Rabbi’s Reflections – Monday, November 4, 2019
Shalom *|FNAME|*,
Rabbi Trail: I hope you remembered to “fall back” Saturday night. At 2am (Sunday morning) we rolled back our clocks to 1am and lived that hour all over again. We won’t make it up until we “spring forward” next year. Usually I say, “That’s an hour of my life I’m not going to get back.” But that’s not true this time. I planned carefully and woke up just so I could enjoy the extra hour. You know what they say, “You snooze, you lose.” End RT.
Week 45
Memory Verse: Romans 12:1 I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy, acceptable to God—which is your spiritual service. 2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
221 11/04 Monday: Romans 7-8
222 11/05 Tuesday: Romans 9-10
223 11/06 Wednesday: Romans 11-12
224 11/07 Thursday: Romans 13-14
225 11/08 Friday: Romans 15-16
Question of the day: How has the Christian (Church) world related to the Law?
Rabbi Trail: Let me give you the short answer before I give you the long answer. The short answer is, “Poorly.” The “Law” has not changed. Our approach is new because we now have the infilling of the Holy Spirit. End RT.
Answer: Go ahead, ask me another question. By “Law” do you mean the Torah? Actually, I mean the entire Hebrew Scriptures. They are God’s righteous principles. BTW, it is very Jewish to answer a question with another question. Yeshua did it all the time.
Consider these verses, also from Paul writing to Timothy… 2 Timothy 3:14 You, however, continue in what you have learned and what you have become convinced of. For you know from whom you have learned, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to make you wise, leading to salvation through trusting in Messiah Yeshua.
That’s right. One of the ways we should relate to God’s Law is as a tool for discipleship. That’s what those previous verses mean. What “sacred writings” was Paul addressing? Yes, the Hebrew Scriptures. How does the Law “make you wise, leading to salvation? Only through the Law do we even know we need the savior, and not just the savior, but also the Lord. Yeshua is both Savior and Lord, but not one without the other. Without the Law of God, we never know God’s righteous standard.
It was so popular 20 years ago to say WWJD? In Messianic Judaism we would say “WWYD?” Yeshua told us what He would do. John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of the One who sent Me.” And, how do we know God’s will? We read His will in His testament.
We are called to righteous living (the Protestant reformation taught us that), but we only know what righteous living is by the Word of God. Tonight I get the last word, and my last word is, “Take that Andy Stanley.”