I am an over-thinker. I am also an over-planner. You know how some people can plan a trip, wait until the last minute to pack, and then just head out the door and go? Well, that is not me! If there is going to be a trip, vacation, or any such event that will take miles and days…it’ll be researched, planned, plotted, organized, laid-out, mapped, and every other activity needed to make sure that there is no missed issues or questions that can arise! As an example, just to take a 3 day trip to a forested area for hiking would take me several days of research into where to stay (of course after evaluating reviews), looking at pictures of the area, and mapping the location. Then comes booking the room and assuring confirmations. It will also require an itinerary for each day as to where to hike, park, and also various places to eat in the area. This will all be accompanied by copious notes to review over and over again…even before departing! Next comes the packing. The planning for that will usually begin a many days before leaving because I need to make sure I bring enough to cover any situation that could arise with weather or breakdowns and have also have a contingency plan for any emergencies. Thus, when the day arrives to pack (usually the night before), all will be ready to put in the suitcase and backpack. The vehicle will have already been checked over a couple of days beforehand for tires, gas, fluids, and necessary safety/emergency equipment…even if the drive is only a couple hours away. The day of departure: review all things once more before getting in the car and driving off. Now, this may sound like obsessive compulsive…well, it sort of is….but that’s beside the point. The thing is…people plan! Some plan simple and spur of the moment. Some, like myself, will over plan and over think the plan. Regardless of the method of planning, when it comes to putting your plans in motion, you still have to get in the car and go! All the planning in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you get in, start the engine, put the vehicle in gear, and drive! Just getting in the car doesn’t make a trip. Looking at the transportation in the driveway does not make your vacation happen. You have to follow through with your plan…otherwise all your efforts up to that point are meaningless!
The same scenario can be said for many who claim themselves believers in the God of the Bible. They say they believe the Bible and have even read some of what it says. They’ll say that they believe in God and Jesus (Yeshua). They might believe in all the stories and the history contained in the Book. They might even attend groups that talk about the contents of the Book weekly and celebrate some of the “holidays” they believe are taught from the book. And yet, with all the reading and research and gained knowledge and perceived understanding of the messages within the Book, the question remains: are they actually participating in that journey that we are called to take by the Writer of the Book or are they just “sitting in their cars?” The plan has already been laid out. So whether you’re an over-planner or a spur-of-the-moment person, the plan is set in place and the maps are all laid out in front of us. So…have we actually started to go…to walk…to take the journey forward as laid out in the Book? Ya‛aqoḇ (James) says in chapter 2 of his letter; “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” Believing that the Book and all within it are true does not guarantee you a successful journey! I believe, and even trust completely, that the map makers have drawn all the roads and towns on the maps correctly. I have faith in their work! But, that doesn’t assure me success to my planned destination. They can only point the direction. I have to actually do the leg work to get there! Sitting on my butt doesn’t qualify!
Sad to say that most folks are very content just having the insight and knowledge that God has booked a trip for us, and that He even spells it out within the covers of His Word, the Holy Scriptures. But, that’s where their journey sits…in the driveway, so to speak. Many might have accepted the travel plans and absolutely love the destination ahead, but most just think that trusting the “map” is good enough. They will think that if they believe it’s true, that is all that’s needed and will bring them to the end of the road. Then there are some who what to take the blessed journey, but are either afraid to start to travel the roadway because they feel overwhelmed and nervous…wondering if they have the capacity to go the distance…or, they are feeling pressures from those around them who don’t want them to take that particular journey. They might favor the destination but feel that the travel course is too much, possibly too dangerous, and that they will either fail or be ostracized by friends and family for even attempting such a journey So, they end up just sitting in the driveway and “pretending” that they will still make it to the final destination without ever having to leave the comfort and safety of the world they know. And yet, like any journey, in order to get anywhere, you do actually have to take the first steps away from where you are. You cannot make it to heaven if you never leave your current place. You don’t arrive somewhere without ever leaving your starting point. I would never get to the hiking trails if I just stayed in the comforts of my home. No matter how hard I wished or prayed or daydreamed or talked about…I will never step foot on those trails and experience the beauty and the foliage with my own senses if I never leave my current place. Heaven is the same!
This might all sound simple or basic. But the reality is that most folks who want heaven don’t realize that the Bible clearly tells…nay, commands…that we must actively participate in Yahweh Adonai’s instructions, plans, commands, and decrees! We are to physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually follow His ways (maps, paths, directions, and instructions)! Sitting with a map book in your hands and seeing the destinations described doesn’t get you there. Listening to people tell you what the book says doesn’t magically bring you to the destination either. Listening to other people’s journeys will not take you from point A to point B. Only by getting up and actually doing the walk yourself will you get from this life to the next! Shaul (Paul) writes to the believers in Philippi that they are to “work out your own deliverance (salvation)” (Philippians 2:12). Matthew Henry comments that we are to work thoroughly at this, that we must “be diligent in the use of all the means which conduce to our salvation. We must not only work at our salvation, by doing something now and then about it; but we must work out our salvation, by doing all that is to be done, and persevering therein to the end.” The course of a believer in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ) is one of action on our part. It is a journey of diligence and obedience. It is a trek that we must actively participate and walk in every day of our lives! There is no other way!
I am so tired of hearing all these preachers and teachers ramble on about short cuts and easy walks and happy trails they say the Bible guarantees everyone! They make the journey sound easy, but in actuality all they do is diminish the reality of the trek’s highs and lows. This is not a path paved in gold. There are no easy roads! Every step takes effort and energy on our part with the help of Yahweh’s Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit). Every forward motion requires us to push away the old life and thinking and completely follow God’s ways. This is what is called active obedience on our part! To think that we can sit back on our laurels and coast in to the finish line is one of the biggest lies westernized “Christianity” has perpetrated on people who have either not read the Word for themselves or have just accepted whatever teachers and preachers say from a pulpit without being a Berean for themselves. Many have fallen prey to what is called ‘easy believism’ which says that all you have to do is say a prayer (sinner’s prayer) and TA-DA! You’re all good with God! Another aspect of that ‘easy believism’ is that you’re saved by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone and that works are not needed as part of the walk. Yet that is contrary to what all the Scriptures clearly say! All those in faith actually had to walk and produce “fruits”. No fruit, no faith. Simple. John, a disciple of Yeshua, wrote in his 1st letter, chapter 2, this: “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” And Scripture records the Messiah’s own commands to His followers in the gospel of John, chapter 14 where He says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So, what were Yeshua’s commands?
Well, a piece of history for you. Yeshua (Jesus) and His followers were all Jews (with some gentiles sprinkled in for good measure). The people of that time were adherents to the Torah, which is where the commands of God were given (in the first 5 books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The Torah (which means ‘instructions’) were given by Yahweh Adonai to His chosen people, the Israelites, so that they would be set apart from the other nations. He gave His words of instruction and law to the people so that, through the people of Israel, all nations could see and learn from them how to walk in obedience to Elohim and, thus, be grafted in so the gentiles could also walk according to God’s ways. God seeks our voluntary worship of Him through His instructions to the people of the earth! The instructions don’t have various ‘options’ laid out that says “this part is strictly for the Jews” and “this section is strictly for the gentiles”. The instructions, the Torah, were given for all. Given to the Jews first to be the example to the rest of the nations (people) so that all would come to faith in Yahweh Adonai. There was/is no distinction between Jew and gentile when it comes to what Elohim requires of people on the earth to walk in obedience to Him. It was only through man’s alterations/reinterpretations of the Word of God that there came to be the changes most practice today. Roman emperor Constantine and the growing gentile believers in ‘Jesus’ decided to put away the Jewishness of Yahweh’s word to the Israelites and edit the Word to fit only the “new Christian” believer’s new Romanized practices. This was a mix of accepted pagan practice (acceptable to the Roman rulers of the day) and Messiah’s teachings. Since the temple was gone by 70 AD, the rest of Torah could be diminished, or even done away with, and a new religion came to be that removed the need to adhere to the commands of God. They decided that they were no longer applicable. Yet, no where does Messiah (Christ) say that they were done away with.
Yeshua came to fulfill the Torah. His own words in Matthew 5:17 says “Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Fulfill means to follow through with it, to do, to make happen. Yeshua came to fulfill the law so that the law might be fulfilled in us, not so that we can continue breaking it without suffering the consequences. He came to save us from the consequences of breaking the law, not from the law itself. He also said that He “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), which were the Israelites who had drifted away from Torah by following man’s traditions instead of Elohim’s commands. His entire ministry teaching was expounding on the Torah; pointing people back to obedience to Torah. He never said they were ending. He explicitly preached to the people that they must turn back to that which was initially given by Moses from Yahweh Himself. If Yeshua’s (Jesus’) commands were to follow Torah, then why did the gentiles do away with it in their new religion? If people say they are following ‘Jesus’, and He specifically said to do Torah, then why are they not doing what it says in Scriptures? This is comparative to having a map that spells out the exact path you are to take to get to your destination, but you think that there is a better way and write out your own directions! Does that make any sense at all? When the instructions are clearly laid out for you, why would you go and make up your own? That, in essence, is telling God above that “you know a better way” and that you feel His ways are too archaic to be followed anymore. Sounds to me a bit like words that Satan would say! After all, Satan questioned and challenged everything that Yahweh instructed the people to follow. Satan is the master deceiver and the father of lies! So essentially, the devil has done a great job misleading people and attempting to destroy the right path that our Elohim commanded us to take by creating a false ‘new’ path that has mixed in some essence of truth, and yet, is none the less a completely different road.
Proverbs 22:28 says “Do not remove the ancient boundary which your fathers have set.” And Jeremiah 6:16 says “Thus said Yahweh, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and find rest for yourselves.” Jeremiah continues on in verse 16 by saying “But they said, ‘We do not walk in it.’” Which is what we clearly see going on today in the world. The Christian religion created back in the 3rd and 4th centuries had evolved from the old paths that Yeshua was trying to point people back to. Even today, there is so much controversy and matters of debate over various Scriptures because theologians are constantly trying to rectify and justify the various pieces of Scripture that don’t seem to fit quite right. They take various writings of Paul and twist them to justify their belief system that is negating the words of Jesus Himself and the commands to follow Torah. They create a works-free theology that lifts responsibility off of the believers from actually having to walk in obedience to Yahweh Adonai’s commands. The “scholars” have invented additional assurances to give comfort to people who might feel ‘guilty of sin’ by telling them slogans like “once saved, always saved” and “don’t worry about any tribulation from God, believers will be ‘snatched away’ before that happens”. All of these are heresies are created by twisting the Scriptures to fit the modern westernized thinking and to give people false assurances. When in actuality, we should be looking at the Word of God through the lens He intended when He gave His word to the people in the Torah. Being grafted in means assimilating ourselves to the root…which was the Jewish faith in Yahweh through His Torah. Being grafted in does not mean that we are to chang the root! But, yet, the Greco-Roman alterations created a religion that did just that…remove the root and replace it with sprinklings of pagan and modern thinking. What they ended up creating was a new “root”, so to speak. And as time evolved, so did the religion. Which brings us to today.
What we have now is a hybrid mix of some Jewish and some pagan practices that are sprinkled in with westernized “new testament” theology. All this has been customized over the centuries to fit into the various cultures over the centuries. Instead of people adhering to the commands of Yahweh Adonai, folks these days follow the teachings of men who have minimized, and even deleted, His Torah. They follow a new ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ and put most of their focus on Paul’s doctrines instead of following Yahweh and His Messiah Yeshua and the Torah that was given to the people of Israel for all nations. The pulpits have taught more on new theologies and doctrines rather than the actual Scriptures given by Elohim above. Deuteronomy 12, Adonai warns the people of following the pagan practices of the nations around them. He says “…be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.” Exodus 22 warns “He who sacrifices to any god, other than to Adonai alone, shall be utterly destroyed.” And in Deuteronomy 32 it says “They made Him (Yahweh) jealous with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not Elohim, to gods whom they have not known…new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.”
Folks, it’s one thing to want to get to the destination of Heaven. It’s another to invent and follow your own road map. Yahweh gave us the map we are to follow! He didn’t create ‘many maps’! He gave one map…for all the people. We have to not only to prepare ourselves for the journey…which includes knowing the exact directions we will need to get to our destination…but we also have to follow those exact directions as given to us by the map maker Himself! Once we choose to follow the right path, His path, we then need to get up and actually walk the walk! You’ve heard the term ‘walking in the footsteps of Jesus’? Well, numerous times Yeshua gives us the exact instructions of how to follow His Father’s map by saying the words “Follow Me”! To follow someone is an action. Something we purposefully have to do! We don’t follow by sitting on a chair, or sitting in a car, or sitting in a pew, or sitting on our laurels. We follow by doing exactly what the person we are following is doing! Yeshua followed the Torah and the laws. He walked the Father’s path as an example to us all. We are to do the very same…step by step, moment by moment…without modifications or changes. We don’t follow some of the path, but are instructed to follow the whole path! The map has never changed all these centuries! The disciple Thomas was confused one day and asked Yeshua, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Yeshua said “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”
Thus, we have our map, our guide, and our Messiah! Just follow Him!
Amen
Harbor Lights Ministries 