Live In The Resurrection Power of Yeshua by PJ
 "I am giving you a new command; that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other."(Yochanan / John 13:34-35 Complete Jewish Bible)
Most people, when they think about the commandments of G-d and even the commandments of Yeshua, think of a list of not to do's. But the commandments are the covenant of G-d to man leading to blessing and overcoming the adversary. They are a list of how to get to your divine destiny so you might live in the fullness to which you were created.
Because Yeshua fulfilled the commandments of G-d perfectly and because He shed His Blood for us, in Him, we have already fulfilled the covenant perfectly. That's why Yeshua poured out His life's blood on the Cross. Even when we mess up and blow it, that Blood covers us when we make teshuva/repentance. Yeshua's Blood connects us to G-d's perfect covenant and that covenant is alive and active in our lives so that we might live.
G-d doesn't want us to use His commandments as implements of judgement to bring harm upon others, although I have seen many do this. And G-d doesn't want us using His commandments to try to make living stones to become like bricks, all spouting the same words, doing the same things, looking precisely alike and becoming carbon copies. G-d didn't call us to make a whole congregation of images of ourselves.
G-d not only hates brickmaking, He hates stones changed by implements. (Let him who has understanding, understand.) G-d desires our sacrifices to be placed on our hearts which are earthen altars. G-d wants us to use His commands, His covenant, as a means to life and fulfilling destinies. He created each of us different with individual looks, personalities, dreams, desires, although each person reflects Himself. When we consistently try to change others to meet our religious ideal, we are trying to turn stones into bricks. There is nothing more enslaving than having to make bricks.
I am reminded of the story of Yeshua speaking to the rich man, as recorded in Matit'yahu / Matthew 19. The rich man was telling Yeshua that he had kept all the commandments and he was seeking the path to eternal life. But notice how Yeshua answered the man. He didn't tell the man how to get to eternal life directly. He instead told the man how to live. He told the man to go and sell all his possessions and that then he would have shalom. And shalom in this context is completeness of life. How is giving away everything you have going to give you completeness of life? By G-d's multiplication process of meeting your need as you give.
You cannot and should not separate life here on the earth from life in Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. We are literally already in the Kingdom.
People use the commandments as some sort of hard road to get to Heaven when in reality, to get to life in Heaven you have to get to life here on the earth. Which brings me to another question that Yeshua asked as recorded in Matit'yahu / Matthew 6:28-34. You see, Yeshua knew that things take over our lives very easily. Is our possession of things really us living?
Yeshua knows all about a life that is far better than the ones we are living today but to get to that life we must come into the covenant which are the commandments of G-d.
Thinking that someday in the by-and-by you will be keeping these commandments perfectly is nonsense. Yeshua is the Only One Who could do it. You will also never get to life in Heaven without living life here. You see, G-d doesn't want you afraid to reach for the huge and far-reaching dreams He has placed within you. He doesn't want you to fear satan's works and hindrances because He has a way to bring all of satan's works to nothing. He doesn't want you to be afraid that you will die in the process and thereby do nothing. He wants you to live. Put the commandments to work for you so you can live in the resurrection power of Yeshua! It's the life Yeshua died for and rose again to give you.
(Scripture Taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Copyright � 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029. www.messianicjewish.net.)
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