YHVH is my Rock and my Redeemer. Without him, I am nothing. Without him, I cannot walk in this world set apart from its evil ways.

This is the view from our porch at Pook Rd in April 2010

Praise HIM. May my mouth praise HIM.

Shalom!

Subscribe to Walking Therein by Email

Jocelyn made me a really nice icon to change the name of my meme to a more fitting, less pagan-origin one! I have been wanting to get back into posting my weekly praise, and I was hoping to get the icon on here asap. Others have kept it up a whole lot better than I have since we got here! Anyway, I don’t have my password for her to upload it, so it will hopefully be here next week! Thanks Jocelyn, and sorry!

Thank you for joining me for Shabbat Shalom! Praise. If you would like to read others’ thoughts, praises this week, please follow the links below. If you would like to join us for Shabbat Shalom! Praise, we welcome you! We welcome you to participate. You can read about the meme HERE. Please leave a comment with your direct link on this post and link back to Walking Therein in your own Shabbat Shalom! Praise.

Shalom!

Bless you, Father, for yet one more time to praise you, to love you, to bring our petitions to you. You hold time in your hands and give to each of us the time we were created for.

May your name be known in all of the earth, YHVH.

Friends, we are the people of the mightiest Elohim -the mightiest god that there is. There is none greater. There is none more loving and kind, nor more just and jealous and true.

The truth is that time is a valuable commodity. We only have so many hours in the day to learn and complete what the Father has for us for the day. If we defer from his plans, those minutes will never be gotten back. Much different from money, isn’t it? We all worry about where our next dollar is coming from or what we will do if we don’t have X amt of money, but we fritter away time and miss opportunities without giving it another thought.

We are only given one life and the hours in that life. Money can be made over. Time is gone once it ticks away.

What will you do with your time?

We spent the past twenty years training our children up in Christianity. We never knew we were supposed to train them up in Scriptures and Torah alone, not man’s doctrines. That may sound stupid to you, but when was the last time you were in your church and the preacher said to follow the Torah commandments? Or turn to this week’s Torah readings? If you sit in a Christian church each week, you will not hear this, even though it is the foundation for our faith. The foundation of the faith of our Messiah. Yes, Yehoshua(aka Jesus) is the foundation – the Living Torah – the Son of YHVH, who walked in Torah, taught us from Torah, based all of his words on Torah, and then told us to go and teach it to others. But the Christian Saviour is severely lacking in being a Torah Keeper. You might say he is a man of Torah-lessness(lawlessness).

In twenty years of being a Christian, I never heard that Jesus walked in and kept the Torah. I never heard this Torah truth – the fact that he himself said that Torah has not been abolished and the Feasts are still appointments we must keep with YHVH. I had no idea what my Messiah really looked like. I didn’t know his given name. But, yet, I cried out for him in my spirit for all of that time.  I was taught and told to love a Saviour different than the Messiah sent by the Father.

For all of that time, I tried to teach him to my children, but I was teaching the wrong Messiah. I was teaching a Saviour who does not look like the Messiah. I was teaching a truth that is but a shadow, a speck, of what the Father has for his people.

[How did that happen? ]

Jeremiah 16
10 “When you tell this people all that I have said, and they ask you, ‘Why has YHVH decreed all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity, what is our sin, that we have committed against YHVH our God?’ 11 then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors abandoned me, says YHVH, and went after other gods, serving and worshiping them, but abandoned me and did not keep my Torah. 12 And you have done worse than your ancestors, for – look! – each of you lives according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.
19 YHVH, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, saying, “Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, futile idols, completely useless.”

LIES. Lies. We were passed down lies. The cornerstone of the faith is a tallit-wearing, 7th-Day-Shabbat-keeping, Torah teaching, Jewish Rabbi. THAT picture is a bit different than the Jesus I heard about all my life, from the time I went to Catholic school to the time I got saved in an Assembly of God Church to the seeker-friendly church we attended last in small-town America. Not one of them knows who this man is.

And, he said they wouldn’t know him.

Matthew 7
‘ 21 “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. 22 On that Day, many will say to me, `Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will tell them to their faces, `I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!‘ ‘

Lawlessness: without the Law: Torahlessness.
Do you see the picture starting to take shape here?

All of that T I M E to learn the truth. All that time to teach my children that we are indeed to walk as the Messiah walked. I believed the lies. Gone. All that time to search the Father’s words and put the weight on them that Yehoshua(aka Jesus) did.

All that time to learn the Feasts and Times and Seasons that showed his first coming and his second.

All that T I M E. Why? Why wouldn’t I read it and teach it? That’s part of the lie. I never read it for myself. I never read it without the shadow of man’s doctrines. We all know that grace entered the world at the cross and did away with the “curse of the Law”, right???

WRONG.

We have inherited LIES. And those lies bind us up and waste the precious time, the years that YHVH, the Father, has prepared for us to live out in him. Time for us to teach his true words, his lost words, to our children. Want to know what to train them up in? Train them up in every word that comes from the mouth of YHVH, the Torah. Want to defeat the enemy in your life? Learn the same Scriptures that Messiah used to turn his lies back. Speak the words of Scripture that Messiah knew and put into action. Want to know the truth? Grace came into our lives as humans in the GARDEN when the Father gave them the hope of Messiah.

Time. It is a precious commodity in our lives. We are the stewards of it, and it is up to us to teach the use of it to our children. Use it wisely. Be wise in his ways.

“23 Then I will tell them to their faces, `I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!‘ ‘”

Do not spend another minute wasting time.  Read it for yourself. No longer practice the Lawless lives you are leading. Turn to him and embrace all he has given us and all that he is.

Have a blessed Shabbat rest. May you learn all he has for you this day and walk in his narrow path.

Shalom!

Thank you for joining me for Shabbat Shalom! Praise. If you would like to read others’ thoughts, praises this week, please follow the links below. If you would like to join us for Shabbat Shalom! Praise, we welcome you! We welcome you to participate. You can read about the meme HERE. Please leave a comment with your direct link on this post. Please use the icon, linked back to Walking Therein, in your own Shabbat Shalom! Praise.

Psalm 1
How blessed…
1 How blessed are those who reject the advice of the wicked, don’t stand on the way of sinners or sit where scoffers sit! 2 Their delight is in YHVH’s Torah; on his Torah they meditate day and night. 3 They are like trees planted by streams -they bear their fruit in season, their leaves never wither, everything they do succeeds.
Not so the wicked…
4 Not so the wicked, who are like chaff driven by the wind. 5 For this reason the wicked won’t stand up to the judgment, nor will sinners at the gathering of the righteous. 6 For YHVH watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.

Be blessed in your walk:

1. Reject the advice of the wicked. Look to those who walk in the narrow way.
2. Don’t stand in the way of sinners. Walk in Yah’s ways.
3. Don’t sit with the scoffers. Walk in Yah’s ways.
4. Delight yourself in his Torah and meditate on it all day and night!

And, teach these things to your children…

Proverbs 1
7 The fear of יהוה is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. 8 My son, heed the discipline of your father, and do not abandon the teaching of your mother; 9 they will be a garland to grace your head, a medal of honor for your neck.

Shabbat Shalom!

Thank you for joining me for Shabbat Shalom! Praise. If you would like to read others’ thoughts, praises this week, please follow the links below. If you would like to join us for Shabbat Shalom! Praise, we welcome you! We welcome you to participate. You can read about the meme HERE. Please leave a comment with your direct link on this post. Please use the icon, linked back to Walking Therein, in your own Shabbat Shalom! Praise.

Purify my heart
Let me be as gold and precious silver
Purify my heart
Let me be as gold, pure gold

Refiner’s fire
My heart’s one desire
Is to be holy
Set apart for you Yah
I choose to be holy
Set apart for you my Master
Ready to do your will
Refiner’s Fire/Brian Doerksen /1990 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing

I have heard this – sang this – in church so many, many times. It is truly a great song and a great desire for a Believer. It has great depth and includes important things we should all pursue to understand and gain knowledge of. As a home school mom, I can see a lesson here. Some vocabulary words come to mind. Some thought-provoking discussions for younger and older believers to strengthen their understanding and perception of who they are and who the Father is. A most important question to answer:

How should they then live their lives?

To Think About

These words seem clear, but are they? What is this refiner’s fire? What is his will as we are put through the fire as a refining? Seriously, do we understand this fire? Do we know what this purging and refining is? Do we know what the word holy means? Are we really willing to be set apart for him? Set apart from whom? The world? What about other Believers who are not set apart? Are we willing to be completely set apart from what everyone else looks like, speaks like, behaves like? Or just those habits we consider sinful? What about what the Refiner thinks? What about HIS plans and HIS instructions and teachings?

Malachi 3
1 “Look! I am sending my messenger to clear the way before me; and the Master, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Yes, the messenger of the covenant, in whom you take such delight – look! Here he comes,” says ADONAI-Tzva’ot(YHVH of Hosts). 2 But who is able to endure the day when he comes? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, like the soapmaker’s lye.
3 He will sit, testing and purifying the silver; he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold and silver, so that they can bring offerings to YHVH uprightly. 4 Then the offering of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim will be pleasing to YHVH, as it was in the days of old, as in years gone by. 5 “Then I will approach you for judgment; and I will be quick to witness against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers; against those who take advantage of wage-earners, widows and orphans; against those who rob the foreigner of his rights and don’t fear me,” says YHVH-Tzva’ot.

6 “But because I, YHVH, do not change, you sons of Ya’akov will not be destroyed. 7 Since the days of your forefathers you have turned from my laws and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says YHVH-Tzva’ot.

“But you ask, ‘In respect to what are we supposed to return?’ 8 Can a person rob Yah? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tenths and voluntary contributions. 9 A curse is on you, on your whole nation, because you rob me. 10 Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse, so that there will be food in my house, and put me to the test,” says YHVH-Tzva’ot. “See if I won’t open for you the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you a blessing far beyond your needs. 11 For your sakes I will forbid the devourer to destroy the yield from your soil; and your vine will not lose its fruit before harvest-time,” says YHVH-Tzva’ot. 12 “All nations will call you happy, for you will be a land of delights,” says YHVH-Tzva’ot. 13 “You have spoken strongly against me,” says YHVH. “Yet you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ 14 By saying, ‘There is no point in serving God. What good is it to obey his orders or to walk about as mourners before YHVH-Tzva’ot? 15 We consider the arrogant happy; also evildoers prosper; they put Elohim to the test; nevertheless, they escape.’” 16 Then those who feared YHVH spoke together; and YHVH listened and heard. A record book was written in his presence for those who feared YHVH and had respect for his Name. 17 “They will be mine,” says YHVH-Tzva’ot, “on the day when I compose my own special treasure. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. 18 Then once again you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who serves Yah and one that doesn’t serve him.

To Discern and Act On

What is his will? What are his words? What are we to do? Don’t skip over the important stuff and make this about ‘tithing’. This is about returning to Yah. This is about my ways versus his ways. This is about my making my own Laws and his Torah instruction.

Let us not be clanging cymbals and whitewashed sepulchers. Let us not walk in our own ways, but align our choices with scripture. Let us refine each other as iron sharpens iron. I have a good friend who is set apart. Her very words cause me to think about my life and how I live, what I say, what I think. She is very open and honest about her own sins and failures. She does not exalt herself or her family, but you will find them joyful and proclaiming the Father and his love and victories. I want to be like her. I want to be like the Father.

Let us not cling to what we want, who we want to be. Let’s not “let it all hang out” and be cool, but let’s BE SET APART from those worldly examples. Showing people who he is does not require us to be like them. Quite the opposite, showing people who the One True God of Israel is requires us to be like him and his Son, our Messiah, so that they will know he is set apart for them. For, even if you might find him hanging at the local bar ministering to people, you would not find him swinging to the latest hit, just going out for drinks. You would find him about his Father’s business. And so must we be: Set apart and about the Father’s business.

So, sing that song again. Think about the words. Do you really want to be purified? Do you really want to be as gold? Do you really want to be set apart? It was too much for the rich young ruler. Yehoshua said, “No one is good except one (YHVH). If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” But he did keep the commandments, but he couldn’t give up all. He walked away from the Messiah, grieved at hearing this, for he could not give up what was necessary. (Luke 18, Matt. 19)

Shalom!

Thank you for joining me for Shabbat Shalom! Praise. If you would like to read others’ thoughts, praises this week, please follow the links below. If you would like to join us for Shabbat Shalom! Praise, we welcome you! We welcome you to participate. You can read about the meme HERE. Sign the Linky with your direct link on this post. Please use the icon, linked back to Walking Therein, in your own Shabbat Shalom! Praise.

Scriptures are taken from The Complete Jewish Bible, though I have restored Yah’s sacred name within the text.

So, this week, I have heard him tell me, “No, wait,” several times. As I went to write something or to answer someone, I was told to “Be still.” So I have been.

Psalm 46:10
10 “Be still, and learn that I am Elohim, I am exalted over the nations, I am exalted over the earth.”

He wants us to know him this way. He wants us to hear him and be still before him. He wants to be the counsel we hear. He wants to be who we are in unity with. He wants to be the one we are still with, so we can know that HE is the Most High God, Elohim, Yah, Creator of all things and everlasting.

He wants to be first and foremost, and that is my prayer for our family and all of our children, that He be first and foremost and all else that draws us away from him will be removed from our lives, however He chooses to do so.

Exodus 20
1 Then Elohim spoke all these words: 2 “I am YHVH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. c 3 “You are to have no other gods before me. 4 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline. 5 You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, YHVH your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.

We must be a people set apart, walking in his ways and serving Him as god alone.

Praise be his Name forever!

Shabbat Shalom!

Thank you for joining me for Shabbat Shalom! Praise. If you would like to read others’ thoughts, praises this week, please follow the links below. If you would like to join us for Shabbat Shalom! Praise, we welcome you! We welcome you to participate. You can read about the meme HERE. Sign the Linky with your direct link on this post. Please use the icon, linked back to Walking Therein, in your own Shabbat Shalom! Praise.

Subscribe to Walking Therein by Email