Sunday, August 22, 2010
IF we will keep His commandments
As I think and read the words to this week’s portion I am struck by the numerous curses that are listed that will come upon the followers of God who do not follow and keep His commandments, rules, instructions, directions and laws. The list is very long, much longer and in much greater detail than the list of blessings. The blessings are ours…if we keep this Torah…as it says over and over again. We tend to like and concentrate on the list of blessings and claim them for ourselves but we don’t look at the qualification that is given over and over again with each blessing. It says “if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today; if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways; if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”Deut 28.1-14. This little 2 letter word appears over and over again and it makes the receiving of the blessings conditional upon our obedience. We enter into covenant with God when we accept Jesus as our Lord, Savior and King and now as servants to the King we are required to keep the rules of the King if we want to live in the kingdom. Accepting Jesus gets you through the gate, to live bountifully within the gates requires obedience to the rules of His kingdom. Sounds like a fair trade to me...if we will keep His commandments.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Shabat Thought
Shabbat Shalom,
This morning I read from the Prayer Siddur these words that one of our students said was a blessing to her. I share them with all of you who were present and those of you that were absent. Our thoughts and study this morning centered in large part on the marriage ceremony, the covenant of marriage, the Ketubah and our betrothal. From 2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5 and Ephesians 1:13-14 we see in the words of Paul that the Holy Spirit is the surety, the promise, the commitment of God, of Jesus, the groom to His bride, the church. This portion from the Siddur speaks of the bride, of the Beloved of God. We are the Beloved of God!
************************************************************************************
Shabbat is a day of freedom and peace, a celebration of life and creation. May it open our eyes to the goodness we have attained, and our hearts to the goodness we may yet achieve.
Let moments of holiness enter the world, uniting matter and spirit in the joy of wholeness, as we welcome Shabbat, the day of days.
Beloved, come to meet the bride;
Beloved, come to greet Shabbat.
"Keep" and "Remember": a single command the Only God caused us to hear; the Eternal One, His name is One; His are honor and glory and praise.
Beloved...
Come with me to meet Shabbat, for every fountain of blessing. Still it flows, as from the start; the last of days, for which the first was made.
Beloved...
Awake, awake, your light has come! Arise, shine, awake and sing: the Eternal's glory dawns upon you.
Beloved...
Enter in peace, O crown of your husband; enter in gladness, enter in joy. Come to the people that keeps its faith. Enter, O bride! Enter, O bride!
Beloved...
******************
Here, time and place invite our commitment to the ancient purposes that are our present hopes. Now, time and place are one, bringing promise of triumph over anguish and despair. And when we shall have gone from this place on our separate ways, may our words and promise bring fulfillment and peace.
May our words and promises become deeds, bringing fulfillment and peace.
In this sanctuary we seek to free ourselves from the fears and conflicts that estrange us from one another.
May our words and thoughts give us hope and strength.
We therefore acclaim the eternal power in the universe that helps us to grow in understanding and love, and leads us to freedom.
*********************************************************************************
Take these words and meditate on them in your heart and draw ever closer to the One you love.
This morning I read from the Prayer Siddur these words that one of our students said was a blessing to her. I share them with all of you who were present and those of you that were absent. Our thoughts and study this morning centered in large part on the marriage ceremony, the covenant of marriage, the Ketubah and our betrothal. From 2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5 and Ephesians 1:13-14 we see in the words of Paul that the Holy Spirit is the surety, the promise, the commitment of God, of Jesus, the groom to His bride, the church. This portion from the Siddur speaks of the bride, of the Beloved of God. We are the Beloved of God!
************************************************************************************
Shabbat is a day of freedom and peace, a celebration of life and creation. May it open our eyes to the goodness we have attained, and our hearts to the goodness we may yet achieve.
Let moments of holiness enter the world, uniting matter and spirit in the joy of wholeness, as we welcome Shabbat, the day of days.
Beloved, come to meet the bride;
Beloved, come to greet Shabbat.
"Keep" and "Remember": a single command the Only God caused us to hear; the Eternal One, His name is One; His are honor and glory and praise.
Beloved...
Come with me to meet Shabbat, for every fountain of blessing. Still it flows, as from the start; the last of days, for which the first was made.
Beloved...
Awake, awake, your light has come! Arise, shine, awake and sing: the Eternal's glory dawns upon you.
Beloved...
Enter in peace, O crown of your husband; enter in gladness, enter in joy. Come to the people that keeps its faith. Enter, O bride! Enter, O bride!
Beloved...
******************
Here, time and place invite our commitment to the ancient purposes that are our present hopes. Now, time and place are one, bringing promise of triumph over anguish and despair. And when we shall have gone from this place on our separate ways, may our words and promise bring fulfillment and peace.
May our words and promises become deeds, bringing fulfillment and peace.
In this sanctuary we seek to free ourselves from the fears and conflicts that estrange us from one another.
May our words and thoughts give us hope and strength.
We therefore acclaim the eternal power in the universe that helps us to grow in understanding and love, and leads us to freedom.
*********************************************************************************
Take these words and meditate on them in your heart and draw ever closer to the One you love.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Circumcise Your Hearts
Oh that we would learn what it means to have a circumcised heart and then to act upon it. To realize that we are supposed to allow the Master to mold us and to make us into His image. To allow Him to remove the inflexibilty that we have created in our hearts and minds, to remove our pride, our prejudice and our stubbornness. To create clean hearts within us that truly see Him and reflect the light of His glory.
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6.24-26)
Parasha: Ekev
Ekev - עקב : "Because"
Torah : Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Haftarah : Isaiah 49:14-51:3
Gospels : Acts 6-7
Thought for the Week:
Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)
Commentary:
So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. (Deuteronomy 10:16)
Moses told the children of Israel to circumcise their hearts. That's a strange image. Circumcision refers to removal of the foreskin. What does it mean to "circumcise your heart"?
In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses compared an uncircumcised heart with a stiff neck. A stiff neck is a biblical idiom that refers to pride and stubbornness. A person with a stiff neck is not flexible. He does not make his will suppliant to God's instruction.
In Jeremiah 4:3-4, an uncircumcised heart is compared to hard, fallow soil that cannot be cultivated because it has not been plowed:
Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart. (Jeremiah 4:3-4)
This passage from Jeremiah can be compared to the Master's parable of the sower who cast seed on four different types of soil. The seed that fell on the unplowed soil did not take root. The seed that fell among the thorns was choked out.
In the Bible, the heart represents the seat of one's will. The uncircumcised heart is stubborn and inflexible. It does not submit to God's will. The Word of God cannot bear fruit or even take root in that heart.
A person with an uncircumcised heart is a person whose flesh (physical inclinations) dictates his will. A person with a circumcised heart is one whose flesh has been removed from his will, allowing the Spirit of God to direct the will.
According to Paul, a circumcision of the heart takes place when we trust in Messiah. He says to the Gentiles of Colosse that "in [Yeshua] you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah" (Colossians 2:11). He tells the Roman believers that even though a person might not be physically circumcised, he can still have a circumcised heart. He says, "He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God" (Romans 2:29).
Those in Yeshua should have a markedly different nature than those without Yeshua. Our will should be suppliant to God's. Those of us who have experienced the miraculous rebirth that is the work of God's Spirit within us through the agency of His Son are supposed to have circumcised hearts.
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6.24-26)
Parasha: Ekev
Ekev - עקב : "Because"
Torah : Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Haftarah : Isaiah 49:14-51:3
Gospels : Acts 6-7
Thought for the Week:
Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)
Commentary:
So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. (Deuteronomy 10:16)
Moses told the children of Israel to circumcise their hearts. That's a strange image. Circumcision refers to removal of the foreskin. What does it mean to "circumcise your heart"?
In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses compared an uncircumcised heart with a stiff neck. A stiff neck is a biblical idiom that refers to pride and stubbornness. A person with a stiff neck is not flexible. He does not make his will suppliant to God's instruction.
In Jeremiah 4:3-4, an uncircumcised heart is compared to hard, fallow soil that cannot be cultivated because it has not been plowed:
Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart. (Jeremiah 4:3-4)
This passage from Jeremiah can be compared to the Master's parable of the sower who cast seed on four different types of soil. The seed that fell on the unplowed soil did not take root. The seed that fell among the thorns was choked out.
In the Bible, the heart represents the seat of one's will. The uncircumcised heart is stubborn and inflexible. It does not submit to God's will. The Word of God cannot bear fruit or even take root in that heart.
A person with an uncircumcised heart is a person whose flesh (physical inclinations) dictates his will. A person with a circumcised heart is one whose flesh has been removed from his will, allowing the Spirit of God to direct the will.
According to Paul, a circumcision of the heart takes place when we trust in Messiah. He says to the Gentiles of Colosse that "in [Yeshua] you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah" (Colossians 2:11). He tells the Roman believers that even though a person might not be physically circumcised, he can still have a circumcised heart. He says, "He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God" (Romans 2:29).
Those in Yeshua should have a markedly different nature than those without Yeshua. Our will should be suppliant to God's. Those of us who have experienced the miraculous rebirth that is the work of God's Spirit within us through the agency of His Son are supposed to have circumcised hearts.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Shabbat Shalom
Today was just a glorious time in the Lord as we worshipped and studied and enjoyed Tina's dance. To truly get to understand the heart of God we need to understand what the righteousness of God includes. God has always been interested in the condition of the heart of His people. He is a covenant keeping God who desires an intimate relationship with His people and wants us to express our true love to Him through our obedience to His law. His law will set us free because we no longer have to make the decisions on right and wrong - God makes those choices and we just obey as children of the King.
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6.24-26)
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6.24-26)
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Commandment of Loving God
This thought more than any other gives us true insight into not only the Shema of God but also what it means for us to love God.
Va’etchanan – ואתחנן : “And I besought”
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1–26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
Deuteronomy 6:6 speaks in the future tense when it says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” (Deuteronomy 6:6) Jeremiah 31:33 promises that in the new covenant, God will write his Torah upon our hearts. He says, “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
Commentary:
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)
In Jewish liturgy, Deuteronomy 6:4–9 is called “The Shema.” Shema (שמע) is the imperative to listen. “Shema O Israel,” Deuteronomy 6:4 says. Moses is telling Israel, “Listen up! The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” The Master regarded the Shema as the greatest and foremost commandment of the Torah. A sage once asked him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” (Mark 12:28) He answered with the words of Deuteronomy 6:4–5:
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:29–30)
Why does Yeshua teach that to love the LORD is the greatest commandment? Because genuine love for God leads us to fulfill all the commandments. If we truly love God, we will seek to please Him in all that we do. We will keep His commandments out of a desire to demonstrate our love for Him. It is foremost because it must come first. If we try to serve God merely out of fear or out of a desire for reward or to earn salvation, our service is not genuine. Just as a husband wants His wife to love Him, so too the Father desires His children to serve Him out of love. Imagine being married to a person that does not love you. He or she may be faithful and even compliantly obedient, but without love, the relationship would feel empty. Conversely, imagine being married to someone who claims to love you but does not respect you or show you any fidelity. Such love would only be a sham. That is why love must come first. Our first obligation to God, before any other commandment, is to love Him.
More than just a feeling, love for God results in obedience to His commandments, the Torah:
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)
If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Yeshua demonstrated His love for the Father by living a life of total obedience to Him. Yeshua is loved by the Father, and He returned that love in the form of perfect submission. God demonstrated His love for us by sending us His Son, whom He loved.
Va’etchanan – ואתחנן : “And I besought”
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1–26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
Deuteronomy 6:6 speaks in the future tense when it says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” (Deuteronomy 6:6) Jeremiah 31:33 promises that in the new covenant, God will write his Torah upon our hearts. He says, “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
Commentary:
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)
In Jewish liturgy, Deuteronomy 6:4–9 is called “The Shema.” Shema (שמע) is the imperative to listen. “Shema O Israel,” Deuteronomy 6:4 says. Moses is telling Israel, “Listen up! The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” The Master regarded the Shema as the greatest and foremost commandment of the Torah. A sage once asked him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” (Mark 12:28) He answered with the words of Deuteronomy 6:4–5:
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:29–30)
Why does Yeshua teach that to love the LORD is the greatest commandment? Because genuine love for God leads us to fulfill all the commandments. If we truly love God, we will seek to please Him in all that we do. We will keep His commandments out of a desire to demonstrate our love for Him. It is foremost because it must come first. If we try to serve God merely out of fear or out of a desire for reward or to earn salvation, our service is not genuine. Just as a husband wants His wife to love Him, so too the Father desires His children to serve Him out of love. Imagine being married to a person that does not love you. He or she may be faithful and even compliantly obedient, but without love, the relationship would feel empty. Conversely, imagine being married to someone who claims to love you but does not respect you or show you any fidelity. Such love would only be a sham. That is why love must come first. Our first obligation to God, before any other commandment, is to love Him.
More than just a feeling, love for God results in obedience to His commandments, the Torah:
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)
If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Yeshua demonstrated His love for the Father by living a life of total obedience to Him. Yeshua is loved by the Father, and He returned that love in the form of perfect submission. God demonstrated His love for us by sending us His Son, whom He loved.
Clothed in Righteousness
As I've been reading and studying this weeks portion from Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11 I keep seeing the same thing over and over again as it refers to righteousness and what is good. Laws are God’s standards of righteousness. We recognize God as the supreme Law Giver. God’s laws are eternal. These laws will be used at a future time of judgment. They exist to keeps man’s sinful nature in check. When obeyed they will result in blessings.
To "fulfill" is the idiom of the sages meant to observe and to practice. When Jesus said he came to fulfill the Torah, he was saying he came to observe and to practice all of the Torah and to teach us to do the same.
Where do we find God’s righteousness- in the Torah (Deut 4.6-8; 6:25). As we are called to return to righteousness, it must be a righteousness that comes from God alone, not man. God’s righteousness is revealed to us in the entire Bible but specifically is found in the Torah. Just as Israel was called to be a light to the nations based upon their keeping of the statutes, judgments and laws of Torah, Jesus called us to be a light to all people by seeing our good works, which are our mitzvahs, which are our keeping of Torah commands. By our observing of God’s Torah rules we draw men closer to Him. When we fulfill Torah, when we observe and practice Torah, we are serving as witnesses for Jesus because we are truly doing as Jesus did, not just the miracles and signs and wonders but the everyday things of life.
To "fulfill" is the idiom of the sages meant to observe and to practice. When Jesus said he came to fulfill the Torah, he was saying he came to observe and to practice all of the Torah and to teach us to do the same.
Where do we find God’s righteousness- in the Torah (Deut 4.6-8; 6:25). As we are called to return to righteousness, it must be a righteousness that comes from God alone, not man. God’s righteousness is revealed to us in the entire Bible but specifically is found in the Torah. Just as Israel was called to be a light to the nations based upon their keeping of the statutes, judgments and laws of Torah, Jesus called us to be a light to all people by seeing our good works, which are our mitzvahs, which are our keeping of Torah commands. By our observing of God’s Torah rules we draw men closer to Him. When we fulfill Torah, when we observe and practice Torah, we are serving as witnesses for Jesus because we are truly doing as Jesus did, not just the miracles and signs and wonders but the everyday things of life.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Upon our Hearts
What does it mean to have these words to be upon our hearts? Throughout the Torah and the entire Old Testament the Lord kept asking and encouraging Israel to place His commandments upon their hearts. He said he desired obedience more than He did sacrifice. That which we are to place upon our hearts is God's Holy Law, His Torah, His loving instructions to us for our good. Yet we want to run after our own hearts and we refuse to listen to the voice of God. He is calling His people, both Israel by birth and Israel by adoption(Christians) to return to the very thing that God wants to place upon our hearts. God has always been a covenant making and a covenant keeping God and as such He requires us to be obedient through faith to His ways, His rules and His will. Jesus was obedient to all the commandments of the Torah and He taught His disciples to do the same. In these latter days He is once again crying out to His people, His church and saying "Will you return to me and turn from your wicked ways and from your own hearts desires? Will you set your hearts upon my ways, my Torah or will we continue to do it our own way?" Behold, He sets before us truth and life; now the choice is ours.
Portion Va’etchanan – ואתחנן : “And I besought”
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1–26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Commentary:
In the recitation of the Shema (Hear O Israel), the Torah speak in the future tense when it says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). This means that we are to endeavor to keep the commandments by placing them on our hearts, but it could also be read to imply an assurance of the future. Jeremiah 31:33 promises that in the new covenant, God will write his Torah upon our hearts. He says, “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it” (Jeremiah 31:33). This means that God will actually change our nature, circumcising our hearts as it were, to remove from us the waywardness of our evil inclinations. Paul speaks of this transformation as “the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). In another passage, Paul says, “Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul points to the lives of believers as evidence of the new covenant when he says, “You are a letter of Messiah, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). All of this happens to believers as a fulfillment of the promise of the new covenant. The Holy Spirit is responsible for writing the commandments of God upon our hearts:
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26–27)
But as of yet, we have not experienced this regeneration in its fullness. The completion of the promises of the new covenant awaits the coming of Messiah who is the “guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). Paul tells us that God “gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Corinthians 1:22). A pledge implies a down payment on a sum which will be paid in full in the future. The down payment is the Holy Spirit within us now. The amount to be paid in full in the future is the Torah written on our hearts.
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge … a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14)
In that day of redemption, the words of Deuteronomy 6:6 will be made true. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).
Portion Va’etchanan – ואתחנן : “And I besought”
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1–26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Commentary:
In the recitation of the Shema (Hear O Israel), the Torah speak in the future tense when it says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). This means that we are to endeavor to keep the commandments by placing them on our hearts, but it could also be read to imply an assurance of the future. Jeremiah 31:33 promises that in the new covenant, God will write his Torah upon our hearts. He says, “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it” (Jeremiah 31:33). This means that God will actually change our nature, circumcising our hearts as it were, to remove from us the waywardness of our evil inclinations. Paul speaks of this transformation as “the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). In another passage, Paul says, “Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul points to the lives of believers as evidence of the new covenant when he says, “You are a letter of Messiah, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). All of this happens to believers as a fulfillment of the promise of the new covenant. The Holy Spirit is responsible for writing the commandments of God upon our hearts:
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26–27)
But as of yet, we have not experienced this regeneration in its fullness. The completion of the promises of the new covenant awaits the coming of Messiah who is the “guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). Paul tells us that God “gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Corinthians 1:22). A pledge implies a down payment on a sum which will be paid in full in the future. The down payment is the Holy Spirit within us now. The amount to be paid in full in the future is the Torah written on our hearts.
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge … a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14)
In that day of redemption, the words of Deuteronomy 6:6 will be made true. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Answer to Prayer
When we come before our Heavenly Father, we come into His presence to bless Him. We need to make sure our times of prayer are not just times of asking God for the stuff we want. We need to make sure that a good portion of our time is spent in giving glory, honor and praise to our King. As we lift Him up our problems seem so much smaller. As we concentrate on blessing God we can learn to see things through God's eyes, we can learn to pray according to God's will as we immerse ourselves in Him.
Thought for the Week:
Just as Moses longed to enter the land, so too Yeshua awaits His return to Israel. He awaits the day of redemption when He can return at last to His land, His people and His disciples and thereby bring His great redemptive work to its conclusion.
Commentary:
I also pleaded with the LORD at that time. (Deuteronomy 3:23)
We don't always get what we ask for.
Moses wanted to enter the Promised Land. More than anything, he wanted to finish the journey, cross the Jordan and stand on the soil of the holy land. He pleaded with the LORD, "Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan" (Deuteronomy 3:25). Ordinarily Moses got what he asked for. Whether he asked for miraculous provision, amazing signs and wonders, direct answers from heaven or divine assistance and rescue, God heard the prayers of Moses and answered them immediately. But not even Moses got everything he wanted. Despite his earnest entreaties, God refused to allow Moses to enter Canaan. The LORD replied to his prayers, saying, "Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter" (Deuteronomy 3:26).
The LORD is gracious and compassionate. He delights to answer the prayers of His children. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. If an earthly father gives good gifts to his children when they ask him, how much more so does our heavenly Father delight to answer our prayers? Yeshua teaches us, "Whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you" (John 15:16). Nevertheless, the answer to prayer is sometimes "No."
If God gave me everything I asked for in prayer, it would be the same as giving me the power of being God. I might arbitrarily change the color of the sky, reorganize the chemical composition of water, turn time backward or wish the universe out of existence. Obviously God has to reserve the right to say no to our prayers. James the brother of the Master says, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
Even when we ask with the right motives, God still might have to say no. When we pray, we need to trust in God's wisdom and kindness, knowing that He has our best interests in mind. Though we don't always get an affirmative answer, we can be confident that our prayers are heard.
Thought for the Week:
Just as Moses longed to enter the land, so too Yeshua awaits His return to Israel. He awaits the day of redemption when He can return at last to His land, His people and His disciples and thereby bring His great redemptive work to its conclusion.
Commentary:
I also pleaded with the LORD at that time. (Deuteronomy 3:23)
We don't always get what we ask for.
Moses wanted to enter the Promised Land. More than anything, he wanted to finish the journey, cross the Jordan and stand on the soil of the holy land. He pleaded with the LORD, "Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan" (Deuteronomy 3:25). Ordinarily Moses got what he asked for. Whether he asked for miraculous provision, amazing signs and wonders, direct answers from heaven or divine assistance and rescue, God heard the prayers of Moses and answered them immediately. But not even Moses got everything he wanted. Despite his earnest entreaties, God refused to allow Moses to enter Canaan. The LORD replied to his prayers, saying, "Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter" (Deuteronomy 3:26).
The LORD is gracious and compassionate. He delights to answer the prayers of His children. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. If an earthly father gives good gifts to his children when they ask him, how much more so does our heavenly Father delight to answer our prayers? Yeshua teaches us, "Whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you" (John 15:16). Nevertheless, the answer to prayer is sometimes "No."
If God gave me everything I asked for in prayer, it would be the same as giving me the power of being God. I might arbitrarily change the color of the sky, reorganize the chemical composition of water, turn time backward or wish the universe out of existence. Obviously God has to reserve the right to say no to our prayers. James the brother of the Master says, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
Even when we ask with the right motives, God still might have to say no. When we pray, we need to trust in God's wisdom and kindness, knowing that He has our best interests in mind. Though we don't always get an affirmative answer, we can be confident that our prayers are heard.
He who Seeks Finds
Are you a God Seeker? What does seeking after God look like? How have you sought God today? Did you find Him? King David was a God seeker and I am amazed that the more I read the Psalms, especially Psalm 119, how much David sought to know and understand the law, the Torah. Do we want to develop hearts to be like David's? Do what David did and seek God in His Torah and you will find Him!
Va'etchanan - ואתחנן : "And I besought"
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1-26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)
Commentary:
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Moses warned the children of Israel that if they strayed from the Torah and worshipped idols, God would exile them from the land of Israel and scatter them among the nations. Nevertheless, He would not abandon them. Moses says that a person only needs to repent and seek the LORD. "You will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29). Similarly, Yeshua teaches, "He who seeks, finds" (Luke 11:10). If we earnestly seek God and reach out for Him, He will not hide Himself from us.
We should never congratulate ourselves as if we have already attained the goal. A person should always regard himself as a seeker of God. "Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face continually" (Psalm 105:4). The prophet Amos tells us, "Seek the LORD that you may live" (5:6).
Even if we have found the way to God through the person of His Son, Yeshua, this is only the beginning of the quest, not the end. The real life of faith is an ongoing pursuit of the LORD. The contrite heart continues to seek God each day and continually cries out:
I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 63:1; 42:1-2)
Seeking God is the pursuit of righteousness. "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD" (Isaiah 51:1), the prophet says. In another passage he clearly states that seeking the LORD entails repentance:
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)
The one who seeks finds, but what if a person does not seek? It is possible to go through life in a state of numb self-contentment, continually distracted by the things of the world. "They do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!" (Isaiah 31:1).
One often sees children brought up in religious families who seem to nurture a bored disinterest toward God and the things of the kingdom of heaven. Their faith is an inherited faith that has never taken root. They have no desire to seek God for themselves, and they quickly fall away from faith. There are also the lost in the world who do not have enough knowledge of God to know to seek Him. As believers, we need to encourage everyone to seek the LORD.
Va'etchanan - ואתחנן : "And I besought"
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1-26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)
Commentary:
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Moses warned the children of Israel that if they strayed from the Torah and worshipped idols, God would exile them from the land of Israel and scatter them among the nations. Nevertheless, He would not abandon them. Moses says that a person only needs to repent and seek the LORD. "You will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29). Similarly, Yeshua teaches, "He who seeks, finds" (Luke 11:10). If we earnestly seek God and reach out for Him, He will not hide Himself from us.
We should never congratulate ourselves as if we have already attained the goal. A person should always regard himself as a seeker of God. "Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face continually" (Psalm 105:4). The prophet Amos tells us, "Seek the LORD that you may live" (5:6).
Even if we have found the way to God through the person of His Son, Yeshua, this is only the beginning of the quest, not the end. The real life of faith is an ongoing pursuit of the LORD. The contrite heart continues to seek God each day and continually cries out:
I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 63:1; 42:1-2)
Seeking God is the pursuit of righteousness. "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD" (Isaiah 51:1), the prophet says. In another passage he clearly states that seeking the LORD entails repentance:
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)
The one who seeks finds, but what if a person does not seek? It is possible to go through life in a state of numb self-contentment, continually distracted by the things of the world. "They do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!" (Isaiah 31:1).
One often sees children brought up in religious families who seem to nurture a bored disinterest toward God and the things of the kingdom of heaven. Their faith is an inherited faith that has never taken root. They have no desire to seek God for themselves, and they quickly fall away from faith. There are also the lost in the world who do not have enough knowledge of God to know to seek Him. As believers, we need to encourage everyone to seek the LORD.
Honor Your Father and Mother
This thought is very powerful and it's one of the Torah's more important lessons that we need to learn. How do we honor our father and mother? Is it simply by lip service or by our actions? Jesus scolded the Pharisees for finding excuses to not honor or take care of their parents because of some tradition that would prevent them from helping their parents. We need to show our children through our actions what honoring ones father and mother looks like if we expect this generation to change it's ways.
Honor Your Father and Mother
Va'etchanan - ואתחנן : "And I besought"
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1-26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you. (Deuteronomy 5:16)
Commentary:
The Torah tells us to honor our parents. Jewish tradition teaches that, at the very least, this means making sure that our parents are provided for in their old age. The spirit of the law, however, asks us to treat our parents with profound respect.
In the modern world, youth counter-cultures have learned to find their own identity by defining themselves in antithesis to the previous generation. The result is that whole generations of human beings are raised to believe that disrespect for parents and disdain for their expectations is the normal and healthy path to individuality and adulthood.
It is not uncommon to hear young people today speak back to their parents, argue with them publicly or reply to them with sarcasm or open exasperation. For believers, this is not acceptable. Our young people need to realize that even contradicting their parents is taboo. Public impertinence toward parents is a grievous sin.
Popular culture portrays it as "cool" for children and teens to appear autonomous and on a peer level with their parents. Secular teens hate being seen in public with their parents, and accepting parental authority hampers the perception of their coolness. The Bible would call "coolness" pride and haughtiness.
Parents also have a responsibility around this commandment. They need to be careful not to raise disrespectful children who will find it difficult to keep the commandment of honoring them. A parent should not grant any allowance for disrespect.
However, a father cannot teach his child to honor him by demanding honor. Neither can a mother teach her child to honor her by demanding to be honored. Instead, we teach our children to honor us by honoring our own parents and by honoring our spouses.
A parent must never take sides with a child against the other parent. If you feel that your spouse is wrong, take your spouse's side anyway. Do not contradict your spouse in front of the children. Disagreements with a spouse should never be spoken in the hearing of the children.
When your child treats your spouse with disrespect, it is your job to rebuke the child on behalf of your spouse: "Do not speak to your father that way." "Never speak to your mother like that."
When a child observes his mother honor his father and vice versa, the child learns the art of honoring father and mother. Only the mother can properly teach a child to honor the father. Only the father can properly teach a child to honor the mother.
Honor Your Father and Mother
Va'etchanan - ואתחנן : "And I besought"
Torah : Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Haftarah : Isaiah 40:1-26
Gospel : Acts 3-5
Thought for the Week:
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you. (Deuteronomy 5:16)
Commentary:
The Torah tells us to honor our parents. Jewish tradition teaches that, at the very least, this means making sure that our parents are provided for in their old age. The spirit of the law, however, asks us to treat our parents with profound respect.
In the modern world, youth counter-cultures have learned to find their own identity by defining themselves in antithesis to the previous generation. The result is that whole generations of human beings are raised to believe that disrespect for parents and disdain for their expectations is the normal and healthy path to individuality and adulthood.
It is not uncommon to hear young people today speak back to their parents, argue with them publicly or reply to them with sarcasm or open exasperation. For believers, this is not acceptable. Our young people need to realize that even contradicting their parents is taboo. Public impertinence toward parents is a grievous sin.
Popular culture portrays it as "cool" for children and teens to appear autonomous and on a peer level with their parents. Secular teens hate being seen in public with their parents, and accepting parental authority hampers the perception of their coolness. The Bible would call "coolness" pride and haughtiness.
Parents also have a responsibility around this commandment. They need to be careful not to raise disrespectful children who will find it difficult to keep the commandment of honoring them. A parent should not grant any allowance for disrespect.
However, a father cannot teach his child to honor him by demanding honor. Neither can a mother teach her child to honor her by demanding to be honored. Instead, we teach our children to honor us by honoring our own parents and by honoring our spouses.
A parent must never take sides with a child against the other parent. If you feel that your spouse is wrong, take your spouse's side anyway. Do not contradict your spouse in front of the children. Disagreements with a spouse should never be spoken in the hearing of the children.
When your child treats your spouse with disrespect, it is your job to rebuke the child on behalf of your spouse: "Do not speak to your father that way." "Never speak to your mother like that."
When a child observes his mother honor his father and vice versa, the child learns the art of honoring father and mother. Only the mother can properly teach a child to honor the father. Only the father can properly teach a child to honor the mother.
I will be using this blog to post daily thoughts about this weeks Torah portion. Some of these thoughts are shared from First Fruits of Zion's website. Please feel free to comment on these thoughts and commentaries. The Torah is God's blueprint for how we should live and it gives us joy and life and the burden of doing it is really not heavy at all as we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts and minds and hearts.
Quote - Deuteronomy 6:4-9 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
These words from the Torah are the crown jewel of Judaism and the main thought we need to keep ever present before us - to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and with all our might. As we learn to do this all of Torah becomes life to us. Torah, the law, as it's recorded in the New Testament is not something that has been annulled or done away with but rather it's the very thing that Jesus sought to teach his disciples how to live. As Jesus lead a completely blameless and Torah observant life, he challenged us to do the same thing we saw and read about him doing. Jesus is the Torah made alive - He is the Living Word - the Living Torah. We are God's children who have been saved by grace and now with that grace we are called to live a life of righteousness; that which can be found through following the guidelines for living as God layed them out to us through Moses as he recorded the Torah - the first 5 books of the Bible.
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6.24-26)
Alan
Quote - Deuteronomy 6:4-9 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
These words from the Torah are the crown jewel of Judaism and the main thought we need to keep ever present before us - to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and with all our might. As we learn to do this all of Torah becomes life to us. Torah, the law, as it's recorded in the New Testament is not something that has been annulled or done away with but rather it's the very thing that Jesus sought to teach his disciples how to live. As Jesus lead a completely blameless and Torah observant life, he challenged us to do the same thing we saw and read about him doing. Jesus is the Torah made alive - He is the Living Word - the Living Torah. We are God's children who have been saved by grace and now with that grace we are called to live a life of righteousness; that which can be found through following the guidelines for living as God layed them out to us through Moses as he recorded the Torah - the first 5 books of the Bible.
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’ (Numbers 6.24-26)
Alan
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