Category: A Drash to Start the Day

The Old Folks Ruined It For The Young Ones

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I was having a discussion with a 20-something-year-old man the other day and we were discussing the attitude of the members of the Gen-Z, or Centennials, generation, specifically their sense of entitlement.

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He said something that made me realize there is an attitude that has been passed on, generation to generation, that is, sadly enough, true. That attitude is that the older generation has ruined the world that the younger generation is inheriting.

I thought first of air and water pollution, oil spills, the obesity epidemic in America, and other things that my generation, and those before me, caused. As far as the ecological destruction of our country’s natural resources, well heck! You can go all the way back to the Pilgrims to see where that started.

But are the older generations really to blame? To some degree, isn’t it unfair to blame the prior generation for the problems the younger generation has to deal with because the older generation, without the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, really had no idea of the long-term effects of what they were doing?

Oy, that’s a tough one, isn’t it?

Then I thought about the spiritual aspect of what he said.

In the Bible, how many times did the younger generation suffer for the sins of the older generation? It seems to me that it happened way too often. The Prophets often prayed for God to forgive the people for what they and their fathers did. But we know that the sins of the father are not to be held against the sins of the children: God, himself, said that in Ezekiel 18. Yet, the children of Jacob suffered slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Do any of us think Jacob went to Egypt, knowing that would happen?

Well, actually he should have, since in Genesis 15:13 God told his grandfather, Abraham, that his descendants would be foreigners in a foreign land for 400 years.

When we read the history of the Northern and Southern kingdoms in the two books of Kings and Chronicles, as well as the books of the Prophets, we see how the actions of the older generations did, indeed, cause the younger generations tremendous tsouris.

So maybe, just maybe, the feeling of entitlement we see in many of the Gen-Z/Centennial generation is the fault of their parents. Truth? It IS the fault of their parents, who they, themselves, are the Gen-Xers and Millennials who were brought up with participation trophies and parents who were brought up with Dr. Spock, TM, and who wanted to be their child’s friend instead of their parent.

And the spiritual abandonment we see in the youth of today is also the fault of the prior generations. It is found not just in the destruction of the nuclear family, thanks a lot to technology, but in the schools and courtrooms where God has been taken out of the picture. It’s also the fault of the entertainment world, where video games are making children totally inured to violence and crime. And TV, movies, and the media, in general, influencing everyone, of all generations, to not only accept sin and satanic events as normal but to adopt them.

The only way to stop this snowball effect of sin within the family and, consequently, within the society is to nip it in the bud, so to speak, and start with training up a new generation, one that is being taught the correct way to act and think. We must, essentially, take the children from their parents at the age when they can know right from wrong and place them in an environment that will teach them what they need to learn in order to defeat the racist attitude, sense of entitlement, and spiritual pollution and misguidance that is corrupting our society.

If you are thinking, “What are you saying, Steve? Are you nuts? You’re talking like a Communist, or like the Middle East terrorists who do that to their kids!”

And you know what? You’re absolutely correct! No way will what I just proposed ever happen in America, and thank God for that. We can’t do that, although it really is the best and only solution I can see. Maybe we can organize what they do in Israel and create Kibbutzim (plural for Kibbutz) here is America? That could work, but then we have the problem of who’s going to decide what is “proper”? The university professors who are teaching alternative history think they are right; the parents who are spoiling their children think they aren’t doing anything wrong; and the media that is creating their own version of the facts don’t think they are doing anything wrong (or, even if they do, they don’t care so long as they sell newspapers and get ratings.)

I don’t really have an answer, only a prayer that the Messiah returns soon because that, to me, seems to be the only way out of this mess. We have created our own “Frankenstein Monster”, and just like what happens in the Mary Shelly book, the monster we created from our own selfishness, pride and lack of foresight will eventually be our downfall.

The newer generations have always had to deal with the stupidity and ignorant actions of the older generation. There are many people today, of all ages, who are trying to consider the future results of our current actions, but there are too few of them, and (I fear) they are too late.

The events in the world today have been prophesied for millennia, and I believe that we are closer than ever to the return of the Messiah, maybe even within my lifetime. I don’t know, but it sure seems like we are past the point of no return: today we see the degradation of the American spirit, a society whose moral compass points wherever they want it to, and a world infested with a rising level of anti-Semitism and racial hatred.

Our leaders are not working together to make the world a better place, but instead are confirming the wicked and enabling the godless.

All of these events are just as described in the Bible as the signs of the Acharit haYamim, the End Days, so what do we have to look forward to?

Not much, except to provide whatever example we can of what is right, according to God, and to hope that either the example of a few good, godly people within the society will help or that the Tribulation will come and just get it over with.

Sorry to sound so dismal, but the light I see at the end of the tunnel is the Tribulation Express, coming right at us!

Thank you for being here, and please subscribe- most of my messages are much cheerier, really. And remember that I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Yom Kippur 2020 Message

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There is an undeniable relationship between Yom Kippur and Passover, and together they provide total atonement which allows us to have life everlasting.

Yeshua is the Lamb of God, the Pesach Lamb. His death was the atonement for our sins, but it wasn’t just as the Passover lamb that he accomplished this.

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If we read Exodus, Chapter 12 we see that the Passover lamb’s blood was not a sin atonement- it was the identification of and covering (a “Kippur”) to identify us as God’s people and protect us from the Angel of Death.

The blood of the Passover Lamb provided life for the people of God.

Yeshua’s sacrificial death as the atonement for our sins may have occurred at Passover but it was the fulfillment of what the Yom Kippur goats do for us. The Yom Kippur goats (the one killed and the one released) are the blood sacrifices that provide for our atonement (Lev. 16:9-10). The scapegoat had the sins of all the people transferred to it before being released into the desert, or as the Bible tells us, to Azazel.

The Talmud interpreted this word to mean a steep mountain, and for many years the scapegoat was thrown off of a steep mountain in order to fulfill this requirement.

Another interpretation (from the Book of Enoch) is that Azazel is a fallen angel. Of course, it is unthinkable that we would be told by God to sacrifice a goat to a god-like satyr in the desert.

According to Rabbi Hertz, the Late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, in his 1965 edition of the Chumash, Azazel is a rare Hebrew noun that means “dismissal”, or “entire removal”. The transference of the sins of Israel by the Cohen HaGadol onto the goat released into the desert symbolized the total removal of sin from us.

Have you ever wondered why we needed two goats? If all the sins were removed by the scapegoat why kill another one? We know sin can only be forgiven by the shedding of blood and that God is the only one who can forgive and remove sin, so if the killed goat is for sin forgiveness, what does the scapegoat represent?

It represents our Teshuvah. It represents our willingness to let go of our sinful desires and remove them totally from our lives. That is why all the people were present when the goat was released. It represented all of us giving up our sinful ways and desires.

Atonement comes from three things:

  1. Recognizing and taking responsibility for our sins;
  2. Our desire and willingness to do Teshuvah and remove sin from our lives; and
  3. The asking of forgiveness from God once we have done the first two things.

When we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, the blood he shed as the Passover Lamb is the thanksgiving sacrifice, bringing us into communion with God. Yeshua’s death also served as the sin sacrifice which, through his shed blood, we can receive atonement for our sins, just as with the Yom Kippur goat which was killed. And, as the Yom Kippur scapegoat, Yeshua took upon himself all our sins carrying them forever to a place we would never see them again- not just into the desert but beyond the grave.

His death shows us that Passover and Yom Kippur, although two separate events in the real world, are spiritually one and the same thing. Redemption saves us from sin and allows us to be with the Lord forever. The Passover blood represents protection from death and the Yom Kippur blood is our forgiveness from sin. Together these two things provide our salvation, both being accomplished by Yeshua.

In the Acharit HaYamim (the End Days), when Yeshua returns and we are all gathered up into the clouds with him, then will the ultimate fulfillment of both of these festivals be realized. Yeshua is the Lamb of God and the Yom Kippur scapegoat for the world.  When he said he was the beginning and the end it represents more than just a timeline; he is the beginning of our eternal life and the end of our sin.

Praise God and praise His son, Yeshua Ha Meshiach, for His goodness, mercy, and ability to save.

Thank you for being here and please share these message, subscribe, and I welcome any comments you may want to add to this message.

Until next time, L’hitraot and may you have an easy fast.

Why Faith is so Hard

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Faith is, as we are told in Hebrews 11:1, something that is unseen and unproven.

Faith is a choice; it is a conscious decision to believe in something.

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Many people can prove that their belief is valid by simply showing it to be true with a scientific proof; for example, we all believe in gravity, and we can validate our belief by dropping something.

But what about belief in God? What about believing that Yeshua (Jesus) not only was a real person who really existed, but that he is the Messiah?

We can prove his existence because it is verified in the works of Josephus, but that doesn’t prove he is the Messiah.

We can say his miracles, which were verified by eyewitnesses and documented in (at least) four different books of the Bible, prove he was the Messiah. But that really doesn’t prove anything, because (for starters) we can’t prove the Bible is completely accurate. Oh, yes, there is plenty of archaeological evidence to show that the stories and references to many biblical characters is accurate, but that doesn’t mean Yeshua did what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John say he did. And with regard to the messianic prophecies, well, the Apostles did the same miracles that Yeshua did, so that kind of kills the argument that Yeshua’s miracles prove he was the one and only Messiah.

When it comes to faith in God, the Messiah, and what is written in the Bible, we need to choose to believe. In truth, if we could scientifically prove the existence of God that would be the antithesis of faith, because absolute proof of something does away with the need to choose to believe in it.

It is because we have to choose to have faith that it becomes very difficult to share that faith with the “real” world, which always wants to be told why something is and to be shown that it really is what they were just told it is. The world is just like people from Missouri, which is known as the “Show me” state.

The world says, “If I can’t touch, hear, see or smell it, it ain’t there!” But those of us with faith say, “I believe, anyway.”

Abraham knew that he and Sarah were way too old to have any children, but when God said he would have a son, he chose to believe him. When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh, he believed that God would forgive them if they repented, which he didn’t want to happen so he ran away.

On the other hand, there were some heroes of the Bible that did not believe; at least, not right away.

As Jacob was going to Laban, God promised to bring him back to his home and give his descendants the land, but Jacob didn’t believe him completely, so he made a pact, saying that if God did provide for him and keep him safe, then Jacob would worship God (Genesis 28:20.) And Gideon was so doubtful that he asked God to prove it was really him (Judges 6:33-40), from which we get the phrase, “Throwing the fleece before the Lord.”

Having faith is hard because it is basic human nature to want to believe only that which we can prove, and what is harder than having faith is keeping it in light of everyone else calling you ignorant or foolish for believing.

I am absolutely convinced that God exists and that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send. Why? At first, it was because I chose to believe it, but over the past 20-plus years, there have been events in my life that have been so wonderful and unexpected that I cannot put it down to coincidence. I have had prayers answered, with exactly what I prayed for, which in the “provable” world couldn’t have happened. But what is important to note is that I do not believe because the miracles happened- the miracles happened because I believed!

If someone has a miraculous event in their life which causes them to believe in God, for me, that is a concern. Why? Because Satan can create miracles, too, and if I believe simply because of a miraculous event, then my faith is founded in something other than my choice. It is founded upon a physical event, which can be created by Satan, and in many cases easily faked by a human.

Miracles can help to reinforce our belief, but I feel absolutely certain that our belief in God, the faith we hold in him and his Messiah, must be founded on our decision to believe and not on some physical event in our life.

Once we have chosen to believe in something, we must acknowledge that there is a fine line between faithfully believing and just being stubborn and unwilling to listen. I can’t tell you how to know the difference, so case-by-case, time-by-time we all need to hold true to our faith, yet be open to hearing other people’s beliefs.

That’s another reason why faith is so hard- because it is a choice, we are always able to change our minds, or be influenced to do so. I suppose the best advice I can give is to make a thorough knowledge of the Bible the foundation for your belief, and constantly pray that God will validate your trust. Not in the way Gideon did, by testing the Lord (which the Bible says we shouldn’t) but as a, well…let’s call it a confirmation of choosing to be on the right side.

Faith is a choice, a decision that each of us will make whether we know it or not. No decision is still a decision, and it is a double-edged sword because we can choose to believe or reject, but no matter why we choose, or who led us to that choice, we are, each and every one of us, ultimately going to be accountable to God for that choice.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone, and I chose to always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Free Will is a Spiritual Wormhole

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In these modern times, when science fiction is almost a prophecy of reality, the Wormhole Theory is still unproven, but so popular with TV shows and movies that most people probably think they do exist.

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

A wormhole is a break, so to speak, within the space-time continuum. In other words, it is a connection between two locations that can be crossed without traveling the distance.

Let’s see how this works: Say you are at the beginning of a 100-mile long road. This road has a large hinge in the middle that allows it to fold up, in just one second, so that both ends are touching each other. Now, you are standing at the beginning of the road, and when the road bends in half, with one step you are now at the end of the road, which extends itself to its original position. What has just happened is that you traveled 100 miles with just one step, in a matter of two to three seconds.

So, nu? What does this have to do with God or the Bible? It actually has a lot to do with it, if you will allow me to explain.

We all are given Free Will, the opportunity and right to choose what we will do, say, and who we will be. As God told Cain, sin is always crouching at our door, and it is up to us to conquer it or fall victim to it. Either way, it is our choice no matter why we choose it, and we will be held accountable for the choices we make.

When we are old enough to know right from wrong, we begin walking on a road. We have no choice but to walk this road, but the road extends into infinity, in many directions. The problem is that there is no visible connection or bridge between these roads. However, as you walk along the road there are doors on either side, and they are labeled; some are labeled “To Desires of the Flesh” and others are labeled “To Sacrifice and Self-Discipline.”

It appears to most people that as they walk on their chosen path through life, once they have traveled on that road there is no going back or changing. Along the road, on both sides, is a bottomless chasm. However, the doors are always there, and even though there is nothing on the other side, these doors are spiritual wormholes that can take us to a totally different road.

All we have to do is chose one, walk through it, and in one simple step, we are walking on a totally different road.

That is how Free Will, our gift from God, can save us…or destroy us.

This is really good news if you are living a sinful life because it means no matter how long you have walked this sinful road, you can change the path you are taking to another one. But it is a double-edged sword, for those who are walking the path of righteousness can just as easily lose their way by going through the wrong door. In the end, every road we take leads to the Throne of Judgment.

This is what we are told in Ezekiel 18:21-24:

However, if the wicked person repents of all the sins he committed, keeps my laws and does what is lawful and right; then he will certainly live, he will not die. None of the transgressions he has committed will be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done, he will live. 

“Do I take any pleasure at all in having the wicked person die?” asks Adonai Elohim. “Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?”

On the other hand, when the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness by acting in accordance with all the disgusting practices that the wicked person does, will he live? None of the righteous deeds he has done will be remembered; for the trespasses and sins he has committed, he will die.

This is God’s confirmation to us that no matter how many miles we have walked in sin, one step through the door and we are on the path of righteousness- no longer walking to certain death. And the same goes for people who change their route from righteousness to sinfulness.

The doors that we pass during our lifetime are all spiritual wormholes that can transport us from Sheol to heaven or in the other direction; all we have to do is step through them.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But the problem is that it isn’t easy. In fact, it can often be very difficult, and too often simply because people don’t realize the doors are wormholes. They think they are just cosmetic because when we open the door, we can’t see where it leads to.

We have to take a step of faith when we go through one of those doors.

If you are on a pathway that you chose before you knew better and feel that you can’t change your direction, you are most certainly mistaken. You have the opportunity to change lanes, to get off this highway, and to travel to a better destination any time you want to. And if you don’t see any doors right now, ask God to provide one for you. It may happen immediately, or you may have to wait a bit, but look for the door! It will be there.

But be warned- the Enemy of God, HaSatan, also knows how to make a door, so before walking through any door, always read the label.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages to help this ministry grow. I never ask for money, but it would be nice if you bought some of the books I have written. And please subscribe so you will be notified the next time I post a message.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

2020 Rosh Hashanah Message

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As we begin a new year (civil new year, that is), I think it would be wrong to not review some of what has happened in the last year.

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

Of course, you know that I am going to talk about the pandemic, which I (as well as others) believe might be the long-awaited “birth pains” of the tribulations related to us in the Bible, which indicate the coming of Messiah Yeshua.

We can discuss the way that trusted organizations, namely the WHO and the CDC, have tried to hide certain facts and have skewed their reports and numbers. And although this country has always been somewhat polarized, on both a racial and political level, it hasn’t been this bad since the race riots of the 1960s, and before that the Civil War.

Concern for proper health care, racial tensions, political adversity, and the propagandizing media are all working together with anarchistic elements within our government and society to try to bring this country into financial and social ruin.

And what really scares me is that it seems to be working!

The traditional reading for Rosh Hashanah is the Akedah, the binding of Isaac we read in Genesis 22. There is one aspect of this that I find relevant to the social upheaval in the world, especially in America, and that is how the things happening in this biblical story must have seemed from Isaac’s viewpoint.

Isaac first starts to suspect something is off when he and Abraham are walking to Mount Moriah to sacrifice, and there is no animal. We aren’t told anything about what Isaac might have said to his father when, after building an altar, he was tied up and laid upon it. Then, when Abraham drew the knife and was about to bring it down into him, I think Isaac must have thought something along the lines of, “This ain’t lookin’ very good for me!”

And that is how I have felt over the past 7 months watching the news, reading the Facebook posts about violence and looting, and seeing the political advertisements about how each candidate does everything right and the other candidate does everything wrong. If we believe what we are told by the political campaigns, we are either going to be taxed to death or we will be under a dictatorship.

I feel like Isaac must have felt watching his father raise the knife.

Isaac was saved at the last possible moment by God’s intervention, but I do not see that happening for America or the world. This time the knife will have to fall; with Isaac, it wasn’t his time because the whole thing was a test of Abraham’s faith. With us, now, I believe there is no longer any testing- we have proven, as a country, as a world, that we prefer to sin, we prefer to ignore and reject God, and his patience has run its course. He has unlimited patience, and when he doesn’t act to punish it is only because he is giving us time to repent. But I believe that time has come, and gone, and because God is holy and cannot reject his own laws, the time for punishment has come, and I mean soon.

We have bound ourselves to the altar. There is no ram waiting on the sidelines to replace us, and this is not a drill. This is the real thing, so what can we do?

Accept God’s will, trust in his judgment, and try to stay out of trouble by avoiding the hot spots in the world. If you feel your faith isn’t strong, then work on it. If you know people who have not turned to God, try to convince them to turn to God now, and show by example the inner peace we can have, even in the midst of terrible tsouris, when we know we are with God.

I may be wrong, and this whole mishigas may be over after the election, depending on who wins. Who knows? Maybe the leadership of this country will get its head back on its shoulders to straighten this mess out because where the government’s head is now, the only way to see what is happening is to peek through its belly button.

Nineveh was saved by immediate and decisive action, and if we are to have any chance of saving ourselves from destruction, we also need immediate and decisive action against the terrorists working under the guise of social reform, which is all being managed by HaSatan.

As we enter this new year, which should be a joyful celebration, let’s not allow the world’s disorder to ruin our fun. Of course, being Jewish, we always add a little tsouris to every happy occasion, so as we enjoy this festival, let’s also reflect not just on the world’s sins, but on our own, as we enter the 10 Days of Awe approaching Yom Kippur.

I wish you all a joyous and fun-filled Rosh Hashanah, and may the peace of the Ruach HaKodesh fill your heart and make you forget all about the world, even if just for a little while.

שנה טובה!!!

Happy New Year!

 

Rehearsing Our Anger

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I am not talking to you right now- I am talking to myself. This topic is one I can claim to be an expert about: not because I have overcome it, but because I still do it all the time, and you know what they say: practice makes perfect.

Except this is a perfectly awful thing to be good at doing.

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

Not all anger is bad because there are things that we should be angry about: injustice, hypocrisy, blasphemy, and when people do things that hurt other people.

Shaul tells us that being angry is not bad, but we should not sin in our anger (Ephesians 4:26), so if and when we feel that “rise” coming, we need to show the sort of compassionate patience that is a Fruit of the Spirit (you’ll find those listed in Galatians.)

The type of anger I want to talk about today is not justified anger with people when they do wrongful things, but when we are angry with people who aren’t even there.

We get angry when people with us do something to us or to others, but rehearsing our anger is when we are all alone!

Sometimes we rehearse our anger (which I do all too often) as we review a past event, and sometimes it happens when we are preparing for some future event. We think of the comments that were or might be made, what we want to say, and what the other person may say in response to us. The conversation goes on and on (now remember- this is all happening just in your head) and soon you find your blood pressure rising, the discussion becoming more passionate, and next thing you know you are totally pissed at this person, who isn’t even there.

That is what rehearsing our anger is all about, and it is not only a useless waste of energy, but it actually creates the same physiological responses that being in a real argument would do.

Some people may say, “C’mon, Steve- I am just venting and doing so when no one is there is safer than doing it when they are there, right?” Well, yes, to a degree, but in my experience that there is no such thing as “getting it off your chest”; in fact, my experience is that venting doesn’t release the anger, it enhances it. Anger is an all-consuming fire, and even when it dies down, there are embers that could burn for days, or months, or even years. Venting is like trying to put it out by throwing gasoline on it.

And in my case, my anger is not always righteous; the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in me makes me righteous before God but that’s because it is the righteousness of the Messiah in me. When I don’t pay attention to what I am doing and don’t allow the Holy Spirit to lead my actions, I am acting on my own, in the flesh, and my flesh is not righteous. That is when I find myself rehearsing my anger.

It is usually in the car when I am driving somewhere and let my mind wander to past events. It is also in the middle of the night, when I am having trouble sleeping or when recent events are still gnawing at me. The embers that I didn’t even realize were there suddenly burst into flame.

When we rehearse our anger we are sinning.  Why? Well, for one, you can be certain that a degree of pridefulness is involved. We allow our anger to control us and we lose our compassion and forgiveness.

We are bearing false witness since the argument in our head is making someone say something that they haven’t really said. We are putting words in their mouth, which is essentially giving false testimony.

And the worst part of it is that by rehearsing our anger, we remove any opportunity for the other person to make atonement. Rehearsing the anger is a means of being able to “tell them off’- how often when we do this do we allow them to ask forgiveness? The point of this fire we have stoked is to burn brighter so we make sure they can’t make it all better.

In our rehearsed anger we want them to be, to say, and to do exactly those things that, in real life, we don’t want them to be, to say, or do. When we rehearse our anger we take away someone’s opportunity to make atonement, and by doing this we are trampling the blood of the Messiah into the dirt.

And that does not glorify God or Messiah Yeshua.

So nu?  how can we stop this self-destructive behavior?

One way is to gain more humility, and thereby the ability to just let it go. Give it up to God, faithfully believing he will handle it, just as we are told in Proverbs 20:22. That doesn’t mean asking God to make the other person stop what they do, it means asking God to help us stop doing what we are doing! Giving it up to God, totally, means if we find ourselves starting to rehearse our anger, we stop dead in our tracks and say, “Oops, sorry Lord- this is not mine anymore, it’s yours.”

Another way is to learn forgiveness. The pain of being wronged will never go away until you forgive, really forgive, the one who caused the pain. Once we learn to forgive as God forgives (sound familiar? think Matthew 6:9-14) then the embers will be doused completely because the sin would have been forgiven, and forgotten.

When we forgive and forget, but never forget what we forgave, then we never really forgave, in the first place.

Jewish wisdom tells us you can’t stop a bird from landing in a tree but you can keep it from building a nest there. When you smell the smoke, turn off the heat. Proverbs 26:20 says “Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a quarrel dies down.” The only way to stop a fire is to take away the fuel so we must turn our thoughts away from anger and instead turn them towards something pleasant, something that will be fun to do, and I don’t mean imagine wringing their neck!

One really good way to not rehearse your anger, which is also a very righteous thing to do, is to pray for that person. I have found that when I pray for someone, all my bad feelings towards them disappear.

Overcoming rehearsing our anger is a hard thing to do, especially for me as I have been doing it all of my life, but as Yeshua told us, that although something may be impossible for a human to do, with God all things are possible.

I trust that God will grant my prayer to stop rehearsing my anger; I just don’t know when it will happen so I’ll keep doing my best until he steps in and finishes the job.

Thank you for being here, please subscribe, share these messages with others and I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Understanding Galatians 3:24-25

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Before we discuss this specific passage, let’s review what Galatians is all about.

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It is a letter written by Shaul (Paul) to a congregation of mostly Gentile Believers in Yeshua as the Messiah, and who were, essentially, converting from their pagan Roman religion to Judaism. These Gentiles were being harassed by Jewish Believers in Messiah who demanded that their conversion process be immediate and complete. Shaul was trying to maintain control of his fledgling congregation by keeping them on track with his slow introduction to the proper worship of God, and understanding of how Messiah Yeshua fit into God’s plan of redemption.

We can see this in all of Shaul’s letters to the different congregations he formed (there were no “churches” in the First Century), each battling with their own problems in keeping on the right track to developing proper worship. There was NEVER any condemnation of Torah or instructions to ignore or abandon Torah- there were slow, step-by-step instructions helping people to make a spiritual paradigm shift in both worship and lifestyle.

Now that we know the context of the letter to the Galatians, remembering that understanding the context is essential in any biblical study, we can take a look at the passage:

Accordingly, the Torah functioned as a guardian until the Messiah came, so that we might be declared righteous on the ground of trusting and being faithful.  But now that the time for this trusting faithfulness has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

We are all children of God, right? And anyone who has ever raised a child knows that the one thing children do, the moment they are able to understand boundaries, is to push the envelope of those boundaries. We, as parents, or should I say guardians, do all we can to allow them to explore their world while keeping them within the very boundaries they want to be free of. And when they cross those boundaries, we bring them back into righteousness through a time out, or grounding them, or sometimes a good slap on the tuchas.

Yet, even when understanding what will happen when they cross the boundary line, why do they continue to push those boundaries? If you’re asking me (and even if you’re not, I’m gonna tell you, anyway) it’s just basic human nature. We are always trying to push beyond whatever boundaries we are given.

We are bound by the sea below and the sky above: we can’t breathe underwater and we can’t fly, yet we pushed against those boundaries and eventually found ways in which we can now do both.

The Torah is a guardian that establishes boundaries; not natural boundaries like water and gravity, but moral ones. The Torah defines these boundaries, and human nature, being what it is, urges us to push those boundaries as far as we can to see where they break. That is who we are. The Torah accounts for this, in that not only does it establish the boundaries for proper living and worship, but as our guardian, it also provides the means for us to be brought back within those boundaries if, and when, we cross over them into sin.

When the Messiah came, he replaced a specific part of the Torah. It wasn’t the part that established the boundaries but the part that brought us back into righteousness when we crossed those boundaries. Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which is the requirement under the Torah in order to be forgiven. The Torah states that we must bring our sacrifice to the location where God places his name in order for the sacrifice to be accepted (Deuteronomy 12:11), so when the temple was destroyed in 73 AD, there was no means of attaining forgiveness of sin.

Now we come to the most misunderstood truth about the Messiah:

The sole purpose of the Messiah is to be the means through which people can be forgiven of their sins.

Yes, Yeshua taught the deeper, spiritual meaning of the Torah (in Jewish exegesis it is called the Remes), but that wasn’t why he came. He performed many miracles, but that wasn’t why he came- that was only to prove who he was. The one and the only reason he came here was to provide the means by which we can be forgiven.

Once we understand this essential truth, then we can understand what Shaul meant when he said with the coming of the Messiah we are no longer under the guardianship of the Torah. He wasn’t talking about the boundaries set by the Torah, he was talking about the means to be brought back within those boundaries.

Let’s get back to kids for a second: as their guardian, we teach them the way to act and we enforce those rules, but when they get old enough to be on their own, they are no longer under our guardianship. That doesn’t mean that what we taught them as their guardian is no longer valid and necessary; it simply means that they are now the ones who are responsible to enforce the rules. The way we do that is through self-discipline and being responsible adults.

Do you now see the logic and relationship between the Torah, Yeshua, and guardianship? A guardian defines our boundaries and is the one who brings us back into righteousness, and the Torah did both of these before Yeshua came; now, after Yeshua, the Torah still establishes the boundaries, Yeshua is the one who brings us back into righteousness, but we are each of us responsible to stay within the boundaries the Torah defines.

The boundaries are still valid, the means to be brought back within the boundaries is through Yeshua, but we are now our own guardians.

Thank you for being here, and please share these messages and subscribe to the website and the YouTube channel. And remember: I always welcome your comments.

Please also check out and join my new discussion group, Just God’s Word (there are a few groups with this name, and mine is the one with the Torah as the cover photo.)

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

How To Argue Like A Believer

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I am a member of a number of different discussion groups, most of which are religious, meaning they profess to be composed of Christian, Hebraic Roots, or Messianic people.

Too often you wouldn’t know that by how they talk to each other.

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

The topic of God, sin, or how to live our lives is a hot potato, no doubt of that, and engenders some really passionate discussion. Passionate is OK, really, so long as it is compassionately controlled. That means you can destroy someone’s argument but when you start to destroy the person making the argument, you have lost.

There are a few verses in Proverbs about arguing with a fool, but not everyone who argues is a fool. In fact, most are intelligent people who, sometimes, just believe in the most ridiculous things. And when we try to convince them of the truth (as we see it), we often feel like we are running headfirst into a brick wall.

And the fact of the matter is…we are.

That is the point at which I often see the discussion devolve into an exchange of personal insults.

Here’s what Socrates said about this condition:

When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. 

As Believers, we should represent God well. And what I mean by “Believer” is anyone who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you may (or may not) accept Yeshua as your Messiah, which isn’t necessary to believe in God. Anyone who believes in God should act in accordance with the way he says we should.  Of course, being human that won’t happen all the time, but that’s no excuse why we can’t make it happen all the time we are in a discussion with others.

I was once told by a boss, whom I respected as my boss and (I am happy to say) still respect as my friend (that’s you, James M.), that what I say is usually the right thing, but I say it the wrong way.  Ultimately, the right thing is lost because of the wrong way I say it.

A proper argument or discussion is when we exchange ideas without anger, and we should never tell the other person what they must believe. If we want to have any chance of convincing them of our position, we must first demonstrate that we respect their right to believe what they choose to believe. If we don’t start off that way, we will never get them to listen to our side. That’s a given. So, before we begin to argue for our side, ask them why they believe in their side. Asking them questions why they believe will give us the ammunition we need to shoot down their “facts”, and we may even learn something new. Just because we believe differently doesn’t mean we are always right.

Sometimes they may be the ones who are correct! If you aren’t willing to listen to their arguments, attentively, then you have already lost, even if you are correct.

There can often be more than one “truth” to a topic, and listening is the best way to realize that.

Never tell anyone they are not spiritual enough (even if they aren’t), or that they don’t know what they are talking about (even when they really don’t) because that is a personal attack, and all you will hear is “Shields up, Scotty!!”  And when that happens, you have lost. And not just lost the argument but lost the chance to possibly save someone’s soul from eternal damnation.

We need to first ask why they believe, and then tell them why we believe otherwise, giving biblical references or established facts. If you don’t know, absolutely, where your facts come from, then be prepared to say “I have heard” or “I was told”, in order to let the other person know you aren’t really sure, but chose to believe.

The best start to winning an argument is not to try to get the other person to believe as you do, but to get the other person to doubt what they believe. That is the first step; once they doubt their facts, then you can provide your reasons why you believe and let them make their own choice.

And if you find yourself getting frustrated with their refusal to accept your ideas, then stop. Recognize that the moment you are frustrated, you are no longer working to spread God’s truth, but to satisfy your own prideful need to be recognized and accepted. At that point, sin is crouching at your door and you must master it before you start to insult the other person.

We mustn’t allow ourselves to represent God poorly, as not only will this weaken our position, but it could also turn the other person, who may not be a Believer, away from God. The very last thing we ever want to hear is someone say to us “And you call yourself a Christian!”

Everyone is given free will to choose what they will believe and since that is a gift from God, who are we to take it away from them? They will be held accountable for what they believe, and when someone believes something that will hurt them, eternally, we should try to convince them of God’s truth, and if they refuse to listen, pray for them.

But never, ever insult them or their beliefs: that won’t change their minds, and in my opinion, is an insult to God.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages, and check out my new discussion group, Just God’s Word .

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

When Is It Enough, and When Is It Too Much?

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Are you as fed up with the facemask protocol as I am?  I am not at all against trying to stop the spread of a contagious disease, even one that is as relatively safe for some 98% of the population as COVID has proven to be, but I am against the hypocrisy of wearing a face mask to help protect others when the mask being worn is useless in doing so.

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

The spiritual arguments against wearing the mask are also proliferating, and I agree that we are being conditioned, or controlled (in a way) by being forced to wear the mask. But at which point is it doing as the authorities command, which is what the Bible says we should do (Hebrews 13:17), and at which point is it like taking the mark of the Beast? Where do we draw the line?

My answer? I don’t have one. I think that it is going to depend on each case, each time we are asked to do something that, in our spirit, tells us it might not be right. But what we have to be careful about is to ask ourselves, “Is it my spirit, or my pride?”

If there is one thing that just about everyone in the world has copied from the Israelites when they were in the desert, it is being a stiff-necked and rebellious people (Exodus 32:9), so when it comes to doing what we are told to do by competent authority (OK, that may be an oxymoron) we tend to tell that authority what they can do with it.

I wear a mask when I go shopping because the grocery store requires it. I need to buy things, and if I don’t wear the mask I can’t go in the store. Is that a fulfillment of the verse in Revelation 13:17 about those who don’t take the mark won’t be able to buy anything? No, it isn’t, simply because I can always get what I want from Publix by going online and they will deliver it to me. So, no- I can still buy things, therefore wearing a mask is not taking the mark.

However, that doesn’t mean things won’t escalate. The next step may be refusing to allow me to buy using cash, which still isn’t quite at that point in prophecy, but when we add wearing a mask and not using cash, we are getting closer.

And the more they try to tell me how to live, the more I want to tell them where to go.

The lesson for us today is not to allow pride to get in the way of cooperation, and not to allow ourselves to cooperate to the point where we are now working for the wrong guy. The important question is: “When is it enough, and when is it too much?”

I wish I could give you an easy to follow answer, but there isn’t one, so read the Bible, pray, ask God to guide you through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), and stay alert.

I have a really good mask I just bought which is made in Israel, guaranteed to stop Coronavirus for a year, and it’s reusable. And let me add one more thing: it had better work because it was expensive!

I believe we ARE in prophetic times, and although I am wearing the mask when I have to, I am trying to be as wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove, even though I look like some 1880’s stagecoach outlaw.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, and check out the Picture Album tab on my website, where I share my personal life with you. I just added a video of the vacation I took last week with my best friend at his timeshare in Cabo San Lucas.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!