Tag: Yeshua

The Long and Winding Road

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

When driving at night, with only our small headlights, it’s hard to see why a road is winding. Why can’t the roadway be straight?

It is only during the day, when we see with the sunlight, that we begin to understand the winding roadway which we have traversed. The hills, streams, and massive boulders avoided.

As Yeshua taught, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

In Psalm 23:3 David writes:

יַנְחֵנִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי-צֶדֶק, לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ

“He leads me along circuitous paths of righteousness for His names sake.”

The Hebrew translated as paths, מַעְגָּל/ma’gal, does not convey a straight or easy way, as it implies a rut where a wheel turns; rather it is rooted in a word meaning circular.

The way the Lord brings us in life is not always the direct or straight way. What? Doesn’t it say that He leads us in paths righteousness? It does.

The way He leads us is often circuitous, indirect, not the short way. As we travel along the way, with the light and perspective available to us, it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to see what He is leading us to avoid.

It is only in His glorious light, when we see apart from the perspective of need or want, that the circuitous way of our lives come into focus.

Yet, even though He leads us indirectly to our destination, along the way He has made, He makes the way straight, righteous, correct, according to His plan, His purpose, and under His control.

He will not leave us to wander, or as orphans stumbling in the darkness, He blesses us with the light and direction of His Son, the Good Shepherd, by the in-dwelling of presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:16).

Now, walk in that assurance.

Be well. Shalom.

The Finish of Moses

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

We often wrestle with failure, either present or past. Failure, whether actual or apparent, when viewed through the lens of faith, isn’t failure at all if done as unto the Lord, in faith (Ro. 14:23).

Moses failed. He failed as a prince of Egypt. He failed as a fledgling Hebrew leader, killing an Egyptian and fleeing for his life. He failed as a father and husband, “truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me” (Ex. 4:25).

He wrestled as a shepherd. He wrestled with calling. He wrestled as a leader. He wrestled with obedience. He wrestled with death. He wrestled with promise.

Failure seems final. It is not. Wrestling seems disobedient. It is not. Death seems an end. It is not.

When Moses failed, the failure was due to the direction of his intent. Himself. When he wrestled, it was with the object of his faith. God.

God recorded Moses’ failures to show his humanity; He revealed his wrestling to show his heart.

In the end, Moses did not fail (Ro. 8:28). No, he finished (II Tim. 4:7). Moses, as Jacob before him, wrestled with many failures and with God, and he was delivered.

When Yeshua/Jesus stood face to face with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-8) the entire flow of his life came to fruition in the face of Yeshua, finally seeing the face he longed to see (Ex. 33:18-20), and perhaps there he heard, “Well done, good and faithful servant, before you is the delight of your Lord” (Ps. 37:4; Matt. 3:17).

Unfortunately, Moses in Christian theology finds his finish, his end, in Deuteronomy 34. His finish, the end of his race, his “well done” moment, was in the presence and face of Yeshua in Matthew 17.

Could there be any better finish?

Abide in Yeshua, and He will abide in you (Jn. 15:4-11). There the crooked ways will be straightened, the wrongs righted, all things worked together for our good, to His glory.

Be well. Shalom.

Chiseling Stones

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

Labor can be tedious. Trying to find meaning in mundane, repetitive tasks, exhausting. Walking in the Spirit while in the workforce, or tending to the home front, tiresome.

Paul, recognizing the challenge of finding the Spirit in the midst of the worldly, wrote, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Col. 3:23).

I often meditate on the construction of the second Holy Temple. The enormity of the project. The years of constriction. Then the response to seeing the foundation of the second Temple by those who had seen the first? They wept; because it did not measure up (Ezra 3:12).

Imagine if your only task was to chisel stones. Day after day: hammer to chisel. Not tasked with the finishing work, you labor in the dust and heat. Yet, your labor apparently pales in comparison to what had come before. Devastating.

Still, the Lord said, “The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Hag. 2:9).

How could the glory of the second surpass that of the first?

It would be personally visited by the Lord Himself, not in presence, but in person (Mal. 3:1).

The stones mindlessly chiseled. The dust filling the air. The scorching heat. It all served a purpose, more grand than could be imagined: Emmanuel walking on those very stones.

Today, as Paul tells us, we are a habitation of God personally visited, and in dwelt by His Son (I Cor. 3:16), chiseled by the Holy Spirit. Yet, the labor isn’t to building up and out, but to be present as Yeshua reaches through us to the next living stone to be chiseled out of this world for His advancing Kingdom.

When you recognize how He has reformed you into a living stone, a living presence in His dwelling, those hours with the chisel seem to fade away as one more appears before Him, and is ushered into His Kingdom.

Be well. Shalom.