Am I Devoted?

My mind is so busy with thoughts that I am not sure where or how to start! Yahweh is leading me in His paths of Righteousness, and in so doing, He teaches and convicts me of things in such a wonderful way! Tonight, He has caused me to ask myself, where is my devotion? Let me explain! :)

Think of a tree that has been translanted after many years of growth. This beautiful tree has been growing in the same soil for years, it has grown to love its surroundings, stretching its roots deep. It has grown comfortable, and it intends to continue to grow stonger and more beautiful as time goes by. But now, it finds itself in a state of shock; the tree has been transplanted from its well rooted soil, to a completely new area. This once beautiful tree, now in shock and confusion, must learn to adapt, as well as learn how to devote such strength in its growth as it did in its previous state.

This is a sort of comparison to myself. I was born into, and grew up in a Baptist home. I grew strong and my roots grew deep. I knew what I believed, and I pursued it with zeal. I had a special devotion towards all I held Scripturally dear. By the time I was fifteen, I never missed my personal morning and evening prayers with my Creator. I did my utmost best to keep up on my daily reading of two chapters out of my Bible a day. I was devoted to what I believed, and I wasn't afraid to stand on the streets with my dad while he preached and be ready to talk to someone about the Bible, if they came up to me. Devotion and a steady mind kept a spring in my step.

But now, my roots have been dug up and exposed to so many new thoughts and ideas, so many Scriptural eye-openers! I find myself climbing down the tree of the approximate 32,000 (something like that:) Christian and non-christian denominations, and climbing onto the Branch of the Root of Yahweh! And, though I have learned SO much in these past 3-5 months, and though I am loving every bit of it, and though I have such a strong desire to learn more and more, I realize that, I am not devoted. If I was devoted, I would not miss my every morning praise to Yahweh for the day He created as I step out of my bed to begin my day; I would not miss my special daily prayers; I would not miss my daily reading of the Psalms & Proverbs; And I most certainly would not miss my Shabbat Torah Portions!

Yes, I am learning, but my fire in the camp of devotion has died down. But, HalleluYah (Literally meaning, Praise Yah!), my Creator has slowly, surely, and sweetly began to bring this to my attention and lay it upon my heart! I read the most amazing article tonight taken from the book called, 'The 48 Ways to Wisdom' by Rabbi Noah Weinberg, called 'Way #1 Be Aware of Every Moment.' I suggest everyone read this! Rabbi Noah wrote of paying attention to every detail, to devoting oneself to take time every day to simply....think. To stop wasting time daydreaming, and put those wasted minutes to use! Use these times and moments to think of a personal problem, and think of ways to better it. Or, simply use this time in prayer. All in all, be aware of EVERY moment! Be devoted to a cause, pursue it with zeal, and use your mind as Yahweh intended for us to.

This is so convicting to me, as I am sure that, if I put all my wasted minutes to use, I could have read my two chapters daily, I could have got on my knees and prayed, I could have studied some Hebrew, I could have finished two or three books that I started a month or two ago.

My roots are being planted, now it's time for me to devote my strength to the cause! May Yahweh my Elohim show His lovingkindness and patience towards me as I take this next step into the growth if my roots! May the camp of devotion be rekindled, and may I always be aware of every moment that Yah puts in my life.

Shalom Aleichem, friends. I pray your camps are burning brightly!

You Are What You Eat

This evening I'd like to bring out some thoughts concerning the things we eat, but in order to do so, I have to make mention of the chain of events/thoughts that caused me to blog this. So, here it goes!:) Today at lunch time, my Grandpa prayed over the food, and like most people do when they pray over their meals, his first words were, 'God bless our food.' Silently, I started thinking about how I used to pray like that myself, that is, until some good scriptural points were made concerning how and what we eat, and therefore, how we give our blessings during meal time.

Never once in Scripture are we told to pray, Bless this food, God! Is that how Yeshua prayed? I don't believe so. Let's remember the loaves of bread and the fish that Yeshua served to thousands of people. Both times that this is mentioned in the gospels, it says:

"And Yeshua took the loaves; and when he had GIVEN THANKS, he distibuted to the disciples..." John 6:11 & Mark 8:6

Most people 'blessing' their food are doing so as blessing it for the nourishment of their bodies. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? I'm not so sure. When I pray over a meal, I do not ask Yahovah to bless it, rather, I bless Yahovah for giving us the food! My prayer starts with 'Blessed be Yahovah for this food you've given us.'

But why is this? Because of this very reason: Yahovah has ALREADY blessed what we eat. He blessed our food when He told us what was clean, and what was unclean. He blessed it by saying, this is food to you. Whatever Yah blessed for our meat is considered FOOD. If Yah says the swine is unclean, then He does not consider (and neither should we) pork to be FOOD in the first place. It's not food. It's unclean, it was made to eat filth (as is the same with all the unclean animals Yah commands us to stay away from). Swine have a purpose, but that purpose is not for us to eat it, therefore it's not even considered a food item.

My point? If it's declared clean by the Creator, then it's a food item, and if it's a food item, then Yah has blessed it to be so. He has already blessed it, now we simply thank/bless HIM for it.

Think about it, you're sitting at the supper table with Aunt Susie, Uncle George, Grandma Jane and goodness knows who else. You've got all the family there and yall are having a feast. There on the table is a honey baked ham. You fill your plate up with that honey drizzled ham, then you sit down and 'bless' your food. Let's look at an example of how this probably looks:

"Dear God, I know you said in Levitcus 11:7-8 that the swine is unclean to me...(i.e. Yah did not bless this as a food item)...but I'm asking you, change your mind and bless this 'food' for me today! Amen."

This happens somewhere, everyday in most Christian homes.

You are what you eat. What is swine, what is catfish..(etc.)...?? Unclean. Used as garbage disposals. Filthy. You are what you eat!

These dietary instructions were not given to us because Yahovah joys in putting His people in bondage. He gave us these instructions because...well, He knows what he's doing! He made these animals as garbage disposals. He knew they'd be carrying toxins, therefore He says, My children, I want what's best for you! Follow Me, follow My Words/Instructions/Torah, and shalom and long life shall be added unto you!

"My son, forget not my Torah......For length of days, and long life, and shalom (Peace!), shall they add to thee..." Proverbs 3:1-3

I believe that:

1.) The Creator of all really does know what He's doing, and has specific reasons for what He does.

And:

2.) That whoever came up with the term, 'You Are What You Eat' is/was brilliant.

Shalom Aleichem!

Holy Spirit, or Ignorance?

~Years ago I knew a group of Baptists that insisted that all they needed was the Holy Spirit to guide them in their study of Scripture, therefore making an understanding of Hebrew....(the language Moses used to write Yahweh's Words/Instructions/Torah)....uneccesary.

One year around the winter holiday season, they were telling everybody about their new found 'knowledge', and this was that the word, 'Noel' actually meant, No God.

There is only one way you can get this meaning, and that is by taking the English word, No....and the Hebrew word, El; Now combine the two words from two different languages and, shebang, you have an entirely new meaning. Let's brake this down. We have three things here:

1.) No---the English word for, in this case, the non-existence of a being

2.) El---the Hebrew word meaning Great/Mighty One; better known to most as the word, God

3.) Thus meaning, No God---an Impossible defintion.

At the time of hearing this from my fellow baptist friends, I believed it just as much as they did. Afterall, it helped us stand against our belief on not celebrating Christmas, as we could point out that a well known carol was actually saying, 'The First No God.' I look back on this now, and I realize this makes no sense whatsoever, but because I/we were taught that an understanding of the God if Yisrael's language wasn't needed, I simply accepted it...everyone else was.

It's not until now, with where Yah has me in life, learning Torah and learning Hebrew, that I can say, 'Wow, I actually know what Noel really means!'...As well as being able to see the hypocrisy of the people I was around.

The hypocrisy being their anti-Hebrew/anti-knowledge towards true definitions, yet, when they thought a word meant something that could be used in their preaching towards something they stood against, well, of course they'll use it!

The Holy Spirit, or Ignorance?

Wether I agree with the well known christmas carol or not, the word 'Noel' ....upon what I've found...means, Birth of God.

Perhaps all we really need IS Yah's spirit, but, perhaps His spirit and His still small voice is crying out for man to seek knowledge, to seek wisdom, to learn His ways, to learn His words. So, journey with me as I seek to find my Hebrew roots, as I seek to learn the One True El's language!

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Torah of thy Elohim (Plural form of El; God), I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6