True circumcision

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.

Be the light

Yochanan (John) 1:4-5

In him was life,

and the life was the light of mankind.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not suppressed it.

Eternal life that comes from trusting in the sacrifice of Yeshua fills us with a light that cannot be defeated by darkness.  We see the stresses and strains of this life for what they are, events that will refine our trust in God. For we are told by Ya’akov “Regard it all as joy, my brothers, when you face various kinds of temptations; for you know that the testing of your trust produces perseverance. But let perseverance do its complete work; so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing. Ya’akov (James) 1:2-4.”  And in that wholeness we are reflecting the life and light that Yeshua’s gives us to the world.  Lord don’t let my lamp for You go out for my own foolishness by keep me on Your narrow path.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Keep Tending

Kefa Bet (2 Peter) 3:17-18

But you, dear friends, since you know this in advance, guard yourselves; so that you will not be led away by the errors of the wicked and fall from your own secure position. And keep growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah. To him be the glory, both now and forever! Amen.

Kefa is telling us that salvation is a continuous work, that we must tend it like one tends a garden, keeping pest and disease away from the fruit of our labor until it has come to the full season of harvest. We as believers can do this by studying the Word and spending time in prayer so that we hear ADONAI’s direction in our lives through the Ruach. Cling closely to the salvation that Yeshua provided to all men if they open their hearts and trust and do not waiver when people with evil intent disparage that trust, guarding against such arguments with a foundation built on God’s Word. Abba, You have given me a heart to trust in Your Word as embodied by Yeshua, let me hold onto every teaching like a baby with it’s mother so I can grow in Your will and do what You would have me do. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Just broken today

Kefa Bet (2 Peter) 2:13b-14

Their idea of pleasure is carousing in broad daylight; they are spots and defects reveling in their deceptions as they share meals with you— for they have eyes always on the lookout for a woman who will commit adultery, eyes that never stop sinning; and they have a heart that has exercised itself in greed; so that they seduce unstable people. What a cursed brood!

My heart breaks knowing that we are once again living is such a time as Kefa is talking about.  Sinful actions being normalized as acceptable in open society such as it was in S’dom and ‘Amora to the point where we as a nation no longer care about the plight of the widow, orphan or foreigner coming to better their life and know God.  Lord I am broken for my own sins and the sins of this world, how can I ever raise my face to You and beg for forgiveness.  Yet in Your mercy You have paid for my sins through the blood of Yeshua.  Let me be worthy of such sacrifice and mold me into the testimony for this world that You would have me be.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Stand Firm

1 Peter 5:8-10

Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand against him, firm in your trust, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are going through the same kinds of suffering. You will have to suffer only a little while; after that, God, who is full of grace, the one who called you to his eternal glory in union with the Messiah, will himself restore, establish and strengthen you and make you firm.

When we as believers stand up to the lies of this world we must stand firmly, without waver, letting ourselves be anchored by the Word of God. It is that trust in the ADONAI that allows the Ruach HaKodesh to infill us and endure the pain the Adversary causes because Satan is only allowed a short time to assail us when we are in union with God’s will. Abba keep me near You in the trial that are ahead. Let me always feel Your hand of guidance on me and let me always pursue Your heart. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

To stand in trust

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.

Beware Pride

Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 20:14-19

Then Yesha’yahu the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and asked him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from?” Hizkiyahu answered, “They came from a distant country, Bavel.” Yesha’yahu asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” “They have seen everything in my palace,” said Hizkiyahu. “There isn’t a thing among my treasures that I haven’t shown them.” Yesha’yahu said to Hizkiyahu, “Hear what ADONAI says: ‘The day will come when everything in your palace, along with everything your ancestors stored up until today, will be carried off to Bavel. Nothing will be left, ‘says ADONAI. ‘They will carry off some of your descendants, your own offspring; and they will be made eunuchs serving in the palace of the king of Bavel.'” Hizkiyahu said to Yesha’yahu, “The word of ADONAI which you have just told me is good.” He thought, “Isn’t it, though, if peace and truth continue at least through my lifetime?”

King Hizkiyahu in his pride shared everything he had with the representatives of Bavel.  Being focused only on himself he rejoiced for the peace he would have in his life without preparing for his children coming after him, and all this after ADONAI had given him and extra fifteen years to live.  It is the same for us today in America, we as a nation have failed to teach our children where the blessings we have experienced actually come from.  We must not repeat the failures of Hizkiyahu or see our children cast into bondage of sin.  Lord I have failed in this many times, do not let my failures be the reason for my children to suffer hardship in the days to come.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Focus on the heart

Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 36:7

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.

Pray for the land and the people

M’lakhim Bet (2 Kings) 18:31-32

Don’t listen to Hizkiyahu.’ For this is what the king of Ashur says: ‘Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards, a land with olive trees and honey; so that you can live and not die. So don’t listen to Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, “ADONAI will save us.”

I can’t believe I have missed this before; I know that ADONAI makes a covenant with the land and the people but this sinful king of Ashur seeks to divide the people from the land with a promise of safe keeping.  How insidious, how underhanded and how shameful that my own country and the political powers that have been in control have done the same thing to the indigenous people here and abroad.  I am not professing an answer to this because I don’t know the answer, but I am praying for some reconciliation be done so God’s covenant can once again bless the land and the people living there.  Lord break this sinful greed that through willful disobedience breaks the covenant with the people and the land and heal us and bring us back to You.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Rededication

Divrei-HaYamim Bet (2 Chronicles) 29:10-11

“Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with ADONAI the God of Isra’el, so that his furious anger will turn away from us. My sons, now is not a time for being negligent; for you are the ones ADONAI chose to stand before him and serve him as his ministers, offering him incense.”

While this Is King Hizkiyahu’s charge to the cohanim and L’vi’im I feel it resounds in all of us who trust in God today.  Far too long we have been negligent of the temple of the national moral center of our communities to the point that drug abuse, sexual disfunction and violence have become the norm.  It is time for us to reclaim the national temple and clean it out of all the filth and usher in a society devoted once again to the Creator.  Lord let me cry out to You and stand in the gap until the people called by Your name return to You.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.