“What is more, I even count all to be loss because of the excellence of the knowledge of Messiah יהושע my Master, for whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them as refuse, in order to gain Messiah, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through belief in Messiah, the righteousness which is from Elohim on the basis of belief, to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if somehow I might attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Pilipiyim (Philippians) 3:8-11
When Paul speaks of the importance of the resurrection – that not believing in it means our faith is empty – it causes me to really sit back and make sure my entire heart is on board. Are there any doubts I haven’t addressed? Is there something that may not even be aware to me right now? Am I willing to lay down my entire life if I had to fight for this truth? If I’m not, then my faith is shaky and I’m double minded – and that is not a place I want to be in. So I sit and play it out in my head to make sure it is all real to me.
Difficult circumstances have a way of revealing to us what we truly believe. Will we be found faithful in those circumstances? A friend said that these difficulties are blessings in disguise for us. They sure don’t feel like a blessing in the moment, but the building up of our character and faith are truly blessings because we don’t want to be those that reach the end of this life on earth and wonder about all we did in His name and realize He never knew us.
““Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ “And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’”
Mattithyahu (Matthew) 7:22-23
A plant seed must die in order to bring forth a totally new kind of life. Likewise, we must die to our sinful nature to allow His life to set us free from it. Oh but how difficult it can be before we get to the point of surrendering what we know and trusting in the greatness He has promised. This choice to trust is one only we can make, but in every aspect of our lives. Sometimes He works little by little. Only giving us what we can handle. So that with every step we can choose to trust that there is more to this life, as He showed by His resurrection, and this is what we live for. Until we get to the point in which in all things we can say, Yes Father, I believe with all my heart you can bring back from the dead your Son and will do the same for us. I live with an eternal mindset now.
““Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. “He who loves his life shall lose it, and he who hates his life in this world shall preserve it for everlasting life. “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. And where I am, there My servant also shall be. If anyone serves Me, the Father shall value him. “Now I Myself am troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this reason I came to this hour. Father, esteem Your Name. Then a voice came from the heaven, “I have both esteemed it and shall esteem it again.””
Yoḥanan (John) 12:24-28
I want to celebrate this incredible feast because it means Yahuah is real, Yahusha is Messiah, and I stand on solid ground. HalleluYah!! Yet, celebrating it, I sometimes feel like something is off. And I think it’s because of the levels the enemy has gone to in hijacking this appointed time. Part of me feels like I’m tip toeing a line because I don’t want to celebrate a pagan holiday. He did not die on Good Friday, Easter is not First-fruits, and celebrating using pagan idolatry is not something Yah ever asked us to do. How can we claim to love Him if we don’t attempt to walk as Yahusha walked and desire to obey what He said. How can we claim to love Him on our terms – forsaking His words. We were specifically told (now that we have been grafted in) that we are to celebrate the Feast of First-fruits. Yahusha Himself did so by resurrecting on that special First day, exactly three days and nights – just like He said – after being our Passover Lamb; and because He did and we believe it to the point of obedience, we will join Him, the first-fruits of the creation.
“And if Messiah is proclaimed that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Messiah has not been raised. And if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclaiming is empty, and your belief also empty, And if Messiah has not been raised, your belief is to no purpose, you are still in your sins! If in this life only we have expectation in Messiah, we are of all men the most wretched. But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.”
Qorintiyim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 15:12-14, 17, 19-20
“Having purposed it, He brought us forth by the Word of truth, for us to be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.”
Ya‛aqoḇ (James) 1:18
And if the first-fruit is qodesh, then so are we- the grafted in sons and daughters of Yah.
“Now if the first-fruit is set-apart, the lump is also. And if the root is set-apart, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, have been grafted in among them, and came to share the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. And if you boast, remember: you do not bear the root, but the root bears you!”
Romiyim (Romans) 11:16-18
So I’m resting in that I can joyfully celebrate these truths and teach them to my children. Even though Easter tries to steal, kill, and destroy the show with eggs, bunnies, and pagan symbolism, I can celebrate as my Father commanded in Spirit and in Truth. Both are needed. No, I will not compromise the Truth for the sake of tradition. He is worthy of the surrendering of every way I have held up higher than His Word because I never want to be told that I nullified the command of Elohim by my traditions because I don’t know the Scriptures.
““For Elohim has commanded, saying, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me has been dedicated,” is certainly released from respecting his father or mother.’ So you have nullified the command of Elohim by your tradition. “Hypocrites! Yeshayahu rightly prophesied about you, saying, ‘This people draw near to Me with their mouth, and respect Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the commands of men.’ ””
Mattithyahu (Matthew) 15:4-9
And regarding the resurrection …
“And יהושע answering, said to them, “You go astray, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of Elohim.”
Mattithyahu (Matthew) 22:29
These men were simply safe-guarding what they considered to be an important command. It reminds me of the desire to follow man-made traditions in order to worship Him. It just doesn’t cut it. Our Father has given us His loving intructions (Torah) so that we know the Way to walk. How can we honor Him by getting off the path and claiming it’s all for Him?
He is a good good Father who seeks lovingly obedient sons and daughters, who want to do what He says because of the immensity of gratefulness in their hearts. Yahusha is alive and seated with the Father interceding for us every time the enemy tries to make an accusation against us. We have the absolute best lawyer we could ever ask for.
As for me and my family, we believe in the resurrection and seek to celebrate, love, and obey the commands of our Father.
““If you love Me, you shall guard My commands. “And I shall ask the Father, and He shall give you another Helper, to stay with you forever – the Spirit of the Truth, whom the world is unable to receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him, for He stays with you and shall be in you. “I shall not leave you orphans – I am coming to you. “Yet a little while, and the world no longer sees Me, but you shall see Me, because I live, and you shall live. “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. “He who possesses My commands and guards them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and manifest Myself to him.””
Yoḥanan (John) 14:15-21
“Who is he who is condemning? It is Messiah who died, and furthermore is also raised up, who is also at the right hand of Elohim, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of the Messiah? Shall pressure, or distress, or persecution, or scarcity of food, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it has been written, “For Your sake we are killed all day long, we are reckoned as sheep of slaughter.” But in all this we are more than overcomers through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor messengers nor principalities nor powers, neither the present nor the future, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of Elohim which is in Messiah יהושע our Master.”
Romiyim (Romans) 8:34-39
“‘In the first new moon, on the fourteenth day of the new moon, between the evenings, is the Pĕsaḥ to יהוה. ‘And on the fifteenth day of this new moon is the Festival of Matzot to יהוה – seven days you eat unleavened bread. ‘On the first day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. ‘And you shall bring an offering made by fire to יהוה for seven days. On the seventh day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.’ ” And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying, “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and you shall say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. ‘And he shall wave the sheaf before יהוה, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it.”
Wayyiqra (Leviticus) 23:5-11
“And not only so, but even we ourselves who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”
Romiyim (Romans) 8:23
Maranatha!
Kingdom Education 