From Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, these ten days are known as the Days of Awe, or in Hebrew, Yamin Noraim . In these days within the synagogues, the cantor’s voice is heard and the Torah scrolls are brought out, and paraded around the congregation. The shofar continues it call, bringing us back to a time of reflection and introspection. It is said that this is the period when the unrighteous can still repent and be written into the Book of Life. It is also in this time that one is encouraged to go to those he has offended and work to make peace and seek forgiveness. Although it is to our benefit to seek peace with others, it is in this time too that we work with passion to make peace with ourselves. It is with this idea of an introspective look that I want us to focus first.
Before we look at this, I want to quickly look at the books. Within these days there is much talk concerning the books of Adonai in which our names are written. The books include the names of those who will live verses pass away, who will have a blessed life, and of those who will live a cursed life during the next year. While the names are written in on Rosh Hashanah, they can be altered during the Days of Awe. Therefore, it is to our benefit to act in the three areas that have a weight on the final decision, those of teshuvah, tefilah, and tzedakah. To define these terms, teshuvah is repentance and incorporates our asking God for forgiveness, our asking others for repentance, and our forgiving those who have offended us. The term tefilah is translated as prayer. And lastly, tzedakah is translated as charity. This can be the giving of offerings, but also the giving of our time, our resources, and ourselves. It is because of these final decisions made in the books that one typical greeting in these days is, “May your name be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”
But allow me to make the Days of Awe personal. There have been many times when I have found myself angry or disappointed in choices I have made. While forgiveness toward others can be a challenge, forgiveness toward myself is even more so. It is because I strive to be perfect in the view of others that I find myself falling short. I recall times when someone would point out an area that I could use a little help in. Once I got past the feelings of being attacked to see the point being made, I would be determined to make the change, if only to not have that conversation again. I would strive intensely in correcting the behavior and feel progress was being made. When the progress report was given and opinion was returned, though, they would not see the changes made the way I did. This alone would cause me to move into a state of feeling that I was destined to live this way, with no relief and no hope. Instead of continuing to press on I would grow stale or decline again. The guilt and shame of not being perfect the first time, now mixed with the feelings of failure the second time, only fueled my hatred of myself, causing bitterness to grow not only toward that person, but also toward myself.
As I was reading in the book of Job a few days back, I began to grow with excitement. After all Job’s questions, God asked Job a few of His own. The where’s, can you’s, have you’s, and such began to fly. It was in this passage I found God speaking to me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?” (Job 38:4-5). It seems like a strange place to find an answer related to the Days of Awe, but is it really? Was it not these questions, and all those asked in chapters 38-41, that Job was forced to look at himself? All this time Job was sitting around asking God why bad things were happening to him. Maybe in some way Job felt that he was too good for pain or struggle. But in God’s response, Job was suddenly humbled (Job 42:1-6).
The fact that I find it hard to forgive myself in essence puffs me above God. If I believe that God is good enough to forgive the world, yet do not believe that He is good enough to forgive me, then I make myself a god, elevated above the one true God. God did not send His Son to die for everyone but me. And He did not send His Son to die for every sin but mine. He sent His Son to die for all people and all sin. Therefore, the same questions are asked of me.
https://www.onthevanguard.com/
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
TASHLIKH
The term TASHLIKH תשליך means ‘casting away’. It is in this practice, usually performed on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, that the sins of the previous year are ‘cast away’. Tashlikh is taken from Micah 7:18-20, which reads:
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning the sin and overlooking the crimes
of the remnant of his heritage?
He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in grace.
19 He will again have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities.
You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will show truth to Ya‘akov (Jacob) and grace to Avraham (Abraham),
as you have sworn to our ancestors since days of long ago.
In doing this practice, the person takes tiny pieces of bread or crumbs to symbolize their sin, and then casts them into a body of water. This casting of sin releases the hold that sin has on us, therefore opening us to receive the compassion of God once more. Therefore, in this way, let us…
- cast away the sin of deception, so that we will mislead no one in word or deed, nor pretend to be what we are not.
- cast away the sin of vain ambition, which prompts us to strive for goals which bring neither true fulfillment nor genuine contentment.
- cast away the sin of stubbornness, so that we will neither persists in foolish habits nor fail to acknowledge our will to change.
- cast away the sin of envy, so that we will neither be consumed by desire for what we lack nor grow unmindful of the blessings which are already ours.
- cast away the sin of selfishness, which keeps us from enriching our lives through wider concerns and great sharing and from reaching out in love to other human beings.
- cast away the sin of indifference, so that we may be sensitive to the sufferings of others and responsive to the needs of people everywhere.
- cast away the sin of pride and arrogance, so that we can worship God and serve God's purpose in humility and truth.
יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ, יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲוֹנֹתֵינוּ
Ya-shub yeh-reckm-noo, yeck-bosh a-vo-no-tay-new,
He will again have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities.
וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם, כָּל חַטֹּאותָם.
oo-tash-likh b-mitz-lowt yahm, kahl khaut-oo-tom
You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning the sin and overlooking the crimes
of the remnant of his heritage?
He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in grace.
19 He will again have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities.
You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will show truth to Ya‘akov (Jacob) and grace to Avraham (Abraham),
as you have sworn to our ancestors since days of long ago.
In doing this practice, the person takes tiny pieces of bread or crumbs to symbolize their sin, and then casts them into a body of water. This casting of sin releases the hold that sin has on us, therefore opening us to receive the compassion of God once more. Therefore, in this way, let us…
- cast away the sin of deception, so that we will mislead no one in word or deed, nor pretend to be what we are not.
- cast away the sin of vain ambition, which prompts us to strive for goals which bring neither true fulfillment nor genuine contentment.
- cast away the sin of stubbornness, so that we will neither persists in foolish habits nor fail to acknowledge our will to change.
- cast away the sin of envy, so that we will neither be consumed by desire for what we lack nor grow unmindful of the blessings which are already ours.
- cast away the sin of selfishness, which keeps us from enriching our lives through wider concerns and great sharing and from reaching out in love to other human beings.
- cast away the sin of indifference, so that we may be sensitive to the sufferings of others and responsive to the needs of people everywhere.
- cast away the sin of pride and arrogance, so that we can worship God and serve God's purpose in humility and truth.
יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ, יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲוֹנֹתֵינוּ
Ya-shub yeh-reckm-noo, yeck-bosh a-vo-no-tay-new,
He will again have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities.
וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם, כָּל חַטֹּאותָם.
oo-tash-likh b-mitz-lowt yahm, kahl khaut-oo-tom
You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Monday, September 8, 2014
A LOOK AT REPENTANCE
This entry is a little different than my normal entries in context and form, but I wanted to add this one as God has been showing me details from the Book of Daniel, Chapter 9. I wrote this out in my own notes and thought, why change it? Maybe it will speak to you as God has been speaking to me in this season of Teshuvah and getting things right in this time of forgiveness. Please enjoy.
A Look at Repentance from the Book of Daniel, Chapter 9
- Daniel is said to be taken into Babylon during Jehoiakim’s reign in 605BC, putting him alive during the time of Jeremiah, who had been prophesying already for about 22 years.
- The book of Daniel begins roughly in 605BC, before the destruction of Judah, under the reign of Jehoiakim, and about 12 years prior to Ezekiel (593BC).
- Judah falls in 586, and Babylon takes control.
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego happen in 585BC
- Daniel and the lion’s den in 539BC, followed by Daniel 9, also in 539BC.
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
- In the writings of Josephus, it gives the name here as Astyages; not the same person as Ahasuerus/Xerxes from Esther.
- Chaldeans = Babylonians
- Jeremiah 29:10-14…10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
- PLEADED (5414) to give, put, make
- PRAYER (8605, root 6419) intercession, supplication
- PETITION (8469, root 2603) earnest prayer, intreaty, supplication
- FASTING (6685, root 6684) fast, to cover over the mouth
4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.
- PRAYED (6419) to judge, intercede, make supplication
- CONFESSED (3034, root 3027) to use the hand, revere or worship, confess, thank
- Notice God keeps His covenant of love with those who obey Him
- Daniel places himself in the mix…WE have sinned, done wrong, been wicked, rebelled, and turned away from His commands and laws.
- In short, they missed the mark, they bowed down to things that they were never to have bowed down to, they violated God’s commands, rebelled, declined to do His will. They departed from the MITZVAH (ordinances) and MISHPAT (formal decrees) God ordered.
7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
- SHAME (1322) the feeling and condition of serving an idol, shame, confusion
- UNFAITHFULNESS (4603) to cover up, act covertly, transgress, trespass
8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.
- SINNED (2398) to forfeit, expiate, lead astray, bear the blame, trespass
- He has mercy on us even though we rebel and fail to walk in the ways He has set before us.
- All Israel has TRANSGRESSED (5674) to cause alienation, do away with
- The punishment as told to Moses has come into effect.
- Deuteronomy 28:15-68 lists the curses, specifically stating that the people would be taken into bondage if they forsook God’s ways.
- 36 “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.
- 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young.
12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.
- This disaster came, yet still Daniel states that the people did not turn and seek God, did not turn from their sin, and did not give attention to God’s truth.
- Deuteronomy 4:27-31
- 27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.
- The LORD kept His word; He did not hesitate to bring disaster.
15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
- Daniel begins taking account for the actions of the people, confessing their sin as if it was his own.
16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.
- ANGER (639, root 599) the nose or nostril, face, anger, countenance, wrath
- FURY (2534, root 3179) heat, poison of fever, hot displeasure, indignation
- Daniel is pleading that because of God’s justice, that the smell of sin that has angered God, and the poison of sin that has caused a sickness within the nation, be looked away from, for the people are shameful of what they have done.
17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.
- DESOLATIONS (8074) stupefy, destroy, waste
- MERCIES (7356, root 7355) compassion, tender love, bowels/womb
- Daniel is crying out for forgiveness not based on any good that the people hold, but only because of the mercy that God holds. He is asking God to not look at their sin, but to look inside at the ‘guts’ of His desire to create man, to remember this reason and have mercy on the people.
19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
- HEAR (8085) to hear carefully, give attention to, to hear intelligently
- FORGIVE (5545) pardon, spare
- LISTEN (7181) prick up the ears, attend, heed, incline
- ACT (6213) to do or make, accomplish, be industrious, work
- Daniel is requesting that God not procrastinate is this request to hear His people’s request and pardon them. Daniel is asking God to heed this prayer and accomplish a sparing of His people once the seventy years is completed, as opposed to letting them stay in bondage longer for their continued acts of sin.
The ball is in our court now in this season of Teshuvah. Just like the people of Judah, who were still God’s chosen people, we have sinned. Even though we are believers, it is our sin that has placed us in the bondage that we are in now. Our righteousness is of no value, for our righteousness carries the weight of waste. But like Daniel, if we call out to God and ask for forgiveness for the sins we have committed, He will forgive us. He will spare us from more years of slavery if we only ask Him now to forgive us, and truly turn from the sin we have embraced. He is standing on the steps of the temple, blowing the shofar, and desiring that His alarm will wake us up and woo us back to Him wholeheartedly.
A Look at Repentance from the Book of Daniel, Chapter 9
- Daniel is said to be taken into Babylon during Jehoiakim’s reign in 605BC, putting him alive during the time of Jeremiah, who had been prophesying already for about 22 years.
- The book of Daniel begins roughly in 605BC, before the destruction of Judah, under the reign of Jehoiakim, and about 12 years prior to Ezekiel (593BC).
- Judah falls in 586, and Babylon takes control.
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego happen in 585BC
- Daniel and the lion’s den in 539BC, followed by Daniel 9, also in 539BC.
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
- In the writings of Josephus, it gives the name here as Astyages; not the same person as Ahasuerus/Xerxes from Esther.
- Chaldeans = Babylonians
- Jeremiah 29:10-14…10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
- PLEADED (5414) to give, put, make
- PRAYER (8605, root 6419) intercession, supplication
- PETITION (8469, root 2603) earnest prayer, intreaty, supplication
- FASTING (6685, root 6684) fast, to cover over the mouth
4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.
- PRAYED (6419) to judge, intercede, make supplication
- CONFESSED (3034, root 3027) to use the hand, revere or worship, confess, thank
- Notice God keeps His covenant of love with those who obey Him
- Daniel places himself in the mix…WE have sinned, done wrong, been wicked, rebelled, and turned away from His commands and laws.
- In short, they missed the mark, they bowed down to things that they were never to have bowed down to, they violated God’s commands, rebelled, declined to do His will. They departed from the MITZVAH (ordinances) and MISHPAT (formal decrees) God ordered.
7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
- SHAME (1322) the feeling and condition of serving an idol, shame, confusion
- UNFAITHFULNESS (4603) to cover up, act covertly, transgress, trespass
8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.
- SINNED (2398) to forfeit, expiate, lead astray, bear the blame, trespass
- He has mercy on us even though we rebel and fail to walk in the ways He has set before us.
- All Israel has TRANSGRESSED (5674) to cause alienation, do away with
- The punishment as told to Moses has come into effect.
- Deuteronomy 28:15-68 lists the curses, specifically stating that the people would be taken into bondage if they forsook God’s ways.
- 36 “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.
- 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young.
12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.
- This disaster came, yet still Daniel states that the people did not turn and seek God, did not turn from their sin, and did not give attention to God’s truth.
- Deuteronomy 4:27-31
- 27 And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.
- The LORD kept His word; He did not hesitate to bring disaster.
15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
- Daniel begins taking account for the actions of the people, confessing their sin as if it was his own.
16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.
- ANGER (639, root 599) the nose or nostril, face, anger, countenance, wrath
- FURY (2534, root 3179) heat, poison of fever, hot displeasure, indignation
- Daniel is pleading that because of God’s justice, that the smell of sin that has angered God, and the poison of sin that has caused a sickness within the nation, be looked away from, for the people are shameful of what they have done.
17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.
- DESOLATIONS (8074) stupefy, destroy, waste
- MERCIES (7356, root 7355) compassion, tender love, bowels/womb
- Daniel is crying out for forgiveness not based on any good that the people hold, but only because of the mercy that God holds. He is asking God to not look at their sin, but to look inside at the ‘guts’ of His desire to create man, to remember this reason and have mercy on the people.
19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
- HEAR (8085) to hear carefully, give attention to, to hear intelligently
- FORGIVE (5545) pardon, spare
- LISTEN (7181) prick up the ears, attend, heed, incline
- ACT (6213) to do or make, accomplish, be industrious, work
- Daniel is requesting that God not procrastinate is this request to hear His people’s request and pardon them. Daniel is asking God to heed this prayer and accomplish a sparing of His people once the seventy years is completed, as opposed to letting them stay in bondage longer for their continued acts of sin.
The ball is in our court now in this season of Teshuvah. Just like the people of Judah, who were still God’s chosen people, we have sinned. Even though we are believers, it is our sin that has placed us in the bondage that we are in now. Our righteousness is of no value, for our righteousness carries the weight of waste. But like Daniel, if we call out to God and ask for forgiveness for the sins we have committed, He will forgive us. He will spare us from more years of slavery if we only ask Him now to forgive us, and truly turn from the sin we have embraced. He is standing on the steps of the temple, blowing the shofar, and desiring that His alarm will wake us up and woo us back to Him wholeheartedly.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
TESHUVAH part 1...A Look at Repentance from the Book of Jeremiah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXO0SxGuYZ0&feature=youtu.be
We are now in the season of Teshuvah, the season of forgiveness prior to Yom Kippur. What I feel God leading me to is to look at four specific places in the Bible where God either was calling His people to repent, or where people were praying the prayer of forgiveness. Join me today for a look at God's calling Back-slidden Israel back as found in Jeremiah 3:6 - 4:4.
We are now in the season of Teshuvah, the season of forgiveness prior to Yom Kippur. What I feel God leading me to is to look at four specific places in the Bible where God either was calling His people to repent, or where people were praying the prayer of forgiveness. Join me today for a look at God's calling Back-slidden Israel back as found in Jeremiah 3:6 - 4:4.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU
This week I felt the urge to video the devotional instead of writing it out.
Please follow this link for a timely message on a lesson God is showing me in John 2:5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am283pGjD7I&feature=share
Please follow this link for a timely message on a lesson God is showing me in John 2:5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am283pGjD7I&feature=share
Monday, August 18, 2014
SELF-INFLICTED CURSES
“But the men who had gone up with [Caleb] said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.’”
Numbers 13:31-32
I want you to place yourself in the sandals of the Israelites. For days already you have seen God’s hand at work. You watched Him divide the Red Sea for you to walk on. You tasted the water that once was bitter now become sweet. You rested at the twelve springs and under the shade of the seventy palm trees at Elim. And you partook of the manna and quail that littered the ground daily. The deliverance that God had promised His people, you are now living. Only one thing remains, the final entry into the Promise Land. So you watch as Moses takes a single man from each of the twelve tribes, and even feel a little pride when they call out the spy from your tribe. You know that in just a few more days the report will come back, a strategy will be determined, and you will possess the land. After all, God promised it to you and He does not go back on His Word.
But something happens. The spies finally return after forty days, a few more days than you had hoped for. Nonetheless, now they are here and you rush to greet them and hear the stories of what this land holds for you and yours. The men begin to speak and they all agree that this land is wonderful. You see them raise up the fruit they collected and already your mouth waters. You hear them share the details of the soil knowing that your crops too will be blessed. And in unison they speak out that this land surly does flow with milk and honey. Yet something else catches your attention. You hear them say the words ‘giants’ and ‘grasshoppers’. Suddenly the joy that flooded your being is replaced with fear.
Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies that had gone into the land with the others, work to grab the attention of all those listening and remind them of what God had said. “Yes, the inhabitants of this land are great, but God is greater. He has promised this land to us and in His strength we will conquer the land and take back what He says is ours!” It seems as though the words have fallen on deaf ears though, and by morning the other ten spies have poisoned the people with fear and dread. And now even you have begun to not only believe you are a grasshopper, but you also speak it from your own mouth. Sadly, you have become a victim of a self-inflicted curse.
There are many times I can remember in my life where God said one thing, and I said another. Now I like to think that I have been around long enough to know the difference between a curse and a blessing, but I have found this happening just recently. In recent weeks I have felt God moving me toward the calling He has given me of full-time ministry. In these last few weeks, however, I have found opposition. It seems like with every step of progress there has been, there has been a spy there also to push me in to giving up on what God has said. In fact, it had become so persistent that I was beginning to speak these words myself, and finding myself like the Israelites, being zapped of joy and falling into a pit of fear and despair. Instead of listening to the Joshuas and Calebs, and ultimately God, I was listening to the other ten and beginning to confess with my own mouth. I was overriding the promise of God with a self-inflicted curse.
What was the major lesson that God taught His people in their self-infliction? He taught them to not doubt what He says. And how did he do this? He taught this lesson in having the people, who were on the cusp of entering their land, walk in the desert for another forty years. Think about that, they were right there on the border of what God has promised years before. But they blew it by listening to the words of others, believing and repeating these words, and in the cursing of themselves. Do we want the same thing? Do you not realize that you too may be on the cusp, on the border, on the edge of your breakthrough? Do you really want to blow it now by listening to the cursed words of man over the truth spoken by God?
Friends, it is time that we stop listening to the curses of man, and repeating these curses as if they are truth. They are not! They are the devil’s scheme to prevent us from walking in the truth and calling that God has for us. The enemy knows that when you step into God’s promise, God will make things happen. So the longer the enemy can delay you, the longer that sphere of influence is weakened. Please, I ask that you catch what I am trying to say, as one who has seen this in just the last few weeks, stop agreeing with the enemy and delaying what God has for you because of a self-inflicted curse. You do not want to stay in the desert for forty years. Confess the truth of God instead.
Numbers 13:31-32
I want you to place yourself in the sandals of the Israelites. For days already you have seen God’s hand at work. You watched Him divide the Red Sea for you to walk on. You tasted the water that once was bitter now become sweet. You rested at the twelve springs and under the shade of the seventy palm trees at Elim. And you partook of the manna and quail that littered the ground daily. The deliverance that God had promised His people, you are now living. Only one thing remains, the final entry into the Promise Land. So you watch as Moses takes a single man from each of the twelve tribes, and even feel a little pride when they call out the spy from your tribe. You know that in just a few more days the report will come back, a strategy will be determined, and you will possess the land. After all, God promised it to you and He does not go back on His Word.
But something happens. The spies finally return after forty days, a few more days than you had hoped for. Nonetheless, now they are here and you rush to greet them and hear the stories of what this land holds for you and yours. The men begin to speak and they all agree that this land is wonderful. You see them raise up the fruit they collected and already your mouth waters. You hear them share the details of the soil knowing that your crops too will be blessed. And in unison they speak out that this land surly does flow with milk and honey. Yet something else catches your attention. You hear them say the words ‘giants’ and ‘grasshoppers’. Suddenly the joy that flooded your being is replaced with fear.
Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies that had gone into the land with the others, work to grab the attention of all those listening and remind them of what God had said. “Yes, the inhabitants of this land are great, but God is greater. He has promised this land to us and in His strength we will conquer the land and take back what He says is ours!” It seems as though the words have fallen on deaf ears though, and by morning the other ten spies have poisoned the people with fear and dread. And now even you have begun to not only believe you are a grasshopper, but you also speak it from your own mouth. Sadly, you have become a victim of a self-inflicted curse.
There are many times I can remember in my life where God said one thing, and I said another. Now I like to think that I have been around long enough to know the difference between a curse and a blessing, but I have found this happening just recently. In recent weeks I have felt God moving me toward the calling He has given me of full-time ministry. In these last few weeks, however, I have found opposition. It seems like with every step of progress there has been, there has been a spy there also to push me in to giving up on what God has said. In fact, it had become so persistent that I was beginning to speak these words myself, and finding myself like the Israelites, being zapped of joy and falling into a pit of fear and despair. Instead of listening to the Joshuas and Calebs, and ultimately God, I was listening to the other ten and beginning to confess with my own mouth. I was overriding the promise of God with a self-inflicted curse.
What was the major lesson that God taught His people in their self-infliction? He taught them to not doubt what He says. And how did he do this? He taught this lesson in having the people, who were on the cusp of entering their land, walk in the desert for another forty years. Think about that, they were right there on the border of what God has promised years before. But they blew it by listening to the words of others, believing and repeating these words, and in the cursing of themselves. Do we want the same thing? Do you not realize that you too may be on the cusp, on the border, on the edge of your breakthrough? Do you really want to blow it now by listening to the cursed words of man over the truth spoken by God?
Friends, it is time that we stop listening to the curses of man, and repeating these curses as if they are truth. They are not! They are the devil’s scheme to prevent us from walking in the truth and calling that God has for us. The enemy knows that when you step into God’s promise, God will make things happen. So the longer the enemy can delay you, the longer that sphere of influence is weakened. Please, I ask that you catch what I am trying to say, as one who has seen this in just the last few weeks, stop agreeing with the enemy and delaying what God has for you because of a self-inflicted curse. You do not want to stay in the desert for forty years. Confess the truth of God instead.
Friday, August 1, 2014
THE SPEAR OF PRAYER
Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the saints.
I grew up in the church. No I wasn’t a pastor’s kid. I wasn’t even a worship leader’s kid. I was an intercessor’s kid. I was that kid whose mom was either away for hours in the morning, stuffed in a room with like-minded saints praying for the church, or found on the couch at home with a Bible in her lap and eyes closed in prayer. I was that kid that, when you got sick, you knew to call mom because she would drive out every demon on the block if it meant seeing you healed. And I was that kid who, God-forbid, you lied to your mom because she was in such great contact with God that your hidden moments would be told to her by the time you got home from school.
It wasn’t until I went off to college, though, that I began to truly understand the power that comes in prayer. In my freshman year I ended up fracturing my femur in a lousy attempt to show off my white-boy dance moves. The report from the doctor was at least six weeks on crutches and possibly a surgery to place screws in my leg if I planned to walk again. So, after I got done crying from both the pain and the report of the doc, I decided it was time to pray.
After two weeks of walking on crutches, I threw them aside. I was done. Not that I would suggest this to anyone else, but I felt that they were more than a physical crutch. To me, they represented a lack in faith that Jesus could heal me. So I tossed them aside, and began to pray for a complete healing in my leg. I had seen the original x-rays, I knew it was cracked, and cracked good. But when I went back for my check-up, something was different. I can still remember the doctor talking into his recording device and saying, “I don’t know what happened, but there is no mark of a break, and no reason for the surgery.”
I know and have heard testimonies far better than mine about people getting healed, or being sparred of what could have been a terrible incident, or even having needs met, but all these accounts go to prove one thing. Prayer works!
When most put on the armor, they put on the pieces we have already looked at, which include the belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword. However, Paul didn’t stop with just these six pieces. Tucked within Ephesians 6:18, and maybe tucked just a little too good, is one more piece. This final piece of our armor is prayer. Now you may question how I come to this conclusion as again, it is not bluntly mentioned in Paul’s dressings. But as many believe Paul wrote Ephesians while being watched by the Roman Guard, so Paul would hourly have had before him a fully dressed guard to look at. This Roman soldier would have been decked from head to toe in all his gear, and carried with him the shield, sword, and a spear. It is this spear that is equated in our piece of prayer.
The Roman army actually had two spears at their disposal, and both were for a different function. The first was a short spear, better known as a javelin or pilum, and it was common for the soldier to carry at least two of this style. It was this tool that was thrown with the intention of penetrating the armor of their enemy. Furthermore, the tips on these spears were crafted in such a way that they would break off or bend when hitting their target. To see the remnants of broken spears littering the ground, and wounded soldiers with the metal spear tips half swallowed within their body became the norm in war.
Along with the javelin, though, was the lance. The lance was a long, shafted weapon that normally required the use of both hands to fully throw. While many within the army would carry at least one lance, it was not uncommon to see a soldier carrying two of these approximately eighty inch weapons. It was the tip of the shaft that was made of iron, while the back portion was made of ash wood, in addition to being weighed with lead weights to increase the balance, distance, and impact when reaching the intended target. In battle, it was the lance that would be thrown first with the hopes of doing great damage. If the lance failed to take out a soldier, it would hopefully do damage to the soldier’s shield, as being stuck into the enemy’s shield would at least render the shield useless and the lance unable to be throw back
In Ephesians 6:18, Paul states to “… pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Just to clarify this verse, Paul didn’t specialize on what type of occasions or kinds of prayer, but simply stated ALL occasions and with ALL kinds of prayers and requests. Just as the soldier had a javelin and lance for whatever the situation required, so Paul is pointing out here that we have a prayer for whatever we are dealing with. This spiritual weaponry has been given to us not for decoration, but for use against the strategies of the enemy.
We read that on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the disciples with Him to the Garden and asked them to stay and pray while He went further into the Garden Himself to pray. Upon His return He found the disciples sleeping and eventually questioned of them if they could not tarry just one hour. Yet how many times has this happened to us? I know personally that I can make the commitment with my mouth to wake up early for a prayer meeting, but get as far as, “Dear Heavenly Father…,” before the Zzzzzz’s of sleep overcome me. How can I expect to take on the enemy if I cannot tarry one hour myself? And have you ever noticed that you pray more effectively when you have a burden to pray for something? Perhaps another reason we cannot find the ability to tarry is because we have lacked the burden. Our prayers become as effective as throwing the lance with a broken arm. Yet if we tarry, and become consumed with the burdens that burden our Lord, we will find the lance effectively hitting the target each time.
Let me point out here as well, though, that God answers in His time. We pray in a time that is important to us; we pray in the now, the KRONOS. However, God is Sovereign, and He can do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants to do it. Therefore, God answers prayer on His appointed timing, his KAIROS. We cannot push His timing, but we can keep praying until the two times collide.
Let us look at still one more relationship between the spear and prayer, this one found in our moments of worship. In Acts 16:25 we find the account of Paul and Silas in prison for rebuking the spirit of python out of a woman who predicted the future and earned funds for her masters as a fortune teller. Now, sitting in prison at the midnight hour, we read that the two were praying and praising God in song. Suddenly, there was an earthquake that shook the prison and released all the prisoners of their chains. Don’t miss that point. Through prayer and praise, the chains that held them all captive were broken off them. The spear had been thrown because of their prayer and praise, and it hit the enemy square in the chest. Freedom for Paul and Silas was found, and salvation for the entire home of the jailer was accepted. To think that praise is not also a weapon is wrong, for even in the wilderness David sang his prayers to God.
It is prayer and praise that gets our minds on God and His plans. It is prayer and praise that opens the door for God’s hand to change circumstances. It is prayer and praise that urges us to walk in God’s ways. And it is prayer and praise that reminds us of what God has done, encourages us in what He is doing, and gives us hope in what He will continue to do. It is for this reason that Jude 20 reminds us to build ourselves up in the most holy faith.
Prayer is a weapon, for it is communication with God. How can we know the heart of God if we do not tarry for His heart? How can we throw the spear and hit the mark if we are throwing aimlessly? Therefore, let us take the time to seek Him, seek His heart, and pray through the burdens that He places on us. He has given us this means of communication so that in this battle we will know the target and hit it dead on. Now, grab your spear, and pray.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the saints.
I grew up in the church. No I wasn’t a pastor’s kid. I wasn’t even a worship leader’s kid. I was an intercessor’s kid. I was that kid whose mom was either away for hours in the morning, stuffed in a room with like-minded saints praying for the church, or found on the couch at home with a Bible in her lap and eyes closed in prayer. I was that kid that, when you got sick, you knew to call mom because she would drive out every demon on the block if it meant seeing you healed. And I was that kid who, God-forbid, you lied to your mom because she was in such great contact with God that your hidden moments would be told to her by the time you got home from school.
It wasn’t until I went off to college, though, that I began to truly understand the power that comes in prayer. In my freshman year I ended up fracturing my femur in a lousy attempt to show off my white-boy dance moves. The report from the doctor was at least six weeks on crutches and possibly a surgery to place screws in my leg if I planned to walk again. So, after I got done crying from both the pain and the report of the doc, I decided it was time to pray.
After two weeks of walking on crutches, I threw them aside. I was done. Not that I would suggest this to anyone else, but I felt that they were more than a physical crutch. To me, they represented a lack in faith that Jesus could heal me. So I tossed them aside, and began to pray for a complete healing in my leg. I had seen the original x-rays, I knew it was cracked, and cracked good. But when I went back for my check-up, something was different. I can still remember the doctor talking into his recording device and saying, “I don’t know what happened, but there is no mark of a break, and no reason for the surgery.”
I know and have heard testimonies far better than mine about people getting healed, or being sparred of what could have been a terrible incident, or even having needs met, but all these accounts go to prove one thing. Prayer works!
When most put on the armor, they put on the pieces we have already looked at, which include the belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword. However, Paul didn’t stop with just these six pieces. Tucked within Ephesians 6:18, and maybe tucked just a little too good, is one more piece. This final piece of our armor is prayer. Now you may question how I come to this conclusion as again, it is not bluntly mentioned in Paul’s dressings. But as many believe Paul wrote Ephesians while being watched by the Roman Guard, so Paul would hourly have had before him a fully dressed guard to look at. This Roman soldier would have been decked from head to toe in all his gear, and carried with him the shield, sword, and a spear. It is this spear that is equated in our piece of prayer.
The Roman army actually had two spears at their disposal, and both were for a different function. The first was a short spear, better known as a javelin or pilum, and it was common for the soldier to carry at least two of this style. It was this tool that was thrown with the intention of penetrating the armor of their enemy. Furthermore, the tips on these spears were crafted in such a way that they would break off or bend when hitting their target. To see the remnants of broken spears littering the ground, and wounded soldiers with the metal spear tips half swallowed within their body became the norm in war.
Along with the javelin, though, was the lance. The lance was a long, shafted weapon that normally required the use of both hands to fully throw. While many within the army would carry at least one lance, it was not uncommon to see a soldier carrying two of these approximately eighty inch weapons. It was the tip of the shaft that was made of iron, while the back portion was made of ash wood, in addition to being weighed with lead weights to increase the balance, distance, and impact when reaching the intended target. In battle, it was the lance that would be thrown first with the hopes of doing great damage. If the lance failed to take out a soldier, it would hopefully do damage to the soldier’s shield, as being stuck into the enemy’s shield would at least render the shield useless and the lance unable to be throw back
In Ephesians 6:18, Paul states to “… pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Just to clarify this verse, Paul didn’t specialize on what type of occasions or kinds of prayer, but simply stated ALL occasions and with ALL kinds of prayers and requests. Just as the soldier had a javelin and lance for whatever the situation required, so Paul is pointing out here that we have a prayer for whatever we are dealing with. This spiritual weaponry has been given to us not for decoration, but for use against the strategies of the enemy.
We read that on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the disciples with Him to the Garden and asked them to stay and pray while He went further into the Garden Himself to pray. Upon His return He found the disciples sleeping and eventually questioned of them if they could not tarry just one hour. Yet how many times has this happened to us? I know personally that I can make the commitment with my mouth to wake up early for a prayer meeting, but get as far as, “Dear Heavenly Father…,” before the Zzzzzz’s of sleep overcome me. How can I expect to take on the enemy if I cannot tarry one hour myself? And have you ever noticed that you pray more effectively when you have a burden to pray for something? Perhaps another reason we cannot find the ability to tarry is because we have lacked the burden. Our prayers become as effective as throwing the lance with a broken arm. Yet if we tarry, and become consumed with the burdens that burden our Lord, we will find the lance effectively hitting the target each time.
Let me point out here as well, though, that God answers in His time. We pray in a time that is important to us; we pray in the now, the KRONOS. However, God is Sovereign, and He can do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants to do it. Therefore, God answers prayer on His appointed timing, his KAIROS. We cannot push His timing, but we can keep praying until the two times collide.
Let us look at still one more relationship between the spear and prayer, this one found in our moments of worship. In Acts 16:25 we find the account of Paul and Silas in prison for rebuking the spirit of python out of a woman who predicted the future and earned funds for her masters as a fortune teller. Now, sitting in prison at the midnight hour, we read that the two were praying and praising God in song. Suddenly, there was an earthquake that shook the prison and released all the prisoners of their chains. Don’t miss that point. Through prayer and praise, the chains that held them all captive were broken off them. The spear had been thrown because of their prayer and praise, and it hit the enemy square in the chest. Freedom for Paul and Silas was found, and salvation for the entire home of the jailer was accepted. To think that praise is not also a weapon is wrong, for even in the wilderness David sang his prayers to God.
It is prayer and praise that gets our minds on God and His plans. It is prayer and praise that opens the door for God’s hand to change circumstances. It is prayer and praise that urges us to walk in God’s ways. And it is prayer and praise that reminds us of what God has done, encourages us in what He is doing, and gives us hope in what He will continue to do. It is for this reason that Jude 20 reminds us to build ourselves up in the most holy faith.
Prayer is a weapon, for it is communication with God. How can we know the heart of God if we do not tarry for His heart? How can we throw the spear and hit the mark if we are throwing aimlessly? Therefore, let us take the time to seek Him, seek His heart, and pray through the burdens that He places on us. He has given us this means of communication so that in this battle we will know the target and hit it dead on. Now, grab your spear, and pray.
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