Author: Jeff

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Where everyone knows the Name (Genesis 12)

Where everyone knows the Name: When your legacy depends on moving out on faith (Genesis 12)

In the Torah reading לֶךְ-לְךָ Lech Lecha (Genesis 12–17), we are introduced to Abram (later renamed Abraham) when he is called to leave his hometown to for a new land.

God calls us into community, not only with Him but with His people. This is why He establishes a land, a place of rest where people can focus on fellowship with Him, whether one is in the land or not.

This Promised Land, originally occupied by Abraham, is meant to be a “home” for all of His people. It’s where God put His name, where the Word became flesh, died and rose, and where the King of Kings will return to restore the world to the maker’s specifications.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Why ‘living water’ is better than water that destroys (Isaiah 54; Genesis 6–9; 2Peter 3)

Why 'living water' is better than water that destroys: How to get ready for Heaven's reset for you and the world (Isaiah 54; Genesis 6-9; 2Peter 3)

Do you want to be like one who was “taken” in the Flood, washed away (Isa. 54:9–11)? Or do you want to be “left behind” to experience the “living water” pictured as flowing from God’s throne into all the world on the Day of the LORD (Ezek. 47:9, 11–12; Rev. 22:1–2)? 

We are living the time of the second exile — after the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) and after the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. The Torah reading נֹחַ Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) teaches us to see Heaven’s elephant in our room while we have the time to change.

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Appointments With God Discussions Tabernacles

Don’t let your joy in the spiritual world blind you to the harsh reality of this world

Don't let your joy in the spiritual world blind you to the harsh reality of this world. Split view of a Sukkot sukkah and a crime scene with police tape.

The repetitive cycles of our lives feel pointless. God created the world cyclical, but He did not create cycles of suffering and sin. These cycles seem pointless, but what God has created is never pointless.

From the Bible book of Ecclesiastes and related passages, we learn that our current world is abnormal. This is not the way God created it. It’s only our “normalcy bias” that leads us to assume that these cycles of history, of life and death are normal. Death is an aberration in time, but we have become accustomed to it because we live with it.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Got knocked down? You can get up again (Deuteronomy 32–34)

Got knocked down? You can get up again (Deuteronomy 32-34)

The Torah does not end on a high note, but on a solemn one. The final dual reading — הַאֲזִינוּ Ha’azinu (“listen,” Deuteronomy 32) and וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה Vezot Haberachah (“and this is the blessing,” Deuteronomy 33–34) — is written so that when the descendants of Israel eventually hit rock bottom, they would see the way back home.

This restoration only is possible by the perfect Atonement offering — the Mashiakh (Christ). This is why we read through the entire Torah over the course of the year and put into practice those things that apply to us.

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Appointments With God Atonement Discussions

Faith meets fullness of mercy in Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

Faith meets fullness of mercy in Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) - Leviticus 16

For everyone except Israel’s high priest, the Tabernacle/Temple service of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is all about faith — no one else is present there. It takes several layers of faith to believe that what the high priest is doing would heal the rift between Heaven and Earth. So it’s only that Yom Kippur finds its fullness and its enduring lessons-in-practice through faith in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus).

https://hallel.info/atonement-2022/

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Discussions Torah Trumpets

Mercy of Heaven on display at Rosh Hashanah

Mercy of Heaven on display at Rosh Hashanah (Yom Teruah, Trumpets)

Just as the trumpet blast during Rosh Hashanah (aka Yom Teruah) and God’s other appointments were calls to awe and joy in Heaven, so too, the resurrection and transformation on the Day of the LORD will be a happy time — for those with their hearts tuned to Heaven’s station.

Amid all the disasters foretold to be coming on the world during this time, there’s the good news that the Messiah will be bringing the misery of a sin-stained world to an end.

https://hallel.info/trumpets-2022/

Categories
Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Choose life: Live with nothing to hide (Deuteronomy 29–30; John 12)

Choose life: Live with nothing to hide (Deuteronomy 29-30; John 12)

Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) taught that the life choices that are truly profitable long-term aren’t obvious to those with the worldview of the now (John 12:25).

That teaching parallels the main theme of the Torah reading נִצָּבִים Nitzavim (“standing,”Deut. 29:9-30:20): “choose life.” One would think that choosing life over death would be a no-brainer, but we learn that this command is simultaneously easy and extremely difficult.