We are celebrating communion today as a congregation, remembering the Lord’s death until He comes [again]. Yeshua’s death on the cross on Passover in 30 AD was more than the Passover of the many lambs in Egypt around 1446 BC. The Passover was an [unleavened] sacrifice to deliver God’s covenanted chosen people by His sovereign authority and wisdom, long before they were ever born. All they needed to do was to believe what He told them to do, and to obey Him: each family must slay a male lamb of the first year that was without blemish, and sprinkle its blood on the sides and top of the doors at the threshold into their homes. This would protect them from the death of the first-born son in each family, which God was going to do to the Egyptians as the final judgment against Pharaoh and his nation in order for Pharaoh to let Israel go. Continue reading “Yom Kippur and Communion”
On The Other Side
(Rev from April 2007)
Lk 16: 19-31 the rich man and Lazarus; Abraham’s bosom
Phlp 1: 21-23 with Messiah
Mt 8: 11-12 outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth
Recently I have gone to five funerals of believers in Yeshua/Jesus. Three had lived to ‘full age’; two were young parents, with their infant son. For us whose sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for our sins, and in His resurrection from the grave, we pass from death to life, awaiting the last trumpet blast for the resurrection of the dead in Christ. (1Cor 15:50-57) Then shall be the victory shout and song of the righteous! For those without that personal relationship with God the Father through saving faith in His Son, they also await a separate resurrection of the unrighteous. Both groups are waiting for the resurrection on the appropriate last day. Continue reading “On The Other Side”
Gen 12: YHVH’s Call To Abram, Son of Eber, Son of Shem
From the genealogy in Gen 11, we learn that Abraham (Abram) was born 352 years after the Flood. Noah died only two years before the birth of Abraham! Shem and Eber were still alive (even during Jacob’s life)! Truly, Shem is the father of all the sons of Eber, father of the Hebrews. We do not know for certain whether they ever met and spoke with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob (or even with Ishmael and Esau), but it is likely, and they would have had eye-witness accounts of pre-Flood and post-Flood people and events, as God maintained His witness and passed it on to His chosen persons and family. Noah was the tenth from Adam, and was protected through the judgment of the Flood; Abraham was tenth from Shem, who also was saved out from the Flood. Ch 12 carries on with God’s redemptive plan, choosing Abram – son of Eber, son of Shem, son of Noah — from among all the Gentiles, through whom He would bless the world through covenant and promise – and lots of controversy. Continue reading “Gen 12: YHVH’s Call To Abram, Son of Eber, Son of Shem”
Gen 4: Crime and Punishment, With Redemptive Hope
We may not realize that sin is a crime against God. Sin is lawlessness (1Jn 3:4); that is, it does not accept or live by any law that governs society, or that establishes what is good and what is evil. It is disobedience and rebellion against God and His Word. (Is 1:18-20) It began with Lucifer, now the Devil, and he brought it into Eve and Adam. Sin separates us from God our Father. (Is 59:2) Yeshua came to destroy the works of the devil, and to restore us to a relationship with God, knowing His holiness and righteousness, His goodness, His love. (1Jn 3:8) Continue reading “Gen 4: Crime and Punishment, With Redemptive Hope”
Towards Unity of the Spirit in The Bond of Peace
I returned home on Friday night from one week in Kenya. I was invited to be part of a small team for a diplomatic mission, speaking with senior church leaders about reconciliation of Gentile Christians — and church “positions” — with Jewish believers in Jesus/Yeshua, with a conference being planned in two years. For my part, my Jewish identity is not conflicted with my faith in Jesus and being also identified as a Christian, along with other believers and followers of the Messiah. But this is also something that might not necessarily have been so just a couple of hundred years ago, and even lingering until today in many quarters. Continue reading “Towards Unity of the Spirit in The Bond of Peace”
The Gap Between Believing God’s Word _______ and Human Wisdom
We are influenced by the world we are born into much more than we realize. Young children today have an intuitive grasp of some modern technology than many adults who are their parents and grandparents. The current generation is also entering and growing up in a world that is increasingly ignorant of the true God and of His Word, of His covenants, and with an evolutionary mindset and world-view that has displaced a general consensus of the fundamental truths of morality expressed in the Bible, even within the household of faith (at least in the western, Christianized, gospelized world). We have a natural tendency to subject God’s word to the teachings of men – or to the lies of the devil – rather than to subject all things to the Word of God. If we do not believe what God says about the beginning, we may not believe what He also actually says about the ending. If we twist His words at first, we will probably continue to twist them at last. Continue reading “The Gap Between Believing God’s Word _______ and Human Wisdom”
2Pt 2 — False Teachers and Heresies
2Pt 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
2Pt 2:1-3 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with deceptive words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.
The Communion of The New Covenant in Yeshua’s Blood
Mt 26:19-29 “And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover. Now when the evening was come, He sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, He said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto Him, Lord, is it I? And He answered and said, He that dips his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.
The Son of man goes as it is written of Him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, who betrayed Him, answered and said, my Lord, is it I? He said unto him, You have said.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” Continue reading “The Communion of The New Covenant in Yeshua’s Blood”
God Chose Abraham To Know Him
Gen 18:16-19 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And YHVH said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of YHVH, to do righteousness and judgment; that YHVH may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
1Pt 3:13-22: Witnesses for Yeshua Through Suffering for Righteousness
Yeshua says that His disciples are His witnesses in the world, and that as He was in the world, so are we to be. (1Jn 2:6; Phlp 1:27-30) A disciple is not above His teacher. The Father loved His only-begotten Son, and Jesus suffered and died in obedience to His love for and trust in God His Father.
The Apostle Peter did not want to accept that the Messiah would suffer and be rejected to the extent that He was. And Peter did not want to suffer for being a disciple of Yeshua. . . . until he learned that this is the way of YHVH in this world to fulfill all righteousness, in order to save those persons who repent and believe, and to condemn those who will not. Continue reading “1Pt 3:13-22: Witnesses for Yeshua Through Suffering for Righteousness”