I’m back from a week’s vacation on the Royal Caribbean ship Symphony of the Seas: Donna and I are refreshed and looking forward to going out again in May on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

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As some of you already know, I was a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, and one of the duties I had while on a 6-month Mediterranean exercise was as the Classified Materials Custodian. That meant all of the classified materials, codes, papers, etc. were my responsibility (if any of you have ever read the book or seen the movie called “The Falcon and the Snowman,”, the classified materials that were stolen and sold to the Russians were the things for which I was in charge of protecting.)

So, why so much about me? It’s just to let you know that one of the things I learned when being trained for that job was the three parts of what having a Top Secret Clearance authorization is all about.

First, you need to have a clearance level, then you need to have access to the information, and finally (here is the thing we will talk about today), you must have a need to know.

By now you should be either falling asleep or asking yourself, “What does any of this have to do with God or the Messiah, or anything biblical?”

That’s a fair question, and here’s my answer: too many people are trying to learn things that God doesn’t want you to know, and even if you have the clearance (meaning biblical knowledge) and the access (meaning given understanding by the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit), you do NOT always have the need to know.

“Need to know what, Steve? What are you talking about?”

What I am talking about is how to pronounce the name of God

What I am talking about is when the Apocalypse will actually begin.

What I am talking about is whether or not Yeshua (Jesus) is also God or a separate entity, altogether.

What I am talking about is any topic or event in the Bible whose details are not given to us.

Will knowing the details of any of the things mentioned above make you any more “saved”?

Will you have a seat of honor at God’s table if you can pronounce the Tetragrammaton the way God pronounced it to Moses?

Whether you know if Yeshua is God or not, will you get extra credit points on your salvation report card?

Can you see why I am so adamant about not needing to know? No? Have you ever heard of Gnosticism? I found many different definitions of it, but my understanding of it (if I am really off-target, someone please correct me) is that Gnostic belief states there is special knowledge that we must have in order to be saved. This is a simplistic understanding, and there is a lot more to it, but generally, they believe that we are ignorant of information, hidden in the Bible, that we must know in order to be saved.

Gnosticism is considered heretical by mainstream Christianity, and as far as Jews are concerned, I’m not sure we care about it at all because, well, it’s a Christian thing. We Jews have enough confusion with HaLacha to also worry about secret knowledge, but I am sure there is some sect or offshoot within Judaism that also believes it is necessary to know about things that aren’t mentioned in the Tanakh. In fact, now that I think about it, the Talmud adds a lot of drek to some biblical events to explain them.

In any case, my suggestion is that when you feel you HAVE to know every little detail regarding a certain event, or when things will happen or how to pronounce a name or the relationship between God and Yeshua or between people… just let it go.

Concentrate on the things that are important, such as what God wants you to do, how God wants you to worship him and treat each other, and what Yeshua said regarding God’s word. Forget about what people say is important or (even worse) no longer important; just concentrate on what God tells you, which you will find ONLY in the Torah!

God had told us all that we need to know, and Moses confirmed this in Deuteronomy 29:29 when he said (CJB):

Things which are hidden belong to Adonai our God. But the things that have
been revealed belong to us and our children forever, so that we can observe
all the words of this Torah.

One last thing: I am not saying do not study the Bible or try to understand God better. That is not what I mean, at all. What I am asking you to do is concentrate on that which affects your salvation and not be turned aside by the pseudo-intellectual pursuit of becoming a biblical scholar. It doesn’t really matter if you can quote a verse exactly from the Bible or where that verse is located; what is important is that you know what that verse is about.

When writing these messages I spend half my time searching for the verse I need to show what I already know the Bible says. It isn’t important to me to know where any verse is located because I can always find it.

Where God says something is not as important as knowing what he says.

All I need to know is what God tells me he wants me to do. I don’t need to know why he says it, I don’t need to know where he says it, and I certainly don’t need to know what some human being says he means by it.

All I need to know is that I should come to God as an innocent, trusting child who doesn’t question but simply believes what God tells me he wants me to do in the Torah, and try my best to do that.

I hope you feel the same way.

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 discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure to read and accept the rules).

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

A trinity is a threesome. It could be any three things, such as three golfers (although we usually call that a threesome), or three musical notes played together (although we usually call that a chord), or three spiritual beings that are connected in some way (that one we always call a trinity.)

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The trinity most people are familiar with is the Father (God), the Son (Messiah Yeshua), and the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh).

But I want to talk about a different type of trinity, and bring in the spiritual aspects of this combination, which is different not only in that they are connected, but that their connection is one of disparity.

In other words, these three things are found together but they represent totally different viewpoints.

Curious what the heck I am talking about? I am talking about Optimism, Pessimism, and Realism.

When we look at these in a worldly view, the optimist says the glass is half-full, the pessimist says it is half-empty, and the realist says there is still room left.

From a spiritual viewpoint, the optimist says God is all about love and compassion and not about performance (saved by faith, alone), effectively ignoring God’s instructions and believing they are doing what is right.

The pessimist says when things go badly they are being punished and must be sinning in some way, so they become legalistic in their worship, putting faith behind works. Pessimists are easy to spot- they are always afraid.

The realist says that both are right in some ways and wrong in others, and gives biblical examples of why. But, and this is the important thing to note, the realist doesn’t take things out of context as many people do just to make it seem that the Bible is saying what they want it to say. No! The realist uses hermeneutically validated arguments and quotes the contextually correct meaning of the passage to make their point.

That is the main problem with religion: the creators of their specific religion (God has no religion and never wanted any) decide how they want to worship God and live their lives, then take bits and pieces from the Bible to form the justification for their belief system.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

1. The optimist (usually blinded by rose-colored glasses from wrongful teachings) will quote Matthew 5:17 as Yeshua saying the law is not longer needed because he fulfilled it (misinterpreting that as meaning completed, therefor no longer necessary), ignoring that Yeshua added nothing will change in the law until all things have come to pass.
2. The pessimist will say Matthew 5:17 says completely obeying the law, as Yeshua did, doesn’t change the law and we still have to do everything we are required or we can’t be saved.
3. The realist says that “fulfill”, in its proper usage at that time, meant to interpret, and hermeneutically justifies that by showing how in the Sermon on the Mount Yeshua showed us the deeper, spiritual meaning (called the Remes) of the law.

Now, you may be saying that I am taking quite a lot of liberty in these examples, and maybe I am, but the point is that when we are learning about God, we need to be realistic, not optimistic or pessimistic. Some religions teach Predetermination, which to me is the most pessimistic view anyone can take. I mean, really? I am already chosen to go to heaven or hell, no matter what I do? I have no freedom of choice?

Not very comforting, is it?

On the other hand, some religions teach that God will do everything for you, and all you have to do is believe in Jesus (whatever that’s supposed to mean) and be a good person. No need to obey or even know the “Jewish Bible”, oh, maybe except for some of the psalms which we sing or bits and pieces of the prophets, but generally they teach little from the Gospels and nearly everything from the Epistles (don’t even get me started about how many misleading doctrines come from men misinterpreting those letters!)

I started and run this ministry to be a realistic view, to show you what the Bible says, to show you where it says that, and to give you what you need to make an informed decision about where you will spend eternity.

And that is really what we are all doing, every day of our lives- deciding where we will spend eternity.

Some will decide to do what is easy and be disappointed when they are told, at Judgement Day, they should have been more attentive to how God said they should live instead of what some men told them.

Others may be disappointed because they did what God said to do as best as they could, but could not be forgiven of their sins (which we all commit) because they rejected Yeshua as the Messiah.

Many, I believe, will be disappointed because they did as men told them to do instead of God, but had enough faith and obeyed enough of God’s instructions to make it in, but are considered least in the kingdom.

However, as a realist, I have to confess I may be wrong- I can’t speak for God, but I do trust that he will do as he said he will do, so the faithfully obedient will be saved and the guilty will be punished.

It is, ultimately, up to God to decide who is truly faithful, who is unsavable, and who falls into the least in heaven or greatest in heaven category.

I can’t tell you which of the three trinity elements you should be: and, as with everything else, it is your choice. Personally, I believe realism is the best choice because it allows you to see all sides and make an informed decision, but it is also the hardest position to take because you have to be well-studied, have an open mind, and trust no one to tell you what is right or wrong but be willing and disciplined enough to verify it for yourself.

Being a realist also means being willing to reject what is comfortable to believe.

One last thing: whenever we are dealing with God, Messiah, or the Bible, we must always remember to ask the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) for guidance in our understanding.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and the most important thing is to share these messages with everyone you know.

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

If you ask me, there are two types of ignorance: passive and active.

Neither type has anything to do with intellect, but both have to do with experience.

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Passive ignorance is the state in which a person has not been exposed to the topic. For instance, I am totally ignorant of Quantum Mathematics. However, I would be willing to learn. Passive ignorance is simply not knowing something but being open to learning about it.

Active ignorance is when someone has been exposed to the topic but refuses to learn anything else about it. For example, someone raised in a bigoted household who, upon reaching the age when they are able to make their own decisions, refuses to want to know anything different than what they were taught as a child. Active ignorance is knowing something about something but refusing to learn more about it.

When it comes to God, Yeshua (Jesus), or the Bible, both Christians and Jews fit into one or the other category of ignorance.

However, in some cases, they change from active to passive, at which time they learn enough to make an informed decision that can save them from their ignorance, save them from eternity outside of God’s presence, and help them become spiritually matured.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s define Christians as all non-Jewish religions that worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and in one way or another, recognize Jesus as the Messiah. There are many Christians who pray to graven images, or who believe Jews have been rejected by God, or who worship according to man-made (i.e., Constantinian) dogma and celebrate man-made rituals refusing, absolutely, to listen to anything that indicates in any way they should be observant of the Torah. This is active ignorance.

We also see active ignorance within mainstream Judaism (meaning all sects of Judaism except Messianic Judaism), where Jews adamantly refuse to hear anything about Yeshua and insist that any Jew who believes Yeshua is the Messiah is no longer a Jew but a Christian, despite their lifestyle or form of worship.

There are also passively ignorant Jews and Christians who were raised to believe whatever their religion or sect taught them, but are open to hearing other ideas and beliefs about Jesus or different interpretations of the Bible but haven’t changed their initial beliefs or form of worship.

And then there are those like me, someone who went from actively ignorant to passively ignorant to informed, and because of that changed what I believe and how I live.

I am a Jew who was raised in a Reform Jewish home and was actively ignorant about God, the Bible, and Jesus for the first 40 years or so of my life. But God directed me to spiritually mature Christians who understood where I was coming from, as well as introducing me to a Messianic Jewish Bible, and I changed from actively ignorant to being passively ignorant, at which point I began to seek more information about God, Jesus, and the Bible, which ultimately means learning more about where I will spend eternity.

Of course, that change in attitude led me to find and know my Messiah, which has changed my Jewishness (if that’s actually a word) from being an incomplete Jew, incomplete because I was still waiting for my Messiah, to a competed Jew knowing my Messiah.

The ultimate closure for Jews is to have the Messiah come to us and re-establish our relationship with God. Because I refused to remain actively ignorant, I have come full circle from rejecting my Messiah to accepting my Messiah, and through that acceptance becoming spiritually knowledgable, living the way God said I should (to the best of my limited ability), and being written in the Book of Life.

If you are Christian and have been taught that the Torah is only for Jews, think about this: why would the son of God teach those he came to reunite with the father to reject the father’s commandments? Would the Messiah rebel against God and teach people to worship him, instead?

I don’t think so, do you?

And if you are Jewish and have rejected Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah, is it because you have biblical evidence he isn’t the Messiah or just because you have been taught he isn’t? If someone is Jewish by blood, lives a Jewish lifestyle by observing the Torah commandments, celebrates the Friday to Saturday Shabbat and observes the Holy Days God declared we should in Leviticus 23, do you really think they aren’t “Jewish” just because they believe Yeshua is the Messiah? Don’t you know Jews who reject God or live without any concern for the Torah, but are still considered Jews? If you don’t, then you must be in a select group of Ultra-Orthodox Jews with no contact outside your sect.

Well, believe me- there are plenty of Jews who aren’t the least bit Jewish, according to how God told us we should live. But no one calls them Christians. Now that I live more like a Jew than I ever did growing up, just because I believe Yeshua is the Messiah I am rejected by Jews and called a Christian.

I am not a Christian; I mean no offense to those who consider themselves a Christian. The reason I say I am not a Christian is that modern Christianity has been perverted and mutated from what Yeshua taught; in truth, any person who professes to worship God and who wants to live as Jesus did, but refuses to obey the Torah or celebrate the Holy Days God gave us actually is NOT worshiping God the way he said we must and NOT living as Yeshua did.

If you are Christian, look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are really living your life the same way Jesus did, which was to obey his father’s commandments. If your answer is you don’t, then ask yourself if you do, what can it hurt? After all, Jesus never said to ignore his father, but Christianity has taught others to do just that-to reject God’s instructions through their misinterpretations of the Epistles! So, do you want to remain actively ignorant, ignoring God in order to follow man-made traditions and rituals?

If you are Jewish but not Messianic, look in the mirror and ask yourself why you reject Yeshua as the Messiah. If the answer is because you were told he isn’t the Messiah and you have never researched it for yourself, ask yourself if you want to remain actively ignorant all your life? If he isn’t the Messiah, researching it will give you the confidence to know you are right; and if he is the Messiah, then you can be written in the Book of Life, which is ultimately what every Jew wants. In the long run, if you check it out, what could it hoit?

We are all raised by those who teach us what they think is right, but they are usually just repeating what they were taught. Your parents, your religious leaders, friends, and teachers all teach what they were taught, and very few of them research to verify whether or not what they were told is actually correct. Most people are passively ignorant from the start, then choose to remain actively ignorant.

My purpose in having this ministry is not to tell you what to believe, but to give you the chance to make an informed decision about where you will spend eternity. We all start out believing something, and those beliefs change as we are exposed to more and more information. Please do not stop listening because the choice to remain actively ignorant is the choice to travel the road to perdition.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, like my Facebook page and join my Facebook discussion group called Just God’s Word (please make sure you read and accept the rules). And while you are on the website, buy my books. If you like what you get here, you will like my books, as well.

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

What is “closure”, anyway?

To many people, it means resolving differences; to others, it means getting retribution. For still others, it never comes.

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I looked up the word and here is one definition I think makes sense:

Closure means finality; a letting go of what once was. Finding closure
implies a complete acceptance of what has happened and an honoring of
the transition away from what’s finished to something new.

In the real world, where people are looking for closure because they have been mistreated, either verbally, physically, or professionally, it seems more often than not that closure is impossible because the people involved are unavailable.

In my life, I have been mistreated by people I worked for, and it affected my career choices in a bad way, although all things work to the good for those who love the Lord and are called in accordance to his purpose (Romans 8:28), even though most of the times I was mistreated I didn’t have anything to do with God, at all.

Yet, he still took care of me: it doesn’t make sense to humans, but that’s how God rolls.

So, what is the answer to the question? It’s actually quite simple: you don’t need anyone but yourself to find closure. In fact, closure can most confidently be assured if you restrict it to just you.

You see, closure is letting go, it is resolving that it is resolved, and if you have issues with someone you know, a parent, a friend, a professional colleague, whomever…no matter how badly they treated (or mistreated) you, the only way to overcome the pain and to have closure is to make it happen within yourself.

If that person is really as bad as your think they are, then even if you had the chance to talk with them to clear the air, so to speak, what would you do if they stayed true to form? If they were unreasonable and mean when you knew them, what makes you think they will be any different now as you try to attain the closure you need to get on with your life? In truth, going to the ones you need to have closure from might just widen the gap even more!

Do you really need anyone else to find closure? No. Trying to get closure by dealing with the ones you need closure from is not the way to go.

In my book, closure is just another word for forgiveness. The only way to stop the pain of having been mistreated is to forgive the one that did it to you. And the first step in being able to do that is to remember that when you forgive someone, it doesn’t affect in any way their relationship with God- for what they did to you, God will repay (Proverbs 20:22).

The second thing to remember is that forgiveness of others affects your relationship with God because God wants us to forgive on earth as he forgives in heaven (Matthew 6:14).

The only way to be certain that you can find closure to the pain you have suffered from being mistreated is to forgive the one who mistreated you.

Here is the third thing to remember, which has really helped me in getting closure through forgiveness: to make it easier to forgive that waste of flesh who hurt you, pray for them.

I know, because I have been guilty of this, that people who cruelly lash out and hurt others do it because they are hurting even more. So much so that they cannot contain it so it is directed at others, for no other reason than the person doing the hating hates themself so much they have no control over what they do or say.

When you accept that as truth, which I know it is, then you can’t help but feel sorry for them. Yes, what they did was wrong, and (as I said) they will have to deal with God for that, but as for you, your closure can only come when you forgive that person.

It isn’t easy, it goes against the flesh (as does almost everything that is pleasing to God), but when you constantly work at it, it will get easier and easier until one day you realize the pain is gone. You can talk about the event without hurting and without getting angry.

To recap, the way to achieve closure is to forgive and the way to forgive is to take it step by step:

1. Remember that forgiving them will make you right wth God, not them;
2. Recognize the pain the other person must be feeling;
3. Pray for them to make forgiving easier for you.

Remember how Yeshua prayed for those who were crucifying him and said that they didn’t know what they were doing? Well, even if you are absolutely positive that the one who hurt you did know what they were doing, so what? They will have to deal with an eternity of suffering, so whatever suffering they caused to you is really nothing compared to what they will have to go through, is it?

Closure from the evil people have done to you comes more easily when you accept that your forgiveness of them will make you right with God and you will have eternal joy, whereas (unless they change) they will suffer forever.

And if you really love the Lord, God, and are thankful for his forgiveness of your sins, then knowing that someone, anyone- even that horrible person who hurt you so badly- will have to eternally suffer hell’s fire, well…if that doesn’t make you feel sorry for them and want to pray for their repentance, then I feel sorry for you.

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

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

The Torah readings this month are the story of Joseph, and as I am reading them, I am wondering why God decided, all the way back when he first spoke to Abraham, that he would enslave Abraham’s descendants for some 20 generations.

Has this question ever crossed your mind, as well?

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I can’t answer this question, definitively, because God doesn’t tell us why. But, I can tell you why I think he doesn’t.

Anyone with any government (especially military) background should be familiar with the three different requirements you need to have to know confidential things:

1. You have to have that level of clearance (such as Confidential or Top Secret);
2. You have to have access to that information; and
3. You have to have a need to know.

With regard to why God does things, when we have the indwelling Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit), we have a Top Secret Clearance. God gave us his word in the Bible, which gives us access to the information.

But as far as the need to know, well…God gives that out as he sees fit, on a case-by-case basis. That is why some people have such great insight into the word of God, and can interpret what is written in the Bible in a way that few others are able to do.

But, as far as why God enslaved the Jews, well…that’s seems to be a need to know thing, and we ain’t got the need to know.

However, I do have my own idea why, so let me share it with you and see what you think.

First off, we are talking about some 70 people at the time Jacob moved his household to Goshen. Not exactly as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, so God knew he needed time to let them do the first thing he told all humans to do- be fruitful and multiply.

Next, because of the number of pagan and polytheistic religions surrounding the children of Israel when they were in Canaan, their influence would be a significant detriment to these young and impressionable Israelites. Just think about Solomon: here was the wisest king ever, truly a God-fearing man, but when he married women of other religions, for political reasons, the women he married influenced him so much that even he backslid and worshipped their gods.

So, I believe God sent the Israelites into Goshen to isolate them from the influences of the surrounding religions in order that they may grow into a spiritually strong nation. Goshen was not close to where the Pharaoh and the majority of the Egyptian people were, and as shepards, the Egyptians wouldn’t have wanted to interact with the Israelites, anyway. That is evident when we read about how Joseph told his brothers to tell Pharaoh that sheparding was their occupation (Genesis 46:34).

Another thing that God planned perfectly, as usual, was to have them move there when the time was right, what with Joey being the Numero Dos man in the country. This would ensure that, at least during the Pharaoh’s lifetime, they would be treated kindly.

Of course, all that changed in a relatively short time.

Up to now, God did not enslave his people, but with the new Pharaoh, God had the people enslaved so that as things got worse, God was ensuring they not only remained isolated from the Egyptians and their religion, but because they were now slaves they did not have the opportunity to leave Egypt and return to Canaan, where they would, again, be surrounded by pagans who might turn them aside from God.

Remember, there was no Torah then, no defined set of rules for worship, so these Israelites needed to remain true to what their fathers would be teaching them. The best way to do that was to keep them exactly where they were until they grew strong enough to remain unaffected by their neighbors.

When they had become a strong nation, numbering well over a million men, women, and children (not to mention their animals), God knew it was time for them to go back to the land he promised them.

Unfortunately, we learn later on that despite all God did to protect them from being spiritually polluted, it wasn’t completely effective.

But that, my friends, is another story.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Also subscribe to my website, YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group, “Just God’s Word.”

It wouldn’t hurt if you bought some or all of my books, as well.

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