Chag sameach Shemini Atseret kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and Shabbat Shalom! Welcome back to the weekly assembly at Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon, we hope you have had a fantastic week and had the opportunity to keep up with our daily broadcasts. Winter has been nudging ever closer and here in Värmland, Sweden, we have had our first snow, though mercifully the 'white stuff' hasn't come our way yet. I also apologise for postponing the meeting to the afternoon and this was caused by my being too ill yesterday to adequately prepare this message.

So what are we going to talk about today? I somewhat stole my own thunder a week ago on the first day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) when for some reason I felt led to talk about the Millennium, and Shemini Atseret is, well, all about the Millennium, or at least the first day of the Millennium! So it makes no sense covering the same theme again, since you're all now experts in the Millennium - expert in the little we know about it, that is. I had a big struggle yesterday afternoon because I could not pick up anything from the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) except one thing, and that seemed to me so unconnected to Shemini Atseret that at first I ignored it. It was no use asking my wife to pray for me to get inspiration for a theme today because I was in denial about the inspiration I had already got. But that's so typical, isn't it? Some things are staring at us in plain sight but we can't see it because it's not according to our expectations. So let me try and unfold for you what Yahweh gave me, strange though it may at first seem

Two or three things went through my mind when this mustard seed of inspiration dropped initially into my head but the first thing that gripped me was the fact that in the Millennium we would experience the greatest amount and creativity that we have ever experienced as a species up to now. Have you ever in your imagination, and maybe in a computer game like Minecraft or Sim City, ever designed and built a city? I don't know what your ideal city would consist of but as someone whose father and grandfather were both architects whose designs in the form of drawings, paintings and photographs I have inherited, I have done a lot of fantacising over the years. Indeed, I came close to becoming an architect myself as that is something I would certainly have enjoyed provided I could build in the classical style...which isn't so popular nowadays, so maybe that's why the Ruach (Spirit) held me back in becoming an architect. I don't know if any of you remember the kinds of buildings that were being designed and built in the 1960 and 1970's but frankly I think they were awful. I don't have a lot in common with Prince Charles but as far as architecture is concerned, I think we share very similar views.

Remember that the Millennium is going to be populated not just by the survivors of the Great Tribulation, which will be in this the 21st century, but also by the resurrected souls from hundreds and thousands of years ago all of whom will be keen to give creative expression based on their own experience in order to glorify Elohim (God). They will still have memories of the way life as it was down on earth from way before our time. Artists, musicians, architects, playwrites, and sculptors, whose works fill our museums and are yet preserved in our city architecture and monuments, will be keen to pick up from where they left off, only this time they will have a brighter vision, appreciation, and knowledge of the Elohim (God) they will now wish to glorify! And not just artists, but engineers, scientists, landscape artists, and so on. You get the picture. This seathing mass of creativity will suddenly be on earth raring to give expression to itself.

I'd like us to think more about this, not only in anticipation of the new world that's going to spring into life when Christ comes back but in terms of how we can apply what I hope we will learn today in our continuing life in the here-and-now of this less than perfect world. Remember, one of our tasks is to incarnate the inspiration and power of the resurrection life, bringing it into the present, so that people can see Yahweh in action, and to so pioneer the Millennial Zion, albeit in miniature. We're here training for the New World to come! When you see this life as a kind of investment for the better life to come, well, to be doing that is inspiring. I'm developing skills for the King's world! That is what all farsighted people too. It is the true spirit of a parent, investing and sacrificing today so that our children can enjoy tomorrow, only in this instance we'll be back to enjoy it too! This is, in my view, a part of being 'resurrection-minded'.

So to do what I have been called to do this afternoon, I am going to put my educator's hat on for a little while, for as many of you know I was for, many years, an IT and Science teacher, though I have taught lots of other subjects too. Sir Ken Robinson, who is a brilliant educational innovator for whom I have the greatest of respect, an Englishman who now lives in Los Angeles, America, and who has written a number of best-selling books like this one, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative (2011) and has lots of TED videos online, has observed that there are three things on which human life flourishes. We're going to examine those in depth now:

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1. Natural Differences and Diversity

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• 1. Human beings are naturally different and diverse - even in a family with shared genes, acquired habits and personality traits, every child is uniquely different. I have seven of them and they are all completely different persons from each other. How many parents do you know who try to squeeze their children into the same mold? Worse, how many cultures try to do that? Totalitarian régimes want everyone to be the same which is claustrophobic for those who want, and need, to be different because that's how they were made.
  Destructive School Environments

  Schools are the same, a reason I hate schools that try to turn out pupils like canned sardines. Some, it is true, thrive in such an environment but others are destroyed by it, because we all learn differently - we learn as individuals, and individuals are different. That's why I am such a passionate advocate of homeschooling even though it's virtually impossible to do that now in any country with the exception of the USA, UK and one or two others.

  Most Education Like Low Grade Clerical Work

  Ken Robinson likens the classrom situation in which everyone's doing the same thing to doing low-grade clerical work, so little wonder some pupils get bored and frustrated and then get diagnosed by the psychiatrists as having mental disorders which they absolutely do not have! They're just being creatively crushed, all their talents aren't being recognised or celebrated as they should be. You see, we all desperately need to express all our talents, all the gifts that Yahweh has given us, and not to do so is to kill off life in us;

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  2. Curiosity and Learning

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• 2. The second thing that drives human life so that it flourishes is curiosity. They say that 'curiosity killed the cat' but I suspect that whoever coined that phrase devised it as a scare tactic or had negative, sinful things in mind, unless he (or she) was possessed of the totalitarian spirit and just wanted to dampen down independence and creativity.
  Lighting the Spark from an Early Age

  But if you don't light the spark of curiosity from an early age, all you will do is produce soulless robots - zombies. Once curiosity is sparked, learning just takes off automatically without major assistance from teachers. Then you will simply go and search things out for yourself in most cases because children are natural learners. If you want to know why some adults are natural learners and some are not, it's because their curiosity was lit at a young age.

  Our Duty as Parents, Teachers and Ministers

  That is the first educational duty of a parent. It's also the first duty of a teacher, and I speak not only of school teachers but spiritual teachers too. My job is not first and foremost to teach you an integrated theology, even though I have one and would be delighted if you could discover why I have come to the conclusions I have - my job is to spark a passion to know Yahweh and His Son through Scripture and the natural world! Once you are hungry to know about the Creator and His creation, He will do the rest, and teachers and ministers like myself then exist only to lend an occasional hand or to point in the right direction. We're not here to fill your heads with theology like a pump filling a water tank. We're here to give you skills, to teach you how to think clearly, apply logic, analyse, and show you how to yield to the Ruach (Spirit). Elohim (God) will do the rest. Teach true principles and students will educate themselves well enough.

  Flat-Earthism a Huge Step Backwards

  That's one reason I get so frustrated with flat-earthers because they really don't know how to do science, and you have to do physics and maths if you're going to understand why the Cosmos is as it is and not as the fantasists insist. Flat-earthism is a huge step backwards into the Dark Ages.

  Curiosity is the Engine of Achievement

  So, as Ken Robinson says, "curiosity is the engine of achievement." When curiosity dies, then that person has died inside and needs to be awakened. And sometimes, I think it is teachers that kill off curiosity - teachers at school, teachers at church, even parents trying to teach.

  The Elements of Good Teaching

  You see, teaching is not just a delivery system for information or 'the facts of Science' or 'the facts of Scripture'. Teaching is, far more importantly, mentoring - and by that I mean a good teacher stimulates, provokes, and engages his or her student to think and feel. And, yes, mind-directed and controlled feeling is important (not the other way round which has led to the post-modernist confusion we are having to endure currently) and in that connection I recommend Daniel Goleman's books on Emotional Intelligence [1].

The Importance of Experience

Education is about learning - learning in the mind, learning in the heart, and learning in the spirit - and learning doesn't just come through being taught, but through personal study and - very importantly - experience. That is why the older folks are important teachers because they have more experience than the young ones.

Learning for Eternity

And, yes, learning is something we should be doing, not just at school, but all our lives and into eternity. The thought that I will be learning forever actually thrills me, because the more I learn, the closer I will be able to draw to Yahweh! To learn is to know the Creator more and more.

Completing the Tasks Set

Now if we are to be creative in the way that Yahweh intends us to be, we also have to learn how to achieve our goals. You can be a teacher in a class teaching but the pupils aren't learning anything. There's a different between engaging in a task and actually fulfilling it. My parents used to teach me that there's no point setting about a task if you don't complete it. A footballer may play brilliantly on the pitch but if he quits mid-way and walks off, what has he achieved? He may well let his side down and cause it to lose the match. We have to finish what we start.

Partly Completed Sermons Useless

I have many partly written sermons which are mostly useless. Sometimes I can finish one but the rest are like half built buildings not fit for habitation. You need to complete your tasks and complete your life's work once you've discovered what it is. Learn to complete small tasks, then you'll be better motivated and able to complete the mid-sized ones, and finally the big tasks.

The Example of Joseph

Joseph of Egypt became the best slave he could be, then the best prisoner, and finally, because he did these tasks so well, Yahweh made him the second most powerful man in the most powerful nation of that day. This sermon you're hearing now I abandoned last night because I felt so tired and sick, but I got up this morning, even though my body initially protested vehemently, and Yahweh gave me the grace to get it done! Whether it's any good or of any use, you'll have to be the judge of that when I've finished.

Joseph's success came in doing his very best in everything
To Be the Best Teacher

My primary job as an educator at home, in the Messianic Community (Church) and in the workplace is, and was, to facilitate learning so that you will love it, and use it as a tool to get to know and serve your Creator better by being good siblings, good parents (when your turn comes), effective ministers of the Besorah (Gospel) and reliable, helpful employees while you learn, I hope, to become employers yourself one day, if that is your gifting and calling. I'm not here to give you information to learn by rote. I want you to think, feel, and pray for yourselves - to trust my experience as one a little older and more experienced in some things, and then to go away and test things out carefully like good scientists. Then, when you're satisfied, to go and become creative artists in life! Go and build something to the glory of Elohim (God). Call upon, and use, the resurrection life He has given you through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross, and bear witness in word and in deed of Him as you live out your life to His glory.

Imitating the Attitude of the Rechabites

To do this successfully, and to ensure we don't allow our lives to degenerate into subjectivity and thence selfishness, we have to have a reference point, a standard of emet (truth) and morality, and that, of course, is the Bible. That is what we are to use to measure ourselves against. And, like the Rechabites, we must also follow our fathers and husbands in righteousness. What did the Rechabites say when Jeremiah tried to make them drink alcohol?

"We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, 'You shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever'" (Jer.35:6, NKJV).

The Rebellious House of Judah

This was in stark contrast to the House of Judah who were in rebellion against their Heavenly Father. Thus Yahweh said:

"Surely the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the mitzvah (commandment) of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me" (Jer.35:16, NKJV).

Fathers and Godly Offspring

This is not easy in our age of lawlessness, disobedience, and rebellion against Yahweh, because the dark élites have been demonising men in the media and in the institutions. Fathers become increasingly important in such circumstances.

"And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim (God) of Israel: 'Because you have obeyed the mitzvah (commandment) of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you, therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim (God) of Israel: 'Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me le-olam-va-ed (forever, in the current age)'" (Jer.35:18-19, NKJV).

The Promise to Our Children

That is Yahweh's promise if we educate our children in righteousness and teach them to be obedient, for then we shall not lack godly men and women to stand before Yahweh in holiness in this dark and bleak age of the rule of man without Elohim (God) we are currently entering into. It is up to us to carry the torch of Shemini Atseret as the world sinks into utter darkness.

Curiosity vs. Compliance

Parents must therefore be godly teachers, and stimulate a passion for learning. And the only way to encourage learning is to stimulate curiosity in the Creator and his creation - past, present, and future - and that means to be prophetically-minded. Curiosity cannot be stimulated in a culture of compliance. We need compliance in certain things but in others, compliance suffocates - it kills, all creativity. We need rules which are, as Andy Stanley so well teaches, necessary guardrails, the Torah but we also need the freedom to explore so as to stimulate the divinely ordained power of imagination and curiosity. Which brings me to the third and final perinciple, which I have already given away, but needs repeating anyway:

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3. Created to Be Creative

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• 3. Human Life was created by Yahweh to be creative. We are all inherently creative. Everyone.
  The Israeli Concert Pianist Prodigy

  I know of an Israeli family who went out of their way to stimulate their baby as he grew up with classical music. Not only that, but the father bought a grand piano even though neither he nor his wife could play it because the father felt a strong leaning to do so. Their son became a concert pianist by the time he was around 7 years old. The piano was there, he heard classical music all around him, and he tinkered on that piano. As soon as his curiosity was aroused, the parents got the boy a piano teacher. They didn't force him, but they provided the stimuli, the tools and the encouragement when he needed it. You parents need to listen to the Ruach (Spirit) so that you can prepare your children to be creative. They absorb far more than you may realise.

  Things That Stimulated My Creativity

  As I look back and reflect on where by interests and passions come from and how they got going, in many cases it was my mother's doing. My love of books and reading came from here. I hated reading at first and my mother bemoaned that I wouldn't open a book. A very wise friend suggested she give me a comic instead. She was aghast at the thought but relented. But it opened the door. Rupert the Bear made me love Victorian English and poetry; Kid Colt, an American cowboy series opened my heart to those falsely accused (as I would later be in my own life) - you see, he was an outlaw, falsely accused of a crime he hadn't committed, and went around doing good, even helping out the law that was after him. I loved it! He was one of my heroes! Then I read Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, all about friendship, loyalty and decency in a world full of crooks. My mother used to read Enid Blyton's Famous Five to me which was full of adventure and daring, and common English decency. Finally, Wind in the Willows made me fall in love with Edwardian England and the values of that time, arguably British culture at its zenith. All of these shaped me.

  The American comic that helped shape my morality
  How I Became a Writer

  My mother got me to read but not to write. I hated writing. When I went to boarding school she was frustrated by my short postcard-sized letters, separated as she was from me by thousands of miles and for a year at a time. In desperation, she sent me questionnaire letters to get the information she wanted, and had to be content with short 'yes's' and 'no's' or other short one or two word answers. In the end, she complained to the school (we had to write letters home every Sunday in a classroom) so after a rebuke from the headmaster and his insistance that I write proper-length letters, in a bad mood, I wrote a massive 15-page letter telling my mother every single detail I could imagine, hoping to bore her to tears. She loved it and I, to my surprise, discovered I loved writing, and was actually quite good at it. I was also glad for her, actually, because I know she missed me, but secretly I had resented being dumped in a foreign land amongst strangers far from home. Every Sunday thereafter I wrote massive letters home and went through block after block of airmail letter paper. In those days we used fountain pens and from that I developed a love for calligraphy too. Now I can't stop writing and Yahweh has used it to minister. You never know what will trigger creativity, but Yahweh does.

  Origins of My Love of History

  I also read war comics, which were in vogue in those days, but I got fed up with everything being one-sided. Love of the 'loser' and 'underdog' grew in this environment and I stopped trusting the official narrative about the war because I soon concluded much of what I was reading was propaganda. This stimulated a passion for history (which I'm glad to say I have managed to pass onto at least one son) and to encourage my children to think for themselves.

  Lives Don't Just 'Happen'

  Ken Robinson says we all have different résumés or curriculum vitae's. We create our own lives through our choices and Yahweh empowers those choices if they are righteous. The best choices are the choices which are in His will, but it's ultimately up to us. Our lives don't just 'happen' - we have to make them happen through right-choosing. That's how it works, contrary to what Calvinists may tell you. The people who come up to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb at Sukkot (Tabernacles) aren't there by chance or some kind of fatalistic predetermination. Yahweh knew in advance who would choose what but He forced no-one. This is the biblical doctrine of Molonism named after the man who formulated the theology in depth.

  Not Good Enough for University

  To illustrate what I mean, I was told in my school that I wasn't bright enough to go to university. I was indignant. I decided I would go to Oxford, the best in the land, and I did. I worked really hard, mind you, using my leisure time to read the chemistry and biology books I had bought with my own pocket money. Those teachers should have encouraged me, but they didn't. In the end, I believe it was a higher power that got me on the road I needed to be on, this being before I knew Yahweh and was actually an atheist and Darwinian evolutionist.

  Be Courageous

  You have to have courage - indeed, it was Churchill who said that courage was the virtue upon which all the other virtues ultimately depended. Don't be afraid to do the impossible. Start with the difficult stuff, and then do the impossible. If Yahweh wants you to, He'll see you do it even if you have to fail a few times. If he doesn't, well, you'll stay having failed, in which case it's time to ask for new light.

  
  Yahweh Must Have Sovereignty Over Our Creativity

  So I repeat, we create our own lives but we can only do it right if we give Yahweh sovereignty over them, and allow Him to guide us along the way. We are the most positively creative when Yah'shua (Jesus) is in charge. Then our creative works last forever. But if we are self-serviving, then our creative works will count for nothing, advantaging us for no longer than we are alive down here, but being now useless to us in the Millennium because we won't be here to build further on them. We'll be stuck as disembodied spirits for quite a while.

  The 'Terrible' Gift of Imagination

  To be human is to be creative and dynamic, as opposed to passive and static. To be fully human, in Elohim's (God's) image, is to be creative and dynamic to His glory which simultaneously brings us the greatest delight and pleasure. It's why we are given the gift of imagination, a terrible gift if you think about it, because we can either do terribly good things or terribly evil things with it. As far as the latter is concerned, we are warned:

  "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts" (Luke 1:51, NKJV):

  When Creativity Makes Us Conceited

  Creativity makes us conceited when we seek admiration and worship from others. It's a common weakness of actors and actresses who live for applause and acclaim. Creativity fills us with simcha (joy) when we seek to praise and glorify the giver of the gifts which we have, which we didn't create ourselves even if we worked to develop them, as we must, in order to arise to our full potential.

  Restlessness

  Many people think restlessness is always negative. It can be, especially if you are walking in sin or a lack of faith. But restlessness, it must be understood, is also part and parecl of being creative. We need to create, and we are restless until we have created, and then comes the satisfaction and peace of having created. You'll find this a common factor in all creative people, and that's everyone. And by 'creative', I don't just mean being an artist or a musician - your creativity may come in home decorating, or gardening, or even doing accounts! I find accounts boring but I know people who love doing them - that's their gifting - that's where they are creative (and I don't mean 'creative' in the negative sense of dishonestly fiddling the books).

  Imagining Alternatives

  To be creative is to imagine alternatives and possibilities. You might find it strange for me to say so, but when I am reading Scripture I am constantly imagining different possible interpetations and juggling with them until things fit and settle. That's mostly how all of us 'do theology' unless we blindly accept what someone else says. Fathers and husbands must do theology! So we had better do it well and thoroughly, find good mentors, learn the skills needed to interpret the Bible, and in short, do our homework well.

  Scripture and the Bare Essentials

  The reason Yahweh doesn't give us more than the bare essentials in Scripture is to awaken our curiosity to want to know more. We'll get things wrong, just as we do in science, but then we have the freedom to tinker and modify until things fit. Being given a head start by having good teachers is a huge bonus but even these you have to test. Just don't go throwing out the baby with the bathwater if you find some mistakes here and there. I go mining for truth even in the teachings of those whose theology is way off. Spurgeon has some great quotes but he was miles off in his hyper-Calvinism. Our curiosity stimulates us to gather, sort, throw out, and retain, just as we have been doing with apples and mushrooms in our family recently during the autumn (fall) harvest.

  Gold Prospecting in Scripture and the Creation

  Yahweh has so much more light and truth to reveal both from His Word and from His Creation! If you're a keen amateur astronomer as I am, this is one of the most fantastic times to be learning about the Cosmos, thanks to the Hubble telescope, and soon its even more powerful replacement. This is a time of an explosion of knowledge even if it's also a highly dangerous time with ever more misinformation and lies being circulated. Like it or not, for creativity to be successful, you have to do your homework, and you have to learn to be a bit of a gold-miner, sifting out the nuggets of truth from the dirt in which it has been hiding. It takes a lot of seekers to do that, which is why we learn from one another. Many have been my mentors, some briefly, some longer, and many will be, and are, yours if you are an honest seeker after truth.

Brethren and Sisters, after Sukkot (Tabernacles) itself, when we get to be reunited with our Master, Shemini Atseret is the time I look forward to the most. It's the beginning of a new life, a new world, a new allegorical marriage, in which we can give our gifts their full expression, whatever they may be. Creativity is something we should always celebrate, in our children and in each other. Encourage one another to develop your gifts to the glory of Elohim (God)!

I hope this will be a blessing to you and inspire you to bring out all that Yahweh has intended for you. Build and be blessed, in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes