I recently received a newsletter from a pastor friend, which included the following:
“The Word of God is of no use to you if you do not trust and obey the Word of God. You can quote it, post it, tattoo it, and hang it on your wall—but if you do not obey it, it remains dormant, inactive, and unfruitful in your life.
“James 1:22–25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror… and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
“We are not transformed by exposure to Scripture. We are transformed by obedience to Scripture.”
Obedience… I have discovered on this journey that belief and obedience are synonymous! Have you ever thought about that?
John 3:36 says: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
The same holds true for disobedience and unbelief.
“Hebrews 3:15-19: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
In the above passage the writer of Hebrews links the “disobedient” with those who did not believe!
The pastor’s newsletter goes on to say….
“Do you trust Jesus enough to obey Him—even when it costs you? Even when it is inconvenient? Even when it is unpopular? Evan (sic) when it is painful? Even when it is embarrassing? Because partial obedience is still disobedience. Delayed obedience is still disobedience. And emotional response without surrendered obedience is still disobedience.”
I have to tell you that that paragraph caused me to think about my journey….actually, our journey….my husband, Gene, and I have been on a journey that has taken us into some of the circumstances that this pastor describes.
Inconvenient…unpopular…costly?
You see, our ears have been opened to hear, and our eyes have been opened to see, that the Bible we study is all one Holy Book….it is not the “old” and the “new”…. It is one Book.
We came to understand that we are grafted in to Israel…the Commonwealth of Israel, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians. So, all the promises the Creator made to Jacob, who became Israel, who became the twelve tribes of Israel, are ours, by virtue of our belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and His Son, Yeshua, the Messiah, and our obedience to Him!
Yes, obedience.
He (Yeshua) said, Follow me!
The first part of the book, everything prior to the blank page after Malachi, speaks of the Creator’s Salvation…Yeshua. And everything after that blank page is a commentary on that first part! It’s all one book, folks!
And, like the pastor said in his newsletter, it is the Word of God! If we believe it, we must obey it!
Not change it…add to it….or take anything away from it! (See Deuteronomy 13)
So, that means we learn what His Feasts are…starting with the Sabbath Day. (See Leviticus 23)
And we learn not to worship Him in the ways of other nations…we worship Him in His Way!
We study what Yeshua (Jesus) did, and then as 1 John 2:6 says, we ‘walk as He walked!’ He kept the Torah perfectly, to show us the Way! Yeshua did not change the Sabbath or do away with any of His Commandments.
He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” —John 14:15
Invariably, people still think we are keeping His commandments for our Salvation…no matter how many times we try to explain that we are simply keeping His commandments because we love Yeshua, our Savior!
“The love of God draws us into a relationship marked by grace, compassion, and mercy. It shields us from falling into legalism, being overly critical, or judgmental. As Romans 2:4 reminds us, “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.” “
What is repentance? It means to turn around, change your mind!
Repentance from what? Sin.
And what is sin? The “transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4)
And what is the law? Torah…the Commandments of our Creator.
There is a very good teaching on one of our favorite teaching websites, 119 Ministries, called, Hebrews 4: In His Rest Now or Later? It explains a much misunderstood scripture passage. Check it out…
https://119ministries.com/teachings/video-teachings/detail/hebrews-4-in-his-rest-now-or-later/
For several years now, we have hosted a Sabbath Assembly which meets every Sabbath day. We also do our best to observe the Torah that applies to us as well as the other Feasts of the LORD given in Leviticus 23.
All with tremendous blessings!
Until next time…
LaVada
