Praying Scripture: Luke 8:48

It's been a while since our last praying Scripture post, but I think this one is too good not to share!

The story of the woman with the issue of blood is so encouraging. Twelve years of struggle, countless visits to doctors, spending her life savings to try and find a solution, nothing that helped, no beneficial remedy, so much frustration...and it's fixed as soon as she comes in contact with the Messiah.

Who doesn't need to be reminded of this story? Maybe what you need healing for isn't an issue with blood, or even a physical ailment. Maybe you've struggled with depression or anxiety. Perhaps there is addiction or an ongoing battle with a specific sin in your life. Have you been plagued by doubt or fear? Is there a family history of heart disease that worries you? No matter how resigned you may be feeling to whatever struggle you have, contact with the Messiah can bring healing and transformation to you!

I wonder about the rest of this woman's story. We know she was desperate for healing, to the point where she had spent everything she had trying to get help from doctors. Did the people in her life realize her desperation? When they learned of her plan to touch Yahusha, were they supportive or did they think it was yet another waste of time? Maybe they even tried to talk her out of going to see him that day. Did they tell her she just needed to accept this issue and get used to it? I'm sure they had a long list of reasons why the Messiah wouldn't help her. Nevertheless she persisted. And Yahusha healed her that day.

And he said to her, "Take courage, daughter. Your belief has healed you. Go in peace." -Luke 8:48

There can't be a lot of sentences more beautiful than that. When the Messiah calls you daughter and tells you that you can have peace and that you're healed...there's not a lot more you could ask. I find myself wanting that kind of faith, the kinds that heals. We all need that.

A prayer from Luke 8:48 (along with other Scripture):

YHWH, thank you for the incredible honor and gift of being called your child! Help me to live out of the courage that comes from knowing I belong to you. I ask that you would transform my mind by changing the way I think, so that I might have the kind of faith and beliefs that are healing - not only to myself but to those in my life as well. Thank you that all things are possible with you, and that just a touch from you is healing. Help me to be persistent in getting to you, no matter what anyone else says. Your word says that your garment fills the Temple. Thank you that it is plenty wide enough for each of us to grab onto for healing. Let your peace rule my heart and help me to live in the wholeness you have for me.

Things I Love About the Sabbath

When I share with someone that I keep the Sabbath (honor YHWH's set apart day by resting on the seventh day of the week), they usually feel sorry for me. It's crazy, but many people treat the day of rest like it is some sort of huge burden. If you might be feeling that way yourself, let me tell you: it is anything but a burden. You know when you're feeling overloaded and say, "I need a vacation!" or wonder when you're next day off is? For me, that is never more than six days away. Isaiah 58:13 calls the Sabbath a delight, and once you've made it your lifestyle, it is so easy to do that. While there are many difficulties and heavy loads to carry in life, having a day to rest is not one of them.

A few things I love about the Sabbath:

1. It's a break. One of my favorite things about the Sabbath is always having an upcoming break from it all. No matter how busy things are with work, family commitments, seeing friends, home improvement projects, and whatever else I'm juggling I get to look forward to taking a step back to refresh. Before I started honoring Shabbat my calendar would often become overfilled and it would be overwhelming not to have a day off in site. No worries about that now as there is time to rest each week. That is such a gift to look forward to during busy times.

2. There's time to spend in the Word. Of course I make it a point to spend time reading Scripture, listening to teaching, and praying throughout the week but sometimes that's not as much as I would like. Honoring the Sabbath means no matter what the rest of the week was like, I have a set time for spiritual refreshment. And studying on Shabbat is so nice because you don't have that rush to finish your reading on your lunch break or in the carpool line.

3. Getting to see family. Even if my husband and I are both very busy we know for sure we will get to spend time together come the Sabbath day. We have also made a tradition of lunch with my parents and grandparents, and extended family on Shabbat so we are always able to have quality time as a family and to catch up during seasons that would otherwise be too busy.

4. No money is spent. While some might view not shopping on the Sabbath as an inconvenience, our bank account appreciates having a no-spend day each week. Honoring the Sabbath means we don't go out for a meal or go shopping or make an online purchase or buy coffee. That's a financial difference that adds up. Before you say that the same amount of money gets spent on the other days of the week let me give an example of the financial savings of the Sabbath. It's not unusual for us to think of something on Friday or Shabbat that we need or would like to have, but since we aren't able to purchase it right away we often find that the desire for that item fades or an opportunity to borrow what's needed or otherwise get it for less presents itself. Patience can save you a lot!

5. The stability of this compounds. Maybe the perks of financial savings or taking a break from it all don't sound life changing, but being able to look forward to the Sabbath each week compounds in an amazing way! The first time I observed the Sabbath I didn't feel much different, but now I can see what a huge impact this has had on my life. I am less stressed, and much less easily overwhelmed. Managing my life around keeping this commandment has brought incredible peace and contentment to my life.

There are many benefits and joys that come with Sabbath keeping! These are just a few things and I don't know anyone who wouldn't benefit from the blessings of God's rest day!

More posts about the Sabbath:
What Jesus Said about the Sabbath
The Joy of Sabbath Keeping
Fifteen Things the Bible Says about the Sabbath

The Northern and Southern Kingdoms in the Bible (and why they matter)

Seeing the distinction between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel in the Bible is essential to understand many of the events in the Old Testament and many things that happen in the New Testament, including statements made by the Messiah! If we don't have correct understanding of these separate entities, much of Scripture isn't going to make sense, and we will misunderstand our own identity.

Let's start off by looking at the Biblical term for YHWH's people: Israel. This term that means "overcoming with YHWH" or "YHWH overcomes" is first given to Jacob in Genesis 32:28. The term is then passed on to his family, including anyone not biologically related who chooses to serve YHWH and to overcome with him. The twelve tribes of Israel come from Jacob's sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naftali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph (which is subsequently given to his own sons - Ephraim and Manasseh), and Benjamin. While in Egypt their families grew into a great nation. The people of Israel were united through the Exodus, the years in the wilderness, the time of Joshua and Judges, and through the reigns of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon.

Shortly after the death of King Solomon, there was a dispute between the people their new king, Rehoboam. The people wanted him to lift the heavy burden of forced labor and taxation from the rule of Solomon but he he refused and the majority of Israel's tribes decided to stop honoring Rehoboam as their leader. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and at least part of Levi stuck with Rehoboam in the Southern Kingdom, while the majority of the tribes united as the Northern Kingdom. As the name of Israel was legally passed to Ephraim in Genesis 48:12-20, Ephraim and the other tribes in the North were collectively still known as Israel. Meanwhile the Southern Kingdom was known as Judah.

Why does this distinction matter? 

-The restoration of Israel is one of the main themes of Scripture. Scholars say that you're going to misunderstand 7/8 of the Bible if you don't make this distinction. If you don't differentiate the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, good luck trying to understand Kings as anything beyond legendary stories. You'll miss much of the Messiah's work, and many prophecies won't make sense at all. The terms are different because they mean different things. Lumping Israel and Judah together after 1 Kings 12 is going to cause confusion.

-Many have erroneously taught that only Jewish people (those descending from the tribe of Judah) are the chosen people of YHWH. Scripture does not teach this. What Scripture does teach is that Yahusha came for the lost tribes of Israel (Matthew 15:24). The Messiah came for all the tribes. Whether the tribe of Judah or Issachar or Ephraim or Gad, all are important to YHWH. When we realize that his people include all the tribes, we see the family growing by millions and millions. Most people with ancestry in ancient Israel are not Jews and do not come from Jews. Of course Scripture teaches that anyone covered by the blood of the Messiah is part of the people of Israel, regardless of if they have any blood connection to any of the twelve tribes.

-Believe that you are a gentile, and you will likely end up living like a gentile. There are many who sincerely desire to be part of YHWH's people, but live in ways that are totally against what he instructs...largely because they don't realize they are part of Israel! Again, this has nothing to do with your bloodline. It is your choice to join YHWH's people or not. Understanding that you are part of this is a wake up call that YHWH wants you to live differently than the rest of the world.

Have you ever considered that your ancestors could have seen the Dead Sea parted or lived in the Promised Land? That is such an amazing thought! It's very possible that your family could come from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Lots of books and research suggest the migration of the Northern Kingdom tribes all over the world, so no matter what your nationality or ethnicity is, you could physically be from the house of Israel. While knowing for sure you are from a tribe of Israel may be lost to us, it is certainly not lost from YHWH. If we don't make the distinction between the North and South Kingdoms it's easy to miss Scripture's promise that YHWH will restore the lost tribes.

Related posts:
The Two Houses: Israel and Judah in Scripture
Understanding the Other 88% of the Bible
Not All Bible Characters were Jewish

Why I Don't Argue Semantics

Today I'm sharing why you don't see much in the way of semantics arguments here or on any Land of Honey social media. What I mean by that is I am definitely going to talk about Scripture's instructions and that we should all be following them, but I am not going to get bent out of shape about how you are following them (so long as you are actually keeping the commandments). So you can bet I am going to encourage you to keep the seventh day Sabbath, but I'm not going to tell you that it has to be evening to evening or sunlight to sunlight or midnight to midnight. I recognize that there are areas of Scripture that we don't fully understand yet and that there is room for self expression in some of the commands. 

Plus, is it just me or do we have enough division in the faith community already? There is a time and a place for correction and teaching particulars but it's nauseating to see so many Hebrew ministries (and individuals) waste much time attacking or arguing with others who have very similar beliefs to them. It's sad to see people isolating themselves from other believers because 2% of their theology doesn't match up. So many Hebrew small groups fall apart after a short time over tiny differences. How is this edifying to anyone in or out of the community?

When I see things getting nasty in Scripture debates it makes me think of the cooking competitions my brother and I would watch together in high school. Several popular shows would include very specific challenges for the contestants. Instructions were not just, "make us something delicious to eat." It would be more like, "Cook spaghetti with one hand tied behind your back," or "Create a vegetarian spaghetti and use potato chips in it." And episode after episode, the contestants could be so unkind to each other. Comments like, I look at what the others are doing and I'm not impressed or When spaghetti was invented they didn't intend for it to go in the oven, so only someone ignorant would try that. As contestants, it really wasn't their job to decide who could cook or not, their job was to do their best.

On a side note - we were always baffled when someone would blatantly disregard the rules to make something else entirely. It never went well for them. The dish they created might have been spectacular but the judge didn't care because the rules weren't followed. It wasn't what was asked of them.

Unfortunately the faith community can often look like contestants on a cooking show arguing about who made the best spaghetti. And you know what? That's really not their job. Their opinion does not matter, the judge will decide if it's good or not. Their job is just to make spaghetti.

There are a lot of ways to make spaghetti.

You could spend hours making marinara from homegrown tomatoes. Or you could open a jar of sauce.

Toss in some peppers. Or spinach.

Use whole wheat or gluten free pasta instead of regular.

Garnish with fresh basil. Or use cheese. Maybe both!

You could serve the sauce on top the pasta. Or mix it all together.

And whatever combination of choices are made, all of these dishes would still be considered spaghetti. As with spaghetti variations there are a different ways to uphold YHWH's instructions. I'm definitely not saying you can make any old dish you want and present it to the judge and expect him to be pleased. No, you can't make ravioli because you like it better and call it spaghetti. Nor does macaroni and cheese count. If you want to win the spaghetti contest, you are going to have to make some sort of spaghetti. How you do that though is going to depend on what ingredients are available to you, your cooking ability, and your taste preferences.

YHWH has rules for a reason and wants us to do our best following them. But within those instructions there is room for self expression. I doubt YHWH expected Shabbat in the wilderness thousands of years ago to look exactly like Shabbat in Yahusha's time or in 1700s France or today in your part of the world. Obviously, yes the theme of resting carries through and ties all of these times and places together. Shabbat for Yahusha often looked like healing people, but sometimes it was spent walking with the disciples. Maybe for you it looks like watching a live stream service online or snuggling with your kids and reading Bible stories to them. YHWH gave simple and straightforward commands so that we could uphold them no matter the culture we live in or the season of our lives.

So that's why I don't get to hung up on calendar debates or if you said the traditional blessings at the traditional time. I have my preferences, but I don't know everything. Neither does any other ministry or person. We can only do our best and be willing to change as we learn more. And show kindness and patience to people who see things differently than us.

"Observe the waters and know when they flow together, they sweep along stones, trees, earth, and other things. But if they are divided into many streams, the earth swallows them up and they vanish away. So shall you also be if you are divided."
-Testament of Zebulun 9:1-3