Discipline = Obedience

Obedience = Love

I am not perfect but this does not stop me from following in Messiah's footsteps which lead us into that perfection which completes us.

I have come out of the Mystery Babylon mindset but still have some habits to break. I know right from wrong but fall short from time to time.

I am at that point on His Path of Righteousness that when I look back at the way I use to be I shake my head in shame and cannot believe I was that person. 

Praise YHWH and His steadfast love and His everlasting covenant!

It is by reading His Instructions that I have learned right from wrong; good from evil. These lessons prompt me to be obedient to the One who created me. It is by following His Instructions in Righteousness that I am becoming disciplined. I choose to do so by faith.

​Exodus 15:26 - If you will diligently listen to the voice of ​YHWH your Elohim, and do that which is right in ​H​is eyes, and give ear to ​H​is commandments and keep all ​H​is statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am ​YHWH​, your healer.

Deuteronomy 11:26- See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

Deuteronomy 30:15- See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity. For I command you this day to love Yahweh your Elohim, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His laws, and His rules, that you may thrive and increase, and that He may bless you... But if your heart turns away and you give no heed, and are lured into the worship and service of other gods, I declare to you this day that you shall certainly perish... I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Chose life by loving Yahweh Elohim, heeding His commands and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure.

Deuteronomy 30:19- I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life if you and your offspring would live by loving Yahweh Elohim, heeding His commands, and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have life and long endure.

John 14:15 - Y'shua said if you love me keep my commands. 14:21- He who has and keeps my commandments is he who loves me and will be loved by my Father. 15:10 - If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept the commandments of my Father (Torah) and I abide in His love. 

Revelation 22:14 - Blessed are those who do His commandments for they shall be given the right to the Tree of Life and will be allowed to enter into the city (New Jerusalem).

The Ten Commandments Summarized

Obedience is Discipline

His Governing System

The 2 The 10 and The Rest Follow Naturally

Matthew 22 tells us that Yah's Instructions (Torah) and the (writings of the) prophets hold onto these two commandments: 

• Love Master Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, soul, might and mind 
• Love your neighbor as yourself 

Earlier, we read in Deuteronomy 6:5

• You shall love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and all your soul and with all your might.

and in Leviticus 19:18

• Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself.

You see, those "two great commands" do not replace anything else - they come straight from the Old Testament, the part referred to as Torah. If you love Yah with your entire being then it should be no problem for you to understand and follow His Instructions.

I am YHWH your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. I YHWH am your Elohim, impassioned, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children upon the third and the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not swear falsely by My Name for I will not clear one who does.

If you love your fellowman as yourself, you will treat him with the same respect as you would like to be treated. You should have no problem following the Instructions of Yahweh.

Honor your mother and father that you may long endure in the Promised Land that I am giving you. You shall not murder, or commit adultery or steal or bare false witness against one another. You shall not covet your neighbor's house or wife or anything that belongs to him.

Those who do the commandments are those who love Yahweh. 

Without love, observing His Instructions is vanity and 

without His Instructions one's love is vanity.

Remember the sabbath day and keep it set apart. Six days you shall do all your work but the seventh day is a sabbath of Mine. You, your family, your hired hands or your work animals or the stranger who is visiting your town shall do no work. I made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them in six days and on the seventh I rested, therefore I blessed the sabbath day and set it apart.

All of His Instructions are recorded in the the first five books of Scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. This is His Instruction Manual provided for His Creation.  Sure, it takes some study time to even begin to understand what was going on back in those days and to learn that it still applies to us today; just as any owner's manual needs to be read a few times before the instructions make sense, become clear.

Nothing was done away with when Yahshua came on the scene, in fact, he clarifies and even raises the standard a few times, but he did not put an end to what the Father started.

Exodus 20:

I am YHWH your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods besides Me.

You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.

I YHWH am your Elohim, impassioned, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children upon the third and the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those w ho love Me and keep My commandments.

You shall not swear falsely by My Name for I will not clear one who does.

Remember the sabbath day and keep it set apart. Six days you shall do all your work but the seventh day is a sabbath of Mine. You, your family, your hired hands or your work animals or the stranger who is visiting your town shall do no work. I made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them in six days and on the seventh I rested, therefore I blessed the sabbath day and set it apart.

Honor your mother and father that you may long endure in the Promised Land that I am giving you.

You shall not murder, or commit adultery or steal or bare false witness against one another. You shall not covet your neighbor's house or wife or anything that belongs to him.

Obedience is Discipline

Obeying the Creator

By observing Torah, which is obeying the laws God gave all mankind, we demonstrate our love for Him. Most Christians are following Torah without knowing it! They keep about 1/3 of the commands simply by living moral, upright lives. We have the testimony of Messiah AND the choice to follow God's commands. If we've got Messiah and follow him and we allow the Holy Spirit to work inside us, YHWH will reveal Truth every step of the way.

If you continue to study Scripture then Knowledge and Understanding will increase, baggage falls away, the narrow gate opens and the straight path is revealed. Halleluyah! and praise Elohim for His steadfast love that all would have the chance and choose to turn from sin and return to Him - the One who created us! 

This is the path we journey along towards our real home. We come across many stepping stones as well as stumbling blocks, but our Faith keeps us steady. Satan's goal is to knock us off that path of righteousness. Our goal is the Heavenly Kingdom YHWH told us about through His servants, the prophets of old.  Messiah confirmed all that God had commanded as it is written in the renewed covenant.  The message has been preserved and handed down through the ages. We are the lost sheep of Israel and those other sheep that have heard our Shepherd's Voice. That doesn't mean we stop learning and become content where we are, but we let the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter Y'shua gave us after he died, continue to guide us, teach us and reveal the Word of God to us. That is why he calls it A Path - we move along his path so as not to stagnate in a perceived comfort zone.

Torah reveals right from wrong. It is a set of instructions necessary for the behavior of mankind, not a tool to use to find favor with God (that's what hypocrites are guilty of). It is just as much a part of our lives today as it was in the days of Moses, and Abraham and Noah.

There is evil in the world today just as there was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah and surrounding towns. The world we live in today is much as it was in the days of Noah. And it's going to get worse. Our heavenly Father's laws reveal sin and keep us from evil as we walk through that shadowy valley of Death. We recognize right from wrong because we have the definition of both good and evil described in the 1st five books of Scriptures.

Y'shua Messiah was killed and his blood of atonement 'justifies', or absolves us of the guilt of sin. This act 'sanctifies' or sets us apart unto Elohim. We trust and obey God and this will be credited to us as 'righteousness'. (Galatians 3:6)

Y'shua Messiah did not put an end to what our Creator began.

The Spirit is continually teaching us and God is testing to see what is in our hearts. That was the purpose of the 40 years in the wilderness after Moses led that mixed multitude out of Egypt - YHWH knew what was in their hearts yet tested them to see if they would obey Him like they said they would. Well, as you know, only 2 of the original generation made it to the promise land of Canaan - Joshua and Caleb.

Keeping Torah in today's World

Torah is not a religion but God's perfect governing system for all mankind. Of the 613 commandments, 221 apply only to the temple, priesthood and their duties, sacrifices and ritual purity. Since the the physical temple and all associated with it does not exist today these laws do not apply and no law is 'broken' if some thing doesn't exist.  That leaves 392 'laws', which are divided among the rest of us, according to our station in life.

For example: Over 50 laws apply to you if you are a farmer or running a business. Over 60 laws apply to  judges or those  involved in the judicial system. There are 45 laws that apply to us in regard to social behaviors, community and family affairs, and some of those are for just men, and some just for women.  
 

The laws of God YHWH are not a burden and they are able to be kept.  He would not give us anything that we could not bear.  His rules and regulations bring order to the affairs of man and teach us how to handle our own daily affairs. You and I don't lie, cheat, steal or murder but there are many who do. Yahweh protects us, gives us a legal leg to stand on, if these wrongdoings befall us.  He takes into consideration laws regarding 'Involuntary Manslaughter' as well as 'Premeditated Murder'.

Torah is not complicated and is provided for everyone. It represents the character of YHWH our Elohim and His values according to His will - it elevates human life by establishing justice and equality for everyone.

John 14:15 - Y'shua said if you love me keep my commands. 14:21- He who has and keeps my commandments is he who loves me and will be loved by my Father. 15:10 - If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept the commandments of my Father (Torah) and I abide in His love.

Revelation 22:14 - Blessed are those who do His commandments for they shall be given the right to the Tree of Life and will be allowed to enter into the city (New Jerusalem).

The Law is the Word of YHWH our Elohim, and His commandments are found in the first five books of Scripture. His Son confirms this by obeying the will of his Father. Throughout Scripture we are told to show we love Him by keeping His commandments then He will be our Elohim and we will be His people. God would not tell us to do something if we weren't able to do so.

Definitions from Webster's

Justification = the condition necessary for salvation; of being absolved of the guilt of sin.
Sanctification = set apart, consecrated, made free from (bondage to) sin, purified, dedicated.
Righteousness = acting in a just, upright manner, doing what is morally right.

Torah is the Hebrew word for Instruction; instructions for discerning what is morally right, and teaches us how to live in a just manner, advising us on how to be justified and become sanctified - it is the instructions which point us to the Promised Land.  God Himself chose His people to be Set Apart as He is Set Apart... this happens by obeying Him, everything He commands.

New Covenant, Old Covenant, is Torah a covenant?

Right off the get-go we are being gently led astray by a bad translation, the word 'New'. The original Hebrew word 'chadash' means to re-new or to make new or repair. It was never a New covenant but a Renewed covenant. Theologians have long used this term to steer the 'church' away from the rules and commands by God written in Genesis through Deuteronomy, aka Torah.

In the research of Andrew Gabriel Roth, he found that " post-apostlic church founder, Marcion (110-160 AD), who was considered a heretic by the early church, coined the terms 'Old Testament' and 'New Testament' suggesting that the old was done away with, replaced with the new.  His false anti-torah theology is still believed by most Christians today."

A covenant is a contract, a promise, a firm agreement, a pact, made in faith by which the parties involved are trusted to uphold their end of said contract. In every contract there is an exchange of value. In the Renewed contract/covenant Y'shua Messiah offers redemption for our lives but we must reciprocate (hold up our end of the contract) by being obedient.

Torah contains the Terms and Conditions of Yahweh's covenant between Himself and mankind. Torah demands the element of Faith to bring mutual benefits between the parties involved.
  
John 15:10 - IF you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept the commandments of my Father Elohim and I abide in His love.

In reality, the new covenant (NT) is a renewal of the older covenant God had formerly made between Himself and His people. Y'shua Messiah and his apostles obeyed the Father, they were Torah observant. It is not a burden and it is not impossible to live by God's Commands.