Logic Time

                                    Contributed by Carl Mefford

To those who would claim that obedience to the expressed will and stated standards of Elohim (in other words, the Torah) is essentially equitable with falling away from Grace (whatever that is supposed to mean, coming from an individual who would, in the next breath, likely claim that salvation only ever requires a simple and ultimately empty expression of belief, and the Law, or Torah, is therefore irrelevant), I would ask the following:

Why would Elohim (God) submit His Torah to humanity, establish a nation and a cultural identity beneath the guidelines of that Torah as a sort of constitution, communicate to that nation through the prophets a message of righteous devotion to that Torah, guard the reliability of that Torah's expression through the generations to follow via the priesthood, protect the continuity of the Jewish people beneath the seal of Torah through countless captivities and conflicts, and ultimately bring to fruition the Person of the Messiah prophesied throughout the Torah in order to clarify (in relation to the Sabbath), amend (in relation to the sin offering), and uphold (in relation to His own observance) that very same Torah; only to reveal to mankind, through a Gentile Church intentionally and disobediently severed from the commonwealth of Israel, that despite His own establishment of Torah as a light of righteous conduct to the wayward nations, both Jew and Gentile, His 'New Covenant' decree would be to oppose the Torah and establish a new Law wherein observance of the Torah would itself be regarded as sin?

All theological gymnastics and twisted textual interpretations aside, does such a position, at its core, make even the slightest bit of good sense? Think about it, friends...

Getting Packed

                                      Contributed by Tricia Pollock
                                      Spoken by Jackson Pollock


Out of the mouth of my 10 year old babe:

This week, we have been reading the first 5 chapters of Exodus and discussing how our family came out of spiritual Egypt, heading to the Promised Land, just like the Israelites were preparing to come out of physical Egypt and into the Promised Land. We talked about the things we left behind in Egypt (Christmas, Easter, Sunday Worship, false teachings, entertainment, etc.) finally finding the Truth.

So this morning Jackson and I were having a conversation we have often: we were talking about leaving Egypt and how we are to prepare for Yeshua's coming, and for the things prophesied to occur before that happens...and how His people will be tested to see what is really in their hearts...

"Momma, I'm worried that people aren't getting packed."

"What do you mean buddy? What does it mean to be packed?"

"Well, I'm happy the Saxtons and the Phelps are getting packed."

"How do you get packed buddy?"

"I pray. And we should take the Torah."

So there you have it folks...wisdom from a 10 year old...we all should be packing, (praying and studying ALL of His Word) for Yeshua is coming soon and so is MUCH deception.

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The Voice, The Unction

I have included the original source that was given when I read this account in social media.  It was posted to The United Pentecostal Church site, submitted by Anita Sargeant.  When we hear The Voice or feel the unction of the Ruach HaKodesh [Holy Spirit] we don't have to know the "why," to be obedient. 

At times when God moves on us through the Gifts of the Spirit we do not understand why we feel compelled to do a certain thing. It makes no logical sense. Here is an example from Sister Nona Freeman: 

“A week or so later, an irresponsible urge became an insistent voice, ‘Go stand on the front porch!’ 

“’No self-respecting house wife would waste time standing on her front porch at ten o’clock in the morning, with dishes to wash and beds to make,’ I chided the unreasonable inclination; ‘and what could be important about our minuscule porch, little more than an enlarged step?’

“The voice ignored my reasoning and like a broken record insisted until it propelled me to the front door and out onto the porch. After standing there for two or three minutes feeling more foolish by the second, I saw a car slowly approaching and recognized the driver—O.C. Taylor. I smiled and waved to him with surprising enthusiasm; he responded with a slight nod of the head. I continued to wave until the car went out of sight.

“Back in the kitchen I wondered out loud, ‘Now what was that all about?’ I didn’t really expect an answer and tackled the house cleaning eagerly to erase the whole affair from my mind.

“Many years later, when we made a visit to Rosepine (Louisiana) a smiling O.C. came to greet me and asked a question that recalled the incident vividly.

“’Sister Freeman, do you remember when I drove by the parsonage one morning about 10 o’clock and saw you standing on your porch?’ He did not pause for a reply. ‘You smiled and waved at me as though I was the most important person in the world. Why?’

“’All I know is the Lord interrupted my dish washing and told me to go stand on the porch that morning. He impressed me to smile and wave when you drove by.’

“’What you do not know is I was on my way to the gravel pit with my gun beside me on the front seat.’ O.C. dropped his head and when he looked up again I saw tears in his eyes. ‘Everything had gone wrong for me. I decided I had nothing to live for and nobody cared whether I lived or died. I planned to blow my brains out at the gravel pit—then I saw you—you acted like you cared. I didn’t go to the gravel pit; I went to see a man about a job and he hired me. Now I am serving the Lord and for a long time I’ve been wanting to say ‘Thanks for caring.’”

Story taken from the book: “Beloved Wide Spot” by Nona Freeman

Following

                                             by Jim Shirley

The Torah is the same Path that Yeshua followed. It is the same path that Yeshua led his original followers. I have said this over and over ... Yeshua was a Torah observant, tallit wearing, synagogue attending, Sabbath and feast-keeping, kosher Jew who observed the seven commanded holy days. Most will agree with me on that. Fact is Most of the Christian Church teach that The Torah is NOT for them. In doing so they have disenfranchised their members and have led them down the broad path instead of the narrow path. Matthew 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate." The Narrow and Wide Gates - “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction". We all need to return to Our Biblical Roots, we need the Truth of a purer understanding of Our faith. His Word is Truth, Man has distorted and destroyed His Truth. Many are still asleep, now is the time to wake up. Everyone is walking some road to some destination, even if you seem to be sitting still. You may not be moving in space, but you are nonetheless moving in time, and you will one day reach an inevitable destination, the grave. The only question in that case is whether you will arrive with anything to show for it. Everyone choose either the wide path or the narrow path. Which do you choose? Some think the journey is just for sight-seeing, so it doesn't much matter where they may ultimately be headed. Some just simply have no clue and follow the masses. Why does it matter? Yeshua says in His own words that you are going to find out one day, and then it will be too late. The straight and narrow path is the path of every Torah Believer. It is not a burden another has laid upon you. It is the burden of your own greatness and giftedness that you may sometimes feel like shirking. And that always remains an option. You can always slough off your destiny and join the mediocre crowd heedlessly careening down the path of least resistance. There are also those who want to be on both paths ... no matter how many times they hear the truth they continue to play on both roads. Even though it may seem like you have all the time in the world to change direction, as indeed you may, the way things go, it will become much too difficult to disentangle yourself from all the associations and commitments you will accumulate along the way you have chosen. You just can't realistically go back and start over, much less walk both paths at the same time. There's not enough of you to go around. You have to choose one path to be able to go on any path at all.

No Old, No New Testament

I saw this on a Brother's wall, and found it deeply profound.  As we all know, the origin of some articles and notes on social media are difficult to trace to the original author.  This is valuable information, but at this time the author is unknown.  The Goshen Gazette claims no right of authorship nor is there any intent of copyright infringement.

                                                

>>>Most Bibles have a page that says "New Testament" between Malachi and Matthew. Mine doesn't because I ripped it out because it's heresy!!! No where does the Bible itself call the books of Genesis to Malachi the "Old Testament". And nowhere does it call the books of Matthew to Revelation the "New Testament."

I think this is a big deal because it's a lie and it's messed up a lot of Christians. Any time believers dismiss stuff from the Hebrew Scriptures with the mantra "oh that's the Old Testament", you see that lie at work. It has contributed to replacement theology. It's one of the reasons the first four-fifths of many Bibles are collecting dust.

When people say and do stuff like this, it's because they've believed the lie of the "Old Testament". They don't realize that Genesis to Malachi is actually a series of covenants, i.e. testaments, all building on each other. They don't understand that according to Paul in Ephesians 2, they're members of at least one of them - he says non-Jewish believers have become members of the covenants of promise. Notice the plural there! They don't read these stories as their own stories - as the stories of the people they have been grafted into. They're just the *Old* Testament.

Calling the writings of Yeshua's apostles the "New Testament" is a lie, too. The new covenant, which was described in detail by the prophets of Israel and involves the Torah being written on your heart, isn't the books of Matthew to Revelation. The new covenant is a person! Isaiah 42:6 and 49:8 actually say that Yeshua IS the covenant. And he said the new covenant is in his blood which was shed for you and me.

As an aside if you're curious where these misleading terms came from, you can thank Marcion - who was kicked out of the church and branded a heretic in the mid-100s, but whose ghost lives on in pop theology today - for your Old and New Testament pages. You might have fun reading about him.

So what can we do about this? Well, for one thing, quit calling them the Old and New Testaments all the time. Learn to call the Old Testament the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Tanach as they're called by the Jewish people. You could also call the New Testament the Apostolic Writings, or something similar. You could also go a little crazy like me and tear those two pages out of your Bible. Symbolically, of course. And, most importantly, you can help correct people's misunderstandings on the issue. Because those two pages aren't really the problem, they're a symptom of something deeper. And now you know the rest of the story.......