The Marriage of the Lamb

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

When we finally get our act together and all those that come to His proposal (Passover), then accept His proposal (Pentecost) will be at the wedding feast (Feast of Tabernacles). 

Chip, holding the lulav, and our dog, Brulee.  Sukkot 2011

Blessings!
                                          

Teaching Our Children

Abraham commanded his children and his household after the way of Yahweh.  Gen. 18:17,19

And the Yahweh said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;"

"For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Yahweh, to do justice and judgment; that the Yahweh may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

Yahweh did not hide the thing which He did because Abraham commanded his children to keep the way.  We are called to teach our children so they can teach their children and so on.  Cyclical.  Just saying. 

Ok, that aside.  I sat down with my children at breakfast and decided to add to what we were taught from Torah on Sabbath.  The torah portion was about the covenant that was made with the Israelites. It was made with the Israelites standing in front of Him and future generations.  This covenant was a marriage covenant.  Now as we know the bride went after other lovers and was given a divorce.  The husband died (and resurrected) and now she is free to marry again.  So I am telling my children that at a wedding you have to be at the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Not an option.  If you want to be in the wedding you have to be there for the rehearsals.  I know I am repeating myself but we need to understand this.  When we Remember and Keep His Sabbaths, Feasts, Commandments etc. we are rehearsing for the wedding and we are marked, to be recognized by our Father that we are His.  That is why in the Brit Hadashah Yahushua says to the person who came to the Feast that was not prepared for the wedding that he had to go.  And Yahushua says to the other five virgins who had no oil(wisdom, Torah) they went off to buy more but it was too late and when they came to the door.  He said I do not know you.  As I study more and more, the pieces of treasure I find are coming together and painting a picture.  It is a beautiful picture. 

Blessings!

Paths of Righteousness

I am learning that our Father does not work on a timeline.  He has cycles of righteousness.  In Psalms 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  The word path in Hebrew is Magal means way, track, rampart (circular). A rampart is a defensive wall.  The root of Magal is Agol which means to revolve, circular, round.  So when we keep His commandments by walking in His ways it is like a defensive wall for us. 

A path is narrow place to walk.  But the thing about a path is it is walked on over and over and over again. It is repeated.  When I was little there was cows in our field out back, behind our house.  In the morning they would use the path to go down and then come back up.  We might want to think of a path as a straight line like the picture above, but it is something used over and over again as circular.  You might be thinking "wait a minute what about Psalm 5:8" 

Lead me, O Yahweh, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.

But the word straight means to make right, to be upright.  Not a straight line.  Ezekiel's wheel.  Wheel within a wheel.  His cycles of righteousness and the cycles of man.  More to come on that later.

Blessings!

Fruit

Fruit. Mathew 7:20 "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Okay. But what is the fruit? What exactly is the fruit?  I have always understood it as someone is blessed and because of the blessing on their life, that person(s) have a good job, nice house, healthy, etc. It couldn't be by how we behave because all Christians do things and say things they shouldn't.  But as usual I have been taught wrong. When I looked this word up in Greek it says a literal fruit. But men don't grow literal apples or oranges so let's take the word fruit back to the Hebrew.
 פְּרִי

pĕriy

fruit (of actions) (fig.)

So here we have that fruit is by our actions.  But I also have to believe that fruit is what we say, our words.  And I say that because what comes out of our mouth comes from the heart, Mathew 15:18.  If Torah is written on our hearts.  The Word seed grows in good ground and grows good fruit then they will also know us by our words and actions because we are saying and doing Torah.  It is like the word remember as in He will remember His covenant or remember the Sabbath day.  In Hebrew it means to mark (so as to be recognized), to make mention.  When we keep His Torah we are marked because we are producing fruit and that is seen by our words and our actions.  I know the scriptures that I am referencing were talking about the false prophets in sheep's clothing but it goes both ways.  If they are known by their actions and words and we can tell they aren't really who they say they are then the same is for us.

Blessings!

No Knowledge of Good and Evil

I like to read the articles on Aish.com, Chabad.org, and Myjewishlearning.com.  The Jewish people have a lot to teach us Gentiles.  I have learned so much from theses websites.  So as usual I was reading an article(http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/dvarim_summary.shtml) on how Moses was recounting the forty years in the wilderness and encouraging the Israelites in the upcoming conquest in the land of Canaan.  Well, I say I was reading but really just scanning.  Then I got down to the bottom of the page and the author had written some questions for discussion.  And this is what caught my eye.  1) Why would God want children "who have no knowledge of good and evil" to inherit the promised land? Is ignorance better than knowledge? Is knowledge of good and evil necessary to make good choices? Why or why not?

So of course now I go back up to the top of the article and actually read it.  Then half way down this is what it says.
"So God became angry with you and swore that no man among this evil generation would see the good land that God promised to your fathers. Only Caleb, son of Yefunneh and Joshua, son of Nun, shall see it because they have acted faithfully towards God. God said it would be your children, whom have no knowledge of good and evil, who shall inherit this land. But you, you shall wander in the wilderness. Now lately a lot of has crossed my path about the Tree of Life and the The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.  So I emailed the author Nancy Reuben.  I explained that I understand that the tree of knowledge of good and evil bears no fruit but would like to hear her understanding.  And she emailed me back her perspective:

The knowledge of good and evil is from the tree that bears no fruit.

"Bearing no fruit" meaning -

best to know what is good in God's eyes and practice that only.

When you know good AND EVIL you constantly have to make a choice

so knowing good, doing good and for sure you will get good fruit.

So, what is good in His eyes?  Torah. Eat of the Tree of Life and produce good fruit. 

Blessings!

Two Trees in the Garden

There are two trees in the Garden of Eden.  The tree of Life and the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Our Father only planted the Tree of Life.  He said he planted trees that was pleasant to the sight and good for food.  Yahweh told them that they shall not eat of it or you shall surely die.  So we have to understand it was not good for food.  In Genesis we see two trees but in Revelation we see only one.  That is why Yahushua says,

"But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. "

That is why every tare and the tree of knowledge of good and evil will be rooted up.  I looked up the word planted and the meaning is to instill doctrine.  As I have said before His doctrine is Torah.  The doctrine of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a mixing of good and bad, doing your own thing.   That is why people don't see a problem with christmas, easter, etc.  Such good happens at the same time they say.  But what they don't realize is, it is a mixing.  Our Father hates mixing.  He says do not worhsip me the way pagans worship their gods.  Do not mix what I tell you with the world's way.  If you mix or don't keep Torah, you are eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which produces bad fruit and you will be considered a tare.
You either eat from one or the other.  The tree of Life is keeping His commandments, His Wisdom given to us.  The tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is deciding to do what is right in your own eyes.  Proverbs 14:12 says

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Way, derek, a course of life or mode of action.

 Many people say but what is wrong with dying eggs, handing out candy on halloween or having a christmas tree,  etc.  But you have to look at the root of where all these things started.  The goodwill tree is placed all around the world and by many who aren't even christians.  Shouldn't that sound an alarm. 

But, if you remember (zakar: properly to mark, to be recognized) and keep Torah, and let the good seed, the Word, grow on good ground (your heart) by walking in His ways you will live a life that when you speak or do things (your actions) that is your good fruit.  He will recognize you and on that day He will welcome you in to the wedding. 

In Revelation after the new heaven and earth you have one tree.  It is the Tree of Life.  Rev. 22:2

In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

One Tree!

Blessings!

Scattered Seeds

Sometimes when I hear of the arguments, conflicts and contention betweens us Torah believers I now understand why we were so scattered and why we have had such a hard time finding like believers to fellowship with in our neck of the woods.  Seeds have to be scattered because if you plop all of them down in one place some seeds choke out the other seeds and they can't grow.   So let's all understand that everyone is at a different place and what is important to you may not be as important to the next believer.  Our Father will bring His children into all Truth to those who are seeking Him.  We are all on the same road to Jerusalem but some are just a little further down the road and some have just left Rome. 
Let's walk in love with our brethren. 

Blessings!