Rabbi’s Reflections – Monday, August 10, 2020
Shalom,
Our dear friend, evangelist Yehoshua Mandipali, was scheduled to return to India last Wednesday. (He came to the USA for a 3 week visit back in February and has been stuck here ever since due to COVID-19.) However; on Tuesday he came down with COVID himself. He has been in ICU at LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville ever since. Please pray for him, and if you can, make an online donation here.
https://shomairyisrael.churchcenter.com/giving/to/yehoshua-mandipali
Shomair will match the donations up to $500, so our gift to him will be $1,000 or more. May the Lord bless this dear man of God.
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Philippians 3:10 My aim is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death— 11 if somehow I might arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.
Speaking of “Sharing of His suffering,” Yeshua learned obedience through suffering and so will we. Hebrews 5:8 Though He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. 9 And once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him—
Who will stand in the power of obedience with Yeshua between the porch and the altar? We have to grow past the altar. First, at the altar, we have to make the exchange, our life for His life. (We die to self and He resurrects us.) He is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Joel 2:16a Gather the people; sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; 17a Between the porch and the altar let the kohanim, ministers of Adonai, weep, and let them say: “Have pity, Adonai, on Your people.
Yeshua did not suffer for His own disobedience, but we do. Hodu L’Adonai Ki Tov, Ki L’Olam Chasdo… Psalm 107:1 Praise Adonai, for He is good, for His lovingkindness endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of Adonai say so— whom He redeemed from the hand of the foe,
We join Yeshua in intercession.
Ezekiel 9: 4 Adonai said to him, “Go throughout the city, through the midst of Jerusalem. Make a mark on the foreheads of the people who sigh and moan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” God does this to show compassion to those who “sigh and moan” over sin.
Better to have the mark of God in your life than the mark of the beast. Revelation 20:4b And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Yeshua and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image, nor had they received his mark on their forehead or on their hand. And they came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.
There are days coming that will require maturity. 2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
We are all called to a life of maturity, and I include myself here. The Bible says much on this subject…
1 Corinthians 4:20 Brothers and sisters, stop being children in your thinking—rather, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
The “whole gospel” message includes repentance. It includes turning from evil and obedience to God’s will. It means we grow up and accept responsibility, because we know with blessing comes responsibility.
Time is short…
Ephesians 4:13 This will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Ben-Elohim—to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of Messiah’s fullness. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be like children, tossed around by the waves and blown all over by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men with cunning in deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all ways into Messiah, who is the Head.
Jan and I are going to co-teach the Song of Songs, starting next Sunday at 4pm. We anticipate 16 weeks. All are welcome to attend. We are now writing the class notes. The time is now and this is urgent. We were going to wait a year before undertaking any teaching at Shomair, but this won’t keep.
Week 33
Memory Verse: Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—and yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
* 161 8/10 Monday: Luke 9:10-62
162 8/11 Tuesday: Mark 9-10
163 8/12 Wednesday: Luke 12
164 8/13 Thursday: John 3-4
165 8/14 Friday: Luke 14
Question of the day: Yeshua, Himself, asks the question of the day. Luke 9:25 “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself?”
Answer: Let’s start with Yeshua’s answer… Luke 9:26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.
That’s a strange answer. It doesn’t even seem like an answer at all. The question speaks to the tension between the attraction of the world and God’s call on our lives to serve Him in His kingdom. But the answer deals with not being ashamed of Him.
The lexicon of Greek words gives us some insight. What does it mean to be “ashamed?” I like this explanation… “being disgraced, bringing on ‘fitting’ shame that matches the error of wrongly identifying (aligning) with something.” I knew it; Yeshua is addressing an alignment issue. He’s saying in effect, “Whoever will not align properly with me, when I return, I will not be aligned with him.”
Would you like to join me in taking that under advisement? Let’s do better than that. Let’s make this a lifetime commitment. It is worthy. He is worthy.