Ears to Hear, Eyes to See

Luke 16:31 "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

Loneliness

When I was little I never had a best friend.  I had lots of friends, but never someone that said "you  and me best friends".  It was something I had always wanted.   I grew up and it was the same thing.  Lots of great friends, some I am still friends with today, but no best friend.  Then I met Chip, my husband, in college.  We later moved to Alabama and got married.  We were all alone, no family around.  We never made friends, so we had to rely on each other. Our two boys were born and then we finally made our way to Virginia. (A couple of years later our beautiful daughter was born).   My sister and her husband lived in Virginia. We had family.  We were so excited.   My sister and her husband became our closest friends.  But since our decision to walk down this path I won't lie, there has been a somewhat separation/divide that has happened. Now, they do support us but they just don't see what we see in the scriptures. We left the church and well, lets just say, loneliness set in.  Many people look at you like you are crazy when you tell them that you don't celebrate christmas, easter, birthdays, etc.  And then when you say "we keep the Holy Days".  Well, you may as well have said "the smurfs live in my backyard". 

We had for some time been wary of getting in contact of other believers, because we know everyone kind of believes some things differently and that is okay but some really want to push their beliefs on you.  That can cause some issues.  We need not let these things create a divide, but let us walk together and pray that we all come into the Truth and until then, let us just fellowship. 

Sorry, sidetracked.  We have since got in contact with a lady in Australia and a gentleman also living in Virginia. We email back and forth.  It has been so nice to see the loneliness start to fade away.  We would love to be able to get together face to face with people. We just haven't met anyone that lives near us.  But emailing them has been such a blessing.  We would love more friends to email  thewildolivebranches@gmail.com .

Written by:  Jana D. Pindell

Me Lo Goy

Also known as Me Lo HaGoyim. What is that you say?  Everything.  Those three little words have changed my whole life.  Me lo Goy means multitude of nations.  Abraham was told he would be the father of many nations (Gen 17:4).  Abraham had a son Isaac and he had a son named Jacob and he had twelve sons and they are: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ashur, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.  There was a lot of begatting here.  Now we know that Joseph gets sold and ends up in Egypt. While there Joseph marries Asenath, daughter of Egyptian priest and has two sons, Manassah and Ephraim.  There is this great famine and Jacob sends his sons to Egypt and it comes to light that Joseph is now running the show.  There is a great family reunion, sorry just trying to get to the main subject.  So Jacob is now on his deathbed and Joseph is talking with his father.  Jacob says that Manassah and Ephraim will be his sons as Rueuben and Simeon are his sons.  Now Rueuben and Simeon are the oldest.  Jacob also says that anyone after them would also be his and shall be called after the name of their brethern in their inheritance.  He adopts Joseph's sons as His own. As we see here:
8And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?
 ⁹And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom Elohim hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
 ¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
 ¹¹And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, Elohim hath shewed me also thy seed.
 ¹²And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
 ¹³And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
 ¹⁴And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
 ¹⁵And he blessed Joseph, and said, Elohim , before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the Elohim which fed me all my life long unto this day,
 ¹⁶The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
 ¹⁷And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
 ¹⁸And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
 ¹⁹And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
 ²⁰And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, Elohim make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
 ²¹And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but Elohim shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
 ²²Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

Jacob blesses the youngest, Ephraim, and says he will grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.  Now let's back track here a little. Back in Genesis 15:13-18 when our Elohim makes a covenant with Abraham, our Elohim gives him a summary of what is going to happen to all his children as he going to be a father of many nations:
 ¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

 ¹⁴And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
 ¹⁵And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. (Now that was in Egypt)
 ¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
 ¹⁷And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
 ¹⁸In the same day the Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: (just saying: the Nile to the Euphrates) 

Now in verse 16 it says "in the fourth generation they shall come hither again" in other words they would go back into captivity and then return to Him.  As we have read, when Jeroboam sinned the ten tribes went into captivity by the Assyrians.  Are we coming full circle yet?  The Ten Tribes (aka House of Ephraim, House of Joseph, etc.) over time assimilated into the ones around them.  They left the covenant.  They left their Father, Husband, Yahweh.  They grew and became a multitude of nations. Along with that captivity came a blindness. But that is for another post.  But the punishment is up and He is calling His children, His bride, His people back to His covenant. Don't believe me, google it.  When I started years ago (early to mid 2000) looking online to see if others believed and was seeing the same as I. I really couldn't find anything.  Now, it is all over the internet.  People's eyes and ears being opened and the funny thing is, it is not something they had to orginially be taught.  The Holy Spirit is bringing us into all Truth.   We are turning away from pagan holidays (christmas, easter, halloween, birthdays, etc.) and returning back to His Sabbath, His  Feasts, His Commandments.  And if you think the first exodus was great, wait for the second exodus. 


Written by:  Jana D. Pindell

Galations 3:10

I came across this scripture this morning and it has always confused me.  Let's read.  "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them". (KJV)  It seems like if you are a doer of the Word you are cursed and if you don't you are cursed.  Huh???   Well, this is where we have to not just read the word but study it.  If you look up the word of in the Greek, it is EK and means out of, from, by and away from.  So let's place away from in place of the word of and let's see what we have. " For as many as are away from the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them".   That makes much more sense. Thayer's Lexicon gives this definition- it denotes as well exit or emission out of, as separtion from, something with which there has been close connection.  The Ten Tribes walked away from the Commandments, something they had once had a close connection to, like what they mean to the Jews.  It is their life as it should be ours. 

Written by:  Jana D. Pindell

Year of Jubilee

I always thought the Jews were still keeping the Year of Jubliee.  In my naivety,  I always thought the Jews were doing what they were called to do.  But I learned that the last Year of Jubilee requirement was about 150 years before the last destruction of the First Temple.  Now, this just adds to the understanding of the Ten Tribes being scattered amoung the Gentile Nations.  In these articles  End-of-the-Kingdom-of-Israel and When is the Next Jubilee Year? from a Jewish website http://www.chabad.org/ it gives great insight into what people are starting to wake up to realizing that we need to repent and turn back to Him.  I have come to understand that the Year of Jubilee cannot be celebrated until all the tribes are in the Land of Israel.  So please take the time to read these articles.  It will make you say hmmmm.  This is something I need to study further in my bible.

Written by:  Jana D. Pindell

Get the Leaven Out!

For Passover to Feast of Unleavened Bread we are told to remove the leaven from our homes.  But this is two fold.  And no I am not just talking pastry here.  As before, we see that leaven is sin.  So, let's not just remove all yeast products from our home this year, but let's look around and see if there is anything that He calls sin that might have gotten in that needs to be removed.

I know that it has been put on my heart to look at things he calls graven images and idols.  In Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. The Torah also says in Deut. 4:16-19,23 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,  The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:  And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Yahweh thy Elohim hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Yahweh your Elohim, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Yahweh thy Elohim hath forbidden thee. 

I do not bow down to these things but He also says not to have these things.  When you look up the word make in Hebrew it says not to keep, acquire, give or maintain, etc.  He also said that if you have them and bring them into your home the curse that is on them can come on you.  He calls these things abominations.  Deut. 7:26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.  So let's get the leaven out!

Two great articles to read: Graven Images and Idols: what your pastor never told you about the second commandment and Graven Images and Idols: The Scriptural Definition.

Written by:  Jana D. Pindell

The Sin of Jeroboam

Of all my posts I have written, I think I should have started with this one.  The sin of Jeroboam is the downfall of Christians today.  But it actually started with King Solomon.  He was the son of David. In the Torah there are rules for whoever is King over Israel.  In Deuteronmy 17:14-20 is says the king was not to have many wives, that his heart should turn away and not amass horses and  massives amounts of silver or gold.  He was to write a Torah Scroll and keep it with him and read from it all the day of his life to fear Yahweh, to keep the words of the Law and keep his statutes to do them.  But Solomon did have multiple wives, he amassed horses and had massive amounts of silver and gold. In fact in 1Kings 10:14, Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.  Because of his multiple wives the bible says that he burned incense to foreigh gods and set up high places  (1Kings 3:3) and because of that his kingdom was being ripped from him (1Kings 11:6-11) and given to his son, Rehoboam and to Jeroboam, son of Nebat.  Rehoboam was king over the Southern Kingdom (Judah, Benjamin and Levites) and Jeroboam was king over the Northern Kingdom (Rueben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Nephtali, Gad, Asher, Simeon, Joseph-Ephraim and Manassah). The people of the Northern Kingdom complained that Solomon put a heavy yoke on them and asked for a lighter one and they would serve him.  But Rehoboam did not listen to the elders and made it worse.  In the split of the two kingdoms Jerusaleum was in the Southern Kingdom.  Jeroboam was concerned that when the Israelites make their pilgrimage for the feasts that they would not return. 1Kings 12:26-33 So he set up two gold calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan. He told the people that it was too much for them to go to Jerusalem.  It became a sin.  He made a house of high places and made priests of lowly people, which were not of Levi (2 Chron. 11:14). He also ordained a feast like unto Judah on the 15th of the eighth month, offered upon the altar and burned incense.  Now Jeroboam was warned of this by a prophet, but he turned not from his evil way.  1 Kings 13:34 And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut [it] off, and to destroy [it] from off the face of the earth 1 Kings 12:26, 1 Kings 14:10.  From there we are told that Yahweh will root up Israel from the land. 1Kings 14:15,16  For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin. As one King after another (2 Kings 3, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 23) clung to the sin of Jeroboam and overtime Israel eventually would be taken captive by Assryia.  And Judah, the southern kingdom, was not innocent either. Judah sinned also was taken into Babylon.  But after the punishment was over Judah repented and was able to go back.  But when the punishemnt was up for the northern kingdom they didn't repent.  In the Torah it says if you don't repent in your sin, you are punished seven times more and if you continue seven times more (Lev. 26:18-28).  The House of Israel's punishment is 390 years (Ezekiel 4:4,5) but they didn't repent so they got another times seven.  They were to be scattered even more and He would walk contrary to them, just as they walked contrary to Him.  They never returned. 

But we will. The punishment is up.  We have been redeemed by Yeshua, but we need to repent, come out of Babylon (pagan ways, holidays, church, strange woman and evil man, etc.) and (re)turn to Him. The Strange woman in Proverbs means estranged.  She has been redeemed but still walking in darkness, transgressng the Law.  He is waiting.  He is long-suffering.  Repent, for the Kingdom is near.  Turn back to Torah, keep His Sabbaths, His New Moons, and His Feasts and eat only the foods that are sanctified by the Word, also know as those that He declares clean.

As with other posts.  I hope to add more over time. 

Written by: Jana D. Pindell

Killed By The Sword

When I was growing up and would read my bible, I would see in the Old Testament that people in the latter days would be killed by the sword.  I thought well that is a little out dated.  People really don't do that anymore.  Give or take a few countries.  But really more people are killed by guns.  So I thought well it was written long ago and it is a metaphor for guns today maybe.  Who knows, I was young. That was when I had eyes that didn't see and ears that didn't hear. But slowly the puzzle pieces are coming together.  Still learning.  So much to understand.  Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  When Yahweh said they would die by the sword, one meaning is they would die by what His Word says.  Rev. 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength. They aren't dieing by an actual sword, but by His Word.  This was defintely a "duh" moment for me. 
 
And this definitely gives a whole other meaning to "the beast that was wounded by the sword and was healed".  Don't have all the pieces but He is slowly showing them to me.  It is always about the two houses, Judah and Israel.  Would love to hear what anyone else has been shown. 

Written by:  Jana D. Pindell

Sabbaths, That We Might Know Him

It is a funny thing one day last January 2010, I decided that I was going to start keeping Sabbath.  It was on my heart and a desire I knew I had to do.  It was something I had been wanting to do and I was going to "do and obey".  As I kept Sabbath, then my husband started with me and we told the kids we all are going to do it.  As the months past by we were being shown scriptures in the Bible we have never realized what they meant and now they were coming alive.  It is wonderful.  Still now this day as I think what else could He show us.  He reveals more and more.  Now I understand what He means in Ezekiel 20:12, 20. "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I [am] the YAHWEH that sanctify them. And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] the YAHWEH your ELOHIM."  He gave the Israelites manna and gave them His Sabbath first before His commandments were given and written down.  It is a sign between Him and us that we may know Him.  They said they would "do and obey".  Not question Him but obey.  It was then that He opened up His wisdom to them.  And that is how it has been for us.  We have to have faith in Him and trust Him that what He says to do is good for us without questioning.  He is our creator and He knows best.

Light of the World

People say that we are not under the Old Covenant and the Old Testament is not for us New Testament Christians.  "We follow Christ" they say.  But Yeshua was a Jew from the tribe of Judah.  When the bible says His own received Him not ,it is talking about the Jews, not all the Israelites.  In Proverbs 6:23 it says "the commandment is a lamp; and the law (torah) is a light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life".  Your lamp is the commandments, and the Torah is the light given off from the lamp.  Yeshua is our living example of how Torah is to be lived out. Just like the passover lamb was to be without blemish so was He.  He never sinned.  What was sin?  The breaking of Yahweh's commandments/laws. 
This is why Pontus Pilate said He finds no fault with Him. John 18: ^37-38Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
 ³⁸Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

 He says, "I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" John 8:12. To walk in darkness means to not follow Torah.  Yeshua said that his doctrine (instruction) was not his own but the One who sent Him (John 7:16).  The One who sent Him ,well, His intruction was Torah. 






Written by:  Jana D. Pindell