I remember when I was a little boy singing a song in children's church that said, "Read your Bible pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow." I never knew how true that song was until I became an adult and realized that when we skip even one day of Bible reading and prayer we do not grow, but rather shrink. The same goes for fasting. People today act as though fasting has been abolished. Yet fasting is mentioned so many times in Scripture as something people did to draw closer to Yahweh and have their prayers heard (Nehemiah 9:1; Psalm 35:13; Daniel 9:3; Matthew 17:21; Acts 10:30; Acts 14:23). I'm certainly not saying that I'm the best at Bible reading, prayer, and fasting, but I do know that when these things are active in my life, life just goes so much better. Don't delay. If you've not been putting these to practice, begin to do so today. Yahweh will be pleased, and you will not regret the fruit that these will bear.

Matthew Janzen

Whenever someone steps away from being obedient to the Father in the life they live it happens gradually over a long period of time. This is not to say that it can never happen all at once. I have just observed that generally speaking, people tend to fall away by gradually disobeying just a little at a time.
I remember watching a TV show as a child where a "prank" was played on an elderly couple that went into a diner to eat. As they at the table they were at "lifted" about half an inch every minute. Before you knew it the table was up to their chest but they just kept on eating because they were not able to recognize the gradual change in the location of the table.

When people fall away from following the Lord they usually will not realize it even when you make the attempt to help them by telling them they have gotten off course. The reason why? It has been gradual. They think they are still the same and yet they are doing things now that they would have never done a year or two ago. Are you one of these people?

Matthew Janzen

Many times I have shown direct Scriptural texts to people in discussions, and I often get this response: "But you see, what about when this happened to me?" The argument is one that comes from an experience a person had in their life where they felt close and connected to Yahweh.

Although it is difficult to swallow, any experience we have (or emotion) that is not in line with the inspired Scriptures is not from Yahweh. The Holy Spirit that people claim to have encountered is the Spirit that inspired the Scriptures. The Scriptures are our sole authority for what to believe and not to believe. We must come to a point in our life where we are resolved to "lose" any experience we may have had that was not in harmony with Yah's word.

In John 4:24 Yeshua informs us that "Elohim is Spirit," and that those who worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth. This short blog is not meant to be an exposition on this verse, but in short let's focus in on the word "truth." We cannot separate our worship of Yahweh from the truth. We cannot say that it does not matter what the Scripture says because we know that we felt the presence of Yah worshiping this way. No, our experiences need to be sacrificed on the altar of sacred Scripture. We then repent of doing things our own way and only go by what the Scriptures teach in every area of our life.

Matthew Janzen

I am convinced that one of the tests of true Christian faith in a person is by how they interact with those who treat them wrongly. Our "human intuition" is to wrong those or shun those that do us wrong. What should be our response to others who speak evil of us, or treat us unfairly, or just plain and simply do not like us? It should be to love them, treat them kindly, do good to them, pray for them, and not seek to "get back" at them. I see this teaching very, very strongly in the words of our elder brother Yeshua the Messiah. His teachings are recorded in Matthew 5:38-48, and yes, they are extremely radical. That being said, a heart that has been changed by the supernatural power of an omnipotent Yahweh, has the ability to humiliate themselves before others and seek for the spiritual well being of even those who may be called their enemies. Yahweh help us to follow the example of your Son.

Matthew Janzen