22 March 2011 (Shleshi/Bikkurim)
Day #371, 5934 AM
Purity & Productivity
Knowing the Design in Your Life
Continued from Part 1
Everything we do has a motive behind it. Our thoughts, feelings and actions are governed by intentions. Nothing we are or do just 'happens'. And in each and every one of these we have a simple choice: to fulfill Yahweh's plan for us and those whom we influence for the greater good, or to aimlessly try to fulfil our own will and miss the mark of our reason for existing.
What is Yahweh's design for your life? What are His desires for you today? Is there anything that needs changing today that you can do something about? Are there long-term changes that need to be made which require a little planning and the will-power to effect them consistently day by day until the desires' aim has been achieved?
In my library at home I have multiple sets of encyclopedias in English, Norwegian and Swedish. In fact each child has his or her own encyclopedia sets. However, as I tell my children, a repository of facts such as can be found in encyclopedias can be nothing more than a curiosity and can often be arrogant in distraction. Intellectual ability is good and it should constantly be growing through a hunger for knowledge but it must be useful. It must always lead to wisdom.
The same is true in Yahweh's Kingdom. Our knowledge and judgment must be used to an end that He approves of and should lead to excellency in character which in turn gives glory to Yahweh. If it doesn't, it is vanity:
"For Elohim (God) is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Messiah (Christ), being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), to the glory and praise of Elohim (God)" (Phil.1:8-11, NKJV).
The bottom line must be to glorify Yahweh, not to show off our intellectual prowess to impress people or to earn acceptance. Paul's challenge to the messianic community in Rome was that they might "prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim (God)" (Rom.12:2, NKJV). To his young spiritual son, Timothy, the apostle said:
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to Elohim (God), a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim.2:15, NKJV).
This search for knowledge - this "proving" - testing, affirming - has a twofold goal:
- 1. That our life here on earth would be "sincere and without offence"; and
- 2. That we would be "filled with the fruits of righteousness".
Our earthly spiritual goals - which are reiterated many times in Scripture - must therefore always be PURITY and PRODUCTIVITY. It is useless to be pure and to be doing nothing to build the Kingdom, and it is useless being busy and active if you are not pure. These 'twins' are to be reflections of the purity and productivity of the set-apartness or holiness that is created in us by Elohim (God) when we are born again (Eph.4:24). They are so important to out well-being in both there here-and-now and in the eternities that Yahweh makes the same repeated demand of us:
"As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:15-17, NKJV).
So let us to it!
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