A statement that I have begun to recite after my morning Scripture reading has both challenged me and encouraged me. The statement goes like this: “The reading of the Word of Yahweh. Blessed be the Name of Adonai and the Word made flesh Yahoshua Messiah. Blessed be the hearer and the doer of His Word.” In this statement I give praise and honor to the Father, and His Son, as well, I challenge myself to not be a hearer only but a doer of His Word. When passages are read that challenge me, this statement, challenges me. When passages are read that encourage me, this statement, encourages me. For example today as I read Ezekiel 33 I was both challenged and encouraged. Let me explain.

First let’s look at the passage I want to highlight. It is Ezekiel 33:10-20 and 30-33.
“Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’ Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares Adonai Elohim, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ Therefore, son of man, say to your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression; neither will the wickedness of the wicked man cause him to stumble on the day he turns from his wickedness. Nor will the righteous man be able to survive by his righteousness on the day he sins.’ If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but he then trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous works will be remembered; he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.

But if I tell the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and does what is just and right— if he restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—then he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be held against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live. Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die for it. But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of this. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.””

30-33 “As for you, son of man, your people are talking about you near the city walls and in the doorways of their houses. One speaks to another, each saying to his brother, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from Yahweh!’ So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain. Indeed, you are to them like a singer of love songs with a beautiful voice, who skillfully plays an instrument. They hear your words but do not put them into practice. So when it comes to pass—and surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

Within the spaces, between the lines, in the sound of each letter, i am challenged to repent and to seek truth and righteousness in my life. i am equally encouraged. In this that IF one repents of any wickedness, sin, forgiveness is a promise. It isn’t based on the amount of works one can do or how good a performance one puts on. It is about the heart and where loyalty lies. Will you choose your way, saying to yourself, “I am good, because I believe, so my deeds do not matter therefore I will do as I please.” Or, will you choose His Way, the Father’s Instruction, saying, “Oh Adonai Elohim, forgive me of my sin and hear my prayer, that I may walk according to Your Instruction. Write Your Torah on my heart and my mind that I can walk in the light of Your righteousness.”

This message is woven into the fabric of the Apostles letters. Forgiveness, repentance, faith, righteousness, sin, living in instruction. Obedience isn’t works, its covenant. Paul writes to the Philippians, “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 God in Messiah Yahoshua. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”

This is a progressive faith, a growing faith, an active faith. It is what the Apostles were getting at in Acts when they talked about the gentile coming to faith in Messiah. What is it they were to do? How were they to assimilate? Well, it is a process, one taken in steps through instruction. “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

James writes, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” The perfect law, is Torah, God’s Instructions in righteousness.

Strongs makes this statement regarding ‘Liberty’; “freedom from the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires”. This is liberty, liberty from the fruitless acts of humanity into the fruitful works of righteousness. As the world seems increasingly out of wack, bizarre events happening in increasing measure, it is vitally important that you align yourself on the side of Yahoshua, the King of kings. As we pray, “Our Father in Heaven, Holy is Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. . .” This is the Way.

Growing in faith isn’t finding loopholes and ways to continue in sin. Rather, growing in righteousness is seeking with your whole heart, how to Love Adonai with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. How are you seeking? How are you growing? Faith isn’t stagnant, it isn’t passive, it isn’t perfect, it is growing.

This is the way of the Rabbi, will you walk in it?

You are loved,
cj