The Summary of the Torah

It has been quite a while since I have written a blog. Life has become rather hectic, filled with challenges and many onslaughts from the enemy, seeking to distract me and disrupt the shalom that is found only in Yeshua, our Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace). But despite all his attempts to create chaos around me, I am marveling at the fulfillment of the Torah I am witnessing in my own small fellowship we call David's Tent. We meet twice a month to celebrate Shabbats, to worship together, to pray together, to break bread together, and to fellowship. Sounds pretty much like the description of the early church in the book of Acts, doesn't it? The amazing thing is that I am seeing it lived out.

When one family needed to make a local move, others arrived to help. One drove a big meat truck borrowed from his company, filled with the family's belongings. Others came to unload and put everything in its place. Two people brought furniture from their own homes to fill a need. One brought blackberry bushes and strawberry plants to begin the back yard garden. This week tragedy struck in our little family. A precious husband suffered a massive stroke last Friday and is still in very critical condition in a Denver ICU. We are praying in one accord. We are sitting with his wife, just to be there. We are believing for a miracle.

Why am I sharing all this? Because through all this God is returning us to the simple Truth that Yeshua taught: the fulfillment of the Torah is LOVE. As I travel and teach among Messianic congregations, I have begun to see that simple truth disappear in favor of seeking for knowledge. When all emphasis is put on studying the Torah, seeking after the latest "cutting-edge teaching," filling our lives with CDs and DVDs from the best-known teachers, it seems that we stop seeking the Author of the Torah. And when we stop seeking Him - Yeshua, our Messiah and our God - we fall into the same trap the Pharisees fell into. We find ourselves going further and further into the teachings and traditions of men. This in turn has led many to deny Yeshua, or at least deny that He is equally God.

I have spent the last two weeks dealing with this heresy with quite a few sisters and brothers of the faith. In the process of showing them the fullness of who Yeshua (Jesus) is through the Scriptures, something became painfully obvious to me. The lie that Satan is spreading through the camp is not creative or new. It is the same old lie he fed to Adam and Eve in the Garden: "you shall not surely die; you shall become like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). Yes, the corrupted seed from the Tree of Good and Evil is still alive in our world today, and I am aghast at how many are swallowing it. Let us examine our hearts, beloved. Are we searching for knowledge for the sake of knowledge? Or, are we searching for knowledge in order that we might know Yeshua more deeply and intimately? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the motive of your heart. The apostle Paul writes, "Knowlege puffs up; but love builds up" (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Two weeks ago when I was interceding and asking God to help me turn these people back to Truth, I received an e-mail from a sister in the Church who had no idea what I was working through. She said she had just had a dream that she was walking up to a table upon which was a loaf of challah bread. She reached out to take a piece of the bread when she noticed it was full of tiny pockets. Suddenly she saw little green tree frogs climbing out of the pockets and heard a Voice yell, "Don't eat this bread!" She awoke startled and asked, "Father, what is it?" The Spirit spoke to her, "Send this dream to Kelly. It is for her."

You can imagine how powerfully this dream spoke to my heart. Father sent it through someone completely unrelated, in order to show me that the dream is a genuine warning from the Holy Spirit. I recognized the little frogs as the evil spirits that climb out of the mouths of the false prophet and the beast in Revelation 16:3. The message was crystal clear: "Do not eat the bread of demons!"

I am praying that as you read this your heart will be moved to take a deep breath of life-giving Shalom from the Holy Spirit, and purpose to return to the summary of the Torah as given to us by the One who is the Torah Incarnate: Yeshua. He said, "Love YHVH your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Torah and all the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).

Never Let It Happen Again

Dear friends,
A lot is going on in the spiritual realm over Israel (as well as in the physical!) A couple of days ago Israelis paused from everything they were doing and remembered the victims of the Holocaust, as sirens blared across the nation. Today they celebrated Israel's Independence Day, and remembered their rebirth as a nation. And we have to wonder: as the Jewish people paused to remember all those whose lives ended in the ashes of the death camps' ovens, was the Holy One of Israel raining down His tears in the volcanic ashes over Europe?

Here is a prayer update that came today from Glory of Zion. I hope it will bless you as you continue to pray for the Jewish people. May we never forget what happened in the Holocaust - and may we never let it happen again!

PRAYER UPDATE FROM ISRAEL (APRIL 19, 2010)
1. REBORN ISRAEL TURNS 62-A YEAR FOR TAKING A TURN.
" 'Nahamu, nahamu ami,' yomer Eloheikhem.'-'You comfort, You comfort My people,' says your God'" (Isaiah 40:1).
"It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them" (Psalm 44:3).
Yesterday (Sunday) evening at 8:00 the sirens sounded to begin the day when Israel pauses to pay tribute to the 22,682 of her sons and daughters who have fallen as soldiers or victims of terror. Since last Memorial Day 111 Israeli soldiers have been killed. It is a day taken very seriously in this tiny nation where sixty two years have seen six wars interspersed with almost continual hostilities both within and on our borders. Yet at sundown this evening the country turns out into the streets to celebrate Israel's independence and birth as a renewed nation. It is an unusual juxtaposition-grief and sorrow followed by celebration. As one man bereaved of a brother shared with a HaAretz reporter, "On Independence Day our family celebrates with all the more conviction because of the memorial ceremonies the day before, which take so much from us, both psychologically and physically. On a personal level, I find the connection hard. On a national level, I think it's important. That's also what I tell my children: Without sacrifices, there would have been no independence; and without independence, there could be no memorial."
So, on 20 April Israel turns 62. Our population stands at 7,587,000, 75.7% of which is Jewish, 20.4% Arab (this is excluding the contested territories of Judea and Samaria). In some ways we are weak-our territory uncertain, our government precarious, our relationship with other nations not strong. And yet, in God's grace our economy has held steady as others have foundered, and we continue to be cutting-edge in the high-tech and medical fields of the world. Morally and spiritually we are in large part diseased and feeble-yet an awakening is taking place as a tiny indigenous Messianic Body of Messiah is coming into notice in the schools, in the workplace, in the Government and in the military. This past year has seen an unprecedented acknowledgment of and in many cases accurate description of Messianic Judaism (i.e. Jews who believe in Yeshua/Jesus as Messiah, Saviour and Lord) in the mainstream Israeli media. Two years ago most Israelis were unaware of its existence.
The number 62, written in the ancient Hebrew alphabetical numbering system happens to actually spell a word-Sav (samech-vet). Sav is a verb form meaning "encircled, went around; turned around; gyrated, spun."
As Israel memorializes her dead and enters into her 62nd year, feeling "encircled" more than ever by hostility without, may this be the year for a "turn around" within! Isaiah 62 portrays an intercessory charge regarding that turnaround which the Holy Spirit releases to many willing to stand with her-"until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns"-until she be "called by a new name"-until she "shall no longer be termed Forsaken nor her land be termed Desolate"-until "He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

Nourisher of Your Old Age

At the end of the book of Ruth is a marvelous passage that speaks deeply to my heart - and perhaps also to yours, if you have the blessing of grandchildren in your life:
"So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, 'Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life and nourisher of your old age..."

This little boy, Naomi's grandson, became Jesse's father and King David's grandfather. And we know that King David's line would eventually include Messiah Yeshua. What a blessing indeed!

I was pondering all that as I stayed with three of my grandchildren for the past four days and nights while their parents were away. They are restorers of life to me. They are sweet and funny and fill my heart with joy. I spent some one-on-one time with my nine-year-old grandson Jackson last Friday because he was sick. We had the day together, snuggling and talking. At one point he was telling me, "Nana, when I grow up I'm going to live on a big ranch out in the country." I marveled, "Wow, if you do, and you let me live with you on your ranch, I'll clean your mansion and cook your meals!" His huge, deep brown eyes looked up at me with such honor and he said, "Oh no. You will always be my Nana - not my maid."

The next day he felt better and we went to the Family Dollar Store before picking up his sisters. I spotted a little tabletop charcoal grill for $14.00 and bought it to replace the old rusted-out yucky one sitting on my back deck. When we got back home, Jackson brought the grill in and immediately began to assemble it, using his dad's screwdriver and figuring out all the assembly instructions himself. I was amazed - I can't do that! But he said, "I wanted to put your new grill together for you, and then if you'll give me the old one I can scrub it up and use it in my back yard." Wow. I'm his Nana, not his maid.

My grandchildren restore life to me and it seems I can look forward to them nourishing me in my old age. Blessed be the LORD who has not left me without a close relative - in fact, blessed be the LORD who has graced my life with ELEVEN grandchildren!

I wonder if one day one of them may be famous in Israel? Smile.

The Kingdom Cup

I hope you all had a blessed Passover - and a joyful Feast of Firstfruits. Our Messiah Yeshua has risen and He is the firstfruits of the dead! We await His coming again in glory - and because we are still waiting, we did not drink that fourth cup at our Passover celebration.

As I was putting together our Seder, I began to look more closely at the four cups and the promises they represent. It all comes from Exodus 6:6-8: "I am YHVH and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves, and I will redeem you with My outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people and I will be your God." From these four promises that YHVH gave to His people Israel, the four cups of the Seder were adopted and every year we gratefully drink from these cups. But this year I began to look at them more closely.

1. "I will bring you out from Egypt" - the cup of Sanctification

2. "I will free you with mighty acts of judgment" - the cup of Judgment

3. "I will redeem you" - the cup of Redemption

4. "I will take you" - the Kingdom cup

He set apart a people for Himself, and He continues to sanctify His people. Today we may not live in Egypt, but we do live in the world, a type of Egypt. We are still in the process of having "Egypt" taken out of us! And just as God freed the Israelites with mighty acts of judgment, so He continues to do today. Every single time our nation has come against Israel by pushing the division of her land, we have suffered great judgments in hurricanes, earthquakes or stock market collapses. I will never forget in 2005 when I was living in Jerusalem and the forced eviction of Jews in the Gaza took place. Ten thousand Jews were put into the streets of Israel, homeless. Three days later, Katrina hit the gulf coast of the U.S. and hundreds of thousands of Americans wandered the streets, homeless. God caused His "Outstretched Arm" (Yeshua) to redeem the Israelites, and as the blood of the Passover lamb painted upon Jewish doorways protected them from death, so the sinless blood of Yeshua, our Passover Lamb, saves us from dying in our sin.

In Matthew 26:26-28 we read about Yeshua sharing that last Passover Seder with his disciples. Verse 26 begins with, "While they were eating, Yeshua took bread, gave thanks... and then verse 27 begins with, "Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them..." We know that this cup Yeshua gave His disciples - the one He called "My blood of the New Covenant" - was the third cup, the cup of Redemption. The third cup is the one that is drunk during the Passover meal, and we see that the disciples were eating. And of course it makes perfect sense that Yeshua calls this third cup "His blood of the New Covenant" for it is our Redemption from the wages of sin and death.

But what about that fourth cup? In Matthew 26:29 Yeshua says, "I tell you I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now until that day when I drink it anew with you in My Father's kingdom." The Spirit quickened to me that Yeshua refused the fourth cup! Why? It is not yet time to drink it. The Passover is not yet completely fulfilled! The fourth cup is called the Kingdom Cup - and Yeshua promises to drink it with us when He is with us in His kingdom in Jerusalem! I believe that is why Paul says, "Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us...therefore let us keep the festival!" We are to keep this feast throughout all generations, from that first generation that ate it in haste before their deliverance through the Sea of Reeds, to the Day of His Coming, when He will "take us" into the Land and we will lift that Kingdom cup with our King, and celebrate our final deliverance from "Egypt"!

All I can say to that is what the Jewish people have been saying for thousands of generations:

NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM!