Living Waters Fellowship Blog

The reading from the prohets this week is Isaiah 54:1-10.  While there is MUCH we can talk about from the Torah portion, especially practically speaking, I want to focus just a minute on these verses, particularly 6-10.

6 The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God. 7 For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. 8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD our Redeemer. 9 “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. 10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Who could the wife in verse 6 be, but Israel?  In other words, us.  Note the compassion and grace the Father chooses to bestow, even though his children acted disgracefully, and even drove Him to abandon them for a time.  But now, towards these final days and years, all these beautiful prophecies are becoming a vivid reality for us.  How awesome to be alive and to witness ancient words being fulfilled in our days.

-Cliff

6 Elul 5767   (8-20-07)

I have copied a comment into a new post for everyone’s convenience: 

Shof’tim

I am unsure where I need to go to start a new post, so for now I will do so here.

Having been studying Torah for one year the most unusual concept for me to embrace is community living. Don’t get me wrong…..I embrace the idea of living with less walls and more interdependence……but I foresee lots of bugs having to be worked out. Quite a task and how ever can it be accomplished has been my concern.

Today I read D’varim 17 where the witness are to be the first to stone to death one they have witnessed serving or worshipping other gods. Oh my. A far cry from the head-turning, or worse yet….the condoning of idol worship taking place today.

Questions/comments:

1) When will commands such as this be implemented?
2) D’varim 17:8 says, “IF a case come before you at your city gate……”
I am thankful that in Matt 18:15-20 Yeshua gives us guidelines on how to deal with one another’s sin. It seems this is a great route to take now in preparing for future community living. How better for us to learn now how to appropriately hold each other accountable for our actions than to jump right into the stoning process or be tempted to ignore innappropriate behavior.

One of the neat things I have done in recent months is read a portion of the 5 Gospels (Mat, Mark, Luk, & Jon plus Acts), along with the Torah.

Last week led up to Acts 7, and the “trial” of Stephen by the Sanhedrin.  Stephen was of course accused by false witnesses and testimonies (a.k.a. lies) that he spoke against Moses and the Torah.

The court essentially asked if he held to these beliefs posed by his accusers.  And then they saw his face radiating like an angel.  Wow, think on that for a second.  So then, after that, Stephen delves back to the beginning with Abraham, and gives the most interestingly direct speech about the history of God’s people, leading up to today (his day).  He basically explained how the Jews of the day were hardened and uncircumcised in their hearts, how they were involved in the murder of the Just One, and how they didn’t keep the Law.

After reading it with fresh lenses, I realize just how incredible this moment must have been when the court heard his testimony, and how much it would have angered them.  We know the result was his death by stoning, but he looked up and saw Yeshua at the Father’s right hand.  You know that he knew he did the right thing.  What an example.

That story amazed me, and the history lesson he laid out to get there.

I wanted to do one post to get the ball rolling a little bit.  While reading through the portion this week, I glossed over a few highlights from the “surface level.”  Three times in this portion the Father tells us to not eat the blood of the animals, but we are to pour it on the ground like water.  I remember a certain Messiah whose side was pierced and blood and water came out.  In Deuteronomy 12:23 it says that the blood is the life.  Yeshua poured His life out on the earth when He was crucified and His blood was spilled.  I talked more about this in the New Testament write-up this week, which I may or may not continue to do. What do you think?  You can read it here: www.yourlivingwaters.com/pdf_files/reeh_nt_connections.pdf.

Many subjects are touched on in the portion.  We have Deuteronomy 13 with the rules about false prophets.  We have much about tithing.  Interestingly, I have read about tithing to the Levites, and that not only did the Levites act as priests for the people, but they were also the teachers in the Land.  This provides a little guidance for me in my tithing.  It seems that teachers deserve some help, as they are there doing what they do for our benefit.  Paul talks about this also, about his physical needs, though I don’t have the reference right now.

Those are a couple of thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Shalom, and welcome to the Blog (web-log).

If you are reading this, that means you have at least clicked on the link to come here, great!  I hope that this forum can foster discussion that might otherwise never happen.  Please feel free to ask any questions about the group, the Bible, or what restaurants are good in Cedar Falls.  Doesn’t matter to me.

It’s your blog. I hope we will all use it and that it can be a very convenient and useful tool!  Click “About this Blog” on the right for more information.

A couple instructions: on the right you will see some links at the bottom; do yourself a favor and click “Register,” which will allow you to set up a simple log in name which you will use to post new topics and add comments.  You can also click the “Comment” link below each post.  If you have questions, just ask! Email me (Cliff) at cliffrc360@aol.com, or phone - 319.230.8066.  Or even better, write a new post with your question to try it out, if you can get that far.