Tag: honor

Reviving the Sabbath: A Call to Return

Reviving the Sabbath: A Call to Return

Have you ever noticed that there is a day for everything? There are food days like ‘National Pie Day,’ or ‘National Hamburger Day.’ Food isn’t your thing? Try ‘Talk like a Pirate Day,’ or even ‘National Old Rock Day.’ if you can think it, it probably has a day. For instance, there is a day called ‘World Lazy Day.’ If being lazy isn’t appealing because of the labels, disguise your laziness with ‘National Sleep Day.’ I have known for sometime of a day known as ‘National Back to Church Sunday.’ Probably even promoted it a time or two.

It is a great concept really. Picking up on the idea of holidays, and focusing one on getting back to Church. An opportunity to invite friends through general conversation, masked in funny holiday’s. For instance this year National Talk like a Pirate Day is the Friday before Back to Church. Imagine you and your friends standing around the water-cooler. You say, “Arg ya mateys, won’t ya be joining me this Sunday for church and after some libations?” Churches have been known to put on extravagant services to entice interest, or to be more welcoming. A more salvation based message, friendly, loving, encouraging. The state of the world is troubling. It is clear that a day to come together in prayer and unity is needed.

Now imagine going to Scripture. Rather than focusing on a man made day of worship, we could focus on the Sabbath. We could call it ‘Back to the Sabbath, Sabbath’ or “National 7th Day Sabbath” instead of back to Church Sunday? After all, one is found in Scripture, the other in Rome.

 “Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for Elohim. You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your Elohim. On it, you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. 11 For in six days, Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why Adonai blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

The Sabbath is a weekly National Day of Rest. It is a true National Day. I work for a company that was open on Labor Day. Now Labor Day is a day to honor the Laborers. However, they honored their employees by being open and making them work. If they were honoring Elohim, they would have given us the day off. They would also do so every week on the Sabbath, the seventh-day, we know today as Saturday. (I have written more on Sabbath and calendars here).

The Sabbath day isn’t just a mandate from Elohim, a statute, an ordinance, a commandment. It is a day He Himself observed in the beginning. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. On the seventh-day Elohim was finished with His work which He had made, so He rested on the seventh-day from all His work which He had made. Elohim blessed the seventh-day and separated it as holy; because on that day Elohim rested from all His work which He had created, so that it itself could produce.” (Genesis 2:1-3)

Blessed is the man who does this. Blessed is the son of man who holds it fast. He keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it. He keeps his hand from doing any evil.” (Isaiah 56:2)

Many modern theologians will say that the Sabbath is done away and base that belief on Yahoshua. Sadly, they do not know Hebrew culture, they don’t know terms and idioms, they simply don’t understand. They don’t understand Matthew 5 or 12, Mark 2, John 5, Romans 14, Colossians 2, or Hebrews 4. Or when the disciples asked Paul to speak again on the first day of the week in Acts. They would rather cherry pick their verses than take the Scripture as a whole. What they claim the Pharisees of doing, they do themselves with their man made Sunday worship. And they are blind to it.

Imagine, a Church who calls on the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Who accept His Son Yahoshua as their Savior, the Messiah of Elohim. Would stop looking for loopholes and instead learn from the Messiah and His Apostles who kept the Sabbath Day. To turn back their foot from not keeping the Sabbath to keeping it. Oh, what a revival, we would see then.

“If you hold back your foot on Shabbat
from pursuing your own interests on My Holy Day;
if you call Shabbat a delight,
Adonai’s Holy Day, worth honoring;
then honor it by not doing your usual things
or pursuing your interests or speaking about them.
If you do, you will find delight in Adonai —
I will make you ride on the heights of the land
and feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.”
Isaiah 58:13-14

This is the Way of the Rabbi,
You are loved,
cj

The Dangers of Success: Lessons from Jeroboam and Aaron

The Dangers of Success: Lessons from Jeroboam and Aaron

What do Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Samson, Solomon, Elijah, David, the Hebrew Nation, cj, and countless others have in common? When successful, at peace in rest and comfort, a relaxed spirit allowed Satan an opening. Success can lead to a sense of self-righteousness and pride. This happens if one is not careful to remember the One Who brought the success. We can say all day long that: “Every good and perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. Who does not change like shifting shadows.” But if we allow our own feelings to interfere, and we say, “Look what I have done!” We crack the door open for the devouring lion. There is much to be proud of. We can say, “Look at what Elohim chose to do through me.”

Success has another ugly head, the one that defies Elohim to maintain its power. We can look at many stories in Scripture to find this to be true. Today, I want us to look at Jeroboam. He was the first King of Israel after the Kingdom was split in two. It was taken from Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. In fact modern Israel is only one of the tribes of Israel, Judah. Jeroboam, in a move to keep his new found Kingship made some terrible decisions. 1 Kings 12:25-33 Tells the story, we will look at parts of it here.

“Nevertheless Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingship will return to the house of David. For if these people continue going up to offer sacrifices in the house of Adonai in Jerusalem, their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. Then they will kill me.”

Jeroboam found that his success was in jeopardy. He feared an awakening of the heart to Yahweh which would bring about a reunification of the Kingdom. If the people sought Adonai Elohim they would desire His ways over mans. So to establish his rule he made some changes.

“After seeking advice, the king made two calves of gold. He then said to the people, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ He placed one in Beit-El [Bethel] and the other in Dan. The affair became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one [in Beit-El and] all the way to Dan [to worship the other]. He also set up temples on the high places and made priests from among all the people, even though they were not descended from Levi.”

Does this at all ring a bell? Look at what Aaron did at Mt. Sinai while Moses was on the mountain. “When the people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get busy; and make us gods to go ahead of us; because this Moses, the man that brought us up from the land of Egypt — we don’t know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Have your wives, sons and daughters strip off their gold earrings; and bring them to me.” The people stripped off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. He received what they gave him, melted it down, and made it into the shape of a calf. They said, “Israel! Here is your god, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” On seeing this, Aaron built an altar in front of it and proclaimed, “Tomorrow is to be a feast for Adonai.” We are a fickle people.

Coincidentally, Jeroboam, like Aaron instituted his own feast days. “Jeroboam instituted a festival. In the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, similar to the festival held in Jerusalem. He went up to the altar in Beit-El to sacrifice to the calves he had made. He placed in Beit-El the priests he had appointed for the high places. He went up to the altar which he had set up in Beit-El on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had chosen on his own, and instituted a festival for the people of Israel; he went up to the altar to burn incense.”

Sadly mans tradition of creating his own feasts to celebrate and honor Elohim has continued. The church today ignores His appointed feast days. They essentially call Elohim a liar. “Yahweh said, ‘And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and you shall keep [it] a feast to Yahweh throughout your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.’” Apparently, forever means, just until I change My mind, except, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Or they will argue that the Feasts are for Israel. Yet again they ignore two things. First, that the gentiles are grafted into Israel. Second, that the feasts were to be celebrated by those who would join themselves to Israel. Instead, the church has said, “We will celebrate Christmas and Easter. We will call Sunday holy. God will like it because we said so.”

You know who else has this mindset? Yahoshua talks about this in Matthew 15:9 “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” Isaiah wrote something similar, “Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.” Ezekiel writes, “Her priests do violence to My Torah and profane My holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the common. They teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean. And they shut their eyes to the keeping of My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.”

What would happen if the church today began to seek Yahweh as His word describes. Isaiah says in 58:13-14 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of Yahweh honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in Yahweh, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.” Imagine seeking after Elohim as He desires us to, it sounds pretty awesome to me. This is the way of the Rabbi.

Do you think Satan has a hand in the western church? In that he is influencing it to stray just enough off course that they dishonor Elohim. All the while thinking that they are worshiping Him. It’s been done before. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. Paul thought he was doing the will of Yahweh when he was persecuting the followers of Yahoshua. Then he came face to face with Him. He realized then he was fighting the very Elohim he was trying to protect. The Sabbath is important to Elohim. Throughout the Torah and the Prophets He declares it. To the point that Elohim exiled the nation. So why would we think any different today.

Jeremiah writes in chapter 7, 8 Look! You are relying on deceitful words that can’t do you any good. 9 First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer to Ba‘al and go after other gods that you haven’t known. 10 Then you come and stand before Me in this house that bears My name and say, ‘We are saved’ — so that you can go on doing these abominations! 11 Do you regard this house, which bears My name, as a cave for bandits? I can see for Myself what’s going on,” says Adonai.

The western church has been so successful that pride has crept in. No one wants to admit that they are wrong. They have fallen in love with their traditions that they ignore Elohim’s Feast Days. This is a dangerous practice. And we should be asking the questions. What did Yahoshua mean when He said, “If you love Me, OBEY My commandments”? What are we doing? Who are we honoring? What is truth?

This is the way of the Rabbi,
You are loved,
cj

Exploring the Greatest Commandments: Love and Its Parallels

“Yahoshua answered, ‘The greatest commandment is, ‘Hear O Israel! Adonai our Elohim, Adonai is ONE. You shall love Adonai your Elohim. Love this way, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandments greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 ~

Have you ever heard that the first and greatest commandment above is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-5? It is also said to be a summation of the first five commandments. Likewise, the second is a quote from Leviticus 19:18 and a summation of the last five commandments? i would be surprised if you haven’t heard this before. But, i do wonder if you have ever considered them to be parallel? The sixth aligns with the first. The seventh aligns with the second. The eighth aligns with the third. The ninth aligns with the fourth. Finally, the tenth aligns with the fifth. This is what i want to explore in this post and its significance if any.

Already you might be saying, how is the first commandment, “You shall have no other Elohim but Me.” And the sixth, “You shall not murder,” the same? Well, Yahoshua said, “You have heard, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now I say, even if you hate someone you have murdered them in your heart.” How do you hate someone? By wishing them dead? Perhaps, but how are ways we hate? We speak against them, gossiping about them. We harbor ill will towards them, wishing against their good will. We ignore them, turning our backs on them wishing they would go away. If we are called to love even our enemies, and to pray for them. How much more when we ignore Elohim, turning our backs on Him, not following His will. How much more are we murdering Him in our hearts and placing anything and everything in His place?

Have i peaked your interest? Now let’s look at the second. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image. You shall not make anything in the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I Yahweh your Elohim am a jealous Elohim. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Yet, showing steadfast love to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Now the seventh, “You shall not commit adultery.” This one is easy. Idolatry is breaking the blood covenant with Elohim. Replacing Him with images and things. Giving our attention to and worship to created things. Adultery, is breaking the marriage covenant. Replacing our spouse with another, this includes emotional adultery. In fact most adultery starts in the heart emotionally. It is giving our time and attention to another. When we cheat on a spouse we are cheating on Elohim too! It is His marriage covenant that is being broken.

The third commandment says, “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your Elohim in vain. For Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” How does this relate to the eighth, “You shall not steal“? To take the name of Elohim in vain is not merely using His name as a curse word. It is attributing things to Him, He did not say, “Do not add to or take away from His word.” We steal from our family when we do not share the Name of Elohim with them. We steal from our friends and others when we do not share His Name with them. The greatest theft of all is taking from others the Name of Yahoshua. Robbing them intellectually and spiritually. Of course, this still means not to steal property but what is property compared to eternal life? This comes down to lifestyle and living a life worthy of the calling. As Ephesians 4:1 declares. “So I, the prisoner of Adonai, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. This is the lifestyle to which you have been called.”

Now for the commandment the majority of Christianity ignores. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your Elohim. On it you shall not do any work. You or your son or daughter. Nor your male or female servant, not even your livestock. This extends to the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. After He rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” The ninth commandment is this; “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” How do we bear false witness against our Messiah Yahoshua more than when we deny His Sabbath? The argument that Yahoshua is our Sabbath is shallow. It dismisses the intent of the Sabbath as a sign of the covenant. Much like the wedding ring isn’t the covenant of marriage but simply the sign of it. When we take off the sabbath day we are bearing false witness again our Elohim. Just like when we tell falsehoods of others, gossip, or outright lie, bearing false witness is a deep commandment.

The fifth commandment is about honor. “Honor your father and mother. That your days may be long in the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you.” The tenth commandment is also about honor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, servants, or anything that is his.” We dishonor our family when we covet others things. Wanting a better life than one was raised is different than wishing for or coveting someone’s life altogether. One might have had a terrible parent. Honor isn’t forgetting but it is forgiving. We are to Honor our family name as we are to honor the lifestyle of Yahoshua. We are to be content with what we have not coveting the life of our neighbors. Striving to be successful, is an honorable attribute and a way of honoring our parents.

So what is the big deal? As Scripture says, “If you are guilty of breaking one commandment, you are guilty of breaking them all.” This is true not just from a stand point of commandments of Elohim and sin. It is true because they are all connected. As Yahoshua declared when He quoted the Torah in response to the greatest commandment. Then adding to it the second. He was showing them and us that the commandments of Elohim our Father in Heaven are holy. They are a sign of our being in covenant with Him, signed in the blood of Yahoshua. Are we guilty of breaking the commandments? Absolutely. Does this excuse us from seeking to obey them? NO, may it never be! We show the Father our love when we choose to obey His commandments. Let us therefore walk as Yahoshua walked, in obedience to the Father. This is the way of the Rabbi that the Apostle Paul recognized. “You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Messiah.” This is echoed by our Messiah. “So Yahoshua replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. But only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.“

This is the way of the Rabbi,
You are loved,
cj

The 9 Commandments

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
3. Thou Shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Honor thy father and thy mother
5. Thou shalt not kill.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9. Thou shalt not covet . . . anything that is thy nieghbors.

It seems fitting to take out the commandment about honoring the Sabbath and keeping it holy since we have thrown it aside anyway. After all, we have made every excuse in the book to remove any need to honor it, even replacing it haphazardly without honor, certainly not holy, and filled it with worldly pleasure.

One, at this point, might label me a legalist. Ok, fair enough. Yet, if i am a legalist, then would i also be labeled a legalist if i said, “you shouldn’t kill someone?” Or that “you shouldn’t commit adultery?” Or any of the other commandments. The answer is obviously NO, so why is one labeled a legalist if they call for the observance of the Sabbath? Maybe someone can enlighten me. Of course, there are the scriptures that talk about how they gathered on the first day of the week, that being Sunday. However, it also says they gathered all the time; we don’t do that! It also says they took communion A LOT! Some are content to take it once a quarter, and still some not at all!

Part of loving God with our whole being as Jesus declared, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” is honoring Him. i am not saying that you cannot honor God on Sunday, or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday . . . what i am saying is that God clearly cuts out Saturday and says, this is the Sabbath, and you should honor it and keep it holy.” So the next question is, how do we honor it, how do we keep it holy?

The Pharisee’s obviously were missing the boat on this as Jesus clearly rebuked them for how they had turned it into something that it wasn’t. So what is it? “Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because, on it, God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.” God took the seventh day, and He rested. We can rest on any day of the week, i get it, but there is something to this seventh-day rest if it weren’t so the devil wouldn’t care to distract us from it!

i have been taking Saturday and resting. i try to do as little as possible. i refrain from shopping because that requires someone to not be at rest so that i can shop. i don’t do this out of legality but in honor of both God and others as i wish for them to honor the Sabbath day. i am still figuring out what it means to keep the Sabbath, but i spend time with the Lord. i read Scripture, listen to sermons, pray continuously, and seek to honor God by honoring the Sabbath. i believe this is what God desires of all of us. i would love to hear your thoughts on the idea.

You are loved,

cj