Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah - and to another glorious summer's day. Out here in Sweden, where we are starved of light and warmth for so many months of the year, we really appreciate the sunlight and warmer days. I love to get up early at this time of year, open the back door, and smell the lilac that fills the garden with its perfume. It's funny, coming originally from the tropics as I do, experiencing the contrast. There, in the Far East, all you want is shade and cool! Yet I came to miss the heat and brightness so much after we moved to Europe.

How easy it is to take for granted the things that are around us all the time. We can come to be bored with them, even resent them! I have always had a passion for nature, perhaps because as a boy I was surrounded by such luxurious vegetation and an abundance of wildlife. I like nothing more than to go around with my little camera capturing images of the beauty everywhere. I want to celebrate the creation and its Creator as much as I can, especially when I have the opportunity to do so. We live on a planet rich in species diversity - there is so much to admire in the handiwork of our Heavenly Father, so much to soak up in our souls. So get outside and enjoy it while you can! It is refreshing for the soul. Any opportunity to make contact with our Elohim (God) should be cherished and used. The beauty of nature, even in its fallen state, is surely, as the Psalmist said, a testimony of His "unfailing love and faithfulness" (Ps.40:10, NIV).

I was at an art exhibition the other day in which my daughter had some exhibits. As a scientist by training and, originally, by trade, it is very important to have an appreciation of art by cultivating it. Everything around us is a blend of both Yahweh's scientific genius and His artistry. Plants and animals aren't just biological machines as some scientists are wont to reduce them. They are the product of incredible creativity. Ask yourself: why does the artist paint, the musician play, or the author write? Some of these may be a mystery to those of us like myself who are not very accomplished artists or musicians. The fact that I am an author and love writing baffles a lot of people, with one person I knew who was persuaded that I had a mental disease!

The reasons artists paint, potters make ceramics, cooks make delicious food, photographers take splendid pictures, poets write exuberant poetry, sculptors sculpt, musicians create and play music, and authors write, is because we are overflowing with ideas and must express them. It is an in-built compulsion. Creativity is the flow of a full heart and mind. Of course, we can choose how we express this creativity, whether to give glory to ourselves or to our Elohim (God), and there are conseqences - negative and positive, respectively - when we seek to honour and glorify the one or the other.

One of the worst things for an artist - and I use the word 'artist' loosely in the all-encompassing sense of any and all kinds of creativity - is to feel empty, uninspired and unmotivated to create. Or we can be full of the wrong material. To be empty or filled with junk is equally destructive. I have seen some pretty awful artwork in my time. The talent is evident but the content is depressing, even frightening sometimes. I remember one year going to Arvika by the docks and looking at one lady's art work. It was horrid, depraved, depressing, and draining to view. She was obviously very, very disturbed indeed, and you could tell it by looking at the contours of her brow, the sunkeness of her face, and the darkness in her eyes too. Such 'creativity' is, in fact, destructive, and is what Satan and his demonic hosts specialise in.

To have a beautiful life you must choose to fill it with beauty and emet (truth). Yes, art, like science, has its rules or torah too. We can't spend our energy on worthless pursuits and stay creative. We can still 'make' things but they rather become a witness to darkness and the father thereof, not what our talents were bequeathed to us by Yahweh for. Creativity requires energy and if we want our creativity to express the things of Elohim (God), then we must always be 'filling up' on the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God) and with hochmah (wisdom). One of the psalmists wrote:

"My heart overflows with a beautiful thought! I will recite a lovely poem to the king, for my tongue is like the pen of a skilful poet" (Ps.45:1, NLT).

Only as your inner well fills up, can you be sure that the creativity will soon be flowing out of your life in productive ways, and not just the ways I have listed. The whole of life is a work of art. You don't have to be an artist, musician, poet, sculptor, photographer or chef to be creative, though! You can be a mason, plumber, architect, homemaker, surgeon, cartoonist, roadsweeper, gardner - anything - in order to create. Whatever Yahweh called you to, and which you accept, He will energise and give you simcha (joy) in performing. A neatly mowed lawn, a freshly weeded bed, which yield order and beauty, personally give me great satisfaction. Just tidying up and rearranging things into a more beautiful and aesthetically pleasing arrangment are acts of creativity. Changing a nappy/diaper, dusting furniture, changing the oil in a car - the number of creative things we can do is limitless. Even the Japanese tying up their rubbish with ribbon wrapped around paper. The key to enjoying these thingts is to have a positive attitude and to ask Yah'shua (Jesus) to be in control of the creativity. After all, in order to be creative you are tapping into the very energy of the Creator and Architect of this incredible Universe.

Unfortunately, we sometimes have the tendency to sabotage our own creativity with negative thoughts about ourselves and others. It may well be that we have to deal with certain issues before our creativity can be constructively released again. So what I want to do now is share a message for all of you people who think you are just worms and little people who think you are failures.

Yahweh is very much in the business of helping worms and little people discover that they are far, far more than they realise. He says:

'"Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob,
O little Israel,
for I myself will help you,' declares Yahweh,
your Redeemer, the Qadoesh (Holy, Set-Apart) One of Israel.
See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and reduce the hills to chaff.
You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in Yahweh
and glory in the Qadoesh (Holy, Set-Apart) One of Israel
(Isa.41:14-16. NIV).

When Yahweh called the descendants of Jacob 'worms' and 'little Israel', He was, of course, addressing a particular situation, and specifically, to the feeble and despised condition of Yahweh's people in exile. And do we not find ourselves in parallel 'exiles' in our own life sometimes? Do we not sometimes find ourselves apparently cast off and despised by others? We can be in the middle of a bustling city and yet feel cut off and lonely. Earlier, in the patriarchal age, Bildad the Shuhite, whilst castigating Job for his misfortunes, unhelpfully reminded his unfortunate and suffering friend that he was "but a maggot...who is only a worm!" (Job 25:6, NIV).

And so we are, when we get a right perspective, and in a certain sense. A few days ago I was watching a short video clip that started with our moon and then ascended the scale of size, working its way through the various bodies in our solar system - the planets - and then the stars, galaxies and finally to the entire universe itself. It certainly put things into perspective. It's tempting, viewing creation like that, to indeed think we are no bigger or no more important than a worm. And in a certain sense it is true. But what people often forget, in making such comparisons, is that man is himself actually mid-way in size between the largest objects in the universe - giant super-stars - and the smallest sub-atomic particles. It all depends what you are measuring against. Things like that are all relative.

How many of you feel, as the exiles did - and as Job did - that you are feeble and despised, tiny and insignificant? How many of you feel you are failures? How many of you feel that life has passed you by and that you have not managed to achieve or create much, if anything at all, for Yahweh? And sadly - no, tragically and shamefully - there are those 'prosperity' Christians, so-called, who look down on their fellow believers who are not walking in health, wealth and prosperity generally and despise them too. How many look down on fellow believers and despise them because they have got some or many of their doctrines and practices wrong?

The other day I was listening to one of my favourite Bible scholars who just happens to be a Calvinist, which I am not, for reasons I don't intend to go into now. He was ashamed - and sad - that many of his fellow Calvinists took a macarbre pleasure in attacking and demeaning Arminians like ourselves. He was making a public statement distancing himself from these unpleasant people. A lot of Messianics do that toward Evangelicals and other kinds of Christians too, dsidaining them for their lack of Torah knowledge and practice. Sadly, this is all too common and is a dark fruit of the carnal, sensual and devilish nature of fallen mankind.

Yes, we must teach and firmly hold to emet (truth) but despising others who may not be so enlightened is not a good thing at all. It reflects an unkind, insensitive, and uncharitable heart that is devoid of the presence of the Creator, even if the neuronal connections may have certain doctrinal truths learned correctly. So I admire and respect my Calvinist mentor for taking that stand - he has helped me in so many textual and linguistic matters, showing that Yahweh uses all kinds of people, even ourselves in our own blindness and ignorance of certain things. Let us not lose a humble perspective lest we ourselves be one day humiliated.

So Yahweh is not at all demeaning like that. Which brings up a question I would like to briefly examine this morning. Haddon Robinson, one-time editor of the Christianity Today magazine, said this:

"Anyone can put together a theology of success. It is not hard to celebrate men and women who are winners, and explain what makes them great. The tough work lies on constructing a theology for failures. Perhaps because I have failed so often in my life I look for the davar (word) from Elohim (God) that will help me keep going when I feel I have let Yahweh and everybody else down."

We may write the theology of failure ourselves, but Yahweh can edit and expand it into a higher philosophy. In fact, He can take those very failures we moan about and make them a basis for success. The fact that I may have failed so much is because I have attempted so much, and that's not a bad thing at all. Some folk never fail because they never try to succeed, and that's not good. They never fail because they never try to climb. That's the first lesson in life we have to learn, as the old saying goes: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, and try again!"

I'm grateful my mother drummed that into me when I was a boy. She was very much a 'doer' and a 'go-getter'. My father was the opposite so I grew up with these two contrary attitudes, and I admit I still wrestle with them in my being, because part of me is one way, and part the other way. It is so very, very easy to stagnate through inactivity, waiting for the world or someone else to do what only you alone can do: and that is to make your life count for the glory of Yahweh and the prosperity of your family.

Yahweh has a davar (word) for us concerning those who think of themselves as small, helpless worms, and it's this: "Do not fear, you worm Jacob...I will help you...you shall thresh the mountains" (Is.41:14-15, NRSV). If you remember, the original Jacob seemed a failure, until Elohim (God) took hold of him, gave him four wives and thirteen children, drove him to break out of the bondage of his uncle Laban, overcome his fear of his brother Esau whom he had cheated of his birhright with the help of his conniving mother, and was propelled by Yahweh into a new life he could never have dreamed of. Out of this frail, fickle and feckless man called Jacob came blessings massive and eternal, because he trusted in Yahweh his Elohim (God) and went along with His will.

I won't pretend Jacob had an easy life, either before or after his sojourn in Haran, and I won't pretend that life will be easy for any of you. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee it won't be easy at all. It'll be tough, and in different ways, but only we can choose to be creative and joyful, in spite of trials and tribulations; and that means - practically-speaking - turning your life over to Yahweh.

I don't suppose Moses was initially too happy about being stuck out in the roastingly hot, parched lands of Midian for 40 years. The former Prince of Egypt, accustomed to oppulence and power, probably concluded that he was destined to be a shepherd out in the dusty desert for the rest of his life. I know I have felt that far too often, being stuck out in the Scandinavian 'wilderness' for the last 30 years, freezing in a twilight world. And, yes, you may have wilderness sojourns too. But don't assume that's the end of the line, unless you have stubbornly and foolishly made the decision not to yield to Yahweh's will in your life and have instead chosen spiritual mediocrity or even poverty. The choice is, as ever, yours, even if the physical circusmatnces aren't so bad.

If you feel like Jacob in his earliest years - that "little Israel"-in-the-making, still living by his wits instead of by the Ruach (Spirit), particularly as he headed out into the wildeness of Haran to seek shelter with his unscrupulous, pagan uncle Laban - penniless, wifeless, childless and a refugee from a vengeful brother whom he had defrauded - consider seriously, and with emunah (faith), Yahweh's promise through the navi (prophet) Isaiah:

"'O little Israel...I Myself will help you,' declares Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart) One of Israel" (v.14, NIV).

If you have been born again - spiritually regenerated - through putting your trust in Yah'shua (Jesus), the fleshy Jacob nature is at once transformed into a spiritual "Israel". You're an 'Israel'-in-the-making, however imperfectly formed, like an uncoordinated baby with a big head, tiny arms and legs and a plump torso. You're a miniature 'Israel', one who 'prevails with El (God)' on a small scale.

We do not become 'big' or 'mature Israels' in one day. We do not prevail or overcome every besetting sin - generational as well as self-made - in a day. And we absolutely don't become a "threshing sledge" in a day either, even though a lot of foolish, brattish and immature believers think they only have to 'name and claim' such exalted power and it's theirs for the taking. It isn't. And it wasn't our father Jacob's who had to go through much purging of his carnal nature before he could lay claim to such exaltation, not that he ever advertised or boasted of such things when they were finally his. We grow in stature quietly, patiently, and humbly, or not at all.

Notice, please, that Yahweh here calls Himself Jacob's "Redeemer", which in the Hebrew is a word that carries with it the sense of an obligated family Protector of Israel. The renamed and redeemed Jacob - now called 'Israel' - means that Yahweh is now related to him as as father (Is.63:16; 64:8) and allegorical Husband (Is.54:5), but only after he had wrestled for his life with the malak (angel) at the brook Jabbok (Gen.32:24-30; Hos.12:3-4).

Recall also the following: even though Jacob (meaning 'Supplanter', because he supplanted Esau by treachery) had a name change, he continued to retain and use his old name, even if the names have radically different meanings. Just as his descendants called themselves 'Israelites', and as we call ourselves 'Messianic Israelites' as a means of distinguishing ourselves from others of different religious persuasions, or no religious persuasion at all, in reality no one is an 'Israelite' until they have overcome, or at the very least have started overcoming their fallen nature.

Overcoming is a process - it is not something instantly accomplished in a day. Anyone who claims otherwise is delusional as is evidenced by the fact that he (or she) is not 'threshing' any mountains (that is, kingdoms, powers and principalities) except in their own imagination in their heads and with their own arrogant, boastful tongues. So don't be presumptuous, as so many charismatics and others are who, because they experience supernatural things, assume they are all from Elohim (God). When you have the power to thresh and thrash nations, you'll know it. Otherwise it is you who will be threshed and thrashed.

As Redeemer or Family Protector, Yahweh redeems Israel's property because He regatheres them to their land (Is.54:1-8), guarantees their freedom (Is.35:9; 43:1-4; 48:20; 54:1-8), avenges them against their tormentors (Is.47:3; 49:25-26; 64:4) and secures their posterity for the future (61:8-9). That is quite a hamper of promises - please believe them!

Like Boaz, the "kinsman-redeemer" of the Book of Ruth, Yahweh "has not stopped showing His kindness to the living and the dead" (Ruth 2:20, NIV), to Ruth and Naomi who are a picture of us, and therefore Israel. The kinsman-redeemer was responsible for protecting the interests of needy members of the extended family. And are we not all needy? Will Yahweh not therefore protect our interests if we trust Him and are obedient?

Do you remember Jacob's dream as he was fleeing Esau and heading into Haran?

"Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the malakim (angels) of Elohim (God) were ascending and descending on it. And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said: 'I am Yahweh-Elohim of Abraham your father and the Elohim (God) of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.' Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.' And he was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of Elohim (God), and this is the gate of heaven!'" (Gen 28:12-17, NKJV).

I am not surprised he was awe-struck - who wouldn't be after such an encounter? Wherever you meet Yahweh-Elohim is your 'Bethel' or 'House of God' for that is the time and place at which He actuates His promises to you. Bethel was the place that Jacob called the 'Gateway to Heaven', the place he held in reverential fear, that he marked with stones, anointing them with oil.

Those who are the fleshy descendants of Jacob are 'Supplanters' as he was - crooks, deceivers, conspirators, tricksters - carnal, sensual and devilish. It was to such a despicable bundle of flesh that Yahweh manifested Himself at Bethel and gave such wondrous promises, totally undeserved - unmerited to the fullest extent. But the fact that Jacob made a vow to Yahweh, and meant it, and kept it, was all that was required for the heavens to open up to him. Are you, sinner, willing to do the same? Will you enter into a covenant with the Creator, and mean it and keep it like father Jacob of old, the trickster and supplanter? Do you remember the vow he made?

"Then Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If Elohim (God) will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in shalom (peace), then Yahweh shall be my Elohim (God). And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be Elohim's (God's) house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth (tithe) to You" (Gen.28:20, NKJV).

Remember, this was not just a vow that he had cobbled together spontaneously, in the spur of the moment - it was well thought out, carefully considered, and therefore not spoken lightly. And there is no reason to suppose that this prayer was not inspired by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). Jacob asks Yahweh to be with him in his journey through life, and specifically to Haran, to supply him with food and clothing, and to guarantee his safe return to the house of his father Isaac in peace. He promises or vows that if Yahweh will do this, that Yahweh will be his Elohim (God), that the stone (which is a picture of the Messiah, Yah'shua/Jesus) (Eph.2:20) which he has anointed with oil (a picture of the Ruach haQodesh/Holy Spirit) will be his spiritual house or home, and he will freely give of his substance to Yahweh's Kingdom in the form of a tenth of his increase, or tithe. That's all.

Please note, and note it well, those of you who are so-called 'prosperity teachers', that Jacob did not ask for an Armani suit, a gold watch, a Mercedes-Benz, a mansion house with swimming pool, an executive jet, a swollen bank account, or anything carnal, sensual or devilish like that. He didn't ask for any of the equivalents of these things back then! He offered to give money! All he asked for were the basic necessities.

This was, in a nutshell, the "little Israel" within him speaking, the 'Israel' that would one day fully emerge only after he had conquered his carnal nature as a spiritual overcomer, after his encounter at the river Jabbok with the malak (angel) of Yahweh who must surely have been the pre-incarnate Messiah, Yah'shua (Jesus), if for no other reason than he refers to Him as Elohim (God)", even as it is written:

"So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw Elohim (God) face to face, and yet my life was spared'" (Gen 32:30, NIV).

This was the place by the river which he called 'Mahana'im' (the two camps, because he divided his family into two), the place where he prayed as had never prayed before in his life, because he was afraid that he would be killed by his vengeful brother, Esau. That is how you overcome - by praying as you have never prayed before because your life is on the line.

I hope you want to be transformed like Jacob the worm, the 'little Israel', for you most assuredly can be if you want to be. Have you ever covenanted like Jacob? I did, at the altar of an Anglican Church in Oxford when I was a university student, when I was alone, at the place the Reformers Cranmer and Ridley were condemned to be burned to death at the stake for the emunah (faith). Just around the corner from that church is a famous Oxford landmark known as Martyrs' Memorial, where these men died true to their vows. At that Anglican church, named for Yah'shua's (Jesus') mother, I covenanted to seek Yahweh with all my soul and not rest until until I had found and knew what His emet (truth) fully was. I am still fulfilling that vow. This work exists because of it. I didn't ask anything in return though I surely assumed He would be with me, though He blessed me with a large family as He did Jacob. He has not spared me trial and tribulation, as is His right and as is in His own wisdom. I know only too starkly that I am a worm, in all sorts of ways, but I also know I am a 'little Israel'. And so are you.

As Jacob departed from his father's house on his adventure northwards, that would result in his getting a new Name (Israel) and starting the twelve Tribes through his four wives Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah, so too must we make our own departures. After the apostle Peter's miraculous escape from prison at the hand of a malak (angel) and went to report to the frightened talmidim (disciples) huddled together in hiding, and as he himself "departed and went to another place" (Ac.12:17b, NASB), so we must be prepared to do the same.

I cannot, of course, say what place you are to depart to, or whether it is part of escaping the death traps that the cities will become when the Collapse and Judgment begins, or whether it is simply time to move on to a new ministerial calling or make a career change, or whatever, but what I can and must say to all is that you absolutely need to be prepared to move out of old thought-patterns, feeling-patterns, behaviours and the like so that Yahweh can fully operate His Ruach (Spirit) in you. When the change comes, it will be sudden, it will be dramatic, it will be overwhelmingly pleasant but not be without numerous challenges.

I would have you ready and prepared to move out as the Israelites did on that first Pesach (Passover) and as we must continue to 'move out' on this the Second, Final and Last Exodus. But you have got to be prepared and in every way.

Whatever Yahweh's destiny is for us individually, as families or as a fellowship, we must continually press on to higher things, and not get stuck in a rut. We should seek ever greater and richer experiences in Yahweh, as the hymn-writer puts it:

"I'm pressing on the upward way,
New heights I'm gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
'Lord plant my feet on higher ground.'"