Filed under: Personal reflections
There has been a lot percolating in my head as of late. Specifically, I’ve been trying to reconcile the need for consistency (tradition) in our life as a family, but also recognize that the established rabbinic traditions don’t always cut it. As one thing has led to another, I have been re-challenged to approach HaShem out of love for Him and the work that He has done in my life.
I have found that in the Messianic movement, and even more specifically in the One-Torah movement (of which I consider myself a part) that there is seldom an emphasis on the basics of our faith. Often, the emphasis shifts to debating the practicalities of halachah, and as a result, foundations of our faith are neglected, and even eroded.
The Hebrew month of Elul is traditionally observed by participating in intense personal introspection and repentance. Sometimes it is easy to focus so much on the outward things and having our “repentance” be reflected in the ‘obvious.’ This is a shame, primarily because “…man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1SAM 16:7 NASB)
When we follow the Torah and obey the mitzvot, it is terribly easy to fall in to the trap of thinking that HaShem is more concerned with the externals than with the condition of our heart. In fact, in our condition as sinners, the externals end up masking the condition of our hearts. We neglect the things that God is truly concerned with, and instead concern ourselves with the things of man.
Am I saying that the externals are of man? God forbid! They are extremely important, but if we rely on them to demonstrate to others that we are righteous, then we are dangerously close to being those that the Master condemned for their outward displays of righteousness when their hearts were filthy and full of death (see Matthew 23). It is very important to do things like wear the tzitzith, eat kosher etc., but these things MUST flow out of a love for the Father and a desire to be intimate with Him. Keeping the commandments are necessary, as in doing them we are obeying the Father. However, when we do them out of obligation or duty as opposed to love and gratefulness for our redemption, they bring death.
Paul expressed this concept in the terms of “Spirit of the Law” and “Letter of the Law.” Often these two terms are placed in opposition to one another, but I believe that you can’t have one without the other. If we merely keep the Letter, then that brings death. However, if we’re concerned with only the Spirit of the Law, often we neglect the actual performance and spiritualize the commandment. The Letter of the Law is necessary to keep the Spirit of the Law. One without the other leads to something unhealthy, but the two coupled together create a powerful dynamic.
When we walk in the knowledge that we are a redeemed and forgiven people, we don’t have to try to be holy – it happens naturally. Our actions are borne out of love.
In the Psalms, David repeatedly prayed that God would examine and reveal the impurities in his heart. In fact, he often went so far as to ask that the Father show him the “hidden things,” and that there would be “truth in the innermost parts…”. Oh that we would spend more time concerned with the condition of our hearts and less time with the trivialities of how to tie a tzitzith correctly. God longs to be with His people. He not only loves us – He likes us! However, He will only come to a place where He can truly be King. The throne room of our hearts must be clean.
When David prayed, “For thou dost no delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with the burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (PS. 51:16-17) he wasn’t abolishing the sacrificial system in the least. He was however, keen to what Hashem wanted. He recognized that the Father is not concerned with the slaughtering of innocent animals if the offer-er was not clean in the heart. The bringing of the offering was the LAST step in repentance. That is why Yeshua would state that we must make restitution to our brothers BEFORE we make an offering.
Let me give an example from my own life that demonstrates our condition as sinners. For nearly the last two weeks, I have been sick with vertigo. The symptom of this is that I am dizzy all the time, ranging from moderate dizziness, to the point that I can barely walk. What normally will bring on the spinning is movement of my head. Needless to say, I try to move my head as little as possible.
The result of this is a stiff neck. It is interesting, because normally, wherever you move your head, your body will follow. However, if you don’t move your head, you end up with a stiff neck, due to lack of mobility.
Spiritually speaking, it’s the same. When we are not continually examining ourselves and living a lifestyle of repentance, then we end up stiffnecked! HaShem repeatedly uses this term in describing the condition of His people. He is the head, and wherever He turns, we must follow.
So what is the fix for this dreadful – and might I add – painful condition?
Well, to take care of my stiff neck, I bought some Tiger Balm (good stuff, by the way. It is a natural salve that works the same way as Icy Hot or Ben Gay, but better) and have spent the last 4-5 days rubbing and rubbing the stiff muscles. It has been a painful process, but well worth it to try to rid myself of the stiffness.
Once again, it is the same spiritually. We have to allow the Spirit of God access in to our hearts to massage the Healing Balm of His grace, mercy, and forgiveness into our “stiff necks.” It takes time, often more than we are willing to give, before we are “pain-free.” You see, whenever we are reluctant to let God massage our stiff necks, He will always put us in a position to have to deal with our sin. This is not comfortable, but it is necessary if we are to be pure before Him.
Enough from me for now. I wish you all blessings and shalom in the Name of the Master during this season of repentance. May we all come to that place where we say ‘Ishi’ and not just ‘Baali’ (see Hosea 2:16 and, if you don’t know what I’m referring to, just ask!)!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I have many times prayed for G-d to give me dreams and visions. It has been a cry of my heart since my high school years, but I don’t know that I can honestly say that the Father has answered that prayer. Until tonight.
I have to be honest. I have been quite sick for the past week, and so my first thoughts about this dream are, “It could just be the medication,” or “It is the sickness that is messing with your head.” However, this can’t be the case, because as I think about this dream, and it’s relevance in my life, there is no other plausible explanation other than this is straight from G-d.
I will do my best to relate this dream as I remember it, and then share some of what I believe it means to me. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been praying for the Spirit to reveal in my secret sins, things that I may not even know are there, yet they prevent me from intimacy with the Father. I believe that some of what this dream brings to light are secret things in my life.
This dream was unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced before. It was as if I were reading a novel, and the words of the page were immediately coming to pass. It begins with a massive steel platform that has been erected on the side of a mountain, with one side touching the mountain, but all other sides supported by supports all the way around. The only way to get to the platform is from a ladder that goes from further down the mountain, and then opens on to the platform through the bottom. This platform is easily large enough for 3 or 4 camp sites, and that is what it is for. But this platform is also a form of bait. It has been erected in bear country, and the characters of the dream (I’m not entirely sure who anyone was, but they were there I think just to illustrate the points that had to be made.) were bear hunters. They were not hunters just for the sake of hunting bears, but they studied the bears’ behaviors and habits.
The group of hunters would split into two groups, usually of 3 or 4 people in the first group, and all the rest in the other group. Then the smaller group would go to climb the bear stand. When the dream first began, that’s what was going on. As the first scientist/hunter climbed the stand, he opened the door to get to the top, and there was a HUGE bear waiting for him. This bear immediately tore off his head, and began to eat him and share the winnings with its cub. (sorry for being so gruesome, but I think this is a vital part to everything.) The other group is totally taken by surprise, as the bear was not seen in time to warn their colleague of the impending danger, and all of the scientists below him waiting to enter the platform were in no position to attempt to save their friend.
In order to try to prevent future attacks, the hunters/scientists hunted down the guilty bear, killed it, and spread its remains around the stand as if to try to communicate to the other bears that the stand was hungry, angry, and not afraid to take revenge on anything that dared come into it’s territory. Before long, the scent of the rotting entrails vanished, and all that was left was piles of bear guts strategically placed around the stand.
At this point in my dream, the story stopped, and the words that I saw written were concerning my life. Please bear with me (pun intended) as this part of the dream becomes somewhat fuzzy (again pun intended). I’m normally very bad at remember details of dreams.
The bears in my life represent violence. As a man, I honestly enjoy things that are a bit more violent than normal. I love movies like Braveheart, The Gladiator, etc., not only because they are good movies with great storylines, but also because I like the violence. I love to watch things like UFC, boxing and other things where the fighting is somewhat senseless. (I’m not saying any of this is wrong for anyone else, but just sharing what is going on in my life.)
Some time ago, a good friend of mine shared a scripture from Isaiah (I think. I can’t find it at the moment, but I will. However, even if I can’t find the scripture that I’m alluding to, this is something that I will be changing in my life.) It had to do with setting no violent thing before your eyes. I shrugged it off, mainly because I didn’t want to hear it at the time. There were to many violent things in my life that I liked, and wanted to keep. I believe that the time has come for me to get rid of these things in my life.
The group of scientists can be compared to me and my family. As the leader of my family, I am responsible for everything that happens in my home. Whether it be what is watched on the TV, listened to on the radio, how my kids talk to their mother and I, or whatever, I am responsible. I have often tried to hunt things down that are causing problems, and then after I’ve discovered something, I’ll use that to try to ward off the “other bears” that could be lurking out there to cause more pain and damage.
I don’t know where I’ll finally come down on this issue. I know that I will get rid of my copies of movies that are to violent, and that will probably include some that aren’t all that violent. (you have to understand, our movie collection is VERY limited as it is, and so there probably won’t be much left on our shelves besides The Lion King and Madagascar, but so be it.)
