Every so often I like to remind our assembly why we have a congregation in Waxahachie.

But it’s not limited to just those who attend but those in the community need to know so I’d like to explain it this week to those who read these articles. In the 1st century many gentiles were coming into the faith and there were basic instructions given in Acts 15. These 4 instructions were the basic requirements in order to have fellowship with other believers but it was not limited to that. In v 21 it says “for Moses (Torah) from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath”. The main reason we have a congregation in Waxahachie is because Moses was not being taught anywhere. In fact, he was being taught against and that bothered me. I am quite familiar with the “we are free from the Law” theology and I have spoken out against this for years. Believers in the 1st century went to synagogues to hear Moses and to learn how to walk in Messiah. This practice has never changed but there was no place to go in Waxahachie. So I began to ask the Lord about it and asked for a sign. This was June of 1996 and I was involved in a Bible study since the late 80’s. It was a typical hot Texas summer with little rain. My father had open heart surgery in Wisconsin and I couldn’t go right away so my wife, who is a nurse, flew up to help my mother and was gone for 3 weeks and had a lot of time to concentrate on this impulse in my heart. I had a compulsion to start an assembly for quite some time and even tried to get something going several times but it never lasted, but I couldn’t shake it. I needed to confirm this one way or another. I was attending some mandatory job training in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex and during a break I looked outside and it was sunny and bright so I asked the Lord to make it rain for 15 minutes if He wanted a congregation that taught Moses to be started in Waxahachie. Now keep in mind this was a hot Texas summer. After several hours the training for that day was over around 5p.m. and I got into my car and drove down I-35 towards Waxahachie and I could see this little dark cloud going north right down I-35, coming right at me. From the time the rain hit my car to the time it stopped was 15 minutes! The Lord wanted Moses taught in Waxahachie! I didn’t say anything to anyone at first, I didn’t need to. But, we needed a place to meet so we could get out of private homes first and finally a building with a small meeting room opened up in April of 1997, 10 months after the Lord confirmed what he wanted and we moved in. The weekly Bible study began to meet there and I began to go on Saturday mornings alone, stayed alone, prepared for what was coming and left. When everything was ready and it was the Lord’s time a recovering drug addict and a homeless guy named Monty started coming. The people in the Bible study didn’t even come at first and there were some who tried to discourage me in one way or another, but I never listen to people like that and still don’t because I knew what the Lord had showed me. Slowly one would come, then another and people have been coming ever since. Some stay, some don’t but that has always been up to the Lord. Taking the example from the model of the 1st century synagogues that Paul and the Apostles set up we wanted a place where spiritual and physical needs could be met and people could serve the Lord in their particular gifts. This is not a “lifestyle” to us but our Life! It is not a place to “act holy”, we are holy, but not because of anything we do but because of what the Lord has already done. We are saved by God’s grace through the gift of faith. It begins with Him and ends with Him. There is nothing we have done to merit this salvation. The desire to obey the commandments is a sign we have the genuine gift of salvation. It is to be place where symbol is in line with the substance, balanced. We do not say “that was fulfilled so we don’t do it anymore” as many teach. Fulfilled does not mean “done away with” it means “to give meaning to, to confirm” and that is what we try to do. The Torah has many symbolic things and we try to give them substance by obeying them, the “word of God becoming flesh” if you will, finding out what the Lord was teaching through them. Nobody keeps the commandments to gain righteousness in our congregation.

We believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and the Holy Spirit is not a “sideshow” who performs at our bidding. The manifestations of the Spirit are evident and often, but they are not for our entertainment but for edification and comfort. We want people who want to serve the Lord with their whole hearts. We are not interested in people who want to make “contributions” but commitments to love the Lord and our neighbors, to lay our lives down for each other which does not include petty bickering and complaining. We are not interested in personal agendas or someone peddling their own religious bigotries or doctrines. If Moses is taught consistently and correctly the wolves in sheep’s clothing are eventually identified and dealt with by the Lord Himself. We have very seldom had to lift a finger in our own defense, the Lord is a good shepherd and an olive tree needs to be trimmed every so often. Another reason for our assembly is we know that 10 righteous in a city can deliver that city from judgment and we’ll never know in this life what catastrophes, if any, have been avoided in this city. All of the Scriptures teach that every generation was to hear the voice of God that spoke from that mountain so long ago and that is what we try to do when Moses is read in our congregation. It was Yeshua’s custom, it was Paul’s custom and every Torah observant believer’s custom to go to a synagogue in the city they were in to hear the Scriptures in the 1st century. Is our assembly perfect? No, not by a long shot. As long as people are involved there will be mistakes, errors and problems of some sort or another but with the Lord’s help and humble, repentant and pure hearts you can know that there is a lamp-stand still burning and standing in Waxahachie and that is why there is a congregation in this city. Like the commercial says, “we’ll keep a light on for you”, Lord willing!