Gentiles are Great at Dividing the Body of the Messiah

 https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-bitter-splinters-of-marburg

Such a sad article.

Because gentiles have a gigantic problem with pride, God's unfathomable wisdom, brought them into the body of the Messiah by bowing to enter the tent of Shem. (Full Credit to Art Katz for that phrasing.) We (gentiles) are grafted into their vine, we worship their Messiah, The Father of the Messiah has a title used amazingly often in the Bible, "The God of Israel" (and Israel is undeniably referring to the chosen people and the Land of promise).  Theirs is the prophets, the promises, the covenant, we (the gentiles) are brought into their (Israel) commonwealth.  

Only arrogance could over-ride all the plainly spoken words of scripture and somehow create something called the "church" and push it to the forefront and make it a gentile gathering that allows in Jews who jump through the right hoops.

Only arrogance could push the bride aside, steal her clothes and try to show up on her wedding day, announcing yourself as the "new" bride.

Having and keeping Israel at the center of the one book, with one story called the Bible, will help to crush gentile pride and keep us in a place of humility.  Without that we will continue to actively work against the prayer of Yeshua in John chapter 17, and that will not end well.

Repent.

Patriotism is Mixture

Exhibit A in the case against mixture is the Nazi belt buckle from their uniforms.  Gott Mit Uns translates to God with us.

See the problem with "God and country"?

See how when you tie God to your country and God to your patriotism things can go south pretty quickly?

The gentile nations are under the control of the gods in this evil age.

God chose Israel and that choosing has covenantal blessings and cursing, it is not an easy burden to carry.

God is not "with" any gentile nation. He can be with individual gentiles in those nations, but not the entire nation.  

We are nearing the latter days, the day of the Lord is approaching.  All nations will rebel against God and all governments will be doing their futile best to shake the yoke of His sovereignty.

Patriotism is mixture at least and idol worship at worst.

This is a call to repent and come out of it.

God alone.  Purity.  No mixture.

Book Review: The Return of the Gods by Jonathan Cahn

 The Return of the Gods" by Jonathan Cahn is filled with subtle lies that twist the truth and will not lead people to the true Kingdom of God. It is false mainly because of the same reason all his other books were false. They do not recognize that Israel and Jerusalem are the center of prophecy and that the kingdom is in the age to come. The false foundation this book starts with is, America started as a "Christian nation" and the demons were cast out, then in the 1960's God was kicked out of the schools and that allowed for the return of the gods, false gods who since then have been manipulating culture and politics and bringing all kinds of evil upon this country. You would have to ignore slavery, the plethora of evils perpetrated on the Native American, the anti-semitism led by Charles Lindberg and Henry Ford prior to World War II, the anti-semitism blatant throughout the State Dept. during FDR's administration, the greed that drove powerful rich men to make employment in the USA  a dangerous place to be with a 1 in 26 chance of being maimed or killed, the very existence of the Klu Klux Klan, the horrors perpetrated on various immigrant groups and the quota's placed on them in the 1920's that have become the basis of keeping people out of the country who face death in their own country and on and on. It is not hard to demonstrate that whatever your concept of a Christian nation is, the USA has never been that.  

Apparently Jonathan has been reading Michael Heiser and some of his good scholarship on the existence of the gods in Jewish and other literature throughout time. The reason the lies are subtle is that a good case can be made for their existence and for them being put in charge of the nations, while the Lord God of Israel, chooses Israel as the nation He will be in charge of and  he will use them to reach the other nations. We gentiles are put in the nations with the purpose of being drawn to the living God.  At no time does the Bible say it is possible to displace these gods over the nations by means of prayer or revival. Daniel's prayers in chapter 9 are used by God to free up a messenger to get through and reveal important truths to Daniel, but the "prince of Persia" is still there and still wreaking havoc. This death and destruction is meant to point our hearts toward a longing for justice and peace, which is the Kingdom of God. Our time in the nations, in this evil age, is meant to make us long and search for the true God, to cry "Maranatha!" for His return, to set up His Kingdom here on earth, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. We do not set up that Kingdom through some massive revival in a gentile nation.  That is no where in scripture. No where.

What does the Bible say?  In the millennial time, Israel as a nation that has experienced national conversion, will reach out to and see the conversion of the nations. 

At this time, in what the Bible calls "this evil age" those of us in the mainly gentile gathering of followers of Yeshua reach out to our neighbors and community and spread the message of the forgiveness and love that God has shown on the cross and the glory of the soon coming Kingdom.

Hopefully as a disciple of Jesus, you will be drawn by the Spirit to test this book and find that it is a lie and that you would be better off examining the scriptures and the tried and tested authors who are out there. Art Katz, Charles Spurgeon, A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, etc.

 

That West Wing Clip

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CPjWd4MUXs   

This clip from the TV show "West Wing" is used quite frequently by people to show how silly God's rules are, this was my response.

That West Wing clip seems pretty cool, until you, with humility, look at the scriptures and the wisdom of God given to His chosen people. Exodus 21 allows for a person who has fallen on hard times to "sell" his daughter to be a servant in a rich person's household. In the year of Jubilee she would be set free and the rich person does not just walk up to the poor person and buy the daughter. So can you just walk up and buy someone's daughter, nope! Exodus 35, and this will apply to most of the questions, is spoken to a nation that was to be set apart for God. They were going to be learning lessons about the fact that they could trust God. They were coming out of a slavery situation where Pharaoh made them work 7 days a week, they were to learn that the God of Israel was not like that, He made provision for rest and worship one day a week and He promised to provide for them on that day. The Jewish people, as a group are God's chosen people, He chose them and with that choosing comes many blessings and when they disobey, cursing and death, the natural consequences of rejecting life. It is key to note these rules (including the dietary rules) do not apply to the goyim, the gentiles, so no other nation or people is expected to live by them or enforce them. (Now if someone like Trisha sees wisdom in the dietary rules, she can voluntarily follow them, but she does not have to.) Leviticus 11 as we see in verse 2 was spoken to the Israelites, so no Mr. President it does not apply to the (former) Washington Redskins. The laws about mixture in crops or clothing were meant to teach this set apart nation that they were not to live like the other nations. Purity is the opposite of mixture and that is what they were being taught. Priests garments had mixture and so were the tassels that everyone could wear, but the tassels were an exception to the rule, a regular member of 11 of the tribes could not wear what the priestly tribe wore. Think of it like today, it is illegal to dress like a police officer, because you do not have that authority. (Again these laws are specific to the nation Israel, that was being set apart to be a light to the other nations.) Of course at the end, we see that the whole rant of this president was because he was the authority in the room and he insisted on the protocol that when the President was standing no one was allowed to sit, demonstrating that he saw himself as a "little god" and was butt-hurt by the disrespect being shown to his office by a "lesser human". He did all that homework so that he could embarrass and humiliate another person, sounds like the sin of pride was self-evident!

Prosperity Kills

 Deuteronomy 32, the Song of Moses, is a compact summary of the story of God and His first born son, Israel.  In it we find Israel given the name Jeshurun, which is a name that applies to them when their lives are prospering and things are going well.  God brought the prosperity, but Moses is clearly shown the when the nation prospers, it goes after other gods, and scorns the God of Israel.

Yeshua warns His followers that the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches and and the lust for other things would lead them away from Him.  John in one of his letters warns of the same thing and in Revelation Laocidea becomes the poster child for a prosperous gathering that is in all actuality, poor, blind and lame.

In other words "Prosperity Kills".  

WHY?  

As I see it, prosperity removes us from the moment to moment dependence on God that is the perfect soil for the seed of the gospel.  Persecution and poverty help to keep us pulled in tight under the wing of God, His protection and provision.

When our identity is one who is beloved and shown great mercy by God our lives will reflect that.

We will live from this identity as a people who desire to have their lives count in an ultimate way.  Our purpose is to live in such a way as to give glory to God and in order to be a blessing to others.

We never do to earn an identity.  We are given an identity and the Life of Yeshua inside of us begins the process of total transformation of our outward man.  

As it was for the Jews building the temple, first the altar is built and then the temple is built around that.

Marantha, Lord God of Israel, have Your way!

Who Loves Us and ...

 

Revelation 1:4 John, To Messiah’s seven communities in Asia:

Grace to you and shalom from Him who is and who was and who is to come, as well as from the seven spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Messiah Yeshua, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood 6 and made us a kingdom, kohanim to His God and Father—to Him be glory and power forever! Amen!

7 “Look, He is coming with the clouds,
and every eye shall see Him,
    even those who pierced Him.
And all the tribes of the earth
    shall mourn because of Him.
Yes, amen!”

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,”[d] says Adonai Elohim, “Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!”

Very blessed as we were studying this passage to see in the midst of "Who was and is and is to come" and the Alpha, the Omega, the Almighty, we heard the very personal words "who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood".  

Wow, so precious, so filled with mercy.  Thank You, mighty, sovereign LORD of all, God of Israel, King of Kings, we are so grateful for YOU!

LONGING!

There are many things in this evil age, that cause us to cry Maranatha!

Mercy, Lord!

We are grateful for every time the powers of the age to come break into this world and bring You glory.

This powerful LONGING that God would return and make all things right

This powerful LONGING that God would return and wipe away every tear from our eyes

This powerful LONGING that God would return and crush the power of death

This powerful LONGING that God would return and heal all disease

This is the Maranatha cry.

Mercy does break into this age and at times the powers of the age to come are revealed and they reveal and bring Glory to the Most High, the God of Israel.

Let us be those who trust in His faithfulness and long for His coming.

(Good article from Watchman Nee http://articles.ochristian.com/article1919.shtml )