The Heart of the Matter

[Charles YTK]

Yeshua told a parable about a man who was robbed, stripped of his very clothes and left for dead. A couple of folks come along and look at the fallen man, a priest and a pharisee, and a Samaritan. They all have a slightly different understanding of the nature of God and what the scriptures say. Their theology is diverse, but they all suppose themselves to be true followers of God. The Samaritan, (considered the worst of all men, by the targeted audience of this parable) is the one who takes the man, loads him on his own animal, treats his wounds and puts him in a hotel and pays for his keep until he returns, promising to pay what ever charges are accumilated. As we know it was the Samaritan who  was expressing God's will in the story. He was living the life of a true believer, allowing the Torah of God to be manifest in tangible acts of love.


This is where the "rubber meets the road" as they say. We all argue about the nature of God and about what the kingdom really is, or when it is, or a 1000 other things that are all left to interpretation. However we spend so much time trying to be theologically correct, that we forget to be theologically alive (active).


The one who is a true follower of God, a true Son of God, is the one who lives as a son, and does the things, in actions, that God himself would do. We are to bless others in real and tangible ways. Not just correct their faulty understanding or doctrine.(As if we had correct understanding ourselves!)


When the sheep and goats stand for judgement, in Matt 25 it is not over what they believed. It is concerning how they ACTED toward others. Did they feed the hungry, visit and minister to the sick, give shelter to the homeless, visit those in prison. Because if we did this to the simple and the poor, we did it also to the Lord.


James says, "Can you really show me your faith through what you believe?,Yet I would rather show you my faith through what I do." (My paraphrase). This is what it is all about. It is not about believing, or believism. It is about "BE-ISM", living according to the Torah, which is written on our heats, concerning how we are to deal with other people, even those who would be our enemies.


If Christian forums served any good purpose, they would be used to organize our efforts to bring relief to the helpless and to bind up the bruised, rather than expounding our doctrine to one another. This is why in my own efforts, I have tried to expose the true nature of Torah, both the parchment and the heart print editions, which tell us HOW TO LIVE and TREAT ONE ANOTHER, rather than what we are to believe and proclaim just with our lips. Torah is about living in a way that allows us to be a blessing to others, which is the mission statement of Israel and all those who are grafted in; that we become a blessing to the nations, (The Goyim) which really means, "Those who are still without God". We are to bless them.


Charles YTK

[Shimon]

Thanks, Charles, for bringing us back down to earth (myself most of all, perhaps).

Oftentimes, I find myself arguing theological doctrines without the proper spirit. My heart's in the right place, but sometimes my delivery could stand some improvement.

Sometimes, I feel as though I'm watching people playing in the railroad tracks while up ahead, a train is coming. I can see the smoke and hear the horn, but the people in the tracks are unaware. I yell to them to get out of the tracks, but they won't listen. My voice gets louder and louder, and more shrill as the train approaches nearer and nearer. By the time the train approaches within 100 feet, I'm in such a state of panic that my pleas are considered "offensive" and "too emotional" by some.

The doctrines that I had been taught had a devastating effect on my life. They caused me great injury and my only wish is to prevent them from hurting anyone else. It's like a parent who tells their child: "don't make the mistakes that I made."

Shimon

[Charles YTK]

Thanks Shimon,
I understand completely. I do the same thing. Most of us do. And the thing is, sometimes the very thing that I am so convinced of at one point in time, only leads to another and deeper understanding which make my former position seem worthless. But it was a step to get me to the new position and not really a loss altogether. As I reflesct on those kind of things, I find that it is usually because I came under the influence of some teacher who had some powerful message that really seemed right on target. And so I adapted my understanding to this new "revelation". And over and over we do this until we come to a postion that is easy for us to understand, or which we have exhaused ourselves in learning and then we don't want anyone to disturb it anymore. We want the comfort of just having an understanding that seems to work and can help us. (and is easy to remember).

Where all this changed for me is when I desided that I was not going to allow other men to do my thinking and studying for me. I determined to approach the teachings of men sort of scientifically and trying to repeat their experiment (teaching) and see if I got the same results. And what I found was alarmingly in error. Many teachings are based on contexual error, liberties in word definitions or some pyramid built upon ancient church traditions. Sort of like watching Star Trek, you agree to a format, these are the rules, this is what we believe, concerning faster than light travel, and communications and transporter function ect, and then we can do all sorts of writing of stories within this set of rules. Well the church did the same thing. They produced some basic doctrines and then allowed anyone to write stories within those guidelines. The unfortunate thing is that some of these basic rules could be stated this way:
The church replaced Israel in the plan of God.
The nation of Israel and the Jews were rejected by God because they rejected Messiah.
The Lord Yeshua put an end to the law.
There is a separate means of salvation for the Jews that is different than for Gentiles.
That salvation and Gods plan is broken into distinct despensations with separate plans for each.
That we have no responsibility to live according to Gods design and the only requirement is that we love God and neighbor.
Israel was destroyed as a nation and will never again be a nation.
The new Testament replace everything in the old and only the new is to be used for establishing doctrine.

And you see if we use this faulty foundation to build the house on, it is a weak and condemned structure from the very beginning, and fails to even meet the basic requirements that I have stated above as our mission statement for true believers, that we are a blessing to all the nations and bring the revelation of who God is to the world through our love. So what we get is progroms, crusades, inquisitions, holy wars, church govermant, the nicolation system, jezzabells in the pulpits, eli ministries, dead and fruitless congregations that are only social clubs where people gather to praise one another for how righteous they are. There is a river of blood and lost souls flowing out from the foundations of the church and it is all to our shame.

Charles YTK

[Talmid HaYarok]

I see some serious bumpage

[visionary]

Charles... Here is one right down your memory lane that I thought others would love to re-read. So bumpty bumpty bump we go

[dvd_holc]

I have a question, in order to be a blessing can we get some of the people here to go into areas like outreach and such? I rarely find anyone who usally post here posting there, and I would like to see more of it in order to be a blessing. If we are constrained to reaching these people through CF then can more go into those places where there can be open dialogue?

[dvd_holc]

visonary, is that Frosty the Snowman, :)?

[visionary]

visonary, is that Frosty the Snowman, :)?:scratch: what??? where did that question come from???

[dvd_holc]

Charles... Here is one right down your memory lane that I thought others would love to re-read. So bumpty bumpty bump we goLOL...I googled it:

"Thumpety thump thump

Thumpety thump thump

Look at Frosty go

Thumpety thump thump

Thumpety thump thump

Over the hills of snow"

trying to remember my childhood...it kind of sounds like it :blush:

[visionary]

oh... yeah... I remember Frosty the Snowman... LOL

[Snowy]

:scratch: what??? where did that question come from???


:D