Faith of Friends

Today's readings - as a family - Isaiah 1, John 15:1-11, Hebrews 3:7-4:16

These verses were part of the quickening of my heart tonight.

Isa 1:16 "Wash yourselves clean! Get your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing evil, 17 learn to do good! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, defend orphans, plead for the widow. 18 "Come now," says ADONAI, "let's talk this over together. Even if your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; even if they are red as crimson, they will be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you will be eaten by the sword"; for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken.

John 15:7 "If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 This is how my Father is glorified -- in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.

Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Ruach HaKodesh says, "Today, if you hear God's voice, 8 don't harden your hearts, as you did in the Bitter Quarrel on that day in the Wilderness when you put God to the test. 9 Yes, your fathers put me to the test; they challenged me, and they saw my work for forty years! 10 Therefore, I was disgusted with that generation I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, they have not understood how I do things'; 11 in my anger, I swore that they would not enter my rest."

Two weeks ago Thursday, I felt God calling me to pray for Laura L. and to e-mail this woman I'd never met and let her know I was praying for her. I did pray, but I never e-mailed her. I didn't listen to God, I didn't Obey him. I really felt this as I attended Laura's Funeral last Wednesday, I knew God had called me to act, and I didn't.

So, tonight I was reading with my family, these passages. As I read, things jumped out at me. First, that God wants to talk things over with us, that he wants us to be cleaned of our sin, he wants us to be obedient to the words he speaks. If you are obedient, you will be blessed, if you are not, you will be cursed. Simple plan.

Second thing that struck me was that when we are God's Talmidim - his obedient students of his word, that he wants us to tell him our wants and needs and desires, ask whatever we want and it will happen for you - because this GLORIFIES GOD - it doesn't glorify us, it Glorifies HIM to give us what we ask for.

And third, this sad understanding... was that the children of Isreal who were barred from the Promised Land - they did not enter his rest. These children, the Bride of Christ, they were barred from eternal rest with him. Oh how sad this is.

But even more importantly, when I put all this together with what Susan was saying today, about the story in Luke 5:17-21 Specifically 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. They wanted to bring him inside and lay him in front of Yeshua, 19 but they couldn't find a way to get him in because of the crowd. So they went up onto the roof and lowered him on his mattress through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, right in front of Yeshua. 20 When Yeshua saw their trust, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you." Susan pointed out that it was the faith of the friends that healed this man, not so much the faith of the crippled man himself. The Friends acted on his behalf, and would not give up, knew without a shaddow of a doubt that Yeshua loved their friend as much as they did.. more even, and his body and soul were important to him. So they did everything they could to bring this man to Yeshua, and in response, Yeshua forgives this man's sins. They wanted him healed, but Yeshua knew there was an underlying issue, his sin - and Yeshua could heal it all.

So, with our reading tonight, and my friends insight into healing - I looked closer at one important part From John 15:8 this is how you will prove to be my talmidim. If I am his talmudim, if I am following His ways, his words, his Torah, his commandments, then I am his talmudim and the Lord will be glorified by answering my prayers.

My heart was quickened. I showed what I had seen in the scriptures to my family, I showed them how God was telling me, you're at the point of being pruned here, do you want a pruning or do you want to be cut off like a dead branch. ACT - PRAY - DO SOMETHING, so I called my family to pray for complete healing over Susan's children. To heal their bones, and heal their hearts and souls. I prayed for Susan to be strong in her faith, to continue praying for her children, and never give up. I prayed that God would be glorified by healing them, and for those around them to witness the healing of the Lord - for the neighbours and friends and family, and Dr's to see that Adonai - Jehovah Rapha is the Great Physician.

Stuart and I then were talking about generational curses, and about how sin isn't always manifested physically in a medical way. The law of Niddah is to keep a woman healthy while her body is open to infection, but it may medically explain why women get endometriosis or infertility, but men's sexually immoral behaviour doesn't medically have a connection to their infertility issues - how can pornography or masturbation cause prostate cancer or low sperm count or impotence - medically there is no connection, but God's curses don't have to have a medical connection - they just are spoken and are truth. So we are praying that what ever sin - personal or generational sin is causing the curse of the low bone density in Susan's children,we're praying for that sin to be forgiven, for generational curses to be broken and their bodies healed, restored to perfection.

May God hear our prayers.

Josiah

I've been working my way through Kings. Remember a while ago I said about an evil king who begat an evil son, who begat a righteous son, who begat and evil son... and someone wanted me to be more specific.

Well, I've been reading, and David (righteous) begat Solomon (righteous), betgat Rehoboham (evil), begat Abijah (evil), begat Asa (righteous), begat Jehosephat (righteous),

Now, we know that David was a man after God's own heart, and though he sinned - by not going to war with his army, raping Bathsheba, and murdering her husband - he begged God for forgiveness, repented and was forgiven.

Solomon was given wisdom and God blessed him with wealth, but he also had 700 wives, and some of his wives were pagan worshippers, and he turned from walking in righteousness and worshipped other gods
1 Kings 11:3 He had 700 wives, all princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. 4 For when Shlomo became old, his wives turned his heart away toward other gods; so that he was not wholehearted with ADONAI his God, as David his father had been. 5 For Shlomo followed 'Ashtoret the goddess of the Tzidoni and Milkom the abomination of the 'Amoni. 6 Thus Shlomo did what was evil in ADONAI's view and did not fully follow ADONAI, as David his father had done.

Rehoboham, proved himself a pretty evil guy 1Kings 12:14 "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke! My father controlled you with whips, but I will control you with scorpions!" And another thing to pay attention to, let's look at the major woman in his life 1 Kings 14:21his mother's name was Na'amah the 'Amonit. Hmm, imagine that, she's not a Hebrew, not a Y'hudit, not from any of the other Tribes of Israel.. nope, she's one of Solomon's Pagan Wives. What was that commandment? Deut 17:17 Likewise, he is not to acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart will not turn away; and he is not to acquire excessive quantities of silver and gold.

And what about Abijah? 1Kings 15:3 He committed all the sins his father had committed before him; he was not wholehearted with ADONAI his God, as David his forefather had been. and his Mother? the verse previous says his mother was Ma'akhah, the daughter of Avishalom Hmm, does that mean she was a Hebrew? Not sure.

1Ki 15:14 - But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted with ADONAI throughout his life. Asa deposed Ma'akhah who was a wicked woman, 2Ch 15:16 - Asa the king also deposed Ma'akhah his [grand]mother from her position as queen mother, because she had made a disgusting image for an asherah. Asa cut down this image of hers, chopped it into tiny pieces and burned it in Vadi Kidron.

Jehosephat 1Ki 22:42 His mother's name was 'Azuvah the daughter of Shilchi.
1Ki 22:43 - He lived in the manner of Asa his father and did not turn away from it, doing what was right from ADONAI's perspective;
1Ki 22:46 -He rid the land of the male and female cult-prostitutes remaining from the time of his father Asa.



OK, so you see where I was going with all this. But.. I'd like to jump ahead to Josiah.

WAY back in 1 Kings 13, at the time of Jeroboam - at the split of Israel into two kingdoms - a prophecy was made, about a child named Josiah who will sacrifice the priests of the pagan shrines. They will be sacrificed on the altar that Jeroboam built at Bethel. Jeroboam appointed priests and made a golden calf. He set a festival similar to Sukkot Let's see, the sins of the Kingdom of Israel are that they made altars not instructed by God, appointed priests not appointed by God, set feast days not appointed by God, worshipped graven images prohibited by God,.. Hmm sounds like today's church.

OK, let's jump back to 2 Kings. He's the son of Amon, an evil King, the son of Jedidah the daughter of Adiah from Bozkath. Josiah did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and followed the example of his anscestor David. He did not turn aside from doing what was right. HMM, makes me think his mother was a righteous woman.

OK, so Josiah is King of Judah and in his 18th year of his reign, he sets about restoring the temple. Hilkiah discovers a copy of the Torah. It's read out to Josiah. His heart is wrenched by the words he hears. For all these 18 years he thinks he's been doing what God wants. He suddenly realizes they haven't nearly been obeying God. He seeks the consult of a prophetess, who says that God will send his judgement on Judah, but not until after Josiah has gone to the grave in peace. The, the KING himself reads out the Torah to the people. Then, in leadership, the King himself renews the covenant of the Lord, and obeys all the commandments, and the people follow his lead.

So then he fulfills the prophecy about him, he takes care of the pagan shrines, killing the priests and demolishing the shrines in Samaria and in the Temple courtyards, destroying the ashera poles and prostitue houses, and the altars.

He then celebrates the Passover to the Lord God. There had not been a Passover celebration like that since teh time when the judges ruled in Israel, throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.

He also destroyed all the household idols.. he did it all in obedience to the Lord according to the Book of the Covenant.

OK, end of history lesson. What can we see here about what we're to do?

I AM JOSIAH. YOU ARE JOSIAH. Can you see it? As Christians.. no matter what denomination, we were all seeking to obey God. We all did what we thought was righteous. And then we found the Torah. The Holy Spirit showed us the Truth and we were wrenched with sorrow at not knowing before, and repented and turned to obey him. While it took some time to learn how to obey.. and we're still learning how to obey, we all are desperate to obey him to the best of our ability. Piece by piece we're ridding our lives of the pagan - idolotrous - influences in our lives.

I am Josiah!