MessianicMusings.com

Natural remedies are all the rage these days. Some of them even work.

For example, my problem with post-nasal drip and congestion has at times been eased by taking a tonic of apple cider vinegar and honey just before bed. Other people look for more complex solutions to things that have no real cure, but which are believed to have important properties, such as how the Astragalus plant is looked to as a source of antioxidant Selenium.

I’m not convinced all of these things work. But then again, I’m not convinced they don’t. Often, natural cures are simply watered-down, less concentrated forms of prescription medicines, and in fact are the place where prescription medicines go for their inspiration, and sometimes even the source of prescription medicines, with the difference being that prescription meds are far more highly concentrated.

Is there much utility to all this? Sometimes.

But what I can say is this: when looking for real healing, I do prefer acknowledging the author of all healing, Adonai. Through Yeshua the messiah, G-d can and often does heal us of afflictions, whether we acknowledge his role in it or not.

I’m not one of those who discounts the value of doctors or medicine, though. Often, those doctors and medicines are the very tools Adonai chooses to use to deliver our healing. Sometimes, he does so by purely spiritual means, as well. Yet no matter the means, the source of our healing is always the same: Adonai our G-d, from whom all blessing flow.

First communion invitations are not a concern for messianics, as we do not celebrate such a thing; however, we do celebrate bar and bat mitzvah as our young boys and girls enter their teen years, so there is a parallel invitation need.

Bar mitzvah happens for boys around the time they turn 13; bat mitzvah happens for girls around the time they turn 12. What does this mean? Let’s break it down. Mitzvah is a word that traditionally means “commandment” in both Hebrew and Aramaic, although it can alternatively also be translated as “good deed” or “righteous act,” which are simply shadings of the same root meaning. “Bar” means “son of” in Aramaic and “bat” means “daughter of” in Aramaic. So, in essence, the celebration could be translated either, “son of the commandment,” or, more loosely, “son of righteousness.” Similarly with girls, it would be “daughter of the commandment” or “daughter of righteousness.”

Basically, it is a coming of age celebration, but with a spiritual connotation. From a messianic perspective, it celebrates the age of maturity, when young men and women have studied Torah enough to have their own basic understanding of sin and righteousness, so that they are without excuse. It celebrates the time at which young people must become responsible for their own behavior, choosing what is righteous and pleasing to Adonai over what us unrighteous and sinful.

It is not, as many messianics believe, a full license into adulthood. Children in their teen years are still in need of some direction and assistance in making their way through the challenges of life and becoming prepared for full adult responsibilities; all a bar or bat mitzvah signifies is that no longer can they claim they did not know right from wrong.

Sometime today, if preliminary testing goes well, my mom will be getting her pacemaker put in. As much as I’d like to drive down to Rochester, walk up to the reception desk, and be directed to the nearest waiting room to see her through this, it’s not quite possible; both my wife and I are currently out of work and have been for almost a week.

But prayer is effective. I found out today that I’m in line for a job that could start as early as next Tuesday, if all goes well. The offer isn’t formally made just yet, though. And my wife received a call about a job offer today, too, so she may be back to work as well, laying our rent concerns to rest.

Adonai never gives us more than we can handle; but he knows a lot better than we do where those limits are.

A popular Twin Cities jewelry store, Kay Jewelers, uses the following motto: “Every kiss begins with Kay.”

Pardon me, but if it required diamond pendants for my wife to give me a kiss, we might hit our 50th wedding anniversary still childless, because our affection would never get off the ground.

Advertisers drive us to be materialistic and it slips into our prayer lives. Getting my bar and bat mitzvah kids to say one thing they’re grateful for each week is harder than performing a root canal. And even when they think of something - and this is true of most believers, not just kids - too often our gratitude is centered around something materialistic.

So, to lead by example, here’s the thing I am most grateful for today, and it doesn’t come easy saying this.

I am grateful that, even though sick and hospitalized, my mother is still alive. Even though my wife and I have been careful to try and treasure every new day she’s given with us since her stroke last August, I must admit it’s been easy to slowly slip into routine again and take it for granted that she’s still with us.

Thank you, Adonai, that my mother is still alive, for all the days you’ve given her, and however many more remain. Thank you, Yeshua, our messiah.

Troubles never happen when we are safe, healthy, happy and completely able to deal with them. If that were the case, they wouldn’t be any trouble at all.

Tonight, I received a call from my dad. It seems my mom, who survived a stroke in August, is back in the hospital, this time with a very low heart rate and in need of a pacemaker.

This comes at a very bad time, as such things always seem to; both my wife and I currently have been working for temp companies and our current assignments both ended within a couple days of each other. Neither of us has found new assignments and so money is extremely tight right now; in fact, if at least one of us doesn’t start a new job soon, our ability to meet February rent could be in doubt. Even the best budgeting software can’t help you out when there’s no money coming in.

Yikes, right? In and of itself, that’s enough stress for anyone.

Now this with my mom. Our hearts are to be there when she goes into surgery in the next day or two; while we’ll find a way to be there if necessary, it really could throw our ability to meet February rent into even greater doubt.

It is times like these when we are put to the test of how deeply we believe the teachings of Torah; and having been through such a crisis (granted, we both had jobs back then) late this summer with mom’s health, we can only trust that Adonai will bring us through once again.

Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. Adonai will grant us his strength, regardless of the outcome.

There are certain myths that so pollute Christianity, they must be treated like a phase 1 environmental hazard. One such myth is that the Torah sets too high a standard for anyone to ever meet. Is that true?

Certainly, we all sin and fall short of Adonai’s perfect standard, but is that what the Torah is? Not at all.

As my rabbi has been teaching, Torah is actually a compromise on G-d’s part - and in our favor. G-d’s ideal was for Him to speak directly to each and every believer in a clear and perfectly understood voice. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites were given a taste of that perfect relationship between G-d and man, and it terrified them!

15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

-Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (NIV)

Even the commands of Torah are compromises. Mosaic law allows for divorce; is that G-d’s perfect standard? Certainly not. As Rabbi Stan Farr has taught, Torah is merely G-d’s minimum standard - the point below which we fall short of “the least we can do” to demonstrate obedience to the L-rd, the G-d of Israel.

As I’ve said elsewhere, many Christians believe embracing Torah is legalism; but their standards are set far too low.

Golf apparel ladies will love is not exactly a main topic in the Torah, but did you know that the opening chapters of Genesis reveals, among many other things, the origins of the entire fashion industry?

You see, prior to the fall of humanity, Adam and Eve wore no clothing. They had no concept of sin, and therefore were able to live without clothes but also without shame. So was this a prehistoric nudist colony haShem was running? Hardly. It simply means that nudity and clothing and the difference between those states of being had not yet been defined.

Of course, that didn’t last long. After eating from the fruit of the tree at the center of Eden, the tree of the knowledge between good and evil, both Adam and Even became self-aware of their lack of clothing and decided that to be covered was better than to be bare. For themselves.

You see, the serpent’s lie was not far from the truth, which is why it provided such a powerful temptation and deception. In a twisted way, we did become, “like G-d, knowing good from evil.” But that ability was hardly a blessing and put us nowhere near Adonai’s level of creative power.

And thank Adonai for that!

The lie was in the details. Yes, Adonai knows the difference between good and evil, and tells us what is good. When we take over the power to discern good from evil, we often contradict G-d’s definition, replacing it with our own. Therefore, as a result of the fall, we created sin.

Not exactly something Adonai was likely to call, “Good” the way he declared his own handiwork during creation week. Not even close.

One of the points of the fall festival season is the feast of Simchat Torah, or the celebration of the Word of Adonai. Jews and messianics alike recognize this as the season in which the reading cycle of Torah is completed, finishing up the final chapters or Deuteronomy and coming back around to the first chapters of Genesis.

What may be less appreciated in some circles is the prophetic significance of Simchat Torah. For Messiah Yeshua is himself the Word of the L-rd, and so, just as the rest of the fall festivals are shadows of the end times to come, so is Simchat Torah.

It is a recognition of the time when every knew will bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua is the promised messiah, that there is no other, and that all members of the chosen people of G-d, born or grafted in, Jew and Gentile alike, who worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will come together to spend eternity with the living W-rd of Adonai, worshiping him in unity, spirit and truth.

It really is a significant, though often overlooked and under-appreciated, cap to the fall festival season. Its prophetic fulfillment will take far more than the Sahara hotel to accommodate; it will take an entirely renewed Jerusalem.

Shalom! Next year, in Jerusalem!

The feast of Sukkot is the week-long observance that caps the Jewish fall festival season that Adonai established as an eternal covenant and observance for all who fear the G-d of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. It points also to the return of messiah Yeshua and the period of rest we all will enter after the final judgment is complete.

So what will eternity with Yeshua be like? Will we sit around trading golf cart parts and working the back nine at Augusta National?

Well, we really don’t know that, but what we do know is that this is not a concept that initiated with first-century messianic followers of Yeshua.

As RabbiYeshua.com writes:

The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 31a) contains another tradition that relates to our discussion. The Sages noted that in Psalm 90:4, Moses stated that ‘one thousand years’ in God’s sight ‘is as yesterday when it has passed.’ That is, one-thousand years is like a day. So they speculated that, just as God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, the world would endure in its present condition for six-thousand years. This would be followed by one-thousand years of rest (Sanhedrin 97a-b.) This ‘rest’ was typified by the weekly Sabbath, an idea also found in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4. The idea of a thousand-year day is affirmed by the Apostle Peter:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

That is why the tent is built; that is why it is tradition during Sukkot to sleep out in such tents; because when Yeshua returns and calls us to this thousand-year banquet, we do not want to be like the foolish brides of the parable, who did not trim their wicks, missed the coming of the bridegroom, and were now allowed in late to the celebration.

Or, in simpler terms: the day of the kingdom of heaven is not merely near, it is NOW. And Sukkot is a reminder of that truth.