Talking to an Ass, a Lesson Learned From a Gentile Prophet

This weeks portion of scripture is called Balak and it is Numbers 22:2-25:9.  Although I won't go over the entire portion, I will share a very interesting truth.  That truth is this:  Even if The Almighty has to use a donkey to get His word across, He will.  This statement is made under the context of this portion of scripture.  Balak (not to be confused with Balaam) has sent for a gentile prophet named Balaam.  Gentile prophets, especially within jewish eyes, are not the best people.  The sages tell tale of G-D giving Divine Inspiration to "the nations" (the gentile nations) to steer away from them saying things like, "well if G-D would have given us prophesy, we would have repented too! na na na, whine whine whine (that last part was added by yours truly)".  So in order to silence all doubt in the matter of His Grace, The Lord raised up prophets from the gentiles as well as the chosen people.  These prophets of the nations, as the scholars tell it, started out upright and good, but soon fell from their righteous state only to soothsay and whore after other mystical practices.

However, we find here that Balaam, a prideful, gentile prophet, goes to meet with Balaak so that Balaak might try to get the prophet to curse Israel, so that he could overtake them.  On his way there, however, Balaam's donkey sees the Angel of The Lord and turns every which way out of fear to get away from Him.  Balaam, angered by his animal's behaviour, begins to beat the donkey and the Word says that The Lord, "opened up the mouth of the donkey" and the donkey basically said, "fool what are you hitting me for?!!  You've been riding me all your life, have I ever acted this way?!  NO!  Trust me, I know what I'm doing".  At that moment Balaam's eyes were opened and He saw the Angel of The Lord.  The Angel tells Balaam that he can go to meet Balak, but he should only say what The Almighty tells him to say.  Balaam does so, and it angers Balak, for he wanted Balaam to curse Israel, and instead, he blessed it.

This story shows us that Balaam, who as a gentile prophet was no better viewed in the eyes of the chosen people as a donkey, was capable of prophesying the Word of The Lord sufficiently.  Even if G-D has to open up the mouth of a donkey to speak, which in this case He did... twice (once with the actual donkey, and once with Balaam), He will.  Just as Jesus said, "the rocks would cry out" if His followers were unable to cry Hosanna in the Highest.  G-D's Will is done.  He will use whatever means He chooses, but it will never ever, ever be contradictory to what He has previously stated.  To do so would be to make Him a liar, which He is not.  There in lies the perfection and the beauty of our Creator.  It is in the fact that He can do miraculous, supernatural things, all within the realm of His own Word, and never outside it for He IS His Word.

Amen.

What if The Bible meant everything It said?

What if The Bible meant everything it said.  For instance, sexual immorality is destructive just like lieing is; or we should actually honor our father and mother so that our days may be long.  If most of us truly believed that The Bible meant what it said, then there would be much more conviction in the world to say the least.  There might be less manipulation and greed in the world.  There might be more sanctity in marriage.  Young boys might consider their brides to be people just like them, and treat them like the queens they are.  I know I am not one to talk about these things really.  Though let's be honest, most people that would make that accusation would only do so because they're convicted about something they quite honestly don't care to think about.  Yet when we point the blame and make excuses we miss the actual question.  The question is not whether or not I do these things or YOU do these things.  The question is what if The Bible actually meant what it said.  EVERYTHING it said. What if eating pork and shellfish undercooked, "bloody" meat really is an abomination to us?  What if the torah's entire outline for living was actually the best way to live and glorify God while doing it?  Better yet, if God truly said it, why are we so eager to get away from it?  Was Jesus really that different from torah He (and we) claim that he was the embodiment of.  That is, after all, the word John was talking about that became flesh.
These questions are rhetorical of course.  The Bible does mean what it says.  Not just the do's and dont's but also the promises.  If there was one thing in the Bible that God didn't agree with or wanted to change, it wouldn't be the Bible.  That, in fact, is part of the hope that He gives us.  That His Word is true and His promises endure.  Are we too caught up in denominational dogma to realize that some of the things we say and do absolutely transgress what God originally intended from the beginning?  I say "we" of course, because I am a part of it too.  Here's a small example.  Most people who grow up in church are taught that drinking is a sin.  If you have a beer with someone then it's gotta be this big awkward intervention at bible study next week.  Now I don't encourage drinking, and it is definately wrong if you're underage because you're breaking the law, but do you see where I am going?  It's not ok to drink, which is something Christ and his followers did, but it IS ok to go out to the church one friday and have a pork dinner.  Now by the authority of scripture alone, this is backwards.  The word says not to drink to drunkenness but nothing about drinking in general, however The Torah is pretty clear that eating pork is an abomination to us (that means it's bad for us).  Legalism?  No.  We are saved by grace through faith, but 1 Peter says that our faith is tested by our actions.  And actions should be in sync with the word of God, correct? hmmm.  This is not condemnation.  There are many righteous men who are going to heaven who might die choking on a piece of sausage.  I'm just asking the question, what if God meant everything He said in the Bible?

I Should Write A Book

I'm very seriously considering writing a book.  I will call it "Journey of a Couch Potatoe", and it will relay the experiance 21st century Christians in America.  The conflicts will include laziness, tithing, vanity etc.  I'm not a big fan of people who preach and teach that America sucks and that Africa rocks because in Africa people have real problems.  Every country has problems, some different, some the same.  We should never be down on a country or a place or people group unless our intent is to eventually lift them up in encouragement or some other form of love.  For instance, I recognize that American Christians struggle with real problems such as vanity, pride, greed, gluttony, and overall spiritual laziness; but what is that stating of these problems if I haven't a solution.  Shame on pastors who, in their search for zeal and "hard-core" teaching, make the mistake of offering complaint and rebuke without a solution to the problems at hand.  That being said, in this book I will not only explain problems that Christians deal with, but also some habits that we can adopt in order to lessen the effect of these iniquities.  Theses solutions will seldom involve my own understanding of life or my opinion, but will moreso involve the biblical reasoning of such problems, within contextual reasoning of course.  So many times we as Christians  miss the point on these issues that the Bible clearly outlines as black and white because we fail to see the context and truth of what the Bible is actually saying.  The problem is less that we are lazy and more that we need to dig into the absolute truth of the scriptures to see what G-D wants us to do.  And yes there is an absolute truth.  It is a true testament to His power, though, that we can read the Bible without studying properly and STILL get great revelations from it.  But this is about seeking the truth, not a bible study to keep our conviction at bay as we seek what is good for us, yet doesn't necessarily reveal the truth of certain scriptures. 

So I'll either write about that, or I'll write a book entitled....... "In the Laundry Room".  It will be about my journey to manhood through the metaphor of clothes on their way to the dry-cleaner.  Oh just wait till the middle of the book when I start to explain my years in the "boxer brief" stage.  PROVOCATIVE!

What I Work For

I was watching t.v. with my half-asleep mother tonight when I began to think about something very strange given the circumstance I was in.  Underneath the low buzz of the christmas movie that was playing, I began to think about my life and where I was going, and what I was doing just sitting there.  Now this is by no means a bash on people who watch t.v.  I myself have been known to catch a little of the boob-tube.  Yet, regardless I began to think about what Yeshua promised while he was in the flesh, here on this earth.  I began to think about the Kingdom of Heaven and all I had learned about it.  The Bible tells quite a bit about the Kingdom.  It even goes so far as to give the square footage (which escapes me as of right now).  This Kingdom, by biblical standards, will be a few things.  It will be an earthly kingdom which our Lord Jesus Christ will come to set up, it will be ENORMOUS, it will be void of sorrow, anger, even competition.  This Kingdom will be filled to the brim with righteous people who seek G-D and love Him with all of their heart soul mind and strength.  The sages say that their won't even be a sun when Christ comes to set up His Kingdom because the very glory of Hashem will light up every nook and cranny.  This is the place that Jesus is preparing for us.  He is diligently at work making sure everything is perfect like a bridegroom preparing a wedding chamber for his bride.  Not one thing can or will be out of place.  And yet, I am here... watching a christmas movie.  Again there is nothing wrong with relaxing, especially on the sabbath which is today, but I encourage all who read this to remember first and foremost our Lord Jesus Christ and what He represented and what He did, and then remember what we work to one day see.  A perfect paradise which we, wretched sinners, will be allowed to enter after we are cleansed of our iniquity and the body of flesh that we have drudgingly carried all these years.  Brothers and sisters stay strong in the faith that was given to you by G-D, blessed is He.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday morning I am teaching our High School sunday school class.  I am very excited about it.  I just finished studying.  The topic is how to address oppression.  The teaching is based out of Acts 4 and it basically opens a scene in which Peter and John have just been set free from being in jail about two days for healing a cripple man and preaching in the name of Yeshua.  They have just gone to tell some brothers and sisters what happened and they all begin to:

• Praise G-D for he is the Creator of all.
• Refer to Psalm to show how Even in the ancient days, G-D had a divine plan in mind that would be fulfilled in the disciples current predicament.
• State that all things, even the death of Jesus, are inside G-D's will for "[His] will is done, On earth, in Heaven" (Matthew 6:10 literal translation from original language).
• Appeal to G-D that they may be on the side of His will that allows them to bless His name in "[continuing] to speak the Word of G-D with boldness" (Acts 4:31).

They were praying in the exact same manner that Jesus commanded us to pray in Matthew 6!  They began by blessing G-D's name first and foremost and stated that they accept that His will is done in all things, to the glory of His name of course (praise Him!). They finish by praying the will of the Father that they may boldly seek after and do His will.

I believe that the reason that many of us do not see such miraculous signs and wonders as they did in the early stages of the Church is because we do not know how to truly model ourselves after our Messiah.  We do not see past the cross to perceive the Christ who hung from it.  May we learn to pray the will of the Father for it will be done on earth just as it is in Heaven.  Baruch Hashem! (Blessed be The Name)

I Drank the Coolaid

It seems that I've willingly been thrust into the world of blogging. I have drank the coolaid. Like many habits that are quite possibly destructive, it feels pretty good for now. Though it won't be long until friends stop seeing me, parents can't find me, and the only conversation I can have is a written, cyber one. People will look the other way as they pass by my room to avoid the stench of a moldy, unclean room who's door has not been opened since the day a first blog was spawned. My children won't know their father past the glow of a cyber-sun, that is, of course, if I can find the time to steal away from the computer a few precious seconds to actually conceive a child with a woman who is obviously mentally... "slow"... enough to believe our shell of a marriage, which consists of blog chats, eviction notices, store trips to buy microwave pizzas and soda, and the occasional bowel movement is actually a marriage. Soon I will become the very thing I hate the most which is... people who talk in AIM lingo...... Ok maybe I won't get THAT crazy.