Green light-Red light

9/22/13

Most have grown up remembering the childhood game, Red light-Green light. In this game, one person plays the "stop light" and the rest try to touch him/her. At the start, all the children form a line about 15 feet away from the stop light. The stop light faces away from the line of kids and says "green light". At this point the kids are allowed to move towards the stoplight. At any point, the stop light may say "red light!" and turn around. If any of the kids are caught moving after this has occurred, they are out. 

Play resumes when the stop light turns back around and says "green light". The stop light wins if all the kids are out before anyone is able to touch him/her. Otherwise, the first player to touch the stop light wins the game and earns the right to be "stop light" for the next game.

I must admit I periodically do go over the speed limit. Not intentionally but due to day dreaming, and usually thinking about Yahweh and His ways instead of paying attention to the road! In recent years I have thought much about the running of stop lights. I must also admit that I have done this, but again not intentionally, but due to being too close to going thru the intersection as the yellow was turning to red that to stop would actually cause a greater chance of an accident than to just go on thru. One such instance I was driving close behind a large truck and the light was turning red as the truck was going under the light, but due to the size of the height of the truck I didn’t know the light was red until I was right there!

For many years my home town had no such thing as a stop light. There was a four way stop sign at an intersection of two State highways, but due to the numerous accidents and at least one death that I can recall, the State decided to install a four way stop light. So stop lights are for our collective good. They not only protect and save lives if we obey them, but they give everyone their orderly turn at moving on to their destination.

But I have noticed practically every day people running stop lights. And it is one of those obvious things that they are doing it deliberately and intentionally. You know what I mean, when it is not a yellow to red situation (true grace), but when the light is blatantly RED! (willful sin and lawlessness) They know that they are running a stop light, but they also have realized that there is a slight delay (a false grace period) from when their light turns red to when the lights perpendicular to them turns green. So they sneak in between their red light and the cross traffic light turning green taking advantage of the delay. But the light is still RED!! And so they deliberately disobey knowing that they are doing so.(Lawless, carnal nature evident in the children of disobedience)

My wife recently had an encounter with another woman that we know. My wife was at a stop light and it turned green and as she began to move on thru the intersection, to her surprise a minivan was storming down the highway, ran the stop light that was obviously red as my wife’s light had already turned green and the woman in the minivan actually laid on the horn at my wife as though she was in the wrong! I know of many like this woman in my story, who call themselves Christian, yet are disobedient not only to the laws of our secular government but also unto the law of Yahweh, the laws by which Yahshua shall rule by in the Kingdom. They take grace further than was ever intended. They deliberately break the commandments of Yahweh, but feel that they are free to do so under the guise of grace. They have turned the grace of Yahweh into a license or a permit to sin and by doing so they deny the True Yahshua Messiah who came to free us from sin not live therein. (Jude 4) Messiah came not to free us from the law, but to free us from our carnal nature so that we would have the desire to be a servant of righteousness which leads to life and not to be a servant of unrighteousness which leads to death. When we fall short of perfection, He makes up the difference and that is where true grace comes to play as His sacrifice paid the price not only for our sinful past, but for when we fall short of perfect obedience in the future. And thus we are freed from the death penalty laws (we are not under the law) and for that we should truly rejoice!

But many believe that the commandments of Yahweh are a burden and grievous to live by. (1st John 5:3) It is only a burden and grievous to those who do not have a desire to obey. (those who have yet received the true Spirit with the writing of the law in our minds and hearts, the new covenant) But the law of commandments are for our good and show us the Love of Yahweh as He cares for His children! They are much like the painted lines in the middle or the sides of the road or even the guardrails. They show us boundaries, and those boundaries are for our protection, our salvation and by obeying the boundaries we will one day make it to our final destination, the Kingdom! The Word of Yahweh lights our path so that we will not go off. It will keep us on the narrow path! (Matthew 7:13,14 Psalms 119:105) Most do not keep the law of Yahweh and therefore have no light in them, (Isaiah 8:20) and thus it is the MANY of (Matthew 7:13,14) who are on the wide path that leads to destruction as they neglect the stop lights, the painted lines and the guardrails which are serving their purpose in showing us when we are getting close to a boundary that we might not fall away into sin and rebellion.  The Spirit of Yahweh will always alert you with the caution light signal when you are getting to close to crossing the line with Him if it be so that His Spirit is dwelling within you.

Those who in the secular world run the stop lights deliberately knowing that the light is red are as those who say that faith thru grace has made void the law of Yahweh which we know is not true. (Romans 3:31) They are not even ashamed of their disobedience. (Jeremiah 6:15) In otherwords they say we are under grace and so we have no need for the law and they carry on with a life of practicing sin, since they do not know what the meaning of sin is. (1st John 3:4) The wolves in sheep’s clothing, the ministers of Satan (Matthew 7:15; 2nd Cor. 11:13-15) do not show them what sin is and therefore true repentance is not found among them. Many of these are spiritual bullies blowing their horn in pure defiance of righteousness. I’ve heard them called carnal Christians. I call them unconverted believers. They may believe, have some faith, but they have never truly been converted to the ways of Yahweh. They have never repented and thus they may have received a false spirit (2nd Cor. 11:4) that allows sin and disobedience to reign in their lives. 

The true Holy Spirit of Yahweh will never, ever tell you or anyone that it is ok to sin. Otherwise it would not be a Holy Spirit! And since we know that sin is: the practice of breaking the law of Yahweh, we also then know that the true Holy Spirit will never tell you that it is ok by Yahweh to break His laws!  Those who teach and live a lawless and iniquitous life are essentially saying there are no stop lights, just plow on thru, there will be no consequences!  My Bible tells me that those who engage in sin and rebellion and the works of the flesh are not going to inherit the Kingdom! (1st Cor. 6:9,10; Gal. 5:19-21)  Only those who love and honor Yahweh by keeping His commandments to the best of their ability and knowledge are given the right to enter into the Holy City.  Rev 22:14 "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." 

Any spirit, any man or any teaching that comes along and tells you that you can sin, break the law of commandments, that is a spirit of lawlessness! It is the spirit of antimessiah! (antichrist) Avoid that spirit at all cost! Even at the cost of losing family, friends, jobs, opportunities and yes even those who you thought were brethren. It doesn’t matter how great a speaker a person may be as they bring forth the Word of Yahweh, if they teach lawlessness in their messages avoid them. It doesn’t matter if a group can perform miracles and show forth great and mighty signs and wonders, if they teach lawlessness, avoid them at all cost. It doesn’t matter if a person or a group shows great charity and love and show forth such great works even if they could raise the dead, if they teach lawlessness and dishonor to the Torah, avoid them. (Matthew 7:21-23) If we or anyone is going to name the name of Yahshua (known as Jesus by the masses) we or they are to depart from iniquity, not live in it! (2nd Timothy 2:19)

But know this: Messiah sends His Saints out into the midst of not only the ungodly, but those who are unconverted believers who may have the spirit of antimessiah. (Matt. 10:16; Luke 10:3) and the Apostle Paul and Jude warned us of false brethren and false teachers who would infiltrate the Church and that we should contend for the true faith. (Acts 10:29; Jude 1:3,4) The Apostle Paul also tells us that such heresies must be, so those who are of the true faith will know who is approved or not of Yahweh. (1st Cor. 11:19)

But know this also: While we also were yet sinners, Messiah died for us and not us only but for the whole world. (Romans 5:8; 1st John 2:2; John 3:16) Most (including the unconverted believers) just do not know the weight of that sacrifice yet and most will not know until after their resurrection from the dead. And although they may be our enemies for Messiah’s sake, we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Always be willing to turn the other cheek and if they ask to walk a mile with them, walk two. In otherwords go out of your way to be kind and loving to them for a day may come when they also may be called of Yahweh and He may use you then to lead them into the Truth. But if you are unkind and unmerciful and unloving unto those who are unconverted, they may not trust you for your help in spiritual matters in the day of their salvation. Even so, true Saints should not show forth the works of the flesh as our common lifestyle, but we should in all things be producing the fruit of the Spirit as we practice righteousness thru the power of the Spirit.

So forgive those who push the envelope on grace, who run the spiritual stop lights of life. For you must admit that you were once as they now are. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Love those who hate you and despitefully use you and love those who persecute you. Suffer long with others, show meekness and love and joy and peace as you portray gentleness and goodness as the icing on your faith. Have self control not only over the carnal nature that may try and erupt within you when you are in the midst of the unconverted, but that by your Godly fruit they may just get a glimpse of Yahshua in you.

Know this, that the greatest sign, the greatest miracle and the greatest wonder is a changed life by the power of Yahshua thru the Spirit of Yahweh!  To the carnal unconverted Christian believer, the laws of Yahweh are nothing but red stop lights for the commandments interfere with their rebellious nature. But to the true believer, the Torah is not a list of don'ts and thou shalt nots, for the true believer has liberty in the law, for their desire is to obey and therefore the law is nothing but green lights for our desire is to do those things that are pleasing in His sight.  We don't keep the commandments to be saved, salvation is only in and thru the sacrifice of Messiah, but we keep the commandments because we have been declared saved and still awaiting for the complete reality of salvation yet to come as we will one day shed these fleshly corruptible bodies and put on immortality, the true born again experience!  

Let's all make it into the Kingdom, let us all make it to our final destination.  Let's respect the spiritual red lights and the boundaries given unto us by Yahweh, they are for our protection and our safety that we might make it to that destination, that we might stay on the straight and the narrow, that we might move on in our walk with the Elohim. The gospel is not a gospel of stops and do nots, but a gospel of go and do. It is the good news of freedom and liberty from sin and unrighteousness, from disobedience and lawlessness and iniquity. It is the good news of a coming government wherein righteousness reigns. Let your light shine and run the race to win the prize, a crown of glory, an inheritance unfathomable to the carnal mind.....................Green light! 

The Old Paths Restoration Ministry

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Marengo, IN 47140

contact@theoldpaths.net

www.theoldpaths.net