Intro To Light Series

Light for your Path ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ Introduction to these devotions: Shalom to all my brothers and sisters in Messiah. This is a brief introduction to my Light for your Path series. Should you not wish to receive these short devotions, please feel free at any time to reply with “unsubscribe” in the subject box and I will remove you from my mailing list. I am in the process of working through Psalm 119 verse by verse. Preparing these devotions have meant so much to me and I want to share with fellow “Narrow Path” travelers wonderful truths that I am discovering along the way. The inspiration for these devotions came when a new brother in Messiah asked me to send him something short - not more than a single paragraph of a few sentences - on a regular basis. He said that when he opened his e-mail at the office in the morning and found a short and to the point Scripture teaching, he could read it and then meditate upon it as he continued with his busy daily schedule. When one prepares something so short, it is impossible for all the truth to be incapsulated within each devotion. Thus it is so easy for the casual reader to mis-understand and think that thé TRUTH is being rejected or neglected because it is not mentioned in every individual devotion. These devotions should therefore not be seen as doctrinal teachings, rather, each one is only a portion of light, within the total glare of Scripture, to aid believers in their daily faith walk. This light comes from His Word which is: A lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105) The lamp on the picture of these devotions is probably very similar to the lamp mentioned in this text. On a dark night, such a lamp would only illuminate a few steps of the path on which the person was walking. See these devotions as such a lamp. It should also be borne in mind when reading these devotions that Messiah Himself is the Light of the world and is therefore the Essence of Scripture for He is the “Eternal Word” that became flesh, John 1:14. He said: I am the Light of the world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12) Therefore to follow Him is to walk in the same light (truth) of His Fatherʼs Word which He also testified as being the Truth, John 17:17. When He spoke these words there was, as yet, no “New Testament”. The New Testament is the account of His Life - how He lived life - and how the early believers in Him lived their lives in imitation of Him. HE IS OUR EXAMPLE OF HOW LIFE

SHOULD BE LIVED. Bottom line of His life? Obedience to His Fatherʼs Word - His Torah! Messiah said: My doctrine (teaching) is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of the Almighty, or whether I speak of Myself... Did not Moses give you the Law, (from the Father) and yet none of you keeps the Law?... (John 7:16, 17 & 19) Again He said: I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father has taught Me, I speak those things. ... for I do always those things that please Him. (John 8:28-29) Please look up and meditate on the following words also spoken by Messiah. John 5:19, 24, 30, 38, 39, 43, 45-47. Messiah walked in the Torah of His Father. The Good News writings are full of His teachings to His disciples where he expects of them to walk this same road that He was walking - always to do those things that please the Father. Why then are so many believers today arguing against, and condemning brothers and sisters who have a desire to please the Father by walking in His Torah? Why am I getting so much criticism from Christians who are castigating me for being “way out” with these Light for your Path devotions? Christendom, it seems, despise the eternal Torah (instructions for life) of a loving Father - the same Torah (Word) that in the Renewed Covenant is written on a believerʼs heart (Heb.8:10) - the same Torah (Word) who became flesh in the Person of His Son. (John 1:14) In His amazing grace and mercy He came to this Torahless (Lawless) world, to show us how to live life - loving the Father with the whole heart, mind, soul and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves. Then He died and shed His precious Blood in order to make it possible for any believer in Him to die with Him - and be raised again with Him into actually LIVING out this loving Torah of liberty, (Jam. 1:25). He is the One who actually lives His LIFE (Torah) through us - by His indwelling Spirit. (John 14:21, 23 & 24 John 12:50) Amazing grace! However, we do not walk in His Torah (Instructions, Word, Law, Commandments etc.) in order to be saved or to earn His grace. We keep His Torah because we love Him and want to live our lives in a way which pleases Him and brings honour to His Name. Neither do we need to keep or do the ceremonial part of the Torah today the animal sacrifices which were the Old Covenant sin offerings. These were all the “shadows” pointing to the Ultimate Offering for sin. Messiah is the Lamb of the Almighty who through His death on the stake fulfilled forever the requirement that innocent blood was needed to cover sin. His Blood not only covered sin, but did away with it for eternity in the lives of true believers in Him. In the new Jerusalem there will never be any sin. His incorruptible Blood will forever be on the Mercy Seat of the heavenly Ark of the Covenant. (Heb.9:12-14 & 1 Pet.1:18-19) The Hebrew word ToRaH which was translated as “Law” in our New Covenant Scriptures, means: Instructions for righteous living. Although the five books of Moses are known as the Torah, they are in fact the foundation of the rest of Scripture. Genesis to Revelation are in truth the

Torah - Instructions for righteous living - of YaHUaH. Therefore receiving Messiah YaHUShA as personal Saviour cannot be to the exclusion of His “Law”, which is His Torah, which is His Word, which is HIM - The Living Word - Torah (John 1:1 & 14). Messiahʼs very own half-brother (Jacob - James) said: But be doers of the Word (Torah), and not hearers only deceiving yourselves... But he that looks into the perfect Torah of liberty, and continues in it, being not a hearer that forgets but a doer that works, this man shall be blessed in his doing. (Jas.1:22 & 25) Those early believers, including Shaʼul (Paul), understood that faith in Messiah and faith in His Word were mutually inclusive. The Two cannot be separated. True faith in Him will result in living a life of obedience to Him - His Word. Willful disobedience (rebellion) in the life of any believer puts a large ? as to whether that person has genuine “saving faith”. Messiah taught His disciples in the “Sermon on the mount” that only a house (individual personʼs life) that was built on the Rock of His Word - His sayings - would remain standing when the storms of life beat against it. (Mat.7:24-27) Being obedient to Him - His Word - is to build on the Rock. He is His Word manifest in the flesh, and He is also the solid Rock - the only foundation upon whom we can safely build our lives. (1 Cor.3:11) YaHUShA was also the one who warned most seriously with these words: THINK NOT that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy but to fulfill. (Mat.5:17) He came to fulfill the spirit of the Torah (Rom.7:14) in the lives of all who believe in Him by writing it on their hearts. That is what the New or Renewed Covenant is all about - His Torah written on believers hearts. (Ezek.36:26-27 & Heb.8:10) Only then are we able, by His grace, through His indwelling Spirit to be imitators of Him (Eph.5:1) by walking the narrow path of His Torah. We have been set free from SIN (Lawlessness - 1 John 3:4) NOT from the Torah which governs His Kingdom and will be the Constitution of His Kingdom when He returns very soon to rule. Those who obey Him will be comforted by His Rod and His Staff (Torah) - Psalm 23:4b. But those who disobey Him will be dashed to pieces by the same Rod of Iron (Torah) Psalm 2:9. Note that this “Rod” will be wielded by the loving Son of the Almighty. I choose YaHUShA! I choose to obey Him! I choose Life! I choose Torah! Should you be interested in more information, please request my article entitled: GRACE AND THE LAW. This article also has a Scriptural explanation for the use of the Hebrew Name of the Father and the Son (Prov.30:4b) - the ONLY Name that correctly identifies the Creator of the universe, our Redeemer - and also represents His Authority, Power and Anointing in the lives of His people. Blessings and shalom. Johann