Where Do We Go From Here?

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This week I share a couple of observations from my year-long series through the Torah.

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First is God's great understanding of the frailty of man and how he graciously gave us

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disciplines, a recipe of how to keep on track.

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We would suffer when we went astray, but God is great and his plan of redemption would move forward anyway.

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The Bible tells the most amazing story.

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I invite you to learn how to read it so that it comes to life.

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Welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom Devotional when I seek to share a little inspiration

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and bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week.

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Well, I hope you have enjoyed our weekly Shabbat Shalom Devotionals based on the weekly Torah portions

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read in synagogues around the world.

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I know I was truly blessed.

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I've learned some new things.

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I also gained a much better perspective of the significance of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible,

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and the revelation of God and His ways found in it.

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Well, today I want to share two observations and then talk about where we go from here.

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First, I'm even more impressed with God's understanding of the frailty of mankind

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and our need for regular disciplines.

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He put into place weekly, monthly, and annual observances and more.

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Weekly, the Shabbats, which focus and remind us that God is our Creator

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and the importance of fellowshipping with Him.

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The Sabbath is a shadow of His presence in which we rest from all carnal labors and enter into His peace.

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Monthly, there was the new moon indicating the new month,

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and each new moon was to be a time of prayer and hearing from God.

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And then annually, there were seven feasts of the Lord designed to educate future generations,

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celebrate acts of God, and acknowledge His kingship.

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Every seven years then, they were to read the Torah publicly,

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the land was to have a Sabbath from crops, and debts were to be canceled.

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Then every seven years of seven, so every 50 years was a Jubilee year,

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where property reverted to its rightful owner and debts were forgiven, slaves were freed.

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All this to acknowledge that the whole earth belongs to God,

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and one day He will deliver us from all evil and bondage

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and set us free to enjoy that eternal Sabbath, the kingdom of God, on earth.

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You know, we all get busy and caught up in our earthly lives,

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but these weekly, monthly, and yearly reminders are so essential that we stop everything.

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We remember, we talk about, and pass on, and celebrate what God has done.

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So, the wisdom of God and how He designed this, we would be so better off if we followed His ways.

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Now, my second observation is just how deeply God understood the frailty of man,

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and that we would fail Him. The children of Israel would fail Him,

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but that did not stop Him, because He is more than able.

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His promises are not conditional.

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Yes, the blessings and curses were conditional based upon their behavior,

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but their disobedience would not stop His plan that He saw from the beginning of time

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in which He would redeem the earth.

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He knew what He was going to do one day.

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He would initiate a new covenant and pay for the sins of whoever of mankind would accept it.

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He would bring His children home to the land that He promised Abraham,

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and it would be there His kingdom would one day break through into earth

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when the Messiah will stand on the Mount of Olives and bring about deliverance from evil.

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God will do it.

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Yes, He will use Israel and any of us who want to be part of His kingdom,

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but it doesn't rely on us. It's all about Him.

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Well, those are my two observations.

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So much more I learned and I gained from our reading of the Torah.

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Why? Because God's Word is living. It is alive.

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It is anointed and God breathes and it changes lives.

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God speaks to us when we spend time in its pages.

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But for that reason, when I talk about, well, where do we go from here?

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We finished the Torah.

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The Jewish community is starting all over again in Genesis 1.1.

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But I want to encourage you now, let's walk through the entire Christian Bible together.

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Through my walk through the Bible series, it's already available on whatever platform you're listening to me right now.

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You can find the walk through the Bible series and you can go through all 53 episodes, one each week.

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If not, go to our new I.C.E.J.U.

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.org platform. That's where we have put up online courses

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and we have put up the Walk Through the Bible series as an online course.

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I'm going to link to these things below in today's show notes.

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Also, if you are someone who just wants to understand the Bible better,

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maybe after this time to the Torah, you're like, wow, there's a lot more to this.

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And I realized I want to understand it better than I recommend to you.

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I want to share with you a little bit about my new book, Encounter the 3D Bible,

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How to Read the Bible So It Comes to Life.

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This book is written for beginners and advanced in mind.

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It's very simple to read.

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It is easy to follow and understand.

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But it is for anyone, any age, any demographic, any stage of life,

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that you can read it.

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And I want you to feel the same.

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And that's why I wrote this book.

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Now, this brings our Shabbat Shalom series to an end.

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And I may not be posting for a while because I just have some other very pressing projects

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I have to work on.

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In the meantime, go back and listen to some of the series that I recorded earlier on.

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This is episode 202.

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So there's a lot of content back there that you can go through.

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I want to thank you for walking with me through the Torah this year.

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Please make sure you're on our email list on the link below.

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We're going to link to our email list so that you stay informed of our new resources.

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And when I do begin posting again, we want to let you know.

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So with that, I want to wish you my final Shabbat Shalom.