You might be thinking that with all the Bibles in existence today, and the billions of people who read it, how is it possible that God’s word cannot be sent out?

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Well, the answer is simple: if his word is preached incorrectly, then it hasn’t been sent out.

What do I mean when I say his word isn’t preached correctly? How about Christianity’s position that Yeshua did away with all of God’s laws and commandments (except for the Big Ten, which they’ve change), be good and love your neighbor is all you have to so to be saved, and be faithful (which they don’t correctly teach, leading people into rebellion).

Right, I need give a deeper explanation of what I just said.

First off, what they changed in the Big Ten was to remove an essential part of what God did, which is the freeing of his people. In the original Ten Commandments, the first commandment is this (CJB):

I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.

That is it- the entire first commandment as God gave it. But if you ask Google or do an Internet search for the Ten Commandments, in order, you will mostly find this Christianized version of the first commandment:

I am the LORD your God; you shall not have strange gods before me.

The reference to saving his people from slavery in Egypt is gone, and why? If you ask me (which is what you have to do since this is my ministry), I believe it is to remove any reference to Judaism. And when they took that line out, they had to fill it with something, so they took part of the second commandment and made it the first.

Next, many Christians have been taught that when Yeshua lived the law (meaning Torah) perfectly, with his death he completed it so it was no longer necessary. All that was needed was to be a good person, faithfully believe in Jesus (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean), and love your neighbor.

That means when the person stopping at the stop sign ahead of you does what the law requires, you can just drive right on through because the law was completed. And since the person ahead of you in line waited for their turn, you can just cut ahead of everyone else from now on.

No? Really? You still have to obey the law even though someone has already completed it?

That’s right, and the same goes for the Torah, even after Yeshua’s death and resurrection. The reason he lived the Torah completely was to be an acceptable sacrifice, and not to ever even suggest no one else to do it anymore.

C’mon, people, get real! He obeyed the Torah as an example to show us how to do it so that we wouldn’t have to do it? I mean, why bother? If he was showing what to do but then telling us not to do it, where’s the sense in that?

The word of God that did not go out correctly is that the Torah is no longer valid; at least, not for Gentile believers. God’s word is to obey the Torah, and Yeshua confirmed anyone following him is to still obey the Torah (Matthew 5:17), yet Christians are told they should follow in Yeshua’s footsteps but not to do anything Yeshua did. That is not God’s word, or Yeshua’s, for that matter; the real word of God was not sent out, and that is why God’s word retuned void- it was never sent out!

Being a good person is impossible for us since the son of God, himself, said that no one is good except God (Mark 10:18). Now, in the Tanakh we are told, more than once, that we are to be holy as God is holy, but that, too, is impossible. However, it isn’t meant to be taken literally, only that God is the example, the ideal, the ultimate form of holiness, and we are to strive to be as close to that as possible. Being holy actually means to be separate, and since God is separate from sin, maybe what that command really means is that we are to be separate from sin, as well.

Now you may be saying, “Okay, Steve, try to explain how being taught to be faithful is not sending out God’s word.”

I will. And I’ll start by reminding us of what James, the brother of the Messiah himself said in James 2:14:

Faith without works is dead.

Works means doing what is right in God’s eyes, and what is right in his eyes is doing what HE said to do, not what some religion says. If any religion tells you to ignore anything God said to do, then you are being misled and the word of God is NOT going out correctly- it is void before it even rebounds off the wall!

By the way, if you are wondering where in the New Covenant God said what to do, you are looking in the wrong end of the Bible. The only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us directly what he wants us to do is in the Torah. There is no where else, anywhere, where you read anything even close to this phrase:

“And God said to Moses, tell the children of Israel that the Lord, God says …… “

I don’t even like the term “Law of Moses” because it isn’t his law, it is God’s law!

When an executive dictates corporate policy to his secretary, who then writes it up, initializes it at the bottom and distributes it throughout the company, no one says it is her policy. When Moses took dictation from God and wrote the Torah, those are God’s laws, not Moses’.

There are other examples of God’s word being misstated and sent out incorrectly, but these three are enough for you to get the idea. What is left now is for you to consider what your religion has told you, then verify it in the Bible using more than just a sentence here and there- read the entire sentence, sentence within the paragraph, paragraph within the letter (or chapter), who was writing to whom, and why.

That’s called using “Circles of Context”, and you also need to check that whatever interpretation you believe is validated within the rest of the Bible (this is called Hermeneutics). In other words, if the Bible says this was an apple, but later says it is an orange, one of those two interpretations is wrong.

And be careful when reading the Epistles from Shaul (Paul), because if you are careful to read them with an open mind, you will find he says different things to different people which often seem to contradict each other, and the reason it seems that way is because….THEY DO! Remember he said that he will be whatever he has to be to get the word out (1 Corinthians 9:19). What that means is that he works his audience, teaching God’s word as he thinks they will want to hear it, presenting himself as one of them, which means he doesn’t always say what God said as God said it. That is not the Word of God going out, it is Shaul putting his own spin on it based not on God’s truth, but on who he is speaking to.

Hey, that’s what he said he does, not me.

If you do not challenge everything anyone has ever said, does say, and will say to you about the Word of God (and yes, that includes me), then you are most probably already on the wrong path to salvation and God’s word has never really reached your ears- only what some religion says.

Thank you for being here and please remember to “Like” and comment, and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so L’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot- to those in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving! (now we enter the season of turkey leftovers.)

What is worship? Some will say it is attending services at their synagogue or church; some will say it is praying to God; and some might say it is believing in God and that Yeshua is his Messiah.

And yeah, it is all of those things; but in my opinion, the best and truest form of worship is living one’s life the way that God said to live it.

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In life you will have to be obedient to something; at first, to your parents, then to your boss, and (if you follow one) to your religion.

And, if you are smart, you will share obedience to each other in a marriage.

Being obedient to your parents or boss is something that you often have little choice in, meaning that if you disobey either one of them you will suffer consequences, and they won’t be pretty.

But, in a religion, if you follow the religious tenets and rules and ceremonies you will find that you are respected by your fellow “worshippers”, and even occasionally sought out for advice.

The problem is that when you follow a religion, is that religion following God?

“How can a religion not be following God?”, you may ask. Well, let’s consider that in Christianity there are some 64,000 different forms, all supposedly doing as God said to do, the same God who the Bible says never changes.

So, nu? If God never changes, then what he says to do never changes, right? OK, so why are there 64,000 different ways to obey him?

And let’s not forget my fellow Jews, who have 6 sects within Judaism, all with different rules and what is OK and what is not OK, all (supposedly) according to the one Torah that we all follow.

We read in the Bible how God was not satisfied with the blood of bulls and sheep because the people weren’t obeying him (Psalm 40:6–8; Isaiah 1:11–31; Jeremiah 7:21–23); but when they slaughtered the bulls and sheep, wasn’t that in obedience to the rules in the Torah for sacrifice (Leviticus 1-7)?

Yes, they did what they were supposed to do, but their hearts weren’t in it, and they also sacrificed to the false gods of their neighbors, which was disobedience to God’s commandment not to worship other gods (that’s the second one in the Big Ten!)

Yeshua said we are all slaves to something (John 8:34), and the choice comes down to being a slave to sin or a slave to God. If we choose wisely (that being a slave to God- DUH!), then as a slave, obedience is required.

Shaul (Paul) and Kefa (Peter) both wrote about how a slave should be obedient to their master as a way of showing their worship of God.

In addition to that, our obedience should not be to avoid punishment! Obedience to parents, bosses, spouses, and anyone else in authority over us should always be demonstrating our worship of God.

Have you ever done something for someone you love just because you know it would please them? That is (to me) the most important reason why we should obey God.

Obedience to God should not be to earn salvation (which can never be earned), and not just to show our dedication (which is a valid reason to obey), and not just because what God says we should do is for our own good (which it is).

I believe the way to show true worship of God is to live every moment of every day showing our love for God by how we treat others and through obedience to the rules, commandments, regulations, and ordinances that are in the Torah, defining how we are to celebrate, do business, administer justice, and just generally treat others.

If you believe yourself to be worshipful, are you being worshipful every day or just going to services once a week? Are you being worshipful by treating those who are annoying and even nasty to you with respect and compassion? Are you being worshipful by reading the ENTIRE Bible, challenging what you are told (by everyone), and constantly studying God’s word on your own so that you can tell what is true and what is false?

If you aren’t doing that last thing I mentioned, then you are probably being misled and your worship of God is impotent.

Worship isn’t something that you do in church or shul, it is how you live your life. And if you want to live your life in proper worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which includes accepting Yeshua as the Messiah he promised to send, then you need to follow the Torah because that is the ONLY place where God, himself, dictates through Moses what we are to do to properly worship him.

Choose as you will to follow God or a religion, but understand that when you follow a religion, you are probably not really worshiping God, you are worshiping that religion.

God has NO religion; men created religion in order to have power over other men, so choose who or what you will worship.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and like these messages to help this ministry get more exposure on the Internet, and to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

We all know we are saved by faith, and we also all (should) know that faith without works is dead, so how do we actually walk in faith?

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First off, let’s all understand one very important thing: “works“, in the biblical sense, means to obey the instructions God gave us in the Torah.

Yeshua never taught against his father’s instruction for how to live and worship. Think about it: if he had taught against the Torah, he would have been a rebellious son trying to steal his father’s kingdom (like Absalom), and that would have been a sin. As such, he would not have been the sinless lamb, his sacrifice could not have been accepted, and there goes salvation out the window.

And as for Shaul (Paul), his letters never said to ignore or reject the Torah, only not to obey it as a means of earning salvation (legalism). His letters were to Gentiles who really didn’t understand God’s ways, and he was trying to teach them just a little at a time. The Elders in Jerusalem understood that, and when James suggested to start them off with just four requirements (Acts 15), he stipulated that this was just a beginning because these neophyte believers would eventually learn the entire Torah, since it is read at every Shabbat.

Okay, so now that we are all on the same page, whether you want to agree or not, this brings us back to how to walk in faith.

The answer is… to walk.

A leap of faith is to leap, and to walk in faith means to walk BEFORE you know where you are going, or BEFORE you get that definitive answer to prayer.

Abraham walked into the desert with everything he owned, leaving behind everyone and everything he ever knew, and he had no idea where he was going, or how long it would take to get there.

THAT is walking in faith.

Yeshua confirms this in Mark 11:24 when he said (CJB):

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, trust that you are receiving it, and it will be yours.

Faith is trusting God to know what you need and to provide it, and waling in faith is to act as if you already got the email receipt.

And you know what? That’s all there is to it. Walking in faith is taking that step forward, not really knowing where you are going or what will happen, but trusting in God that so long as you try to do as he wants, you will be okay.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment or “like” these messages so that this ministry will continue to grow, and share them with everyone you know, even non-believers., Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem! .

When we pray to God we expect that he hears our prayers, and in doing so will answer us.

But with so many people praying so often, and with so many prayer requests for so many different things, does God have to review and assign priority to the prayers he receives before acting on any of them?

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I know this: God is capable of doing so many things that no mortal, human mind can ever even come close to understanding. And, as such, when receiving what must be millions of prayers, all coming in at the same time, in hundreds of different languages, God can determine which he answers now, which he puts in his “In Box” for later, and which he just tosses into the holy trash bin.

And yes, God does deny some prayer requests, and no one should be surprised at that because so many people request things that are not really needed or even godly.

And please don’t throw John 14:13-14 in my face: do you really think if someone prayed in Yeshua’s name for a bigger car, or money for a cosmetic surgery that is only a reflection of their pridefulness, or anything born from selfish desires or hateful attitudes that Yeshua will present it to his father and ask that it be done?

I don’t think so.

I think I may know how, but can’t be really sure of the way God treats prayers he receives. I mean, how could I? I am not God and I know better than to even try to understand what he does.

That being said, I do believe God hears every prayer and that he knows which are holy and heartfelt, and which are selfish or spiteful. And I do believe I can say that he does answer every prayer, usually with one of these answers:
1. Yes, and right now.
2. Yes, but not yet.
3. Yes, but what you really need and not exactly what you asked for.
4. Yes, but not what you expect or when you expect it.
5. No, not a chance.

(Hey, like it or not, that is an answer.)

God lives on an eternal plane, where time is not lineal, so what we see as either now, then, or later is all the same to God.

So, nu! I guess the answer is that he doesn’t need to triage or assign priority because in his plane of existence, there is no timeline. Then, now, and later are all simultaneously being experienced, so triage isn’t necessary.

And you know what? I am grateful for that because it means my prayers are just as important to God as anyone else’s.

Thank you for being here and please remember to make some sort of a comment or give me a “like” to help this ministry reach more people. And also please share these messages, even with non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

When we read the letter Shaul wrote to the Galatian Believers, in Chapter 4 he mentions how the Torah acted as a guardian over children, but now that we are one with Yeshua we are no longer children under a guardian, but heirs to God’s kingdom.

My question is this: once you leave your guardian, does that mean you can reject all that they taught you?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Christianity has always used this letter to the Galatians as a polemic against following the Torah, when in actuality it is an apologetic for the Torah.

What Shaul is saying is that following the Torah as a means of earning salvation (which is what Legalism is) is useless because once you try to do everything in the Torah, you will fail. The reason you will fail is because no one can be 100% obedient to the Torah 100% of the time.

That is why God gave us the sacrificial system- so when we fail, we can recover.

But he doesn’t say the Torah is obsolete or done away with: his message is not anti-Torah, it is anti-legalistic approach to obedience to the Torah.

Yeah, I know that is somewhat hard to follow, but it is really simple: the Torah is the way God wants us to worship him (Leviticus 23) and how to treat each other (pretty much the entire Torah), and he also gives us the sacrificial system (Leviticus 1-7) because he knew that we would not be able to be 100% obedient.

Think of it as a contract with an escape clause.

As I have said, in Chapter 4 Shaul relates the Torah to being a guardian, and once we were joined to Yeshua, that guardian was no longer controlling us (or, at least, that is the way he makes it seem).

Okay, so let’s go along with that. Before Yeshua, the Torah was in charge, teaching us the way God wants us to live. Now Yeshua comes along, teaches us the deeper, spiritual meaning of the Torah (his Sermon on the Mount is a great example of that) and we follow his teachings.

Wait a minute! Christianity says Christians should obey the “Law of Christ” because we are no longer under the Torah, but Christ taught the Torah!

Uh… what?

That’s right! Yeshua taught us the Torah, even though Shaul made it seem that as our guardian the Torah wasn’t necessary after we joined with Yeshua.

Now, the question I am raising is this: a true guardian will teach you the proper way to live, to worship, and to treat others, but when you reach maturity and the guardian is no longer in control of you, should you reject everything the guardian taught you?

If you are no longer legally required to obey a guardian, does that mean once “free” you can reject all that you were taught and live any old way you want to?

Well, the answer is…Yes, you can. You can be taught all that is righteous and proper, and once you no longer have to obey that guardian, you can be as sinful and perverse as you want to be.

However, if we are talking about spiritual life, and God’s Torah being the guardian, sure you can apostatize and live as you want to, but you will suffer for it when you come to Judgement (as we all will).

And what I have never been able to “get” is that Christianity teaches you can pretty much do that.

Not to be perverse and sinful, but it teaches when you “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean), you are no longer under a guardian (i.e., Torah) so you can pretty much live anyway you want to, so long as you are a good person and love your neighbor.

Funny, isn’t it though, how Yeshua himself refused to be called good, saying only his father in heaven is good (Mark 10:18), yet Christianity teaches that you should be good.

That’s a pretty tough standard to reach, considering according to Yeshua you would have to be God.

So, nu? …where does all this mean?

Do you love someone? If you do, don’t you want to make them happy? Don’t you want to do what pleases them? Isn’t doing a “labor of love” not as difficult as doing it because you had to?

If these statements make sense to you, then you know what Yeshua meant when he said the most important commandments are to love the Lord and to love each other, because all of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.” (Matthew 22:40)

Those two requirements do not reject or do away with the rest of the Torah, they simply make it possible for you to follow the entire Torah without having to try very hard.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

In Galatians 3:28, we are told that we are all one with Yeshua. Now, since many believe that Yeshua is God, if we are one with Yeshua then are we also God?

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Before you try to cause the nearest body of water to split into two, let me say that we are certainly NOT God, or even close. And when we say we are one with Yeshua that doesn’t mean we are the same as him.

It was meant to indicate a spiritual joining and not a physical resemblance.

The Bible has many terms and statements that are meant to imply a similarity, a sense of symmetry in action and thought, but not to be taken literally.

For example, in John’s gospel (which I have often said I believe to be a false gospel) it starts by stating that Yeshua was with God from the beginning. Christianity has traditionally taken that statement to be literally true, in that Yeshua existed before his birth by Miryam, but I believe it means the idea of a Messiah, one who will allow all people, Jew and Gentile, to find forgiveness of sin was part of God’s plan from the start.

So, yeah, okay, the Messiah was with God from the start but not in form or spirit; he was always part of the overall plan, and didn’t actually appear until God chose Miryam to bring his idea to life as a physical man.

We are told that through faithfully accepting Yeshua as our Messiah, we will be one with him (meaning in spirit), but if we aren’t living the way he lived, which was in accordance to God’s instructions in the Torah, then can we truthfully say we are one with Yeshua?

What I mean is this: you have a dear friend who is a cop, but you chose to commit crimes because that is what you want to do. Now, can you truly say you are one with your law-abiding friend? You can believe he is right in obeying the law, and you are friends with him (or her), but if you live a different lifestyle you can’t say you are one with that person, either in spirit or in behavior.

So, what’s the bottom line today? (I’m glad you asked)

If you truly want to be one with Yeshua, you must live as he lived, and that means being Torah observant. You cannot say you are a follower of Yeshua if you don’t follow the way he lived, and you can’t say you are one with him if you do not live and worship as he did.

And you know what else, people? Like it or not, what I just said is not really an opinion, but a fact! You can’t say you are one with anybody if you do not live, act, worship, and believe as that person did: Yeshua lived and worshipped according to the Torah, and taught others to do the same.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch Ha Shem!