Every morning when I take my daily meds, which is always proceeded by my thanking God for these meds and that they work for me and Donna, a thought came to mind…if God knows what I am thinking and he knows the gratitude in my heart, why am I thanking him? I mean, he already knows this so why be redundant?

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I thought also of when Yeshua told us to invoke his name when we ask for something so that he will make sure we get it, but that is the same thing. We are told in the Gospels that Yeshua knew (by the power of the Ruach HaKodesh) what the people were thinking, so to ask in his name is also somewhat unnecessary, right? God knows our minds and what we are thinking, so why even ask in Yeshua’s name when God knows that’s what we mean?

Then it hit me: the reason we need to pray is that relationships are strengthened by communication, and the more we talk with someone the stronger our relationship becomes. With God, it is mostly one-way communication, but we can still, now and then, receive a response, either verbally or that still, small voice we hear in the back of our head.

Personally, I never trust myself to know the difference between hearing from God or just telling myself what I want to hear, and so, for me, when that little voice tells me something that I really find difficult, or that is not really what I was hoping to hear, then I can be pretty certain it is from God.

For example, I once asked God (and still do) to excise any lustful or sexually questionable thoughts from my head when I see an attractive woman. That being my prayer, I waited for it to happen. After all, I asked in Yeshua’s name so when will it be?

Don’t get the wrong idea- I am not a pervert or a lustful man, really; it’s just that I have been raised in this country
where everything we see growing up on TV or hear on the radio is aimed at sexuality. This is terrible conditioning
that we all grew up with that makes us see nearly everything as some sort of sexual object.

Over time, even with constant prayer, there was no change; then, suddenly one day as I asked, again, for the umpteenth time, I heard this little voice in the back of my head saying, “It doesn’t work that way.”

“Huh? Whaddaya mean, it doesn’t work that way?!? I asked and I even asked in Yeshua’s name, so what’s the problem?”

The problem was, at least for me, that even though I trusted that God can rewire my brain, if he did that I would never be able to strengthen my spiritual muscles and withstand the temptations that the Enemy will throw my way, In other words, the answer to my prayer was not just doing it for me, but showing me that I had to practice self-control. And asking God to do it all for me isn’t going to help me, at all. I need to use the Holy Spirit to guide me to control my own desires and thoughts, as best as I can.

This doesn’t mean that God will not, or hasn’t in the past, done exactly what I asked for myself: to totally rewire someone’s head. But that doesn’t help anyone, really, in the long run. Although he did do for Charlton Heston in the movie “Exodus”, and I know if he wanted to, he could do it to me, too.

But as he told me, it doesn’t work that way.

So I continue to pray, which confirms our relationship and strengthens my trust and devotion to God. Praying is how God and I keep in touch, it is how we share our emotions in a way that I can hear and feel and know that God is listening. And I know he is because he so often lets me know.

Have you ever been praying and felt a chill go throughout your body? You’re not in a draft, and it may even be hot outside but you feel this shiver, this touch all over, and you begin to tear up because you know it is God letting you know he is there with you.

I have felt that many times, but not so much lately. I know it’s not because of anything of God’s doing, but my own, and I need to pray more earnestly and openly. I also know that one day, without warning, God will touch me through his spirit again, and I constantly look forward to when that will happen.

I know he guides me by the Ruach because there are so many times I realize how stupid I am acting, or (more constructively) by knowing that what I want to say is not to be said, and (believe it or not!) most of the time now, I actually don’t say it.

When I do or say something that is right, I know it is God working through me; when I totally screw up, then I can take full credit.

So pray constantly, earnestly, honestly, and ask for whatever you believe you need. Know, also, that God already knows what you want, he knows (better than you) what you need, and he WILL answer your prayer, one way or another, sooner or later, and always with exactly what you really need and just when you need it.

Prayer is our way of maintaining and strengthening our relationship with God, so as Shaul recommended, pray constantly.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages, and check out my books (I have written one about prayer.)

And remember that I always welcome your comments, here and on my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word”.

I will be taking a vacation for the next 10 days, and will not be back with you again until later this month.

Until the next time, then, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

That’s right- I got nuttin’ today.

However, as a man of the cloth, so to speak, if I just start jabbering away, something will come to me.

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

So should we talk about the current condition of the world?

The moral compass of our government seems to be pointing in the wrong direction, society is in such a severe case of division that we are almost in a de facto Civil War, and we are all being led down the path of fear.

I am not in any way reducing the impact of COVID or the importance of being careful, but for the love of Pete! Enough already, right?

As far as I am concerned, we should get back to normal, and let this thing run its course. I mean, are we even still in a “pandemic” situation? There are percentages that identify a pandemic, and with almost half the population inoculated, is it still a pandemic? Or has it been downgraded to an epidemic?

Maybe it’s now just a contagious disease that is hanging around? Like the “regular” flu or when we say there is a “bad bug” going around?

In any case, Donna and I have finally been able to get passage on a cruise ship and we leave from Miami this Sunday for a week. We are on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship, the Gem. It is a 7 day Caribbean cruise; that is where we normally go every February to celebrate our anniversary. Of course, we haven’t been able to cruise anywhere since February 2019!

NCL requires vaccination proof (which I got ONLY so I could take the cruise) but now, with this sudden revamping of the fear, they changed their policy to have to wear masks (which they didn’t require a week ago!) in some enclosed places.

We are living in an environment of fear.

Anyway, this is a ministry and not a forum for political debate or comment, so let’s bring this down a bit, and get God back in here.

Fear is what the Enemy uses to control us and to lure us away from God. When we trust in God, we know that tsouris will happen and we will be in a bad place regularly- that is how it is when you live in the world. But that doesn’t mean we have to be afraid- we can be cautious, we can be careful, and we certainly should watch our steps all the time, but being afraid is wrong.

Being afraid is showing a lack of trust in God. Look at it this way: even if something happens that is terrible- even if you are killed- if you know the Lord then what is so bad? You will no longer be suffering the idiots in the world, the stupid TV commercials, the weather, the political situation, or even a headache. You will be resting until the final judgment, and then you will be experiencing the total joy and peace of being in the presence of the Lord, forever.

In Philippians 1:21, Shaul said that to live is for Messiah and to die is gain. Living in this fallen and cursed world is not really a lot of fun, but it is necessary. However, no matter what happens, so long as we continue to trust in God, it will turn out for the good. C’mon, remember this…the worst thing anyone on this planet can do to you is to kill you, and that means being in the presence of the Lord, so what’s the problem, right?

I really wish I could go to some island, somewhere, and be away from all the mishigas, but I can’t. So what is left? Dealing with it by remaining faithful to God, doing what I know to be right, putting up with all the stupidity and waiting, (again) faithfully until we are past it all.

My friends, nothing mortal lasts forever, and even if this current state of affairs goes on for years, it will be over and done with, eventually. Trust in God, be patient, stick to what you know to be right, and still respect the right of others to do what they think is right for them, and it will all turn out OK.

And if you don’t believe me, believe history- nothing of this world, good or bad, has ever lasted very long. But God has always been there, is there now, and always will be there for you and me.

Thank you for being here and thank everyone who has subscribed to my YouTube channel recently. Please continue to share these messages (or ramblings, as I’ve done today) to help this ministry grow. Comments are welcomed, but please, even though I did open the topic, don’t make this a political forum.

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

Are you familiar with the Disney movies about the Pirates of the Caribbean? In these movies, if you haven’t seen them, the main character played by Johnny Depp is Captain Jack Sparrow, who owns a very special compass. Instead of pointing to the north, his compass points the way to whatever his heart desires.

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

We all have our own compass; it’s not the kind that you carry in your pocket, but the kind that you have in your heart. It is your Moral Compass, also called your conscience, and for those who have confessed their sins and accepted Yeshua as their Messiah, it is called the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit.)

Everyone has this compass, but not everyone’s compass always points “north”, meaning dependably leading us in a godly and righteous way.

By the way, did you know that the compass points to the magnetic north and not to the North Pole? Depending on where you are in the world, magnetic north and true north may be quite a few degrees apart. That is why maps have a Declination Diagram on them, which gives you the difference, in degrees, between true and magnetic north, so that you can adjust your compass to point you in the right direction.

The Declination Diagram we have for our moral compass is called the Bible. In that book, especially in the first 5 books (called the Torah), God tells us exactly how to adjust our moral compass to bring us to his true north, i.e. righteous living.

Unfortunately, both Judaism and Christianity have demagnetized many moral compasses, pointing them away from the Messiah or the Torah. In Judaism, we have been told that Jesus was a traitor to Judaism and created a new religion that hates and kills Jews and that any Jew who believes in Jesus can no longer be a Jew but is a Christian.

The traditional Christian teachings are that Jesus did away with the law, the Jews are no longer the chosen people (this is called Replacement Theology), the Holy Days God said we should observe aren’t for Christians, and many other lies which are designed to separate Christianity from its Jewish roots.

These teachings have made people’s moral compasses point in the wrong direction, effectively blinding them to the proper path to travel.

And when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into a hole (Matthew 15:14).

When your compass isn’t registering correctly, the further you have to go, the farther away from your goal you will be when the trip is over. And considering today most people live into their late 70s and early 80s, if your moral compass isn’t pointing to God correctly you will find yourself totally out of his presence when you die.

So make sure your compass is pointing correctly; if you have had it demagnetized by Christianity pointing you away from the Torah or Judaism pointing you away from Messiah Yeshua, make sure you adjust according to the Declination Diagram, which is the Bible.

And I mean the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation.

Read it daily and constantly so that your compass will adjust itself to God’s true north, and you will find yourself in his presence when it is time to turn the equipment in.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my YouTube channel and website, check out my books (I am working on a 4th book which is going to debunk many of the traditional lies about the Jewish Messiah), and share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. I never ask for money, just the opportunity to give people the proper “dope” about the Lord and the Messiah so that when they decide what to believe, they can make an informed decision.

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

We all know that God is in control of everything, but that doesn’t mean God is controlling everything.

There is a word I am thinking of that relates directly to this message, and if anyone has ever been in a position of authority over others, you might be thinking of the same word. And that word is… delegation.

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

We read often throughout the Tanakh, especially in Kings and Chronicles, how God used the Semitic kings of the Middle East to be his means of punishing both the Israelites (Northern Kingdom) and the Judeans (Southern Kingdom) when they rejected God and sinned. He was not always controlling what those pagan kings did to his chosen people, but he allowed them the freedom to do as they wanted.

Yet, even though it may seem somewhat unfair since God gave them a free hand, he also held them accountable for what they did when they exceeded what he had intended. We know this by reading about it in the Tanakh. Two examples are Isaiah 10:5-34 and Nahum 1-3, both about Assyria and how even though God used them to punish the people, they went beyond what God had wanted them to do and boasted about their own strength, not giving glory to God who made their victory possible.

I have held many positions of authority in my life: I was in charge of a department in Marine Midland Bank that processed over $60 Billion dollars of securities daily; I was the Operations Manager of the Fidelity Discount Brokerage Services office on Wall Street; just 3 years out of college I was a First Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps and the Executive Officer of a company of United Stated Marines that numbered over 350 men.

I am not saying this to brag, so please don’t think that, but I am telling you this so you can understand that when I talk about being in charge and delegating, I know what I am talking about.

I was in charge, it was all me, I ran it all, but I did not control everything because in order to develop my people I had to let them make their own mistakes and learn by doing. I trained, I instructed, but I also had to let them go off on their own.

Delegating one’s authority is not being relieved of the responsibility, it is just giving some of what you have to others for them to do the work. No different than when God told Moses he would take some of the spirit on Moses and give it to the ones Moses chose to be judges under him (Numbers 11:16.) Even though there were judges under him, Moses was still the ultimate authority and in control.

If you are wondering what my point is, it is this: don’t automatically blame God for whatever happens in your life, whether good or bad. Even though he is in control, more often than not he might be allowing you to go out on your own. He is watching and allowing, which means he hasn’t ceded control to anyone, such as the Enemy, but he has just delegated authority for the moment to you so you can grow.

Think about this: if God wanted us all to be perfectly sinless, because he is in total control of everything that happens we would all be sinless. Easy! But where’s the fun in that, right?

No, God can control everything in the universe, but he doesn’t because he knows that for us to grow in spiritual maturity and in spiritual power, we must be making the decisions. We must be the ones in control of what we do so that we learn by both suffering the consequences and reaping the blessings for what we decide.

So be comforted in knowing that no matter how much you screw up, God can always make it right, or at least get you back on track, but that doesn’t mean every time something goes wrong, God is behind it. He may be, but to be safe and fair, you should always do a self-check when things are constantly going wrong. Don’t ever automatically assume that God is doing anything, or for that matter, that the Enemy is attacking you.

This may be what is happening, but in my experience, it is just that when you live in a cursed and fallen world, stuff happens. Too often I hear people blame God because they say since he is in charge of everything, he must be doing it. That is wrong; God may punish, and he may reward, and he may just do neither and let you run the show, yourself.

I think the best way to go through life is to be comforted that God is in charge and can do whatever needs to be done; yet, for the most part, he allows us the authority over our life to make our own decisions and just like a good parent, he allows us to screw up so that we learn.

It is as I often say: If I should happen to do something really good, it is only because God is working through me; when I screw up royally, that’s when I can take full credit.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my YouTube channel and my website, like my Facebook page, and join my Facebook discussion group, Just God’s Word.

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

The truth about heaven is that most people you know or have ever known will not be there. Actually, you won’t either: heaven is where God lives, and when the Apocalypse is over, the Enemy and his servants are forever in the Lake of Fire, and Yeshua rules over the new earth, the “saved” will be living on the new earth.

Yet, when someone loses a loved member of their family or friend, they almost always say something like, “Well, they’re in a better place now.”

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

How do you know? How can anyone be certain that someone else’s heart was truly for God, that they lived according to God’s ways, and that they had accepted Yeshua/Jesus on their own merit and not just because someone told them they had to?

On the other hand, if we know someone lived a sinful life, rejecting God, Yeshua, and all his instructions, can we really be certain that he or she is in hell? How do we know whether or not in their last moment of clarity they repented of their evil and asked for forgiveness?

We can’t, and we will never know if they made it or not until we are there, too.

My family recently suffered such a loss. A sibling who had been depressed and didn’t take the medications he was supposed to be taking, allowed himself to become so sick that he passed away. We all tried to help him, but what he wanted was not possible from any of us, so here we are, frustrated, upset, angry, and missing him.

But is it right to console ourselves by saying he is in a better place, even if we aren’t certain that he is?

The truth of God’s word is that anyone who lives an unrepentantly sinful life will suffer eternally out of the presence of God, and we know that as much as God loves us all, even those who reject and hate him, he would rather not see anyone die, but turn from their sin and live, eternally, in his presence, joyful throughout time (Ezekiel 18:23).

But, on the other hand, we also know that because God is holy, trustworthy, and said he will not allow the guilty to go unpunished (Exodus 34:7), well…

So what do we say to those grieving the loss of a loved one who we know, absolutely, did not live in accordance with God’s instructions? I mean, not even close! When they say he is better off now, do we deny that and tell them the (probable) truth that he will forever suffer? Or do we go along with their hope (against hope) that he will be happy now that he is in heaven?

For me, I think that truth is paramount, but not always more important than love. Shaul (Paul) once told his congregation in Corinth that without love he is nothing, and if a “nothing” tells you something, then the best value it can have is…nothing! So I believe that loving compassion and understanding trumps truth when it comes to the feelings of someone in emotional pain over the loss of a loved one.

Maybe later, when the initial shock and depression is over, we can approach that person with the truth regarding their own life, never saying their loved one is in trouble but giving a general understanding of how things work with God, and (hopefully) they will figure it out for themselves.

In Catholicism, the living are told to light candles and say prayers for those in Purgatory so that they will be forgiven and allowed to enter heaven. Even though the Roman Catholic Church has admitted there is no biblical justification for the idea of purgatory, which could kill all the money they make from Mass Card sales, yet many “good” Catholics still buy them. And what good can it do?

God gives us our entire life, down to our last breath, to do what is right in his eyes, even if that is just confessing our sin and asking forgiveness through Messiah Yeshua. That is all there is to it; of course, you have to mean it, but I believe anyone on their deathbed or realizing that this is IT will be honest.

Too many times I read in discussion groups or postings between people someone being cruelly straightforward about the word of God and how wrong the other person is.

Even if the one being terse and discompassionate is correct, they won’t make any “points” with anyone else by being so heartless and cold. The truth is that the truth won’t mean anything if someone can’t hear it because they are too emotionally deafened by the other person’s anger, pridefulness, and lack of love in telling that truth.

There is an old saying in the Sales industry: No one cares what you know until they know that you care.

So when you are in a situation where you know someone suffering the loss of a loved one is lying to themself when they say the dead person is better off now, go along with it. Even if you are pretty certain that the one who has passed is most likely not going to go through that narrow gate, let it be for the moment.

Love doesn’t conquer all, as the divorce rate proves, but it is always better than not being loving. Acknowledge their pain, show loving compassion, and let the truth sit on the sidelines for the time being. The truth never changes, so it will be there for them when they are ready to hear it.

God is the epitome of love, and love is better than truth in some cases; so, when you feel you just have to tell the truth to someone, if you can’t tell it with love then you should just keep quiet so that you don’t waste God’s truth by telling it in an ungodly way.

Thank you for being here: please subscribe, share these messages to help this ministry grow, and consider buying my books (available on Amazon and through my website.)

And I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Have you ever wondered how Arnold Schwarzenegger or Lou Ferrigno became so muscular? They worked at it, hours every day, for years. And the way they built their muscles so large was by destroying the existing muscle tissue.

That’s right! The way you build muscle is to first work the existing muscles so hard that you destroy them. When the body rebuilds the damaged cells, it always adds more cells to the repaired ones, and after many years of hard work, you look like Mr. America.

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

Our spiritual muscles are no different than our biceps or abs: in order to build spiritual muscle, we need to work hard every day destroying wrongful teachings and lawless beliefs and build new spiritual muscles.

How do we do that? First, by accepting that what God said to us is the primary and unchanging requirement for righteousness; the other writings, interpretations, and teachings of men are nothing more than commentary to be verified and validated against what God said in the Torah.

For example, many churches today are not only condoning homosexual marriage but endorsing and confirming it as godly. But God is clear in his admonishment against such relationships in the Torah, and in the way he punished those societies (such as Sodom and Gomorrah) who practiced that form of sexual orientation.

Another example is that God said we should NEVER make and bow down to any graven image of anything on the earth, in the sky or under the sea; but walk into most any Christian church (especially a Roman Catholic one) and there are paintings and statues all over the place. And when I asked a Priest why they pray to them, he said they don’t really pray to them, but are simply asking them to intercede with Yeshua to have him intercede with God. Really? You’re bowing down in front of these statues of people and asking them to intercede with Yeshua, even though Yeshua said the only way to the Father is through him. Not through someone through him, but through him, alone!

And Yeshua never said to pray to him but only in his name– praying to anyone or anything other than God is the definition of idolatry!

Another thing the musclemen do to help build muscles is to have a protein-rich diet: muscle fiber is made up of protein chains, so they ingest protein to help fuel these new muscles.

Spiritual muscles need the Word of God to feed upon, so when building your spiritual muscles you must read the Bible on a daily basis.

I have often shared that I keep my Bible in the bathroom because I know I will have (at least) a few minutes of totally uninterrupted time to read a chapter or two. And it works! I have been through the entire Bible (which is the only way to read it), from Genesis straight through to Revelation, so many times over the past 25+ years I have no idea how many times I have done this. And what is great about God’s word is that no matter how many times I have read it, there is always something new for me to see in there, that God (through the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit) shows me that I never saw before.

So nu? If you want to become a spiritual muscleman or musclewoman, then start your workout today. Grab that Bible, put it in your bathroom within easy reach of your throne, and start reading from the very first line of Genesis, reading (at least) one chapter every day.

And remember one last thing: working out causes aches and pains, and in your spiritual workout you may be upset and uncomfortable with learning that what you have been taught is wrong. Let God lead you through his spirit to see the truth, and pray to God (in Yeshua’s name) to show you the truth, because most people don’t know what God said, but have been totally misled by what people have taught them.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website, my YouTube channel, and go give a Thumbs Up to my Facebook page, too.

Until next time, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!