Be Still

Once in a while I like to get out The Message version of the Bible and just enjoy the creative translation. This morning I spent some time there in Psalm 46. What a meaningful Psalm for our time! Let these words wrap around your heart and speak to your anxious soul:


Psalm 46 (The Message)

God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.

God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.

"Step out of the traffic!
Take a long, loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything."
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.

Loved one, have you been wrestling with God? Have you been wondering where he is in the midst of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and oil spills? Have you wondered if He's asleep while our nation seems to be crumbling?

Jacob wrestled with Him too, all night long - and what Jacob learned from that experience is that God fights FOR us - not against us. He wrestles us out of our flesh and our self-preservation and into that place of quiet Trust. He may not stop that flood or tornado, but He is in the midst of it. He is there to help us pick up the pieces, to learn the lessons of what matters in this life, to let go of possessions and things, and grab hold of His marvelous shalom, His unending love.

"Step out of the traffic," He says, "and take a long, loving look at Me, your High God - above politics, above everything!" Oh, Father, how good it is to remember that You are sovereign and above all the corrupted politics of our world and above all the failed economies and currencies. We can take a deep breath and calmly say to others as Peter and John said, "Gold and silver have I none, but I will give you what I do have: come and meet Yeshua, the One who gives Life and sustains it, the One who sleeps in the boat in perfect peace, in the middle of a great storm, the One who commands the Angel armies, the One who wrestles with us in the night and then puts His great, loving arms around us in the morning and dries our tears.

Step out of the traffic and the TV. Take a long, loving look at Him, your High God.

Be still and know that He is God.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

A Jubilee Heart

The Torah parsha this past week from Leviticus 25 is all about the Jubilee year:
"Count off seven sabbaths of years - seven times seven years - so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the shofar sounded everywhere on the 10th day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the shofar throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property."

The LORD offers specific principles in this chapter that show what I am calling His "Jubilee Heart." We are told that a Jubilee year is a time of setting free all servants and cancelling all debts. It is a time of liberty from all bondage. It is a time of returning to one's own clan. It is a time of redemption: land is redeemed and returned to its original families, servants are redeemed and free to return also to their families. Do you hear God's heart? RESTORATION. REUNIFICATION. LIBERTY!

It is also a faith test. If the Israelites were not allowed to plant in a Jubilee year (even as they were commanded every 7 years in a Sabbatical year), what would they eat? How would they earn income? How would they survive? YHVH answers them clearly in Leviticus 25:20-22: "You may ask, 'What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest crops?' I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in."

History of Ancient Israel shows that the people did not faithfully keep these commands. They displayed an alarming lack of faith that YHVH really would give them a three-year blessing of harvest in the sixth year. In fact, in modern-day Israel during the last sabbatical year, I read that many Israeli farmers hired Arab workers to plant the fields for them so they wouldn't be doing the work, but would still produce the crops and receive the income!

Such a lack of trust we humans exhibit when it comes right down to our livelihoods and wellbeing. YHVH provided a double portion of manna every single Friday for the Israelites so they did not have to gather on Shabbats! His provision never failed, and they always had enough. Why do we not believe that He will do it again, and still feel that we have to rely always on our own strength and power?

Yeshua went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as we are told in Luke 4:16-21: "...on the Sabbath day He went into the synagogue as was His custom. And He stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the LORD is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

What is this "year of the Lord's favor" of which Yeshua spoke? I think it is not so much a "what" but a "who"! Of course He is referring to a Jubilee Year. As we see from the Scriptures above, the Jubilee Year does indeed represent freedom, release, and redemption. But the passages in Luke go on to say, "Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began by saying to them, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

The Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing because YESHUA IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE JUBILEE YEAR! HE is freedom. HE is redemption. HE is recovery of sight. HE is the Restorer of families. HE owns the Deed to the Land. HE is the good news! And all eyes in the synagogue were fastened on Him. Perhaps this has been the problem: the eyes of God's people have not been fastened on Yeshua. Hebrews 12:2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Yeshua, author and perfecter of our faith..."

In the days ahead, will you trust Him when there are no crops in the field or no dollars in the bank? Let us purpose to keep our eyes fixed on the One who is our Jubilee. He is in the process of restoring families, opening blind eyes, and setting captives free. He will keep His Word. He has a Jubilee Heart!

The Family of God

I am moved by Asher Intrater's blog today. Asher is one of several leaders of Messianic communities in Israel. Today's blog is entitled "An Acts Two Congregation." I was struck by the fact that he is writing from Israel much the same thing I have been writing here in Colorado. That is an encouragement, to realize that the God of Israel is calling believers from here to Jerusalem to return to the model in Scripture for our gatherings. Asher writes, "The re-establishment of a Messianic community in Jerusalem is part of God's purpose in these end times as we approach Yeshua's return to Jerusalem." How thrilling to think about the Jewish people whose eyes are being opened to their Messiah, and who are preparing for His return right at their doorstep!

Asher mentions several things they have been convicted to follow as they form communities. For me, his most profound and important statement was this: "How much Jewish tradition to be included in our congregations is a hotly debated subject among Messianic Jews. People tend toward polemic reactions, totally for or against. But the biblical New Covenant view is one of balance." Amen! It is this balance we should all be seeking as we are restored to our Hebrew roots, desiring to keep the Torah, yet clinging to the blood of our Messiah Yeshua for grace and salvation.

Asher also notes that there is strong spiritual opposition to proclaiming Yeshua's name in Israel. "But He will always be the center of our message: Yeshua of Nazareth (Acts 2:22), this Yeshua whom you crucified (2:36), in the name of Yeshua (2:38)." If we keep everything focused on Him - learning to understand the culture of His time and the commandments and feast days (moedim) that He kept - and yet still invite and welcome those from all backgrounds to come learn with us, we will indeed be keeping the Acts 2 model. The Acts Two congregation started with a core of 120 local disciples; but to them were added 3,000, who were mostly immigrants, "devout men from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5).

As I have been pointing out, we need to move away from the idea of a formal "assembly or congregation," and instead become family as we see modeled in John 19:26-27 and Mark 3:33-35. A family or community does not operate with one or two people lording it over everybody else. Asher writes, "The early disciples lived their lives in complete partnership. They saw everything, material and spiritual, as a common possession. They did not 'attend an assembly,' they participated as a community, a family." I agree. A family is a group of kindred spirits, willing to share what they have, and be fully present to one another in worship, in prayer, in fellowship, in life and in death.

This past week we lost one of our own brothers at David's Tent. Don and his wife Sandy are greatly loved by us all. But Don suffered a massive stroke a little over a week ago, and all our lives have been impacted by this sudden tragedy. Like all families in such a situation, we all wanted to know what we could do to help while Don lay unconscious in a hospital room and Sandy sat at his side. As it turns out, all she needed was for some of us to sit beside her - and all of us to pray for them. It was a blessing to be a part of Don's holy journey to be with the LORD. He left us last night to receive his Sabbath Rest. We rejoice for him and grieve with Sandy. We are a family.

While Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel are learning to operate in covenantal relationships, we should be too. As we look toward Messiah's return, we must be about the work of restoration with our brother Judah. This means creating the balance of Spirit and Truth (Holy Spirit Power and Torah) that Yeshua spoke to us about in John 4:23. These are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks! As Asher notes, "We must learn to trust one another, communicate with one another, confront sin in love, submit to authority, and commit ourselves to long-term relationships." Imagine if we really did this! I could envision an end to all the disputes, divisions, and discord. I could peer into the future and see the Family of Yahweh streaming into the Kingdom through the 12 gates on which are written the names of the 12 tribes of Israel (Rev. 21:12). A family once divided - now restored as one again!