Crystal's Site

In one of my last blogs I was talking about Isaiah 54 and how it pertains to the gentiles and the promises God has made to them.......He said it was as important to Him as was the promise of not flooding the earth again.........well, the my friend John said that the law is not gone because of Christ necessarily........at least that is what I took it that he meant..........so I thought I should do a blog about religion in general and Orthodox Judaism in particular.......

As you all know I have dabbled with learning about different religions and the orthodox Judaism has been of late an issue with me because of my sis and her conversion.......I tend to disagree with her viewpoints and I tend to listen to them very carefully so as to have an understanding of them.  I want you guys to know that when I use the term "the Law", I am not talking about the ten commandments per say.  I thought I should clarify this because when it comes to the ten commandments, John is correct........thou shalt not kill is also thou shalt not hate........and only a person with the Holy Spirit inside them can really comprehend how expansive the ten commandments really are and even then they should study the new testiment to really get that......the Holy Spirit will lead someone who is listening if they have a deposit of it, this is true........but for years, though I was a christian, I didn't understand the implications or the evils of "thou shalt not covet" until hindsight provided me a clear view and until I was absolutely understanding that I was guilty of that particular sin big-time.

Anyway........when I speak of the law........I speak of the Torah as well as the ten commandments because the Torah is the oral law and I also speak of the other laws in the Bible that were given to the Jewish people.........my sister blesses her dishes with water in a bucket before she can use them after they've been washed.  She does the ceremonial mitvah (cleansing bath), she avoids touching her husband during her cycle or sitting where he does, she has two sets of dishes, one for meat products, another for milk.........two refrigerators, one for meat, another for milk, her eating requirements are rigid according to oral law, strict orthodox people even have two tables.......one for a meal with meat and another if the meal is with milk.  She cant adjust her air conditioning on the Sabbath or drive her car or cook, and I hear in Isreal the elevators are set to open on every floor on the Sabbath so that no one has to push the button to get the right one...........do you see what I'm talking about?  This is all RELIGION........in my viewpoint it is anyway........to be fair she tells me that the reasoning is that in everything she does God is present in her thoughts and that is why she actually feels closer to Him with this religion.......to me it is all works you see and therein is the rub........

So many religions are based upon what MAN does to uplift himself........so many of them........even within the christian religion there are many who believe going to church and reading the Bible and and acting and dressing a certain way and following the ten commandments are the ticket to heaven........as Adrian Rogers used to say........lots of people are working their way right out of salvation (paraphrasing).  You see, lots of people believe they are just too good of people to NEED Christ, they figure that is for sinners........

Ok, let me tell you what I believe........I dont believe you can clean up the outside and then the inside will eventually follow..........I just dont believe that......it is contrary to what the Bible teaches......I believe the law is designed to diagnose sin and to be used as an indicator of whether or not you need Christ........I also believe that NO ONE can be saved by the law because the law is so much more than what is on the outside..........thou shalt not covet is a sin of the mind.......and you know what?  Christ often said that the least would be the greatest........now I know He was talking about disciples..........I know that........but honestly..........if you knew what coveting can do.......coveting knowledge was the VERY FIRST SIN.  And look where it has landed mankind!  Anyway, in light of the fact that the sin nature lies within the flesh and will be with us as long as we are tied to the flesh.......naturally, EVERYONE needs Christ.........everyone........

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if the Law was so durned necessary to reach God and have a good relationship with Him, then Adam or Abraham would have been given the law in the first place.......God would NOT have waited to give it to Moses.  Maybe one of these days I will understand why, at that time, God decided to hand down the law to the people and not before then.........but I'm betting my sister already has a plausible answer ;P

The facts are that Abraham's FAITH was accounted to him as righteousness.  As was Isaac and Jacob's faith accounted to them as righteousness.  Abraham was told that ALL nations would be blessed through him........now if it had been the job of Christ to come and subdue the other nations on the behalf of Isreal and set them up to rule the world, then HOW is that a blessing to all the nations?  Isreal thinks they are supposed to get the world in perfect order for their coming messiah, Islam thinks they are to get the world in order for their coming messiah.........there is no telling what other religions teach this........and many of them simply believe that eliminating the notion of sin would make the world perfect for everyone.........the problem with that is that on the inside, they certainly know better than that.  That would be tatamount to allowing sex offenders to do as they pleased because that's what they WANT to do and allowing murders to do as they pleased because of whatever reason and lying would be no big deal........dont you see that sin is sin? 

So when I speak of the law...........I speak of something much broader than the ten commandments and Christ was guilty of breaking the Torah........and buddy I'm here to tell you that the orthodox types make much of this.......He could feed five thousand and heal on the Sabbath and raise the dead.........but by golly, NO ONE is supposed to challange that Torah.........now tell me........isn't that like throwing the baby out with the bathwater?  I have been told that worshipping Christ is idolatry, which is what the orthodox people believe.......as they do not believe He was who we say He is.  They do not believe God can be inside a man.........I think they dont understand the nature or the power of the God I know who can do what He durned well pleases.  They deny the power behind who gave them their ten commandments and the law and the following of the law has taken a huge precidence over the author of that law.  That is what I believe.........the Sabbath was not given for a hardship..........but for rest.....it was a time for mercy from the day to day battles........when would be a better time to heal a man? 

I just plain think it is worshipping the religion more so than God........period.  Therefore I do not esteem this religion........I'm sorry..........I just cant.......I would be a hypocrit if I did.......(spelling)

Little things bother me that you wouldn't believe.........Pastor Haggee bothers me when he says "in the house of GOD".  Do you know why?  Because the body is the temple, which is the house of God........and in his church there are most likely many houses of God, and when they all leave to go home and the building stands empty, it is merely a building........the body of Christ is the house of God, not any building.

I saw Obama at a sermon the other day and there was a white preacher preaching to primarily a black congregation........and he told them that when the children of Isreal left Egypt, that the Egyptians gave them all their riches to take with them before they left and that was the reason the army came after them.......he seemed to be comparing the slavery of the children of Isreal to that of the black people in the United States and THAT offended me........pandering....that's all it was.........just pandering.........you see, Isreal moved to Egypt and started out being honored there as guests and THEN were enslaved.........the black people in America began as slaves and are now citizens, voters, educated, uplifted..........they have made great strides in a short time when you think of the grand scheme of history.......in this country......it is NOT the same thing.......and you should have seen those people shout......most of them dressed in nicer clothes than I can afford.........I was offended......then I thought to myself.........."How did the children of Isreal have TIME to gather all those riches when reportedly they were leaving with unleavened bread and in a hurry?"  Maybe they found the time, I dont know........maybe the Egyptians werent giving the money to the Isrealites so much as trying to buy off their God they were wanting to go and worship?  They had all lost the oldest in their households just that night, perhaps they feared what was coming next?  And what did Isreal DO with that "treasure"?  Did they go to the promised land and buy up what they and not built and what they had not plowed with it?  NO...........they built and idol in the desert while Moses was off getting the ten commandments.........no wonder God made the first one say what it said.......He knew what was up down in that valley long before Moses ever got back with the tablets!

Anyway, I thought to myself..........how DARE that preacher use the word of God to pander to those people like that?  And quite frankly I'm getting SICK and TIRED of hearing how AWEFUL they have it in this country when I hear horror stories galore coming from out of Africa on how they treat each other (same race now) in that country.........HOW DARE THEY?!  White people are so darned apologetic for what happened so long ago that they are voting for Obama to ease their guilt complex!  I dont think I'm going to be watching that preacher any more.......he should have been preaching about the love of Christ.......the sacrifice of Christ........the way men should treat each other........not talking about escaping from bad conditions with someone else's treasure!  (Hush Iggy or I'm going to demand a free exam!)

Anyway......I think I've ranted long enough and I'm not even sure if I got my point across.........maybe I got several of them across I dont know.......I can bet your bottom dollar Colon Powell would not step foot in Obama's church........that man worked for what he has and didnt' expect to get it handed to him because he was not born white.  He didn't make his money on the heartache of others and he didn't make his reputation on his skin tone and how uplifting him would uplift the whole race.  I so wish he would be John McCain's running buddy because frankly, if he ran for president, I would vote for him.......and you know what?  I thought a lot of people had his attitude..........but I'm seeing I was wrong and there are less THINKING people in this world than I thought there were.........but that's not a race issue.......that's just a people issue........I better go before I get into trouble.........hope you have a good day.  I guess I can go to bed now, the storm watches are about gone......