Righteousness and Love

The Scriptures paint a picture of God and mankind as the Creator and His creation, the Head and it’s body, the King and His subjects, the Master and His slaves, the Teacher and His disciples, the Father and His children, the Lover and His beloved and the Shepherd and His flock. It also uses the illustration of the Lord Yeshua and the Church as a husband and wife. Of these various illustrations the King and subjects, Master and slaves and Shepherd and flock are the most foreign to the western way of thinking. We in the US have never had a King nor for most of us, a master, and we seldom have seen a flock of sheep and a shepherd. In fact more often than not we think of ourselves as master, king or shepherd or we long and strive to be. We believe that we have the right to do as WE please when WE please and we rise up when someone tries to tell us what to do. We long to be president and the head, in charge, so that we do not have to answer to anyone for anything, we are “free”. This can not be farther from the truth. This is the sign of an advanced stage of independence and rebellion. We are independent from and rebellious toward Yahweh our Creator and King. Every man, woman and child on earth will have to give an account to their Creator for every second of their time on earth, for every deed, for every word spoken, no exceptions, no exemptions. Our Creator will decide our fate; eternity with Lucifer or Yeshua, based on our holiness, obedience and relationship with Yeshua. What we think of our goodness will not count, will not even be considered. Even what any other man on earth thought of our worthiness or goodness will not even cross His mind when reaching His decision. We will be judged by our obedience to His will based on our relationship with His Son, Yeshua. Our knowledge of Scripture, our list of services, and our rewards from men will not be put in the balance, only were we a righteous and obedient disciple of Yeshua?

It is written that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. As a nation we have no fear of the Lord (we are fools) and as the Church, we do not do much better (we are foolish).

The concept of a king and his subjects illustrates this well. A king is a human that rules a group of people. He has attained his position either by inheritance or conquest. Either way the concept of king as used in Biblical times was one of absolute authority in the hands of a man over all in his kingdom. A king was considered so powerful and sacred that his edicts could not be rescinded even by the king himself, and lasted forever. The king made the laws and enforced them with his men at arms. He was the final judge between men, it was his right and duty. Literally, every man’s life and death were in his hands. The people of Biblical times understood this because they had seen their friends and relatives lose their lands, families and even lives at the whim of a king. No one had the power to challenge the king’s decision, they simply had to live with the consequences, like it or not. The king could go anywhere, stay anywhere, take anything (including one’s life) or anyone that pleased him without consequence.

As an example when Ester went before her husband the king to plead for her kinsmen, Israel, she did not know if she would live or die. The king had ordained that anyone who appeared before the king without the king’s expressed command would be put to death (there were no door to door salesmen visiting that castle!). The king’s guards had their orders, and only the king could stop them from carrying them out. This is the background for the Biblical concept of Yahweh being the King and we being His subjects. He is completely sovereign, He does what He wishes, when He wishes with whomever He wishes and answers to ON ONE and everything created answers to Him. He can destroy all creation with a single word just as He created everything with His words. The choice is His and His alone. He does not seek council, He simple says “let there be…” He has no equal, no one even remotely close. Everything that happens in this universe He has ordained and has for knowledge of, except for the decisions of men. He has chosen to allow men to make their own decisions and to pay the consequences of those decisions. He has also ordained that they ALL be recorded accurately for reference when He takes each man’s life (He holds life and death in His hands) for He will use these records to determine each man’s eternal fate so that each man has no excuse.

How can we as “Christians”, those who acknowledge this as the truth, turn around and give Him a mere few hours a week, and a few pennies of our increase and not be hypocrites at best. Do we even give Him a tithe of our time, that’s about 17 hours a week or 2.5 hours per day? He created us and then gave His Son as a perfect sacrifice to redeem us. We belong to Him in either case, we have no choice but to serve Him the remaining years of our life on earth and though out eternity, He commands it. He created us for the expressed purpose of fulfilling His will on this earth during our stay here or we suffer the consequences of disobedience, by spending eternity in hell with Lucifer. We owe Him every second of every day and every penny we own. Can all of our time and stuff pay for eternity in heaven?? Of course not, it’s not for sale, it must be earned by faith, righteousness and obedience in Yeshua

Now take a look at the Bridegroom and bride concept. The king concept applies to all mankind, where the Bridegroom and bride concept applies only to those who have accepted His sacrifice and salvation. Yeshua is of course the Bridegroom and we as believers are His bride. This is a loving relationship between a bride and her husband. She of course wants to please Him and spend all of her time with Him. This is the honeymoon stage of the relationship. She is lost in Him and finds her identity in Him, her first love. She has abandoned all others for Him. Does this describe your relationship with Him, your Bridegroom? Do you search for Him, and seek His face and listen for His voice? Do you long for His touch and His breath, daily? Do you fulfill His every wish? This is the God who created you and redeemed you from Lucifer and hell because of His love for you. You owe Him everything; your all of love and your life. Thou shalt love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, ALL of your soul, and ALL your strength that you may live. If you love Him with all your heart then you will have one thing on your mind, moment by moment; how can I please Him! Anything less is a divided heart, a broken marriage, adultery. If we are His bride, then we have fallen head over heels in love with the King of King and Lord of Lords, for He is perfect love and wholly worthy of our hearts and souls. He created everything and is pleased to share it with those who love Him, His bride.

Now of course the questions is HOW MUCH do we love Him, 100% or 1%? Does He draw a line to decide if we love Him and if so where does He draw it, at 10%, maybe 50% or as the First Commandment states at 100%? Looks like none of us have fulfilled the first commandment, because we love ourselves too much. We love the benefits of being His bride but spend too much time pleasing ourselves instead of dying to ourselves so that we can live to please Him. Christianity is all about a relationship, THE relationship between a bride and her Groom, Yeshua; walking hand in hand with Him by the spirit, fulfilling the Law by the power of the Holy Spirit out of a heart of love for Him. Anything less is adultery (remember adultery comes from the word adulterate or mix). How pure must our heart be toward Him? Let’s put it to the test. Let’s suppose that we have a glass of pure water in front of us. Now we also have an eyedropper of urine. How many drops of urine do we have to put in the water before you will not drink it? Not very many I would guess, maybe a fraction of a percent. How pure does our heart have to be to be acceptable to Him? Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Have you seen Him? Do you hope to see Him? Can we expect to live our lives on earth without a pure heart and by some miracle at the last second our heart suddenly becomes pure so we can not only see Him but spend eternity in His presence? I don’t think so. We tend to be “skin of our teeth” Christians, we hope to gain entrance to heaven by the skin of our teeth, doing the minimum required to gain entrance to heaven. If this is your attitude you will not be spending eternity in His presence. He lets us spend eternity with what (or who) we love. The faithful servant fulfilled everything that his master required of him, the profitable servant went above and beyond what was required and the one that saved his talents lost them. The requirement is: Thou shalt love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, ALL of your soul, and ALL your strength that you may live. So if you claim to be a “Christian” then repent from your self love, abandon your wishes, desires and goals, die to self and dive whole heartedly into loving the Lord your God who gave His all for the love of you. Cry out to Him to deliver you from yourself and to give you a heart for Him. All of your wisdom, money, knowledge, gifting and position mean nothing to Him, not even how well you know His book. He wants your heart, all of it. Anything less is an unprofitable servant, a wayward bride. The eyes of the Lord search to and fro across the earth looking for a man who’s heart is wholly His that He might do wonders in his behalf. If there’s no power in your live it’s because He has not found a pure heart in your soul.

You know it easy to spot someone who is in Love with the King of Kings. You can hear it in their voice and see it in their face. All they want to talk about is Him, their Bridegroom and they will disappear for hours on end to be with Him before the throne. They long for Him to come tomorrow (or for their death) for they’d rather be with Him in heaven than on the earth. Some speak of them as being so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. Oh my Lord and my God let this be said of me.