Rabbi’s Reflections – Thursday, September 10, 2020
Shalom,
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: It’s official. We are on the map of sites registered to host “The Return” https://thereturn.org/ This is the gathering in Washington DC and being broadcast around the world. It begins at 9AM on Saturday, September 26, 2020. This is the date of “Shabbat Shuva” this year (Sabbath of repentance) on the Hebrew calendar.
Rabbi Trail: There is always one Shabbat during the 10 days between Rosh Hashana (aka Yom Teruah) and Yom Kippur. The 40 days from the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement aka Day of Judgment) is a season of repentance. How appropriate to have “The Return” (a call to repentance) on Shabbat Shuva. It’s not an accident. End RT.
In organizing and promoting this event, Jonathan Cahn (Messianic leader and author) is among these notables listed as event advisors: Pat and Gordon Robertson, Dr. James Dobson, Anne Graham Lotz, Michele Bachmann, Robert Morris, Alveda King, and John Kilpatrick. I read their mission statement https://thereturn.org/mission/ and found it consistent with my beliefs. I hope you agree and can join us as we blend our Shabbat worship into their simulcast event.
2 Chronicles 7:14 when My people, over whom My Name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
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Think and Grow Rich (the book by author Napoleon Hill) was first published in 1937 as a self-help and personal development book. The book proposes 13 principles as a “Philosophy of Achievement.” It, along with every other “self-help” book, takes the principles of God and repackages them (for the most part, removing God from the table of contents). I propose that stealing God’s principles and removing God’s name from them is either plagiarism directly, or its first cousin.
The principle that your thoughts direct your reality is directly from the Bible. Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinks within himself, so is he. Please do not misunderstand my intention today. I am not writing about material riches.
Yeshua had this discussion with His disciples… Matthew 19:23 Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “Amen, I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. His disciples responded to this by asking in astonishment… Matthew 19:25b “Then who can be saved?” Yeshua pointed them to His (and our) Father by saying… Matthew 19:26 And looking, Yeshua said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
I’m writing about which tree in the garden is the focus of our thought life. The “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” is the tree of reasoning, the tree of competition with God. It leads to a life of striving against God. Genesis 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die! 5 For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman wanted “wisdom,” so she ate from the forbidden tree.
The “Tree of Life” is the tree of following God, the tree of embracing God and obedience to His Word. Interesting that the tree of life requires death also, death of self will in submission to the will of God yielding eternal life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil requires the death of the partaker yielding eternal damnation.
Begs the question, “How do I choose the tree of life?” Eyes on the “life giver, the Savior of the world.” Yeshua told His disciples, “Follow me.” He’s telling us the same thing today. All that’s left is for us to answer, “Hineni, here I am, send me.”
Week 37
Memory Verse: Matthew 28:18 And Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, 20 teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
181 9/07 Monday: Mark 16
182 9/08 Tuesday: Luke 24
183 9/09 Wednesday: John 20-21
* 184 9/10 Thursday: Matthew 28
185. 9/11 Friday: Acts 1
Question of the Day: Yeshua gives us the “great commission” saying… Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, 20a teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. How can we fully understand this assignment?
Answer: Yeshua promised in the previous verse… Matthew 28:18b “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” That sets up this promise… Matthew 28:20b “And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Yeshua is promising us that we will have resources from Him to accomplish the assignment. Not just resources from Him, but Yeshua, Himself, will be with us. Not only that, but He has “ALL AUTHORITY.” His authority is supreme, second to none, “all” means “all,” leaving none for anyone else. We tend to walk around like we have this huge assignment, and to be sure, it is big. However; He has given us every resource to be successful. Yeshua has set us up for success. The promised victory belongs to the people of God. Let’s not continue as if there were any doubt.