"Hear, Isra'el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one; and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
"I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, loving ADONAI your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him -- for that is the purpose of your life!
Deuteronomy 30:19-20a
"Rabbi, which of the commands in the Torah is the most important?" He [Jesus] told him, "You are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the most important commandment. And a second is similar to it, 'You are to love your neighbor as yourself'. All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two commands."
Matthew 22:36-40
We are called to love God. We are called to love God with our whole heart. Loving God with our whole heart is the very purpose of our lives! How do we love God with our whole heart? What does that look like? I decided to study this topic and make a reference to look at for examination in my own life. What I discovered was that it is whole life immersion in God, his Word, his ways, and his love. I created a basic outline, which I will post below. Over the next weeks, I hope to explore each point in detail and pursue loving God whole-heartedly in my own life.
1. Loving God is obeying God.
John 14:15
John 14:21
Matthew 23:1-3
Matthew 23:23
2. Loving God is pursuing relationship with God.
Prayer
Worship
Study of God's Word
1John 4:19
3. Loving God is placing him first over everything in our lives.
4. Loving God is resolving to hold nothing back from him.
5. Loving God is listening to God. Paying careful attention to what he says. Listening in our heart.
Deuteronomy 10:16
Deuteronomy 30:20
Jeremiah 17:9
Psalm 51:10 (12)
Matthew 7:24-27
Matthew 15:8-9
Isaiah 29:13
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who alone is worthy of our love, our worship, our obedience, our all.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Standing For What We Believe In Gentleness
Studying God's Word is continually changing my life, as He is showing me what His way looks like through that Word. What a blessing it is to be taught by the Lord of Heaven! I feel excited when I study the Scriptures and gain new insight. It has been a joy to learn about Adonai's Holy Days and then celebrate them in my home with my family. To see the promises tucked away in Passover and understand the completion brought through Messiah has impacted my entire view toward this celebration.
My family decided not to celebrate Easter any longer about two years ago. After careful study, much prayer, and some historical research, it seemed that God's best for our lives was to abandon a day that had not a few pagan practices embedded in it in exchange for the Biblically sanctioned Passover. Passover is the way God chose for men to celebrate and remember what he has accomplished on our behalf. Praise God! Because I am so excited, I naturally want to share all that I have been learning. But when we make changes in our lives in order to walk more closely in our relationship with our Lord, it impacts our relationships with others. This can create difficulties. Friends or family members sometimes feel that you are throwing aside traditions which they hold dear. They may feel that you are rejecting beliefs they hold, and therefore may feel attacked when you explain why you hold a different view. They sometimes even think that you are rejecting the celebration of the Messiah's resurrection, which is not the case at all. It is precisely my desire to celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of my Savior that compels me to worship God in the way He set forth. Honoring God is the focus in celebrating. May God strengthen us all in faith and love, and may he grant us gentleness toward one another as we give an account of our faith.
Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who directs our footsteps and grants peace.
My family decided not to celebrate Easter any longer about two years ago. After careful study, much prayer, and some historical research, it seemed that God's best for our lives was to abandon a day that had not a few pagan practices embedded in it in exchange for the Biblically sanctioned Passover. Passover is the way God chose for men to celebrate and remember what he has accomplished on our behalf. Praise God! Because I am so excited, I naturally want to share all that I have been learning. But when we make changes in our lives in order to walk more closely in our relationship with our Lord, it impacts our relationships with others. This can create difficulties. Friends or family members sometimes feel that you are throwing aside traditions which they hold dear. They may feel that you are rejecting beliefs they hold, and therefore may feel attacked when you explain why you hold a different view. They sometimes even think that you are rejecting the celebration of the Messiah's resurrection, which is not the case at all. It is precisely my desire to celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of my Savior that compels me to worship God in the way He set forth. Honoring God is the focus in celebrating. May God strengthen us all in faith and love, and may he grant us gentleness toward one another as we give an account of our faith.
Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who directs our footsteps and grants peace.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Rulings of the Emissaries and Elders of Jerusalem
Acts chapter 15 is quite a significant section of Scripture, as it relates the decisions of the emissaries and elders at Jerusalem concerning Gentile believers in Messiah. That ruling group proclaimed four requirements for Gentile believers to observe (15:28). But, after a careful study, we may discover some important points which will clarify the letter to the congregations further, and thus impact our views toward the instruction in this letter.
First, we will look at Acts 15:1, which explains why the letter was necessary to begin with. It seems some men from Judah went out to the congregations at Antioch preaching that they could not be saved unless they were circumcised. Now, we know that no action done by man can save. Salvation cannot be earned; not through circumcision, nor performing kind deeds, neither through any lifestyle. Salvation is a gift given by God, through the Messiah; it is a gift we do not deserve and cannot repay. So we easily see why this was an important matter for the leaders to address, for teaching that you cannot be saved unless you undergo circumcision is a false gospel! That false teaching is plain to see because it says that Christ crucified is not enough. Circumcision is not the problem we see in this chapter. God commanded circumcision, and all God's commands are good. What is not good is the teaching that man must "do" anything to "get right with God" before he/she can be saved, and this is the issue caused Paul, James, and the other leaders concern.
We see that the leaders met and discussed the problem. Now we look at Acts 15:19-22 to see the conclusion......(James is speaking)....."Therefore, my opinion is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood. (21) For from the earliest times, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words (Torah) being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath."
These verses immediately jumped out at me and opened my eyes to these observations. To begin with, each of the requirements suggested by James are parts of Torah. Why would some of God's commandments be required, yet others omitted? Secondly, verse 21 implies that James looks at these requirements as the beginning for the Gentile believers, since he reiterates to the other leaders that the learning of Torah (words of Moses) will be an ongoing process in the lives of these Gentile believers every Sabbath in Synagogue. It is after this that the leaders agree, and the letter is sent to the congregations.
It is as if the emissaries and elders were giving these "newborn believers" milk to begin their walk with the Lord so as not to overwhelm them. This seems logical to me, as I look over my own walk with our dear Lord. The Lord grew me up into greater maturity and knowledge, greater faith, greater doing as he saw I was able. I would not begin my life as a mathematician with Algebra or Calculus, but with addition and subtraction, then as I mastered these concepts, new concepts of greater depth requiring greater skill and understanding could be added, which would over time (providing I was studying and applying) produce higher level abilities needed for Calculus, Physics, Astro-physics, etc.
In conclusion, let us also notice that James and the other leaders obviously valued continuing education in believer's lives. May each of us examine our lives according to the four basic requirements, and pause to reflect on the abundance of (or lack of) additional learning. Maybe the growth of joy, self-discipline, perseverance, patience, kindness, and love that we all desire is to be found by and in our study and application of the Almighty God's Torah - which was given to us for our instruction on how to walk with God in the way that is right from His perspective - through the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds. Amen.
The love of the Messiah be with us all.
First, we will look at Acts 15:1, which explains why the letter was necessary to begin with. It seems some men from Judah went out to the congregations at Antioch preaching that they could not be saved unless they were circumcised. Now, we know that no action done by man can save. Salvation cannot be earned; not through circumcision, nor performing kind deeds, neither through any lifestyle. Salvation is a gift given by God, through the Messiah; it is a gift we do not deserve and cannot repay. So we easily see why this was an important matter for the leaders to address, for teaching that you cannot be saved unless you undergo circumcision is a false gospel! That false teaching is plain to see because it says that Christ crucified is not enough. Circumcision is not the problem we see in this chapter. God commanded circumcision, and all God's commands are good. What is not good is the teaching that man must "do" anything to "get right with God" before he/she can be saved, and this is the issue caused Paul, James, and the other leaders concern.
We see that the leaders met and discussed the problem. Now we look at Acts 15:19-22 to see the conclusion......(James is speaking)....."Therefore, my opinion is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood. (21) For from the earliest times, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words (Torah) being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath."
These verses immediately jumped out at me and opened my eyes to these observations. To begin with, each of the requirements suggested by James are parts of Torah. Why would some of God's commandments be required, yet others omitted? Secondly, verse 21 implies that James looks at these requirements as the beginning for the Gentile believers, since he reiterates to the other leaders that the learning of Torah (words of Moses) will be an ongoing process in the lives of these Gentile believers every Sabbath in Synagogue. It is after this that the leaders agree, and the letter is sent to the congregations.
It is as if the emissaries and elders were giving these "newborn believers" milk to begin their walk with the Lord so as not to overwhelm them. This seems logical to me, as I look over my own walk with our dear Lord. The Lord grew me up into greater maturity and knowledge, greater faith, greater doing as he saw I was able. I would not begin my life as a mathematician with Algebra or Calculus, but with addition and subtraction, then as I mastered these concepts, new concepts of greater depth requiring greater skill and understanding could be added, which would over time (providing I was studying and applying) produce higher level abilities needed for Calculus, Physics, Astro-physics, etc.
In conclusion, let us also notice that James and the other leaders obviously valued continuing education in believer's lives. May each of us examine our lives according to the four basic requirements, and pause to reflect on the abundance of (or lack of) additional learning. Maybe the growth of joy, self-discipline, perseverance, patience, kindness, and love that we all desire is to be found by and in our study and application of the Almighty God's Torah - which was given to us for our instruction on how to walk with God in the way that is right from His perspective - through the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds. Amen.
The love of the Messiah be with us all.
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