His Beauty is Our Beauty

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!   Psa 133;1

And let the beauty of Adonai Eloheynu be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, 

establish the work of our hands.  Psa 90;17

 The same word; נָּעִים - נֹעַם is translated as pleasant and as beauty.  

Romans chapters nine to eleven are about the reunion of the two houses of Israel.  Romans chapter twelve leads us then deeper into that Beauty-Pleasantness with the seven types of people who only find their true place together; a reflection of The Maker's face on earth. 

Seven types; compared to parts of the body, these teach dependancy for unity (Beauty and Pleasantness).  He has not put all of His abilities/attributes into each of us but spread them out; none with the monopoly.  For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same “function”.   (Please note this is not Paul’s list of Jobs/Ministries which any of us may be called to do at one time or another.  Nor is it Paul’s list of tools of the Ruach we may all learn to use.  Instead it is “who we are”.)  

Some are elevated in certain cultures or circles and some despised, but all have their place and the goal is to have each part working as one.  As in the cursed-creation, there are some more prey-like and some are predator-like which will only find the Isaiah 11-peace in the restoration.

This unity is not possible while ignorance of these differences remain.  Where ambition and fear rule there will be no beauty.  

Therefore, I beseech you brethren, that you present yourselves sacrificially.........Romans 12;1

To deny the differences is to surely persecute the differences. 

To perpetuate the domination of certain “types” of people who think they have a monopoly on truth and understanding will mean more trouble and ugliness inevitably.  In this ignorance we either project our own weaknesses onto others or presume we understand when we don’t.  Like at the tower of Babel we would be left in confusion repeating the same old “church” or “business” traditions and patterns, alienating members of our own body.  

Most don’t yet know that Romans chapter twelve lists the seven gifts (verses 6-8), then their strengths (9-15) and then their potential weaknesses (16-21).  This revelation gives us the wisdom to partly explain and deal with the tensions that exist between us.  This is a key placed in the right spot to bring good fruit in our Nation and in our families.  

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function”...............differences. 

There are differences that exist in the body of messiah.  The unity of that body is hindered by those who “think of themselves more highly than they ought”.   Instead if we each think ourselves “with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of trust YHWH has distributed to each of us”, we will see the “behold how beautiful it is when brethren dwell together in heavenly unity”.

It has been tradition for those trying to be the “body of messiah” to make frankensteins.   Parts of the body missing or deformed.  It is as if “self-harm” has been decreed up till now as part of the curses for not listening and doing YHWH’s torah.  When the enemy comes to us, we flee in seven different directions.  The disunity is when a “group” dominates, even with the best intensions, from ignorance of these seven differences Paul is teaching us. 

1 Corinthians 12;15   If the foot says, “Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body”; is it therefore not of the body?

Exodus 34;6-7  And YHWH passed by before him, and proclaimed, YHWH, YHWH El merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, till the third and to the fourth generation.

• YHWH-Yireh —  ....will Provide (Genesis 22:13–14)
• YHWH-Rapha —  ....that Heals (Exodus 15:26)
• YHWH-Niss"i — ....our Banner (Exodus 17:8–15)
• YHWH-Shalom — ....our Peace (Judges 6:24)
• YHWH-Ro'i — ....my Shepherd (Psalm 23)
• YHWH-Tsidkenu — ....our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6)

• YHWH-Shammah — ....is Present (Ezekiel 48:35)

The beauty of the living Elohim is in the perfect tension between All His Attributes.   

May that beauty be upon us!

Are you worthy of victory?

Are you worthy of victory?

The second crusade (1144), still motivated by the desire to defend eastern Christians from the vicious Muslim invasions, went so badly that many reflected back on themselves in the West that the failure was their lack of purity.  (This led to movements such as Franciscan simplicity and could be partly why protestantism developed later, ETC)  For similar reasons today there is an awakening to look for purity that leads to victory not shame and failure.  The West has largely thrown the baby out with the bathwater of churchy failings.  It has generally been swapped for an amazing belief in a magical beginning by chance millions of years ago.  A belief system which robs all meaning from life; rejecting The Maker who chose Abraham 4000 years ago.  This dominant thinking persecutes the believer who takes the Good Book seriously.  It however has absolutely no solution to the Islamic revival taking place.  The cause for Western failures, regarding understanding and responding to Islam today, is partly the arrogance which presumes money or tolerance will win over Mohammedans to “our ways”, as if they would want to!  The chaos of flooding ‘sin’ is not on Western minds as they have magicked away ‘sin’ by pretending The Maker is not there.  Remember too that martyrdom is less attractive without 72 virgins or worse no after-life at all!  The West is in more trouble than ever.  Yet many will riot for better pay when the money is fictional.  The West is finished in its present form.  The enemy is “within the gates” through Eurabian policy; a trojan horse.  

The key is not to simply understand the good motives of those who went crusading between 1095 and 1291 (the recent ‘crusades’ in the last twenty years were surely less purely motivated?).  Some good may come from physical fights against IS(and Hamas, Muslim Bros, etc),  but to seek that purity; of thought and action......    The Maker in His kindness is using Islam and the fall of the West to take us MUCH deeper than just back to Richard the Lionheart.  Not a revival of anything we have known over the last 2700 years(<-  a clue).  Oh there is MUCH more to find if we ask, knock and seek.  Christianity has been a greenhouse for 2000 years.  There have been various types of churches differing in their level of understanding but always missing some major KEYS which make sense of history; a better BIRD’S EYE VIEW.   Christianity has been limited by having almost always all of these keys missing;

Key:  “Follow ALL The Maker’s Instructions”  The Majority of Christianity taught or still teaches that Messiah paid for our sin to free us from Following The Maker’s Instructions......this is getting Paul so wrong!  “Those who teach against the least of the commandments are least in The Kingdom”.  Torah.  It is not following The Maker’s instructions that got us into this trouble in the first place.  Nationally and individually.  His annual feasts are not finished with! Pig is not ok to eat (even the Muslims know that) neither is prawn.  Right and wrong is defined by these instructions; starting with the top ten but all are for our good.  The Shabbat(Sabbath) remains a good weekly gift.  

Key:  “We are in Exile”  Hosea chapter 1.  Joseph’s blessings.  Grafted back into Israel (or joining Israel for the first time as did those in the first Exodus).  

Key:  “Exodus II”   “He has heard our cry” The next rescue of The Maker will be after the plagues as with the first exodus.   No “beam me up” before the trouble that is coming.  But the rescue will be before the destruction of this generation’s army of ‘Pharaoh’.  Even if we are beamed up, we land back here on earth (-if we are counted worthy!)

Key: “The Happy Ending”, The Great Shabbat: The 1000 year rule of Messiah.  Both houses of Israel re-united as a light to the other nations which are left after the “great tribulation”....here on Earth. “Your Kingdom come your will be done on EARTH as it is in the Heavens” - sitting on clouds, playing a harp....is not biblical.  The great expectation is of The restored Kingdom as it was with King David (only better than before!)

( note for my Jewish friends;   Going to protect the christians in Iraq today by attacking IS is seen as good, even if mistakes are made, yet IS calls those attacking them “Crusaders”.    It is fashionable to see the crusades as motivated by greed and “anti-semitism”.  That is mostly untrue.  Sometimes Jews were killed when they took sides with Muslims and there were times when Jews were attacked without sanction from leaders back in Europe.  Obviously some terrible things were done by “Crusaders”(they were not called that back in that era).  For Jews and lovers of Jews like myself, it is time to let go of notions like the “golden age of Judaism” in the heart of Muslim lands as Dhimis; Mosheh ben Maimon/Rambam’s perspective was always going to favour his master’s over his master’s enemies; the Christians.  It has been terrible for Jews where ever they were )

The Happy Ending, restoration of His nation.

The popular christian view of the future, from all I read and heard, is that we get a ticket to heaven and will sit on the clouds playing a harp, or as has been said "Pie in the sky when you die".  I searched the Bible.  The future foretold is of the nation of Israel being restored and of the people of Israel once again ‘Following The Maker’s Instructions‘ as they were always meant to.  And after Israel is restored, then all the earth will experience a happy ending as Israel fulfils their role and place.   

The second chapter of Daniel in the Bible contains one of the most interesting and 'simple' tools to measure where we are in The Maker's time scale.  The consecutive empires which temporarily ‘replace’ Israel during the exile punishment are pictured as parts of a statue.  Babylon the head, Medo-Persia the shoulders, Greece the waist, Rome the legs, and then one final empire: The feet of iron and clay.  Universally the feet and toes were interpreted by western christians as a revived Roman empire, usually seen in a 1984 New World Order conspiracy kind of way.  This Elitist conspiracy theory is considered ‘global’ as understood today, rather than the ‘global’ of the previous four empires which were all middle-eastern.  It chokes out any expectation of an earthly out-come worth waiting for.   I accepted this as certain for 23 years.   About 5 years ago I saw an alternative understanding which actually fits history, instead of the revived Rome interpretation which leaves a 1300 year gap to be somehow explained.  Islam replaced the Eastern Roman empire over the land of Israel and therefore it is the ‘feet and toes’, or last empire before Israel, both houses (not just the Jewish part!) is restored to how it was under King David.  This is the desired Happy Ending we have all been waiting for.   “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on EARTH” makes sense at last.

Many people are stirred up about Israel's restoration and many pray for it.  However they for the most part don't imagine for one minute that they are meant to be grafted into the nation of Israel.  This is the thing Yeshua and his followers went around calling people to.  He didn’t talk about his death and resurrection.  The good news was that the time of rejection was over.  Not because we had turned round enough but “for His name’s sake”.  Yet most people think they have heard the gospel.  Now is the time to call people back to following The Maker’s Instructions and to become UNSETTLED where they live, in readiness for the greater Second Exodus.  This is the harvest gathering back to the land of Israel where we will be, once again, His people and He will be with us.

Passover is about Israel’s exodus from Egypt, Yeshua redeeming us from being slaves to sin with powerful forgiveness, AND in the near future He will rescue His people from exile, bringing them back to their home land.  

I know all this.  I’ve seen all this.  Yet the challenge for me is to allow the truth of His love to change me from being the traumatised child, one able to see things as an outsider but unable to fit in, into being an adopted son able to face the troubles that are coming as part of the nation being ingathered.   

As the plagues are repeated on a much bigger scale in prelude to the Second Exodus, we will see much trouble.  Who among us will prove to be trusting children?  This refining process will end with a worthy people fit to serve The Most High as a light to the other nations left after our ingathering.  

How then shall we live?