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…
In the last study, we looked at the purpose of the sin scrifice. We found that although this sacrifice was needed because of the sin and uncleanness that YHVH’s people left as a stain on the temple, altars, and ark it really did not forgive them of those sins. The main reason for the sin…
In part 1 of this study, I mentioned my original ideas on atonement – what I had heard from the pulpit my entire life. From those pulpit teachings I had pieced together that atonement had something to do with forgiveness and could only be accomplished through sacrifice. But recently, I ran across a story in…
Atonement is key to understanding everything YHVH has done, is doing, and is going to do. His entire plan revolves around it. For this reason, it is important to understand what it really means – not according to today’s culture, but according to the ancient near eastern culture. We need to understand atonement in the…
I have spent many, many years in church. Throughout that time, I listened to what preachers and teachers told me and accepted all of it as truth. Then I was blessed with children of my own and began to question everything for their sake. Their little lives were in my hands, and I am responsible…
In all the years I talked to You, I thought I knew You. Listening to others speak of You, I thought I knew You. Hearing the stories taught of You, I thought I knew You. You are lost to me, because I have not searched. Your love is lost to me, because I have not…