Author: Steven R. Bruck

How to Give a Sleepless Sermon

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Sometimes I am both blessed and trusted by my Pastor and asked to deliver a Shabbat message. I am sure there are others out there who are not the congregational leader but also are asked to deliver a message now and then. Or maybe you are a congregational leader and you would just like to improve your skills at presenting the Word of God.

No matter what your title, when you give a message to the congregation, that’s when you want to know not just what you are talking about, but how to talk about it.

There’s the one about a new Rabbi, and he is giving his first Drash. He notices Mr. Greenstein, who he had talked with earlier, falls asleep during the sermon, but at the end of the day walks out shaking the Rabbi’s hand and says, “Good sermon, Rabbi.” This goes on for a few weeks, and finally the Rabbi says, “Mr. Greenstein: how can you say it was a good sermon when you fall asleep all the time?”  The man replied, “Rabbi: if I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

Giving a sermon, or message, or Drash…whatever we call it, is both an honor and a responsibility. My mentor, Rabbi Jeff Friedman, taught me much about giving sermons. I was a pretty good talker before that but he really set me straight on what to do, and I would like to share that, as well as what I have learned from giving sermons and being in sales for many years (yes, a sermon is a sales pitch, or a sort.)

1. First of all, you need to stick to the Word. No one has a better message than God, and whereas human endeavors can fail or fall short, we know that the Word of the Lord never returns void. So keep yourself out of it, and let God give the sermon. That is easy enough to do- make sure everything you say is from the Bible and can be found, using proper Biblical interpretation tools (see some of the blogs I have done on that), in the Bible.

2. Remember that there are many people, with different attention spans, listening to you. Watch your audience and see if they are getting glossy-eyed. If you feel like you are driving with high beams on into a herd of deer, stop. The Word may not return void, but you should still give it a good chance to be heard. No one knows what you are going to say, so they don’t know how much you have to say. That means if it looks like it is time to stop, stop. Stay to your notes, but go with the audience.

3. That is another good thing to do- stay with your notes. Your notes are correct and accurate, but if you start to go off on a tangent, it had better be led by the Ruach or you need to stop. Once we start off on something, there is too good a chance we will start to give personal opinion. That’s when we start to misuse the position. People aren’t there to hear what we think, and we aren’t supposed to tell them what we think- we are there to tell them the Word of God. If you think you can say something more important or useful than what God has told us, then you shouldn’t be on a pulpit because you think you belong on a pedestal. If you have a personal thought that you really, really believe is sticking to the Word but your own opinion, make sure you tell the people that before you say it. Shaul was a godly man and spread God’s word, but when he gave a personal opinion he let us know that.  We are there to give God’s message, not our own.

4. This is a sales pitch. You aren’t selling knives, or laundry detergent, but you are selling the idea that people have to do as God says. And for non-Believers you need them to want to “buy-in” to salvation. Og Mandino wrote a series of stories, and the first one is called, “The Greatest Salesman Who Ever Lived.”  If you haven’t read any of his work, that’s the one to start with. We need to use the basics of a good pitch:

A. No Negative Selling: fear is a lousy sales tool. Get off the fear of suffering in hell and stick to the wonders of salvation that bring peace and joy to you NOW. People don’t care about the future but they want what they want N–O–W. Stay with the present to get them to buy into the future.

B. Don’t tell Them They’re Wrong: people believe only half of what they hear, but 100% of what they say. Don’t argue against their beliefs, but ask questions that will make them second guess their own statements. If you want them to believe you, you first need to get them to doubt themselves, and that will only happen when they hear themselves question their own statements. Don’t lead off with your beliefs, but ask them leading questions to get them to doubt theirs. Most people I have met believe what they have been told because they are too lazy to research it themselves, so it is fairly easy to get them to doubt themselves. They don’t really know why they believe, other than that’s what they’ve been told.

C. Maintain a Sense of Urgency: we have until our final breath to accept Messiah Yeshua and ask forgiveness through His name. Therefore, we can wait until the last second, but unless you know exactly the moment you will die, you don’t know how much time you have. If you want the peace and serenity that God offers to us on Earth, and you want that during your lifetime, you’d better not wait. After all, why put off having something that you really want now? (here would be a good time for the parable about the man who wanted to be saved but had all these other things to do first. If you don’t know which one I am talking about, it’s in the Gospels- go find it.)

D. Don’t Talk After the Sale: Don’t shove it down their throat, and when they are asking questions answer them truthfully and with short, to-the-point answers. And give it time to sink in.

E. Always be Selling: When you are taking with someone and they are starting to see the light, with each point you make confirm that this is something they would like. If their life seems overwhelming, and they ask about the peace that the Ruach can bring, tell them about your life and others you know where the Ruach has brought you peace (third party testimony is strong), then confirm that with the question, “Doesn’t that sound like what you want in your life? Wouldn’t you like to have that right now?” Every statement should end with a confirming question.

F. Be in Control: the one who is in control of the conversation is the one asking the questions. You will need to answer their questions, but do the “Jewish” thing- answer a question with a question. Why? Why not? The person asking questions is the one controlling the conversation, so make sure you answer their questions truthfully and without going on forever- then finish with a leading, confirming question, like,”Isn’t that what you told me you were looking for?”, or “Does that sound like something you would want to have in your life?”

4. Keep It Short, Keep it Simple, and Be Entertaining. If you are talking to a crowd of people you have, maybe, 15- 20 minutes to keep their attention, then it’s sleepy-time. Oh, yes, there are those high-spirited Believers who will call out, “Take your time! No rush! Preach it, Brother! You tell it, Sister!” They make it hard on everyone else who have already had their fill. Yes, they have had their fill. We are humans, not spirits. We live within a linear time frame and can’t really be expected to stay alert and attentive for much more than 20 minutes. So be entertaining, and don’t be afraid of a little interaction with the crowd. I used to give sales pitches in the home that took 4-6 hours. The best compliment I received wasn’t just a signed contract, but the people would look at their watch as I was finished and say, “Oh my! Look at the time- I didn’t realize we kept you here so long.” They thought they kept me there! The truth is that I kept them at the table and for hours, yet they thought it was nothing. That’s good selling and why I was a very successful salesman. I also have had a lot of positive feedback to my sermons. I was given a gift of being able to use humor and serious, stinging statements that reach right into your heart and grab you by the soul. This is from God. I used and honed it when selling products, and have turned it into selling His Word. When you sell the Word of God you have the perfect product. Everyone needs it, everyone wants what it offers, and the only reason everyone doesn’t have it is because the Enemy is also a very good salesman. What he sells is a lie, but one that is so tempting that most people fall for his pitch. If you can use humor, a good laugh (even just a chuckle) will buy you another 5 minutes or so. And when you use humor correctly, as both a way to relieve tension and to open up feelings, you can be very convincing and effective.

5. Practice, practice, practice. Remember the Rule of the 6-P’s: Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. Know your topic, know your sermon, and talk through it for at least 5 or 6 times before you give it.

6. Show how this applies to their life.  At the end of the message, leave time to show ways to apply what God has for them in their life, now. Whatever the meaning of the sermon, give them ways to use that in their life. If you talk about peace of spirit, tell them how to use that to relieve stress. If you are talking about forgiveness, tell them ways to forgive and offer opportunities for them to do so. Don’t leave things with what God says, but leave them with what God says and how to use it.

7. Trust in the Lord and His Ruach to lead you. Yeshua told His Talmudim (Disciples) not to worry about what they will say because the Ruach will guide them and give them the words they will need. Pray for God to guide your words, and to always give glory and honor to Him through your sermon. Let God be the wind and you be the instrument He uses to make beautiful music.

Parashah Bo (Go) Exodus 10:1-13:16

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Here we see the final culmination of the plagues against Egypt. So far the plagues have destroyed much of their cattle and most of their crops, but the locusts are coming to finish off everything that wasn’t already destroyed. Next, three days of darkness: the ultimate defeat of Ra, the sun god and their major diety.

Finally, the coup de grasse: the death of all the firstborn. And with this horrible plague comes both the end of Hebrew slavery, and the beginning of the Nation of Israel. It is the first day of the first month of their existence as a free nation. You know that expression, “This is the first day of the rest of your life?” I think this is where it started.

The sacrifice of the Passover lamb, however, is somewhat misunderstood, especially when we refer to the sacrificial death of Yeshua/Jesus during that fateful 1st Century Pesach celebration.

Yeshua is often referred to as the Lamb of God, or the Paschal Lamb. But the passover lamb sacrifice was not a sin sacrifice. The sin sacrifice was to be presented and killed at the tabernacle. There would be a portion given to the Priest and the rest was to be burned on the alter. The remainder portion for the Priest was to be eaten in a holy place, and only by the male priests. The blood was to be sprinkled against the altar and poured onto the ground.

That is not the regulation for the passover lamb.

The peace offering is treated differently. With a peace offering the person presenting the offering is allowed to eat the flesh, and can share it with others. The Passover Seder is exactly that- a peace offering that is shared with others. It is not a sin offering.

Yeshua may be called the Paschal lamb, but His death was a sin sacrifice. The paschal lamb is a peace offering.

It was Pharaoh who should have been making a sin offering. Although he didn’t have any intention of doing so, the Lord made that choice for him. The choicest of Pharaoh’s possessions were being sacrificed to the Lord to atone for the sins he had committed against God’s people. And even though Pharaoh had no intention of doing so, he did make a sin sacrifice: he lost his first born, and the firstborn of all his people. And from then on, the first born of both people and animals from the nation of Israel belonged to the Lord.

At the same time the people of Israel were making a peace sacrifice to the Lord, the people of Egypt were making a sin sacrifice to the Lord. There was a peace offering, and a sin offering; there was communion and there was punishment. Two sides of the same coin.

Fifteen hundred years after the first Passover, as the people were making their peace offering, Yeshua was offering up His own body as a sin offering for the people. It was history repeating itself, anew. The Passover in Egypt was the beginning of the physical freedom from slavery, and the Passover in Jerusalem 1,500 years later was the beginning of the spiritual freedom from sin. We normally associate these two freedoms on Shavuot, 50 days (give or take) after the Passover Seder, but it really happened after dusk on the night of that Seder.

God commanded that on Yom Kippur we perform the sin sacrifice for all the people, yet Yeshua was a sin sacrifice for all the people on Passover? What’s with that?

Yeshua is both sides of the coin- He is both the sin sacrifice and the ultimate peace offering. His sacrifice was first for the sin of the people while they enjoyed a peace sacrifice. When He returns, he will be bringing peace and communion to the people of God while the rest of the world will be suffering for their sin. Passover and Yom Kippur are the two sides of the coin of salvation. The first Passover saw the sin offering of the Egyptians (their firstborn) and the peace offering of Israel. The Passover of salvation saw the sin offering of God’s firstborn and the peace offering of Israel. The final Passover (which may not be on Passover, but more likely will be around Yom Kippur) will see the sin offering of the world and the final and eternal peace for those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah.

Peace and suffering, two sides of the same coin and both working together to make salvation possible.

If you aren’t sure which side you are on, ask God for forgiveness, accept Yeshua as your Messiah and ask Him to send to you the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit.) Then start to read the Bible through the eyes of God’s Spirit so you can truly see what He has in there for you.

Be Intolerant To Tolerance

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I have often said (and most likely will continue to do so) that whatever the “world” sees as correct and justified is most likely not so in God’s eyes.

Every day we see evil and wrong-doing, and most of the time we just look the other way. Is that wrong? From what I read in the Bible, it is. Does’t God tell us that if we see an enemy’s donkey under a load that is too much for it, we should help? Doesn’t Proverbs tell us to give our enemy food and water? Doesn’t Yeshua tell us to forgive someone not 7 times, but 70 times 7 times? Doesn’t the Bible command us to love our neighbor as ourself?

We also, way too often, are too afraid to speak out against what God says is wrong. We don’t want to appear “intolerant” or racist/homophobic/bigoted, or whatever other label someone wants to place on a person who simply disagrees with them.

If I say that a person who is homosexual is doing what the Bible says is wrong, I am accused of being homophobic and an intolerant bigot. If I say that a homosexual person is perfectly normal, acceptable, and that he or she is not sinning or doing anything wrong, I am looked upon by the world as  a tolerant and wonderful person. But in God’s eyes I am wrong.

For the record- I am not saying the KKK, the Aryan Nation, or any other violent and hate-crime related organization or member is acceptable or that hating someone for their color, religion, lifestyle choice or any other reason is OK. It is not. Don’t go off of the deep end here- I am talking about “socially acceptable” levels of disagreement and not violent or bigoted feelings and actions that are not biblically defined.

God is clear about homosexuality. It is a sin, but it is no more or less a sin than lying, since every sin is a sin. If I say I just don’t believe homosexuality is a correct way of life I am called all sorts of nasty names; however, if I say I am against lying I am perfectly alright. Why? Because the difference between whether I am a bigot or OK is what the world says I should accept. In God’s eyes, though, wrong is wrong.  God doesn’t really put sin in different categories: this one is a major sin, this is a minor sin, you need three of these to even count…violation of a single stroke in the Torah is a sin. Yes, there are sins that require death and sins that do not, but my point is that any sin separates us from God, and we should speak out against any and all sin. And do so remembering that we, also, are sinners.

I believe everyone has a right to choose what they will be and what they will do, so long as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of others. Be whatever you want to be, but don’t force it on me or demand I agree with you. Have you noticed how some people, no matter what their belief or position, will raise a holy stink about how they aren’t allowed to just be themselves, but when you disagree with their position they call you a bigot or some other nasty name? What hypocrites! They cry for their right to be what or who they are, and demand to be accepted when they make their own choice, but if you choose to disagree with them you are wrong! Being tolerant in the world means not just accepting a different lifestyle or belief, or religion, or color…it means you have to change your mind about it. The world says that tolerance means you not only have to live with it, but also accept it as correct and normal behavior, and you have to like it, too!

If I say I don’t believe that something is right, and won’t change my mind, I am wrong! I am intolerant, I am a bigot, I am not a good person.Well, then I guess, as far as the world is concerned, I am just that. Yes, I do not believe many of the things we see in our society are acceptable behavior, I do not believe they are healthy for the society, and I believe they are wrong. In God’s eyes, using the Bible as my guideline, they are wrongful acts and doing those things is committing a sin against God.

There! I said it. I am against the world.

Apathy is no better than intolerance, but at least when you don’t give a darn about anything, you are more likely to be accepted. Not caring is one step less annoying than having an opinion. However, as far as God is concerned (disagree if you want but you will be wrong…just joking) not doing the right thing in God’s eyes is the same as doing the wrong thing.

I guess this little rampage I am on is a pet peeve of mine, so please excuse me if I am talking more about what Steven feels today than (maybe) what God says. I do believe my minor rampage is still biblically accurate and appropriate, and if I am too much about my own opinion and getting away from what God teaches us, someone please let me know.

We who are professing to love the Lord, who say we believe in Yeshua as the Messiah and have accepted God’s Grace, and who have the Ruach HaKodesh living within us: we are the ones that are supposed to be separate from the world. And, as such, we need to have the strength and faith in God to voice our opinion when we see something that is against what God says. And we should do it when appropriate, and with loving compassion. Not agreeing with someone is no reason to accuse them of being anything but wrong in God’s eyes. Hate the sin, but love the sinner.

The Torah was given to Israel to separate them from the world. Within Torah the Levites are separated from the other tribes. The closer we get to God, the more separated we become from the world around us.

If the world says following God and proclaiming God’s Word is intolerant and bigoted, you can hang that sign on me. It may be just another type of big yellow Star of David that separates me from the rest of society, but if I must wear the Star, I will do it, proudly.

Yes, I am intolerant of sin. Yes, I will speak out to those who ask me what I believe exactly what the Bible says and what God demands, which is what I believe. Yes, I will call something that is defined in the Bible as a sin, a sin. Yes, I will not let someone, no matter who, that is doing wrong not be given the chance to know what God says so they might do T’Shuvah, and be saved.

No, I will not hate the sinner. I will hate only the sin. No, I will not attack or suggest harm should come to anyone who sins because that is God’s purview. Do not return evil for evil, but wait upon the Lord.  No, I will not walk by or look away when someone is doing wrong to another.

Shaul said that we live in the world but we are not part of the world. Not anymore. It is not easy; Yeshua said those that follow Him must pick up and carry their own execution stake every day. We must be dying to self, which means becoming more and more separated from the world. That means separated from what is comfortable, what has been pleasurable, from friends, from family, even from those closest to us, if it comes to that.

Tolerance and apathy are two sides of the same coin, and as a Believer we don’t want that coin in our pocket. As Yeshua said, give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and give unto God that which is God’s. Let what the world calls “tolerance” belong to the world, and let those who follow God be separated from it.

It’s Not Where It Is That Matters: It’s What It Says

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How many people do you know that can quote chapter and verse from the Bible? In fact, can’t we all? Isn’t one of the basic training exercises for Bible study to remember a favorite quote or story, and where to find it?

If you read this blog regularly (and thank you, if you do!) you know that I rarely tell you where something is. That’s not because I don’t know, its because I believe two things:

1. Everyone needs to read the Bible, but the way it is taught is to tell you where the quote is from. Now why bother reading it, right? Telling you where to find it almost prevents you from looking for it, which keeps you away from the Bible. Making you look for it brings you closer to the Bible, and what God has for you in there won’t be found by someone else telling you what it says; and

2. It doesn’t matter where it says something in the Bible- what matters is that you know what God wants you to know.

Have you ever had a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness? If you want to talk to someone who knows where nearly every word of the Bible can be found, that’s the person you want to go to. Unfortunately, the ones I have talked to (even before I knew God) have little or no understanding of what they are quoting. If you ask them about it, they will tell you another quote. If you question them, they will tell you another quote. But they don’t understand the meaning.

I don’t want to insult any JW’s out there, but this is my experience, as well as the experience of other people, knowledgeable of the Bible, who I have talked to about this.

The blood of bulls and sheep is not what God wants. He doesn’t want the circumcision of the flesh without the circumcision of the heart. Yeshua did not teach anything new; in fact, as you have read and heard me say many times, there is nothing new in the New Covenant writings. Yeshua interpreted the Word correctly, which is why it was so powerful. He didn’t tell us where God’s messages and commandments were found, He told us what they really mean. He went beyond just repeating what God says, and transformed our understanding.

Yeshua showed us that performance of God’s commandments is necessary, but living them is what we should be doing. In other words, don’t just repeat what is in the Bible but live it.

That’s all I want to say. I know I usually ramble on a little more, but what else is there, really, to say?

Live the Word of God. The Word became flesh so we can know God better, and so we can be with God in the Olam Haba (World to Come.) God has something in His Word just for you, but if you don’t look for it you will never find it. Seek, and you shall find, and what you find will change your life and the life of others.

You can make a change in people’s lives, as well as your own, but not by sitting still and listening- you need to get off your tuchas and DO something! Reading the Bible is an easy way to start, and the best way.

So go read something now!

The Meaning of Life

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Ah, yes…the quintessential question, the ultimate knowledge, what philosophers throughout time have sought to know.

And I am going to give it to you now…ready?

The meaning of life is….to prepare for death. That’s it. Nada mas. Nichts mehr. Yener iz gants!

God originally made us to worship Him and, more than just that, to be with Him. We have children for many reasons, but mostly they are a natural result of being in love. Be in love; make love; have kids. You don’t need to be a genius to figure that one out.

God had children, but since He is above humanity and is a Spirit, He didn’t need anyone else to help. Adam and Eve were His children, as we all are, and just as we want the best for our children, we want them protected from harm and to be with us forever, God was able to have that.

Until Adam and Eve screwed it up.

After the Fall we all lost our immortality, and the mortality rate got shorter and shorter. A few generations after the Flood it was down from hundreds of years to about 100. Today we are at about the same as it was in Moshe’s time; we get to live up to somewhere in the eighties. A nice number, if you’re talking about the weather, but not where we started.

Since eternity is no longer available to us during our “first” lifetime, we have to use the first lifetime to prepare for where we spend the second lifetime. That’s why I say the meaning of life is to decide where we will spend our second life, for all eternity.

Yeshua is the Messiah, and through Him we can repair the rift between us and God that the Fall began, and the rest of history has widened. There are many religions, none from God (remember that God has no religion- only His laws and regulations) so we need to spend our lifetime now figuring out what we will believe, who is the Messiah, and will we do as God wants or as the world wants.

In other words, whose slave will you be: slave to sin or slave to God? That’s the choice you have your entire lifetime, however long or short it may be, to determine.

Once we are in front of His throne, there is no going back. And there is no appeal process, either.

The real question isn’t, “What is the meaning of life?”; it’s, “How long will I live?” That will let you know when you need to make that important decision. Since none of us know when we will die, don’t you think you should make that decision as soon as possible?

There you have it, Brothers and Sisters: the meaning of life. Now that you know the answer, if you are reading this and you haven’t made your choice between the world and God, unless you know exactly when you are going to die, better get with the program and choose.

Who knows how much time you have left to decide?

To Do Things Right, It Must Be From God

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Real simple: nothing of this world is righteous. The world is a cursed place, and therefor all that is of the world is born cursed.

We are a cursed species, and therefor what we create, perform and desire is from a cursed and sinful mentality.

Ouch! Have some more coffee, Steve, or maybe have less! What a way to start the morning.

Well, it is a rather stark and unhappy realization, but it is true. The Bible tells us the world was cursed, the Enemy was not thrown into Sheol but thrown down to the Earth, and we are told he is the Prince of the Air.

If the world is cursed, we are cursed, and the Enemy rules on Earth, what hope is there for us to do anything right?

My hope is in the Lord, He is my light and my salvation. David knew that some 2,800 years ago. And he was right, of course.

If we want to do something that is holy and righteous, we need it to stem not from us but from God. That comes from the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, that indwells us when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah and ask for God’s forgiveness through Yeshua.

I believe that God will forgive anyone who asks with a broken spirit and contrite heart, even if they are not a confirmed “Believer”. Why? Because that’s how God rolls- He loves all His children, and we are all His children, so He is willing to forgive. He tells us so in so many ways throughout the Tanakh.

But to receive the Holy Spirit we need to do more than be repentant- we need to do T’Shuvah (turn from sin) and accept the gift of Grace that is Yeshua Ha Mashiach. Then we can receive the Ruach and with the spirit of God inside us, we are able to overcome the cursed world, and our own sinful nature. It isn’t easy, but it is possible. Greater is that which is in me that that which is in the world.

I offer this simple thought this morning, which I also believe to be a simple truth: nothing that is from the world (flesh) is of God, and anything of God overcomes everything that is of the world.

The downside is when you do what is right in God’s eyes, the world rejects and hates you. Here’s the $64,000 question: who are you going to please? The world, which offers some immediate pleasures that result in separation from God and eternal suffering, or God, who offers peace, forgiveness and eternity in Paradise?

Ooh, that’s a tough one…how much time to I get to decide? You get until your last breath; do you know when that will be?

As you go forth today think of what I am saying, and see the world for what it is. It is God’s creation, it is beautiful and wondrous, and it is our home. It was created perfectly for us to live in, and we were given dominion over it.

And that’s where it got screwed up. When mankind was made manager the whole business went down the toilet.

Luckily, God is as good a plumber as anything else, and he provided the ultimate Rotor Rooter man- Yeshua. Yeshua went into the toilet, lived in it, overcame it, and emerged smelling like a rose. And He is standing there, plunger in hand, waiting for everyone else to grab hold and get pulled out.

After I die I will be pulled out of the toilet, not flushed down with what is all around me. And I will spend eternity with God and Yeshua.

You have a choice- get flushed down the toilet or call Rooter Rooter.

Parashah Va’Ayra (I appeared) Exodus 6:2 – 9:35

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We read on this Shabbat from the Torah about how God begins the wondrous works that eventually gain the freedom of His people from Egyptian bondage. During this parashah we read of the first plagues released upon Egypt, up to the sending of hail. God is showing His power, and not just His power, but His power over the Egyptian gods, even to the point of demonstrating that Pharaoh, a god to the Egyptians, is powerless against the God of the Hebrews.

What I want to talk about is not the miraculous signs and works (don’t forget the staff turning into a snake and Moses’s hand turning leprous, then being healed) but the fact that even though some of these plagues could be explained away, they are still miracles.

Science today thinks that because something can be explained, that makes it more of an event than a miracle. We can explain how the digestive system works in living things. Even a child can pretty much understand you eat it, your stomach takes the good stuff and your blood moves it all over your body, and what you don’t need you get rid of at the other end. The more we learn about the science of digestion, the more intricate and detailed the explanation can become. But that doesn’t change the essence of the whole thing- it’s a miracle! Think about it: you eat something and you get nutrition from it. It saves your life, or, if it’s the wrong thing to eat it can kill you. Eating a lot of chocolate can make a human feel better, but eating a lot of chocolate can kill a dog. Isn’t that wondrous? Isn’t that just, like, so weird? One man’s food is another man’s poison.

The Nile turned to blood. There were frogs, lice, flies and disease all over the land, on both cattle and people. It’s all explainable, right? What if some mold or natural pollution up river (which would be south of Egypt, since the Nile flows the wrong way) caused the water to become reddish? There is a mold here in Florida that is causing the river fish to die because it is literally choking them to death, taking the oxygen from the water. What if this happened then? If the river was not supporting life, wouldn’t the life in the river come out onto the land? There is a fungus killing off frogs all over the world today. It’s called Chytrid, and to date has killed off nearly 1/3 of all frogs in the world. We don’t know what causes it, we can clean a frog infected with it, but then the frog can catch it, again. What if there was a mold in the river that discolored it, then that mold also got on the frogs and started killing them off? Wouldn’t the flies and lice come to lay their eggs in the rotting flesh of the dead frogs? These bugs carry diseases that the cattle would catch, and the Egyptians would also get sick. Lice and flies can cause rashes and without the modern medications the rashes could develop into infected sores.

All of this is science, it is explainable. So does that mean there is no God behind it? Just because I can understand the mechanics of a miracle, does that make it less of a miracle?

Here’s a cute story:

One day a bunch of scientists were talking about how they now understand diseases and how they work, and eventually will be able to cure them all. In fact, they will be able to prevent them, and maybe even genetically destroy them altogether. They even told God He wasn’t needed since we now understand all about how the world and humans work. God said to them, “Can you make a man from a handful of clay?” The scientists talked about it amongst themselves, then said, “Yes, we believe that we can.” God said, “Go ahead- show me.” So the scientists went out into the garden and grabbed a big handful of clay. That’s when God said, “Oh, no! That’s my clay- you have to make your own.”

We are such an egocentric people. We think that mankind is the ultimate life form in the Universe. May I remind us all that God is alive, too, and we aren’t better than Him! We think that because we understand something God has designed we are as wise and capable as God.  Not true. Not even close! The apple wasn’t that powerful.

In your life, do you see the miracles that occur everyday? Do you even look? We need to understand and accept that what God allows us to understand about His ways is for our benefit. It is to remind us of His wonderful love and affection for us. It is also to remind us of who is in charge. I love to watch a thunderstorm (from inside, of course): the strength of the wind and rain, the frightening sound of the thunder, and the awesome power of lightening. It reminds me of God’s ultimate power, strength, and creative abilities. I feel only pity for anyone who no longer can see these wonders for what they are, but only observes them and thinks how the clashing of different fronts causes the water droplets in the air to coalesce and fall. The temperature differences cause the winds to move at accelerated speed, and the free electrons in the atmosphere gather together and are attracted to the positively charged ground, causing the discharge of their combined kinetic energy. I may not be exactly correct in this description of a storm, but it doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Not too wondrous; not even worth listening to, actually.

Miracles happen every day, all around us. The opening and closing of a flower, a bee flying to and fro, grass growing, even someone dying. Why do we die? If you’re hit by a bus, well, that’s an easy enough explanation. But what about just dying? Alive one minute, then the next minute you “give up the ghost.” If the heart, lungs, blood flow, etc. are all working, why does it just stop? Why did people live hundreds of years at a time when we didn’t even have band aids or Bactine, yet in the modern world, with all our medical knowledge and ability, we can’t get much past our eighties?

If you think about how unbelievably idiotic we are, as a species, it’s a miracle we are still alive, at all! We destroy our environment, we destroy ourselves, we drink the wrong stuff, we smoke the wrong stuff, we eat all the wrong stuff (and too much of it, too.) We even have TV shows that demonstrate just how absolutely self-destructive we are (they call it reality TV, and they are right. That’s what it is!) If anyone ever tells me they doubt the existence of God, I ask them how, given all that we do to ourselves and our world, could we have ever survived this long if there wasn’t a gracious, loving, compassionate and all-powerful God keeping us alive?

Make your day, your week, heck- your whole life- more interesting; enjoy that wonderful, childlike fascination with the world simply by looking for the miracles. Forget the reasons why. Who cares why? Just enjoy what God does for us, everyday. That’s the lesson in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes)- live, eat, and enjoy what God has provided. Just forget about trying to understand or explain it because that’s all just “chasing the wind.”

Here’s the message I have for you from today’s parashah: look for the miracles, appreciate them, and enjoy God.

How Did The Kingdom of God Split?

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The Kingdom of God was preached to us by Yeshua. Even if you don’t believe He was/is the Messiah God promised, He did preach about God’s kingdom. He never created a new religion.

So if Yeshua was Jewish, preached about Jewish law and customs, stuck totally to what the Torah tells us (there wasn’t any other scripture then: Duh!!) and never created or spawned a new religion, why is it that we have Judaism and Christianity today?

Shouldn’t we just have Jews that don’t believe He was Messiah and Jews that do? We have Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic Jews; if you look close, you would think the difference between the Orthodox and Reform Jews is enough to be two totally different religions.

Within Christianity you have Catholics (Eastern and Western), Protestants, Methodists, AME, Amish, Episcopalians, Baptists (Southern and others), Lutherans, et.al. ad infinitum.

But if the Jews all follow the Torah, and the Christians all follow Jesus, how can there be so many different types? With such divergent beliefs?

The answer is because these religions, all of them, are not from God. They are from mankind. They are the improper and sinful (yes, sinful and blasphemous, actually) creations of people who think they know more than God.

God has no religion. He told us how to worship Him and how to get along with each other. His laws, rulings, regulations and commandments are for everyone who chooses Him as their God. He separates the Levite only, to behave differently in some respects, because they were chosen by God to minister to Him so they have to be a little bit more “holy” in their lifestyles. Other than the Levites, everyone lives the same rules all the time, and they live them the same way.

When Yeshua taught, He taught what was in the Torah. Nothing more, nothing less. Why His teachings were so influential is because He taught not traditions and rules above what God wanted, but he interpreted and explained the existing rules with a depth of understanding that no one else could have. He is the living Torah, and He was there when the laws were given to Moshe. He was there from the beginning, and He could not possibly teach anything different than what is in Torah because He IS Torah!  Yochanan (John) tells us in the very first line of his Gospel that the Word became flesh. If Yeshua taught anything other than what is in the Torah, or even implied that we should do something different, he was teaching against Himself. He said that a house divided against itself cannot stand- how much more so if someone teaches that what He is saying and stands for is wrong?

What happened is this: in Yeshua’s time there were two types of people: Jews and pagans.  Next, we had Jews who rejected Yeshua as their Messiah (more for political reasons than any other), Jews who accepted Him as their Messiah (news flash!: they both lived and worshipped the same way), Gentiles and pagans (if you will allow, I will use the term Gentile here to identify a person who is not born Jewish but is in the process of converting to a Jewish lifestyle.) It stayed that way for the next 200 years or so, with more and more pagans accepting Yeshua and, thereby, becoming Gentiles (as I am using the term.)

Here’s a revelation: at the beginning of what we (today) call “Christianity”, if you were a pagan and accepted Yeshua as your Messiah, you were converting to Judaism. Paul did NOT convert to Christianity, the “Elders of the Church” were not Christians (haven’t you ever wondered why the Bible calls that chapter in Acts, “Paul’s Conversion” but it never relates the term “conversion” to any of the other disciples?), and the fact is there never was a “church” in Jerusalem at that time. There was no “church”- there were only temples. Some were pagan and some were Jewish. It’s only in recent times that the word “Temple” is understood to be a Jewish place of worship. The same is true for the word “Synagogue”. The definition of that Greek word is not a Jewish place of worship, but a gathering, or grouping. Again, only the modern cultural meaning of “Synagogue” is a Jewish place of worship.

Back to the lesson. So, we have the “mainstream” Jews, the Messianic Jews (which includes the converting Gentiles) and the pagans. That’s it. Since there were so many more pagans than Jews, it is obvious the number of Gentiles would grow faster than the number of Jews as Messianic Judaism grew.

Now we come to Rome during the time of Constantine. Please allow me to simplify the whole Council of Nicene thing to this: Constantine made being a Believer in Yeshua acceptable and popular. However, the “mainstream” Jews had ostracized themselves from Rome (a couple of rebellions will tend to do that) so the followers of the Christ (as He was just starting to be referred to at that time)  were on the A list and the non-followers of the Christ were lower than whale poop, so far as the Roman government was concerned. It is only natural (not acceptable, but natural) that the Gentiles would shy away from the more obvious “Jewish” religious practices to stay below the radar, so to speak. The Elders of the Messianic movement did not require these Gentiles to do a full and complete conversion to the Judaic practices, so there was a growing difference in the worship practices between the Messianic Gentiles, the Messianic Jews and the Jews that did not accept Yeshua. This continued to grow until the difference became a span, then a chasm, then (ultimately) a spiritual and religious schism that has only grown over the past two millennia. And the driving force behind this were the traditions and rules that people created.

Thanks be to God that His will will be done, and we can see this today as the “Church” is beginning to recognize their roots in Judaism, that they do not need to convert to Judaism to be saved, and that they need to support and help the Jewish people to know and accept their own Messiah so that He will return (read Matthew and you will see why I say this.) The influx of Jews returning to the Land is being supported today by many Christian groups, and the Messianic Jewish movement is, from my experience, still composed more of Gentiles returning to the ways God said we should live than Jews who already live that way.

The “Church” is also just beginning to realize that Jews who accept Yeshua do not have to convert to Christianity in order to be saved. There is still Replacement Theology, there is still an ungodly amount of anti-Semitic teaching in the Christian world, and there is still an ungodly amount of anti-Messianic teaching in the Jewish world. But we are making tremendous progress towards overcoming that.

When all is said and done, the Tribulation is over, the Enemy is in the Lake of Fire, the new world and the new Jerusalem have settled, all the Christians that will be there will be amazed when they are expected to live as Jews. Not as Jews live today, because the Torah is so often ignored in lieu of Talmudic Halakha (how to walk; regulations), but live as God said we should live- in His Torah. The Torah will be the only guide, the only law, the only way. That which the Christian world (for the most part) has been teaching is done away with will be the only thing there is. Read Jeremiah 31:31 if you want to know why I say this.

What does this all boil down to? It boils down to this: if you expect to be in the Olam Haba (the world to come), you’d better get comfortable living as the Torah says you should. It’ll make things much easier on you.

The Ultimate Anger Management Tool: Prayer

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There are a number of things that just can’t be done in this life:

1. You can’t scratch your ear with your elbow;

2. You can’t make a leopard change its spots;

3. You can’t make the person ahead of you in line go faster; and

4. You can’t stay angry with someone when you pray for them.

I have a few people in my life that have not only worked hard to earn my anger, but no matter how many times I have tried to overcome their nastiness and bad manners, they always prove their extraordinary talent for obstinacy and spitefulness is more powerful than my meager attempts to ignore them.

That’s when I pray for them. Not always, mind you- I ain’t no saint; not by a long shot. But there are times when I remember the title of this blog and pray for them.

When you pray for someone you need to “get in their shoes” so that your prayer is appropriately aimed at helping them overcome the very thing that gets you so mad at them.

I have a previous life, with two children and an “ex” that has constantly, and consistently, overcome all my attempts to ignore and diffuse her spite, anger and hatred, which she has instilled in my children against me and my family members. I pray for the kids every day, waiting patiently and prayerfully for their reconciliation with me and their turning to God, in whichever order He thinks is best. And sometimes, I am happy to say, I remember to pray for her. Since the day we separated she refused to let us buy things for them and do things for them, insisting she get the money instead of the children getting the clothes , furniture, or whatever we wanted them to have. Over the years she had proven that giving her money is the same as throwing it away, so in the end, the kids have lost out. The worst part is that the kids think everything she has told them is true, and they actually are just as brainwashed as if they had been growing up in a cult. Someone that mean, that hateful, and so hurt that she will eat her own children in order to hurt me is so desperately in need of the love of God that I cannot possibly refuse to pray for her.

And during those 20 plus years of trying to overcome her, the courts were useless (the mother always wins unless she is a drug addict or something like that.) Now the kids are long past majority, and I am helpless. All I have left is prayer. I haven’t even talked to them for a few years now.

All of this kvetching is not to vent or ask for pity, but to give you an idea of the background, so that when I say I have plenty of ammunition for hating and being angry with someone, you can understand just how powerful prayer is, because when I pray for her and for them all I can feel is pity. The anger is gone, and a genuine desire for them to find forgiveness and peace, as I have, is paramount in my heart and spirit.

When I have one of those conversations (you know, the kind where you tell the person what you have always wanted to say and they listen attentively, because it’s all in your mind) and feel myself getting a little worked up, I can now (thanks to the Ruach inside me) stop because I realize what I should be doing is not “getting it off my chest” (which, by the way, never works- you don’t put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it) but placing it before God and asking His intervention. Not for retribution, or even the justice that is deserved, but for help. And not for me, but for her.

For this to work you have to really mean the prayer, and the way I do that is to recall what I have that she doesn’t. I have the Lord; I have Yeshua as my intercessor, and I have salvation with a guaranteed seat at the table. I have everything that is important in death (that’s not a typo- what is important in life is to make sure you know where you go when life is over. Life is short, death is forever, so I want what is important in death more than what is important in life. Don’t you?) and all she has is her hatred and anger. And that is useless to her; it brings no warmth, no love, and no satisfaction since she can’t hurt me anymore. She has used up all her cards, laid them out on the table, and the other players are already gone.

She has nothing. Even though she has the children, what she has taught them is to be self-centered and unappreciative of anything and everyone. She has not shown them how to be useful members of a relationship, how to love properly, how to be independant and self-assured. She has only taught them the way to grow old and alone, with no friends and no God. If they should ever come to their senses, she may lose them, leaving her absolutely nothing. I have already lost them, and I wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone. Not even her.

How can anyone be angry with someone so pitiful? And when I pray for her, and for my kids, I can feel the pain she feels. I can realize how hurt she is. I even feel (sometimes) useless and ashamed that I didn’t make more attempts than I did (and believe me, I made a lot of them) to apologize and help more. All I did is not relevant here, so please understand that I did a lot, travelled a lot, spent extra time and money trying to help them and be as close as one can be when two states away.

It is prayer that has helped me, too, to be less angry and vengeful. I know that God is a loving Father and a merciful Judge, but He is, when all is said and done, God. He will judge mercifully but fairly, and those that have come up short and rejected Him will get the short end of the stick and be, themselves, rejected by Him. Without a significant change in their lives, my ex and my children, blind leading the blind, will all fall into the pit and spend eternity in Sheol. I am not happy with that thought…not happy at all.

So I pray. I pray everyday for my children, and I pray now and then for her. As I said, I’m not a saint and do not pray for her as earnestly as I pray for my children. After all, it is anger management, not anger removal. I think it takes more than just prayer to remove the anger totally; prayer is just one of the tools God gives us to do that. There are still things, even from decades ago, that get under my skin, to to speak, and I try to release it all to the Lord, but I seem to have sticky fingers.

Maybe one day I will be cleansed enough by the Living Water, Yeshua Ha Mashiach, so that my fingers will no longer be sticky.

Are you still angry about something? Are you still feeling a need for justice and yes, wanting revenge? Or maybe just to see someone get their “comeuppance?” If you want to get over it, pray for them. Pray earnestly, pray as you know Yeshua would pray for them (“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”), and if you are having a hard time with that, think about this: you get to be in Paradise forever, and they will be in eternal suffering with no chance for parole. Think about how close you came to their fate, how much better your position than theirs, and much more love you have in your life because you have the Lord, Yeshua and the Ruach HaKodesh. Think about all that you have and all that they don’t, and if you don’t feel pity and remorse for them, well, you should question your own salvation!

I don’t want to believe that anyone who knows the love of God, the suffering of Messiah and the forgiveness we have received could possibly want to deny that to anyone. No matter what they did.

Anger is not a sin, and Shaul tells us that we should not sin in our anger. Be angry if you are mistreated, misjudged, hurt and humiliated. It’s natural to be angry, just don’t sin in your anger. If you want to get rid of it, pray for the person who did it to you. Anger and vengeance are a wormwood that will eat you up from the inside out, so let God have it.

Proverbs says to not return evil for evil, but wait upon the Lord. It’s good advice. Pray for those that have hurt you and made you angry and you will see that it really is the ultimate anger management tool.

 

Why We Don’t Know How to Love

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“Huh?  Why do you say we don’t know how to love, Steve? I love my spouse, I love my kids (most of the time), and I love and have loved many other people in my life. And, of course, I love the Lord!”

Good for you. But look at all the other people in the world that don’t know how to love. The terrorists can’t possibly love with all that hatred in their hearts. Oh, they may like, they may lust, they may even really adore, but I don’t believe they can possibly love, not like we learn from God, when they do such horrible things.

Read the Dear Abby, the Ask Amy, or whomever is the advice columnist in your local paper. I can’t count how many times I have read something along these lines:

I have been with this person for x years and s/he is hateful and cruel. I am yelled at for not doing anything, then yelled at for doing something wrong, even when it is exactly as they told me. I am scared of being hurt, he has had three affairs and drinks too much. She spends our money and I have seen her name on multiple dating sites. There are emails with co-workers that are sexually explicit. But they’re really a wonderful person and I love him/her. What do I do?

You are with someone who cheats, is brutish, scares you, is having affairs, keeps secrets, wastes your money and drinks too much, but you think they’re wonderful, love them and just don’t know what to do? OY!!

Look- love does not conquer all. To be in any relationship where you are considered second class and mistreated is not only a sin the other person commits against you, but is also a sin you commit against yourself! I am not saying to ditch your main squeeze at the first sign of trouble, and we are married for better or worse, but that doesn’t include debasement, infidelity, and abusiveness. These things need to be handled. Even Yeshua, who stood up for the sanctity and holiness of marriage, said that infidelity is a reason for divorce. And Shaul told us that if we are in a relationship that is unevenly yoked the Believer is allowed to leave, but only if the non-Believer wants that. He goes on further to say that they should stay together because the one may be saved by the other, but not if your safety is threatened.

This confusion about relationships, which is so prevalent it sends the love columnist’s kids through college, is rampant because reading the Bible is a rarity. God tells us how to treat each other, and through the writings of the Prophets and some of the Epistles of Shaul, we can see clearly how God loves us and how we should, thereby, love each other.

God’s love is unconditional, but not enabling. He will punish us when we are wrong and He will allow us to choose our own fate. He will protect and nourish us when we are faithful, and when we reject Him He will allow us to be on our own. But He still loves us and is always willing, and hopeful, that we will repent of our sins and turn back to Him.

The Torah shows us how God’s love is unconditional, but His blessings and presence are. We must obey and remain obedient in order to have His constant protection and blessing. Reading the book of Judges, as well as the writings of the Prophets, Kings and Chronicles shows us how God has constantly shown His love, yet allowed us to wander, to prostitute ourselves with other gods (have an affair), mistreat and berate Him (by rejecting His laws) and be abusive (taking His name in vain, choosing to work on His holy days, even watching football religiously but never attending services or reading His word.)

God loves us and wants to be with us, always. He wants us to bask in His glory and be joyful. He also provides everything we need for this to happen. Then He has to watch us throw it all in the garbage, curse Him, ignore Him, reject and even forget about Him, totally. There are many who don’t even believe He exists. Yet, He still loves us.

However, He isn’t writing to Dear Abby saying, “I have created them, I gave them the Earth and everything in it, which I created for them, and I have nurtured, protected and kept them alive for millennia, yet they don’t care a whit about me! All they want to do is what they want to do- I tell them how to be happy and they choose not to; I tell them how to treat others and they spit in my face; I tell them to keep away from the Enemy because he will lead them to ruin and they laugh at me and follow him gladly. I love them and show them my love, yet they have affairs with other gods, like money, professional sports, career activities, and they prostitute themselves with gluttony and avarice and fornication. I just don’t know what to do, Abby.”

What do you think she would say? I’ll bet that getting professional help will be in there, somewhere.

Here’s what I’d like to see them say: “READ THE BIBLE, YOU DUMMY!! Get to know what love is and what love is supposed to be, and then go find it. You can’t be loved until you learn how to love, so read about God and learn how to love so you won’t be saddled with some schmo like the one you have.”

We need to do everything we can to save our marriage, to work with our steady love interest, and to make the relationships in our life worthy of God’s blessing. But it takes two to tango, and if you are the one doing all the work, and the other side is just not caring at all about you, your feelings or you needs, you are not in a healthy, Godly relationship. If the other side is not willing to change or even try, you need to realize that, just as God allowed His loved people to wander off and nearly destroy themselves in order to come to their senses, you need to allow your other half to do the same. You need to talk, offer compromise, go to counseling, and try hard. If this is something the other side says he or she is willing to do, then be patient, show the truest form of loving in that you will abide by that person and help them, even if they are being somewhat cruel to you, and forgive them as long as they really want to change and ask for it.

If none of that is happening, though; if the other person is unwilling to try, unwilling to listen or care about you, and unwilling to love you as you should be loved, then let them do what they want to do, but let them do it on their own. The books I mention above show that God, despite His love for us, despite His unbelievable level of compassion and forgiveness, and despite His willingness to overlook our past and our many sins against Him, still underwent a series of “trial separations” from His people. He left His bride alone, naked and wallowing in her own vomit, exposed and ravaged by her enemies until she realized her wrongdoings and asked for forgiveness, promising to do as she should.

Then He gladly and joyfully accepted her back. Now that’s what love is.

In our relationship with God, we must be faithfully obedient, and in our relationship with each other, we must be loving, compassionate, forgiving and treat each other as we would want to be treated.

If you aren’t getting that in your relationship today, forget Dear Abby or Ask Amy and go to the Bible. See what God says, and bring that book to your other half. Follow what God does, what Shaul tells us love should be, and stand up for yourself.

I am not saying to call a divorce lawyer. I am saying we should all know what love is, as God tells us and not what people say. People are stupid, self-centered and sinful. People are obstinate, stiff-necked and selfish. People are always trying to get something for themselves, people are…well, they’re people!

As someone once told me: Humanity is a wonderful thing- it’s the people that ruin it.

Learn about how to love from the one who created it, who set the standards, and who is a constant source of renewal and strength: Adonai.

If you are looking for love and not finding it in your life or your relationship, stop looking around and start looking up. God is always there to show you how He loves you, and to give you the love you want. Once you have that, then you can go find it in the world because you will know what to look for.