God’s in Control…and so are You

We all know that God is capable of doing anything he wants to. It’s not even hard for him- he created the entire universe with a word, so making things happen in your life isn’t much more than a fleeting thought.

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But does that mean that he is the only one in control?

Or, let’s put it a different way…because God is in control, does that mean you have none? Does God’s control over events in your life make it impossible for you to have your own way?

Now we’re getting into something deep- free will vs. predestination. These have historically been considered mutually exclusive, but not for Jews.

I heard, a long time ago, that Judaism has been able to explain how predestination and free will can be mutually inclusive. This is how I remember it:

God is the captain of a ship that is going to a specific port. This trip is a long one, and there are reefs and storms and such that cause it to sometimes take a detour, but eventually it will make the desired port, exactly when the captain wants it to land.

In the meantime, it makes many stops along the way, and people can freely get on or off, as they choose.

If they get off at a certain port, because the ship is not turning back, they won’t be able to get back on. When they get on, they are expected to do their share of the work (i.e., obey the captains orders). If they constantly refuse to obey, the captain will have them placed in jail and they won’t be freed to disembark when the ship lands at the final port.

The idea is that what God wants to accomplish he will, and we have the choice to either work with him (obey his commandments) or refuse to comply and end up in jail, which we call “hell”.

What many don’t realize is that by following man-made traditions, rites, ceremonies, and holidays, none of which are the ones God told us to celebrate, they are, in reality, rejecting God’s commandments.

Christianity has taught that when you accept Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah you are exempt from the “Jewish” laws and commandments, but that is simply not true. Yeshua never once said anyone is exempt from obedience to the Torah- never! Those lies have been promulgated by men- men who created their own religions.

And these man-made religions have separated themselves from the Jews, both by creating their own system of worship and lifestyle.

Here’s the scary part…because God appointed the Jewish people to be his cohanim (priests) to the world (Exodus 19:5-6), when these man-made religions taught their people to reject the Jewish system of worship and lifestyle, they taught them to reject God.

You do have control over your life- you can get on the ship which has God as captain, or you can get on a ship with a different captain. I chose to get on God’s ship about 25 years ago, and have worked my way up through the ranks (I am proud to say) to the level of teacher, which God has anointed (or, since we’re using a naval metaphor, I should probably say commissioned) me with.

And today’s lesson is that you should get on the ship that has God as the captain because it is the only one that will make that far-away port. And, while on the ship, obey the captain to receive his blessings and be allowed to enter the port when we get there.

God is in total control of everything, but you are still in control of yourself, so you can choose to board the ship God is steering, or a ship someone else is steering; but remember this- whichever ship you sail on, you will be expected to obey the captain or you’ll end up in the brig.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website and YouTube channels. Also, please join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules) and buy my books.

Also, share these messages with everyone you know.

I would appreciate your prayers today as I am having back surgery done this afternoon.

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

Have You Seen These Types of Posts?

I have been seeing more and more posts on Facebook, mostly shared by friends, that say something to the effect of ” There are riches waiting for you, so pray to receive them and you will”. 

This sort of post has the appearance of being Godly and edifying, but it is really nothing more than some form of Christian fortune cookie.

When you pray to God, your prayers should be from your heart and you should ask God for whatever you want, but not what others tell you is waiting for you.

I can’t believe that God will send you worldly riches if you pray for them because someone posted on Facebook that they are waiting for you. 

I have blocked the people that send these to me; not my friends, but the original poster. Why? Because I am certain that they are not of God but from the Enemy, and are designed to weaken our faith.

How can a Facebook post weaken my faith?

I’ll tell you how: anyone who really believes that God has told someone to post on social media that God is waiting for you to pray to him so he can give you money or blessings is gullible enough to be disappointed when those prayers aren’t answered. 

And, because this will happen every time they fall for this lie, eventually they will become untrusting and their faith will weaken. Maybe even to the point of apostatizing!  

Am I reading too much into this? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

Maybe…but we are told that it takes only a little chametz to spread through an entire batch of dough (Galatians 5:9), so maybe I’m not overreacting, after all. 

You can do whatever you want to do, and if you like these pseudo “prayerful” postings, then go ahead and do what they tell you to do, but please understand that it isn’t God who is behind those posts. 

It’s the people who write fortune cookies.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website and my Youtube channel, as well, and when on the website please buy the books I have written. There’s one about prayer, which will help you to recognize proper prayer from the phony-baloney drek I am talking about today.

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

We’re Told Sincere Lies

How can anyone lie and be sincere about it? After all, the definition of sincere is to be “honest, not deceitful” (Webster), and lying is, by definition, dishonest because you are hiding the truth.

So you can’t be sincere if you are dishonestly trying to fool someone… can you?

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

I believe the answer is “Yes”, you can be sincere when lying to someone; that is, when the lie you are telling is something you believe to be true.

For instance, a traditional Christian teaching, which has been taught by Seminary to the students for centuries, students who will be priests and pastors and teaching these lessons to their congregations, is that Jesus did away with the law and that the Old Covenant is just a Jewish Bible which Christians don’t need to know.

They teach that when you accept Jesus as your savior (they don’t even use the term “Messiah” because it is too “Jewish”) you don’t have to obey the kosher laws, not to observe the Saturday Shabbat, and not to celebrate any of the Holy Days God commanded to be celebrated because all that stuff is just for Jews.

And in the Yeshiva (Rabbinical school) they teach that Jesus created Christianity and that he was only a man who was considered a Rabbi; sometimes they teach he never really existed!

I am here to tell you that these are all lies- Jesus did NOT ever do away with or even suggest doing away with any of the laws his father commanded us to follow (Matthew 5:17). In fact, he followed them and said that if we loved him, we would obey him- the only way to obey him is to do as he did, which was to obey his father’s commandments. And God never said anything in the New Covenant- God tells us what he wants us to do in the Torah.

Most of the things that Christians believe are valid forms of worship are not from God or from Yeshua (let’s use his real name) but misinterpretations of instructions from Shaul (Paul) to his newly believing congregations of Gentiles. What he wrote in his Epistles aren’t commands from God but instructions from a man.

The purpose of Shaul’s letters was to help get these neophyte Believers back on the proper track as their faith and behavior was waning due to problems they were encountering with Believing Jews, their pagan communities, and their interpersonal relationships.

The people lying to us don’t know they are lying, which is why their lies are sincere- they think they are helping us when in reality they are directing us to damnation.

So, how do we tell the lies from the truth? It’s actually very easy- read the Torah. That is the only place in the entire Bible (Genesis through Revelation) where God tells us, directly, what he wants us to do so we can earn blessings.

You can never earn salvation- that is why God sent Yeshua to be our Messiah. But, you can earn blessings (read Deuteronomy 28).

The only way to recognize a lie is to first know the truth, and the truth is that God tells us in the Torah how we should worship him, how we should treat each other, what we should eat, the way we should conduct business, our system of penal laws, and which Holy Days he wants us to celebrate.

When you know what God says you should do, then when someone tells you differently you will know it is a lie, even when they are sincere.

People who you trust and who love you don’t mean to misdirect you; but, in the end, many times what they tell you is proper obedience to God is a sincere lie. When anyone tells you to ignore any of God’s commandments, even when they really think they are helping you to find salvation, unfortunately they are not helping you, at all: what they are doing is condemning you to Sheol.

For my Jewish brothers and sisters, the lies you have always heard about Jesus are not only untrue, but Jesus isn’t the Messiah that God sent- he is the creation of Constantinian Christianity. Yeshua is the Messiah, and he never told anyone to do anything other than obey Adonai, as he did (perfectly) throughout his lifetime.

I am not saying to reject everything anyone has ever told you to do, because there are many correct things being taught in every religion. What I am saying is that there are many lies, sincerely and ignorantly presented, but lies all the same, and they come from people who think they are helping you. It isn’t their desire or aim to lie to you- they are just repeating the lies they were taught.

The only way to protect yourself from sincere lies is to know what God says, and that can only be found in the Torah.

Look- you have a choice to just go on doing whatever your religious leaders, family and friends have told to do, or you can protect your salvation by knowing what God said you should do. That’s really the only way you will be able to tell the difference between the truth and the sincere lies.

PLEASE!!! Don’t be lazy about this because what you do, or don’t do, determines where you spend eternity.

Thank you for being here and please share these message with everyone you know. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and website, and while you are on the website please buy my books. If you like what you get here, you will like my books- guaranteed!

And remember that I always welcome your comments, which you can make here or on my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word.”

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

Passover 2022 Message

(No video today; sorry, but you’ll have to read this one)

As I write this it is the beginning of the 14th day of Nisan 5782, which is the same as the evening of April 14, 2022.

In the morning Jews all over the world will be engaged in preparing for the Seder, and Christians will be preparing for their Good Friday activities. In my house, Donna and I will also be preparing for our Seder, which will be blessed with the addition of a friend of mine from my high school days who lives close by. She is a Gentile and was happy to be invited to join us.

Donna and I have been inviting friends to join our Passover Seder for almost as many years as we have been having one, which is close to some 26 years now- maybe more- and every one who has joined us has been impressed and happy they came.

We use a Messianic Hagaddah, so our Gentile friends, many of whom aren’t “Born Again” get to see how Jesus and Passover go together.

Speaking of which, some will be celebrating Good Friday by having their own version of the Last Supper, but they will not be performing it as Yeshua did. And come Sunday, they will be celebrating his resurrection from the dead, most likely eating the ever-popular Easter Ham, which Yeshua would consider to be an abomination on his table.

Yeshua is often referred to as the Passover Lamb of God, but in truth, he wasn’t the Passover lamb, per se’, because his sacrificial death was a sin sacrifice, and the Passover lamb was not a sin sacrifice- it was a Peace, or Thanksgiving offering.

Read the first 7 chapters of Leviticus, where God gives us the rules for the different sacrifices. The only sacrifice where the person bringing the sacrifice shares in eating of it is the Thanksgiving sacrifice. A portion of the lamb that is sacrificed for Passover is taken home and eaten at the Seder, so this is not a sin or guilt or cleansing sacrifice- it is a Thanksgiving sacrifice.

And that makes sense: after all, having the Angel of Death pass over your house is certainly something to be thankful for, isn’t it?

Yeshua’s sacrifice is more akin to the Yom Kippur sacrifice.

Actually, Yeshua’s sacrifice acts as both the Thanksgiving and sin sacrifice. By means of his substitutionary sacrifice, we no longer need to bring an animal to sacrifice at the Temple, which the Torah required, in order to be forgiven of sin. And, by means of the cleansing blood of the sacrifice, we can be forgiven of our sin and, thereby, draw near to God to commune with him. That is what the Thanksgiving sacrifice was all about, and that is why we shared the meat of that sacrifice, and only that sacrifice; and, not only that, but it was to be eaten in the presence of the holy place.

When archeologists discovered shards of plates and cups all around a high place at a dig in Shiloh many years ago, when they told a Rabbi about it he danced with joy. When they asked why he was so happy, he said that they found the place where the Tent of Meeting had been. He knew that because the broken pieces of plates and cups all around the area, but not on the high ground, meant that sacrifices were eaten there, which meant that had to be the Tent of Meeting (I heard this story from the Israeli guide we had when I was in the Holy Land.)

The Torah, as I mentioned, required the people to sacrifice only where God placed his name, which he commanded in Deuteronomy 12:13-14:

“Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest; but in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.”

That is why it was so devastating to Jews when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed- that was where God placed his name, and as such was the only place where the sacrifice to remove our sin could take place. With no temple, there was no means of having our sins removed.

That is why Yeshua is now our only means of removing sin: his sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple.

Passover always falls on a different day because Jews use the lunar calendar, and Good Friday and Easter are also based on the moon, but in a different way. To determine when Passover begins, the new moon for the month of Nisan (it used to be called Aviv, which means “spring”) is when we start to count. The evening of the 14th day (which begins after sunset of the 13th day) is when we have the Seder, and that is also when we begin Hag HaMatzot, or Festival of Unleavened Bread, which lasts for 7 days.

For Christians, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approximation of the March equinox). Often Passover and Easter come very close to each other, but rarely ever fall on the same day.

The one significant difference between the Jewish Holy Day (meaning God-commanded) of Pesach and the man-made holiday of Easter is just that- Passover is a Holy Day that God created and Easter is something men created.

God tells us we must celebrate the Passover; in fact, it is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when the people had to go to the temple in Jerusalem. The other two are Shavuot (which Christians celebrate as Pentecost) and Sukkot. That is why, when you read in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2 about the giving of the Spirit to the Apostles, there were thousands of people in Jerusalem.

They weren’t Christians, they were Jews who were there for the commanded appearance for Shavuot. Often when they came for Pesach they just stayed there another 50 days to wait for Shavuot.

There are many people who have been Born Again, especially Gentiles, who have rejected Easter and all the traditional Christian holidays, and celebrate the ones God tells us to celebrate- you can find them in Leviticus 23.

There are many more Christians, Born Again or not, who say that whatever is in the Old Covenant is just for Jews. They seem to ignore the fact that Jesus was, is, and always will be a Torah-observant Jew.

It’s sad that so many people wearing that WWJD bracelet (What Would Jesus Do) have been taught by their religion to do anything BUT what Jesus would do.

I think what pleases God (which would also please Yeshua) more than anything is to do as he said we should do, so I leave it up to you to celebrate what God says to celebrate, or to reject God’s commandments and instead do what men tell you to do.

הג פסח סמח

Hag Pesach sameach! (Happy Passover)

What Happened to the First Commandment?

The 10 Commandments were given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb. These commandments, which are often referred to as “The 10 Words” are the keystone for every religion that falls under the general title of Jewish or Christian.

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

So, if God gave these 10 commandments to everyone who worships him, why is it that within Christianity, when they list the 10 Commandments, the first commandment that God gave is missing?

“What do you mean, Steve? The first commandment is there, and it says that you shall have no other gods before me.”

You’re right, that is what it says, but that isn’t the first commandment!

I did an Internet search for “What are the 10 Commandments” and this is what I got on the first “hit”, which are the first 2 commandments:

I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me. You shall not make to thyself any graven thing; nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. You shall not adore them nor serve them.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

In fact, I went through the first 10 or so results and not even one of them- NOT ONE! – had the first commandment listed.

So, what is this missing, mysterious first commandment? Am I telling you that it isn’t “Thou shall have no other gods before me?”

Yes- that is EXACTLY what I am saying!

Here is the listing of the first commandment, directly from the Torah, which is what God told Moses to write down (Exodus 20):

After searching far and wide on the Internet, I finally found this when asking for the Hebrew commandment from the Torah.

The first commandment that God gave to Moses is NOT about having any other gods before him- that is in the second commandment. The first commandment, the very first thing that God, himself, thought to be the most important thing to learn is that he is the LORD, our God, who brought us out of slavery!

So why is it that Christianity, which is supposed to be worshipping the same God Jews worship, have not just rejected, but totally erased from God’s commandments the first one he gave, and replaced it by splitting the second commandment into two different ones?

The probable answer, if you ask me, is that by the end of the First Century the original Messianic Jews who accepted Yeshua as their Messiah had died off, and the number of Gentiles accepting Yeshua (at that time being called Jesus) overwhelmed the Jews within this movement, which was being transformed into a totally new religion.

You see, because of the political issues the Jewish population was having with Rome, these new Gentile Believers did not want to be associated with the Jews. As Roman citizens (supposedly) worshipping the Roman gods, they were safe; however, worshipping as the Jews did meant they would probably be considered by Rome as Jews, and that put them in a tenuous position.

So, the Gentile leaders of what was now called Christianity started to change their form of worship, beginning with celebrating the Shabbat on Sunday (which was a Roman day of celebration) and rejecting most of the Jewish lifestyle, such as kosher laws and the Holy Days. Later on, by the time Constantine got involved, Christianity became a totally different religion.

Knowing the history, we can understand why these Christians wanted to seem separate from the Jewish population, and the best way to do that was to remove any reference to being God’s chosen people. By removing the first commandment and replacing it with the first part of the second commandment, they completely disassociated themselves from the God of the Jews.

Later, when they decided that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit were really all the same entity, they could justify worshiping Jesus as God without violating their first commandment.

The result is that today, Christians have no relationship at all to the God of the Jews and within most of the different Christian religions, they have replaced Adonai completely with Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but from what I have read in the Gospels about Yeshua (Jesus’ real name) and his devotion to his father, I would guess that what modern Christianity has done probably doesn’t go over very well with Yeshua, and especially not with God.

I can’t speak for either of them, but I am pretty sure that God doesn’t like the idea that men changed his commandments, and I’ll also bet the farm that Yeshua is teed-off that men have replaced worship of his father with worship of him.

I have often seen or heard Christians saying that when a Gentile accepts Jesus as their Messiah, they are now a spiritual son or daughter of Abraham, yet in the very same breath they reject the God of Abraham by rejecting his Torah worshiping Jesus.

Worse than that, if you can get any worse, they profess to follow the 10 Commandments but have deleted the first commandment, which is the one that tells us who is our God!

How can anyone say they worship God by deleting the commandment that tells us who he is?

That’s a question I really can’t answer.

Oh, yes, we know that they didn’t want to be associated with Jews, but that doesn’t excuse removing one of his 10 commandments.

In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua says that many who call him “Lord” will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. More than that, Yeshua will say he never knew them! How can that be?

Well, maybe it’s because they erased a commandment God gave, replaced God’s Holy Days with man-made holidays, and worship him instead of his father?

Maybe Yeshua will reject those who are totally obedient to whichever sect of Christianity they follow because by doing so they reject nearly everything God said to do?

Maybe God will reject Jews obedient to the Torah but who have rejected Yeshua as their Messiah?

It’s not my call who God will accept or reject; but, based on what God tells us in the Torah, on what Yeshua taught, on how mainstream Judaism has taught us to reject Yeshua, and how Christianity has rejected God’s commandment and (within many Christian religions) even replaced him with his son, well…I believe it safe to say that those things ain’t gonna please either God or Yeshua.

And when the Acharit HaYamim (the End Days) are upon us and we find ourselves in front of God on his Throne of Judgment, when we say “But, Lord, that is what they told me I should do!”, I believe he will say something to the effect of:

“I understand that is what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts!”

When we come before God for judgment, and Yeshua is standing to the right of God, he will either say “This one is mine, Father” or “I never knew you.”

So, you can choose to follow the religion of men, or you can choose to obey God, and that decision will determine which one of those statements you will hear.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to my website, my YouTube channel, and on Facebook “Like’ my page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And while you are on the website, explore the website- there are some nice pictures and teaching series that I am sure you will find interesting. And buy the books I have written- if you like what you get here, you will like my books, as well.

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

The Difference Between Legalism and Obedience

If someone was to ask me which New Covenant epistle talks about ignoring the Torah, I would have to say the letter to the Galatians.

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

The reason I say this is because in that letter, more than any other letter, the main topic is obedience for the sake of obeying, specifically dealing with circumcision. The Believing Jews were trying to get the Believing Gentiles to undergo b’rit milah (ritual circumcision) in order to be considered “righteous” in God’s eyes.

Shaul (Paul) is adamant that undergoing b’rit milah is useless to anyone, and makes it even harder to be righteous, because if you try to do just one thing the Torah requires, you are then expected to do everything the Torah requires, and no one can do everything.

Now, if that doesn’t sound like Shaul saying it is better to ignore the Torah than try to obey it, I don’t know what else it could possibly mean.

BUT…that is not what he meant.

Shaul, in his usual roundabout fashion, was telling the Gentiles that doing what is in the Torah only in order to earn righteousness was impossible.

He said that if anyone gets circumcised just to be obedient to the Torah, by wanting to obey one mitzvot (law) they are required to obey every mitzvot. James confirms this in his letter: James 2:10 says that a person who obeys every law in the Torah, but at some point breaks just one law, becomes guilty of breaking them all.

They are both saying the same thing, but coming at it from different sides. What they are sayin is that the Torah is an All or Nothing thing.

So, what Shaul is saying is that when someone tries to obey every law in the Torah TO EARN SALVATION, they will fail, so it is best for them to not even try.

Does that mean we can ignore the Torah? No way! What it means is that we must be obedient but not in order to earn salvation.

Obedience to the Torah because we faithfully believe God gave us the Torah to help us is different from just going through the motions so we aren’t in trouble.

Legalism is a works-based salvation, and that will never work. Why? Because no one can be totally obedient to the Torah.

But…obeying the Torah as a child obeys- trustingly doing what will please God just as a child wants to please its parents- is the kind of obedience that God wants.

God gave the world the Torah so that his children could save themselves from self-destruction, and even when we continually fail to do what God wants, if we repent from our failure and try again, I believe God is pleased.

God tells us in Ezekiel 18:23 that he wants everyone to be saved, and gets no pleasure from seeing the sinful punished.

Legalism is a perversion of the Torah, teaching that we must perform the actions the Torah requires in order to gain God’s acceptance.

Obedience to the Torah comes from wanting to please God and faithfully trusting that when we do as God says, we will be blessed as he promised (Deuteronomy 28).

The Torah is the ultimate User Manual for salvation. It is what God wants from us with regards to worshiping him and treating each other. Yes, “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the foundation which the Torah is built on, but it doesn’t replace “love the Lord, thy God with all thy strength, heart, and soul.” Yeshua said these two commandments are the most important.

Doing what the Torah requires in order to gain acceptance is legalism; doing what the Torah requires to please God is faithful obedience.

God is clear throughout the Tanakh that going through the motions is not what he wants, and even though he made the rules that say not doing what the Torah says is a sin, he provided us the ultimate “Get Out of Jail” card, which is the Messiah, Yeshua.

Not that we can ignore the Torah because we have Yeshua- that is not why God sent him.

The bottom line is God expects everyone who worships him to obey the Torah- he gave it to the Jews to learn, then as God’s nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) to teach it to the Goyim (nations), so they could learn it.

God knows that as hard as we may try, no one will ever be totally obedient to the Torah, which is why he created the sacrificial system (which he explains in the first 7 chapters of Leviticus) so we could avoid the eternal consequences of our sins.

When Solomon completed building the Temple in Jerusalem, that was the only place we could bring our sacrifices. After the destruction of the Temple, Yeshua became the only means for receiving forgiveness of sin.

That is why he says the only way to the father is through him (John 14:6).

Do you now understand the difference between legalism and obedience?

Legalism is just going through the motions, whereas obedience is the result of faithfully trusting that God gave us these laws for our benefit, and we try to do them as best as we can in order to please God.

God, Yeshua, James, and every original Apostle never ever said that we can disobey the Torah, and even though Shaul seems to say that, he never meant it that way.

I believe if Shaul was alive today, and could see how people have so misinterpreted and misused his letters, he would be furious.

Here’s today’s message in a nutshell: if you know the difference between doing something just to stay out of trouble, and doing something as a labor of love, then you know the difference between legalism and obedience.

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

I welcome your comments, and when you are on the website, please check out and buy the books I have written- if you like what you get in these messages, you will like what is written in my books.

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

Paul, The Patron Saint of Guilt Trips

How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a lightbulb?

“That’s OK, you go and have fun, I’ll be fine sitting here in the dark, all alone with no one around to help me. I don’t mind, so long as you are happy.”

Did you like that joke? It is representative of what we call a Guilt Trip.

Those of you who read my messages know that I have a lot of issues with the Epistles from Shaul (Paul); not so much with what he says, but how what he says has been so badly – I will even go as far as to say sinfully!- misinterpreted and misused in order to turn Gentile Believers away from the Torah.

And this is the first time I will point out another issue I have with Shaul’s letters, but one that helps me to prove, once and for all, that he was Jewish, to a fault.

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

Shaul was an expert with regards to laying a guilt trip on his congregations.

Let’s start with Corinthians Chapter 9. He tells about how it is biblically correct for those spreading the good news to receive payment, but not him! He has never received payment and won’t because he wants to do it for free, as the Messiah has told him he should.

Bragging? Not really, it’s more like

Look at me! I am not taking what is owed to me, even though I know you
want to give it to me.

which could easily make the people feel guilty if they don’t do something for him. Subtle, but effective in getting them to perform tzedakah (charity) for others, not so much because they want to, but in order to feel better about themselves because it will make Shaul feel better.

He follows up this guilt trip in his second letter, in Chapter 8, where he tells them about how Macedonia was so poor yet they gave generously, and he is sure that the Corinthians will do even better.

And if that wasn’t enough, he really pours it on in Chapter 9, when he says he hopes that, after telling everyone how wonderful the Corinthians are, that he won’t be embarrassed by them if they don’t give more than the Macedonians did.

Do what you want to do, and don’t worry if you make me look like a liar.

But those Corinthians aren’t the only ones he lays a guilt trip on.

In his letter to the Philippians, the second chapter is about the problems they are having working together in the congregation. So, he tells them how he will feel so much better, and it will bring him such joy, by knowing that what he has taught them will be demonstrated by their getting along with each other.

In other words, if you guys don’t start working together, you’ll make me feel like I failed, and then I’ll feel terrible!

In Chapter 4 of this letter he tells them how wonderful it was that in the past they wanted to help, but poor them- they couldn’t. However, if they could help now (by sending what he needs) that would be a real blessing to him, but it’s OK if they don’t- he can get along alright. He has learned to be happy without food or clothing, or even when in jail…

It’s OK, I’ll just sit here in this cold, damp cell with no clothes or food; I know
you would help if you could.

The really big guilt trip I see in all his letters is the one to Philemon! He tells Philemon how well Phil’s escaped slave, Onesimus, has been to him and that he is now sending him back (which is what the law required), and that he is asking Phil to be nice to Onesimus and accept him back without punishment.

THEN, after asking this “favor” he says that he won’t mention, of course, that Philemon owes him his very life.

You don’t have to do anything I ask of you, but you do owe me your life,
which I won’t mention because I know you will do more than what I ask.

GUILT! GUILT! GUILT!

And in general, throughout his letters, he constantly asks the people to do as he says in order not to embarrass him in front of the other congregations, because he has boasted about them so much.

And he constantly talks of his trials and tribulations, all on their account, which is fine because he does it voluntarily; but, the underlying guilt trip is that he is suffering for them, so they should do as he asks.

He does tell them about the rewards of living righteous lives, but there is always that subtle guilt trip that they should do this also for his sake because of all he has done for them.

Look, there is a lot of good stuff in the Epistles Shaul wrote, but that good stuff has to be filtered out from the guilt trips he lays on them.

So, if there is any meaningful value to my message today, it is this: when reading the Bible, you need to remember that it is written by people, and except for the Torah parts where Moses is writing exactly what God told him to write, or the Prophets prophesizing what God told them to say, everything else was written by human beings who had their own way of saying things and their own personalities which could never be removed completely from their writings.

Just reading the Bible isn’t good enough. Oh, sure, you can always count on the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, to guide your understanding, but you still need to take some level of control.

Read the Bible with an open mind, learn the cultural and historical usage of the words and phrases in there so you understand what you are reading the same way that the ones who wrote it meant it. Never take any one or two verses by themselves, but always work within Circles of Context: the sentence within the paragraph, the paragraph within the letter, and who wrote the letter, to whom, and why.

Always be critical of what you read: there is no conflict between faithfully believing what is in the Bible is true and testing it. The truth can stand up to critical analysis, and the truth in the Bible will be clear enough, even when you test it.

Being critical and fairly testing what is in the Bible isn’t a bad thing, but always maintain steadfast and unwavering faith that God is God, that Yeshua is the Messiah who was raised from the dead for our sakes, and that the promises of God are absolutely trustworthy.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both this website ministry and my YouTube channel. Share these messages to help this ministry continue to grow, and buy my books to read and then share with others.

On second thought, just tell others how much you like the books and let them buy their own.

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!

How Do We Reconcile All Who Call Won’t Be Forgiven?

Oy vey! What a terrible way to start a motivational and edifying message. How can I possibly say that all who call on the name of the Lord won’t be saved when the prophet Joel tells us we will be saved (Joel 2:32)?

And if what Joel said isn’t enough, Shaul (Paul) said it, too in Romans 10:13!

Oh, wait a minute… actually, all Shaul was doing was quoting Joel.

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

In fact, just about everything Shaul said to his Gentile congregants was not originated by him; he was teaching them what God said through the Prophets and what God commanded in the Torah.

In order to know why I am saying that all who call on God’s name will not be saved, despite what Joel said, we first need to make sure we all understand what was assumed when Joel said that.

That assumption is that the ones calling on God’s name would also be obedient to his Torah.

Joel was speaking to Jews who had turned away from Torah observance, and as such, his message was to return to obedience, and then they would be saved when they called on his name.

(God’s name, of course, not Joel’s.)

The truth is the one thing that separates people from God more than anything else is… religion.

That’s right, I said religion separates us from God. How? By violating one of the most important commandments God gave us in the Torah! In Deuteronomy 4:2, he has Moses tell the people (CJB):


 In order to obey the mitzvot of Adonai your God which I am giving you, do not add to what I am saying, and do not subtract from it.

Show me a religion, any religion (and that includes Judaism) which hasn’t added to or taken away from the Torah.

So, nu? What have you got for me? Nothing? No religion, anywhere, is exclusively Torah-only? Not even the Chasidic Jews, the most Orthodox of all?

No- they are more observant to the Talmud than the Torah!

What about the Jehovah’s Witnesses? They certainly understand not all who call on his name will be saved because they believe there are only 144,000 who are already chosen? But, they also do so many things that are not in the Torah, and don’t do so many things that are in the Torah.

Hozabout the Born-Again Christians? Oh, wait- their religious holidays were created by Constantine and they observe Pauline doctrine (which is based on misunderstanding almost everything he taught), but they don’t celebrate the Holy Days God gave us in the Torah and they don’t observe the rules for eating and worship that God demanded of us.

And some Christians, the Replacement Theologists, believe they are now God’s Chosen people, claiming that he has rejected all the Jews because they rejected Yeshua as their Messiah. They say this, despite God’s constant forgiveness of the Jewish people throughout the Bible and his constant confirmation that the Jewish people will ALWAYS be his chosen people.

Judaism is, undoubtedly, the one religion that is closest to what God has told us to do because our religion is founded in the Torah, but (as I said earlier) within Judaism we have added much to what God told us to do, which is called Halacha (the Walk). Halacha is based on the Torah, but the rules are rabbinic interpretations of how to obey the Torah.

For example, there are the stringent kosher rules, such as different plates for meat and dairy, or rules for observing the Sabbath, such as how far you are allowed to walk on Saturday.

Christianity has, for the most part, done whatever the Pope, or Martin Luther, or the World Council of Churches, or John Knox (Presbyterian), or John Wesley (Methodism), or Richard Allen (African Methodist Episcopal Church), or any other founder of a Christian denomination (of which there are many) has told them to do, all of which have different ways of NOT doing what God said to do in the Torah.

That is why so many people who call on the name of the Lord will not be saved because they aren’t doing what God told them to do.

And Yeshua, himself, confirms what I am saying in Matthew 7:21-23 when he says (CJB):

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.  On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’  Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness! ‘”

Notice, please, that he says only those who “….do what my Father in heaven wants…” will enter the kingdom of heaven, i.e., be saved.

What Yeshua is saying, quite plainly, is that only those who call on God’s name and obey the Torah will be saved.

Sorry, Christians and Jews who obey people instead of God, but this isn’t my idea- it’s what the Messiah says, and he is just saying what his father, Adonai, already said.

There is one other thing to remember- when you call on the name, it isn’t Yeshua you should be calling to for forgiveness, it is God, the father you need to dial up. Yeshua made forgiveness possible by his sacrificial death, but he isn’t the one forgiving you- he is our Intercessor. An intercessor is not the final decision maker, he is our representative to the final decision maker.

Yeshua sits at the right hand of God, not in place of him.

There you have it! Calling on the name of the Lord is not enough- you need to also be obedient to God. Not to Constantine, not to Paul or John Wesley, or the Pope, or Menachem Schneerson (Chabad), but to G-O-D!

And the only place throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, where God tells you what he wants you to do, is in the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel. Like my Facebook page, join my Facebook group “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules) and buy my books, as well.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot- share these messages with everyone you know, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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


The Free Gift of Salvation Isn’t Really Free

Most of the time when I am talking about Yeshua or God or what is in the Bible, I always give you the reference so you can see, for yourself, that it really is in the Bible.

I’m not gonna do that, today; if you don’t believe what I say, or if it sounds familiar but you’re not sure, I challenge you to find it.

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Churches, Messianic Synagogues, and Hebraic Roots houses of worship tell people that the salvation we receive through the sacrificial death of Messiah Yeshua is not able to be purchased and we can never earn it, yet it is priceless beyond compare… and do you know what the best part of it is?

It is FREE!

But is it, really?

Yeshua told his talmudim (Hebrew for students, or in this case, disciples) that they would be tortured and killed for following him. So, in their case, their free gift of salvation will cost them something- their health, their livelihood, even their life!

And it did.

Yeshua also told the man that wanted to follow him that the fox has its hole and the birds have their nest, but the Son of Man doesn’t have a rock on which to lay his head.

Yeshua told the rich man to give away all that he owned, then to come and follow Yeshua.

Hey, I don’t know about you, but this free salvation is starting to sound awfully costly! You may end up losing not just financial assets, but suffering abuse of your body and maybe even the loss of your life.

I know of many people who have paid a very terrible price for receiving this “free” gift, in that they have been ostracized by their family and friends.

Salvation being free doesn’t mean it won’t cost us something, it simply means we cannot buy or earn it.

If you wanted to buy it, does anyone really think God has a bank account somewhere so he can cash the check?

And you cannot earn it; well, wait a minute…that’s not really true.

If anyone, anywhere, could ever live their life completely in accordance with the Torah by never sinning, and die in that condition of perfect obedience to God’s instructions, then they would, literally, earn their salvation because the Torah is what God tells us we need to do in order to be righteous in his eyes. And to obey the Torah completely, you need to have both faith and actions that demonstrate that faith (faith and works, remember?)

God gave the Torah to the Jews to learn and obey, the reason being that once they knew it they would be his nation of priests (yes, there is a Bible verse where God tells Moses that is what we Jews are to be), and as such be an example of righteousness so that they could then teach the rest of the world to follow their example.

That would then fulfill the promise God made to Abraham that his descendants will be a blessing to the Gentiles.

But here’s the catch…no one can live a sinless life.

If someone could, then there would be three people in heaven: God, Yeshua, and that one idiot who ruined it for the rest of us.

And because no one can be totally obedient to the Torah, God sent Yeshua, the Messiah, to make it possible for us to receive the salvation that we could never earn.

So asking for salvation costs nothing, and receiving salvation costs nothing, but living “saved” by obeying God’s word (in the Torah) is very costly.

So why would I accept so much tsouris during my life?

The answer is there are two lives we all have: the first one is here on earth in the flesh, and the second one is a spiritual existence either in God’s presence, joyful and serene throughout eternity, or out of God’s presence, in the dark and cold where people moan and gnash their teeth.

The reason we are in this plane of existence is to choose where we will spend eternity; for me, I choose to accept Yeshua as my Messiah now, with all the suffering that might go with it, in order to have eternal peace and joy in God’s presence later.

You know what? Instead of asking people “What’s in your wallet?”, they should be asking “Where do you want to spend eternity?”

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to all my sites (website, YouTube, and Facebook group called “Just God’s Word”), and buy my books. Honest: if you like what you get here, you will like my books.

Oh, yes, one more thing: I always welcome your comments.

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

Why Salvation Has No Value to Most People

For me, the most valuable asset I own is my guaranteed ticket to salvation.

But, for most people, salvation is something they just can’t fathom or understand, and as such it has no real value to them.

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Now, you may be thinking, “C’mon, Steve- everyone knows about heaven.” and you would be right in saying that, but heaven and salvation are not the same thing.

Heaven for most everyone is a place where everyone is happy, but the truth is that heaven is where God and the angels live- not people. When the Acharit haYamim (End Days) are ended, those who are saved live on the new earth, not in heaven.

Salvation, on the other hand, is not a place- it is a condition. Salvation is that state of being (what we call “saved”) where you have the opportunity to be cleansed of the sins you commit by means of your having accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as the messiah God promised to send, believing that he was raised from the dead as a substitutionary sacrifice for all people, Jew and Gentile, alike.

Salvation has no Hollywood presence, unlike all those movies showing heaven. Salvation has no substance, no visible attributes- you can’t see it, you can’t touch it, you can’t smell it.

Salvation is the promise God gave to his chosen people, a promise to cleanse them of their sins when they sacrifice to him to ask forgiveness of their sins against him, coming before him with a repentant attitude, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit.

And remember: every sin is first and foremost a sin against God; King David knew that, and said so in Psalm 51.

To those who have no faith and reject God, salvation has no value.

And don’t think I am only talking about Atheists or people of religions that are not based on the Judeo-Christian Bible. No! The most pitiful people I know are those who reject God while believing they are worshiping him!

A religion doesn’t teach only God says, it teaches whatever the founder of that religion thinks God says.

Even Judaism- which should be the “purest” of all religions because it is based on what God says in the Torah- is not innocent, either. Halacha rules (Halacha means “the walk”) are all rabbinical regulations, rites, and requirements that are man-made. These include separate plates for meat and dairy, restricting how far one can walk on the Shabbat, searching for hametz (leavened products) in the house the day before the Pesach (Passover) Seder, etc. They are found mostly in the Talmud.

Some of these Halacha rules are the man-made traditions that Yeshua talked about which he said were wrong because they overruled God’s word. Now, it wasn’t every man-made tradition that Yeshua decried, only those that took precedence over God’s laws.

Most Christian religions teach, in one way or another to ignore the Torah. Many teach that Jesus did away with the law, and by doing so set their congregants on the path of destruction because they are rejecting God while thinking they are doing what pleases him!

When we do not do as God says we should, that is not a small thing because we either do as God says, or we don’t, and God is very clear that refusing to do as he says is rejecting him.

Period; shut the door; das ist alles!

Salvation is the most valuable thing that exists. However, for most of the people in the world, it has no value because they do not really think on the spiritual (eternal) level. Even many of those who are “saved” do not understand that the things of this world are not valuable because they do not last.

Value is a fleeting thing: today your stocks are worth a million dollars, then the market crashes and now they are worth nothing. In the 12 years I was on Wall Street, during the 80’s and early 90’s, I knew people with million dollar plus brokerage accounts who, overnight, ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and this was AFTER their entire portfolio had been sold to meet margin call when the market crashed.

Value is temporary, value is fleeting, value is based on supply and demand, but salvation is priceless and its value never decreases.

It is a shame that so many people devalue the most valuable thing in the universe- the ability to be forgiven by means of the sacrifice Yeshua made for us. It is especially painful to me when I think of my fellow Jews who have been taught to reject Yeshua.

That’s right- most Jews I have ever known (which used to include me) have no idea of who Yeshua is, what he taught and how he lived. That’s because they have been told by their family, friends, Rabbi, and nearly every other Jew they know that Jesus created Christianity, which hates and kills Jews. And their Gentile friends also think Jesus created Christianity.

Guess what? Yeshua didn’t create Christianity: men and women- mere human beings- created all the different forms of Christian religions that exist today.

I pray that salvation has value to you because you know what God wants from you, which is in the Torah. Don’t be concerned that you have to do everything thing in the Torah perfectly, because you can’t- that’s why we need a Messiah. Duh!

But if you do not try to do what God said you should do, well…that’s different, and I’d be concerned if I were you.

Yeshua taught us to obey the Torah, not just to perform the literal meaning of the laws but to understand the deeper, spiritual meaning. When we do that we will have the Torah written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33), and that is when salvation will have its full, never-decreasing value to you.

We have a choice to either value or devalue salvation, so nu? What’s its value to you?

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, and buy my books from my website.

And I always welcome your comments, which you can make here or on my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word”.

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