IT'S ABOUT
CHARACTER
Most of us have spent the majority of our life living the way we want to live or living in the way we were taught to live. A lot of that living is contrary to how we were created to be. We were all created in the image of God. So, naturally, we should figure out what that is, stop living contrary to that, and live a life according to his ways. Right?
REPENT.
Let's cut to the chase.
Most people do not have an accurate understanding of the Bible. We certainly didn't and we were likely in worse shape and more mixed up than most. Like many things, we turn to experts to gain a better understanding of a subject. That's just diligent and smart. One should typically go to the experts—those who have spent countless hours studying, applying, and masterfully teaching the particular subject we wished to learn. So with the Bible, that's what we ended up doing—we went to the experts.
Yet, after years of lectures, questions, and study, we realized we had everything we needed to understand Scripture right from the very beginning. We had the tool we needed, we were just using it wrong. In fact, once we started using the tool properly, we realized we had learned so many misunderstandings from the reputable "experts." To be blunt... the experts are wrong. Matter of fact, so wrong, that's why we were more inclined to be atheists most of our lives than become believers in an old book. Thankfully, we never let go of the tool that helped to set us free.
Almost everyone in the world has access to this amazing tool... and almost everyone in the world gets as intimidated and overwhelmed when they pick it up. We did, for sure. Naturally, when we are eager to go to the experts, they always suggest how to use the tool—and 9 times out of 10, it's wrong. This tool is the Bible itself.
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It's old, it's huge, numerous translations, tens of thousands of different churches and denominations that understand it differently, and did we mention how big of a book it is? It's intimidating. Most people don't even want to open the thing. Yet when they do, guess where they are encouraged to start? In the middle of the book. That's common practice, so you won't feel left out when you follow suit.
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Well, we think that's one of the main reasons there are 45,000 denominations and counting. We should ask ourselves, how do so many people get so many differing opinions from one source? A source that we think is pretty cut and dry when it comes to how one should apply it.
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We think the answer is simple: most of us start in the wrong place, reading from the middle of the book or jumping all around it, and then we make an even greater mistake by asking the wrong people for answers. Or, what's worse, many people never take the time to read Holy Scripture at all. If they're interested in God, they just go to the "experts" to gain a second-hand understanding. We don't recommend that.
Thankfully, there is a simple solution that may solve all these problems...
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Start reading from the beginning of the book.
Ask God himself for all the answers to your questions.
When you read, you'll find out what God has already said.
Apply God's instructions.
Read the Bible.
Obey God.
Live like Messiah.
Simple.
The goal of Scripture has always been: REPENTANCE.
You were made in the image of Almighty God.
Scripture, from beginning to end, is all about walking in the image of God. It's a historical record that includes accounts of men and women who have striven to walk in the character and ways of God as well as those who have failed along the way. This record, specifically in the Book of Deuteronomy, includes a list of all the unchanging instructions of God.
God himself calls these instructions his ways... and he commands us to keep all of them. He expects us to strive to be just like him (as he intended upon creating us). He is holy—set apart—and he holds us to the same standard.
Simply: Be just like the Son of God, our Messiah.
"Let Us make humans in Our image, according to Our likeness..."
What should one stop doing?
To summarize what the Book of Acts instructs new believers to stop doing, one should:
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Stop all forms of false god worship (especially the eating of food sacrificed to idols and any strangled animals)
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Stop eating or drinking blood
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Stop all forms of sexual immorality
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There is much more to repent of than that, but these were the minimum requirements for one to abstain from before they could even assemble with those who worship the One True God. The leaders of the faith determined that since new believers had access to the perfect instructions of God, which were read every Sabbath at the Synagogues, they would learn all of God's instructions regularly and in due time.
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What is one called to start doing?
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Start reading the whole Bible consecutively from beginning to end and obey it
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Learn and begin keeping the 10 Commandments
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​Keep the true Sabbath Day
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Only eat plants and animals that God defined as food
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These are just a few things to start with. God calls us to walk in all his ways; to bear his image and character in all that we do. There is actually a list of his instructions preserved in the Book of Deuteronomy.
It's worth your time to read.
Simply: Live a life according to The Way.
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."
What the Bible teaches:
LOVE GOD & LOVE THOSE AROUND YOU
How do we love God?
How do love others?
Keep Torah.
IT'S THAT SIMPLE.
Our Messiah kept God's Torah. Follow him.
Learn and Keep the Instructions of God (Torah):
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Apply the 10 Commandments
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Honor and keep the Holy Days and Feasts of God
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Remember and keep the Sabbath Day
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Repent from any and all false god worship practices
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Regularly read & meditate on Torah (instructions of God)
Develop your Character;
Be like Messiah & God.
If you truly strive to keep the perfect, unchanging instructions of God, you will bear the fruit of the Spirit:
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
self-control
gentleness
Will you make mistakes? Fall short of perfection? Of course. Yet, when you truly strive to honor God by keeping his instructions... you'll be doing your best, loving others better, and bearing these beautiful fruits more and more every day. You'll be striving to walk as Messiah walked, honoring your creator, respecting those around you, and confident that you're walking on The Way.
Psalm 1
"Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the Torah of Almighty God, and on His Torah he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
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The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."
"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome."
Learning the Ways of God and applying them will make you a wise and understanding person.
YOU CAN DO THIS.
You stand to benefit from walking the Way—God has given such instructions for your benefit and your good!
"So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole Law which I am setting before you today?"
What's the Goal?
Be a loving child of God.
"Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."
- 1 John 3:4-10
