Category: A Drash to Start the Day

Do You Believe in God or Do You Acknowledge Him?

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After reading the title of today’s message, you might be asking, “Hey, I believe in God, so what’s missing?”

What might be missing is the difference between being told “Welcome, good and faithful servant” or “Be gone from me- I never knew you!”

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

I’m sure you are all familiar with the old saying, “In one ear and out the other”, right? That’s when we use selective hearing, and even though we heard what was being said, we never really paid enough attention to it to retain or even acknowledge what the other person was saying.

Aha! There’s that word, the very word upon which my entire message is based: acknowledge.

Many people believe in God, but that doesn’t mean you are saved.

Many people take the next step and believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah, but that doesn’t mean you are saved.

After all, every demon in Sheol (hell) not only believes in God and Yeshua, but they’ve seen them! Heck! They used to worship God at his feet.

But they’re not saved, are they?

The difference between believing in God and acknowledging God is how well we obey what God tells us to do. And, considering that God requires obedience (Isaiah 1:11), specifically obedience to his instructions in the Torah (which, for the record, Yeshua never-ever-even-once said could be ignored) means that if someone only believes in God but fails to even try to obey his Torah, then he (or she) doesn’t acknowledge God.

And what we do not acknowledge is, by definition, unimportant to us and we ignore whatever it is.

Do you like the idea that you might be ignoring God?

If someone is talking drek to me, I turn away from them and place my palm towards them and say, “Talk to the hand.” I believe the person is there, I believe the person exists, and I also believe the person is saying something to me that they think is important.

But I refuse to acknowledge them.

During my whole life I have seen people doing this to God, in Christianity, and even to some degree, within Judaism. People say they believe in God but they refuse to acknowledge what he says as important, choosing instead to obey their priests, pastors, ministers, or rabbis.

Christianity has taught that the Mosaic Law is not relevant to Christians, and in fact, some go as far as to say those who are trying to obey God’s Torah show faithlessness and are “under the law”. My experience is that nearly everyone who has ever thrown that in my face had no idea what they were talking about, especially when it came to what Shaul (Paul) meant when he used that term.

The rabbis have created Halacha, which means “the walk”, and it is composed of the rabbinical instructions regarding how to obey the Torah commandments. It is formed from what is in the Talmud (called the Oral Law) and, essentially, creates more work for Jews who are trying to obey God’s word. The ordinances against eating meat and dairy together, the distance one can walk on the Shabbat, the public reading of the Torah on certain weekdays, the lighting of the candles for Hanukkah, and many other requirements for everyday activities are all outlined in Halacha, which has been developed over centuries.

Halacha does acknowledge God, but takes it to a level beyond what God requires, and as such, in my opinion violates the Torah commandment against adding to or taking away from what God told us to do (Deuteronomy 4:2).

Let’s finish today’s message with this:

Do you believe in God?

Do you believe Yeshua is the Messiah?

If you do, either for one or both, here’s one last question:

“Do you acknowledge God?”

If you ignore what God said to do in the Torah then you do not acknowledge God or Yeshua, for that matter, because all Yeshua ever taught was what is in the Torah.

Here is the bottom line, people: if you follow the teachings of your religious leaders instead of what God said to do, then you may believe in God, you may believe Yeshua is the Messiah, but you’re thrusting your hand in God’s face while turning away from him.

That’s a hard word to hear, and I am sure right now there may be some of you thrusting your hand in MY face- refusing to acknowledge what I am saying- and that is your choice. I never tell anyone what they must do, but I will tell you what God says you must do, which he said through Moses and all the Prophets: you must obey God.

Not obey Paul, not obey John, not obey any of the Popes, not obey Martin Luther, not obey Charles Russell, not obey John Calvin, not obey the Rambam (Maimonides), or any of the people who have created their own religion or religious tenets, rites, ceremonies or holidays over the centuries since Yeshua went to sit at God’s right hand.

NO! We are not to obey human beings, we are to obey God, and God, alone. Yeshua taught everyone to obey God, the only difference between what he taught and what the Pharisees taught is that Yeshua taught God’s deeper, spiritual meaning of the Torah.

Those who acknowledge God and have received the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) by asking for it in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua, know what I am talking about.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, or you are currently showing me your palm, then I sincerely pray that you will retract you hand and reconsider your attitude.

Think about all you have been taught by your religious leaders as to how you worship God, who you to pray to, what you eat, which holidays you celebrate, and then compare that to what God said in his Torah, which is really your Torah, too.

I hope then you will see that throughout the entire Bible, the ONLY place where God instructs us how to worship him and how to treat each is in the Torah.

And throughout the Gospels, which are the only records of what Yeshua taught, Yeshua never said to ignore his father’s commandments.

Finally, after you do this, please ask yourself this important- this eternally important- question:

“If I want to be saved, should I obey people or should I obey God?”

How you answer that question will determine whether you will hear “Welcome, good and faithful servant” or “Be gone from me- I never knew you!”

Thank you for being here, and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Shavuot 2022 Message

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This weekend we celebrate Shavuot, which is one of the three pilgrimage Festivals (Pesach/Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot), so I thought we should have a lesson about this Holy Day.

Shavuot is closely associated with Pesach because we are commanded to Count the Omer starting with the first Shabbat after Pesach, that counting (50 days) ends at Shavuot.

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

Shavuot is known by a few different names. It is called The Feast of Weeks (Chag Shavuot), the festival of First Fruits (Chag Habikurim), and the Harvest festival (Chag Hakatzir).

It is even referred to as Atzeret, which means “assembly” and refers to the fact that this is a day when we assemble at the temple in Jerusalem.

(Avengers…Atzeret! Nah, that won’t work.)

Many feel Shavuot is the conclusion of the Passover celebration, which consists of Pesach (evening to midnight of the 14th of Nisan), Chag HaMatzot (Festival of Unleavened Bread, which lasts 7 days), and then Shavuot which occurs 50 days later, when we finish the Counting of the Omer.

The day Jews celebrate Shavuot is also called Pentecost (Greek for “50 days”), which is considered a Christian holiday.

The New Covenant tells us in Acts 2 about how at the Pentecost celebration (unless you are reading a Jewish version of the B’rit Chadasha, in which it will correctly call it during the Festival of Shavuot) the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, occurred.

One of the things the Jewish leaders have done over the years is to change the meaning of a Holy Day. For instance, Rosh Hashanah is considered today to be the Jewish New Year, but in the Torah God calls it a Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), and it is not at all associated with a new year. In fact, in Exodus 12 God tells us that our year begins on the first day of Aviv (now called Nisan).

The rabbis have changed Shavuot, as well, redesignating it from its Torah definition as a harvest festival (an Omer is a measure of wheat) to associating it with the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

They came up with this idea by calculating that after the first Pesach, by the time the Omer counting was over, the Israelites were at the base of Horeb (Sinai), and that is when God gave us the Torah (give or take a month while Moses was on the mountain).

I have done the calculations myself, and it can work either way, with some saying they came to the mountain 90 days later, and others being able to show it was about 50 days.

This significant difference, being calculated from the same source (the Torah) reminds me of something I learned when I worked on Wall Street: figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.

In any event, I have come to accept that there is a good lesson for Messianic Jews in seeing both Pentecost and Shavuot as a “giving” event: for one, God gave us the Torah, which Shaul (Paul) says defined sin so that we could know-absolutely- the difference between what pleases God and what doesn’t. And, on this same day, God gave us the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to be the fulfillment of the New Covenant God made with us in Jeremiah 31:31, which is to write his Torah on our hearts (by means of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit).

You see, when we read in the Tanakh about the giving of the spirit, God would place his spirit on people, but then that spirit was taken back. The Holy Spirit was a temporary gift that God gave, sparingly, and once the purpose for giving it was accomplished, the spirit was removed.

Not so after Yeshua’s resurrection. Those who accept that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and who faithfully obey the instructions God gave in the Torah (not what Paul or James or a Pope or a Minister or any human being tells you what to do), we can receive the Holy Spirit and it will not just fall on us to be taken back later, but will remain.

The Torah is a written set of instructions that tells us how God wants us to worship him and treat each other, which has many deep, spiritual lessons for us that one cannot fathom without having spiritual insight. The Ruach HaKodesh, which we receive from God when we ask for it (after having accepting Yeshua as his Messiah) provides that spiritual insight, which allows us to understand God’s word at a level people without the Ruach will never have.

So when we look at these two events: the giving of the written law and the giving of the means to understand the spiritual meaning of that written law, we can see how Shavuot and Pentecost are really two sides of the same coin.

I feel that even though the rabbis changed what God said Shavuot is to be, and Christian leaders have removed the “Jewishness” of what happened at Pentecost, when we look at this from a Messianic Jewish perspective, it all works to the good.

There are many other Jewish traditions associated with Shavuot, such as the reading of the Book of Ruth, staying up the entire night before Shavuot studying the Talmud, Torah, and even the Zohar (this tradition was introduced by the Kabbalists), and there are some other things, none of which I will go into today.

If you are interested in these traditions, as well as many other items of interest regarding Jewish tradition and Jews, in general, I suggest you get both volumes of “The Jewish Book of Why”.

Shavuot 2022 will begin on the evening of June 4th; it is a very joyous day and so you should drink, eat, and be merry.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website, to my YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

That’s it for this week, so I wish you both Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

Let’s Talk About Omnipresence, Trinity, and Unity

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Here is the first thing you need to know, and if this isn’t going to work for you, then please go to another post because this is the rule for today:

I am NOT arguing for or against either side of Trinitarianism or Unitarianism, and I do not want to see any comments or arguments for either.

This is strictly a discussion of how Omnipresence, God, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), and Yeshua (Jesus) all work together for our salvation.

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

Now that I have established the rule, let me really shake people up with the following statement (and I will show why soon):

With regard to one’s salvation, it doesn’t matter if God, Yeshua, and the Ruach are one and the same, or totally separate and unique entities.

(Anyone still with me?)

Here is one thing I am certain we all agree on: God is Omnipresent, which means he is everywhere, at the same time, all the time.

That being accepted as an a priori truth, then whether or not God is a single entity appearing as multiple identities, or God, Yeshua, and the Ruach are totally separate and unique entities, God will always be everywhere he wants to be, in whatever form he wants to appear in; Yeshua is always sitting at God’s right hand on his throne interceding for us; and the Ruach can indwell in any number of people at the same time.

God, Yeshua, and the Ruach HaKodesh can be anywhere from three to hundreds, or even millions of separate places, all at the same time. Whether or not they are one entity or three.

Can you see my point?

Whether we have a single God in three identities, or three separate and unique entities, with regards to salvation, we need to have three identities: God the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit, simultaneously available to us all the time.

Here’s how it works:

  1. We seek forgiveness of sin from God, for that is his role in his plan of salvation.

2. We faithfully accept Yeshua as our Messiah, whose sacrifice made it possible for God to forgive us our sins because the Messiah’s blood fulfills the requirement for the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

3. We ask for the indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh to help us see the deeper, spiritual meaning in God’s word and to guide us in our daily trials and tribulations to be more of what God wants us to be.

As far as how salvation works, we need God as God, Yeshua as the Messiah, and the Ruach HaKodesh as our guide.

So, whether or not they are actually one and the same, or totally separate, it doesn’t matter for you to be saved- what DOES matter is that we have God, Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit available to us which makes salvation possible.

The argument about Trinity vs. Unity is not from God, or from faithful believers, but directly from the Enemy of God, HaSatan, because all the argument does is provide a means for Satan to separate the members of the body of Messiah from working together to conquer sin.

Yeshua told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25), and when we all believe in God, and all believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, and all believe that the Holy Spirit is given to us to indwell and guide us in being faithful and understanding God’s word, when we argue about Trinity or Unity we become divided against ourselves.

And Satan scores a touchdown.

Since I am on a roll, and fairly certain I must be shaking things up for a lot of people, let me go one step further: when people pray to a saint or to Yeshua instead of praying to God… Satan scores the extra point.

We need to be together to fight Satan and overcome sin, and if we argue between ourselves, we are weakening our position. And what is worse is that this Trinity or Unity argument is, as I believe I have shown, irrelevant as far as salvation s concerned.

And the ultimate goal of life is to be “saved”- nothing else is anywhere near as important as that.

Here’s my view of this: whether or not we are talking about three in one, or three as three, all I care about is being saved, and the only relationship I see as important to my salvation is that God, Yeshua, and the Ruach work together as the means by which I can be forgiven of my sins so I can come before God on the Day of Judgement and have Yeshua as my Intercessor, claiming me as his own, thereby allowing me to be in God’s presence throughout eternity.

And you know what? When the new Earth is here, the new Jerusalem has been dropped from heaven and the third temple is in existence with Yeshua ruling from his throne over all the earth, that is when we will all know the truth about Trinity or Unity.

And one thing more: when that time comes, when we will all know, absolutely, the truth about Trinity or Unity, I guarantee that not one person there will care which is which.

Why?

Because it won’t matter then; just as it doesn’t really matter now.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books and share them out (after you’ve read them, of course), and on Facebook join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And remember that I always welcome your comments (remember today’s rule).

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

God Destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem Because He Loves Us

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Without doubt, one of the most horrendous acts against the Jewish people was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 73 AD.

You see, God commanded that no sacrifice can be made except where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:10-14). At first, that was the Tent of Meeting Moses built in the desert, then it was at Gilgal, then Shiloh, and finally the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.

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

Without the temple, there could be no sacrifice, which meant there could be no forgiveness of sin.

Oy gevalt! Now what?

How could God have been so cruel, to allow the Romans to destroy the very place he put his name, the only place his chosen people could find forgiveness of sin? It was like God not only punished the Jews, but condemned them to hell!

It was spiritual genocide!

Or…was it?

Did you know that one of the traditional Yom Kippur activities was to tie a scarlet ribbon on the head of the goat chosen to be the sin sacrifice, and that ribbon would miraculously turn white to show that God accepted the sacrifice and forgave us our sins?

In the Talmud, Tractate Yoma 39b, it tells us that 40 years before the destruction of the temple, the ribbon no longer turned white, indicating that the sacrifice would not be accepted.

We who are believers in Yeshua (Jesus) find this to be clear evidence of God’s verification that Yeshua, who was crucified and resurrected about 40 years before the destruction of the temple, was, indeed, the Messiah God promised to send.

However, “mainstream” Judaism refutes this as indicating that Yeshua was the final atonement for sin; instead, they present the argument that it was the sinfulness of the First Century Jews that prevented God from accepting their sacrifice, which was the result of centuries of spiritual decline, starting from the death of the High Priest Shimon ha Tzadik (Simeon the Just, who lived during the Second Temple period).

Frankly, whether or not the ribbon thing was gradual and haphazard over centuries, as is argued by non-believing Jews, or all at once, it doesn’t really matter to me because I have stated, many times, that faith is not something that needs proof; in fact, proof is the antithesis of faith.

That being said, the destruction of the temple is certainly indisputable evidence to the fact that God allowed something to prevent people from atoning for their sins, and since God tells us (in Ezekiel 18:23) that he takes no pleasure in anyone dying because of their sins, the question remains:

If God doesn’t want anyone to die in their sins, then why allow the only place we can be forgiven to be destroyed?

My answer is that God allowed the destruction of his temple because he loves us, and that love was so great he gave his only begotten son to allow us to be forgiven of our sins without the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem.

Back then, the Middle East was where the Jewish people lived. No one was more than a few days travel to the temple, but by the middle of the First Century the world had gotten much bigger, and today Jews are widespread across the globe. For us to make the trip to Jerusalem every time we need to sacrifice would be tremendously difficult.

You know, I could even make an argument that for God to force us to travel to Jerusalem today to be forgiven of sin would be more than unusually difficult, it would be downright unjust.

That is why I believe God allowed the temple to be destroyed, so that we Jews would have no option for salvation other than to reconsider the truth about who and what Yeshua is.

Accepting Yeshua as the Messiah means being able to be forgiven of sin, anywhere and anytime, while rejecting him means being in a canoe in the rapids heading towards a waterfall without a paddle.

And not just that, but there is a big hole in the canoe, as well.

Can you now see why I say God allowed the temple to be destroyed because he loves us? God destroyed the temple so that we would have no choice but to accept his Messiah, Yeshua, and thereby be saved from ourselves.

What a shame that so many of my Jewish brothers and sisters are still stubbornly refusing to do that.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel; buy the books I have written and then share them with people you know who have been lied to about God by their respective religion.

Join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules) and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Can You Fail If You Never Try?

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I was thinking about this while driving my car the other day, specifically regarding people who believe themselves to be Believers but don’t do what God said to do.

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

What I was thinking was that there are just so many people out there who follow their church’s or synagogue’s teachings, rituals, and holidays (or Holy Days, as in the case of the Jewish houses of worship), and think they are fine, spiritually, with God.

But, is that really trying to do as God said to do?

In the case of the synagogues, from Ultra-Orthodox down through Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Messianic (yes, we are a sect of Judaism, whether “mainstream” Jews like it or not) and Secular, there are so many Talmudic rituals, teachings, and requirements (called Halacha) that are not in the Torah, that I have to wonder if any of these are acceptable to God.

I mean, God said in Deuteronomy, more than once, that we are not to add to or take away from anything he said we should do in the Torah.

That seems pretty easy to understand.

Now, as for Christianity ( I don’t have the time or the space in my server to list all the different Christian sects), when it comes to doing what God said to do in the Torah, with all the rituals, teachings, and holidays they have created, well… I don’t have any doubt that these are not acceptable to God because, if for no other reason, Christianity (in general) teaches to reject all of God’s Torah.

I know he doesn’t feel good about that.

All their lives, Jews and Christians have done what men (and now women, also) have told them to do, which is effectively failing to try to do only what the Torah says to do. So, I’m asking will God see that as a sin he should hold against them, even though in their hearts (which God knows) they thought they were doing what God wants?

Whenever I have a question I am not sure of, I go to the Manual- the Bible.

In Leviticus 5:17, God answers this question:

If someone sins by doing something against any of the mitzvot of Adonai concerning things which should not be done, he is guilty, even if he is unaware of it; and he bears the consequences of his wrongdoing.

That goes for women, as well.

So there it is! No matter what our religious leaders tell us is fine with God, as far as God is concerned, the only proper worship of God is what he told us is the proper worship of God, and that is only found in the Torah.

There may be good stuff that qualifies in the Talmud, and maybe there are some things in Christianity that are the same as what God said to do (although, for the life of me, I can’t think of any. If you know of any, please tell me), then performing those things is a good thing.

This is my belief: so long as you are trying to do what God said to do, that is acceptable to God, even though when you fail that is still a sin. And it is because of God’s Grace, his desire that no one has to die (Ezekiel 18:23), that he sent Yeshua, the Messiah, so we can be forgiven of that sin.

Yes, even the sins we don’t know we are committing. That is why every day I pray for God to forgive any and all sins I have or may have committed against him, asking for that forgiveness in Yeshua’s name.

So, my friends, the answer to the question I posed in the title is YES– you can fail even if you aren’t trying, because try or not, God has told us (in the Torah) how he wants us to worship him and treat each other. Whether or not we try to do it the way God said we should (which is usually not the way religion tells us we should), we will always be accountable for what we do, or don’t do, in God’s eyes.

That is why God (mercifully) sent the Messiah, Yeshua, so we could escape the eternal consequences of our failures.

Of course, you really do have to try, and I have to believe that trying and failing will be looked upon more mercifully than not even trying.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry on both my website and YouTube channel. Share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry continue to grow, and buy my books. If you like what you get here, you will like my books, as well, and they are available through my website or from Amazon.

And remember that I always welcome your comments- please make them on my Messianic Moment Facebook page or in my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (if you aren’t a member, please join- read and agree to the rules, too).

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

No Parashah Message Today

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I am taking a drug called Lyrica to relieve the very painful sciatica pain I currently have, which is from a back operation I had to relieve the sciatica pain.

I did a video, also, so click here if you want to see it: Watch the video.

As silly as that sounds, it is true: it seems that after scraping away some of the ligament that was putting pressure on the spinal cord root nerves coming from my spine (called Lumbar Spinal Stenosis), after a week or so (of blessed pain-free life) the body realizes there has been damage to an area and rushes to heal that area, causing inflammation, which ends up putting pressure on the same nerve roots that are supposed to be untouched by anything.

So I am taking the maximum dosage of Lyrica, which does help a lot, but it doesn’t take away all the pain. I am only pain free when I am sitting or lying down.

When taking Lyrica , you are relieved of pain but Lyrica also causes some small loss of cognitive ability when taking it. A pharmacist told me that it effects the same brain receptors as alcohol does, so it simulates being “tipsy”.

I can verify that he was correct: I have already had to make about 20+ corrections to my typing.

So, since I don’t want to end up like Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10), I am not even going to try to give a parashah message today. No one should come before the Lord drunk, and even though I am not really drunk, I am close enough and I respect God enough not to try to give a message in this condition.

All I will do is ask you to pray for my body to heal itself quickly so that I can stop taking Lyrica and resume a normal, pain free life.

I’ll try to be with you next week, but if I am not posting it is because of the Lyrica effect on me, so please be patient and keep your settings set to notify you when I post.

L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

I Am Not Your Brother, Really

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I want to say, from the start, that this is not something I received from God. This is my personal rant and so if anyone disagrees strongly or feels insulted or put-out, I apologize. I am NOT against anyone calling me “Brother Steve” or using “Brother” or “Sister” with other members in the body of Messiah, or even saying they “love” me if they feel the need to do so. This is simply how I feel about calling each other “brother” or “sister”, or telling people you love them.

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

I agree that we are all brothers and sisters in the body of the Messiah, Yeshua, who is known by many as Jesus Christ because they don’t know his Hebrew name and haven’t learned how the Hebrew name was translated incorrectly to become “Jesus Christ”.

But that’s another issue.

We have a spiritual connection with each other through Messiah, which is separate from our real-world relationship. As such, when I am called “brother”, I accept that and appreciate it, but still I feel uncomfortable (to a small degree) because I am not their brother in real life. I have sisters, and I love people, but when a stranger I am meeting for the first time tells me he or she loves me, well…c’mon, really? You love me? -you don’t even know me!

Even people I meet and talk with, maybe for years, but only at the synagogue don’t really know me.

They see “synagogue Steve”. not “just waking up and grumpy Steve”, not the “mad as all get-out and cursing Steve (and believe me, when I am that mad that I curse, the curses flow like water down a waterfall!)”, or any of the other aspects of my personality that are the total me.

So please- don’t tell me you love me. Love is too important a word to throw around like a hot potato, or use flippantly.

Call me Steve, Steven, Yo!, Hey You, but NEVER “Stevie”: the last person who called me that is recovering very well and should be released from the hospital soon.

I have never called anyone I know from a synagogue or Facebook or any of the Facebook accounts I am associated with “brother” or “sister”, and I have never told anyone I love them, except those who I truly love and have known me, the whole me, for years.

Now, I know that Yeshua said to love each other (John 13:34) and Shaul (Paul) even went as far as to say we should greet each other with a holy kiss (2 Corinthians 13:12). But Yeshua was talking on a spiritual plane; I really don’t think he meant loving each other in a physical way: he said to love us as he did, which means to treat each other with respect and compassion.

I really don’t think Yeshua meant to go around telling everyone in the church or synagogue that “I love you”.

And what about greeting each other with a kiss? I don’t know about you, but I do not want to have anyone to kiss me, especially a stranger. Now, if we have already had a friendship for a long enough time that we both know each other well enough to kiss, that’s OK.

And that kiss better be a peck on the cheek, and nothing more.

I feel the same way about hugging.

So, that’s my rant for today- this is the real me, people, and I am sharing with you my private and true feelings. Not that I pretend to be different when I am with you in these messages or when I am in a house of worship with other congregants: I am just much more careful about what and how I say things, and I try to stay emotionally “disconnected”.

I hope you understand my feelings, and if you feel the same way I do, please let me know.

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

(Hey, in case you didn’t notice, I did not include anything about liking my Facebook Messianic Moment page or joining my “Just Gods’ Word” group, or buying my books or subscribing to my website on this post or …… oh, my! I guess I just did.)

Let’s Know the REAL 10 Commandments

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Do you know the 10 Commandments? Most of us can tell you all ten, but the problem is whether or not those are the Real 10 Commandments.

Specifically, it’s the first commandment I am talking about.

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

I have found many different versions of the Big 10, depending on whether you are looking at a Jewish Bible or a Gentile Bible.

Here are some blatant examples of what I mean (Exodus 20):

Complete Jewish Bible (the Hebrew letters stand for “1” and “2”)-

“Then God said all these words:

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

ב  “You are to have no other gods before me.  You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline….”

The Church of Jesus Christ Internet site –

The following review of the Ten Commandments includes brief explanations of how they continue to apply in our lives today:

1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me…”

2. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…”

Google search (first hit)-

“The 10 Commandments

  • You shall have no other God’s before me.
  • Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. …”

Do you see what I am talking about?

If you are a Gentile, the 10 Commandments you most likely have been taught (to be fair, not all Gentiles were taught incorrectly) that the first commandment is not to have any other Gods before the true God. It ignores the first commandment from the Torah, which God, himself, dictated to Moses, essentially rejected that he is the God who brought us out of Egypt.

In other words, many Gentiles have never been taught that it is God who is truly our Savior.

Oh yes, it references that God brought us out of Egypt in the regular text, but it is NOT listed as a commandment.

Now, why would a Gentile Bible ignore this commandment?

(I haven’t looked at every different version, but my experience justifies my statements)

Why leave out what God considers to be the very first thing that people who worship him should know and remember?

Well, the answer seems obvious: the Gentiles who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- the TRUE God- weren’t taken out of Egypt, so they can ignore that first commandment.

Simple. Easy to understand, and quite frankly…it makes sense.

But, as Dick Tracy detectives would say before calling him on their wrist-radio,

“HOLD EVERYTHING!”

(If you’re not older than 65 then you probably don’t understand this reference)

If you are a Believer, someone who has accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah, then according to the New Covenant writings, you are a member of Israel and an adopted child of Abraham (Ephesians 3:4-6).

In other words, when you accept Yeshua as your Messiah and are “Born Again”, then you are also a member of the tribes that came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

That means that you, too, were taken out of slavery from Egypt!

Now, maybe the “Egypt” for Gentiles is more spiritual than it was physically for the Jewish people back then; i.e., Egypt representing slavery instead of a country, which is a metaphor often used in the Tanakh.

But the idea that God is the one who saved you from an “Egypt”, which could be either physical slavery to people or spiritual slavery to sin, is just as meaningful and important for Gentiles as it is for Jews!

So, here is my message for today: The first commandment, which identifies the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the one who took us out of slavery is important for Jews and Gentiles: representing to Jews the freedom from slavery to men, and representing to Gentiles their freedom from slavery to sin.

Of course, for all of us now, this is only available through the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, who has also made it possible for Gentiles to become adopted children of Abraham.

The real first commandment identifies God as the one who is our savior from sin.

Gentiles have been taught that Jesus is their Savior, which is true him being the instrument through which we can receive forgiveness of our sins.

BUT…Jesus doesn’t forgive sins now, so he isn’t really the one who saves us: the one, and only one, who forgives our sins, thereby saving us from spending eternity out of the presence of God is…G-O-D!

Yeshua (Jesus) is our Intercessor– he sits at the right hand of God, pleads our case, asks his Father to answer our prayers sent in his name, and tells God that we are one of his flock.

If you pray to Jesus, your aim is off- he never said to pray to him. He is the Intercessor of our prayers, not the Interceptor of them.

So, if you want to learn the real 10 Commandments, remember that the first one is:

God is the one who saved you from slavery by bringing you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Whether that “Egypt” was the country or representative of slavery (as in, to sin) doesn’t matter: what does matter is that you know God is your true Savior.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry, on both my website and my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules); please comment on these messages and let’s drash it out, together.

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

Did Eve Really Do Something Wrong?

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I am back from a week-long cruise in the Caribbean, which was restful and allowed me to catch up on  some reading.

So now, it’s back to work…

I know, I know…I am taking a risk that I might destroy the belief system founded on the idea of Original Sin by even suggesting that Eve did not really do anything wrong. 

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

But having just read (again, for the umpteenth time) the story of Eve and the serpent, I have to wonder if Eve really should have been held accountable.

Why would I think that? After all, she was told not to eat from that tree, right? That was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, right? That fruit would give her the same understanding that God has of good from evil, right?

And THAT is why I started to wonder: if the fruit of that tree gave her the knowledge of good and evil, then before she ate from the tree, she must not have known good from evil. So, that begs the question: how could she have been held accountable for doing wrong (i.e., evil) if she was incapable of knowing good from evil?

That’s when the judge said, “Hmmm…that is an interesting thought, Counselor; please, continue to make your case.”

In Judaism, we believe that children are born with the Yetzer Hara (evil intention), and it isn’t until they are (at least) 10 years old (some say 13) that they develop the Yetzer Tov, the Good Intention (Tanchume, Genesis 7). 

In other words, when we are too young to know the difference between good and evil, which I believe I can make a reasonable argument is equatable with right and wrong or righteous and sinful, we really don’t know what is what, which is which, or who is who when it comes down to what to do, what to say, who to believe or what to obey. 

The only thing we know is our innate desire to sin, the Yetzer Hara, and until we are able to understand the difference between right and wrong, is it really justice for us to be held accountable for our actions? 

When you see toddlers, maybe 5 years old or less, playing with toys, when they all go for the same toy, whichever one has it first doesn’t want to relinquish control. Do we think that is an evil child and punish him or her? No, we explain they need to learn to share, and we do so because we understand they don’t know any better. 

God clearly says in the Torah (you can find this in the first chapters of Leviticus) that even if someone sins unknowingly, that person is still guilty. Once they are made aware of the sin, they must then observe the sacrificial system requirements in order to be forgiven.

Now, if you ask me, I do not believe God is talking about young children here, but only those people who are old enough to know that what they did was wrong. 

I feel the same way about Christian baptism: when the kid is only a month or so old, do you really believe that God will send an infant to suffer in Hell for all eternity if it dies without being baptized? 

To me, during a Christian baptism, when the Godparent (by answering for the child) commits that child to a system of religious doctrine that has been created by men, not God, that is not helping the child in any way, whatsoever. 

Jews don’t baptize their infants. We do have baptism (after all, where do you think John the Baptist got the idea?), which is called a T’villah. This is not the same as a Mikvah, which is a ritual cleansing; the T’villah is a physical representation of a spiritual change, such as was done when John baptized people, when Cornelius and his family were baptized by Kefa, and when the Ethiopian was baptized by Phillip. 

And we do not do it with anyone not yet old enough to know what they are doing! 

So, going back to Eve and that nasty so-and-so, the Serpent, if Eve really had no idea of the difference between what was right and wrong, and she ate because the serpent told her it was okay to do so, then should she really have been held accountable for that action? 

Good point- God did tell them not to eat from that tree; no doubt about that! But- and, again I say, BUT- if Eve was incapable of knowing that she did something wrong, why should she be punished?  

The same goes for Adam, when Eve told him to eat, also. 

Before the lightning strikes me, I want to make it clear I am not saying God was wrong in doing what he did- heaven knows (actually, he does) I believe everything that God does, he does for the ultimate purpose of teaching us how to protect ourselves from ourselves. 

For example, what happened to Job seems totally unfair and cruel, yet the lesson we all learn from it is valuable in that we better understand who God is, and that we cannot always understand why he allows things to happen. But, when we trust in him to see us through, we will come through it. 

So, maybe, even though Eve didn’t understand right from wrong and maybe she really wasn’t responsible for disobeying God, the lesson we learn from this is that when God says to do, or not to do, something, he means it. Whether or not we understand God’s purpose, it is not important or even relevant- there is obey or reject; there is either gathering with or spreading; it comes down to is you, or isn’t you, my Baby? 

If I may, I would like to share what I do on a daily basis, which I decided to do a long time ago. 

Because God does hold those who know good from evil accountable for what we do and say, whether we mean to do wrong or not, every day I pray for forgiveness of any and all sins I have or may have committed against God. 

As I have already mentioned, in the first chapters of Leviticus, God says absolutely that whether we know we did it or not, when we sin we are guilty. Period; end of line; close the door; das ist alles!  That is why I ask for forgiveness all the time, whether I know I have done anything wrong, or not.

I recommend it for everyone.

So, nu?  After all this discussion, what is the bottom line: did Eve (and Adam) really deserve to be punished or not?  

Well, the serpent definitely deserved what he got, so we can close the book on that one. 

As for Eve, maybe my original contention that not knowing good from evil is the same as not knowing right from wrong, is wrong? If so, then she defiintely did know what she was doing, and punishment was deserved. 

If, on the other hand, I was right in thinking right from wrong and good from evil are the same thing, then maybe what God did, in a human view, wasn’t really fair or justified, but I will say this (and this statement can only be made by reason of my total and absolute faith in God): 

Whether or not I understand why, and whether or not I agree or not whether something God does is justified, I believe that if God does it or allows it, then it must be for a good purpose. 

Furthermore, I also believe that it is not wrong or sinful to question God (respectfully, of course) because God is big enough to be able to handle a few questions. 

Of course, because he is God, he doesn’t have to answwer them if he doesn’t want to, but we can always ask. 

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subcribe to my website and YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules.) 

And while you are on the website, buy my books: if you like what you get here, you will like my books. Hey- they aren’t expensive.

One final thing- please do not ever hesitate to make comments: agree, disagree, drash it out with me…I can handle it.

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

PS: Please pray for the quick and complete recovery of my wife, who is suffering with sever pancreatitis. It hit her the day we came off our cruise, which was all last week, and she has been hospitalized and in pain for 4 days now.

Do You Ask God, or Do You Tell Him?

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We are told that whatever we ask for, in Yeshua’s name, we will receive (John 14:13).

Yet, I have heard so many people, so many times, not just ask God for what they want, they actually tell him what to do and how to do it!

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

Haven’t you heard people pray for God to help someone, and instead of asking God to heal the sickness or resolve the problem, they outline the things God should do:

“Oh Lord, take away the pain and destroy the sickness in their body.”
“Oh Lord, excise this disease and destroy the illness.”
“Oh, Lord, provide them a job that will give them financial security, with good promotability and close to home, and with vacation and sick days. Oh, yes, and don’t forget they should have a good 401-K plan!”

I have to tell you there are two things people do when they pray that I just cannot believe need to be done: first off, they go on and on…and on…and it seems they think the more they say, the better a job God will do. And I’m not alone feeling this way, because Yeshua (Jesus) says the same thing in Matthew 6:7.

Not only that, but they tell God what he should do, as I exemplified above.


I don’t know about you, but I would never profess to know what to do better than God does, and because I have faith in God, I trust him to know exactly what needs to be done. I really don’t think, if praying for healing, that anyone needs to tell God how he should go about the business of healing that person.

And, again, I am not alone in feeling this way because Moses demonstrates this same faithfulness in Numbers 12:13.

You may recall that Miriam and Aaron spoke up against Moses for taking a Cushite wife. God called them to the Tent of Meeting and chided them both for speaking against his servant. As punishment, he infected Miriam with tzara’at (leprosy). When Moses saw this, he prayed for God to heal her:

“So Moses cried out to the LORD, “Please, God, heal her!””

Just 4 words! His sister is white as death and will be forced out of the camp, yet he didn’t go through an entire treatise of how God should make her skin pure and clean, or how he should not turn her white as death, or any of the literary euphemisms that we associate with tzara’at. No, he simply asked God to heal her, knowing that God knew what he meant and what to do.

So, when you pray for someone, please don’t try to sound like some fancy-schmancy preacher at the pulpit, trying to make an appeal that is more of a political speech; but just ask God simply, and concisely, for what you want.

Believe me, whether you pray for healing, for help, for health, for joy, or whatever you need, God knows better than you do what to do, how to do it, and when is the best time to do it for you.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry continue to grow. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules), and remember that I always welcome your comments.

I have written a book on Prayer, which is available on Amazon- there is a link to it on my website.

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

PS: Thank you for the prayers you have sent- my back surgery went very well and for the first time in almost a year I can walk and move without nerve pain down my legs.

Praise God!