Warning: This post is going to sound very judgmental, cynical or snarky, it is not my intention. i don’t know how to ask the questions without them sounding so. Or perhaps it’s just me. i came across a post recently that touted 45,000 person attendance at a crusade. Impressively 5,500 came forward for the altar call. In a later post the idea of a fresh spiritual awakening may be occurring. They mentioned other points for why they believe this way. Notably, two of the current top ten secular songs in the nation are Christian. One of which is a collaborative effort between the current top Christian artist and a very popular secular artist. Which in my opinion takes some of the mystique away from its popularity. It’s not a terrible song, certainly not as heretical as some of the Christian songs out there have become. Heretical might be too strong a word, maybe lyrically challenged is better. Still are these signs of a true spiritual awakening?
Of the 5,500 who responded to the altar call at the crusade, the attendees were panned by the film crew. Many didn’t look like first-timers. Now, i admit this is a judgment call but as you look at them this was a familiar occurrence. Many wearing the attire of a nominal Christian, with religious symbolism adorning their bodies. Was this their yearly trek to Mecca or Jerusalem? Did they go there to pay their respects? Were they seeking forgiveness for the past years’ failings? Perhaps the altar call had feeders to initiate participation. This setup encouraged those hesitant participants. They might have been waiting for someone else in their area to ‘go first’? i am not suggesting here that altar calls are bad or unnecessary or even unproductive. i simply want to see genuinely passionate people. Who seek to truly repent of their way of life and seek to walk with Yahoshua.
Before i continue let me express this thought. i understand struggle. Sin isn’t foreign to me as Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of Elohim.” i even understand the idea Paul writes so passionately about in Romans 7:15-20. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. But the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it. But it is sin living in me that does it.”
The question i have is this, have we as a church fostered a pattern of weak willed Christianity? And have we done so based on poor interpretation of Scripture, and lazy reading. In Romans 6:12 Paul writes: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Do not let it make you obey its passions.” Later in chapter 7:7 he writes: “What then shall we say? That the Torah is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the Torah, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the Torah had not said, ‘You shall not covet.‘” We have become too dependent on Chapter and Verse, and Sectional headlines. For example in Romans, in the ESV, Chapter 7 has a heading, “Released from the Law.” If you read that then read the passage where will your mind go? It is like those suggestive recordings where the line you read is what you hear the recording say. If you read it another way then you will hear what you read. I don’t understand how that works exactly but it is by the power of suggestion.
Remove chapter and verse, remove headlines and what will you read Paul saying? Sin is bad. The law (Torah) tells us what sin is. It should be avoided at all costs. The struggle is real. Thank Elohim through Messiah Yahoshua for revealing to us and granting us His grace and mercy. We should do our best at keeping the Torah. Perhaps if we were intellectually honest with ourselves and with Scripture, we wouldn’t be in such a state. The interpretation affects the Church, the Nation and the World.
How do we get to a real faith awakening. An awakening in which the Ekklesia, and those desiring to join themselves to it, want to be obedient. Desiring what the Word of Elohim says, “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” How do we recognize genuine heart change? We know through Scripture that seed lands on many different types of ground. Let’s look at the Parable of the Sower from Luke 8:4-8. “A large crowd had gathered. They came from town after town. Yahoshua saw the crowd and told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path and was stepped on, and the birds flying around ate it up. Some fell on rock; and after it sprouted, it dried up from lack of moisture. Some fell in the midst of thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. But some fell into rich soil, and grew, and produced a hundred times as much as had been sown.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear with, let him hear!”
In this parable what is the manageable aspects? First, we can’t know the ground of someone’s life so like the sower, we plant seed everywhere. We water everywhere. We seek the good everywhere. Second, if we are the seed that finds the rocky ground, we must adjust our surroundings. If we find weeds, it is crucial to change our environment. “If you love Me, obey Me.” Yahoshua said. We must express the importance of following the Way. Only then is importance placed on shielding oneself from the world. Am i thankful for an Elohim who forgives? Who looks at the heart of repentance and judges them based on the actions of Yahoshua? Yes, one million times YES! However, this does not excuse me to then continue in sin. Even Paul writes, “So then, are we to say, ‘Let’s keep on sinning, so that there can be more grace’? Heaven forbid! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it?”
Let me be clear, i am not against Christian music, nor am i against evangelistic crusades. What I am questioning is, at what compromise are we doing these things? At what expense do we undertake these actions under the guise of Christianity and inclusion? If we are unwilling to preach the whole of the gospel. Of which Paul himself teaches in Romans. Yet it is hid under the faulty headlines like, “Released from the Law.” If we began to teach the importance of Torah. Along side the amazing gift of grace, would we see the hundredfold increase Yahoshua said of the good soil? If we called those who responded to the message out of worldly living. Would we see them flourish rather than whither? This is the Way of the Rabbi.
When Yahoshua ate with sinners he didn’t join in their sin, he called them to repentance. He said, what you are doing is wrong, here is a better way. A way that leads to life. On a popular national Christian radio show a DJ said, “Jesus partied with sinners.” This error wrapped in some truth, like pigs in a blanket. Yes, he was ridiculed by the religious leaders for socializing with sinners. However, He didn’t condone their sin. He pointed them to a more excellent way. We, as scripture says, are to mingle with sinners. We are all sinners. However, we do not condone or excuse sin. When we leave Scripture open ended, we don’t tell the whole truth of Elohim’s Word. We are helping no one, least of all, ourselves.
The world is going to hate us. Why? Because we condone their practices? We say nothing of their high places? We party with them? No, it is the opposite. They are going to hate us because we set ourselves apart. We do this morally, and for lack of a better word, religiously. Not to say we are better than them but to say, the Elohim we serve is a better WAY. We say if it isn’t of Elohim, we don’t want it. If Elohim condemns it, we don’t want it. Yahoshua said, “Your sins are forgiven, now go and sin no more.” He said, “Follow Me.” He said, “The things that you have seen Me do, even greater things you will do. When I go to the Father.” Don’t you desire a more excellent way? Paul said, “Imitate me as I imitate Messiah.” In other words we are to Imitate Messiah. This is the Way of the Rabbi.
What should one do then? Seek Yahoshua. Read Scripture from the beginning to the end as ONE body of work. Understand that as gentile believers we are grafted into the people of Elohim and with that perspective read the Word. Find a Torah friendly Ekklesia that teaches that our foundation and root is Torah even as followers of Yahoshua. Who was the WORD made flesh. Desire a better way, the Way. Yahoshua said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.”
Remember: Sin is bad. The law (Torah) tells us what sin is. It should be avoided at all costs. The struggle is real. Thank Elohim through Messiah Yahoshua for revealing to us and granting us His grace and mercy. We should do our best at keeping the Torah.
This is the Way of the Rabbi,
You are loved,
cj
The Way of the Rabbi 