March In The Mountains – Part 1

Taken  March 2, 2012

Evening hike with Dad the night of all the tornado’s to the west

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The man in the moon

Temple this morning was… ah… it was amazing! The spirit of Yeshua was moving amongst us, touching hearts and tear ducts. The music was fabulous, as always. Ever since I can remember, I’ve found that music has been a path to the center of my heart. So because of that, I love worshiping with music.  Once we unrolled the Torah, and started reading from His word, and sharing amongst ourselves, the Spirit just flooded the whole building! I think even the people outside felt it. Phenomenal!

The first verse we read was Deuteronomy 8:11-14. It says
“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
We observed how easy it is to forget God when things are going well for us. When everything is going our way. But when we are in distress, or poor or hurting we call on God. We acknowledge his power and authority and put our trust in him to help us. Later on in that chapter, verses 15-16, it says:
“He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”
One of the ladies in our body pointed that out to us, and wow! How amazing is that?! There are things in life that really suck… things that hurt us and cause us to despair. And we wonder why God would let us go through something like that? It’s like Job. There are hardships, but in the end, they work for our good. God blesses us after being put through the fire.
Rabbi Joe talked about steel, and pottery. How when you first have them in your hands, if you poured hot or cold into them they’d shatter, because they aren’t strong. They haven’t been through the fire yet. But once you put them in the kiln, which, if steel and pottery had feelings, wouldn’t be a comfortable thing at all for them, when they come out on the other side, they are strong and prepared for anything you can throw at them. Hot, cold, it doesn’t matter. They are strong and good because they went through the fire. They suffered a hard time. So are we. Once we suffer through a tribulation, we come out stronger. Thank God!

After we read from the Old Testament, we read from a prophet. Today we read Isaiah 49:14-16. It reads:
“But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she ha borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
Wow. These verses just blew me away! To be honest with you, when I read the bit about “I will not forget you,” I cried. It’s so amazing, y’know? All the times I’ve ignored him, pretended he didn’t exist, went my own way with no regard for him, he didn’t forget about me. He didn’t stop loving me! And where he talks about engraving us on the palms of his hands… when Yeshua was crucified he was hung by his wrists ((in the Hebrew, “palms of my hands” literally refers to the whole hand/wrist area. Hebrew isn’t as detaild as English is.)) Also, the word “inscribed” or “engraved” literally translates to “carved.” That gives me shivers. When the nails were driven into our Lords wrists, our names were being “written” on him. So he cannot forget us, for our names are written in the scars on his body. I cried there, too. My savior is so wonderful.

In traditional Judaism, that is where the readings would end. But since I attend a Messianic Jewish temple, we also read from the New Testament. We read John 20:24-29 which reads:
“Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believe.”
We actually talked about Thomas a few Friday nights ago. About his doubt. This was talked about again this morning. We often think badly of Thomas for not believing in Yeshuah. But he had been His discple for 3 years. He had slept outside in the cold, gone without food, and suffered through wind and rain just to be near Him. He was there when his Lord was crucified. Now He is gone. Thomas must be suffering very deep depression at this point. Perhaps he wasn’t with the other 10 because he just wanted to be alone for a while to deal with his pain. And while he was suffering, his Lord, who he had faithfully served for so long, appeared to all the disciples except him. And they come home all excited and telling him all about how Yeshua appeared to him! Maybe he didn’t believe because he felt left out. Because he thought that after being so faithful, even when the others weren’t, his Lord would at least wait until he was there to show Himself! This is all speculation of course, because I wasn’t there. None of us were there. But these are things that we saw, we felt. How amazing?! And back to Thomas, you may note that he was the only one who got to touch Yeshuas wounds. Oh to have been in his shoes!!!!!!!

Ain Kadosh Kahashim.

Rabbi Joe said “I want to be the man in the moon. That’s my goal. Because the moon has no light of it’s own. It reflects the light of the sun.” I thought that was really fabulous. But what really struck me was after Temple, I was talking to Rabbi Joe, hugs and love and oh wow that service was so blessed! He told me how glad he is that I was able to come. He said he knows that it can be really hard for me to come sometimes, either emotionally or physically or both. And I told him that I love coming, that it’s the highlight of my week, and I actually mean that. It’s not just something nice to say. And then he said this… he said that he loves when I’m there because I’m so passionate and joyful and in love with my savior. That he can look over during music or teaching or sharing, and he can see the love on my face. The joy and passion radiates from me and affects everyone. It’s contagious. He told me that I was the man in the moon. Ohmygoodness… I cried. Happy tears. I didn’t know what to say in response to such a wonderful compliment… so I just hugged him. Thank you, Rabbi. Thank you God for blessing me in such a way.

Hope is our foundation.

Y’va-reh-ch’cha Adonai v’yish-m’rech-cha,, Ya-ayr Adonai pan-ahv ay-le-cha v’yi-chu-neh-cha, Yi-sa Adonai pan-ahv ay-ley-cha v’ya-sem l’cha shalom.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.