Where is the Love, the Love, the Love?

I have been fighting with this one for a few days now. I know what I want to say, rather, what I feel Abba is leading me to say, but I can’t find the right words to articulate it. I have been going back and forth and back and forth, starting over and over and over again, trying to make it work. Finally, the revelation hit me, just pour it out, say what Yah is speaking to your heart and don’t try to force it. Nothing will interfere with His plan if it is what He wants. So, here it goes.

Torah Observant, Hebrew Roots Movement, Messianic Jews, whatever you prefer-- the reason you ended up where you are in your faith is because Abba removed the scales from your eyes. He revealed to you the truth of His word and His law. Because of His divine grace, we now have a greater understanding of who we are called to be in Him; instructions on how we can live in a way that honors our Elohim; how we can “…love ADONAI your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ (Matthew 22:37).

How great is that? I mean, truly? Yah is unlike any other.

I mean, He gave us commandments so He could dwell close to us. What other nation can say this of their god?

“7 For what great nation is there that has God as close to them as ADONAI our God is, whenever we call on him? 8 What great nation is there that has laws and rulings as just as this entire Torah which I am setting before you today? 9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves diligently as long as you live, so that you won’t forget what you saw with your own eyes, so that these things won’t vanish from your hearts. Rather, make them known to your children and grandchildren — 10 the day you stood before ADONAI your God at Horev, when ADONAI said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my very words, so that they will learn to hold me in awe as long as they live on earth, and so that they will teach their children.’ –Deuteronomy 4:7-10

So, now we have an instruction manual, if you will, on how to live our lives in a manner pleasing to Yah handed down by Yah Himself. That fact alone should be all the reason we need to rejoice! The Creator of all things thinks we are important enough that He should desire to be close to us!

I have to wonder, though, from a lot of the things I’ve seen lately, where is the love? Where is the joy? I mean, why is everyone seemingly up in arms? Have so many of us gotten lost in the writings that we have forgotten their author or their purpose?

Seriously, where did it go? Lately there has been so much in fighting, finger pointing, and all around lack of enthusiasm over our faith. SO many of us have “Lost the Plot” to the greatest story. What I am seeing is so many of us who are so consumed with the letter of the law, that we have lost the words of the law and, more importantly, the One who gave it to us and His purpose in it.

So many of us started out on this journey diligently seeking His will for us and the way we can honor and glorify Him by being a set apart people. Somewhere along the line, we forgot that the reason that our eyes were opened is because He loves us. So many of us seem to be becoming slaves to the law in a way that it was never intended for it to be for us. Please don’t misunderstand me; I am NOT saying that Torah is bondage. I am saying that when we start worrying about the law, the law, the law and lose focus of its Author and the joy we are supposed to take from it, we are not following Yah anymore, but the law alone.

Psalm 119 had this to say:
47 I will delight myself in your mitzvot,
which I have loved.
48 I will lift my hands to your mitzvot, which I love;
and I will meditate on your laws.

I love this verse. It spells out Yah’s purpose for His law so completely to me in just a few simple words. We are to delight in His law. To love it, meditate on it, and lift our hands in praise to our Creator for it. Yah has given us His own instructions on how we can lead a life that is in His will! How great is that?! Our Elohim has handed down His instructions for our life so that we can not only have a clear understanding of what He sees as righteous, but also so that we can delight in His wisdom!



Did you catch that? Key words in these verses are “delight,” “loved,” “lift my hands,” “love,” (again), and “meditate”. At what point do we read the Psalmist saying that he will worry and fret or chastise others? I didn’t see it, did you?

Torah wasn’t meant to cause division amongst those who honor it. When we fight and nitpick with anyone who doesn't meet our standards or interpretation of Torah, we begin to turn into the same kind of Pharisees who chastised the lame man Yeshua healed (John 5). We focus less on the work of our Messiah, and more on ourselves. The Scripture gives us specific instructions. We should ALWAYS be meditating on them, but an issue arises when we put implied meaning on them. When we add to them, we start to make them our rules and not the rules that Abba gave.

I’m not pointing fingers and I won’t name names, but I have seen so much hatefulness towards fellow believers and towards those who don’t yet understand that the Law isn’t done away with. Yes, Yah has called many of us to be warriors of the faith, and ALL of us should be ready at any instant to give reason for our faith (1 Peter 3:15). But when we go out picking a fight so we can prove how superior we are or with the intent to cast stones and belittle people, we become no better than those we should be seeking to correct, not chastise hatefully. I don’t see the point in running out to look for a fight. If you are really walking in the Word of Yah, the fight will undoubtedly come to you. If we trust Abba, and keep His word close to our hearts, He will provide you with all you need to say. If we start relying on our own understanding, we will invariably spit venom and make other children of Yah and Yeshua Himself look like pious jerks.
 

There is a time for war, there is a time for all things, but we are called to carry out all tasks in LOVE. Love was the reason for the law. Why are we always so somber and furrow browed when we meditate or even discuss it? We should be dancing like David danced! Singing and shouting and rejoicing that the One and only true Elohim wants us to be pleasing to Him! If we are not careful, we will become nothing more than the Bible-thumping, crotchety old men who have no joy in their lives. 

I love my Abba. I am eternally grateful for every gift He has bestowed on me. Everything we have is a gift. I don’t want to get so wrapped up in the words that I stop being wrapped up in loving Him. I don’t want to lose sight of the forest because of the trees.

4 Rejoice in union with the Lord always! I will say it again: rejoice!
-Philippians 4:4

Think on this, what is it that people see in you? Is it something that they want? Do they see a happiness or peace that they desire for themselves? Or do they see a heavy burden? Do they see rules and restrictions that make you miserable? What should they see? Yeshua said His yoke was light and His burden was easy (Mathew 11:30). Torah was designed to be something that brought us true freedom, not to be restricting and confine us to joyless lives. It’s time we started acting in love. To be the servant that Yeshua called us to be.