Limitless, Part 9, Wholeness
April 3, 2022Today's message was the 9th and last in a series called Limitless and was given by Pastor Patrick. A video of the message can be found here. And here's a link to this week's Conversation Starters provided by the church.
It's clear in the Torah that God wants us to have abundant life. In the very first place, He breathed life into us. He created us to live and multiply. Then there are a plethora of phrases like "bless you abundantly," "your reward shall be great," "you will have abundant joy," "open for you His abundant storehouse," "I give him My covenant of peace," "become a great nation," "many descendants," "a relationship with God," "earthly (and not just spiritual) prosperity and fertility," and "in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Patrick made the point that just because you get bad thoughts in your head doesn't mean you aren't free. Amen! The Torah couldn't care much less about what you think (what enters your mind by whatever means) but rather it cares immensely about how you behave (how you act or don't act on those thoughts).
Patrick also quoted "when I was a child, I thought like a child, acted liked a child, spoke as a child. but when I grew up, I thought like an adult, acted as an adult, and spoke as an adult" (paraphrased). An overall theme of the Torah is "Grow up!" It's interesting to note that the Hebrew word for grow up is ga'ah which includes the notion of rising up and being exalted in triumph as well as growing up. It is indeed an accomplishment to mature.
Bonus Fun Fact(s)
I was suprised to find out most brands of matzah (at King Soopers, anyway) have a disclaimer stating "not for Passover." What?! One box did not say that, so I went with it. Turns out that kosher isn't the only issue. All matzah, as best I could tell, is kosher. But for Passover, there's another requirement. Nothing in the matzah can be leavened, which means no rising of the dough which means nothing can have fermented. That latter no-fermentation rule means the grain must be monitored from harvest all the way to finished product. The grain can ferment at any time after harvest within 18 minutes if moisture is present. This also explains why Passover-approved matzah is more expensive. More...
So why must Passover matzah be unleavened, un-risen? Because the Israelites did not have time to wait for the dough to rise before they had to get out of Egypt. It's also a repudiation of Egypt as it was the Egyptians that invented risen bread. Nine of the ten plagues were a rejection of Egyptian/pagan gods.