Our Roots

Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study


A Year Through the Torah - A Week-By-Week Journey For Christians and Messianic Believers (80min CD and 320p. Book) Hebrew World


Complete Jewish Bible-OE


On my journey through the Word of God I have made some amazing discoveries.  I have discovered that the roots of the "christianity" is in Judaism - which we know is correct, yet even so there is much that the history of the church as we know it today has thrown away in order to separate themselves from the very root that gives us the support and knowledge - infact because of the separation - we no longer celebrate the same feasts that God ordained, nor do we follow any of His Holy Days or Shabbats - yet the "churches" claim to joined they do not really seem to appreciate exactly what they are joined to.

On my first becoming a believer I soon discovered that there were large discrepancies in the teachings of the churches from the teachings of the Messiah. 

For instance-
Yeshua/Jesus Christ maintained that we should follow every word that God had spoken, that we should keep the commandments that were laid down in the scriptures - that is the commandments which were given to Moses - and also if you look back right at the beginning of the Word of God the laws of God were already laid down in the Garden of Eden and for the Children of God to follow.  Yet because we choose to be stubborn and do our own thing we do not really want to follow Gods ways at all, yes we want the benefits of God yet not the discipline of God.  We say we want the Kingdom of God to come yet we do not want His rules and regulations to govern our lives.

Our roots are in the Word of God, Gods word is Law - and by His word everything was created, everything was brought into being by His word.  His Word even became flesh and dwelt amongst us - yet we seem to dismiss it as it were not that important - yes we get up and sing and worship - yet we do not really follow his code of practice in our everyday lives.

Why is it that when we read the scriptures we want to only take the bits that suit us in the first place, most so called "christians" do not want to acknowledge that we are infact joined and expected to follow the commandments - most people do not even know what they are - even if they go to church - if you were to be really honest with yourself when you read the Bible do you actually think that the word applies to you.

For me, I have been making the study to apply it to my own life.  There is much we can gain by relooking at the roots.  When you take a plant and repot it the roots have to be carefully transplanted as well, yet we say we are grafted into the olive branch - yet we do not see fit to follow the ways of the olive branch.

In the old scriptures, the foreigners that joined together with Isreal were also expected to follow the rules and regulations laid down by God to the people of Isreal.  If they choose to be with Isreal then they were also accepting the same laws and disciplines.  Today people do not really believe we have to be following in the same footsteps - yet God made it clear right back at the beginning that we are to be all following His commandments - we have the way of peace and harmony in the Word of God, we have teachings to live in peace with our neighbours.  We have the ability when studying His Word that by really taking into account what Jesus said to the people "you have the teachings of Moses and the books of the prophets in them you have the way forward to life" remember Yeshua/Jesus Christ is the Word of God therefore if we say we are followers of Yeshua/Jesus then we should also be following every word that He spoke and how he lived.

You may consider it to be old fashioned to live that way, yet when you study the 10 commandments you will see that there is a common sense about them and wisdom in how to conduct our lives.

Without studying the roots how can you possible expect to understand what Yeshua/Jesus Christ said to the people.

We look at the stories of Jesus and are warmed by their parables, and even consider ourselves joined together.

Bear in mind, when a farmer grafts a plant from one tree to another the grafted in part needs the roots to give it life.  We too are needing to feed off the roots of our faith - Yeshua/Jesus Christ is a Jew and the Kingdom of God will be of the same system as what is in the Bible - because God said that His word will never pass away - therefore it stands to reason we need to really look again at what God said and really come to some understanding on how we can apply Gods ways to our lives.  It will require us to change, it will take a deliberate decision on our parts to decide to Follow God and really become obedient to His teachings, it means the restoration of the complete Word of God, not just the new testement teachings - after all the new testement did not exist before the disciples wrote their letters, and writings - and all their teachings and writings are based on the Scriptures that they had all been taught as they were growing up - in Jewish communities.  The early chruches were completely rooted in the jewish roots - it is only after the last of the disciples died off that the so called "church fathers" decided to break away from the roots - which is clearly what has happened.  Therefore we must acknowledge our need for our roots which is the teaching of God and His rules and regulations which are all in the scriptures - the old testament.

I have frequently come across Christians who have said we do not read the old testament - we only go by what Jesus taught in the new testament.  Well Yeshua/Jesus Christ was teaching the people out of the Old testament scriptures and if you only want to live by half the teachings then how can you possibly understand what Jesus was teaching.

I have started to understand more and more what Jesus meant when he speaks in the New Testament  because the foundation is in the old scriptures. On discovering many of the saying of Christ in the Old scriptures you then begin to really understand how it all fits together.  You cannot have just the new testament because it needs its backbone which is the roots of the scriptures.  The books of Moses and the prophets are the backbone of the teachings of God and therefore we need to re-examine ourselves and see what do we truly believe.

Life or Death that is the question

Over the many years since I became a believer and was touched by the hand of God and was healed by his miraculous power.  Learning to understand the basic fundamentals of how to live has been a really interesting study of mine.

Firstly, let me tell you a bit about myself - when I was in my early twenties I suffered what was called chronic nervous indigestion - which may not sound too bad on the surface, however, when you are all pent up inside and feeling nervous and scared all the time, that even to answer the door becomes and issue, being afraid to go out and even to speak to people that is a problem.

However, when I was suffering to such a degree then God in his mercy reached down from heaven an d made me whole again.  He showed me how I had got into the state that I had done so because of fear not just of circumstance but of life itself  I really did not know how to live, I really did not understand about relationships nor love nor friendship.  I found it really difficult to come to terms with being alone, with a baby.  I found it really difficult to understand how I had allowed myself to get into such a place.  I was not stupid, nor unlearned - however I was like lots of other people who felt lost and alone and very much needing to find some way to comfort themselves with some thing or someone.  When you are from a broken home where there has been years of constant difficult relationships it makes it really difficult to reach out and trust anyone.  For me it because so difficult that it caused me to get really ill.

Anyway, although I had my lovely daughter whom I adored and still do love even though she is now fully grown up and has a new life of her own I became very much aware that things were not right for us.

For me, the crux came one night when I felt a heavy weight on my chest and it felt like it was going to crush the life out of me - I cried out to God and admitted I did not believe in him even though - I had just read Matthew Mark Luke and John in the bible (it was the only book in the house at the time) I did not believe the stories with my mind but something had happened because when I called out to God He HEARD me and I felt the huge weight lift off me.  Then He slowly showed me what had caused me to be in such a place Fear, Stress, Anxiety - all these things God had said in His Word that we should give to him, and to carry his burden which is light with is just to TRUST that God is there and He is well able to carry all our burdens.  He knows our frame and he understands every part of our lives.  He has our best interest at heart and no matter how much we think we know the best way HIS WAY is better.

For me the discovery that God really did exist and really cared for me started me on a journey of discovery - I got really excited with the Word of God and really started to ASK GOD to teach me HIS ways and discover what HE said to mankind through His prophets and through the Death and Resurrection of the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ).

I reread the books Matthew Mark Luke and John over the years and each time I am thrilled to see the miracle working hand of God in the pages, understanding that this same God had touched my life.  I wanted to learn more.  I discovered that as I read the words of the Bible I was wanting to understand the differences which I read about in the Word - I also did read the Archaeology of the Bible which held some really interesting revealing material.  For me it is not just a matter of believing everything your read it is a matter of Come Let Us Reason together in order to get to Truth of a matter.

I have always been fascinated with History and Geography and how the planet came to be - I was interested to discover how come the planet as we know it is how it is.

I have read many interesting article on the internet over these issues and each time I come to the conclusion that God is Awesome and that as he had created the universe and everything in it for a purpose he also created me for a purpose.

Well, for me the discovery of my purpose took a while to discover, I am not going to say it was easy to follow the footsteps of Yeshua because the doctrines I had learned as a child and the reasoning's of those around me did not really show me anything except how separate we are from God.

As I started to read the scriptures and read what Yeshua (Jesus) had taught the disciples I started to question the real meaning of his words.  I started to look for answers in the Word of God regarding the teachings - I soon discovered that the teachings in the churches and the teachings in the bible were nothing to do with each other - the churches claimed to be following Yeshua (Jesus) but when I questioned why we did not keep a Sabbath day as Yeshua did or keep the Ten Commandments as Yeshua did - I was quickly informed that they no longer mattered.  Well for me that was a matter of great concern because I could see from the scriptures and from the history of Israel that when they did not keep to Gods Teaching and His Commandments Israel was marched off to slavery, and death and destruction and dispersion.  However when one of the prophets and kings rediscovered the Commandments of God and that they were to follow them Israel prospered.  For me this was a breakthrough.  I had found the key to really what I was meant to be doing - that is to live Gods way.

Discovering the path of enlightenment back to the father has been an incredible journey.
If you are willing to walk with me then I will show you what I have learned over the years.

To keep Gods Commandments and His Teachings brings life to the flesh and prosperity to your home and lifestyle.  In Deut. He made it very clear that if we are willing to obey his teaching he is willing to bless us mightly - if not we are under the curse and death and madness will ensue.

For me I choose life, to live with God and obey his teachings and learn from him.

Not just lipservice but really started to study His Word.
Over the next few weeks I will start to write about what I have learned.  I will share with you the joy of my salvation of knowing the Messiah the King of the Universe.  Are you with me.

Here are some study materials which you may find useful.  I use the Complete Jewish Bible myself and have found it really helpful and inspiring.

Complete Jewish Bible-OE
Messianic Judaism is Not Christianity: A Loving Call to Unity Messianic Mo'adiym Devotional: Messianic Jewish Devotionals for Israel's Annual Feasts, Fasts and Appointed Times