From Help To Sacrifice

 

Shalom to you all.  Once again, I find myself in somewhat of a quandary.  Some of the main points of the message of Shabbat are difficult to expound upon without going into great detail.  So, regretfully I must leave the deeper points alone.  But, I can bring to light a very peculiar point that I’m sure will bless you all. 

In last week’s Parasha, Moses was faced with some very helpful advice from his father-in-law, Jethro.  Moses’ task was to bring about understanding of the Torah to the entire population of the children of Israel, a monumental task, to be sure, and warranted the advice of Jethro. 

In verse #17 of Exodus 18, Jethro says, “The thing that you are doing is not good”.  We should all take a moment to pause at this point and reflect on the call, the business, the ministry, the very life that we lead today.  How much of your effort could be better served with some help?  Who do you have around you that is waiting in the shadows that could help you in the thing that you are trying to accomplish?  It is from this perspective that Moses yields to the advice of his wise old father-in-law, and from that yielding, has set in motion judicial concepts that we see even in our own government today.  Now, let us look at our Lord and Savior as an example.

With the salvation of the world at stake; your salvation and mine to be exact, Yeshua carried the weight of the world on His shoulders.  The Roman soldiers placed the beam upon His shoulders, to carry His cross, the very thing that He was to be sacrificed upon.  The Lord endured the torture, the ridicule, and the shame of all the demonic hoards, yet He pressed on. 

It was on His way to Golgotha that He stumbled and fell.  Our Lord and Savior needed help.  Think about it.  The creator of heaven and earth, himself, needed help.  One of the soldiers called upon Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for Him. 

My brothers and sisters, I am so grateful that our Lord and Savior did not call upon supernatural strength to accomplish the work for us.  No, He allowed someone to help Him so that we could realize that we too need help at times.  Let us never forget that the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior was accomplished with the help from one who needed salvation.  Selah…

We should be careful how we deal with and judge those whom God has placed in a position to be our helpers.  For even our Father, God, saw fit that one in need of salvation would help accomplish the plan of salvation. 

Lastly, my friends, let us take Jethro’s words to heart in verse #23, “If thou shalt do this thing, and God commands thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all His people shall also go to their place in peace.”  So, I say to you, do this thing and go to your place in peace.  Amen.

A Seat At The Table

Well, it’s the first day of the week and once again I find myself trying to decide what I will blog about from yesterday’s message. Like some of my other blogs, there were too many points in my message to be able to touch them all.  So, I will attempt, once again, to take one of the points and expound on it alone.

In our Torah portion from last week, verse #10 of Exodus 14, it says that the children of Israel were sore afraid.  It never ceases to amaze me when I read this story that after all of the marvelous signs that the Lord showed them, they would continue to be in fear.  It wasn’t that they cried out unto the Lord, it was how they cried out to the Lord.  They cried out in fear, not in faith. 

In my message yesterday, I looked at a Psalm of David, chapter 18, verses 1 through 3.  It says in verse 1, “I will love thee, o Lord, my strength; verse 2, “the Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower”.  What a way to start off a prayer to the Lord, rehearsing who He is in your heart.  Then, verse 3 says, “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from my enemies”.  This is the way to cry out to the Lord, my brothers and sisters.  Not in fear, but knowing who He is, in that there is no enemy that can come against you.  For if God be for you, who can be against you.

I went to see a movie last week at one of my favorite theaters.  I’ve been there many, many times before, but this was the first time that they had assigned seats.  I usually get to the theater very early so that I can get a good seat.  But, this time was different.  For when I bought my ticket, I had the opportunity to choose probably the best seat in the house.  I went to the concession stand and realized the person behind the counter was new.  She was a little slow, and I started to get a little anxious, because people were going into the theater.  I still had to put butter on my popcorn and was waiting for my chicken nuggets to come out.  I realized then that I didn’t need to be anxious, because I had an assigned seat.  This was different for me, because there was still a little fear that I was not going to get a good seat, but the fear was false, because my seat was already reserved for me!!

My dear brothers and sisters, this is what the children of Israel were doing.  They were so afraid of what Pharaoh could do to them from past experience, that they did not realize what God said was more true than what Pharaoh could do.

God said that He was going to lead them to the promised land and He had already shown Himself mighty and able to save.  There was a place waiting for them.  There was a seat reserved for them.  Think about that!  Rejoice about that!  Rest in that!  You have a seat reserved at the table of the Lord.  Whatever God has said to you SHALL come to pass.  No matter what the enemy has declared that he is going to do to you, he is a liar.  The truth is spoken by God, your father, your strength, your fortress, who is able to deliver you. 

So, dear friends, the next time you are cornered or caught between a rock and a hard place, don’t cry out in fear, but shout out in faith.  For just like Moses said, “See that the Lord will fight for you” (Exodus 14:14). 

I hope to see you all this coming Sabbath, so that we can partake together of the Bread of Life at the Lord’s Table.  It’s not just the name of our congregation (The Lord’s Table), but it is the essence of where we long to be at The Lord’s Table.  And, at The Lord’s Table, there is a seat reserved for you.  Don’t ever forget that no matter how hard it might be, the Lord has reserved a seat for you at His table.  Amen!     

Light In Your Dwelling

Greetings in the name of Yeshua and a very happy New Year to all who celebrate the New Year.   The reason I say it like that is because of the Torah portion that we studied this past week.  See, the Gregorian calendar, for the most part, doesn't mean very much to the Lord.  He’s on a Biblical calendar that has little to do with the calendar that we recognize.  Still, it serves a purpose when dealing with matters concerning this age.

I have just come off of a sabbatical in which I spent New Year’s Eve alone with the Lord.  It was a glorious time, but the significance wasn't in the New Year coming.  No, the significance was that I took time to spend with the Lord.  While the world celebrated a seemingly meaningless time in the Biblical context, it seemed the Lord was waiting for me and our very intimate time together.  Now, let’s look at the text of this past week’s Aliyah.

 21 The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch forth your hand toward the heavens, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, and the darkness will become darker.”

 22 So Moses stretched forth his hand toward the heavens, and there was a thick darkness over the entire land of Egypt for three days:

 23 They did not see each other, and no one rose from his place for three days, but for all the children of Israel t here was light in their dwellings.

Verse 21 speaks of not just darkness, but a darkness that can be felt.  While families gather for New Year’s and have wonderful times (I have had wonderful times over the years as well), we are well aware that this time can be a time of great darkness in this age, with parties that have nothing whatsoever to do with our Lord. I've personally experienced darkness during the New Year celebration before I came to Christ and it is dark.  There is coming an age, and now is, when the darkness will become darker (verse 21).  We can see it and even feel it all around us now.  But, the portion speaks of a darkness that even those in the darkness will not be able to comprehend.  How true that is today.  Even evil people are saying things are getting bad. 

My encouragement in this writing is that the children of the Lord are children of light and no matter how dark it gets we will continue to dwell in the light (verse 23).

Another  word for “dwell” is  “tabernacle” .  In the Gospel of John 1:1, it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, etc.    Verse #4 says in Him was life and the life was the light of men.  Now, go to verse #14.  It says and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  What does this mean, my dear brothers and sisters?  Yeshua made his tent here.  He “tabernacled” here, he dwelt here, and when he finished the work on the cross, that light was made available to dwell within us.  When you accepted Yeshua, there is no amount of darkness that can overcome the light that shines within you.  I don’t care how dark, how ugly, how scary it becomes out there, it shall not “come nigh thy dwelling” place (Psalm 91:10).  The darkness shall not overtake you.  I declare it.  I decree it.  I absolutely profess it over your lives in the name of Yeshua.     

In light of what I just said, I believe for you all a joyous and prosperous 2014.  

The Blessing

To those of you that missed our Sabbath service yesterday, I wish I had the ability in this blog to share the entire revelatory message that came forth.  Since I can’t, I would at least like to expound on one powerful point that would probably have been overshadowed by the more familiar elements of our Parashah.  Because we are studying the 2^nd Aliyah in our seven year cycle, we were able to find a most peculiar nugget within our study. 

 

The KJV says in Genesis 48:16, “Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth”.  The Chumash reads different though.  It reads, “Let them grow into a multitude, like fish in the midst of the land”.  What a fascinating twist in the text.  I won’t pretend to know why the difference, but I welcome the opportunity to explore the depth within the context. 

Israel was laying his hands on Joseph’s sons, yet he blessed Joseph.  He spoke the blessing and transferred the blessing that had been handed down from his father Isaac and his father’s father, Abraham, which ultimately was spoken over Adam by YHVH.  See, the Lord blessed Adam by breathing life into his nostrils, and that blessing was handed down through generations to Abraham, who breathed the blessing on Isaac, who breathed the blessing on Jacob, and now was being breathed upon Joseph and his sons. 

 

What does this have to do with a fish?  It has to do with the way a fish breathes; a fish breathes differently than we do.  Though we live in this world, we are not of this world.  The very air that we breathe is the presence of God.  As the scripture says, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” 

The reason Israel used a fish as an example is because the fish lives and moves and has its being in a different atmosphere, mainly water, and breathes the very atmosphere that it exists in.  We must endeavor to exist in the atmosphere of the Shekinah glory of God; we must breathe the atmosphere of the Kingdom.  Inhale His glory, exhale His word – inhale His word and exhale His glory. 

 

Oh, my brothers and sisters, our Kingdom nature should radiate to everyone within our realm of influence.  The air that we breathe should affect the atmosphere of all that come around us.  Breathe upon them, breathe upon your circumstance, your marriage, your finances, your very life – breathe the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) within and without your realm of existence.  Hallelujah!

 

My prayer for you is that everything that you breathe upon and everything that you bless, would multiply like the fish in the midst of the land.

Remembering The Dream

Shalom and blessings to you all. 

Obviously, we did not have our regular Shabbat service yesterday.   Yet, I was prepared with a simple message.  So, I will expound on one of the beautiful points I was going to make for your encouragement. 

We were looking at the Aliyah is which Joseph finally reveals himself to his brethren.  It was a devastating, yet beautiful encounter.  I could not help but think about when Joseph saw his brethren bowing to him.  They did not know who he was, yet it was at that very moment he remembered the dream. 

Isn’t it amazing that nine years have passed and it took this profound meeting for him to remember the dream that he once had?  Why did he not attempt to search out his father in the nine years that he had gone from the prison to the palace?  Why did he not send emissaries to search out his brothers to see if they were still bent on killing him?  Why did he not send spies to search out and to see if his father would want to still embrace a favorite son that had been gone for so long? 

The revelation rests in the circumstance in which he found himself in.  The blessings of the Lord so overwhelmed him that he forgot all of his troubles, all of his woes.  Oh, I’m sure that he probably thought about his father from time to time, as well as his brothers.  But the blessings of the Lord so overtook him, as well as the responsibilities of the purpose of his life, that it slowly slipped his mind. 

My point, brothers and sisters, is that when the promise of the Lord, the dream He has given, and the purpose of our lives culminate one day, the hardships, tests and trials that we had to endure will seem like sand in our hands. 

My encouragement to you is to be strong and very courageous within whatever you are facing today.  For in your tomorrow, a blessing will surely come as promised.

Lastly, when Joseph wept aloud, all of Pharaoh’s house heard.  Take solace and shalom in the fact that when you weep, the entire house of your heavenly Father takes notice.  As I said last week, your day of reckoning has come.   

Day of Reckoning

We had a wonderful Shabbat service yesterday. 

Of course, speaking of Joseph, an interesting illustration came forth.  It has to do with bowling, but let me first say this.

As I was ministering the Word, one powerful point rested in the fact that Joseph was in captivity for many years and, seemingly from one day to the next, went from the pit to the palace.  He had no idea the night before, when he lay his head to rest and that when he awoke the next day, it would be to a life of authority and privilege; the very inception of the dreams being fulfilled that he had oh so many years ago. 

His interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams; however, lay within two periods of 7, equaling 14.  Isn’t it interesting that his very father labored for his mother for two periods of even 7 years, equaling 14. 

My summation (in reference to the illustration I spoke of earlier) lies deeply within the fact that we do not and sometimes cannot know when our day of reckoning has come. 

Back to bowling, if you are like myself, I don’t have a clue of how to calculate a bowling score.  I bowl and hope that my score is pretty large, anywhere around 300 would be great, because I know that 300 is the ultimate goal of bowling.   I think I’ve gotten around 75 (LOL).

Still, because of my ignorance, if I make a strike or a spare, my lack of understanding keeps from knowing truly where I stand in my score.  I simply don’t know where I am.  I know I’ve done something good.  I know I didn’t do anything wrong, but I don’t know how I’ve been scored.  It’s the same with Joseph.  Year after year, first serving his father, then his brothers selling him to captivity, then his struggles with Potifer’s wife, and lastly, to be thrown in prison.  He did nothing wrong and yet was punished.  He did not know the score until his day of reckoning had fully come. 

Isn’t it interesting that we, my brothers and sisters, are about to enter the year 2014.  I firmly believe that the years of not knowing the score, but pressing on and pressing in, are about to pay off.  So, be encouraged and know that our year of reckoning is upon us.  The score will be tallied and we shall be victorious.  From pit to prison to palace we shall prevail.

Your responses will be greatly appreciated to this blog.

Shalom.

Home Sweet Home

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Wow, what an incredible Shabbat we had in our new home this morning.  We had 16 people in our congregation.  The presence of the Lord was beautiful.  The message the Lord gave me was full of revelation and was exactly what we all needed to hear, considering all that we've gone through over the past six months, and where are as a congregation right now.  Praise the Lord!