Sunday, April 24, 2011

Out of Order








1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.


I was really thinking about the last year in a half and how much has changed in my life and in the life of my family members. We are beginning to understand things we never did before and I think what we understand the very most is that we have a lot to learn and have barely scratched the surface! I am humbled and grateful to be on this journey. It is really exciting! Seeking Him, His ways, His presence and His Moedim is a pleasure and an incredible honor. Scripture has come alive to us. We have been made more alive in Him and this chaotic dying world is growing more and more insignificant. We haven't arrived and we are not perfect, but looking back, just one year ago, I can see His hand on my family and myself and my heart swells with joy and thankfulness. Life is certainly not without challenges, trials and at times difficulty but all in all I feel very blessed and grateful.

One of the biggest changes we have experienced is that more "order" has come into our home. Order, the order of YHVH, is important if you are going to have peace and blessing in life. I never realized how much until I started to "reap" the blessings of seeking to keep His order. I am not talking about cleanliness or organization. Cleanliness and organization are wonderful things and certainly virtues and things to be sought after, but that is not what I am referring to. What I am speaking about is spiritual order. I am referring to my Father's Word, His commandments and His appointed times and the peace and blessings that come as a result of seeking to keep them with your whole heart.

Psalm 20:7 Some [trust] in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Opinions are a dime a dozen and for most of my "christian" walk that is what I spent all my proverbial dimes on. For years I listened to every popular teacher and or preacher you can imagine and read innumerable christian best sellers and christian "self help" books. All promised a better way to reach God, improve your marriage, parent your children, get healthy, invest your time and money and be happy. All were the well meaning opinions and beliefs of others and not necessarily always rooted in the Word of Elohim. I attended countless Bible studies and many retreats. I think I pretty much looked under every rock I could find for the next "big thing" with substantial promises attached to it and came up fairly empty at every turn. I placed great expectation on a lot of people and things to give me all the right answers, and they, rightly so, came crashing down around me. The answers were not found in them. They were never there to begin with. They are only found in His Word, because He is His Word.

Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.

Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Romans 3:31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Matthew 5: 17-20 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Have heaven and earth passed away or disappeared? Am I missing something?

John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

Commands, what commands could He be speaking of?

John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Obey?


John 15:10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

The Father's commands? Did Jesus obey the Torah? Why would He do that if He sought to "get rid" of it?

1 John 2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

Is obedience equated to knowing Him?

1 John 5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

Is love for Him really obeying His commandments?

2 John 1:6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Beginning of what?


One of the biggest fallacies, amoung others, that I allowed myself to be indoctrinated with was that I didn't need to be obedient, I just needed to believe and be expectant .  The Law was dead, nailed to the cross, done away with, gone. Forget about the instructions, especially the ones at the front of the Book, those were not for me.......well, maybe some of the ten commandments, but not all of them. Faith was reduced to a mental assent and a mere concept as opposed to the action it was intended to be. That "philosophy" never lined up with the Word of God especially when fully examined and that really perplexed me. I challenge you to fully examine what you have learned in light of the Word, the entire Word, if you never have. Not seeing the truth, or not wanting to see the truth, does not make the truth any less true. Others telling you that the truth is a lie, still does not make the truth any less true. Truth is true, period.

James 2:14-26 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

So, slowly but surely, all our false pillars we had errected and leaned on came crashing down. I am so glad! What an incredible blessing in disguise that was! It was only then that we began to really seek Him, His Word, His Wisdom and His Understanding. We began to put away all that His Word would not legitimize and substantiate and seek to live by and understand the instructions that were already present, proven and given long ago. We stopped taking scripture out of context to justify a doctrine and started to let scripture stand on it's own, because it absolutely does! We began the process of looking at difficult scripture, that at times seemed contradictory to other scripture, in it's original language, applying cultural understandings and the Hebrew idioms that were well known at that time in history when the specific scripture was written. When we did that, guess what, it wasn't hard to understand anymore! We have begun the process of applying the Father's order in how we approach Him, love Him and love each other and others in our daily lives. That Order is called the Torah. The Torah is YHVH's instructions for life, not death. The word Torah has been mistakeningly called Law. Law is not an appropriate translation of the word Torah. Torah means "instructions". The Torah, the Word of Elohim is the Way, the Truth and the Life! Yahshua is the Torah, come in the flesh of a man! The Torah, The Word of YHVH was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  We are not to follow the commands of men such as the doctrine of the Talmud or the Mishna, (man's doctrine, called the Oral Torah) or the doctrine of  the newest christian book, trend, teacher or speaker (more man made doctrine) either! (See Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7, Isaiah 29:13 and Colossians 2:22, no really, READ IT!!!) Sometimes there is good information, but we have to ask ourselves if it lines up with His Word and examine it very carefully and if it doesn't completely line up with the Word of YHVH we must dismiss it. It only takes a little leaven to corrupt the whole.

John 1:1-14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

So I know what you are thinking, because I thought it too. Are you saying we are under law? Are you saying we are saved by works? So are you going to stone me if I develop a rebellious attitute? What you need to understand is that there are three possibilities when you see the word "law" in the New Testament. There is the Torah which is mistakenly referred to as "law". There is the "Law of Sin and Death" which is the penalty of disobeying the Torah. Lastly, there is the Oral Torah, which is the Rabbinical writings. If you say that we are not under the law and you mean that we are not under the law of sin and death, then you are correct if you have received Yahshua as Lord and Savior and walk by the spirit and not in the flesh. We have all trangressed the law and are deseving of death, the penalty of breaking the Torah. However, Yahshua paid the penalty for you, in the event that you have recieved Him, call Him Lord and Savior and repented or turned from your sin. If you say that we are not under the law and you mean that we are not under the Oral Torah and doctrines and traditions of men then you are also correct. But, if you say that we are not to obey YHVH's instructions, His Torah, then you are incorrect. Now, many of the 613 commands in the Torah cannot apply to us today. We do not have a sacrificial system (i.e.Yahshua was our Passover Lamb), a theocracy, a temple or Cohen priests. Not every one is male or female. Please also keep in mind that Yahshua raised the bar and added 1050 additional commands in the New Testament, expounding on what was already said. Those do apply. Are we saved by keeping any of them? NO!! The only thing that saves us is belief in Him and that has never changed.

Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Romans 4:3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Saying that you believe, however, and not seeking to obedient to His Word is emptiness. It is very much like learning to ride a bike by watching it on Youtube and never actually getting on a bike or really even owning one. The practical "walking out" of the action is essential to actually learning how to do it! Scripture that asserted differently, that we still bear responsibility to keep His Torah, His Instructions, are conveniently overlooked in an attempt to support a theology lacking a sufficient foundation in christian culture. A house without a good foundation is an unstable structure. Order is necessary. If a cell had no cell wall, you haven't a cell. Everything falls apart without order. To say "anything goes" is to invite complete chaos. Our crumbling society is evidence of such a flawed belief system. I am seeking to learn how to keep His order. I am finding a great deal of joy and freedom in that pursuit, quite contrary to what I have always been taught.


Don't take my word for it, take His. Check out 100% of what I have written, if it doesn't line up with His Word, all of His Word, disregard it.

Many blessings to you!



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