Shabbat 1 June 2024

SOAP

Scriptures

Jeremiah 17

The Sin of Judah

1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,[a] whose heart turns away from the Lord.

6 He is like a shrub in the desert,  and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

John 14:15-21

English Standard Version

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,[a] to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be[b] in you.

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

John 15:10-12

English Standard Version

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

1 John 1

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Observation

The LORD hates it when we rely on people instead of HIM, the LORD hates it when we depend or put our trust in anyone or anything but HIM because HE is a jealous GOD. So jealous that when we begin to put our trust in anything than HIM, we experience the curse of HIS firey jealousy so heated up that person who does not trust HIM becomes a shrub in a dry land dwelling in parched places, there is no water, to times of refreshing because only GOD alone can provide the solution, the strength, the refreshment to have the will and courage to fight. If we are not trusting HIM we will understand because our spiritual and emotional lives begin to feel so dry and we become so thirsty for HIS Spirit. 

Application

Sometimes we think and believe we are trusting GOD but GOD tests our hearts and minds through the trials HE allows in our lives thereby we see for ourselves that when we shake at the smallest trials, we understand that we have not been trusting GOD. I am guilty of this, all of us are guilty of this. GOD says if you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is verse is so common yet it is so profound. To me it is like GOD saying, "If you love me, you trust ME by obeying ME." No! loving GOD does not mean YOU automatically trust GOD, it is not interrelated, but it is progressive. Loving GOD will usher you to follow HIM and that obedience progresses your small faith to grow until you begin to Trust. This is how we know we are truly loving GOD is because we are keeping HIS commands, or in other words doing exactly what HE says when we are obeying HIM, we are living in HIS love or abiding in HIS love. And I can tell if I am truly abiding in HIS love because of the evidence of joy and peace that I possess.

Prayers:

Dear AVI,

HOLY is YOUR Name O GOD Almighty KING of the Universe who rules and reigns for all times!!! Toda for the revelation of YOUR WORD today. Thank YOU that YOU keep testing us YOUR children perfecting our faith in YOU, keeping us blameless in CHRIST until the day of YOUR return KING JESUS. Thank YOU for providing me the tools to heal and keep healing through Gestalt Therapy and how YOU have been training me to facilitate this so I can be a blessing to others just as this Therapy has been such a blessing to me helping me cope and deal with all the issues and hardships I face daily in my life... Toda for YOUR WORD, all YOU want is for me to keep trusting YOU and loving YOU, toda for YOUR love O GOD Almighty! 

Ba HaShem YESHUA, Adonai Tzeva'ot, Amen!