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Sunday, January 29, 2023

Shabbat Prep Day Radio | Listen While You Work

 Hey friends! Have you checked out Shabbat Prep Day Radio? Here's something encouraging for you to listen to while you work to prepare for Sabbath!

Friday, January 6, 2023

Thou Shalt Not Overspiritualize




Overspiritualize.


That's a "caution" word I remember being tossed around in the church a lot: "Don't overspiritualize things". It usually meant, "You don't have to take that part so literally," and it usually had to do with some kind of supposedly rigid and outdated command the Father gave like only eating certain things or keeping Saturday as a holy day.


The more I seek to take the Father at His word, and find that His commands aren't actually rigid and outdated, the more I realize that the more we try to make the Bible abstract and figurative, the more we overspiritualize it. 


When I was a little girl, I had a gold bracelet with charms hanging off it in the shape of Charlton Heston's 10 Commandment stones. Each one had a commandment written on it. The fourth charm said, "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy." If you ask most Sunday Christians, "What is the Sabbath day commandment?" That's what they'll say: "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy."


But, if you ask most Sunday Christians, "What does the Sabbath command mean?" They'll have all kinds of overspiritualized answers:


"The Sabbath is all the time. Jesus is my rest."


"Jesus changed the Sabbath by resurrecting on a Sunday."


"This is the church's tradition. It trumps God's word."


"Besides, that's just for the Jews."


None of that is true and none of it can be found in the Bible. Try and find it. I dare you. I triple dog dare you with a hundred million dollars to back me up. 


Here's what can be found in the Bible, on multiple occasions even, but I'll quote it from the Big 10 just so we're all in agreement that this matters:


"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates." Exodus 20:8-11


In Leviticus 23:3, the Father gives a little more clarification on the point of keeping the Sabbath:


"Six days shall work be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."


Rest. Do no work. Don't require others to serve you, either directly or indirectly. Read the word. Fellowship. Practice holiness.


These are simple, easy, straightforward, and literal commands. 


Anything that would change these words to make them "more modern", "more applicable", "more Christian", would be overspiritualization. Do you see? It's not the literal and exact keeping of the simple commands that are overspiritualizing things---it's the making them out to be figurative, outdated, and Jew-centric. (You do know that "the Jews" are just one tiny part of Israel, right? But that's another post…)


Don't be guilty of adding or taking away from the Father's instructions. Do you truly believe He is unchanging? If you do, then don't overspiritualize things. Just take Him at His word. Yeshua said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. No need to make things bigger than they are. Just do the things in the simple way He clearly laid out, word for word.


Thursday, December 15, 2022

Consumed


"Incline my heart to Your testimonies,

And not to covetousness.

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,

And revive me in Your way."  Psalm 119:36-37


I have really big ideas. I get a plan or a project in my head and it consumes most my thoughts until it's either completed or replaced by a new grand idea. Sometimes it can be really hard to focus on following the Father's leading---going where He says, saying what He prompts, waiting when He's clear I should wait---especially when I'm distracted by less important things. 


But most times, I find it hard to focus on anything BUT the things of the Father. I'm consumed by His wonders and warnings, tracking His prophetic timeline, pulling new things out of Scripture every time I sit down to read. I could spend hours of my day reading and writing about His word, the world going on around me while I wile away in my study. I often think I'm better suited to a dark robe and a measly diet, sequestered away somewhere in a remote monastery, with no one but my pen for company. 


Which brings up the obvious---why has the Father given someone like me an outgoing husband, nine children, a new grandson, real friendships, and an increasingly public ministry? These things do tend to get in the way of the life of a devoted monk.


I believe He's calling me to balance. Left to my own devices, I really would hole up in remote hibernation, avoiding everything that irritates me---and thereby avoiding everything He's called me to. Because everything irritates me.


In the Psalm above, the word "covetousness" can also be translated as profit and the word "testimonies" means God's law. Thus, the basic gist of the passage speaks to the desire to focus on God's ways and not be distracted by what lesser gains can be made. While I don't covet actual things, I definitely covet times of quiet solitude.


And that's just what He wants them to be for me---times. Not days or months, but moments, even a few hours on the occasional day I can have my husband or adult child fill in for me. Coveting is essentially wanting what we do not have and it can be applied even to the things of God. While it's a noble idea to close myself up in a turret with just a candle and a scroll, would I really want to be cloistered away from all the life, laughter, and loud of the people around me who bring me such joy? Well, maybe the loud


I think the Father intentionally puts us in situations that we wouldn't naturally choose for ourselves for our growth. The closer I get to Him, the more I want to excavate His word and see what treasures I can pull up. It's becoming my natural inclination and if I really want to do this, I will find the time---regardless of what else is going on around me. In His great mercy and grace, He's surrounded me with so much life so I don't become that hermitting monk; but instead, that I would grab hold of just enough life around me to balance me out.


After all, what is the point of knowledge, wisdom, understanding if there's no one around to share it with?



 

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