This Shabbat, millions of Torah-observant folks are sitting around their tables in the their local assemblies, celebrating the Redemption our ancestors experienced that is called Pesach, or Passover. This Pesach my family and I celebrated with our brother and sister Daniel & April Rendelman of Emet Ministries. It was truly a blessed occasion as folks of all ages came together under one roof to experience the walking out of YAH's commandment to observe this season of Passover. For those of the Messianic persuasion, we take comfort in having 'the veil' removed as we recognize our Kinsman Redeemer Yeshua Messiah has come, humbling Himself to death on a cross, as a criminal even, to die for us- while we were yet sinners. Leading up to Pesach we have just recently breached the subject of Temple service in the weekly Torah portion study. It is no coincidence that it is of HaShem that the Torah readings dovetail so beautifully with the welcoming of Pesach. During this season we are recognizing a number of things, one and most notably, is that we by YAH's design, apart from His indwelling presence are shackled; in bondage to any number of ills and plagues that would steal, kill and cheat us of living a life free from the veil that besets so many, including those of us who know the truth, and yet struggle to walk in it daily it. 
And that's the $64 question isn't it? The reality is we look in our churches, synagogues, even in Jersusalem, and all around the globe to witness the testimony of millions who ascribe their faith to the Elohim of Avraham, Yitsak and Ya'akob. And yet we have not all achieved a complete and harmonious lock-step, arm-in-arm 'in-sync' as of yet have we? Why are we all not experiencing the abundance of over-coming the challenges that daily probe and provoke our timid faith? For right now I want to turn your attention....inward.
In my last blog I made a reference to a new song called 'I Was the One' that I am currently spinning on the potter's wheel. It was born from a painful experience that revealed more than I wanted it to. If I may set the stage with broad strokes, ultimately this is all that is required. I have a brother who placed something in front of me that was a stumbling-block, to me. Perhaps not so much to him, but it was very clear this was not appropriate for me; & rather than establish a safe, healthy boundary, I instead justified it without giving it more thought; and because this stumbling-block had some crude humor associated with it, while my brother laughed, I almost immediately found myself fully engaged, and laughing as well; I was engaged in a behavior that I knew was damaging to me, and my relationship with The LORD and I did nothing to address it when I had the chance. Suffice it to say, afterwards I had a conversation with another person that I am very close to, and much to my chagrin I eventually conceded that the only reason I had not maintained the boundary was because of my own pride. No matter how much I attempted to divert attention from myself by pointing at my brother, the fact remained, I had involved myself, I had made a choice, and the reason I chose to engage with my brother in the stumbling-block, after all the excuses had been painfully pulled away, was my Pride! Cunning, camouflaged, conceited, and conciliatory. Pride always goes before a fall.
Pride says, this is okay because everyone does it, even people we may regard as holy. But whose evaluation of holy behavior will endure the refining fires of Adonai? Mine? or His? Exactly. And so, as we enter into this Passover, we must humble ourselves, one by our obedience to God's Word, and two, by receiving the deeper meaning behind this Feast's particular command...to clean our homes of Leaven. Leaven is the yeast that causes bread to rise when you watch it baking in an oven. It tastes good, but it doesn't give us the same nourishment of that Heavenly, Living Manna who is Yeshua Messiah. In fact, like most things that taste good to our worldly-conditioned palate, left unchecked it would soon doom us to a life cut-short due to disease brought on through our own negligence (i.e. congestive heart failure, lung cancer, arteriosclerosis, Diabetes, Stroke). How many of these awful consequences could have been avoided had we chosen a different path? Again, with the choices...
And so we come to the title of this entry's blog, Glory Chaser. The real question however is this: Who's Glory are we Chasing? HaShem's? Or our own? And it all finds its origin back in the garden. When offered another path for our magnifying minds to consider, we we're so apt to gamble, to rebel, to go against what HaShem has already instructed us to guard against! And it's the reason He divorced us as we read in His Word (Jer.31:31-32), but it's also the reason He sent His only begotten Son to restore our covenant with Him. W read in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1Co 5:8 NAS)".
So there is a Bad Glory, and a Good one. The God we serve desires to make distinctions yes? Clean and Unclean, Holy from Common, Death from Life, Truth from Lies, it can go on, but the point to all of this is that we serve a Mighty Elohim who has created us with the opportunity to experience Real Change, Real Honesty, Real Holiness, and Real Passover. I scrubbed on my oven range for almost two hours today trying to scrape the build-up around the stove-eyes and scooping up the crumbs that had fallen underneath. And as I cleaned I couldn't help but be reminded that we were instructed to clean our entire home of leaven. Why not just the kitchen and the dining room? I submit to you the inherent evil purposed in the T.V. tray! Okay, maybe not, but seriously, personally I did not grow up sitting around the dinner table with my mom and dad growing up under their roof. It was always them in their easy chair and myself in a chair with a t.v. tray in the living room in front of the t.v. or even in my bedroom at my homework table, next to my television. The point of all of this is to remind us that we don't need a lot of encouragement to figure creative ways to carry leaven into every part of our home. We drop it in the couch cushions, leave cracker crumbs in the bedsheets, we forget to wipe the homework table or the night-stand in our bedroom and come time to prepare for the advent of Passover, we have this extraordinary task of remodeling our home to remove the buildup of leaven. Why do we need to remove leaven anyway?
Symbolic of sin, before the priest could come and offer a sacrifice to HaShem upon the Brazen Altar of fire, he first had to Mikvah at the Bronze Laver (Ex.30:18-21). There he was cleansed of anything that could bring judgement upon him and afterwards could then offer sacrifice properly to The Father. This is why we need Yeshua, our Passover Lamb. He is Perfect, His Blood is Holy, Perfect and void of any and all defect. No Leaven. And so as we recognize the sheer enormity of the task we have in our homes to find and remove all the leaven which YHVH has commanded us to do, through the process I realize that no matter how excellent a job we do, even our best works are like dirty rags to God. And so it is by the Cleansing Blood of Yeshua that we are set free from the bondage of leaven, that which would 'puff' us up and encourage us to entertain or 'chase' our own shot at glory, and miss out on the real opportunity, to experience like Moshe did, the Glory of YHVH (Ex.33:17-19)!
"Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. But, says the Torah, 'whenever someone turns to ADONAI, the veil is taken away.' Now, "ADONAI" in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of ADONAI is, there is freedom. So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by ADONAI the Spirit." (2Co 3:15-18 CJB)
When we chase our own glory, we receive our reward, and it is usually death. But when we choose to walk within the healthy boundaries established in Torah, we experience the paradox that is Freedom in a Willing Heart's Service. When we choose to stand up for God's Word in our lives we pull down strongholds. When we humble ourselves and like Messiah, obey our Father, our flesh may experience a measure of pain, but we are put into The Holy of Holies and are able to experience like Moshe did in the cleft of the Rock, The Glory of YHVH! And when Moshe came down the mountain, his face shone so bright that the Israelites were frightened and required him to wear a veil to cover his supernaturally-charged countenance. How much more will our lives change and radiate with the Glory of God if we choose to Chase His Glory rather than our own this Passover season?
For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. (2Co 3:11)
6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; (2Co 4:6-7)
May we as we continue this season of Passover, come to the greater understanding that it is because Yeshua our Redeemer Humbled Himself because we were too proud to repent. This season, let us honestly humble ourselves, & choose to be God's Glory Chaser, ahmein, and ahmein. Blessings.
-will
