Thought for Today: Wednesday October 22

James did not say: “count it all joy when you fall into an easy chair.” He said: “Count it all joy when you when you fall into various trials” {James 1:2} Joy is not the same as happiness – although they may overlap. Happiness depends on circumstances; joy depends on YHVH. Happiness vanishes when life turns painful; Joy keeps going and may even grow. Joy comes from a living, vital relationship with YHVH. It comes from knowing this world is only temporary, and someday we will be with YHVH forever… It comes from a life of submission to the Holy Spirit – regardless the circumstances

Went to find one verse in Isaiah 25 and got sucked into reading chapters 25-27 because it's so good!

FROM THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION – NOACH:

“And Noach built an altar to YHWH, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and offered ascending offerings on the altar. And YHWH smelled a soothing fragrance, and YHWH said in His heart, ‘Never again shall I curse the ground because of man, although the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and never again strike all living creatures, as I have done, as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.’ And Elohim blessed Noach and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea – into your hand they have been given. Every creeping creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all, as I gave the green plants. But do not eat flesh with its life, its blood. But only your blood for your lives I require, from the hand of every beast I require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed, for in the image of Elohim has He made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and increase in it.’ And Elohim spoke to Noach and to his sons with him, saying, ‘And I, see, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living being that is with you: of the birds, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. And I shall establish My covenant with you, and never again is all flesh cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again is there a flood to destroy the earth.’ And Elohim said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living being that is with you, for all generations to come: I shall set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud, and I shall remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living being of all flesh, and never again let the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I shall see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living being of all flesh that is on the earth.’ And Elohim said to Noach, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.’”

Around this time half of Christians scream about how evil Halloween is with full intention to celebrate Christmas in a couple months and Easter in the spring.

But Halloween is no more evil than the others and no less. It is infact just like Christmas and Easter simply “other”.

It belongs to other people in other places in other times and should be understood that way.

The only thing more evil about Halloween than Xmas and Easter is the physical appearance and decore.

In reality one is no worse or better than the other and each by our kind ought to be avoided. Not as if it were a satanic tradition or some form of devilry more dire than the rest but as the celebrations of foreign peoples and as with the others far removed from who we are as a holy people and who we are trying to be in Messiah.

The rumors should not be accepted that Halloween is a satanic holiday just because the satanists have adopted it in response to general Christian aversion of it. And no righteous person should be blindly believing the testinony of devil worshipers or supposedly former devil worshippers about what this holiday is and means.

Halloween came from the old Irish celebration of Samhein (Sah-win) named for the month it started. Christmas a merger of old roman Saturnalia and Norse Yule. And Easter came from the old british month of April.

Babylon was not involved. Belial was not involved. And Baal was not involved.

Each heathen holiday celebrated now as holy among Christians or arbitrarily avoided for bad appearance is no more than people remembering their own ancestral heritage and passing it on….and forgetting that we were called to leave behind those beliefs and practices leftover from the old days and to be set apart.

Being set apart is not what happens when we avoid Halloween as sinister and accept Christmas and Easter as saintly. Being set apart happens when we refuse to participate in any of the pagan ways of the nations even if the nation is our own or our ancestors’.
Being set apart happens when we keep the covenant as written in Scripture and it’s customs and commandments.

Second Guess First Assumptions

Question Everything

Get Biblical

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Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
Romans 2:1 ESV

This doesn't prohibit pointing out that something is sin. It's about being humble and recognizing that you are accountable to the same standards as everyone else and about not denigrating someone else because they are a sinner for doing the very same thing that you do.

We are required to make a distinction between right and wrong and to teach others to do what's right. Just be sure that you are doing so in humility and gentleness, with the full understanding that you are guilty of sin too.

102125 / 28th day of the 7th month 5786
WORD FOR TODAY “do you have a king”: Jdg 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

WISDOM FOR TODAY: Pro 21:16 A man who wanders from the way of understanding Will rest in the assembly of the dead.

Ask the LORD how you can serve HIM better

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