In Luke 4 we read of Yeshua teaching at a synagogue and reading from Isaiah. He reads a few passages from the scroll, folds it up and tells the people that He is the one talked about in that scroll.
But He didn’t read the entire scroll- in fact, He left out the part about salvation and resurrection of Israel and the Jewish people.
Why?
I was riding my bike last week and came to a large intersection. I walked the bike half-way across, and was standing in the yellow safety zone, waiting for the light to change to red so I could safely cross the three lane highway. A car was coming down the left turn only lane, and stopped about 10 feet before me, which was about 30 feet before the light. He had a green light, and there was no oncoming traffic. He was, I suppose, trying to be nice and allow me to cross the street ahead of him.
Maybe he thought he was being nice, but he was really leading me to my death. The idiot seemed to forget that there were still three lanes of high speed traffic right on the other side of his car, all with a green light and the drivers would be totally blind to me crossing in front of his car. What he thought was being nice was really attempted murder!
I thought about this in spiritual terms, and realized this is what the enemy will do to us if we are careless and just do as we are told. I mean, really now- do you think he will walk up to you and say,”Hey, there! I’m the Devil, I want you to give up your salvation and suffer in eternal torment with me. Whaddaya say?” Nah- not likely. What the enemy will do is to approach you carefully, with a great big smile and his hand out to shake yours. He will be nice, he will offer you something that you really want, and it may seem spiritually pleasing to have it. He will try to convince you that he is on your side, he is also a Believer and he knows what is God’s desire for you. He will entice you with worldly rewards and tell you they are blessings from God that you receive for proper obedience.
He will let you cross the street in front of him, knowing there are cars speeding by on the other side, and smiling at you while you walk blindly into traffic.
Yeshua told His Talmudim (Disciples) when He sent them into the world to preach that they need to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16) so that they can show the love and compassion of Messiah, but not be so stupid as to cross the road blindly and get run over.
I believe God gave me this simple warning to share with you: the enemy will come as a friend, as a helper, and as a Believer who loves the Lord and wants to help you know Him better. He will entice you with spiritual awareness and sound like he really has an insight to God, but he is a false prophet. How will you know the difference? By looking past the nice things and seeing what is behind them. By being on the alert, always, and being suspicious of everything and anything that seems to be too easy to have. Let’s not forget that Yeshua tells us following Him is not easy:
Luke 9:62 Anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom of God;
Matthew 10:35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-…;
Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
It is better to suspect now and find out later that you are wrong, then to accept blindly and find out later that you are doomed.
This is my formula for knowing if something is from God or from somewhere else: if it is easy to do, gives me worldly rewards and everyone else is doing it, then I probably shouldn’t be doing it.
That, and look twice before crossing the street.
First off, let me say that Irma is no friend of mine!
Nice Irma….. Nasty Irma….
We have some small and large branches down all around the house (nothing damaging the house or porch), a few roof shingle tabs that blew off (nothing serious) and the large Bougainvillea that is on the side of the house has nearly every leaf and flower blown off- it looks more like a skeleton of a large bush than a bush. 🙂
Power is back on (lost it sometime around 0200 and it came back around 1015) but there is no water due to the many mains which have broken. I hope the water comes back soon. Overall, the worst is done- just windy and an occasional shower left behind, but I am leaving most of the plywood up in case the next one, Jose, wants to make trouble, also.
Because I have power and today is a day for blogging, let’s not waste the blessing God has provided and get down to today’s message.
I was reading Dear Abby the other day and read a letter from someone saying they receive a present from friends which is always a hand-colored picture from a coloring book. They always get a different hand-colored picture each time there is an event where people exchange gifts. The writer was complaining that this is all they get, and they wanted to know how to tell the givers not to give these anymore.
Abby said to accept the gift graciously, then do whatever they wanted to with it. I agree with the first part of her answer, but the second part disturbed my spirit because it doesn’t address the real issue, which isn’t about the gift at all, but is all about the attitude of the people receiving the gift.
I am somewhat proud to say that even before I knew the Lord, I still thought that when someone gives a gift they should do so because they wanted to give a gift, and not in expectation of receiving something as nice (or nicer) back. Gift giving should be that- giving. Not expecting a return on investment, not requiring an invitation to their party because you invited them to yours, and certainly not expecting that the gift has to be used or given any special consideration. We should give a gift because we want to give a gift. That’s all there should be to it.
The people in the article didn’t appreciate the meaning behind the hand-colored pictures, and only saw the “thing” they received. They (apparently) expected better, maybe something prettier or more expensive, or more useful. In this, they were exhibiting what the world expects- eye for eye, gift for gift, invitation for invitation. I give only so that I will receive.
This is called Altruism: for instance, in the animal world bats are altruistic in that they will care for and feed the sick among them, knowing that if they become sick they will be fed. In human circles this is expected, but I believe humans should be above that; we should not be altruistic in our relationships, we should be philanthropic.
Yeshua teaches that if someone asks for a shirt, give your cloak as well, or if they ask to carry their pack for a mile, carry it for two miles ( Matthew 5:40; Luke 6:29-30) because we are to give without expectation of receiving back.
God has made covenants with us, in which there is an exchange, but the most important things God gives us, namely Grace, salvation, and forgiveness, He gives without expectation of receiving anything back.
My answer to the writer of this letter would have been to accept the gift graciously, then take the one they liked best, frame it and put it in a conspicuous place in their house. This way they will constantly look at it, and maybe it will be a reminder that they are blessed to have friends who don’t want to just “give something” but want to give of themselves in the gift. Maybe by recognizing the love and compassion behind the simple gift they will become more compassionate and loving, themselves.
Do what is right, and do it for the right reasons. Never give in expectation of receiving. Even if someone is constantly unappreciative and never gives you anything, don’t refuse to give to them. When it comes to giving, we should follow the pattern of the Golden Rule: Gift unto others what you would like to receive yourself.
It took me 50 years but I finally made it- today is the day!
Actually, today is the last day- of working!
Starting tomorrow (although it is technically a “Floater Day” for me) I will be among the ranks of those that receive a payment from the United States government for doing little more than breathing.
I have changed careers often during my lifetime, and now that I change career paths one last time, from an IT career to a Nothing career, I am thankful to God for my having made it to here. He protected my life all these years, He kept me working, He made sure that our house is paid for (a super-blessing!) and He has blessed me with a wonderful wife who, despite the stereotypical joke about ending up having to kill me because I am going to be around her all day, I really, REALLY look forward to spending all my time with her because, when all is said and done, we honestly like being with each other.
And it is ALL because God has blessed us, so much more than I could even start to thank Him for. If I never received another blessing for the rest of my life, and lived as old as Methuselah did, I would still have received more blessings than I could ever count.
What are you looking forward to? What plans, what designs for your life do you have that you have’t yet reached? Whatever they are, God is there to help you get to them.
And if you are already there, be thankful to God for making it to the goal. If you are still working towards a goal, keep at it faithfully expecting and asking God to work with you. We are told in Philippians 3:14, and in 1 Corinthians 8, and even as far back in the Bible as Proverbs 4:25 (which is most likely where Shaul/Paul first learned this to repeat in his epistles to the new Believers) we should always keep our eyes on the prize and strive forward to reach the goal. That goal is, of course, living as God wants us to live to attain (and maintain) salvation. That’s an even better goal than retirement.
So be thankful. Be thankful for when things happen as you expect, and be thankful for when things blow-up in your face, because it is very likely that things are going “south” because you are getting off the path you need to be on. Always look for the blessing in the Tsouris, because all God wants to do is bless us, and when we feel we are under a curse it is almost always because we are the ones walking out from under God’s covering. When we walk with Him, He protects us from the world. Everyone eventually strays out from under God’s covering, and when we do we have problems; when we recognize that as the reason for the problems, then we can get back in line with God, and receive blessings. Do you see how that works? When bad things are happening, don’t blame Satan, and don’t blame God, just look at it positively and realize that somewhere you must have taken a wrong step. That’s all it is, and when you review your steps, you will see where you need to change course to get back on the path of righteousness again.
Look- sometimes it is Satan attacking you, sometimes it is God testing (and refining) you, but it is always something you can overcome and see as a blessing to strengthen you during your walk with God.
I am planning for many things during retirement, and I am still trusting in God to help me get those things done. I pray that He will continue to bless us both (Donna and I) with health and strength to do the things we want to do together, for a long, long time. I pray he keeps us financially stable, and that we grow even more faithful to Him.
I know what I plan to do, I have no idea what I will end up doing (that’s life, right?) but I will continue to work towards what I want to do, make the best of what I am doing, and always be watchful for missteps that take me off the path God wants me to be on.
It’s really pretty simple to stay in God’s will, when you think of it this way: when things are going well, you are doing right, and when things go wrong, retrace your steps.
It’s like spitting on a boat: if you’re facing to the stern, you stay dry, and if you spit towards the bow, well … you will immediately know that you need to turn from your current direction.
Unquestionably prayer works. No doubt. Absolutely!
Well….most of the time. Maybe sometimes it doesn’t.
I guess it depends on what you’re praying for.
The answer really is: yes, prayer works, but not all the time.
I believe that God hears prayers but decides which ones to pay attention to, which to answer, when to answer and always how to answer.
Many times I have found my prayers answered, but the answer wasn’t what I thought it would be, and it certainly wasn’t when I wanted it.
And many times, the answer is: “No.” Sometimes its, “Not now, maybe later”; sometimes its, “No, not never gonna happen.” And sometimes I just don’t know whether or not I will ever get an answer.
But that is no excuse for not continuing to pray.
Maybe the best thing about prayer is praying without receiving an answer. Why?- because it strengthens our trust and our faith. Sometimes we need to make our faith happen instead of having God verify it. What I mean is simply this: faith is described as believing in something that can’t be proven. In Hebrews 11:1 faith is described this way:
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
That means, to me, that whether or not my prayers are answered, it is the act of praying that demonstrates my faith, and whether or not my prayer is answered, my continuing to pray strengthens my faith.
As silly as that sounds, it is what faith is all about: believing when there is no logical reason to believe.
The world tells us that if you can’t touch, see or smell it, it isn’t really there. The world will believe in prayer if the prayer comes true every time, and you get exactly what you prayed for.
That’s why the world will never believe, because that isn’t how prayer works.
God wants us to be faithful, but what we really are is fickle; if we get three prayers answered in a row, and the fourth isn’t, we stop believing. There’s just no “brand loyalty” left in the world.
In Luke 18:1-8 Yeshua (Jesus) tells the parable about the widow and the unrighteous judge. She pestered and bothered and nudged the judge so much that he finally gave her justice just to be rid of her. Now, God doesn’t answer prayer just to get rid of you, which is a good thing, but He does expect that we continue to ask in the face of rejection.
Why? If He is a loving God and Father who wants only the best for His children, why make us go through that?
The answer: I don’t know! I would guess, from what I read and my personal experience, that God is testing us to make sure we are truly faithful and not just trying to get a free lunch. For all I know, every single prayer I have ever made may be answered in the resurrection. Of course, some of the prayers I have made on earth will not make any sense, or have any value, after I am resurrected, but who knows what that is like?
When I was just beginning to know the Lord, when I wasn’t sure about who Jesus is (at that time I had no idea His real name is Yeshua) and I wasn’t even sure about God, I remembered hearing that if you smile, especially when you are sad, you will feel better. I thought, “Maybe if I pray to God as if I really did believe, it would help me to believe?”
Looking back now, knowing what I know and having experienced what I have experienced, I am amazed that I was so wise. Doing what a faithful person does DOES help make you faithful! When I prayed I felt better, even just thinking that there was a loving, omnipotent, omnipresent Spirit that wanted only the best for me and was listening to me. And the fact that this Spirit was able to do whatever I asked, well- that was just icing on the cake.
Eventually, praying as if He was there became knowing He is there. And praying to Him did result in receiving answers, even though many times I didn’t recognize those answers as being answers. Sometimes the answer to prayer is so well camouflaged we can’t see it until we suddenly take a different view of the past. Then we realize, “Hey- ya know what? That was the rabbit!” (you need to love Bugs Bunny to get that reference.)
So, keep praying, no matter what. Whether or not your prayer is answered, whether or not that answer is “Yes”, “No”, or “Fuggedaboutit!”, just keep praying. Prayer strengthens faith, and faith is how we are saved, so it really doesn’t matter that much if your prayers are answered or not.
The real reward of praying comes from continuing to pray.
Sometimes you just have to wonder how we ever got this far as a species.
I love the word puzzles in the morning- they get my brain started. Today a word puzzle had the answer , “Good mothers have sticky floors, dirty ovens and (happy kids).” Really? I thought the main thing a parent was to do was to prepare their children for independence, teach them to be able to care for themselves as well as their family. Good mothers don’t have to sacrifice cleanliness and respect for property just to have happy children, do they?
In a previous life I owned a 2-bedroom condo, and I asked who I was married to at that time to please clean it once a week (she stayed at home with our daughter, who was only 2 at the time) because the dog hairs would get all over my clothes (I was a Bank Officer, so dog hairs covering my legs was not acceptable.) That was it- please vacuum the 895 sq ft or so once a week. I was told (and I quote), “What do you want? A clean house or a wife that loves you?” I was amazed, because I never realized that these things were self-exclusionary! I can be loved or I can have a clean house, but not both.
We need to raise our children to be loving, competent, respectful, compassionate AND able to clean up after themselves! Cleanliness doesn’t have to be sacrificed to be a good parent or spouse. Proverbs says that if we raise a child in the way he should go he will return to it. And the bible does NOT say if we spare the rod we spoil the child: what Proverbs says is that if we do not discipline our children we condemn them to death! Good parents do not condemn their children to death.
Another thing- I saw an article the other day about alcoholism, but they don’t call it that anymore. Now it’s AUD – Alcohol Use Disorder. It’s not so much a disease (having a disease is bad), it’s really just a disorder. By softening the name of a thing it seems to make the thing less our fault. It’s all part of that “Not really my fault” attitude that makes our kids irresponsible and our lives less meaningful. When you think everything that happens to you is someone else’s fault, you are really telling yourself you have no control over your actions and that means you have no hope to be happy. Your problems are from someone else and so your happiness must, as well, come from someone else. You can’t be happy on your own. Hopeless, useless, just a leaf blowing in the wind. Not a good way to live, is it?
What’s next? Serial killers will say they have RMD (Random Murder Disorder)? Transsexuals will have NGSD (Native Gender Specific Disorder)? Career criminals can say they suffer LPOD (Legal Property Ownership Disorder)? Those who are infected with the pandemic of not being politically correct, bigoted and ignorant can fall under the banner of suffering from SABD (Socially Acceptable Behavior Disorder)?
Let’s just call it what it is and face the music about what we do and say. Yeshua told us that our ‘yes’ should be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ should be ‘no’, because anything else is from the evil one. That’s a strong statement- if we don’t face the music and be honest with ourselves and others, we are essentially doing Satan’s work.
Does your company have quarterly “Kudos”? We do- every quarter the managers make up kudos about their people, and we also have attitude awards where you say I did something really special this time and next time I will say you did something really special. Forced recognition of others, just to say, “Look at how wonderfully we treat our employees.”
I won’t say what that is called, but you can plant flowers in it.
I have been in management most of my life and understand the value of recognizing good work. I also understand how forcing people to say good things about others undervalues recognition. People today generally have this attitude of, “I show up every day, usually on time, I usually don’t leave early, and I do the minimum I am supposed to do, usually without problems. I deserve a merit raise!” Huh? It’s called a merit raise because it is supposed to be earned by doing meritorious work- that doesn’t mean just doing what you are supposed to do. That means regularly, and effectively, doing more than what is expected from you. Here’s what Yeshua says about meritorious raises for just doing what you are supposed to do (Luke 17:7-10):
Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’
If you want a raise then earn it- just like John Houseman said in the old Smith Barney commercials about how they make money: “We earn it!” If you want a raise or a promotion, then do more than anyone else does so you can earn it! It shouldn’t, and most of the time isn’t, just given out. I am pretty sure everyone reading this (both of you) know people who have received a promotion by simply being around long enough to get it – do you really think they were qualified for it?
The only thing you can get without earning it (in fact, you can’t earn it) is salvation. And even salvation, free as it is, requires you to work for it to keep it (search this site for ‘losing salvation’ to see why I say that.)
There are so many social and political ills in the world, and America isn’t the only country with them. Every country, everywhere, has the same problems because we all have one thing in common that we cannot escape- we are all human. If we did what God wants from us things would be so much better, and even though we will fail at times, by trying and keeping at it we can be better. God has given us all the answers we need for anything and everything that we have to deal with in the world, and He also provided for us the means to have eternal joy after we leave this lousy place. But we need to take stock of ourselves, be honest with ourselves and others, let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no’, and even more important than that, we need to know when to say yes and when to say no. To do that correctly, constantly, requires more insight and understanding than most humans have, inherently. That’s where the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) helps- it is our comforter because it guides us and helps us find the correct decisions to those hard questions. And, not only does it give us the strength to make them, but also the strength and perseverance to abide by them.
I am ranting here, and my rants may be a little under-researched, I may not understand completely the reasons for some of these things, and I may be way off the mark on others but I know, absolutely, that the bible has all the answers we need, and that faith in God will provide us the wisdom to accept what the proper answers are, and strengthen us to do what is right.
The world thinks it has all the answers, and it does- only it’s answers are wrong.
Four days left for 2015. Today we go back to work (most of us), Thursday we get off early, and Friday is 2016.
Thursday will be 2015, Friday will be 2016: on Friday we will be one year closer to the salvation we look forward to, and one year further away from the opportunities we had to be more the way God wants us to be. But yet, Friday is only one day away from Thursday.
Before we know it, the time to do something we want to do has come and gone. Shaul (Paul) of Tarsus tells us to run the good race (Acts 20:23) , to keep our eyes on the prize (Philippians 3:14) and we are told, from Genesis through Revelations, to look forward to salvation; to await eagerly for the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) when the Olam Hazeh (current world) will pass and the Olam Haba (world to come) will arrive.
Paul also tells us that we are constantly being formed into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) as long as we are in Messiah, as long as we have the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) living in us. We get that by asking and then accepting Messiah Yeshua to save us from ourselves. To save you from yourself. To save me from myself. Salvation is a very personal thing: it is between me and God, and the only thing that comes between me and God that is not an idol is when I have to face Him at Judgement Day and Yeshua, my Messiah, my defense attorney (it’s always best to have a Jewish lawyer) and my intercessor comes between me and the Throne of Judgement and says, “This one is mine, Father.”
That is the moment I look forward to. Until then, I want to make every moment I have one where I can do more to glorify God. It’s hard to do because I am so self-centered, so prideful and so world-weary. And when I say “world weary”, I mean that I am so often wearied by fighting against what the world says I should do that I come to a point where I succumb to it’s temptations. I’m not talking about doing drugs, drinking, cavorting and such; I am talking about simple things, things that no one even notices because they are what the world does. Things like cursing, getting angry at people because they don’t do what I think they should, and complaining about other people. Not so much gossip, but just talking about them and identifying things that I don’t like that they do. These, and other things, are what the world does, but they have no place in God’s kingdom.
This is a time when the world says we should make New Year’s resolutions. That’s not a bad idea, and here’s one I would like us all to make: make every day a new year. Why try to better ourselves only one day of the year? We make these resolutions, usually with the intention of doing them but knowing in our hearts there isn’t a snowballs’ chance in heck that we will live up to the standard we are setting. So, if we have a “New Year” every day, we can “adjust” that resolution until it becomes something we can do. Just as Paul said, we can start our life anew, every day.
To run a good race, you need to run smart. Any experienced runner will tell you when running a race you need to pace yourself. Don’t make resolutions that are so much beyond your ability to accomplish it is like trying to run a marathon by sprinting the whole way. Goals (I learned while getting my MBA) have to be reasonable and attainable. You can set your goals high, but they must be realistic.
And when you make these resolutions, remember that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26), so work hard and discipline yourself to attain your goals this coming year. Forget the past failures so you can strive to be more of what God wants you to be; ask Him for guidance, let the Ruach fill you by allowing more of yourself to get out of the way. Look to the future, get over the past (it is an anchor that keeps you from moving forward) and make every day a new year, every day a step closer to the salvation we are promised, and every day a new hope for entering into Paradise.
It will come like a thief in the night, it will be here before you know it, and when it arrives there will be no going back to make amends or try again.
When is the best day to start over? Yeshua tells us (in Luke 12:20) that no one can look forward to having tomorrow, so get off your tuchas and start TODAY!!
Remember one of the first things we learned as children was to say “Please” and “Thank you?” Once learned, we do it so often it just comes out. Unfortunately, when it becomes automatic, it also becomes somewhat meaningless, doesn’t it?
God has given us more than anyone on earth ever could or ever will. Despite the wonderful things I have received from friends and family, they can’t compare with life, love, health, continued work and (most important) salvation through Messiah Yeshua- all of that is from God.
So I thank God every day; in fact, multiple times during the day. And, yes…sometimes it is rote, it is automatic. I thank him for medicines that work when I take my Zocor in the morning, I thank him for the food He provides whenever I eat a meal or just have a nosh (snack), and I thank Him at the beginning and end of every prayer. I don’t say this to show off or brag about how “holy” or thankful I am, I share this with you to ask if you are as thankful as you should be? The truth is, God has done so much for me that if I was to thank Him for everything He has done, one thing at a time, and once every minute, I would have to live to be older than Methuselah!
When I am praying at worship services, and I cover myself with my Tallit to be in my own little Sukkah, I thank God and cry. Oh, yes, I have Tsouris in my life, I have aches and pains, my hair is thinning at the top and I live in a cursed and fallen world, which is getting worse by the minute. There are many terrible things that happen, and I am more often than not falling short of what I am sure God wants from me. If I concentrated and thought about all the evil I have done to others, and how much I have hurt people, I could go through a ton of anti-depressants and still feel bad.
But thank God (there I go again- thanking God!) that He has taught me that to concentrate on the bad things is to work with the enemy- to berate and belittle myself for being human is to help the enemy steal my soul. This is one of the greatest gifts I have received from the Lord through His Ruach (Spirit): I have realized that when you look to the bad all you see is bad, and when you look to the good then you get to see the good. It’s selective reasoning, selective sight, and selective attitude.
My blood type is B Positive, which may explain why even though I am a cynical so-and-so, I try to see the best outcome, the bright side, the positive. Just like air rushes to fill a vacuum and moths are drawn to the light, I must try to see the best outcome, to explain the reason something is happening is from the the Holy One’s influence. And very often, I have to accept that what I see in the world is not the work of the Holy One, but the work of HaSatan.
When God is absent in a person, there is a vacuum- a spiritual vacuum that cries out to be filled. If the person doesn’t fill it with God’s spirit, then the enemy fills it with himself. Yeshua told the parable of the man who’s house was swept clean, but after the evil spirit left, the man didn’t fill it with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) so the demon that was evicted came back, with 7 more demons worse than himself and took over, again (Matthew 12:45 and Luke 11:26.)
So, nu? In this world of tsouris and hate, evil and self-importance where the legal powers have rejected God and the godless are held in esteem, how do we stay focused on keeping a positive and God-fearing attitude? The answer is: be thankful. Count your blessings and you will be surprised how many of them there are.
You have to count them correctly, though- you need to be thankful for the way God has protected you. If you have aches and pains, see the positive side of that- you aren’t dead! You don’t have missing limbs, and even if you do, do you have any other limbs that are still working? If you have illness, do you know people who are sicker than you?
In a nutshell, just remember the old adage, “I used to be sad because I had no shoes, then I saw a person who had no feet.” Being thankful, being happy (especially in this world) and being positive is not easy- it is stinking hard! Yeshua didn’t say let’s have a party together, He said pick up your execution stake and follow me. We need to work at seeing the bright side; and when you do, and when you become good at it, you will not only be happier but you will help make others happy, too.
They say to every cloud there is a silver lining. The silver lining is seen when the sun hidden by the cloud comes out from behind it. Every cloud in our life has the Son behind it, waiting to come out and show you the silver lining. We all know that on the cloudiest day, the sun is just behind the cloud waiting to break forth in light. In the same way we need to look for and wait on the Son of God, and God, Himself, to break forth through the clouds of despair and frustration that living in a cursed world will have on all of us. We all become depressed, we all feel out of sorts and desperate now and then. It’s a human thing. Don’t let it get you down.
When we are thirsty we look for water, and when we drink we feel revived. When your soul is thirsty for joy and relief, look for the Living Water and drink your fill.
The way to have joy and spiritual relief is to thank God for all you do have. Don’t get hung-up on the bad stuff but look right through it for the light behind it- seek ye first the things of heaven. There is always something to be thankful for, so go and find it!
If you are sad and depressed, it is no one’s fault but your own. Fight against it! God gives us a spirit of victory, not of fear. The enemy wants you to belittle yourself, to be afraid, to feel alone and unloved. Don’t you dare buy it! God has everything you need, everything that is important and more of it than you can ever use in your entire lifetime. It’s all there for you, already wrapped and waiting for you to open it.
Seek and ye shall find, so get your butt out there and seek! Be thankful, praise God and look for Him in everything. When you do that you find the joy He has for you.
My undergraduate degree is in History, and one of the things we historians say is that history tends to repeat itself. This is (usually) because people don’t know their own history, so when the same types of events that caused one historical tragedy begin to coalesce once more, people can’t “read the warning signs” of the beginnings of another tragedy.
That’s a “world” view, meaning what we humans are taught. But God’s view is different.
God says to forget the past, and I think He has the better idea. After all, how can one look towards the future when you are always reviewing the past? I never liked the Jewish ….what do I call it? A celebration? a Holiday? I am thinking of Yom Hashoah, the remembrance of the Holocaust. It is a day where I have seen the Sanctuary of a synagogue covered in black and with pictures of the concentration camps. A day devoted to the past, with people reliving the horrors, they cry over things from half a century ago and their anger burns anew.
I don’t really want to remember the past because when we do we get mired in it. Yeshua said that anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back isn’t fit for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:62) so if we want to grow in the Lord and do more for God, we need to forget the past.
Doesn’t God forget the past? You bet He does, and thank Him for that! He tells us that when we are forgiven our past sins are as far from us as the East is from the West; that although we are stained scarlet red, we will be washed clean as new snow; that He will blot out the memory of our sins and they will be no more. That’s what forgetting the past is all about.
Forgetting the past means we have to let it go. If you hold on to something old, you can only have one hand left for reaching out to grab something new. I remember in the martial arts classes I took that when someone grabs you with both hands, like you always see in the movies, that means both their hands are unable to protect them, and both your hands are free to attack them. It’s like the story of the person in the water holding on to their heavy bag of valuables- they want to be saved but they are dragged down to their death because they won’t let go. What they are saving from their past is preventing them from having a future.
Whatever has happened to us in the past, happy or sad, we need to let it go in order to grow in the Spirit. Given a choice, I would prefer to hold on to the happy memories and forget the bad ones, but even happy memories can be a hidden trap. You can’t hold on to something and let it go at the same time, so anything and everything of the past, good and bad, must be released so we have both hands free to grab hold of the future.
This is a hard word to hear, and even harder to do. I am no further along than you are, believe me, and I wish I could just forget so many things. Actually, I do forget a lot of things, but they are recent and important, like the names of people I see when worshipping every Friday, what I was supposed to bring home from work, and to turn the alarm on at night. I DO remember Donna’s birthday, our wedding anniversary and when we had our first date. I may be forgetful, but I’m not suicidal!
The point of today’s Drash is that we need to remember to forget. Put the pain behind us, put the sadness behind us, and look to the future. I know people, one in particular, who can’t forget the past because she wants it to be different. Apologies never helped make her feel better, and “venting” didn’t vent out the anger; it only added oxygen to the fire. I truly believe that “getting it off our chest” is a lie from the pit of Sheol- when we relive the pain, the frustration and the anger all it does is re-open the wound. You can’t heal a cut by pulling at it- you cover it, and forget about it.
God tells us, over and over, to look to the future. He says when we return and ask forgiveness for the past, He will forgive and it will be no more. Not an event, not a memory, not even a faint recollection of something that once happened. It will be as if it never was. All the Prophets told of the upcoming judgements, and they always ended up with a promise of future reconcilement, a regathering of the people and the establishment of God’s kingdom on Earth. The Bible is chock-full of God telling us to forget our past and concentrate on our future with Him.
There is no hope in the past, the present is over in a heartbeat, so the future is all that is left to us if we want to make things better. The world says to remember the past and memorialize that which has happened; God says to look to Him for a better future and to work towards the goal: as Shaul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:24, we must run the race in such a way as to win the prize.
No one wins a race looking back.
Although the definition of these words is very similar, meaning to give someone the ability to do something, the connotation (general usage) is that to empower is to help someone do something beneficial for themselves, and to enable is when we allow someone or support them in doing things harmful to themselves. For instance, we empower people to feel good about their job by paying them a fair wage, and we enable people to hurt themselves when we give money to a homeless person (unfortunately, the money usually goes to drugs or booze- that’s why I don’t give money to beggars but I do offer to buy them food. It takes more of my time to get them something, and it costs more than just giving them change, but it helps them more, and I feel much better. Try it.)
Therefore, if you allow me these usages (’empowering’ is good for you and ‘enabling’ is bad for you), the question today is, “What is your religious leader doing for you spiritually? Are you being empowered to do as the Lord asks, or are you being enabled to do what is easy and comfortable for you by being given ‘excuses’ for ignoring God’s commands?”
Another way to look at this is to start by remembering that God has told us, over and over, how He will bless us when we do as he commands, but when we refuse (i.e., reject Him) we will be cursed and will not receive those blessings (check out the beginning of Vayikra and D’varim, Chapter 28, as well as N’Varim, the writings of the Prophets.) If you are being taught that the Torah is still valid and that Yeshua (Jesus) observed Torah and taught others to do the same, and that Shaul (Paul) did not say ignore Torah but only was talking about how Torah will not be needed AFTER Yeshua returns and is still necessary and should be observed, then you are being empowered to receive all of God’s blessings.
On the other hand, if you are being taught Replacement Theology (the Jews are no longer the Chosen people) and that Yeshua did away with “the Law” so that all you need to do to be saved is ask God for forgiveness and you can pretty much go on living as you have, you are being enabled to sin. And if you lead a sinful life, without any concern for God’s commandments or ordinances, you will not receive His blessings (other than the ones He will probably still give you, now and then, only because He is a loving and compassionate God) and you may find yourself being told by Yeshua that He does not know you.
Don’t forget those parables about the maidens who were left out of the wedding, even though they were invited, because they came up short-handed at the time the groom arrived; and that Yeshua told us there are many who will call Him Lord but at the Judgement He will reject them because they did not follow Him. Check it out in Luke 6 (“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?), and it’s also in Matthew. Didn’t Yeshua say that if we love Him we will do as He commands? And what did he command us to do? To follow Him, and He followed Torah, so we need to follow Torah, too.
Yeshua did as His father told Him to do, which is what God tells us all to do, which is found in the Torah. God has no religion, only Torah. Yeshua is the living Torah, so to ignore the Torah is, literally, to ignore Yeshua. And if you ignore Yeshua you will not be on the path to salvation, you will be traveling the Highway to Hell.
I am not saying you will absolutely go to hell if you don’t completely follow Torah, because just trying to observe Torah will not save you. Faith will save you, but if you CAN follow Torah…if you can live every stroke of the pen in Torah as Yeshua did, then you don’t need Yeshua to be your sin sacrifice. Of course, if any human being could follow Torah exactly and completely, then that person would screw up the curve and Yeshua wouldn’t be needed. That means there would be three people in heaven: God, Yeshua and that one creep who ruined it for the rest of us!
It comes down to this: we are saved by faith. Faithfully believing in the existence of God, faithfully believing that Yeshua is the Messiah who sacrificed His life as a sin sacrifice for all of us, AND faithfully doing T’Shuvah, which is demonstrated and proven by spending the rest of our lives sinning less by obeying God more. That means that following the Torah will not necessarily get you into heaven, and not following it will not necessarily keep you out, but the more you follow it the more blessings you will receive on Earth (as God promises), the more fruit you will produce to bring before the Lord at Judgement Day, and the closer you will be to Yeshua.
If you are being told that you need to obey God, which means all that God says we should do to worship Him as He commands us to do in the Torah and as Yeshua confirms we should do, then your religious leaders are empowering you to receive God’s blessings and helping you to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God.
If you are being told by your religious leaders that the Torah is dead, all you need to do is accept Jesus as your Saviour, ask for forgiveness and (pretty much) that’s all it takes- it is set, it can’t be taken away and your are guaranteed to go to heaven so long as you are a “good” person, then you are being enabled to sin and they are separating you from God, preventing you from receiving all His blessings, and possibly giving you a ticket straight to Sheol.
It’s up to you to decide what you will do, not anyone else, because God will hold you totally accountable for what you do.
