February 2022 – Light from the Word

The Absence of Truth Is a Betrayal of One’s Confidence

What is truth? Pilate asked YAHSHUA during His trial. But he left without hearing the answer. The absence of truth is the presence of a lie, the mother of dishonesty. YAHSHUA, the essence of truth and Truth Himself, stood before Pilate, who under pressure, felt compelled by the Jewish authorities to have Him crucified. Had Pilate waited for the answer to his question, What is truth? He would not have had YAHSHUA crucified. So, it is that ignorance of truth seemed to be Pilate’s choice. Pilate stands guilty for rejecting knowledge concerning truth, making a decision based on lies presented to him, even knowing YAHSHUA was innocent. The Jews of those days betrayed truth and their knowledge of the fact by their false accusations against YAHSHUA. They consistently stepped on the truth, by not believing it, when YAHSHUA presented the truth concerning Whom He was. The High priest insisted on Him to tell them Who He was by saying, I call upon You to swear by the living God, and tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. YAHSHUA Then answered, You have stated [the fact]. More than that, I tell you: You will in the future see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty coming on the clouds of the clouds of the sky. They could not handle the truth; they spat in His face and struck Him with their fists; and some slapped Him in the face and sentenced Him to death (Matt. 26:63-64.67). This was Israel’s ultimate rejection of their Messiah, and when they handed Him to Pilate to be crucified, then there was their ultimate betrayal. YAHSHUA was betrayed by His Own and arrested to face six illegal trials, which resulted in His crucifixion. He was sentenced to death without first having a hearing to determine what He had done wrong, according to the Jewish law.

Truth is the clear, concise and honest reality. Truth conforms itself to facts and reality in their correctness and accuracy, for it establishes itself on verified fact and principle. Truth is the liberator of guilt and torment. When Peter denied knowing the Lord, he based his facts on the lie, “I do not know Him”. He chose to lie in order to protect himself. He did not want to associate himself with YAHSHUA in His trials, afraid of what could happen to him. He even pronounced a curse on himself. Doing that, Peter lost the sense of integrity and honesty. He disengaged himself from the truth and allowed the lie to permeate his heart, which opened the way for remorse and guilt. The betrayal of one’s confidence through the absence of truth has a long-term consequence in one’s life.

Truth confessed in difficult circumstances hurts at first, but clears the conscience and sets us free. Freedom of the soul is that flowing peace we all desire. When we cover truth with a lie, we are betraying truth itself. Jacob, whose name means deceiver, well represented the meaning of his name, when he knowingly deceived his father Isaac, in order to steal his brother’s blessings. He became a fugitive from his brother for many years. Esau was bruised for the rest of his life, when Jacob betrayed his trust by causing him to give up his right of first-born son for a bowl of soup. However, the seed of deceits he had been planted followed Jacob’s life even to his old age, when his sons deceived him concerning the death of his favorite son, Joseph. The root of lies is deeper and long in its consequences throughout our life. It is much better to be truthful from the beginning of our mistakes, than to hide it in the presumption of lies. At the end, truth always prevails, always truth wins.

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The Importance of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal

(Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

Directed by Moses before he died, Israel was to set the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal, after they had reached the Promised Land. On that day, Moses set before Israel a blessing and a curse- the blessing if they obey the commandments of the Lord, and the curse if they did not obey the commandments of the Lord their God. He said, And when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal (Deut. 11:29-30). The people were to hear the blessings from Mount Gerizim, when they obeyed the law and the curse from Mount Ebal when they disobeyed God’s law. The significance of these mountains, in particularly the Mount Ebal is relevant to us today in its symbolic prophetic meaning. The late Dr. Francis A Schaeffer, an American theologian, philosopher, an apologetic and pastor, a thinker of his time, suggested that these two mountains represented two life styles: obedience and disobedience. Consequentially, the mountains were to remind the people that keeping God’s law was as if they lived on mount Gerizim. From there, God’s blessing would fall on Israel. But an altar was to be built on Ebal mountain when they sinned against God. Shechem, a city of long history, is found between these two mountains. There, the Patriarch Abraham built the first altar to the living God; Joseph, his great-grandson, sought for his brother in Shechem; his bones were buried there many years later after Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Jacob dug a well near the city and many years later, YAHSHUA providentially met a Samaritan woman there with a message of salvation. The Samaritans, after hearing what the woman had to say about YAHSHUA, said, Now we no longer believe just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves and we know that He truly the Savior of the world, the Messiah. Many more believed Him, because of His personal message (John 4:42,41). The city of Shechem, was a silent witness of past history and of the spiritual meaning they carried, according to the words Moses spoke to Israel before they entered the Land.

Pages: 12

Every Life is a Book

Without paper, without a pen, every minute pages are written through someone’s life. From the crib to the grave, life speaks through attitude and actions without language, without voices one’s book is developed page by page in a subtle way, until life’s breath is taken away from us. Life is a beautiful expression of God’s wisdom, love and His mercy. It demonstrates the immensity and depth of God’s wisdom. Created to bring glory to God, we humans have failed God’s purpose for creating us, but not nature around us. Look at the flowers of the field, the firmament declaring His glory. They are faithfully declaring their Creator’s glory. The Word of God says, The heavens declare the glory and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge (Ps. 19:1-2). From the time we are born we start the first page of our book. For many, their stories are filled with joy, pomp privileges and smiles. For others, not so fortunate, nonetheless. The pages of their book start with misfortune and death. Millions of others will not have a chance to see the light of the day, only anguish and despair, for their lives are taken away in suffering. They have been denied the right to live when being sucked out of the mother’s womb, the supposed safest place to be. Their book is a wordless book. No one knows what would have been their lives’ story registered in a forever book. Only God knows. Life is given to all by God with a future planned under each name, as David so wrote: I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret intricately and curiously wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when yet there was none of them (Ps. 139: 14-16).

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