Hebraic Roots – Larus Press

Stand fast in the Faith

It’s so important to get the grounding in the Word of GOD to hold onto our faith through all eventualities. Christians make up 80% of the religious persons currently being persecuted worldwide. We cannot take for granted that we will hold on to our faith for even Jesus said,

“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24)

While many of you reading this post will be rock solid in your Biblical foundations, some close to you may not be.

I am so saddened

A friend of some 20 years has moved away from Jesus as the son of GOD and Saviour. She still loves him and enjoys him, but no longer recognises he is the Truth or that he died and conquered death through resurrection for the sake of others. He has become for her, a way and is her way to peace and joy on earth, but salvation is no longer necessary, and he is no longer the only way to the GOD of mankind.

How sad.

And if I grieve, how much more does he, who died for her, even as she undermines — albeit without intent — his work.

How we can stay sure

The world is shrinking, not in mass but in time. We can cross nations and continents in hours. As we have become familiar with different cultures, we have learned about the different religions. From those not directly involved, all religions that seek peace have, over decades, become lumped together. People claim there are many roads to GOD and that all religions are the same.
But we who understand who Jesus is, and what he did, recognise there is no one else with the authority to defeat sin, and to bring us into relationship with the Father. We must be sure our foundations are solid and based on Truth… how we do that is to study the Bible for ourselves and see what is actually inside the book.

Father, Creator, One True GOD

Who is the Father? His name is Yehovah. YHWH. Some say Yaweh, Elohim, Adonia, Abba, “I AM”. This one GOD is the father who describes himself as:
“the father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis 50:24; Exodus 3:6; Deuteronomy 6:10) and as the GOD of the Israel (1Kings 8:22-27)

“Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me.’ And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”
There is only one GOD who fits this category. And Jesus only pointed to one GOD.
He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Importance of the Name of Yehovah

If you open Google search engine and look up Nehemia Gordon or Rood Awakening (Michael Rood), you can dig up aspects of a fascinating story of how Bible Scholar Nehemia discovered the missing letters of YWHW on 11th September 2001, best known as “9/11”.

Aspects of proof of the Name of G-D: Hebrew Manuscripts

Nehemia Gordon with Michael Rood

Value in knowing our Hebraic Roots

Over the last decade or so, there has been an increasing international move amongst Christians to discover more of their Hebraic Roots. Jesus was Jewish and many Gentile followers of Jesus are thinking, “Why not learn more about Jesus’ culture and the Law of GOD that Jesus fulfilled?”
 For some it is curiosity that draws them toward investigating the Hebraic roots of Jesus, but for others it is much more. Some people experience a pull from grace towards a reversal to legalism as they study the Law, festivals and roots of Jesus. They reject the necessity for them. Others experience more of GOD, a deepening of understanding and relationship through their investigation, and they embrace the Hebraic roots.

I am interested and I value the discoveries. Learning how different the Hebrew texts are from the Greek translations of the New Testament for example, is fascinating and helpful to my growth.

Hebraic Roots and Knowledge offer some spiritual protection

But there is further reason to know our Hebraic roots. It is not necessarily in practising the law or even the feasts that we grow in our faith, although the feasts are very enjoyable. But it can be as simple as having an awareness of these feasts which prevents us looking at our GOD as though He is common to all religions.

It is not in practising the law, nor in the study of Hebrew, but simply in the recognition of GOD’s name and identity, and how He identifies himself, that we can arm ourselves against the wave of atheism and globalism which seeks to erase the uniqueness of our Judeo-Christian faith and values, and erase the power and truth of the Gospel of Jesus, Messiah and Saviour of the world.

Over and over again in Biblical scripture, GOD calls Himself the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the GOD of Israel. I believe He’s done so for such a time as this.

He is not the GOD of Buddha or Thailand, of Confucius or China, or of Mecca and Mohammed. He is the GOD of Israel. He is the Creator of the Universe, and the lover of all Mankind. He is the One True GOD. Allah may be One. But Yehovah is the One True GOD and like Him there is no other.

When Pilot asked Jesus, “Are you a king then?” this was our lord’s response,

“You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37)

Oh, let us pray that those who have heard his voice will hold fast, knowing and not becoming confused. For some, that will mean digging into the Hebraic ways, to understand more of Jesus. For others, it will be tracing the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham, even back to Adam, to solidify understanding and confidence in the identity of our Saviour. Let us all be sure to hold onto the unique identity of Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew), and hold onto the knowledge that we have been adopted by his Father, the One True GOD and Creator of the Universe, by the power of His Holy Spirit; this is so that we might continue to live in the Spirit, and not in the flesh as other mortals do, for this life and forever.

Amen.

God is Love, God is Peace, but the reverse is not true

The New Age and One New Religion seek peace. They find it through love. But while GOD is love, they make their search for peace and love their focus and their god; that is not the same as finding GOD. Just as loving thy neighbour before loving GOD is a shaky foundation, so too is searching for love or peace for its own sake. That will lead us astray.

Be not tricked nor confused

“For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)

GOD does not test or trick us and is not the author of confusion. So, if you find yourself with a lack of clarity, the confusion is not of GOD. And if you find yourself tested beyond your faith, that is not GOD either. Whatever draws you to GOD is true, whatever draws you away is not of Him. He will never leave you nor forsake you. If you seem far away from GOD, guess who moved?

Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:22a) Be assured. He will never leave you nor forsake you. And as you dwell in the Word and remain in fellowship with other Believers, neither will you depart from him. But be aware: the enemy is prowling around like a lion, (1 Peter 5:8) seeking to lead you away. So, do not take your faith for granted in these days of increasing peril, temptation and lies. Dwell in the LORD, abide in Him (John 15) so that you cannot be led astray.

Sabbath is Saturday, the day the LORD rested after creating the universe and its living creatures.

For quite some time, the World has been putting Saturday and Sunday at the end of the calendar week, making Saturday appear to be the 6th day. The early Church drifted from its Jewish roots and determined that since 3 days after Jesus’ crucifixion he was raised and that was the first day of the week, Sunday, they would call it the Lord’s Day. Eventually it replaced the Sabbath as the day for congregational worship. Today some earnest Believers think Sunday is the Sabbath.

The fourth Commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

One cannot change the day God rested. We can discuss how we are not under law but under grace, and that is true. But do we kill, covet or commit adultery? Of course not. Those are Commandments and as such mark a better way to live.

So, why do so many of us take the Sabbath more lightly than other of God’s guidelines? I confess I’m not always perfectly resting on the Sabbath, doing nothing that would bring in income, directly or indirectly, what one would call “work”. I do rest on Saturdays, but admittedly sometimes it is hard.

How about you, reader? Do you keep the Sabbath – Saturday – Holy and unto Father God?

Apart from it being one of God’s Commandments, why is it of relevance today and are we to keep this commandment? The answer is that, apart from it being God’s Commandment which simply marks the better way to live, it also has to do with Israel and the Jewish people.

I am of the understanding based on scripture that the Jewish people are still God’s Chosen People. Discussion about that let’s save for another time, but we can agree I hope, that Jesus came for all of us, and for every nation, and he will come again when all the nation groups have had the witness of Jesus.

So, like all mankind, the Jewish people are invited to recognise Yeshua – Jesus’ name in Hebrew – as Messiah, the saviour of the World. And how will they be able to recognise Yeshua suddenly, if over 2000 years relatively few have? The answer is because the Jewish traditions – which have been hidden inside the Christian faith – must be released, revealed, exposed, to enable these people to see how the prophecy of their Messiah perfectly lines up with history.

Keeping the Jewish traditions hidden from view, such as using the first day rather than the seventh day as the “Sabbath”, makes it more difficult than it needs to be for the Jew to recognise he is meant to be a part of the Bride, the Church.

In Ephesians 2, Paul refers to the Gentiles as joining with all the Saints (in context: the Jewish Believers) as part of the Church. It is the One New Man, united by the faith in the Messiah, that will pull the Church through the challenges thrust upon it. (Ephesians 2:11-22) As you study and meditate on Ephesians 2 and 3, you will be able to see how God intends for Jew and Gentile to worship together.

Truly, if God is to minister and bring to the Jewish people the knowledge of Yeshua, then we, His Church, must help by allowing the Hebrew Roots of the faith to be exposed. The Sabbath only scratches the surface, but it is a start to revealing the Messiah and the Saviour as one and the same.

We can begin with aligning our day of worship with our Hebrew Roots. God’s choice of the Sabbath is recognisable to the Jewish people and it is Biblical, so I suggest a call to action: Let’s shift and use it.

**Next week I’ll send out an Extra Newsletter, on Thursday 21st, to share about Christmas. It’s a hot topic. It’s roots extend beyond the birth of Jesus, which most likely occurred in late September.**