{"id":5235,"date":"2021-12-17T20:07:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T02:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=5235"},"modified":"2021-12-17T20:13:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T02:13:05","slug":"the-struggle-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/the-struggle-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"The Struggle of Faith&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5236 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chag-judgment2.gif?resize=135%2C135&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"135\" height=\"135\" \/>In the Scriptures it is written: \u201cYou shall not worship the LORD your God in that way\u201d (Deut. 12:4), which referred to various Canaanite practices of idolatry based on mystery, ignorance and superstition. Unlike religious cults that were based on vain speculations, however, Jews are duty-bound to carry out God\u2019s will as expressed by the truth of divine revelation. Our father Abraham was given revelation of Torah (Gen. 26:5) and at Sinai moral truth was enshrined in the Ten Commandments (Exod. 24:12; Deut. 5:22).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A basic assumption of Torah is that \u201cought implies can,\u201d or that we are genuinely responsible to know and to do moral truth (Rom. 1:18-20). Unlike the ancient \u201cmystery religions\u201d that abandoned themselves by \u201ccelebrating\u201d the lower nature, God insists on overruling our base impulses and finding peace in the midst of the struggle to live in righteousness (Gal. 5:16-17). Therefore we do not understand the Hebrew word &#8220;shalom&#8221; (\u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05dc\u05d5\u05b9\u05dd), or \u201cpeace,\u201d to mean the absence of strife, but rather &#8220;wholeness,&#8221; &#8220;completeness,&#8221; and &#8220;healing&#8221; &#8212; the integration of the heart and mind that comes through catharsis and personal struggle (Gen. 32:28). Faith does not mean passivity, but protest &#8212; \u201carguing\u201d for (and sometimes with) heaven, reminding God of his promises, lamenting over the divine absence; finding courage to oppose the status quo, and repeatedly appealing to heaven \u201cbe\u2019khol levaveinu\u201d (\u05d1\u05bc\u05b0\u05db\u05b8\u05dc\u05be\u05dc\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05d1\u05b5\u05e0\u05d5\u05bc) &#8212; with all our hearts &#8212; precisely because we believe that our prayers can affect even the divine decrees&#8230; True faith confesses to \u201cmove mountains into the sea\u201d (Mark 11:23) and refuses to let go of God until it receives the promised blessing to become \u201cIsrael\u201d (Gen. 32:26).<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5237\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/isa32-17-analysis.gif?resize=473%2C688&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"473\" height=\"688\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-5235-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/isa32-17-jjp.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/isa32-17-jjp.mp3\">https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/isa32-17-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/Blessings\/Blessing_Cards\/isa32-17-lesson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Isaiah 32:17 Hebrew page<\/a> (pdf)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> As many of you know, &#8220;tzedakah&#8221; (\u05e6\u05d3\u05e7\u05d4) refers to our duty to \u201cdo righteousness\u201d (i.e., la\u2019asot tzedakah: \u05dc\u05e2\u05e9\u05d5\u05ea \u05e6\u05d3\u05e7\u05d4) which can take the form of good works or deeds (i.e., ma&#8217;asei tovim: \u05de\u05e2\u05e9\u05d4 \u05d8\u05d5\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd), doing acts of kindness (i.e., gemilut chassidim: \u05d2\u05de\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea \u05d7\u05e1\u05d3\u05d9\u05dd), studying Torah (i.e., talmud Torah: \u05ea\u05dc\u05de\u05d5\u05d3 \u05ea\u05d5\u05e8\u05d4), engaging in prayer (i.e., avodat ha&#8217;lev: \u05e2\u05d1\u05d5\u05d3\u05ea \u05d4\u05dc\u05d1), and offering charity (i.e., mattan tzedakah: \u05de\u05ea\u05df \u05e6\u05d3\u05e7\u05d4). Living in accordance with the righteousness of Messiah (\u05e6\u05d3\u05e7\u05ea \u05de\u05e9\u05d9\u05d7) yields a life of peace, inner quiet, and confidence that comes from the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Scriptures it is written: \u201cYou shall not worship the LORD your God in that way\u201d (Deut. 12:4), which referred to various Canaanite practices of idolatry based on mystery, ignorance and superstition. Unlike religious cults that were based on vain speculations, however, Jews are duty-bound to carry out God\u2019s will as expressed by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-dvar","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5239,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5235\/revisions\/5239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}