What is the Will of God?

Posted on 11/20/2024 by Messyanic

Growing up in Christianity, I came to understand the Will of God to essentially comprise of loving God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength & loving your neighbor as yourself.

And we do the latter by applying the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself

When I was young, I had a hard time with the phrase “as yourself” in the loving your neighbor part, because I struggled with negative feelings of self-worth.

I remember when I was in middle school, at the age of 12 or 13, I had this notion that other people were more important than me. That it was okay for me to let people say & do bad things about & to me — that I was to “be like Jesus” and “turn the other cheek” and then to ask God to “forgive them for they know not what they do” when the kids at school picked on me.

I remember despising my physical features and being mad at God for making me this way — and then feeling guilty for being mad at God.

I eventually managed to get over it and accept the things I couldn’t change about my physical makeup and focused on that which I could — not necessarily with my appearance, but with who I was as a person.

I became obsessed with self-improvement.

Around this time (throughout my teenage years and beyond), my parents were involved in a business venture that focused heavily on self-improvement. And I became very interested in reading self-help books & listening to motivational speakers because I wanted to be the best version of me that I could be and do great things — namely, I wanted to make the world a better place.

But in time I came to see how that interest evolved into something not-so-good. I realized that I had become obsessed with trying to improve myself, because I never believed myself to be good enough.

So, I stopped feasting on self-improvement material and sought to just do what I understood the Will of God was. (See paragraph 1.)

Is there more to it (the Will of God, that is)?

Fast forward to today (or at least in more recent times), and I find myself questioning “what is the Will of God?” Is there more to it than what I have always believed?

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Posted in Creation, Encouragement / Advice, Kingdom of God, Walking in the Ways of the Creator, YHVH Elohim/God | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Creator is God vs God is the Creator

Posted on 11/18/2024 by Messyanic

For most of my life I’ve understood God to be the Creator and Source of all life, as if “God” was the identifying label for that Being who created the heaven & the earth and gave life to the vegetation & all the creatures He formed to inhabit it.

I understood it that way because I was introduced to God through the religion of Christianity coupled with the Bible.

I proceeded to understand who God was based on what I read in the Bible.

But here, recently, I’ve been reframing my understanding.

I acknowledge the Creator & Source of all life exists first & foremost. And, I consider Him to be God.

For a while now I have not agreed with all that is said about the Creator/God through the teachings of Christianity. However, lately, I have become skeptical of all that is said about Him in the Bible.

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Posted in Walking in the Ways of the Creator | 1 Comment

Calling Upon the Name of the Lord

Posted on 10/19/2024 by Messyanic

This afternoon I was reading an article found at an Assembly of God website entitled, “How Can I Be Saved?”

In answer to that article’s question, the author referenced three passages: Romans 10:13, Joel 2:32 and Acts 2:21 that all essentially say the same thing:

“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

And this brought to my mind the passage at the end of Genesis 4.

25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. – Genesis 4:25-26 KJV

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Was Their Rebellion in the Garden?

Posted on 10/02/2024 by Messyanic

I recently came across two different people referring to Adam & Eve’s act of eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden as an act of rebellion.

One said, “Humans chose to rebel while in paradise.” and the other said “Adam and Eve…rebelled against the wisdom and authority of the Creator…”. That prompted me to respond.

Did Adam & Eve really “rebel”?

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Did the Creator’s Design Change After the Fall of Man?

Posted on 09/25/2024 by Messyanic

Many seem to think that the creation established in the beginning was later altered by God and that He instituted physical death, in response to the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

However, upon careful examination of the stories found in Genesis 1-3, I draw a different conclusion.

In the Garden of Eden

Genesis 2 tells us of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil that existed in the Garden of Eden.

The created man (both male & female) was placed in that garden. And while the man was told by God that he could eat of any tree therein, he was forbidden to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, lest he surely die.

The Fall of Adam

Genesis 3 tells the story of a serpent speaking to Eve in the garden. While she reiterates what God had said concerning the forbidden fruit, she is led astray by the serpent and ultimately partakes of that fruit. And she gives the fruit to Adam, and he eats it as well.

Shortly thereafter, the two are confronted by God about their misdeeds. The blame game unfolds with she gave it to me and the serpent deceived me, and God responds.

In this post, I focus specifically on what was told to Adam at this point.

Consequence for Adam’s Sin

In Genesis 3:17-19 it says,

“And unto Adam he [God] said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, “Thou shalt not eat of it”: cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

As I said in the beginning, many seem to think Creation was altered and physical death was instituted at this point of the story.

While I address the notion that Adam’s DNA was altered as a result of his sin in my study, For All Have Sinned*, published in 2017 — concluding that it did not, today I’d like to specifically address the Land and the institution of physical death.

[*Please note: my position has changed since this study was published concerning these two latter points, thus, today’s post.]

Did God really change the way the Land that brings forth vegetation operates from His original design & creation, or did He simply change the position of Adam on the Land?

And…

Did God really institute physical death for Adam after Adam ate the forbidden fruit, or was Adam’s mortality part of his original design?

Religious indoctrination would have us believe the former is true on both points, but a closer examination reveals otherwise.

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Posted in 3-Grass, Seed-Yielding Herbs, Fruit Trees, 6-Living Creatures on Land, 6-Man and Woman, Creation, Garden of Eden, What About? verses | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

What Does It Mean to Be Perfect?

Posted on 09/18/2024 by Messyanic

I came across a comment on another website yesterday from an apparent Bible believer that indicated his/her belief was that humans are not perfectible. And that begged me to respond.

Humans Are Perfectible

According to the Bible, in Genesis 6:9, Noah is described as being perfect.

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Then in Genesis 17:1, we see that YHVH told Abram to be perfect.

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

The Hebrew word translated as “perfect” in these verses is “tamiym” (H8549), and according to Brown Driver Briggs, it means “complete, sound“.

This word is used all throughout the books of Leviticus & Numbers and is translated as “without blemish” in the King James Version.

Then in Deuteronomy 18:13, Moses instructs the people to be perfect with YHVH their God.

Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

There are many passages throughout the Old Testament that use this word to describe men, and many times it is translated as “upright“. I encourage you to do your own search of this word and see for yourself where & how it appears.

Clearly the Old Testament presents the idea that humans are capable of being perfect and expected to be so.

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Posted in 6-Man and Woman, Jesus / Yeshua, What About? verses | 2 Comments

The Bible is Not the Inerrant Word of God

Posted on 05/27/2024 by Messyanic

For most of my life I was led to believe the Bible was the inerrant Word of God. I heard that phrase repeatedly and never questioned it too much. But now I see that is not the case at all.

What I Used To Believe

When I was young, I was exposed to a Christian “catechism” that stated, when asked the question, “Who wrote the Bible?”, “Holy men of God wrote the Bible” was the answer. So, I acknowledged the idea that the Bible was written by men (as opposed to God Himself).

When I tried to understand how this book could be considered “the Word of God”, I could see throughout the Old Testament stories of God speaking directly to man, so naturally, if “holy men” wrote down what God said, then that could justify those written words to be “the Word of God”.

And at some point, I heard the phrase “divinely inspired” applied to the Bible, and that justified in my mind how the remaining texts comprised in the Bible could also be considered “the Word of God” indirectly.

But when I stopped to think about it, I had a hard time believing the Bible was “inerrant”, especially considering the fact that it was written & handled by human beings, who are obviously fallible, for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.

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Posted in Walking in the Ways of the Creator | 1 Comment

The Problem with Faith-based Communities

Posted on 05/15/2024 by Messyanic

My husband recently started making videos discussing his ideas regarding intentional communities, which is a subject we’ve talked about for many years.

We understand the need for community in real life at the local level in order to survive & thrive outside the control of powers-that-shouldn’t-be. But what should that community look like?

This morning he recorded & posted a talk I did with him at his YouTube channel sharing what I see to be problematic with faith-based communities. This is part one of a series we entitled Faith- vs. Value-based Communities.

Please check it out and let me know what you think:

Posted in Video | Leave a comment

Updates to the Website

Posted on 04/25/2024 by Messyanic

What’s New?

Please check them out, and let me know if you have any questions or concerns and if you need me to clarify anything with what I said.

I still need to go through more old posts to update them with my current understanding, so if you come across something that seems to contradict something elsewhere on this site, please bring it to my attention in the post’s comments of the post, and I’ll address that next.

Also, I would love to hear from you as to where you’re at in your understanding as it relates to:

  • What you believe concerning the Bible (in general) and the Messiah,
  • The times we’re living in, and
  • Your thoughts on the future.

And if there’s anything in particular that you’d like me to address either in a blog post or on a video, please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks!

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My Video-Making Journey Continues

Posted on 04/11/2024 by Messyanic

Six years ago, I embarked on a new video-making journey. But, before I could get anywhere with it, it ended.

Well, now, I’m back. Check it out…

A quick hello.

As I said in my previous post, I feel called to move forward and focus on:

  • Sharing the wisdom I’ve gleaned from my personal studies of the Bible, in conjunction with my personal homesteading, child-rearing, unschooling, self-employment & community-building experience.
  • Untangling some of the so-called Bible teachings & supposedly Biblical traditions of man, which I’ve encountered & personally investigated.
  • Using my YouTube channel to teach in-depth what I’ve found when I sought out the Bible to dismantle the Virgin Birth doctrine, in particular.

I look forward to this venture going forward, and I hope to see & interact with you along the way!

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