A Baseball Analogy

A Perfect Game ~ For to this you have been called, because Messiah also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2:21)

Let me give you a sports analogy. In baseball a pitcher starts by stepping on the mound with a dream of throwing a perfect game. Every pitcher wants to be the one to do it. It has been done only 24 times in MLB history. They did it, they completed a perfect game, these pitchers are examples to the rest of the league. Of course they had help from their team, but still, it rests on the pitcher for the most part. Just because it has been accomplished, doesn’t mean it is no longer a stat. As well, a pitcher who starts on Monday, fails to throw a perfect game doesn’t give up. On Thursday, the next time he steps on the mound the dream is the same, “Today is the day!” It remains the hight of pitching, greater than a no-hitter, which has only been done 326 times in MLB history and that is a dream of a pitcher as well. Think about it this way each team has 162 regular season games. There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball . . . needless to say, there are a lot of games played each season. Still there have only been 24 perfect games thrown and only 326 no-hitters. It is quite the feat.

Yahoshua, completed a perfect life. He didn’t end the way, He merely showed us how. Elijah was taken in a fiery chariot, Enoch walked with Elohim, Melchizedek was a high priest before there was an Israel. i am not saying these men were perfect but they were as close to it as one could be, perhaps they pitched no-hitters. Here is my point, Yahoshua, didn’t come so that man could live without order. He came to defeat sin and death by paying the ultimate price. Shouldn’t we as a sign of gratitude, live as He lived, with the help of the Holy Spirit? Not flippantly, ignoring His Feast Days, His Sabbath’s, His Commandments. Yet, that is exactly what the Church is doing. They have separated themselves from the nation of Israel when in actuality we are grafted in. They have adopted holidays, which many debate have pagan influences. i work for a person who claims to be pagan. They talk about their pagan origins and they express how funny it is to see “christians” celebrate their holidays. Whether or not it is wholly true it is partially true and that alone should get the Churches attention. It doesn’t.

Folks will say that it isn’t possible to keep the commandments. They will quote passages of Scripture to make their point. Such as Acts 15:10 ~ “Now then, why do you test Elohim by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?” What many fail to realize or connect to this verse is Acts 15:23 ~ “For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.” When the Jerusalem Council met and were discussing the inclusion of gentile believers they weren’t saying, since they can’t keep the Law no one should have to, nor did they believe that the Law was done away with, as Paul demonstrates time and time again. No, what they were doing was not heaping on them generations of mans traditions added to the simplicity of walking with Elohim. The Torah is not burdensome as Yahoshua clearly demonstrated while He walked among humanity. The council wasn’t saying, ‘we failed to throw a perfect game so let’s get rid of that stat so the rookies don’t have an unnecessary burden put on them.’ No indeed.

This adoption by the church has given license to the same to forget the “Feasts of YHWH” as He declares them. “These are the feasts of YHWH, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.” (Leviticus 23:4) They aren’t Jewish feasts, Hebraic feasts, Israeli feasts, they ARE YHWH’s Feasts, Holy Convocations, Forever. i don’t know what your definition of forever is but my forever hasn’t even come close to an end. It seems we have used Messiah as an excuse to forget the ways of the Father. Yahoshua is the fulfillment of the law, many claim, but the term is better translated ‘fulness’ and it leads us to a better understanding away from the influences of man. He came to set the record straight, pitch the perfect game, show humanity a more perfect way; The Way. We may never achieve that level of perfection but it should be our goal every time we step on the mound.

If you fail to throw a perfect game on Monday, dust yourself off. And on Tuesday with the same resolve, with prayer, begin your day with the intention of throwing a perfect game. “Today is the day!” Do not grow weary, do not give up, for the Holy Spirit is at work writing the Torah on your heart. Hebrews quotes Jeremiah, who quotes Elohim, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares YHWH: I will put My laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.” To what covenant are the gentiles grafted into? There is only one covenant, and by the grace of Elohim, He writes it on our hearts and on our minds. Paul tells us, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Messiah Yahoshua has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of Elohim in Messiah Yahoshua. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, Elohim will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” (Philippians 3:12-15)

This is the Way of the Rabbi ~

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