Torah Is Out to Get You!

Have you ever known someone, a friend, family member or coworker, who is  pretty nice guy but fully committed to the world's dreams? They work hard, but tend to take credit for what goes right yet are pretty quick to case a cloud upon someone else when the project hits a snag. They are not nasty, however, their language is sprinkled with a bit of profanity. They long for the corner office while their cubical is decorated with a poster of their dream yacht and a swimsuit calendar. They pass along the office or neighborhood gossip. They once confided in you that they dreaded the upcoming parent visit, as their dad is dumber than a fence post and their mom has been known to act like a female dog. They have no real use for God. They are not angry with Him, they just don't get why you waste your time with that religious stuff. Besides, that old morality would get in the way of the weekend trysts with his various lady friends. Then things suddenly change. A loved one gets ill or they lose their job. Perhaps, the opposite happens. The promotion comes with the corner office and a company car attached. There is now enough for the down payment on that yacht. Yet, be it pain or great achievement life is not fulfilled. There is a gnawing emptiness that is never satisfied. Through the process of many conversations they accept your invitation to visit your church, just this one time, just so you will stop asking.

The visit goes well. Another visit follows. And another. Then one Monday morning they tell you it all makes sense. They have accepted Christ. Confessed their need for the Savior and have given God control. There is no sudden miraculous transformation, however, the changes are evident. Being with believers is now important as is his Bible reading. He shares credit and encourages those he works with. He accepts responsibility and even covers for others mistakes. The calendar comes down and the picture of his Compassion International child takes its place. He tells you he is selling the yacht so he can go to Haiti on a mission trip next year. He walks away from the gossip and over lunch he asks you to pray that the Lord would send him a Godly woman to share his life with. One weekend He lets you know that he will miss the bible study as he is taking his parents out to dinner, just to let them know how much they mean to him. How has all this come to pass? Why the change in behavior?

We could say they got "saved". Or that 2 Corinthians 5:17 is coming true, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." They have the Holy Spirit and because they love the Lord they want to please Him. John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments." But does this really explain the change? Could it be that they are now under a  New Covenant? Most evangelical believers would agree that one who has given their life to Messiah Jesus, is under the promised New Covenant. For this clearly explains the change. Simply put, touched by the grace of God, this new believer is becoming Torah observant. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is bringing them into compliance with the Law of Moses. Isn't that amazing?

Am I correct that you are just a bit confused? Obedience to Torah and the Law? No, this one has been saved by grace alone. The Law has nothing to do with this. Well, take a breath. Where do we first learn of the New Covenant God will make with His people? We find this good news in Jeremiah 31:31-33, "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." With the coming of Messiah Jesus, by the power of God's Spirit, a New Covenant has been established. No longer are God's people struggling to be obedient by their own resources, God will implant His Law, His Torah, in our minds and write it on our hearts.

So the new believer you know has replace his gods with the One true God. He no longer takes God's name in vain and has cast away the idols from his life. He longs to be with other believers and has come to honor his father and mother. He does not steal credit or murder another's reputation for personal gain. He does not covet but desires to give to others generously. He actually wants to be with one Godly woman for life. Hmmm. Check the list. It seems he has unwittingly begun to follow all ten of those pesky commandments Moses brought down from the mountain. According to Romans 12:2, he is no longer being conformed, or pressed into the world's mold, but a transformation is happening as God renews his mind, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Now you may disagree. You may just want to see the marvel of God's grace here. That "Law" thing is supposed to be done away with. Just grace in your life. That is fine with me. I am not here to argue with you. I just wanted to point out where that New Covenant you enjoy being under came from. But  you might want to do a little personal inventory. I would not be surprised if you were in the same position as that new believer, obeying Torah without even realizing it. You still may object. Fine, however, as believers we cannot deny the Word and promise of God. Like it or not you are under the New Covenant. Admit it or not God is putting the Law of Moses in your mind and writing Torah on your heart. As a follower of Messiah Jesus there is no place to hide. Torah is out to get you.

 

Is Thanksgiving Enough?

Have you ever thought about how vital thanksgiving is to the Lord God? As believers we may well toss the word around pretty freely. That is not a bad thing. We should be most grateful and thankful to the God of all creation. Everything we have, even the next breath you take, is a gift from Him. He is indeed worthy of our thanks and appreciation. God even included offerings of thanksgiving in Torah (see Leviticus 7:12). David records offering a thank offering in Psalm 116:17, "I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD." Hezekiah does the same in 2Ch 29:31. Thanksgiving and thank offerings were a part of the worship practices for the people of Israel. As those who now know Messiah, we are called to be thankful for ... well ... everything, "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). In writing to the Romans the Apostle Paul gives an indictment against those who reject God. In the midst of the record of man's rejection and ungodliness Paul says, "because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:21). Those who refuse to give thanks to God are designated as fools and futile thinkers. Not a group many of us would want to be included in.

Thankfulness is an essential part in our relationship with God, but is it enough? Gratitude and a thankful heart are pleasing to the LORD. However, bringing God a thank offering, or an offering of thanksgiving is not all that is required. Thankfulness also acknowledges who God is. It reflects on what He has done and His very nature. Thus Samuel reminds us, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). An attitude of thanksgiving without an attitude of submissive obedience falls short of what God deserves. It falls short of what He requires.

Perhaps our culture gets in the way when we consider the things that we learn are required to be pleasing God. We tend to look at the list of what we think God requires and do a little personal evaluation. I am to be thankful, trustworthy, faithful, humble, obedient, generous, and joyful. Just a few of the things we could put on our "pleasing to God" list. There are certainly many more that could come to mind. We should probably tack on the rest of the nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit as they are of the Spirit. Then there are those negative things, like do not covet, do not be angry, do not judge. This could get cumbersome, maybe even intimidating or discouraging. We could opt out with the excuse/reason that we all fall short and apply the Jesus salve. You know, that soothing spiritual ointment that says all my sins are forgiven so the list doesn't really matter anyway. If this is so then we have a lot of irrelevant Scripture and unnecessary stories recorded in the Bible. It appears that all the stuff we could put on the list matters. So how do we prioritize? It seems obedience is better than sacrifice but thankfulness should be pretty high on the list as well.

The issue is not what is on the list or how to prioritize the list. The issue is the list itself. American/Western culture loves lists. We love to compartmentalize everything in life. God reveals Himself through a culture that is integrated. When Jesus said, "If you continually love Me it is imperative that you actively keep My commandments" (John 14:15). He was giving less of a rule and more of a statement. The natural outgrowth of honestly loving Him is obedience. Obedience is not a list of rules, it is the reality of a life that is integrated into the Person of God. All of those "do's" and "don'ts" listed above, and any other things you might add, are not to be a list but the substance of our relationship with God. In being thankful we are also loving and joyful and compassionate. Our gratitude is shown in our forgiving and generosity. Even what we choose not to do, like holding a grudge, gossiping, or coveting, is controlled by the attitude of gratitude that pervades our existence. Bringing a thank offering while being at odds with another reflects the truth that you are not really thankful. One who fully understands why they are thankful to a holy God would desire reconciliation before the offering.

Matthew 5:24 makes this pretty clear, “leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." We are not being told to have a check list before we come to worship but to know that my relationship with my brother is related to, integrated with, my relationship with the Lord.

We might want to take a moment at this Thanksgiving Season and think about how all those things on our "how to be spiritual" list are connected. To consider the truth that the Lord has not called you to a list but invited you into a relationship where everything you do is integrated into Who He is. Go ahead and bask in the wonder that He really does care about every little aspect of your life. That the life He provided is to be lived abundantly, not chained to a list. Now go and have a Happy Thanksgiving.   

Are You Saved by Faith or Faithfulness?

I thought we would have a little more fun with words today. This one is foundational to our very existence as followers of God. The Greek word is  πίστις pronounced pistis. . Biblical scholars such as Strong, Mounce, and Wuest, to name a few, understand the word to mean: faith, assurance, believe, belief, trust, faithful, fidelity or faithfulness. It is most often translated with the English word "faith". The question for today is, "Why?" out of at least eight options that could all be accurate why is the word "faith" the most common choice? Is it because of the context of the text or the culture of the translator?

  

Webster defines faith with these possibilities.1,fidelity, allegiance to duty or a person. 2 : belief and trust in and loyalty to God or belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion 3: firm belief in something for which there is no proof. One of Strong's definitions includes, "reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, believing in such profession". Got questions.org, an evangelical Christian web site gives this addition, "Simply put, the biblical definition of faith is “trusting in something you cannot explicitly prove.” One also described faith as a nebulous trust based on a belief that something is true. The truth is, that for many of us, faith is a personal thing that is pretty hard to explain. Perhaps the reason is that we are of a western culture that flows from Greek thought. For the Greeks Life is founded in what you think. Thus faith is a sort of thing we think about and come to a cognitive rationale for what we believe and trust in. That being the case, our little word, pistis, and its derivatives are most frequently translated, "faith". A sort vague trust in the unknowable. Belief in something that is really just beyond our understanding. We may sense His presence and learn about Him but God is still a bit out of our total understanding. So we must have faith.

Even though there is an element of truth here, there is a more satisfying answer if we place things in a more Hebraic context. In Hebrew life is more about what you do rather than what you think. God has revealed Himself in His Word and given instruction and direction as to how best to live. Those who accept this, who believe, respond to the revelation God has given. It becomes less about "faith" and more about "faithfulness", which is one of the acceptable ways to translate pistis. What impact does this have? Let us consider a few passages to see what I mean. 

Luke 18:8, “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" This translation asks the question will the Son of Man find those who believe, have made a mental decision that what was told them is true. Will there be any who believe, who think this way when the Lord return. Now the other translation of pistis. "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faithfulness or faithful ones on the earth?" The noun pistis is now a person instead of a thing. It is personal and we are required to behave in a way that is in obedience to the Lord. It is no longer a concern about what we think but what we do that matters.

Hebrews 11:1 has long been the evangelicals go to verse to define faith, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The substance of faith is a hope we have and faith is also evidence of something unseen. It makes this thing called faith pretty intangible and entirely personal. Faith is what I want it to be and what I think it should be. However, if piatis is translated faithfulness, now what I do is the substance of what I hope for, and what I do is the evidence of the unseen that I hold to be true. Those around me know what I believe and why I have this hope based on what I do, not just what I tell them I think is true. The writer of Hebrews then gives examples of faithfulness. Noah showed what he believed as he faithfully built the ark. Abraham put his believe on display by leaving his home, Sarah believed God, the Faithful One, and was given strength to deliver the promised child. Abraham gives evidence of His belief as he faithfully takes Isaac to the mount. Moses's parents believed, the evidence is how they faithfully hid Moses.

We know that Messiah, Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).  That being true perhaps the writer to the Hebrews is saying, "But without faithfulness it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him," Hebrews 11:6 (emphasis mine).  A diligent seeker is doing something, not just thinking something. The Lord is a rewarder of those who walk in obedience. The other examples in Hebrews 11 are great examples of those who were faithful. We know they believed and trusted God by what they did, not just by what they thought. The substance of what they hoped for and the evidence that they believed is clear by their faithfulness to the one who called them.

There are other thing to consider, but we will save those for next week. Today's question is, "How about you and me?" Does the faithfulness of our lives give evidence of what we say we believe? If not, does what we say we think about God and His promises really matter?

   



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Is God Really Supposed to Be Your Top Priority? Maybe Not.

Have you ever been asked what is the most important thing in your life? Not a new question. In fact, Matthew tells  us of a man who pretty much had that question, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" (Matthew 22:36). With our overwhelming schedules it would be helpful to know this, which is the great commandment. At least that way we could get the primary, the most important thing done. We do like to know what the important thing is, even though we tend to lose sight of whatever it is as we drown in the minutia of life. We are told to not let the cry of the urgent cloud what is important. So, back to the question, what is the most important thing in your life? Is it your spouse? Children? Work? Investments? Friends? Well, if you want to be spiritual you might respond with, God or Jesus. That is the real answer. Right? How shocked would you be to learn that that might not be the answer after all.

The Master's response to the question in Matthew 22:37-38 seems pretty straight forward, "Jesus said unto him, You shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.This is the first and great commandment." First priority is to love God with all you have. However, there my be more here that we first see. The man asks, "What is the great commandment" Great, the Greek, megas, meaning largest, most encompassing, that of rank or importance. The biggest commandment of God could mean that of importance or how much it includes. The Master, Yeshua, responds explaining "the first and great". Loving God is the first, protos, meaning primary or in a position of honor and megas largest, this is the primary and most encompassing commandment. However the Master is not yet finished with the answer.

“And second, like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39). This seems clear as well. Number one commandment is love God. Number two commandment is love your neighbor. Or is it? The word second, the Greek  deuteros, does mean second but it also means the other of two. Yeshua says it is "like" the Greek, homoios, meaning similar or corresponding to. Possibly the second matching part of the command to "love God" is the corresponding "love your neighbor". Is the first commandment so large and encompassing it includes the second rather than being in some sort of divine pecking order? Oh the joy of being an American and steeped in Western, Greek thought and culture.

John explains in 1 John 4:20,"If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" You see, commandment number one is intimately connected to commandment number two.You honestly cannot separate them. Hebraic thought, the way the Master, Jesus, thought, sees life and thought fully integrated. As did those other Hebrew writers like Moses, David, Isaiah, Matthew, John, Paul and Peter. Those of us who are immersed in American/Western thought and culture like to compartmentalizes everything. We compartmentalize the LORD who is One into Father, Son and Spirit who have some distinctions but are far more an integrated One than a separated trinity. We do the same with ourselves, separating body, soul and spirit more that we see our beings as integrated. Take a minute and consider this. Yeshua, Jesus, told us to fast, meaning to not eat for a time, not to live life in overdrive. So does fasting affect your physical being or your spiritual being? Does it involve the soul, as in your mind, will and emotions or just your physical person? Oh, it touches all aspects of who you are? Almost, like God designed you to be an integrated being where every aspect of who you are touches every other aspect. Hmmmm. I wonder if this is true in other areas of life? 

I do not mean to cause you greater angst in your life but the artificial divisions we practice can wreak havoc with who God intends you to be. There is no spiritual and temporal you, just you. Our life's priorities are an illusion of Western thought. Everything you do and think has an impact on every other area of your life. God did not design you to be bits and pieces of a human machine with interchangeable parts. You cannot have loving God as a priority if you do not have loving your neighbor as a priority. The job you choose to take, the place you choose to live, even the assembly of believers you may choose to fellowship with will impact every aspect of your life. For your body and soul and spirit cannot be itemized and boxed separately. Choices have consequences in every aspect of every part of the thing you call life.

Let's conclude as the Master did back in Matthew 22:40, "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” On these two corresponding, all encompassing, similar commandments, "hang", the  Greek kremannymi, meaning to hang from, connect to, or summed up by. So all the teaching and instructions of God are connected. Does this mean to "love God" encompasses all of this? Well, the Master, Jesus did say, “If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). What is the great commandment? Perhaps it is to have an integrated life integrated into Messiah and the Father by the power of the Spirit where the artificial boarders of my life are melted into His. Not an easy way to prioritize your life list but perhaps it is the way He intends us to live. Give it some thought or maybe you can add it to your list.