Archive for June 27th, 2010

Hayah in Action

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | Author:

I thought we might all find something important here.

Hello Skip

I just read day 12 and I know just what you are talking about…If you don’t mind, I  would like to share a  “hayah” experience of mine with you.

One day a few years ago, I walked down the street to a neighbor’s house. After a short visit with my neighbor, I walked back home  stopping  at the mailbox and getting the days mail before going back into my house. I went inside, sat in a recliner and opened my mail. In the mail,  I had received “My daily bread” a daily devotional, you may have seen it, it comes in the form of a  little book. I received it a week or so in advance of the month for which the devotional was intended, so I could not yet read that days devotional. A little tired from my walk and sitting in a big relaxing recliner, I then opened the devotional book somewhere in the middle, intending to read a page at random.

Right at that second I knew, although I did not hear an audible voice, somehow it just happened,  I knew that God had just instructed me to do something.  I was instantly aware without a doubt that God had just told me to go show this page to my daughter. I had not yet read it, so I didn’t know what the page said, but I got up immediately from my chair and began to look for my daughter. I was not sure she was even in the house. I started looking for her, first going to her bedroom which is where I found her. Our 16 year old daughter Amanda was laying on her bed reading.  I walked straight over to her and handed her the little book which was still opened to the page I had opened at random. I said to her, “I don’t know why, but God just told me to show  you this.” She looked at the page and read for a brief couple of seconds. She then, at once quickly  looked up to the window next to her bed and said. “Are you watching me through the window?”   I said “no of course not” she then pointed her index finger to a spot on the page of her open bible and said. “This is the exact chapter and verse I was reading the second you walked in my room!” The verse she pointed to  in her bible was the exact same verse, about which,  the page of the devotional taught.

It took a while to convince her that I had not been spying on her. I told her “ I did not know even know you were reading your bible.” I had to explain that my vision is not near good enough to read her bible through the window from the back yard.  In addition, I could not run all the way around the house and come in door and run to her room fast enough to catch her at just the right second to show her the devotional.  I also explained that I had just retrieved the devotional out of the mailbox moments earlier.  I said,” it would not have been possible for me to orchestrate all of that.” She knew from experience that I don’t lie to her. She finally came to the realization that God had indeed told me to show her the page.

We both just sat on the bed in awe for a moment. I said “ well I guess God really wants you to understand this verse”  So I left the room and she read it.  After reading it, she  came to me and said “I wonder why God wanted me to understand that so bad”? It didn’t seem to be of any great revelation to her at the time. I myself don’t remember,  several years later now ,what verse it was.

It was the event itself that left a lasting impression. We are both still amazed when we remember this happening..  I think it may have been more about God taking an opportunity to solidify our faith than about the verse itself. Amanda now 23 and I are both  committed Christians and I  continue to have messages from  God  hayah to me from time to time. (this was not the first nor the last ) I am always amazed and thankful every time it happens.

Thank you for the lessons Skip, they are very enlightening.

Nancy

Category: Articles  | Tags: ,  | 2 Comments

The Path

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | Author:

Who’s ahead of you?  Who’s behind?

We are travelers on the path.

The Path

Category: Articles, Pictures  | Tags: ,  | One Comment

The Shema (3)

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | Author:

And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  Deuteronomy 6:5

Your God – Not just any god.  Your God. eloheikha.  How did that happen?  Well, it had nothing to do with our decision.  “You will be my people and I will be your God.”  It was His choice.  He established the relationship, not us.  We belong to Him because we have been chosen, grafted in, adopted by Him.  Of course, there is a reason for this – but it is His reason, His purpose, not ours.  Once we were chosen, we were obligated.  “You will be my people,” doesn’t mean that we can determine how we will belong to this nation.  He determines how we will belong because He constituted us as His people.  Once we were lost.  Now we are found.  We are found within the congregation of Israel.  We are commanded to love this particular God (who happens to be the only God in spite of other claims of divinity).  The reason we are to love Him is because we belong to Him – and He belongs to us.

Heschel makes an interesting observation.  “In this world God is not God unless we are His witnesses.”[1] God is not restoring the world to its perfect original condition without us.  He is in cooperation with us.  We are partners with Him.  We have been invited to join the work party, to complete with Him the master plan of the redemption of everything.  He is our God because we are wedded to His work and His character.  Under these circumstances, the command to love Him is entirely reasonable and acceptable.  How could it be otherwise?  Under these circumstances, to act on His behalf in the work of restoration is to love Him.  Only those who put hand to the plow demonstrate that He is their God.  They love Him with every furrow, with every drop of sweat, with every callus, with every aching muscle.  There is work to do – His work – and loving Him is feeling the blade slicing through the good earth.

“Ultimately religion is not based on our awareness of God but on God’s interest in us.”[2] He declares us His people just as His Son declares us His friends.[3] Both have obligations.  Both are Hebrew tautologies.  Your God = His people.  To be known = friends.  People and friends = obligation to respond.

How will the world know that He is our God?  Not because we proclaim that we believe He exists.  The divine principle of first cause is not our God.  He is the God of the philosophers.  The heavenly overseer of higher ethics is not our God.  Our God is the God of Torah and if we are to be His witnesses (and He is to be our God), then we will live according to His demands – and not anything else.

Is He your God?

Topical Index:  your God, eloheikha, witnesses, Deuteronomy 6:5


[1] Abraham Heschel, Spiritual Audacity and Moral Grandeur, p. 163.

[2] Abraham Heschel, Spiritual Audacity and Moral Grandeur, p. xxii.

[3] John 15:15

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | Comments off