Philip's posts with tag: god
|  | | Apart from players and a ball, the game requires THREE ELEMENTS: |  | A playing field; | | A will and strategy to win; | | A referee, the whistle blower | | 
| | | | God created a playing field, Paradise, and two players in his image (with a body, a soul and spirit), Adam and Eve to play - or actually just to live in this field and manage it. Then Satan came and turned their lives into a competitive game/struggle by giving them a choice to live according to God's rules or to do their own thing. And they fell for it, causing God to have to evict them from this pleasant field to take up the challenge to play in a rough field that they needed to tame while all along fighting against their inclination not to do the right thing. Those who opted in principle not to make a commitment to play according to God's rules became Satan's players, opposing God's players. And this on a playing field that God had to share with Satan. (The football game has the same "components" as God himself, a Body (field), Yeshua; a Soul, the Father, the thinking, feeling One, the heart; The Referee, Whistle blower, the Spirit. This game with its three components plus God's players and His ball represents the Kingdom of God.) The ball represents the TRUTH, that which is in agreement with God's perfect rules for living and acquiring eternal life, as against Satan's lies. Actually, there are two balls in this game since the truth and the lie cannot exist side be side like in the YingYang concept or "Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security!" In other words, the players on both sides have a ball they need to get into the other side's goal post and one that they need to prevent from getting into their own goal post. Until one of the sides wins, both balls will remain in the playing field. God's players should play to win, although in love and according to his laws, while Satan's team plays dirty and anything goes for the sake of winning, including playing the man and not necessarily the ball. For that reason his players all leave the playing field with red cards, while God's players retire with honors. Some are carried off on stretchers, of whom some don't survive and join the martyrs who are waiting under God's throne. Soon the situation became so bad that God only had eight players left, Noah, his wife and his three sons and their wives. Consequently he had to destroy Satan's whole team in the flood and start all over again with players from Noah's family's offspring . Satan, nevertheless, managed to establish himself firmly in Babylon, that became the breeding ground for demon worship and a one world system of rule for mankind. God foiled his one-world aspirations by dividing the people into groups speaking different languages that caused them to migrate over the world and set up independent nations speaking different languages. Satan kept on developing his evil doctrines in Babylon and disseminating them over the earth - actually, the different language groups already took these doctrines with them when they dispersed over the earth. And Satan is, of course, still in our day trying to set up his one-world system. God all along had a perfect means of salvation built into himself in that he had a Body who could become human, with flesh and blood, that could be sacrificed to establish salvation by his unblemished blood - since salvation is only by blood. However, he didn't have a playing field of his own with players set aside for his purposes. That is, to practice his rules under more favorable conditions with help from him - as well as to provide a mother from among them to give birth to his Son as a Son of man -- to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind. One who was one of them. For this purpose he took Abram and Sarah from Babylon to go and establish a new nation (players) on a playing field that he promised would eternally be theirs - as well as his own personal inheritance. He built an assurance of victory into them by promising that their nation would exist eternally - contrary to other nations that come and go. His honor is therefore tied up with his ability to preserve this nation, the Hebrews, eternally. The match became limited to Canaan, renamed Israel, the home stadium, from where it spread on a limited scale to some other nations like Ethiopia. It became a very boring football match in which the balls were kicked this way and that way for thousands of years. At one time so many of God's players, the Israelites had walked over to the opposition that God exiled the whole nation, Judah and Israel, back to Babylon, allowing his home field to become desolate with only a small number of Israelites left in it. It is actually a notable fact that his inheritance becomes desolate when the Hebrews don't live in it. We see it even in our day in areas occupied by the Arabs. The "Greenline" got its name from everything being green up to the area that was under Jordanian occupation. The settlers in Gaza even produced masses of vegetables on sand dunes that the Arabs said were cursed. Satan was actually awarded a penalty goal when Adam and Eve chose to do things their own way. He was therefore one point up on God. To catch up, God needed to wait for about 4,000 years after the fall of the first Adam for the right scenario to develop, namely the rise of the Roman Empire, for his Son to be birthed in Betlechem. Then God could score that most classical goal by the death and resurrection of Yeshua. It cancelled Satan's penalty goal in paradise, but it didn't disqualify him from the game. He could keep on playing. The Jews were not disqualified either from their role of being the source of the Gospel and of re-establishing the home stadium in preparation for the return of Messiah - to score his second and final goal in the game and thereby bar Satan from further participation in the game - for a thousand years. In the year 70 CE, however, all but a hand full of the Hebrews had to flee from the home stadium and got dispersed into the nations (the Galut, Diaspora) - where God enabled them to maintain their Jewish identity by subjecting them to laws that they kept slavishly without questioning their legalistic nature. It took nearly 2000 years before the home playing field, Israel, was re-allocated to the home team. It cost God the lives of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust to create a psychological moment in the United Nations in which a fleeting sense of guilt caused the nations to vote in favor of establishing a Jewish homeland in the British Mandate area west of the Jordan River. Although they had to share it with Satan's false claimant, Ismael's seed, it was a beginning towards restoring the home land to the format and size of that of king David's dynasty - in preparation for the ultimate David in his royal line to rule over Israel and the nations. For 2,000 years the Kingdom of God had to function purely on the strength of the Gospel and God's grace without a home stadium. For most of this time the players (church) were kept in total ignorance of the rules of God's game and doctrinal truth due to the Babylonian practise by the dominating powerful Roman Catholic church to reveal knowledge to an enlightened few in leading positions. (They were vitually just playing with Satan's ball.) The Reformation opened the door for God to bring life into the church and to build a remnant of true believers from the nations who could be added to his Kingdom as members of the Commonwealth of Israel. Ephesians 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Satan managed, however, to divert the majority of the church to Babylonian roots and gnosticism that rejected the Jewish roots of the Kingdom. They therefore belong to Satan's and not the God of Israel's Kingdom. A huge sector of the Jews have also become rooted in the Babylonian model in their thinking and lifestyle and it is these Jews who were behind the re-establishment of Israel and they have mostly subsequently been its rulers. They for sure don't play in God's team, since their agenda is not to restore Israel to a powerful state worthy to be ruled by Yeshua's on his return, but to maintain a weakened multicultural state that will not be too strong to fit in a one world system. God nevertheless used them to re-establish his inheritance for him to resettle his faithful remnant - whom he will use to restore Israel to her former glory under king David. A land we see in Ezekiel 38 in which her people will live in safety and so wealthy that the nations, Gog and Magog and their allies will come to rob her of her wealth. God's hometeam will be so powerful that it will take an alliance of just about all the nations to take them on. It will only be Yeshua's return to fight for them, that will preserve them at that time. How will Israel become that wealthy? It seems that it can only be as a result of the war of Isaiah 17 in which Damascus gets destroyed and Aroer (Jordan) gets emptied out of people, followed by the war in Isaiah 18/19 in which Egypt will be defeated. It is important to note that the struggle for the Kingdom returned to Israel after her re-establishment. It probably set an approximate for the "fullness of the gentiles" to have come in. It make the Jews once again the main players in the game in the run up to Yeshua's return. How ironic, that they need to battle for the restoration of the dynasty of the the ultimate David, before they even know who he is. However, He will reveal himself to them in his time like Joseph did to his brothers. See "...And then all Israel will be saved." (Based on Romans 11:26) What then about the gentiles in this time while Israel is being restored? They should preserve and separate themselves from the apostasy that has taken root in most churches and congregations and start acting in solidarity with the Commonwealth of Israel to which they belong. Psalms 69:34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them 35 For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it 36 The children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there
Rom 9:21-25 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." NKJV
Amos 9:11-12 "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,And repair its damages;I will raise up its ruins,And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom,And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," NKJV
Isa 56:8 For the Lord God who brings back the outcasts of Israel says, "I will bring others too besides my people Israel." TLB
See Tribulation Scripturally, the gentiles should also help to restore Israel, the home base of the Commonwealth of Israel, as well as help to re-settle the Jews in it: Isaiah 14:2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD'S land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors
Isaiah 49:22 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Isaiah 60:10 "Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion.
Isaiah 61:5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards 
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The Jewish Leadership Weekly Newsletter 11 Av, 5767 (July26) Issue 6742 | Dueling Buses |  The primaries bus duel has begun in earnest. Bibi is promising Israel the Golden Calf of "success." Moshe Feiglin is promising Israel faith in G-d. That is the choice that the Likud voters will have to make. What will they choose?  On the surface, the answer seems simple. The material world is always more enticing than the spiritual world. Until now, Israeli voters have had only one choice -- the Golden Calf. All of the politicians until now have seduced them with superficial enticements that have turned out to be nothing more than facades for the horrors concealed just below the surface.Material success is certainly important. But something strange is going on here. Israel has never been so wealthy and simultaneously on such shaky ground. Israel has never been so successful while its poor search the garbage cans for scraps of food. Israel has never been so progressive while its citizens do not believe that the country will exist for their children. So why is Moshe Feiglin promising Israel belief in G-d? We believe in the Nation of Israel and its until-now hidden strength. This is what gives us the courage to challenge it to believe and to urge it to return to its Jewish values. We believe that the soul of the nation deeply desires its Father in Heaven. We believe that Israel does have a G-d and that our campaign slogan aptly expresses this concealed longing. With G-d's help, we will win the upcoming primaries and within a short time will offer the Nation new leadership -- leadership with a G-d. With your help and prayers, it is certainly possible. Moshe Feiglin | | Jewish Identity or the Golden Calf? By Moshe Feiglin | |  Excerpt translated from Moshe Feiglin's book, "The War of Dreams." 24 Nisan, 5764
April 15, 2004 For better or for worse, the Likud members are the Nation of Israel. They are the last national element that has not divided into sectors. The average Likud member is the most authentic representative of the Israeli public that is still connected to its Jewish identity. He is not the Right branch, the Left branch or the Religious branch; the Likud member is the trunk of the tree. He is the Nation of Israel. Our Sages have taught us that when the Nation of Israel is asked to contribute to the building of the Holy Temple, it does so with all its heart. And when it is asked to contribute to the formation of the Golden Calf -- it also gives wholeheartedly. Nobody has ever asked the Likud members to contribute to the building of the Temple (in the broadest sense of the term). But they are constantly asked to contribute to the Calf. Nobody has ever come to the Likud members -- to the Nation of Israel -- and said, "You are part of a great truth; you are the descendants of the wondrous Nation of Prophets; your very existence is a historical miracle that points to a superhuman power that watches over you from above; do not fear -- just be yourselves, and the G-d of Israel will pave the way for you throughout the twists and turns of history and will guard you from evil." No leadership has ever spoken that language to the average Likud member. The only option left to him was to trust in the Golden Calf. After all, the existence of the Nation of Israel without G-d is patently impossible and unrealistic. How much time can we really exist here, one sheep among 70 wolves from both inside and out? So if Sharon gets a "commitment" from the American president -- who is here today and gone tomorrow -- the poor Likud member may wholeheartedly adopt it. For him, it is either G-d or Bush. When the belief based public surrendered its leadership goal, it left the Likud member with nothing more than Bush. That is the logic of Sharon and his cohorts.
But it turns out that the Jewish national foundations of the Likud members are stronger than they seem. Even without belief based leadership, the Likud member is naturally drawn in the right direction. It is amazing how the Likud memberss -- whose political leaders are completely incapable of explaining why it is worthwhile to live in this land -- remain loyal in the most basic way to the Land of Israel and their Jewish identity.
Today, it is not necessary to explain how right Manhigut Yehudit was in both its basic working assumptions and in the political convictions that they bred. A new pole is growing today in the Likud. It is a pole that urges the Nation of Israel to contribute to the Holy Temple. And when the time comes for the Nation of Israel to contribute -- it will!
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I have discovered that the easiest way to figure out the multiplicity and characteristics of our Elohim (gods - plural), is to do understand our own make up of body, soul and spirit. I discovered this about fifteen years ago during a time of extreme emotional trauma in which I had to deal with the problem of bringing the whirlpool of thoughts that were going around and around in my mind into order to be able to sleep. I realized that one's mind is just able to juggle what it knows into different combinations to find some rationality in a given situation and that my mind wasn't going to come to rest without input from my spirit from God's Spirit. The obvious way to get this input was to pray in tongues, thereby cutting out my mind, but that was all it really did and it didn't result in anything tangible that could ease my mind. It's a sure way to receive instructions and strategies from God, but not of finding rest in him. For that I needed to apply the spiritual principle that God descends on us as our worship goes up to him. Consequently I started worshiping him from a Feast of Tabernacles songbook of the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem (IECJ). I'm not a singer, but a good whistler (like God - Isa 5:26), so I whistled as I read the words, and it enabled God to minister directly to my soul from lyrics like, "Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side! Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain; Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change He faithful will remain... Needless to say, this spiritual operation enabled me to receive so much rest and peace in the Lord that I was able to sleep. It was like a sleeping pill from the Lord, just better, because it resulted in natural, relaxed, vs. a drug induced sleep. The battle wasn't over though, I still needed to get answers and a strategy from the Lord. The Jewish Yom Kipur day of fasting came up, and I decided to fast for three days in stead of just the one -- not that I normally feel obligated to fast on Yom Kipur - I received my "chatimah tovah." (signature of approval) in Yeshua. We lived on a mountain high above the Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem and there were terraces below our house where I spent many hours praying and worshiping and it didn't just give me the answers I needed, it also showed me the clear distinction between my soul and my spirit persons. Discerning the three persons, body, soul and spirit, that constitutes my being, made me realize that God saying "let US create man in OUR image," can only mean that He also consists of a Body, a Soul and a Spirit. A conclusion that God's BODY is the body in which he appears on earth is fairly logical. Apart from Yeshua having taken up that body, there are many instances where God appeared in person on earth, while we know our heavenly Father is always in heaven. For instance, Abram eventually calling one of the three men who visited him, LORD. Similarly Gideon realizing that he had to do with God in person, etc. This singles out the God of Israel, ELOHIM, from "other" gods, in the respect that he doesn't need a statue or an image to represent him, like Hari Krishna, a Buddha, the moon god Allah's black rock, a cross, a fish, etc. - see Symbolism. What would they be without those objects??!! NOTHING. Saying that the God of Israel is the same God as Allah of Islam, based on the devil's handy tool, called MONOTHEISM, is unspeakably blasphemous!! Most Christians understand that God's Spirit Person is the Holy Spirit although few know him intimately or have an inkling of how vital it is to be filled (baptized) with him and to receive input from him. King David showed this clearly in saying to God: Psalms 51:11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me The fact that it is the gravest of all sins to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, shows us that he is God like God the Father. (I think some evangelists' using the Holy Spirit like a gimmick also amounts to blasphemy) Matt 12:32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. NIV The Apostle Paul explained that God the Father, one of the three Persons of God, is uppermost: 1 Cor 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. NIV
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. NIV Humans are body, soul and spirit similar to Elohim, and I have identified the Body and Spirit Persons of Elohim. It leaves us with just one option, namely that God the Father is the SOUL Person of God. The soul person is the thinking and feeling (center of emotions) person of man and therefore of God as well. It is in the SOUL Person of God (the Father) where love (for us) is centered as we see in John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. NKJV Let me ask this: In Abraham's having to slaughter his son Isaac on the altar, who suffered the most agony, Abraham or his son? I contend, Abraham, since Isaac didn't even know about him going to be the lamb until Abraham actually raised his knife to kill him. Similarly Yeshua only really agonized about being slaughtered when it was about to happen, while His Father suffered all along about having to send his only begotten Son to die for us. In view of the fact that is the soul person of man that needs salvation for him not to be lost, we should really identify the MOST intimately with God the Father (the SOUL). Ex 30:11 And Jehovah said to Moses, "Whenever you take a census of the people of Israel, each man who is numbered shall give a ransom to the Lord for his soul, so that there will be no plague among the people when you number them. TLB
Job 33:29 "Yes, God often does these things for man- 30 brings back his soul from the pit, so that he may live in the light of the living. TLB
Ps 49:14 Death is the shepherd of all mankind. And "in the morning" those who are evil will be the slaves of those who are good. For the power of their wealth is gone when they die, they cannot take it with them. 15 But as for me, God will redeem my soul from the power of death, for he will receive me. TLB
Prov 22:24 Keep away from angry, short-tempered men, lest you learn to be like them and endanger your soul. TLB Luke 16:22 Finally the beggar died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham in the place of the righteous dead. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and his soul went into hell. There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham. TLB Christians talk about being the bride of Christ, as well as, God is my husband: Hos 2:16 "And it shall be, in that day," Says the LORD, "That you will call Me 'My Husband,'
And no longer call Me 'My Master,' NKJV [In Hebrew the same word, baal, is used for husband and master.]
Isa 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. NKJV
Jer 3:14 "Return, O backsliding children," says the LORD; "for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. NKJV
Hos 2:7 She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.' NKJV To be a good wife, a woman needs to know the likes and dislikes of her husband; his prerogatives, vision, aspirations, desires, hopes, etc. Most Christians, however, only identify with the Jesus formula for salvation and prosperity, in which their only responsibility is to keep a local congregation going, or to at least attend church services - even get a once a week spiritual high from being swept along in worship. It's mostly about Jesus with whom they identify because he was with us (Emmanuel = God with us), he paid the price for us, is God's WORD, LAMB, etc. But God the SOUL is the one who appreciates our worship most. He is the One who wants to be glorified. He is the One who says, "I am a JEALOUS God. To truly know God, we need to know what is uppermost in his heart; that with which he is pre-occupied! It is Israel, and we see it from the word Israel appearing 2567 times in the NKJV, Jerusalem 821 times, Zion 162 times - not to mention a multitude of other expressions related to Israel and Jerusalem like, "My holy mountain, hill, etc. It is with Israel that God has an eternal covenant, no other nation. His HONOR depends on the existence of the State Israel and the Jews. That's why Satan tries so hard to wipe them out. The primary reason for Yeshua's coming to earth was the Jews. He said it himself - he didn't come to to establish the church as Brother Jim also explained to us - ssbnsailor.multiply.com. It's about the Jews that God says, "They are like the apple of my eye!" Israel needs to exist for Messiah to return to. However, very few Christians identify with this pre-occupation of God the Father. For 99 percent of Christians who do involve themselves with Jews and Israel, it's exclusively about applying the Jesus-formula to the Jews and Israelis. The few times I've left Israel the last years, I always felt extremely unwelcome wherever I visited because nobody could ever see any relevance in introducing me to their friends, churches etc. as somebody serving the Lord in Israel or having firsthand knowledge about Israel. Of course, it also has to do with my calling to Israel being in solidarity with God's agenda with the Jews and not to apply the Jesus-formula. It also has to do with the idea that somebody who isn't sent out by the church doesn't have validity, covering etc. God is the ONE who calls people, not the church. You have to go even if the church doesn't agree or identify with your mission! For these reasons I have never ever really received any support from any church since I was called to go to in 1982. On my last visit abroad from Israel more than three years ago, I discovered that lectures were going to be given about the Jewish Feasts at one of the churches in the town where I was visiting. I phoned the man who was going to give the lectures and it turned out that he was a Jewish believer. And boy, was he delighted to speak to someone who actually lived in Israel?! In the end, however, he didn't even acknowledge my presence at the meeting - not even as a stranger. It eventually became clear to me that the only interest the Christians at the meeting had in Israel was that it helped them to formulate feasible eschatological understandings. I nevertheless received a strategy from the Lord before I left from there to accommodate refugees from the nations in Israel and to re-settled land that is presently under ARAB OCCUPATION. It is to settle the land like Abraham did, setting up campsites from place to place, as set out in Holy Land Camping. | 
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| | You and your tent in the sunset | Campsites will become Settlements | "Deserts will bloom..." |
G-d created the Shamayim and the Aretz - the heavens and the
earth. From this point, the Torah continues with occurrences on the land - that which takes place in the heavens is not mentioned. Curiously enough, this did not put an end to revelations about G-d, through-out human history.
Rav Kook, in writing his commentary to a Jewish prayerbook explains that HaShem reveals Himself to the entire world via Israel - He is called "HaShem, Elohei Yisrael," (The Lord, The G-d of Israel). Here, Am Israel (the People of Israel) become sort of a pipeline, or conduit, from which HaShem discloses Himself to all humanity. HaShem is revealed to mankind in the Shamayim and the Aretz, the material and the spiritual, but the doorway has always been Yerushali'im which explains why it is called "The City of the Great King."
Tzion
How was the world created?
When Hashem created the world, He didn't create it as a vast expanse of existence all at once. Rather, He created a single point, and from there, He drew out the entire universe. In other words, there was a single point of contact between the world above and this world.
We know where that place, that first point, is. It is behind the Kotel,
the "Western/Wailing Wall," on a hill where now sits a mosque. But in that same place, there is a stone. That stone is called the Even Shetia -- literally "the Foundation Stone."
The site of that stone was the place where the Tree of Life once stood. Adam and Hava were created and lived under the shadow of this Tree. It is the same place where HaShem tested Avraham by commanding him to bring up his son Yitzchak as a sacrifice; that stone is the site where Ya'acov dreamed of a ladder connecting Heaven and Earth and angels going up and down on it.
Around that stone stood the two Holy Temples. In the first Temple, the Holy Ark sat on top of that Foundation Stone, and around it was the Kodesh HaKdosh'im, "the Holy of Holies;" around the Holy of Holies was the Sanctuary; around the Sanctuary was the Courtyard of the Temple; around that was Jerusalem; and around Jerusalem -- the universe.
And it is around that stone that we long to see the Third and final Temple which the Mashiach Himself will build.
You can never describe a beautiful sunset to a person who has been sightless all his life. You can never describe Brahms' First Symphony to someone who has always been deaf. And we can never imagine the majesty and the awesomeness of the Holy Temple since we live in a world without it.
Thus we know that when the Holy Temple was destroyed, the connection between Heaven and Earth was severed. From then on, we perceive Heaven and Earth as totally separate entities. There is nothing left to show us the connection. Ya'acov's ladder is no longer. Yet the Mashiach will one day soon reestablish that connection.
Connecting Worlds
In Psalm 50, it says: "Out of Tzion, consummation of beauty, G-d appeared."
What does it mean that G-d "appeared" in this world out of Tzion? It means that there is a place called "Tzion" that connects the world above to this world. Tzion is the place of the foundation stone. They are one and the same -- the gateway to that which is beyond this world.
The word "Tzion" is an interesting word. It is related to the verb
"L'tzaiyen" -- meaning "to mark," "to indicate," of "to show something."
When we say that the world was founded on that point called Tzion, it means that the whole world stands on the principle that its very existence is to "mitzaiyen" -- to be indicative of something, to call out or show something.
When you found a nation, a club or a company, you make a declaration of its goals. When the American Colonies seceded, they drew up a "Declaration of Independence." That was the foundation of the United States. The foundation of something necessarily includes the aspirations and the ultimate purpose of that which has been founded. In other words, when we say that the world is founded on the point called Tzion, not only is Zion its point of departure -- the place from which it emanates and spreads out
-- but it is also its purpose.
The purpose of Tzion is to mark. To mark that there is something which protrudes above the vast trackless expanse of nothingness; to indicate that there is a world above this one.
And how might we best approach that world?
By a ladder. Seems practical enough.
Nothing in the Torah is coincidental. What is the idea of a ladder? A
ladder is that which connects one place to another. Ya'acov's ladder tells us that there is a place -- a place called Tsion -- that reveals a
connection between the upper and the lower.
Restoring the Former Glory
In the Torah, Moshe called HaShem "the Great, the Mighty, and the Awesome."
When the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) witnessed the destruction of the Holy Temple by the Babylonians he said "Foreigners are cavorting in HaShem's Sanctuary -- Where is His Awesomeness? Don't call HaShem `Awesome' anymore."
Yirmiyahu was saying that he could not relate to HaShem as "Awesome" anymore because foreigners were profaning the holiest place on this earth.
Although the prophet said that Hashem's "Awesomeness" was no longer visible in the world, some seventy years later, when Ezra came back from the Babylonian exile, he saw things from a different vantage point.
The very survival of the Jewish People to him, was "Awesome." This was how HaShem's Awesomeness would be revealed in a world without a Holy Temple.
 It never actually occurred to me to try to figure it out until I read Elohim's characterization of himself vs. dead idols in Jer 4:1 "O Israel, if you will truly return to me and absolutely discard your idols, 2 and if you will swear by me alone, the living God, and begin to live good, honest, clean lives, then you will be a testimony to the nations of the world, and they will come to me and glorify my name." TLB I discovered that He calls Himself a living God 33 times in the Living Bible (28 times in the NIV). It's a tricky question, and I can only explain it from the angle of Him, the God of Israel, Jehovah, being able to appear on earth in a living body, the Messiah, vs. other spirits having dead objects to represent them; viz. a rock, statues, etc. Awesome because He is a Living God Deut 5:26 What man can hear, as we have, the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, and live? You go and listen to all that God says, then come and tell us, and we will listen and obey.' TLB
Jer 10:10 But the Lord is the only true God, the living God, the everlasting King. The whole earth shall tremble at his anger; the world shall hide before his displeasure. TLB Proof that He is a Living God Josh 3:9 Then Joshua summoned all the people and told them, "Come and listen to what the Lord your God has said. 10 Today you are going to know for sure that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites-all the people who now live in the land you will soon occupy. TLB
Acts 14:15 "Men! What are you doing? We are merely human beings like yourselves! We have come to bring you the Good News that you are invited to turn from the worship of these foolish things and to pray instead to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16 In bygone days he permitted the nations to go their own ways, 17 but he never left himself without a witness; there were always his reminders-the kind things he did such as sending you rain and good crops and giving you food and gladness." TLB Sovereign to do as He pleases Job 27:2 "I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, even the Almighty God who has embittered my soul, TLB Because He's alive we need to meet Him personally for salvation Ps 42:1 As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him? TLB
1 Tim 4:9 This is the truth and everyone should accept it. We work hard and suffer much in order that people will believe it, for our hope is in the living God who died for all, and particularly for those who have accepted his salvation. TLB
Heb 9:14 just think how much more surely the blood of Christ will transform our lives and hearts. His sacrifice frees us from the worry of having to obey the old rules and makes us want to serve the living God. For by the help of the eternal Holy Spirit, Christ willingly gave himself to God to die for our sins-he being perfect, without a single sin or fault. TLB Dangerous to blaspheme the living God Isa 37:4 But perhaps the Lord your God heard the blasphemy of the king of Assyria's representative as he scoffed at the living God. Surely God won't let him get away with this. TLB Others also recognized His reputation as the Living God Dan 6:19 Very early the next morning he hurried out to the lions' den 20 and called out in anguish, "O Daniel, servant of the Living God, was your God, whom you worship continually, able to deliver you from the lions?" TLB Israelis are sons, children of the Living God Hos 1:10 "Yet the time will come when Israel shall prosper and become a great nation; in that day her people will be too numerous to count-like sand along a seashore! Then, instead of saying to them, 'You are not my people,' I will tell them, 'You are my sons, children of the Living God.' TLB (Deut 14:1 You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, 2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession. NIV )
Jer 31:9 because I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son. NIV
Isa 63:8 He said, "Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me"; and so he became their Savior. NIV
Gentiles can also become sons of the Living God Rom 9:25 Remember what the prophecy of Hosea says? There God says that he will find other children for himself (who are not from his Jewish family) and will love them, though no one had ever loved them before. 26 And the heathen, of whom it once was said, "You are not my people," shall be called "sons of the Living God." TLB <> Messiah is also a Son of the living God Matt 16:15 Then he asked them, "Who do you think I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "The Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 "God has blessed you, Simon, son of Jonah," Jesus said, "for my Father in heaven has personally revealed this to you-this is not from any human source. TLB
Matt 26:63 Then the High Priest said to him, "I demand in the name of the living God that you tell us whether you claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God." 64 "Yes," Jesus said, "I am. And in the future you will see me, the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of God and returning on the clouds of heaven." TLB The Word is alive because it's from the Spirit of the living God 2 Cor 3:3 They can see that you are a letter from Christ, written by us. It is not a letter written with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not one carved on stone, but in human hearts. TLB Dead Idols of gods have filth (demons) attached to them 2 Cor 6:16 And what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For you are God's temple, the home of the living God, and God has said of you, "I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people." 17 That is why the Lord has said, "Leave them; separate yourselves from them; don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you 18 and be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters." TLB
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