You, Who Believe, are ISRAEL!

Romans 11:17-27

 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,

18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear…

 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

 25 …so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;

26 and so all Israel will be saved…

Brethren, all who believe and will believe are grafted into the Olive Tree of Yisrael and are partakers of the root of Jesse, Yeshua HaMashiach.  There is no mystery to be solved as to where the Church stands in relation to Israel or the Jews.  Your identity belongs to the Olive Tree of Israel if you are a believer in Yeshua.

YOU ARE ISRAEL!  ISRAEL is made up of two Houses: Judah (Jewish believers) and Ephraim (non-Jewish believers).  Did you notice the common denominator; “believers”?  Elohim has one family.  The issue at hand is identity.

Those in the church do not understand their Hebrew roots and the Orthodox do not understand their Messiah.  Two witnesses throughout eternity: Grace and Law.  No choice needed because when we believe, the God of grace rights the law (Torah) on our hearts.  By grace we are saved through faith so that we may walk in the law (Torah) of YHVH.  The Torah is the works prepared beforehand for us to walk in. 

The Torah is the evidence that James must see for you to have living faith as opposed to dead faith.  Yeshua did not set us free and then leave us to flounder in how we should walk.  He Himself walked in Torah.  Our freedom in Christ was always meant to fall in line with our God’s commands. 

Come out of the nations, YISRAEL!  Hear O Israel and obey and it will be well with you.  Walk in His precepts and He will bless you way and make straight your paths.  

The Division of Abijah is the Key

John 10:22-23
22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.

“Feast of the Dedication” etymology

The Greek word chosen for Feast of the Dedication has its roots in the Hebrew word "Hanukkah".  This means it would have been the remembrance of Hanukkah that was being celebrated at the time when Yeshua and His disciples were there. 

We need to be reminded of the fact that there are no idle words in the Bible.  Every single jot and tittle has a purpose and Elohim intends to use even the letters to teach us about Himself and His ways. 

No idle word in the Torah:

Deuteronomy 32:46-49

⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

⁴⁸ The LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, ⁴⁹ “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. 

No idle word in the Scripture at all:

Isaiah 55:11

¹¹ So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

As a brother of mine said, “Show me in the Scripture that you can justify celebrating pagan festivals and I will change my view.” (Loosely Paraphrased)  The fact is, you can’t.  Nowhere in Scripture is it commanded to celebrate December 25^th as Yeshua’s birth.  His birth was at the Feast of Sukkot and this can be proven with Scripture

Here is the breakdown of when He was born:

Luke 1:5-13; 24-36

Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

⁵ In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. ⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

⁸ Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, ⁹ according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. ¹¹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. ¹² Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John… 

…²⁴ After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, ²⁵ “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.”

Jesus’ Birth Foretold

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” ³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 

You have to find out when John the Baptist was born and then you can see when the Messiah was born.  Zacharias was from the division of Abijah.  This was a division of the priesthood and they had certain times assigned to serve in the Temple.

Side note: John the Baptist was a Leviticus priest by birth and would have been fully qualified to declare Yeshua the Spotless Lamb as He did. 

So when was Zacharias serving in the Temple? 

1 Chronicles 24: 7-18

7 Now the first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, 8 the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, 9 the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin, 10 the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, 11 the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah, 12 the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim, 13 the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab, 14 the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer, 15 the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez, 16 the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel, 17 the twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul, 18 the twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.

There, in verse 10, we can see that the division of Abijah was the eighth. Thus, by dividing the 12 months of the year by 24 (there were 24 divisions), we have 15 days assigned to each division.

Zechariah’s division, therefore, was the 8^th fortnight (1 fortnight = 15 days) of every year. When would the 8^th fortnight have fallen during the year?  You need to find out when the Hebrew year began to find this out. 

Exodus 12:1-2

The Passover Lamb

¹ Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 

Here you can see that the month of Passover would have been when God commands the year to begin so that would fall in the middle of March or the month of Nisan.

So, according to these calculations, Mid-March + 8 fortnights (1 fortnight = 15 days) = Mid-July = the end of the “division of Abijah” and the commencement of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.  Elizabeth was pregnant 5 months before Mary conceived.  Mid-July + 5 months = Mid-December when Mary conceived.  Yeshua would have been born 9 months later.  Mid-December + 9 months = Mid-September. 

Guess what falls in Mid-September to Beginning of October: The Feast of Sukkot. 

So would the Messiah be celebrating His birth on December 25^th?  I question it.  The Scripture clearly says He was celebrating Hanukkah and I have shown above when He was truly born according to the Scripture.  Now you decide.



Don't be Like the Nations, Be Set Apart, Holy unto Elohim

Leviticus 20:22-26

²² ‘You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. ²³ Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. ²⁴ Hence I have said to you, “You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples. ²⁵ You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. ²⁶ Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine. 

This passage says so much about our Elohim and what he hates and likes.  It is more of a distinction between what is clean and unclean.  That is why keeping kosher is so important.  Do you not realize that YHVH is going to kosher the earth with fire in the end to make it new?  He will take what is unclean, just like Yeshua did with us, and make it clean so that His people who walk in His ways can walk in a clean land.  

Let’s look deeper into this passage.  I know.  Nobody reads Leviticus.  I think that may be part of the church’s problem; lack of understanding of the Scripture that is good for our instruction for the purpose of not making the same mistakes as our ancestors. 

I must preface this study with the following Scripture so we do not try to say that these things only pertain to the Israelites of the past: 

Malachi 3:6-7

⁶ “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

⁷ “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 

Do you see the problem?  His people have a problem with turning away from His statutes.  That is His Torah or Instruction.  And He does not change so they are found wanting.  What Elohim desired of His people back in those days is the same thing He desires of His people today.  If He changes then we are doomed because His judgments are not perfect and subject to whimsical change.  We have no hope of salvation because that line of thinking calls into question the surety of the work that Yeshua has done. 

²² ‘You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. 

The land will spew you out because you do not keep the laws of the King over the land.  Just like we live in a state and city and obey their laws and ordinances, so too does God’s kingdom have laws and regulations called commandments.  If we keep them, we receive the blessing of keeping them and if we do not keep them we receive the absence of that blessing which is consequently a curse. 

²³ Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. 

F.Y.I. - YHVH does not like Christmas or Easter.  In fact, He abhors them.  He gives specific command in this verse to not follow the customs of the nations.  You are to follow the customs of your Father, if He be yours.  Those are the Feasts and Festivals of Leviticus 23.  Remember I said you should read Leviticus and a lot of things may clear up. 

²⁴ Hence I have said to you, “You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples

Elohim is going to take the land of the nations away from them and give it to His people.  And this land will be prosperous and flowing with life.  We will all be in the land at the end of all things so if this is not the desire of your heart, you may have the wrong God.  YHVH also says that He has separated us from the peoples.  This means that you are being disobedient when you try and mix yourself back in with them. 

²⁵ You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. 

Because of this separation, you are to keep kosher.  Moreover, this means you are to keep yourself clean and separate from the unclean (pagan rituals, worldly ways, etc.)  It is not enough to just keep yourself separate by making up how you do that (not watching television, not drinking, etc.)  You need to keep yourself separate how God commands you to. 

²⁶ Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.

This is a classic Hebrew example of repetition to emphasize how important something is.  Are you getting the point by now that you are to be Holy, set apart, clean, kosher?  God does not change and those who are believers today are supposed to be doing these things as well. 

 

Are You Offering Strange Fire on the Altar of Your Life?

Leviticus 10:1-3

The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

¹ Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. ² And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying,

‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,
And before all the people I will be honored.’”

So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

We could learn so much from the mistake of Aaron’s sons.  Much of what is practiced today, the holding of God’s hand along with the holding on to the traditions of men, is akin to offering strange fire unto the LORD.  Verse three clearly says that “those” who come near Him, “will” treat Him as holy.  So I ask: is it treating Him as holy to deny the very feasts He has given His people and replace them with pagan ones?  The feasts that are celebrated in the modern church are strange fire to the LORD.

I think a common mistake is the misunderstanding in the church of the significance of the altar.  For it is the altar that makes the sacrifice holy, not the sacrifice.  So let’s look at what an altar means in Scripture and then we can see that our very lives are an altar or memorial set up to the YHVH and we should not be offering strange fire on it.  I am taken aback by the fact that one would even have to address this subject with true believers, but the veil has been lifted from my eyes and now I see that I am one of few when I once thought I was one of many.

THE ALTAR

Genesis 8:19-21

¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

Psalm 24:1-3

¹ The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it.
² For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers.
³ Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
And who may stand in His holy place?

Noah immediately builds an altar and offers sacrifices to Elohim because the altar is God’s calling card that this place is Mine.

Genesis 12:6-8

⁶ Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. ⁷ The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. ⁸ Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.

Genesis 26:18-26

Quarrel over the Wells

¹⁸ Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them. ¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, ²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Sitnah. ²² He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

²³ Then he went up from there to Beersheba. ²⁴ The LORD appeared to him the same night and said,

“I am the God of your father Abraham;
Do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bless you, and multiply your descendants,
For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵ So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Genesis 35:6-8

⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother. ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all built altars after having encountered YHVH.  They were memorials and ways of honoring the Lord over all.  For the sake of brevity, I will let you do the research on just how many altars were erected, but I do want to look at some significant altars that King David built.  David purchased two different altar plots; one for the Temple Mount and one for the altar to sacrifice the final Passover Lamb, Yeshua HaMashiach.  The type of money he used is significant as well.

Remember the point is to show the significance of an altar and that our God is Holy and will not tolerate being approached with base or profane practices.

1 Chronicles 21:17-27

¹⁷ David said to God, “Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand be against me and my father’s household, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.”

David’s Altar

¹⁸ Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹ So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD. ²⁰ Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat. ²¹ As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground. ²² Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the LORD; for the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be restrained from the people.” ²³ Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all.” ²⁴ But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” ²⁵ So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. ²⁶ Then David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the LORD and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ The LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath.

2 Chronicles 3:1

The Temple Construction in Jerusalem

¹ Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

David purchases the Temple Mount with gold.  Gold throughout the Scripture is a sign of divinity.

2 Samuel 24:23-25

²³ Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” ²⁴ However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

Silver in the Scripture is a sign of redemption.  It is believed that this altar that David bought is the Mount of Olives where the Messiah was actually crucified as an offering unto the LORD.  Joseph’s chalice that he hid in Benjamin’s bag when he was under Pharaoh was silver because he was going to be the redemption of his family and the children of Israel.  In case you have never seen it, Joseph is a type of the Messiah.

Again, the altar is what makes the sacrifice holy, not the sacrifice.  The Father had to accept the sacrifice of His Son on the altar at the Mount of Olives or the sacrifice would be null and void.  Since we are now the Temple of Elohim, we hold the altar, or calling card of YHVH within us.  If we fill our firepans with Easter (the feast of the impregnation of the earth in preparation for the birth of the sun god on 12/21), Halloween (feast of the dead), and Christmas (the feast designed by the church to cover up the winter solstice and birth of the venerable sun god), we are offering strange fire on our altar in the Temple of YHVH.

³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying,

‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,
And before all the people I will be honored.’”

So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

Notice Aaron’s response: silence.  Aaron knew that what his sons had done was wrong.  He did not make excuses like, “well their hearts were right.” Because he knew that they were not.  The church needs to stop making excuses, be silent, and know that He is LORD.  Turn 180 degrees and conform their lives to the way YHVH wants it done.  Put your strange fire down and offer the proper sacrifice.

Was Peter really told to disobey a commandment of YHVH?

Acts 10

¹ Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, ² a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. 

From a Hebraic perspective, verse 2 would sound like this: 

²Cornelius was a ger toshav, a yagor Elohim, he gave tzedakah, and he did the Amidah.  Now what are these things? 

Ger Toshav (a devout man): In the Jewish community, this person is considered a righteous gentile.  He accepts the authority of the Torah and keeps the Biblical feasts, but would not be allowed into Judaism and to celebrate in Jerusalem.  There were two types of converts to Judaism in Cornelius’s day: the ger tzedek and the ger toshav.  A ger tzedek was proselyte of Judaism and aspired to hold to all 613 commandments.  They would have to be circumcised and do a mikvah which is a full immersion in living waters.  They would also be required to learn the oral tradition as well.

 

Yagor Elohim (God-fearer): Cornelius kept the Torah because those who fear God keep His commandments.  If you would go to an orthodox Jew and say you were a God-fearer and yet kept no commandments, they would say you were a liar. 

Tzedakah (alms): Charity given.  This is a spiritual charity and is seen in the Jewish community as an obligation.  The highest form is to send gifts anonymously to recipients. 
 

Amidah (prayed to God continually): This called the standing prayer.  It is interesting to note that Cornelius was praying in the ninth hour of the day.  This would have been 3pm in the afternoon and the time of the afternoon prayers in Judaism or the afternoon part of the Amidah.

 

Cornelius was a gentile who feared God and kept His commandments, but would not have been accepted in the Temple of the Jews because he was a gentile and had not been through the mikvah or circumcision.  Despite this, Cornelius prayed to God to be accepted into His family.  He did all of it in faith and so now enters Peter into the story.

Acts 10:3-20

^…3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” ⁴ And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵ Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; ⁶ he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.” ⁷ When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, ⁸ and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹ On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. ¹⁰ But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; ¹¹ and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, ¹² and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. ¹³ A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” ¹⁵ Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

¹⁷ Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; ¹⁸ and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹ While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. ²⁰ But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”

This vision is often misused to say that we do not have to keep Kosher, but as you can see, Peter did not immediately understand what the vision meant.  He most certainly did not understand it to mean that he could eat anything he wanted.  Context is the key to understanding everything in the Bible.

What is interesting is that the men sent by Cornelius were Roman soldiers and they were commonly called “pigs” by the Jews.

Gentiles Hear Good News

Acts 10:34-35

³⁴ Opening his mouth, Peter said:

“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.

Peter finally understands the vision in verse 34-35.  He had come from the teachings of the House of Shammai (a whole other teaching) which put him under no obligation to visit a gentile or have anything to do with Cornelius.  Context is the key to understanding that Peter understood gentiles, even ones that kept the same feasts and commandments as he did, to be common, unclean, and outside the grace of God. 

God never violates His own commands and He is never at war with Himself; He is One.

Who is the one who really loves you? It may not be who you think.

Life is a confusing mix of love, hate, pain, joy, truth, and so called harmless “white lies”. I was thinking on truth the other day and how truth never suits all situations. Or at least that is how it seems to play out in our society and the church. When we think it is best for another person, we easily slip into a harmless “white lie”. All the while telling ourselves that it is what is best for them. Is that what is really best for them? Is it safe to live a life based on truth peppered with lies for the sake of others?  Doesn’t a little leaven ruin the whole lump of dough?

I believe at best it will only make us hypocrites. Being a father, I have seen this full well. I want my children to trust me and so I am unashamedly truthful with them. I want my children to know that their Father (not a mistype; I am teaching my children about their Father in heaven in what I do) is principled and one that they can run to in the storms of life and celebrate with when they are joyful. Therefore, there is no santa claus in our house or reindeer on the roof. The delight of children in such things is not worth the moment they find out that mom and dad have been lying to them all those years opening the floodgates to question what else mom and dad have lied about.

That is why when we celebrate Feast and Festivals throughout the year, they are based in truth; the word of God.  We care not for traditions of men or what our family has always done forever.  Those things don’t bring lasting joy and closeness to YHVH.  The question that must be asked is: Is perpetuating a lie to others really loving them to our fullest potential?  For me, it is not.   Now this stance is not popular and has cost me points in America society and with my family.  But if you really look closely at what I am doing, I think you will find that it is what everyone wishes they could do with their children but are afraid of what others might think.  Don’t give your child a stone if they say they are hungry.

The Scripture says to train up a child in the way they will go and he will not depart from it.  What way are you training up your children to follow?  Myths about a fat man in a suit giving gifts living in the North Pole, a celebration of the winter solstice and tree worship all while claiming it is about the Messiah, or the day of the dead and easter eggs and rabbits?  I can guarantee you this:  If you train your children up in those ways, they will not depart from them.  Only YHVH will be able to pull them out of the lies and set them on the path of the righteous like he did with me.

Do we want to just love people or love them to our fullest potential?  To truly love someone, you must love like Yeshua.  He never was politically correct; He came and spoke truth unabashedly.  He shared that which sets men’s souls free from bondage.  Most of what I see preached and taught today is more bondage.  It is bonding men into a system that will ultimately leave them unprepared for the things God is about to do.  These pastors are the ones crying, “Peace, peace!”  They are teaching their congregation the traditions of men and not the commandments of Elohim.  They are the moneychangers in the inner court keeping people from getting close to God.

Why?  Two reasons: 1) They just flat out don’t know or 2) They know the truth but to turn 180 and teach the truth would almost immediately unseat them from their position of power in their church.  I can tell you this, when the end comes, I would not want to be one of these men.   I have heard it said that you are responsible for what you know.  That is the key:  what you do with truth once you have it.  If I was a man telling you things from men, I am not one to listen to.  But if I am a man telling you things that God has actually said in His word, then I am giving you truth from God.  Now what will you do with it?  How are you going to love others?  Who really loves you that you have surrounded yourself with?

  

Does this sound like your life? As a believer, it should.

Psalm 139

1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” 12 Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. 13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. 19 O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. 20 For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your name in vain. 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

Do You Have Faceted Love For God?

Deuteronomy 6:4-6

⁴ “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 

God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and might.  I am curious what the Hebrew is for these three facets of a human being.  I thought we might look at that and see if we can also love the Lord our God with all of our mind as well. 

“Your heart” 

This word in Hebrew can mean: inner man, mind, will, heart.  The idea is that we love God not superficially, but deep within the recesses of our being; within us, with our will, and with our mind.  Our wills should strive to line up with the Father’s as Yeshua’s did.  We should love the Father with our minds, thinking deeply on His word and searching it for instruction and the character of the One who has given us it. 

“Your soul”  

This word in Hebrew can mean: a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, or emotion.   Our desires should be that of Elohim.  Our passion should be for Elohim and His will.  Our appetites should be for the things of God.  Nothing should stir our emotions more than YHVH and Yeshua.   Wow.  That is a tall order and very convicting when I weigh how excited about earthly things I can get. 

“Your might”

This word in Hebrew can mean: muchness, force, abundance.  We are to love God with the totality of ourselves.  We are to love Him in abundance not faceted love pulled from the other loves of our life.  The worship of Elohim is of the magnitude that it is all consuming.  He is a consuming fire that envelops our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

So we need to think deeply on the things of God.  Question the truths we have been taught and show them to be of God or of men.  We are pretty good at loving God with our emotions, but we leave our minds at the door because you can’t get too intellectual with your faith.  It’s about what you feel in your heart right?  Not according to Scripture.  Scripture says in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is more deceitful above all else.  

There is only one thing that can be trusted as the right way: the word of God from the mouth of God.  His instruction is the way we that believe should be doing it.  It usurps all teachings of men and baseless claims about what Elohim is like and desires.  Love Him with your mind, do the work necessarily to love Him wholly.