The Feast of Tabernacles - The Great Camp-Out with G-d

One definition of sin I have heard over the years is "missing the mark". Oy vey! If that is so, then we have surely sinned! And the really bad thing is that we have no idea how badly, and how often, we do "miss His mark", or how far off we are from His target! Or how much skill we really lack at using the weapons of warfare He has provided.

We say with pious eyes and just the right tremulous inflections, "All have sinned and come short of the Glory of G-d". Yeah, ya think? And yet we go on in our pig-headed smugness as though we need change nothing, and as though G-d is a shmutz not to realize what a good thing He has here! We go on day after day in our "selective ignorance" to what He has required or desired! We may "promote" ourselves from slave to hired hand, by our own extreme efforts (in our exalted imaginations). But a shred of real, cognizant humility would take us to Son status, yes, to direct heir of the King!

We talk, eat, breathe, sleep, and work - with and for - our idea of "The Blessing" when it is so simple. Just logically process this - what took Adam and Eve out of His Blessing? Disobedience to His direct orders! Creating "choices" for themselves that He did not offer, and spurning what He had offered to have it. He had His reasons for not offering - He told them what they were - death and UN-Blessing. They chose to doubt His word.

Okay then. So the path back to that place of Blessing, back to what they had in the Garden - Peace! Work that actually produced what was intended, accomplishment, Authority, and best of all, fellowship with the Creator Himself every day - a chance to go over what they did, get His input, enjoy His encouragement, to gain His strength and wisdom. Every day! The path is obedience right? Obedience to what He has said! But wait. Since Yeshua came we have that right? He reopened the gate to the Garden, right?

So, I ask you, do you hear from G-d everyday- and do what He says? I would like to say I do! And I do hear from Him more than I used to. But I do not take advantage of that wonderful privilege daily! I can't believe that I am so stupid, but I can't add dishonesty to stupidity! I go too many days trying to make it on my own wisdom, my own pitiful strength! And then, when I inevitably fail, I fall into the gall of actually feeling sorry for myself, thinking, if not singing, songs about "We shall overcome someday"! Or even worse, "Woe is me, nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I'm gonna eat some worms!"

Wow. The ridiculous stupidity and ingratitude of that is stunning. Yet it is what G-d gets from most of HIS so called people on a daily basis! Now. I can not say that the solution is easy. Because I know if it was easy even I would be getting it right. But I can say that it is simple. Stop it! Stop ignoring His plan, His hand and His command! Stop turning away from Him and trying to reinvent the wheel everyday! Open His Word and do what it says there! Get into His presence by taking the time to worship Him!

We don't have to blow it! We don't have to wait for atonement to be accomplished for us once a year! (and if you think I mean Christmas, the boat has sailed without you on it!) We do not have to wait for the moedim (feasts), we do not even have to wait for Sabbath each week! You see, Yeshua IS our sabbath rest! His Ruach is HOW we know how to obey and have the power to do it! That is our reconnect to the Father! We are now reconnected! But are we going to walk like it? Are we going to respond accordingly?

Will we take the time to seek Him out? Will we sell all we have - throw our dreams out for His blessing? Will we camp out with Him? Will we "rough it" a bit, if it means having back that relationship with Him? But who am I kidding?! First of all we obviously do not believe it is possible! Either that, or we don't want to know, because our way satisfies us well enough. We like our way of doing and being and living better than what we believe He could or would come up with. We are doing okay on our own! Those are the sentiments most of us express with our choices and our decisions. We can say that it isn't what we mean to do, but it is somehow what we do. So where is the disconnect? How do we miss it? Where did we get deceived? It doesn't really matter. What matters is that we come to see the error of our ways and correct them!

We need to change our address! We need to do as the other prodigal did, the one in the parable (or did he just leave out our name so as not to embarrass us?)! We need to "come to ourselves", to recognize the ridiculous situation we have created for ourselves! We need to acknowledge the place from whence we have fallen, and get ourselves up from the slop yard, dust off the pig excrement and go home! We need to get back to our Father! We need to realize how good we could have it! Not that we deserve it, by any stretch of the imagination, but that He has made it available to us anyway!

We need to find His tent in the fields, where He has camped with the shepherds, and go to Him, we need to camp out with Him until He is ready to take us home, to the big house! We need to learn how He increases His flocks, what He feeds them, we need to learn how to make a profit from the One who knows how to make anything with His word! We need to hang out with Him until we begin to resemble Him in all His ways. We need to humble ourselves enough to find out what He wants and then do it! We will then find that the hunger is gone and the Joy is back! We will want for nothing we don't have, need nothing that He won't supply, and that is the simple meaning of the Blessing - Satisfaction - that at the end of each long day to lie down at peace with yourself and the world, content, and glowing with love. It is the yearning of our heart! We want to write poems and sing songs about "getting back to the Garden" - well, the truth is that Yeshua came and reopened it to us, the Blessing is in the earth again, and it has our name on it. Will we do what is required this time, or will we continue to choose poorly?

~Shalom, and Selah!