Joined To HaShem Newsletter, April 7, 2011

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Mike Clayton?

That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?  

April 7, 2011 Joined To Hashem Newsletter In this issue...   Streaming Video Torah Commentary Quick Links... Mike's Itinerary Resources Torah Is Life Web Site Links Kingdom Paths Linen Hebraic Woodworking Join our mailing list! TEACHING THE HEBRAIC PERSPECTIVE OF FAITH IN AND OBEDIENCE TO THE ONE TRUE GOD Streaming Video Due to the Hebrew Leap Year this is a repeat of last week. Tazria "Conceived" Leviticus 12:1-13:59; 14:1-15:33 2 Kings 7:3-20; Malachi 3:4-24 *Archived teaching from 2010* VIDEO Torah Commentary M'tzora Leviticus 14:1-15:33 2 Kings 7:3-20 Cleaning the Home Front Many of our modern traditions have a basis in scripture. One of these is the tradition of Spring cleaning. Although most people will never think about scripture when they begin to clean the windows and air out the house from a cold winter, they are doing a task that is based on the Bible. Spring cleaning finds its roots in the Festival we now know as Passover. It is a time set aside to search for the leaven in our homes. We are to search for and clean out natural leaven, but to truly understand this time we must also see the spiritual aspects of the cleaning. With this in mind, there is not a more appropriate Torah portion than the one we study this week prior to Passover. Leaven as well as this week's topic of leprosy are pictures of sin in scripture. As we read about leprosy, look for the similarities in the teaching of Passover and Spring Cleaning. The people whose homes were afflicted with this disease were to look deeper. They were to find the cause which brought on the infection. Leviticus 14:34 is clear. Adonai said He would be placing the leprosy on the house. This would cause the owners of the inflicted home to call for the priests who would come to inspect. The homeowners were to take everything out of the home while the home was being inspected. This meant every item in the home would pass by the eyes of the priest as it was brought out. The priest would be able to inspect the items and see if the homeowners had allowed something contrary to Torah to enter the home. After stones were replaced and the home declared clean the homeowners would be allowed to move back in with their possessions. That is, minus those possessions which had caused the leprosy. We may not see green and red infections in our homes today, but leprosy abounds within our walls! The infections today come in the way of sickness, rebellion of children, not being able to keep up with our financial obligations and a myriad of other things that sound more like the second half of Deuteronomy 28 than the first half. It is time to see these things for what they are! They are infections of leprosy, which need to be cleansed, infections which can only be removed by a thorough house cleaning! The Torah must be our standard for clean and unclean. Torah tells us clearly what we should not allow in our lives and in our homes. As we read through the Torah, and in fact all of scripture, we should do so with one eye on the Word and the other eye on our lives and surroundings, always praying that HaShem would reveal items in our lives and homes which cause sin to enter and infections to grow. Healing and blessing can not flow into a life or home that is unclean. This simply means that if your life or home has articles in it which are unclean, these articles are holding back blessing and producing curses. What about the articles of our past? Those things that remind us of our pagan or heathen backgrounds? Those things that have emotional ties to them? Those items which remind us of the life Yeshua died to free us from? Those items have emotional and spiritual ties upon us; they bind us. Those items hold back His glory. It is far past time for the Body of Messiah to have a thorough house cleaning. Throw out the old ways, the old life, the life which produces leprosy instead of blessing. We are called to live an abundant life in abundance. If our lives are somewhere below life and life abundant, it is probably not His fault. It may be time for a good house cleaning! On a final note; there is a contrast between leaven and leprosy. I can not find a place in scripture which states that HaShem puts leaven in our homes, but as we read earlier, He does place the leprosy there. The message is very clear that if we will spend the time cleaning the leaven now there will never be a reason for leprosy in the future. Shabbat Shalom, Mike PRINT VERSION email: hineni@mac.com phone: 405 257 6277 web: http://www.joinedtohashem.org