Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah - may the grace and peace of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) be with you all. We are in full summer - finally - here in Sweden and once again the sabbath has rolled around challenging us to properly rest. And though the saved have 'rest' in their souls because they are reconciled with their Saviour through the Cross, the saved and unsaved alike are reminded that the body may not be neglected either, as I was starkly reminded yesterday when I returned to the place where I had my most recent heart operation. Only this time it was my wife's turn to come to terms with the ravages of time on her body. I am grateful for your prayers for her as this was a close call and could have ended inb tragedy. I also solicit your prayers for my eldest daughter who has also been quite ill these last few days too. When it comes, it comes all at once, doesn't it?

As I mentioned last week, the previous sabbath sermon (which I tried to make as substantial as possible) would probably have to serve as your meat or main spiritual course for a week or two while I devoted my attention to my family's health, including my own. We will return to our series on the Return of the Elijah Prophets when things have settled down a bit but I have a feeling it may not be until later in the year.

Aside from all the current evil and insanity in the world generally, increasing numbers of believers are waking up to the reality that a judgment truly is under way in the world, and that it has indeed started with the House of Elohim (God), as it always does because it must. To whom much is given (and I speak of salvation here), much is expected. But this judgment isn't only a negative thing.

A few days ago I was having a discussion with those of my children who haven't left home yet and they freely voiced their struggles. It was interesting to see that though they had all had the same upbringing that they each approached things differently based on their characters and, of course, the life choices they have made thus far: one came from a more-or-less psychological vantage point, another from a philosophical one, and yet another from an historical perspective. We each choose different sets of tools with which to analyse life and, as you would expect, they are the tools readily at handn because they have been bequeathed to us by our culture. And it has been this way in every age.

When the Greek world started converting to the Gospel in the first few centuries of evangelism, theirs was a very philosophical approach. They encapsulated a very thoughtful, gentle Christianity, one that I find immensely attractive. The neighbouring Roman culture to the West was rather different, because they viewed life mostly through the lens of power. It's for this reason the Western and Eastern traditions are very different and have a very different 'spirit' about them. Of course, the two cultures very much overlapped with the Latin culture borrowing more from the Greek than the other way round. That the early Christian world had a Greek half and a Latin half was, I firmly believe, in the providence of Elohim (God), to provide contrast. We do best when different people bounce ideas and experiences off each other. It's one reason I appreciate my Asian heritage so much (I was raised in malaysia) because it provides me with a contrast to my European one (Britain, Scandinavia, Germany and France).

Anyway, these were the thoughts I had this morning as I nursed by own biological bucket of aches and pains and prayerfully remembered all the difficulties so many of my friends in the Besorah (Gospel) are currently going through. I'm quite frankly amazed how in some cases you have held together, defying the odds. I hadn't actually planned to share a message with you today but since Yahweh spoke to me just a few hours ago I felt that something oven-ready, like freshly baked bread, would be better dished up now than later when it has cooled down somewhat.

I was sitting on the edge of my bed, the sun streaming in through the window, with one dog still fast asleep and the other nudging me for attention, food and 'watering', when I quite spontaneously asked Yahweh this question: "Are pain and suffering a necessary corrective?" In other words, are we permitted to go through this - let's be honest - at times highly unpleasant and undesirable set of trials and tribulations, either simply to stop us from wandering off the way or else to bring us back to the straight-and-narrow when we have wandered? I guess in the back of my mind were some of the questions raised by my slightly more-than-upset offspring who are naturally concerned about their future in this very authoriarian and turbulent world we now find ourselves in.

In immediate answer to my question - literally within a couple of seconds - I was shown a vision of an endless row of identical, healthy-looking green trees, tightly packed together so there was practically no space between them. Oddly, though, they were packed three layers deep, one row on top of another row, and then these two rows on top of a third row, closely packed like sardines in a tin. Now I saw a lot of trees yesterday, travelling as I was for four hours through endless Swedish forest and along side sparkling blue fjords and lakes, so I guess I was primed with that image somewhat. As by now you all know, Yahweh has a way of densely packing revelation into the visions I see, requiring I spend some time unpacking them. But the symbolism of this particular vision was notv at all hard to fathom.

First, let's look at the three layers or levels of trees. These represent the three essential ingredients of a satisfying and rewarding life, irrespective of the intrusions of difficulties, hardships and challenges. Three is the number of divine perfection and we are made in the image of the Divine (who at the second level are Three Persons). We are to seek perfection on a human level (Mt.5:48; 19:21; Heb.11:40). I am sure many, if not most, of you immediately went to 1 Corinthians 13, that wonderful discourse on love by the apostle Paul, one of the richest spiritual treasures in the New Testament or indeed the whole Bible. It's where I went to in a flash. Let's dive into it:

"If I speak in the tongues (languages) of men and of malakim (angels), but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor.13:1-13, NIV).

Of that magic threesome, faith, hope and love - emunah, tiqveh and ahavah/chesed/agapé - the greatest of these is love. What kind of love is this that is so Sovereign over the other two? Again Paul to the Colossians:

"We always thank Elohim (God), the Father of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ), when we pray for you, because we have heard of your emunah (faith) in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus) and of the ahavah-chesed (love) you have for all the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) - the emunah (faith) and ahavah-Chesed (love) that spring from the tiqveh (hope) that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the Davar-Emet (Word of Truth), the Besorah (Gospel) that has come to you. All over the world this Besorah (Gospel) is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood Elohim's (God's) grace (undeserved loving-kindness) in all its truth" (Col.1:3-6, NIV).

The faith described here is not any old faith - not faith in yourself, not in your spouse, not in the government, not in yourself or a friend, or anything like that, but faith in Christ. The love described here is not any old love, but specifically love, first, for Elohim (God) and, second, love for fellow born-again believers - ahavah, chesed or agapé love, the one that isn't self-serving but has died to self.

This faith and this love spring from what? Where do they come from? From the hope or tiqveh that is "stored up in heaven" (in other words, it does not have a visible, earthly origin) and is therefore beyond your mortal sight. We all learn about the nature of this faith and love from the Word of Truth or Gospel - the Good News of the birth, atoning death, resurrection, and eternal diety of Yah'shua (Jesus) which is evidenced by the fruitfulness of impacted lives and growing messianic communities. And wrapped together with this comes the understsanding of grace, that whatever benefits we may have reaped from the Gospel, and are continuing to reap, are from Yahweh's undeserved loving-kindness and not because of any striving or merit on our part. It is so important to understand that our welfare and future is all wrapped up in a proper understanding of faith, hope and love, and not in the world's paper-thin version of them.

Paul mentions this threesome of faith-hope-love in two other places and once again shows their relationship to one another and source:

"We continually remember before our Elohim (God) and Father your [Christian] work (service) produced by faith (emunah), your labour [for the Kingdom] prompted by love (ahavah-chesed), and your endurance [through suffering] inspired by hope (tiqveh) in our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ)" (1 Thess.1:3, NIV).

Finally, in the same epistle Paul again explains the relationship between the 'threesome' but said in a slightly different way, leaving us in no doubt what is meant by faith, hope and love, so that we do not try to adapt, modify or twist them for some humanist agenda apart from Messiah:

"But since we (who are saved) belong to the day (light), let us be self-controlled, putting on faith (emunah) and love (ahavah-chesed) as a breastplate, and the [present and future] hope (tiqveh) of salvation as a helmet. For Elohim (God) did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ). He died for us so that, whether we are awake (alive) or asleep (dead), we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" (1 Thess.5:8-11, NIV).

All faith, hope and love outside of Messiah will never be cosmic, never be larger than a human being - yourself - and what you can generate in your own mortal power, and unfortunately there are many who sometimes mistake this self-generated life for Yahweh Himself, in effect projecting themselves in what they imagine Him to be. When they do this (as is very common), they quite understandbly find it impossible to worship such a being because you can never worship anything that isn't bigger than yourself - you will become dissilusioned. That is why humanism, which often uses similar language to Christianity, is not remotely the same.

The vision of the three layers of trees which extended for ever, right and left, is a reminder that only that which comes from Yahweh, the Eternal One, is capable of limitless multiplication, of going beyond human possibilities. In my experience, most of the mental and emotional anquish we experience arises from trying to mimic faith, hope, and love on a human, fleshy level, and therefore inevitably on a human scale too; and when we fail to generate more than we are capable of generating ourselves, we turn to others, hoping they will be able to supplement our meagre diet, to supplment our deficit, forgetting they're in the same business as we are, so both become disappointed in, and disillusioned by, each other, as each tries to cajole the other into releasing more faith, hope, and love.

Trees represent chayaim or life, and the fact they are multiplies in both direction on each of the three levels, Christ. Yah'shua (Jesus) said:

"I am the Way Derech) and the #Emet (Truth) and the Chayim (Life). No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6, NIV).

The unregenerated - whether believers or nominal believers - are still trying to squeeze every milliliter or fluid ounce out of themselves and/or others - it's a kind of spiritual parasitism or vampirism, really). The reasult is that they exhaust themselves and experience defeat again and again, not comprehending the deception they are under, with some even blaming Elohim (God) for 'not delivering the goods' and veering off into scepticism, agnosticsm and finally atheism.

You see, on the fleshy level, trees also represent people, but this is not what the vision was about. It was about Elohim (God), a warning that pain and suffering are oftentimes correctives to bring us to our senses so that we seek life from Him and not from other people. It's the old story of idolatry, when we make other people - or indeed ourselves - our saviours and objects of worship instead of Messiah Himself. But when other people, as fellow believers possessing eternal life, join in service for the King, rightly submitted to Him and trusting Him with their whole hearts, then they enjoy together that blessed fellowship which is impossible to find in the world, because the world's fellowship is pale and narrow by comparison, and does not, in any case, provide any hope for eternity.

So whoever you are, young or old, immature or mature, inexperienced or experienced, Yah'shua (Jesus) calls you to Himself and to a fullness of good things. All He asks is that you renew your relationship with Him (if you have lost touch) or come for the first time, if you will. Come without expectation, trusting, and receive whatever it is He wishes to you. Yah'shua (Jesus) promises:

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt.11:28-30, NIV).

But you have to trust - you have to have faith. At some point, whether for your whole life (if you are an unbeliever) or just a part of it (if you are a believer and have surrendered all to Him), because He will not do your believing for you. That is one 'work' you cannot escape - don't fall for the Calvinist lie that He does that too by 'irresistably' calling you because you're predestined to salvation. Yes, He draws us...all the time, until we rejuect him forcefully and permanently as Judas did...but He never forces us. He won't do your part, He won't take your choosing away from you, because the only love that matters is the love that has chosen for itself to whom to go. I invite you to make that choice right now - the scriptural one we've been reading about - and see that He keeps His promises. Then you will be like a forest ever growing. He aks that you give yourself to Him so that He may give you all He has for you, more than you could ever dream:

"Give [of yourself/yourself], and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap" (Luke 6:38, NIV).

Until next time, Elohim (God) go with you, and belss you, and left you up and give you a heart overflowing wqith His love. Amen.

Further Reading