During prayers, somehow, when praying about our congregation, and our sister congregations around the globe, and us being more affective in shining the Light of His Menorah on those around us, I thought of how very small a number we were. It’s not discouraging to me. “O how narrow is the gate, and how difficult is the road which leads to life, and few are those who are found on it.” We are indeed storming the ramparts; but, we are very small in number. The harvest is indeed ripe, but there are truly very FEW laborers. We are doing as Yeshua instructed us, and PRAYING for laborers to join us in the harvest. This is Yeshua’s ‘mashal’ on the concept of the Body of Messiah going out and ‘bringing in’. It makes sense to us that the fastest growing religions, denominations, and congregations are going into error. In asking Him to give us ‘ko’akh’, ‘might’, to do His work, especially that of shining light and sharing the true fruits of Righteousness, I was reminded of the “Pilgrims”. They, too, were FEW in number. They were inspired by people like Wycliffe and Tyndale. I have begun to identify with these men, ONLY because I took on a task similar to theirs. They were pioneers and renegades who translated the Bible into English. Wycliffe was first, in the late 14th century, recognizing corruption and error in the ‘church’. He died a natural death, but those few followers of his were persecuted, as the corrupt church and the state made his translation illegal, and outlawed his ideas altogether. He was a protestant, LONG before Luther. Tyndale was in England after Wycliffe, writing his translation in the early 1500s. He was EXECUTED, hung on a stake and strangled, and then his body burned. He may still have been alive as he burned. Both of these men were counted heretics. And so were the Pilgrims, who read the Bible on their own, which was against the law at the time.
These brave souls left the comfort of civilization and risked life and limb to go to a wild place, in the hope of establishing freedom of religion, and of being more pure in their worship. They THREW OFF EASTER AND CHRISTMAS. Some of them returned to the Sabbath of GOD, having learned that it was the actual SEVENTH day and not the first, ‘sun-day’. They forbade pagan practices.
Society today tends to paint these people in a bad light, as ignorant and primitive. As ‘backward’. But, they were striving toward the “Mark of the HIGH CALLING of Messiah Yeshua,” which is in the Torah. They were reading both ‘OLD and New Testament’ to forge a life more in line with God’s WORD, because they saw how erroneous people were in their day, after have been led by religious zealots and power and money-grubbing charlatans.
So far, what we have ‘suffered’ in the Name of Messiah Yeshua is light, compared to them, and compared to the Apostles. But, we, and I bet anyone who is at least TRYING to cry out against the fallacy in ‘churches’ these days, are being marginalized, rejected by friends and family, spoken ill of at every turn, fired from jobs, and more. For ENDEAVORING to pursue that ‘mark’ of His perfection. We are PERFECTED ALREADY in the Court of Heaven, by the blood of Messiah Yeshua in which we trust. That trust is ALL WE NEED in order to have the record of our sins expunged. But, we are CALLED to REFLECT that perfection, to live this life burning in HIS LIGHT, which is pure and holy, and is measured by HIS WORD ALONE. We are indeed to WALK AS HE WALKED.
If I must do it alone, I will. But, I know there are others out there who DESIRE to walk in His Light. Truly. And we seek them, and rejoice when we find them, even as the Messengers of Heaven rejoice when ONE soul TURNS away from SIN, and turns TOWARD YESHUA, the LIVING TORAH.
Join us! We are looking for a few broken men. Yeshua has mended us, and will mend you, and use you for HIS Kingdom! Those who run their mouths about us, may He deal with their conscience, if they even have one.
D'var יהוה , The Word of יהוה 