Chag sameach Sukkot and welcome to the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles. When I asked Yahweh what I should talk about today He gave me two words in Latin: Quo vadis? or 'Where are You Going?' That's the question I want to ask all of you this Sukkot - where are you going?

I hate theological debates. I know some people thrive in them but I sometimes wonder if this doesn't have more to do with showing off intellect or wanting to win an argument than with wanting to genuinely win souls for Messiah. I used to love them, when I was younger, but I realised eventually they don't really produce much good fruit. They usually end up as battles of the ego. So isn't it astonishing how in the Gospels Yah'shua (Jesus) quickly sidetracked attempts by the leading religious intellectuals to get Him bogged down in deep theology? He knew how to get to the core of issues quickly and effectively.

In fact, by the time He was a mere 30 years old He seemed to have acquired the wisdom that would take most of us a lifetime, and still fall short of His achievement...spectacularly. But then He made no mistakes. He never sinned. In the space of thirty three short years He had found what it was to be be made in the likeness and image of Elohim (God), He had discovered the Father in the depths of His being, He was intimately acquainted with the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), He understood chayim (life), light, emet (truth), simcha (joy), ahavah Love), and pretty much everything.

In His sojourn in the wilderness He worked out His strategy for ministry and then came out proclaiming the Kingdom of Elohim (God), inciting those around Him to enter that Kingdom and discover the "pearl of great price" (Mt.13:46, NKJV) in the depth of their being. The essence of His teaching was simple: "The kingdom of Elohim (God) is within you" (Luke 17:21, NIV) and "I came that they may have chayim (life), and ... have (it) abundantly" (John 10:10, ASV). By this He meant a superabundance of divine chayim (life), not the fleshy, psychic, purely emotional type.

In His short life, theory and practice were fused together in an echad unity and in the Gospels we find the greatest spiritual and moral teaching of all time. The essence of His ethical teaching lay in the two great mitzvot (commandments), "You shall love Yahweh your Elohim (God) with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength...and you shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Mark 12:30-31, RSV). He condensed the whole Torah into two rules. And then He went and simplfied that even further with a new mitzvah (commandment): "Love one another, even as I have loved you" (John 13:34, RSV).

It doesn't get simpler than that. If you don't love with all your heart then all your theologising is just pontification. Love is its own justification. And that is the very heart and spiritual summit of Sukkot because Sukkot is a Marriage Feast in celebration of love - the love of the Messiah and His Bride. It started with love and it will end with it. Miss that boat and you've missed everything.

Have a blessed Day!