Site where Yahshua Prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane as He was overlooking the Temple House of His Father in Jerusalem – Photo by Robert Mock

 

“Redemption, a Test of “Emuna.” Our Faith in the Sovereignty of God

In the Footsteps of our Master

 

Romans 4:3, 5 (parts) – “Abraham believed God for…his faith is accounted for Righteousness.”

 

A Biblical concept increasing in circulation amongst the Chassidic Orthodox Jews in Israel today is that those who seek Guela (Redemption) must live a life of Emuna. Let us look at the meaning of “Emuna” from Rabbi Lazer Brody in his article, “Emuna, the Universal Answer.”

 

Rabbi Lazer Brody – “All of life’s questions have one universal answer – emuna. Emuna is like a master key to life’s locked dilemmas. “Emuna is the firm belief in a single, supreme, omniscient, benevolent, spiritual, supernatural, and all-powerful Creator of the universe, whom we refer to as G-d (God). He alone cares for each of us in a unique, tailor-made fashion according to our own individual needs. Everything that happens to us in life is the product of G-d’s will and personal intervention in our lives, which we refer to as Divine providence, or DP. DP is designed to help us perform our task in life and to assist us in realizing our personal potential to the hilt.

 

When we think of the “firm belief” which we call faith, as gentile Christians we think of the Pharisee Paul who wrote:

 

Hebrews 11:1 - “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

 

Like looking at a picture of myriads of vibrant colors, the essence and meaning which is transposed by the object of visible language comes not in scattered wavelengths from photons of light but the beliefs and understanding that it creates.

 

Emuna is the Belief that the God of Creation is the Sovereign God over all Life

 

We perceive that it is a “person of faith” who looks at the world of chaos sweeping around us yet truly believes that the God of Israel in His sovereignty controls every circumstance in our lives.  We perceive that God is truly guiding the affairs of the nations. To believe that God is engineering every circumstance of our life and bringing us into a dynamic relationship with Him is a concept that confronts our individuality, our autonomy, and the self possession of our lives.

 

The historical person that the Bible portrays to us as the life of a person of faith was the Patriarch of both the Hebrews and the Arabs, their Father Abraham.

 

Hebrews 11:17 – “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise offered up his only begotten son.”

 

When we casually say, “God is in control”, are we willing to expand the meaning that God is in control of every one of the circumstances in our lives?  Sometimes by our actions, we worry and fret and act as though people control our lives.   As such, we feel compelled to intervene in their lives and ours.  We believe that we must be the providence in their lives so we can feel that we are providentially controlling our life.  Yet for gentile Christians to be “faithful” in every moment and circumstance of our lives, it means that we have only to focus our faith on the God of Israel through His Son, Jesus the Messiah.  

 

Mount Moriah and the Eastern Gate where Abraham offered Isaac in Sacrifice to God – Photo by Robert Mock

 

When we find our world falling apart, the first thing we do is beat up on ourselves with guilt and focus on our shortcomings.  Yet, this takes our focus away from the Source of our life and all creative happiness; God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.  We fail to comprehend that God engineered our world that “appeared” to be falling apart for His divine purpose.  Was it because we were unfaithful to Him?  If so, quietly re-correct your focus on Jesus and His Father.

 

Maybe God was changing your life’s circumstances so that you would not be an ornament for Him sitting on a spiritual mantelpiece.   Maybe God wants you to become useful to Him?  Maybe God wants you to become a channel of communication to someone else?  Through your life, God will bring the two of you together in a way that is providential to both. Yet, it is only through your choice that you are willing to allow God to use yourself as a channel for His divine communication for that other person.

 

Every moment of our life is special.  Through our life, God can touch someone else.  When we grasp that moment and become God’s agent, we have participated in a moment of “divine reality.”  When we acknowledge that God is Sovereign over our lives, He will use our life for His divine pleasure and good will.

 

Learning to worship the God of Israel and allowing His Son, Jesus, to work out His divine will in our lives is the most difficult test of a Christian’s life.  We think we are faithful to Him by “serving the church.”  We feel we are faithful to Him by being of “service to others”.  We believe that we are faithful by “working for the Lord.”   

 

The life that many Christians live is to be faithful to anything and everything except being faithful to our relationship and friendship with our Master, Jesus Christ.  The life of a disciple of Jesus is to acknowledge that Jesus is the “Agent” of the “Father in heaven” with the mission to work out God’s divine will upon this planet earth. 

 

Daily our Lord and Master is taken down from His throne on the right hand of His Father.   We, as Christians, many times dethrone our Master because we are more interested in preserving our institutions, missions and programs than a personal relationship in service to Him.  We spend considerate time in humanitarian efforts, programs of good-will and self-help teachings rather than being faithful to our Master’s mission for the redemption, restoration, and salvation for every man, woman and child on this planet. 

 

When we are faithful to our Master, our “service” then becomes an overflow pouring from a life full of love and devotion.  This becomes a natural part of our lives because we are identified with the very nature of God through His son, Jesus (Yahshua).  Our service to God becomes an expression of our nature as we respond to the call of God that is from His nature.  When we receive His nature, His divine voice resounds thru our nature and together we become one in service to others. 

 

   Red Poppies on the Mount of Ascension at the Top of the Mount of Olives

 – Photo by Robert Mock

 

Many of us wish for the Father of our Master to be our virtual “Blessing Machine.”  We look at our prosperity and delight in the rewards of our “purpose-driven lives. We fail to see that we are planting the seeds of our own destruction because we have become divorced from the Source of all life. We refuse to accept that our emuna (firm belief in the Sovereignty of God) is not to do our own “work for the Lord” but His work.  If we give God freedom in our lives, we will be surprised when we become hooked into His divine mission.  How will this be done? This will be done by God working through His son Jesus, who by living in our lives, works through us to others.

 

When Abraham came to the “Big Test” in his life, he was willing to give up his rights to his “only begotten son.”  Did Abraham suddenly come to the “firm belief” that his God was the Sovereign God of all mankind?  Did Abraham suddenly have “faith” that the voice he heard was God?  Did Abraham suddenly have a flash of divine inspiration as he proclaimed his “emuna” in God?

 

May we suggest that Abraham lived a life of walking and talking with God?  He had been there before in his “walk with God”.  He had learned to trust that God was the Sovereign God of all people.  Abraham had faith by experience that God was molding and recreating his life in a way that God’s sovereign will would be done. When Abraham heard the “voice of God” on Mount Moriah, he knew that this was the “voice” of his God.  He trusted in God’s will for His life.

 

Emuna is not something that will be given to us in times of trouble.  Emuna becomes the pathway we choose to walk now so that in that time of trouble when we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” we will “fear no evil” for we know with all our hearts that God is with us. That assurance will be imprinted in the very matrix of our soul.

 

Many Blessings from our Master.

 

Message from BibleSearchers

 

BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end.  It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”.  Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth.  In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest.  Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace.  Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth.  The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel.  In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information.  We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

 

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