One of the two most important commandments that Yeshua (Jesus) told us to obey is to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, and might.

But I wonder how many of us feel that way when we pray, or just repeat what someone else wrote because we are supposed to?

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When I was a kid going to Shabbat services at the Reform synagogue I grew up attending, I always felt that there was something wrong with repeating the prayers from the Siddur (prayer book). I thought, “If I am supposed to be praying to God, why am I using someone else’s words? Shouldn’t I be praying to him directly from my heart?”

Little did I realize back then, LONG before I really knew God or accepted his Messiah, Yeshua, that I was on the right track.

I still feel somewhat coerced into praying to God when I am repeating prayers that are not my own. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some prayers that are fine to repeat because they are part of a service and not meant to be from our heart as much as a community prayer, where our prayers are strengthened through unity of purpose.

But when it comes to certain prayers, such as the Amidah, which is a very long prayer and said three times a day (and even more during Yom Kippur services), I just believe that an intimate prayer to God, which is what the Amidah is, should be personal and not “professional”.

Have you ever felt that you were bored with the service? Have you wished that the person giving the sermon would stop already?

I have, many times.

I believe if any sermon goes on longer than 15-20 minutes, it’s too long and you’re probably giving too much for anyone to really absorb. I often gave the Shabbat message at the houses of worship I attended, and I could see after 15 minutes or so the eyes of the people in the congregation begin to glaze over, like a deer in the headlights, and that meant I had lost most of them.

I confess there have been times when that one person who, when the Rabbi says, “I guess I need to close” says, “Go on, Brother- preach it! We have the time.”, well…I just want to gag him, tie him up, and lock him up in a closet just to make sure he can’t keep talking.

I am not saying that you should not go to services, or join in the prayers, but if you are feeling that this is more like forced labor than a labor of love, you need to ask yourself if you are really getting what you need from that place.

If your attendance is becoming laborious, I believe it is as much the fault of the leadership of your house of worship as it is your own need to strengthen your faith. Prayer should be fulfilling: emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. There have been times, sadly too few and far between, when I am praying to God and I feel his touch; it would cause me to tear-up, once in a blue moon even cry, and when that communion with the Lord happens I feel ethereal- like an out-of-body experience, and I know God is with me and his Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) is still alive within me.

It is a feeling that is hard to describe: a sense of being totally enveloped by an absolute love.

So, to finish today’s message (“Shut that guy up! I am done.”) how you feel when praying is an important way to know if you are truly loving God or just going through the motions. If you honestly know that you prayers are not with all your heart, soul, and might, then you need to work on your faith, to remind yourself of all the things God has done in your life (how often we forget that, especially when times are hard), and consider maybe going to a house of worship that fulfills you.

Of course, if the sermons aren’t that great but the kibbitzing with everyone there is wonderful, you can survive the sermons. No one knows whether you are praying the words from the book or from your heart.

And I believe it is never wrong to simply forget the prayer book and pray from your heart. I guarantee that you will feel closer to God that way than you ever will praying someone else’s words.

Thank you for being here and please “like” and comment on these messages, which helps me to know if I am doing well and also to get more exposure on the Internet. 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, happy holidays, and an early Shabbat Shalom!

There are two places in the Torah, both in the Book of Deuteronomy, where God says that we are not to treat him the way the pagans treat their gods.

But in the Book of Leviticus, the first 7 chapters are dedicated to tell us how to do the things that the pagans did! So, what’s up with that?

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God says not to do as the pagans do, but tells us we should sacrifice to him (which pagans do for their gods) and we are to bring him offerings of fruit (which pagans do for their gods).

I have been seeing this “don’t do as they do” command lately more than usual because it is one of the main arguments against celebrating Christmas and Easter. Personally, I am Jewish and don’t celebrate either of them, but what I do celebrate is God and his Messiah, Yeshua, so when I see people telling others that these man-made Christian holidays are pagan, just because they fall on a certain date or because they incorporate a tree (which is nothing like what Jeremiah and Isaiah talked about) and misusing this command in Deuteronomy, I have to say something.

I have already lost one of my “friends” who even honored me for years as her “mentor”, but now has rejected me and all my teachings because she is adamantly against Christmas, and I defend it. She has even gone as far to warn people in my own discussion group against following me because I support paganism. Oy!

So, let’s see what this is all about, this idea that we are not to do as pagans do yet God tells us to do the same things that pagans do.

Lety’s start with the first admonition against this in Deuteronomy 12:1-4. Here is what the verse states (CJB):

You must destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, whether on high mountains, on hills, or under some leafy tree.  Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place.
But you are not to treat Adonai your God this way.

This commandment is to be performed when the Israelites enter the land while they are conquering it, eliminating the pagan people as God directed them to do.

The main emphasis on this command is to destroy every pagan symbol and formation they find, but they are never to do that to anything that is of God. There isn’t anything here about not copying the pagan practices, only not doing to God’s standing stones and altars as they are doing to the pagan ones.

Now let’s see what Deuteronomy 18:9-12 says (CJB):

When you enter the land Adonai your God is giving you, you are not to learn how to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, a diviner, a soothsayer, an enchanter, a sorcerer, a spell-caster, a consulter of ghosts or spirits, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is detestable to Adonai, and because of these abominations Adonai your God is driving them out ahead of you.

Now we see that God is a little more detailed in what he says we should not do. And, relating the many experiences I have had with Christian friends and their families, I do not recall anyone ever doing any of those things during Christmas or Easter.

The bottom line is this: every religion has sacrifices and offerings, that is an essential part of worship. So, when a Hindu offers fruit to one of their many gods, or a Buddhist offers fruit to their god, and then a Jewish or Christian person offers fruit to the God of Abraham Isaac, and Jacob, why is it okay for the Jew and Christian but not okay for the Hindu or Buddhist?

After all, aren’t they all doing the same thing?

Yes, they are both doing the same thing and no, they are doing something totally different; it is that difference that is so important.

The difference is not what we are doing, but to whom we are doing it.

When we are worshiping the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob by obeying the Torah regulations regarding sacrifice and offerings, we are pleasing God and doing what is righteous in his eyes.

On the other hand, if we burn our children as an offering to Molech, or bring fruits to Ba’al, or sacrifice to Ashera, that is not going to get us an invitation to eternity.

For a few years now I have asked this question to those who are adamant that Christmas and Easter are pagan: “How can something be pagan when there are no pagan gods involved?”

And you know what? No one has addressed it directly- all I get is a red herring about Jeremiah and trees, or December 25th isn’t Yeshua’s real birth date, or some other comment that does not directly say how something can be pagan without a pagan god.

You know why? Because it can’t be pagan without a pagan god, and since there are no pagan gods associated with Christmas or Easter, they cannot answer truthfully because it is the one thing that will destroy their “Christmas is pagan” argument.

I have even had people tell me that Santa is thought to be a god, but the truth is that Santa has NEVER been considered a god by anyone: what a ridiculously lame attempt.

And since the Bible is pretty clear that what we do in worship is going to be accepted or rejected based on who we are worshiping, if a man-made holiday is designed to thank God for sending Messiah Yeshua by celebrating his birth (or resurrection), regardless of the tree and tinsel and Maypole and such, it honors God and his Messiah, so how is that pagan?

Unless, of course, you think God doesn’t know the difference between honoring him and Dagon, or Ba’al, or Molech, or Ashera? Personally, since we are told over and over throughout the Bible that God knows our hearts and minds, I can’t see him getting confused about who you are really worshiping.

I will agree that the real meaning of these holidays has been lost to many by over-commercialization.

So, the bottom line is this: so long as we are not doing specifically what God said not to do in Deuteronomy 18, and the holidays we do celebrate are designed solely for honoring the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thanking him for his blessings (whether they be of health, freedom, or the Messiah), we are doing what pleases God and is right in his eyes.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment or “Like” these messages to help this ministry get more exposure on the Internet, 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!

I am sure you have been told, more than once, that you are saved by faith.

I am here to tell you that faith isn’t what saves you, although it is a requirement.

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We should begin by agreeing on what it means to be “saved”, so for the purpose of this message, being saved means that at Judgment Day you will be chosen by God to live forever in his presence.

In other words, being saved means not going to Sheol, or to the Lake of Fire, but being under your own fig tree enjoying the fruits of your own vines (Micah 4:4).

Let’s talk about faith, because the truth is that faith, alone, doesn’t save anyone! Faith prepares one for being saved, and that faith has to be in one thing, and one thing only: that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send and his death was acceptable to God as a sin sacrifice for all who accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

That is an essential first step to being saved…well, actually, no- the first step is to believe in God. Duh!

The next step is to faithfully believe that Yeshua lived, died as a sin sacrifice for all people, everywhere, anytime, and that he was resurrected to life eternal, sitting at the right hand of God, interceding for those who accept him as their Messiah.

More than that, if we do believe in God, and we do accept Yeshua as our Messiah, that faithfulness MUST be demonstrated through obedience to God’s word. And I am not talking about what some religion says, but what God himself says, and that is found in only one place- the Torah.

Okay, so where are we? Oh, yeah- believe in God, accept Yeshua as your Messiah, faithfully believe he was resurrected (proving that his death was accepted by God as a sin sacrifice), and by means of that innocent blood being shed we can come to God and ask for forgiveness.

And THAT, my friends, is how we are saved- not just by faith, not just by obedience to Torah, but by being forgiven!

Yes- forgiveness is what saves us, because God cannot have sin in his presence, so to be in God’s presence forever (the very definition of being saved), we must be forgiven of all sin.

God sent Yeshua to be a once-and-for-everyone sin sacrifice so that by means of his shed blood we can have our sins forgiven, making us clean before God, allowing us to be in his presence.

And living eternally in the presence of God is what being “saved” is all about.

You must have faith to be saved, obedience to Torah to demonstrate that faith, but faith and obedience isn’t what saves you- forgiveness is the only way you can be saved, and that forgiveness is only possible through Messiah Yeshua’s sacrifice.

See how it all comes together? God gave us the Torah so we know right from wrong, and since we can’t live without sinning, he sent Yeshua to provide the means (especially after the temple was destroyed) for us to be forgiven of our sins, which is the absolutely necessary condition if we to be able to live eternally in God’s presence.

Thank you for being here and please comment and “like” these messages so I get more exposure on the Internet, and also 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, happy Hanukkah, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I have heard, as I’ll bet some of you have, too, people ask how could a perfect God make such imperfect beings as we humans?

Well, he did, and he did it for a reason.

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The reason God made us imperfect is simple- if we were perfect, we would never be stupid enough to reject God, meaning that Free Will would not really be free because we would be perfect, and perfect creatures don’t really have a choice because they’re, well….perfect, so they can’t sin.

A perfect creature would automatically accept everything God said to do and do it perfectly. There wouldn’t be any need for a Tree of Knowledge or a Tree of Life; perfect creatures would never do anything wrong because they’re, well…perfect.

But God didn’t want us to be automatons, he wanted us to have a choice to either obey, love, and honor him or to reject him and create our own gods.

Why? Because God wanted us to choose to honor him, to willingly obey his word, and to desire to worship him as the one and only true God; he didn’t want it to be natural, he wanted it to be by volition.

Again, perfect beings can’t make a mistake or choose the wrong thing to do, and that wasn’t what God wanted.

Heck, even the angels aren’t perfect, the best example being Satan. He was the most beautiful of all of the angels, but he wasn’t perfect. And, for the record, he has continued to improve on his imperfection for many centuries.

So, there it is: simple, easy to understand, yet profound.

God made us imperfect so we could have Free Will. Thereby, when we choose to do the best we can to obey his instructions for how to worship him and how to treat each other (which, for the record, are only found in the Torah), he knows that it is not a result of being made that way, but by choice.

Of course, God knows our minds and hearts, so it isn’t really for him to know, but to convince other imperfect human beings that it is a choice we made.

Faith is a choice, and a choice that we need to stick to, but only after we have been studying the Torah and the rest of the Bible. We should justify that choice by learning all we can know about God (not from a religion, and not from some letters written by a guy trying to keep his congregations on the right path, but from God, himself) so that we can feel comfortable with that faithful choice we made.

And never be afraid to question that choice because the truth will always win out against a lie, so the more you question your choices, the more you try to prove yourself wrong, the more confident you can be that your choice is the correct one.

After all, we’re only human.

Now you know why God made us imperfect; it was so we could make the perfectly intelligent choice to follow him, and not some man-made religion.

Thank you for being here and please comment and “like” these messages to help me reach more people. Also, remember 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!

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!