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THE “VISION” IS TO HELP THE READER MORE CLEARLY UNDERSTAND GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS TO US FROM SCRIPTURE

Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, How the Jewishness of Jesus can Transform Your Faith (Zondervan 2009 – pp 26-27) tell us that rabbis in the time of Jesus thought that study of Scripture, and not prayer, was the highest form of worship. Spangler and Tverberg note the rabbis said we speak to God when we pray, but when we study Scripture, God speaks to us. Many would say that God speaks to them when they pray, when they leave enough silence for God to get a word in… Nevertheless, my experience is that not only is the Bible the Word of God passed down to us, but as Scripture is studied, it comes to life. There is much, much depth to all of Scripture, much that is beyond the most superficial level. And if we read with reverence and with our eyes and ears open, we will gain much more insight from God’s word.

Again, Spangler and Tverberg note that if one does not read with reverence, much of the true meaning of Scripture will remain hidden, locked away.

One more thing to mention: Jesus Himself was Jewish. He frequently taught in the synagogues [Mark 1:21 and others]. The reason for us to delve, as Spangler and Tverberg have, into some of the Hebrew way of thinking and the lifestyle of the Israelites, is to get a richer experience of Scripture and understand more of what God is trying to tell us. If you begin to understand that God continues to communicate to us, loud and clear, it becomes exciting, a source of great joy!

Note, please, that the letter “J” did not come into usage until approximately the year 1500 of the Common Era (CE). So the one about whom the last third of the Bible was written was never called Jesus. Our word Jesus comes from a variant of the Greek translation of his name. The Greek word is Ἰησοῦς Iēsous = Iesous, which is translating the name by which he would have been called by his friends and family, which is יְשׁוּעָה yešû‘â = Yeshua, coming from Hebrew the word יָשַׁע yâša‘ = yasha, meaning “to save.” Thus Yeshua’s name means “salvation.” In this website, when we speak of the one you most commonly hear spoken of as “Jesus,” unless quoting a title as above, we will use Yeshua.

Similarly, the name “Jew” came from the tribe of Judah, or Yehuda. Thus, when we speak of our Jewish brethren, we will call them “brothers Yehuda,” or simply Yehuda.

There will be much about the Hebrew culture in looking at Scripture, because it was written in the context of Hebrew culture. As we better understand the cultural influences, we will be able to understand better life revelation in Scripture. media.freebibleimages.org

The writings within this website are intentionally focused on as wide a range of audience as possible. It is the desire of this writer to draw people closer to one another by way of a shared foundation. It is an attempt not to divide. That is why, noted elsewhere, there is an effort to avoid doctrine. The prime example is that there are many who live with some underlying foundation of Scripture, but have very different beliefs about Yeshua. There are those who see Yeshua as a tsaddik, a righteous man, a prophet, a sage. There are those who see Yeshua as the Messiah, anointed one, king. There are those who see Yeshua as deity. Here, the idea is to share methods and techniques for delving into Scripture for any and all of those people, not to convince you of one or the other of those beliefs. This website is about a methodology. It is intended to help you use Scripture to “work out your own salvation.” (see Background page).

We will try to make sense of our world

based upon God’s ways

of communicating with us…

Did you know that Scripture says that God sends a messenger to us, and if we obey what the messenger says to us, when the messenger walks in our presence and brings us to Prominence, Dismay, Violence, Defeat/Humiliation, Deceit/Deception, and Trampling, that God himself will eliminate it? It does not say that God or the messenger will prevent our facing such life experiences, indeed it says the messenger will actually bring us into them. But if we obey the instructions of the messenger, God eliminates the trial of the situation that we are in.

The writer will not tell you now where that is in Scripture. It will be much later on LogandSpeck where we will actually get to that. Or you may figure it out yourself long before that, if you read along and learn tools for understanding Scripture. Imagine being able to understand what Life Revelation is telling us and being able to live life accordingly. The writer encourages you to read on. Oh, and remember, there are many kinds of messengers. You want to be certain you walk with God’s messenger. Choices are everywhere.