The truth shall set
you free….(John 8:31-32) Yes, we all
have heard this paraphrase of a tremendous self-disclosure
by Yahshua. We all may have used it at some time to enjoin someone
we were reaching out to. We may have heard our own self, in prayer
or meditation, said it to our self at least once. Either I am over
sensitive or I am missing the message.
For me to use Yahshua’s
words and say that the truth will set you free does not mean a hill
of beans unless I can also include that Yahshua was self-disclosing
and therefore being set free with His own words. At verse 31 He said
“If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of
Mine….” Yahshua was speaking to “those Jews who had believed
Him”. Yet, when we get to verse 42 of John 8, Yahshua is telling
them “If YHVH were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded
forth and have come from YHVH, for I have not even come on My own
initiative, but He sent Me.” Yahshua proceeds to tell them that
they are not hearing His word and therefore they do not understand.
It is like He is pleading with them and at the same time chastising
them for putting more faith in their earthly origins. He says they
are of their father the devil and guilty of wanting the desires of
their earthly father. If someone told me my Daddy was the devil, I
would have instant disgust and anger. (I know me at least that much).
However, when I put myself in the group of those believers who were
told should they continue to believe in His words, then and only then
will we, the believers, be set free by the truth. Yahshua is the
truth, the light and the way. Having a small degree of understanding
of the written word, I see Yahshua self-disclosing that He is not
acting on His own. He is not speaking on His own. He says so and I
believe Him. He knows that the truth will set Him free. At the
moment while He is speaking to us believers, He is not free. He has
exercised his right of freedom of choice, just as we exercise our
right of choice. He chooses to continue to do that which His Father
told Him to do, rather than end the stress and agony by distorting
the Word. The Word was placed into Him at or even before His birth.
This week I have been
privileged to be asked to join in prayer for many people. Among the
people are three ‘infants’. One has a few years since his birth
date; one has a few hours since her birth date; and another is yet to
be born. I have “seen” the Father’s generosity and love
bestowed upon all three of these babies. These babies represent, for
me, the believers. They are the believers that we all should be. A
child does not know a lie. A child does not know a falsehood. All a
child knows is what we present to them. Then life begins. Then the
lies begin. I won’t even go into the massive destructive epistles
that false prophets expound upon. Within a very short period of
time, the ‘believer’ becomes the distrusting. This child of YHVH
begins to doubt. How can this happen? It only takes a little
chametz to spoil the whole loaf. A little chametz is when the Papa
comes home from work and tells the entire family, “if anyone calls
for me tell them I’m not home yet.” Or how about, telling your
child to not tell someone else the truth..”just this once, it won’t
hurt”. See, we ’believers’ get all worked up over the lies
of the pagans and their festivals, ie. Christmas and Easter, we work
hard to teach the children this is wrong, then we stop at the store
on the way home from shul to pick up a few groceries and a beer or
two. Chametz is waking up on Shabbat and feeling a little wheezy and
declaring that we are too ill to go to Worship. Then we spend the
day watching T.V. or doing activities not of Scriptural origin, etc.
Are you getting my point?
When a person stands up on
Shabbat and preaches the gospel to the congregation and makes
statements that are absolute chametz, and no one takes measures to
get the chametz out of the service, then the whole loaf is spoiled.
The children are witnessing all of this. The children know the
truth.
I thank you Abba for
permitting me to join in the prayer for the children this week.
Please grant me the courage to be honest, with love and tact, to keep
the chametz out all year long, not just during the rehearsal month.
Your children deserve to know the truth, and they will not believe
the truth if they cannot believe or trust the messenger. This is
what Yahshua is saying in John 8.
If the believers in John 8
are having difficulty in fully accepting the Word of Yahshua, and
they are adults who gathered around Him, and followed Him and
witnessed the things He did, then how can we expect our children who
started out knowing nothing but the truth to accept what we say to
them? We SHOWED them what chametz is; first by our words, then by
our deeds. And when they challenged us, we assured them if they
didn’t worry about it they would get over it. They don’t. I
know I didn’t but I learned to accept it. It
is learning how to trust that is difficult.
We really do not know anything about anyone except what we see. A
thousand words can’t erase a ten minute indiscretion. The image is
printed forever.
John 8: 58-59 Yahshua
said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born
, I am. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Yahshua
hid himself and went out of the temple.
Let us not be spiritual
stoners. Let us encourage others to believe in the Word of Truth so
that it is not hidden from them. We are all Children of YHVH.
Shalom, Shalom.
Love,
Pinchas,
a/k/a Frankly
Speaking all the time
