Tag: Life

The Promise

And the Problem

“Yet a little while and the world will see me no more,
but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” —John 14:19

YeshuaJesus said that those who believed in Him would live again. They would also see Him again. While Yeshua was going away, He was going to come back to Earth. And though His followers may die, like Yeshua, they would come back from death into life and be with Him. They would see Yeshua in the flesh, physically.

Yeshua also revealed a problem that was going to happen. He said that the world would see Him no more. Yeshua, during His time on Earth. was a thorn in the side of the religious leaders. He presented a problem for them. There are accounts in which those leaders felt they couldn’t act against Yeshua for fear of the people. Yeshua’s mere presence was a problem for all people. He stood before people, in the flesh, and showed the Love of G-D, Father. As it was then, it is today, the love of the G-D of Israel is shown through Yeshua. And it is rejected because too often people want their own way.

Today the world cannot see Yeshua. This is a problem for the world in at least two ways. First, it is a problem in that it is much more difficult to believe in what isn’t seen. Thomas, a disciple of Yeshua, had the opportunity to place his finger in wound Yeshua received during His death. The other disciples physically saw the risen Yeshua, walked with Him, talked with Him. Today we don’t physically see Yeshua. Hard to believe what you don’t see, isn’t it? After Thomas said he believed, Yeshua said to him,

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The second way that it is a problem that Yeshua isn’t physically seen is that any restraint that might have been present when Yeshua was here in the flesh is removed. Unbelieving people, political leaders, even the courts of the land, seemingly are able to do as they please, unconstrained. Also, within the Christian community, leaders do as they please regardless of Scripture. They feel as though they are no longer constrained. Life. Liberty. Happiness. Do what we please. Yippee! We’re Free!

Early in America’s foundation, we were considered a Christian nation. Even in my public school days, children stood in the morning, faced the flat, the symbol of America, and pledged allegiance to the unity of our country under the Name of the G-D of Israel. When did things change? When was it that things became more unconstrained? I believe a mile marker on our path toward destruction came in 1973.

1973 was  a very good year for me, overall. It was not a very good year for a whole lot of babies in America, however. It was a death sentence issued by the Supreme Court in its decision in the case of Roe -v- Wade, which allowed the murder of babies simply because a person didn’t want to give birth to, and raise, the baby. That set us on the proverbial slippery slope, on a path toward destruction. Or as Barry McGuire sang, Eve of Destruction.

What we can’t see, can’t hurt us, right?

Wrong!

L-RD Bless, Protect, Shine upon y’all, and then He will give His Peace. . .

As the Days of Noah. . .

PTL4The Last Days. It’s on a lot of minds these days. Wars. Ebola. Islamic Terrorists. Rampant Crime. How could we not think that these are the Last Days. Yet, in all sincerity, as a human race we’ve had wars, famine, plague, and more than enough crime. The past looks pretty ugly. And yet, the mass of men, living lives of quiet desperation (thanks HD Thoreau) just kept on living. “Eat, Drink, Be Merry, for Tomorrow We May Die!” is the prevailing motto. This is the paradigm in which we, as Earth-dwellers live.

That’s what the Days of Noah were all about. Just going on despite the violence they perpetrated or experienced. That’s my sense of it all. We talk of the Last Days, but do we really believe it is here? Reading Genesis chapter six tells of G-d’s disappointment with the sin of the people. They’d become a real pain [ in King James English that was translated as G-d repenting of His creation] to Him. It’s Y’shuaJesus’s view of those times that opens things up for me.

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew 24:36-39

Generally, people are simple unaware. Period. Sure, we occasionally get a Chicken Little running about yelling, “The sky is falling. The sky is falling.” And lots of things point to toward the Last Days. But we largely ignore the signs. We go on marrying, eating, living, dying. And maybe that’s okay, too. Maybe our lives are meant simply to be lived, that we just need to be good and do good, in the capacity that we find ourselves. Maybe that’s enough. But in the Days of Noah, the people were violent, sinful, because they’d lost their view of G-d. They’d forgotten G-d. The people of Israel, years later, did the same thing. A judge would arise, chosen by G-d to turn the hearts and minds of the people back to G-d–and to vanquish the enemy that had come against Israel. Than the judge would die and the people would again forget.

What I think. . . maybe. . . it’s okay to go on marrying, eating, and going to church weekly or whatever; but we need to turn our eyes toward the Heavens, we need to turn our eyes toward the Lord. The Lord must be the center. For if the Lord is the Center, then the Center will hold and our lives won’t fall apart.

Awake in the morning rejoicing G-d; go to bed at night thanking G-d for another mundane, ordinary day living for and through Him. And if at night we hear a voice calling our name. . . Listen Up! Look Up!

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .