Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

Today I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live! I also call on you to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (emphasis added)

Only about ten percent (10%) of life has to do with what happens to you. The rest (90%) is about YOUR response to what is happening to you. Adonai doesn’t need to send sickness, woe, or bad circumstances to us to teach us lessons — but He WILL use anywhere we are at any time we look to Him to teach His loving children things (Romans 8:28). The world knows we have choices and is always pushing its inhabitants to choose. What do you want to be? What pronoun do you want to use? What school are you going to attend? What job do you want? Works the same way for everyone on the planet. Life is about choices. Whether they are being taken away from us. Whether we are exercising them. And of course what we are going to do with them. I don’t understand why everyone starts getting all hepped up when those choices relate to blessing and the curse.

If you think about it, the human species loves choices. We don’t like having to do things ONE way. We want options. Not the do you want toast or toast options either. We want choices. Stacked menus. Large clothing stores. Every iteration of a given character on our toy store shelves. Sometimes we like a choice between two things just so that we can go with the only one we like and make it LOOK like a choice. Human beings really like choice. It is because choice is a CORE VALUE of our makeup. It is one of the things that make us what we are. That make us different from the rest of creation – especially the animals.

Animals go with instinct. With stuff that they learn over time and pass down to their children. They are slaves to it. Humans are NOT animals. Our bodies have characteristics of the animal kingdom (we all came from the same place – Genesis 2:5-22), but we are different. We are not slaves to instinct. We can change our minds instead of going with learned behaviour. We can fly in the face of reason. We can innovate against the flow. We are the sole living being that has that power of choice and imagination – just like He whose image we were created (Genesis 1:26).

This is not a light thing. Not a minor thing. This is a major part of our personality. Adonai CHOSE us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Before we were able to choose ANYTHING He made a way for us (Revelation 13:8). He chose us. “From Paul, a slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth that is in keeping with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1:1-2). “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John 15:16). He chose us to be His priests and set apart ones (1 Peter 2:9). He chose the Jews to be a Holy People (Deuteronomy 14:2) and grafted the Gentiles into that choice as well (Romans 11:11-31). He called us all (2 Thessalonians 2:14) and chose us (1 Thessalonians 1:4). What is sad is that few respond to that call and walk into the promise of being chosen (Matthew 22:14).

We have free will to do that. To chose to respond to that call and BE among the chosen. In the same way, we can CHOOSE to be part of the Covenant. We can chose salvation. We can chose to trust. We can chose to believe. We can do the opposite too. And many make that choice. But we can’t make a choice if it isn’t presented to us (Romans 10:14-15). Which is why we’re called to spread the Good News to everyone that we HAVE a choice (Matthew 28:18-20). And WHAT a choice we have.

We can chose to trust in what Jesus did and be saved. We can ALSO chose to trust in what the Word says. We can ALSO ALSO chose to trust in the Covenant that Jesus says we are part of in Him (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13). At its core, the choices remain the same as the Old Covenant. It is only the object of the trust that chances from the perishable (lambs and oxen) to the imperishable and innocent (Messiah Jesus). Outside of accepting the sacrifice through trust there is the curse – all the effects of sin. Inside the sacrificial transaction there is the Blessing – the opposite of the effects of sin plus a little more.

It is up to us to chose to believe or chose disbelief. It is up to us to chose to build a relationship through the renewing of our mind by the Word so that our trust will be built up. It is up to us to seek Him first and foremost in our lives. It is up to us to stay in the centre of His Will, which is clearly revealed in the Word and in the commands He gives us. Do we love Him enough to listen? Do we trust Him enough to obey? Do we TRUST Him?

It isn’t a shopping list. It isn’t a bunch of stuff we want so we’d better chose it. No. It’s a no-brainer. Imagine a very large stage and on it are two piles. One is good. The other is bad. Would ANYONE pick the bad one? Adonai has always spoken of these type of choices with us. It is a picture or concept that we can understand. It is intimately tied to our choosing nature. Who picks the bad deal? Who picks the rotten fruit? We always want the best and easily identify it. “The Lord showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim’s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah from Jerusalem, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon. One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten. The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”” (Jeremiah 24:1-3).

Adonai wants you to choose the GOOD. Adonai wants to you choose His BEST. He created this world and it was VERY GOOD (Genesis 1:31). There was no bad. No death. No sickness. The universal human constant was HEALTH and WHOLENESS. Things did NOT work like they do now. Since Jesus took on our reproach and suffered for our sin, we have the opportunity to be saved, whole, healed, prospered, protected, made safe, and everything else the word ‘salvation’ stands for. Isn’t that a no-brainer? Why settle for less than what is being offered by the Father? Why look at the Word and disbelieve part of it? Why walk under that oppression? Why not BELIEVE Him? Believe that He can communicate in every language and knows what words mean. Read what He wrote. We can HAVE IT if we CHOOSE IT. Period. Life or death. Blessings or the curse? The Very Good or the very bad. So bad it can kill you. Who wants THAT?

Life and death have been put before us. All we need to do is LOVE Adonai. If we love, we’ll obey. If we trust, we will get through ANYTHING that this world can throw at us and be more than okay. We serve a God of More Than Enough. Don’t settle for less. Chose Life. Choose Him. Trust and build more trust. He’ll be good for it. Trust Him.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 102:1-11

“The prayer of an oppressed man, as he grows faint and pours out his lament before the Lord. O Lord, hear my prayer. Pay attention to my cry for help. Do not ignore me in my time of trouble. Listen to me. When I call out to you, quickly answer me. For my days go up in smoke, and my bones are charred as in a fireplace. My heart is parched and withered like grass, for I am unable to eat food. Because of the anxiety that makes me groan, my bones protrude from my skin. I am like an owl in the wilderness; I am like a screech owl among the ruins. I stay awake; I am like a solitary bird on a roof. All day long my enemies taunt me; those who mock me use my name in their curses. For I eat ashes as if they were bread, and mix my drink with my tears, because of your anger and raging fury. Indeed, you pick me up and throw me away. My days are coming to an end, and I am withered like grass.” The suffering and reproach of Calvary is nothing to laugh at or trivialise. It is guilt personified. It is penalty manifested onto one human body for all human bodies. Every disfigurement. Every sickness. Every bad thing. All on one naked body. Nothing hidden. Nothing concealed. Messiah left hanging in the most degrading and humiliating circumstances. All while being sick, diseased, spiritually sick, sin made flesh. All that WE deserve, on Him. Every unkind word. Every twisted lust given in to. All the penalties for every lifestyle choice that isn’t what Adonai Elohim says is good and morally correct. All of it. On the ONE person who did NONE of it and deserved NONE of it. That was what the Messiah would face. It is what would MAKE Him Messiah. “So they took Jesus, and carrying his own cross he went out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” (called in Aramaic Golgotha). There they crucified him along with two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had a notice written and fastened to the cross, which read: “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” Thus many of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem read this notice because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the notice was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am king of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” Now when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and made four shares, one for each soldier, and the tunic remained. (Now the tunic was seamless, woven from top to bottom as a single piece.) So the soldiers said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but throw dice to see who will get it.” This took place to fulfill the scripture that says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they threw dice.” So the soldiers did these things. Now standing beside Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, look, here is your son!” He then said to his disciple, “Look, here is your mother!” From that very time the disciple took her into his own home. After this Jesus, realizing that by this time everything was completed, said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty!” A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a branch of hyssop and lifted it to his mouth. When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:16-30). Jesus endured that suffering. Jesus bore that reproach. Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b