Articles
I Can’t Hear You!
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
April 2014
Written for Wisconsin Christian Newspaper
We are about to enter into the new cycle of the Feast Days from the Bible—God’s appointed times –and this year begins the cycle of 4 blood red moons in 2014 and 2015. As I write, Passover is barely a week away. Messiah Yeshua Is our Passover Lamb! Fourteen years ago I was overcome and in tears with the realization that it really is going to happen one day, that our God will be recognized, acknowledged by every tribe and tongue, but most especially by those of Israel, both Judah and Joseph, including all those grafted in. Before that can happen, we will see the second greater exodus from all over the world where His people have been scattered. It will involve a judgment and deliverance, two sides of the same coin; welcomed by those genuinely found in faith in Him and resisted by the masses.
Historically, such blood red moons occurring near or on His Feast Days have been coupled with some extraordinary event for Israel or the nations or both, a judgment or deliverance. In the most recent situations, it meant that neighboring warring nations tried to overcome Israel but were instead themselves overcome. It looks as though all the pieces are in place for some similar scenario again.
What can I say at such a dark time in our history? There is urgency! No time to dance around the bush. His Light is coming and it will either comfort or judge us.
I just saw “God’s Not Dead” the movie and saw an excellent portrayal there of those who are zealous for their faith and those who are simply looking for the expedient thing to maintain their chosen behaviors. The main character met his girlfriend in a church youth group so one might think they were compatible in faith. It quickly became apparent that they were not! This movie was dedicated to those students who have experienced similar challenges and included a list of legal cases and universities. I was sad to see multiple UW-Wisconsin locations. Sad, but not surprised.
The push to overcome national sovereignty and national identities for a one world government is matched with the push to overcome “primitive beliefs” and assemble all faiths into a one world faith, United Religions Initiative (URI) ...and it most certainly is not the “One God, One Flock, One Law, One Shepherd” faith intended by the God of Israel.
When I spoke of these things in the early 90’s most people emphatically stated they didn’t see any way such things could come upon us and assured me I was far too pessimistic.
The prophet’s words, especially Malachi, match today’s headlines; the horrific message to a people who were chosen by our Elohim but who turned their backs on Him, all the while believing themselves to be serving Him. They made their own rules and sacrificed animals that weren’t of use to them and completely missed the awe He deserves, giving him their second best. They had no shame and seem to have forgotten how to blush, much as Jeremiah also described:
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not
know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they
shall be overthrown,” says the LORD. Jeremiah 6:15 ESV
Our SAM community talked about generational differences among us and how we were or weren’t able to approach others with serious faith discussions. The “forty to sixty something’s” said the same thing: most people aren’t open to anything beyond where they are already comfortable. They are confident they know enough about God and are saved. The “twenty something’s” said most people are too jaded to think there is a reason to even consider the reality of God, and the need to be saved has no validity. They are not ashamed.
In their own way, so many people have their fingers in their ears, chanting loudly, “I can’t hear you,” which every parent knows really translates to “I won’t hear you.”
“He who has ears, let him hear!” Mathew, Mark and Luke all recorded this admonition as did John in the Revelation given to him. Are we at that time when the older generation’s ears are stopped up and the coming generations do not even have ears?
From my observation, Messianic believers don’t seem to be prominently among those who bring people from unbelief through the door of faith very often so I remain grateful for the evangelism of many Christians.
But here, too, there is a “fingers in the ears” problem. Unlike the early believers, we have grown up with the idea that God intended two types of believers, Jews and Gentiles. Some even believe that God has replaced Israel with the church despite His declarations otherwise. And some devout Jews, Orthodox or Messianic, don’t want any gentiles coming in to Torah, either. Some believe that the OT God and the NT God are different; labeling one “bad” and the other “good.” Legalism worries abound while antinomianism isn’t even acknowledged. No space here to enumerate all the variations on this theme.
How do we equate His Word, both OT and NT, with most Christian leaders teaching that most of it no longer applies?
“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of
your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Malachi 3:7 ESV
For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to
know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. John 17:8 ESV
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. John 7:16 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 ESV
“So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the LORD. Leviticus 22:31 ESV
People in authority say that God changed His mind midway through His plan. When exhorted to search the Word for themselves as good Bereans, people seem to be inoculated against it. They are conditioned to fear contentiousness and false teaching.
But they have not gone back to determine where change crept in so they mistake teaching that “goes back to the Word” for “false teaching,” simply because it is different.
Instead of contending for “the faith given once for all,” as Jude exhorted, they contend for the faith expression they are comfortable with and the pathway to the lukewarm-ness of Laodicean assemblies is confirmed.
We honor God the way our fathers did. It doesn’t matter if we do our own thing rather than what His Word says! What more do you expect? Don’t you think I am holy enough?
Is it a salvation issue or not? The time is short. You decide.
For I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God,
so you must be holy because I am holy.
Leviticus 11:45 ESV
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:16 ESV
It’s so much more comfortable to just go on as we have. “I can’t hear you!”
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