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"As many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten:
be zealous therefore, and repent."
Revelation 3:9
Humans are created
in the "image and likeness" of Elohim (the Mighty One),
which means that each one of us are created with inherent resources
to connect to Mashiyach. We are like the proverbial "spiritual
antennas" but
the interest and desire in making a spiritual handshake is an
individual pursuit that rests upon each of us, but yet we can only
experience the fullness of Mashiyach's love in community with others.
We have the ability and opportunity to
know Elohim but we can also choose to push away because of our ego
or negative peer pressure from circles of "influential" friends. YHWH (Yahweh) says, "as
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten", does that sound like He doesn't love everyone? Why would He give his "image and likeness" knowing
his own creation (people) would spurn Him?
Almost everyone believes that YHWH has given free choice, even those who
believe there is no God admit this, in many ways we
are like YHWH Himself who is Sovereign and can do what He wants.
So are we sovereign to make personal choices in this life. But
precious few souls take the time to pursue YHWH and His
Mashiyach, very few care to know Who He is or how to have a
relationship with Him, most are content to live a "relationship" with YHWH through a Rabbi, Pastor, Guru,
books by best selling authors or anyone who they think
knows more about God than they do.
Many think the Almighty "takes the fun" out of their
lives and wants to keep them from doing the things they really want to do.
Many people are under the impression that "God" puts His people in
boxes (confinement), certainly many of the younger generation feel
limitations will be put upon them if they pursue an open
and honest relationship
with YHWH, this is the message they get from both the
"adult" religious and secular worlds.
YHWH has
often been described as the "heavenly parent" who brings life
into the world and then watches what His sons and daughters do with
their lives. We have a Father in Heaven who loves all His Creation, but
not all His Creation love Him, many of His creatures do not respect
the Perfection of their Creator, never mind appreciate Him for how He put
the Universe together and gave them life, but yet many find that
love is escaping their grasp.
YHWH
says that love and obedience isn't optional, it is a Commandment and Scripture
even says that if we don't choose love and choose to obey that, "...for this cause Elohim shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
After YHWH has given everything He also gives us what
we really want.
When people spurn YHWH and mock the Truth they are merely exercising
their power of choice. But according to this promise, Elohim
will also "inspire" people towards more wickedness because He
loves them. You're scratching your head over that one, right? Have you not heard the parable, that if you love it, let
it go, and if it returns then it belongs to you? If this is
something that is plausible for humans who didn't create love,
then why is it not fitting for the One who breathed life into those
He loves. The strong delusion is obviously not only for the benefit
of the wicked and egocentrical Godless person, it is for the benefit
of everyone to witness a stubborn and rebellious
soul who is great in his own eyes but a fool before YHWH and His
people. YHWH's Justice is perfect in love.
Putting a forbidden tree in Eden was how YHWH proved mankind, that
tree of the knowledge of good and evil has planted its seeds all
over the earth, everywhere you travel you'll run into the fruit of
the knowledge of good and evil. Mankind has done a thorough
job exploring the depths of his own capacity to sin. We've had
one global flood and many catastrophic situations like Sodom and
Gomorrah that tell of man's rotten fruit,
but even in this the Love of YHWH is found. The destruction of
the wicked holds opportunity for the righteous, but this
is something that troubles the wicked soul. The wicked
don't like to be reminded of their past or their destiny.
The city
of
Sodom still lies just below and to the north of Masada in Israel. A
colleague and I discovered sulfur balls (brimstone) deep in the rocks
at that location, the sulfur left a trail of molten
rock in it's wake that choked the air and stopped the combustion to
preserve the sulfur as little reminders of history past. I kept souvenirs for show and tell,
especially for those who think it's cool to promote the homosexual
agenda and spurn Justice.
NOPE, the wicked don't like to be reminded that
according to YHWH there are weeds (wicked men) growing up among good wheat.
Judgment is a very important aspect of Love, one must judge with
righteous judgment and make decisions that are based on the Word of
YHWH in order to know what Love is and what it is not.
In some
circles it is politically incorrect to speak of wickedness and
evil because the modern guru (wise man) is so full of love (the
relativism of love) that everyone is characterized as having
potential to inner spiritual harmony, but potential is not the same
as reality. It's true everyone has
potential but while they rape, steal, murder, lie and deceive, the
rest of the honest and truthful world must be protected from those
blue and white collar criminals, because that is also love. Criminal
activity begins in the heart, in the thoughts of man, and if a man's
thoughts are evil, how deep is the evil within?
YHWH gave Torah (instructions in righteousness) so that LOVE
could be nurtured and shared among all earthlings
throughout all generations. The TORAH IS LOVE, but a lot of
"believers" only
see the Bible as a book that limits their freedom of expression
giving correction, rebuke and chastening, because they have already
chosen many forms of rebellion against YHWH. The Torah is the
true mirror by which we see ourselves.
No Torah, No Mirror
People can't see who they truly are in Mashiyach because
they fear to look into the mirror of Torah. People like Hillel, the
founder of traditional "Judaism", and Marcion the Christo-Pagan who
invented the "Old and New Testament" have turned Torah
into a passé, outdated, taboo bunch of words on cigarette paper that
they renovated according to modern secular (lacking spiritual
content) opinion. Whether we like it or not these two fellas have
contributed to extensively corrupting the entire world's
justice system, as have many other religious men throughout history. Both
were fiercely interested in personal power, together they gained more subscribers to their "theology" than Moshe or Y'shua. They are
great men in the eyes of men, but one can see how they both cleverly
spurned YHWH's authority and love.
Many automatically accept the
teachings of Hillel or Marcion simply because they follow Rabbinical
Judaism or Christianity, whether they know what these men instituted
or not. There is no doubt that both did what they thought was
"right" but 2,000 years later there is a massive chasm between Jews
and Christians and disdain for one another. Many Jews think of
Christians as pagans and many Christians think of Jews as the Christ-killers
rejected their own Mashiyach.
Love took some hard
knocks when the rabbinical world began hoarding Torah and using it to wield
traditional powers over the souls of others.
Jews rapidly became divided and fell into all
manner of sectarian and secular and religious factions. The Jewish community
was somewhat divided 2000 years ago, as it is today.
The world back then was headed for trouble, love had been eroded
and had grown cold, Jewish people know that it was because of
Jews fighting Jews that the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
Titus and the Romans wiped out the Temple and killed a million Jews and took thousands as slaves, to teach them a lesson, "as many as I love, I rebuke
and chasten", YHWH says. As a result Torah took on
a new life, it had to be renewed as YHWH intended not as within
a segregated culture but as a Universal Charter
accessible to everyone.
YHWH
commanded that the GER (sojourner/stranger/non-Jewish person) be
welcome to enter into the commonwealth of Torah, into the Malchut
Elohim (Kingdom). There are hundreds of verses that indicate this, Caleb the Kenezite was one of the most
instrumental servants of YHWH, he was not a blood brother
to the sons of Israel,
"One law shall be
to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourns among
you."
Sh'mot/Exodus 12:49
"You shall have one
manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own
country:
for I am YHWH your
Elohim."
Vayikra/Leviticus
24:22
"One law and
one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourns with
you."
B'midbar/Numbers
15:16
"Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall
teach men so,
he shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach
them,
the same
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:19
Because the human condition required this, the "seed of woman" came
to earth to define Love and help us understand the meaning and
purpose of life. The fact of the matter is that the world
rapidly lost what Mashiyach established. The Christian
world boasts of 33,800 "Christian" denominations in 2008 who
have all but completely trashed Torah in favor of man-made religion.
Christianity has done to Y'shua what Traditional Judaism did to Torah, they
used their "independence" to make their own tower of Babel
and destroy what YHWH established to reinvent their own form of law and love.
The Author
and inventor of Love also defines Love.
Love is what brought
the Mashiyach to
offer Himself for the rest of the world. The Love of YHWH is that extravagant
life force that glues the inhabitants of the earth together, but
because of Torahlessness the love of many has grown cold.
In many ways Torah is more unpopular among the religious than it is among the
non-religious. Mankind invents plenty of his own ideas about "god" and
then calls anything
and everything love rather that accept what the Word of YHWH teaches
us about love.
For those who don't know much about Torah they see love through the
eyes of religion or traditions that digest Torah
according to a religious mindset. Our values evolve generation
to generation, from universities, synagogues, churches and
newspapers and television. We've all bitten into the
fruit off the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we've all been
"enlightened" to one degree or another by the age old preacher
who preaches that some evil things are good and good things are evil.
Humanity does not have any love of it's own
because we didn't invent love,
what we have
is borrowed from the Author of Love. From the time we were children we had to
learn about and experience love so we could learn to give and share
love. Humanity didn't invent love, love is an internal spiritual gift that is not
a product of the carnal unregenerate man. YHWH says,
"as many as I love,
I rebuke and chasten", Adam and Eve endured a very great rebuke and
each succeeding generation has responded to that rebuke and
chastening one way or another.
YHWH says "as many as I love", this is proactive Love, YHWH applies His love by giving His people great
purpose of being, and He keeps His people
focused in the right direction by putting boundaries to protect us
and keep us
from being eaten by wolves or falling off the humanism cliff into
the abyss of synthetic materialistic "love."
Love keeps us headed in the right direction but
so does pain, when we break Torah our love grows
cold, we return to the "drawing board" and learn about what we need to change. However mankind has devised coping
mechanisms to deal with his loveless choices, we've found creative ways to brush pain
under carpets and avoid the chastening of YHWH, generation after generation we cope with ourselves and others rather
than explore the love of YHWH and His Mashiyach. When people
surround you with empathy and sympathize with your rebellion and
encourage you to defy the love of YHWH then you know you are
revisiting the culture of those who lived in Noah's days who called
good evil and evil good.
Nowadays there are group sessions, counselors and workshops to support
our rebellious natures, leaders are
recognized and paid well to provide warm fuzzies for all, psychiatrists and psychologists soothe
rebellion and extend dysfunction onto the next generation.
People are advised of having "mental disorders" when they
don't accept status quo religion or the science of intellectual
evolutionists
who are the religious titans of our modern era. Homosexuality
is considered by many as inborn, as though YHWH created certain men
to desire to be with men rather than women. Whatever mankind
lusts for he also puts the responsibility upon YHWH for it, why are
homosexuals so adamant about being married and having a State issued
marriage certificate? Because they want their homosexual
choices to be regarded as equal to heterosexual marriage, they want
the world to acknowledge that YHWH who instituted heterosexual marriage also
recognizes their homosexual marriages. YHWH says that He
created male and female in His image and the natural world bears
witness to male and female within the plant and animal domains, but homosexuals
want to reverse the natural and spiritual order of life itself.
YHWH says that man and women are to leave their fathers and mothers
and become one flesh and within the Perfection of the Word of YHWH
when a couple have sex they are physically joined as one and the act
of joining physically also brings protection and fidelity to the
woman and man who become entrusted to each other for the bond they've
made together. Love has a foundation in Righteousness and Justice.
Love is complex, if
love were to be dissected and defined we
would conclude with all the attributes of YHWH in one package that
we call love because Elohim is
Love. Love is such a universal value that our own existence
depends on entirely upon it. It is so powerful that many fear
defining Love because definition would limit love to a formula
and that's not acceptable to many folks. It has been said, that
"he that does not love does not know Elohim (God); for Elohim is
love." It may be very difficult to define love, but
it's much more impossible to define the Giver of Life, the Creator
YHWH.
Love is securely established through "righteous instruction", all righteous instruction nurtures Love. The name for righteous law or
righteous instruction in Hebrew is "Torah." Torah is not only the 5
books of Moses, it is the revelation of righteous instruction within man
so he can take care of his land, animals, plants and those whom he
has been entrusted to
love. There is no higher form of love, covenant or law in the
universe than what YHWH has revealed according to His Spirit
and through His Word.
Very few souls view Torah without
seeing it through the eyes of a religion, most don't have any
incentive to learn Torah because Torah is rarely offered as a solution to their
problems. This is mainly due to the fact that those who
uphold the Bible act as if they have a monopoly on truth,
most religious men want a following of people to be dependant upon
them for answers and in turn receive the "blessings" and support of
their congregations. Some religions like Orthodox Judaism and
Christianity suggest
that people should not be encouraged to be well versed in Torah,
unless they are under the authority of a Rabbi or Pastor, and of course if
you are not Jewish you are advised that Torah is not for you. Isn't
it odd that the author of Life wrote a book about Love, but
some people teach that it's only good for some but not good for others?
Isn't it odd that Christianity is largely ignorant of Torah and have
relegated it to an "Old Testament" that they've done away with?
The cliché that "love is blind" refers to being blind to a persons negative qualities
because of being enamored with the idea (or fantasy) that person
provides, nevertheless it is not love that is
blind it is YHWH's people who are blind to YHWH's love for them. People are
blind to YHWH when they reject His Torah and hence they are blind to Love,
because Elohim is Love and if one wants to know the One True Father
YHWH they must seek to know Him as anyone takes a direct interest in
the person of another whom they love.
The single largest
universal demonstration of
love has been accomplished in Mashiyach ben Yoseph, who is called Yeshua haNatzri
(Yeshua from Nazareth). Even if a person doesn't "believe" in
what Yeshua accomplished they will have a very hard time topping the list of selfless
actions that demonstrate his Love of YHWH. The list of attributes and events of Yeshua's life
are lengthy, but we all know that his love wasn't at all popular with
many in the ruling class and we also know that because of what Y'shua stands
for, the world has come to hate him. There is a large degree of infamy
one must bear in order to follow Mashiyach, which is
why he doesn't have many true followers in these last days.
Not only has the
Christian world shunned the love that Y'shua
demonstrated but they made up a JeZeus
god to replace Y'shua because in reality the carnal nature of man detests the True Mashiyach. Most Christians are ashamed and speak evil against Torah and anyone who would
dare to uphold it, because Torah reveals and even quantifies Love and Faith. We might not see
the connection why YHWH gave the 4th
commandment, "six days you shall labour, but on the Seventh day
Shabbat, you shall rest", or the 3rd, "you shall make the Name of
YHWH equal" (in vain). For many who read the Scriptures these
commandments are seen as religious formulae rather than
directives on how to enter into a meaningful and personal relationship
with YHWH and His Mashiyach. The fact is that these two commandments and
the other eight are universal and have everything to do with relationship and love.
YHWH owns time because He
created it. The seventh day Shabbat is a
window into time eternal, for many Jews Shabbat is a day of
lovemaking, why not? we study Torah, we sing, we dance, we feast and
make love because it's Shabbat! It is YHWH's day of rest that
we enter into, without Shabbat a very important component of love is
lost, the problem is that this is very difficult to explain to
someone theoretically because it is something a person must
personally experience. Human instinct tells us that man needs rest and that the most
important things in life don't come to us by writing checks or
by plastic cards in wallets, the
fact is that we need rest in Him so that we can
regenerate our relationship with Him and each other, we live according to
His heavenly schedule not our own. Shabbat is when all the
prophets and people of YHWH come before Him, Shabbat is a Covenant
between YHWH and His Creation that was given for us to
remember that we are all created by the Author of time itself.
For religious
folk to trash Shabbat is indicative of their
traditional religious experiences, rather than entering into a covenant relationship with YHWH and His
Mashiyach. As the Creation of the earth began with
a dark period, so does Shabbat begin in the evening, indicating a
memorial of Creation and the rest that YHWH ordained from the very
beginning. The Shabbat is also a moral obligation between YHWH
and His people. Shabbat is defined within a universal code of law, if a person
refuses to stop what they are doing they have elevated
their other activities above the Word of YHWH they have diminished
their love for and of YHWH for themselves and for others. A person
wouldn't know this until they've experienced Shabbat and it is
only those who have never entered into Shabbat who speak against the
4th Commandment. Imagine a family enjoying Shabbat rest and
peace and eating together, singing, praying for each other, blessing
one another, but one family member prefers to go to the office to
make business and more money or to a casino to be with other "friends,"
what is most important is love in the moment and Shabbat is the moment of
Love.
What if
the whole world says that we don't need Shabbat, we'll choose
another day for our Shabbat? This is what Christianity has
done, it has syncretized humanism into a self made religion about a
God called Jesus but Christianity today would be unrecognizable by
the original followers of Y'shua, it's a different religion and a
different world from 2,000 years ago when Y'shua and all his
followers entered into Shabbat.
Love and the Commandments are equal to each other, they are one and the
same because Love supports Righteousness and Righteousness is the
fullness of Love, this is what made Yeshua the Mashiyach. He
is perfect in observing the Torah and as such He is perfect in Love.
The office of Mashiyach requires this, Yeshua
could not have qualified as Mashiyach unless he magnified Torah
into the hearts of his followers and this is exactly what he does
when we surrender to him.
The love is blind scenario is for those
who say they "love" but speak against Torah and diminish the
standard of Torah, this is blindness not love.
There is a vast difference between perpetually talking about love
and never
getting around to loving. And what if a whole group of people are
perpetually talking about love but their real fire is in the
theology of love, in meetings, in long discourses about religion or
in motivational talk. The
fact of the matter is that religion is self-love, because the Love of
YHWH is centered in righteousness which is doing Torah, not hearers
of the word but doers are being made righteous. The fact of the matter is that if Believers were
centered on Love within the Kingdom of Elohim Love would be
demonstrated within community, with closeness, belonging, having
everything in common, witnessing the Mighty Arm of YHWH revealed
through prayer and intercession and we would see righteous living
become the standard of the Believer, rather than the adoption of the
material world and Hellenistic structure and hierarchy within the
community of "believers."
To do Torah as a
people is to become universally aware of the Malchut (Kingdom) Elohim
potential within all of mankind, because as love is demonstrated within a group of
people it can be duplicated, but today Torah and Love have taken
a back seat to the Greco Roman culture's perspective of belief,
tradition, religion and knowledge.
Another love is blind religious myth
is that mankind
are helpless, selfish, decrepit sinners who can never become righteous. This
is a massive denial of truth, Y'shua
teaches that he came for the sinner to make them whole and that the
sinner who continues in Torahlessness (lawlessness) is not of
Mashiyach he will even say, "I never knew you, depart from me you doer of iniquity."
Love has taken on a completely new meaning among religious people, love is
a theology taught by the
precepts and commandments of men. Religious people will only
begin to understand their true illegitimacy in Mashiyach Yeshua when
they change and this is also why YHWH invented the time known as Jacob's
trouble it is for "the church", not for the world. Judgment begins in the House of YHWH. In other words if one
says he loves YHWH or Yeshua but doesn't keep His Commandments then
he has asked for disciplinary action, so it's just a matter of time, not if, but when
he will receive it. All loving parents
provides their children with discipline, because they love their children.
"As the
Father has loved me, so have I loved you: so continue in my love.
If you keep
my commandments, you shall abide in my love;
even as I
have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
These
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and
that your joy might be full.
This is my
commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends."
John 14:9-13
"Don't you know
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of Elohim?
Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers,
nor extortionists, shall inherit the kingdom of Elohim. And
such were some of you:
but you are
washed, but you are sanctified, but you are made righteous in the
name of the Master Yeshua,
and by the
Spirit of our Elohim".
1 Corinthians
6:9-11
YHWH be with
you,
Shalom
U'Vrachot,
Baruch Ben
Daniel
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