Eudora

There is a huge connection between Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Micah 2:12 & 13 ¶ I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them. and Psalm 24:7-10 'Lift up your heads, Oh Gates and be lifted up, Oh ancient Doors that the King of Glory may come in! Who is the King of Glory? Yahweh strong and mighty. Yahwey mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, Oh Gates and lift them up, Oh ancient Doors that the King of Glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? Yahwey, King of the Heavenly Armies; He is the King of Glory. Selah.' Some say that the gates and doors were those of the Temple. There are two things wrong with this assessment. One, it speaks of ancient Doors. At the time of the writing of Psalm 24, if the Temple was in existence, the doors could hardly be called ancient. Which leads us into the next problem; that of assuming that the gates and doors of the Temple were in existence when the Psalm was written. If King David wrote this, and it's most likely he did as the beginning of the Psalm records, the Temple hadn't been built yet. Therefore, it would be impossible for the ancient doors and gates of the Psalm to be referring to a Temple that didn't exist. (The Temple wouldn't be built until after David's death. His son, King Solomon would build it.) The ancient Gates or Doors in this Psalm were what separated God from Man; the firmament of the Heavens. David is speaking about the Ancient Doors opening for Messiah upon His Resurrection and return to the Heavens. On the other side of this firmament is the Heavenly Temple where first we see the Altar for Sacrifice of the Lamb of God. All who desire to pass through the breach that the Breaker makes, must first apply the Blood of the Sacrifice of the Lamb while they are upon the Earth.

I believe it is taking hold of the powers that we are told that we have in Him and trusting that His word will do what He has sent it out to do.

The Hebrew word for 'seize it' would be oh-hah-zeem and means, 'to seize...to take, catch, in hunting, to take or have possession'. The verb also means, 'to take possession (of the land)' (i.e. Israel, Josh. 22:9), and it also speaks of an 'eternal possession' (Gen. 17:8; 48:4; Lev. 25:34). This parallels the possessing of the Kingdom of the Heavens in terms of inheritance instead of 'seizing it.' With these three words we can translate Matt. 11:12 like this: 'And from the days of Yohanan the Immerser until now, the Kingdom of the Heavens is being breached and the breachers are possessing it.' Yahushua was alluding to the prophetic passage in Micah about the Messiah being the Shepherd that would breach or tear open a section of the fence or wall of the Sheepfold (the earthly existence), for the Remnant of Israel. The Sheep (believers; breachers), would then continue to break down and break through the fence of the sheep-pen into greener pastures (the Heavenly Kingdom), as they followed their Shepherd. In Micah 2:12-13 we read: 'I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob. I will surely gather the Remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold' (Bozrah); 'like a flock in the midst of its pasture. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.' The Breaker (Poretz from the same verb 'to tear down,' to breach), goes up before them. They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it. So their King goes on before them and Yahwey is at their head.' This is what Yahushua was pointing to that day in Matt. 11:12. The Kingdom of the Heavens was presenting Itself, first with John's proclamation and then with Yahushua Himself. Not to disparage the Law and the Prophets (Luke 16:17), but on the contrary, to hold up what they spoke of as future, was now unfolding as a present reality. Yahushua was declaring that He was the Shepherd (the Breaker; the Breacher), who would break down the Fence so that His Sheep (the breakers) could follow Him into their inheritance, the Heavenly realm. A more literal translation of Micah 2:13 reads, 'And the One breaking open will go up before them and they will break open and they will go through the Gate and they will go out through Him and their King will pass through before them, (with) Yahveh at their head.' It's not that the Kingdom is suffering violence but that the Shepherd is tearing open, making a hole in the Heavenly Fence that separates Man from God. He does this with His Death and Resurrection. The ones that are His, follow Him. They hear His Voice calling to them and escape from the Fold by running through the opening in the Fence that He made for them. It becomes widened much the same way that cattle, stampeding through a break in a fence, will trample it down and tear out more and more of it as they go through it. Such is the 'violence' that Yahushua was presenting that day. Unfortunately, when Matthew was translated into Greek 'there was something lost in the translation.' The translators tell us that the Kingdom of Heaven 'suffers violence'. As we have seen, the idea of force is inherent in the Hebrew word. But the Greek lacks the Hebraic Scriptural link to Micah that begins to explain what Yeshua said that day and what He meant. Micah then opens up a Scriptural chain for us that will reveal both the Salvation of Yahwey and the Resurrection of Yahushua.

Q3. (Matthew 7:7-8) Why is continual asking, seeking, and knocking so essential to our looking forward to the Kingdom? Because this is a promise to us that when we ask, we will receive, when we seek and knock with out giving up, He will then hear our prayers and open up the doors to His kingdom and our out His blessing that He knows that we are truly in need of, rather than what we think we need. I look at God and ask for what ever is on my heart. Out of my heart speaks my mouth, so after I have asked, I begin to look for (seek) His hand at work. I am always looking to see how God will do with that which I have asked. Why do we give up so easily? The only thing I have ever given up on asking for is when it comes to a life or death of someone who is at deaths door. I had to learn the hard way that no matter how much we want to see Him glorified in a life and death situation, ultimately it is always a decision that He will choose. It is this way in everything, but for some reason, I just remember asking that He spare a life of a fella I barely even knew and give him more time to be able to make a decision and believing with all faith that the man would pull through, he died during the night. I quit asking after that. It was at this time that I also began to pray differently. What I learned back then was that when Yahushua was praying in the garden, asking that Yahwey take away the cup that He would soon bear, He said,

Q2. (Matthew 6:33) What does it mean in verse 33 to "seek first his Kingdom"? What does it mean to "seek first

Q1. (Matthew 6:24) Jesus seems to make it sound like you can't seek wealth and God simultaneously. Does he really mean this? Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. I think when we serve Him as our One Master, we will find that all the rest to equip us in serving Him and the Kingdom, just falls into place. If we are here just to seek wealth, we may actually find it and miss the kingdom all together because we didn

Q4. What did Jesus intend the Parable of the Soils to teach us about the "message of the kingdom"? God's kingdom begins in and centers on the human heart; its growth and advancement is unseen but constant. Yahushua said in His explanation of the four soils that His disciples had been permitted to understand the secrets but others had not. To those who were open, more understanding is given and they will have an abundance of knowledge. A farmer doesn't sow his field and then walk up and down the rows shouting, "Grow! Grow!" Nor does he monitor every seed he plants in order to determine its final outcome. Rather, the farmer does the work and leaves the results to God. It isn't our message, it is His. All of the seed that we plant, originally belongs to Him, since we are led by the Spirit of Him who sends us out into the field. We are the workers who take His word to our heart and live it daily, so that those who are looking into the field of the kingdom of God or standing on the edge of the field are keeping an eye on what comes up in the field. It is God who must grant a person spiritual eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand. Until that happens, God's "spiritual truth will remain a riddle to those standing on the edge of the field. The light of Yahushua

Q3. (Matthew 13:23) Even good soil can have factors that hinder growth in various parts of the field, or make some areas grow taller and fuller wheat. What factors make a disciple especially good soil for the growth of the word or message of the Kingdom? 2 Peter 1:19-21

Q2. (Matthew 13:22; Luke 8:14) Which of the thorns that Jesus mentions do you think is the most dangerous: Riches, worries/cares, or pleasures? Well let’s see... worry makes me sick, riches I have none... cares... well I think I have a lot of cares, but they are not usually about me, unless when I am sick. Pleasures.. I do experience pleasures but I am very thankful for them. Like lavender tea for instance. I consider that a large part of my daily pleasure or looking at my wonderful husband who seems to age very gracefully. But again, I am thankful to God often for the man He has chosen for me to love and to be loved by. Why do you think so? Cause worry only makes me sick. I have found it so much easier to truly take the word to heart and cast my burdens upon the Lord and He shall sustain me. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. As for me, I will call upon God.. and the Lord, shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud... He shall hear my voice. Yep it is easier to let Jesus do all the worry while I enjoy the fruits of His labor. I can just be still and know that He is God. Living in my comfortable surroundings, it is easy for me to say that I don’t have cares because I live in a nice warm house and am able to take a nice warm bath each night after a nice warm meal. But if I didn’t have all of these warm comforts, then my care level might become elevated. I suspect that in the future ahead of us, we will all understand and know that we here in America, take our freedoms for granted, so I keep that in the back of my mind for now but in my heart, I know and see that slowly.. day by day we are loosing our freedoms and will one day come to depend on God more so than ever. I also know that He is gracious and it is because of Him that we have these lavish attentions in the first place. But then, I am aware of His provisions and very thankful and He knows that I am. I hide nothing from Him since it is completely pointless to do so. As a matter of fact, I asked Him yesterday that if He wanted to give our son a buck deer this year, would He scarce one up for Him. All season it has looked pretty grim, but yesterday I even bought a deer bag and gave it to our son. I told him when I gave it to him that I believe that if you ask God for rain, then you should carry an umbrella, ergo my faith in action was the purchase of a deer bag. Our son just called on the walkie talkie that he got one. God is good and He is faithful to them who are faithful to Him. I take this word to a whole new level with my Father. I am full of faith... in Him. Thank You Father for the deer meat for our son's family this year. I thank you Father not because I wanted our son to get one, but because I asked You for one and You are faithful.

Q1. (Matthew 13:20-21) Why, according to Jesus' teaching here, do some people fall away so quickly? If our soul isn

Q4. Why is repentance so central to the Kingdom of God? Because without the spirit, we can not see the kingdom of God nor can we be raised from the dead with out the Holy Spirit of God and we can not have the Holy Spirit of God if we do not repent and turn away from sin. Sin is not a part of the kingdom, nor can or will it ever be. Why is baptism important to converts to the King? So that through His Spirit that lives inside of us, His kingdom can be built. It isn

You don't need to be sorry for thinking out loud... I was so excited for you by this path of questions that you are asking yourself. I am happy that the Holy Spirit is stirring you... YAHOO!

Q3. (Matthew 3:11) What is the point of comparison between John's action and the Messiah's action? What is the point of difference? John

Q1. What happens when people adopt the Christian faith without repent of their known sins? They are adopting a false teaching and will not understand the full gospel that Jesus taught from that day forward that what John had spoken to repent for the Kingdom is at hand is something that Jesus agreed with and began to speak as well. It means :

Q4. (Genesis 48:15) How did God act as a Shepherd to Jacob? He led him to the place where He would make a difference in Jacob

Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? Probably due to the promises of Yahowah that he will bless those who stay true to His commandments. This would include all ten, in observance of how Yahowah wrote them with His own finger. What are the effects of crises on our faith? Well sometimes, our faith is tested and when a crisis comes, we seem to scatter at first but when we remember that He is in control of all things, then we remember that we can rest and trus in Him. How do they help us grow in our faith? When we see Yahowah

Q2. (Genesis 48) Why does Jacob cross his hands when blessing Ephraim and Manasseh? Yahowah

Q1. (Genesis 47:9) In what sense is life on earth like a "pilgrimage" or a journey with no permanent home? Well, our hope is at the end of our earthy journey. we go to the grave and rest and wait until the Lord comes to call us home. The truth is that the Bible tells us that when Yahushua returns He is bringing His reward with Him. Re 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Mt 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. The Bible also tells us that the dead in Christ, those who died living a life of continuance in Him, will be raised first from the grave to meet Him. Our home is with Him, not here on earth. This is a temporary dwelling place. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: What happens to us when we settle down and get too comfortable with our lives? We become dependent on the things of the world and what it has to offer. How do we retain a "journeying spirit" in our faith? Stay connected with the father, through the Son and keep His commandments. Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Q4. (Genesis 46:2-4) Faith is what quiets our fears. What in God's word to Jacob at Beersheba quiets his fears? Yahowah promised to take care of him. He was an old man now and a trip like this would make us all a bit un-nerved. He also promised Jacob that his descendants would return to the promised land even though he would not but that his beloved son would be near his side when he did pass away to his rest to sleep. God had brought the same assurance to Jacob before (28:15; 31:3). Why do you think he had stopped believing it? We all have our doubts. I think sometimes Yahowah God has a way of building our trust in this way. When He promises to do things, we forget that He does them in His timing and not in ours and ours is to just trust and obey and wait upon the Lord. What is the relationship between faith and God's words? God

Q3. (Genesis 45:4-8) Contrast Jacob and Joseph. Jacob has suffered great loss. Joseph has suffered great injustice. Why is Jacob's vision so bleak, but Joseph's so broad? Joseph has not lost sight of who he is In the eyes of Yahowah. What have been their differing responses to fear? Joseph constantly cried out to Yahowah. We gotta keep in mind that Joseph and Benjamin had been brought up by Israel who had been changed from the inside out. He was probably soaking in every story that his daddy had told him about the God of Israel. What insight has kept Joseph from being bitter towards his brothers? He believed in Yahowah. It is apparent to us and should have been to his brothers when as an egyptian by all appearances, Joseph says:

The meaning of

Q1. (Genesis 37:31-35) What does bringing the blood-stained robe to Jacob say about these sons' attitude toward their father? These older boys of Jacob

Rachel was "buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem," as Jacob journeyed from the north. Her grave was awaiting her, near Ramah, which lay a few miles north of Bethlehem. Rachel, who all her life had pined for children, now died with "sorrow" in giving birth to Benjamin. Q5. (Genesis 35:22) What is the significance of Reuben's sin? First and foremost, this was a sin against God who had chosen Israel as leader of this family and Rueben whom He had formed in the womb to be the one child to gain the first right to all the inheritance. While his father, Israel spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar and was away, Reuben went in and lay with Israel‘s concubine. I am assuming that Israel went away to lo in his grief at the death of his beloved. When he gets back he is informed that his number one son has slept with his concubine Bilhah, the handmaiden that Laban gave to Rachel. She was no longer a handmaid when Rachael gave Bilhah to Jacob. Bilhah became Jacobs third wife. Genesis 30:4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. After the death of Rachel, who had complete control of Bilhah, now becomes I believe the number one wife because she replaces Rachel in position, even over Leah. This may be another reason that Reuben sleeps with her, supporting his position as number one son, but yet Israel never says a word. Rueben may have felt that Bilhah was his right as heir apparent. Who knows, it might have even been Bilhah who made a pass at Reuben to secure her place with him as the eldest son to gain access to all that would have been given to Reuben in double portion. I think this sin strained the whole family of tribes. In what way does it go beyond a sexual sin? It was a violation of transgression for Rueben to lay with His father’s wife. It was probably a deep humiliation that wounded Israel. He wasn’t a young man anymore. Just because Israel doesn’t say anything about this, does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that Reuben is going to get away with it un-noticed. We're not told, but how do you think this affected the family dynamics? I would think that since Bilhah was now defiled with Israel’s son’s semen that he may never have slept with her again. It probably strained the relationship that Israel had with Reuben. We know that his father becomes overly infatuated with his two younger sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Extra credit: Reuben has acted dishonorably here. In what ways does Reuben act honorably in the future? (37:21-29; 42:22, 37) When the brothers decide to take Joseph's life, it is Reuben who steps in and say’s no. It is Reuben who volunteers the truth that they had tried to murder Joseph and Joseph hears every word. It is after this that Joseph breaks down and cries. It is Reuben who volunteers that his dad slay his own two son’s if he doesn’t come back safely with Benjamin.

Q4. (Genesis 35:9-15) Why do you think God appears to Jacob yet another time? I pondered on this question for three days because I could not figure out why Yahowah would meet with Jacob to tell his something that He had already told him and that is where I was wrong. Yahowah never told Jacob that He had given him this land, He said: “to thee will I give it” as in the future, He would give this land to Jacob when he brought him back to the land of promise. The same with the new name change. It was told to Jacob by ‘the man’ that he had wrestled with; that his name “shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” It wasn’t officially changed yet, but that his name ’shall be no more Jacob’. By the way, this is the first time that Yahowah commands that an altar be built for worship. All others up to this point, were built out of reverence and not obedience to a command. This time God confirms the promise to Jacob. When Yahowah God had earlier sent the angel that wrestled with Jacob, ’the man’ told Jacob that his name would not be Israel anymore and that he would be given a new name. Jacob held on to that ‘man’ all through the night and finally received the blessing that he had received both power to overcome, and also the praise of the victory. The earlier promise at Bethel was that Yahowah Jireh would ‘one day’ give Jacob the land for himself and his descendants and that Yahowah Rohi would be with Jacob where ever he went as his Shepherd and would one day bring him back to this land of promise. This was now that time. This time it was El-Shaddai who greeted Jacob with a blessing and Jacob didn’t have to fight for it. El-Shaddai just spoke to him and said, “Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name”. Then El-Shaddai calls him by his new name “Israel” and introduces Himself as El-Shaddai ~ All sufficient One. El-Shaddai informs Israel that all twelve of his children will each become a nation and together a company of nations and that kings will come through this people. Everything that Yahowah had sent the two angels to tell Jacob, was now being fulfilled. El-Shaddai is a God of promises who keeps them all and performed His word that He has spoken. What are the primary promises that God renews to Jacob? All that He had originally told him.