Learning to Become United

My husband and I recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C.  The picture above was taken at the WWII Memorial and shows 5 of the 56 pillars surrounding the memorial.  While in D.C. we also visited the Holocaust Museum.  The two are connected in what I believe to be the darkest part of our world history.  This horrible war, with it's many atrocities, actually began on November 1, 1936 as Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini joined forces to establish their domination of the world.  Twenty-four days later Imperial Japan joined them.  Three governments united for what appeared to be a common cause. 

For nine years war raged throughout all of Europe as Hitler and his partners invaded one country after another and millions died.  Yet during those years something else extraordinary happened.  Three other countries came together in unity as well, despite barriers of language, religion and life to overthrow an evil dictator.  During those years they would be joined by other countries along the way.  
When a common goal exists, mankind will overcome any and all obstacles to attain that goal.  Last week I talked about what might happen if all Jews AND Christians were to get on the same page.  Let me take that one step further.   

We may jump on board with a calendar of events, but what about language?  Could the number one reason we differ so much in theology be due to a language barrier?  Christians and Jews disagree greatly on interpretation of Scripture, but so do most Christians.  Don't think so?  Why are there so many different denominations and even so many different interpretations within even one denomination?  Have you ever given it a thought?  Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodist, Baptist (heaven knows how many different types of Baptist there are), Church of Christ, Christian (Disciples of Christ), Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Non-Denominational, Apostolic.  I could go on and on.  Two different Baptist Churches can't even agree on many details, let alone all these different flavors of Christianity.

Why is there such a barrier?  Christians DO NOT fully understand the language of the Bible.  We are very smug and claim to understand, why we understand it better than the Jews!  They didn't get it right in Jesus Day so we know they don't understand it now!  Those Jews just missed the boat!  How did they not understand that Jesus was the Messiah?  We see it, clear as day AND we know exactly how to interpret all those 66 books as well, correct?

That's funny.  Ask ten people within your own denomination this question, "What happens to the soul when we die?"  Oh that's an easy one.  We go to heaven or hell!  Well, I asked that question in a Sunday School class one day and received about five different answers.  Here they are: 1. Heaven or hell; 2. Soul sleep; 3. Purgatory; 4. Paradise or darkness; 5. Either Heaven (for a believer) or just cease to exist (for an unbeliever).  Hmmm, all that in a Southern Baptist Church.  To beat it all there were only about 8 people in the class and all of them age 30 and above.  

As Christians we should strive to seek the truth of the Scripture, even when that truth defies the very doctrine we have been taught in the Church.  One point in understanding Hebrew that is so often overlooked is a simple thing known as an idiom.  I have written on this point before, but let me take you down that road for a moment.

An idiom is a commonly used expression that is never to be taken literally.  In the USA we use idioms such as: Come hell or high water; She has a bun in the oven; It's raining cats and dogs.  Judaism does the same.  Some prime examples are: 
     Loved and hated - to love one more than the other (never literally taken as hated); 
     Abolish - to teach the Torah incorrectly;
     Fulfill - to teach the Torah correctly;  
     Evil eye  - stingy;
     Good eye - generous; 
     The third day - used to denote something miraculous; 
     On that day - the future or the world to come; 
     Little one - unschooled inexperienced disciple; 
     Drinking wine - studying Torah; 
     Favorable year of the Lord - year of Jubilee; 
     Go up - elevate oneself spiritually; 
     Thorn - small pointed stroke that is part of a Hebrew letter or something that might be considered insignificant; 
     Twinkling of an eye - the haste with which the Hebrews left Egypt; 
     Under the Law - a Gentile who had gone through the conversion process to become a Jew (this included circumcision for males and also a ritual bath known as a mikvah or baptism);
     In one's tent - deep study of Torah.  (When speaking of Jacob it is said that he stayed in the tent.  Christians have typically taught that Jacob was a Momma's boy, but this is far from the truth.  He spent his time seeking God.)

Did you think you knew what these terms meant only to see that you may have been a little off base?  As I researched this subject I looked at common English language idioms and their meanings.  I came across a webpage that named over 600, only to find that a few of them were not defined the same way I use them.  I wondered if this were pertinent to perhaps another area of the country from where I live.  I fully understand the difference in areas with things such as a soft drink.  In the south everything is a coke, while in other areas they are called pop or soda.  So what if you were to ask Jews from various areas and they understood those idioms differently?  How do we know the true meaning of them?  In those instances we MUST go to the 1st century A.D. to find how the Jews in Jesus' day defined them. 

If we could all get on the same page with idioms and their definitions, scripture might take on an entirely new meaning.  Could it possibly be that denominational names would drop and we could all become The Church as we were meant to be?  

Now that I have given you several to start, take these idioms and plug the definition into the scripture which uses them.  I certainly hope you have a new perspective on that scripture afterwards.  Until next week, Shalom!     

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Today is August 22, 2015 and a new year is almost upon us.  What?  A new year?  But we are four months away from New Year's Day and we still have Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to go through! 

As we take a look around the world, the term New Year has various meanings.  In the United States a new school year typically begins in August or September.  For many corporate entities a new fiscal year begins a 52 week period that could correspond to any date on the calendar.  The next Chinese New Year begins on February 8, 2016, the Islamic New Year on October 15, 2015, and the Jewish New Year on September 14, 2015 of the Gregorian calendar.   Wow, did you have any idea there were that many calendars in use at all times?  According to a website known as webexhibits.org/calendars, there are currently 40 calendars in use around the world.     

Why so many calendars?  Well, some are lunar calendars and others solar.  A new school year calendar has been shaped and reshaped over the years and varies between states.  Fiscal years for corporations and governments are based on a 52 week period that best suits their needs, usually corresponding to seasonal operations.  Retailers for instance begin their fiscal year on February 1 and close out on January 31st due to the holidays, while the company I work for has a fiscal year of July 1 - June 30.

Just throwing out a thought here, but what would happen if everyone in the world used the same calendar?  hmmmm....  Let me take this one step further and ask what calendar would it be?  What if God had a calendar which He set up before the foundations of the world were created?  Would that be the calendar to get your vote?  If so, what if it were vastly different than the calendar you currently use?

The fact is, God DID create a calendar and He has given it to us in His Word!  The picture at the top of this post is an example of God's calendar for this month, August 2015.  If you focus in on it you will see there are dates you have probably never thought or known about before now.  It also contains Bible readings which are the same year after year after year and have been for thousands of years.

Now, let's take this another step further.  What if all Jews AND Christians were to begin observing, (strictly observing), this calendar and ALSO reading the same scripture on the same day every year?  What would and could happen in this world?  Could we possibly usher in the return of the Messiah?

God DOES have a day planner and today, August 22, 2015 is day 8 of a 40 day period of repentance.  Day 31 of that period falls on September 14, 2015 which is the 1st day of the Jewish month Tishrei - New Years Day!  It is known as Rosh Hashanah which also begins the Feast of Trumpets.  According to Jewish tradition it is the day Abraham bound Isaac for a sacrifice as well as the beginning of "The Days of Awe."

The 30 Days of Repentence leading up to New Year's Day is a time of introspection, because a super holy event is coming very soon.  These 30 days are to be spent searching out every nook and cranny of our life to find everything unholy and rid it from us.  God's court session will begin on Rosh Hashanah and those who have not "settled out of court" during the previous 30 days will now stand before Him to plead their case for nine days.  At the close of the 9th day, all testimonies will conclude and court is adjourned.  God then deliberates on the testimonies and on the 10th day, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), He will close the Book of Life.  If your name is written therein you will live for another year.  If not......

Oh, did you think the Book of Life had something to do with eternity???  Well, in a sense it does.  We are all eternal beings.  Eternity does not begin with death, it begins with life.  The moment you are conceived eternity begins for you.  The question remains though as to what kind of eternity you will experience both while on earth and thereafter.   

"But what about salvation?  I thought that ensured eternal life!"  Well, do you remember my closing question from the previous post?  I asked what the Kingdom of Heaven meant.  The Kingdom of Heaven is a term for the reign of God.  "Well, doesn't God reign in Heaven?"  God reigns wherever He chooses to reign, but He desires to reign in His people.  God cannot dwell where there is unholiness.  Although the Book of Life most likely has a dual meaning, one for this life and one for the life to come, it is essential for those of us who have accepted Christ to turn inward during those 30 days.  We MUST find any unholiness which has crept into us and purge it.  We cannot be a reflection of His light from within if our window is dirty.

The understanding of time in Hebraic thought is that time is cyclical rather than linear.  It repeats itself over and over and over, each time becoming clearer and clearer and clearer with greater depth.  In this respect we, as Christians, should be living in the times.  We should understand fully the meaning of God's calendar.

The Gospel of Matthew can help give us a better understanding of this concept.  I am going to quote from a Hebrew to English translation.  Matthew 3:1-2, "And in those days Yohanan the Immerser came proclaiming in the wilderness of Yehuda, and saying, 'Repent, for the reign of the heavens has come near!'"

So what exactly was John the Baptist proclaiming?  Most translations will say, the Kingdom of Heaven.  He was not only proclaiming the 1st appearance of the Messiah, but also ushering in the 40 days of repentance.  If you continue to Matthew 3:13 - 4:3 you will find that Yeshua, (Jesus), comes to be immersed as he begins his ministry - bringing a way for God to dwell in His people individually.  

  Taking the verses I have given you from Matthew we can "know" the dates of this story.  What does the scripture say?  Matthew 4:1-2, "Then Yeshua was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tried by the devil.  And after having fasted forty days and forty nights, He was hungry and the trier (Satan) came to Him."

Jesus went into the wilderness to go through 40 days of introspection, 40 days and nights, the days of repentance.  Satan did his absolute best to cause Him to stumble, but to no avail.  Those days of repentance are not only to throw out the things that make us unholy, but also in order to bring us closer to God.  Jesus knew his mission was to be grueling and beyond anything a human had ever experienced; therefore it was absolutely necessary for him to be in total connection to God.

That last day in the wilderness was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the Holiest day of the year.  His fate was sealed.  The book was closed and nothing could change that decision. 

Now is YOUR time of introspection.  Now is the time to seal your name in the book.  For the next 32 days, every day, read Psalm 39, 40, 51 and 27 in that order.  Prior to reading these ask God to reveal any and all sin within your life that is creating a disconnect between you and Him.

So back to my question.  If ALL of God's people would get on the same page (calendar), what could happen?  If ALL of God's people would take the next 32 days to purge the unholiness from our lives and become "one" with God, then on the last day to fast from both food and water and any physical pleasure......could we see the Messiah's return with the final, single blast of the shofar (trumpet) at sunset on Yom Kippur, - the Day of Atonement (At-onement) as we all shout, "Next year in Jerusalem!"? (Leviticus 16:30)

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year my friend, Shalom!

Gearing Up for a New Year With God

 The soul of one of God's children is likened to a beautiful rose among the thorns of materialism. 

From the Zohar

I am going to do my best to start over with lessons from the weekly Bible reading again.  I desire to teach others the wondrous gems I have been taught for the last four years.  If you deeply desire to know more and more about God, perhaps this is for you.

If you are like me, I am terribly tired of cliches and the latest catch phrases for Christianity.  I long for God's word and to allow IT to change me.  There are far too many people writing books, Bible Studies and developing DVD's and programs with catchy phrases designed to entice us and draw us in, some with a personal agenda.

Please let me say that I do not disagree with many of these people.  They are teaching truth, but why do we feel the need to come up with a memorable phrase when God has done all of that for us in His Word?  I can tell you that learning The Word for the last four years has made THE biggest difference in my life. 

If I am going to try this again and hopefully write so that all can understand, I must begin with some basic concepts and I will try to put out one or two of those basics every day or two.  Please feel free to share these posts with anyone who you know deeply desires to go deeper with our God and His word. 

I would definitely love to tell you how I am not going to say, "God revealed this to me."  What I will tell you is that I have learned these things from my teacher, who learned them from his teacher, who learned them from his teacher.  I will do my best to not give information unless it can be backed up by several sources, no matter how much I might truly wish to.  Accountability is soooo very important and I desire accountability from my teacher and you, my readers. 

The new weekly reading schedule begins in about 9 weeks so I should have ample time to lay down the foundation for those readings.  Please feel free to comment or send me an email if you have questions.  I always encourage questions or comments.  I want this blog to be a safe place for those who have questioned things within the church for years, but were made to feel like an infidel if they asked.  If you have found condemnation other places, I want you to find love here.  Remember there are no stupid questions.  I may not have an immediate answer for you, but I will find one if it exists. 

My goal is to bring you along with me as I approach the throne of God, one step at a time.  I desire that you grow closer to the Creator as you journey with me. 

I will leave you with one tidbit for today:

               What is the kingdom of heaven?  Where is it and when does it start??? 

Shalom, my friend, Shalom!
                       

Unity???

  

 My husband and I stand in front of the unity candle at our marriage ceremony.

     I have been an active member of a mainline, protestant, evangelical denomination all my life.  Growing up in that atmosphere, I had never understood those denominations whose services were full of liturgy.  I thought they were stuffy and boring and missing the point.  Of course my actual knowledge of those churches, or any other denomination for that matter, was limited to rumors and innuendos from people in my own denomination.

     One thing I did have knowledge of, other than my own kind of church, was a mom and dad after God's own heart.  They taught me one basic thing;  to always read the entire Bible for myself and ask God to impart His understanding of that scripture to me.  They even reinforced the matter by telling me I should never take any one preacher or teacher's explanation of scripture as absolute gospel, but to search out the matter for myself.  I have been on that search about the deep truths of God's Word for most of my life.

     A few years ago a friend invited me to a class on 1st Century Judaism, taught by a Lutheran minister who is also a Jew by birth.  I was a little skeptical at first, but the mere mention of the name of the class surged through me with great excitement.  The class is known as Torah Tuesday.  In the midst of attending this class I have visited this church several times and I have realized a great misconception on my part.  Let me revert back in my life for a moment to help you understand my point of view as well as give you a little something to think about.

     My denomination, while conservative in it's teachings, encourages a certain level of freedom of expression during worship.  If you want to sit during the worship it is okay.  If you want to stand and raise your hands while saying hallelujah, that is okay as well.  We don't judge those who "feel the Spirit" during their time with God.  We do, however, tend to think differently about those who worship in liturgical congregations and I must admit that I was one of the worst in doing so.  I was so judgmental that I wrote a book several years ago along that line.  I gave the book to several people in my denomination whose opinion I trusted wholeheartedly.  Each of them gave me back the draft with words such as, "It was nice," or "It would make a great instructional manual."  (Just their way of saying kindly, "Oh dear, how can we tell her this book is awful!")

     I was brokenhearted at the comments.  There was no enthusiasm for my words. (Ahh perhaps that was the problem, they were my words...a realization that just hit me.)  Rather than stew over it, I vowed that I would put it away until God revealed otherwise.  If all of those trusted people said the same thing, well.....

    Now fast forward five years.  I have been in this class regularly for four of those years and worshiped with that particular congregation about 10 times.  I have also, through this class, studied the beginnings of Christianity from an entirely new perspective.  Where I once saw liturgy as rote and mindless tradition, I now understand it as unity.

     In my last post I mentioned that the United States appears more divided now than at anytime since the Civil War.  I still believe that to be true.  According to a survey by The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), there are over 300,000 Christian based congregations who worship each week.  Of those, approximately 100,000 are either fully or in part liturgical and 200,000 are not.  I would wager a guess here to say that on any given weekend only about 57,000 of those congregations are on the same page.  Although that is a great many, on the other hand there are about 243,000 congregations who are each doing their own thing.  Although they probably all teach from the Bible, they greatly differ on the scripture reference and interpretations and that is not unity.  About the only time those 200,000+ are unified is; Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day. (If you are part of an evangelical congregation, how many times have you attended on Mother's Day and made that face, because you knew you were going to hear Proverbs 31 preached again!) 

     If all 300,000+ congregations believe in the same God and in the same Savior, why aren't they unified?   Have they misinterpreted God's Word in some way?  Think along with me on this, the apostle Paul said that God is a God of order.  If this is so, why are His people so disorderly?

     My study of 1st Century Judaism has brought about a thought process.  What would and could happen if ALL God's people got on the same page?  How wonderful is it when many people from various walks of life come together with a unified agenda, putting aside their differences on things which aren't applicable to the cause?  What accomplishments can be achieved with unity?

     Let me take this one step further.  What if every church in the world read the same scripture this coming weekend?  All churches, no matter the denomination, lifting up their voices as one in unity?  Would the gates of hell crumble?  Would this one simple act be THE ACTION which would herald in the return of the Messiah?

     I want to give you a couple of examples of what unity can do..    

Joshua 6:20,  "So the people (Israelites) shouted, and [the priests] blew with the shofar (horns). And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the shofar, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city."

Nehemiah 8:1-9,  "When the month of Tishri arrived, the children of Israel gathered together as one at the plaza before the Water Gate and they asked Ezra the scholar to bring the scroll of the Torah of Moses, which HASHEM (the Lord God) had commanded to Israel.  So Ezra the Kohen (Priest) brought the Torah before the congregation - men and women, and all those who could listen with understanding - on the first day of Tishri (Rosh Hashanah - a holy day which begins 10 days of awe and ends with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement).  He read from it before the plaza that is before the Water Gate, from the first light until midday, in front of the common men and women and those who understood; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Torah scroll.  Ezra the scholar stood on a wooden tower that they made for the purpose......(the portion omitted here lists 13 men, 6 of whom stood on Ezra's right and 7 who stood on his left)........Ezra opened the scroll before the eyes of all the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood silent.  Ezra blessed HASHEM, the great God, and all the people answered 'Amen! Amen!' with their hands upraised; then they bowed and prostrated themselves before HASHEM, faces to the ground......(Again men named who helped the people understand the words they were hearing. I could teach an entire lesson on just the names of all these men, but alas that is for another time.).......They read in the scroll, in God's Torah, clearly, with the application of wisdom, and they helped the people understand the reading.  Then Nehemiah, who is the Tirshatha (Persian official) as well as Ezra the Kohen, the scholar, and the Levites who were helping the people understand, said to all the people, 'Today is sacred to HASHEM your God; do not mourn and do not weep.'  For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Torah."

     I know the last passage was lengthy, but I wanted to capture the context.  The first temple had been destroyed and the people of Israel had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years.  Under great men such as Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah and their influence over the Babylonian Kings, the people were allowed to return to their land.  Through the generosity and kindness of King Cyrus the second temple was built.

     As the Torah was being read the people began, as one, to weep as they realized they had been neglecting the Torah's laws.  Every time I read that passage from Nehemiah I am so deeply reminded of what took place at the dedication of the first Temple:
       
          "There was unison among the trumpeters and singers, sounding out in one voice to praise and give thanksgiving to HASHEM, and when the sound of the shofars and cymbals and other musical instruments sounded out, with praise of HASHEM 'for He is good, for His kindness is forever,' and the Shechinah filled the house - the Temple of HASHEM - and the Kohanim (Priests) could not stand and minister because of the cloud, for the Shechinah glory of HASHEM filled the Temple of God."  II Chronicles 5:13-14.

     WOW! What a day that must have been!  Something I long to see in Christianity.

     Although it is not exactly the same as our Gregorian calendar which is solar, the Jewish calendar is lunar and has a specified scripture for each week.  It is the same EVERY year.  You could say their calendar is God's calendar or better yet, God's day planner for He is the one who gave it to them.  In every Synagogue around the world the scripture is the same.  The Jewish nation scattered all around the world is unified on each and every Sabbath as well as every festival and Holy Day. (Judaic unity goes much deeper than this, but that is also for a different post!  If you would like to purchase one of these calendars you may find it here:  http://ffoz.com/eretz-yisrael-wall-calendar.html  It is well worth the money and contains BEAUTIFUL pictures of the land of Israel.)

     What would and could happen if all of Christianity, within our congregations, began to follow the same scripture reading schedule as all of Israel?  What a day it could be if ALL GOD'S CHILDREN stood on the Sabbath and at the completion of that reading, shouted in one voice, "For He is good, for His kindness is forever!"  Could we usher in or shout in the return of THE MESSIAH?

     

   SHALOM!