Pure light. Pure truth.

Think about that for a moment. Just take a moment and consider. Light is not in a battle with darkness. Truth doesn’t insist on it’s being correct. They just are, and that is that.

God is the same.

We decided, Eve decided to be exact, that we should have the forbidden knowledge of good and evil. She did not decide to take knowledge, but to defy God directly. To make herself like God. Deciding on good and evil for herself. He said not to take of a fruit, and she decided that he was not good, but that the fruit was good. In that moment, she became “satan”, an adversary to God. Adam joined her, and even blamed her.

Yeshua is the LIGHT. Pure righteousness. He made it possible for us to become one with Him inside His righteousness. To be Holy, with Him. This call is total. It cannot be mixed. He will not be defiled. It’s all or nothing.

It’s not just intense, He is an all consuming fire.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life^[c]—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:15-17

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1: 5-7

We took the knowledge God had of evil and good, and so made ourselves little gods, making ourselves into judges of good and evil, when God is Goodness itself, and the definition is not open to interpretation as we like to suppose.

We took truth and made it subject to our will. We decide what is good (as if we were God). But God IS goodness itself. He is the standard and there is no other. In God, there is no mixture. He is pure. He is THE truth. Since God is righteousness itself, by eating the fruit and becoming judges of what is good and evil, we immediately become against God, as our will (being free), choosing anything, even a “good” thing, immediately defile the thing we call good, as it is not “Good”, no one is pure good except God. Everything else compared to his goodness, is an idol.

God created man in His image, and called us good! But in our new found knowledge from the tree, we now have mixture inside of us. We chose knowledge, and so our corrupted thoughts guide us to decide what is good, thereby ourselves becoming evil (or against God).

God is good only. There is no evil in him. He will not tolerate evil inside himself.

The purpose of sending His only son, who is Good only, is to purify that which is mixed. To wake us from the grave and to shine His light on us. His light is pure righteousness. Pure. Forgiveness and love.

¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 3:19-21

My will, which has mixture, must die (daily) so that His will can be done through me.

Is there a way to live my life looking for the pure righteousness of Heaven instead of focusing on my sad, depraved mixture?

Righteousness is not gentle, it’s violent! Righteousness is devastating to mixture. Truth is devastating to lies. Light is devastating to darkness. Yes, I should live in the Light. Inside of him, and Him inside of me.

Following Jesus means dying to my will and seeking His will. Daily.

For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

Not my will, but yours be done.

Luke 22:42b

Let Your Kingdom come! Your will be done! On earth as it is in heaven.

The requirement is for us to die to ourselves. This means that we are not seeking our will to be done, but for His will to be done. And our will is becoming His Will as we become ONE with Him.

Here’s a self-evalutation list:

• Am I seeking the Kingdom of God First?
• How’s my Family Life?
• Do I have delusions of grandeur?
• Do I have delusions of failure?
• Am I walking in the Spirit? Daily?
• Is my physical house clean?
• Is my room clean?
• Do I have healthy eating habits? Good food?
• Do I have healthy sleep habits?
• What Motivates me?

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 139:23-24

There’s an old Christian song, “I surrender all”. The words are good, but singing them doesn’t mean you live as if they are true. (even if you feel good about it at the moment, and even mean it with all your heart.

Faith is a practice and a process, not only a decision.

Am I daily surrendering to the will of God? Trusting Him fully and submitted to Him so that only His will can be done through me? In those moments, my life is no longer my own. If I die, I die to Him, and if I live, I live to Him.

This is a principle in life.

Jesus said, “but seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Anything we put first before these is in direct disobedience to his commandment.

In context, this is in regards to eating food, clothing, and even a place to live. “Do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow has enough worries of its own.”

What does it mean to “seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”?

First I think to recognize what you are seeking first, and turn (repent) from that as a priority.

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV).

When Jesus called Peter to come to him on the water, with eyes fixed on Jesus, Peter “got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” But when he looked at the waves, he began to sink.

If we are fixed on Jesus, on His kingdom, on His righteousness, we rely on His power, His authority, and His grace to uphold us. But when we look to our own strength, wisdom and logic, we reattach ourselves to this world, and sink into the filthy, slimy, mucky water that would tear us away from our Jesus, our freedom. He is THE door. But it is not a logical door. He is freedom, and it’s not by our understanding. It’s by faith that we seek him.

When will I stand up for my generation? And tell them the truth of the Gospel.

Truth requires love. Love requires truth. They go together They cannot be separated.

Love isn’t the answer, it’s the motivation. Truth in love. Discipline in love. Hope in love. Faith in love.

Self preservation is the path to losing your soul.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

– Luke 9:23-24

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will you heart be also.

– Luke 12:32-34

– Matthew 11:16-26

Jesus, real name: Yeshua, was a man born to a Jewish mother and father, was raised as a Jew, had a bar mitzvah around 12 years old (coming of age, becoming a “son of the commandments”). He was trained by Joseph as a carpenter, but become a Rabbi, or a teacher of the Torah (Hebrew Scriptures) – what Christians irreverently refer to as the “old” testament. He chose 12 disciples, as was the custom of Rabbis in those days.

So quick recap of my recap: Yeshua was a teacher of the “Old” testament. That was what he came from heaven to earth to do. He could have done or been anyone. And he chose to be a teacher of the Torah.

Maybe this would be a good time to think about why Christians don’t study the “old” testament very much. Ok.. enough – moving on…

Yeshua not only taught the Torah, he kept it. Perfectly. He was often questioned about his practices in keeping of Torah.. why was he questioned so hard on this? Because he was a rabbi. And as a Rabbi, he was a teacher of Torah, and thus an authority, and other sects of Judaism had a problem with how he kept Shabbat while healing people, and allowing his disciples to rub wheat chaff and eat it on Shabbat (both of these acts were considered work by them, although neither is forbidden by the Torah).

The thing which they wanted to stone him for, however, was when he claimed to be the son of man.

He taught his disciples how to keep Torah. That is literally what his sermons were about. And when His disciples became “apostles”, they were too busy studying the Torah to feed the widows, so they appointed a group of 7 men to do that so they could focus on studying the “Old” Testament. (Acts 6:2-7 (this is only in part – please read in con “It is not pleasing for us to leave the word of God to attend tables… therefore pick out 7 men of good repute… But we will devote ourselves to the ministry of the word.”

NKJV – Acts 6:2-7 (full quote)

² Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. ³ Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; ⁴ but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵ And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, ⁶ whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.

⁷ Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

But they refuse to believe that he is a God of judgment. a God of war. A God of discernment, or discrimination. A God who rejects evil – who hates darkness and will not tolerate it. He will shine and expose all works of darkness. He will not tolerate dissension, or disputes, much less will he allow sexual sin or lying.

“Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of heaven.”

If you believe 50% of the truth, you believe 100% of a lie.

We don’t get to choose who Yeshua is. We must simply follow Him.

God gave us a gift. Once a week, he told us to rest, as he rested. A reminder, a connection, a holy day, a delight. This day is not meant as a religious observance, but as a joyful day to separate from the mundane, and connect with the Holy one who created the heavens and the earth in 6 days.

God made us as a mirror reflection of himself. We need to stop and reflect every week on shabbat.

It’s a need. We need it. We forget we are made in His image so easily. We love to create, and build and we deceive ourselves so quickly into thinking we have created something better.. but everything we do is copywork. We reflect what He has already done. Or we reflect someone else, or something else. And any of those other reflections is idolotry. So we must return to our mirror and re-calibrate!

It should be a joy and a delight, not a difficult, demanding yoke.

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
    and my righteousness be revealed.
² Blessed is the man who does this,
    and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
    and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

³ Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
    “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
⁴ For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give in my house and within my walls
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

⁶ “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.”
⁸ The Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
    besides those already gathered.”

Isaiah 56:1-8