How Beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” ~ Isaiah 57.2

We all have a moral compass we use to navigate the world; something we use to help us make decisions, discern right from wrong. 

We all serve a god. It could be YHWH or allah or shiva. Even the atheist serves a god; its name is self. Often times Christians create other gods to serve; some of their names are self- righteousness, hypocrisy, and selectiveness. 
My moral compass is the inerrant, God-breathed, sixty-six book canon of Holy Scriptures. I believe the Old and New Testament are one book; both apply to my life and govern all my decisions. I serve YHWH. I believe only He gets to decide what is holy and what is not holy, what is right and what is wrong. No where in Scripture does He give me permission to veer from His Word. I believe Yeshua was God in the flesh who came to be our salvation and the light by which all darkness is dispelled; He is my Savior and my King and the only one I serve.
You might be wondering why I am beginning a blog post this way. Most of you who read my posts and follow me on social media know exactly what I believe. But this morning I awoke to a message; it read…“There is a petition on my page…please go sign it…they are trying to start a gay club in the high school and there is a teacher supporting it!!”

And my first thought was, “Did Yeshua ever sign a petition?”

There is a worldly attitude that purports if something exists, such as a club or opinion or attitude,  that we don’t agree with, it is viewed as “being pushed down our throats” or “forcing us to conform.” There has been a violation of our rights if someone disagrees with what we believe. And the flip side of this belief is if you have an opinion some behavior is wrong, then you are labeled a phobic. For some reason people think that everything in the world needs to conform to what they believe and everyone else is wrong or racist or phobic or intolerant. And then the yelling and name calling and threatening begin. We have become our own god and everyone must serve what we say is right. Emotion rules instead of truth.

So I ask what is the topic of the next petition? Vegans shutting down the Fly Fishing Club. Atheists shutting down the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I can take any school club and find someone who would oppose it.

We can, and ought to, call sin what it is: transgression of the Torah. We can, and ought to,  use the Scriptures for rebuking and for teaching. We can share the Gospel message. But then, if the message is refused, we do as Yeshua told us to do: Shake the dust off our feet and move on. We are the planters of truth and God is the changer of hearts. Yeshua said follow me. Yeshua said love God and love your neighbor because all the laws of Torah encompass these two instructions. And just to be clear, we can not fully love God or our neighbor without following Torah and being in a covenant relationship with Yeshua. I am to bear the image of my Creator and reflect the image of my Savior. I am to be a set-apart creation. I am to be a light in the world. I am not to hide or side step what I believe, but I must also be able to back up my beliefs with Scripture. I am to speak truth in love and with kindness on my lips. No one ever won anyone over to their way of thinking by shaming them or screaming at them or humiliating them or bullying them. And these actions are contrary to what Yeshua taught. He did not teach us to destroy others with self-righteous fueled hate and haughty self-proclaimed piety. If those around us only ever see what we are opposed to, then we have failed in spreading the gospel message.

If you are a Christian, and your view is homosexuality is a sin, but you still eat swine, then you have some explaining to do. Why is your sin acceptable and theirs is not? Because God calls both an abomination among a multitude of other things.

And so the trinity of self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and selectiveness appear. Their false gospel message is clear: No matter what my sin is I am above you and your sin; My sin is okay, but yours is not; I can choose what is sin and what it is not based on my own twisting and misuse of the Scriptures. 

Perhaps it is time to read your Bible and find out what God says is wrong. Because if you believe that Yeshua taught anything in the New Testament contrary to what God said in the Old Testament, you do not believe Yeshua is God and are denying His deity. God does not lie. God does not change. His word stands forever. And he does nothing without first revealing it to His prophets. Yeshua taught the Father’s doctrine and the Father’s doctrine is Torah. 

Obedience to God is not a selective choosing and following only what Scriptures we deem necessary to paint a picture to the world of what being a good Christian looks like. Obedience to God is following His word – all of it – and conforming to His code of holiness which is the Torah. We can exist in the world not conforming to it and we can remain undefiled by it if we are pursuing holiness. Because if we are pursuing holiness, we are much more concerned with our own sin than the sins of others. We are to be holy because God is holy. This means following His rules set forth in Scripture. A good Christian attitude is not I am right and you are wrong; it is I love you, I want what is best for you, this is what God says, and I am going to pray for you to see His truth. And then we let God do what He does best – change hearts.

So will I sign your petition? I think not because it is birthed from a place of hypocrisy and hate instead of truth and love. 

One day Yeshua is going to return. No matter what each of us believes, every knee is going to bend and every mouth is going to confess that Yeshua is Lord. And He is going to be the one to judge our words, thoughts, and deeds. We all have enough to answer for in our own lives. And answer we will. I just don’t want my answer to be that I spent so much time worrying about the sins of my neighbor that I forgot to love them and share Yeshua’s truth with them. I don’t want to say that I spent my time slandering and gossiping about someone else’s sins, when it is my own sins needing to be repented of. Most of all, I don’t want to say that I was so filled with hate and venom and self-righteous judgement that I not only marred His image, but that I turned others away from ever wanting to enter a covenant relationship with Him.

Beware of the lines you create and of the ones you cross because those lines will identify whom you serve. As for me, I serve Yeshua, my King and my Messiah. And I hope you do as well.

Yeshua answered them, and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” ~ John 7.16
For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not My Torah. ~ Proverbs 4.2

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you,
Elizabeth

---