WBS.051
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
A KINGDOM HEART – XXI
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: IAUE our
Elohim; is one IAUE:
5 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
5 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Last
week’s post ended with this comment:
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Yahushua
came to prepare a people who will do the will of His Father. He demonstrated what that kind of life would look
like by living it himself.
John
6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of
him that sent me.
One of the most significant differences between
contemporary Christian “believers” and “disciples” of Yahushua Messiah is that believers,
once having believed, embrace a religious culture and live out their lives
within the parameters of their church’s expectations. A disciple is totally unconcerned with
religious culture and is focused daily on the knowing and doing of the will of
IAUE. A believer can go about a normal
week and seldom give thought to his/her faith; but a disciple finds it
impossible to exist without a continuously attentive ear to the voice of the Holy
Spirit.
This ability of a believer to have very little
conscious daily interaction with Messiah or with IAUE is a natural consequence
of having responded to a false gospel message. When believers rest their
confidence upon having once prayed to accept Messiah into their life to assure
them of a blissful eternity; they are no longer placing “present continuous
trust” in Messiah. Their faith has been replaced with confidence in a
subjective experience in their own life.
The moment that happens, they step out of the flow of IAUE’s grace; and
doing the will of IAUE becomes impossible to them. (Note:
We are saved by grace; and grace is the power that IAUE gives that
enables us to do His will.)
Part of the problem associated with this syndrome is
what I have referred to in a prior posting as “the problem with the invisible
god.” Because we cannot SEE Him, we can lose
awareness of Him; and the natural world around us takes over our lives, because
it is what we can see, taste, hear, smell and feel. These are the senses of our flesh; and our
flesh is not to rule our lives. IAUE
understood this problem and made provision for it; and that brings us to our
verses for today.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: IAUE our Elohim; is one
IAUE:
5 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
5 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
"Shema Yisrael, Adonai el-oheinu, Adonai echad." It is the prayer that, for millenia, the
Hebrews have prayed when they rise in the morning and when they retire at
night. It is the prayer uttered when full of joy and when bowed low in
despair. It is the first prayer taught to the children, and the last
words uttered by the dying. "Hear, O
Israel: IAUE our Elohim, is one IAUE."
The "Shema" (as it is called) is a
declaration of faith. In its few words, the Hebrews declared that they
were a monotheistic people; that they belonged to and worshipped the One True
Elohim. It identified who they were, both as a people and as individuals
within the Hebrew collective. There were no others like them on the
earth. They were "the people of IAUE."
Today, another prayer has taken an equal role in the
lives of "the people of IAUE." Yahushua taught His disciples to
pray, "Our Father..." thus
recognizing the nature of family among those whose Elohim is IAUE, while
continuing to instill the reality that Elohim is One. He is the Father.
It is helpful to understand the context of this
prayer, which is taken from three separate passages in the Old Testament
scriptures. It is very revealing of the
strategy and wisdom of IAUE.
Deuteronomy
6:1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,
which IAUE your Elohim commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the
land whither ye go to possess it:
2 That thou mightest fear IAUE thy Elohim, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as IAUE, the Elohim of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel: IAUE our Elohim is one IAUE:
5 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
2 That thou mightest fear IAUE thy Elohim, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as IAUE, the Elohim of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel: IAUE our Elohim is one IAUE:
5 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
Deuteronomy
11:13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my
commandments which I command you this day, to love IAUE your Elohim, and to
serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17 And then IAUE's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which IAUE giveth you.
18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which IAUE sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth."
14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17 And then IAUE's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which IAUE giveth you.
18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which IAUE sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth."
Numbers
15:37 And IAUE spake unto Moses, saying,
38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of IAUE, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:
40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your Elohim.
41 I am IAUE thy Elohim, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your Elohim: I am IAUE thy Elohim.
38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of IAUE, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:
40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your Elohim.
41 I am IAUE thy Elohim, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your Elohim: I am IAUE thy Elohim.
Can you see what is transpiring in these passages of
scripture? IAUE had separated unto Himself a chosen people (In the Old Covenant, it was the
Hebrews. In the New Covenant, He has made of both Jew and Gentile, one
person in the Body of Messiah.); and devised a strategy for setting them apart from the rest of the
world, and for sanctifying them before Himself.
Man is a
fallen and depraved creature. To aid the Hebrews in living differently,
in living as the people belonging to the One True Elohim, He gave them commandments
and statutes and testimonies and judgments. He instructed them to teach
them to each other and to their children when they woke up in the morning, when
they sat around the house, when they went outside, when they went to bed at
night, and again upon rising the next morning...over and over and over
again. They were to wear them on their clothes and place them upon their
door posts and upon the gates to their property. If they were not able to
discuss the Word of Elohim, they would at least be able to SEE it, and seeing
it, be reminded of what Elohim required of them. It was virtually impossible NOT to be aware
of IAUE because of all the physical reminders.
When you are discussing and teaching the Word of
Elohim when you first rise in the morning, when you are awake in your home,
when you leave your home, when you return to your home, and when you lie down
for bed at night, when is there time not to be aware of Elohim; and being made
aware, not sense a responsibility to do as He wills? Yet, believers today
struggle to find even five minutes each day to read the Scriptures. We
can find twenty minutes for the daily newspaper; we can find an hour to read the
latest best-seller; we can find hours to watch television every day; but we
cannot find time to read the Scriptures. Even when we attend church, we are
exposed to little more than a verse here and a verse there. At what time
in the life of the contemporary disciple of Messiah Yahushua does he/she ever
become literally saturated with the Scriptures as were the early Hebrews that
obeyed the instructions in the above cited passages of scripture?
(Consider your own feelings as you were reading this
post. When you saw three large sections
of Scripture, back to back, did you not feel the desire to bypass reading the
Scripture and to move down to where the commentary continues, instead? Why would a disciple not rather see it the
other way; and long to read the Scripture, and consider the commentary as
secondary reading material?)
Paul gave us the New Testament equivalent of the
Shema when he said:
Romans
12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Elohim, which
is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Elohim.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Elohim.
If we read this passage as a commandment given to us
by IAUE through His chosen apostle; then we must acknowledge that in order to
be obedient to this commandment, we must provide for the continuous renewal of
our thought processes by routine and persistent exposure to the Scriptures and
to the voice of the Holy Spirit. That
does not leave us time to become unaware of IAUE in our lives; because the
whole focus of our lives is to learn to think as He thinks, in order to learn
more accurately and correctly how to know and to do His will.
Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance
of the will of IAUE.
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