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Yom Kippurim and the sins of our fathers
When we consider the world, we may be led to mistakenly believe that we can sin with impunity. However, sin without consequence does not exist. It may appear that ungodly people prosper more than the godly. They seem to be blessed in all areas of their lives, but if you look deeper, you will often find emptiness, heartache and depression. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be unique to unbelievers, we find the same pain amongst believers. This pain in both groups is eased with obsessions or addictions: work, ministry, prescription drugs, alcohol, co-dependent relationships, sex or thrills. We said that sin without punishment does not exist, but we don’t always see this punishment. How are we to understand this?
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The Biblical pattern to forgive
If we want to ensure that we live within the blessings of YHVH, we need to ensure that our relationships with our brothers are in good shape. We cannot go before YHVH if we have a brother that has something against us. Does this imply we simply need to forgive all who transgress against us? If we follow the pattern that YHVH establishes when we sin, the restoration process cannot be one way. Forgiveness is required for our relationships to be restored, but in order for it to be a lasting restoration, it has follow the pattern YHVH established.
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Preparing for the Fall feasts
We are currently in the sixth month of the Biblical year, the month of Elul. This month is traditionally known as a month of introspection or repentance. This is a tradition, but a worthwhile one. It is good to consider where we are and what we have done. It is also good to ask YHVH to reveal to us what may be standing between us and Him and between us and fellow believers. We can use this time well and forgive and ask forgiveness. This introspection is part of the preparation for the fall feasts: Yom T’ruah, Yom Kippurim and Sukkot. But there is more…
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Yom Kippurim…a call of repentance to the nation
It is almost the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippurim. We have written a few posts on this appointed time before, the most important being the post about what we are to do on Yom Kippurim. We are commanded to afflict our beings on this day, and if you use Scripture to interpret Scripture, clearly we are indeed to fast and repent on this day. In this post, we would like to focus more on the other part of this day, repentance. We want to show you also why you are to, not only, focus on your personal repentance but to look wider and also repent on behalf of and together as a nation.