YAHSHUA – Light from the Word

Let Not the Iniquity of My Father’s Be Remembered by the Lord

Iniquity is a word with grave meaning and consequences. It spreads its roots to generations without end. A weakness we carry on our genes from the time of conception. It became active when our forefathers Adam and Eve first sinned. I do not mean that they sinned because they were unrighteous, but because Eve was deceived. Sinned for the first time, they did not stop there. It seemed that that was an open door for the root of all kinds of sin to take place in their soul. We do sin with our soul: the mind, the emotion and the will. The body is controlled by the dictates of the soul, and it acts upon the demand of the soul. It seems that it is in the level of the soul that we receive the curse of the sin of iniquity at conception. The Psalmist said, 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 as yet there was none of them (Ps.139:15-16), a psalm of David. When the sperm touches the egg successfully, then life is created. All that we will be is in that sperm. It is the “unformed substance.” “It runs in the family,” whatever weakness a person has. The sin of iniquity is one that carries the curse from generation to generation. It holds us prisoners to its consequences, which will be for sure in our life time, so it seems.

What was happening when YAHSHUA was going through the atonement for our sins, including our diseases? The Prophet Isaiah, many years before YAHSHUA’S time on earth, prophesized this: Surely, He has carried our griefs (sicknesses, weakness and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains, yet, we considered Him stricken, smitten and afflicted by God. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities, the chastisement [needed to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole (Isa.53: 4-5). “He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities.” Let’s talk about the word bruise. The Webster dictionary describes as to break, to shatter, to crush with or as with mortar and pestle, to hurt the feelings; a bruise cause discoloration of the skin caused by a blow. The word bruise has a strong connotation and varied results, depending if physical or emotional. When YAHSHUA was bruised for our guilt and iniquities, He suffered deeply into His soul. It was as a mortar crushing into His emotion and heart. A pain that carries a heavy load of emotional feelings, as He took upon Himself the guilt and iniquity of the entire world. That, my friend was not easy for the Son of God to carry. We were once and for all free from the consequences of the sin of iniquity and guilt, but not until we accept and surrender our lives to His control. He did all to save us from the power of the sins of iniquity, although we still have to face it in the form of temptation. That brings to mind Paul’s struggles with it when he expressed himself concerning it saying, For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it, for I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am doing. Now, if I do what I do not desire to do it is no longer I doing it, but the sin which dwells within me; so, I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me, and I am subject to its insistent demands, for I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self, but I discern in my bodily members a different law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs. O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from this body of death? O thank God! Through YAHSHUA Messiah! So, then indeed I of myself with the mind and heart serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:18-21;23-25). We must overcome this spiritual battle raging against us every day, if we are truly born-again; if we are born of the spirit.

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Do You Love Me? (part 3)

This is My commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.

(John 15:12)

God’s love compels Him to mercy and kindness in order to lift us up from our sinful condition. In love, He forgives and blesses us with His precious gift: His Holy Spirit. Through Him He allows us to have a relationship with Him that will take us to heaven. He fortified His love assuring us that nothing can separate or come in between or snatch us from His love. John confirms by saying, God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God and God dwells and continues in him. In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world (John 4: 16b-17). Being complete in His love we will have the confidence of our salvation. This is the result of His love flowing to those who dwell in Him and do what He commanded them to do – love one another as He has loved us. He continues asking the question, to all His children, Do you love Me? The more that we love one another, the more that our love will flow to Him, answering and satisfying His question, Do you love Me?

The life of Stephen registered in Acts chapter seven well prints his love for God. His life truly radiated his love for Him through His service and love in forgiving those who were involved in his killing. He prayed as he was being stoned by those who hated YAHSHUA, Lord YAHSHUA, receive and accept and welcome my spirit, and falling on his knees, he cried out loudly, Lord, fix not this sin upon them! And when he had said this, he fell asleep [in death] (Acts 7: 59-60). Stephen here echoes the prayer of YAHSHUA, when dying on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!” That was the perfect love that sprung from the heart that truly loved God. He loved God with all his soul and with his own body when he offered it as a sacrifice unto Him. Stephen was justified in the presence of God, for he died without bitterness against those who hated him; that was an action of his love for others which radiated as love for God.

The manner in which God loves, is the manner that He wants us to love one another. That’s the way we will be made complete in His love. He told His disciples, I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me] (John 15: 9). This is a commandment directed to all who are the Lord’s. We have no choice, but to obey. It will be our link to receive His blessings of peace. For His word said, There is no fear in love, but full-grown love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love (I John 4:18). Living a life voided of love for others will result in a life empty of love for God. Where there is no love, fear will find an open door to torment and destroy us. John says, But he who keeps His word, truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected. By this we may perceive that we are in Him (I John 2:5). Our love for God is demonstrated by the love for one another. Because God is love, John says that whoever loves his brother abides in the Light, and in It or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin, but he who hates his brother is in darkness and walking in the dark; he is straying and does not perceive or know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes (I John 2: 10-11). Who can understand the consequences of walking out of love for others? It is like walking in spiritual darkness, away from God’s love; empty of love for Him and voided of His presence and spiritual blessings. It wasn’t for nothing that YASHUA asked the question, do you love Me? There is much involved in this question that we do not perceive. Obviously, love is the root of all spiritual success. God desires that we would be spiritually blessed and complete in His love.

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The Seven Phrases YAHSHUA Uttered at the Cross Before His Death

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.

Woman, see your son; see your mother!

I thirst.

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Into Your hand, I commit My Spirit.

It is finished!

These words from YAHSHUA’S mouth just before He died are of great significance. He was uttering the message of salvation to the world through Him. The first phrase constitutes Him as a High Priest interceding for us, sinners: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. The second, the promise of heaven for those who will accept Him: Today, you will be with Me in Paradise. The third, He releases Mary from her earthly mother relationship: Woman, see your son; see your mother. The fourth, I thirst. The thirst of hell; He suffered in our instead; the fifth, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? This is the eternal separation from God we sinners were condemned to suffer; sixth, Into Your hand, I commit My Spirit, He gave up His precious life, to give us eternal life; seventh, It is finished! He paid for our redemption in full, according to the letter of the Law.

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The Everlasting Covenant (part 2)

(The Covenant of Love)

When God created man, He entered into the covenant with him by commanding him to observe the rule of not eating of the tree of knowledge and good. He said to him, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen. 2:16-17). That’s all he had to do to keep covenanting with God. Adam however, broke the covenant with God by willful disobedience. Knowing what is right and not doing it, one commits sin, according to the Word of God. While Adam followed the command of God, he was in agreement with the covenant and there was a relationship between God and him. But when Adam chose to disobey God, he not only died spiritually but brought himself under the curse of sin and the world with him. So, by the sin of one man, we all sinned and have become short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). God, in His mercy, however, not only promised them the covenant of love through the death of His Son (Gen. 3:15) but clothed them with skins when they saw that they were naked (Gen. 3:19). From that time on until YAHSHUA came, man was to offer sacrifice to God for the remission of their sins according to what the Word of God says: without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. God’s covenant of love is beautifully expressed through the words of His Son, YAHSHUA: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). When YAHSHUA died, He offered salvation to every individual person. As the letter to the Hebrews said. The covenant of love was extended to all whosoever will accept Him. The covenant of love annuls and brings to naught the devil and his power of death. YAHSHUA came in the flesh and blood, partaking of man’s nature so He would go through death, in order to conquer it, defeat the devil and set men free from his power.

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The Answer That Determined YAHSHUA’S Death

(Matthews 26:63-68)

After agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane, YAHSHUA was taken by a crowd with swords, and clubs guided by Judas, sent from the chief priests and elders of the people. He was taken to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had assembled (Matt. 26:47,57). YAHSHUA’S six illegal trials started then. The chief priests and the whole council sought to get false witnesses to testify against Him, so that they might put Him to death but they found none, though may witnesses came forward; until two men came forward testifying that YAHSHUA had said, I am able to tear down the sanctuary of the temple of God and to build it up again in three days. YAHSHUA remained silent to the accusation until the high priest stood up and said, Have You no answer to make? What about this that these men testify against You? YAHSHUA continued silent until the Hight Priest said to Him, I CALL UPON YOU TO SWEAR BY THE LIVING God, and tell us whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God (Matt. 26:57,59-63). That was a request that demanded the verdict that YAHSHUA was the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of Israel. In purity and honest truth, in sincerity of heart, YAHSHUA said, You have stated (the fact). And He added, more than that, I tell you: You will in the future see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of the sky (Matt. 26:64). His answer covered the present and the future, prophesized in the book of Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, on the clouds of the heavens came One like a Son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And there was given Him dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed.” That was the complete answer they did not expected. But if they were familiar with the prophecies, found in their possession, they should have remembered this one and feared for their lives.

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The Everlasting Covenant (part 1)

Covenant, in its secular demand, binds and establishes a relationship between two parties. However, God’s covenant establishes a relationship with men through his obedience. His covenant is not bilateral, but unilateral. For He is the One Who initiated, and He is the One Who determines the principles of it. Men are subjected to His commands in order to be recipients of the blessings He offers through His covenant. When God covenanted with Adam, He instructed him not to eat of the certain fruit from the garden. To maintain the relationship with God Adam had to obey God’s covenant’s instruction. When Adam failed what the covenant demanded, he died spiritually, as God told him he would. However, right then, God’s covenant went as far as to promise a Savior to restore the human race into covenant with Him through His Son. Speaking to Satan, He said, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread you under underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel (Gen. 3: 15). God’s covenant was never annulled in spite of Adam’s disobedience, for He in His mercy, provided a way for the covenant relationship to exist between Him and men through the death of His Son.

God covenanted with Noah when He told Him to build an ark. He followed God’s orders and God promised him to establish His covenant (promise, pledge) of salvation with him when His wrath would pour over the entire earth. Noah and his family were delivered in the shelter of the ark God told him to make when he entered into the covenant relationship with God in obedience to the demand of the covenant (Gen. 6). God’s covenant with Abraham was a covenant of promise which was to continue through Abraham’s generation, that is, through his son Isaac, the son of the promise. For the covenant of promise to have affected, or to have bound to him, Abraham was to act in faith and in obedience. Abraham showed faithfulness to God’s covenant, when he satisfied the demand of the covenant in the sacrifice of his son, as he was told, believing that God would raise him from the dead, to fulfill His covenantal promise. Abraham found favor with God and the confirmation of the promise was then literate in God’s own words, I have sworn by Myself, that since you have done this and have not withheld or begrudged your son, your only son, in blessing I will bless you and in multiplying, I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed YAHSHUA will possess the gate of His enemies. And in your Seed (YAHSHUA) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and [by Him] bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My voice (Gen. 22). We are recipients of this blessing because Abraham obeyed the demands of God’s covenant. Abraham’s blessings have a prophetic perspective, embracing the entire world.

In Exodus 19 we see God covenanting with Israel, a nation which He created to covenant with Him and thus bless it. When Israel arrived at the wilderness of Sinai, God appeared to them. Moses, as their mediator, received the instructions before they were to appear before God. God, then covenanted with Israel by saying, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among the above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words you shall speak to the Israelites. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord (vs. 3-8). There, the Lord gave the nation of Israel the Ten Commandments- the written covenant. Israel came to a mountain that was ablaze with fire and to gloom and darkness and a raging storm, with a blast of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them for they could not bear the command that was given; if even a wild animal touches the mountain it shall be stoned to death. In fact, so awful and terrifying was the sight that Moses s aid, I am terrified (Heb. 12:19-21). That was Israel’s experience when God covenanted with them.

The covenant God made with King David is a covenant comprised of promises. He covenanted with David by saying, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over My people Israel. I was with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like [that] of the great men of the earth. (II Sam. 7: 8-9). David’s subjected himself to the covenant saying, what more can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord God. Because of Your promise and as Your own heart dictates, You have done all these astounding things to make Your servants know and understand. Therefore, You are great, O Lord God; for none is like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all [You have made] our ears to hear… You have established for Yourself Your people Israel to be Your people forever, and You, Lord, became their God (II Sa. 7: 21-22,24).
Until YAHSHUA’S coming to earth, the nation of Israel was under the covenant of the law. But YAHSHUA came to fulfill it, since there was no one who could perfectly and accordingly to God’s demand, fulfill it. He came while the old covenant was in effect, and not only fulfilled the old covenant, but brought the new covenant with Him. This new covenant was predicted by Moses, Jeremiah, and Ez ekiel. (Deut. 29:4; Jer. 31:33; Ezekiel 36: 26-27). YAHSHUA was the mediator of the new covenant. His death carries the fulfillment and the basis of His promise. Before His death, He established the new covenant with those with Him and with those who would believe in Him: He took the cup after supper saying, This cup is the new testament or covenant [ratified] in My blood, which is shed for you (Luke 22:20). With His death, YAHSHUA made the first covenant obsolete. He did not abolish the law, but he fulfilled the law and taught us to observe the summary of the Law: love God with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves. That is the summary of the entire law because where there is love, there is no stealing, adultery, murder, coveting, etc. The old covenant was then replaced by the new: For if that first covenant had been without defect, there would have been no room for another one or an attempt to institute another one (Heb. 8:7).

YAHSHUA established the new covenant while He was shedding His blood when being beaten, when a crown of thorns was put on His head and when on the cross. As a Mediator, He connected us to God in the covenant of blood. His demands in His covenant are that we dwell in Him, bear fruit, abide in His love, keep His commandments, obey His instructions, and His principal commandment: love God, love one another, just as He loved us (John 15). The old covenant was written on a stone, but the new one was written in our hearts with the blood of YAHSHUA. The Prophet Jeremiah prophesized concerning this new covenant many years before the coming of YAHSHUA to establish it. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God and they will be My people (Jer. 31:31-33).

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God’s Forgiveness Opens the Door of Heaven

For God so loved the world (you and me) that He gave His only begotten Son, for whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16). This is a well-known verse among the Christian community. The message it conveys is rich and assuring of God’s deep love for humankind. How can God, holy and perfect in every way love a world so unholy and voided of love for Him? It is hard to understand the unconditional love that He has for all of us, for “we all have sinned and have become short of His glory.” What did it mean to us in the situation we were in before our Lord remediated? The glory of God is His goodness. In that, we became unworthy of His glory toward us. We were separated from Him and hopelessly lost in sin, and under His condemnation. For the Jewish nation, under the Law, they sacrificed animals to atone for their sins. However, the time came when that was no longer satisfactory to God. That’s when His Son, YAHSHUA volunteered to take the place of animals to redeem the human race. The letter to the Hebrews says, For since the Law had merely a rude outline of the good things to come-instead of fully expressing those things-it can never by offering the same sacrifices continually year after year make perfect those who approach [its altars]. Because, the blood of bulls and goats is powerless to take sins away, hence, when He [Christ] entered into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offering You have not desired, but instead, You have made ready a body for Me[to offer]. In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no delight. Then I said, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God- [to fulfill] what is written of Me in the volume of the Book (10:1,4-7).

The Law, from the beginning, pointed to the One Who would fulfill it to the letter. “A shadow of things to come,” Paul said. But when YAHSHUA laid down His life as a sacrifice once and for all for the entire world, this act of love poured forgiveness for all those who turned to Him by repenting of their sins. As many as received Him, the Bible says, He gave the authority to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in His name (Jn.1:12). YAHSHUA’S death opened the way for men to be reconciled with God. In His death-His demonstration of love, forgiveness flowed from His heart to men’s. Now, no longer under God’s condemnation, and short of His glory, men are free through His forgiveness. It is a powerful and unselfish act of love toward those who received the gift of YAHSHUA’S sacrifice. Through forgiveness, they “are constantly being transfigured into YAHSHUA’S own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another…” (II Cor. 3:18). That’s the process of their sanctification through the Holy Spirit of YAHSHUA. How beautiful, is the work of the Holy Spirit in each one of us who desire His touch of sanctification! So, God’s forgiveness restored men to Himself and men became sharers of God’s glory once again. God’s goodness is so important in one’s life; it would be hard to live without the benefit of it. Because being separated from God’s glory is to be without hope and voided of God’s promises, although available to all. The Bibles says that the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds, preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image and Likeness of God, for God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God in the face of YAHSHUA the Messiah. (II Cor. 3:4,6). We believers, who stand in the presence of the Lord, must shine His glory to the world, as Moses shone God’s glory to Israel, when coming down the mountain, after spending time with Him. From glory to glory, Moses, the servant of the Lord, experienced God face to face, and it showed on his face.

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Can You Tarry with Me Through the Night

The place- a garden; the occasion- YAHSHUA’S coming trial and death. After the Passover supper, they headed to the place where they customed to go- the Garden of Gethsemane. While He went a little further, leaving the apostles a stone’s throw, taking Peter, James and John with Him, He knelt down and prayed. This time, was not only to pray, but to agonize His last hours before He would be betrayed into the hands of the Jewish authorities and ultimately into the Romans’ hands. The Garden of Gethsemane was witnessing the suffering of Messiah on His way to deliver mankind from the hands and power of Satan. I just wonder if that was the same or approximate location of the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve first sinned. The first scene was the fall of men and a sentence given them and to the serpent. It was then that God gave Adam and Eve the promise of salvation, and to the serpent He uttered its destination saying, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all animals and above every living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel (Gen. 3:15). He began to be struck with terror and amazement and deeply troubled and depressed. He then said to them, My soul is exceedingly sad so that it almost kills Me! Remain here and keep awake and be watching, and going a little farther, He fell on the ground and kept praying, that if it were possible the [fatal] hour might pass from Him; He said, Abba, Father, everything is possible for You, Take away this cup from Me; yet, not what I will, but what You will (Mark 14:32-36). The disciples, not understanding the urgency of the moment, were overwhelmed with fatigue and fell asleep, leaving Him alone agonizing. Three times YAHSHUA woke them up to pray and warned them to watch and pray, but of no avail, until the time came for the betrayer to come with a band of guards from the Jewish authorities to arrest Him.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Satan was bruising YAHSHUA’S heel, while the disciples slept, powerlessly, for not remaining in prayer, as they were told. YAHSHUA’S words, “Abba, take away this cup from Me; yet, not my will, but what You will” shows the extent of temptation He was going through alone. That was the opportune time for Satan to come back to tempt Him. At the beginning of YAHSHUA’s ministry, He spent forty days and forty nights at the wilderness, and when at the end when He felt hungry, Satan came to tempt Him. According to Luke, Satan left YAHSHUA after he ended every temptation, until another more opportune and favorable time (4:13). The opportune and favorable time had come to Gethsemane Garden, when the devil showed up to tempt YAHSHUA once again, at the point of His weakness. YAHSHUA aware of it, warned the disciples to be in prayer. But when He returned to them three times, He found them sleeping. That’s when YAHSHUA asked a very solemn question worthy to consider: Have you not the strength to keep awake and watch with Me for one hour? Keep awake and watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:37-38). YAHSHUA continued agonizing, but the disciples continued sleeping, not taking into consideration the severity of the moment that YAHSHUA was going through. They heard the words YAHSHUA expressed to them; but their hearts were far from sharing the Savior’s pain in their lack of understanding. The third time when YAHSHUA found them sleeping instead of going back to praying, He then said, It is enough. The hour has come. The son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinful men; get up, let us be going! See My betrayer is at hand! (Mark 14:41).

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YAHSHUA, Like a Shepherd, Leads Us

(Ezekiel 34; John 10)

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” He meets all my physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. When our Shepherd makes us to lie down in green pastures, He is satisfying our physical and spiritual needs; when He leads us to the quiet waters, He is restoring our soul- emotions, intellect and will, after long days in our journey, facing problems and trials; when He leads us to the path of righteousness, He is sanctifying us. Through life’s journey, He is ever with us; when passing through the valley of death, which is our transition from earth to our heavenly home, He will be with us. The enemies of our soul will forever be defeated, when at our victory, our Shepherd will prepare us a table in their presence. He will anoint us with oil, granting us our position with Him as His children; He has raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together in the heavenly sphere in Messiah YAHSHUA (Eph. 2:6). He calls each one of us and chooses those who will listen to Him. He molds us to be more like Him in His process of sanctification. Every step that we take here on earth, must be a step closer to our Shepherd, no matter how hard and steep the road is, for He gives His sheep “hind’s feet” to be able to go to high places close to Him. He has equipped His sheep with all that they need to make the journey.

The closer that His sheep stays to Him, the more that they will be able to hear His voice. As He said, The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them and they follow Me (Jn. 10:27). That’s a close relationship with His sheep. Always guiding them with His staff, showing them the way, always teaching. The word, listening, in the gerund form, indicates to be paying attention to in a continuous form of the verb; showing an action to being a focus point. It is constant and progressive listening to the voice of their Shepherd. There is a special benefit for those who stay close to the Shepherd. They will not only hear His voice, but will be called His friends, because, He said, I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father (Jn. 15:15). YAHSHUA’S apostles had that position with Him. To them He interpreted the parables, bringing them to the light of understanding them. Psalm 25:14 says: The secret of the Lord have they who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its deep meaning.

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A Manger, a Crown of Thorns and a Cross

(Luke 2:7; Matt 27:29; John 19: 16-18)

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; [yet] of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2).

The Manger

Before his death, Jacob prophesied of the tribe of Judah: The scepter of leadership shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh [the Messiah, the Peaceful One] comes to Whom it belongs, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people (Gen. 49:10). This prophecy was fulfilled many years later in the birth of our Savior, YAHSHUA. In those days it occurred that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole Roman empire should be registered; all the people were going to be registered, each to his own town; Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David ( Luke 2:1-3). That happened close to the time for Mary’s delivery. And while they were there, the time came for her delivery, and she gave birth to her Son, her Firstborn; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room or place for them in the inn (Luke 2:6-7). Was YAHSHUA laid in a manger where all kinds of animals were feeding as tradition tells us? In Micah 4:8 the idea is refuted, for the prophet gives us the exact location where Messiah was to be born and the type of manger He would be laid on: And you, O Tower of the Flock, the hill and stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, unto you the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the Daughter of Jerusalem. Messiah was to be born at the “Tower of the Flock”. This was a watch tower used by the shepherds in ancient times for the protection of their flock from enemies and wild beasts. It was also the place where chosen ewes were brought to give birth to their young ones; after their babies were born, they were wrapped in swaddling clothes for their protection. These were special lambs, chosen for temple sacrifices. Only these lambs would be feeding in that place. It is without a doubt that God chose this place many years earlier for His Son to be born; a significant picture of what was to come in the person of His Son, the Lamb of God.

After His birth, the perfect Lamb of God was wrapped in swaddling clothes and was laid in a manger at the “Tower of the Flock.” John the Baptist declared: There is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

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