How to Walk with God — Part 1: Resetting Internal Meanings and Contexts

Can what we believe be “bad” for us? Of course! And It is hard for us to see that what we believe could be a great mistake, isn’t it? For example, where did you learn the meaning of the “sin”, which I don’t even like to use in writing? It is a “bad” and “unhealthy” word because it does not present an image of the truth, instead it triggers a very different meaning in our mind that is not Scriptural.

But before I begin let me tell you a personal story about this strange word “sin” …

When I was a teenager and, of course, very green, like a young “sapling,” I was asked to speak before a small assembly of adults and teenagers, in a “father and son” night. I really had no idea what to talk about, but as I sat fidgeting in my seat, a thought struck me: “I will talk about sin!” So when my name was called, I quickly stood up and strode to the lectern and proceeded to denounce “sin” in all its “forms” and finished by saying that I would devote my life to the “fight against sin.” You imagine the feedback I got from my tirade, can’t you?

I also got a smart lecture from my dad, who told me that I really shouldn’t talk like that to anybody. At the time, I didn’t understand what he was saying, and what I found out later was a revelation: people don’t like to be told they are “sinners” or because of sin, “they will all burn in hell.” Yikes!

You can see that this not what eternal life is all about, can’t you? And you don’t really believe that God is so cruel that all He wants to do is forever roast people over hot coals like a goat on a spit, do you? …

When I was in college in a small town in Kentucky, I went to the town on a Sunday evening with some friends. The town was divided by a railroad. On the west side was a large Methodist church, and on east side was a small one-room church where one of my friend’s dad had come to town to speak. There were about 18.6 people in that building that night, and this “preacher” launched into a sermon and blasted those people and tore them to shreds like worn out clothes. He focused his attention on me, a nineteen-year-old, and begin to pour all his energy in an attempt to lay the guilt of the world on my sorry head with the hope that I would come down to the altar and repent not only of my sins but also the sins of everyone else. I didn’t budge as the sweat started running down his face, dripping to the floor like a Roman fountain blowing in the wind.

But this experience did one thing by reminding me of that time when I spoke in front of all those fathers and sons, offending nearly everyone, including my dad.

Do we really know what God is doing?

Can you imagine standing alone in front of someone, whose sole purpose is to make you pay for something you did that he considers is wrong and for which you had no clue?

Can you believe that “divine retribution” is not the focus of Scripture and that the words divine retribution are not found in any [tag-self]Scripture[/tag-self] passage?

Before I continue let me explain where this is going …

By the time you get to the end of this post, you will no longer be bothered and tormented by the thoughts of “sin.” Maybe you, like so many others, do not yet understand what “sin” really is, or maybe you do. It is much better for you to “know that you know” what the real truth is, isn’t it? You can think of this as only the first step in your “walk with God”, can’t you?

Do you remember your first step as a young child? I cannot. But like you, I learned to walk and talk, but I don’t remember when and how. So understanding the truth about sin is like taking your first step. The reason is because we are talking about the most powerful and important relationship you will ever have in your entire lifetime! Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing that throughout the rest of the day and even when you retire for the night, you “walked with God.”

Why start with the concept of sin?

If it wasn’t for the fact that nearly everyone does not understand sin, I wouldn’t be writing or talking about it. Even mentioning the word “sin” brings up feelings of horror, guilt, and a desire to escape, doesn’t it?

So let’s get rid of that “phobia” because I don’t want it to continue to cloud our thinking. The whole idea is something we learned before we even knew how to talk! It is like learning about walking and talking, is it not? Do you remember the first time you did something that your parents were not too happy about? Maybe you remember the second time, or perhaps, it was the third time. The point is we don’t remember those things. Our ideas about “sin” were always there in our minds, were they not? It is time to clean out the attic, isn’t it?

A Personal Example of “sin” …

When I first moved to California, I rented a small apartment. The first night I woke up in the middle of the night because one of my children woke up crying. I was completely disoriented. I did not have any idea where I was and what had happened to my world. It was so dark I held my hands out in front to keep from running into things. I didn’t know that I was walking to an open door that passed between my outstretched hands and smacked me square between my eyes. I stumbled backward and fell to the floor, dazed. I could not imagine who or what in the dead of night could have clobbered me like that.

This was caused by “sin!”

Don’t jump to a quick conclusion and think I am using the “classic” definition of “sin”, because that is not the meaning of the word in Scripture. I wouldn’t want you to think that I had done something bad and was being punished for it. Not at all.

Maybe you are not beginning to get an idea yet about where this is going, or maybe you are. Regardless, stay with me on this, because it should become crystal clear very shortly.

There were a few things that caused this to happen to me. I was lacking precise knowledge of where I was, and I lacked the knowledge of good techniques to protect myself in the darkness. I was like a blind man who didn’t know how to use a walking cane. You know how a blind person swings a stick back and forth in front to detect if something might be there, don’t you? I didn’t even know where the light switches were. You get the picture that I was “living in sin“, can you not? After that one incident, I quickly learned to cross my arms when trying to feel my way through the darkness.

This is a very human problem. We all have it. We all “sin.” When I spoke as a teenager to the father and son meeting, who sinned? Was it the sin of the audience that was the problem? Or was it my sin because I really didn’t know what I was talking about. Everyone who preaches about sin without even knowing what sin is, is a sinner, are they not?

The classic understanding about “sin” is “a departure from some moral code.” Do you see the danger in this? Imagine that you are sitting in a church service. Someone is standing behind a pulpit talking about “sin.” What does he or she have to say about this subject? What kind of feeling are you getting about what they are saying? Are you looking down at the floor or up at the ceiling? Do you feel that the speaker is angry with you? Or is the speaker telling you God is angry with you? How does that make you feel? Do you feel that in this place you are “walking with God?”

Now let’s change the scene. You are no longer in a church service. Instead, you are walking in a lush garden. There many kinds of plants. Some have broad green leaves that beckon you to touch them. Others have long variegated leaves that look like long blades of grass that sway with the cool breeze. Around you are small blue flowers on the edge of the path. Up ahead is a tall and elegant tree that stands tall and graceful. The path winds around and you see ahead of you a comfortable bench with tall plants behind and you hear a gentle rustle as the wind brushes against them. You sit down on the bench and across the path you see flowers of gold and crimson color. The air is rich with soothing moisture and you drink in each breath of oxygen rich air provided by all the green and flowering plants around you. Humming birds buzz from plant to plant and high in the trees different birds, some blue, some with a soft red color, sing. And your ears hear their music. How does that make you feel? Is God angry with you? Or do you feel peace and love deep inside so strong that you never want to leave this place? Can you sense that all of this beauty is a gift from God, who thinks of you with such care and concern that deep down you feel you have nothing to fear? Do you feel that in this place you are “walking with God?”

With this in our mind and heart, let’s understand the truth. I promised you that by the end of the post you would understand, did I not?

Continuing on …

You rise now from your bench because you heard a party somewhere in the garden. You walk toward the source of sound, and around another bend in the path, you see a group of people, men, women, children, young and old. They are laughing and talking. Some couples are playing badminton. Some men are throwing horseshoes, and others are holding an archery tournament. Everyone is happy.

One couple was battling another couple as they repeatedly sent the badminton bird back and forth across the net. Then one young man jumped in the air to smack the bird down. “Foul! Foul!” Someone shouted, “No point! Your feet must stay on the ground. No jumping allowed!”

The young man responded, and turned to his partner, “Sorry, I should not have done that. In my excitement, I forgot.”

A man just pitched a horse shoe and it clanged loudly as it wrapped around the steel stake. “A ringer!” Cheers and praise followed. Then his opponent begin to throw his horse shoes. His first throw landed two feet short of the pole. Some people groaned. “Sorry,” he said, “It slipped.” He lined up to throw his second shoe. He took a couple of breaths and squared himself with target and with careful control he threw and his horse shoe clanged against the stake, but instead of wrapping around the pole, it leaned against it. “A leaner!” the onlookers shouted, “you lose!” The man smiled and turned and congratulated the winner, “Good game.”

You hear cheers go up from the archery contest, so you decide to go over and take a look. But when you get there an older gentleman stops you and announces with a loud voice, “We have a new contender.” He hands you a straight bow with six arrows. “The bow has a 35 pound pull to it. Can you handle that?” You nod. He didn’t seem to care whether or not you had any experience. “Just knock the arrow on this little knot on the string here, and use a three-finger pull. Stand here on this board. OK?” You nod again. You place your first arrow on the bow and resting on the top knuckle of your hand, you grasp the string with the arrow between your first and second fingers. You take a deep breath as you draw the bow until your pulling hand rests against your cheek. You align the target with tip of the arrow with the string crossing your eye. You feel the strain as the strength of the bow meets the strength of your arm and shoulder. A brief pause, and without moving your hand you relax your fingers and the arrow flies at the target, but strikes away from the “bull’s-eye”.

You see a man run in from the side carrying a knotted cord. He puts the end of the cord on the center of the bull’s-eye and pulls the cord to your arrow. “Minus 2.7, Low and right!” he shouts and runs back to his spot.

You repeat the process with your second arrow, only this time you overcompensate a little. “Minus 1.8, High and left!”

Next arrow, “Minus 1.2, High and right!”

“Minus .8, Low and left!”

“Minus .6, Low and center”

“Bull’s-eye!”

A cheer goes up from the crowd, and the old man comes up and congratulates you, “Well done. Well done.”

You have just witnessed and participated in “sin.” This is an unfortunate word and I hate to use it, because it is not the word of Scripture, but rather of the translators and of the religious leaders who want you to think of it as a “deviation of a moral code”, which code “they” so conveniently provide and presume control over.

The Hebrew word “HhThA” simply means “to miss!” And the root word “HhTh” is the “cord” that was used to measure how far off you miss.* Rather than being an abstract “moral code”, it is a very concrete missing of the target, which in this case was the “bull’s-eye”, wasn’t it. You understand that the scene you just participated in is a metaphor, right?

In any of the games above was there a feeling of guilt for “missing” a target or breaking a rule? Did you feel anything like that as you in your mind continued to takes shots “at the target” or “goal?” There is no condemnation or corporal punishment for not hitting target, is there?

Can you now imagine what would have happened if you took one shot with the bow and arrow, and because you missed, you felt so badly that you threw the bow down and stomped off with your head down feeling hopeless and like a failure? That is what most people feel when they think they have a “committed a sin,” isn’t it? But go back and reread the experience where you stuck with it and after several attempts resulting in misses, but each an improvement on your prior shots at the target, you did get it right and hit the bull’s-eye.

There are other Hebrew words* (also translated with the “bad” word “sin”) that describe misses more precisely for specific circumstances: eg: “a revolution” an act that causes division between people; a “double burden” in regard to “errors” committed in work causing the work to be redone; an “error” that is made out “ignorance or accident”; errors that come as a result of being “led astray or deceived.” These were all discussed above, were they not?

You now see that throughout life we either hit or miss the target, don’t you? And this applies to everyone, doesn’t it? How then can we find a way out of our problem? The biggest mistakes we make in life, are because of something, aren’t they? We either don’t know or we do know and decide not to do what is right, correct? We are unskilled in life, aren’t we? But that is about to change! We have been promised that in the future we will be free from “not knowing” or “not caring”, haven’t we?

You can forget all about the “moral codes” of religion and become a “Friend of God”

There is one final example about a man who made some mistakes. In fact, his misses were so great that they affected an entire nation. But he never gave up. He remained flexible and allowed himself to learn again and again. He allowed a very loyal man to be killed in battle, just so he could cover up his adultery with the man’s wife. But afterward, he recognized his mistakes, and learned from them. He married the woman and had a child with her. This man was David, King of Israel, “a man after God’s own heart.” And from this child came the blood line to the Messiah, the Son of David. You can imagine how David felt toward God, toward Eyahuwah and Elohim, can’t you?

The “key” to overcoming the problem of being “misinformed” or “lacking in knowledge and wisdom” or “failing to do what is right and good” is to not shy away from closeness with your spiritual family, but rather to get to know the great mercy, hope, joy, and resources that are yours because you “walk with God”, isn’t it?

He has declared to you, O Man[kind], what is good. And what does Eyahuwah require of you? Simply to do right, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your Elohim [your spiritual family]?

Love, Eyahuwah, your Elohim, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

Whatever you wish that men do to you, do also to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets!

Can you see now how “missing this target or goal” is part of our everyday life? Whenever you hear or see the word “sin” can you think back upon how you felt when, after several attempts and changes, you at last hit the “bull’s-eye” and heard the words, “Well done. Well done”? You can know transfer this feeling to your daily walk in life, can’t you?

The greatest journey of our life always starts with a single step, doesn’t it?

Start walking now.

To be continued …

* Benner, Jeff A., Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, College Station, Texas: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., 2005