Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Do you ever just read the Psalms aloud on Sabbath?
Some of them are a real pleasure to read.
Here are a few selections I like today:

Psalms 113:
1  Praise Yahweh! Praise, O servants of Yahweh,
Praise the name of Yahweh!
2  Blessed be the name of Yahweh
From this time forth and forevermore!
3  From the rising of the sun to its going down
Yahweh's name is to be praised.
4  Yahweh is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.
5  Who is like Yahweh our Elohim,
Who dwells on high,

Here is another selection which expresses WHY we love Yahweh.

Psalms 105:
1  Oh, give thanks to Yahweh! Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
2  Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
3  Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek Yahweh!
4  Seek Yahweh and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
5  Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
6  O seed of Abraham His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7  He is Yahweh our Elohim;
His judgments are in all the earth.
8  He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
 

Friends, may Yahweh bless you with exultant joy in praise
before Yahweh on this Sabbath Day!
HalleluYAH!!

Tom and Cathy Schattke
 

Dear Friends in Yahshua,

In Galatians 5 Paul says,
13 For you, brethren, have been called to be free.
Only do not use freedom as an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way.
Instead, serve one another in love.
14  For all the Torah is summed up in this one sentence:
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

[Here Paul is talking about the relationships between people.
We know from his other writings that he does not deny the first commandment
to love Yahweh with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.]

15  But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be destroyed by one another!
16 What I am saying is this: Run your lives by the Spirit,
then you will not do as your old nature wants.
17  For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit,
and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature.
These oppose each other, so that you find yourself unable to carry out your good intentions.
18  But if you are led by the Spirit, the Torah will not weigh on you.

[The KJV has, "you are not under the law."
but this translation brings out the meaning of the Torah weighing on you
because of having transgressing it. The following makes that even clearer.]

19  Now it is perfectly evident what the old nature does:
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  20  idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies,  21  envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;
of which I warn you now, just as I warned you in time past,
that those who do such things will have no share in Yahweh's kingdom.

[All these ‘works of the old nature' are things prohibited by the Torah
(the law -- the first five books of the scriptures]

22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23  humility, self-control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.

So, if we allow our old nature to rule our lives we will be in trouble with the law,
Yahweh's law.
If, however, we allow ourselves to be ruled by Yahweh's spirit
we will be free of any such problems.

The next verses say:

Galatians 5:24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah,
have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires.
25 Since it is through the Spirit that we have life,
let it be through the Spirit that we order our daily lives.

Friends, We will be dwelling on the fruits of the spirit in the coming weeks
and wanted to first give the setting of that rich and helpful passage.
We expect this study to help us prepare for Passover which is coming in just six weeks.

A lot of the scripture above is from the Jewish New Testament translated by David H. Stern.
This translation often makes things very clear
but you have to watch out because he sometimes puts his own ideas in with the scripture.
You may want to compare these verses with other translations.

Shabbat Shalom from Tom and Cathy Schattke

 Dear Friends in Yahshua,

Galatians 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness,  23 humility, self-control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.

Paul gives love first place in his list. He also give love first place in 1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.
14:1  Pursue love.

As we approach Passover it is important that we also give love a very high priority.
As we see in Proverbs 10:12,  Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.
And 1 Peter 4:8,  And above all things have fervent love for one another,
for "love will cover a multitude of sins."

Love smooths the way before us in our lives.
Using love yields a better family, a better marriage, happier children,
better relationships at work, at school, wherever we meet people.
It almost always works.

But as we prepare for Passover,
love is also important in the connection of covering our sins before Yahweh.
I don’t know what unintended sins Yahweh will overlook
if we have an active love in our character, but it appears to be a lot.
He values love very highly.

Let’s make it a goal to steadily increase our love during the next five weeks before Passover.
Use 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 as a guide.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil; does not rejoice in sin, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Joy is the second fruit of the spirit in Paul’s list.
I think it goes well with love.
Joy is the capacity to be positive and optimistic.
Joy keeps me from saying how hard things are or how bad I’ve been treated.

It is especially good to consider these verses at Passover:
Hebrews 12:2  looking unto Yahshua, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the JOY that was set before Him endured the tree,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of Yahweh.
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself,
lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Think also about James 1:2-3
My brethren, count it all JOY when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

So, filling our lives with love and joy will please Yahweh,
help us prepare for Passover, and also
make our daily lives a better experience.

Let’s give it our best effort.

Friends, may Yahweh bless you on this Sabbath Day with
the special love and joy of His spirit.
HalleluYAH!

Good Sabbath from Tom and Cathy Schattke

page created 1-17-99