More "new" things from Torah.....

Is it just me or are others seeing things in Scripture that they've never noticed before?! I'm beginning to think I've never read these verses before....except I know that to be false! I've read these repeatedly for several years!!!! Sigh. Perhaps my eyes were just not open. But let me continue.....

This week Little Critter and I were reading the Torah portions for this week....We were reading Genesis 12-17:27. Now I divide the readings up into a couple chapters a day for the week. So we read Chapters 12-13 Monday and I noticed something I've never noticed before. It was like Papa had highlighted it to tell me something....In Chapter 12:1 it says " Now YHWH said to Avram, (Abram), "Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you." Ok, now jump down to verse 4, it says "So Avram went, as YHWH had said to him, and Lot went with him."

Did you see that? YHWH said go away from your kinsmen and then it says Lot went with him.....hmmm. So does this mean Avram disobeyed? Now I understand that Lot was Avram's nephew and that Lot's father had died young. So presumably Avram had jumped in to be a father figure for the young nephew...so did Lot go along as a member of Avram's family? I don't have an answer for this. But if you know the story of Avram and Lot you know that by Chapter 13 verse 6, there's trouble between Lot and his herdsmen and Avram and his herdsmen. Now, call me silly, but it would seem to me that if my father had died, my uncle took me in and treated me like one of his own kids, let me travel all over the countryside with him while providing for me and then found a nice place for me to live nearby his place, that I'd see to it that my 'herdsmen' kept a civil tongue in their mouths!!! I mean after all, from what the Torah tells us it appears Lot really had it made. Just hang around with his Aunt and Uncle and grow fat and wealthy. But there's trouble and Avram tells Lot to choose which side of the property he wants so that the two groups of family won't fight. Lot, of course, chooses the river property that was the more fertile for himself. Avram goes to the less fertile area. But then has to keep going back to rescue Lot and his family. Now, what's wrong with that picture?! Well, it appears that Lot didn't learn the lessons Avram had tried to teach him about Papa and didn't teach his children better either. So he repeatedly makes poor choices and Avram repeatedly has to save him from himself and his poor choices.

The point I got from this was that we do the same thing! Papa tells us how to live and be pleasing to Him and have all His blessings in Torah. But we repeatedly make poor choices and choose to do things that are not pleasing to Papa or we compromise what we know is the right thing to do and then have to be rescued from our poor choices. We refuse to 'leave our kinsmen' and go where Papa tells us to go. He's called each believer to be 'a called out group' and 'a company of priests' in His service. But do we do that? Are we really different from the world around us? Or are we indistinguishable from heathens all over the world? Hmmmm.

This may get me in trouble, but I'm going to say it anyway...and if I offend someone, I'm sorry. Truly. But all around me there's all sort of Halloween junk. Is this something we as believers should have anything to do with? Or is this another example of  not 'leaving our kinsmen'? Let me explain. What is Halloween? Its the evening of All Hallow's Eve. A night of remembering the dead...any light bulbs going off yet? Ok, I realize most of us dressed up as kids and went trick or treating. But look at what is going on today and compare it to 20-30 years ago. Is it the same? Of course not! Everything about Halloween is now uglier, more gruesome, more bloody and just overall dark. Does that sound like something that Papa would be encouraging? Would the One who created all life suddenly be all in favor of celebrating the dead?!? I don't think so. I know many churches and "Christian" groups have changed the names to Fall Festivals or Harvest Feasts, but isn't it still just a Halloween party with a different name? If you want a feast or a festival, Papa gave us several to choose from in Leviticus 23. Sukkot is a wonderful festival. It's fun, it celebrates the end of the harvests, there's TONS of food, (always healthy in our house, but that's just us) lots of singing, dancing, playing games....awesome family time. So why would believers feel that a celebration of the dead is better than Sukkot? Hmmm. I don't know. Perhaps they haven't been taught about the feasts of YHWH. Perhaps they've been told they don't HAVE to celebrate those feast/festivals anymore. Folks, those are lies from the same heathen who says Halloween is the best holiday to celebrate. He's also the one who is the father of death, ugliness, and darkness. Now, I realize someone will say that Leviticus 23 was for the Hebrews (or Israelites) but where do you think Christianity came from?!?! Yeshua didn't come to create a new religioin....He wanted to create relationships! So I feel it important, especially at this time, to make sure we're in relationship with Papa and that we're willing to 'leave our kinsmen' and follow where Papa tells us to go. It's time all believers (irregardless of religion or denomination) join together and become that 'fellowship of believers', that 'company of priests' and that 'holy and set apart nation' that we've been called to be. It's time to 'leave our kinsmen' and return to our Father's house...a house of prayer for all nations.

So as we get closer and closer to that awful night called Halloween, I pray you each choose to 'leave your kinsmen' and follow instead the steps of the Father. May each of you be blessed this week. Shalom, Spitfire