Spirit and Truth. This is how YHVH wants to be worshiped. Truth is the easier part of this equation. To worship in truth simply means to learn all the rules – make a checklist, if you will – and then do accordingly. However truth without spirit ultimately means death.
Up until recently, my personal understanding of sin was that it was simply disobeying a list of do’s and don’ts. I understood that we are given Torah and the laws, and I thought that by simply obeying those, I was avoiding sin. Sure I make mistakes and sin against YHVH and others by disobeying those laws, but as long as I am consciously trying my best to keep those laws I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. You can even fit Strong’s definition of sin into this understanding – that sin is simply missing the mark. (If I fail to keep one of the laws, I have missed the mark in that area.) Seems like a pretty black and white concept, huh? It just isn’t that simple, though.
You don’t eat pork? Are you Jewish? These are the questions I hear most often when it is revealed that we don’t eat pork. My typical answer is that no, we are not Jewish. We really don’t fit into a category, and as we study, we have decided that there is a reason why YHVH…