Intercede or Die

It turns out "To Be Chosen" was part 1, "Wilderness" was part 2 and this is part 3.  We looked at Joel 2:12-17 and we saw that God is calling His people to intercede.  All of his people are to gather, to fast, to realize the sober seriousness of the times and cry out for mercy.  We looked at Amos 7:1-6 and we saw Amos being given a vision of the wrath of God being poured out and crying out to God for mercy.  We read in Romans that only a remnant will be saved among the sons of Israel.  Ezekiel 5:2 and 5:12 seem to indicate 1/3 of the people, so we lined up 6 people and saw that this would mean 4 of those 6 would die in the tribulation the great one.  Amos 5:3 and Ezekiel 20:37 combined with Leviticus 27:32 seem to indicate that those in the direct line of fire from the anti-christ, those not hidden or helped would see 9 out of 10 die. 
So the call is to intercede, the call is to prepare to love and preserve life, the call is to wake up and stop thinking the gospel is just about us, a friend recently said, it is never about us, and by that I think he meant, when we are born again and become a child of the most high King, all that is "us" is taken care of, then we, as recipients of so great a love, give it away, give it away now!

Wilderness - Let's Talk

This week we looked at wilderness in the Bible. 
We saw that it is definitely a place where God calls us out to be in a place with Him where there are no distractions.  This is just a face to face meeting with Him. 
There is a purpose in the wilderness for your life but also way beyond your life.  Just like every widower can talk with more compassion and comfort to another widower - God has a purpose in our wilderness to prepare us to talk of His faithfulness to the next people going through that wilderness.  Our words will cause hope and healing to spring up in their lives, because we will be speaking from a place of having gone through that same space.  Therefore, judgment begins at the household of God, we have our meeting with God where everything that can be shaken will be shaken and then we are ready to be released as wounded healers, people with the same limp Jacob had.  The wilderness reminds us we do not worship a God we can control. 

To Be Chosen Means To Be...

You are chosen to bless others not to impress them.

The tribe of Levi basically owned nothing and were dependent on the bare arm of the Lord, the "I will" of God for their day to day needs.

You are chosen for death that leads to resurrection life.

You are chosen to pay double for your sins and experience the grace of the discipline of the Lord.

You are chosen and your failures can bring glory to the mercy of God.

You are chosen because you are weak to reveal His power.

You are chosen because you are fallen to reveal His mercy.

You are chosen because you are not wise to reveal His wisdom.

To be chosen is to wrestle with God in a fight that He starts and He finishes, you end up with a permanent limp and a greater trust, you win by losing.

To be chosen is to recognize that your life is not your own, to be available to the Master 24/7.
To be chosen is to know sovereign love, which is grace.

Repent and Be Baptized

Numbers 23:19 is the first occurrence of the word "repent" in the Bible (NASB version) 

“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"

This gives us insight into the word, ultimately God is good, and therefore has nothing to repent of.

Ultimately man is fallen and evil, and needs to repent of who he is.

So repentance is an admitting of our fallen condition, and immediately we seek out the solution, to be baptized, to go down into the water, and leave our old fallen man, dead in the water and to rise to newness of life in the Messiah of Israel.  His life flowing through us. 

The proof of this life is not found in perfect following, but in the conviction of God when we fall.  Our hearts are no longer stone, they are soft to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and we turn, we confess our faults to one another and we are HEALED.  Our relationship with our Father is restored to its beauty and perfection once again.

We go forward in life, as set free, beloved, holy, chosen sons and daughters of the Most High! 

This is the gospel of the Kingdom!

Sect of the Hebrew Faith or Something Totally New

"But we would like to hear from you what you think. For concerning this sect, we are aware that it is spoken against everywhere.”  Acts 28:22
 Paul is asked about the sect of the Hebrew faith that he is known to be associated with.  Here is his golden opportunity to rebuke these people and say, "No, no it is not a sect of the Hebrew faith, this is something totally new that was birthed at Pentecost.  This is a separate and distinct gathering from that old thing.  We are new and so much better."  But he never said any of that because he never thought any of that, because none of that is true.
The fact is if the followers of Jesus had said they were starting something new that was not intimately connected to the Hebrew faith the Jewish authorities would have not cared, but their message was Yeshua is the Messiah and King of Israel.  Their message was not Jesus is the head of the church, if it had been that unbelieving Jews could have cared less.

Messiah's Community Has Great and Precious Promises Not Available to Any Other Gathering

2 Corinthians 6:16 - 7:1"¹⁶ What agreement does God’s Temple have with idols^..  For we are the temple of the living God—just as God said,

“I will dwell in them and walk among them;
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be My people.^[f]
17 Therefore, come out from among them,
    and be separate, says Adonai.
Touch no unclean thing.^[g]
    Then I will take you in.^[h]
18 I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be My sons and daughters,
                    says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”^{[i] 
7 Therefore, since we have these promises, loved ones, let us cleanse}

^{ourselves from all defilement of body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."}

Foot notes   f   2 Corinthians 6:16 cf. Exod. 29:45; Lev. 26:11-12; Jer. 32:38; Ezek. 37:27.

                  g    2 Corinthians 6:17 cf. Isa. 52:11.

                   h   2 Corinthians 6:17 cf. Ezek. 20:34, 41.

                   i    2 Corinthians 6:18 Grk. Kurios Pantokrator (Lord Almighty); cf. 2 Sam. 7:8, 14(2 Ki. 7:8, 14 LXX); 1 Chr. 17:13; Isa. 43:6; Hos. 12:6(5).

^{Since the "Therefore" is referring back to the promises, which put us in a place of rest in the Messiah, from which}

^{we can then LIVE a life of where His government is ever increasing in our lives, our unity with Him is ever growing}

^{and our place in His community is the catalyst for others to become more on fire for the Messiah the King of Israel, let's look}

^{more closely at these precious promises one by one.  Paul did a beautiful job of mashing them up all together.}

^{Exodus 29:45} So I will dwell among Bnei-Yisrael and be their God.

Leviticus 26:11-12   ¹¹ I will set My Tabernacle among you, and My soul will not abhor you. ¹² I will walk among you and will be your God, and you will be My people.

Jeremiah 32:38   They will be My people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 37:27  My dwelling-place will be over them. I will be their God and they will be My people.

Isaiah 52:11  ¹¹ Leave, leave! Get out of there!

                       Touch no unclean thing.    

                      Go out of her midst. Purify yourselves,

                      you who carry the vessels of Adonai.

Ezekiel 20:34   I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries

                        where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with fury poured out.

Ezekiel 20:41  With your sweet aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples

                        and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.

2 Samuel 7:8-14   ⁸ So now, thus you shall say to My servant David: Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. ⁹ I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make your name as great as the greatest on earth. ¹⁰ I will also set up a place for My people Israel and will plant them, so they may dwell in their own place and not be disturbed again. Nor will the children of wickedness afflict them anymore as in the past, ¹¹ since the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. So I will give you rest from all your enemies.

“Moreover, Adonai declares to you that Adonai will make a house for you. ¹² When your days are done and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed, who will come forth from you after you, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish his royal throne forever.  ¹⁴ I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me.  If he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and with the strokes from sons of men.

^{1 Chronicles 17:13}   I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me,  I will not withdraw My lovingkindness from him, as I withdrew it from the one who ruled before you.

Isaiah 43:6   I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
                         and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
                     Bring My sons from far
                           and My daughters from the ends of the earth.

Hosea 12:5-6  Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won;
                            he wept and sought his favor.
                      At Bethel he will find us,
                            and there He will speak with us.
                       ⁶ Even Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot—
                           Adonai is His memorial-Name.

Oh the burden on my heart is that we would remove, discard, cast away any preconceived notions and let the Spirit of God reveal this truth.

These promises that Paul is pointing out to the mostly gentile gathering in Corinth,  are promises spoken to the chosen people of God and their Messiah King of Israel.  You become a beneficiary of these promises by coming in to His chosen people, bowing to enter the tent of Shem, shaking off the gentile, Japheth pride that would say you have to build something new.  No, in humility, rejoice and accept and come in to the fullness of your calling to come into the already existing, one faith, the faith, the faith of your father Abraham, the chosen people in the one book with one story and One Truly Great Shepherd, who has one bride! Messiah's Community is the organism on the earth that is empowered to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons" all to demonstrate the glory of the coming Kingdom.  All to proclaim that the King is good, merciful, kind and has all power.  The high calling on our lives is fulfilled in Messiah's community and no where else.

Messiah's Community is Life

Acts 16 ^4" As they were traveling through the cities, they were handing down the rulings that had been decided upon by the emissaries and elders in Jerusalem, for them to keep. ⁵ So Messiah’s communities were strengthened in the faith and kept increasing daily in number."

So here goes Paul the Jewish apostle to the gentiles, after having been to Jerusalem to hash out with the leaders there, the answer to the question, "How do we assimilate gentile believers into this already existing chosen people, sons of Abraham?"

The leaders very wisely went back to Leviticus where this problem had already been addressed.  There they found 3 or 4 rules that would guide gentiles into inclusion with the people of God, without the need for circumcision or the following of all the laws lovingly given to the Jewish people.  

Paul took these rules to the gentile gatherings that were being established all over the then known world and what was their response?  Did they push them away and say, no we don't need these rules and we don't need to submit to the decision of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, we are a new entity, we are called the church and we are superior to everything Jewish.  No they didn't they rejoiced, they accepted the rules and they were strengthened in the faith and kept increasing in number.

So if "church" appears anemic to you especially in light of the current crisis, maybe it is because years and years later.  Man created something that did reject everything Jewish, God in His mercy always maintains a remnant, but "church" that cuts itself off from Jerusalem and the chosen people is a lie, and in the coming times when everything that can be shaken will be shaken it will fall.

Run to the Good Shepherd, Yeshua the Messiah and King of Israel, and be a part of His already existing beautiful community.