RenewedMind

The teaching is about the concept of the renewed mind, using examples of butterflies and metamorphosis to explain the transformation that needs to happen. The speaker emphasizes the need to break free from societal norms and change our thinking in order to fulfill our destiny. Our minds play a crucial role in our actions and who we become, so it's important to control and renew our thoughts. The teaching encourages a shift in mindset to align with the will of God. Hello, this is Daniel Rendleman from Amet Ministries and I'm excited to bring you the teaching today called The Renewed Mind. We're going to look into the scriptures, look into the Father's plan for your life, understand the Father's will, and just learn some powerful truths that can transform our lives today. We're going to look at how to control your thoughts, the difference between theology and the Torah, and the importance of walking in a Hebraic mindset. Now today in our teaching we're going to be using the sacred name of Yahweh and Yahshua, often translated in your English versions of your Bible as Lord and Jesus. We're going to be using the sacred names in the scriptures and we're going to be looking into the whole scriptures from Genesis to Revelation for important truths that we can gleam about how to transform our lives to be more like the Creator. And the first thing we're going to do today is really consider the beauty of butterflies. I've got some kids and they absolutely love butterflies and I'm pretty partial to them also. I don't know if you've ever been to a butterfly exhibit before. We have a botanical garden near our home and every year they have a display where you can go outside into this lavish display of plants and herbs and everything and it's just really, really neat. There's butterflies all around, thousands of butterflies free to roam and pollinate and just do what butterflies do I guess. If you stand real still though, the butterflies might land on you and that's pretty neat. You can see the butterflies busting out of cocoons and it's a beautiful transformation of nature when that little small caterpillar turns into that beautiful, graceful, colorful butterfly. It's a regeneration that a new creation comes forward to fulfill its purpose in the ecosystem, you know, from the caterpillar to the butterfly. In science, this is called metamorphosis. I'm sure you're familiar with this term metamorphosis. It's an English scientific term and it's derived from the Greek language from a word called metamorpho. Metamorpho literally means to transform, to change, to fashion and to figure. You're probably wondering, what in the world does butterflies and metamorphosis have to do with the renewed mind? It's the same concept of metamorphosis that the author of Romans uses when he writes Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. It says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Elohim's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Elohim. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Yahweh's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. That's Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. You see, from this verse, we glean that Bible believers are not to be like the rest of the world, but to be transformed, literally metamorphosized by the renewing of our mind. Kind of like a tadpole. When a tadpole becomes a frog, that's how different, that's how different our life should be from the norm of society when we choose to follow Yahweh Almighty. Now here's the problem. The problem is that the world is all about patterns. Today's culture is all about patterns. The news media, Hollywood, peers, they all inspire how we act and how we look and how we feel. You know, schools and universities, pretty much they just produce cloned graduates who come out thinking the same way. Their individuality has been swallowed up. The way we think is even shaped by the people around us, the movies we watch, the articles we read, the teachings we listen to. All along we thought we were in control, right? Society is kind of like a cookie dough, and this cookie dough is being shaped by the boring cookie cutter of culture. If you think about it, you'll soon realize that every part of your life has been formed by those people around you. Even that rebel teenager, you know, who maybe dresses in all black or maybe has blue hair and all those piercings or whatever, in a desire to be different is like the rest of all the teenagers who desire to be different and wears all black and has all those piercings. In a desire to be different, we're all really the same. And the truth is, unless you've made a conscious decision to change, your life and my life is inside what I call the box of the world. Who we are, that is what we think and how we act, is directly affected by the events of our past and the people of our environment. I'll give you an example. You speak English, probably because you grew up in a household speaking English. You hold certain religious beliefs, probably because you were carted off to church as a child or maybe you weren't. What you think about politics, different issues, about life, about the Bible, is influenced by the world around you. If you grew up in a very hot culture, you'd probably wear clothes that would fit that culture. If you grew up in Alaska, you'd probably wear snow clothes. That's just how this works. Our lives are determined by our environments. Your parents, your teachers, everything that's around you has influenced you and is a sum and result of, you are a sum and result of your experiences and the environments of your past. Now, here's the shattering truth. To fulfill your destiny in life, you've got to break free of all that. You've got to break free of the mold of the world. You've got to be different. You've got to be set apart, separate. To follow the Savior, you've got to be transformed. Here's that word, metamorphosized by a change of mind. We've got to let our thinking be made new and kind of become like a butterfly and bust out of the cocoon thinking of this world and out of the box of ideals. With this in mind, you've really got to consider that who you are has got to change. Who you are has got to come out of this little ring of the world so that we can really tap into what the Father wants in your life and change your mind to reflect the Father's will. Here's a true story. There was an old couple, I guess they were in their 90s, I guess. They were having problems remembering things. They went to the doctor and they said, Doc, you know, we're just having these problems. They explained their memory problems to the doctor and the doctor checked the couple out and he tells them, he says, you know, you're okay, I mean you're physically okay, why don't you start writing things down? Maybe that will help you remember. This couple decides to do that and they leave and they get home, they're watching some TV and the old man gets up from his chair and his wife says, dear, where are you going? He replies, oh, I'm going to the kitchen. So she says, well, honey, would you get me a bowl of ice cream, a bowl of ice cream. He replies, sure. She looks at him and says, don't you want to write that down? You remember what the doctor said, you know, we need to start writing things down. He looks at her and says, dear, I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream. She then says, well, you know, I'd love some strawberries on top. And you better write that down because I know you're going to forget. So he then looks at her again and says, look, I know you want a bowl of ice cream and some strawberries. He begins to walk away and she says, hey, honey, one more thing, can I get some whipped cream on top of the strawberries and you better write this down. I know you're going to forget all of this. So with irritation in his voice, he just looks at her and says, look, I don't need to write it down. I know what you want. I can remember it. So he fumes into the kitchen. About 10, 15 minutes later, he returns from the kitchen and he hands his wife this plate. It's a huge plate full of food. There's bacon and there's eggs and there's grits. The woman looks at her plate and she looks at her husband and she looks at her plate and she looks at her husband and she looks at her plate. She's confused. She looks at her husband. She says, dear, you forgot my toast. That's a pretty funny story and it's kind of a story about how your mind can go to waste. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, yet waste it we do. We waste it every day because we don't use it properly to the will of Almighty Yahweh. You see, the mind is the seat of emotions. It's where thoughts are developed into a method of thinking. It's where we decide what we do and who we are. The mind should act like a filter and it should either allow or prevent thoughts from becoming actions. The problem is most folks have their filter clogged or minds are clogged with bad ideas or man-made theologies or false teachings. Abundant life is but a dream for so many of us because we don't use our filters properly. We just go along with the world and we go along with what we want and what we've always been told and what we've always think about things and we haven't had our mind really renewed. You see, we take in information and we process it through what I call the modern mindset. Life and all its experiences pass through our collection of memories, our knowledge, our expectations and our past. What this does though, this creates a very abstract type of thinking where we make decisions off of emotions and feelings. We choose our bias off of how we're feeling at that moment. Now friend, our thoughts are some of the most powerful forces in the universe. What we think is the motivating powers behind everything else that takes place in life. A wise man once said that I think, therefore I am. And the truth is what we think, what we focus on is what we become, what we experience, what we expect. So if we can control our thoughts and renew our mind, line them up with the will and the word of Elohim, then our actions and therefore our lives are going to change. So it's time for a filter cleaning. Time for a checkup from the nekkah. Now to clean your filter and begin this process of transformation, we've got to take off the mind of this world, what in Hebrew is called the olam hazeh, and we've got to put on the mind of Messiah. This is 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 16. Now you might ask yourself, what is the mind of Messiah? Well it's simply this, it's simply the thought process of Yahweh, the thought process of Elohim. It is the way he thinks. It is the will of Yahweh as revealed in the life of the Savior. Now this is easy to understand if you can go ahead and accept the fact that the Messiah is the word made flesh as it says in the first chapter of John. He was the word or the Old Testament or the Torah made flesh. Now if the Messiah is the living Torah or the first five books of the Bible, then to put on the mind of Messiah is to put on the mind of Torah. Torah is the revealed will of Yahweh and now when we put on that mind, the Torah becomes the filter that all of our thoughts pass through. Now for Messiah's mind, was the Torah made flesh? And now for us, for the believer, the Torah must become the filter that all of our actions and thoughts pass through. His mind has got to become our mind. His thoughts need to become our thoughts. You see the Savior Yahshua lived out completely the divine will of Yahweh. He never sinned and everything he did pleased the Father. The Redeemer acted on, he thought on, he taught on and he brought about the fullness of the scriptures. It says in the Messianic writings, if any man is in Messiah, he is a new creation. All things are made new. And this newness affects the new or renewed mind that comes about as we abide in the scriptures and abide in Torah. Now as we press on, as we go towards Yahweh's will, the mind has got to act like a filter and it's got to filter out our ideas and theologies and thoughts that do not line up with the Torah as revealed in the first five books of the Bible. Now this new mind is completely different than what you're used to and it's definitely going to rub you wrong at first. Yet not renewing the mind, not renewing the mind is why so many people have so many problems and so much difficulty grasping the meaning of scriptures and the meaning of life. The dilemma is that people are conditioned to think according to patterns and the pattern of this world is staunchly opposed to the pattern of the scriptures. Again what does it say in Romans chapter 12, it says to let your mind be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. We've got to break free of the pattern of this world. And this world is based upon a Western or Hellenistic or Greek mindset and worldview while the Bible was and is based upon a Hebraic worldview, written to Hebrews, about Hebrews, for Hebrews. And it's simply impossible to grasp the scriptures and the true meaning of the Bible without a mindset that promotes knowledge of biblical times, the Hebrew language, and even Judaism. We've got to really look into our past and look into the scriptures. Have you ever heard the phrase wag the dog? Wag the dog. Now what we're considering today is an important subject because the thoughts of the mind, the thoughts of the intellect, they're the forces behind the actions and the words of every person. Now we might not want to realize this, we might not want to say this out loud, but we actually do think before we say or do anything. It's simply impossible to do something without thinking. Now the process might be as fast as snapping your fingers, might be lightning fast, yet the tail does not wag the dog. We do have control over what we say or do, only if we take control. The dog is supposed to wag the tail, we are supposed to be in control of our thoughts. Now today more than ever, we're confronted with the challenge to be in the world but not of the world. We've got to reject what has always been in order to discover the way it was meant to be and it's a battle over the brain and it's going to affect every area of your life. From everything from the food you eat, to the clothes you wear, to the days you worship, our mind has got to be made new in order to walk in the fullness of the abundant life that Yahshua the Savior promised. But how do we do it? How do we really walk in that fullness? How do we put on the mind of Messiah? What changes have got to take place so that we're not conformed to the pattern of this world and we be transformed by the renewing of our mind? What is it going to take for us to accept the will of Yahweh? To break out of the pattern, the cocoon thinking of this world and flutter out like a beautiful butterfly? Well, I call the process that we've really got to take and we've got to tap into the renewal stool. Renewal stool, you know like a bar stool that you sit on? Consider that this stool has three legs and the seat of the stool or the base is the Torah. The Torah is the will of Yahweh as revealed in the first five books of the Bible and interpreted by our Savior, Rabbi Yahshua. Now the seat or the base of this renewal stool is Torah. Everything is based upon just acceptance of the scriptures as infallible will of Yahweh, the first five books of the Bible. Now the three legs of the stool are what holds that up. They're the three impact areas that we've got to consider. Without one of these legs, without one of these impact areas, our stool is going to be imbalanced and it's going to fall over. So it's really important that we grasp all three of these dynamics and they're pretty simple. Don't let these fool you. What I'm going to share with you today, they're easy to understand. But they're also easy to misunderstand. And you need to go ahead and grasp now that the renewed mind is not a destination of thinking, but it's a lifelong journey. It's where our thoughts are centered upon Yahweh and his Torah. This is just where we start busting out of the cocoon, where we start busting out of the world. And it's a process and it's a daily journey. So if we understand that the base of our stool here is Torah, let's look and see exactly what the three legs are. Renewal Stool Leg 1. Renewal Stool Leg 1 is engage your focus. Have you ever wondered why a lion tamer would enter into that circus ring with those ferocious king of the jungle lions and carry with them a bar stool and a pistol and maybe a whip? I can understand the pistol, you know, to shoot them if they come lunging at them. I can understand the whip to, you know, keep them back. But speaking of bar stools, I just don't understand. I mean, he's not going to sit there. He's not going to belly up. You know what I mean? He just... Why does a lion tamer take a bar stool into that circus ring? Well here's the truth. Lion tamers use the bar stool to confuse the lion. They hold the stool out by its seat and they push the ferocious animal away with the legs. Now what the lion does is the lion tries to watch all three stool legs, all three of those legs at one time. And what happens to that lion is he gets really confused. He gets busily confused in the ring and it messes up the focus of this beast. This king of the jungle is nothing but a baby kitten when its focus is off. And you see, we too are easily off guard when our concentration is broken and we don't control our thoughts. So our first stool leg is engaging our focus. The scriptures say that the adversary is like a roaming lion, seeking whom he may devour. And so he knows that he can confuse us if he can get our focus off. In life, we get what we focus on. The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there. It takes effort to reach the pinnacle in our lives and the pinnacle in our spiritual lives. And friend, if you are negative, if you complain a lot, if you just can't seem to have any joy, if you just have problems upon problems, then you probably need to really engage your focus. This is a biblical principle and the principle states that you reap what you sow. If you're going to plant positive thoughts, I'm talking about positive Torah-based thoughts, then your life is going to reap positive Torah-based outcomes. Now this doesn't mean that things are going to be easy all the time or everything is going to go your way. What this does mean, though, is it prepares your soul to look to Yahweh in the good times and in the bad. When you engage your focus, no matter what you go through, you can see the hand of Elohim. When you are focused, you are determined, you are alert, you are unwavering. And the key here to engaging your focus is found in Tehillim and found in Psalm 16 verse 8. I have set Yahweh always before me, because of his right hand I will not be shaken. Memorize this verse. I have set Yahweh always before me, because of his right hand I will not be shaken. You ought to just write this verse down on a card and keep it before you because you've really got to look to Yahweh to control your thoughts. Looking to Him, seeing His right hand throughout the day and throughout the events of your day are going to lead to a great transformation. You see, the seemingly bad things in your life are going to turn into learning events. Instead of praying that you always get a quick healing and a miraculous healing, you're going to pray, Yahweh, show me. What is it I need to learn from this? What am I going through right now? What can I learn? Now, the good things in your life, when you have set Yahweh before you, engage your focus, you're just going to praise Yahweh for it. Something happens great, you're just going to, oh, thank you, Father. Just give you praise. And the humdrum stuff, I'm talking about, you know, taking out the trash. I'm talking about, you know, changing the baby's diapers. You know, I'm talking about just going to work and just having a humdrum day. They're going to provide even more opportunities to learn and rejoice. Yirmeyahu 5150, Jeremiah 5150, powerful verse. It says, remember Yahweh in a distant land. Think on Yerushalayim. Remember Yahweh in a distant land and think upon Jerusalem. This is the verse that tells us that, you know, when we're in a distant land, our thoughts wander. You know, we're not in the holy land. We don't have those things to remind us of the Father at all times. We're in a distant land right now. We're in exile. And so we need to really remember Yahweh and think about Him and remember Yerushalayim. It says in the Messianic writings in Philippians 4.8, whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right or pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Get control. Engage your focus. Don't let your mind wander or wonder when things go crazy or bad or get out of hand. Look to Yahweh. Pray. Control your thoughts. Ask yourself, how would Yahshua handle the situation? To do all this, you've really got to read the Torah daily. Daily. You know, a lot of people read the Scriptures once a week, you know, when they go to their services. We need to be in the Scriptures every day to strengthen our renewal. It's a little concept I call garbage in, garbage out. If you put garbage in your life, you're feeding yourself with just entertainment. You're feeding yourself with worldly whims and desires. That's what you're going to produce. But when you feed yourself with Torah, when you feed yourself with the Scriptures, you're going to produce that in your life. What you put in is what you put out. So to engage our focus, we've really got to start putting Torah in and looking to Yahweh. So Renewal Stool Leg 1 is engage your focus. Renewal Stool Leg 2. This is the second leg. Again, real important, real easy, yet real easy to misunderstand. And this is accept holocaust, reject theology. Accept holocaust, reject theology. Now I want to warn you right now. This is a no-spin zone. You're entering into a no-spin zone of truth. The acceptance of holocaust, the rejection of theology is one of the hardest battles you're going to face. It's going to be something you're going to struggle with and yet it's going to free you. So continue listening at your own risk. This is a no-spin zone. We're going to call it like it is. You see, we have taken our theologies and we have nestled them and loved them. They've kind of been like a friendly next-door neighbor. We've grown up with our theologies. We've trusted them. They've been our answers to some of life's toughest questions. We've pondered things. How can this be? Why do bad things happen to good people and all these great things? The problem is most of our theologies are man's theologies or man's theories. You see the similarities in theories and theologies? Now according to the online etymological dictionary, the word theology is from the Greek language and it literally means the account or treating of the gods or of theists. Now the Baptists, the Catholics, the Lutherans, the Pentecostals, the Episcopalians, the Methodists, they've all got their theology figured out. They have placed their God in this little box of ideals. I grew up Baptist. I know about the Baptist faith and message. The dilemma is that Yahweh, the Creator, is Ein Sof. He is greater and bigger than anything we can just understand. Ein Sof, it's a Hebrew word that means incomprehensible and beyond knowledge. Yahweh is so great, we really can't fully understand him. This doesn't settle real well with most folks because we've always been taught our ideas that box them in. We've got our theologies. We know our answers to those theological rhetorical questions that the really smart people that have been in the seminaries have taught us. Friend, we've got to let Yahweh break out of the box. See, it's time for a spring cleaning. We've got to really see that our ideas about the Trinity, about security, about the causes of sickness and death, and about healing, our ideas about the Father are our ideas. They've got to be renewed and made fresh by the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. Yahweh is greater than our understanding. He is bigger than our boxes of theology. He is more awesome than anything we can think, ask, or imagine. Think about this. The Creator, Ein Sof, Yahweh, he's bigger than the Baptist faith and message, and he is deeper than the latest Benny Hinn book. Our theologies have tied the Creator, think about this, they've tied the Creator of the universe around our little finger. We think we've got them all figured out. We think everybody else is wrong, right? Let's be honest. Our theologies, though, are many times wrong because they've not been based upon Torah. They've not been based upon the concept of Ein Sof, that Yahweh is incomprehensible. Our theological thinking is full of man. What we've been taught is full of paganism, full of ancient lies. We may want a denomination, or a union, or whatever, a group to dictate how we live and think, but that's just not the way it's supposed to be. We are supposed to study. We are supposed to search the Scriptures out. You see, we do have the Scriptures. We have the Bible, the infallible written Torah. His Word is our guide. And yet in His Word there is so much. I mean, think about it. The rabbis have found 613 commands in the first five books of the Scriptures, in what they call the 613 mitzvot. And even with these 613 commands, there are literally thousands, and I mean thousands, of ways to do them. If you ask two rabbis the same question, you're going to get back four good answers. That's just the way it is. No two people keep Torah the same way, and that's okay. This is exactly where halacha comes in. So go ahead, say goodbye to theology, and say hello to a new way, to walk. Halacha. Halacha is a Hebrew word, and it literally means to walk, or to act. A way to walk, or a way to act, a way to go in obeying the commands. It is found throughout the Scriptures, and it's based on a verse in Exodus. Exodus 18.20, Shemot 18.20, and it says, And thou shalt show them the way wherein they shall go to work that they must do. Thou shalt show them the way, or the halacha, where they must go in the work that they must do. Now when a teacher of the Scriptures, or a rabbi, sets halacha, that teacher is basically saying, okay, we're going to follow this command in this manner. Halacha is based off the root word yalach, which is defined as walk, or to prosper, to grow, or to carry. Halacha is interpretations of Scriptures with ideas and descriptions on how to live out the commandments. It is a way of application of Torah to everyday life. The truth is, halacha can differ from teacher to teacher, from family to family, and from congregation to congregation. Some people's halacha is very strict, with boundaries of protection fenced around the Torah. Some halacha is loose, very liberal. Some groups have what's called in Hebrew, minhag, or local customs of halacha on certain issues. They say, okay, we do it this way, this is our way for our group, it's our minhag. Now, halacha can be very wide, yet it must not break Torah, or Torah's literal interpretation. Just like walking, halacha takes effort. It's easy to receive theological rhetoric. I mean, it's easy to receive what the priest, or the professor, or the preacher tells us. It is hard to set halacha for a family, for a congregation, to study, to show yourself approved. A workman who does not need to be ashamed, who correctly and rightly divides the word of truth, 1 Timothy 2.15. The great thing about halacha is halacha leaves room for difference, as long as the Torah is upheld. Remember that the Torah is our base. Rabbi Ed Nidal from B'nai Abraham said, Torah is the doctrine, halacha is the way to walk, and there is much freedom in halacha. Theology, on the other hand, leads to walls of separation, and here's what theology does. It says, if you don't believe exactly as I do, you're not going to heaven. Haven't you heard that before? That's what theology is. If you don't believe exactly as I do, you're not going to heaven. Now, theology is just strict. Halacha, in most instances, leaves room for growth. It leaves room for freedom. Halacha says, we do it this way, yet you may do it another way. Halacha says, that's okay. The important thing is we're following the will of Yahweh and obeying Torah. The scriptures allow congregations and rabbis and families to fulfill the mitzvot in different yet meaningful ways. Theology leaves no difference. Now, throughout the world, halacha differs on how to do certain things. Say even Hebrew words. Some people say Shabbat for the Sabbath. Some people say Shabbos for the Sabbath. Those are okay. It's the Sabbath. Let me ask you this. Haven't you ever struggled with the quote-unquote correct way to keep a commandment? Sure you have. Halacha conquers that struggle with a scriptural answer, and a traditional answer in many cases. Sometimes halacha is several different answers. That is why two groups can perform a mitzvah differently, yet both be right in their own eyes. Now, while theology is formal, halacha is not. Again, this is hard to grasp because halacha, understand this, halacha leads to more questions than answers. You see, we're used to having more answers than questions, being able just to rattle off our theology, you know, again, as fast as we can snap our fingers, know exactly what we believe. We're used to rattling them off. Halacha leads to more questions than answers. We want Yahweh tightly defined. We want all contradictions taken care of. We want our theological statement to bounce ideas off, and we want our theological statement to be there we can just compare with other groups. Now, understand this. There are certain areas, yes there are, that are crystal clear and should be agreed upon. The truth of Torah is not up for debate. The truth of Messiah, Yahshua, is not up for debate. The truth of Israel is not up for debate. The truth of the name of Yahweh, Yahshua, Ruach HaKodesh, is not up for debate. Yet a proper understanding of halacha is not going to break fellowship over simple issues. People break fellowship over the color of carpet, what side the organ is on, you know what I mean? When we understand halacha, we're not going to break fellowship. You might say Yahuwah. You might say Yahweh. You might say Yah-vay. The important thing is that we're saying the name Yod, He, Vav, He, Yod, He, Vav, He. Now, one group might use the Jewish calendar. Another group might use the Karaite calendar. Both groups are trying to keep the feast on specified days. One rabbi might teach to take a magic marker out and write scriptures on your verse, scripture verses on your door frames of your house. And another rabbi might say, hey, use a mezuzah. Both groups are saying uphold the verse in Deuteronomy chapter 6 that says to write this on the door frames of your house and on your gates. Theology leads to judgmental attitudes. Theology leads to rejection. It leads to people just feeling bad, oh, they're not doing it this way. Well, you can't do it if you don't do it this way. Halakha ushers in deep devotion and acceptance. And when a group sets halakha, you need to come under that group's setting of halakha if you're going to submit to that group's leader. When that leader sets that halakha and you're submitting to that leader's authority, then you're also submitting to that halakha that's been set. A proper acceptance of halakha is going to further our mind's renewal. It's going to allow us to engage our focus. We're going to reject putting Yahweh in the box of theology and we're going to accept the freedom found in Yahweh's way to walk Torah. Renewal stool leg three. We've got to choose the Hebrew way. You know, life is full of choices. I mean, you make choices all day long. You think about some, you don't even think about others. We choose what side of the bed to wake up on, right? We choose what flavor toothpaste to use. We choose what color socks to wear. Sometimes our choices are minimal, while others are major choices. To experience the rude mind at a higher level, we've got to daily decipher and decide upon the Hebrew way. And again, we think about it all. It may feel like we're not thinking about these choices, but we are. We've got to think about them, we've got to engage our focus, we've got to understand halakha, and now we've got to choose the Hebrew way. Now unfortunately, most of today's life is emerged in a world starkly opposite to the mitzvot of Torah, to the command of the scriptures. And like a computer, we have been programmed to operate within the world's parameters. All we know is the world. All we know is the church. All we know is the way the world acts. The Christian church mostly mirrors current culture. Yet we have to mirror the ancient paths of the scriptures. And it's sad folks, it's sad that most people can't tell the difference between a moral person and a religious person. Because most religious people are not modeling the ancient paths as outlined in the scriptures. We've got to be reprogrammed, like a computer, to Yah's ways. We've got to be renewed. Now this Hebrew road is our pathway towards Yahweh's good, pleasing, and perfect will, as it says in Romans 12, 1 and 2. It's the Hebrew approach, and it's a Torah-based method for life's decisions. It's a worldview that covers everything from faith, to family, to finances. And it will cause us to think, and therefore act, more like the Ibrahim, more like the Hebrews, more like Yahshua. Where life, every thought, every word, every action is going to be Yahweh-oriented. That's the Hebrew way, where Yahweh is said before us, and we walk in his path. Now one fundamental difference between the Hebrew way and the worldly way, or the Greek way, is between knowing and doing. The ancient Greeks and the modern world were all concerned about knowledge. I mean, this is the information age right now, right? While the belief of the Hebrews wants to do, and wants to do right. Think about just Greek. It's a philosophical language. Hebrew, on the other hand, is an action-oriented language. Society says you can separate what you believe and what you actually do. The Hebraic mindset says you cannot separate them. Think for a minute about President Clinton and the Lewinsky affair. It's a prime example of how our culture supports the notion of, well, we can separate what we think, and our devotion, and our actions. You see, the President said he was devoted to his wife, yet his actions prove the opposite. And while the church teaches that faith is all about belief, Hebraically, according to the book of James, Jacob, faith is all about action and doing. What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith and has no deeds? Can such faith save him? That's right out of the scriptures, James, Jacob, chapter 2, verse 14. You see, the world also separates the religious from the secular. You've got the recreation time, right? You've got work shifts, and you've got your worship hour on Sunday. For us, for the Hebrew, everything is spiritual. The lines are going to be blurred between the religious and pretty much everything else. We don't just put off our religion. We are our religion. We wear it. We are Hebrews. The hand of the Creator can be seen behind the events of the world. Even the 7 o'clock news in the broadcast, to us, isn't just a news broadcast. It exposes the signs of the times. It's a literal prayer list for us. And as a believer, we've got to acknowledge the simple fact that we are not just an American, we're not just a European, we're not just an Australian, we're not just an African. We are a Hebrew. We are on a quest to reclaim our culture, reclaim our heritage. And when we do so, we're going to understand that our faith carries us all day long. The Israelite lifestyle is based upon two important areas and two important ideas. The first of which is, well, it's the Torah. That's pretty simple, isn't it? It's the Torah itself. Like a blueprint for a building, the Torah gives us specific instructions and directions for how we can achieve our full potential and please Yahweh. The Torah, specifically the first five books of the Bible of Moses, they're the foundation upon which our faith is built. It's the standard from which life and life's decisions should be determined and judged. Every idea, every doctrine, every teaching has got to pass the Torah test. Now, Torah, again, is the Hebrew word and it literally means teaching or instruction, usually translated as law in the scriptures and English Bibles. Over time, though, Torah has become known as the title of the first five books of the Bible. The Torah is the revelation of Yahweh's will. It is the Bible Yahshua, the Messiah, read and used. And without a firm foundation of Torah, sin is excused, false theology is accepted, and the character of Yahweh is altered. We box him in. Psalm 113, it says, when the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? When the Torah has been destroyed in our lives, if we don't have a foundation of Torah in our lives, we, as walking in the righteousness of Yahweh, can't do anything because we don't know what our foundation is. We don't know what we're supposed to be doing. So to know how a Hebrew is to think and to know how a Hebrew is to act, we've really got to know Torah. We've got to memorize writings of Moshe. We've got to search the scriptures before making decisions. Let me just give you an example. You're making a decision for your family maybe on something simple. Let's say it's on eating. What is your family going to eat? What are the foods that your family should be eating? You look to the scriptures, you look to Torah, and you begin to study. Let's say you're making a decision on dress and the dress of the women, the dress of the men. How should they be dressing? How should they be talking? You know, should they be dating or not? Should we be worshiping on certain days? Should we be doing certain things at work? Should we be making certain decisions in life, all decisions in life? We've got to pass through the scriptures, through the foundation of the Torah. And it's not left up to some preacher or even some rabbi to tell you what to do. Study to show yourself approved. Teachings like this and teachings that the rabbis give us are wonderful and they are helpful. Yet it's our responsibility to really dig into the scriptures and to do word studies and to search and to find out what the Father's will is for our life. So the first aspect is Torah. The second one is a very controversial issue. And it's the issue of Judaism and tradition. Judaism and tradition. What do we do with Judaism and tradition? As a believer who's realized, okay, I'm a Hebrew, I'm an Israelite, I'm trying to come out of the world, I'm trying to be separate, I'm trying to know the will of Yahweh, I'm trying to walk in His ways. What do I do with Judaism? What do I even do with Christianity? We're going to deal with the issue of Judaism and tradition. One simple thing to consider is that the Jewish people have had the Torah for thousands of years. They have kept the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day, for thousands of years. Anyone that says, oh, we don't know what the original Sabbath was, well, yes you do. See, but the Hebrews, the Jews have kept it for thousands of years on the right day, on that day, the seventh day. And because they've been keeping Torah for thousands of years, they know how to kill animals in the prescribed way as found in the Torah. They know how to tie a tzitzit, make tefillin, they know how to keep the feast days. They have had their faith handed to them from the forefathers. Their faith. They inherited, the Hebrews, inherited the faith of our ancestors, Avraham, of Moshe, and of David. We as believers, as returning Israelites, can look to the Jews, the Jewish people, for aid and assistance when it comes to understanding the rituals, and traditions, and the customs, even the difficult passages of Scripture. You see, the Jewish people know how to keep Torah, and that's one thing they know, okay? And most of us don't. We've lived our lives with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We've lived our lives with Paul. We've lived our lives with the New Testament, only, you know, gleaming certain issues from the Old Testament. And so in the Scriptures, we've got to start over, looking back to Genesis, and we can look to the Jews, and look to the faithful Jewish people to learn more about Torah observance. Now historical writings prove that the early followers of the Savior, of Yeshua, were so Jewish that most people could not tell them apart from the majority of the Jewish people. Did you hear that? Historical writings prove this. Here's a quote from the book, and this isn't just something I've made up, it's from the book by the early church father, Epiphanius, and his doctrinal book, Adversus Heresies, called Against Heresies, and this is from Henry on 29, and this is what it says. He wrote this down thousands of years ago, right when Messiah was living. It says, the Nazarenes, or the followers of the Savior, do not differ in any essential thing from the Orthodox Jews, since they practice the customs and doctrines prescribed by Jewish law, except that they believe in Messiah. They believe in the resurrection of the dead, the universe was created by the Almighty, they preach Yahweh is Echad, or One, and that Yeshua is His Son. They are very learned in the Hebrew language, and they read the Torah. Wow. Here's a man that saw the early followers of the Savior, and he said they do not differ in any essential thing from the Orthodox, except they believe in Messiah. Remember what the Savior said. What we do know is that salvation is from the Jews. That's in John chapter 4, verse 22. So to know and live a Hebraic mindset, and to have your mind renewed to the scriptures, is to look at the Jewish traditions and customs as a great asset. I'm not saying convert to Judaism. What I'm saying is we can glean from what they've been through. Now it's difficult, maybe even impossible, to have a worldview based upon Torah without looking to Judaism for answers, because the Jews have kept it for thousands of years. They have an understanding of what it means to obey the majority of the commandments. The rabbis and the sages, they have studied, discussed, fussed, made holocaustic decisions on the different mitzvahs, or commandments. A single action of obeying a Torah command in the scriptures has over time in the Jewish people developed into a tradition through repetition, and traditions really aren't that bad. You see, this action has also progressed into the culture of the Jewish identity. My friend, if we're going to follow the scriptures, we're going to look more Jewish than anything else. Now, to put it plainly, the Jews have had the Torah so long that they know how to obey Torah so well, we can learn how the Jews do it, and model some of their examples. The Jewish people's Torah keeping is a witness, it is a sign to the world on how a Bible believer should act. Doing things the quote-unquote Jewish way isn't necessarily bad. Now, it might not always be necessary, yet it definitely is of some benefit. Listen to this again. Doing things the quote-unquote Jewish way may not be necessary for salvation, yet it is definitely a benefit for blessings. Now, you can argue with this all you want, you can cut this CD off right now, yet read for yourself Romans chapter 3 verse 1. What advantage then is there in being a Jew? Much and every way. First of all, they have been trusted with the very words of Yahweh. That is a direct quote from Romans 3.1. What advantage there is in being a Jew? Just what I said. First and every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of Yahweh. They receive Torah first. Now, when we look at Judaism for answers, we've got to deal with issues of tradition and paganism. The Hebrew word for tradition is Meseret, and the Encyclopedia Judaica says that Meseret is a general name of tradition. It's found in Ezekiel 20 verse 37, and it originally meant a bond or fetter. You see, tradition is the discipline that establishes correct practice. When you have traditions in your family, it just becomes correct practice. It becomes second nature, okay? This knowledge was handed down by generations of generations, and so Meseret also means to give order. Meseret traditions give order to our life, and they have remained virtually unchanged over long periods of time, which gives uniformity and help with belief. We can look to the Hebrews who've been looking to their Hebraic fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers and ancestors to see how to fulfill the scriptures. It's not just mindless or faithless work. Their practice of Torah over time has developed into a culture of events that express a lifestyle. To the Jewish people and to the Hebraic mind, keeping Torah is not about religion. Religion gives us continuity. It gives us the way that the past is preserved and the future is made clear. Torah observance is a different lifestyle than the world. You see, we've got to make decisions about Torah. Either we're going to dismiss it or we're going to walk it, and if we're going to walk it, we've got to figure out how in the world to do it. Either we're going to follow the preacher's example and pig out on pork or we're going to keep kosher. We're going to agree to a traditional way of obeying a command, maybe like using a mezuzah or way to tie tzitzit. We're going to look at the Jewish people as examples or we're going to make it up as we go. Again, it's a choice we make. We can dismiss the Torah and we can dismiss customs as being, quote-unquote, too Jewish or we can use them as examples. Now, again, you've got to deal with a bigger problem. And this is a problem of how. How do I do this? Again, we look to the first followers. And again, the problem is most New Testament Christians have little answers and little ideas on how to fulfill the mitzvot of the Torah. How do you keep the seventh-day Sabbath? Ask some of your friends. How do you keep it? Well, you've got to look to the scriptures and you can look to traditional Jewish observance just to get ideas, to set halakha, because the Jewish people have already set their halakha. They've already set their ways to walk for thousands of years. They've hashed out the difficult verses and set up their standards to live. And again, the early believers were just like the Torah-keeping Orthodox or Jews. Now, much of this Hebrew worldview and these Hebrew choices that we make is based upon scriptural traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. And, friend, there's nothing wrong with tradition. Biblical tradition is okay. Here's what biblical tradition says. It says you can keep the commandments this way. What is wrong is traditionalism that says you have to keep the commandments this way. There's nothing wrong with flying an American flag on July 4th. That's a good tradition, I think. I mean, it's fun shooting fireworks on July 4th to celebrate the independence of the United States of America from the tyranny. That's a tradition that's okay. Traditionalism, which is not okay, would say, if you don't shoot fireworks, if you don't fly a flag, you're not patriotic, and we're going to put you in the prison, okay? Traditions of the Bible are okay. Traditionalism of man is not okay. You see, traditions produce heritage and unity and love, while traditionalism produces legalism, bondage, and rejection. Traditions are a means to an end. Even Jewish traditions, they're a means to an end of fulfilling the mitzvot. Traditionalism is an end in and of itself. Now, Yeshua spoke about the traditions several times. He was rebuking a group of Torah teachers who were exalting their traditions and their halakha above that of Torah. He said, you have let go of the commands of Yahweh and are holding on to the traditions of man. You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of Elohim in order to set up your own traditions. Notice in Mark chapter 7, verses 8 through 9. Notice that he did not tell them to get rid of their traditions, though. What he did say is, your traditions can't replace obedience to the scriptures. And if any tradition negates Torah, hinders your walk, takes the place of scriptures, it needs to be dropped and replaced. Mishle, Proverbs 4.23 says, above all else, guard your heart, because it is the wellspring of life. Traditions and Judaism and the Torah are aids and assistance to our spiritual walk. Yet they can also become control and become idols. So good traditions lead us to intimacy with Yahweh. How do you know what's good? How do you know what's bad? I'll come up with a little truth test to kind of give you some ideas. Real quick, when you look at something and you're asking yourself, is this something a Hebrew would do? You know, I'm wanting to renew my mind, I'm wanting to do the will of Yahweh, maybe I'm looking at a Christian tradition, maybe I'm looking at a Jewish tradition, maybe I'm looking at a worldly tradition. Is this something I should do? Here's like a little litmus test you can use. First thing is ask yourself, is it biblical? Is it biblical? Does this custom go against the scriptures? Is this custom found in the scriptures? Is there a principle for this custom in the scriptures? So number one, ask yourself, is it biblical? Number two is ask yourself, is it pagan and is it a benefit? Is it pagan and is it a benefit? Does this custom have pagan roots, pagan affiliation, or have pagan connotations attached to it? Did the pagans do this? Did the pagans do this? Are the pagans doing it now? Pagans are people who are not of the Hebraic way, of the worldly way, those that do not worship Yahweh. And is it a benefit? Am I just doing it to do it or is this a benefit for me to do? And thirdly, you need to ask yourself, does this grieve the Ruach HaKodesh? Does this grieve the Holy Spirit? Do you have peace when you do this? Does it promote unity and love and shalom? Or do you feel the Spirit's tug when you do it a certain way or don't do it a certain way? Let me give an example real quick. Let's say you're looking at the Sabbath issue and you ask yourself, is it okay to worship on Sunday? So you ask yourself, first of all, is it biblical to worship on Sunday? A quick search of the scriptures would find no references of believers worshipping on Sunday. There's two references in the New Testament where they met for an offering on Sunday. The scriptures do say in the Ten Commandments, six days shall you labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath. So is worship on Sunday biblical? No. Is it pagan? A little research, open up an encyclopedia, open up a dictionary, we'll find that worship on Sunday has pagan roots of sun worship, sun day, of even watching the sun rise with sunrise services. And it was Solus Deus is what it was originally called, and it's a day of high Roman and pagan worship. Is it a benefit to worship on Sunday? Well, we would have to say no again, because it's not biblical and it's not pagan. And thirdly, does it grieve the Raqqa Kodesh or the Holy Spirit? Does it promote unity? Is it scriptural? Do you feel the Spirit's tug when you worship on Sunday as opposed to the seventh day? I believe if you open your heart to it, you will. And when you're exposed to the truth of Torah, to the scriptures, to the seventh day, you realize that you know what? Sunday worship, as the Sabbath, does not pass this truth test. If it just misses one of these, if it's not biblical or has biblical connotations, if it's pagan, if it's not a benefit that grieves the Raqqa Kodesh, we need to let go of it. We just need to let go of it. And that goes for any of the traditions that we have in our lives, any of the customs that we have, and the decisions. When you go to make a decision, let's say you've got a decision on doing something in your life. It's a major decision. It's a small decision. Take it to this truth test, and it will help you with your renewal of your mind. What is Yahweh's will? It's for you to walk in His ways, to be an example, and to shine the light. Let your good deeds shine your good deeds forward, as your scriptures say. And as the Savior said, He said, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. To know His will is to walk in His ways, and to do that, the scriptures say, you've got to be transformed by the renewing of your minds. And again, this transformation is a process. We use the renewal stool of understanding the Hebraic way, choosing the Hebraic way, rejecting theology, accepting Halakha, and also engaging our focus. Like a beautiful butterfly, we can be transformed. We can be metamorphosized, like that little tadpole that becomes a frog. We can go through those same changes in our lives. Friend, I want to encourage you to continue to study, continue to search, and continue to know the truth. For you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Thank you for listening. We hope that you'll share this message with your friends and your family. And again, may Yahweh bless you and keep you, may Yahweh cause His face to shine upon you and look gloriously unto you, may Yahweh lift up His countenance to you, and give you shalom.