I am amazed at the mean and hurtful words that are thrown at those believers who are serious about keeping Yahweh’s Law.  For example, those who have chosen to keep the Ten Commandments, to follow the dietary laws (clean and unclean meats), to keep the 7th day Sabbath, and to keep the scriptural feast days are often labeled as Pharisaical and legalists.  They are accused of trying to “earn their salvation” and even called blasphemers and false prophets.  They are also accused of denying His grace.

These allegations make no sense to me!

When a woman falls in love with her future spouse, how does she act?  She will find out everything she can about her intended and then she will try to please him as much as possible.  She will cook to please him, dress to please him and act to please him.  Because she loves him, she will go out of her way to do things his way and not hers.  She demonstrates her love for him through her actions.

Are we not to act the same way with our Savior?  If we truly love Him and are grateful for what He has done for us, should we not strive to do the things that please Him?

Yahshua tell us in John 14:15 that if we love Him we should follow his commandments.  Should we not demonstrate our love through our actions?

Yahshua suffered miserably and gave up His life for us so that each one of us could receive the gift of grace.  It is an incredible gift that is the key to eternal life with Him.  We can ask for that gift and receive it without doing a thing.  It is totally free for the asking.

There is NOTHING we can do to earn that gift…absolutely nothing.

With this free gift, comes the strength and the responsibility to overcome sin by His spirit dwelling in us.  Once we receive that incredible gift, are we to ignore that gift and continue to sin as before?  As Paul says in Romans, Yah forbid!

If we truly appreciate what He has done for us, we should be willing to do anything for Him, including following his rules.  By keeping the Law, we are not trying to earn our salvation; we are demonstrating our love for Him.

Because we are human, the grace provision is used every day. When we sin (an sin is defined in 1 John 3:4 as the transgression of the law), we don’t receive the true penalty for sin, which is death (Romans 6:34).  As 1 John 1:9 promises, if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from unrighteousness.

Now that is grace!

By seeking His will, we will get to know Him intimately, just like the woman gets to know her beloved.

One of the most unnerving passages in scripture is in Matthew 7, straight from the Messiah’s mouth:

Not everyone who says to Me, Master, Master , will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but the ones who do the will of My Father in Heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, Master, Master, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many works of power?  And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; “depart from Me, those working lawlessness!”  (Matt 7:21-23)

Yahshua says that He never knew those who worked lawlessness. These are folks that worked in Yahshua’s name! Apparently, they shunned His Law.

John also gives us some insight unto what “knowing” Yahshua is all about in I John 2:

And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commands. The one saying, I have known Him, and not keeping His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that one. (I John 2: 3-4)

Keeping the Law can be legalism and grievous  if it is kept by our own efforts, without using His spirit.  Many Orthodox Jewish people fall into that trap. Because they do not know Yahshua, they use their own energy and will power to stay within the Law.  And,  because they are so afraid of breaking the Law, the rabbis have added to the Law to make it truly a burden to keep!

If we are truly believers in Yahshua, we will want to keep his commandments. Our works will not be by our efforts, but by His Spirit. By letting Him work through us, we act righteously! There is no righteousness apart from following Yahshua. And to follow Yahshua, is to follow His ways.

Don’t fight this.  He wants to write His law on YOUR heart!

“This is the covenant which I will covenant to them after those days, says Yahweh : Giving My Laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds;” (Hebrews 10:16)

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  Fear Elohim and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For Elohim  shall bring every work into judgment, with all that is hidden, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.  (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

By this we know that we love the children of Elohim, when we love Yahweh, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of Yahweh, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.  (1 John 5:2-3)

Whoever turns aside his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer is an abomination. (Proverbs 28:9)

]]> http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/some-hard-words/feed/ 0 tpranch http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/so-what-about-the-4th/ http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/so-what-about-the-4th/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 14:01:16 +0000 Rusty http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/?p=107 ]]>

We all know that after six days of creating, Yahweh rested.  By the very act of resting, the seventh day Sabbath was created. 

Yahweh didn’t really need the rest, since the Word tells us He neither slumbers nor sleeps. (Pslam 121:4). He made the Sabbath for man (Mark 2:27). He knew man needed the rest after six days of labor, so in His infinite wisdom and kindness, He gave us a whole day off from working. 

Not only did He make the Sabbath for man during the creation week, He set the seventh day of the week apart by blessing it and sanctifying it.

And on the seventh day Elohim ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which Elohim created and made. (Genesis 2:2-3)

The fourth of the Ten Commandments asks us to remember the 7th day Sabbath:

 ……and the seventh day is a sabbath to Yahweh your Elohim; you shall not do any work, you, and your son, and your daughter, your male slave and your slave-girl, and your livestock, and your stranger who is in your gates. (Exodus 2:10)

Now for some strange reason, the Christian church has convinced most of its members that Yahweh changed the 7th day Sabbath to the 1st day or SUNday.  I have yet to find one person that can give me scriptural proof that is okay to change and even ignore the 4th commandment.  Here are some of the popular reasons I have heard:

 “Every day is unto the Lord.”

Ok, so if you rest everyday, when do you work? If you want to worship on Sunday, that is wonderful and you should do so.  However, the 7th day (which is Saturday) is set apart by Yahweh for all men to rest. 

 “I rest in Jesus.”

Yahshua has taken our burden and we should rest in Him; however where is the authority and approval to willingly break the 4th commandment?

 “We are free from the Law.”

So, can I go break the other nine commandments?  Where is the authority given to break the 4th?

“Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week.”

That may be true although the day He actually resurrected is hard to pinpoint in scripture.  Even if we could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was resurrected on SUNday, this still gives no authority to change the Sabbath to the first day of the week.

“The 7^th day Sabbath is for the Jews”

Really?  Where is THAT in scripture?  Maybe all the Jewish Sabbath traditions and rules are for the Jews, but just as Yahshua said in Mark, “The Sabbath for made for man….” And in Galatians 3:28, Paul tells us that there is no Jew or Gentile; that we are all ONE in Messiah.

Scripture simply does not support a SUNday Sabbath.

It was the Catholic Church, many years ago, that changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to SUNday. (That fact is very easy to confirm!)  In fact, the Catholic Church agrees that the Protestant’s Sabbath is Saturday and argues that if you worship on SUNday, you have put yourself under the authority of the Catholic Church!  

http://biblelight.net/chalng.htm      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Laodicea

As true believers, we are to be distinct from the rest of the world. Keeping the 7th day Sabbath will certainly set a believer apart from mainstream Christianity.  In fact, the 7th day Sabbath is the only commandment that cannot be kept in secret, at least not for long!  It is an outward sign of our belief in Yahweh and His Son Yahshua.

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Yahweh that doth sanctify you. (Exodus 31:13) 

Remember—if you claim the Elohim of Israel as YOUR Elohim, you are one of the children of Israel. 

Don’t ignore this.  Ask Yahweh to reveal to you His truth in this matter. As scripture promises in Hebrews 11:6, He is a rewards those who diligently seek Him.

For years, as Acts 17:30 declares, Yahweh has “winked” at our ignorance about these things.  But, now, that knowledge about these things has increased, He commands all men everywhere to repent.

Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.  (I Thess 5:2)

In the King James translation, the Messiah’s name is mentioned early in Matthew, along with the meaning of His name:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21) 

Although the Greek translators may have made a valiant attempt to translate the Messiah’s name with all the power to forgive sins, the name “Jesus” cannot communicate fully the awesome and sanctified position that He holds.  And because our Messiah was of Jewish descent, we know He did not have a Greek name.

We are told in Exodus that Yahweh would send a messenger to the children of Israel in the wilderness.  That messenger is our Messiah and we are told that He will carry Yahweh’s name.

Behold, I am about to send an Angel (malak = messenger) before you, to guard you in the way, and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.  Be on guard before Him, and listen to His voice. Do not be rebellious against Him, for He will not forgive your transgressions; for My name is in Him. (Exodus 23:20-22)

Later, as the Messiah walked the earth in the flesh, the Savior himself says that He comes in His Father’s name:

I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive that one. John 5:43

So, to fulfill scriptural mandates, the name of our Messiah must convey the meaning “He will save us from our sins” and the name of the Father must be IN the His name.

The shortened form of “Yahweh” is Strong’s 3050, pronounced “Yah”, and is used 45 times in the Old Testament and like Strong’s 3068 (Yahweh), is mostly translated “LORD.”  (Every time you sing or shout “HalleluYAH!” you are praising His name!)

In the original Aramaic texts of the Brit Hadashah (New Testament), the name of the Savior is not Jesus but Y’shua, which is a shortened form of Y’hoshua which means “YHWH is salvation.” A Hebrew equivalent would be Strong’s 3442, pronounced yah-shoo-ah, which translates “Yah will save” or  “he will save”—the exact meaning of the Savior’s name in the book of Matthew. 

It is a logical conclusion that the true name of our Messiah is YAH-Shua, for it is only by that name YAH and YAHWEH that He had authority and power to forgive sins. Salvation comes through YAH-shua, but only with the awesome, and set-apart name of Yahweh can there be any salvation.

Who has gone up to Heaven, and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in His garments? Who has made all the ends of the earth to rise?

What is His name, and what is His Son’s name? Surely you know….

Most people are familiar with the first line of the Bible; in fact, most believers can quote it.

In the beginning Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth…

You wouldn’t think there is much to discuss in this verse.  For the believer, it seems quite straightforward.  However, in the Hebrew lies a small, but very significant discovery.

The Hebrew word for “God” is Strong’s number 430, which is “Elohim” which is the plural form of Strong’s 410, “El.”   In other words, The Word is telling us that there are more than one El or God at creation.

Later on in Genesis 2:4, is the first mention of Strong’s 3068 (Yahweh):

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh Elohim made the earth and the heavens….

Here again, the plural Elohim is used and used in conjunction with the name of Yahweh, indicating that more than one El or God was at creation.

As we read and study further, it becomes clear that the Messiah was present at creation as well as the Father. In the first chapter of the book of John, we are told, “In the beginning was the Word….” We know the Word was Messiah; so from the beginning of time, the Messiah has been the voice of the Father.

In Genesis 18, Yahweh appears to Abraham:

And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. And he was sitting at the door of the tent in the heat of the day.

Since no man has seen the Father (John 1:18), this must have been the Messiah that appeared to Abraham,

Many times the Messiah appears in the Old Testament as “the Word of YHWH” such as in Genesis 15:1:

After these things the Word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram; I am your shield, your reward will increase greatly.

In Genesis 19:24, Yahweh communicates with Yahweh!

And Yahweh rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from Yahweh out of the heavens.

These passages show us how the Messiah is connected to the Father. The Messiah is the voice and the right hand of the Father revealed within the time and space dimensions that you and I can understand.  He is the constant mediator and counselor between us and the Father on the throne.  Without the Messiah, there would be no way to approach the Father. This is the way the Son lived; this is the way we are to strive to live.

Perhaps a good analogy for our small human brains is that Yahweh is like the family name for the Elohim family, just as my family name is “Ames.”

This is truly exciting when we realize that we have been invited to become “sons of Elohim” which means Yahweh inviting us to share His family name!

Isn’t about time we started honoring this Name above all Names?

Yet the number of the sons of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which is not measured nor numbered. And it shall be, in the place where it is said to them, You are not My people, it shall be said to them, Sons of the Living El

(Hosea 1:10)

For you are all sons of Elohim through faith in YAH-shua Messiah.

(Galatians 3:26)

]]> http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/and-in-the-beginning%e2%80%a6there-were-two/feed/ 0 tpranch http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/can-strongs-be-wrong/ http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/can-strongs-be-wrong/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 18:22:45 +0000 Rusty http://hannahruth.wordpress.com/?p=85 ]]>

Have you ever had someone call you by another name that wasn’t yours?  My husband, whose name is Rusty, is sometimes mistakenly called “Randy”.  Usually, he is gracious about it and simply lets it go.   However, if the relationship grows into a true friendship, he will find a gentle way to correct that person. Obviously, if the relationship is to be a close one, he would want the person to know his real name! 

Some years ago, the Heavenly Father gently corrected me about His name. For years, I had called Him by the titles “God” and “Lord.”  As He led me to study His Name, I discovered some awesome as well as disturbing things.

First of all, I discovered what His real Name is: 

I am Yahweh; that is My name; and I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to engraved images. (Isaiah 42:8)

The Strong’s number for Yahweh* is 3068.  I looked that up in the new Strong’s Concordance and this is what I found:

LORD (Yahweh); the proper name of the one true God; knowledge and use of the name implies personal or covenant relationship.”  (emphasis mine)

Wow.  Did you read that?  Knowledge and use of the name implies personal and covenant relationship.  That is a direct quote from Strong’s. Could Strong’s be wrong?

I then discovered that over 6,000 times, Yahweh’s name has been changed from “Yahweh” to “LORD” in most translations today.  Over 6,000 times!  If you look in Strong’s you will count pages after page of this occurrence.  My question is: By whose authority was HIS NAME changed  even once? 

 By these translators’ hands, we have forgotten HIS NAME!

They plot to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell, each one to his neighbor, even as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal. (Jeremiah 23:27) 

Then I discovered that the name “Baal” was a Hebrew title for “Lord” or “Master”.  ”Baal” was also the name given to the Canaanite sun god of Phoenicia, their supreme deity.  Other nations around Israel addressed their gods as Lord and Master.  ”Baal” was one of the pagan gods that Israel worshipped during their rebellious years. Aren’t we, as true covenant believers, supposed to be different, set apart?

Yahweh is calling us to a closer relationship with Him.  He wants a covenant relationship with us; He wants the relationship of a husband is to a wife.  He wants us to know and use His name. 

And at that day, says Yahweh, you shall call Me, My husband; and you shall no more call Me, My Baal. For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth; and they shall no more be remembered by their name.  Hosea 2:16-17

 Is Yahweh trying to gently correct you?

*Pronounced Yah (breathe in)- weh (Breath out)

Read more on this subject:

http://yourarmstoisrael.org/Articles_new/articles/index.php?page=third_commandment&type=12

After the death of Solomon, Israel was split by great civil war, which permanently divided the tribes of Israel into two hostile kingdoms—Israel and Judah.  Ten tribes went north to Israel; the tribes of Judah and Benjamin went south to Judah.  Thus, in scripture, YHWH addresses two different groups:  “the house of Israel” and the “house of Judah.”

The Northern kingdom, Israel, turned immediately to pagan practices and as a result was the first to go into captivity by Assyria’s hand in approximately 721 BC.  The Southern Kingdom, Judah, followed about one hundred and forty years later in 586 BC when it was captured by Babylon.

What most people do not realize is that before the final collapse of the Northern Kingdom, the vast majority of Israelites had already migrated out of the northern land.  As they saw trouble coming, many left voluntarily.  A careful student of history will recognize the evidence of the mass migration of these tribes all over Asia and Europe. Huge numbers of Israelite people went to establish countries and cities such as Parthia and Carthage.  They settled in the British Isles, Spain, and all over Asia and Europe.  Over the years, they forgot about YHWH ways.  They merged into the goy—the nations—the Gentiles.

It was JUDAH that was given the job of keeping the TORAH in tact. (Gen 49:10).  And if you look at it objectively, you will recognize that Judah is but a small part of the entire population of Israelites.

So where are the rest of the tribes?  Where are Simeon, Rueben, Manasseh, Ephraim, etc?

YHWH tells us he will reunite the two houses at the end of days (Ezekiel 37).  If the house of Judah is primarily the Jews that we know and love, WHO is the House of Israel (also known as the house of Joseph and/or Ephraim)?  Who are the people that YHWH is going to unite with Judah?

The answer to this question unlocks a HUGE mystery in YHWH’s end-time work.

Remember the promise YHWH made to Jacob, the Father of the whole House of Israel, the twelve tribes:

….. I will deal well with you, and I will make your seed like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Genesis 32:12

For those truly seeking, I highly recommend the books by Steven Collins.  If you truly want to dig deeper, start with his landmark book called “The Lost Tribes of Israel…. Found!”.

http://stevenmcollins.com/html/books.html

After you do your research, you will be asking this question:  Master, is it I?

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to Elohim must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:7-6

.

It was about 4000 years ago that Jacob (Israel) begat twelve sons, who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.  It is amazing how prolific this family was. In a matter of 430 years, Israel grew from only 70 souls to about 2,500,000 people.   

I have often pondered these numbers.  If there has been approximately 4,000 years since the time the 12 brothers walked the earth, how many Israelite progeny should there be on the earth today? Let’s consider some numbers; I think you will be astounded.

During this 430 year period, the Israelites doubled their population about every 29 years.  Now, to be on the conservative side, let us assume that after they left Egypt and for the next 3500 years, these 2.5 million people  doubled only every 350 years.  This slowed rate of reproduction will account for all the natural disasters, plagues, holocausts, wars and other premature deaths that have occurred during the course of history. So, get your calculator out and double 2.5 million 10 times. 

What is the total you came up with? 

My total was over 2.5 billion.  These are Israelites that should be alive today.  (And that is with extremely conservative figures.) 

Now, my question is: Where are all these people?  

“They” tell us there are only 12-15 millions Jews alive today.  The number we just calculated suggests that there is WAY more people with Israelite blood in the world today.

Where are these people?  And who are they today?

Consider these lyrics:

I’ll tell you a strange tale, A riddle, a rhyme.   A song sung by YHWH and passed down through time……A search for an answer, hunger to know…

So, ask about Israel, where did she go?  Oh where did He hide her; where does He keep her? 

Those were Moses words to the children of Israel just as they were about to enter the Promised Land. (Deut 30:15-20) Moses had reviewed the rules and laws that YHWH had given them.  Moses told them if they choose to live by these rules, they would be blessed; if they choose to rebel against YHWH’s rules, they would be cursed.  Moses boils this all down to offering the choice of either life or death.

When we remind our children of this story, they look at us and say “Duh!!”  Of course, all of us would say,  ”I choose life!”  With our mouths we say “yes!”

But, but what about our actions?

The rules and regulations that Moses gave the children of Israel are often referred to as “The Torah”, or “the Law”.  If you look closer at the Torah, you will discover that it is simply a set life instructions. In fact, a prudent believer would agree that the entire book of the bible, all 66 books, contains life Instructions from YHWH.

Yet, the Christian Church has given “The Law” a bad name. We are told that we are no longer under the law, that we were delivered from the curse of the law, that because we have grace, we are no longer held to these rules.

Who REALLY believes that?  And what is so grievous about His instructions?

As believers, we do need a set of instructions to follow.  So, in an attempt to keep some order in our lives and attempt to live righteously, we individually choose which rules to follow; we pick and choose from the Torah as though it was a cafeteria, each man doing what is right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

As a result, we end up casting much of YHWH’s instructions aside.

In the Good News of John, we are told that “In the beginning was the WORD and The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.” Most every believer will agree that this passage in John 1 is referring to Yahshua, the son of YHWH, who came down to earth from heaven, became mortal flesh, and walked among us.  It was the WORD, or the scriptures, that became flesh.  The WORD is the whole Bible.   If Yahshua was the whole of Scripture, that means HE was The TORAH.

Yahshua = TORAH

The definition of anti-Messiah is one who does not believe that the Word became Flesh.  (I John 4:3) Since the Word is the Torah (instructions), then an anti-Messiah is one who believes that Yahshua is not TORAH.  What are we if we don’t embrace the entire Torah?  What are we if we cast part of the Torah aside?

By choosing TORAH, we are choosing Yahshua; by choosing Yahshua, we are agreeing to follow HIS Way as much is as humanly possibly.  He is THE Way, the Truth and the LIFE!

So, when Moses was asking the children of Israel to choose life, He was asking US to choose TORAH which is ultimately Yahshua, the son of YHWH.

I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

Therefore, choose life, that you may live, you and your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim,to listen to  His voice,  and to cleave to Him.

(Deut 30:19-20)

Read more on this subject:

http://www.yrm.org/spiritual-obedience.htm