Tzedakah

Dear Friend,
How are you? Hope you had or are having a good day, today?

On April 19th, I read 2 Peter 3:10~13:
The Day of the Lord
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

The word, righteousness, in the verse 13 was highlighted to me on that day. In Millennium and in new heavens and a new earth where we live and reign, righteousness will dwell. Jesus is our Righteousness. Interestingly enough, later when I read Psalm 37 on my bed before sleep, I spot on a few verses with the righteous or righteousness:
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (Verse 6)
A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. (Verse 16)
The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives. (Verse 21)
I (David) have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. (Verse 25)
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell in it forever. (Verse 29)
But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. (Verse 39)

And I thought to myself that I would listen to Pastor John Fenn’s teaching on righteousness (Tzedakah in Hebrew) again. Here I copy and paste part of his weekly thoughts series on it:
I’ve been talking about tzedakah, often translated as ‘righteousness’ in our Bibles, and how tzedakah in Hebrew culture and the Bible is both vertical AND horizontal. Tzedakah states for a person to be right with God vertically he must also be right with his fellow man ‘horizontally’.  
Giving and tzedakah
The word tzedakah means righteousness, but it so emphasizes the horizontal it is often translated as almsgiving, giving, or charity. Such is the importance of righteousness, that it also means ‘giving to others’.
Think of that contrast for a minute – we’ve been taught in traditional church that righteousness means ‘right standing with God’, but the very word of tzedakah means ‘giving to others’ which is a natural part of the flow from a person in right standing with the Father. 
Contrast why people give money, skills, talent, resources
In modern church culture people sometimes give to get – whether 100 fold return or trying to bribe or manipulate God as a means of meeting their need. Sometimes people give to remind Him they have a need and it is urgent. We’ve been told to “plant a seed, give to get, and God will help, you bet.” 
Relatively rare is the person who gives purely out of love of God and appreciation for the work of ministry someone is doing, with no return expected. That is where the true blessing is. The Rabbi’s noted the same human nature in their day, and stated the most pure form of giving is to help bury the dead, for that is the one way of giving there is guaranteed no way for a person to get something back from them, lol. I prefer to say “giving is its own reward”. 
In tzedakah giving is a natural outflow of our right standing before God as a way of life, not an event. In Jesus’ day it was taught that people who received alms – the lepers, the lame, the blind, the widows, the Levite’s and priests – were expected to take from what they received and give part of it to someone else in need, so the cycle of giving and receiving in Israel never stopped, but made a big circle.
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It is very clear that givers, those who give as a matter of lifestyle as a natural outflow of their tzedakah – righteousness – are blessed with what is, having lived in it for decades, a covering of protection and timing that non-givers don’t have. When you live a lifestyle of tzedakah you’ll find you’ll give way more than 10% and not even keep track – because it is your lifestyle!
Jesus said those who give will have it given back to them*, and Paul said givers ‘have all grace abound’ in their lives, and have their giving multiplied*. Besides all that, Paul said it is right that if ministers share spiritual things which are the highest truths, then those who receive those truths should give back (lower creation) material things*. Luke 6:38, II Corinthians 9:8-11, I Corinthians 9:7-14.
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In this series I’ve explained why it is impossible for a true disciple, not just a believer, but a disciple, to be continually self-focused, self-centered. To be righteous before God one must also be righteous within relationships with others. It is by our love they will know us. That isn’t love held silently and secretly in our hearts for others, but love demonstrated to others. That is tzedakah – righteousness.

Later on April 30th, I went to my hairdresser’s salon. Going to the hairsalon is not merely for getting some work done in my hair, but rather for our fellowship. Always excited before meeting her, I would say to the Father how excited I am.  On that day, as she started working on my hair, she shared some updates on how she had been. Listening to her, I felt the Father was talking to us about Tzedakah. Earlier last month, on April 1st, she and I had a great time for about 5 hours or so. On that day, she took a half day off from noon, closing her salon, and made an appointment with the oriental medicine clinic she introduced to me. The reason being was that I gave her some money as a gift and wanted her to get herbal medicine with it from the clinic. As I took herbal medicine for myself for a month and had benefits from it, I wanted to give herbal medicine to her to share the Father’s love. Herbal medicine is quite expensive, but I wanted to share the love that I received from the Father. So we planned to go to the clinic together in the afternoon on that day. I also appreciated her, as she took a half-day off and spent all the afternoon with me. I took her to a good Korean restaurant for lunch, and we received the Father’s favor there. And I showed her around famous tourists’ spots and my secret place with the Father near my place and the oriental medicine clinic. Excited, she said, “Sister, I’ve never been here before, though I lived in Seoul for 2 decades.” And I invited her to my place, after we went to the clinic together. My mom and she met one another for the first time, and mom welcomed her, hugging her tightly. Both of them liked one another. Later I learned from her that she was in tears back at home, thinking of my mom, as her heart-felt welcome reminded her of her late grandmother. Then, she said to me that she wanted to share the love she received from me with one of her old friends. Her friend didn’t have a good upbringing, losing her mom when she was little. Later his father also passed away when she was young. Now, she is married and has three children, but her health is not good, and she is not happy with her life at all. Financially she is ok, but she has no faith in Jesus, and she has been very negative in everything. So, my hairdresser wanted to share gospel with her as well as the Father’s love. She took 2 days off, to spend them totally for her friend. She invited her to her place to stay one night there, as her friend lives in Busan, a southern part of our country. And she made a reservation for nice restaurants, massage place, and the oriental medicine clinic. She wanted to give her herbal medicine as a gift and also wanted her to know her body constitution and be on a diet accordingly. My hairdresser gave her friend an extravagant gift out of pure love, as she received love from me and felt the Father’s love. And she also asked the doctor who converted from Buddhism to Christianity to help her when she encouraged her friend to believe Jesus. And he did. And she shared an amazing testimony that the goodness of the Father continued to follow them for the 2 days she spent with her friend. After I heard her out, I felt the Father was talking to me on righteousness and I shared what I learned from Pastor John’s teaching with her. And I was so encouraged to literally see how our righteous acts influence others. Our love toward our friends, neighbors, etc. overflows to others. We love God vertically and love brethren and even unbelievers horizontally. That’s a cross.

Lastly, I want to share more about healing that Pastor John Fenn wrote regarding Tzedakah, as giving is not merely material giving:
Why Jesus healed
Jesus’ life in the gospels was living tzedakah as a flow of being right before the Father, and therefore He did healings and miracles as evidence of His righteousness – not just to prove who He was, – but as evidence His life was righteous and what He said about the Father was right and people could therefore believe in Him.
Jesus did not go about ‘doing good’ trying to brand Himself as the newest product from heaven, He went about doing good because He IS good. And so is the Father. When He said He is meek and lowly in heart, He was telling the truth. He is meek and lowly because the Father is first meek and lowly.
When He turned water into wine He didn’t advertise the fact but let the groom and bride receive the honor. Did you get that? Jesus though the Son of God in the flesh, allowed an unamed bride & groom receive the credit and honor for the wine. Sometimes He would tell people not to tell anyone when He healed them. Those are His values. That is His humility. That is how He expressed tzedakah – righteousness.
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Why have we been given the name of Jesus?
Healing and the things of the Spirit therefore aren’t side-show attractions at the Christian Carnival, with people gathering to see a leg grow out or go to a meeting to see the latest ‘manifestation’ where God allegedly turns people into blathering idiots, causes them to bark like a dog, or shake like a leaf in the wind.
NO! Healing is part of God the Father’s own tzedakah (right-ness), that He pours out to us because He is righteous. And in the flow of living water from the throne from Him through us*, that righteousness is to be demonstrated and proven by healing acts of love towards our fellow man! *Revelation 22:1; John 7:38-39

Friend,
I believe no matter whether sharing the gospel, healing others or giving our resources, they are all righteous acts toward others. I pray that you and I walk in Tzedakah, and our love overflows to others.
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Have a bliss!
Julie

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:37~40)