Baggage and Filters

“Baggage” and “filters” are two of my favorite analogies for those things inside us that keep us from seeing truth.

Baggage – because over the course of our lives we have gathered bags full of ‘stuff’ that we carry around with us wherever we go.  The stuff may be good, bad, or neutral, but it all adds up to a heavy load.

Filters – because we will view every new input in our lives through the filters of our previous experiences, unless we consciously lower those filters.

Are you willing to test your beliefs?

If your beliefs are true and correct, and you confirm them to be so, then you can hold fast to them with even more devout conviction.  If your beliefs turn out to be incorrect, then you are better off for having discovered that, are you not?

Let’s start here:

Do you know who you are?

Are you sure?

Would you make a conscious decision to discover and recognize who you are? To organize the fabric of your identity? To celebrate the wonder of your authentic self?

This message. 

I am convinced I cannot overstate its importance in our lives, nor can I explain it in enough different ways to amount to overkill.

It is something that has been on my heart for many years.

I have mentioned it and discussed it in many previous conversations.

Here is the basic concept:

You are the product of the accumulation of your life experiences.  Everything you have seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, read about, heard about; every person you have known, met, befriended, loved, hated, ignored; books, movies, television, music - every kind of input that has touched you in any way has contributed to who you are today.

Some of these influences you have cherished and nourished, some you sought after, some just happened unexpectedly, some you have struggled to forget, some have haunted you relentlessly, some came and went like a whispering wind, some thundered and clamored and crashed into you and over you and through you.

In one sense, every scrap of it is vital to you, your identity, and your future.  In another sense, all of it needs to be examined and categorized as useful, extraneous, or toxic. You can decide what should stay and what needs to go.  Of course, deciding to put away some element of your personality, what you think makes you you, is a major turnstile in your life. Even when you have decided to lay something down, often it does not stay laid down.

At some point, in order to walk in freedom, we must put aside the things that prevent us from seeing who we truly are.  There are things we have learned or experienced or chosen to believe that are hindering us.  We must figure out how to face those things and lay them down in favor of the things that contribute to our authentic identity. 

You see, some of the things that have influenced you are lies.

Bold statement.  Am I right?

Do you doubt the truth of it, though?

All of us would certainly prefer it if, all through the course of our lives, we had only and ever recognized and retained truth.  But sometimes we have been convinced of the truth of something when in fact it was not true.  We have held tenaciously to untruths for years.  Decades.  Our whole lives.

I know for sure that I have advocated many things I was convinced were true.  I have persuaded others to believe them, too.  Now I know some of those things were not true at all.

It’s not like these things used to be true, but have somehow now become untrue.  They were always untrue.  I was just convinced otherwise.  In other words, I was deceived; and I was contributing to the deception of others.  All with the best of intentions, of course.  We like the (false) absolution of declaring the sterling sincerity and sanctity of our good intentions.

My point here is that none of us can claim honestly that everything about who we are and how we behave is based on nothing but the truth.  Many of us certainly want that to be the case.  Most of us will probably say we would do whatever it took to get as close to that ideal as possible; i.e., the ideal of living only in truth all the time.

Now that we have accepted - and I trust you have, however reluctantly, accepted - that we may have some elements of our identity that are operating according to faulty information, what do we do about that?  How do we know if something inside us is true or false?  What is our standard of truth?

For most, if not all, of my life, I have understood the prime standard of truth to be the volume commonly called The Bible.  Scripture itself has convinced me that certain things I once believed to be true are not true.  

How could anything we have believed based on The Bible not be true?  Let me remind you that the enemy of our souls, HaSatan, used scripture against YHVH’s only begotten Son, Yeshua.  Of course, Yeshua was not swayed.  Nevertheless, scripture can be used to convince us of all manner of things that are untrue.

Here is an example.  I was taught, and I believed for many years, that The Church replaced Israel as YHVH’s Chosen People.  We were told that Israel rejected Messiah, so YHVH rejected Israel.  Not true.

YHVH’s gifts and callings are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). 

His covenants are eternal.  He is a covenant-keeper.  (Genesis 17:7; Jeremiah 32:40; Psalms 105:8, 10; Luke 1:55; Hebrews 13:20, and many more)

Even when we are faithless, he remains faithful.  (2 Timothy 2:13)

We are grafted into an existing tree and root, which is Israel.  (Romans 11:17-18)

We are Israel. (Galatians 3:29)

Judah and Ephraim (kol Yisra’el) will be brought together as one in the end days  (Ezekiel 37).

Are you ready to understand that you are Israel?

Are you ready to explore what that means?

Shalom!

שלום

Label Makers

In my so-called dotage, which is in itself a label I refuse to apply to myself, I have become increasingly resistant to labels.  Well, at least, to labels meant to categorize people.  I am happy to accept labels on food products, usually; and on specific types of plants and animals; and bio-hazard warning labels.  But, stereotypes, generalizations, pigeon-holes, boxes, et al, applied to human individuals and especially to groups of people, are never precise, legitimate, fair, perfect, nor unqualified.

This principle of “resistance to labels” is at work in almost every area of life, from sports to music to politics to literature.  Some things defy pinpoint labels.  In particular, as this applies in my own life, I am finding that my “belief system” keeps bumping up against the edges of various labels then moving away; sometimes abruptly, sometimes discreetly.  Time was, I truly yearned to find a “satisfactory” label for my “faith portfolio” so that I could easily answer questions about what or who I am.  Now I do not want the “faith” question to be answered so blithely.

I am tempted here to declare a basic “statement of faith” so that my dear readers will understand where I am coming from.  (Also, I keep wanting to put every phrase in quotation marks.  Is this a symptom of label resistance?) (Further, I am bugged by ending that sentence with a preposition, but “from where I am coming” just does not cut the mustard, ya know?) (And now I am apparently hiding behind a seemingly endless chain of parenthetical statements so I can postpone the revelations I am about to make) (Are you still reading? Cool.)

My suspicion is that the basics of my faith are not so different from most of you intrepid readers.  I believe in the Creator.  I believe in the truth and history of His Holy Word.  I believe in Yeshua haMashiach ben Elohim (Jesus Christ, Son of God); his birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, rule, and return.  I believe in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit).  The rest, which is much, we can discuss later, I reckon.

Labels are astonishingly rampant in the Body of Messiah.  I have known this all my life, and I suspect nearly everyone knows this.  I mean, we can start with denominational labels.  Take a moment to come to terms with the images and terminology that arise in your mind when you see/hear these few representative denominational labels:  Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Catholic, Assembly of God, Nazarene, A.M.E., Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventist, LDS, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Church of God in Christ, Quakers… and, of course, the list could go on for pages.  By some estimates there are more than 40,000 distinct Christian denominations in existence.  Forty. Thousand.

Now, some would say, “one Body, many members” explains the “need” for the various denominations.  I disagree, but that is not actually the point of this blog entry.  I will just say this about that: are the many denominations operating in unity as One Body?

Over the past several years, my faith journey has crossed, and often joined, a path upon which has been bestowed the label “Hebrew Roots Movement.”  I still consider myself to be a “Hebrew Roots” sojourner.  But that label has taken on some unfortunate connotations due to the publicized behavior of some of its adherents.  These days, I am hesitant to tell a new acquaintance, “I am a Hebrew Roots believer.” Many of us in this “exploration” are feeling the same way.  We do not want to be lumped in with the emerging mainstream definition of “Hebrew Roots.”

So, what can we do about this?  It’s not like I can memorialize my present, personal, preferred definitions of terms and expect the world to accept, adopt, and celebrate!

What I am trying to do here, I guess, is just to admit to myself and to all and sundry that I am sincerely trying to avoid being molded and stamped by external (mis)interpretations of names, terms, and labels.

A couple of my favorite (?) examples of this phenomenon go back several decades in my personal experience.  Pentecostal and Charismatic.  There is no reason for any Bible-believing follower of Yeshua to avoid these terms.  In fact, we should ALL be both Pentecostal and Charismatic; i.e., if we believe in the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the gifts that come with it.

In 1974, I had a personal experience that highlighted this label resistance phenomenon for me.  I was raised in a denomination that ardently eschewed that term (denomination) and insisted on being called a “movement.”  It is called “Church of God (Anderson, IN).”  There are many groups who call themselves “Church of God,” usually with some qualification in parentheses to set them apart from each other.  (btw, this is not what I think YHVH means when he tells us to be “set apart”)

I was working in Georgia that summer (1974).  One day I saw a little church that was from “my” Church of God.  In the southern US, there is another Church of God (or two or three) that has distinctly different doctrines about the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.”  So, to make sure onlookers understood the difference, the sign out front of this little church declared, “Church of God (Anderson, IN) (NON-PENTECOSTAL).” Yes. It was in all-caps, just like that.  I laughed.  And then I wept.

I understood.  They were trying to manage the expectations of potential visitors.  Is that what we have come to?  Pre-selection of folks who might come share with us?  This is a recurring theme all over so-called Christendom.  A whole movement arose around this concept of managing expectations a few decades ago.  It is called “Seeker Sensitivity.”

OK.  So many terms, so little chance y’all will keep reading.

So…  I will not try to make an exhaustive list of malleable labels (mal-labels?).  And I certainly will not try to offer any definitions or clarifications.  But I will make a list as a demonstration of the breadth of the label-making phenomenon.  I encourage you to look at the list below and consider how YOU would define each of these terms; and how do these things look in your own life and beliefs?  Do any of them make you uncomfortable with the notion of applying them to yourself?  It is a long list, but it barely scratches the surface.

Apostle

Atonement

Authority

Baptize

Believer

Berean

Bible

Blood

Bride

Christian

Church

Clergy

Covenant

Dance

Deacon

Disciple

Doctrine

Dry Bones

Elder

Ephraim

Evangelist

Faith

Freedom

Gospel

Healing

Hebrew Roots

Hope

Israel

Justification

Kingdom

Layperson

Lost Tribes

Love

Mainstream

Messianic

Minister  

One Law

Pastor

Pew

Prophet

Propitiation

Rabbi

Remnant

Sabbath-Keeper

Sacred Name

Sacrifice

Salvation

Secular

Seminary

Teacher

Theology

Torah-Observant

Trust

Two House

Unity

Witness

Worship

Our definitions and interpretations of these and many other terms leads us to distance ourselves from each other.  We all need to be moving closer to Father.  As we do that, we will be drawing closer to each other, not farther apart.  Which do you prefer?  Drawing close to Father, or keeping a sterile barrier between yourself and your brothers and sisters?

Perhaps we should concentrate on how to walk together in faith, love, and peace.

Shalom!

שלום

Hebraicity: A Thousand-Mile Journey

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”  So said Lao Tzu, the ancient Confucian philosopher.  And so it is with the renewal of this blog, and also with the life journey I hope to share here.  One step ~ one post that will be followed by many more, describing the progression of a journey.  Well, at least part of a journey.  I could begin the telling of this story at several relevant points – my physical birth, my spiritual birth, or at any one of the many high or low points along the way.  Since the main goal of this blog now is to share my “Hebraic” adventures, the story begins when I saw an open door and stepped through it.  Also, importantly, the journey is not over.  I am still walking.*

Nearly ten years ago I entered into what has come to be known as the “Hebrew Roots Movement” (before I knew it was called that, actually).  In retrospect, I can see various signs arising in my life leading up to that time, which were preparing me for this venture.  Signs reaching back more than forty years.  Signs such as exposure to and appreciation for “Jews for Jesus”; participating in a few Passover Seders here and there; attending events hosted by Christians United for Israel; and more.  Nevertheless, I point to March 2007 as the definite point at which I decisively stepped onto this path by means of a miraculous encounter, which I will recount below.

Besides being a significant educational and spiritual endeavor, this has turned out to be a major construction project in my life.  And the construction is ongoing; i.e., I have not reached anything close to completion or perfection.  Seriously.  Some detractors have accused me of thinking that I have arrived at some pinnacle of elite status.  No.  I am still under construction.  If anything, the lessons I am learning are humbling, and they often cause me to be repentant.  In truth, I have erected some walls that were not part of the plan, and they have had to be taken down.  Hopefully, I am learning more and more to consult the Architect before I add anything to or take anything away from the structure he is building.  (Psalm 127:1)

This is a point I cannot stress enough.  I do not claim to be any kind of scholar or expert, especially as it concerns interpretation of Scripture.  [By “Scripture” I mean that ancient anthology that is known to the world as “The Holy Bible.”]  Certainly, I have come to see many things differently than I previously did, and I plan to address as many of them as I can here on this blog, over time.  A lot of the things I have learned, re-learned, discovered, or re-considered are still coalescing in my heart and mind.

By the way, just as a matter of “housekeeping,” I should let you all know that this blog was begun in 2006 as a vehicle for a particular endeavor in which my wife and I were engaged at that time.  We were visiting churches throughout our area, then reporting our experiences.  We were simultaneously conducting strategic prayer assignments for the community, the churches, the pastors, and the people.  We visited about thirty (30) churches, but I only got twelve or thirteen of our visits posted on this blog.  

I am using this existing blog precisely because it is “existing.”  Rather than launch an all-new blog, I believe there is value in retaining the original posts here.  Some of those earlier posts will be of interest to new readers.  Chronologically speaking, that series of church visits from August 2006 through February 2007 would seem to have culminated directly in our attachment to congregation Har Adonai.**  Honestly, though, we were thoroughly surprised by our discovery of Har Adonai, which led us to explore Hebrew Roots.

The story of how we became acquainted with Har Adonai is nothing less than miraculous.  To tell the truth, I was hesitant to share this story because I know some will scoff at it.  Nevertheless, I am telling the truth.  This is the way it happened.  As I was walking home from work one evening, I received persistent prompting from the Holy Spirit to “call Bob Schultz.”  It took a while for the Spirit to convince me, because I did not know Bob Schultz or his phone number, and my cell phone had died (run out of battery power) several hours earlier.  Finally, I surrendered, I turned on my phone – surprised to see it show plenty of bars - and I punched in a number that appeared in my mind.  I did not know Bob’s number.  I only knew Bob’s name because at our first “church visit” a colleague from my workplace (who was surprised to see me at her church) told me I should call him.  That was six months previous.  So, anyway, it did indeed turn out to be Bob Schultz on the other end, and he and I talked for about a half hour, then we had lunch the next day.

Turns out, Bob and his wife, Ann, had been in ministry for decades, but they had recently begun a fresh endeavor called “Har Adonai.”  We joined the Schultzes and a few others at their home the following Saturday evening.  The very next week the group began meeting in an old theater in downtown Monterey.  We met there for about nine months, then we had to re-locate because the owner sold the building.  We have been meeting in our current location since January 2008.

As I proceed with this blog, I plan to address the various “discoveries” we have made over the ensuing years.  Things such as Sabbath, the Feasts, the calendar, tzitzits, names, translations, interpretations, and many, many other topics, all of which have become central to our faith and our daily lives.

Please join me!

·        *   NOTE:  I will generally use the first person singular in these blog posts, but let it be known:  my wife and I are on this journey together, and all of the first person singulars could be plurals.

·         **  “Har Adonai” means “Mountain of the LORD.”  Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2