For God So Loved…

Passover, to Unleavened Bread, to First Fruits. All a beautiful leading up to the Risen King.

What does this mean?

This is how we are no longer bound by sin and shame but we are set free in Him and can worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Death is now defeated and we are alive in Him forever.

What did Yeshua do for us? 

He made a way. When you feel bound by your sin, when you feel defeated, when you feel hopeless, remember what He did for you. He died FOR YOU. He died and then He rose so that you could live a life with Him by your side everyday. He came as a man and left as a King. You know all that sin you are embarrassed about? Ashamed of? He can forgive it, and He can give you eternal life. Lay your sin out before Him and confess it because He is just to forgive it.

I am Unworthy

You feel unworthy of His sacrifice? So do I. I daily say, “Lord, why me? I am so unworthy. Why did You die for me?” He is so kind, so good, so loving. He says that we are beautiful in His sight, we are white as snow when we confess our sins to Him. He moves mountains for us, He heals us, He fills us with His presence. He does so much for us that we do not deserve. He doesn’t want Heaven without us, so that is why He tore the veil. He desires to be close to us, to have a relationship with us. Without Him dying on the cross we would not have that closeness with Him. You ARE worthy, you are worth it to Him. Don’t ever forget it. In your time of distress, remember Him, remember His love…

He Loves Us

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,” 1 Peter 3:18

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” 1 John 3:16

“Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed…”Isaiah 53:1-12

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Today we celebrate the Risen King. We worship Him, give Him thanks and honor for what He did on the cross. He is coming again.

For God so loved the world… He made a way where there was no way. He freely gave His life, now I owe my life to Him. Make that commitment today. Give Him your all. He deserves all the glory and honor. Amen! He is risen and He is coming back again!

Reasons and Excuses for Worship

Reasons To Not Worship

“Too Shy”

“I am too shy for worship… I don’t want people to stare at me. What will they think of me? I look ridiculous.”

These are what I like to call excuses for not worshiping. For not lifting your hands in praise to our King. One thing we have to get straight is WHO CARES? When we worship, it should not matter what others think about you. You are not worshiping for their sake, so they can see how “holy” you are. The only reason for worship is to lift up the name of my King, to let His praise ever be on my lips! Why are you shy? Why does it feel like the world is looking down on me when I lift my hands? Why is it that all I think about when I lift my hands to praise is shame and embarrassment? These are questions I once had before my true encounter with the Lord.

Why Is It So Hard?

What I want to point out is, it is not hard. All the feelings you have of fear is not God. All the shame, not Him. You are thinking too much about pleasing people and not about what the Lord sees in you. He delights in YOU. He delights in dancing over you and seeing you sacrifice yourself for Him. When we lift our hands in praise it is a sacrifice to God because we are denying the feelings of embarrassment and pleasing others to worship Him. When you lift your hands things happen. When you deny yourself chains inside begin to break and you begin to feel His presence, you begin to feel set free. ‘

Reasons To Worship

Why not worship? He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords! Why not praise Him? He deserves it. He is worthy of all our praise and worship, isn’t He? Worship is like showing your affection to Him, showing your commitment, showing your love for Him. When I worship I just begin to thank Him for all He has done for me. He fights for me everyday even when I am having a bad day and I do not talk to Him at all, He still blesses me, He still loves me, so how can I not praise Him? Worship is the closest thing to Heaven on earth. That is what I can compare it to. I love the lyrics to this new Hillsong song called, “What A Beautiful Name”. It reads, “You didn’t want Heaven without us, so Jesus (Yeshua) You brought Heaven down. My sin was great, Your love was greater, so what can separate us now?” I just love that verse. Yeshua did not want Heaven without us and that is why He died for us, He wanted to be close to us because He loves us. When we praise Him we are thanking Him for the things He has done, for what He did, and what He is going to do in the future.

Worship In Everything

I was listening to a interview the other day with Jenn Johnson and was talking about worship. Her father in-law was in the car with her and she was frustrated with her kids and she said, “Mommy hat off, worship hat on.” In an instant her father in-law replies, “The problem is, is the worship hat never should have come off.” I love that. No matter where you are, you are always in a state of worship. We do not just wait to be in His presence when we go to service once a week or a prayer meeting, the worship NEVER ENDS. I talk under my breath constantly… I am always praying. I am always communicating with my King because I do not know what to do without Him. I come to my church expecting to meet with Him because on the Sabbath our level of holiness is lifted higher than any other normal day and the Father has a meeting with us. So when I come, I come ready, I come already filled with His spirit, I come expecting to be healed, to be set free, to be filled with the joy of His presence. In everything, praise the Lord. When I wake up the first thing that should come out of my mouth is “Thank You for waking me up this morning and breathing Your breath into my lungs.” Let your day be filled with thanksgiving for the things God is doing in your life. He is always dong something for you whether you know it or not.

Worship Setting

There is so much joy involved in being apart of a worship service with other people who are expecting to meet with God the same as you. The most beautiful sound in the world, in my opinion, is the sound of a new song being sang from Gods people in a state of worship. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, a new song is a term used for a spontaneous song from the Holy Spirit. It is the stillness between songs, the moment when the music continues but all you hear is new songs coming from peoples hearts as they lift their praises to the King. It is so beautiful. Worship changes your life, your attitude, your mind… Everything you do will change because of worship. Your health will even be changed. When you are in a constant state of joy and peace you will physically feel good and healthy. If you’re always sad, always down cast, not full of hope, not full of joy, your bones will ache and your heart will sting with bitterness and depression.

Worship Sets You Free

Worship will set you free, because Yeshua is invited in, the Holy Spirit is flowing through the place you are worshiping and touching people. Have you seen altar calls? People who go to the front of the stage and bow down to God to give up things that is not of Him because they desire to be closer to Him, they desire to be set free. Usually others feel led to bow down, or someone will feel led to go up and pray for those who are asking. As a body of Messiah we work together to help each other to be set free from bondage. Yeshua can set you free from sickness, depression, anxiety, fear, worry, sexual addictions, lust… All these things you lay down at the feet of Yeshua. My father in-law told me something that I will never forget. He said this,

“When you meet with Yeshua face to face are you gonna shake His hand or lay at His feet?”

That line says it all. This is how we need to treat worship. When you worship you are coming to meet with Yeshua, to lay yourself down in surrender. To not think of what everyone else thinks and think of what God must feel to see His children laying at His feet in awe of ALL that He is and thanking Him. What joy He must feel…

Scriptures About Worship

“Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago” Isaiah 25:1

“Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you.” Exodus 23:25

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24

“Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” Psalm 103:1

“You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1

“My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.” Psalm 71:8

“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:17-18

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

“How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.” 2 Samuel 7:22

 

Fellowship

” Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

He is renewing us. He’s cleaning out our fellowships, getting out the bad parts and keeping the good. It’s hard and it hurts… We lose friends and family, but we can’t let it get to us! We have to keep moving forward! We have to keep pushing and worshiping and praying harder than ever before! The enemy comes to devour, to destroy and divide. When a lion hunts for its prey, what does it do? Well, it comes to a herd and searches for the week, the ones that are separated from its herd. The herd might not even notice the lion at first, because it comes in secret and comes in hiding, crawling through the long grass. Then it spots its target, and then snatches the separated one and kills it. The herd needs to stay together! They can drive the lion away if they band together and fight! One big herd against one lion will win.

What I’ m trying to show here is how the enemy is searching for believers who have separated themselves from their fellowship. Ones who are falling away. I’ m not saying you have to be in a congregation, or that if you’re not then the devil is coming to take you to hell. What I really want to hit on is how we NEED fellowship. To have that brother or sister in Messiah to pray with you, counsel you, worship beside you, and be there to give an encouraging word or be used by the Father to speak into your life. Iron sharpens iron, right? Then how can we sharpen each other if we’re never communicating to one another? Fellowshiping? The enemy is causing us to get angry with each other, causing us to gossip, to hate one another! Yeshua says that if you hate someone then you’ve already committed murder in your heart. We cannot do that! We are supposed to be a light in the world! To live in Spirit and Truth and preach to the nations! How can a unbeliever follow someone who has too much hate in they’re heart? Because if they see that anger in you, that extremism, the constant disagreeing, the fighting, the bickering, the hypocrisy, they are going to want to flee from God! Because all they see is a bunch of stubborn people who can’t agree on Kosher, or Feast day ” Timing”, moon cycles, and silly things that aren’t even a big deal. I’ m sorry if this offends you but we really have to stop! We are supposed to be the body of Messiah! But we’re broken.

Lets look at some scripture verses on fellowship and congregation.

” The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. BUT if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6

” May God our Father and our Lord Yeshua bring us to you very soon. And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. May He, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Yeshua comes again with all His holy people. Amen.” 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

In the presence of God and of Messiah Yeshua, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry” 2 Timothy 4:1-5

That last verse really sticks out to me. It’s exactly whats going on today in ministries! People are turning from sound doctrine, or ” A balanced teaching” and going to conspiracy theories and weird things that DON’T line up with Gods Word. Guys, we have to stay balanced. We can’t have spiritual ADD. Its not good! Trust me, I’ve just been realizing this now! I’ve been letting other peoples ideas of things get to me and I let it cause me to let anger in me, and to not love the body of Messiah! We can’t let the enemy win! He’s coming to divide us! And cause us to leave our fellowship because one, tiny, silly, disagreement. We agree on A TON of things don’t we? I’ m not being sarcastic, we actually do agree on more things than we do disagree! That’s great! We agree on keeping Kosher, we agree to keep The Feasts Of The Lord, To keep Shabbat! And the ultimate agreement is, we believe in Yeshua! The Son of God! Who came to earth that He created and walk with us who are dirty and full of sin… Who died on the cross so we could be renewed and born again! So that He could get rid of the laws of the Pharisees ( Who were extremists) and showed us how to keep the Torah in a balanced way! He didn’t do away with the Law, He just showed us how to live it and be filled with His Spirit while we walk in Spirit and Truth! That, my friends, is perfect balance. Walking with one another in this agreement! We agree when we all stand in the presence of our Savior and we worship as one body! We worship in Spirit and Truth! Please, fellowship with each other! Please, find your balance, find friends who will walk with you! You will never EVER agree 100%, but you have to try and get along with one another! I urge you to please try!

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25

Follow Yeshua!

By Nathan Mancini

So many people seem to focus only on the death of Messiah, and are all about Him saving us from our sin. He did save us, and He did die for us, and I don’t minimize that at all; but He also LIVED for us. He set a perfect example for us, and He showed us much more than we might realize.

The deal isn’t that He dies for us to save us from our sins so that we can just go off sinning all we want, His sacrifice does not give us a license to sin, at all. We need to give our lives to Him as He gave His life for us. We need to love Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength.

Luke 9:23

“And He said to them all, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’”

Yeshua is saying that we need to be a living sacrifice to Him and The Father by living each day following His word and being devoted to Him forever. Love Him above everything in your life!

Romans 12:1-2

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of YHVH, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto Elohim, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of YHVH.”

John 15:13-14

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, is ye do whatsoever I command you.”

Yeshua is our friend if we do what He commands, and if we lay down our lives for Him, then we fulfill the love that we need to have towards Him.

He has laid down His life for us, He loves us with a love so huge that there is no greater! He deserves our obedience, and all the glory that we can give Him!

So take up your cross daily by keeping everything that He commands, and present yourself a living sacrifice, laying down your life for Him each day for your entire life. You will be rewarded so greatly, with things so awesome that we can’t even imagine, with eternal life! That’s not a thousand years, it’s not a million, not a billion, and not even close to a trillion… It’s forever and ever! Hard to even imagine that, isn’t it? His promise is awesome! Yeshua is the way, the truth, and the life. Follow Him.

“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

Revelation 5:11-13

Hallelujah!!!

Your identity is in Yeshua not in your Boyfriend or Girlfriend

Hope. Hope is in us! We have hope that Yeshua will return just like He promised: to renew the earth and  to build His kingdom here for us to live and worship Him for eternity.

Like I have said before in one of my other blog posts: ” I would hate to wake up every morning and not know that I have a purpose.” I would hate it. But I have hope! My identity is in Yeshua! I have faith! I have a purpose! When you have hope, you have strength. Hope pushed off makes the heart sick… Looking at life negatively instead of positively is not how you should live your life.

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

You have to have hope, you just have to. The Hebrew word for hope is ” tikvah.”  It means to wait, expect, hope for. Focus on being positive, know that the next day is going to be better, everyday you wake up with the hope of Yeshua inside of you!We have Yeshua inside of us! Isn’t that awesome?

Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Wait upon the Lord. But wait with hope. What are you waiting for? I know that for most of us as teens and young adults, we are waiting for our future husband or wife. And it’s hard to wait. We see others getting into relationships, we get jealous. You might feel that you are doing everything right! You’re keeping Torah, the Feasts, Kosher, and you love God, you worship Him and pray, so why is everyone else so happy? Why can’t I be happy like them? Do you see what’s wrong with this? If you are not happy, and content, and confident in who you are in Yeshua, then being in a relationship isn’t going to make you a better person. You have to be confident in Him first!

Hebrews 4:16Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Having hope gives you strength. Being in the wrong relationship will make your heart sick. It’ll feel great for a while, but in the end you will have heartache. What if you stayed in that relationship, and ended up getting into a covenant with them? What if you get married but all your ” love ” was just purely based on emotion and physical attraction? That’s not true love. That physical attraction can’t be the highlight of your decision to move into marriage. You have to actually be in love.

The world’s view of love is not what God says love is. 1Corinthians chapter 13 tells us what love is. Also God shows us who love is: Yeshua! He is true love! And He sacrificed Himself for us! He laid His life down for us.

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Yeshua Messiah laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

How do we learn about God? How do we get to know Him? We get to know Him by reading His word! We learn His likes and dislikes, what He’s passionate about. We learn who He is! Fall in love the way God loves us! Put that person before yourself, learn everything about them! Learn about that person before you get physical. You can’t start kissing a person and get physically attracted before you really know that person. You could end up marrying a complete stranger. You’ve got to learn about that person, and fall in love with who they are.

We are imperfect people. Fall in love with that person’s imperfections. To you that person will be imperfectly perfect! True love is knowing everything about that person. It is not just based on how you feel when you hug them, or how your stomach fills with butterflies when they smile at you (Yes, those things are wonderful and important) but they are not the deciding factor in your next step to marriage. That person’s love and desire to follow Yeshua and to keep His Word should be the number one thing on your “list” of a potential wife or husband. You have to both have your identity in Yeshua first. You will love each other better if you love the Father first! He demonstrates what true love is! Put your hope, faith, trust, and love in Yeshua. And I promise you, He will give you the desires of your heart in His timing. Because His ways are higher than ours. He knows us! Your identity is in Him and Him alone!

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

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