Tag Archives: Church

It’s Time to Turn the Church Inside Out

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Want to get radical? Most church congregations hold their meetings indoors where no one on the outside can see or hear them. How about turning the church inside out? Instead, hold services outside in the parking lot for the whole world to see? Take the light of the saints out of the bushel basket called a church building and put it outside!

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This Sabbath (Shabbat) afternoon, our congregation will be holding an outreach Shabbat services in the parking lot (along a busy boulevard) of the church building we rent. We’re going to have live music, worship dance, worship flag ministry, preaching, passing out food to the hungry, passing out Bibles and tracts to the spiritually hungry, and praying for those with needs. Below is what will be on a flyer we’ll be passing out to those who drop in to  visit us.

To help you on your spiritual journey, here are a number of free resources our ministry makes available:

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The Torah and Testimony—A Stone of Stumbling

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In the following several verses we see an amazing prophecy concerning the two houses of Israel who, generically speaking, have become the modern church and the rabbinic Jews.

Here Isaiah prophesies about the canonization of the Bible into two subdivision—the Torah (or loosely speaking, the Old Testament) and the Testimony (the New Testament). He also predicts that each of these two religious groups (the Jew and he Christians) would spiritually stumble over or have a problem with the identity of the Messiah, who is the Stone of Stumbling and the Rock of Offense. In general, as we shall see, the Christians struggle with the pro-Torah message of the Old Testament (or Word of Elohim), and the Jews reject the message of the New Testament (or Testimony of Yeshua) about the Messiahship of Yeshua.

Bible for the world

Isaiah 8:14–15, Stone of stumbling. Both houses of Israel (Ephraim and Judah; i.e., the Christian [see notes at Gen 48:14,16] 48: and the Jews) have stumbled over the stone of stumbling, who later on is identified as Yeshua, the Messiah (1 Pet 2:4–8; Rom 9:32–33; 1 Cor 1:23). The non-believing Jews stumbling over the Messiahship of Yeshua who is the Living Torah-Word of Elohim incarnate (John 1:1,14), while the Christians stumble over the Written Torah, which they claim was abolished and is minimally relevant to them.  This stone of stumbling is an obvious reference to Yeshua who is a stone of stumbling to both houses of Israel (i.e., the non-believing Jews and the Christians.) The Christians stumble over or reject (at least, in part)Yeshua who is the Written Torah-Word of Elohim (John 1:1). The non-believing Jews, on the other hand, reject Yeshua, the Living Torah-Word of Elohim who came in flesh form (John 1:14). Continue reading →

 

Are You Churched Out? Something to Think About…

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 Forsake Not the Assembling…

The Purpose of the Local Congregation—
Why Redeemed Israel Must Assemble Each Sabbath and on the Biblical Feasts 

Church attendance is plummeting in America. Though roughly 85 percent of Americans claim to be Christian, only a very small percentage of these people attend church services weekly. Those who do, spend only one or two hours a week in church at the most. Even many Messianics/Hebrew Roots believers have become victims of these trends. There seems to be a lack of discipline about regular church attendance, and many seldom go if at all. For many, church attendance has become a perfunctory ritual; people feel that they need to go to church, but they’re not sure why they do it.

In Israel in the time of Yeshua and earlier, the synagogue was the heart and soul of each community. It was  the place of spiritual and secular education, prayer, fellowship, and acted as a sort of community center. We see that this was the case among the first century redeemed believers as well.

As many of us return to the spiritual and Hebraic roots of the Christian faith, then perhaps we need to reevaluate the role the local congregation played in the lives of our spiritual forefathers, and what the Bible teaches about this to see if our lives are mirroring the Word of Elohim. If not, then we need to ask ourselves some hard questions as to why so many among us no longer see the need to gather together with like-minded believers on YHVH’s appointed times (the weekly Sabbath and seven biblical feasts).

The Word of Elohim has much to say about the importance of gathering together regularly on YHVH’s Sabbaths including the biblical festivals. In fact, this is key to the spiritual survival of YHVH’s people, which is a crucial reason YHVH commanded his people to do it.

Yeshua told his disciples (and us), that if we love him, we will keep his Torah-commandments (John 14:15), which includes gathering together at his appointed times.

Yeshua rebuked the religious hypocrites of his day for professing to obey YHVH with their mouths, but for not backing up their profession with action (Matt 15:8). James instructs us that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:26).

Yeshua rebuked the Laodicean believers for professing a faith in him, when, in reality, they were spiritually lukewarm. Elsewhere Yeshua discusses those who have professed a faith in him, who have claimed to have followed him, and who even appear to have done great spiritual works in his name, but who have failed to do the basic will of his  Father by walking in obedience to his Torah. This includes gathering together as a spiritual community on his Sabbaths and feasts. On judgment day, Yeshua will tell these sincere, but sincerely misguided people to depart from him — that he doesn’t know them (Matt 7:21–23)!

Some Points to Ponder About the Importance of Congregational Life

Torah commands Israelites to assemble weekly on the Sabbath (Heb. Shabbat) and at the seven annual feasts, which are set-apart convocations (Heb. miqrai kodesh) and appointed times (Heb. moedim, Lev 23:2).

Consider this: Continue reading →

 

The Golden Calf and the Church

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Exodus 32, The Golden Calf Incident: A Prophetic Picture of the Church

On Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost), at Mount Sinai, YHVH entered into a marriage covenant with the children of Israel, but they were not ready to live up to the terms of that covenant.

Those terms, simply stated, involved the Israelites being faithful and obedient only to YHVH, Israel’s Elohim (God) and spiritual husband, and to his instructions in righteousness, the Torah. This Israel quickly demonstrated they were not willing to do, for they had hardly said “I do” to their marriage vows (Exod 24:3,7) when they made and began worshipping a golden calf—a pagan deity from Egypt — and calling it YHVH.

Between the time of the festival of Shavuot and Yom Teruah (the Day of the Awakening Blast) when Moses received the second tablets of stone from YHVH containing the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel, the bride of YHVH, prepared herself not only to receive YHVH’s instructions again, but this time to be faithful to her marriage vows. This Israel did. She remained faithful to YHVH for approximately 38 years while trekking through the wilderness of Sinai, after which she entered the Promised Land and “stayed the course” until after the death of Joshua.

Similarly, redeemed Israel of the first century A.D. era received the Torah on the fleshly tablets of their hearts written by the finger of the Spirit of Elohim on the Day of Pentecost (Shavuot) as recorded in Acts 2. But starting at about A.D. 70 with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and continuing up through the Second Jewish Revolt of A.D.135 until the time of Emperor Constantine (in the fourth century), the first-century spiritual bride of Messiah had, for the most part, abandoned YHVH’s Torah-commandments and turned, to one degree or another, to a mixed form of worship (of which ancient Israel’s worship at the golden calif was a prophetic foreshadow) where some pagan practices were assimilated into the early churches’ belief system (most notably, Sunday replaced the Sabbath, and Christmas and Easter replaced the biblical feasts).

In our day, YHVH is calling out a remnant of people from the church who are leaving behind the pagan traditions of golden calf worship and who are returning to the ancient blessed paths of YHVH’s Torah-instructions in righteousness. Does not the book of Revelation speak of a group of end-time saints who will say “I do” to YHVH, and whose identifying mark is their faith in Yeshua the Messiah (i.e., the gospel message) and yet who faithfully keep YHVH’s Torah-commandments (Rev 12:17 and 14:12)?

When Yeshua returns on or near Yom Teruah (the Day of the Awakening Blast) at the end of the age, he will be ready to marry a bride that is without spot and wrinkle who has come out of the Babylonish religious whore system (Rev 18:4). This bride who will be wearing the robes of righteousness of Torah-obedience (Rev 12:17; 14:12; 19:7–9, and she will be ready to enter into a covenantal agreement—a wedding contract or ketubah—with Yeshua, the Bridegroom ever to remain faithful to him and never again to return to Baal or golden calf worship. He will lead his wife into the Messianic Age or Millennium, even as he in the pillar of fire through Joshua (in Hebrew, Yeshua) led the younger generation of wilderness Israelites into the Promised Land.

 

King Saul and the Church

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1 Samuel 24:16–21 (also 26:25), Here King Saul prophesies that David will succeed him as king over Israel, and that he will do great things and prevail. There were other instances of Saul coming under a spirit of prophecy (also 10:10–11; 19:23–24).

Saul was capable of hearing the voice of Elohim, but because of unrestrained carnality, a spirit of rebellion (15:23), and his inability to submit to the will of Elohim, he was spiritually conflicted. Clearly, YHVH was not in his heart (15:15, 21, 30). Within Saul was a constant struggle between doing the will of Elohim and his own will. The latter usually won out, because he had not unconditionally surrendered his will to YHVH (15:23, 26). Saul was swayed more by popular opinion than by the Word of Elohim (15:24, 30). Saul was able to worship Elohim (15:31), but was spiritually weak and not able to obey the Word of Elohim (15:23, 26). Is it possible to love and worship Elohim without obeying his Word?

Yeshua declared that those who love him will obey his commandments or his Word (John 14:15). James wrote that the demons even tremble before Elohim (Jas 2:19), even though they are in rebellion against the Word of Elohim.

Faith, works and obedience must accompany the worship and fear of Elohim (Jas 2:14–26). Though Saul paid lip service to YHVH, his heart was far from him. He obeyed when it was convenient and expedient to him.

Isaiah similarly spoke of the rebellious Israelites who drew near to YHVH with their lips, but in reality, their hearts were far from him (Isa 29:13). Yeshua quoted and applied this verse to the hypocritical and rebellious religious leaders of his day (Matt 15:6–7).

Have you ever thought that Saul may be a spiritual type of the church, which teaches and obeys the Torah-Word of Elohim only in part, but otherwise follows a Torahless (at times, even anti-Torah) belief system?

But let’s not be arrogant against our Christian brothers! How much of the Saul-mentality do we still have in us—even among those who claim to love and to follow the Torah? How do we find the spiritual blind spots in our own hearts?