2020, Seeking Clearer Vision of Our Father

I pray that ALL those who are seeking to know and understand the character and divine nature of our Dear Heavenly Father, Yeshua – The LORD Jesus Christ and the Precious Holy Spirit, find His Truth.

The year 2020 and its relation to “perfect vision” is a common theme in church circles. Of ALL the things we can hope to “see” more clearly, there is nothing more important than our view of God and what we perceive “God’s View” is of us in His Word.

A good place to start when desiring to seek God is to realize that God can NOT lie. It is totally out of God’s nature to lie. What God says in His Holy Word can be taken to the bank. Our money, even physical gold fluctuates in value even from minute to minute, but The Word of God will stand. God is Faithful to Watch over His Word and to Perform It, bring it to pass.

Since creation, mankind has had a built in need to worship “a god.” Even those that say they don’t believe in any god have in reality made themselves their own god, answering to no higher authority. Looking at how mankind has worshiped which ever god they chose teaches us that it is only “a god as they imagine him or her to be.” They dictate what it will look like, what pleases or displeases it, and so on according to their imagination.

We Bible believing Christians aren’t like that though, …. REALLY???

You don’t have to look to long at any denominations theology of scripture to see what they “believe” are it’s “strong points” and those points that have been outgrown and are fading away. Some churches weigh holiness according to the clothes you wear or keeping your hair a certain way. Others look at scripture more often as an investment system established by God. One minister of God’s word takes “fasting and prayer” and beats it like a dead horse, it’s the answer to everything. I think you get my point so I won’t go on with all the examples.

What we do need in 2020 is to seek our Dear Heavenly Father with humble and contrite hearts. Humble, because He ALONE is God, … Holy, Holy, Holy. Set apart, set apart, set apart … far removed from anything we can ever truly fully come to understand. From contrite hearts because as we begin to understand more of His Holiness we should learn to appreciate even more what he has done for us and is constantly doing for us.

We have to be on guard against the enemy and our flesh who are always looking for ways to corrupt our theology of scripture by getting us too to create God into the image it wants us to worship, trust and follow. We have to have the help of the Holy Spirit that Jesus said would lead and guide us into “All Truth.”

I think everyone has the question in them that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus in John 18:38, “what is truth.” Our theology or belief system is “our truth,” right or wrong.

Truth is not only a thing we can manipulate to our choosing like the gods people chose to worship, Truth is a person, the LORD Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach.

John 14:1-6  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Pilate’s question about “truth” was in response to what Jesus had just told him about “truth.”

John 18:37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Jesus told Pilate, everyone belonging to “the truth” would hear “My Voice.” It’s just another way of expressing what Jesus said about those that are truly His own,

John 10:25-28  Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

Jesus was speaking to the religious elect of his time saying that they didn’t follow truth and for that reason, “are not of My sheep.”

On January 1, 2020 orthodox Jews across the world celebrated “Siyum.” https://www.thesiyum.org/

East Rutherford, New Jersey — Prayers filled MetLife Stadium on New Year’s Day as more than 90,000 Jews came together to celebrate a religious event called Siyum HaShas. The event celebrates the accomplishment of studying the entire 2,700-page ancient Jewish text called the Talmud one page a day for seven and a half years.
“It’s a explanation of Jewish laws that come from the Bible and how we get to where we practice them today,” said Aaron Stein, who attended the event.

There are major heretical teachings about Jesus and His mother in the Talmud. This website addresses a few. http://www.talmudunmasked.com/chapter5.htm

The Talmud, is elevated by some Jewish readers above the Word of God given to Moses and the prophets. What ancient jewish commentators say about scripture supersedes what the scripture intends to convey from the Heart of God.

Different sects of Judaism’s view of the Talmud –

• The Orthodox sect holds that the Oral Law or Talmud is just as inspired as the Bible.
• Rabbinic Judaism relies on the legal rulings of the Sanhedrin as they are codified in the Midrash, Talmud, and other sources to indicate the authentic meaning of the Torah.
• Conservative and Reform Jewish sects do not. Reform and Conservative sects believe they can interpret the Talmud as written by rabbis but are not necessarily required to follow it.
• Karaite Jews do not follow the Talmud or rabbinic teachings at all but only the Hebrew Bible.
• Karaites strive to adhere to the plain or most obvious meaning (peshat) of the text; this is not necessarily the literal meaning, but rather the meaning that would have been naturally understood by the ancient Israelites when the books of the Torah were first written.

The former sect is who Jesus was speaking to when He said,

Mark 7:6-13  He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Before you as a Christian reader start to feel too smug because of what the orthodox Jews did to pervert scripture don’t forget what I wrote earlier of how the Christian church does the same thing in “certain ways.”

If we are God’s sheep, and Yeshua Jesus is our shepherd, isn’t listening for His voice, His direction, seeking His Will always the most important thing.

Psalm 51:16-17   For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

Listening for the Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts and life is the most important thing we can do to be in God’s Will for any given moment of our life. ONLY then do we “know the way” to go. Jesus said that beyond being “The Way” He is “The Truth and The Life.”

Studying the Bible and Hebrew, the words Almighty God gave to mankind “in the beginning,” also opens understanding of what Jesus was saying here.

In Hebrew the word “Truth” is Emmet or Emeth, Strong’s 571

There are so many things we miss in studying God’s Word because we don’t know Hebrew, it’s words and their meanings and spellings. Jesus linked Way, Truth and Life into a bundle, they go together. You won’t be “on the way” if you don’t “know the truth” and missing any of the first two leads to death, or at least the opposite of “Life.”

Remember when God added the Hebrew letter “hey” to Abram and Sarai’s names and they became Abraham and Sarah. The letter “Hey” is about “breath” more importantly, God’s Breath of the Holy Spirit bringing “Spiritual Life.”

In Hebrew, “Emeth,” Truth is spelled, אֶמֶת

The first letter is “Aleph”

Aleph is the first letter of emeth in Hebrew. Guess what happens if you leave out this third part of the spelling. Leaving out the “father,” the “ox – strength of the house,” or the “leader” can’t turn out well.

Leaving out the “Aleph” and all it relates to from God’s viewpoint is like leaving out “The Way – Jesus” to find the “Truth and Life” of God. It Don’t Work.

We can’t make up our own truth from the Word of God by picking and choosing which scriptures we think are important. We don’t get to decide which ones are not relevant anymore. Jesus warned us NOT to discount God’s Holy Word, NOT even the slightest stroke, a Jot or Tittle.

Matthew 5:17-20  “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

All has NOT been fulfilled yet, and God’s Word warns from the book that hasn’t been fulfilled but is approaching, it was this,

Revelation 22:18-20  For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The scripture of the day today from my YouVersion Bible app is,

Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Anyone can pick up a Bible and read it. The words on the pages are what they are, the “Truth” about God, His Nature, His Holiness and our way to Him. ONLY the Holy Spirit can take the “Truth” of the written Word of God and give us the “WISDOM” to apply it in its proper way as Father God wants it applied to our personal life for our Lifetime or for “That Moment.”

The Holy Spirit brings the Word of God to life in us when we do Bible things in Bible ways. Not in historical ways but in the ways God’s Heart intended them to be applied to our life. There are people who discount the Bible but what other book has had the effect it’s had on mankind since “in the beginning.” There is NONE.

Father, Father Me …. Please, I Pray, Amen.

One last thought about the Karaite Jews. Karaite Judaism holds every interpretation of the Torah to the same scrutiny regardless of its source, and teaches that it is the personal responsibility of every individual Jew to study the Torah, and ultimately decide personally its correct meaning. Karaites may consider arguments made in the Talmud and other works without exalting them above other viewpoints.

They seem to be “Good Bereans,”

Acts 17:10-11 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.