Are You Living By Every Interpretation Of The Words That Come Out Of The Mouth Of Adonai?

Deuteronomy 8:2-4
² You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

 

 

I wonder in this day and age what believers are actually living by.  Whether it is bread alone, every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Adonai (Hebrew word for “Lord”), or….every interpretation of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Adonai?

You see the unbeliever lives by bread alone because “life” is this existence on this earth and to live is to be breathing.  If you don’t eat you die, you no longer breathe, and thus you no longer live.  So eat bread drink and be merry for tomorrow we die (1 Cor. 15:32).  As a believer, you are supposed to be living by the second half of that verse: every word that proceeds from the mouth of Adonai.   Your life consists of what is beyond death in eternity and this life is merely a time passing.  What is unseen is real and what is seen is not real (2 Cor. 5-6-8).

But sadly and especially during this season, most believers are living by every interpretation of what proceeds from the mouth of Adonai.  They believe in their traditions more than His word.  You see, we humans are wired so that if you practice something false long enough; it becomes true in our mind.  Or the shame of turning from the falsehood is too great a loss to do.  We would lose friends, family, status, jobs possibly (i.e. pastor), or worse…we would have to admit we were wrong.
But you see this type of living is not living at all.  We are called to worship our Elohim in Spirit and Truth (John 4:24).  Those two cannot be divorced from each other for it to be true worship.  We cannot just make up holidays and feasts and then put a God Stamp on it and think it is okay.  We are not the Potter, but the clay (Romans 9:20-22).  He is our Father and we are His children.  The Father makes the rules in the house, not the children.

Now if the Father has not put forth a regulation concerning a thing, then there is some room for interpretation guided by the whole counsel of His Word and His character derived from that Word.  This season is filled with rules from rebellious children trying to usurp the authority of the Father so that they can have their family traditions hold tight and not feel like they are taking the glory.

It is not all your fault.  Your shepherds have led you astray and in doing so are destroying the flock.  While professing to attempt to bring you closer to Adonai, they are actually taking you back out into the wilderness away from Him.  Back to living on bread alone and only adding to the already confusing idea of “walking out your faith”.

I found it almost comical how many believers stood by Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty and his comments on homosexuality, which consequently I agree with him.  What was funny is that they believe it is wrong to practice homosexuality, but idolatry and adultery seems to be okay this time of year.  Not to mention their disobedience in what they eat (Kosher), days they keep holy (Sabbath), and their replacement of the Torah (instruction given from YHVH) with their own misguided instruction.  Just as Yeshua called the Pharisees hypocrites and white washed tombs, so too have a great many believers become.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 15-23, Yeshua does not question that the people knew Him.  Demons know Him and shudder (James 2:19).  He says that “He did not know them”.  Why?  Because they lived in such a way that exhibited that they were lawless.  Unbelievers right??  Wrong!  Look at what those people were doing.  They were doing things in His name.   I don’t know any unbelievers that doing things in Yeshua’s name.  Be wary this time of year believing that He knows you just because you are calling certain days His day.

Yeshua is a Shepherd and He knows His sheep (John 10:27).  They keep His instruction which He got from the Father: Torah.

I see from the passage above that we are to “live” by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Adonai.  To do this we must use interpretation.  But this too must be guided by His Word, not the traditions of the church or men.  Funny thing is that most of the Torah is pretty easy to understand and straight forward…if…you…have…read….it.   

Dressing Up A Mistress For Christmas

Ezekiel 14:4-6

⁴ Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols, ⁵ in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols.”’

⁶ “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations. 

When we celebrate things not condoned or ordained by Elohim, we set up idols in our heart.  What I hear more than anything in Christian circles is what they felt in their heart.  The problem is that nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to be guided by our hearts.  So what they may be feeling is affection for an idol they have set up. 

And when they set up these idols, they estrange themselves from YHVH.  They need to repent and turn away from the traditions of men and Adonai will welcome them back into the House of Israel with open arms.  Just like a father welcomes his prodigal wayward son back into the fold.

Ezekiel 14:10-11

¹⁰ They will bear the punishment of their iniquity; as the iniquity of the inquirer is, so the iniquity of the prophet will be, ¹¹ in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions. Thus they will be My people, and I shall be their God,”’ declares the Lord GOD.”

The other option is bearing the punishment of their iniquity.  Your feasts and festivals (Christmas, Sunday worship, Easter…) are not pleasing to the Adonai.  He does not share His glory with the sun god or any other god. 

Jeremiah 6:19-21
¹⁹ “Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people,
The fruit of their plans,
Because they have not listened to My words,
And as for My law, they have rejected it also.
²⁰ “For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba
And the sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable
And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

²¹ Therefore, thus says the LORD,

“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.
And they will stumble against them,
Fathers and sons together;
Neighbor and friend will perish.” 

Numbers 15:38-40
38 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. 39 It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, 40 so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God.

 

 

Do not be deceived into thinking that cheating on your husband or wife and then claiming that you were thinking it was them the whole time will not be counted as adultery and cause great sorrow.  You cannot dress up a mistress for Christmas and claim to be faithful to the bridegroom.  It matters not what is in your heart because your actions betray you.

Make Disciples, Not Converts

Matthew 28:16-20
¹⁶ But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Yeshua had designated. ¹⁷ When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. ¹⁸ And Yeshua came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

God’s calling on our lives determines how we serve, not where we serve.  We choose that.  In the passage above, Yeshua tells the disciples to go make “disciples” not “converts”.  The Greek word used for disciples is “matheteuo” and it means to be a disciple of one, to follow his precepts or instructions. 

What believers are called to do is to come along side of a person they see the fruits of God’s Spirit in and guide them in His instruction.  That instruction is Torah; what Yeshua kept and taught.  If you don’t know it, you are left to making “converts” because it will be a different religious system you are bringing them into with different commandments, different feasts, and different fruit from a different tree.  One only needs a cursory glance in the NT to see that Yeshua kept all the commandments from His Father given in the Torah.

I would never tell my children what to become in life.  But I would instruct them in how they are to behave in whatever they do in life.  I am desiring a godly character for my children.  What they do with their lives is their adventure.  Funny thing is that if my children are granted the gift of a godly character, I will never have to worry about what they do in life.  Because to honor God with your life whether homeless or a dignitary is a life worth living.

No Persecution for the American Christian

Have we become a culture of hearing without actually hearing?  I have a feeling most folks are in data overload with overabundance of information available to us.  They agree with things they really have not given much consideration to see if they truly agree with it at their core. 

Is people's acceptance of what you are saying merely a knee jerk reaction meant to appease or subdue so that they can get on to weightier matters such as Facebook stati? 

I am finding it more and more difficult to find people with more than surface level conviction for what they profess to believe.  Has faith become no more than a choice between what adornments we might wear out for the day?
Are we ready to let society, family traditions, or fear dictate how we follow the God we say we believe in?  And this is not even close to a time of persecution for the believer in America.  I would say believers in this country are celebrated almost for having a faith system they follow.

No, American Christian.  You are not persecuted.  Yet Scripture says you will be for His name.  Does it bother you that you are not?  Could it be that you aren't really following Him according to how His word says you should?
I know how you can bring about persecution as a believer: just stop eating pork bacon and shellfish, keep Friday evening sundown to Saturday evening sundown holy and rest from your occupation, put aside the idolatrous feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, and start celebrating Biblical (actually in His word) Feasts like Passover, Sukkot, and Hanukkah.

Oh yeah.  That should do it.  Funny thing is that the persecution doesn't come mostly from your unbelieving friends but the believing ones.  Seems like this is a repeat from the 1st Century when a certain sect of the Jews, the Pharisees, persecuted the new believers who were keeping the same Feasts and Festivals as they were yet were claiming Yeshua as their Messiah.

Their salvation came through Yeshua and it led to obedience in Torah and the blessings that affords.  Torah observance is the works that go with faith James speaks about.  It is the fruit of a good tree that Yeshua speaks of.  Since He is the living Torah, then observance is obeying Him and thus showing oneself evident as loving Him and not a liar as John says:

1 John 2:3-6
³ By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; ⁵ but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: ⁶ the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked..