Tag: hosea

Too Much Fluff

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I like the idea that God is forgiving, as well as compassionate, fair and just. I also really like the fact that Yeshua gave His life so that I can have a chance at eternal joy in the presence of the Lord of Lords. When I was told that God and Yeshua love me for who I am, as I am, and they want me to be with them, forever, well, that was the best news I have ever received. 

All of the above is wonderful, and I thank the Lord, every day, for what He has done for me in that He sent His son to die for me. Not just for me, alone, but for everyone….but still and all, even if I was the only sinner left in the world, I believe wholeheartedly that Yeshua would have done what He did, just…for…me.

That being said, I find it difficult to deal with the people who teach and preach exclusively about how much Jesus loves you.

I was told the other day about a preacher with a very large congregation, who said that when he gets calls from other religious leaders asking how he gets so many people to come, he said, “Just preach Jesus.”  What that tells me is this: he is reaching the multitudes of people who need to know that there is hope for them, but that may be all he offers. If that is the case, then he is bringing them into the fold, but sending them nowhere. The love of Jesus is something that we all need to be made aware of, and accept, but that is just the start. Hearing the word is not living the word, and preaching about how loved you are is not going to give people what they need when they go back into the world. 

Strengthening your faith is a process. Yeshua told us, in the parable about the sower of the seed (Matthew 13), that the word will be accepted by many, but then they are distracted and drawn away by the enemy or simply by the cares and Tsouris (troubles) of the world. These people need more than just hearing the word- they need careful gardening, they need empowerment, and they need to be told the truth about what it will mean to be a follower of Yeshua, because the truth is necessary to steel oneself against what will come after accepting Messiah. 

My ministry is a teaching ministry: the quote from Hosea at the footer of the Home page is exactly what I am trying to avoid. So I give the truth as I understand it from my reading, my experience and the guiding of the Holy Spirit. I also look to others who have gifts, asking them for feedback in case my “flesh” gets in the way (which I am sure happens now and then.) So, the truth is not JUST that we are loved, and it is not JUST that we are saved, but it is that we CONSTANTLY have to fight against the enemy and ourselves to maintain the proper faithful attitude of obedience and righteousness. That is the battle, that is what is coming, and to tell people only “fluff” (as I call it) about being loved and accepted, well…you are sending them into a pack of wolves with lambs blood spread all over their bodies. They need the armor of God (Ephesians 6) and they also need lessons in how to use it. When David went to fight Goliath, he didn’t use Saul’s armor because he wasn’t used to it- smart kid. He knew what he was doing, and his faith was already strong enough to guard him against anything that came better than any old suit of armor. But new Believers don’t have that faith, and they don’t have the armor, and they don’t know how to fight. 

Telling them how much they are loved is not going to get them past the problems they will face. We need to get them strengthened, we need to teach them not just what armor they have available, but how to wear it and how to use it. 

If you are hearing someone tell you about Jesus and all they talk about is how loved you are, just as you are and how you don’t need to change, recognize that this is a way to attract you (and others) to the church but it isn’t enough to save your soul. It is not much better than that commercial for business receipt management software. You know the one, right? They show a disheveled, morose man sitting at a desk overflowing with receipts and papers but then, suddenly after he buys the receipt management software, he is clean-shaven, wearing a tie, and the desk is spotless. WOW!- where do I get that?  It’s so foolish- someone who is that disorganized would never be able to use that software because they need to install the software, read how to use it, create the separate business accounts, organize the existing receipts (which is the problem they haven’t been able to overcome), feed them through the scanner, save them where they need to be saved, and once they have done all that (which, again, they have never been able to do), THEN they can easily manage the paperwork. But wait!- not being disciplined enough to manage the paperwork was the problem in the first place, wasn’t it?  The software isn’t the cure- the resolution is to teach this person how to be an organized and self-disciplined manager.  Telling them how helpful the software is is a waste. 

That’s what it is like when we talk only about the love of Christ- it is good, it is right and it is what saves us….but it is not enough. We need to teach what will happen going forward, we need to train how to exercise our faith and we need to learn how to use the armor of God. In my opinion, that is the most important thing any religious leader can do. 

 

Do sinners go to heaven?

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I certainly hope so! If not, all of us are in BIG trouble!

The real question is: do unrepentant sinners go to heaven?  I think I can safely say the answer to that question is: NO! Not a chance. Not happening. Close the door on your way out.

Sin is part of our nature, it is the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination, we are all born with. Call it Original Sin, call it whatever you want to, but, as the Bard of Avon said, “What’s in a name?” Any way you look at it, we are, all of us, sinful in nature, sinful in actions and thoughts, and the only difference between me being a sinner before I was saved and me being a sinner now that I am saved is that now I am saved, AND (that’s a big “a-n-d”) I am repentant. I sin, but I don’t want to sin. My actions do not match my attitude.

Shaul said it in Romans 7:15 when he confessed, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

For those who have Yeshua Ha Maschiach at their side, as their Intercessor and Arbiter with the Lord when we come before Him at Judgment Day, we are saved from our sins when we repent of them and call upon His blood to cleanse us from them.

It is not the sin as much as it is the willful act of sinning which separates us from God.

God tells us through the Prophets, over and over, that He is more concerned with the desire of our hearts than He is for sacrifices.

Check out these few examples:

Isiah 1:11- 1:20, ” The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!  Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless;   plead the case of the widow. ‘Come now, let us settle the matter’, says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

1 Samuel 15:22,  “But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

Proverbs 21:3, “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”

Hosea 6:6, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Get it? It’s all about obedience- not from fear of death or destruction, but from fear of the Lord, as in respect, honor, faithful trusting, and love. That is what God wants of us, that is what He desires, and that is the only thing that we can give Him. God owns everything there is in the Universe, and what isn’t here now He can create. What He can’t have without us giving it to Him is our love, our obedience and our trust. These are the really important things to God.

Accepting Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah, as your Savior, confessing Him to be the Son of God, all that is good so long as you mean it.  And the only way to show you mean it is to change your behavior by changing your attitude. Only good trees provide good fruit, and your fruit better be good if you intend to present it to the Lord.

There is an old Jewish proverb: You can’t stop a bird from landing in a tree, but you can keep it from building a nest there. In other words, we will not be able to stop that initial reaction, that first thought, what we think at the first glance, but we can control what happens after that.

Yes, sinners go to heaven. And sinners that are really saved are changing their attitude. They are overcoming, slowly but surely, their Yetzer Hara and maturing and strengthening their Yetzer Tov (Good Inclination) so that their obedience to God’s Torah is from their heart.

God wants us to want to obey Him from desire to please Him. Yes, obedience brings blessings, and there ain’t nothing wrong with receiving blessings! But that’s not what it is really about.

God can have anything and everything He wants without anything from us, except our obedience and love. Tithe, do Tzedakah, give of your time to those in need and you are doing to God that which pleases Him.

 

Be Careful What You Ask For

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Just shoot me!! It seems like everyone brought back problems from their long weekend and they all are taking a long time to resolve.

To remind you, I am a Help Desk Tech and I thought yesterday was going OK, not too bad during the morning, then all of a sudden, late in the afternoon, I resolved one ticket and looked at my board and there were 7 new tickets. No way was I going to be able to get to them all today.

I remember years ago, when I was working in home remodeling as a Project Coordinator (the person who ordered the materials, assigned the crew to the job and scheduled it with the customer) that I was trying to learn how to rely on the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) for strength and endurance (emotional), and after asking God to teach me how to do that, my job responsibilities doubled, literally, overnight.

At first I reacted as a human, seeing only the “flesh” in that situation, and thought, “Somebody shoot me! NOW!” It wasn’t until a few days after this happened that I (finally) realized that this was the answer to my prayer. I asked God to teach me to rely on His spirit, and for that to happen I need to be in a place where my own strength will not be enough. I will need to be “up the creek without a paddle” because to fall into the hands of the Holy One of Israel, you need to be falling with nothing else to hold onto.

That’s how we humans are-always wanting to save ourselves, never wanting to admit that we can’t. It is a kind of conundrum, since self-preservation is a natural reaction whereas to call on God is something we have to think to do. For us, myself included, calling on God should be the first thing we do, but it seems to come in second or third when the chips are down. We seem, I seem, to always default to trying to figure it out on my own.

So, I asked God for help and He threw me into the fire. Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayer, even though it was a bit of a shocker. As many of us have learned, God always answers prayers, but rarely exactly the way we expect Him to and most often not when we want Him to.

I want to reconcile with my children and have done everything I know how to do, without doing what I know won’t work anyway, and I am in a place where I have only God to help me. I ask that He send them angels to guide them to Him, or to give them a spirit of curiosity to know what Dad’s side in this travesty is, or just to get us sending each other an occasional email. I just want them back in my life, and I want to be part, any part (other than the past) of their lives. I trust God to answer this prayer, but I don’t trust my kids to do their part.

You see, I believe that God will send angels, and that God will give them a spirit of curiosity, but each and every one of us has the free will God gave us to choose what we will do, and even though whatever God wants done will get done, God will not force someone to accept Him. And God will not force anyone to love anyone else.

God will lead us to water but He won’t make us drink- we have to choose to drink. And when we ask God for something in our lives, assuming that we ask for something that is righteous and in His will for us, He will be trustworthy and faithful to answer that prayer. So you better be ready, and looking for that answer.

I am careful, now, what I ask of God because I know the power of prayer and that God will do what is best for me, in the long run. That means it may not seem like the best for me when it happens. I ask for Him to show me, without doubt, like with Gideon and the fleece, what He wants of me. But it scares the heck out of me that when I hear that answer I won’t be strong enough to obey. So I also pray that when He does answer me, He will also make it so that I have the strength and faithfulness to do what He asks.

I know myself- if God wants me to do something that I will have to do without my wife, I don’t think I can. If He requires me to do something that means we have to move away from this house, I don’t think I can. I am not strong enough, faithful enough, and it scares me to death that I will finally hear, absolutely, what God wants of me and I will “pull a Jonah.”

That’s why I am careful what I ask for. I confess, and I hope you don’t think less of me, but I am still struggling to find the strength that Moshe found, that David lived, that Hosea showed and that the Talmudim of Yeshua had, which enabled them to suffer with dignity.

Yet, with all the fear and trembling I have when asking God to strengthen me, I still ask. That’s because, in the long run, it’s all about what He wants and it’s all about what He desires. It’s not about me, or Donna, or my family, or my job….He can replace all of that (as he did with Job.)  No, Steve- it’s not about what you want: it’s all about what He wants.

And to make it worse, even though I would like Him to wait until I feel ready, I know He knows better than me when I am ready and He will not give me anything I cannot handle.

That’s the scary part: I know no matter how impossible it seems, I have no excuse because when God is with me, who can be against me?