Quizessentials
Pastor Rick Rethorford was sitting behind the curtain just to the left of the pulpit platform. “Your glory, O Lord, is the point to all that goes on here today. Everyday. May You get the glory through me.” He watched as the room was filling with the noise and motion of family. Today was family day. All the family of the congregation would be present, only toddlers and infants ministries were available today. They would join all for the picnic after this service. 1238 people were now seating and greeting. Worship music still rang across the balusters in the ceiling. The singing was done with not a single instrument today. Voices were the great shout of worship. It had been amazing. The faces of all were filled with joy at the surprise of how fun and full it had been. Rick smiled, and stepped out to greet this family and lead them to the feet of Yeshua… Jesus.
The congregation slowly began to quiet as they watched their beloved Pastor of 25 years step to the pulpit. Reading the quote up on the walls to the right and left, shifting for comfort or discomfort, waiting…
“Good morning!” Rick spoke with his smile accenting his tone.
“Good morning!” Came the crowds reply.
“It’s our 25th anniversary! I thought we’d do it a bit different today. So you children and teens have joined us young and old adults for the service. Today is a whole congregation participation day. In the pockets of the seats in front of you and for those here up front, under your seats; is a paper and pencil. For your convenience a Bible is there to be a table of sorts to write on. Please, if you will would you begin by writing down the character of the Bible you would most like to be like.” Rick stepped back from the pulpit. “This is going to be fun!” He thought to the Lord.
The sanctuary filled with the sound of movement and papers rustling, some laughter and low audience murmurs. Soon, silence as the answers to the first inquiry were being thought of and written down. Eyes looked up in thought, months twitched. Each person rolling through the Word looking for the character of one that they most identified with or admired. There are many. Some wrote immediately. Rick waited until each face was again oriented towards him.
“There are three accounts in the gospels of the paraplegic who Yeshua/Jesus, healed but first He spoke forgiveness over him. This offended the crowd. He then, knowing what they were thinking asked which is easier: to forgive a man’s sin or heal him of his bodies wounds. Which do you think is easier?” Again Rick stepped away from the pulpit to que the congregants to their answers on the paper.
A sea of heads looked down at their papers. Young heads looked to the right and left to see other answers. Rick giggled inside. ” Lord, is it cheating to look at another’s paper?”
Again, Rick waited until all eyes rested on him to step back to the pulpit. He stood there, smiling. Letting the moment fill with joy. Little by little laughter rang out from the family before him. “You won’t be graded for your answers…” relieved humor filled the air more boisterous than before.
“On the bullet signs to my right and left, is a quote from Dr. Larry Crabb. A brother in our family, and respected member of authorship and counseling for the body of Messiah for many years now. I will read it aloud:
“Is the first sentence of this statement true or false?” Once again, Rick stepped away from the pulpit to indicate the congregants que to their papers.
Parents heads leaned over towards younger children who were questioning the question. Others sat looking at the bullets to the right or left, as if the answer was written up there to find. Others simply wrote their answers. 15 minutes passed until all attention rested again on Pastor Rick before them.
In total, 38 minutes had elapsed since the first question. Now the fun would begin. “Please go back to the first answer, who here wrote Yeshua/ Jesus down as your answer?”
A strong sense of consternation filled the air, as those with the answer sought after was revealed. 18 hands were raised. “Please, if you will look around at the hands raised around you.” The moment was pregnant with surprise, both from the few hands and the lack of them that were present in a sanctuary filled to the brim with people. Pastor Rick let the moment sit heavy and thoughtful. “Now it’s important for the second answer to speak to you from your page. How many said it’s easier to forgive sin than heal the physical body?” Again, hands both small and large began raising into the air. Amounting to about 1/3 of the people. All eyes refocused on Pastor Rick after a look around the room. He smiled a tender smile, “The third question could be considered a trick question, if you answered true, you were wrong in technicality. If you answered false you were right in technicality. The Word of God does not begin with a divorce. The story of God’s children in sin, does. You may be wondering how do all these questions tie together, you may not, as you may have already surmised through the Spirit the point to them. It’s not to shame, it’s not a right or wrong answer theme. Instead it’s a bigger question of “first things first” – Rick held up his quote fingers. The truth that we all long to have Yeshua/Jesus be our greatest aspiration for modeling is the point. The character for those who wrote another name can teach you this. So in a way it’s not a wrong answer, but it’s revealing. We live in a dark time in this world, with the light growing dimmer or brighter within the lamp house of our own hearts. My hope is that when we come together we fill each other’s lamps with oil, that helps us shine brighter, even if there’s humility involved. This is a time where discerning questions are crucial. Yet also an atmosphere of welcome for what could appear to be silly questions. Or obvious answers. We don’t gather here every Saturday to learn about the Lord, and that alone… we gather here together to learn about His heart for each of us. For you youngsters in your classes, is Yeshua the first and last thing you want more of when you leave here, for you teens, for each of us adults – this is the same. Age does not change the reality of the goal. Nor does it change the mission for each of us. My duty in love to the Lord is to encourage you to make Him everything – first, last and everything in-between. Your duty in love to the Lord, no matter how old we are, knowledgeable we are, well known or unknown, popular or peculiar – is the same. To know the technical truth of His Word, and the truth Dr. Crabb is getting at. To desire only Yeshua in His Word for our character. And to know that the fact that we all sit here… (tears begin to fall down Pastor Rick’s face, his voice shakes…) forgiven because of Him is far beyond healing of physical bodies, beyond miraculous physical provision, beyond ANYTHING we could ask for or imagine… so now… let us each bow our heads and speak to the Lord our hearts and let Him shape them as a result of the ingredients of this time together. Let’s let Him have the last say to us before we move on to lunch and enjoying each other. Just each of us and Him… let us bow our heads and seek the First and Last, our Salvation, our Hope.”
For the next 30 minutes heads were bowed, in unity but individual captivity to The One who was and is and is to come…
May the Messiah, Yeshua be our hearts decision maker, our minds discernment of wisdom, and our lives the oil of annointing in love. May we be found full and ready as these days open and close with the light of the Sun. May the darkness be as light because He dwells within us and shines through us. May our unity be in Him alone, no matter where our individual relationships be evaluated with Him, may He be our focus and strength. To Him be the glory, and Him alone… now and forever…
A Slave or Free?
This post is dedicated to Ravi Zachariah – a beloved Brother, teacher, and friend of God. May we honor the Lord he lived for, spoke for, and died for… in so doing, we honor him. We shall see you again soon, dear Ravi… very soon indeed!
I cannot emphasize this enough: we must let go of this world, our best ideas for it and in it, not just what we’d change. That’s easy. We must rather be slaves of Messiah than free “Americans” or citizens of this world. We must allow what God actually defined as freedom to be our reality not what the best of “men” may have misinterpreted what God’s Word says. For in the dying of ourselves daily in Yeshua/Jesus, we become entrenched in the war of sin and death verses righteousness and life. All SPIRITUAL THINGS… none of these are temporal. It is the mind of God to bring an absolute end – destruction – of this world, fallen and decaying from sin. To make the New Earth that can not fall… ever again or decay.
Why? Why do we want to hold on to this life? Don’t say it’s because you want to see ________ (fill in the blank)! Would not the beholding of such be better in the world to come? Do we really believe education will end? That celebrating life will end? That watching people or things grow is exclusive to this world? Did not, the God we say we believe in make this world? Is it not, that His presence is the ONLY thing that makes anything good or beautiful, lovely and innocent, worth working and sacrificing for… have we forgotten it requires HIM for any of these things? So, if in the ending of this world as He has put into action… will not the one He has promised be far more amazing for children to grow up in never knowing sin, for families to unite in, for homes to be built, dreams to come true… and no more a career but a lifetime of discovery, never having to prove ones worth, question one’s ability or longevity again… isn’t this better? I challenge you and myself, place in the fire and let it burn whatever we think would be better here and now. Decide now, what will hasten the coming of the Day of the Lord. Fighting for this world or submitting to its end. It does not mean we stop loving who we love, or that we cease to be a mother or father to our children, or that we stop being agents of righteousness through the power and mind of Yeshua the Messiah here and now. It just means we know… trust… that this is temporary and what is to come is far better – yes, worth dying for. Decide now, we must – how we will turn the cheek, do good to those who persecute us, do double what is asked of us if nessessary… pray for our perceived enemies (human). Ask God now, to begin to form such reactions into your very being… because it’s here, dear fellowsheep. It’s not coming anymore. It’s here. It will get “worse” in the sense of more intense, more often, more of us… but the beginning of this started long ago. People are turning on their fellow humans for not wearing a mask for a virus they’ve never seen! Not the way it’s being mind- bending manipulated into people’s psyche. No one has seen people falling in the street dying of a bubonic plaque. They’ve seen videos of China… seemingly of the present… but they could be pieces of past videos. What have we actually seen with our eyes? What can each of us actually testify that we have witnessed? Do not act upon anything else! Learn what science has done to change what God designed in the human/ animal DNA. It’s important or you won’t understand why getting a vaccine which will make it so you can’t buy or sell is tantamount to changing your ability to choose to be in Gods Image – fully human – and die as such or whatever else the”powers that be” wish to transform humanity into… even if it is the ability to not get sick. Decide now, WHOSE plan we’re on board with, because there will be a day where we won’t be able to choose. The Lord, has been faithful to reveal His Word as can be seen in our reality today. Sadly much has been considered “conspiracy theory”. But not unlike when Yeshua came the first time. Those who knew or thought they did, His Word were looking for a totally different kind of savior. One that saved them in this fallen world and took over without destroying the whole thing… just the “bad guys”. Is this any different today? History repeats itself. Prophecy is fulfilled past, present and future. God is omni-…everything! We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds… and we have the mind of Messiah! He died, rose again and is coming again. We will do as He did. But He won’t leave us alone as we go… the same Spirit that tended Him after 40 days of temptation, was given to us as well. He is not sitting at the right hand of the Father, begging for the earth and its beautiful sunsets as they are now (and they are) to be spared from the coming destruction. Read 2nd Peter 3. It’s all going to go. What is broken here can not be fixed, only broken people, and only if they are broken. Choose, this day, whom we will serve. This is the daily call. It’s done daily, because we’re only capable of one at a time. Only Adonai, is capable of all times, for all things. If you watched the YouTube, it’s been shown plainly in scripture, better than I could. If you have not, you may well want to now, to understand what I’ve just posted.
Scriptures to include: 1 Peter 2:11-17; 2 Timothy 2:15; Ephesians 6:10 – emphasis on the Lord and HIS MIGHT!
1 Peter 3:17-18 – But you, dear friends, since you know this in advance, guard yourselves; so that you will not be led away by the errors of the wicked and fall from your secure position. And keep growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah. To Him be the glory, both now and forever! Amen.
His Question
Jeremiah 15:18
Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You be for me like a deceptive vadi, which is only sometimes filled with water?
I’m willing to bet that this question has passed through the heart of every human being – ever. You see, Jeremiah is conversing with God. Now I’m not saying that this question has been asked directly to God by each human. Hence, why so often the question goes unanswered to many. Just a little common sense: you don’t ask a dentist why your toe nail won’t grow correctly. Or the post office delivery driver why your faucet is leaking. The human condition – any human condition can only be answered by the One who MADE humans. Yes?
In the verse above Jeremiah asks, will You be for me like a deceptive vadi? Do you know what a vadi is? It’s a ravine meaning a place of refreshing, calm and peaceful. In essence he’s asking is this peace I find in You real? He’s asking because there’s no difference between his world and the content of confusion and chaos in it than ours today. The assault on the mind from without makes one wonder if that peace that surpasses our understanding given by the Spirit is real sometimes. It’s hard reality to be purposed inside for a Kingdom and physically live in another. Hence, the latter half of the question: which is only sometimes filled with water? One minute the strength of God flows from with us like a steady reliable current, the next it feels like our ravine enter drought territory and a sand bar has hung us up.
I think everyone has that thorn, like Paul, that we ask God to remove persistently. Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? For some it’s the tendancy to sin in general, in whatever form it creeps in or out. For some it’s mental, fear, insecurity, anger, frustration, anxiety. For some it’s physical, illness, disease, chronic pain.
It’s hard not to want to find that doctor or counselor or program or life style or diet or hobby or….to fix it, change it, alter it’s course at the very least, here on earth where we see, touch, smell, feel with our physical bodies. It’s hard to really believe the One who created us would counsel, instruct, and have all the answers we need. It’s even harder when His answer is like Pauls: My grace is sufficient, My power made perfect in your weakness. How does one accept that The Maker of our person would purpose us to have weakness, those that cause pain and confusion?
What was His answer to Jeremiah?
This is ADONAI’S answer:
“If you return – if I bring you back – you will stand before Me. If you separate the precious from the base, you will be My spokesman. It will then be they who turn to you, not you who turn to them. Towards people I will make you a fortified wall of bronze – they will fight against you but not prevail against you; for I Am with you to save you and rescue you,” says ADONAI. “I will free you from the grasp of the wicked and redeem you from the clutches of the ruthless.” (Jer. 15:19-21)
Jeremiah’s thorn? To be God’s physical mouth piece in a world that didn’t want to hear from Him. What is God’s answer, “no problem let Me take you to those who want Me”? No. Only the promise that He would be with, save, rescue, free, redeem and strengthen Jeremiah to do what God made him for. He didn’t color coat the reality, (yep, they will fight against you, they will even come to you, still resistant, but they’ll come to you)
It’s a rather interesting calling, eh? Not unlike each of ours. Ever had someone come to you repeatedly with the same woes, you pray with and for, give scripture for encouragement and strength, listen and shine with your words the Light of Life: and they keep coming back – even display all sorts of human madness in their behavior towards you? At times belittling, gossiping, slandering you, but to your face they seem a friend? At times distancing themselves from you, and you wonder, will they ever really want to know ME? At times angry at you because you won’t “come their way” in your thinking? Is there any of these that God, Himself, doesn’t know far more intimately in experience with every human ever created? Including you? So how can He have the audacity to ask it of us? And not only ask us to experience all that but to forgive and remain faithful!? The question is, do we want to become more like Him or like the us we can be without Him. He is faithful and forgives beyond reckoning to our finite minds. It is possible to do as He does – but not without Him.
For this mitzvah which I Am giving you today is not too hard for you, it is not beyond your reach. It isn’t in the sky, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will go up into the sky for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ Likewise, it isn’t beyond the sea, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ On the contrary, the Word is very close to you – in your mouth, even in your heart; therefore, YOU CAN DO IT! ~ Deuteronomy 30:11-14
In all the search for purposes and meanings to one’s life, the search will end only when they find what Paul, Moses, Jeremiah (and the list goes on) found. That every thought, every function, every action – everything depended on the constant communication and obedience to the One who made them. That He was at the center of every question, and His answers were THE only answers. That doing as He did, does and what He tells them is THE purpose of their existence. That the vadi wasn’t deceptive – or only sometimes filled with water: the world around them is. Yes, that includes those “good things and people” in that world. Nothing can be completely relied upon but Him. Not family, not friends, not that great feeling of accomplishment in any thing on this earth, not romance, not adrenaline rushed fun, not hard work and persistence, not anything here, no concept of man for lasting peace and happiness. And heres the real kicker: not even your own process to having that relationship with God. He will change it up just to remind you: you don’t have what is needed to live life to the full here on your own. It’s all Him, dependant on Him – let Him go for one second and see how far you fall. Yet He’s faithfulness to teach us, His patience and great desire for us to be that connected to Him never ceases. We fall, always into His hands, we fly, always in His Spirit, we run, always in His strength, we forgive, always on the measure in which we receive His forgiveness, we speak His Truth, or we speak lies, we offer kindness, always on the kindness we experience from Him alone, we have compassion, always on our ability to see His compassion for us….we exist with purpose only based on the finding of that purpose IS Him!
It may sound boring or even incomprehensible to some. It is not, but the job of convincing is not ours. Jeremiah’s question is our question, his answer – our answer. It will not change with time, generations, cultures, fads, society, conditions on this earth. It has and always will remain the same:
“Who do you say that I Am?”
How can one answer such a question without knowing Him? Common sense alone teaches: to know something or someone, one must drive thru the halls of that thing or person forever, without quitting to really know them or it. They must have actual experiences with that thing or person. It is not something you can draw a conclusion to and categorize and file away. It’s living, moving, constant experience. Or it’s dead. Sacrifice comes in the form of giving up your right to define everything from your perspective. Sacrifice is love! The first and most important instruction from God?
“Sh’ma Yisrael! ADONAI Eloheinu, Adonai achad (Hear, Israel! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one); and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. These words, which I Am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you travel on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, and write them on the door-frame of your house and on your gates. ~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Notice the total consumption that this entails. It’s not once a day, once a week, even once an hour. It’s constant, continual.
For those who have a hard time undertaking the old Testament is one with the new.
“Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?” He (Yeshua – Jesus) told them, “You are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” ~ Matthew 22:36-37
If sacrifice is love, as defined as above, then this first and most commandment would definitely demand an all consuming nature to constantly be giving up our perspective for His, in everything, in every second, in every circumstance, with everyone and everything we encounter, Forever!
What kind of depth do you allow for the kind of peace and contentment in this world in your living for God? How consuming is it? Is Jeremiah’s question your question? Are you asking the One who can answer? Will you accept with joy and purpose His answer no matter if it’s the one you want? Are you looking for your purpose for existing?
May you be found by Him, and know…
✡ Grace and peace to you, in the Name and person, Yeshua the Messiah, now and forever! ✡
Unfolding My Wings One Day at a Time
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