Reconsider

To a large degree, RECONSIDER is the inspiration of this WebSite. It is birthed from the simple awareness that not everything we are taught or told, nor everything that we sub-consciously absorb from our surroundings, are true and accurate. For this reason a proper understanding of YHWH’s (God’s) Word is crucial for our well-being. This imparts to us the biblical view of life that encourages us to walk in the Promises bestowed to us through the Gospel. It also equips us with the wisdom that is necessary to navigate the uncertainties and adversities that challenge us in this life.

Our understanding of YHWH’s Word is greatly influenced by the quality of our personal-relationship that we are actively (or not) cultivating and sharing with Father-YHWH. The genuine honor and respect that results in an active relationship will yield the reverence, sincerity, transparency and diligence that are so vital to sustaining a healthy bond with Him. This provides an environment for love to properly flourish and also sanctions the assimilation of His attributes that will inevitably transform our character. If not, we will inadvertently spend much of our time running from the presence of YHWH. Adam and Eve impulsively did that after they had undermined their relationship with YHWH in the Garden. Just as with them, our disobedience (lack of relationship) will also litter our life with various coverings of ‘fig leaves’ that will consume our time and energy with busy-ness. A superficial relationship is almost never done intentionally. Rather, it is absorbed incrementally, at a semi-conscious, somewhat buried level of awareness that yields a submissiveness to inferior standards and compromises. We will then invariably attempt to excuse and justify our distant relationship by substituting our good-works for authentic relationship. This enacts a type of mutiny against the authority of YHWH, that, to some degree, will unknowingly cause us to avoid the presence of YHWH which is the inescapable destiny of self-centered choices; remember Adam and Eve?   Obedience and prayer, on the other hand, are a deliberate and willful response/choice that is sustained due to the overflow of our love-union with Him, that is, His Grace. As a person matures spiritually, the tendency to subject one’s self to the sterile dictates of do-s and don’t-s will eventually diminish from their life. This transpires as love and the willingness to comply to His guidance become the major incentives that propel our life and relationship with our Heavenly-Father.

Many centuries have passed since Yahoshua (Jesus) has unveiled the Gospel of Salvation to planet Earth. The impact of His teachings have significantly influenced humanity in a very  positive way, to say the least.  His inspiration still thrives today because His Spirit lives on eternally in His Followers. The Bible has revealed YHWH’s (God’s) purpose for Mankind and gives testimony to how the Gospel Message of Yahoshua (Jesus) is an integral part of His plan. This Message has sparked various customs and traditions in the lives of His followers. 

As Followers of Messiah, we expect our traditions and doctrines to be resting on a biblical foundation. Obviously, many have a good origin, but . . . others have somehow ‘evolved’ and taken root that have little to no biblical substance. Some of these traditions have homogenized fact and fiction into hybrid-truths, while others have simply been around for a long, long time. It is as though the time-factor of long held traditions somehow validates their presence and possibly excuses any inaccuracies they may contain. This would be similar to how “billions and billions” of years somehow excuses the many ‘holes’ in the so called theory-of-evolution. 

Have you ever read something in the Bible, . . . then realize that the meaning of the text that you have just read appears to be different than what you had previously thought the text to mean. Or, when a word, a phrase or a historical aspect of the text is explained to you that then challenges how you now see the same text . . . or sometimes the traditional view of a text just doesn’t make sense any more when you read it in the full context of its original source. These challenges could be verses from the Bible that you have already read dozens of times in the past or it may be the first time you have ever read them. The point is, the verse(s) or subject is different, sometimes a 180 degrees different, than what you have been taught or have believed it to mean in the past. As a matter of fact, some of the traditions blatantly run roughshod over the truth of the Bible. The momentum of some of these traditions can be very unforgiving to someone who questions them. The spirit of ‘excommunication’ and ‘shunning’ may be found to be ‘alive and well’ in some instances if too many questions are asked concerning certain subjects. 

There are many biblical and Christian traditions that have developed throughout the years. Many of them are good, yes, they are very good. Other traditions may be harmless or insignificant, or at least seem so. And this may be true. Yet the truth can be liberating even concerning some of the smaller details. The oddity with some of these traditions is they don’t have a proper biblical foundation. What is even stranger, some of the traditions come directly from pagan customs and non-biblical ideas. And the weirdest twist of all may be that many people are aware of this and have no shame continuing to homogenize truth with fiction and present it as the ‘gospel-truth’. As Believers, why can we be so adamant with some insignificant issues and so casual with some significant issues? 

We should be open to at least question any tradition that may (seem to) adulterate the Word-of-YHWH, if or when it comes to our attention. This is not an easy task because every one of us have already been influenced by these rouge traditions to one degree or another. It can be very difficult to temporarily remove ourselves from what is our normal way of perceiving a subject since long-held traditions are well absorbed into our belief structure. The challenge is often evaluated, consciously or sub-consciously, in perspective to our ‘personal-investment’ in a tradition.  This often includes our family influence, our church influence, our cultural influence, our education, our understanding of the Bible, personal proclamations and confessions (whether public or private), what we believe to be the leading of the Spirit, our time in study, our emotional-ties, our concern of how others perceive us,  our time and money; all of which have been dedicated to the entire network of our belief and faith concerning these investments. The sentiment and weight of these investments can bombard us when we are considering a subject that disturbs our traditional perception and customary working of these investments in our life. At this point it’s not that difficult to simply allow a challenge or a conviction to fall to the ground while allowing our ignorance to hold status in our own imagination. Sometimes what seems very obvious to our modern-western-mind-set ‘just ain’t so’ according to the Divine-Word. To our befuddlement, it’s not always the ‘black and white’ we would like it to be.

So, does it really matter? Well, emotional-ties usually accompany long-held traditions and these are often difficult to renounce.  Also the pressure of some of these traditions can be very unforgiving to someone who questions them. The questioner may be considered a heretic, a blasphemer, cult-like, an anti-christ or whatever term is effective to discredit or at the very least simply marginalize the individual. This may be justified in some cases if the accusations are accurate. If the accusation is false, the result to stigmatize the messenger then hinders the truth from developing within the Body-of-Messiah. Does it really matter?  Each individual must be persuaded in their own heart by the Holy Spirit and then hold true to that conviction, not being influenced by their emotion, for that which is not of faith is sin.