I’m nearly done with Part 11 of my character study on David and soon we’ll be leaving David behind for one final, new study before we reach Simchat Torah, begin the Torah cycle over, and I start writing Torah Cycle lessons for my bar and bat mitzvah kids.
I never realized when I started that my character study of David would go 11 lessons. I also never thought I’d be just scratching the surface in those 11 lessons, and if I ever come back to the topic once I’m ordained (provided God wills that I become ordained), I could break David’s life down into even more lessons, taught in even greater detail.
So what’s next? I’m not sure yet, but I’m leaning toward a book study focusing on Ruth; after all this time on David, I think it’s time to do something for the young girls in this class. Always nice at that age to have something to focus on other than the latest acne outbreak.
In the years ahead, I think one of the most important qualities any spiritual leader can ask for from Adonai is discernment. Primarily this is because I believe deception within all sorts of Christian, messianic, and even Jewish movements is at an all-time high.
Rabbi Stan recently said this in one of his sermons: “A person – or a demon – does not need to be with you to control you. All they need to do is teach you something that sinks in and that you conform your life around, and from that moment on, whoever taught you that is in control of your life, even if you never meet them again.”
Too much of this is increasingly evident within the Judeo-Christian movement. We have exchanged, each in different ways, the truth of God for lies, and we will not go unpunished if we do not repent of it, cast off the deception, and re-embrace truth.
Unfortuantely, I believe that in too many congregations, the lies are so embedded, so sunk-in, that most of the people who attend these churches would not know the genuine experience of fellowship with the Almighty from the counterfeit, because they’ve never experience the genuine.
Controversial thought, I know… but for most believers and even church and synagogue leaders, our spiritual discernment is on diet pills, and we’re in danger of becoming spritually anorexic. The time to pray for discernment and the repentence it will bring as Adonai cleanses his bride is now.
Today, my wife and I went to meet with a couple friends for prayer. Though we all (except my wife and I, of course) go to different Twin Cities-based churches, we all are feeling equally convicted that the church as a whole is pretty messed up, with a lot of false teaching in it that needs to be cleaned up soon.
Our outlooks and approaches are different, of course.
Tim (I’ll share first names only) is a solid balanced-view guy. He is an evangelical who is not highly partisan and can see the way Adonai uses each church movement, but is concerned about the amount of deception many in the church have embraced.
Jim (who wasn’t able to make it this time) is from a more mainline church, and his emphasis is to pray for mercy from Adonai.
My wife and I, as messianics, place a lot more concern on repentence than anything else, because we are convinced that God will not hesitate to judge those who embrace deception over the truth. Especially those in leadership positions.
It can become an ugly treadmill when church leaders embrace deception, and today I felt moved to pray for discernment on behalf of all Twin Cities church and synagogue leaders. But that’s a topic for another post…
