26 November 2005

A voice cries out, “Clear a road through the desert for Adonai! Level a highway in the ‘Aravah for our God! Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill lowered, the bumpy places made level and the crags become a plain, and the glory of God will be revealed.” (Yesha’yahu [Isaiah] 40:3-5

Something truly sad happened about 2000 years ago. The long expected Messiah came, and his people new him not. The law and the prophets had shown his coming in various ways, and indeed there was a frenzy of belief that the Messiah was coming soon, yet he was not recognised. He wasn’t recognised for several reasons.

The Pharisees did not recognise him because they had substituted works for relationship. They had taken the many marvellous commandments which were for the purpose of developing a relationship with God and turned them into an end in and of themselves. In other words, instead of salvation through a relationship with God, they were pushing salvation by works, which is a dead end. No matter how good and holy we are, we can never measure up to God’s standards. Those of us here in the USA have to watch out for this, for we like to do everything for ourselves and often forget this is not God’s plan.

The Sadducees (They don’t believe in resurrection or spiritual things so they are Sad, you see) couldn’t recognise him because they (as many here in the USA) had lost their spiritual base. They no longer believed in resurrection, angels or spiritual events, some may not have even believed in God, so when faced with the truth, they could not face it and denied it. In fact someone even today asked me, about some of the people that Jesus faced. They didn’t really have demons did they? They were just insane, right? Wrong, the demonic is still with us. Many of our problems today have a spiritual basis, but we (including many church folk) have become such materialists that we no longer can see it. Disease, storms disasters are merely natural phenomena, they don’t have anything to do with God, right? Now I do not deny the germ theory or modern science, but the more I counsel, the more I see that disease and disasters have a spiritual element to them. We ignore this at our peril.

The Herodians on the other hand had a different problem. Outwardly, they were Jews, but inwardly they worshipped power. We all know the saying power corrupts, and absoluter power corrupts absolutely. In this case they were so worried about power that they were incapable of recognising THE POWER when he came into their presence. We often do the same. We are so busy pursuing power, money, sex, etc. that when the eternal maker comes into our presence, we know him not.

Do you recognise your saviour. Will you listen to the message of Yesha’yahu and Yohan the Baptist and recognise the Messiah and invite him to your heart? Maybe you already know him, but have allowed the cares of this world to usurp his place in your heart. Call upon him today, and you will be saved.



Mar Michael Abportus
Pastor, Congregation Benim Avraham
mjthan@quik.com http://www.freewebs.com/childrenofabraham/http://www.christiansynod.org/
1-281-303-3671

13 November 2005

“Likewise you human being, --I have appointed you a watchmen for the house of Israel. Therefore, when you hear the word from my mouth, warn them for me. When I tell the wicked person, ‘Wicked person, you will certainly die’: and you fail to speak and warn the wicked person to leave his way; then that wicked person will die guilty; and I will hold you responsible for his death.” (Yechezk’el [Ezekiel] 33: 7-8)

While at first glance, this passage appears to be aimed at Yechezk’l in particular and prophets in general, it has much wider ramifications. I would invite you to read the entire passage starting at 33:1 and continue to the end.

Obviously this passage has ramifications for those of us who are clergy, and for those clergy who are truly longing for the sanctification of their congregations, much of this warning will be done through sermons. Unfortunately, the church seems to have forgotten its prophetic role in relation to Christians living. Christian children seem to have more children out of wedlock than non-Christian children. Faithfulness and virginity are unheard of in many pulpits today. Honesty in dealing with fellow men and women is ignored. The church instead of salting society is being salted by society. It is time that we who are clergy take note of this prophetic call on our lives and once again lead our members in holiness by preaching holiness.

We must not only preach holiness, but we need to lead lives of holiness as an example. In addition, as charged in our liturgy, if we know someone is living in sin, then we need to take them to task. Loss of communion is part of this. A notorious sinner might even be denied community. Premarital sex, adultery, cohabitation among others have become so common, that we have forgotten that they are sin.

But this task does not only belong to the clergy. Any Christian who knows of another Christian who is living in sin has the right, nay has the duty to call that person to task. The presbyters and bishop might not be aware of any problems, especially if the congregation is large. Some aspects of life are not readily obvious to the clergy, but are obvious to friends. I think specifically of something that I recently became aware of. A certain friend of mine is working with a dentist, who due to poor skills with managing time and money cannot retire because he has nothing to retire to. This friend must call the dentist to task on these items. Good stewardship is part of good Christianity. This includes not only time and money, but also stewardship of our bodies, eating right, and exercising in moderation, and stewardship of our minds, feeding them with helpful and useful items and not with garbage. These are all things we can help our brothers and sisters with. Remember that St. Paul says we are together for edification of the body. We are each to help each other in love. That includes calling each other to repentance.

As Christians, we also have a task to the lost. How many people are going to hell because we are too embarrassed, or scared to tell them about the wonderful love of Jesus Christ. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but they need someone to tell them. I can tell you from experience, when God lays someone on your heart for you to lead to Jesus, when you accomplish it, your joy will be full. I have lead several people to Jesus, and it is always a joyful moment.

Listen then for the shofar. God is giving you a word for someone, either to holiness of life or to salvation. Listen to the call of God, that you may be an instrument of the kingdom.


Shalom and blessings in the Name of Yeshua


+Mar Michael Abportus
mjthan@quik.com

6 November 2005

Hear oh Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love him with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy (6:4-5)

Most if not all of what Jesus does and says is backed up in the Tanakh. This includes love for neighbour and love for enemies, but this week I would like to look at some of the things the Lord calls upon for his saints of the Old Testament.

First of all, the relationship with God is based on love. John tells us God is love. In Deuteronomy we are told that that love must be total. Jesus expands on the description of that love. We are to love God more than spouse, children, home or even life itself. Jesus even says we must hate those things. Only when we truly love God first will these other things find their rightful place. Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom, and the rest will fall into place.

Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. (Jeremiah 7:28)

This verse from Jeremiah, which is paraphrasing the Torah is the Old Testament basis for Jesus’s words. But even more they emphasise an importance of the Old Testament or the Tanakh for Christians. St. Paul tells us, “All scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living, thus anyone who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work.” Note that when Paul wrote this, the scripture he was referring to was the Old Testament or Tanakh. In other words, many of the precepts found in the Tanakh are still for us Christians. This begins with the moral law, but continues with many other aspects of Christian living. The Tanakh teaches not only by commands, but by example, both positive and negative. Do you favour one child over another? Look at Abraham. Do you not like to punish your children when you do wrong? Look at King David. There are many things which can be learned in the Tanakh, which will allow “all to be well with you.”

Micah 6:8, “This is what God wants of you, to do justice, to love with all your heart and walk humbly with your God,” sums many of the demands of the Tanakh. Adonai truly does desire justice. Much of the Tanakh is dedicated to equal treatment of rich and poor, of justice for the stranger in the land, and of penalty only being imposed on the word of two or three witnesses. Protecting the widow, the orphan and the helpless are important aspects of God’s justice. If we truly love with all our hearts, then it is easy for us to be just. If we realise truly who we are, and who God is, and what he did for us, then it is truly easy to walk humbly with him.

The best news of course, is when we invite Jesus into our hearts, he sends us his Holy Spirit to give us the power to do all these things.

Shalom and blessings in the Name of Yeshua

+Mar Michael Abportus
mjthan@quik.com
http://www.freewebs.com/childrenofabraham/
http://www.christiansynod.org/
1-281-303-3671