that crop-up out of nowhere like car repairs, illnesses, financial problems, the daily grind of tasks and responsibilities, all fit the bill for what I mean when I refer to the cares of modern-day 21st century life.

The cares of this world, or the cares of this life, are those things—those events, conditions, activities and aspects of life–that “choke-out” the delivered Word of our Elohim that should be operating in each of our lives and that cause us to be “unfruitful.”

The Spirit that is dwelling within each of us tells us that we must not allow the cares of this world to overtake, control or hinder our walk with Messiah. Nevertheless, the cares of life have disproportionately more occasion than naught to overtake, control and hinder our walk with Messiah; and that’s just not the way our life in Messiah should ever be. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us are too tied and influenced by our flesh to not be a constant victim to the cares of this world. What did Master say: “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41)?”

 

The Cares of Life Embodied in the Parable of the Sower

The concept of the cares of life is in great part embodied in “The Parable of the Sower.” Although primarily addressing the various states of would-be believers in receipt of the delivered Word of Yahuah, I believe that the principles contained in this parable certainly apply to our topic at hand.

Consider the parable of the sower:

The same day went Yahoshua out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Mat 13:1-9 KJV)

Verse 7 of this passage provides us a slight glimpse into the detrimental nature of the cares of life. Master contends, as we will more clearly see explained in verse 22, that the cares of this life have the natural tendency of “choking-out” the spiritual life of a would-be believer. Let’s continue reading:

 

18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.1

22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

(Mat 13:18-23 KJV)

Clearly Master understood how the cares of this life or of this world can adversely affect the life of any would be believer or disciple of His.

So in what forms and influences do the cares of life take?

  • Relationships (i.e., marital; work; community; faith community; business; and family)
  • Our day-to-day responsibilities
  • Our finances
  • Our health or the health concerns of loved ones
  • Careers
  • The material aspects of life, according to the NET Study Bible
  • According to Master, even the deceitfulness of riches

Is it no wonder why so many of us in the Faith suffer so many problems and are constantly marginalized and made ineffective by these situations? Individually and collectively, these are focus and time consuming elements.

 

The Cares of Life and the Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount

Classic artist rendering of the Sermon on the Mount

The concept of the cares of this world or the cares of life and how it detracts from our daily focus and walk is gloriously touched upon, although not mentioned by name by our Master, in the famously named: Sermon on the Mount. Although taught extensively in the Sunday Schools and pulpits of our Christian denominational past, most of us remember or focus on the very first portion of this amazing teaching where Master goes through the list of kingdom traits: meekness, poorness of spirit, humbleness, teachableness, righteousness, mercifulness, peacemakers and purity of heart; all essential traits for the disciple of Messiah. Nevertheless, possessing and living out such traits are easily overshadowed by the cares of this life. And I believe that Master inherently knew this; He knew the audience that sat before Him on that hillside; He knew the lifestyles and the difficulties and hardships that the average Palestinian Jew of the first-century faced each day of their lives: widespread poverty; political and military oppression from the Romans and a corrupt Herodian governorship; oppression from their religion, Judaism; and of course every conceivable socio-economic ill and corruption one could or would expect in any bustling city or state. Life was amazingly difficult for the average Palestinian Jew and our 21st-century life challenges would easily pale in comparison.

Sakari Häkkinen

Sakari Häkkinen wrote on the challenges of 1st century life in palestine.

Sakari Häkkinen is a professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. As it relates to the socio-economic system of the first-century Palestinian Jew, he writes in his research paper entitled: Poverty in the first-century Galilee:

The social and economic policy of the Roman Empire could well be summarised in a phrase: ‘the Roman system of inequality’ (Garnsey & Saller 1987:125).1 Governing the entire Mediterranean world, Rome maintained its domination through judicial institutions developing legislation concerning property ownership and labour control – and through the use of brutal force. The whole system was based heavily on the inequality of people, which was thought to be either natural or at least inevitable, in order to secure peace and stability in the society.

For the Roman State, the provinces were a main source of revenue through taxes. A small number of Romans made large fortunes as provincial governors, tax collectors and moneylenders in the provinces, in the imperial service under the emperors. There were rich Romans who acquired extensive domains in the provinces, which they normally held as absentee landlords (Finley 1999:158). Most of the population of the empire lived either in rural areas or small towns. Only 10% – 15% of the population lived in cities that had more than 10 000 inhabitants. This means that some 80% – 90% got their living from agriculture and that any large-scale commercial or manufacturing activity was rare. There was no middle class at all. The majority of people in an agrarian society like the Roman Empire were peasants, living in villages that surrounded a city. The ancient city was largely parasitic on its surrounding villages. Cities extracted agricultural surpluses through taxes and rents. The benefits they supplied were cultic services and administration (Kloppenborg Verbin 2000:234).2

Interestingly enough, Yeshua, the brilliant teacher and Master that He is, addressed this socio-economic quagmire head-on:

24 No one can be slave to two masters; for he will either hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be loyal to the first. You can’t be a slave to both God and money.

25 “Therefore, I tell you, don’t worry about your life – what you will eat or drink; or about your body – what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the birds flying about! They neither plant nor harvest, nor do they gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they are?

27 Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to his life?

28 “And why be anxious about clothing? Think about the fields of wild irises, and how they grow. They neither work nor spin thread,

29 yet I tell you that not even Shlomo in all his glory was clothed as beautifully as one of these.

30 If this is how God clothes grass in the field – which is here today and gone tomorrow, thrown in an oven – won’t he much more clothe you? What little trust you have!

31 “So don’t be anxious, asking, ‘What will we eat?,’ ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘How will we be clothed?’

32 For it is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.

33 But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 Don’t worry about tomorrow – tomorrow will worry about itself! Today has enough tsuris (i.e., problems; challenges) already!

(Mat 6:24-34 CJB)

 

The Difficulties in Gaining Control of the Cares of Life

I would not be so presumptuous to suggest that Spirit-Filled Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua will not go through stuff or experience the deleterious effects that the cares of this world can have on Father’s elect. We all experience such things and we, depending upon what level of spiritual maturity we find ourselves, handle the situations accordingly or consistent with our level of spiritual maturity.

Nevertheless, we should be compelled to learn and grow from our clashes with the cares of life. For if we continue day-after-day, month-after-month, and year-after-year to allow the cares of life to overtake us and compromise our effectiveness as Yeshua’s disciples, it would seem that we may “have a problem Houston.”

The Weakness of the Flesh Dictates How We Deal with Life

Consider for a moment this nugget—this construct of truth if you will. The cares of life, although seemingly pervasive and at times overwhelming, are fluid and in many cases fleeting. They’re here today and gone tomorrow. Nevertheless, along comes another issue or element to consume us and we find ourselves back in the same rut yet again. The carnival ride of life—of this world—generally has no time and place whereby we can get off and get our feet back on solid ground. Indeed, off to the side, there is a door marked in big red letters—EXIT—but we tend to get so caught up with the intensity of the ride we are on—that is the overwhelming nature of the experience that has imprisoned our thoughts, hearts and bodies–that we’re too “afraid” (for lack of a better descriptor) to simply demand to be let off that ride/experience and then take the exit that leads back to our life in Messiah.

Yet the pursuit of money, careers, fame and fortune often leads to temptations, perversions and personal and spiritual destruction. This of course is not to say that we should not work hard to provide for our families. Our efforts to advance in life must be managed by Father—He will provide for all our needs according to His riches in glory by Yeshua Messiah (Phillipians 4:19.)

Caustic and troublesome relationships will consume and rob us of our joy. Yes, I’m talking about troublesome marriages and other family relationships. Somehow those things must be moderated and subjugated to the will of Father. The longer we allow those relationships to eclipse our focus on Him and consume our spirit, the harder it it is to recover. I’m speaking from experience here. Unhealthy relationships are poisonous and detrimental to one’s walk with Messiah. They must somehow be dealt with.

Politics, financial difficulties, health concerns: they all must be dealt with once and for all through prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21).

Think about it: the specific cares that you and I may be dealing with today will likely become non-issues and forgotten in the days, months and years ahead. Everything that we worry over and stress about will inevitably come to its proper end in due time. Half the time we don’t even have control over those cares in the first place. Yet at the end of the day, Yahuah remains the only eternal constant in the universe. Somehow we have to be able to put life into its proper perspective and not allow the troublesome things, issues and people in life to get in the way of our eternal destiny and calling. Again, we inherently know this to be Truth, yet so many of us are incapable of actually realizing and living this thing out as we know that it should be. Thus it stands to reason that the one thing that hinders us from living out this Truth and putting life into its proper perspective is the weakness of our flesh. Our spirit-woman or man tells us: you can do this; you can overcome, but our carnal nature tells our spirit that life is just too difficult and impossible to overcome.

Mount Gathsemane

Yeshua’s soul wrestled with the reality of His pending death at Mount Gathsemane.

Who can forget the Garden of Gethsemane scene where Master was enduring the greatest internal struggles of His earthly life and ministry: He was dealing with the reality of His impending ignominious torture and death and His humanity had begun to overshadow His Spirit. His companions had all but checked out over by the way, succumbing to the weaknesses of their flesh and falling fast asleep, leaving Master to languish in his internal struggles all alone. Yes, even Master had to deal with the cares of this world in one form or another. The passage reads:

 36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

(Mat 26:36-41 KJV)

Master overcame his struggle simply by turning it over to the will of His Father. He said: “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

The example painted by the disciples: they succumbed to their flesh and slept when their Master needed their support the most.

The Cares of Life and Operating in the Spirit

Sometimes we just don’t want to face the reality of our flesh and subjugate it to the will of our Father. Is it a question of faith? Or is it a question of us feeling more comfortable living out our present situation than relegating those cares to the will and control of Father? I know that many times, when I’m going through the slings and arrows of life, I feel as though I can handle the situation better than Father can—which is a stupid thing to feel, but do not our actions reveal the reality of our spirit—whatever spirit we are working under at the moment?

Operating in the Spirit is an entirely new and uncertain realm for most of us. We can’t see, smell, taste or hear in this realm. Our natural senses do not comfortably serve us in the spirit realm as they do in the carnal realm.

Yet, in order for us to overcome the adverse affects of this world and of life in general, we absolutely must make that transition from the carnal to the spiritual, with the ultimate aim of the Spirit realm being the default realm that we choose to operate in.

A decision has to be made at some point in our walk: will it be about Him or will it be about me? We all know what the correct answer must be: it must be about Him. Ultimately our purpose in the whole scheme of things is to deny self and set out on that march—that race—that journey—that transcends any of the great adventures of man throughout history. The cares of this life cannot impede this journey; for this is a calling that transcends those cares. And you know what: when we are able to properly deal with the cares of life through the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Ruach Kodesh) operating in our lives, we become exceptional husbands, wives, fathers, children, bosses, employees, neighbors and people. I desperately want that for my life.

Paul wrote:

2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision (i.e., the mutilators; the false circumcisers).

3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

(Phi 3:2-16 KJV)

 

How Do We Overcome the Cares of Life

So I asked myself: how do I overcome this thing? How do I overcome the cares of this life? It’s one thing to know and understand that I must pray, fast and power through life, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually live this out and not succumb to this fleshly tendency to allow the cares take over. There must be an overriding fix to this perpetual problem; some secret but powerful method to overcoming life’s many challenges; to staying focused; to defaulting to living in the Spirit as opposed to living in the flesh. What is that? What could that be?

As I searched the Bible for answers to these questions, the Spirit led me to what I believe to be the answer (or at least a potential answer): that being adopting, maintaining and exercising “The Mind of Messiah.”

The Mind of Messiah—A Must for Overcoming the Cares of Life

The “Mind of Messiah” (in the KJV, “Mind of Christ) is a concept found but one place in the Bible, at the end of a dissertation on the subject of “wisdom,” by the Apostle Paul. The passage reads:

6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.1

16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.1

(1Co 2:6-16 KJV)

Concepts such as wisdom, the wisdom of God, the world tomorrow, the spirit of this world, the Spirit of God, man’s wisdom, spiritual things, the natural man, spiritual discernment, and of course, the mind of Messiah are essential to our spiritual wellbeing and our ability to overcome the cares of life.

Closing Thoughts and Reflections

The concept of adopting, maintaining and exercising a “Mind of Messiah” is not a concept that I would dare to explore and reflect upon during the remaining moments of this episode—the content is just too vast and important for me to rush through it. So what I would like to do is stop here and pick this topic up next episode—Abba willing. That way I can cover more ground without extending the length of time for this episode further, as well as it will provide me a few days to allow my spirit to connect and understand this concept even better than I already do.

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The Bible-The Answer to Every Concern or the Ultimate Instruction Manual-STAR-92

by | Aug 28, 2017 | Blog, Podcasts

The Bible-The Answer to Every Concern or the Ultimate Instruction Manual-STAR-92

The Bible-The Answer to Every Concern or the Ultimate Instruction Manual

by Rod Thomas--The Messianic Torah Observer | Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections--92

Thoughts and Reflections Part 1: The Great Book Known as the Bible

The Bible–The Holy Writ–The Word–The Word of God–The Sword–The 66-Special–The Book–The Good Book: these and many more are the descriptors and titles of arguably the most famous and well known book in the history of literature.

To the world at large, the Bible is a book containing ancient writings of dead idealists who got together to compose writings to convince the world of the existence of God–the Creator of the Universe. These folks believe the book to be a book of positive affirmations and a compilation of the best examples of writing pros known to mankind. They believe the Bible to be fabled history, but also a book that offers mankind an idealistic image of what man should and could be if he were to simply give him/herself over to this God and His Son, Jesus Christ. To these individuals, the Bible offers little to no value to the world’s human population.

To secular scholars, the Bible is simply another literary compilation of ancient writings that have little to no relevance to this world apart from its ancient near east historical placement. To these folks, as it relates to its literary place in the world, it ranks with ancient writings such as the Iliad, Homer, the Koran and various Hindi writings. To these individuals, the Bible only has literary significance and should not be taken seriously as any sort of life instruction .

To the 30,000 or so Christian denominations; the various and sundry Catholic sects and Jews, the Bible is the foundation of their Faith. To most, the Bible is the principle vehicle by which God/Jesus Christ communicates with His people. To many, it is an instruction manual; the Faith’s primary record of its history; a devotional tool; a discipleship resource; a source of profound hope and trust; the glue that binds the members of the Faith community together.

To those of us in Hebrew Roots, or as I prefer to call us, Spirit Filled Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah, the Bible is our Creator’s instruction manual for living the way He has always intended man to live. Indeed, within this instruction manual, we find the summation of our trust and hope in Yahoshua Messiah; we find our heritage and strength; we find lessons to be learned to prevent us from falling from grace; we find Truth; we find peace; we find clues to our amazing future.

With that said, the Bible also is different things to various people in our Faith. It means all that I’ve just mentioned, but it also has unique appeal and understanding to each of us as we go through our day-to-day walk with Master Yahoshua. I guess it comes down to how much we actually tap this amazing resource and tool: if we dive into its boundless pages each day we live, then this book means everything to us; if we reach for it on rare ocassions for whatever reason, its significance to us is debatable. If we never open the covers of our Bible, then certainly the Bible becomes nothing more than an asterick; a semi-colon; or at best, a footnote in our spiritual journey. The Bible is a pretty good gauge as it relates to how we perceive and live out this walk of ours. If the Bible is indeed that foundational and primary resource to our Faith and walk, then it must be tapped constantly with great intensity, anticipation and hope. Otherwise, it becomes as any other book on our dusty shelves.

For me, the Bible is the one printed resource that I tap on a daily basis; often multipe times in a day. It calls to me throughout the day and beckons me to explore its vast depths and mysteries. It serves as my daily medicine regimen, correcting me when I’m wrong and encouraging me when I’m down. It educates me. In a synergistic manner with the Holy Spirit, it connects me with the Creator of the Universe in a way that is not understood by carnal man. It fills my thirst for righteousness. It instructs me on what it means to be a true disciple of Yeshua Messiah. It sets me apart from the 7-Billion people on this planet that may or may not know Father. The Bible is the calling card that connects me with other like-minded believers in Yeshua Messiah. It serves as a reminder that no matter how tough things get down here, Master can identify and provide the blessed assurance that if I stay the course and run the race set before me, there is a prize at the end that awaits me and my fellow Torah Observant Believers in Yahoshua Messiah.

Thoughts and Reflections Part 2: The Bible: A List of Does and Don’ts or Instructions for Righteous Living

Most of us realize that the main disagreement that exists between Torah Observant Believers and Fundamental/Charismatic/Traditional Christians is the efficacy and application of “The Law” for Gentile believers. Essentially, Christianity teaches that the “Law” was done away with once Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected from the dead. Many place their belief in this assertion on a skewed understanding and misinterpretation of Colossians 2:14, that they insist proves that the Law was nailed to the cross along with Jesus. In nailing the Law to the cross, a new era of “freedom in Christ” emerged whereby the would be Christian was no longer subject to the extensive laundry lists of the do’s and don’ts of the Bible.

Sadly, this is the attitude that millions of would be believers in Messiah (more so Christ)  hold regarding Torah: that it is a list of do’s and don’ts. Of course, no one likes being told what to do, even if the person telling us what to do is the Cretor of the Universe and the giver of the Law.

There are many problems associated with such a skewed understanding of the Law/Torah. The one that I wish to reflect upon in this episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections has to do with the erroneous perception that the Bible is simply a list of do’s and don’ts for the would be believer; that our God is a terrible and tyranical Being who despises His creation (i.e., man) and demands that they do this and do that; that He demands strict and uncompromising obedience (which He does but not in such a crude, unloving and harsh manner) .

The Bible is in no way this magical 8-ball of answers to every question man has related to his or her present condition. In fact, the Bible is not the mystical book that tradition has assigned it, although I truly believe the Bible to be of divine origin.

Paul (i.e., Shaul) described the Bible as being given to mankind by the Creator of the Universe and that it is a valuable resource in leading every man and woman to Truth; that it is effective in correcting man’s behavior and showing him/her the right direction he/she should go; and lastly that being a disciple of the True Messiah, we have been tasked with bearing good fruit and living righteous lives. In order to accomplish this, the Bible is an apt resource for equiping any who would be of Yeshua HaMashiyach’s chosen (1 Timothy 3:16, 17; CJB with my embellishments).  Nowhere in this passage did Paul indicate that the Bible should be looked at and treated as a book of answers. More so, Paul sees the Bible as “an instruction” manual.

Because we tend to not fully grasp the full meaning and purpose of the Bible, we tend to treat the Bible as a “spiritual Google,” where by we search out specific answers to our modern day problems and challenges. As much as it would be a lovely thing to have at one’s disposal, I do not believe the Father desired His Word to be used in such a fashion. I believe He gave us His instructions upon which we would build our lives and walk accordingly. If we simply follow these instructions, the rest will naturally fall into place: that is, our modern day issues and challenges would become non-issues and non-challenges. 

 

A dear sister recently asked what the Bible had to say about “shacking up” (that is living unmarried) with a fella. To her credit, she didn’t want any denominational perspectives and no personal opinions on this issue. All she wanted was chapter and verse. Needless to say, there appears to be no such content to be found in the pages of our Bible as it relates to the question of shacking up. There are passages that suggests to us that shacking up is not a thing that Spirit-Filled Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah should be doing, but there are no “thou shall not hook up and live together as an unmarried couple” passages to be found in the Holy Writ. 

 

I don’t mean to beat up on this sister, or anyone who looks to the Bible in such a manner. Nevertheless, I truly believe that if we truly have the Ruach of Yah dwelling within us, we should have a pretty good idea what is pleasing to Father and what is not. 

 

Unfortunately, this is a common practice among many members of both fundamental Chritianity and Hebrew Roots communities. These individuals, instead of walking out their Faith in accordance with the Torah-based principles as taught to us by Master, use the Word to spell out to them almost verbatim what they can and can’t do in their day-to-day lives. Can I cook on the Sabbath? Can I worship alone on the Sabbath? Can I stay in a hotel during Sukkot or do I have to live outdoors in a Sukkah? Can I socialize with members of the opposite sex during fellowship? Can I put gas in my car on the Sabbath? Do I have to conduct a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to properly observe the Feasts of Yah? Can I use the title God when addressing the Creator of the universe? Must I grow a beard if I’m a male in our Faith? And what we find when we seek to answer for ourselves these and countless other such questions is that the Bible in more situations than not does not have the specific answers to our specific questions. 

 

So in the absence of answers to such probing and specific questions, what many do is create their own answers devoid of living out the life that scripture spells out for us. Yet the truth of the matter is that the answers to such questions will never be found in the Bible. They were never supposed to be found there in the first place. For Father gave us all that we needed to know to live according to the way He wants us to live. Anything else that pops up that is unclear in scripture then becomes a thing that should be rationalized in light of scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. We can never live the instructions contained in our Bibles without the guidance of the Holy Spirit; for without the Holy Spirit, we become no different than our forefathers who go about mechanically living out their religion. It becomes robotic and those individuals who go about living such a mechanical lifestyle end up being tossed about the waves and winds of life. There’s never going to be an answer good enough–there’s always going to be “but what if’s” and “but what about’s.” We’re human. We’ve unfortunately evolved into such a way of thinking and living. 

If we can simply learn our Bibles; live out that which is spelled out before us in the pages of our Bibles; and leave the rest up to the guidance and instructions of the Holy Spirit, we will be alright. 

Paul wrote to Timothy: “Timothy my son, do the best you can (in the KJV, it is famously written–“study to shew theyself approved-Christianity has wrongly interpreted the word spoodadzo to mean study of the scriptures, which is not at all correct. Spoodadzo means to be dilligent or endeavor) to present yourself to Yahuah/Yahweh/Yahovah as someone worthy of His approval; and in so doing, we will not have any need to be ashamed of the life we’ve lived.” (2 Timothy 2:14,15; my paraphrasing of the KJV)

It’s one thing to confer with Scripture on life’s issues; it’s entirely another to rely upon Scripture to tell us what in life should be obvious. If we feel funny about the thing we’re thinking to do and we aren’t sure if doing that thing would be sanctioned by Father, then we should know right off the bat the answer to our question. 

 

The culture, timeframe and geography in which the bible was written 9-times outta 10 does not afford us a keen match as it relates to our particular 21st-century life issues. Sure, there’s nothing new under the sun as Solomon once wrote, but much of what is contained in scripture is not going to be a verbatim rehashing of our modern 21st century lifestyle. So we gotta know the mind of God in conjunction with the specific instructions outlined in His Torah in order to live the best life we can in Yeshua Measiah. 

 

Thoughts and Reflections Part-3–What is the Bible Anyway?

With the exception of the Torah (i.e., the first-five-books of the Tanakh/the Old Testament), the Bible is a compilation of inspired writings. I separate the Torah from the rest of the Bible, not to insinuate that Torah is uninspired; on the contrary, I believe that Torah was communicated directly from the mouth of Yahweh/Yahovah/Yahuah to Moses as Israel’s constitution; the manual that defines righteous living and leads to an unparalleled relationship between the Creator and His people. The remainder of the Holy Writ came about as men (i.e., the authors) were moved to write by the Holy Spirit; to write about the events that were transpiring before them; to write about the things that they saw with their very own eyes and heard with their very own ears; to write about their feelings, thoughts and fears; and to write that which Father desired be communicated to the select reader.

The Weightier Matters of the Law

The Bible as we have it today is a compilation of some 66-books (i.e., cephers and letters): some of these cephers are prophetic writings that foretell of things that were to happen to us as we lived in the land of promise as well as things that are to happen to us in the Last Days; some of these cephers were composed of songs and poems; some of these cephers were historical in nature and served to document the history of our people (i.e., the Hebrew nation)  in perpetuity; some of these cephers were letters written to specific individuals, addressing specific issues and questions that were posed to the writer. Although the Bible has been known from time-to-time to resonate with us as a people and as individuals, and to speak to our souls in very profound ways (which I would identify more as a gift to us by the Creator at the time we need His touch the most), the thing we have today that we call the Bible is a repository and collection of ancient writings that served (and for that matter, can serve today) specific and diverse purposes for its readers.  Again, the Bible is not this mysterious 8-ball that gives us magical answers to the questions we have for Father at any given hour of the day. More so, it is a training manual; a guide to Truth; a behavior corrector; a history book; and an equipping resource guide.

Nevertheless, I have had to go out of my way to keep in mind what the Bible is when I go about studying and researching in its pages. When we neglect having a True understanding of what the Bible is and what it is supposed to be used for, we invariably find ourselves misusing it; misinterpreting its content; damaging our relationship with the Most High; and leading others down a wrong path.

Yes, I believe with my whole heart that the Bible is Yahuah/Yahweh/Yahovah breathed; but it is also a product of man. Do I believe the Bible to be the Word of God? Well, I believe the Bible contains the Words and thoughts and love of God for all of mankind, especially for His chosen people. I believe for us to gain the greatest benefit we could possibly get from our Bibles, we must view and use the Bible from an entirety perspective (i.e., the Bible as a whole instead of scriptural soundbites that so many of us often hang our spiritual hats upon and develop these doctrines and beliefs that are rarely based upon any Biblical truth or reason). I believe that we must view the Bible from the perspective of the Creator of the Universe desiring to eternally connect with the jewel of His creation: mankind and that the bridge between man and Creator is our Master Yeshua Messiah. Everything in the Bible points us to the second-Adam: Yahoshua HaMashiyach.

As an aside to all this, many of us in Hebrew Roots spend the vast majority of our time in Torah and our focus is upon fulfilling the ceremonial and moral elements of the Law. Over time, we inadvertently write Yeshua out of the Bible and instead of living Torah the way Master taught us to, we live Torah in rote manner–striving to relive Torah the way our forefathers did in Synai and in the Land. Many of us eventually learn to become, what I’ve chosen to call them, Yeshua-haters. These individuals take on a pharisaical-like mentality and lifestyle that they somehow fool themselves into thinking, will earn themselves eternal life, devoid of anything having to do with Master Yeshua.

Then there is the New Testament, or as known in our circles, the Brit HaDashah, which so many in all faith community treat as do’s and don’ts answer books. The fact of the matter is that the Gospels, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, serves as our history book about the ministry of Master Yahoshua and the Holy Spirit, as well as it serves as our instruction manual related to our being His loyal disciples who have been tasked with fulfilling His Commission (Matthew 28:19,20)–and I would include the Book of Acts in the Gospels and maybe even the Book of Revelation.

Then there are the epistles or letters from Jude, James, John, Peter and of course Paul, which have been used by denominational Christianity to develop doctrinal structures within the body. The fact of the matter is that these are letters, written by men–apostles–to specific individuals, addressing specific issues and topics. It just so happens that these letters have been preserved, codified and translated for our benefit. Thus, in effect, when we open one of these letters, referred to in the Bible as books, we are essentially snooping in on a private communique that the author had originally posted to specific individuals related to issues and topics that he chose to address. Consequently, when we read one of these epistles–books–letters–we must always keep in mind what it is we are reading and thus it would behoove us to take specific passages within proper context.

All too often we spot a verse or two, and build an understanding about spiritual things without taking into account the whole of the conversation or discourse. Look how Christianity built around a couple verses, the doctrines of “grace” and the understanding that the Law was done away with. If those same individuals who took liberties to snag these scriptural soundbites and build around them vast and emcompassing doctrines would have studied the whole of the texts from the standpoint of contextual criticism and true Biblical scholarship, I believe it’s a fair bet that we wouldn’t have 30,000-plus Christian denonimations in existence today, for the truth of the matters in questions would be clearly evident and things such as Sunday worship, eating of uncleaned food and whether it is cool for Believers in Messiah to keep Torah would no longer be in question.

The quintessential passage of Bible that describes what the Bible is and what purpose it serves in the body of Messiah is of course found in 2 Timothy. Paul wrote:

14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.1 (2Ti 3:14-17 KJV)

Paul’s prolific brilliance shines exceptionally forth here as he summarizes for his young apprentice the purpose of scripture. We must bear in mind that at the time of this writing, scripture was the Old Testament writings–the Tanakh. So here he is specifically speaking to Timothy on the purpose of the Torah, the prophets and the writings. So much is contained in these 4-verses that one could spend hours exploring and pondering their significance to any Spirit-Filled Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah.

  • The scriptures are the paramount pathway to all Truth which leads one to salvation in Yeshua Messiah
  • The scriptures, although written by the hand of men, is God-breathed–an amazing meeting and coming together of the Divine and the mortal. Father spoke and men wrote as the Spirit so-led and guided. And Abba’s divine providence ensured that His Word would remain intact such that it would reach and be available to us in these last and evil days
  • Scriptures/the Bible must be viewed as the foundation upon which the instruction of Truth is to be taught
  • Scripture provides us instruction and defines what sin is
  • Scripture corrects our faults
  • Scritpure outlines the path that leads to righteous living
  • The Bible is the ultimate equipping agent in all spiritual and human matters
  • Strict adherence to the tenets of the Bible lead to good works/the bearing of good fruit, which is the meat and potatos of every believer’s life and calling.

Although the Bible is the ultimate instruction manual, every believer must be cognizant of its origin, the culture in which the writers of the books of the bible lived, the purpose for which each book was written, the meaning of words and phrases, and the effectiveness and accuracy of the translations we are using. Reading and understanding the Bible requires work on our part, and those who are willing to invest the time and energy to explore its great spiritual riches will come out on top everytime–these will be the most well centered and grounded and not be blown about by every wind and doctrine. Far too many of us have given only a passing read to the Bible. Far too many of us have only punched the pages of our Bibles to see if we can get away with something we know very well is wrong. Far too many of us have relied upon preachers, teachings, pastors, evangelists and deominations to tell us what the Bible says, when the truth of the matter is, that anyone of us who has access to a Bible, some basic Bible helps and tools, a willing and obedient heart and mind, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within, can know what Father is revealing in His word to us. As much as I respect scholarship and the accomplishment of some of our Faith leaders, which Father will on ocassion use to provide us with information that may not be readily available to us at the time, nothing trumps sitting down with a cup of coffee or tea and diving into the pages of one’s Bible to learn “what sayeth Yahuah/Yahweh/Yahovah. Father has no problem telling us what He wants from us and what He expects from us through the pages of His Bible. Churchianity has programed us to believe that we simple lay folk are incapable of effectively studying the Word of Yah. Nothing can be further from the truth.

If we are unable to receive that which we are searching for in the Bible, it behooves us to turn to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to, in Father’s perfect time, reveal those truths to us. He may send someone to us with the answers to the questions we seek. He may involve us in a situation where the answers to our questions will become quite evident. He may lead us to other areas of scripture that will illuminate within us that Truth that we are seeking.

The Bible–our go-to spiritual Google? Not hardly. A simple laundry list of do’s and don’ts? It certainly tells us what things are permissible and what are not in terms of living life Abba’s way, but it is not a simple do’s and don’ts list that we are to mechanically follow. Torah is supposed to be written on our hearts and minds and we should not focus on the rote, mechanical applications of the Word, but living lives that are pleasing to Father and provide an effective and righteous witness to the world around us. If we but take the time to read the Bible–the whole thing–multiple times through–and apply those principles to our day-to-day walk with Messiah, we will be apt workman approved of God needing not to be ashamed.

Thoughts and Reflections Part 4: The Bottom-Line to the Question of Do’s and Don’ts as Related to the Bible

I have always felt that anyone who would become a disciple of Yeshua our Master, before they were left to forge out on their own and walk out their Faith, that they first be equipped. Some organizations within our Faith Community, like the Church of God splinters, provide their initiates a great amount of teachings and valuable content to help them get acquainted with their new found Faith and walk with Messiah. The problem is that the teachings and content they offer are specific to Church of God doctrine and mindset and is not entirely based upon a literal, contextual and Spirit-led dispensing of the Truth. So any who would venture into a Church of God congregation to begin their walk with Messiah, would find themselves being indoctrinated into a Church of God body. The fact of the matter is that these are not being discipled into the true Body of Messiah. I’m not trying to bad mouth the Churches of God. I myself began my Torah Observant life in the United Church of God. That experience, which lasted roughly two-years was a positive one that introduced me to foundational tenets of the Hebrew Roots Faith. Certainly not a place one would spend the remainder of his/her life if they are truly desirous in fulfilling their unique role in the Great Commission and walking out their Faith profession in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.

Please know that I am in no way looking to badmouth the Churches of God–I love them and the people who attend these congregations are wonderful, sincere folks. Unfortunately, I truly believe that the vast majority of Church of God attendees may be too comfortable in their set-church lives to move beyond the walls of that community and achieve the great things that Father has in store for everyone of His beloved children. The point of my bringing up the Churches of God in the first place is the element of doctrine and indoctrination that pervades these communities. The same thing seems to be true as it relates to certain Messianic Jewish communities where members are taught Judaism first and foremost, and then maybe some of the teachings of Master Yeshua. These and other such communities endeavor to provide their followers laundry lists of do’s and don’ts that carry the weight and authority of scripture. Most of these communities, again, are devoid of anything having to do with the Holy Spirit.

The Famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

Bottomline dear friend, the Bible is not, nor should it ever be treated or seen as a grab-bag of answers to questions related to our day-to-day living. I concede that there is nothing wrong with punching the pages of one’s Bible to see what Father has to say to us on a particular topic or issue. Absolutely, the Bible is the absolute best resource we have to put us in sync with Father’s will for us as His special possession and kingdom of priests. The problem comes, unfortunately, when we ignore the things in Torah and the teachings of Yeshua in the first place, but choose instead to follow our own pathways to righteousness while using the Bible as a means to that end.

Abba has given us all we need to know to live according to the way that He wants His children to live. If we simply employ the commonsense that He has given each of us; come to Him in prayer and meditation with a pure heart; search the scriptures with an open mind to receive that which Father wishes to reveal to us; and give heed to the leading of His Holy Spirit that will guide us into all understanding and give us the wherewithal to walk out our Faith perfectly in the midst of this perverse and dying world.

The brilliant and prolific apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian assembly:

For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea,

2 and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe,

3 also they all ate the same food from the Spirit,

4 and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit – for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah.

5 Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.

6 Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did.

7 Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were – as the Tanakh puts it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in revelry.”

8 And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day.

9 And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes.

10 And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.

11 These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim (i.e., the end of the ages). (1Co 10:1-11 CJB)

Thus our Bibles serve, according to Paul, as a warning–given the examples lived out by our forefathers in the desert and in the land of promise–a warning to live according to His prescribed ways and methods so that we may flourish and be a blessing and please Him. It would seem as we read the Bible and the Spirit speaks to us where we live at the moment–see what happened to our forefathers because of their insolence and stiffneckness. Don’t let it happen to us. Do the opposite. And how do we go about successfully living out this Faith? Through the example and teachings of our loving and blessed Master Yahoshua HaMashiyach.

Paul further wrote related to the use of scripture in governing our lives, this time to the Roman Assembly of believers:

So we who are strong have a duty to bear the weaknesses of those who are not strong, rather than please ourselves.

2 Each of us should please his neighbor and act for his good, thus building him up.

3 For even the Messiah did not please himself; rather, as the Tanakh says, ‘The insults of those insulting you fell on me.’

4 For everything written in the past was written to teach us, so that with the encouragement of the Tanakh we might patiently hold on to our hope. (Rom 15:1-4 CJB)

Thus the Bible serves as an instruction manual that teaches us how to live so that we “might patiently hold on to our hope” –that is, keep a positive spiritual perspective on life; enjoy life to its fullest; serve one another and act for their good and work towards edifying and building up one another in righteousness; to remain strong so that we may bear the weaknesses of those in our Faith Community who are struggling; to imitate Yeshua our Messiah and not take the things of this life too personal and do the best that each of us possibly can. That’s all that we can do. As far as Father is concerned, that’s all that He’s asking of us.

However, in order to fulfill these expectations, we must fully grasp the purpose and reality of what the Bible is and use it in the spirit and fulness in which it was given to us. Indeed, the Bible is not to be worshiped as so many of us tend to do, delving into the mystical elements that define much of Kaballah and Jewish mysticism. No, the Bible is our roadmap to righteous living and instruction manual that ultimately connects us with the Creator of the Universe.

I hope, trust and pray that this episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections has been a blessing to you, as much as it has been a blessing to me to ponder and reflect upon this subject of the Bible. Keep on keeping on, despite all the things that are going on around us in this nation and in the world today. Don’t focus on those things if you can help it for we have other matters to tend to. For Paul wrote to Timothy:

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.1

3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. (2Ti 2:1-4 KJV)

Let us therefore strive for higher heights and deeper depths in Yeshua Messiah so that we may successfully be that kingdom of priest to the world that Father has assigned us to be.

Certainly, if you are reading this transcript or listening to this episode online, leave a comment in the comment box that follows this post if you are so led. Otherwise, you can connect with me either on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I’m here for and with you. Stay well and blessed fellow Saint.

Until next time, I bid you warmest and loving shalom.

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Controlling Our Emotions for the Work of the Gospel–STAR-90

by | Aug 13, 2017 | Blog, Podcasts

Controlling Our Emotions for the Work of the Gospel–STAR-90

Controlling our Emotions for the Work of the Gospel

by Rod Thomas--The Messianic Torah Observer | Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections-90

Shabbat Shalom fellow saints in training. Greetings and blessings to you on this day that Yahuah our Elohim has made—one that we were admonished by the psalmist to be glad and rejoice in it. This is especially so given that the Sabbath is a most sacred day to us Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah. This 7th day was the only day of the 7 days of our week that was blessed and sanctified by Father and we have been commanded by Abba to maintain its holiness (Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:8 respectively). And how do we keep it holy? Well, the best place to start is to treat the day unlike any of the other 6-days of our week by not participating in any servile labors and to set our focus squarely upon Him and His Word. The lighting of candles, citing of rote prayers and the serving of traditional meals are not commanded of us to do. Thus, it is between each of us as individuals and Yahovah our Elohim to flesh our the mechanics of how we observe and honor Sabbath. Regardless, let us guard this gift of the Sabbath with zeal, love, peace and obedience.

In case you are new to this podcast series, allow me to introduce myself: I’m Rod Thomas, your Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections partner and fellow disciple of Yahoshua our Messiah. Whether you are a veteran Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua or not, you are welcome here. All I ask is that you share these moments with me with an open heart, mind and spirit and whatever is presented here, that you take it in the spirit that it’s delivered and that you do your own research, prayer and meditation on the content herein.

As always, it is my hope, trust and prayer that this episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections finds you, your families, and fellowships well and blessed.

Well, how goes it? How was your week? It is my hope and heartfelt desire that if you went through any hardships, trials or tribulations this past week, that your deliverance and healing is on its way. As I’ve said countless times on this program, this is an arduous journey that we’ve embarked upon as disciples of Yeshua and when you add to that difficult walk the cares and trials of this life, there can be moments in time when we simply want to throw in the towel; that we want to walk away from it all and find a corner or hole somewhere other than where we are at the moment and just let the world pass us by.

The enemy has studied and analyzed each and everyone of us and he knows our vulnerabilities. He is not above exploiting those weaknesses of ours to further his kingdom goals. I’ve come across a number of dear brothers and sisters over the course of the last couple weeks who are going through stuff: debilitating and consuming illnesses; financial struggles; family strife; depression; confusion and uncertainty. Why is this stuff happening to us in the midst of everything else that is going on in the world? Well, the Spirit (i.e., Father’s Ruach) clearly wants us to be aware of the ploys and tactics of hasatan that we not be fooled or taken off our established spiritual course. You see, if the serpent can distract us with stuff, then our effectiveness as workers in the Kingdom of Yahuah will have been successfully compromised.

Father’s plan for mankind includes us as essential workers in His fields, working the waiting harvest; fulfilling Master’s Great Commission (reference Matthew 28:19, 20). No, contrary to traditional/fundamental Christianity, we’ve not been commissioned to go out and get people saved nor teach and preach a gospel about the death, burial and resurrection of Master Yahoshua. Instead, we’ve been commissioned to go out and make disciples for Master and to teach them all that He’s taught us. And when we become beset by the cares of this world, our effectiveness in that Greatest of Commissions is severely diminished. Somehow, some way, we must not allow our lives to be waylaid by the enemy and the primary way we accomplish this is by our maintaining a steadfast vigilance; developing and maintaining a complete reliance upon the provision and guidance of Father; and obedience to His Word.

On this subject, the Apostle Peter (i.e., Kepha) wrote in his first letter to the first-century saints: “Submit yourselves to those who are elders. Yes, all (i.e., all of you) be subject one to the other, and be clothed with humility; for Yahweh resists the proud, but gives mercy to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of Yahweh, in order that He may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom she may devour; resist her by remaining firm in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are fully endured by your brothers in the world. But may all merciful Yahweh Himself—Who has called us to His eternal glory in Yahshua Messiah, after you have suffered a while—perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you (I Peter 5:5-11, The Book of Yahweh)”

Saints, troubles are going to beset us, it’s just a fact of our spiritual life. But we’ve been given a method of overcoming troubles and that is humbling ourselves before our Creator through a strict regimen of obedience and honor; remain vigilant and knowledgeable of the ways hasatan goes about tripping us up; resist the tugs and pulls of hasatan and not give him one inch in our lives; and then casting our cares upon Him and trusting Him to deal with those issues on our behalf.

This is just as much a lesson on trusting in the Almighty for me as it hopefully is for you.

 

Part-1-Microchipping and the Mark of the Beast

Have you all seen the articles that have been written regarding microchipping that is being reported in the various news media around this country?

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve heard and read stories of companies that are pushing and even requiring their employees to be chipped—that is, to have a microchip placed in their bodies for purposes of tracking them and allowing them access to various electronic systems in their company’s facilities.

The troubling thing here is not that microchipping of people is actually being done out there in the world today (for we knew this was coming a long time ago and that for years it has become an expectation in our society to microchip our pets), but that mainstream media is not picking up on stories of companies and entities that are now microchipping their employees as common practice and not sounding an alarm to their readers and listeners to beware of this coming trend. This is something that the world needs to be made aware of, especially members of our Faith Community and Fundamental/Evangelical Christianity who subscribe to the concepts of freedom, truth, Faith and righteousness. Seems that the press is too concerned these days with what President Trump is doing at any given moment; so much so that they are missing and even intentionally bypassing stories of existential importance like the ones I’m about to speak briefly to you about.

In an article written 8/2/2017 by InfoWars Steve Watson entitled, “Creepy: Wisconsin Tech Company Parties After Implanting Employees with Microchips—Citing Need to Control Our Employees,” Watson reported that Wisconsin company “Three Square Market” got consent from her 41-employees to have RFID chips (i.e., Radio Frequency Identification chips) implanted in their hands. Company spokespersons cited a need to give their employees access and control of certain electronic devices and doors to various spaces in the company’s facility.

The company wanted to make it clear that the chipping of Three Square Market employees was purely voluntary. And isn’t that the way the introduction of most technologies and innovations are introduced to the public; that the implementation of such things are initially voluntary with a focus on communicating to the public how and why these products are going to greatly benefit society in the end.

This company cites that microchipping would conceivably be used to identify and even track people by law enforcement personnel as well as entities with a need to know who you are and what your business is in the place that you are found by them at any given moment.

So I thought to myself: well, that’s somewhat disconcerting, but knowing what I know about scripture and the high probability that the mark of the beast as mentioned in Revelation 13:16,17 could actually be implanted microchips, I will certainly not fall for such a shenanigans when microchipping goes full blown mainstream.

Well, that was the sentiment I had until I came across an article posted on qpolitical.com entitled, “NBC Warns All Americans Will Be Microchipped in 3-Years.” The unnamed author gives commentary on the Mark of the Beast and possible connections to that mark being that of microchips. However, I found that the real meat is found in the last two paragraphs of the article. The author rightly says that the government is quietly preparing the public to accept the implantation of microchips in every citizen of this nation.

The article goes on to describe how once the benefits of the new technology is sold to the public by our governments and you then get a few carefree individuals to partake in the technology implementation, all it takes is one major catastrophe like 911 to set the public into panic which in turn would cause the public to demand their government do something to protect her citizens. (Remember how 911 gave birth to the TSA because we demanded that our government protect us and assure us that another 911 would never occur. And it was not long before we citizens gave over total and complete control of our basic human rights to these goons who take great pleasure in demeaning and disrespecting the traveling public.) For the next such catastrophe, our government has an easy solution to address the problem—microchip every citizen of the United States.

The microchipping of every soul in the world becomes no longer a question of “what if” but of “when;” and according to this article we are just 3-years out from the microchipping of every U.S. citizen. It is a fair bet that the rest of the world will not be too far behind in their implementation of microchipping their citizens, if not that they beat the U.S. to the punch and begin microchipping their folks first.

Is microchipping the infamous Mark of the Beast? I don’t rightly know, but it certainly seems suspiciously so right about now, doesn’t it? Our Faith Community as well as Churchianity as a whole, has gone round and about on this question of just what is the Mark of the Beast. For years the prevailing theory of what the Mark of the Beast would be was something akin to what we’re talking about here—at the very least it was surmised to be something like a bar-code that would be imprinted on the hands and heads of every individual in the world in the end times.

Recently a new theory began to emerge throughout many Faith Communities that the Mark of the Beast would not be microchips or bar-codes as originally postulated; instead, the Mark of the Beast would be a written or stenciled form of Allah on the persons of this world and that Islam would control the citizens of this world and by not having this mark, one would be prohibited in buying or selling or working or whatever; that the world’s citizens would have to give over their independence and life to the tenets of Islam or die. And given all that has gone on the last couple years, especially in Europe with the refugee crisis and in the middle east with the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts involving ISIS, this current line of thinking seemed quite compelling to me. In fact, I watched a teaching series by Hebrew Roots teacher Rico Cortes entitled, “Is Islam the Beast?”, aired on the Hebrew Roots Network (i.e., HRN), in which Mr. Cortes’ presented a very compelling argument in favor of the Mark of the Beast being that of Islam.

Regardless which of these theories turns out to be true in the end (or for that matter, maybe it will be a combination of the two), there is no getting around the profound concern that we all should have as it relates to microchipping. At the very least, this thing when fully implemented and foisted upon the citizens of the world, will certainly be a tool to effectively control us and ultimately take our focus away from Yahuah our Elohim.

Let us stay informed, well and blessed as we continue on in this journey. Let us know with the greatest of shalom that our Father remains on the throne and that we have nothing to fear—as long as we stay within the confines of His perfect will.

Part-2-Wars and Rumours of Wars

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: (Mat 24:6-7 KJV)

Have you all been keeping up with the disturbing exchange of inflammatory rhetoric between the United States and North Korea the last week or so? The news media is certainly making much to do about these exchanges, choosing to focus more and criticize President Trump’s eyebrow raising statements related to this crisis.

While addressing reporters’ questions at a news conference in New Jersey this past Tuesday, President Trump stated that North Korea’s threats to use nuclear weapons on the United States would be met with “fire and fury,” the likes of which this world has never seen before. This statement from the president came in response to reports produced by various U.S. intelligence agencies that North Korea possesses miniature warheads that could fit atop some of her ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) and after a few successful test missile launches by North Korea’s military.

Then it was reported yesterday that China is threatening to stop the U.S. if she preemptively strikes North Korea, but that she would stay out of the way if the U.S. were to respond to a first-strike by North Korea on U.S. territories. China also called both sides—the U.S. and North Korea—to remain calm during this crisis.

China is taking the above position for a few reasons: (1) China is North Korea’s primary ally and trading partner and does not want to see any harm come to that relationship. (2) China does not want to see an immigration crisis emerge from a potential war between the U.S. and North Korea nor does China want to see a reunified Korea (i.e., North and South become officially reunited). Both an immigration crisis and reunification of the two Koreas would place tremendous stress upon China and her political and economic systems. Yet China seems to not have enough sway with her trading partner and ally to rein in North Korea’s aggressiveness towards the United States and that creates a problem for the entire world to have to deal with.

North Korea made matters worse this past Thursday by stating her intentions of using Guam as a test target of her nuclear missile program in coming days and weeks. Thus, the U.S. administration is hard pressed to find a military solution to this problem, and there is extremely high risks ramifications associated with any potential U.S. military response. The most glaring risk associated with any potential strike against North Korea’s missile arsenal is a full blown retaliatory military strike or invasion of South Korea by the North.

Having served as a reservist and participated in a couple of Korean military exercises in the 90’s, I can attest to the horrendous problems associated with a Northern strike and invasion of the South—untold lives would be lost and the threat of the conflict spreading beyond the confines of the Korean peninsula to other nations in the region is a certainty. Clearly this Korean conflict has the potential to be a world war igniter and no one wants that—well, with the exception of the military-industrial complex, but that’s a debate for another time and place.

Nevertheless, we were taught by Master that as we draw nearer towards the end times, there would be an uptick in the number and intensity of wars. Where such wars and rumours of wars would take place was not revealed to us by Master. All that Master would say to us is that these things such as we are currently witnessing on the world stage today, are things that must come to pass. He instructed us to not be troubled by such news and to understand that such occurrences are simply means to an end—literally.

As scary and troubling as news like the North Korean conflict may appear to us these days, these things serve as guideposts; landmarks; opportunistic markers for us to take advantage of as we continue on our walk and journey with Yeshua our Messiah. I believe it behooves us to be acutely aware of all that is going on about us and to process these things into their proper Biblical and spiritual perspectives so that we stay focused on the tasks set before us and not be easily distracted.

Thus, let us stay focused, prayed up, fasted up, studied up and understanding of the things that are going on about us at any given time. It is up to us to remain Master’s steadfast servants and disciples.

Part-3-Holiness and Righteousness-Inputted or Practiced

This past week I came across a FaceBook post, along with that posts’ various responses, related to the question of one’s holiness and righteousness and whether or not one should be obedient to Torah. The writer of the post simply posted a commentary on the efficacy and validity of obeying and honoring the food laws and that post of his was met with a great deal of criticism and challenge.

Now the poster of the commentary I believe is an established and learned Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah and his intentions in posting the commentary was strictly to edify and encourage the Body of Messiah to not abandon this area of Torah—that being the instructions given to us by Yahovah relating to what He has deemed as food and what He has deemed as not food. I personally found his commentary to be sound as it relates to my understanding of this aspect of Torah.

The poster’s commentary was met, as I said, with a great deal of criticism and challenge by individuals who I have no idea as to their religious affiliation or Faith Communities. Nevertheless, what was being posted in opposition to this brother’s commentary was nothing short of the standard talking points and retorts to general keeping of Torah and how any thought of believers keeping any aspect of the Law was indicative of that individual’s fall from grace.

I felt bad for this fellow who I believe exercised nothing but noble intentions. So I came to his defense and stated in my often verbose way that that which the man is stating is spot on and instead of members of this FaceBook community criticizing and maligning this gentleman for doing what he as a believer was led by the Spirit to do, consider what the Bible has to say on the subject and not argue their denomination’s stance on the subject.

Much of the opposing side’s arguments against the poster’s food Laws comment involved the concept of holiness and righteousness. The contesters’ positions on the subject of the food laws and whether believers in Yeshua (really believers in Jesus) should continue to honor our Elohim by abstaining from consuming foods that were banned by Father centered upon the doctrines of “grace.”

Liberal, churchianity, as we all know, strongly feel that Torah was done away with upon the death, burial and resurrection of our Master 2,000-years ago. That doing away with the “Law” by the work of the Master was replaced by “grace,” which many have taken upon themselves to fashion into a belief that all righteousness and holiness is inputted—that is granted or bestowed upon us. Thus, there is no reason or purpose in continuing to observe and obey Torah, or as the Church likes to refer to Torah, the Law.

But the truth of the matter is that the Bible makes it clear that we are to be holy. Abba stipulated in His Torah that we are to be holy as He is holy (reference Leviticus 20:7). So as to not incur the criticism of those who would say that Christ had not done away with Torah or the Law when this portion of Leviticus was written, the same sentiment of being holy was spoken and written of by both apostles Paul (Shaul) and Peter (Kefa): that as Spirit-Filled-Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah, from the foundations of the world, we were called to be holy in love (Ephesians 1:4); that we be obedient children who do not conform to the former lusts we had when we lived in ignorance (I Peter 1:14-16). Where is this imputed holiness that churchianity demands that we hang our spiritual hats upon so that we can toss Torah into the scrapheap of history? Not in there now is it?

In terms of righteousness, Paul (Shaul) and James (Ya’achov) taught that Abraham’s faith was of such a high caliber that Father imputed righteousness unto him. Nevertheless, there is no one individual in and of themselves who is righteous according to the writer Paul (Romans 3:10), and the prophet Isaiah goes so far as to insinuate that that which we deem as righteousness when compared to the requirements of righteousness as dictated to us by Father, is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Thus righteousness, according to such individuals, as part of the plan of salvation, has been imputed to us. However, for us to exist and live holy and righteous lives, it becomes a must for every Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah. Peter (Kefa) wrote that we must die to sin and live righteous lives (I Peter 2:24). In other words, we cannot on our own achieve an acceptable level of righteousness to match the requirements of our Heavenly Father. Thus Father, through the agency and work of His Son, Yahoshua Messiah, we were given right standing before Him—that is, righteousness was imputed unto us. This was a gift of the Father to us. Therefore, as a response to that imputed righteousness, we are to tap into Torah as our instruction manual and walk out this walk as Father has prescribed and in so doing we live righteous, holy lives. The Holy Spirit (the Ruach Kodesh) empowers and enables us to live righteous and holy lives in the midst of a perverse and evil world.

Thus when it comes down to something in Torah as simple as eating pork or any other prohibited items deemed not food by the Almighty, it behooves us under the auspices of living holy and acceptable lives unto the service of Yahovah our Elohim, to be obedient to the instructions of Yahuah.

In coming in to this Faith, we gave up our independence and became bond slaves unto the Almighty. Thus we are not our own (I Corinthian 6:19). Whenever I read or hear of anyone saying that we can eat swine, dog, cat, buzzard, shrimp, possum, or any other forbidden items, I understand them to say to all of us in the clearest and loudest of voices, that they belong to themselves and not to Yahovah our Elohim. For Master admonished those of us who belong to the Father and who are His disciples, “ If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15; 2 John 1:6).

Maybe some of us should keep our thoughts to ourselves and not be so quick to reveal our true selves and intentions. Just saying.

Part-4-Controlling our Emotions for the Work of the Kingdom

In episodes 88 and 89 of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections, I touched upon a very important topic and issue to me and that has to do with emotions and how emotions when exploited and improperly displayed can blind us to Truth and steer us off course in the work of the Gospel.

I drew a great deal of my content in these two episodes from my recent experiences having newly arrived here in North Carolina and re-experiencing the Baptist Church of my youth with all her traditions and practices. In these episodes I spoke to a common practice employed by the church of exploiting and manipulating members’ emotions for various and sundry reasons. I also touched upon how some emotions, when sparked, can bring out a side of us that would not be pleasing to Father and that makes for a bad witness for the sake of the Gospel.

Bottom line, our emotions can be problematic and a hindrance to us in the work of the Gospel and in our day-to-day walk with Messiah, if we do not somehow, get control of them. Envy, anger, hatred, fear, self-loathing and the like, are emotions that can often manifest within us and cause us to be blown off spiritual course.

So my thing this week, as I pondered this issue further is to figure out, through Yah’s Word, how we get firm control over our emotions.

When I first began researching this, I came straight away to the 5th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatian Assemblies of Believers. Now Galatians has to be one of the most feared books in the Brit HaDashah (the New Testament) to Messianics, for this is the stronghold book of the anti-Torah crowds of churchianity. But we are not here to discuss whether or not the Book of Galatians contains proof positives that we are not to obey Torah. What we are here for today is to consider ways to get a hold of our emotions

As it turns out, Paul’s letter to the Galatian Assemblies, is believed to have been written in great part by him for purposes of directly addressing the insidious activities of embedded Judaizers in the various Galatian Assembly. Whether it was a single offender or a handful of them, Paul (Shaul), identified a problem that needed addressing by him as the assembly’s spiritual leader.

The specific issue facing the Galatian assemblies appears to be the issue of whether or not it was required of all male converts to the Faith once delivered to be circumcised in order for them to enter into the Faith Community and to be saved. We know that Shaul was addressing a precise issue in his letter here and it was that one issue that was confusing the members of these communities and that issue was circumcision. However, churchianity has taken that specific issue that was being addressed by Paul to develop and spread an anti-Torah agenda to the entire Body of Messiah and they are using Paul’s brilliant prose contained in this letter as the instrument by which they will further their anti-Torah agenda.

For my purposes here today, however, I wish to reflect upon the concept of temperance, which means self-control. Temperance is a behavior that is mentioned as being a “Fruit of the Spirit.” The larger concept of the Fruit of the Spirit is contained in the 5th Chapter of Galatians and they are as follows: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness (humility), temperance (self-control): against such there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23 KJV)

When we talk about being Spirit Filled Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah, the Fruit of the Spirit, these 9 or so fruits (if you will), become expected byproducts of our obedience and honoring of Torah as Yeshua modeled and taught. Why? Because we perfect love for Father and love for one another that we as True Believers and Followers of Yeshua HaMashiyach have been commanded to possess and exercise. Allow me to comment briefly on each of these fruits:

  • Love comes from our worshiping and honoring Abba as He instructed and stipulated in His Torah. Love comes from our treating brother and sister according to the tenets of Torah and denying ourselves the opportunity to covet, envy, taking that which does not belong to us, providing assistance to a brother or sister in need, etc. Love is in great many respects an emotion that is critical to our day-to-day walk in Messiah. However, the emotion of love can easily be influenced, manipulated and exploited in so many different ways. It is up to us as disciples of the Most High to identify what true love is all about and to enact that love accordingly and without compromise.
  • Joy is one of those natural outcroppings that we experience when we are in the complete and full embrace of Yahuah our Elohim—when we know that we are operating in His perfect will; when we honor and obey Him and His Torah and we sense within our very being that we’ve pleased Him. That joy is a joy that the world did not give nor can the world take away from us. The only way that we loose that joy is through the consequences that come out of our own works—especially so when we give that joy over to the enemy. Like love, joy is an emotion that can be easily manipulated, exploited and influenced by the enemy. Joy is a wonderful gift that we must guard and exercise within the confines of the True Faith.
  • Peace becomes a natural outcropping of the love we experience from Abba as He has instructed us to love Him and then love neighbor to the same extent that we love ourselves. Granted, the peace that we receive may be lopsided from time to time as not everyone we love according to Spiritual Torah will reciprocate the same love and behavior. But at least there will be peace within our souls and minds, knowing that we’ve pleased our Father in heaven and did what we were supposed to do as His beloved children.
  • Patience comes once we realize that we are living amongst and dealing with individuals from the human race: we are flawed creatures who are continuous works in progress and not all of us are where we should be in terms of a being like our Master. Thus, we must learn forgiveness and patience and understanding. Otherwise, we stand always in a place of impatience and frustration and that is not a good place to be.
  • A natural outcropping of treating one another the way Spiritual Torah instructs us to is the gentleness that we display towards one another. We become patient and kindness toward those who may not be at a similar place in the Faith that we are. At some level we understand what may be going on with and within them as they seek Truth; we see that we were in their current position at one point in our journey; we better appreciate that Abba has delivered us and fashioned us and moved us from the place that a struggling brother or sister may currently be holed up in. Thus we empathize and maybe even sympathize with one another. Besides, being jerks towards one another only exacerbates an already miserable situation and opens the door for the enemy to do his thing in our lives.
  • Living and walking and loving Spiritual Torah can only bring about good things—goodness—nuf said.
  • Trusting—having an unshakable faith–that Abba will deliver and sustain and provide for all our needs is part and parcel of the relationship we are to have with the Most High—nuf said.
  • Humility comes when we abandon the stuffiness that so many of us carry around with us, especially those of us who take pride in accumulating knowledge and understanding that we use to beat one another over the head with whenever such opportunities present themselves. Such behavior actually nets us very little in the Kingdom. Such behavior only serves to puff us up and cause us to loose track of our purpose in the work of the Gospel. Have we not been called to be servants and to serve (Matthew 20:27; 23:11).
  • Self-control is essentially dying to self and being led by the Ruach Kodesh (i.e., the Holy Spirit). Bottom line: this is what this portion of the post is all about—self-control—something that I definitely need to constantly monitor and exercise as it relates to my emotions.

Galatians 5, verses 19-21 lists unGodly behaviors that should not be named among the true people of Yahuah. Paul warns that the exercising of these behaviors, and I should mention a few of these behaviors are considered emotions; that the exercising of these behaviors places us in the terrible position of eventually not having the opportunity of sharing in the Kingdom of Yahovah.

Yet so many of us go about each day of our lives, being emotional about so many things, and actually making a spiritual fool of ourselves. In so doing, we sully our witness as disciples of Yeshua Messiah and slowly but surely lose our place in the coming Kingdom of Yahovah.

Folks, this is serious stuff. If we are constantly envious of others; if we are always bitter and angry and disgusted of others, and we allow our emotions to consume us to the point that we are no longer any good to the cause of the Kingdom, then we can say goodbye to the bright future that was promised to us in the world tomorrow by Master Yahushua. We have to get a hold of our emotions and practice temperance—self-control—and that is facilitated in great part by the working of the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Ruach Kodesh) in our lives (verses 22 and 23).

Paul reminds us in verse 24 of the same 5th chapter, that if we have truly become Yahushua’s disciples; that we’ve forsaken our old master—self and hasatan—if we are truly Master Yeshua’s disciple, then we should have left our old natures at the spiritual door when we signed up to serve. In verse 26 of the same 5th chapter, Shaul counsels us that if we’ve not done so, that we abandoned those things–those habits and emotions that hinder our walk in Messiah.

I know that this may seem like an impossible task, but gaining control over those troublesome emotions I have found is doable if we are willing to give it all up for the work of the Gospel of the Kingdom and for the love of Yeshua our Messiah.

So I’ve taken the liberty of sketching out a personal plan of action to deal with my emotions that I hope will somehow aid you in your journey towards achieving complete control of your emotions.

  1. Like with any 12-step like recovery program, the first step in gaining control of one’s emotions is to first acknowledge that I have a problem controlling my emotions. I love Paul’s commentary on this step: CJB Romans 12:3 For I am telling every single one of you, through the grace that has been given to me, not to have exaggerated ideas about your own importance. Instead, develop a sober estimate of yourself based on the standard which God has given to each of you, namely, trust. (Rom 12:3 CJB) Thus Paul is saying to me that I must get past my own perceived self-importance and conduct a “sober (serious) estimate of myself based upon the standard which Yahuah our Elohim has give to us which is trust” and Torah the way Master taught and modeled it.
  2. Understand how our lack of control over our emotions hinders our walk with Messiah by sullying our witness; taking the focus away from Abba and placing it on us as individuals and others; hiding Truth from us; and causing us to stumble and violate Torah and the instructions of our Master. I do not have a scriptural backing for this step, but this should regardless be obvious. In my case if I am constantly dealing with my internal struggles and I squirrel myself off to the side and away from the place where I should be operating, then I am forfeiting my identity and purpose in the kingdom. If I allow my emotions to control my behavior and worldview, then the Spirit (i.e., the Ruach) cannot effectively guide my steps nor can I identify Truth when it stares me in the face.
  3. Determine to do something about the problem—whatever it takes—to mitigate or completely eliminate the threat. I say to develop a plan of action that would address each emotional issue that I’m struggling with. If I know that I am a hothead, then maybe I need to start looking at the situations where my hotheadedness stand the greatest chances of being manifested and maybe avoid those places and situation for instance.
  4. Take action to address the problem:
  5. Prayer and fasting.
  6. Study of Scripture to better understand that which is expected of us. Certainly being a hothead is not conducive to being an effective witness for Yeshua Messiah. If someone contradicts me or maligns me and my character, for instance, over something I may say or write, it benefits the Kingdom of Yahuah if I simply walk away and choose to disagree with that individual; to no longer engage that individual; to instead pray for that individual to eventual come to see the error of his or her ways. I have witnessed way too many FaceBook fights over the last few years; fights over issues and topics that in the big scheme of things mean very little to the Body of Messiah. Yet hot heads feel that they have to defend their understanding of the Gospel and they launch into a tirade against the opposing individual over the contested issue. All that results from the brutal exchange is bruised egos and unbridled anger and resentment for all concerned. The Bible takes emotions out of the equation. Our work in the Kingdom is not nor should it not be fueled by our emotions, with the sole exception of love, where love of Father and love of one another is the overarching foundation of Torah itself.
  7. Avoid situations, places and even people that create the potential of igniting my emotions.
  8. Let the Ruach take full control of my life—walk in the Spirit—operate in the Spirit—pray in the Spirit. Paul (Shaul) writes in Galatians 5, verse 16, that if I walk in the Spirit of the Most High, then I will not run the risk of defaulting to my old ways.
  9. Exercise militaristic self-control—yet remain vulnerable enough that I may work the work that has been given to me to do and not be numb to the leading of the Holy Spirit and the needs of others.

A more encapsulated method for controlling my emotions is by seeking the Kingdom of Yah first and foremost in my life along with seeking out His righteousness. In so doing, everything else of any concern will otherwise fall right into its proper place, including any needed control of my emotions or other troublesome behaviors.

Part-5-Closing Thoughts and Reflections

This Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections episode was more a lesson to me than a lesson to anyone else. Yet it is my heartfelt hope, trust and prayer that the content of this episode will be of some eternal spiritual use to you as you walk this narrow arduous path with Yeshua Messiah.

As I’ve said in so many previous episodes of this program, we are all on individual journeys with Messiah, but we are also a body—a living breathing body that happens to be also on a journey with Mashiyach. Whatever I can do to help edify and exhort the Body of Messiah as I explore these topics and issues of relevance to our Faith is in accordance with my obedience to Messiah and my good pleasure as I serve the Kingdom of Yahovah.

As we embark upon a new week and ask Father for the strength to make it through to the next Sabbath, I ask Father to let not His precious Holy Spirit leave us; that His Spirit abide in us ever so strongly such that our way is made clear and our obedient efforts remain effective and true. The funny thing is that I, like all of you hopefully, have the Spirit dwelling within me and thus I have available to me all the strength and authority required to overcome my old nature and to control my emotions. I just need to get out of the way and allow the Spirit to work His work in me unimpeded. Unfortunately, a great deal of the time I don’t get out of the Ruach’s way or I end up second guessing or even ignoring the leading of the Ruach when I most need Him in my life. Again, it’s that temperance—that self-control—that comes into play here.

May you walk in the power and might of His Holy Spirit this week. Until next time, may you be most blessed fellow saints in training. Shavuatov. Warmest shalom. This is Rod signing out.

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The Rule of Emotions Over the Lives of Certain Christians-STAR-89

by | Aug 6, 2017 | Blog, Podcasts

The Rule of Emotions Over the Lives of Certain Christians-STAR-89

The Rule of Emotions Over the Lives of Certain Christians--STAR-89

by Rod Thomas | Sabbath Thoughts & Reflections

Part-1–The Rule of Emotions Over the Lives of Certain Christians

In following up with my last Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections post (episode 88—”When Tradition Overrides Truth and Reason”), I explored how some of the traditions of the church (namely the modern Southern Baptist Church) seemed to override and supersede many biblical truths and in some cases even commonsense and spiritual reasoning. I reflected upon the things that I had witnessed that transpired in and around the passing of one of my close, dear family members and how many of the traditions and practices of the Baptist Church related to the passing of members of the Baptist Community are not in any way biblically-based and that some of those things defied what I would say is general reasoning. These things—these traditions and practices–are part and parcel of my upbringing in the Baptist Church of my youth and at the time of my upbringing, I of course, bought into all of these traditions and practices lock-stock-and barrel without question. Why would one question such sketchy traditions and practices when members of the Baptist Community have been taught from birth to not question the ways and things of the Church because those ways and things were biblical and had always been. Questioning the traditions and practices of the Church was tantamount to questioning God Himself, and everyone knows that one does not question God—for the Church and God are essentially one and both are sovereign and authoritative.

In many parts of this community, the pastors, ministers, evangelists, and teachers of the church are believed to hear directly from God and Jesus Christ and what they say and do is relatively infallible. Thus those anti-biblical traditions and practices remain entrenched in the fabric of the Baptist Church Community to this day.

I must mention one thing that I did witness throughout the course of this journey of mine related to the Baptist Community: there are a small handful of members of this community that are becoming more and more emboldened to question many of those established practices and traditions. This I found to be a relatively positive thing, for when one is able to move beyond the fear of questioning why he or she do the things he or she does or believe the things that are taught in one’s chosen Faith they’ve taken the first step in establishing their journey on the path towards finding Truth—that is, if finding Truth is important to that individual. Indeed, I have come across many folks during my stay here who are in absolutely no rush to find Truth, or for that matter, to establish a true and substantive relationship with the Creator of the Universe. For these individuals, it is more important to maintain traditions, practices and culture than to find and live out Truth and have a personal relationship with the Almighty. Nevertheless, I am encouraged that there appears to be that remnant that is actually reading their bibles and who are beginning to perceive that the things that they once held as sacred in the Church may not be as sacred as they’d always been taught or have believed them to be.

In my reflections on some of the traditions of the Baptist Church of my youth (mainly centered around death and eternal life), I touched upon how some of these traditions and practices that I observed seemed to target the emotions of the members of Baptist Faith Community. I found this focus and targeting of emotions to be such a powerful and prominent thing that I have been led to reflect upon it in this episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections. It is clear to me, dear Saints of the Most High, that human emotions have such massive potential to be exploited by people and things that may be good and holy and beneficial, just as they can be exploited by people and things that are bad, evil and damaging to us.

Clearly, the enemy from the very beginning identified the power that emotions can and do have over us as human beings. This is of course not to say that emotions are a bad thing: on the contrary, I believe that our emotions were implanted in us by our Creator and they were given to us for purposes that would glorify and honor Yahweh/Yahovah/Yahuah—as strange as that may seem.

Part-2–Just What Are Emotions Anyway?

 

Google defines emotions as that of “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.” They are described as feelings and sentiments. They are instinctive and intuitive and are separate from reasoning and knowledge.

In episode 88 of this program I mentioned that traditions and many of the practices of the Baptist Church played heavily upon the emotions of the members of the community, which I believe in great part has blinded the members from Truth and distracted them from sound reasoning. Now, this reality does not only apply to the Baptist Church; it applies to any denomination, faith or religion in existence today. The difference between them, us and the world is that Abba’s grace was extended to us such that we received the True Gospel and committed to walk according to the covenant and provisions set forth in His Torah.

So it’s not that these well meaning, precious believers in Jesus Christ are bad people; on the contrary, they are simply blinded to the Truth and it will take an outright act of Yahovah to loosen the scales from their eyes just as happened to Shaul (i.e., Paul) on that Damascus road shortly after the ascension of our beloved Master (i.e., reference Acts 9).

 

But back to emotions. The definition contends that emotions are natural and instinctive feelings and sentiments that are derived from one’s circumstances, moods and relationships with others. The traditions and practices of churchianity certainly attach themselves to members’ emotions and they work effectively to keep members of the denominational community in spiritual bondage.

Question: Why do so many people in this community go to church every Sunday? What are they looking for?

Well, there are a number of reasons why members of this community go to church each week, but the primary reasons I believe are to get an emotional fix for the week ahead and get an emotional release from past, present and perceived future challenges and problems. They want to feel better about themselves and their life’s situations. So they want their souls to be stirred and their fears allayed. Mind you, there is no obvious stated desire to learn the ways of their Creator. It’s all about having their emotions tickled and manipulated and  I would submit that many of these folks are addicted to having their emotions tickled and manipulated. Thus, the point of attending church each week is all about them as individual members of their Faith Community and God is relegated to a secondary and even a tertiary place in the reasoning matrix of their minds and souls.

The other primary reason why these individuals attend church each week is because the local culture requires it. Many individuals attend churches down here each week because that is what you do every first-day of the week—you go to church—it’s the proper thing to do. Again, God is found nowhere in their decision-making matrix for attending.

Now, I came across a few lists of emotions on the internet and most of the listed emotions are pretty obvious. There seems to be three-general lists that are regarded in the realm of psychology: “Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions;” “Aristotle’s Rhetoric;” and Darwin’s, “The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals.” Many of the individual emotions found on these three-lists are repeated on these respective lists. I will not burden you by mentioning and exploring all of the emotions from these three-lists, but I would like to explore just two of these emotions that denominational churchianity seems to target most. Unfortunately the fallout from the exploitation of these emotions sadly impedes the True Gospel message from reaching the ears of the members of the Church Community.

Joy--The Fun Emotion--Right?

Part-3–Joy—The Fun Emotion—Right

The first emotion that I’ve seen exploited is “joy.” Certain church traditions and practices target the members’ desire to feel better about their present life situation. Thus the preaching and singing is fashioned to incite joy in the members.

I came across 155-verses in the KJV (i.e., King James Version) where joy is mentioned.

Joy denotes “gladness,” “exaltation,” and “rejoicing.” And if you’ve never had the experience of attending charismatic Christian denomination services, you’ve missed something that is distinctively American and generally of African American origin. Joy, exaltation and rejoicing is part-and-parcel of charismatic church services. There is customarily a feeling of exuberance and happiness that spreads throughout the congregation like a wildfire as a result of the heart-pounding, soul-stirring music and forceful preaching that is expertly dispensed by some very talented and motivated individuals.

Clearly, joy is a welcomed and revered emotion in this setting. The healthy-minded individual would prefer to be joyful than sad, grief-stricken or in despair. Thus the leaders of denominational churchianity realize this and they seize upon every opportunity during such church gatherings to elicit joy from their members for various and sundry reasons to include dropping a few more dollars into the offering plates. The methods employed by the singers and preachers to bring about joy among members of their congregations are generally centered around well-crafted promises to members that everything in their members’ lives is going to be alright—one way or another—and that there is coming a day when they will live out eternity in the happiest place in existence—heaven. The problem with this situation is that 9-times out of 10, the story lines that are being put forth to these members as a means to elicit joy, are not based on biblical Truths and or sound reason. Promises that members are going to heaven and that things are going to be alright in the morning, regardless how bad those things might be at the moment; regardless the lawlessness that reigns in the members’ lives; regardless the lack of obedience to Yahovah’s instructions defy commonsense and established biblical principles.

I guess it is preferable to hear about happy and fun things than to hear of stark truths that require us to conform to Father’s instructions and not our own. The joy that comes from true service to Father lasts throughout one’s earthly life—as opposed to joy that is based upon lies and misinterpretations.

Although joy is not mentioned in Torah, joy is mentioned throughout the remainder of the Tanakh (i.e., the Old Testament) and the writers firmly suggests that true joy is had by the people of Yahuah who focus their attention upon Father. In other words, joy that is centered on the individual and what that individual is going to get from God is not of Abba, but biblically-based joy is focused on Yahuah our Elohim exclusively and it is that exclusive focus on the Creator of the Universe that pays dividends to the worshiper whereby they receive a happiness and joy that the world can not fully and truly comprehend.

For us Spirit-Filled Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah, obedience to Abba’s way of life as stipulated in His perfect Torah, brings about a joy that is indescribable—certainly contrary to the understanding of the secular world and denominational churchianity. These entities see any adherence to Torah as bondage and legalistic drudgery. But the truth of the matter is that observance and obedience to Torah—Torah observance from the heart that is done by the Believer in Yeshua because he or she truly loves the Father and wants to please Him at every opportunity—brings about true everlasting joy. Reliance upon the protection, provision and spiritual guidance of Yahuah our Elohim brings about joy. Knowing that we are Abbah’s chosen and that we have a special purpose in His plan for mankind brings about joy. Our joy is not born on lies and scriptural misinterpretations.

Just a simple perusal of the 155 or so verses where joy is found in the Holy Writ strongly suggests that joy—true joy—comes from Yahweh, our Elohim. True joy does not come from man nor does it come from convenient man-centered circumstances such as stirring Church services. That joy is fleeting at best and is easily diminished and even destroyed once reality kicks in.

As it relates to our responsibility in this joy thing, it certainly does not fall upon a reliance of man to bring us joy. Instead, the Prophet Habakkuk, suggests that we rejoice and find joy in the God of our salivation (Habakkuk 3:18). Furthermore, one’s joy should not be contingent upon the preaching and singing of the Church, but instead, it must flow from Yahuah our Elohim to us and from us outward to Yahuah. Shaul (i.e., Paul) wrote that we should rejoice in Yahovah always (reference Philippians 4:4), regardless what is going on in our lives at any given time. This is certainly not an easy thing to do and it stands to reason why so many Christians default and turn to the Church to find joy. We humans love to take paths of least resistance don’t we?

I am working each day to be joyful in the things of Yahuah and my Master. It is that joy that we have within us through our obedience and relationship with the Most High that wins the spiritual battles that each of us must fight in each day.

Part-4–Fear—The Darkest Emotion

The fact that joy and other emotions are not given much parchment space in Torah tells me that being a Spirit Filled Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah is not—should not—be influenced by his or her emotions. Emotions when they are activated have a tendency to turn one’s focus to self and away from the Almighty and that just doesn’t end well for anybody now does it? No it does not.

That’s not to say that we, then, exist as lifeless, one-dimensional creatures that portray our beloved Faith as appealing as a root-canal to the outside world. The joy that we naturally receive from honoring and pleasing Abba will sufficiently fuel the essential Gospel message to an evil, dying world, to turn from lawlessness to Yahovah’s way of life and to lean not to the Church’s understanding.

The second emotion that comes readily to mind when we speak of the Church along with her traditions and practices and the influence that they have over the emotions of her members and the community is fear.

I would venture to guess that fear has probably been the most exploited of emotions in all of Church history. The one thing that generally incites fear in members of the Church is the tradition and doctrine of heaven and hell—that is, if you are saved, you go to heaven; if you are not saved, you burn for an eternity in hell. No one wants to spend an eternity burning in the fires of hell, especially if you’ve been taught since birth these traditions and doctrines. Using such erroneous teachings by leaders of the Church that are devoid of any Biblical support, is tantamount to witchcraft. It is essentially a ploy to control the members of the Church Community and Master taught against that.

Fear of eternal damnation then becomes a powerful motivator for the members of the community to “straighten up and fly right;” and it doesn’t hurt the Church’s bottom line either as people will give a little more to the organization to ensure that their fears of going straight to hell are allayed. It then becomes a practice of buying one’s salvation from the Church.

Back in the day, the Universal Church (i.e., the Catholic Church) used fear of being excommunicated from the Church or denying certain individuals communion to keep the people in check.

There are some 395-verses in the KJV where the term fear is mentioned in one form or another. In some instances, fear is used to denote a concern that something or someone is a threat to one’s wellbeing. In other instances, fear is used to denote more of a reverence and high regard for our God or some individual of influence and power.

The common theme that plays out throughout most of the Bible is one of not exercising fear of men or things from the perspective that one has concern for his or her wellbeing. Scripture teaches that our God will protect, provide and rescue us from any potential problems we may encounter in life. This of course requires that the individual in question is obedient to Yahuah our Elohim and that he or she is completely reliant and subservient to Him and Him alone.

The second part of the biblical concept of fear has to do with reverence and high regard for our God and it is Him that we are to honor and fear in like manner.

Yet the Church Triumphant, instead of training and teaching her parishioners how to fear God through Torah observance, chooses to teach her people to fear what will happen to them if they don’t say a sinner’s pray; join the rolls of the Church; give offerings and tithes; and attend Church every Sunday. Father has stipulated in the tenets of His perfect Torah how He wishes to be treated as our Sovereign. Man has chosen to step in and usurp the authority of Scripture and tell man what and how they are to fear both man and our God.

In the 25th chapter of Leviticus, Father instructs us to treat one another fairly, according to the provisions set forth in His Torah, such that no individual should ever fear harm from another. The only Being to be feared, more so from a reverence standpoint, but also from the standpoint of being concerned that we might cross Him by violating His Torah is Yah. There are instances strewn throughout Torah where Abba instructed us not to fear the enemy but instead rely upon His strong arm to protect and deliver (cf. Deuteronomy 1:21 and others). We see an example in Torah where the nations once feared us because of our God (Numbers and Deuteronomy). Further along in the Book of Revelation we see that two mighty men of Yahuah will bring the fear of God back to the nations of this earth (Revelations 11:11).

Bottom line: fear has a proper place in the lives of God’s people and it is not up to man to exploit this essential emotion for purposes of furthering the ambitions of the Church. If anyone should be fearful it is those who profess to know the Creator of the Universe and who have vowed to teach and preach the Truth, but who, instead, have chosen to replace Yahovah’s authority over their members’ lives with that of the Church and to seek personal gain in the form of influence and power over the people. These individuals have a very dark and miserable future ahead of them if they do not teshuvah–that is turn to Yah’s way of life for mankind.

I pray for those confused and encumbered souls in Churchianity who have succumbed to fear and given their lives over to the influences of denominationalism. These are victims of hasatan and slaves to religion who don’t know any better. It is up to us to somehow get out into the rippened fields and work and tell the Truth to these enslaved souls.

 

I have decided to answer the call and challenge denominationalism as Yahuah my Elohim leads and directs. It is one thing for me to stay within the relatively safe confines of Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah fellowship, but is that truly fulfilling the great commission of Master Yahoshua as recorded in Matthew 28:19. This is exactly what Master did when He walked the dusty highways and byways of Judea and surrounding provinces—he taught and preached the True Gospel message with power and authority to imprisoned souls. He didn’t keep that message exclusively within the confines of His inner circle, nor did His handpicked disciples who became the great Apostles of Yeshua Messiah. They went out into a hostile Jewish environment and delivered the Gospel.

So many of us fear going out into the highways and byways of the world and enacting the Great Commission as instructed. Instead, many of us stay only within the safe confines of our fellowships or to ourselves. That’s not what we’ve been commissioned to do and I personally am fearful that I stand to miss that precious opportunity to do what Master has instructed me—us–to do. Time is quickly passing us by and eventually each of us is going to have to give an account for that which Master has appointed us to. I reflect upon the parable of the talents as recorded in Matthew 25. We have each been given a set of unique gifts and opportunities that more times than naught have been left unused and not worked. That’s not something that we can afford to squander. Master is counting on us to do that which we agreed to do when we signed up for this journey.

Fear--The Darkest Emotion

Part-5–The Rule of Emotions in the Hebrew Roots Community

Far too many of us erroneously believe that simply filling our heads with the latest and greatest Torah tidbits—minutia—the net result of going deep; of digging; of splitting scriptural atoms—far too many of us believe that we are effectively doing the will of Master Yahoshua. Some of us who fall into this realm ultimately come to a place in our walk where we abandon the teachings and example of Master and dive headlong into Judaistic, religiosity; and we engage in pointless babble and debate that does not serve the Kingdom of Yahuah at all. What does the accumulation of too much knowledge do? It puffs up (reference I Corinthians 8:1). The Apostle Paul (i.e., Shaul) suggested that instead of valuing head knowledge as it relates to Torah, it is better to exercise charity.

Emotions not only harm our cousins in churchianity, they also create havoc in the Hebrew Roots Community. Our community has some of the most angry, bitter, sad, disgusted, envious, shameful, grief-stricken and hateful people you could ever find in any religious circle outside of radical Islam. It is truly a sad situation to behold.

Simply consider FaceBook where we have so many Hebrew Roots-based communities in existence, and the members of these various communities are constantly at war with one another. We tend to wear our Faith on our sleeves in such communities and it doesn’t take much to fire some of us up over some of the most innocuous issues and topics. Just a few months ago, I had one brother who I had been FaceBook friends with for well over a year, swapping varying and frequent posts on various issues and topics related to our Faith, who out of the blue berated me for using the title “God” in one of my posts. I mean he lit into me and ceremoniously unbefriended me in FaceBook public—so to speak. I had another so-called brother in the Faith call me a heretic and heathen in FaceBook public because I did not agree with his posted Lunar Sabbath ideas. And still, there are countless others in our Faith who have been beaten down by other members of our beloved Faith for the goofiest of things. 

As supposed Spirit Filled Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah, we should not in the least be influenced by our emotions. If anything and if one considers love to be an emotion (which Aristotle considered it to be), then that is the one emotion that we should constantly be displaying towards one another. We can never love Father and one another enough.

Our Faith Community cannot stand the coming storm of the end times if we are slaves to our emotions. It’s quite clear to me: if we fear; if we are always angry; if we are constantly sad and disgusted; if we are envious of others those who have this and that and we don’t; if we have low self-esteem, then we are essentially setting ourselves up for spiritual and even physical failure.

You see, the carnal world doesn’t have time to deal with all our insecurities and lack of integrity. The world is secure in their way of life and if we are trying to show the world that what we have is better than what they currently have, yet we are living contrary to the acclamation that Abba’s way is the one true path to the life abundant, then we will be made to appear as fools in the eyes of the nations.

Rod Thomas

Part-6–Closing Thoughts and Reflections

I don’t know about you, but I do not want to fail Master. I don’t want to finish this life that Abba has given me and not accomplish something of eternal significance. There are many things that can stymie the accomplishment of Yah’s will for our lives. I hope I have competently shown in this post, the negative influence that emotions have over our lives and how they have the potential to impede Abba’s will in our lives.

One of the things that every Believer is wanting to hear when they stand before the King is “well done thy good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things; enter into the joy of the Master (reference: Matthew 25:21-23).” If we allow emotions to rule over our lives, there is a good chance that many of us will not hear these words from the Master, but instead hear “depart from me you worker of lawlessness (reference Luke 13:27).” Now that is something to genuinely fear.

I personally have a problem controlling some of my emotions. I am not afraid to admit this. I don’t want you to think that I am an emotional basket case because that is certainly not me. But I must confess that I have need of the Spirit (i.e., the Ruach) to mold me into image of Master Yahoshua such that I am able to control my emotions better and that they do not interfere in my day-to-day walk with Master. I don’t wish to lack in anything in this Faith. I am in this for the long haul and in this to win it. I seek to see this thing to its perfect end so that I can hear my Savior say to me well done good and faithful servent.

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When Tradition Overrides Truth and Reason–Sabbath Thoughts & Reflection-88

by | Jul 30, 2017 | Blog, Podcasts

When Tradition Overrides Truth and Reason–Sabbath Thoughts & Reflection-88

When Tradition Overrides Truth and Reason

by Rod Thomas | Sabbath Thoughts & Reflections 88

KJV Mark 7:1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.1

3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.1

4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.1

5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.1

(Mar 7:1-9 KJV)

This is Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections—episode 88—When Tradition Overrides Truth and Reason—Shalom and Welcome.

Part-1-When Tradition Overrides Truth and Reason

If you by chance listened to or read the previous two or so episodes of this program, you may recall that I had embarked upon a new chapter in my life and that is relocating to the extreme opposite end of the country to care for my ailing folks. I also mentioned in the previous episode that one of those family members had actually passed away, now going on two-weeks ago. Needless to say, it was quite a jolt to my family and I, especially to me, not expecting the death to occur at all. Things took such a quick turn for the worse within a very abbreviated period of time such that I could not catch my breath before my loved one’s passing became a reality. I was not devastated over the loss, but I was profoundly affected and I have since had my time of mourning and grief and am looking to move forward in life, within the Will of Yahuah my Elohim, carrying with me the memories of my lost loved one.

The loss of my loved one, as sudden and profound as it was to me personally, it did not devastate me as I thought that it might. It did not take long for me to have peace about about the loss, even shortly after learning that he had taken his last breath during the early hours of two-Sunday mornings. The only regret I have was that I was not there physically by his side when he transitioned from this life.

Contrary to the statements and multitude of emotional pronouncements made by various members of the family and friends upon learning of the passing, I of course knew that my loved one’s soul had not gone up to heaven or that he had entered the glory of Jesus Christ. This was the traditional belief of the Baptist Church of my youth: that when one dies, if they have said the sinner’s prayer and are members of the local church and have been baptized in Jesus’ name and live a moderately holy and righteous life (whatever that actually means to individuals in the church), they are destined for heaven and the glory that is Jesus Christ. Of course, those who had not said the sinner’s prayer, who had not affiliated with the local church, had not been baptized and who had continued throughout their lives to live unrighteously (whatever that actually means to individuals in the church), would be destined to spend an eternity in hell. Yet, in all the years that I spent in the Baptist Church of my youth, and despite all of the funerals that I had attended over the course of those years, I had never heard a eulogy or passing words from family and friends condemning such to hell. Even the most ardent anti-church, anti-religion folks were happily assigned to spend eternity in heaven. I am not sure how that could be, given the foundational teachings and doctrines related to heaven and hell in the Baptist Church, but everyone seems to be getting a free pass to heaven and of course, they are said to have fought the good fight and ran that tough race that leads to eternity in heaven, regardless how they lived their life on this planet, or how much they rejected the things of God throughout their lives.

And we’re just talking about the deceased loved one; the ones left behind and how they process and react to the passing is another story altogether. Having been absent from the Baptist Church with all her trappings for 30+-years, I had not thought much about the traditions of the Baptist Church, especially the traditions that encapsulate death and dying. Having been suddenly reintroduced to many of those traditions at the passing of my family member, I found myself catapulted back to a time of innocence when I readily accepted all the things that I was now witnessing transpire in front of me; the traditions; the trappings; the practices; the talk about death and dying. And all these traditions, trappings, practices and talking carry with them the power and authority of the Holy Scriptures and the Baptist Church—or so everyone seems to think.

As I was watching and experiencing all these things transpire before me over the course of a week, I found myself utterly amazed that I had once bought into these things lock-stock-and barrel. And there I was, sitting off to the side, and watching and listening, as these traditions took center-stage and people were tightly embracing and exploiting them to their greatest potential—all seeming to incite and tickle and manipulate the emotions of all in attendance. Indeed, at the end of the proverbial day, it all came down to emotions—everything was based upon emotions. Unfortunately, reason and truth were left outside in the heat of the day, never once being invited in to help bring us mourners to a place of peace and hope and love in Yeshua Messiah. It was an eye-opener for me; yet more so, it was an invaluable experience that showed me just how monolithic and all encompassing traditions were in this region of the country. For no where in the Holy Writ could one find, not even remotely find, the things that the pastors, ministers, teachers and laity were putting forth to the family during their hour of grief. Yet the things that these individuals were serving up to the family and friends of our dearly departed, carried with them the same, if not greater, authority than that which is recorded in the Bible.

Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

Before I continue, I wish to make it perfectly clear that this reflection is in no way an indictment or judgment against Baptist Christians. Most of the individuals who I witnessed as being part and parcel of the traditions displayed in response to my loved one’s death are well meaning and sincere individuals who happen to be sincerely misguided and blind to the errors of their ways. These various practices and traditions have been passed down from generation to generation and for all practical intents and purposes, these traditions and practices are all they know. They have been trained not to question denominational authority (namely the bishops, pastors and ministers) in any perceived theological matters.

Thus, with this belief and tradition of not questioning the teachings and beliefs of the church, add to that the perceived primacy of the church’s leadership on all things related to the Baptist faith, the folks who are part and parcel of these practices and traditions are essentially in bondage to their religion: it’s just that simple and obvious to me. The tragedy in all this is that few to none of the laity are interested in cracking open the dusty and yellowed pages of their bibles to actually read and understand “thus says Yahuah.” Apart from general laziness, one wonders why, given the importance of church life to the majority of citizens in this region of the country, why does the average lay member refuse to read and or study their bibles? Well, the answer is relatively obvious: the lay members have been trained from virtually birth, that one must have a teacher (namely the Pastor or a minister) to explain the bible to them in order for them to understand what the Creator of the Universe is saying to His people.

Hmmm, this sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? Did not the universal church (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church) during her infancy and even into her adolescence and young adulthood, forbid the laity from reading their bibles; teaching them instead, that all they will ever need to know about things of the faith will be revealed and taught to them by the church leadership? Although nowhere near the dire straits that members of the universal church found themselves facing if they were caught with a copy of the scriptures in their possession back in the day, today, one may possess several copies and translations and or iterations of the Holy Writ, but the church for all intents and purposes discourages her members from reading their bibles outside the doors of their communities’ sanctuaries. Oh, the church may host bible studies and Sunday School classes each week, but the bible passages being studied during those sessions are canvased over with denominational commentary and instructions; so much so that the actual bible passage in question is just a very small side note to the whole study.

So then, it seems pretty obvious to me that there is a firmly ingrained system in full operation here, as there is no doubt a very similar system operating in hundreds if not thousands of communities throughout the Bible-belt and around the nation. Denominational religion fosters traditions that cannot be easily challenged and certainly not overturned, even when truth and reason clearly trumps the viability and sanctity of the dozens of traditions and practices of these churches.

Therefore, who am I to judge or spiritually indict anyone for following the traditions and practices and belief system of their chosen religion, especially in the Baptist Church of my youth? Master taught that making judgments of others is not the job of the Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah, contrary to what so many in our Faith community practice. Master taught: KJV Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. (Mat 7:1-5 KJV)

Thus I am convicted to watch my thoughts, words and heart as it relates to the cultural traditions of the people that I grew up around and even participated in. It was by the grace of Abba that the True Gospel message was revealed to me and that the Ruach HaKodesh moved within me to open my eyes and heart to accept those truths. Otherwise, I could just as well be embracing the many traditions and practices of the dear folks that I am now living amongst here in the Southeastern U.S. And let me just say: these are truly dear and genuine (in most cases) people who in many ways, put some of us to shame as it relates to their zeal for their Faith and their love for one another and the god they worship. Despite their lack of understanding of the truth as recorded in our bible and delivered to us by Father’s appointed ones, the lives they live—absent their sinful ways, just like us—speaks volumes about the caliber of individuals they are. I just think in the most wishful and hopeful of ways, that if these individuals were in the position to hear and accept the true Gospel message, oh what mighty warriors would the Kingdom of Yahuah gain!

Tradtions that Snuff Out the Truth

The very thing that came to my mind in the midst of my observing the various traditions and practices of the church and the people in this community, reacting to the passing of my loved one, is the passage of the Brit HaDashah where Master was confronted with a similar reality of traditions that stifle and snuff out Truth, was the event where He confronted the sages and Pharisees over their assigning primacy of tradition over that of Torah.

Yeshua here confronts the so-called sages and Pharisees about their traditions and practices that snuff out the Truth of Torah and the ways of the Creator. Rood’s Chronology places this event on the high-holy day of the Feast of Trumpets (sometime around 9/21/27) in Kfar Nahum. Of course this would seem most appropriate in terms of timing, assuming Rood’s Chronology is accurate, because Trumpets is a reminder of Yahuah verbally delivering Torah to us as we stood at the base of Mount Sinai.

As we stood there, huddled together, trembling at the sights and sounds transpiring before our uninitiated eyes and ears and souls, and knowing from the very depths of our being, that we were having an undeniable encounter with the Creator of the Universe, it became clear that our acceptance of Yahovah’s ways—His Torah—His instructions—was an all or nothing contract that was signed in blood (Exodus 24:8). With that covenant and instruction came also the understanding that we were not to add to or subtract from Abba’s instructions and commandments and that we were simply to trust Him and do according to His Word without question and without compromise. And looking ahead in the future, as Rood writes: “…the Almighty promised to send The Prophet in the future to show us the true path.” (Rood, Chronological Gospels)

The passage reads: “Then sages and Prushim, which were from Yerushalayim, came to Yahoshua saying, ‘Why do your disciples transgress the takanot of antiquity (i.e., the traditions of the elders in the authorized versions), because they do not wash their hands when they eat bread?’ Yahoshua answered them, ‘Why do you transgress the commandment of Yahovah by your takanot (i.e., for the sake of your traditions you bypass the commandments of Yahuah)? For Yahovah commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and mother, and he that curses father or mother shall be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever shall say to his father or mother that whatever support they might have received from him is corban [a gift dedicated to the Temple], he is free [from his responsibility to care for his parents].’ In so doing, he does not care for his father or his mother. Thus, you have made the commandment of Yahovah of no effect by your takanot. You hypocrites! Well did Yeshayahu prophecy of you, saying, ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (reference: Isaiah 29:13).’” (Matthew 15:1-9, Rood’s Chronology)

The companion passage to this is found in Mark 7, with the added flavor of verse 9, “With full knowledge you reject the commandment of Yahovah that you may keep your man-made takanot.” (Rood’s Chronology) Here, Master was insinuating that these so-called experts of Torah and of course the Talmud knew very well that they were not following and teaching Torah but instead takanot—tradition-man made laws, all which they extolled with the same authority if not greater authority than Torah.

Indeed, the Pharisees of Churchianity haven’t changed much apart from their established systems of worship and belief systems, for they still wreak havoc upon the millions of followers that have entrusted unto them their very souls. For many of the church leaders have gone through formal training in various seminaries and have been taught church history and have no doubt read through the bible a few times, yet they continue to prop up the traditions and practices of the Baptist Church: Sunday worship; rejection of Torah; and the doctrines surrounding death and dying just to name a few. Yet the people, the worshipers and lay-folks, are fully asleep at the wheel and not in a spiritual and intellectual position to read their bibles from a contextual, historical and literal sense such that the light of Yahuah’s Word shines down upon them and completely turns their worlds upside down.

It can happen. It has happened to each and everyone of us. It takes the planting of the seeds of the true Gospel and a move of the Holy Spirit to topple the traditions of men and free the people from the bondage of religiosity.

Now the things that readily came to mind as I observed and watched the people in the community and of the church rally around members of my family, were varied yet consistent and common amongst all in attendance. Allow me to mention and comment on just a few of those traditions and practices that defy scripture and the instructions of Father:

    • The singing of songs during the funeral service that mislead the attendees and incite an emotional response that has very little to do with the leading of the Holy Spirit or the True Gospel message and Father’s instructions. Two such songs that elicited a great deal of emotional outpouring from the attendees were entitled “God is on your side” and “May the Work I’ve Done Speak for Me.” Both songs were founded almost entirely upon the hijacked doctrine of “grace” that espouses all one has to do to receive God’s favor is affiliate with the church in one form or another and sort of live a good life (whatever that truly looks like) and God will be on your side (whatever that looks like) and when you die, you will go to heaven. Nothing is ever mentioned in either of these songs that one adheres to a life of Faith in Yeshua Messiah and live Torah as Master taught us. It’s, do the best you can, affiliate with a church, and you are good to go. And when things get tough, God will be on your side. Seems as though the lyricists failed to read and understand Deuteronomy 28 and 29, blessings to be had for obedience and curses to be expected for disobedience, respectively. Despite teachings to the contrary by churchianity, the principles of these two chapters still apply to every self-professing follower and believer in Yeshua Messiah.
    • He is in heaven looking down upon us and he has entered into the glory of Jesus Christ, despite him having no interest whatsoever in things of God throughout much of his life. Again, I am not judging my loved one and any possible relationship he may or may not have had with Father. All I know is that he was not a Spirit-Filled Torah Observant Believer in Yahoshua Messiah. I have no idea if he will spend eternity in the Kingdom of Yahovah, that’s left up to Master. But I do know that he is not in heaven looking down upon anyone. Scripture seems very clear as it relates to what happens to us when we die: 7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecc 12:7 KJV) Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Job 34:15 All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. Ecc 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Job 34:14 If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Psa 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. When we die, whether we die in the will of our Creator or not, our bodies and souls cease to be living and functioning entities and the breath of life goes back to the Creator who gave it in the first place. Pure and simple. And as sad and in some cases as disappointing as this may sound to the uninitiated who’ve been taught for generations that believers when they die go immediately to heaven, the truth still remains and no tradition or forced docrine can alter Yah’s Truth. Yet, we have a hope that is found in the coming resurrection and the advent of the Kingdom of Yahovah here on earth. I of course reflect back to Shaul’s letter to the Assembly of Believers in Corinth where he wrote of death: 12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1Co 15:12-28 KJV) And furthermore, the mystery of what will happen to us after we die at the time of the resurrection is revealed in the Cepher of Revelation: 7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. 8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.1 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Rev 5:7-10 KJV) Now some might contend that a belief in the doctrine of death and heaven are harmless and without consequence. I beg to differ. This lie has led and continues to lead millions down a path towards destruction for under this teaching and doctrine and tradition, there is no need to obey the instructions of Yahuah our Elohim and one gets to spend an eternity in heaven simply by having their names written on the local church’s roster of members and maybe saying the sinners’ prayer and getting dunked in some water. In fact, one can live however he or she chooses because God’s grace is all encompassing and there is no expectations whatsoever for us to live in accordance with the will and purpose of Yahuah. Talk about a dangerous game the leaders of these churches are playing with the lives of their members. And since being here, I have engaged at least one individual on this issue of death and dying and the resurrection of the dead, giving them my position on the subject based upon what the Bible teaches and that individual flat out told me that they choose to believe what they want to believe and that the rest of us can believe what we want to believe. Well, what can one say to that other than, so be it?
  • Rearranging furniture in the home so that if the spirit of the loved one returns, he or she won’t recognize the place and will leave, I guess. Well, what else is there to say other than: what????!!!!
  • The taking Scripture out of context and applying them as handy soundbites to the situation at hand: namely, to allay the family’s grief and mourning. The one passage that was used quite often throughout the funeral service was the passage: “Weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning (Psm 30:5).” This psalm of David spoke to David’s dire situation that He was trusting Father to deliver him from. Here this verse has been stripped from its contextual meaning and applied to the mourning of a deceased individual. The whole practice of taking scripture out of context and applying them to situations so that the people can be moved from a state of mourning to that of peace, hope and ultimately joy to me brings mixed feelings. I get the noble effort to lighten the emotional burden of those who are suffering using whatever techniques one can muster. Yet does the means always justify the ends? The bible was never meant to be an emotional and situational pharmacy as churchianity has over the centuries made it. The scriptures were given to us as a manual of instruction such that we have recorded for our convenience the elements necessary to live in accordance with the ways of Yahuah our Elohim (reference: John 13:15; Hebrews 4:11; 8:5; James 5:10; I Peter 2:21; Jude 1:7). Nevertheless, I see how such practices not only are inherently wrong at various levels, but that such practices serve to nullify the Word of Yahuah and lead people away from and off the straight gate and narrow path/way (Matthew 7:14).
  • There was no encouragement of people to be obedient to the Word of Yahovah. If anything, the emphasis was that we stay the course in whatever station we currently exist in our lives, for God overlooks our situation and supplies our eternal needs. Indeed, Abba does supply our many needs and at times even our desires. However, living outside the will of Yahuah and continuing to live whatever way we want to live, is not going to spiritually prosper us and it certainly is not going to bring about eternal life.
  • The play on emotions using music followed by carefully crafted and stirring words of encouragement and optimism pushed aside the vital truths of Yahovah. In fact, everything that occurred seem to be aimed at manipulating and controlling one’s emotional reactions to the passing of our loved one. What I have come to realize and understand, all of which is foreign to much of churchianity that places so much emphasis upon the emotions of the membership, is that emotions have nothing to do with the True Faith once delivered. The True Faith once delivered is all about Spirit and Truth and emotions is a byproduct of being human. We’ve been called to transcend the carnal and ascend towards the spiritual. Emotions, although one cannot nor should they completely discard them from their lives, must be held in check at all times unless they are to be employed by the Ruach Kodesh. Hasatan is a master at manipulating our emotions. Sadly, emotions have the tendency of getting the best of us and at times, in extreme cases, derailing us from the purpose and will of Yahovah. Now, I am not saying that we somehow destroy or discard our emotions and become like Borgs. No indeed. What I am saying is that Truth and Tradition must always be front and center at every turn of our lives. I have done more harm than good throughout my walk with Messiah by allowing my emotions to get the best of me which only serves to take control away from the Ruach Kodesh in my life and hand over control to self. Emotions have their place in our lives; we just have to figure out the proper times and situations in which emotions are best displayed and used.

Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Now this is certainly not intended to be an exhaustive treatment of the many traditions and practices of the Baptist Church and her members and how those traditions and practices and doctrines override truth and reason. Such a thing would go into hours of discourse and discussion and I would still not fully exhaust the subject or do the subject full justice. I simply wanted to highlight a few of the more prominent traditions and practices that I recognized seemed to override truth and reason. I invite you to consider some of the things that I have mentioned here and maybe compare and contrast them with the things that you have experienced and witnessed in your life prior to coming in to the Truth or even during your current walk with Messiah.

So then, what? What am I to do with the things that I have mentioned here in this episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections? Why does any of this matter? Certainly some would feel and suggest that the people I described in this post have made their spiritual beds, let them lay in them. Others may see a shake the dust from your feet and move on to the the next opportunity type situation here and why give any further thought to the matter or these people.

I see things a little different. I see opportunity. I see an opportunity to share my Faith with the people of this community despite the massive opposition and traditions and beliefs and practices that are sure to cause me a great deal of grief. Indeed, I anticipate that there will come a great number of those shake the dust from your feet moments throughout my sharing opportunities, but I fear that I cannot exist in this environment and not somehow show the True Messiah in me through uncompromising Spirit-Filled Torah Living the way Master taught us and seizing upon teaching opportunities as the Ruach presents the opportunities. What seeing these traditions being practiced and manifested before me these last few weeks has prompted me to do is to delve deeper into the Word of Yahovah—deeper than I have ever done before. I am intending to spiritually equip myself for the work of the Kingdom while it is still day (John 9:4).

Prior to relocating here, my life in Southern California as a Netsarim was pretty cut and dry: I associated only with fellow Netsarim and I tried to carry myself as a Netsarim during the course of my workdays. My ways did not clash with those around me for the most part. Now, being here in the liberal bible belt (and yes, I did say liberal bible belt because people here have very liberal political leanings despite those liberal leanings being in conflict with the ways of Yahovah—I simply chalk this up to culture and tradition) where the citizens here reject Torah and the True Gospel and tightly hold to their traditions, I am faced with having to be perfect in my walk and ready at every turn to give an explanation to any who would ask me about my Faith and why I do the things I do and believe what I believe. Peter, in his first general epistle wrote of such an existence: 8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:1 9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.1 13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? 14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:1 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. (1Pe 3:8-17 KJV)

It is my hope that these thoughts and reflections will bring us closer together as fellow Netsarim and that my experiences and observations will be of help to someone who is in some type of spiritual need. Again, I do not pretend to have all the answers nor am I a Torah expert or teacher: I’m simply a Netsarim just like you trying to live and do the Will of our Father and looking forward to that blessed hope. Shaul wrote to his evangelist apprentice Timothy: 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;1 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. (Tit 2:13-15 KJV)

Have a blessed and powerful week in Messiah—walk in the power and might of His Ruach HaKodesh and Abba willing, let us fellowship at the next Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections. Shavuatov. Shalom.

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