Logomacheo

B'rit Chadashah (New Testament readings added to traditional Torah cycle)

2 Timothy 2:8-21; Jude 1-25

Read with Torah Parashah Korach

"Woe to them, in that they have walked the road of Cain, they have given themselves over for money to the error of Balaam, they have been destroyed in the rebellion of Korach.  These men are filthy spots at your festive gatherings meant to foster love; they share your meals without a qualm, while caring only for themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; trees without fruit even in autumn, and doubly dead because they have been uprooted; savage sea-waves heaving forth their shameful deeds like foam; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever." ~ Jude 1:11-13

1. What has the Ruach HaKodesh spoken to your spirit in this week's drash (write it down in your journal and share)?

2. In what areas do you struggle to be conformed to the image of our Mashiach in your attitudes?

3. Remember that HE never condemns us for where we are, rather HE convicts us that HE might take us to where HE is.

Scripture WORD of the week:

Logomacheo: to be disputatious; to make a war with words; quarreling- If you read 2 Timothy 2:14-21, you'll find that we can either DISSECT the WORD of Truth and thus have our own heart dissected by TRUTH.  OR we can divide our reality with our very own words (reaping yet more division into our own spirits and lives)!

Are we living our lives in such a way that is POINTING others to The WAY, Yeshua?  Or are we living our lives in such a way that points to ourselves - a dead end, indeed?

Have you ever noticed that rebellion is an outworking of an inflated view of ourselves? (Romans 12:13)

A lack of shalom AROUND a person (troubled relationships) indicates a lack of shalom WITHIN a person.  Sowing discord around oneself with divisive words and actions is simply an outpouring of the discord/division within one’s own spirit.  

Rebellion and Discontent are brothers and they are the antithesis of Humility and Contentedness (wholeness).

A general inner discontentedness with ADONAI’s Word, will, and ways is always the precursor to an elevated view of oneself (pride:  ‘God, my way is better than yours!’) that leads to sin and eventually to destruction.

It begins with TRUST (Active sowing of good seed).  Contentment is learned through an ACTIVE SOWING.

9. Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of shalom (of ‡5 untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you.

10I was made very happy in the Lord that now you have revived your interest in my welfare after so long a time; you were indeed thinking of me, but you had no opportunity to show it.

11Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be ‡6 content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.

12I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.

13I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who ‡7 infuses inner strength into me; I am ‡8 self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].  ~ Philippians 4:9-13 

SHALOM washes over ‘good deeds sown in faith’.  CONTENTMENT (shalom/unity within) comes through Christ’s empowerment!  Another way to read this glorious, hope-filled passage is...

‘I can do all things - most importantly, I can even be content in this present world (shalom within: nothing broken, nothing missing) -  through Christ Who gives me strength!’ - Philippians 4:13

This learned and Spirit-empowered contentment is the key to a JOY-FILLED, abundant, and Christ-exalting existence!

Any kind of sowing discord OR following those who do, proves to be detrimental to your own spiritual health and shalom.

Malcontents (a dissatisfied, ungrateful and rebellious grumbler/complainer) are discord sowers.  

Are you mindful of the kind of seed you are sowing into your life and others lives WITH YOUR WORDS?

Malcontents are ‘waterless clouds carried along by the winds’ (Jude 1:12).  They look promising, but there is no real substance.  They falsely raise our hopes, but deliver nothing:

Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give. ~ Proverbs 25:14

Recently as I was cleaning my toilet (yes!) pondering these passages, I felt the Spirit of the LORD say to me regarding the sowing of discord:  “Sowing discord, being a malcontent in word, thought and deed is at the height of irresponsibility.  It is spiritual littering...someone else is given the duty to pick up and clean up after your mess.” 

Are you leaving behind messes for others to clean up or are you leaving tidy spaces in the wake of your presence?

Apart from God’s redeeming, sanctifying, transforming grace, we are destined to be mere malcontents and pursue wickedness out of our disbelieving hearts.

Can you think of Scriptures that instruct you as to what you ARE TO PURSUE?

READ the following passages: Matt:6:33/Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22-26; Ephesians 4:17-31; Colossians 3:12-17; Romans 14:19; 1 Cor. 14:1; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 Peter 3:8-12

WEEKLY CHALLENGE:  Watch the words that come from your lips.  Ask the LORD to create your heart anew and work with the Ruach HaKodesh by sowing good seed that He might bring forth a heavenly harvest into your life!  

MEMORIZE: Colossians 3:12-17