Unless otherwise indicated, the collection of scriptures found in Food for Thought are quoted from the Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures (The Old Testament) pub. by, the Jewish Publication Society, New York, 1988; and the Jewish New Testament, translated by David H. Stern, pub. by Jewish New Testament Publications, Clarksville, MD, 1994.

~ Meditations ~
~ From the Word of God ~
(Meditations are meant to be
pondered carefully.)

* In That Day *

      “Lo, a day of the LORD is coming... In that day, fresh water shall flow from Jerusalem, part of it to the Eastern Sea and part to the Western Sea, throughout the summer and winter. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one LORD with one name (i.e. the LORD alone shall be worshipped and shall be invoked by His true name).”
(Zech 14:1,8-9)

      “And the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me (Zechariah) saying, Thus said the LORD of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth month, the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah; but you must love honesty and integrity’...
      “Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities shall yet come - the inhabitants of one shall go to the other and say, Let us go and entreat the favor of the LORD, let us seek the LORD of Hosts; I will go, too.’ The many peoples and the multitude of nations shall come to seek the LORD of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD... In those days, ten men from nations of every tongue will take hold... of every Jew by a corner of his cloak (the tzitzith) and say, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
(Zech 8:18-23)

* Come Worship Me *

“And new moon after new moon
And sabbath after sabbath,
All flesh shall come to worship Me
      — said the LORD.”
(Isa. 66:23)

      “So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Chodesh (new moon) or Shabbat (the Sabbath). (For) these are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.”
(Col. 2:16-17)

* In One Body *

      “For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles... and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
      “For indeed the body is not one part but many. If the foot says, ‘I’m not a hand, so I’m not part of the body,’ that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘I’m not an eye, so I’m not part of the body,’ that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If it were all hearing, how could it smell? But as it is, God arranged each of the parts in the body exactly as he wanted them. Now if they were all just one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body.
      “Now you together constitute the body of the Messiah, and individually you are parts of it.”
(I Cor. 12:12-20,27)

* A Holy Temple *

      “So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s family. You have built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah himself. In union with him the whole building is held together, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with the Lord. Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into a (Isa 66:23) spiritual dwelling-place for God!”
(Eph. 2:19-22)

      So, “Don’t cause grief to God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), for he has stamped you as his property until the day of final redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, violent assertiveness and slander, along with all spitefulness. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted; and forgive each other, just as in the Messiah God has also forgiven you.”
(Eph. 4:30-32)

      “As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him, you yourselves, as livings stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be cohanim (priests) set apart for God to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him through Yeshua the Messiah. This is why the Tanakh (Old Testament) says,

‘Look! I am laying in Tziyon (Zion) a stone,
a chosen and precious cornerstone;
and whoever rests his trust on it
will certainly not be humiliated.’”
(1 Peter 2:4-6)

* Praise God *

      “Through him, therefore, let us offer God a sacrifice of praise continually. For this is the natural product of lips that acknowledge his name.”
(Hebrews 13:15)

* Separate Yourselves *
* And Be Holy *

      “For we are the temple of the living God — as God said,

‘I will house myself in them,...
and I will walk among you.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.’

‘Therefore Adonal says,

‘Go out from their midst;
separate yourselves;
don’t even touch what is unclean.
Then I myself will receive you.
In fact, I will be your Father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,’
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”
      (the LORD of heaven’s armies.)
(II Cor. 6:16b-18)

      “Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.”
(II Cor. 7:1)

      For it is written: “...I the LORD am your God: you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not make yourselves unclean... For I the LORD am He who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God: You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
(Lev. 11:44-45)

      Be Holy and Be Blessed!

            SAW