Mike is working on a portrait for a 50th anniversary and that is due next month. He also continues to work 2 days for the camp ground. One of the problems we are finding is that of computer time. We have one lap top. Laurie has been working on finishing finding what is needed for school this year.
Another project Mike is working on is the starting of writing a book. This will be about the Set-Apart family and the areas in which we have worked with our family to be set-apart from the world. If anyone is interested in donating a lap-top or tablet for this use please let us know. The rest of this post is part of the introduction to the book.
The Set Apart Family
Is there a difference?
“So, where are
all your girls?” “You didn’t bring
anyone with you today?” “Your girls are
so sweet.” “My, you girls look beautiful
today.” “Are you Amish or
Mennonite?” “Your family is what
families used to be like.” These are
just some of the comments we hear as we journey from place to place. People can not only see a difference but they
also feel or sense a difference in our family.
Most people like what they see and wonder what makes the
difference. When they hear how we have
achieved those results they don’t like the hard work it takes to be set
apart. Sometimes as a family counselor
people have come and asked what they can do to make a difference in their own
family and when they come they want easy solutions. We don’t have an easy fix. To achieve the results you want in your
family takes having a changed mind about the world you live in. It takes believing the Word of Elohim (God)
and a willingness to apply it to the life of your family in all you do. The end result is a set-apart lifestyle. There are seven areas in which we have
undertaken to become set apart in. We
don’t always do it well but these are the areas we strive to be set apart in:
- Discipleship
- Education
- Media
- Associations
- Special Days
- Modesty and
- Respect
In our quest for becoming
a set-apart family it doesn’t boil down to the luck of the draw or that some
children are just better than others. It
boils down to parenting on purpose.
After Laurie and I were married I began praying for the children Yahweh
Elohim (Lord, God) would bless us with.
The prayer was they would desire to serve Him with their whole
hearts. The million dollar question is
“How do we get there?” and “what is this supposed to look like?” As the leader of my family the quest
naturally should begin with me. I
shouldn’t expect my family to be something I am not willing to be. Not only do I desire my children to be set
apart, I too need to have that deep burning desire within my own heart.
I need to say, it
seems my wife and children at times were more willing to make the hard choices
for change than I was. It was difficult
to weed out those things I was so accustomed to doing. So, change or obedience isn’t always easy. It takes sacrifice and the desire to live a
life that is in obedience to the Father’s instructions for His set apart
people. As parents we ought to be
leading our children by our own example.
Children are quick to detect duplicity in our lives. Also both parents need to be on the same
page. I was recently reminded in a most
dramatic way the inside of our home or the atmosphere inside should match the
outside. Yes, we want people to notice
how nice and sweet our children are but if they are not treating each other
with the same respect they show to others then something isn’t quite
right. It is the same thing Yahshua
(Jesus) said about the Pharisees.
“Mat 23:25 “Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you clean the outside of the
cup and dish, but inside they are filled with plunder and unrighteousness.
Mat 23:26 “Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of
the cup and dish, so that the outside of them becomes clean too.
Mat 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! Because you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly indeed look
well, but inside are filled with dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
Mat
23:28 “So you too outwardly indeed appear righteous
to men, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and
lawlessness.1 Footnote:1See
5:20.
What people see on the outside should match up with what is
taking place on the inside.
Another question to ask would be “do
we want our children to be regulated by rules or do we want them to be
regulated by what they read in the Scriptures?”
For our family it boils down to internalizing the Scriptures and then
being obedient to them. That being said,
some rules are necessary for safety and the running of a well-organized
household. We will talk more about that
in our chapter on discipleship.
Paul tells us in 2Ti
3:14
But
you, stay in what you have learned and trusted, having known from whom you have
learned,
2Ti 3:15 and that from a babe you have known the
Set-apart Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for deliverance through
belief in Messiah יהושע.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is
breathed by Elohim and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for setting
straight, for instruction in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 that the man of
Elohim might be fitted, equipped for every good work.
It is important to understand, when Paul
wrote this letter to Timothy there was no New Testament. Paul was speaking concerning the Old
Testament Scriptures. The Word “Torah” which
people use in talking about the five books of the law of Moses, actually means
“instructions”.
Torah
H8451
Strongs #8451: AHLB#: 1227-H (i1)
if1) Erft% (Erft% TW-RH) - Teaching:
The direction one is to take in life.
[freq. 219] |kjv: law| {str: 8451}
Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible
We are able to
see from the Hebrew word picture Torah actually has the meaning attached to it
of being the direction one should take in life.
It should not be something negative but positive. Yahweh Elohim gave special directions for His
people to live a life which is set apart.
These instructions do not give salvation, which is where many Jews fail
to understand Torah, but we live them as a demonstration of our love for
Him. Let’s take a quick look at Yahshua
and what He says concerning the Torah.
Joh 14:23 יהושע answered him, “If anyone loves
Me, he shall guard My Word. And My Father shall love him, and We shall come to
him and make Our stay with him.
Joh 14:24 “He who does not
love Me does not guard My Words. And the Word which you hear is not Mine but of
the Father Who sent Me.
Joh 15:9 “As the Father has loved Me, I have also
loved you. Stay in My love.
Joh 15:10 “If you guard My
commands, you shall stay in My love,1 even as I have guarded
My Father’s commands and stay in His love. Footnote: 1See
14:15.
Joh 15:11 “These words
I have spoken to you, so that My joy might be in you, and that your joy might
be complete.
Joh 15:12 “This is My command,
that you love one another, as I have loved you.1 Footnote: 1See 13:34, 15:17.
Joh 15:13 “No one has greater love than this: that one
should lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14 “You are My friends if you do whatever I
command you.
I ask you this, whose commands are we to
follow? Are they Yahshua’s or Elohim’s?
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.
Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with Elohim.
Joh 5:19 Therefore יהושע responded and said to them,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son is able to do none at all by Himself, but
only that which He sees the Father doing, because whatever He does, the Son
also likewise does.
Joh 5:20 “For the Father
loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself does. And greater works than
these He is going to show Him, in order that you marvel.
Joh 5:21 “For as the
Father raises the dead and makes alive, even so the Son makes alive whom He
wishes.
Joh 5:22 “For the Father
judges no one, but has given all the judgment to the Son,
Joh 5:23 that all should
value the Son even as they value the Father. He who does not value the Son does
not value the Father who sent Him.
Joh 5:24 “Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me possesses
everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death
into life.
Joh 5:25 “Truly, truly, I
say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of Elohim. And those having heard shall live.
Joh 5:26 “For as the
Father possesses life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to possess life in
Himself,
Joh 5:27 and He has given
Him authority also to do judgment, because He is the Son of Aḏam.
Joh 5:28 “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is
coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear His voice,
Joh 5:29 and shall come forth – those who have done
good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have practised evil matters, to a resurrection of
judgment.
Joh 5:30 “Of Myself I am unable to do any matter. As I hear, I judge, and My
judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own desire, but the desire of
the Father who sent Me.
Yahshua could not do anything apart from the
Father. The words He spoke, the commands
He followed were those of the Father.
How can we do any less than follow the instructions of the Father as we
are to be set apart through the following of His instructions.
Deu 7:6 “For you are a set-apart people to יהוה your Elohim. יהוה your Elohim has chosen you to be
a people for Himself, a treasured possession above all the peoples on the face
of the earth.
1Pe 1:13 Therefore, having girded up the loins of your
mind, being sober, set your expectation perfectly upon the favour that is to be
brought to you at the revelation of יהושע Messiah,
1Pe 1:14 as obedient
children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance,
1Pe 1:15 instead, as the
One who called you is set-apart, so you also should become set-apart in all
behaviour,
1Pe 1:16 because it has
been written, “Be set-apart, for I am set-apart.”
1Pe 1:17 And if you call
on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, pass
the time of your sojourning in fear,
1Pe 1:18 knowing that you
were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, not
with what is corruptible, silver or gold,
1Pe 1:19 but with the
precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should
proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous
light,
1Pe 2:10 who once were not a people, but now the
people of Elohim; who had not obtained compassion, but now obtained compassion.
When we consider our Father’s instructions for His set apart people,
Christianity observes ninety percent of them.
The other ten percent is left out and considered unimportant. Most of the ten percent left out are the
dietary instructions, the Sabbath and the set-apart appointment times. Many of the instructions in the Scriptures
regarding the temple don’t apply today as there is no temple for observing
them. Many instructions are for the
priests. Some are for men and some are
for women. It is our belief the ten
percent left out by modern day Christianity also apply to us today as Yahweh
Elohim does not change.
Heb 13:8 יהושע Messiah is the same yesterday,
and today, and forever.
Mal 3:6 “For I am יהוה, I shall not change1
Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with
whom there is no change, nor shadow of turning
Immutability
The divine attribute of unchangeableness. God
said in Exodus 3:14, "I AM that I AM," signifying His eternal
sameness and His sovereignty. He cannot change His moral character, His love,
His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, etc. God is "From everlasting to
everlasting," (Psalm 90:2) CARM Theological Dictionary.
If all of Scripture is profitable why should we
pick and choose which laws or instructions to follow and which not to? Now let’s examine...
THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION!!!
