For more than 200 years there’s been a concerted effort to progressively put the God of the Bible into the back seat and then standing on the shoulder of the road to knowledge about how things came to be and how we should live. Why should we care? Because two-thirds of children raised in Christian […]
In part 2 of our deep dive into Messiah Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-36), we explore the Beatitudes and discover how we can find true happiness through sorrow over life apart from the Creator and joy over Heaven’s Anointed One who heals the pain.
It should be an easy choice: life vs. death. Unfortunately many people willingly choose death rather than life because they don’t want to submit their hearts, souls and minds to God.
It’s important to understand that following Torah is our free choice. It is easy to fall into analysis paralysis of learning God’s instructions, and Deuteronomy 29-30 (Torah reading Netzavim) can bring us back to our center when we fall into that trap.
As Rosh Hashanah (aka Yom Teruah and Day of Blowing Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonment) approach, it’s a good reminder to be more forgiving of the small things that others do to annoy us. And what we do to annoy them.
We need to forgive those as we want to be forgiving. The Messiah forgives a massive amount of trespasses. The LORD covers over those egregious sins, so we can at least let go of the much smaller trespasses others do to us.
We may think we’re far removed from the horror show described in the Torah reading כי תבוא Ki Tavo (“when you come in,” Deut. 26:1-29:8), but each of us encounters stress that pushes off any mask from our true characters.
A key point in this passage is entering and living in the “rest” God gives us, fully realized through the Messiah and the Spirit. Like Israel’s move from Mitsraim (Egypt) to the Land, our entering God’s “rest” (Hebrews 3–4) is all about a change of identity, purpose and character.
This Bible study looks at the parallel reading for Ki Tavo: Isaiah 60, which Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) quoted. The Exile, both literal and spiritual, is a time of darkness and desolation. When the darkness is great, the light is even easier to spot. Unfortunately, we tend to focus on the darkness. Most of our entertainment focuses on the darkness. God has shown us the Light of the world.
Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) revealed the heart of God in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-36). Why does the venue matter? Both teach us important sides of the Messiah.
Join us for the first in-depth look in this series on these two important messages from the Messiah.
Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) said, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30 NASB). But how do we learn the will of the Father by which Yeshua judges?
As Yeshua lived by “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4; Deut. 8:3), so can we. The Torah passage שֹׁפְטִים Shoftim (“judges,” Deut. 16:18–21:9) is all about how judges and officers of justice should conduct themselves.
Torah reading רְאֵה Re’eh (“see,” Deut. 11:26–16:17) immediately starts out with Moses’s reminder that God wants to bless the legacy of Israel in the land He provided, but He expects them to act in a certain manner. As His representatives on earth, the descendants of Israel are to act like Him, not like people of the nations around them.
Yeshua (Jesus), the Word of God made flesh, gave His apostles and those who would follow them the same advice: If you want to know how Yeshua walked and how to imitate Him, then all these stories will help you understand Yeshua better.