Notes and reflections from the teaching found at 119 Ministries: Believing.
Bible verses are taken from New King James Version (NKJV)
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Reflection: whoever believes in Yeshua should have an everlasting life.
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
Reflection: Though we have been saved by the Grace of God, we still have to remember and keep the law of YHWH our God so that we can continue loving God in obedience.
[amazon_link asins=’1880226685′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’brodneil-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’27f9f8c2-eedf-11e6-a873-81ce56caca3a’]
John 3:20-21
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Psalm 119:142
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is truth.
Reflection: God’s law is the truth.
Proverbs 6:23
23 For the commandment is a lamp,
And the law a light;
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
Reflection: God’s law is light; it is the way of life.
John 1:14
The Word Becomes Flesh
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Reflection: The word who became flesh is Yeshua.
[amazon_link asins=’B004O0FQQ0′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’brodneil-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3eae0b56-eedf-11e6-8afd-c5903d183969′]
Revelation 19:13
13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
Reflection: Whose name is called the Word of God? Yeshua.
1 John 2:6
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Reflection: To accept Yeshua in my life means that I have to follow how he lived his life.
Romans 3:31
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
Reflection: Our faith in God’s grace and salvation does not make the law void. In fact, it should push us to willingly and lovingly live by the law. By this, we can be living witnesses of the law.
1 John 3:4
Sin and the Child of God
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
Reflection: The law is not sin; but it reveals the existence of sin. Thus living in sin is living in lawlessness for the law that we follow is not the law of man, but the law of God.
Psalm 119:44-45
44 So shall I keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
45 And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
Reflection: We are not forced to keep the law. Yet because of our love to God, we choose freely to learn, follow, and keep His law.
Hebrews 8:10
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Reflection: This is a very beautiful and inspiring verse in the scripture: YHWH will (forever) be our God; and we, His people.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Reflection: Again, it is by God’s grace and Spirit that we can truly walk in His statutes (commandments). We just have to try our best in learning, keeping, and living the law.
Romans 8:2
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Reflection: The law of the Spirit of life in Yeshua sets me free from the bondage of sin and death. Cause it is by this same Spirit of life in Yeshua that I will have the strength to live a holy life pleasing to YHWH our God.
Galatians 5:18
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Reflection: Weak as we are, it is by the leading of God’s Spirit that we can rise above the perversion of the system that is turning the law (Torah) into legalism.
Romans 8:7
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
Reflection: Our carnal mind, that is our old nature, is always opposing against God and His law. By God’s grace, we will have the strength to rise above this old nature that we may please God by living according to his law (Torah and commandments).
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
Reflection: When the time comes that people will stop listening to the truth (the law is the truth) and instead listen to myths — it is our prayer that we should endure and remain strong on our faith in proclaiming the truth (the law) to all. The law is truth as Yeshua is the truth. Yeshua is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6-7).
Matthew 23:1-3
Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees
23 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe,[a] that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
Reflection: My understanding is that Yeshua commanded us to observe and do the commandments of YHWH our God. These same commandments that God gave to Moses and read by the Pharisees as they sat in Moses’ seat. However, Yeshua also warns us not to follow the examples of the Pharisees. And what are these examples? In Matthew 15:3-9, Yeshua implied that the pharisees broke the law of God for the sake of tradition and instead taught the commandments of men. In short, follow the commandments of God to Moses; but do not follow any commandment added/created by men.
Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Reflection: These 2 great commandments sum up the whole commandments. And indeed, they are great. But because they can be interpreted in so many ways if we apply them, I find it important to know the commandments in Torah. Love your neighbor as yourself can be used as an excuse, for example, by a bachelor in loving another man’s wife. However, if we base these great commandments to the Torah, then we know how to apply them.
John 1:1-5
The Eternal Word
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend[a] it.
Reflection: Yeshua is the word made flesh; and he was with YHWH from the very beginning; and he was God.