True Change

Yochanan (John) 2:23-25

Now while Yeshua was in Yerushalayim at the Pesach festival, there were many people who “believed in his name” when they saw the miracles he performed. But he did not commit himself to them, for he knew what people are like— that is, he didn’t need anyone to inform him about a person, because he knew what was in the person’s heart.

 

 

Yeshua is looking for a true circumcision of our heart. A complete abandonment of all our selfish desires for complete devotion of serving Him. It is only when we sacrifice everything we think makes us who we are and accept the version of the person that ADONAI sees in us that we can be counted among His people. Lord let the scales fall from my eyes and the worthless stones of my heart get crushed under Your love for me. Let me see me not as the broken tool I know myself to be but the instrument of Your Word to the people You have put around me. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Watchmen

Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 62:6-7

I have posted watchmen

on your walls, Yerushalayim;

they will never fall silent,

neither by day nor by night.

You who call on ADONAI,

give yourselves no rest;

and give him no rest till he restores Yerushalayim

and makes it a praise on earth.

 

Do we as the body of believers truly give ADONAI no rest?  Do we continually stand in the gap as the watchman and send up prayers for the restoration of all things and the return of Yeshua?  I have to look around me and say we don’t.  Violence is increasing, natural disasters are more devastating, nations push each other to the brink of war over things that in 20 or 30 years won’t matter because something else will be more important.  Where are the watchmen who are crying out?  Isn’t that supposed to be us, the ones called to help the widows and orphans that God puts in our path?  I strive to be one of the watchmen crying out to God for God but I fail more than I succeed, but imagine the power of the supernatural is the whole body of believers sought God in the same instant.  Lord let me keep You in the front of my mind and on the strength of my hands so that I may always serve You.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Stand out in Righteousness

Kefa Bet (2 Peter) 2:6-8

And he condemned the cities of S’dom and ‘Amora, reducing them to ashes and ruin, as a warning to those in the future who would live ungodly lives;  but he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the debauchery of those unprincipled people;  for the wicked deeds which that righteous man saw and heard, as he lived among them, tormented his righteous heart day after day.

 

Lot was spared for his righteousness, for his distress at the way the men of S’dom and ‘Amora treated the widow, the orphan and the foreigner.  Where is the distress in the body today?  Do we cry out against the constant flogging of being vilified in society when they promote sinful living as normal?  Do we stand up and take in the orphan and raise them in a godly manner or say to the foreigner yes join us but with unity and a sense of common purpose?  Like Lot our righteousness that we receive from trusting in ADONAI will be the only thing to separate us from the sins of the world.  Evidence of that righteousness can only be known when we take action in full view of everyone, then God’s light through us will dispel the evil, the darkness around us.  Lord let Your light shine fully through me.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Repetition

Kefa Bet (2 Peter) 1:12-15

For this reason, I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you already have.  And I consider it right to keep stirring you up with reminders, as long as I am in the tent of this body.  I know that I will soon lay aside this tent of mine, as our Lord Yeshua the Messiah has made clear to me.  And I will do my best to see that after my exodus, you will be able to remember these things at all times.

 

Psalm 92:2-3

It is good to give thanks to ADONAI

and sing praises to your name, ‘Elyon,

to tell in the morning about your grace

and at night about your faithfulness,

 

Repetition drives home the lesson, Kefa had just listed a series of traits the body of believers should pursue so as to strengthen their trust in Yeshua ha Mashiach, the salvation ADONAI had designed for us before the beginning of time.  How do we do this?  By giving thanks daily to ADONAI for giving us a life worth living, praising His holy name and rejoicing in all the blessing we receive from His hand, and the correction too.  It is by the correction He shows His mercy and love for us.  To gather each night in fellowship as family and tell each other of the grace received and how God had been faithful as we worked our way through the day.  Lord You have opened Your Word to me through Yeshua, how can I equal such love?  Lord instill in me the faithfulness to be called Your child.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Held

Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 46:3-5

“Listen to me, house of Ya’akov,

all who remain of the house of Isra’el:

I have borne you from birth,

carried you since the womb.

Till your old age I will be the same—

I will carry you until your hair is white.

I have made you, and I will bear you;

yes, I will carry and save you.

To whom will you liken me and equate me?

With whom will you compare me, as if we were similar?”

 

It is a comfort to me today as I read this passage that no matter where I am in life, ADONAI is with me.  Lord there is no equal to You, You are the creator of all and all creation sings Your praise.  Thank You for holding on to me throughout my life.  Let me stay firmly in Your hand.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, Amen.

Judgement

Kefa Alef (1 Peter) 4:17-18

For the time has come for the judgment to begin. It begins with the household of God; and if it starts with us, what will the outcome be for those who are disobeying God’s Good News? —

“If the righteous is barely delivered,

where will the ungodly and sinful end up?”

 

When Yeshua returns it is the body of believers that He will address first.  As He said in Mattityahu He will split the sheep from the goats and as He showed us by his actions He will remove the people who filled the courts of the temple with greed and avarice so that the body of believers will be a holy bride for Him.  As a friend of mine has stated often He IS coming, there is no doubt that Yeshua is coming to redeem his people but to get to the good grain there must be a threshing to remove all the husk and chaff that the world seeks to cover it with.  Lord You have threshed me through the years and I am sure I have much more to learn and be stripped of to stand before You.  Lord keep winnowing me until I become the servant You would have me be.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Our Actions

Kefa Alef (1 Peter) 4:10-12

For

“Whoever wants to love life and see good days

must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit,

turn from evil and do good,

seek peace and chase after it.

For ADONAI keeps his eyes on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayers;

but the face of ADONAI is against

those who do evil things.”

 

While Kefa is quoting Psalms, it is a great description on how we as believers are to act.  Speaking truth, doing good, seeking peace are the actions that ADONAI wants to find in us when we place our trust in Him.  It is by doing these things we will be set apart and a world will know who we serve.  Lord keep me in Your will.  Hem in my path so I stay in the narrow level place and worship only You.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Persevere

Kefa Alef (1 Peter) 2:19-25

For it is a grace when someone, because he is mindful of God, bears up under the pain of undeserved punishment.  For what credit is there in bearing up under a beating you deserve for doing something wrong? But if you bear up under punishment, even though you have done what is right, God looks on it with favor.  Indeed, this is what you were called to; because the Messiah too suffered, on your behalf, leaving an example so that you should follow in his steps.

“He committed no sin,

nor was any deceit found on his lips.”

When he was insulted, he didn’t retaliate with insults; when he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but handed them over to him who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the stake, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness—by his wounds you were healed.  For you used to be like sheep gone astray, but now you have turned to the Shepherd, who watches over you.

I read and reread this passage and I see how my willingness to step up to the fight can be so easily misplaced.  While I do believe in righteous anger such as Yeshua showed at the temple, Kefa is telling us as the body of believers we must look past the day to day insults so that by our actions the people doing the beating will see the love of God for themselves through our steadfastness and  by not sinking to a worldly anger that will allow them to say “you are just like us”.  Then our blessings for them will truly become coals upon their head until they come to trust in ADONAI.  Lord this is a hard lesson of forbearance.  Let me take this to heart and be the strong servant of Your Word.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Find Truth not perception

But if you tell me, ‘We trust in ADONAI our God, ‘then isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, ‘You must worship before this altar’?

While this was Rav-Shakeh challenging the Kingdom of Judah and King Hizkiyahu, it is the same for us as the body of believers today. So much “religion” has watered down the message of salvation through Yeshua’s sacrifice, that most of the time people dismiss the Word of God for what they think they know just like Rav-Shakeh, instead of searching for what they need to know that Yeshua died for their sins and rose again so that His blood would be the perfect sacrifice. People outside the body would rather focus on the altars of useless traditions and misinterpretations rather than learn and obey the Word of God so that ADONAI can write it on our hearts for all time. Lord as I enter this next season of my life let me focus on Your Word. Let it be the light that guides me on Your path, so I am not distracted by false altars of my own creation. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Patience

Ya’akov (James) 5:7-8

So, brothers, be patient until the Lord returns. See how the farmer waits for the precious “fruit of the earth”—he is patient over it until it receives the fall and spring rains.  You too, be patient; keep up your courage; for the Lord’s return is near.

 

While my patience is growing with my age, I am still the one who looks to the next event before the first one, the one of this moment, is over.  As believers we must be satisfied in the moment holding onto our trust in ADONAI so we can be worthy for what is to come.  Lord let me be satisfied in what You have given me in this moment.  Let me rejoice and praise Your name each day I have with You on this earth.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.