Discovering the Messiah through
ObedienceThe Lord has often given me words to sit with for a certain length of time. For a long time, my word was perseverance. Recently, it was more. Now, the Lord has given me the word "obedience." The Lord has been calling me out of my comfort zone and into radical obedience.
Often, the thing that most hinders obedience is fear. Knowing that fear is not of God, I would often struggle with guilt for being nervous about something. This is not the heart of God. Throughout scripture, God never speaks against people who are nervous. However, he has very strong words for the one who lets fear hinder himself/herself from the race they were called to run. In the Old Testament, the Israelites are commanded to take possession of the land of Canaan. When the spies brought back reports of giants, the people chose to let fear dictate their choices. This lack of action or obedience brought disastrous consequences. Every person twenty or older would not ever have the chance to experience God's full blessings. I am currently nineteen, but the vast majority of my friends are a few years older than me. I can only imagine what it would be like to know that none of your friends would ever see God's promise be fulfilled. However, this is the consequence for letting fear get in the way of obedience. We see another example of this in the New Testament in the parable of the three servants. They were all given something to invest for their master. The first two servants showed obedience - they did what they were told and it yielded results. One more than the other, but both were obedient to their orders. The third servant was too afraid of losing what little he had to take a risk and be obedient. This passage always reminds me that God loves a heart that is willing to take a risk and possibly lose everything for the gospel. This morning, I was reading in Luke and stumbled on this verse, ""Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom." We have no need to be ashamed. We are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We are warriors for the Most High God, and He desires to expand His kingdom! Carry a kingdom presence. Do not let your fear stop you from being the obedient kingdom warrior you were created to be!
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Why study Judaism as an Evangelical Christian? After our Jewish festival VBS, one member of our team received some negative feedback from someone in the community. We are not Jewish, so why are we teaching about the festivals?
1. Judaism helps us understand the Old Testament. As a whole, the church largely ignores the Old Testament with the exception of a few stories that work well in a colorful children's Bible. This should not be! The Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, provides the foundation of our faith! God creates the world, people mess it up, but God provides a plan to redeem those who love him. The church really doesn't study books of the Bible like Leviticus often at all. But the Jewish people spend their entire lives studying the Torah. Their wisdom and insights are so needed in the church. 2. The resilience of the Jewish people helps me understand the heart of God for his people. The very fact that the Jewish people have kept their identity for over 4000 years while facing so much opposition from every surrounding nation is nothing less than a miracle. The story of the Jewish people helps me understand how God is a God that never stops fighting for children. 3. The dedication of the Jewish people to their faith is inspiring. This week, as we celebrated the festivals, I realized that they are not easy! Passover has so many little details to prepare and keep track of. Keeping Sabbath requires sacrifice. Living in a booth over Sukkot for an entire week takes commitment. However, their identity as a people and their worship is so closely intertwined that this making those choices is second nature. I would love to have my identity so wrapped up in my faith that I would not mind making every sacrifice to honor HaShem. 4. Jesus was Jewish. I am at least a little bit curious to understand how my savior lived and interacted during his time on earth. How did he worship? How did he celebrate? What was life like? Jesus is mentioned many times as "Rabbi" so he knew and understood Jewish laws and traditions quite well. If that was important to our Messiah, it should be important to us as well. Why study the Old Testament? This week has been pretty hectic. Shortly after returning from China, I started teaching Vacation Bible School in the morning and working at a daycare in the afternoon. Word of wisdom: Don't do VBS and daycare in the same week.
Anyways, this year's theme is Old Testament festivals. It has been so much fun to dress up like a Jewish person and invite the children into a completely different world. Today we were studying passover. In the preparations, I started to regret deciding to organize and run a passover ceder for 120 small children. In addition, a poorly timed food processor situation made life a bit more complicated. Yesterday night, while I was extremely frazzled, I was reading more about the passover Hallel (songs of praise sung at the end of the seder). I was blown away when I began to recognize a few verses: Psalm 118: 21-27: I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad. Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the alter. I had been reading Psalm 118 for years and knew that the cornerstone verse was Messianic. Who knew that HaShem(Hebrew name for God, literally translated, "the name") would be so intentional as to set up pieces of scripture thousands of years before the Messiah came to so beautifully describe the coming of Yeshua. 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." This sounds suspiciously like the triumphal entry. When Christ rode through the gates of Jerusalem, he entered through the Mercy Gate. This gate was the same gate that the Passover lambs would enter as unknowingly walked their final last steps to the temple mount. "The horns of the altar." Four horn-like shapes protruded from the horns of the altar. Animal horns could be used for many things. They could be made into shofars to announce the arrival of a king or rally troops in warfare. They could be filled with oil to anoint the next ruler. Yeshua, God's anointed one and king of the world was still required to have contact with the altar. Those four horns show how the king of kings would one day be offered up by sinners for the transgressions of the world. I love how in the midst of chaos (and let me tell you, a passover meal with 120 small people is chaotic at best), HaShem finds a way to draw me closer to himself. All of scripture is yet another revelation of his heart for the world. So study the Old Testament. |