WisconsinChristianNews.com
Page 17
Volume 26, Issue 1
His Grace Is For When We Fall Short, Not When We AIM Short
By Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Set Apart Ministries
on it that confirms if we really do belong to the family of God. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His command- ments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His command- ments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.” (1 John 2:3-5 NKJV). A follower of our Father, YHWH God, and His Son, our Messiah, Yeshua/Jesus of Nazareth has a set of instructions found in the Bible.
world and spiritual forces and then betrayed” and/or “going along to get along.” Both were founded by descendants of Ham. Both had a strong presence of the giants. You may recall that His people were called to be a “kingdom of priests” teaching the nations how to honor our God. I am only providing a very simple outline here. There is MUCH more to understand to confirm that we are grafted into the Olive Tree of the Family of God but hopefully, this will prompt some further study and prayer to understand His will! “Now therefore if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is Mine, and you shall be to Me a king- dom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19: 5-6 NKJV). When we hear, believe and obey, confessing Messiah as our Savior, we are grafted in to the Family of God: Israel and His Kingdom. This calling as a priest to teach His ways remains valid today. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His mar- velous light.” (1 Peter 2:9 NKJV). Our “3 O” God knew in advance that there would be confusion and division through the generations. He knew of the individual, familial, generational and institutional strongholds that would develop to confuse His people. “And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:10 NKJV). It is our priestly privilege to be about calling people back to His ways in repentance: to sharpen our aim. Then the love of our God will be per- fected in us!! “Repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19 NKJV). ONLINE: Set-Apart-Ministries.org EMAIL: info@set-apart-ministries.org
April 2025 This title is a statement that I made long ago. It became even more relevant when I learned that the word for God’s standard on righteousness is
based on the Hebrew word, “Yareh,” which literally means “to hit the mark.”
This is language often used when referring to trying to hit a tar- get at the central point. Correspondingly, the word that means to “miss the mark,” “Chattah,” is also translated as “sin.” Thus, my observation that His grace comes into play when He sees our desire to please Him is real and deep, yet we don’t quite come up to the standard. Grace cannot be offered when some- one is not even intending to “hit the mark!” Bonhoeffer used the phrase “cheap grace,” in part meaning that forgiveness can- not be extended without repentance. Cheap grace substitutes the fear of the world for the fear of the LORD. If we aren’t really trying to please Him, we are simply AIMING short. If you are paying attention to what is happening in the world and in the heavenlies, it seems more and more evident that our great God is moving with greater speed toward the end and the time of Messiah’s long awaited return! As I write, we are in the final days of preparation to come away to spend the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread week together as a community in the Presence of our soon coming King and Bridegroom. We encourage everyone to spend time as we will be doing in considering any ways in which we have fallen short or have come under the influence of things that pull us away from our God. In fact, observing HIS Feasts, including His seventh day Shabbat, is considered as a “wedding ring” of confirma- tion of being among His people. All of His Feasts are about Messiah! It is quite hard for some people to comprehend that things are changing; that more knowledge is being revealed that is giving us greater under- standing of what has happened in this world and how it affects our near future. One Bible teacher has said that if we don’t understand “pre history” we won’t understand what is coming. This correlates to our Father’s ob- servation through Isaiah’s words that He foretells the end OUT OF the beginning. There are so many issues with different denominations and differing translations and interpretations of His Word that it DOES become con- fusing as to what exactly it is that our Father is looking for from His people. I feel some urgency to get to the most basic of things that all of us, as His people, need to consider; made as pointedly straightforward as possible. If you have been reading my articles, you know that we, at Set Apart Ministries, believe that the Whole Word is valid and relevant for today, just as our Elohim has said He doesn’t change. This is highly relevant for each of us being able to “hit HIS mark,” acting on His Word to please Him. NOT doing so to earn salvation, but simply as a declaration of love and honor. If we are confused as to what the mark IS, it is hard to aim for it! May I illustrate this point with a few comparisons between Old and New Testaments? “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4 NKJV). “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37-40 NKJV). This summary of the commandments does NOT mean that the rest are “done away with.” Yeshua/Jesus confirmed more than once that He up- held His Father’s teachings, what is recorded in what Christians call “The Old Testament.” “Old” does not mean irrelevant. We find that it is NEVER out of date. There is not a set of commandments in the New Testament that are different…they were just written on our hearts, instead of on stone. “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8 NKJV). “But the word of the LORD endures forever. Now this is the Word which by the gospel was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:25 NKJV). Our American understanding of “hearing” is different from the Hebraic concept. And it is in the Hebraic context that our Mighty God chose to do His work. “Shema” literally means that to “hear” something is equivalent to “doing it.” To hear is to obey. It is the same in the Greek words used. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22 NKJV). And a colloquial comparison for this one: “Don’t fool yourself into think- ing that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” (James 1:22 Mes- sage). This has not gone out of fashion: Messiah repeatedly said similar things. But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28 NKJV ). “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:50 NKJV). Reading and hearing the Word from our God means that we have the opportunity to act on what we learn. It is not only being familiar but acting
Our Father is what I call the “3 O” God.” He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. Nothing is hidden from Him. He has also declared that: “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’” (Isaiah 46:10 NKJV). I have written many times of the fact that Messiah Yeshua and our Fa- ther are one in purpose and plan. Yeshua confirmed more than once that: “Jesus answered them and said, ‘My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.’” (John 7:16 NKJV). There are three things to consider: Hear, Believe, Obey. “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart
one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.” (Romans 10: 9-12: NKJV). If you declare you are a believer, yet still live exactly as you have always lived and just sort of “make room” to sometimes attend church or pray, you have not yet crossed over out of the life of the world into the life of His Kingdom. His Word says you are a liar. Faith and works questions still hamstring people. A.W. Tozer said that the “bird of truth has two wings.” He was referring to the balance needed: faith without works is dead. Yet works without faith is also dead. Peter did tell us that Paul’s words are sometimes difficult to under- stand… “as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to under- stand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scrip- tures.” (2 Peter 3:16 NKJV). It isn’t only people that can be untaught and twist words to mean something other than the full context would in- dicate. We have understood this to mean that too many people do not have adequate comprehension of the He- braic context our Father chose. Coupled with the refusal to acknowledge the Whole Word, it is easy to see why so many people have no foundation on which to base their understanding of the New Covenant, or more ac- curately, the Re-newed Covenant! (NOTE: A testament often denotes someone who has died, while our Covenant keeping God is very much alive!) The fallen angels/Nephilim/Rephaim/giants under our adversary’s leadership have also continued to be about their first business, which was to corrupt the world. They tried to prevent Messiah’s birth but were unable to do that, so their focus is on human beings. As I have re- cently written, it is apparent that everything in our current world-focused culture is bent on drawing people away from our God and His ways, has its roots in their agenda. Not only do they work to confound our correct under- standing of His ways, they have preternatural powers be- yond our limited human understanding that can work to subtly deceive us. If we don’t know this and fail to pray for discernment, we are a much easier target to draw away from our God. One major point to confirm this could likely be just how much resistance there is and has been for generations to recognize that the Whole Word remains valid and confirms His standards for our lifestyle and behaviors. We must be alert and aware of two big dangers de- scribed in the Word: Coming out of Egypt and coming out of Babylon or “being drawn into friendship with the
Having come to the realization that the WHOLE WORD of our God is still applicable today, many have made the determination to follow Messiah Y’shua, the Living Torah in all the ways He walked.
Other people do not always understand our choices, and may be fearful or angry. Here is help to soothe strained relationships while honoring our Messiah, Who is the Living Torah! This unique book, now revised and updated from the Kindle version, is now available in both Kindle and paperback format through Amazon.com . Set Apart Ministries • P.O. Box 5584 • De Pere, WI 54115
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Jeremiah 6:16
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