What are vain words?

Faith is God and His Word is so precious to me, alive in me, and vital to me, especially when it comes to studies. Going through Algebra, Logic, Geometry, Chemistry, Quantum, etc. from the basis of being grounded in the Word of God and seeing the sovereignty of God is these studies is so enriching. I have been really blessed by studying the life and testimony of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and touching some of Karl Barth's teaching.  

Here are some things I have learnt. I know I am not perfect and my writing is not absolute truth (which cannot be found other than in the Word of God), but my studies have helped me put into words some concepts of Scripture.

Some thoughts:

God is One who is wholly other and exists above and beyond the sphere of human reasoning and proof. How can I prove the existence or nonexistence of God? One can only hear a voice, see an effect, and that attribute to God. Philosphers have stuck to two fundamental humanistic beliefs.

1) Outside the physical senses, nothing exists... or nothing exists that can be proved or disproved (therefore, how could I disprove the non-existence of anything beyond the physical?) This is like a man locked in a basement his whole life who refuses to believe in anything outside that basement)
2) Absolute Relativity - there are absolutely no absolutes

I believe in planal relativity, meaning that relativity is limited to objects on a similar plane. This can be likened to ants in a jar or fish in an aquarium. "Dear little goldfish, argue philosophically all you like of the existence of humans, all your beliefs are relative to the plane in which you exist. You can't prove I exist, I exist in a world a lot larger than the little glass bowl and I am beyond being proved by you. If you belive the food which is sprinkled into your aquarium came about by means of a big bang which caused the food to evolve through billions of years of evolving, rather than being placed there by me, well..."  

Of course I don't deny relativity, but I'm saying we all have to be relative to something, to some absolute. I don't deny the existence of "absoluteness".

A quarter 1/4 cup measurement spoon is relative to a cup. It is a quarter of a cup. Relativity is the calculation of relation. In the physical sense, in a limited way, we can calculate absolutely that 1 + 1 = 2 or that E=mc2. The fact that we can have a basic measurement that is accurate denies absolute relativity. If every chef's cup was different, and the word quarter reffered to a totally different ratio each time, chaos would ensue in a kitchen. There has to be a set standard. Watchman Nee said that mathematics is the only thing humans can do absolutely correctly :).

I don't believe in idols; I believe in a God who is absolute and is wholly other, meaning that He exists in a plane beyond human understanding and reasons. We cannot reach out and touch God. No matter how we contrive, we cannot attain to touching God. Man cannot attain to God.

Men are all on the same plane. We are all limited, weak, little beings with limited senses and limited intellect.

I refuse to think of God as an idol, which I can carve and make with my own hands whatever I like to worhsip. I also refuse to think of man as God. I believe in YHWH.

YHWH is supreme, all-powerful, and almighty. YHWH is eternal, and the name YHWH is a participle of the verb to be, meaning "always" or "eternal". Now we can say "eternal", but how many of us can actually experience "eternal-ity"? No human can. We exist in the plane of the physical, which includes death. YHWH does not exist on our plane because He is not limited like us!

THe plane of the soul is the plane of each man's mind, will, and emotions. Each man is limited to his own soul and cannot explore or discover the mind of other. I cannot "stand in anothers shoes" and therefore any human judge of another's thought has a measure of presumption and assumption. We can deduce from another's actions from the plane of the soul, but cannot be fully or absolutely right.

The realm of the spirit is where YHWH operates. All believers are called to walk in the spirit. The spirit and the flesh (soul and physical) are really at emnity. The Spirit that is in every believer is the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fills a man, YHWH has taken over, is taking over, and will take over the soul and physical being of a man.

Every believer has to be born again, into the Spirit. We humans may be able to run, leap, and perform great physical gymnastic feats with our physical bodies, excel to great intellectual superiority in the mind, achieve seemingly great stoic control of our emotions and conquer our will, but there is a need to be born again into the spirit, the Holy Spirit of YHWH, wholly other, beyond touching with our hands and thinking with our minds. To be birthed is only the beginning. We must learn to live more and more, to crawl, toddle, walk, and work in the Spirit. All those others things cannot please God. All those other things of the flesh are filthy rags in His sight.

The Word of YHWH says that "YHWH came down in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirements of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." and "There is NO condemnation to those who walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

If we walk according to the Holy Spirit of YHWH, it matters not what we do in the physical or in the soul, because both are under the dominion of the Spirit and will fall in line with the Holy Spirirt, who is set-apart, holy. That is true. The WOrd of God gives us guidelines to determine what belongs to the Spirit and what does not. The Spirit is not the absense of the flesh but rather the flesh being put under the dominion of the Spirit of YHWH. (This is what I believe the word of YHWH says, but it is only my interpretation, which may be correct in itself, but cannot cover the superior absolute ground of what exactly YHWH says.)

SO I believe humanistic philosophy is carnal, foolish, and vain, and now through the word of God I have been able to understand more through the Spirit. Though they have an "appearance of wisdom", they are really "vain deceit", and truly I now know why James called them, "earthly, sensual, and demonic". The Word of God is life, truth, and God offers it to all!

Yes, my words, my thoughts, will all pass away, but the word of YHWH remains forever! Seek Him first! Love Him first! You will never regret.  

A Simple Pesach Meal

Here's my first experience cooking a kosher for passover meal. It was kosher for passover, except for the stringent kosher part ;) (Read this article for the modern history of Matzo... really interesting!) 

We had every part of the seder, and improvised, except for the shank bone, which we did not manage to obtain. 

The boiled egg (beitzah) broke into pieces :) We had some REALLY bitter chinese herbs for maror, lettuce with salt water as dressing for karpas. 

I made flour+water round matza, and that was the most authentic part of the meal (100% atta flour) I made my own charoset with apples, almonds, cinnamon, honey, and raisins - really tasty, and really looks like mortar.

For the main meal we had a Ashkenazi staple - latkes! Potato pancakes, with nothing dairy and absolutely no flour inside. In fact, there was absolutely no dairy in the meal. I made beef patties for meat - yum! And I deepfried crisp potato skins as a special treat!  Ribena substituted kosher wine (hee hee).. 

Below is the improvised matzo bag with compartments - a large napkin. 

We enjoyed the good Jewish food tremendously, and we ate everything together after a prayer, not a long and complicated seder in Hebrew - though I would have enjoyed it - it would go down rather unappreciated. I had a good meal and a good time cooking it. We did not light candles, though after dinner, I enjoyed singing "Dayenu" "Adir Hu" "Eliyahu HaNavi", and of course, "Ma Nistana" - which really was meaning. It was fun, and after dinner we read through portions of Scripture relating to passover from 3 different versions :)

This meal was our first "Lord's Supper" together as a family. It was a good "Holy Communion" meal.

This is my first year doing Passover. The most important thing to do, I believe, is to pray and hope for God to open eyes and unstop ears. Especially this year we as a family renounced and repented of anti-semitism in the church that has slaughtered millions of innocent Jews during this season, claiming (of all things ) that they "killed Jesus". Of course we were the bloodthirsty ones. (See Our Hands Are Stained With Blood) We really have to repent with much tears.

May God bless Israel with peace, and may He sanctify us and perfect in all truth. Thank God for Yeshua, who died and was the atoning lamb for our sins.

Next year in Jerusalem!

Shalom,

Beka. 

To God's Chosen People!

Have a joyous and special Pesach this year my dear friends.

Why did I write such a song?

While practicing my violin, the day before Pesach, Passover, I heard a
distinct tune. Immediately I put the words to it. "My people, they do not
hear, nor do they understand". I opened my Bible the only place where I
remember this passage could not be found, Acts 28, and sang. And I sang and I sang and I could not forget this song.

"Go to this people and say:
"Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;
And seeing you will see, and not perceive;
27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them."
Such a melancholic song. Such depressing words. Blindess, hardness,
deafness. What does it mean? How can God say such a thing? This was and is God's message to His people. I almost wanted to cry but I could not.
There's something so yearning deep in the words of Isaiah that God spoke to
him. HOW LONG, ADONAI?

Last night I opened my Bible and immediately fell upon Isaiah 6. Ah...
that's where the passage is found.
Somehow this pass week I have been saying, "Here I am, send me." Then I had the same reply at Isaiah, "Go to this people and say..."
I have to tell you. I cannot feel the same way YHWH did when He spoke these
words. I cannot imagine what God has to go through. The pain of a people
who see but cannot see, hear but cannot hear.
And yet, all of us, see but cannot see, and hear but cannot hear. All of
us, have a veil that lies over our hearts.
I can only hope. I can only hope for the day when YHWH, in His own time and
in His own way, opens eyes, unstops ears, and gives His people a new heart.
(Ezekiel 36).

And this, only He can do.

Here's an explanation by Art Katz about Christ and Passover. I listened to this and it was very helpful and interesting. Here's another one,  and one more specifically about the Passover lamb and its significance. 

Hebrew4Christians.com has a detailed and informative guide to Passover proper, and you can download the Passover Seder guide here. 

Dr Brown did a recent radio show about Easter and Passover. It's rather long, two hours, but it's nice because you can turn on your "radio" and listen to it like a radio show while on a long drive, etc. 

Here's a Chabad-Lubavitch site about Passover, very informative and colorful with many links, resources, recipes, etc. You can watch a movie about Moses here

Scripture Readings of significance Passover are Exodus 1-15, Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 13, besides other places in Scripture.  

  

And how do you eat matzo? I had some with peanut butter, and also nice with cold apple-almond-raisin-honey-cinnamon charoset! Had a yummy passover dinner which I spent all afternoon cooking - photos to come!

I exhort of my brothers and sisters to understand and to share the light of Yeshua this Pesach. 

Shalom, Beka. 

Today's Meditation - Flesh and Spirit

Author’s note: This is not a thesis. The author is not teaching. The author is honestly trying to find an answer. Writing is the author’s way of expressing herself and meditating on scripture. And she found the answer, right at the end. And not everything in-between is complete truth, but merely a sifting to find the truth. 

 The Spirit and the Flesh in Worship.

Yesterday I realized, while singing, “Do you really think God is enjoying this, or are you?” That’s true. Then suddenly I realized something that I heard Art Katz expound on, the Spirit and the Flesh. God, is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

You must know I that delight in Jewish music greatly. I cannot tire of minor key Klezmer tunes. I used to love Negro spirituals (Go down, Moses, especially) and sang them non-stop. When I discovered the Jewish scale, well I fell in love with it. However now I realize, sometimes it is worship to God, and sometimes it is Rebekah going into one of those “orgies”. How can I tell when is what and what happens when? Who can really tell what is flesh or spirit? Are you trying to say that anything that I enjoy is not worship? What really is worship?

Worship is drawing near to God and bringing something pleasing to Him, like in the days of the temple. Worship is offering my body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is but my reasonable service. Then only is my worship pleasing to Him.

Let us return to my present situation. Am I worshipping God or not? I thought I was. I was enjoying it immensely too. Is physical enjoyment something to be shied away from as spiritually demeaning? I believe the only way to test is to put it through the fire. If the physical is removed, can I still worship? When everything goes through the fire and through the sword only one thing will remain and that of God. So now, how? Even in the blandest of worship songs someone will find it enjoyable. The key is not to shy away from songs you like. Everyone has songs you like. But can you worship God without it? 

I have a very real, physical hope. I want so much to be in eager anticipation, expectant hope and anxious longing for the very real Kingdom of God, for the literal restoration of Israel, and for the literal salvation of the Gentiles. Yet I don’t have that kind of same excitement for that as when I anticipate an email from my friend! I don’t grieve over lost souls the way I get upset when something small goes wrong in my life. What is wrong with me!

Two Masters.

You cannot hold God in one hand and the world in the other. You cannot serve to masters. One calls to you, the other enslaves you. One is eternal, the other temporal. You can only desire for one and chose one. You can only give your life to one. Unconsciously we serve the internet. We give our life to it. We spend excessive amount of time on it. We desire it. We contribute to it. We create our own world on it. The internet is the epitome of all that is the mind - From mind to mind; an invention of man. How else could we live? How else could we learn anymore? Books were of the mind. Now the internet. Wait, isn't God's word in book form? Books will pass away. Even without the form of a book the word of God endures. The word of God is more than a physical book and its pages.

There is nothing wrong with the mind or with the internet. It's the same as yesteryear when people bought books and wrote letters. Now it's on a greater scale. But even those actions are works of the physical and of the mind. Now the internet we can do those things on a greater scale. Paul served God and not his letters and not his ministry. Everything he did was consecrated. Can I say my internet use is set-apart, consecrated? Because of the speed and intensity of the internet it can readily become a controlling force, a master in our life. It is not the internet, but we, who make the internet our "lord".

Don’t blame the internet J

Internet is communication between humans. We can become addicted to communication with humans. Our primary communication should be with God.  The Internet is just a name. A face. You can use it for whatever you want. In that way, there's nothing wrong with the internet. Who is this master thatcomes between you and God? Don't blame the internet. You are looking at his back. You serve him, you feed him, you nourish him, and you subject yourself to him. Now you resent him, because he stands between you and God. Let the internet turn around. Who really is the master that you serve and what is his face?

It's me! It my flesh! The real master behind the internet is you. You are the one that stands between you and God. You cannot serve God and your flesh. You have to choose one. The internet is a service with which you serve your self. The problem then, has nothing to do with the internet but with you. The internet is an arena where you can showcase yourself. The internet is the platform on which you parade yourself. The internet is your master and your slave. WHY? Your self has become your master. You have become your slave. The internet has become the means by which you serve your mind, your eyes, your ears, and your heart.

I speak of myself. Because I can make of the internet whatever I want of it, I have built a kingdom for myself. A kingdom of words I want to read, videos I want to watch, and friends i want to keep up it. The internet is a service to the flesh. The internet is my servant. Every one of use now has a castle, an empire, and a hoard of servants that will do our good pleasure. I don't have to read, watch, or see anything i don't want. I can see, learn, and do whatever  I want.

Fasting from the internet and removing your heart from it is essentially a removal of the greatest way to serve your flesh. There are, however, still other ways to serve yourself. It's just that they're not so efficient. In fact, most activities are serving your flesh. Cooking, cleaning, studying, is all the service of yourself.

God's Word is antithetical to the internet's words. Why? I can't choose what I want to hear or read. It is not natural to me. I cannot find it in something to suit my tastes and my style of reading. I cannot find it pleasure. I find in it words I have to wrestle with. Why? When I read the word of God I am not feeding myself. I am feeding my spirit. And my flesh (self) does not delight in it. My flesh and my spirit are enemies. One wants to serve itself, the other God. God’s Word is not comfortable to me. It is not a playground of the flesh.  It does not come to where I am. In fact, God’s Word is the place of the cross, and is antithetical in its very nature to the flesh.

When I say I want to serve God and I mean it with all my heart, I am dedicating myself to Him. That means I can no longer serve myself. I have but one master, God. God is my master. Now everything I do must be consecrated to Him. What is pleasing to me is not pleasing to Him. It is up to Him to decide what is glorifying to Him, not what I hope to be glorifying to Him.

What then is serving God? Some ways of serving God we enjoy, some we do not. Just because I enjoy it, does it mean that I am serving my flesh? No, because my flesh is dead. I now exist primarily in the Spirit. Whether I enjoy the flesh or not is no matter. It’s very my spirit profits. Some activities are like junk food to the flesh, some like wholesome health food to it. The point is, you are not supposed to be feeding your flesh at all. You are supposed to be spiritual creature. Feed you spirit. Serve God. Worship Him in Spirit.

The whole problem arises, and this is God’s wisdom which we cannot understand, because we still exist bodily. We still have a body. Our old man is dead, right? Then why doesn’t God, at the point of salvation, zap up, resurrect us physically, and give us a literal, shining, new, perfect body that has no evil “flesh”. That is the mystery of sanctification.

Even the flesh can be “spiritual”.  Even the flesh can be good. ARGH! Consider any daily dilemma. Confusion arises. The flesh and spirit are mutually indistinguishable because they “blend”, so to speak, to form a person. That’s why we cannot judge another. We can’t even properly judge ourselves. We can’t decide whether this is flesh or spirit because, wouldn’t that be an act of the flesh?

Only a person completely in the spirit can tell us whether we are still in the flesh. However, no one living and breathing is completely a spiritual man, right?  No one is perfect, except Yeshua. Yeshua was perfectly God and perfectly man and we are being made to be like Him and be transformed into His image. That’s why Yeshua is the way. He had to become flesh to save flesh. Yet He was completely Spirit. So is the flesh good, or bad and why does this author seem to make so many conclusions and then contradict them? Isn’t this full of contradictions?

Here’s where this long and drawn out question is solved in one answer. That answer is Yeshua. All this complicated discourse about flesh and spirit can be solved in one simple obedience to one simple command of Yeshua. What is that?

And okay, let's be "spiritual" about it... 

A MUST - LISTEN

CHRIST IN THE JEWISH PASSOVER and more at Art Katz Ministries

http://artkatzministries.org/audio-messages/k-461-jewish-resistance-to-the-gospel-1-of-2/

Works of the Flesh

I was meditating on works and realized something. You see, scarce a person can be totally perfect and walk in the Spirit in everything. What happens to words, works, and thoughts tainted by the flesh? How does God use us oh-so-human humans? When am I acting completely, naturally and perfectly Spirit and when I am not? How can everything I do be of the Spirit - it is thought out in the mind and accomplished in the flesh, is it not? *sigh* no matter what I do it is tainted. It's not perfect. I can't be perfect!

That's what sanctification is about. It's the process of purifying, or setting-apart. Our gifts and service to God are far from perfect. Even were I to die, be burned to ashes, still it would not be a perfect sacrifice. only Yeshua is, was, and can be, the perfect sacrifice and He has completed that. In witnessing, in prayer, in learning the word, surely no one is free of the taints of flesh and self. How then? God will bring every work through the fire of purification. He Himself will shake everything from us that can be shaken, burn everything from us that can be burned. I can't wait to be perfect.

I may have the right motive, but wrong outworking. I may have the right action, but the wrong motive. I may have the right thought, but express it wrongly. God is the one who will bring us to the place of the cross and gradually, more, and more , it will be less of me and more of God. God will take the machaira sword of Scripture and slowly, gradually, steadily, peel away the flesh, seperating soul and spirit.

Every of you and I naturally is soul and flesh. God is at work, transforming. No one is perfect. All have sinned. No one is any better than another. What is the difference? Where I stand with YHWH - whether i am in Christ or not. The miraculous thing is that I cannot be totally in Christ physically after all I still have a human body, but I am "dying daily". I can't love God perfectly on my own. He is causing me to love Him, more and more every day. Once I have taken that next time I cannot turn back. It's going from glory to glory. The "continuous" tense of salvation is very real.

I have no need to fear. He who begun the work of salvation in me will complete it until the day of the Messiah. He is more than able.

Shalom! My 100th Post after more than 2 years of blogging here.

Shalom to my readers. I began blogging here on March 3rd, 2009 at my mother's suggestion during a noontime Wisdom search. Some posts have been very, very, long, and some very short. Hahaha.

As disciple of Yeshua, how have I grown?
Wow... I have learned SO many things from God's Word that I never imagined. From my pastor, from reading Scripture, meditating, and memorizing, I have indeed grown a lot. My bookshelf is getting heavier and heavier. And i have only begun to know God in totally. So little do I know of Him! If my memory, mind, and
body were so filled and encompassed by God to the brim and were I filled to overflow I still cannot contain God and all He is.

It's so important that when I am young that I input and inscribe into my heart as much as possible from God. I can imagine God as the ancient scribe,
inscribing upon the clay of my heart in ancient cuneiform Hebrew. The younger i am, the softer the clay. Clay gradually hardens through exposure. The younger

I am, the better it is to seek God. The things I inscribe from God's Word now will last beyong this lifetime. I want to memorize as much as God's Word as I can, so that I will be prepared for the last days.  

Many begin well with a genuine love for God and then later fall away. Gradually their heart grows cold, and sometimes God revives them in later years, and sometimes God doesn't. Far be it from me (God forbid!) that that should happen. I don't want to waste any more of my life on my self or on the world. I just want to grow and grow, and love God more and more.

When did I become a disciple? 

When I became Bat Mitzvah. It's especially special when one is brought up believing in God. There is a great parallel between a believer becoming a disciple and a child becoming an adult. A believer becomes a disciple when he really begins to follow Yeshua and obey all His commandments. A child becomes an adult at Bat or Bar mitzvah, a son or daughter of the commandments, when she or he reaches maturity. A bar mitzvah, though having been growing all his life, puts off and cuts off all childish things at maturity. A believer, becomes a disciples, by cutting off and putting off all the things of the world.

What does a disciple do? Obey the Mitzvot. What does a bat mitzvah do? Obey the Mitzvot. So it happened to me. Yes, I may have believed in God as a child, but it was after becoming bat mitzvah that I began to truly be a disciple, to truly learn of the cross I have to take up to follow Yeshua, to begin to love God with all I am to begin my serious Torah study, etc. SO this was my experience. What is interesting is that my spiritual growth parallels my physical growth, discipleship parallels my bat mitzvah. Perhaps not everyone is like that, but it how God chose to work in me.

Surely, yes, being a bat  mitzvah and a disciple is not the end but rather a beginning, of lifelong commitment to God, to His Mitzvot to Obeying the Torah which YHWH speaks to me, to fasting, to prayer, etc. There are so many things, infinite, that a disciple has to be, just there are infinite commandments a bat mitzvah has to obey. Yet I know that YHWH is leading, teaching me, speaking to me. Let me never let Him go.

Btorat Ha Shem is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The requirements He makes of His servants to follow Him has always been the same, His calling is constant whether to Abram in Ur, to Moshe in Mizraim, to Shmu'el in Ephraim, to Kefa in Galil, to Shaul in Damascus, even down to Bonhoeffer in Berlin, and
today, dare i say, also to me. Leave all! Leave the comforts of the world you see to venture into the unknown to a place I will show you, based upon nothing but the sure rock of the promises of YHWH. Far from the religion of convenience, it is a demanding, taxing, and difficult journey. It is a relationship that brings you into the unknown. It calls to all. Only few hear, and even less still follow.

 Shalom again to my readers. I will write a more conclusive meditation on discipleship and becoming bat mitzvah, in fact, I have been working, God willing, on a more comprehensive, topical, and systematic resource where you can go, read, explore, search Scripture, etc rather than a sporadic and inconsistent blog.

Please enjoy this month's lighted lamp magazine too!

Shalom Aleikhem,
Beka.
When Christ calls a men, He bids him come and die! - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Blessed Purim

Purim is the festival where the Jews celebrate their deliverance from the hands of Haman the Agagite. (Hence the Purim pastry “Hamantaschen” – Haman’s hat/ears). Today is the eve of Shabbat, and also a one-day Fast of Esther to commemorate the brave Jewish woman who risked her life to save her people. God had placed her in the position as Queen of all the Persian Empire for the salvation of His people.

Purim is the start of the early year Jewish High Holidays, including arguably the most well-known, Passover.

Today of all days, and this weekend of  all weekends, and Shabbat of all Shabbats, should be a great time of fasting as well as feasting, joy as well as mourning, supplication as well as thanksgiving. It is at this time the Songs of Ascent take on new and vivid meaning to me.

“In my distress, I cried to Ha Shem, and He heard me.” Psalm 120

“I will lift up mine eyes to the hill – from whence comes my help?” Psalm 121

“Pray for the peace of Yerushalayim” Ps 122

“Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens” Ps 123

“If it had not been Ha Shem who was on our side, when men rose up against up, then they would have swallowed us alive!” Ps 124

“Those who trust in Ha Shem are like Mt. Zion, which can never be moved, but abides forever” Ps 124

“When Ha Shem brought back the captivity of Zion” Ps 126

And so on. These Songs of Ascent are eternally significant and are reminders of the truth of Ha Shem that prevails, of His love for His people Israel (He really loves them so much!) and of His greatness.

My mother Esther has written all these Songs of Ascents into song  and placed them for free download here. I encourage you to pray for Israel even more as they gear up for these significant feasts and holidays. Pray with me that this Purim Ha Shem will show Himself strong and powerful on behalf of Israel. This Passover, remember that as Jeremiah the prophet said, one day Ha Shem will not be remembered primarily as the God who took them out of the land of Egypt, but who gathered them out of all the four corners to the earth to bring them back into their own land.

We can only imagine what Queen Esther and Mordechai prayed during the great turmoil they went through the days of the fast, the grief and the crying out to Ha Shem, the distress they were in, and then Ha Shem’s deliverance. These Songs of Ascent remind us of Ha Shem’s Salvation and His mercy.

  

Most used word in the Bible?

LORD! http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Popular-Bible-Words.php. I believe that the King James Version and most others has more than 7,365 mistakes - the translating away of YHWH's great and awesome name, in which is salvation. In fact, it is a vital mistake.  YHWH\'s name is important - there are many "lords", many "gods", many "el"s and many "baals", but there is only ONE YHWH. There are many "Jesus"s in the world today. Some people are named Jesus, and some are preached with a wrong gospel. When we call upon that Name YHWH we are referring specifically to the Only YHWH God and the Only and All Powerful God,

YHWH is One God.
YHWH Alone is God.
in YHWH Alone is Salvation (Yeshu-ah)

 1 Peter 2: 9-10 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Set-apartness. Holiness. What does it all really mean? What does it do to us? How does it take on a meaning to me that is not the pre-meditated, memorized, utterly “correct” definition that involuntarily springs out of my mouth? Yes, I know what it means. But what does it mean to me?

“Holiness and I” is not so much the issue. The issue is me and God. God is “wholly other”, as Karl Barth put it., and my relationship with Him is my relationship with Holiness. God is Holy, and none can be holy except by Him.

“Who God is and what it is to be divine is something that we learn where God has revealed [God] self….We may believe that God can and must be absolute in contrast to all that is relative, exhalted to all that is lowly, active in contrast to all suffering, inviolable in contrast to all temptation, transcendent in contrast to all immanence, and therefore divine in contrast to everything human, in short that [God] can and must be ‘Wholly Other’. But such beliefs are shown to be quite untenable, and corrupt and pagan, by the fact that God does in fact be and do this in Jesus Christ.”

To be holy is to be sacred, set apart. God is holy. God is thrice holy. God is set-apart and His set-apartness, I speak in the natural sense, is unobtainable by mere mortals. No, His set-apartness is infinitely above and beyond us. Then He says, “I will sprinkle you with clean water, and you shall be clean”. Clean. “I will cleanse you”. Cleansed. “I will put a new spirit within you”. Renewed. And they shall be called, “The Set-Apart” people.

If we are indeed His set-apart people, if I am indeed set-apart for Him, then what am I set apart from, where am I set apart to, and what am I set-apart for?

The first mention of holiness (qadosh in Hebrew) is Moses with the burning bush. From then on holiness is a recurring theme throughout the Torah. God’s revelation of His Set-Apartness is something that once it is revealed, cannot be ignored or be escaped from. It is now an inescapable fact. It is a relentless fact. God would never so much as  relent from His holiness, for that would be the same as denying Himself (an eternal impossibility!). Moses was probably the first person to hear the word “qadosh” issue from the mouth of God. From thence on it goes from holiness to holiness. The holiness of God is being revealed to man and defined in terms of man’s understanding more and more through Scripture. From thence on holiness is a recurring theme and issue in the Bible that God’s people have to come face to face with, they have to look the fact in the face and can either come away dead or alive. God’s people indeed have to wrangle, wrestle and settle the issue of God’s holiness within them. To ignore the fact is to simply close one eyes in persistent ignorance to the truth. It’s there, whether you want it to be there or not.

Of course, God was holy, even before He said He was holy. Whether I tell you or not, my name is still Beka. Whether you believe it or not, my name is still Beka.

Beware of thinking God’ holiness is an “Old-Covenant” revelation. “Holy” is mentioned 169 times in the “New Testament”.

God’s holiness is exalted, praised, and feared. God’s holiness, set-apartness is to be reflected into the holiness and set-apartness of His people. What characterizes a set-apart nation and a set-apart people?

1)      Reverence towards YHWH. Fear of Him. Obedience towards Him. Respect of His Holy Name.

2)      Humility, Contrition. Unless we know the depth of our sin and depravity, which in turn comes from the realization of God’s holiness, we are pride and arrogant, each “walking according to his own way”. To be a people of God means to know that we, on our own, can never measure to that which is God. We can never be holy on our own. And we have to know the grave consequences of our sin. Therefore humility, total repentance, and turning away, must be so very intrinsic in the nature and practice of the people of God. We must always come before Him on our face in utmost rejection of all that is flesh.

3)      Abhorrence of evil. Avoidance of evil in any form. Utter purging of all that is not of God (whatever is not of God is not of the world. There is no neutral ground). No pretense or idol-worship in any form. A separation from sin, self, Satan, sickness, and the world. We are to be separated from all wickedness and perversity. “Come out of her, lest you share in her sins!”. Such a removal from and of all that is against YHWH is so clearly exemplified in the moving of the tents of Israel away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The children of Israel were repeated warned and commanded to stay away from the Canaanites. The land was to be utterly purged and cleansed. There is no such thing as “cultural assimilation” into that which is of the Kingdom of Darkness by the Kingdom of Light.

4)      Antithetical Way of Life. God’s ways are not “blindly opposite” or “purposely different” from man’s ways. Rather, all that is man and all that is flesh is in blatant and perverse rebellion against the will of God. We have to live the lifestyle of the Kingdom of God. Note that the Kingdom of Heaven does not consist in merely eating and drinking. God does not want us to be obsessed merely in the “doing” and the “physical”. What matters in the Kingdom of God is the inward state and motive of the heart. Once that is taken care of, everything else falls into place.

a.       The Way of the Kingdom is a Narrow Way, a difficult way. It is not a religion of convenience, but a demanding relationship where all the demands have been met for us through the Messiah. Now we have to live, think, act, eat, the way God does, and the way God commands. We have to consist and exist in the realm of God, in the Kingdom of God. We have to set our minds on things above. We have to place our treasure where is really counts and will remain. We have to be a witness of God’s light, grace, truth, and likeness to the entire world around.

5)      Love. Utter love for God and for other. A consuming, holy, love. An eternal, endless love. Love that requires, love that demands everything from us  - our heart, mind, soul, will, and even our very lives. That is the love that God is. That is the love required to perfectly observe and fulfill all the Torah. That is the love completely absent from a natural human being. I am naturally incapable of loving God in such a way. Love perfects - that is why is it a perfect fulfillment of the Torah. Love is the pinnacle of our maturity in Christ the Messiah. The characteristics of true love include the following.

a.       One must know the love of God

b.      One must love God

c.       One must love His neighbor as God loved him

d.      One must not love his own skin

 These are only a few characteristics of holiness – what others can you think off? Holiness is not just expressed in what I write – Holiness expresses itself in infinite ways. Holiness affects my attitude, my choices of activities, my lifestyle – everything I think, do, act, feel, buy, sell, etc. Holiness is demanding.

There is a time-honored tradition in Judaism that even if you are sure you are ritually clean, you really aren’t.

You are the Light of the World

You are the Light of the World - Read more here!

Yeshua

Matthew 1:21 The Scriptures 1998+
(21)  “And she shall give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name Yeshua for He shall save His people from their sins.”

 והיא ילדת בן וקראת את־שמו ישוע כי הוא יושיע את־עמו מחטאתיהם׃ 

Fire on the Altar

 Free Books (Including Art Katz) and audio sermons/Messages including Ravenhill, Dr. Brown, Art Katz, Wilkerson, Heidi Baker, etc. - a worthwhile resource!

Chapel Library Literature

Chapel Library Literature - Click here to read a lot of Christian classics like Bunyan, Ryle, Calvin, Spurgeon, Bonar, etc. available online for FREE reading mostly in PDF form. 

God's Endtime Strategy

Art Katz Quote : "This has everything to do with what the Church will need to show Israel when they meet with the Jew, face to face, in the wilderness.  We have to show the Jew this unconditional love of God while they are yet sinners!  It is easy to love them while they are cute, fetching, and admirable.  It is another thing to love them while they are in an abominable and angry condition.  This is at the heart of a redemptive God.  When God will have a people through whom that can be shown, then the age will have ended.  Therefore, the issue is not Israel, per se, but the issue of a people who can show “God as God” under deep vexation where the natural thing to say is, “You deserve this judgment!  Don’t expect any mercy from me.  Shape up and I’ll think it over.”  Jews expect and understand that kind of response.  It is the way they would act.  And so God is wanting to show them the very thing they least expect, namely, His unconditional love.  But He needs a people who can show that forth.  That is what God is waiting for, and that is why we have to move from our organized, programmed system of doctrinal beliefs into the actuality of the faith.  Only in this place can we appropriate the very nature of God Himself.  The whole conclusion of the age waits for it.  Nothing is to be expected from Israel.  Only that one who can love her while she is in that condition will be the instrument through whom the age is concluded."

Read the whole article at : Art Katz Ministries

troubleinamishparadise.com

 I was blessed by a link to this fascinating documentary on the No Greater Joy website, and found the blessed testimony of the Stoltzfus family on their conversion and salvation. The documentary is informative and interesting about the Amish way of life but is saddening because of the legalism and turning away from the basic principles of Scripture in the Amish chuch, for " teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:9)  They have been persecuting those who have discovered the truth, when their Anabaptist origin was one of being persecuted for their faith. I pray that many more Amish will come to know Yeshua as they can be such a glorious testimony of God to the unsaved world by the way they live.

Here is an article by No Greater Joy about their experience with Amish believers: 

Plus, the No Greater Joy Ministry is giving out free downloads of Mr. Michael Pearl's preaching (2 and a half days worth) to the plain people for free to all until the end of February. I have yet to listen to them yet.

Linked is the audio testimony of the Stoltzfus family, based on Ezekiel 36:25-28, how God saved them from legalism, pretense, self-righteousness, condemnation, etc. and changed their lives. Their experience of salvation is a great testimony for the glory of YHWH. I would recommend this for you to listen. It is taken from their website, "Trouble in Amish Paradise"

Ezekiel 36:25-28 (New King James Version)

²⁵ Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. ²⁸Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

And here is the scripture song for that passage word-for-word, written by my Mummy!

Anyone's read Leonard Ravenhill's new biography?

Leonard Ravenhill Biography . I haven't bought it or got it yet, but I really enjoy his sermons and books.


Leonard Ravenhill Biography: In Light of Eternity from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

A. W. TOZER

Those who know of Leonard Ravenhill recognize in him the religious specialist, the man sent from God to battle the priests of Baal on their own mountain top, to shame the careless priest at the altar, to face the false prophet, and to warn the people who are being led astray by him. Such a man as this is not an easy companion. He insists on being a Christian all the time and everywhere. That marks him out as different. Why do we have men of such fiery swords as Ravenhill? They are sick inside when they see the children of heaven acting like the sons of earth. To such men as these, the church owes a debt too heavy to pay.

PAUL WASHER

I was introduced to Leonard Ravenhill at the very beginning of my Christian pilgrimage and the impact of his life upon mine remains until this day. He lived as one who dwelt in the shadow of the Almighty and he preached as one sent from God. He knew God's presence, wore His mantle, bore His burdens, and spoke His truth. He was the rarest of commodities in his day and ours - a man of God.

DAVID WILKERSON

Leonard Ravenhill was one of the few men I have ever known who was a true prophet. I am glad this book has finally been written.

Free E-book!

I'm very excited as, to YHWH's glory alone, I have discovered, among others, some of Mr. Art Katz's books for reading free online, among them, The Mystery of Israel and the Church. I hope you will find these links every useful, I will indeed will! Thank God!

The "Shema" is an essential credo of faith and far more. I find it so meaningful, and it means lot to me. It is discipline and a wise one to recite the Shema every day, when I awake and when I sleep. I don't recite as liturgy or just mindlessly do it, but here's why I found the reciting this portion of Scripture and proclaiming the truth of YHWH into my life is so benefitial.

1) "Shema Israel" - Hear O Israel!
A call, a call to Israel and to all of God's Chosen People to hear, to listen, and to heed the Word of YHWH God.

2) "YHWH our God, YHWH is one"
The acknowledge and declaration of YHWH as God, and His unity and oneness. I proclaim YHWH as our God, my God, and I proclaim His glorious holy and majectic name, the Only name that brings salvation and life, the Name above all names.

3) "You shall love," with all your heart, soul, and strength. With everything I am. I begin each day to surrender my life, my heart, my mind, my will, my emotions, my strength, and all my being to the Lordship of Yeshua,

Romans 12:1-2 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It is a wondrous thing to begin each day with a confession of faith in YHWH and a total dedication of my life to Him as a holy, living, sacrifice.

1 Peter 2:4 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ 

Note: "Through Yeshua the Messiah". Only through Him, because He was the once-for all perfect sacrifice, the Passover lamb, the total burnt offering that cleansed us once and for all.

I want to confess every day, as the Shema says, I love You and You alone, YHWH, with all my heart, soul, and strength. I want to live every day in Your will and for YOu glory. I want to be made into yOur image and conformed to your likeness. I want You and You alone.
Adonai, adonai echad.

4) These Words (ten words... the ten commandments. Also means all of YHWH's words and not man's words. ) which I command you today, shall be in YOur heart. Yes, the torah, the mitzvahs, and all the Word of YHWH as revealed to man. This was a foreshadowing of the New Covenant:

John 17: 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 


Jeremiah 31:3-34 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Ezekiel 36: 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 


"Write it on their hearts." "Put My Spirit within you...cause you to walk in MY statures..."

5) "You shall teach them dilligently...talk of them..." I have to learn them dilligently. When I sit down, rise up, walk, and lie down.

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.


Psalm 1: Blessed is the man...his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night...whatever he does shall prosper. 
         

To meditate and live IN YHWH's sovereign word (firman) is life and life abundant!


6) To bind them as a sign on my forehead and on my arm, I don't do literally (as in with tefillin). More important to me is that I always keep them before my eyes, meditate them in my mind, and do them and heed them my my actions (hands).

7) "Write... doorposts... gates." In my going out and coming in, to always remember.


Conclusion: 

Mark 12:28-30
28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving[a] that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” 
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’


John 14: 15-18, 23-24 
   
15 “If you love Me, keep[d] My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.


23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.


1 John 2: 3-11


3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 
7 Brethren,[a] I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.[b] 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. 
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.


Love is the essence of the law.

(Colossians 3:14 The Scriptures 1998+)  But above all these put on love, which is a bond of the perfection.
Love is of God. The very essence of the Law is to Love YHWH and love our brethren. 

We cannot do this in ourselves. It is completely anthetical to sinful human nature, for we are naturally lovers of ourselves. We need the cross. The Cross of Yeshua the Messiah was the ultimate act of God's mercy and undeserved love. When we are in Christ, when we take up our cross to follow Him, we live in His love, and we love others. As Yeshua loved us, so we ought to love one another. Love is the promise of the new covenant. It is a covenant of love, the supreme, boundless, love of God.

(John 3:16 The Scriptures 1998+)  “For Elohim so loved the world that He gave His only brought-forth Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but possess everlasting life.

As He loved us, He gave us the love to Love Him, and with the love He gave us, we love each other.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Master Yeshua Messiah, from whom all fatherhood1 in the heavens and earth is named, in order that He might give you, according to the riches of His esteem by power, to be strengthened in the inner man, through His Spirit, that the Messiah might dwell in your hearts1 through belief – having become rooted and grounded in love,  in order that you might be strengthened to firmly grasp, with all the set-apart ones, what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Messiah which surpasses knowledge, in order that you might be filled to all the completeness of Elohim. And to Him who is able to do exceedingly above what we ask or think, according to the power that is working in us, to Him be esteem in the assembly by Messiah Yeshua unto all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. 
(Ephesians 3:14-21 The Scriptures 1998+)




Deu 7:9  “And you shall know that YHWH your Elohim, He is Elohim, the trustworthy El guarding covenant and kindness for a thousand generations with those who love Him, and those who guard His commands, 


Deu 10:12  “And now, Yisra’el, what is YHWH your Elohim asking of you, but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being, 


Deu 13:3  do not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for YHWH your Elohim is trying you to know whether you love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being. 


1Jn 5:3  For this is the love for Elohim, that we guard His commands,1 and His commands are not heavy, 


1Jn 4:10  In this is love, not that we loved Elohim, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning offering for our sins. 


1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that Elohim has for us. Elohim is love, and he who stays in love stays in Elohim, and Elohim in him. 

Love is the fufilment of the Torah. "When done in love, labor becomes rest." Elohim was and is and always will be love.

Ha Shem is Holiness and Sanctity

YHWH. His name itself is hallowed, holy. Sometimes we say "holy" so lightly, so trivially. What really is holy? Set-apart. YHWH. His name itself is a reflection upon His holiness. Let us not take His Name lightly. Let us not mention it trivially. Every time I think of it, my heart should remind me, for He is Holy.

I look upon YHWH as a maidservant looks to her mistress (Ps 123). She dares not look into her eyes. She lower her eyes, averting. As for YHWH, His countenance beholds the upright and the upright alone.

Besides someone talented and at something, say at playing the piano, I would feel hopelessly inadequate. That person, next to a master pianist, next to a professional, too, would feel hopelessly inadequate.

In the presense and in the holiness of the living YAH, would not you, I, and anyone else feel just so totally inadaquate. Even Daniel HaNavi, trembled. Even Yeshayahu, the great prophet who spoke divine words and revelations, out of whose mouth came forth oracles of God and the very Word of God Himself, even he felt wretched, unclean, and cursed. Woe is me!

The presence of God who is purity, cleanness, sanctity, holiness, in Himself would make the sinner fall down dead. The seemingly good man would feel dirty, unclean, and wretched. Why? He is a good man. He doen't steal, kill, or lie (much). The truth is, in the presence of God, our works, and we ourselves are nothing but filthy rags, and the word really means filthy menstrual cloths. Or imagine, a pile of sh-t.

Imagine a great king and ruler sitting on his throne. Imagine Solomon himself in all his splendour and glory. All his nobles, viceroys, subjects, all come to pay him homage, give his gifts, and curry his favor. In the great richness of the royal palace itself. The king commands his nobles to bring forth the gifts in honor of him. Imagine if a noble brings forth a mountain of sh-t. Another brings forth the aforementioned filthy rags. Presenting these before the king, they offer him the best of their abilities, the best that they could bring him, and they are so proud of it. They worked hard, toiled hard, did their very best, put their best effort at it, but to the rich king, it is still a pile of sh-t, it is still a dirty, filthy cloth. Abominable! How could you bring such a disgusting, reviling, thing before the king and present it to him as homage! The king would have your heads off! To kneel before the king and so say, "My lord, I bring before the best of my abilities, the hardest toil, my most treasured possession, and I present it to you, my king, that it may be pleasing, acceptable, and treasured in your most excellant sight!"

I've made my point. Case is closed. The king would not dream of accepting such a gift. With all his gold, splendour, riches, even silver would have been like common stones in Solomon's eyes.

So here I speak of holiness and sanctity. If in all our doing, we cannot even be holy enough to stand before God and be pleasing to Him. By myself, could I stand before Him, in His light and be perfectly perfect, totally without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, totally good, just, wise, loving, and in who I am good in His sight? Would He say to me, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased."

Think a moment. Reflect upon your heart. Could I even stand if I saw God coming down in His perfect glory? Would I be pleasing in His sight? In the presence of the King of the Universe Melech Ha-Olam, Himself, would it really matter what my pastor said about me, what my teacher said about me, what my parents said about me? No, only what YHWH says of me would count.

The sheep and the goats. It really doesn't matter if I called Jesus my Lord and Savior, said the sinner's prayer five times a day, cast out legions and multitudes of demons, healed stadiumfulls of sick and hopeless people, raised the dead, called down fire from the sky and performed great and wondrous miracles that even the president of the United States holds me in awe. If God never knew me, then what would all that be? Useless. Wasted. Dung! For all eternity, all you would be - torment, regret in the world where the fire never dies and the worm is not quenched.

Hey, God is the one who calls. God is the one who chooses. And God is the one who makes us faithful! Only those called, chosen, and faithful will stand before Him for eternity. It is God who apprehends us, who called us by His eternal irresistable grace, and who chooses us though we did not chose Him. We would not have known Him except that He apprehended us, convicted us by His reality and holiness, and stuck us by His great power. Salvation is a miracle. He loved us first. There is nothing good in us to choose, want, or desire God. He called us, who were not his people, to be his people. Such is divine election. It is unquestionable. No one would dare question God, but neither dare I to presume upon Him. To those who did not know Him He revealed Himself. We often forget to realize we have done nothing to merit salvation. No, it is as simple as looking on Him whose sins we have nailed to the cross. They shall see Him whom they pierced. And then what? The spirit of grace and supplication leads them to repentence! Even repentence itself is a gift of God and a work of divine grace... mercy! Even that I should be allowed and given the grace to repent of my sins is itself unthinkable, incomprehensible! And so much more that I should be forgiven, and made a son of God!

There is nothing in me that is good, that would make me seek God and choose God. The fact is God found me, and put in me a desire for Him that would otherwise be impossible.

I can draw many conclusions on who the goats are, and God forbid that you or I should ever fall to such a reprehensible, perverted, twisted, and utterly lost state. It's not whether you or I deserve mercy or the grace of God. The fact is, the king extended his favor to some of those who brought forth a mountain of sh-t. Dare I say, that since he was forgiven, and the king removed all the sh-t from him, dare I expect the king to show me such favor when I bring before him a mountain of sh-t too? No of course not! The king was being merciful. God shows favor to whom he shows favor. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. None of us can ever claim favor before him, God shows partiality to no man. All of us are condemned by our very being. God is the same God who curses, and who blesses. God is the same God who strikes down, and who brings up. God is the same God who executes the judgments of His righteous fury, and the same God who provides atonement and redemption, an act of incomprehensible mercy, to the wretched sinner.

What strikes me about the goats is this. God did not know them. I can make two Scriptual conclusions on them.
According to John 17:

1) The goats did not have eternal life, obviously.
Eternal life is the Knowledge of God
The goats did not have eternal life.
Therefore the goats did not know God.

2) Whoever has eternal life lives in Christ, and Christ in Him
The goats did not have eternal life.
They did not live in Christ, nor Christ in them

3) Whoever is in Christ has the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The goats were not in Christ.
The goats did not have redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sin. (Col 1)

4) God did not know them.
Whoever loves God is known by Him.
Therefore the goats did not love God. (1 John)

5) The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua is to love God.
The goats did not love God.
The goats were did not keep God's commandments.

Which also can be proved because

6) Whoever loves God, keeps His commandments. (1 John 14)
The goats did not keep God's commandments.
The goats did not love God.

This can go on and on.

7) Whoever is in Christ has followed HIm, taken up their cross, been buried with Christ through the work of the cross and ressurected with Him, and lives the eternal life.
The goats did not have eternal life.
The goats were not in Christ.

Therefore, they did not obey Christ's command to take up their cross to follow Him.
Therefore they were not His disciples.
Therefore they were not His.
Therefore He did not keep them.
Therefore... before them and in them were death, sin, destruction, self, Satan, demons, the world, sinful society, sickness, disease, etc. etc. etc.

Yet what about the sheep.
1) God knew them.
Therefore they loved God.
Therefore God loved them (to love God is only possible if He loves us first!)
Therefore they kept His commandments. (As whoever loves God keeps His commandments)
Therefore they have eternal life, the very life of God lived in them. (Because His commandments are everlasting life)
Therefore they knew God.
Therefore they were disciples.
Therefore they have taken up their cross of follow Christ.
Therefore they loved their neighbour. (Because God loved them, they loved God, they were in Christ, they kept His commandsment, the second of which is to love their neighbour.

The list can go one. One was Light, one was darkness. One was truth, one was deception. Never was a contrast so sharply, clearly drawn. One was clean, the other unclean. One was holy, the other sinful. One was in God, one was without God.

Which one are you? By the grace of God each one of us stands. Even the keeping of His commandments is because:

1) He made a new covenant with us.
2) He put the torah in us, writing it on our hearts, therefore programming us already to be torah-obeservant, and much more so. How? Because we are in Christ, who was the perfection, fufilment, revelation, of the entire Torah itself, because the torah is the very personification of God and Christ was God, therefore Christ was the Torah. The Torah is life, Christ is life. Christ was the Word of God. The Torah was the Word of God. The Torah is pure and cleansing. And Christ was much more then the Torah! God is not a mere man. God is more than a man. Christ was not just a man, He was God. He was the walking Word of God. He was, and is, and is to come!
3) How did He put the torah into us? Because we are in Christ. Therefore we have been brought already into perfect Torah fulfilment. The Torah was our tutor. The Torah was a manifestation of God's holiness, God's set-apartness. The Torah showed us how far short we are from God. Above and Beyond us stands the Torah, the unchangeable standard of God. And the World beyond that barrier and beyond what we can see of God, that is the Torah, is a world unexplored by man. Christ has brought us into the World of God. Into the World of the Torah. Into the World of the Word. Otherwise unreachable. No, but that's where we sit, stand, and walk as sons of God.

Do you understand? In Christ, as sheep, as sons, as light, who we are is Christ, where we are is Christ, how we got there is Christ, how we live is Christ, how we breathe is Christ, how we live is Christ, we are in Christ!

THAT!... is eternal life. THAT! is holiness. That!... is everything so undescribably wonderful about our new life, our new body, every new and eternal. God is holy, holy, holy. God has made us holy, holy, holy. God is making us holy, holy, holy. God is going to make us, holy, holy, holy. What is the overiding truth? God has made us holy, holy, holy.

We are being transformed into His image and likeness day by day, but yes we have been, but yes we will be.

He took away our dung. We must first we willing ourselves to throw it away. He gave us the gifts. He took us by His hand. He made us clean, holy. Justification is that God has made us clean. Sanctification is that God has made us holy. And deception falls when we take only part of God and not His entire being. NO we cannot. He was, is, and is to come. Sanctification is the very fact that:

We forget God is very "dimensional", if i may say so. Often we reduce Him in our minds to fit our minds. Sometimes we see one part of Him and imagine it is the whole. Far from it! No, even more than three, four, or five-dimensional. He is "infinitely dimensional", meaning. He is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is holy, holy holy. There are all inescapable in indispensable parts of His nature. He is still One. Adonai Echad! He is One. He will forever be One. And of course He is "wholly other", as Karl Barth said. How little do I know Him. And the little I know is already beyond my mind. Yes, God is above and beyond my mind. He is Spirit! I need faith.... Truly in the presence of God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing! If you and I really know Him as we should... the realities are endless... wait...the realities are eternal, infinite, unknowable, indescrible, + a thousand etceteras.

Really ridiculous is the fact that people think they can outthink or out do YHWH. No one can. Let no man make their own conclusion about God. Let no man have the utterly ridiculous and absorb presumption to presume upon Him and tka eHim for granted! Let us put our trust in Him and meditate, and dwell one, YHWH and YHWH alone! Let us know that His promises are a more than a fact!

Shema Yisrael. YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad!

(Deuteronomy 6:4 HOT) שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃


A Song of degrees of David.
YHWH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
(Psalms 131:1-3 KJV)

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:1-16 KJV)


For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
(Romans 11:30-35 KJV)











Ha Shem is Holiness and Sanctity

YHWH. His name itself is hallowed, holy. Sometimes we say "holy" so lightly, so trivially. What really is holy? Set-apart. YHWH. His name itself is a reflection upon His holiness. Let us not take His Name lightly. Let us not mention it trivially. Every time I think of it, my heart should remind me, for He is Holy.

I look upon YHWH as a maidservant looks to her mistress (Ps 123). She dares not look into her eyes. She lower her eyes, averting. As for YHWH, His countenance beholds the upright and the upright alone.

Besides someone talented and at something, say at playing the piano, I would feel hopelessly inadequate. That person, next to a master pianist, next to a professional, too, would feel hopelessly inadequate.

In the presense and in the holiness of the living YAH, would not you, I, and anyone else feel just so totally inadaquate. Even Daniel HaNavi, trembled. Even Yeshayahu, the great prophet who spoke divine words and revelations, out of whose mouth came forth oracles of God and the very Word of God Himself, even he felt wretched, unclean, and cursed. Woe is me!

The presence of God who is purity, cleanness, sanctity, holiness, in Himself would make the sinner fall down dead. The seemingly good man would feel dirty, unclean, and wretched. Why? He is a good man. He doen't steal, kill, or lie (much). The truth is, in the presence of God, our works, and we ourselves are nothing but filthy rags, and the word really means filthy menstrual cloths. Or imagine, a pile of sh-t.

Imagine a great king and ruler sitting on his throne. Imagine Solomon himself in all his splendour and glory. All his nobles, viceroys, subjects, all come to pay him homage, give his gifts, and curry his favor. In the great richness of the royal palace itself. The king commands his nobles to bring forth the gifts in honor of him. Imagine if a noble brings forth a mountain of sh-t. Another brings forth the aforementioned filthy rags. Presenting these before the king, they offer him the best of their abilities, the best that they could bring him, and they are so proud of it. They worked hard, toiled hard, did their very best, put their best effort at it, but to the rich king, it is still a pile of sh-t, it is still a dirty, filthy cloth. Abominable! How could you bring such a disgusting, reviling, thing before the king and present it to him as homage! The king would have your heads off! To kneel before the king and so say, "My lord, I bring before the best of my abilities, the hardest toil, my most treasured possession, and I present it to you, my king, that it may be pleasing, acceptable, and treasured in your most excellant sight!"

I've made my point. Case is closed. The king would not dream of accepting such a gift. With all his gold, splendour, riches, even silver would have been like common stones in Solomon's eyes.

So here I speak of holiness and sanctity. If in all our doing, we cannot even be holy enough to stand before God and be pleasing to Him. By myself, could I stand before Him, in His light and be perfectly perfect, totally without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, totally good, just, wise, loving, and in who I am good in His sight? Would He say to me, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased."

Think a moment. Reflect upon your heart. Could I even stand if I saw God coming down in His perfect glory? Would I be pleasing in His sight? In the presence of the King of the Universe Melech Ha-Olam, Himself, would it really matter what my pastor said about me, what my teacher said about me, or what my parents said about me? No, only what YHWH says of me would count.

The sheep and the goats. It really doesn't matter if I called Jesus my Lord and Savior, said the sinner's prayer five times a day, cast out legions and multitudes of demons, healed stadiumfulls of sick and hopeless people, raised the dead, called down fire from the sky and performed great and wondrous miracles that even the president of the United States holds me in awe. If God never knew me, then what would all that be? Useless. Wasted. Dung! For all eternity, all you would be - torment, regret in the world where the fire never dies and the worm is not quenched.

Hey, God is the one who calls. God is the one who chooses. And God is the one who makes us faithful! Only those called, chosen, and faithful will stand before Him for eternity. It is God who apprehends us, who called us by His eternal irresistable grace, and who chooses us though we did not chose Him. We would not have known Him except that He apprehended us, convicted us by His reality and holiness, and stuck us by His great power. Salvation is a miracle. He loved us first. There is nothing good in us to choose, want, or desire God. He called us, who were not his people, to be his people. Such is divine election. It is unquestionable. No one would dare question God, but neither dare I to presume upon Him. To those who did not know Him He revealed Himself. We often forget to realize we have done nothing to merit salvation. No, it is as simple as looking on Him whose sins we have nailed to the cross. They shall see Him whom they pierced. And then what? The spirit of grace and supplication leads them to repentence! Even repentence itself is a gift of God and a work of divine grace... mercy! Even that I should be allowed and given the grace to repent of my sins is itself unthinkable, incomprehensible! And so much more that I should be forgiven, and made a son of God!

There is nothing in me that is good, that would make me seek God and choose God. The fact is God found me, and put in me a desire for Him that would otherwise be impossible.

I can draw many conclusions on who the goats are, and God forbid that you or I should ever fall to such a reprehensible, perverted, twisted, and utterly lost state. It's not whether you or I deserve mercy or the grace of God. The fact is, the king extended his favor to some of those who brought forth a mountain of sh-t. Dare I say, that since he was forgiven, and the king removed all the sh-t from him, dare I expect the king to show me such favor when I bring before him a mountain of sh-t too? No of course not! The king was being merciful. God shows favor to whom he shows favor. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. None of us can ever claim favor before him, God shows partiality to no man. All of us are condemned by our very being. God is the same God who curses, and who blesses. God is the same God who strikes down, and who brings up. God is the same God who executes the judgments of His righteous fury, and the same God who provides atonement and redemption, an act of incomprehensible mercy, to the wretched sinner.

What strikes me about the goats is this. God did not know them. I can make two Scriptual conclusions on them.
According to John 17:

1) The goats did not have eternal life, obviously.
Eternal life is the Knowledge of God
The goats did not have eternal life.
Therefore the goats did not know God.

2) Whoever has eternal life lives in Christ, and Christ in Him
The goats did not have eternal life.
They did not live in Christ, nor Christ in them

3) Whoever is in Christ has the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The goats were not in Christ.
The goats did not have redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sin. (Col 1)

4) God did not know them.
Whoever loves God is known by Him.
Therefore the goats did not love God. (1 John)

5) The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua is to love God.
The goats did not love God.
The goats were did not keep God's commandments.

Which also can be proved because

6) Whoever loves God, keeps His commandments. (1 John 14)
The goats did not keep God's commandments.
The goats did not love God.

This can go on and on.

7) Whoever is in Christ has followed HIm, taken up their cross, been buried with Christ through the work of the cross and ressurected with Him, and lives the eternal life.
The goats did not have eternal life.
The goats were not in Christ.

Therefore, they did not obey Christ's command to take up their cross to follow Him.
Therefore they were not His disciples.
Therefore they were not His.
Therefore He did not keep them.
Therefore... before them and in them were death, sin, destruction, self, Satan, demons, the world, sinful society, sickness, disease, etc. etc. etc.

Yet what about the sheep.
1) God knew them.
Therefore they loved God.
Therefore God loved them (to love God is only possible if He loves us first!)
Therefore they kept His commandments. (As whoever loves God keeps His commandments)
Therefore they have eternal life, the very life of God lived in them. (Because His commandments are everlasting life)
Therefore they knew God.
Therefore they were disciples.
Therefore they have taken up their cross of follow Christ.
Therefore they loved their neighbour. (Because God loved them, they loved God, they were in Christ, they kept His commandsment, the second of which is to love their neighbour.

The list can go one. One was Light, one was darkness. One was truth, one was deception. Never was a contrast so sharply, clearly drawn. One was clean, the other unclean. One was holy, the other sinful. One was in God, one was without God.

Which one are you? By the grace of God each one of us stands. Even the keeping of His commandments is because:

1) He made a new covenant with us.
2) He put the torah in us, writing it on our hearts, therefore programming us already to be torah-obeservant, and much more so. How? Because we are in Christ, who was the perfection, fufilment, revelation, of the entire Torah itself, because the torah is the very personification of God and Christ was God, therefore Christ was the Torah. The Torah is life, Christ is life. Christ was the Word of God. The Torah was the Word of God. The Torah is pure and cleansing. And Christ was much more then the Torah! God is not a mere man. God is more than a man. Christ was not just a man, He was God. He was the walking Word of God. He was, and is, and is to come!
3) How did He put the torah into us? Because we are in Christ. Therefore we have been brought already into perfect Torah fulfilment. The Torah was our tutor. The Torah was a manifestation of God's holiness, God's set-apartness. The Torah showed us how far short we are from God. Above and Beyond us stands the Torah, the unchangeable standard of God. And the World beyond that barrier and beyond what we can see of God, that is the Torah, is a world unexplored by man. Christ has brought us into the World of God. Into the World of the Torah. Into the World of the Word. Otherwise unreachable. No, but that's where we sit, stand, and walk as sons of God.

Do you understand? In Christ, as sheep, as sons, as light, who we are is Christ, where we are is Christ, how we got there is Christ, how we live is Christ, how we breathe is Christ, how we live is Christ, we are in Christ!

THAT!... is eternal life. THAT! is holiness. That!... is everything so undescribably wonderful about our new life, our new body, every new and eternal. God is holy, holy, holy. God has made us holy, holy, holy. God is making us holy, holy, holy. God is going to make us, holy, holy, holy. What is the overiding truth? God has made us holy, holy, holy.

We are being transformed into His image and likeness day by day, but yes we have been, but yes we will be.

He took away our dung. We must first we willing ourselves to throw it away. He gave us the gifts. He took us by His hand. He made us clean, holy. Justification is that God has made us clean. Sanctification is that God has made us holy. And deception falls when we take only part of God and not His entire being. NO we cannot. He was, is, and is to come. Sanctification is the very fact that:




We forget God is very "dimensional", if i may say so. Often we reduce Him in our minds to fit our minds. Sometimes we see one part of Him and imagine it is the whole. Far from it! No, even more than three, four, or five-dimensional. He is "infinitely dimensional", meaning. He is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is holy, holy holy. There are all inescapable in indispensable parts of His nature. He is still One. Adonai Echad! He is One. He will forever be One. And of course He is "wholly other", as Karl Barth said. How little do I know Him. And the little I know is already beyond my mind. Yes, God is above and beyond my mind. He is Spirit! I need faith.... Truly in the presence of God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing! If you and I really know Him as we should... the realities are endless... wait...the realities are eternal, infinite, unknowable, indescrible, + a thousand etceteras.

Really ridiculous is the fact that people think they can outthink or out do YHWH. No one can. Let no man make their own conclusion about God. Let no man have the utterly ridiculous and absorb presumption to presume upon Him and tka eHim for granted! Let us put our trust in Him and meditate, and dwell one, YHWH and YHWH alone! Let us know that His promises are a more than a fact!

Shema Yisrael. YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad!

(Deuteronomy 6:4 HOT) שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃


A Song of degrees of David.
YHWH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
(Psalms 131:1-3 KJV)

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:1-16 KJV)


For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
(Romans 11:30-35 KJV)

















Ha Shem is Holiness and Sanctity

YHWH. His name itself is hallowed, holy. Sometimes we say "holy" so lightly, so trivially. What really is holy? Set-apart. YHWH. His name itself is a reflection upon His holiness. Let us not take His Name lightly. Let us not mention it trivially. Every time I think of it, my heart should remind me, for He is Holy.

I look upon YHWH as a maidservant looks to her mistress (Ps 123). She dares not look into her eyes. She lower her eyes, averting. As for YHWH, His countenance beholds the upright and the upright alone.

Besides someone talented and at something, say at playing the piano, I would feel hopelessly inadequate. That person, next to a master pianist, next to a professional, too, would feel hopelessly inadequate.

In the presense and in the holiness of the living YAH, would not you, I, and anyone else feel just so totally inadaquate. Even Daniel HaNavi, trembled. Even Yeshayahu, the great prophet who spoke divine words and revelations, out of whose mouth came forth oracles of God and the very Word of God Himself, even he felt wretched, unclean, and cursed. Woe is me!

The presence of God who is purity, cleanness, sanctity, holiness, in Himself would make the sinner fall down dead. The seemingly good man would feel dirty, unclean, and wretched. Why? He is a good man. He doen't steal, kill, or lie (much). The truth is, in the presence of God, our works, and we ourselves are nothing but filthy rags, and the word really means filthy menstrual cloths. Or imagine, a pile of sh-t.

Imagine a great king and ruler sitting on his throne. Imagine Solomon himself in all his splendour and glory. All his nobles, viceroys, subjects, all come to pay him homage, give his gifts, and curry his favor. In the great richness of the royal palace itself. The king commands his nobles to bring forth the gifts in honor of him. Imagine if a noble brings forth a mountain of sh-t. Another brings forth the aforementioned filthy rags. Presenting these before the king, they offer him the best of their abilities, the best that they could bring him, and they are so proud of it. They worked hard, toiled hard, did their very best, put their best effort at it, but to the rich king, it is still a pile of sh-t, it is still a dirty, filthy cloth. Abominable! How could you bring such a disgusting, reviling, thing before the king and present it to him as homage! The king would have your heads off! To kneel before the king and so say, "My lord, I bring before the best of my abilities, the hardest toil, my most treasured possession, and I present it to you, my king, that it may be pleasing, acceptable, and treasured in your most excellant sight!"

I've made my point. Case is closed. The king would not dream of accepting such a gift. With all his gold, splendour, riches, even silver would have been like common stones in Solomon's eyes.

So here I speak of holiness and sanctity. If in all our doing, we cannot even be holy enough to stand before God and be pleasing to Him. By myself, could I stand before Him, in His light and be perfectly perfect, totally without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, totally good, just, wise, loving, and in who I am good in His sight? Would He say to me, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased."

Think a moment. Reflect upon your heart. Could I even stand if I saw God coming down in His perfect glory? Would I be pleasing in His sight? In the presence of the King of the Universe Melech Ha-Olam, Himself, would it really matter what my pastor said about me, what my teacher said about me, or what my parents said about me? No, only what YHWH says of me would count.

The sheep and the goats. It really doesn't matter if I called Jesus my Lord and Savior, said the sinner's prayer five times a day, cast out legions and multitudes of demons, healed stadiumfulls of sick and hopeless people, raised the dead, called down fire from the sky and performed great and wondrous miracles that even the president of the United States holds me in awe. If God never knew me, then what would all that be? Useless. Wasted. Dung! For all eternity, all you would be - torment, regret in the world where the fire never dies and the worm is not quenched.

Hey, God is the one who calls. God is the one who chooses. And God is the one who makes us faithful! Only those called, chosen, and faithful will stand before Him for eternity. It is God who apprehends us, who called us by His eternal irresistable grace, and who chooses us though we did not chose Him. We would not have known Him except that He apprehended us, convicted us by His reality and holiness, and stuck us by His great power. Salvation is a miracle. He loved us first. There is nothing good in us to choose, want, or desire God. He called us, who were not his people, to be his people. Such is divine election. It is unquestionable. No one would dare question God, but neither dare I to presume upon Him. To those who did not know Him He revealed Himself. We often forget to realize we have done nothing to merit salvation. No, it is as simple as looking on Him whose sins we have nailed to the cross. They shall see Him whom they pierced. And then what? The spirit of grace and supplication leads them to repentence! Even repentence itself is a gift of God and a work of divine grace... mercy! Even that I should be allowed and given the grace to repent of my sins is itself unthinkable, incomprehensible! And so much more that I should be forgiven, and made a son of God!

There is nothing in me that is good, that would make me seek God and choose God. The fact is God found me, and put in me a desire for Him that would otherwise be impossible.

I can draw many conclusions on who the goats are, and God forbid that you or I should ever fall to such a reprehensible, perverted, twisted, and utterly lost state. It's not whether you or I deserve mercy or the grace of God. The fact is, the king extended his favor to some of those who brought forth a mountain of sh-t. Dare I say, that since he was forgiven, and the king removed all the sh-t from him, dare I expect the king to show me such favor when I bring before him a mountain of sh-t too? No of course not! The king was being merciful. God shows favor to whom he shows favor. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. None of us can ever claim favor before him, God shows partiality to no man. All of us are condemned by our very being. God is the same God who curses, and who blesses. God is the same God who strikes down, and who brings up. God is the same God who executes the judgments of His righteous fury, and the same God who provides atonement and redemption, an act of incomprehensible mercy, to the wretched sinner.

What strikes me about the goats is this. God did not know them. I can make two Scriptual conclusions on them.
According to John 17:

1) The goats did not have eternal life, obviously.
Eternal life is the Knowledge of God
The goats did not have eternal life.
Therefore the goats did not know God.

2) Whoever has eternal life lives in Christ, and Christ in Him
The goats did not have eternal life.
They did not live in Christ, nor Christ in them

3) Whoever is in Christ has the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The goats were not in Christ.
The goats did not have redemption, salvation, forgiveness of sin. (Col 1)

4) God did not know them.
Whoever loves God is known by Him.
Therefore the goats did not love God. (1 John)

5) The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua is to love God.
The goats did not love God.
The goats were did not keep God's commandments.

Which also can be proved because

6) Whoever loves God, keeps His commandments. (1 John 14)
The goats did not keep God's commandments.
The goats did not love God.

This can go on and on.

7) Whoever is in Christ has followed HIm, taken up their cross, been buried with Christ through the work of the cross and ressurected with Him, and lives the eternal life.
The goats did not have eternal life.
The goats were not in Christ.

Therefore, they did not obey Christ's command to take up their cross to follow Him.
Therefore they were not His disciples.
Therefore they were not His.
Therefore He did not keep them.
Therefore... before them and in them were death, sin, destruction, self, Satan, demons, the world, sinful society, sickness, disease, etc. etc. etc.

Yet what about the sheep.
1) God knew them.
Therefore they loved God.
Therefore God loved them (to love God is only possible if He loves us first!)
Therefore they kept His commandments. (As whoever loves God keeps His commandments)
Therefore they have eternal life, the very life of God lived in them. (Because His commandments are everlasting life)
Therefore they knew God.
Therefore they were disciples.
Therefore they have taken up their cross of follow Christ.
Therefore they loved their neighbour. (Because God loved them, they loved God, they were in Christ, they kept His commandsment, the second of which is to love their neighbour.

The list can go one. One was Light, one was darkness. One was truth, one was deception. Never was a contrast so sharply, clearly drawn. One was clean, the other unclean. One was holy, the other sinful. One was in God, one was without God.

Which one are you? By the grace of God each one of us stands. Even the keeping of His commandments is because:

1) He made a new covenant with us.
2) He put the torah in us, writing it on our hearts, therefore programming us already to be torah-obeservant, and much more so. How? Because we are in Christ, who was the perfection, fufilment, revelation, of the entire Torah itself, because the torah is the very personification of God and Christ was God, therefore Christ was the Torah. The Torah is life, Christ is life. Christ was the Word of God. The Torah was the Word of God. The Torah is pure and cleansing. And Christ was much more then the Torah! God is not a mere man. God is more than a man. Christ was not just a man, He was God. He was the walking Word of God. He was, and is, and is to come!
3) How did He put the torah into us? Because we are in Christ. Therefore we have been brought already into perfect Torah fulfilment. The Torah was our tutor. The Torah was a manifestation of God's holiness, God's set-apartness. The Torah showed us how far short we are from God. Above and Beyond us stands the Torah, the unchangeable standard of God. And the World beyond that barrier and beyond what we can see of God, that is the Torah, is a world unexplored by man. Christ has brought us into the World of God. Into the World of the Torah. Into the World of the Word. Otherwise unreachable. No, but that's where we sit, stand, and walk as sons of God.

Do you understand? In Christ, as sheep, as sons, as light, who we are is Christ, where we are is Christ, how we got there is Christ, how we live is Christ, how we breathe is Christ, how we live is Christ, we are in Christ!

THAT!... is eternal life. THAT! is holiness. That!... is everything so undescribably wonderful about our new life, our new body, every new and eternal. God is holy, holy, holy. God has made us holy, holy, holy. God is making us holy, holy, holy. God is going to make us, holy, holy, holy. What is the overiding truth? God has made us holy, holy, holy.

We are being transformed into His image and likeness day by day, but yes we have been, but yes we will be.

He took away our dung. We must first we willing ourselves to throw it away. He gave us the gifts. He took us by His hand. He made us clean, holy. Justification is that God has made us clean. Sanctification is that God has made us holy. And deception falls when we take only part of God and not His entire being. NO we cannot. He was, is, and is to come. Sanctification is the very fact that:




We forget God is very "dimensional", if i may say so. Often we reduce Him in our minds to fit our minds. Sometimes we see one part of Him and imagine it is the whole. Far from it! No, even more than three, four, or five-dimensional. He is "infinitely dimensional", meaning. He is Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. He is yesterday, today, and forever. He is holy, holy holy. There are all inescapable in indispensable parts of His nature. He is still One. Adonai Echad! He is One. He will forever be One. And of course He is "wholly other", as Karl Barth said. How little do I know Him. And the little I know is already beyond my mind. Yes, God is above and beyond my mind. He is Spirit! I need faith.... Truly in the presence of God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing! If you and I really know Him as we should... the realities are endless... wait...the realities are eternal, infinite, unknowable, indescrible, + a thousand etceteras.

Really ridiculous is the fact that people think they can outthink or out do YHWH. No one can. Let no man make their own conclusion about God. Let no man have the utterly ridiculous and absorb presumption to presume upon Him and tka eHim for granted! Let us put our trust in Him and meditate, and dwell one, YHWH and YHWH alone! Let us know that His promises are a more than a fact!

Shema Yisrael. YHWH Eloheinu, YHWH Echad!

(Deuteronomy 6:4 HOT) שׁמע ישׂראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד׃


A Song of degrees of David.
YHWH, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
(Psalms 131:1-3 KJV)

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:1-16 KJV)


For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
(Romans 11:30-35 KJV)