Life Tips 101 Starting Your Day With Yah

Finding creative solutions for the hectic life to have quality one on one time with the Lord.  This is also a creative solution for extending your quality time with the Lord.  Find more organizational options for the hectic life @ The Purposeful Home.
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Below is a website that you can go to and purchase this devotional or any other to begin starting your own collection of devotionals.  Don’t just buy one, because then you only have seed for the sower, but buy more than one to share with friends and loved ones.  Don’t just share the devotional, share the principles you are learning here with them so that they can make the time they need to have the refreshing necessary with the Lord for their day.  Remember sowing the word of God is one sure way you will get back a return on your investment.  There are three things I highly recommend a devotion to offer.

1. Key bible verses that connect to the topic.  What is the point of a devotion if you can’t see how what they are sharing connects to the subject they are sharing.  This is important so that you can see the practical application to your life.
2. Relevant to your life.  What a mother would need is not necessarily what a single career woman would need.  So for that cause make sure that whatever devotional you choose it will hit home where you are.  This should also apply as it relates to those you share it with.  Remember this devotional is for your personal time not your family gathering so it should fuel you for your day.  Getting a devotional for family gatherings is not a bad idea, but I personally would suggest as a family you pray and seek the Lord through His word as to what type of study you should do.  Remember two or three gathered in His name someone is sure to get direction concerning where He is leading you.
3. Make sure it gives you questions to ponder.  This is important you start your day with God, but the conversation never ends.  Part of growing in the Lord requires that you develop an ask and hear relationship.  As we ask God for answers, he hears and provides them for us.  Most of us never get to having our own bible study with the Lord because we have no questions to jump start our quest.  Thanks to the computer apps and software resources available it is so easy to do word and phrase studies.  Which means we can quickly find answers to our biblical questions.  The assistance of other biblical resources such as Strong’s dictionary and concordance, BDB, AHLB, and more we are now able to get to the original text and get even greater understanding. It will be these questions that you pursue Yah for the answers for that will help you grow in your relationship with God and with others.
   
   

Our Real Struggle in the Flesh

Too many people are basing their love for Messiah on what other people are doing. There should not be one person who leaves Yahushah because of what the body does. For as Paul said, “was Paul crucified for you?” (1 Cor. 1:13) This same question we must remember when we are confronted with challenges in relationships with organized religious leaders, spouses, and parents. Our relationship with the Lord should not be hinged on those who represent or misrepresent Him. The failure of these key figures to mirror the example of Messiah for us doesn’t reflect on Messiah’s love for us, but rather reveals a lack of Messiah in those who don’t walk in the love he exemplified.

If my desire to be a Godly wife is based on my husband’s treatment of me or his reciprocation to respond as a Godly husband then I lose a great opportunity to walk like our Messiah. The example He set for us is that while we were yet sinners he died for us. We didn’t deserve, we didn’t love and we weren’t reverent. As the scripture also says we love Him because HE first loved us. (1 Jn 4:19) It took a love out of this world to come to this world to show us what love was. If it could have been found in a human being other than Christ then He wouldn’t have needed to come. Yah sought someone who could make a hedge between him and us and none was found. (Eze. 22:30)

By all means I encourage ministers, spouses, and parents to walk in the footsteps of Christ, that they lose not their reward, knowing that to whom much is given much is required. Yes, I implore you as leaders to walk and respond to others as Christ dictates because I truly believe that he meant exactly what He said concerning it being better for a millstone to be tied around one’s neck and they be cast into the sea then to offend one of His little ones. (Matt. 18:6) Nevertheless, we make a grave error if we allow abuse to be an excuse for turning away from God. We misjudge the longsuffering of the Almighty upon what looks like a person getting away with wrongdoing in this life. Living a comfortable life, with lavish things, and good health is not proof that someone walks with God, no more than being financially poor, sickly in health, or living in deplorable conditions necessitate that someone is not a believer in Christ.

Paul suffered poverty, lived in deplorable conditions at times, and suffered sickness, and was in the will of God when he was in these conditions. (Phil. 4:11-13) The operative word, the most important point of his discourse as it relates to this condition is he did it through Christ. You do yourself no favors doing it without him. Because whether in or out of the body you will go through something, but it is far worse to do so without Christ. The first attack that will come upon a believer when these sorts of challenges face them is against their helmet of salvation. Don’t allow yourself to get to the “why me?” syndrome, this opens the door to the attack. The enemy will send sucker punches to your mind to cause you to doubt your standing with the Lord. It is important at this time not to take off our armor, and certainly not to allow what man does whether it is leader, spouse, or parent to cause you to give your helmet to the enemy. Be resolved within yourself to let NOTHING separate you from the love of God, no matter how hard the challenge may seem.

If you are reading this and you have left the Lord because of abuse done to you in a local assembly, or because of a spouse, or because of parents not reflecting the love of God, come back to God. As stated earlier, abuse is no excuse to turn your back on He who never turned his back on you. Do not judge Yah’s love for you based on what others do, as Paul said, was he crucified for you? As he makes clear in 1 Cor. 11:1 follow him as he follows Christ. The implication being if he isn’t following Christ don’t you follow his example. This is a lesson for us all, as inspired as the men who wrote letters for us in the bible were, only One man was without sin, above reproach, and died for you, all else were subject to missing the mark. All else had struggles with their flesh, and so will you. As much as David was a man after God’s own heart, he missed it on several occasions. Don’t think that because you will miss it that you don’t love God, and don’t allow the enemy to cause you to leave your relationship with God because of what others do.

Now don’t misunderstand I am not saying you should make yourself a mark for the enemies target practice either. Loving someone doesn’t dictate that you give them ammunition to shoot you, if the situation dictates you removing your presence then do so. However, you don’t have to be bitter as you go, choose to be at peace when you leave. Sometimes opposition comes because God knows you wouldn’t leave otherwise, so he has to make you uncomfortable. Other times he may tell you to stay, to release you later, but make sure that whatever step you take it is ordered by Him and not by a whim. It’s not about trusting people anyway, because there is no scripture that tells you to put your trust in man, God wants you to put your trust in Him. This is the challenge that is placed before you. As with Messiah there were times he was to stand and face adversity, but there were also times he was directed to flee the situation. It is only as we walk with Him will we be able to discern which one we should do. But my friends think it not strange the fiery trial which is to try you. Don’t be deceived by ministers preaching immature messages that would lead you to believe that if you aren’t having your best life now that you are out of the will of God.

Paul didn’t have his best life now, Peter didn’t have his best life now, and certainly Christ didn’t have his best life now. What they all had was a life that fulfilled the purposes of God before they left and that is what a life following Christ gives you. He tells you, you will have tribulation, and he tells you to be of good cheer because he has overcome it. (Jn 16:33) He tells you, the servant is not greater than the master, and thus if what was done in a green tree by the “powers that be” took place to him do you really think you will escape the tribulation to come? (Luke 23:31) We like Yahushah, like Paul, Peter, John, Stephen, and a host of others will have opportunities to leap for joy if we stay hooked up and we follow His instructions. He will allow you to go through the fire, but you best believe you won’t be in it alone, he doesn’t always circumvent the lion’s den experience, but he is able to shut the mouth of the lion, and think not that it is impossible for you to be at the peak of your career yet be faced with the trial of your life. Is this not the story of Daniel who because of his faithfulness to God was put in a place of leadership when he and his people were under captivity? Was he not thrown in a lion’s den for following the instructions of Yah?

If you are going through some challenges in your relationships, if you have been betrayed, abused, or misused, don’t give up on God. Hold on to your faith, and know that God is for you, no matter who is against you. We put way more trust and faith in people then the scripture allows, and therefore we make sweeping generalizations based on human shortcomings. There is only one who died for you, and there is only one you can trust without waiver, and that is Yahushah. Politicians, religious leaders, or even family members should not have your uncompromised trust, nor should they have the power to separate you from the love of God. We can only overcome our flesh by walking in love, because while faith may waiver, where hope gets tired, love never fails.

Remain Calm

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Php 4:6)  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: (Jas 1:19)

It is important for us to realize when Yah is telling us to be silent. The worst thing you can do is speak when Yah has said to be quiet. Sometimes our thoughts become like a loud radio polluting the airways with unprofitable material. Knowing when to speak and when to listen is an acquired taste that most don’t have a palette to discern, yet synchronizing ourselves with our Creator makes for a fulfilling life. Desiring only to give Him pleasure and fulfill his purpose. There are a number of things on my mind but in this season I sense Yah telling me to just be still and know that He is. (Psa. 46:10) Not to get anxious, worry, or fret, but to just watch and see what He does next. Sometimes when we speak we give ammunition to the enemy or at the very least reveal the weak points in our infantry.   I’m learning a new technique of battle, and sometimes silence is the best weapon one can use against an unseen, unknown force. My life often mimics’ verses in scripture and when I discern what part of the script I am reading I can stay in sync with my purpose, but often times my mind is on a coffee break when the director has already yelled “action”. Most of my life’s choices have been my own, but at some point we find ourselves in need of something that we can’t make happen on our own and man can’t do it for us, this is the time to remain calm, get quiet, and wait on the Lord. Find a fueling station and get ready to fly because your strength is about to be replenished, your tank is about to be filled. (Isa. 40:31)

 

There’s Just Something About That Name YHWH

In this Shabbat episode I am looking at the actual Name of God, which appears often, but in our bible it is disguised behind the title which describes who He is. This title you have seen many times translated as LORD. Now to understand the history of why the name of God which was so important to be known that an entire book was named after it, became disguised and so easily unknown by many of those who follow Him requires a little bit of digging into. In the book of Exodus which in Hebrew is called (Shemoth) literally means character or name. Just at first glance the name should be familiar to our Genesis readers. The reason why is because we will find that one of Noah’s sons bears the name Shem which has the same meaning. Without knowing the Hebrew meaning of the book of Exodus and taking it only by its English rendering we would think the focus of the book is on them exiting out of Egypt. In reality them exiting Egypt was only the end result of what would happen at the establishing of making God known to the world. Consider it, Egypt was the then known power of the day much like America is today. If what took place in Egypt happened here exactly how long do you think it would take for the world to take notice? How could the name of the person responsible for bringing down a world power go unnoticed? It couldn’t, hence, the only way this reality could be hidden or disguised is if someone in History chose to remove the name of the One responsible for such a defeat. This is exactly what happens when the name of God is replaced with the title, LORD.

Now before you get livid let me go into the history of why the name was changed. In the bible when we read Exodus 20 we read the following verse which gives a reasonable explanation to why the writers chose to remove the name of God from our bible.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” (Exo 20:7)

Of course to determine if they were accurate or not in their approach we must first make sure we have an understanding of the words in this command as they were given not as we would define terms today. The word in question which is the determining factor in the decision is the term “vain”. Key to knowing whether or not the decision to remove His name from our holy scriptures is in harmony with this command is making sure that we have the same understanding of the word as it was written then which requires study. So when we look up this word “vain” in our Strong’s Concordance which gives us an understanding of the meaning of the words as it was written then we find the following:

From the same as H7722 in the sense of desolating; evil (as destructive), literally (ruin) or morally (especially guile); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjectively), uselessness (as deceptive, objectively; also adverbially in vain): – false (-ly), lie, lying, vain, vanity. Strongs Number H7723

Certainly we can agree that we can’t speak evil, ruin, or guile of a name we don’t know, but in removing His name from our scriptures we also render it useless and in removing it we give way to deception because if we don’t know His name how much easier will it be for us to accept any name? If all I know about your father is that he is your father, and I don’t know his name well anyone can tell me anything concerning his name and without proof or prior knowledge I am obliged or likely to believe it, right? If it wasn’t for Psalms 68:4 the one place where at least the poetic short form of God’s name appears in scripture we could make an argument that names of Pagan gods could be acceptable and many ignorantly have. Bottom line is how far should we as mankind go in our deciding what should or shouldn’t be protected from others? At what point does a scholar overstep his boundaries in preserving God’s word when he chooses to omit it? Well according to scripture it is clear that we should not add to or take away from his word, and certainly replacing a name that was present in the original text with a title seems to fit the bill for going too far. (Deut. 12:32; Rev. 22:18-19)

That aside let’s see just how many times his name was removed. The Hebrew word for YHWH is H3068, H3069, and H3050 (short form) we find that H3068 appears in 5,524 verses a total of 6,521 times in our Hebrew scriptures. The Hebrew number H3069 appears in 291 verses a total of 302 times and H3050 appears in 45 verses a total of 49 times. Now it is important to note that LORD can appear multiple times in one verse which explains why the total matches would be different from the number of verses. If we add just the number of times his name was taken out and replaced with LORD subtracting the one time it appears in Psalm 68:4 in its poetic short form (YAH or as it appears in KJV JAH) or the English rendering of his name twice (H3068) as Jehovah and twice as GOD which is another title we get a total of 6867 times in the Hebrew scriptures alone (Genesis – Malachi) that our Father’s name was replaced with a title.

The foundation to understanding all the ways he has manifested himself to us in scripture is built on knowing his name and then describing who he is to us. We will see this as we make progress in this series. When He appears to Abraham, Jacob, and many others throughout scripture his name is mentioned along with his character and I believe that this is important for us. We need to know who is our banner of victory, not just that God is a banner of victory. Especially when we live in a society where there be god’s many we need to know the one true God who breathed his breath into us that we became a living soul. Speaking of which let’s look at this magnificent name.

This character means to “make”, “throw”, or “work”. It is the picture of a closed hand and an arm and by extension the meaning is easy to see as the primary part of our body that we use to do work is done with our arm. Thus one thing we see in the character of our Father is that he works.

 This character means to “reveal” or “look” or “behold”. The usual response when we are in praise to the Creator is to surrender our hands to the sky recognizing and beholding the revelation of His beauty. We look to the skies as the direction of Heaven in response to how great he is with all that we as mankind can offer to him with how small we are.

 This character means to “add”, or “secure”, or “establish”. As it is the picture of a nail or peg it reflects the meaning since we use a nail or a tent peg to secure a structure to add a board to a wall. When you nail something you have it locked in place.

When we put the characters together we see that “the hand reveals the nail revealed”. When we behold the nails in the hand of the Messiah indeed we can see that Yahushah came from His father. For Yahushah indeed is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and the work that he has done was supposed to be told to all generations and preached everywhere, yet someone felt that the best way to preserve this truth was to hide it and thus they hold the truth in unrighteousness and rather than become an instrument of the Creator, became a tool of Ha Satan. (Rev. 13:8) Let’s consider all that Yah did so that His name could be known, he established twelve judgments upon Egypt from the rod turning into a snake to all of Egypt’s army being swallowed up in the Red Sea and ten of those judgments were plagues beginning at the water turning into blood.(Exo. 7:17) This he did for two very important reasons that Moses never neglects to allow Him or us to forget, one was to bring his people out of the house of bondage, Egypt, and the other reason was so that His name could be known. What we see is it was upon this basis that when Yah sought to wipe out the children of Israel and start over with Moses on several occasions that Moses appealed to him. Saying, if you kill all these people what would be said about you? That their God couldn’t bring them into the land that you promised. (Num. 14:15). This name was so important that it was the first of the Ten words translated commandments in Exodus twenty, which says:

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exo 20:2)

Now, just to clue you in though KJV uses the word LORD doesn’t make it the original word used. The word that should be there is YHWH which should be clear anyway from the context because knowing he is the lord doesn’t tell you who he is. It tells you what relationship he has to us as mere humans, but it doesn’t tell you his name. The second part tells you something about his character based on what he did. He brought them out of Egypt and the last part tells you what he delivered them from, which means he is contrasting who he is based on what he has done and bringing them out of bondage meaning he is to be connected to the opposite of bondage, which is freedom. Therefore, how should we in turn view the next nine words he speak in Exodus 20? Here is a clue, as the road map to freedom, not the institution of bondage. Nevertheless, I will digress, the point is God wanted us to know his name, to signature him and him alone for the victory that he delivers us from and bottomline Lord just doesn’t cut it, because Lord doesn’t distinguish him from the person you pay your rent to which is a landlord or from the employer who you enslave eight to twelve hours of your day for. The term lord only means master and though he is our Lord if we make him so, he has a name that we should be familiar with. Definitely more familiar then we are with the name that signs our checks every two weeks or month.

Finally, it was very important that we tackle this issue because we will find that this will be the foundational understanding as we begin to peel another layer off of the skin of scripture in unfolding more about our father. In fact many of the times that Yah reveals more about himself it will be connected to His name. One of the words that describe our relationship to him uses the poetic short form of his name and has preserved its pronunciation across all languages and that word is HalleluYAH and we actually pronounce it more accurately then when we attempt to say his full name by using Jehovah. His name has also been encoded in many of the prophet’s name, though we miss it using the English rendering, such as Jeremiah which in Hebrew is YirmeYAHu or Isaiah which in Hebrew is YeshahYAHu, this is marvelous to consider. Next time on There is something about that Name we will look at El Elyon the Most High God that was revealed to Abram as he ate with King Melchizedek.

All Ancient Hebrew Characters provided by Jeff Benner Ancient Hebrew Research Center

Guard your heart

I am not sure if I even have the vocabulary to articulate all the evil things that I have seen in the past few weeks. Such ugliness and hatred that I am not sure if a vocabulary exist that could encompass its depth, much less likely to discover a way to do so without allowing the stench from it to infect me. I know only the Messiah is keeping me as my eyes are being opened to see the things that I see. Yet, I know these things must come to pass because they are written in scripture. Yahushah told us that the servant is not greater than the Master, if they persecuted him they will persecute us also. (John 15:20) Nevertheless, I must watch and pray as difficult as it may be as I uncover stories old and new of such atrocities, yet remain mindful that Yahushah says “vengeance is his and he shall repay”. (Rom. 12:19)

As I am watching these things unfold in the world scripture does provide me comfort. I don’t know how anyone can make it in this life without Christ. Because let’s face reality the world system we live in operates under a strange definition of justice that is far from being color blind, rather it is color struck, and the reality is there is a double standard, but the bottom line is irrespective of that we must put our trust in the Creator. Remembering that it really has less to do with color than it does the adversary knows who we are. Like Joseph we must know that our Father has a great love for us, but we will need to repent of our pride if we are to be restored. He has covered us with a coat of many colors and has sent us out into the world to spread forth his light, and as scripture says what communion has light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14) To hate someone because of the color of their skin is to hate someone without cause, therefore the only conclusion one can gather is there is a deeper force at work, a hidden truth that children of darkness want to keep from coming to the children of light. However, praise be to God that this truth is not only coming to light but that it is dispelling the ugliness of hatred and bigotry through the pure and undefiled blood of the Lamb of God.

As great of a temptation as it may be to go all vigilante we must remember who we are in this play called life and to whom we belong. We are the offspring of Joseph and as the suffering servant it is not for us to take matters into our own hands, but to remain steadfast in the power of His might knowing that we shall reap in due season, but we can’t afford to faint right now. (Gal. 6:9) We can’t afford to allow the circumstances that surround us to cause us to lose our cool.

Our God is the master of getting his children out of impossible situations. This is not to turn from our faith or on truth, but rather to persevere recognizing that some things are allowed to happen to get our attention. Many of us are blind and distracted because rather than putting our trust in Yah we have placed it in the hands of Government or religious institutions. However, we aren’t going to make it unless we return to him + none other. No other subsidies, plan B’s, or side deals, we are going to have to trust Yah if we plan on making it through to the final stretch. We can’t afford to be side tracked; the enemy would have us dividing over politics, religion “so called”, race, and sex when none of those are the issue. What is an issue is that the powers of darkness are overwhelming the power of light because those who have had the light of the Gospel lit within them to proclaim the truth have backed up, held their peace, and shut their mouths and in essence by our lack of response we have hid our light under a bushel and magnified the darkness by our unwillingness or ignorance.

As far as I am concerned I don’t see a difference between the spirit behind the KKK or ISIS, because it is the same spirit of death that operates in both seeking to annihilate a people for self motivated reasons whether it is hiding behind a pagan religious system or a belief that color gives you some sort of class structure that categorizes you as a god. Regardless both are based on a misguided faith that elevates self at the expense of others. However, the teachings of Christ are not so. We are admonished by scripture to love others as ourselves. (Matt. 22:39)

Yet the answer regardless of the case is plain and simple, and found in scripture, guard your heart with all diligence Saints, for out of it flows the issues of life. (Prov. 4:23) Be informed about what is going on, but never forget who our confidence and trust is to depend on. Allow the ugliness to do what it is supposed to do for you as a believer become compassionate so that your prayers won’t be limited to just us four and no more, allow it to widen your circle to recognize that there are needs other than your own. While we don’t want to be partakers of the evil that is taking place, we do not want to be ignorant of it either. We are called to be wise as the serpent, yet harmless as the dove. (Matt. 10:16) Know your adversary, yet be led by the Spirit of your God and expect him to deliver you whether in life or through death.

The Peaceable Life

 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.(1Ti 2:1-2)

 

                We today are suffering as a matter of ignoring this very vital piece of advice given to us in the book of Timothy. Whether the Klu Klux Klan’s men here or the ISIS (your foreign KKK) leaders abroad terror is destined to come where we have failed to follow the instructions of Yah. Yah knew what man left to himself would lead to. Men at war produces restlessness at home, when there is no peace at home then everyone in that area suffers.

                Where the true Elohim is not embraced, no true peace can occur, since the peace he leaves with us, is not as the world gives peace but only that peace which comes from Yahushah the one who died for us has given. Yahushah gives us the reassurance that regardless of what is going on in the world if we have his peace that we need not be afraid nor should our heart be troubled. (John 14:27) Unless we address the terrorists that are running rampant in our nation we will not be in a position to address the same issues taking place over there. As scripture puts it we need to first get the mote out of our own eye, so that we can see clearly to get the beam out of our brother’s eye. (Matt. 7:3-5) I know we don’t like to hear it and many think that this subject creates division, but we can’t expect change to occur in any nation unless we deal with reality, not simply sweep it under the rug.

                There is a time to pray, but after we pray what are we doing with the answer that Yah gives us? To pray without a consideration of obeying the answer that comes produces confusion not direction. It is important we understand what we see written here in Timothy and women let’s not get sensitive over the issue because it has nothing to do with men being more valuable to God or anything else. It has everything to do with the fact that wars are not started by women, unrest in a nation doesn’t start with us, we are just the bystanders who are infected by it. If we were the catalyst both scripture and what we see in our world today would not consist of women and children being spared in war while men being killed but rather women, children, and men being killed. Granted there were nations so wicked that Yah instructed the children of Israel to wipe out men, women, children and animals. (Deut. 7:2) One can only imagine how far away from Yah a nation will have to be in order for him to require such a thing. In those nations there was nothing redeemable about anyone or any creature there, it was as it was before Noah got on the ark. Wickedness had to reach an all time high, point of no return for such an instruction to be given.

                When Adam is at peace, Eve is secure. When we have righteous leadership then a nation is exalted, but when wickedness reigns it is a reproach to any people. (Prov . 14:34) A nation experiencing unrest is a clear sign of a nation that has departed from Yah. The bible tells us that Yah will make our enemies our footstool, if our enemies are having victory over us it is a clear sign that we have lost favor with the Father. (Psa. 110:1; Deut. 28:7; Deut. 28:25) Now is the time to begin fervently praying for all men everywhere, husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, kings, rulers, ministers, and the like. Pray that they will have ears to hear and eyes to see the very clear signs that the heavenly Father is revealing in this hour so that we can once again obtain the peaceable life in all godliness and honesty we once had the opportunity to enjoy.

No Neutral Ground

                There comes a point in life where you begin to want to know how things spiraled as out of control as they have. As things progress and advance technologically it is as if we have gone back in time, biblical times of Sodom and Gomorrah as it relates to our sin as a nation. Pinpointing that exact moment of change somehow seems like a necessary piece of the puzzle to overturn the path we have chosen. Now the current wave seems to be “gender neutrality”. Those who embrace this way of thinking no longer wants to make a difference anymore between men and women and instead of celebrating the complimentary difference built into us by the Creator it seems to be a move to erase it altogether. When God created us he said he created us in His image and likeness which means that built into the difference between man and woman there is a unique, yet common link that reveals the picture of who He is. We should embrace that built in difference, celebrate it, honor it, and appreciate it for what it is rather than buck it.

                History teaches us anything that goes against nature eventually becomes extinct. While our God is a unified one, it should be clear he is not a neutral one. He has definite aspects of who he is and there is distinction in his makeup. Neutrality in fact is something he categorizes as being lukewarm and scripture reveals he can’t stomach that. (Rev. 3:16) The point is in our quest for pursuing equality we never ask ourselves what is the function of our being. The essence of why these bodies we have been given was made the way they were, and what life would be like without our purpose being fulfilled. If we aren’t careful we will discover what the end of our choice will lead to.

                Intrinsic to the Hebrew language which is made up of pictures is the prophetic picture of what an unholy union against nature and nature’s God looks like, we will see where “gender neutrality” leads. (Rom. 1:26-32) Let us look at the Hebrew word for “man” and then let’s look at the Hebrew word for “woman” and see what we discover. We also will see what we will get if we ignore the distinction that Yah has given each one. We will see the end result of the “feminist movement” that we have fought for, for so long.

                The natural result of men not loving their wife and women not respecting their husband is sexual confusion further creating the identity crisis that this hodge podge experiment in the U.S. as the melting pot of every nation has become; a conglomeration of out of order systems from the top of the seat of authority to the average household in any given State. If there is no distinction amongst us then there can be no order either. Both men and women are leaders in the area that they have been chosen to lead, but if the household is left without a leader what else can we produce but sickly, depressed, and confused offspring? Let’s look at the Ancient Hebrew characters below and see how they reveal this truth.

Man	Woman
Eesh	Isha
Fire Ash
Name of God YaH

                As we read these words above, I want you to notice the similarities in the characters between “man” and “woman”. In Hebrew words are written from right to left so we will start at the right to see what both of them have in common.

                The first character is () pronounced “aleph” in English and it means strength (abstract), ox (concrete, as it looks like an ox’s head), and being the first character in the Hebrew Alephbet it holds the numeric value of “first”. This is the first character both man and woman have in common and it is what they have equality in, being strong, being lead in creation, since they together were given dominion and made in the image and likeness of Elohim. Neither man nor woman was given dominion over each other, but rather they shared dominion over the earth. Nevertheless, there is still a first amongst equals otherwise confusion ensues.

                The second character for man is () pronounced “yad” or “yood” in English and it means to “work, make, or do” (abstract) and is the picture of an “arm or closed hand” (concrete) as in Hebrew the hand as presented in this character is not just the part that works the five fingers but goes as far up as the elbow. Thus, a man must “first” (Aleph) “work” (Yad) and as Creation reveals that was what he first did when he was created in naming the animals. (2 Th 3:10) He was commissioned to work.

                The second character in woman is the same as the last character in man so we will cover both at the same time. The character () resembles the picture of “teeth” (concrete) and is pronounced in English “sheen” and its meaning reflects its appearance as one “consumes, devours, and presses” (abstract) with their teeth. So we see that a man must first work before he consumes (eat) as scripture has said. (Php. 2:6) The woman is the one who first consumed as we also see in scripture that it was Eve who first consumed the forbidden fruit in Genesis that would reveal the naked state that they had been in.

                The only thing left is the last character for woman which is () and it is the picture of a man with his hands in surrender mode. This character in English is pronounced “hey” and also carries a similar meaning as we use the word in English meaning “to reveal, to look, or to see” (abstract). Reflecting the exact picture of what happened with Eve, which is why as a result God established a system of protection for women so that the deception that caused the great fall for humanity wouldn’t be repeated. (1 Tim. 2:14) The other truth revealed in the fall of Adam and Eve was just how much influence women do have with their husbands and why if we desire for that influence to be used for good instead of evil we need to be led by the Spirit of God and not our flesh.

                Now I want you to notice the word below both “man” and “woman” in the table above and pay close attention to the characters that they have in common with “man” and “woman” the word “Fire”. But as we stated those things within our character that distinguish us as well as those that unite us must not be neglected otherwise we have chaos. We see that the word fire (Ash – ) shares both the same first letter as man and woman and the last character for man and the second character for woman makes up its second letter. Together the word means “strong consumer” which we can agree fire is. It is both to be respected as something that can bring life, when contained in a freezing cold environment and death when not contained. Thus we see “fire” is a substance at least as far as Hebrew that is reflected in both man and woman but when used together represents that life giving and sustaining substance as the man is the one who “works” –  in the fire  and the woman is the one who is “revealed” or “comes out of” –  the fire.(1 Cor. 3:15; Eph. 5:23-32)

                That is the constructive life giving aspect of man and woman, however we also can see from the same picture what happens when we erase that which distinguishes us, i.e. become “gender neutral”. I added another word to our list after fire, because I like to save the best for last, which is the name for God. The character for God’s name like the distinctive x and y chromosomes in our DNA which determines our gender spells the poetic short form of God’s name “Yah”. Think it a coincidence that the “y” in English corresponds to “” in Hebrew? Or do you think that it is a coincidence that when we look at “” it resembles an “x” in English? When we take out those distinctive characters that exist between man and woman and we double what remains we are left with “” or in English “Ash Ash”. In Hebrew culture to double a word is equivalent to an English superlative. It is the equivalent of putting an –est like we do in “best” to distinguish it from “better” or “good”. Thus fire, fire would be comparable to the destruction that occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah. Our lives then begin to incorporate the twisted image that erases the presence or picture or image (as Hebrew characters are pictures, in which pictures are images) of Yah from our makeup producing something that will be subject to the strong consumer for indeed our God is a Consuming Fire. (Deut. 4:24)

                Bottom line is we had better make sure that we are not adding or taking away from the distinctions nor forgetting or belittling the similarities between us otherwise we will produce an image that does not reflect the image of God. Therefore in this equation neutrality is not an option we either reflect the image of God in our lives or we deflect it and there is no middle ground.