Instructing God in righteousness…

The other day my wife, Kelly Clayton Rambo, showed me a meme that was on her Facebook page. I read it and immediately stated the corollary back to her…

“Righteousness, even if contrary to the traditions of men, is still righteousness, regardless of what everyone else thinks!”

While I have no idea who Russell M Nelson, the assumed author of the quote at left, is, I do know the quote is true. Scripture says so in multiple ways, but the most significant is,

Whatsoever thing I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add to it nor take away from it.
Deut. 12:32

See? The two initial statements above, Nelson’s and mine, state in part the same truth. Let’s look at them in a little more detail.

“Sin, even if legalized by man, is still sin…” Man can’t change God’s Law by ignoring, overwriting, legislating or even erasing it. His Law is eternal and unchanging. To paraphrase God about some of His prophecies, ‘If you can make the sun stop coming up, or the sea cease to rush to shore, then you may be able to change the Torah.’ Murder is still murder, regardless of what the general populace believes, the government legalizes or how many copies of the Bible you burn. Murder (or, insert any other action condemned by God) is sin. Period.

The corollary for this is also true. Righteousness is righteousness, even if you don’t like it. Maybe people who keep the Feasts of the Lord, something He commands on multiple occasions, rankle you. Maybe it really irritates you that they choose to ignore, or even point out the verifiable pagan roots of some holidays. So? Keeping them is still righteousness, whether you like it or not. Same for Shabbat. Same for God’s everlasting dietary restrictions in Leviticus 11.

What is particularly interesting is when ‘believers’ don’t like a fellow follower of the Word because that follower actually does or believes what the Word clearly teaches. Imagine: someone studies the Word and sees that going to Jerusalem for the feasts is a commandment and begins to actually keep it while others, who may not understand or be convicted of that commandment, tear them down or separate from them. Does that action in any way undermine or change God’s commandment? No, it just exposes the sin and rebellion in the heart of the divisive.

How about a believer who separates from another because believing what the Bible says about a matter is ‘bad for public perception or public relations.’ Division and shunning is better than truth? Really? Pray tell what you think the Father’s opinion is of that course of action. I don’t see a single example of righteous men suppressing truth that ended well. In fact, the righteous in Scripture, prophets, apostles and the Messiah Himself, were willing to die for the hard truths, traditions and customs of men be damned.

Bottom-line: Sin is sin only if God says that it is sin. Righteousness is defined by Scripture, therefore, if Scripture calls something righteous, then we can’t call it otherwise. And, if God never calls something ‘unrighteous’ then we can’t either.

This really is simple stuff, yet people get wrapped around the axle. Do Bible stuff in Bible ways. Everything else is just religion and ‘religion’ is man-made rules for self-righteousness which, if based on man’s self made rules, is, by definition, sin!

So, do we instruct God in righteousness, or does He, the Lawgiver and Judge instruct us?

Meditate.

The everlasting Word!

When this was written, what commandments was the author or Author referring to? Just our verses later:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5

Maybe it should read, “trust in the Word with all your heart and lean not on your own doctrines.”

The Lord will not violate His Word. His Word reveals Him. When we filter His Word through doctrines and our own understanding, we are no longer trusting Him, rather we are trusting the men that tell us what the Word says.

The Word is simple. His commandments are not burdensome.

My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
Proverbs 3:1 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.3.1.KJV

Paul believed EVERYTHING written in the Torah….

Do you?

Shema Israel…..

“But this I confess to you, that according to the Way (which they call a sect), I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything written in the Torah and the Prophets.
Acts 24:14 TLV

http://bible.com/314/act.24.14.TLV

Taste and see that the Lord is good!!

While generally understood in a metaphorical sense, yesterday, I was reminded of the real physical sense that our Father expects us to understand His Word when it says,

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Ps. 34:8

We gathered with a dozen or more families yesterday to participate in a mock Seder (Passover) meal. Most all of us will celebrate Passover in the coming day or so, but we had guests and visitors who had never experienced a Passover and, planning to celebrate with families in their homes for the first time, needed to ‘see’ and experience in order to more fully understand the meaning of the feast and how to lead it.

This will be about our sixth Passover and each is more rich than the previous as I learn and understand more fully the great depth of YHVH’s Word. Yesterday was no different as I made new connections with Scripture and even this morning, I woke thinking, ‘Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!’

It is so easy to fall into the trap Continue reading “Taste and see that the Lord is good!!”

Come, let us go up!!

Recently, I shared a terrific series concerning the debate about making regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the feasts. As previously shared, Bob Parham demonstrates with clarity that the eleven most common objections do not hold water when held to the light of Scripture.

As if that were not enough, the Barking Fox, who has reblogged and commented on the series, has written a fantastic wrap-up that is at once exciting and challenging. I commend it to you as a must read and call you to prayerfully consider how this will alter your plans for the coming year!

Come, let us go up!!

The Jerusalem Debate – The End of the Matter

The Little Red Hen and her chicks

enjoy the fruit of her labors.

There is a children’s story about a Little Red Hen who worked diligently to feed her chicks and keep her house in order. One day she found some grain, which she decided to plant. She asked the other barnyard animals to help, but each of them refused for one reason or another. The same thing happened each time she asked for help in tending the plants, harvesting the wheat, taking it to the mill to grind into flour, and bake the flour into bread.

At the end of this lengthy process, as the Little Red Hen pulled the fresh bread hot from the oven, all of the animals came running to help her eat it. But before any of them could come near, she said, “Not one of you helped me plant the grain, nor tend it, nor harvest it; none of you helped me take it to the mill, and you did not help me bake it into bread. Why should I share the bread with you now? It is for my chicks and I, and we will eat it ourselves.” Whereupon she shut the door, leaving her neighbors to watch longingly as her family enjoyed the fruit of her labors.

This story contains a moral for Hebrews who are debating whether the commandment to go up to Jerusalem for the Feasts of YHVH applies to them. Quite simply, if we are to enjoy the benefits of a restored Temple of the Living God, and of the nation that will be restored around it, then we had best be doing all we can to help in the process now.

Labor Day? A thought….

God knows, we need rest. In fact, He commands rest. What is odd is that man largely rejects His rest, then needs to create days of rest.

Consider how much rest (and feasting/bbq-ing) He commands:

– 52 Sabbaths of no work
– 2 one week Feasts of limited or no work
– 6 additional feast days, most with no work
– 12-13 New Moon Feasts of limited work
– Every seventh year, rest the land
– Every 50th year rest the land and go debt-free…

And, I’m probably forgetting something.

Why would anyone trade all that for a different schedule that then needs a Labor Day? Doesn’t sound like bondage to me…

Pffffttt. Who needs Labor Day?

http://bible.com/100/pro.6.6-11.NASB

Breaking the Sabbath… another way…

It occurred to me the other day as I was reading some Scripture that even IF the Sabbath was moved to Sunday, and IF Christendom need only keep the Ten Commandments, they are still in continual violation of the fourth! Now, we have proved over and over that these two allowances are patently false, but, for the sake of argument, let’s allow them for a moment.

Christendom claims to keep the Sabbath, even if NOT on the seventh day as we are clearly commanded more than seven times. However, despite their claims to the contrary, Christendom breaks the fourth commandment in another highly predictable way…. Notice,

Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (^[a]for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

John gives an interesting detail in this verse. Besides the weekly Sabbaths, there are some Sabbaths that are Continue reading “Breaking the Sabbath… another way…”