Some thoughts during a patch of sleeplessness as we approach the Holiest day of the year for Jewish People, Yom Kippur, (the day of atonement ~ Whom, for us, is the Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth)
Walking down the right path in the right direction…
When Jesus tells us about genuine love for Him in the Bible; when He says “Those who love me will keep my commandments”, (mitzvoth), or “my words” he is in effect telling us that He wants to be in a relationship, a real relationship, whereby us proclaiming our love for Him is simply a solemn and ceremonious validation of what it is we are already showing Him with our daily lives. After all if He did not in fact die on that cross for our sins and told us only in words and song that He loved us, would we, even for a moment, choose to believe that He meant what He said?
We cannot have it one way and not the other and somehow still cling to the idea that we are a sincere and honest people.
There are many reasons, I’m sure, that Jesus emphasised words and actions being mutually dependent upon one another; (or as the old adage would have it, actions speaking louder than words); one of which concerns the children of YHWH having a good and effective witness; whereby our actions bring about the questions necessary for proper and meaningful dialogue concerning salvation to come into being with those of us still lost to the myriad vain philosophies of this dying world.
(Please notice I used the word “us” and not “them”; such is the depth of my hope for all people to be saved this cold, lonely night as I sit here and type).
There is a terrifying passage of scripture where Jesus tells some people, (“many” is the word He uses when numbering the amount), that seem to genuinely believe that they are saved; and the reason He tells them to depart is because He claims He never knew them; this is a relational statement; please notice He doesn’t say, I once knew you but you fell away; He says I “never” knew you.
I have come to the conclusion that there was a great imbalance to these people’s beliefs; they did not seem to appreciate in inter-relational nature of what is entailed in real love; they had all the talk, as we would say today, and none of the walk.
I don’t think I would be being too harsh to point out that we have been taught to have a very bumper-sticker mentality in our day; and by such a mentality we have developed what can only be called a far too casual intimacy with The Holy Anointed One of Israel; with expressions such as “I just let Jesus take the wheel”; or “Honk twice if you love the Lord” we have lost sight of how one properly approaches the sovereign, all powerful Master of the Universe and Heaven; which then can lead us to misbelieve that YHWH, His Son Yeshua, or His Holy Spirit; are something akin to ourselves.
When YHWH says His thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways this is not Him bragging about being so much more better or superior to us; it is about telling us we really have not much of a clue as to how completely different He is to us. If we hear a bump in the night in our homes as we sleep; we approach the area where we think that bump occurred with far more fear and reverence than we are taught to approach God today; we display more fear and trembling and respect for a bump in the night; hushed as we pad down the stairs, careful not to make a creak in the floorboards at our approach; gingerly making our way through the shadows; yet when it comes to approaching the LORD; we seem to saunter on up, a twinkle in our eye, a jaunty spring in our step, as if we are about to approach a buddy to buy him a beer and a hotdog at a football match.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, we are told, and we seem to have lost sight of what those words actually mean, as this statement has become, like many before it, and sadly, many after it, just another bumper-sticker-thought in our day and age.
We will know our reverence to the LORD by our fear and abhorrence to sin; sin in our own lives; and the sinfulness of this world that forever beckons us to join in with them for the sake of convenience; in effect making our relationship with them more important to us than our relationship to God.
To simplify: doing the daily, moment by moment, will of YHWH is in fact the highest expression of love, gratitude, and faith, than all the sweetly sung refrains we can muster on a Sunday morning, or all the pretty expressions uttered in our daily prayers or printed on our many, overly expensive, calendars.
I see the Jews needing to be saved in exactly the same light I see the unbelieving Gentiles needing to be saved; that being said, I have learned some important things from watching the Jews of Israel.
One of the various reasons they are hated by Islam and the unbelieving world is because they are doing the will of YHWH in regards to believing, and clinging to the land they say has been given to them for all time by the God who brought them into existence in the first place. Being in His will on this matter has the world, and all the darkness contained therein, seething and chomping at the bit at the sheer audacity of people actually doing what it is they claim to believe; living out one’s belief, especially the belief of Christians and Jews, is completely foreign to those outside of the will of YHWH; they are, and will remain until the end, mystified, that in the face of powerful opposition, opposition onto death even, such declarations of love for God continue to exist on this technological & evolutionary worshiping planet of ours.
If our declaration is merely that, a declaration, it has absolutely no power, we can yak and yak and share and yabber all the live long day and it will avail no one anything at all; the unbeliever is more interested in watching and scrutinising us, weighing us up in the balance, so to speak, and if the sound does not match the picture they will be driven further and further away from the Light of the World, and there will be no one to blame but ourselves and our lack of real relationship to Him who is best feared above all other matters.
Yes, when our Lord said to love him is to obey him he also had the plight of the unbeliever in mind; such is the height, depth, length and breadth of His unfathomable love for all those whom the Father of Lights does not desire to perish into the outer darkness.
Yes, the Lord is our friend and brother, but the Lord is first and foremost, the Lord; let us not forget Him as He is meant to be remembered, and let us cease from whittling Him away before the eyes of the world and ourselves into nothing more than a bumper sticker…
I will leave you all now with a prayer said by our, soon to be, Jewish brothers and sister; a prayer spoken many times throughout The Day of Atonement; a prayer dear to their hearts for many thousands of years, a prayer we ourselves in Christ Jesus, can learn much from.
For we are your people, and you are our God.
We are your children, and you are our Father.
We are your servants, and you are our Lord.
We are your community, and you are our Portion.
We are your heritage, and you are our Lot.
We are your flock, and you are our Shepherd.
We are your vineyard, and you are our Keeper.
We are your work, and you are our Maker.
We are your companions, and you are our Beloved.
We are your treasure, and you are our Friend.
We are your people, and you are our King.
We are your betrothed, and you are our Betrothed.
Walking down the right path in the right direction…
When Jesus tells us about genuine love for Him in the Bible; when He says “Those who love me will keep my commandments”, (mitzvoth), or “my words” he is in effect telling us that He wants to be in a relationship, a real relationship, whereby us proclaiming our love for Him is simply a solemn and ceremonious validation of what it is we are already showing Him with our daily lives. After all if He did not in fact die on that cross for our sins and told us only in words and song that He loved us, would we, even for a moment, choose to believe that He meant what He said?
We cannot have it one way and not the other and somehow still cling to the idea that we are a sincere and honest people.
There are many reasons, I’m sure, that Jesus emphasised words and actions being mutually dependent upon one another; (or as the old adage would have it, actions speaking louder than words); one of which concerns the children of YHWH having a good and effective witness; whereby our actions bring about the questions necessary for proper and meaningful dialogue concerning salvation to come into being with those of us still lost to the myriad vain philosophies of this dying world.
(Please notice I used the word “us” and not “them”; such is the depth of my hope for all people to be saved this cold, lonely night as I sit here and type).
There is a terrifying passage of scripture where Jesus tells some people, (“many” is the word He uses when numbering the amount), that seem to genuinely believe that they are saved; and the reason He tells them to depart is because He claims He never knew them; this is a relational statement; please notice He doesn’t say, I once knew you but you fell away; He says I “never” knew you.
I have come to the conclusion that there was a great imbalance to these people’s beliefs; they did not seem to appreciate in inter-relational nature of what is entailed in real love; they had all the talk, as we would say today, and none of the walk.
I don’t think I would be being too harsh to point out that we have been taught to have a very bumper-sticker mentality in our day; and by such a mentality we have developed what can only be called a far too casual intimacy with The Holy Anointed One of Israel; with expressions such as “I just let Jesus take the wheel”; or “Honk twice if you love the Lord” we have lost sight of how one properly approaches the sovereign, all powerful Master of the Universe and Heaven; which then can lead us to misbelieve that YHWH, His Son Yeshua, or His Holy Spirit; are something akin to ourselves.
When YHWH says His thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways this is not Him bragging about being so much more better or superior to us; it is about telling us we really have not much of a clue as to how completely different He is to us. If we hear a bump in the night in our homes as we sleep; we approach the area where we think that bump occurred with far more fear and reverence than we are taught to approach God today; we display more fear and trembling and respect for a bump in the night; hushed as we pad down the stairs, careful not to make a creak in the floorboards at our approach; gingerly making our way through the shadows; yet when it comes to approaching the LORD; we seem to saunter on up, a twinkle in our eye, a jaunty spring in our step, as if we are about to approach a buddy to buy him a beer and a hotdog at a football match.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, we are told, and we seem to have lost sight of what those words actually mean, as this statement has become, like many before it, and sadly, many after it, just another bumper-sticker-thought in our day and age.
We will know our reverence to the LORD by our fear and abhorrence to sin; sin in our own lives; and the sinfulness of this world that forever beckons us to join in with them for the sake of convenience; in effect making our relationship with them more important to us than our relationship to God.
To simplify: doing the daily, moment by moment, will of YHWH is in fact the highest expression of love, gratitude, and faith, than all the sweetly sung refrains we can muster on a Sunday morning, or all the pretty expressions uttered in our daily prayers or printed on our many, overly expensive, calendars.
I see the Jews needing to be saved in exactly the same light I see the unbelieving Gentiles needing to be saved; that being said, I have learned some important things from watching the Jews of Israel.
One of the various reasons they are hated by Islam and the unbelieving world is because they are doing the will of YHWH in regards to believing, and clinging to the land they say has been given to them for all time by the God who brought them into existence in the first place. Being in His will on this matter has the world, and all the darkness contained therein, seething and chomping at the bit at the sheer audacity of people actually doing what it is they claim to believe; living out one’s belief, especially the belief of Christians and Jews, is completely foreign to those outside of the will of YHWH; they are, and will remain until the end, mystified, that in the face of powerful opposition, opposition onto death even, such declarations of love for God continue to exist on this technological & evolutionary worshiping planet of ours.
If our declaration is merely that, a declaration, it has absolutely no power, we can yak and yak and share and yabber all the live long day and it will avail no one anything at all; the unbeliever is more interested in watching and scrutinising us, weighing us up in the balance, so to speak, and if the sound does not match the picture they will be driven further and further away from the Light of the World, and there will be no one to blame but ourselves and our lack of real relationship to Him who is best feared above all other matters.
Yes, when our Lord said to love him is to obey him he also had the plight of the unbeliever in mind; such is the height, depth, length and breadth of His unfathomable love for all those whom the Father of Lights does not desire to perish into the outer darkness.
Yes, the Lord is our friend and brother, but the Lord is first and foremost, the Lord; let us not forget Him as He is meant to be remembered, and let us cease from whittling Him away before the eyes of the world and ourselves into nothing more than a bumper sticker…
I will leave you all now with a prayer said by our, soon to be, Jewish brothers and sister; a prayer spoken many times throughout The Day of Atonement; a prayer dear to their hearts for many thousands of years, a prayer we ourselves in Christ Jesus, can learn much from.
For we are your people, and you are our God.
We are your children, and you are our Father.
We are your servants, and you are our Lord.
We are your community, and you are our Portion.
We are your heritage, and you are our Lot.
We are your flock, and you are our Shepherd.
We are your vineyard, and you are our Keeper.
We are your work, and you are our Maker.
We are your companions, and you are our Beloved.
We are your treasure, and you are our Friend.
We are your people, and you are our King.
We are your betrothed, and you are our Betrothed.
To claim belief in someone or something and not to actually live that belief is, when all is said and done, dishonest…
With Prayers of Shalom-Peace & May you remember me loving you enough to tell you the Truth in Christ Jesus our Lord
AGD
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