Now That I Have Your Attention

It has been a while since I have blogged (over a year), but I had something to happen that gave me some motivation. Yesterday, I went to my normal fish market and had the opportunity to talk to the owner.  Nothing special about that (you would think) except this man had been gone for a long time.  He had a heart attack last year and had died.  Yes, dead. No pulse.  The paramedics would eventually bring him back to life, but needless to say he spent a while in the hospital and at home resting.

So, yesterday when I talked to him it was a pleasant surprise.  We talked for a while after he rung-me-up and his overall message to me was, “God is Good”.  I just shook my head yes and said, “Yes, He is.”  He went on to tell me that God definitely got his attention and he had made some serious lifestyle changes.  Things that use to be important to him have been replaced by areas where Yahweh wants him to focus.  Yep, Yahweh got his attention.

We often plow through life with our heads down working, raising kids, making life work to the best of our abilities.  In the midst of all of this, we tend to forget that Yahweh is in the mix and that He has plans for our lives.  When we ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit and His many attempts to get us submit to obedience, we eventually stir up God’s wrath.  Sometimes, He has to grab our attention; you know, shake us to the core before we realize what He wants from us.

The funny thing is that Yahweh has been consistent throughout the existence of man.  Throughout the Old Testament, you can see how the Israelites waffle on the Lord.  For one period of time, they follow Him to a “T”.  For another period of time, they do all the things that would invoke God’s wrath, but yet He responds, corrects them and get them back on track. 

Let’s look at Jeremiah 29:10-14:

(10) For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. (11) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (12) Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (13) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (14) I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Yahweh sent the Prophet Jeremiah to warn His people of the coming wrath.  There had come a time when He needed to jolt the Israelites for them to realize their wrong.  However, through all of this, He still had plans for them to prosper after they would spend 70 years in Babylon.

The same with us today. He loves us. In fact He loves us so much that He sent His son to die for our sins, so that we may have everlasting life.  But yet, even in a time where the Comforter (Holy Spirit) keeps us, we still find ways to ignore His will for our lives. Unfortunately, sometimes Yahweh has to do something radical to gain our attentions. If only we could just slow down and realize what He desires for us rather than putting our own plans before His. It has to just make you wonder, how different would our lives be?

Antoine

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Pruning in the Lives of Christians

Pruning.  I have been sitting on this topic for a year and a half now, but I believe the timing is just as fitting now than it would have been then.  Honestly, my hesitation was primarily due to the fact that what must be said affects me just as much as it does you.  No matter the difficulty or whether I am as ready as I wish, I must be obedient to the Holy Spirit.  I will not delay this any longer, so, let's talk about it.

(Courtesy of Wikimedia)

What does it mean to prune something? To prune something means,

To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches of (a plant, for example) to improve shape or growth...[t]o remove or cut out as superfluous ([b]eing beyond what is required or sufficient) - (see pruning) 

Have you ever planted a vegetable garden?  If so, directions on the package of seeds instructed you plant a few together with a certain amount spacing between them.  Later, you would have to prune (or cut back or down) the other plants, so that your row of plants will have enough room to grow. The purpose of the pruning is to ensure better or desired growth for that plant or tree.  I have grown a couple of gardens before and I have learned a few things from it as well. For example, I have thrown a bunch of tomato seeds in the ground and didn't prune at all.  I ended up with a nice produce, but things grew out of control and vines were all over the place.  Some of the other plants in the garden box were not as strong as the tomatoes.  I probably could have ended up with a better yield of everything had I followed the instructions to place the seeds the right amount of space apart and pruned where needed. You'd be surprised at what you can learn through gardening!

The beautiful thing about this is that pruning not only relates to physical gardening, but it also relates directly to our spiritual walk with Yeshua as well. In John 15:1-6, it says:

(1) Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. (2) He cuts off every branch of mine that does not produce fruit. He also trims every branch that produces fruit to prepare it to produce even more. (3) You have already been prepared to produce more fruit by the teaching I have given you. (4) Stay joined to me and I will stay joined to you. No branch can produce fruit alone. It must stay connected to the vine. It is the same with you. You cannot produce fruit alone. You must stay joined to me. (5) "I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I to you, you will produce plenty of fruit. But separated from me you won’t be able to do anything. (6) If you don’t stay joined to me, you will be like a branch that has been thrown out and has dried up. All the dead branches like that are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned." (ERV)

So, let's break those verses down into three sections.

Roles

In verses 1-3, Yeshua, immediately gives us His identity and then identifies Yahweh the Father.  The Father is the gardener and the Son is the true vine.  We as followers of Christ are the branches.  A gardener takes full care of his plants and takes the necessary steps to ensure that they get the maximum production out of them. While pruning is one out of many things that must be done, it is still necessary to trim back the branches in preparation of producing the fruit.  This means that if you are not producing fruit (doing what has been commanded of you) as a branch, you will be cut off from Christ.


Connected to the Vine

In verses 4-5, Yeshua stresses the importance of staying connected to Him.  He tells us that we are nothing by ourselves.  I am pretty sure, that many of you can attest to trying to do it alone without Him and the mess from which you are probably still trying to recover.  There is no way we can be fruitful, if we are disconnected from the True Vine.  Yeshua wants a healthy relationship with each of us, but that means we have to remain healthy branches in order to stay in relationship with Him. He has already given us the promise of being fruitful, we just have to do our part.


What Happens to The Separated

Verse 6 pretty much sums everything up.  You have seen branches that are trimmed from trees.  You have seen what happens to dead portion of trees and plants that go by the wayside.  They are separated from the healthy part of the plant, so that the rest of the plant continues to thrive. If you have ever seen a fire started, you know that it is started with dry material.  You don't start it with healthy living material.  Dry wood is something which has been separated from the living plant for quite some time.  This is why campers and people with wood-burning stoves or fireplaces seek out dry wood to start fires.  Simply put - dead wood burns better.  This is what Yeshua tells us.  If you become separated from Him, you become like kindling for a fire.


What does this means for you and I?  Well, it means quite a bit.  You see, a branch on a vine, typically has its own little branches as well. We should be connected to the True Vine all the while being fruitful, however, we as branches need to continuously prune things in our lives.  If you leave dying branches on a plant, it will eventually cause harm to the rest of the tree. One article states that you should "[r]emove dead, damaged and diseased branches to help prevent insect & decay organisms from entering the tree." ("Why, When, & How to Prune Your Trees").

Folks, the Gardner (Yahweh) WILL NOT let the Vine (Yeshua) and the true church be damaged or diseased by branches that are not producing fruit.  In addition, those who chose to go against His will are subject to being trimmed as well.  As such, we as followers, should not allow anything to cause us to be cut away from the True Vine.  This means that we have to make some decisions in our lives - some easy, some medium-sized and some difficult. If you know that there are stumbling blocks in your life, then it is simple - prune them from your life.  However, it gets difficult when the Holy Spirit instructs us to cut things out of our lives that we have become use to having, like:

• TV Entertainment
• Habits (coffee, cigarettes, etc.) 
• Hobbies
• Things (houses, cars, games, etc.)
• Friends
• Family
• And many more things...

The two on the list that may cause the most heartburn for folks are friends and family. I understand it, because we are use to those who are close to us, especially family.  I have had the same struggles as well just as many others on this Christian walk.  How do you just cut them off?  How do you cut off the ones that have brought you through thick and thin? How do you cut off grandmothers, aunts, or uncles who may have raised you?  What about the ones who birthed you?  I do not have that answer for your situation or the words for you to say (should it come to that), but I can only point you back to scripture. In Matthew 12:46-50, Yeshua tells us His true family:

(46) While Jesus was talking to the people, his mother and brothers stood outside. They wanted to talk to him. (47) Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are waiting for you outside. They want to talk to you." (48) Jesus answered, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" (49) Then he pointed to his followers and said, "See! These people are my mother and my brothers. (50) Yes, anyone who does what my Father in heaven wants is my true brother and sister and mother." (ERV)

Our commandments are to stay connected to (and love) Yeshua and Love people as He loves them.  Then, we are commanded to share the gospel.  Those are our jobs, but listen - everyone cannot and will not accept the Word in its entirety. Doing the parts that benefit us comes easy.  The part that causes us heartache and sacrifice is a different story for many others. We cannot think that those before us who were righteous can also gift us an easy Christian walk and connection to the Vine. Sunday morning service does not guarantee you a constant connection to the Vine. Your parents' relationship with Yeshua, does not guarantee you constant connection with the Vine.  It is your own walk which determines your connection to the Vine.  As such there will come a time where we must make a choice as it pertains to our direct relationship. We will have to chose to either stand up for the Messiah or not.  Unfortunately, this may mean some emotional decisions for many of us (I included). The question is where will you stand?  Will you stand with the Son or will you stand against Him?

We have to realize that pruning in our spiritual walk is also a constant health check on our relationship with Christ.  You do not want anything in this life to jeopardize your eternal life after this flesh is gone.  So, I end with this last question:  What do you need to start pruning from your life today?

Decisions. Decisions.

Be blessed folks.


Antoine E. Hall

Updated: January 21, 2020

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Naked You Came. Naked You Shall Return

Image Courtesy of Biblewise.com

A couple of nights ago, the family got to sit down and read Job 1 (sounds like Jobe) and I have to tell you, I learned (and re-learned) some things once again.  It isn't that I do not always learn but rather this was a different take on the same scripture that I have read in the past. I am not going to quote the entire chapter one in its entirety but I do want to set the stage for what is the beginning of many trials for a servant of God.

Job, the Man.

For those who do not know of Job, he "was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1).  He had seven sons and three daughters which by most standards today would constitute as a large family for one home.  "He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen and 500 female donkeys, as well as a great number of servants; so that he was the wealthiest man in the east." (Job 1:3).  If you continue reading verses 4 and 5, you will see that each of his sons had feasts on their respective days and invited their sisters to come and feast with them.  And, at the end all of this, Job would offer up burnt offerings to the Lord JUST IN CASE his sons might have sinned against God.  This is the type of man, that he was.

The Challenge.

The interesting thing about Job's trials is that they all started out with a conversation between the Lord and Satan.  In verses 6 through 12, we find that the conversation begins with the Lord asking Satan where he had been.  Satan simply responded that he had been roaming the earth here and there.  At this point is where it gets interesting.  Sounding like the father of a proud son, the Lord asked Satan if he had noticed Job whom as we remember "was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1).  As the discussion carries on Satan responds by saying that the Lord had protected Job and provided all the things he had.  If all of those things were taken away, Job would surely curse God (see Job 11).  So, to prove just how upright Job was God laid down the challenge by stating that Satan could touch everything around Job, but he could not touch Job himself.

Now that you have a back drop, in chapter one alone we see that Satan starts to make events happen that surround Job.  We find that he has his oxen stolen and the servants tending to them were killed, but one to relay the message to Job.  We see that fire fell from the sky to consume the sheep and servants and all were killed, but one to relay the message to Job.  Then, the Chaldeans attacked and stole all the camels and killed the servants, but one to relay the message to Job.  Lastly, is what I would consider as what should have been a dagger.  As Job's sons and daughters feasted in the oldest brother's home, a rouge wind came and collapsed the home on top of them, killing them all but who?  Yep, you guessed it.  It killed all but one servant to relay the message back to Job.

All at once, the once great man of the east had is wealth reduced to nothing.  To the average person in modern time, they might would immediately curse God and/or commit suicide however Job was not the average person.  In an act that seems almost impossible in most eyes, Job drew himself closer to the Lord.  Job tore his cloths off, shaved his head and fell down on the ground and worshiped by saying:

"Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)

Verse 22 ends the chapter with " In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly".  WOW!  I say WOW because that is true Love for the one who first Loved us!  So with that, this is what I took away from Chapter 1.

Be Perfect, Upright, Fear God, & Avoid Evil  - The way that Job became the great man that he was is because of these qualities.  Becoming wealthy isn't in the cards for everyone.  As a matter of fact, owning a lot things is not the plan that God has for you, but we can still be great people of God by keeping the qualities that Job had.  With that being said, God will give you everything you need.

Nothing Happens to You Unless God Allows It - People have a habit of blaming the devil for many things that happen to them.  In a lot of the cases, it is not Satan who causes us problems, but rather what God has allowed to happen.  With Job, Satan had to get permission to cause distress to him, but still it had to be within the parameters that God set.  God will let bad things happen to you to make you grow up, to tear things from your grips that are hindering your spiritual walk, or a host of other things.  In Job's case, the permission came to show how upright Job would be despite his material and emotional loss.

Naked You Came. Naked You Shall Return - Job gave us this lesson and pretty much sums up our lives.  Out of all the things you obtain in this life we cannot take it with us when we die.  When we are born into this world, we had nothing but our naked bodies.  When we die, you may be buried in a suite or dress, but you aren't taking them with you to heaven or hell.  Even when it comes to relatives.  Although we may see them again one day upon Jesus' return, it is alone that we are born and naked that we shall die.

These things are hard to even understand for many of us because our flesh tends to desire the things that we see as opposed to focusing on the things we cannot see.  I hope that this will be a blessing to you as much as it was for me in learning (and re-learning) this application of the Word of God.

Be Blessed folks!

Antoine E. Hall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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Bring Things Back Into Focus

Colossians 3:17;22-25  (17) That is, everything you do or say, do in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks through him to God the Father.  (18) Wives, subject yourselves to your husbands, as is appropriate in the Lord...(22) Slaves, obey your human masters in everything, not serving only when they are watching you, to win their favor, but single-heartedly, fearing the Lord. (23) Whatever work you do, put yourself into it, as those who are serving not merely other people, but the Lord. (24) Remember that as your reward, you will receive the inheritance from the Lord. You are slaving for the Lord, for the Messiah. (25) Don’t worry — whoever is doing wrong will be paid in kind for his wrong, and there is no favoritism shown.

Who says that waking up in the morning to hit the grind of work is easy?  For those who are fortunate enough to have gainful employment, we can get use to the same routine of waking up Monday through Friday to go to the same job to do the same functions to only have two days off.  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  I know how it feels because this is me.

Over the past few years, I have some how lost my focus for who it is that I labor.  As a man, we tend to focus on providing for our families.  We want to make sure there is a roof over their heads, food is on the table, the heat and lights are on and that everyone is happy.   Women who work can fall victim to the same things as well.  See, it is a dangerous trap to place the labor we do as a secondary means to provide in a fleshly manner for the household.  Some where along the way, we forget that God provided the job.  We gave Him thanks when it first came along and then some time down the road it turned into something we just shrug and assume it will always be there.

This morning, I want to challenge you to change your focus.  In Colossians, Paul tells us to work as we work for the Lord and not for man.  We are to do the work that we do as if we are walking into the Lords office every morning.  If you had to swipe your security card with Jesus every day as you walked through the building, how would that change your attitude?  I suspect a lot!  As such, let's remember in all that we do and say, we do it unto the Lord.  No matter what happens at work.  No matter how good or bad you may think you have it, do your tasks as given to you and work it all out for the Lord!

Image Courtesy of MediaWiki Commons

Have a great day folks!

Antoine E. Hall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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Getting Into a Rod Bending Match With God

Courtesy of WikiHow.com

I know what you're thinking.  That is a really weird title.  Besides, how could I possible get into a rod bending match with God.  He is all powerful and we all would lose every time.  Well, that is exactly the point.  We cannot and will never win a contest with the Triune God!

The phrase "rod bending match" is something I came up with a few years back (it may not be original, but hey it was new to me)  It is when we, wrestle with and against the will of God when directed by the Holy Spirit.  We are like the rod, where we try to resist bending at all cost, but being omnipotent, not only do we lose, but we can be broken.  Our will is not stronger than God's will no matter how much we resist. When I think about this analogy two individuals in the Bible come to mind.  They are Jeremiah and Jonah (Moses resisted the Lord at first, but you can read on that in Exodus 3 & 4).

As humans, you will find that we are all in agreement with getting things done until the responsibility falls onto your shoulders.  This is no difference with Jeremiah.  In Jeremiah 1, we are introduced to Jeremiah and we are told that this is where the Lord calls him and give him his first visions.  In the first message the Lord tells him, "I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5).  In the very next verse, Jeremiah says, "'O Sovereign Lord', I said, 'I can't speak for you! I’m too young!'" (Jeremiah 1:6).  In his one answer, Jeremiah makes two excuses.  First, he claims that he is too young.  Secondly, he said that he could not speak for the Lord because he was too young.

As you might know, you cannot out wit or excuse your way out from the all-knowing God. You can only allow Him to show you the strengths you already have or what He can give to you.  In a very parent like manner, the Lord tells him not to make the excuse that he is too young.  He then tells Jeremiah that he would say whatever He told him to say!  I could only chuckle at that because as parent I can relate!  The beautiful thing about this correction is that the Lord also assures Jeremiah not to be afraid of the people and that He would protect him (just like a parent).  At that point, the Lord touched his mouth and put words in it (Jeremiah 10).

Problem solved.  Jeremiah only made excuses as to why he could not do the Lord's will.  However, Jonah is a completely different story.   Let's have a look at Jonah.

Jonah 1:1-3 says:

(1) The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: (2) "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are."  (3) But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Jonah had a direct order from the Lord to go announce His judgement against the city of Nineveh, but he chose to run.  Where did he think he was going to go, I have no idea, but he tried to run.  Jonah, then buys a ticket aboard a ship, but as the ship traveled over the sea, "(4)...the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.  (5) Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.  But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. (6) So the captain went down after him. 'How can you sleep at a time like this?' he shouted. 'Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.'  (7) Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. (8) 'Why has this awful storm come down on us?' they demanded. 'Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?'  (9) Jonah answered, 'I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.'  (10) The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. 'Oh, why did you do it?' they groaned. (11) And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, 'What should we do to you to stop this storm?'  (12) 'Throw me into the sea," Jonah said, "and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.'" (Jonah 1:4-12).

Even the sailors knew that running from "Jonah's God" was a bad thing.  They wondered how could Jonah do such a thing and now they were caught up in his disobedience.  After trying to continue through the storm, the sailors gave in and threw Jonah overboard.  In Jonah 2, we see that he is then swallowed by a fish (not a whale as some are taught.  The Bible just says a fish.) and there he stayed for three days and three nights. At that point, Jonah had finally quit running, prayed, and agreed to be obedient as to what the Lord had set out for him to do.  "Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach." (Jonah 2:10).

In both scenarios, the Lord's will prevailed.  You cannot make excuses.  You cannot run.  You cannot hide.  Even your own resistance can make you feel like a fugitive on the run from the police.  You're constantly looking over your shoulders.  You are on edge about every thing.  You see everyone as a potential enemy and then wonder why things are happening in your life they way that they are.  Only if you circle back to the original issue, it could be that you are running from God's mandate on your life.  Stop running and surrender.  It will only make things a little easier for you.

So what has He called you to do?

Be Blessed.

Antoine E. Hall

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