“What My God Believes”

If you believe in God, you must agree that He makes the rules and sin is what He says it is. Otherwise, you really only believe in the idea of God.

And if you really only believe in the idea of God, then you have no way of defining the difference between good and bad with any sort of intellectual integrity – it is whatever makes you feel good or bad, whatever you do or do not want, whatever makes you feel comfortable or uncomfortable. Continue Reading →

Let No Corrupt Speech

The pursuit of proving we are right may be satisfying, but can be far from edifying. How  many times have we seen people satisfy themselves at the expense of others?

A person may be right, but if he has crushed, berated, exhausted, bullied and/or mocked someone to prove it – then he has accomplished nothing except providing himself with a moment’s pleasure. Finding pleasure in being right is the antithesis of humility. Being correct is not a virtue, but a privilege, as God alone is right by His own merits.

This is corrupt speech. It should never be mistaken for teaching, nor for zeal, nor holiness. It is not what Christ would do.

Ephesians 4:29 quote: Let no corrupt speech

Paul’s words challenge us to take a moment to choose our words carefully. Too many in the Body of Christ tear other believers down, people who are most decidedly not our enemies.

Don’t Be a Stumbling Block

If you can’t allow someone to be a little bit wrong, if their error just screams at you to comment and correct – then I can assure you that the voice doing the screaming is not the Holy Spirit.

YHVH allows you to be in error about a whole lot of things, and always has.  He patiently gives you the space you need to learn and grow at a reasonable pace.

stumbling block bible verse, romans 14:13

Don’t be a stumbling block

Allow other believers the opportunity to be wrong and make small errors, at least those that are simply due to inexperience and not to willful self-deception or rebellion.  Otherwise, you are spitting upon the patience shown to you by YHVH Himself and will become an exasperating stumbling block.

Passion or Zeal?

Passion in the absence of love is dangerous. Passion in and of itself is one of the most powerful human drives, it can be blinding and deceiving. Passion without respect and love amounts to lust, and the object of our lust is never fully human in our own eyes.

We can easily see how devastating this is in dealing with sexuality, but how about religion? Lust-driven religion causes a person to see other human beings as potential conquests, as sources of gratification — it is a dehumanizing force.  We see the fruit of it in Islam, where we find the subjugation of women and moving non-believers (or simply those who disagree on points of doctrine) to sub-human status in actions and in minds.  It is about lust, not about zeal.

Zeal should be a holy thing, zeal should be driven by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Zeal should be a protective force instead of a violating force.  Zeal should inspire loyalty, zeal should be purifying, zeal should desire good for men and not evil. Zeal should only seek to desire the destruction of true evil, not of mere opposition.

Many who claim to have zeal for Messiah and God’s holy word, have only a lust for knowledge and conquest. Messiah and scripture without love gives one neither Messiah nor God’s truth. It is an illusion. Love tempers passion into zeal, whereas the lack of love warps passion into lust.

When we deny our lusts we can attain the status of the Bride of Messiah. He does not desire a lustful Bride, but one pure and spotless. The Bride, like her Bridegroom, would sooner die than allow someone to languish in sin. Her passionate zeal is the cause of weeping and prayer and worship, she does not leave a trail of wounded people in her wake. She behaves like a Queen, full of grace. She is virginal in her intentions towards others, not bent on domination, she has no eye for conquest. She administrates the Word of her Bridegroom, his Law (Torah in Hebrew), in love and not as a source of destructive pride.

We must always ask ourselves, am I zealous or am I lustful? Am I a Bride in training or a Harlot by trade?

Where does your loyalty lie?

Sometimes we will go through a season where we feel we have screwed up too badly and YHVH is too disgusted with us to love us anymore. When I cannot seem to convince myself otherwise, I take another path — I tell myself that even if He has abandoned me, He is still worthy of my service for life, and that it is an honor and a privilege to be able to keep His commandments — that even if I am too wrong for Him, they are right for me.

As I endure in His service, despite my doubts and fears, my doubts and fears melt away and realize that He was never gone from me, but that I had turned away from Him for a while. The lack of His presence is a test — will we remain faithful or will we turn away from Him?

he will remain faithful Bible verse 2 Tim 2:11-13

Where does your loyalty lie?

In many ways, this boils down to a test of endurance and loyalty. In your heart of hearts, in the depth of your being — if He responded to your rebellion by abandoning you, does your heart still long to worship Him, or were you simply in it for yourself? Time and time again, that is the question we must answer — who is this all about? If it is about us, and not about the loyalty He deserves, we will turn away, if only in our hearts.

Moses faced this trial when he struck the rock to bring forth water.  He struck it when he was commanded to speak to it, and claimed responsibility for the miracle of water. He was denied entrance to the promised land. At this point, after all his years of faithful service, he had a choice — turn his back on Elohim or decide that no matter what, YHVH was worth serving and His commandments worth obeying.

He endured. He is our example.