Month: November 2021

John 5:18 Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 
20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 
22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 
23 that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

The Pharisees were of a mind that because Y’shua healed on the Sabbath, He violated The Sabbath. Therefore, they wanted to kill Him. And more than that they were angry because He claimed to be the Son of YHVH, And therefore, equal with YHVH God.

Of course, they had completely forgotten the prophets, who foretold the coming of the Messiah. And because they weren’t willing to believe the prophets, they could not accept the Messiah, and the result was that they were coming against YHVH God. And these were men who claimed that they knew the scriptures, both the Torah and the Prophets.

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Unbelief is the cause of their sin. and the fear they felt drove them to anger, Not because Y’shua broke their Sabbath, but because they perceived it to be their Sabbath and not God’s. They had taken God’s place at this point, and had no understanding of who and what they saw before their very eyes. The Messiah of Israel!

Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. (Vs 18)

Y’shua knew this about them, he had a clear picture of what they wanted to do, and this was His response. Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 
For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” (Vs 19, 20)

He promises to boggle their minds, with wonders and miracles, so that they will know, and glorify YHVH God. But they will not grasp it. He is simply doing what the Father has required of His Son.

“For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 
For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (Vs 21-23)

It is a shame that these men who claim to be the priest of the Most High God, do not recognize who is standing right in front of them. But what’s worse, is that they want to kill Him.

John 5:42 “But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 
I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” (Vs 42, 43)

He knows that they are seething with hatred toward Him, and points out that they lack the one quality of a priest that must be present in their work. He points out that they have no love, the love of YHVH God.

He also points out that they have no respect for the things of God. So, he poses a question. He asks, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?”  (Vs 44)

This makes me mindful of the modern-day priests, (Preachers) who speak of the love of God, yet they are not willing to preach the commandments of God, or the Word of God, and which is the very core of our covenant with Him.

He tells them that he does not accuse them, but that the accuser will be Moses who brought forth the commandments of YHVH. Surely anyone who has read the whole Bible, knows that these Commandments are God’s instructions to His people, so that they can walk in righteousness before Him. and we must also know, that we will be judged according to God’s Commandments. The same ones that Moses delivered to the Children of Israel.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. (Revelation 20:12)

“Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 
For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (Vs 45-47)

It is time for us to come near to God, and demonstrate to Him our desire to walk in His ways, especially if we want to lead others to Christ. Who can say that they will serve God, and then ignore His will, and his Word?

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (1^st John 3:4)

We cannot leave the commandments out of our teaching, that produces the same kind of sin that the Pharisees produced. Because they replaced the Commandments of God with their own commandments, and they were not able to convey the love of God to other’s because they didn’t have it themselves.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1^st John 5:3)

The whole issue that Christ had with the Pharisees, was their doctrine was causing more harm than good to the Kingdom.  They were causing people to stray from the Word of God as it was written, but instead they made it near impossible to follow their version of the law.

Are we going to be modern day Pharisees, and lead people away from God? I pray not!

“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)

Shalom my friends,

Chuck Greever

• 

Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Sometimes we hear what Y’shua says, but do we fully understand? He is saying here that there are two ways to live this life that YHVH has gifted us with. There is the Narrow way, and the Broad way. The narrow way is the way that YHVH God has given us, the lawful way. But the broad way is permissive, and without restrictions.

Now, consider how we live our lives, in light of God’s Commandments. He said, “² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
³ “You shall have no other gods before Me.
⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;  
⁵ you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 
⁶ but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 
¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 
¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
¹³ “You shall not murder.
¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.
¹⁵ “You shall not steal.
¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:2-17)

YHVH in His unending wisdom has given us the narrow way in which we must conduct ourselves, if we will be His children. He created us, and created this world that we must live in. It stands to reason, that He would also give us a way to live in that serves His purposes.

But on the other hand, there is a broad way, a way that avoids any instruction, or discipline.

This life is where we live according to our own likes, and dislikes, We may even keep one or more of God’s Commandments, but not if it is a inconvenience. It’s kind of a, if it feels good do it, sort of life.

This permissive life, is why the Sabbath is not kept, and is why we cannot depend on a friend to keep His word, It is why there are so many divorces, and unwed mothers. It is the cause of poverty and hunger, prisons, and wars.

But more than that, broken hearts, disease, abortions, and theft or fraud. All sin is caused by walking in the broad road.

“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Vs 14)

Y’shua tells us that few will find the narrow way and live. And here is why, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. (2^nd Timothy 4:3, 4)

Most of us don’t want to hear The truth, and simply will not listen to it. And it seems that we love our false doctrine, because it makes us comfortable in our permissive ways, and we actually convince ourselves that we are Heaven bound, while we revel in our lawlessness, and walk the broad road.

We will find that we will have lots of company in our lawlessness. because we follow the path of the majority. Plus, there will be lots of help in going the permissive way, You see, Christ has enemies, And they will do anything to turn us away from the narrow path. Because their leader is called the Lawless one, The Anti-Christ, Satan.

He is a liar and a deceiver, and has been a murderer of the righteous from the beginning.

Scripture warns us, repeatedly. Beware of false prophets, teachers, etc. And YHVH gives us a specific way to recognize them when they appear in our path.

 
“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

If anyone tells us that there is some other way, other than keeping YHVH God’s Commandments, they are of the devil, and a false teacher.

There is no lawless path worth following, that’s Satan’s way.

The Apostle Paul warned us of the coming of the Anti-Christ when He said, “Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 
And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only £He who now restrains will do so until He (The Anti-Christ) is taken out of the way. 
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 
9The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 
And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2^nd Thessalonians 2:5-12)

Who are you following? And how is your way narrow? When YHVH writes His law on our hearts and minds, doesn’t that mean that we ought to Keep His Commandments.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them,” (Hebrews 10:16) 

We need to seriously consider whether or not we are walking the path of Salvation.

For remember that Christ said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21)

He manifests in us with the giving of His Spirit, which will lead us and guide us in His Ways. And the Holy Spirit, AKA the Spirit of truth, will keep us from  being deceived into following the Anti-Christ.

Shalom my friends,

Chuck Greever

• 

Deuteronomy 29:14 “I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, 
15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today 
16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, 
17 and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); 
18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; 
19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.
20 “The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. 
21 And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, 
22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:

We are living in a time when we seldom hear the Word of YHVH God preached, The Commandments and the terms of the Covenant of which we became a party to when we proclaimed Christ as our savior.

We joined ourselves to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel. Yet many of us think that we can ignore His Commandments and still be acceptable to Him. It shall not be!

He says, “I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, 
15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today.” (Vs 14, 15)

It doesn’t make any difference whether we were there when YHVH brought the Children of Israel out of bondage or not. We know what idolatry is. We know not to bow down to them or to worship them. We know not to dismiss His Commandments, and not to add to them, or take away from them. We are not ignorant, we know what the scriptures say, because we are educated and can read.We can ignore it if we want, but that doesn’t change the facts, and it doesn’t change the facts that God’s curse is upon us now.

“(for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.” (Vs 16-19)

Even though we know what idolatry is, and have seen it ourselves, still we have turned away from the living Elohim of Israel, and we will neither hear or obey the Ordinances and statutes of a righteous God.

“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 
²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; 
²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)

He knows that if you will not hear or obey His Word, you have another god whom you will hear and obey. Thus, we obey gods we do not know, rather than follow our creator. That is idolatry!

“and so, it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.” (Vs 19)

So even though we have not bent a knee before YHVH, we comfort ourselves by saying that we are blessed. As if that could take the place of YHVH God’s Blessing. It’s as if we have included ourselves among the saved when we have no right to be among them. “as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.”

We need to hear and pay attention to what is being said here and elsewhere throughout the scriptures.

Remember what Y’shua Christ said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 
²²Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 
²³And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

I am telling you that it is time to Change and return to YHVH God, or accept that You will not be acceptable to Him at judgment, for Christ will judge according to God’s law. (The Commandments)

“The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. 
21 And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, 
22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:”

Look around, what do you see, But an entire world full of sick and dying people, there’s a plague upon us, and who is getting sick, but those who are lawless. And now comes the Famine. Even the wealthiest nations in the world will be driven into poverty by this curse.

If we want to be blessed, then we must act in such a way that God would bless and protect us from these events. Bend our knees, bow our heads, and beg for His forgiveness. For we have offended the God who has given us life, and brought us to this place in time and space.

Return to the covenant of our Fathers. So that we will once again walk according to YHVH’s Word.

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 
²⁴He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father who sent Me.” (John 14:23, 24)

Shalom my friends,

Chuck Greever

• 

Joshua 3:1 Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from £Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. 
2 So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; 
3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 
4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”
5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” 
6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.” So, they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

The Ark of the Covenant went across the Jordan first. As Joshua and His men deployed against Jericho. They were going to fight to gain the land that YHVH God had promised them, and God went with them.

The Ark of the Covenant went before them and was representative of the power of the Covenant made between them and YHVH God. This should tell us something of how God works among His people.

He is the boss! We will either do things according to His way, or we take our chances without His help.

Now Israel had agreed to keep covenant with YHVH. And as long as they did, He would be there for them. But they must not violate this Covenant agreement, for when they do, He will depart from them, and they will not be able to walk in His Power.

So, sending the Ark across first is to remind them of YHVH’s commitment to fight for them and to give them victory. And so, an army of righteous men who were keeping covenant with YHVH, followed the Ark of the Covenant into battle.

Joshua 3:9 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” 
10 And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: 
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. 
12 Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. 
13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.”

When the feet of the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant touched the waters of the Jordan the water rolled back and gave them dry ground on which to cross over.

Starting out with a miracle let’s them know that God is signifying His presence is with them. And I would Imagine that was a wonderful boost to their faith, as they head off to war with a great fortified city with huge walls.

Joshua 3:14 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 
15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 
16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So, the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 
17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

As long as the Priests stood there the Ark held back the water, and the Army of the people of Israel crossed over. They were going to fight a battle that they could not lose, because YHVH God was with them and His power was obvious at this point.

By the same token Israel will fight wars in the future in that God will not fight for them, and the evidence of that is in their defeat.

So clearly, there’s a difference between winning and losing with Yahovah God. When Israel played the harlot, and its people were bowing down to idols, and breaking covenant with YHVH God, they would suffer loss and humility.

But when they obeyed God, they could not be defeated.

This should be a clear message to those who are seriously entertaining the thoughts of fighting a war, especially one that brings us in conflict with God’s own enemies.

Until we return to covenant with Yahovah, there will be no victory. We can hope, and pray, moan, and cry, all we want. But until we obey, it shall not be!

No matter how angry we are, or how right we think we are. We will find that until we return to God in earnest, There will be no escaping the oppression of our enemies.

YHVH will protect His remnant, but the rest will not have a chance. They will never get beyond defending themselves, and sadly, they will not be able to do that successfully.

But if we want to be victorious, The covenant must come first. And if our commitment to God goes before us, He will fight for us, and we can take on the most powerful enemies in the World. The godless won’t stand a chance, because They have chosen to come against YHVH God, and His people.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2^nd Chronicles 7:13, 14)

If we want YHVH to help us recover what is ours, then we must humble ourselves and pray, and return to the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that Y’shua is.

⁴“Hear, O Israel: YHVH our Elohim, is one! 
⁵You shall love YHVH with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5)

Shalom my friends,

Chuck Greever

• 

1st Corinthians 1:10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name Y’shua / Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 
12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I am Here to say today, that while Paul is an excellent teacher, and very knowledgeable with regard to the Word of God, He would never contend with Christ Y’shua.

Let me give an example, When I tell someone that the Messiah came preaching that we ought to Keep the Commandments, and that to fail to do so is lawlessness, or sin. They go running to Paul’s epistles to refute the Word of God. saying that we are no longer under the Law.

They do not understand Paul, because they take His words out of context, and because Paul is difficult to understand anyway, especially for someone who doesn’t know what Paul knew. They stumble at several scriptures.

The apostle Peter spoke of this in His epistle. Saying, “Consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” (2^nd Peter 3:15, 16)

Speakin of Paul, here is a man who as a former Pharisee, had a handle on doctrine that we could not possible understand, and as a student who studied under Gamaliel, in order to be accepted in that school, He was requires to commit to memory the whole first five book of the Bible. Yes, what Paul knew about the Hebrew scriptures would be mind boggling for any of us.

But let us not forget who Messiah is. And who suffered and died so that we could live. So let us put things in their proper order, so that we can find those things that will unite us in Christ, and not separate us.

For Paul said, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name Y’shua / Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.” (Vs 10, 11)

I remember when I was growing up in the Baptist Church, that what I heard almost without fail every Sunday was taught from Paul’s epistles, and much of it was incorrect.

We were taught that there would be a rapture, when there has never been a prophecy of such an event. And there’s no direct word from the scriptures that indicates that Christ will come more than once more.

We were taught that once we were saved, we could not lose our salvation. Once saved always saved, is man’s doctrine, not truth!

Yet the apostle Peter says, “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Y’shua / Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 
²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 
²²But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” (2^nd Peter 2:20-22)

And then Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 
¹³for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12, 13)

If Salvation is a done deal, why then do we have to work at it?

We need to be really careful of what men have determined to be doctrine, for the mishandling of Paul’s epistles have let us paint ourselves into a doctrinal corner. And a prime example of that is that doctrine saying that the Commandments have been abolished at the cross. That simply is not logical, and more than that, it is a direct contradiction of Christ’s own words.

Paul would never contradict His Savior. And if we believe that this is true then he contradicts His own words.

For He said, “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” (Romans 7:12)

And we find that YHVH God has promised, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them,” (Hebrews 10:16)

If God is abolishing the Commandments, then why would He inscribe them on our hearts? And if He inscribed them there, why then do we resist them? Except that Perhaps that in truth, we are lost, and refuse to be found.

Isn’t it time that those of us who will be among His Sheep, begin to obey the Shepherd? What in the World do we have to lose, by at the very least, trying to keep the Commandments of God?

The Apostle John has said, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1^st John 5:1-4)

There are two sides to every disagreement, when it comes to Scripture. The Saved and the unsaved, and the righteous, and the unrighteous.

Let us all come together in unityfor there is no division in the body of Christ.

²⁶For you are all sons of God through faith in Y’shua / Christ Jesus. 
²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 
²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Y’shua / Christ Jesus. 
²⁹And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-28)

Let me remind you, that Y’shua was a keeper of God’s law, had he not been, He would not have been a fit sacrifice for the sins of the world. For He is the lamb of God, unblemished and acceptable to God the Father.

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1^st John 2:6)

Shalom my friends,

Chuck Greever

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