February 27, 2010

A Two Altar System?

Filed under: Torah Life — Teresa @ 12:53 pm

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A Two-Altar System?  (Exodus 30:1-10)

Why two kodesh kodashim altars, one of bronze and one of gold?  Why one in the court of the mish’kan and another in the holy place, between the m’norah and the shulchan lechem p’nei [Table of Shewbread].

Why one only for k’toret, and the other for the flesh of surrogate animals, for grain, and for wine and oil?[1]

Why one altar visible to all the world, and the other completely hidden from view of ordinary men — for the eyes of k’hanim only?

Perhaps, Beloved, it is because the Holy One wants us to know that for every action in which we participate in the physical world, there is a corresponding action which takes place, completely unseen, in the spiritual world.

Picture the mish’kan in your mind’s eye, as you would see it from a hill just outside the camp, at the time of the morning or evening tamid.  You can see the smoke rising from the brazen altar in the outer court, and the flurry of activity around that altar is obvious. But you cannot see inside the chambers of the tent itself.  You cannot tell what is going on there – if anything.  Your tendency will be to focus your attention on what you can see, will it not?  So it is with man, Beloved. We focus on the finite, the temporal, the visible, the manifest.  We consider that which we can see to be what makes up reality, and what is important to us.

But Do You Have ‘Inner Sanctum Eyes’?

Now, close your natural eyes a moment, and focus your spiritual eyes of faith on the mish’kan.  Try to look past the outer courts, through the closed doors and curtains of the inner sanctum.

Can you see, with those spiritual eyes of faith, that there is activity in the unseen realms as well?

Can you see that the activity in the unseen realm of the holy place corresponds to the activity in the outer court?

Precisely as the tamid is being presented in the visible realm, can you see the High Priest trimming the m’norah and presenting k’toret on the altar of golden incense?

Can you see the k’ruvim interwoven in the veil begin to glow with the brightened light of the trimmed m’norah?

Can you see the incense-cloud passing through the veil into the k’dosh k’doshim [holy of holies] and presenting a pleasing fragrance to the Holy One?

And now for the real test, Beloved.

Can you see, as you look at the mish’kan through your spiritual eyes of faith, that what is happening in the unseen realm is more real, and more important, than what is happening in the visible realm which, just a moment ago, you thought was reality?

If you can see this, Beloved, then you can understand the ministry of our Great High Priest, Messiah, Who, we are told, is ‘ever interceding’ for us in the heavenlies.

If you understand this spiritual principle, you can see, in every mitzvah of Torah in which you participate on earth, a much greater heavenly significance and effect.

If you have ‘inner sanctum eyes’, you can see what Y’shua was talking about when He said ‘inasmuch as you have done these things to the least of these my brethren, you have done them to Me”.

You can see these things because you have begun to realize what brilliant theologians, who rely only upon their intellect and powers of reasoning, have never understood — that every mitzvah of Torah is a portal between the visible world and the unseen spiritual world.

What seems insignificant to the human mind, you see, has eternal significance – not because of what we do, Beloved – but because of what He does — in the unseen, spiritual world that corresponds to what we do.

Do you now grasp it?  In doing the mitzvot of Torah, we become co-creators, co-laborers with Messiah and His angels.  We may see no physical results on earth – that is quite understandable, because by themselves, the mitzvot we do have no power at all.

But rest assured, Beloved – He Who has begun a good mitzvah in you [in your physical world] will be faithful to complete it [in the spiritual world which really matters].

Shiur L’Yom Sheshi Parsha Tetzaveh – The Rabbis Son

[1] From a practical standpoint, the placement of the altar of golden incense inside the mish’kan necessarily militated against burning anything on it which would create a high flame.  A high flame, such as is produced by oil or animal fat, might burn a hole in the tent above it – not to mention smoke the priests out of the holy place.

February 23, 2010

Psalm 27

Filed under: Torah Life — Teresa @ 8:58 pm

יהוה is my light and my deliverance; Whom should I fear? יהוה is the refuge of my life; Whom should I dread?
When evil-doers come against me To eat up my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, They shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamps against me, My heart does not fear; Though battle comes up against me, Even then I would be trusting.
One matter I asked of יהוה – this I seek: To dwell in the House of יהוה All the days of my life, To see the pleasantness of יהוה, And to inquire in His Sanctuary.
For in the day of evil He hides me in His booth; In the covering of His Tent He hides me; On a rock He raises me up.
And now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me; And I offer in His Tent with shouts of joy; I sing, yea, I sing praises to יהוה.
Hear, O יהוה, when I cry with my voice! And show me favour, and answer me.
To my heart You have said, “Seek My face.” Your face, יהוה, I seek.
Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in displeasure; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O Elohim of my deliverance.
When my father and my mother have forsaken me, Then יהוה does take me in.
Teach me Your way, O יהוה, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not give me over To the desire of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And they breathe out cruelty to me.
What if I had not believed To see the goodness of יהוה In the land of the living!
Wait on יהוה, be strong, And let Him strengthen your heart! Wait, I say, on יהוה!

February 22, 2010

I live how I live because He is who He is and what He has done for me.

Filed under: Torah Life — Tags: , , , , — Teresa @ 10:14 am

Matt and I met and married in a very charismatic evangelical non-denom church. Coming to faith in Messiah as an adult, my faith grew very quickly, I was 100% committed to knowing and following my Saviour. When we moved to Colorado we attended a church in Boulder pastored by a completed Jew, Gene Binder. Here we learned and grew. Matt and I both were heading up ministry and very involved members. Here with Gene we learned about Passover and learned many Hebraic flavored songs. We also got very involved in the small group/house church movement. Pastor Gene was very big on teaching the Acts2 model of Christian community and fellowship. This spoke to us very strongly. If we were to be followers of Messiah we should live and serve as His first followers did. We were apart of home fellowships and small groups within our church. We saw that this was where real community was born and nurtured. When we left Pastor Gene and the church in Boulder it was not because we had any major theological rift or doctrinal concern. It was because the church was getting too big and the leadership of the church saw that Gene was unwilling to divide responsibility and thus many ministries suffered. We were gone for over a month and no one noticed. We went back for a special event one Sunday and one person asked if we had been on vacation. Even Gene did not have the time or interest to find out why we left.

We continued searching Scripture to understand how we should live and worship. We studied Church history. How did the organic church/Acts2 fellowships become over the centuries to be what it is today? We learned about all the changes the Catholic Church made and how the Reformation stopped short on too many issues.  We continued to search for a church home and a pastor that could guide us on our search for how to live in Messiah. We knew how great a gift was our salvation. We are called to follow Messiah. We are called to follow His steps and learn His ways. We searched for a place where we could truly love and serve one another as Messiah commanded us. We looked for small groups and house fellowships within the churches we attended. It was in this setting that we could really love and serve. You have to know someone to love them and have a positive impact in their lives in a meaningful way. We were not getting to now anyone on Sunday at church.  It was during the bible studies and home groups that real intimacy was encouraged.

As we continued to search for a more authentic expression of our faith in Messiah we continued to meet folks who worshiped and lived  out their faith in a little bit different way. They had been where we were,looking for that Acts2 fellowship. They had gone even farther in their examination. Not just that the first followers met intimately in homes and had genuine relationships with each other, but how did they live beyond Sunday? How did they conduct business, how did they express their personal relationship with YHVH. It was here that we realized that these followers of Messiah were Jewish, They retained their Jewishness, they never became Sunday keeping, pork eating Christians. Jesus/Yeshua was/is the Jewish Messiah. He was form the tribe of Judah, house of David.  It was not any mistake or chance that Messiah was Jewish.  He could not have been a Moslem or a Hindu or a Celtic pagan.  He had to be Jewish, tribe of Judah.  YHVH chose the Children of Jacob/Israel to be His special people, His treasure in all the Earth. No one else!!

When the Children of Israel were redeemed/saved from their slavery to Pharaoh there were a great number of other slaves who left with them.  They saw the power of the Hebrew God and how He had humbled the Egyptian gods. They left with the Hebrews because they believed and had faith in the God of the Hebrews. These folks were not Israelite, they were Gentile. They were redeemed right along with the Hebrews.  “Whoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved”. They became a part of Israel thru faith and obedience to the Hebrew God.  At the Red sea crossing the people went into the water slaves and came out free men.  This was their baptism, their mikvah. Then  a few days later as they camped at Mt. Sinai, did YHVH give them His instruction on how to be free men and women, children of YHVH. It was here that YHVH said I will be your Elohim and you will be my people. They responded ” All YHVH says we will do”

Another way to look at it was that YHVH was courting the Israelites during the plagues. He was showing His power and His sincerity to her, Israel. She was in a bad place and He came to rescue her and make her His own, His Bride. He led her away and washed her and betrothed her at the foot of the mountain. He said I will love and protect you.  She responded with I will do all that you wish of me. ( obviously my paraphrase) Then He gave her His marriage instructions. If you are to be my Bride you must behave as a free and holy people not as slaves. His covenant with us is our marriage contract. We are the lesser partners, He has the greater responsibility and brings more to us than we to Him.

Remember….with either way you look at this we/the Hebrews were “saved” then “baptized” then they were given/obeyed YHVH’s instruction on how to live, how to be His peculiar people. Never has anyone been able to earn his salvation. It was not why the Hebrews followed YHVH commands, it is not why we do either.

2Co 9:15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!gif

We are the lesser partners in this covenant. All we are asked to do is receive His blessing of salvation thru Messiah Yeshua and live how He has instructed us. It is within these instructions that we learn “how” to love one another and “how” to love YHVH. YHVH has given us instructions on how to be holy and live in a way that is pleasing to Him. I am not sure why so many Christians are so strongly opposed to living their lives according to YHVH’s will.  Many are already doing most of what is instructed. He has told us how to approach Him, of He is a Holy God. He has not changed only our attitude toward Him.  He is Abba/Father, yes. He is also the All Consuming Fire, The Creator of the Universe, I AM.  He is the King of Heaven and Earth and there are protocols of behavior when in the presence of the King.

I live how I live because He is who He is and what He has done for me.

In Messiah,

Teresa/Navah

Be the Bride!!

Filed under: Torah Life — Tags: , , , , , — Teresa @ 9:57 am

Here are a few of my thoughts on the Torah parsha from a couple weeks ago….
Notes from T’rumah
If we merely eat the physical bread which He (Yahweh) provides for us [if we merely seek Him for His miracles], we will die in the desert — as did our fathers. But if we sh’ma [listen with open minds to, hear, pay attention to, heed, and receive with gratitude] His words of life, and sh’mar [cherish, treasure, highly value, and carefully watch over, guard, and protect] His instructions for living, and asah [interact and build with, as a potter interacts and builds with clay] the mitzvot and mishpatim He designs for us, do you see what awaits us:  we will dwell in His presence, we will eat at His table, and we will walk in His Light.
Bill Bullock–The Rabbi’s Son

How many of us are barely hanging on, literally starving to death-spiritually (and we don’t even know it), because we have never really entered into HIS banqueting hall? We are still hanging out in the coat room drinking from a water fountain and eating mints by the door. We can hear the lively conversation from inside and see the tables of food and maybe see the faces of those enjoying the true bread of His Word and the true wine of His Spirit. But like the Israelites at the foot of the mountain we are afraid to meet with our Bridegroom face to face and stand in His presence. His ways are perfect and He is gentle and just. But if we remain out in the coat room ( we are technically at the banqueting hall ) we will never fully know our Bridegroom face to face, we may never even hear His voice. But we try to satisfy ourselves with the lie that we are His Bride, we are in His banqueting hall, are we not? We go there but we leave unsatisfied. We go but we return home thirsting. OR maybe we do feel fed and our thirst sated but our lives are hollow and our bodies weak and diseased. YOU can not thrive and bear fruit by “feasting” on water and after dinner mints.

Step boldly into the banqueting hall of your Bridegroom. See His face, hear His voice and drink and eat fully of His WORD and His SPIRIT. How do I do that? I thought I was already? First , stop lying to yourself that you are living a life surrendered to HIM. Stop telling people “Oh, I wish I had more time to read and study, I am just so busy.” Read Yahweh’s words…….ALL of them!!! Then actually do what it says to do. Stop listening to men. Men who you pay to tell you lies. These men are not your god, or in some cases they may well be, but they should not be your gods. Who will decide who is damned and who goes on to eternal life? …your priest?….your Sunday school teacher?….your Rabbi?   NO!!  Your Creator alone does. So who do you think you should get to know better and learn to trust and know what HE expects of you, really???   When you stand before HIM, and you will, do you really think He will take “But my pastor/priest/Rabbi never told me that or taught me this” as an excuse for neglecting His instructions to you on how to be His Bride?

It is time to stop playing “bride” and to hang up your coat (false teachings of men) and come in and truly feast on His WORD and drink deeply of His SPIRIT!! Read your Bible as if every word was written directly to you and for you…which it was.  Come to Him as a child, open and trusting. Accept His instructions and learn them well. Train yourself to hear and recognize His voice and to respond to it as a lover responds to the touch or her beloved.  Grow up!!! Become mature and responsible in the duties/yoke we received when we said “Yes” to our Heavenly Bridegroom. Trust Him when He said that  His yoke is easy an His burden is light.

Sh’ma His voice and WORD.   Sh’mar His Torah    and Asah His instructions

Be the Bride!!!!



February 21, 2010

Confessions of a world class worrier…..

Filed under: Mind, Body & Spirit — Teresa @ 9:09 pm

Luk 12:22-32  And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!   And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?   Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.   But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!   And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.   For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.  “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

The above  were the verses that got me thru high school and the rest of my life, really. You see I was raised in a nominal Catholic home. I say nominal because my parents divorced when I was 6 and my sister was just a baby. My mom remarried fairly soon after to a Catholic man who had a daughter a year younger than me. We were sent to as Catholic grade school and eventually high school. We went to church every Sunday and we received all the appropriate sacraments. I don’t really remember much of anything that I heard in church all those years, except the above verses. My life was hard and unpredictable. My step-dad was a drunk and liked to use his belt on us. My mom left him, or they  left each other when I was 18.

I remember spending my lunch break in high school at the campus chapel for the communion service. I would sit there and pray that GOD would help me get thru another day. I would remember “consider the lily’s..don’t worry”  That was all I could remember. How sad is that? But really that was all I needed. That was the seed that was planted and that over the years to come would be watered by testimonies and fertilized by suffering.

I guess I should also confess that I am a recovering world class worrier. Just ask my husband, bless his sweet, patient soul. Because I am the kind of person who is the peace maker, the wave smoother, the “heavy” to make sure no fights break out. I am the oldest and I guess it just comes naturally. So I worry. After my mom and dad divorced I worried. My mom told me way too much about her issues and pain. That was a lot for a 6/7 year old to carry. I grew up fast. But Yahweh is all of HIS incredible wisdom knew I would be a worrier. So HE gave me HIS truth. Just a tiny bit of it…but enough to get me to where I could accept more and eventually hunger for more. HE  knew that I could not trust my parents. HE knew that I would seek acceptance where ever I could. HE was showing me, that wounded little girl, that I could trust HIM and HIM alone.

In the above verses Yahweh shows us that HE is worthy of our trust. That HE will take care of us. That HE will bless us and if we look to HIM for everything HE will give us HIS Kingdom. The trick is that we have to give up worrying. I think that giving up chocolate is a lot easier than giving up worrying.  Giving up cheesecake, or home made bread or even , it is almost unspeakable, giving up Mexican food. These are a walk in the park compared to walking away from ever worrying again.  Don’t you love how Abba asks us to do these seemingly easy things, Don’t worry, How hard is that?  It is easy when you learn to trust HIM.

So now you know a little about me.  “HI, my name is Teresa. I am a recovering worrier.” Our Heavenly Father knows what we need, when we need it and HE knows the difference between wants and needs. Have you ever really looked at the flowering weeds out in your yard?  Some of them are absolutely beautiful, tiny and soon to be mowed down but absolutely beautiful.  Who sees them? Your dogs as they are peeing on them? Or your children as they are wrestling around?  Their Creator sees them!!  He delights in them and glories in their beauty. HE is the master carpenter who adds incredible details to the underside of a staircase that only the mice will ever see. The mice and HIMSELF that is.

So is someone who puts that much time and effort into the weeds in your yard able to take care of your little problems? Do you think HE is big enough?  If we trust HIM and obey HIM and stop worrying we will be HIS children and become partakers of HIS Kingdom.  I think that I can handle that kind of agreement with HIM, how about you?

Mat 11:30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

My encouragement to you is to stop worrying, it will not add anything to your life, and to get to know your Creator and to learn to trust HIM. Read HIS story about how HE loves HIS people. Read how your Creator wants you to live your life so that you will be healthy and happy and set apart as one of HIS children.

My hope for this blog is to share my journey and the pits I have fallen in so that you may learn and go around the potholes in life.  Some of my writing will be about my faith, some about my marriage and some about my children and home education.  But above all I will be totally honest.  So put on a sweater, the sun is setting, and lets walk on this path together and learn from eachother the lessons of our Father.

Blessings in Messiah,

Teresa/Navah

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