We all know the adages about pride: how pride cometh before the fall, how God humbles the proud and elevates the humble, etc. Yet, the apostle Shaul (Paul) said how he boasted (which the prideful do) about supporting himself while performing his missionary work (1 Corinthians 9:15).

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

There is a difference between pride and pridefulness. I have run into this same confusion with the words judging and judgementalism.

In my opinion, the difference is significant: to me, being proud is a personal feeling that results from having accomplished something difficult, or having done something very well. On the other hand, pridefulness is making a public statement of your what you have done in order to increase your standing within the community. In other words, pride is (or should be) a private feeling, where pridefulness is always a public declaration.

I am proud of the accomplishments I have achieved in my life, having been in a position of authority in the military, I have had success in different sports activities, I was pretty good when I was in the business world, and I have been blessed to be considered somewhat influential in my relationship with others in the houses of worship I have attended.

Now, if I was prideful, then I would go into detail about how few people ever get to be a Marine, let alone an officer in charge of 365 men and millions of dollars of equipment, or how many trophies I won at martial arts competitions, beating many other contestants each time, and how I was the top shot in intramural shooting competitions when I was on active duty, and how I won cruises because I was one of the two top salesman in a large company, or being asked to serve on the Council of each house of worship I ever attended, and not only that, but I also …well, you see, now I am being prideful!

There is nothing wrong in being proud of accomplishments you have achieved, especially when they have been challenging. It is that sense of pride that gives us self-confidence, which is absolutely necessary to have as a believer because without self-confidence, you will never be able to withstand the attacks of the Enemy.

A sense of pride is an asset that will help you to maintain your faith and strengthen you when you face obstacles in your walk with God, which (if you are walking correctly) you WILL encounter. The Enemy doesn’t worry about those whose faith is weak because they can be easily swayed to apostacy. He doesn’t bother at all with the sinful- they’re already on his side.

But to the faithful, he will come at you with all he has, and when you have a history of accomplishments, the knowledge of your past accomplishments, especially when you have overcome challenges, gives you the confidence to know you can overcome whatever Satan throws at you.

Of course, wearing the armor of God (Ephesians 6:14) is a big help, as well!

Pride can be an asset or a detriment, depending on how you deal with it. If you find yourself bragging, you’re probably on the wrong track; but, when you know you have done things few people have been able to do, but it is not something that you constantly make public, then you are handling it correctly.

We are told in the Bible that God humbles the proud, but I believe it refers only to those who are prideful. It’s true that being proud of yourself, and yet remaining humble, takes a lot of inner strength, whereas pridefulness just demonstrates one’s insecurity and weakness.

That’s it for this week! Please remember to subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know, whether or not they are a believer. Hey! you never know how good the soil is until you put a seed in it.

L’hitraot, my friends, and let me wish you an early Shabbat Shalom!

Prayer is something that we should be doing on a consistent basis. Every day, throughout the day; and, when we ask God for something, we can expect that he will hear our prayer.

But hearing doesn’t mean that he will answer as we ask. In fact, the answer can be anything from “Not yet”, to “OK”, to “NO!”

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

One of the things that I believe is the hardest to deal with as a Believer is to maintain faith when we have continually asked God for something that we haven’t yet received.

It is difficult to deal with the biblical references that state asking God in the name of the Messiah will get us what we ask for. Yes, that is what Yeshua said (this is repeated in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John), but is that really to be taken literally?

Personally, I would love it if it was that easy. But it ain’t!

Let me share a personal experience: I had been praying for something for a long time. It was something to do with how I saw people and what my mind would automatically think, and after years of asking I finally received an answer… God told me it doesn’t work that way.

He made it clear that he would help, certainly, but it was up to me to discipline myself to stop those thoughts the moment they came to mind. It was not to be God, alone, rewiring my mind, but the two of us working together.

And I am still trying to be better, but now I see how God helps- when I find myself thinking the wrong way, which could be anything from a sexual thought when I see a beautiful woman to complaining (to myself) about something my wife does that drives me crazy (ain’t love wonderful?), something happens that takes my mind off those thoughts. I drop something that redirects my attention, or if I am driving a light changes suddenly, or any number of small, seemingly insignificant things happen which force me to stop thinking about what I was thinking about.

Now, someone may say that is just coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidence; for me to believe that this is God taking a moment out of his busy schedule to help me attain that which I have prayed for is very comforting to me.

So, whenever I haven’t received what I have been praying for, I look for an answer that I didn’t expect. Lots of times God answers us pretty quickly, but in the way that he knows is best for us. The answer to prayer often is not what we ask for, but exactly what we need, and not when we want it, but at the precisely right moment when we need it.

And when I feel impatient waiting for God’s response, I remind myself that Moses was 80 years old before he began his walk with God. Hey, poor old Moses had to wait 80 years, and I was only in my 40’s when I came to know the Lord and his Messiah, so I consider myself way ahead of the curve!

So, nu! here’s the thing… keep asking, keep waiting patiently, and keep looking for the answer: it may not be what you asked for, but I guarantee it will be what you need, and delivered when you need it!

Thank you for being here and please remember to subscribe and share these messages. I have written a book about Prayer, which you can get through this link: Prayer.

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

You’ve all heard of the Holy Trinity, right? Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit?

Are you aware that this is not the only trinity that we have in the world?

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

The heavenly trinity represents, from a spiritual viewpoint, a combination of things that lead us to salvation. God, the father and creator of everything, who defined what sin is (in the Torah) and gave us the sacrificial system so we could be forgiven when we sin. Then there’s the son, Yeshua the Messiah (also known as Jesus) through who’s sacrifice we can receive forgiveness of our sins (now that the temple is no longer available).

Finally, the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, which is a counselor (as Shaul called it) to help guide us in understanding of, and obedience to, God’s holy instructions for how to live a righteous life.

But, there are other trinities that we have to deal with, and they are unholy.

There is the unholy Trinity of Satan, the Beast, and the Anti-Christ, which are designed to be a wedge between us and God. This trinity was designed by Satan, himself, and has (over many millennia) proven itself very effective in leading people away from God.

But we humans aren’t going to be outdone by God or the Devil- if they have a trinity, we want a trinity, of our own! And we have one.

But our trinity isn’t holy or righteous- it is one which stems from our Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), or what you can call our innate iniquity (desire to sin), and it is made up of fear, greed, and pride.

The first one we have to deal with is greed- the desire to have more than we do, and especially to own what others have. This is followed, and increased, by fear: not the fear of death, and definitely not the fear of the Lord, but the fear of loss.

And when our greed has made us gather things up, the fear of loss turns us into selfish, Scrooge-like beings, we develop pride because we now have more of what others want, convincing ourselves that we must be better than they are.

And this unholy trinity will bring us, eventually, under the power of the Enemy of God, because Satan’s trinity convinces us that fear, greed, and pride are good things to have, encouraging us to continue to trust in ourselves (instead of God) and to build a fortune, no matter who we destroy along the way.

In one of my favorite movies, “The Magnificent Seven”, the evil gang leader taking over the town of poor, God-fearing people, says to the leader of the seven that if God didn’t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep (perhaps not even knowing that he was quoting from Psalm 44:22).

I believe it is usually the rams in the herd who are the ones that have this unholy trinity more than the members of the herd, i.e., the sheep. So many of the “successful” people in the world- successful by the world’s standards- are somewhat selfish, greedy, and definitely fearful of losing what they have.

Fortunately, there are those who have worldly success but are not subject to the unholy trinity of human emotions; they are the ones who give the rest of us (that is, we sheep) godly leadership and comfort.

This simple lesson of how the unholy trinity of human emotions can destroy a people is very apropos today, when here in America we are electing the next President, and our choices are between a godless party and a God-fearing party.

The godless party wants to continue to murder babies, cause anarchy by allowing illegal invaders into our country to commit criminal acts without consequence, encourage social unrest, and control the media and government subsidies in order to gain power over the people through creating a country wide climate of fear. Within that atmosphere of dreadfulness, they will reward greed and prideful judgementalism by accusing the righteous of being exactly what the power-holders are: racist, cruel, and uncaring.

The policy of the godless is to act in a godless way, then point their finger at the righteous, blaming them for the way things are.

We all are born with the Yetzer Hara controlling us; and, just like you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Rye bread, you don’t have to be Jewish to have the Yetzer Hara. In Judaism, we believe that it will control us until we develop the Yetzer Tov, the Good Inclination, which is when we reach the age of Bar Mitzvah (13 years old).

I believe the best way to overcome an enemy, whether it be a military force trying to defeat us, or a spiritual entity trying to separate us from God, or the Yetzer Hara, is to know that enemy. We can study a nations military history and their military leaders to know what to expect from them, and we can read the Bible to know what to expect from Satan, but the only way I believe we can truly overcome the Yetzer Hara is to know the person we see in the mirror.

I can tell you, from personal experience, that the hardest thing to see is who you really are.

That is why so much of the self-help philosophy is actually, in my opinion, working with the godless powers in the world to separate us from God. Why do I say that? Simple- their whole program is about helping yourself, being comfortable with who you are, and not asking for God’s help, at all. Nor do they want you to fight against your nature, but rather (in most cases) to embrace it!

I agree that when people call us names or accuse of us of being a certain way, we shouldn’t allow their opinions to upset us. BUT, on the other hand, if we truly desire to improve ourselves (hopefully, in a godly way) then we should be willing to listen carefully and humbly to what they say.

You know, they might just be right!

So, the bad news is that you, me, and everyone you ever knew or ever will know has this unholy trinity of fear, greed, and pride within them, but the good news is that when we seek God’s help, follow his instructions for how to lead a godly, righteous life (they are found in the first 5 books of the Bible), and strive to always do what is right in God’s eyes and not what the world says to do, then we can develop our Yetzer Tov to the point where that little devil on your one shoulder looks like Steve Urkel, and the little angel on the other shoulder looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Please remember to subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know, saved or not- you never know where the good soil is.

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

PS: If you are voting today, please…don’t vote for a person, or against a person, but vote for those policies which are godly, and which you truly believe will be best for all Americans.

I have constantly prayed that God would rewire my brain to remove the conditioning I have been exposed to my entire life. That conditioning is from every TV, radio, and written advertisement I have ever seen, heard, or read, which has conditioned me to see women as sexual objects.

And after constantly praying that God remove this sexually oriented thinking, do you know what he said to me? (Of course, you don’t- how could you?)

He said this: “Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.”

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

I realized that what God was saying was not that he won’t help me, but that there are certain things we need to work on, ourselves, and that he is there to guide us with his Torah and his Ruach (spirit), but we need to make the effort.

So, I am still working on this, but please don’t get the idea that I am some dirty, old man who is addicted to porn. No, siree! far from it- all that I am subject to is a propensity to observe a woman and see only her attractiveness, and not the way God sees her.

I heard once on a radio ministry program that there is a difference between looking and lusting: looking is quickly observing and lusting is when you go back for a second look. I think it should also include how long that first look lasts.

I think if we are to be honest with ourselves, we all fall into this category, now and then, when we take a good, long look at someone. And it’s not always lusting for a man to look at a beautiful woman, or for women to look at a very handsome man.

There is also a difference between looking and leering.

So, what I do when I see a physically attractive woman is to remind myself that I am allowed to appreciate God’s gift of beauty, and then make sure that I turn my head away.

Especially if I happen to be driving at that time!

(“Wow- she’s great looking…BAM!!)

Here’s my way of approaching this issue: Look, but don’t leer; appreciate the beauty, but don’t lust. And after that first, short look, turn away and don’t look back.

I believe if we can do that then we are not violating Yeshua’s lesson about lusting with the eyes.

Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to subscribe and share these messages. And don’t just send them to believers- after all, you never know what a seed might generate.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot (which means “Until we see each other, again”) and Baruch haShem! (literally, “Bless the Name”, which we Jews say to mean “Blessed be God”.)

First off, pray for us here in Florida, USA, because Hurricane Milton is almost upon us. As I write this it is just east of Mexico, and a Category 5 hurricane, one of the largest and most powerful in recorded history. It will hit our west coast on Wednesday, 10/9 and be here on the east coast by Thursday, 10/11. Pray for us that it loses much of its power as it travels over the land, and that those on the west coast remain safe.

Now, let’s get to today’s message.

All I ever hear from Christians is that all you need is faith, or that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, or that Jesus died for our sins and we are now saved. Some go as far as to say once we are saved, all our sins will be forgiven, which is known as OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved). It sounds nice, but it is a lie from the pit of Sheol.

So we hear all about faith, all about love, all about salvation, but there is almost never any talk about obedience.

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

Now, didn’t James say that faith without works is dead (James 2:26)? And the “works” he mentions means obeying God’s commandments in the Torah, which was the only scripture that existed then.

And what about Abraham? We are told, many times, that because Abraham was faithful, it was credited as righteousness to him (Genesis 15:6), which I hear all the time as being justification for not having to obey the Torah. But when Isaac was thinking of going to Egypt, God told him to stay where he was because he promised Abraham that he would have all this land for his descendants because Abraham did everything God told him to do (Genesis 26:5). Note that God didn’t say because Abraham believed him, or was faithful, but because Abraham did everything God told him to do.

It’s obvious to me that from God’s viewpoint, Abraham’s obedience demonstrated his faith.

When you are told you are saved by faith, there is more to it than that: faith isn’t just believing that God exists, or that Yeshua is the Messiah he promised to send. What is faith, really? It is believing in something, and that belief is demonstrated by how you act!

Oh, yeah, it’s easy to talk about your faith, but if you don’t show it in how you act, your talk means nothing. I learned a long time ago that people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do, which is why faith that isn’t demonstrated by actions is a lie.

And what actions demonstrate our faith? Well, loving your neighbor is one, but even Yeshua said that doesn’t really mean anything, for even sinners love each other (Luke 6:32). And what about going to synagogue or church every Sabbath day? Does that represent faithfulness?

No, it doesn’t- all it represents is doing something you are supposed to do, which is the essence of legalism. Besides that, if your synagogue has an Oneg Shabbat (Joy of Shabbat) after the services, lots of people go just for the free food!

There is only one way to demonstrate that your faith in God and Messiah Yeshua is real- and that is to show it by obeying what God said to do. This also demonstrates the strength of your trust in God, because if you truly trust God, then you will obey his commandments because you trust he gave them to us because they are good for us.

And if you profess to love God, then you will do as he wants you do to as a labor of love. Don’t you do what pleases the one you love, just because you want to see them happy? If a human can be happy because you do something for them, think how much happier God will be when you do what pleases him? And better than pleasing a human, when you please God, he promises to shower you with blessings (Deuteronomy 28)!

So, my friends, despite how Christianity, composed solely of man-made religions, has taught that Jesus did away with the law, or that all you need if faith, or that loving your neighbor is enough, or that Jesus is God, or any of the other multitude of lies and misrepresentations of what Yeshua actually taught, the truth from the Bible is this: if you love God and believe that Yeshua is the Messiah he promised to send, then you must be like Abraham, who believed what God said and did everything that God told him to do.

And now let me give you the kicker that most Gentiles hate to hear: the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, directly tells us what he wants us to do in order to please him and live a righteous life is…in the Torah! That means despite what your Priest, Pastor, Minister, or whatever has told you, if you reject the Torah, you are rejecting God, which means you are rejecting the one he sent, which means you are in deep doo-doo when you will have to face God at Judgement Day.

Yeshua said no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), so choose this day who will be your master: God or a religion.

Thank you for being here; that’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!