Echad in The Body of Messiah

By Christopher from Schtix and Stones

    In the words of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, "you say potato and I say potatoe" (does not analogy really work in type?  Who knows I tried).  It was refreshing for me to leave Christiandom over a year ago, cause in the realms of my faith I would have to use the word but more times than a proctologist's day planner.  I was excited to jump into the hebrew roots and realize that my Eloah does not contradict himself as described in Christiandom.  But for the sake of donuts ladies and gentlemen, what is with the division we are causing in the body of Messiah in the Hebrew Roots? 
    I have in the past year seem people fight over the dumbest things in the faith.  I am often reminded of the Three Stooges at times watching brethren divide the body, over things that are not even salvation issues.  For instance the name, the spelling of the name.  I have used every spelling imaginable, I have used Yeshua, Yahshua, Yahoshua etc, and there are many who make the "proper" spelling and articulation of the name their ministry, the same with the Father.  But the question is....do we know how to give honor to the name when we are set on it?  I see brethren often try and one up each other on earthly knowledge of pronunciation, the meanings of numbers and bible codes etc.  But that does not tell us anything about ones walk in Messiah.  On the contrary, we see the ego come out with many of such individuals, these egos draw people away from the Messiah.  They make people on the outside looking in think, "man these people are no betters than the hell of Babylon that I came out of, so I might as well go back".  The Scriptures say that the blood of those are upon our hands, and ego is the real issue that can cause someone to loose their salvation. 
    When a person tries to come off as smart, or more learned than others in Scripture it is obvious that they want followers of themselves, some will even contradict Scripture and their replies are, "well I am at a higher level of understanding".  Yahweh does not care how smart you are, he care if you keep his Torah, and if you follow His Son Yeshua the Messiah. 
    Salvation does not come from how smart you are, or how you spell the name, or what books you have read, who you studied under, if you are one house two house, 3 house, or a renter.  There are only two things that matter, and this is what Yeshua meant when he said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light", what he was simply saying is all you need is the Torah, and me.  If we walk the Torah and accept Yeshua that is all we need people.  It does not matter if you can speak Hebrew, or greek or Aramaic, or how well you understand the Scriptures.  Why do you think the Torah was written so easily to understand. 
    Haven't you noticed it is people who claim to have a deep intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures that make it more complicated?  That saw we must stand on our heads and turn around three times if we are to properly keep the Shabbat?  I have seen some goofy things in the Hebrew Roots since I came into the faith a year ago.  But I will continue to fight to bring Echad to the body, and the only way we can do that is by realizing we are all students, none of us are teachers, our ability to learn from others and to reason in the realms of Torah is what will help the ministries we are affiliated and most importantly the ministry that is our life.  The witness we give to others unknowingly is our ministry, the way we act at our jobs, at school, around our friends, that is our ministry ladies and gentlemen, your life is your ministry.  It is because you are set apart.  But lets please all get back to the realization that we are not smarter than the Creator, and that HaShem will be constantly teaching us through the Ruach HaKodesh and through His Word, and that is the only way we can achieve Echad in the body of M

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