Category: A Drash to Start the Day

Parashah B’resheet 2019 (In the beginning) Genesis 1:1 – 6:8

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The High Holy Days are over for this Gregorian calendar year and will start again with the real Jewish New Year on April 8, 2020, when Pesach (Passover) begins.

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We have turned the Torah back to the very beginning, and this parashah starts with the creation of the universe, takes us through Adam and Eve, their sin, the murder of Abel, and the lineage of people up to just before the Flood.

There is, of course, the never-ending message of new beginnings, resurrection, and original sin. We could talk about the way the Enemy of God uses our own desires to cause us to sin, and how sin so overtakes us that it is like a small bit of hametz (leavening) which works its way through an entire batch of dough.

But that isn’t what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about the future, about when there comes a day we will not have to turn back the Torah. In fact, there is coming a day (maybe sooner than we all know?) when we will not even read the Torah anymore because it will be written on our hearts.

The completion of the work of Messiah Yeshua is when we, through faith in him, will be resurrected into our spiritual bodies, and those bodies (although we don’t know what they will be like) will be pumping the word of God throughout us.

This is why in Leviticus we are told that the life of a creature is in the blood. God gave us all the Torah so that we know how to worship him and how to treat each other. When we obey God we are considered righteous in his eyes- that is clear in the example Abraham set. He didn’t ask why or do some of what God wanted, making excuses for not doing the rest. No, Abraham simply did as God said: no questions, no delay, and no excuses. And because that is what he did, his faithful obedience was credited as righteousness.

When we obey God, doing what he says we should, we will also be considered righteous. And remember that Abraham did not live a sinless life, but he lived a faithful and obedient one.

When we sin, we have the opportunity to have that sin forgiven because Yeshua shed his innocent blood to act as the “life” for us. Sin is death, and faithful obedience is life, but since no one can be perfectly obedient, no matter how faithful they are, we have Yeshua as our “stand-in” so that through his righteousness, we can be seen as righteous, also.

As joyful as it is to turn the Torah back to the very beginning so that we can read it all over again, the joy of this event will be multiplied a hundred-fold when the Torah is not turned back, or even read because it will be our very lifeblood!

Now that is something to look forward to!

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Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

The Greatest Counterattack That Ever Succeeded

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For those of you who may not know, I was a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.  And, as such, I was very well trained in combat skills, including all types of attacks and counterattacks.  One thing I learned is that it is very important to pre-organize a counterattack because the best time to do so is immediately after you lose a battle. That is when the foe is the most vulnerable because they have just taken over your position and are trying to organize themselves.

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The battle between God and Satan has been raging for quite a while. Like most wars, there are victories and losses on both sides, and often even after the war has been won, the winning battle is not the last skirmish.

When Yeshua rose from the dead, the war which Satan started against God was won, then and there, but the battles did not stop. Yeshua’s victory over death is complete, but there is still a lot of “mopping up” that needs to be done, and we know (from the vision given to John on Patmos) that there are more battles yet to come before this war is completely finished.

Satan was defeated with Yeshua’s victory, but he organized a counterattack that has been devastating to that victory. And what was that counterattack?

It was separating the Gentile Believers from Judaism, resulting in the creation of what we call Christianity.

It started as soon as the people began referring to the Gentile converts to “the Way” as Christians. That separated them from the Jewish population by name. Then, in or around 98 CE, the early Gentile leaders of what was now being called Christianity declared Sunday to be the Sabbath for those who follow Christ. Later they also rejected the idea that Judaism and Christianity could be compatible. By the end of the Second Century, new Christians were almost exclusively Gentiles, and by the time of the Council of Nicene, the New Covenant was being composed by Gentiles. From that time forward, Christianity (in nearly all its forms) has ignored or rejected the Tanakh, teaching only from the New Covenant.

And by ignoring the Tanakh, they never learned about all the mistakes the Jewish people made; consequently, Christianity has made all those mistakes, all over again. And what is worse, they have added new ones to it.

In Romans 11:25, Shaul warns the Gentile Believers not to become proud simply because they are accepting Yeshua as the Messiah, whereas the mainstream Jewish population did not. He tells them that if God was willing to lop off the natural branches from the Tree of Life for lack of faith, how much more so will he lop off the unnatural branches that have been grafted on if they also lose faith?

Yet, despite this warning, Gentile Believers have, from the start, ignored the instructions God gave in the Torah, organized their own holidays, rituals, and soon after Constantine they actually began to persecute the Jewish people in order to separate them from Judaism, as well.

Christianity has not learned the lessons that God’s Chosen people learned. These lessons were learned when they were in the desert, and later when they were in Canaan, and later when their kingdom was divided; in fact, it is my opinion that we Jews still haven’t learned our lesson and are making mistakes, even today. I have heard or read of some synagogues that celebrate people or activities that are clearly identified as a sin in the Torah, but they do so in order to appear “politically correct”; in other words, they are seeking the approval of human beings instead of seeking the approval of God.

The “Church” has done even worse things than that! In the Catholic churches, there are statues that people bow before and pray to; in some non-Catholic sects they have gay ministers; in some other sects they celebrate Halloween. There are so many things that they do wrong, and I believe it is because they haven’t learned from their Jewish ancestors because the Enemy made it easy to sin by separating Christians from Jews.

I won’t even start with the generations of Christians who have been taught to ignore the Torah because of the misinterpretations of the letters that Paul wrote to his congregations, all of which were composed almost exclusively of Gentiles. He wrote to them in a way that would help them to slowly learn about God’s instructions by feeding them a little at a time and specifically telling each congregation only what they needed to hear to keep them on the right path. Unfortunately, since the Gentiles didn’t learn or want to deal with all of God’s instructions, Satan taught them that Jesus nailed the Torah to the Cross.

That’s right, that’s what I said…the idea that the Torah isn’t valid for Christians is a lie that comes straight out of the depths of hell!

So, nu? What do we do? How can we breach this 2,000-year-old gap between God’s instructions and Christianity that Satan has succeeded in creating?

Don’t look to me for an answer because I don’t know what can work.  Actually, I don’t think it will be possible for us to close this gap. God will have to do this on a case-by-case basis. I am doing what I can by having this ministry. This is a teaching ministry, and as the tag line at the bottom of my Home Page indicates, I am here trying to get the correct information to people so they can make an informed decision about how they will worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the truth about what the Messiah, Yeshua, taught.

Only after the Acharit HaYamim (The End Days) is upon us, the final battle is won, Yeshua is ruling the world and the new heavens and new earth are in place, will this gap be closed. But, I am sorry to say, I do not see it happening until then. Humans can’t close it, and I don’t think God wants to until it is time for all things to be completed.

Maybe this is what Yeshua was talking about when he told the parable about the and the tares and the wheat (Matthew 13.) The owner of the field planted wheat, but the enemy came in at night and planted tares. When they were growing together the owner said to leave them growing together and only after the harvest will they be separated. I think we are living this parable in real life.

The separation of Christianity from Judaism is the greatest counterattack that has ever succeeded. If you are a Christian who has been separated from your roots, you can still win your individual battle against the enemy of God by studying the Tanakh (Old Covenant) and re-reading the teachings of Yeshua that are in the first three Gospels. Ignore John and only concentrate on Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And forget about reading any of the Epistles by Shaul (Paul) until you have had a chance to get a Messianic Bible or Messianic Commentary on the New Covenant so you can see where he wasn’t really against following the instruction in the Torah, but was trying to spoon-feed it to his Gentile congregations. He did that because he knew it was very hard for these Gentiles to make the paradigm shift from a self-serving hedonistic lifestyle to one of selfless love for others and righteous living.

The war has been won, but there are still battles raging, and they will not stop until Yeshua returns to do a final mop-up of the mess the Enemy has created with his counterattack. Be prepared for that day by learning how God told us we should worship him and treat each other, which is in the Torah. Then decide for yourself what you will do.

When Yeshua returns and you face the Lord at his Judgement throne, whichever way you have decided to live is what you will be judged on. Make sure that what you choose to do it is your own decision and not just what someone else told you.

Think about this: God said not obeying the Torah was a sin, and Satan knows that sin separates people from God, so the best way to win souls for himself is to make sure that the Torah is ignored.

One last piece of advice? The easiest road to travel leads to death.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel, as well. Share this out with everyone you know so they can also have a chance to be judged on their own decision instead of what someone else tells them.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Shaul of Tarsus: Saint or Salesman?

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The New Covenant, not the scriptures but the actual promise from God, is found in Jeremiah 31:31, and it will be fulfilled through the Messiah.  It is a promise made by God, through the prophet Jeremiah to the Jewish people. God has also said, through other prophets, that the Messiah will also be a light to the Gentiles, which means that the Gentile New Covenant is the same one that God gave to the Jewish people.

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That being said, the New Covenant (now I am talking about the scriptures) tells us about the Messiah who came to deliver the new covenant we read in Jeremiah. The 4 Gospels tell us about the Messiah: his birth, life, ministry, teachings, his death, and his resurrection, through which we can all receive forgiveness of sin.

Yet, the story of the Messiah is less than 1/3 of the entire NC scriptures! In fact, nearly 2/3 of the scriptures that have served as the foundation for Christianity are letters written by a Jewish tentmaker to the Messianic congregations he formed throughout Asia. His name was Shaul of Tarsus, but most people know him as Saint Paul.

But was he a saint, or a salesman?

I was a professional salesman for quite a few years, and I can tell you that the general picture of a salesman is someone in a loud suit with a glib manner of speech whose purpose in life is to do and say whatever he needs to in order to get his commission. That is not true…well, not always true. In fact, the best salesmen are the ones who listen more than they speak, and who are truly interested in getting their clients what the client really needs.

The first step to making a “righteous” sale is to ask the client the proper type of questions to find out what it is that they really need. You see, people don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want. Once we know what someone needs, we then present our product, assuming it meets that need, in such a way that they want it. That is the essence of a good sale: provide what the client needs and to do so in a way that will make them want it.

Now consider the problem Shaul had: he was going to a class of people who had been practicing a religion based on the precept of multiple gods, who had the same weaknesses as humans, and their rituals involved hedonistic activities such as gluttony, cult prostitution, and sexual perversion.  Now here comes this little, Jewish Pharisee telling them that it is better for them to give up all that fun and turn from their self-centered religion to one that preached selfless giving, righteous love, and a single God who sent his son to allow them to be forgiven of sins.

Now that has got to be a hard sell!

If you don’t like me telling you Shaul was a salesman, he said it, himself! In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 (NIV):

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

Essentially, he is saying is that he will adjust his spiel to his audience, and we can see that in his letters. Each letter is to a congregation where Shaul is, in truth, trying to “save the sale.”

When a sale is made, people often have what is called “Buyer’s Remorse”, which happens because the excitement of finally getting to have what they’ve always wanted to have suddenly disappears the moment they recall the amount of the check they wrote. Shaul’s congregations all had their own unique battles: the Corinthians were arguing about who to follow, the Ephesians were having trouble relating to the message, the Galatians were being duped into legalism…each congregation was in trouble and in danger of apostatizing. Shaul was trying, constantly, to bring them back into the same mindset they had when he convinced them of their need and their desire to worship God and accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Shaul often talks about the secret knowledge that he has been given regarding salvation. This is a clear and unmistakable reference to the Gnosticism that was prevalent in Ephesus.  He is tuning in to his audience and using terms and ideas that they can relate to. He doesn’t talk about “secret knowledge” in his other letters, except in 1 Timothy, but (then again) Timothy was ministering in Ephesus at the time.

I am not trying to degrade or insult Shaul. Quite the opposite: I acknowledge that what he did was ingenious. He was able to be anyone to everyone, and when it comes down to it, people buy from people. Bonding with the client is an absolute essential if you want to make a sale that will not only “stick”, but to get referrals. Shaul was referred by the leaders in Jerusalem (we call that Third Party information or a “Bread and Butter” Letter) so that those who were not familiar with him, or had heard the bad reputation about him, would be open to hearing him. And, because he could relate to them, they listened.

Each one of us has to realize that we must utilize sales techniques in order to be able to get the word of the Lord out to people who may not be open to hearing it. We have to Match and Mirror, we have to ask the proper type of leading questions, we have to ask questions we already know the answers to in order to get small agreements along the way before the final close, and most important of all, we have to know our product! Which is, of course, the word of God.

You will be unsuccessful in telling someone what they need to do. The moment most people hear, “If you don’t, then…” their defensive shields will be up and you will have lost your opportunity to save them. You must be patient, use discernment, ask questions to help them realize what they want in life, identify what they are missing in their life and get them to agree they want it. Then, and only then, will they listen when you tell them how God can fill that emptiness.

Most people convince themselves they are OK when they aren’t, and it is up to us to open their eyes to what they are really longing for, then show them how God can give them what they want.  Everyone needs salvation- that is a given, even those who don’t believe in God still need to be saved. It is up to each of us to be a good salesperson and help those who are spiritually blind and deaf to see and hear.

Yeshua did it physically by the power of God, and we can do it spiritually by the power of good salesmanship.

Of course, it is really God who will close the deal.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe. I welcome comments and look forward to our next time together.

Until then, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

The Spirit of Bilyam in the Modern Body of Messiah

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In the book of B’midbar (Numbers), Chapter 22 tells us the story of how Balak, the son of the king of Moab, hired a man named Bilyam (Balaam is how most Christian Bibles spell it) to curse the Israelites, who have just defeated the Emori and now are on the border of his land.

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I think we all know the story: Balak sends messengers to summon Bilyam to curse the Israelites, God tells Bilyam not to go but he ends up going. An angel is sent to stop Bilyam but his ass continues to sidestep the angel until Bilyam gets so angry he beats the ass. That’s when the ass speaks to him and Bilyam sees the angel with drawn sword. God tells Bilyam to continue to go but say only what he is told to say, and Bilyam ends up blessing the people instead of cursing them.

Balak then sends Bilyam back to his own country and right after Bilyam leaves (Numbers 25) the people of God commit the sin of Ba’al-Peor. They were seduced by the Moabite and Midianite women to partake in their paganistic rituals and worship of the Moabite gods, which resulted in God’s anger being poured out on the Israelites in the form of a plague which took 24,000 lives.

Now, do you recall that even though Balak was infuriated with Bilyam, Bilyam gave Balak advice on how to get God to destroy his own people? No? Well, we are told about it in Numbers 31:16; that is when we find out the sin of Ba’al-Peor was the brainchild of Bilyam!

The Israelites had just defeated Midian and saved the women as spoils of war. Moses is infuriated with the leaders, saying (JPS Tanakh):

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Bilyam, to revolt so as to break faith with the LORD in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD.

Aha!! So, even though Bilyamblessed the people, he reverted back to his sorcerer ways and told Balak how he could get the people to make their own God curse them.

That brings me to today’s topic. The same thing that Bilyamdid which resulted in the people of God sinning, which forced God to punish them, is alive and well in the body of Messiah, today!

Anything that is done against the people of God we know originates with Satan, the enemy of God, and what Satan has done is cause dissent, arguing, pridefulness and personal attacks against each other to promulgate itself throughout the congregation of Believers in Messiah, causing them to sin. This sin that Satan introduces within the body of the Messiah weakens the entire body and will cause, just as the advice of Bilam did, God to take action against his own people.

So, nu? How has Satan done this terrible thing? He has introduced the idea that we need to know exactly how to pronounce God’s name and the idea of the Trinity. And just as the people sinned against God when the Moabite women seduced them into worshiping their gods, so, too, people within the congregations who argue and fight against each other about God’s name or whether or not Yeshua and God are the same or different cause God’s people to sin against God.

Please forgive this next statement, but I am sorry to say, these arguments never were an issue before Gentiles were grafted in. Jews have been substituting Adonai, HaShem, Elohim, and other names for God instead of pronouncing the Tetragrammaton for millennia, and God never once had a problem with that. Also, Jews knew of God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) since Day 1, but never ever thought it was the same exact entity as God, himself. And the Messiah was never, in the Jewish mindset, to be God.

This type of seduction into argumentation as a means of separating God’s people is not new: as far back as the early congregations formed by Shaul, he was warning his Gentile Believer congregations against arguing with each other. Here are a few examples:

2 Timothy 2:14…Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.

Philippians 2:14-15…Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” 

Titus 3:2…They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.

1 Corinthians 3:3…That’s because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren’t you?

Besides these warnings, we should also remember all of the warnings in the Book of Proverbs against useless arguing.

I have seen, as you have, so many times when people who are supposed to be Christian or Messianic argue about things that really have nothing at all to do with salvation or knowing God’s desires for us. They start off defending their position, then when the other person refuses to agree, they begin to argue, reverting to name-calling, judging the other person as unfit for God’s kingdom or heretical, calling them spiritually immature or a non-Believer, and eventually reverting to childish, insulting and degrading personal attacks.

These are sins against God. Every sin we commit is first and foremost a sin against God. King David knew this and said so in Psalm 51.

I am not exclusively blaming Gentile Believers for this problem, even though I do believe it started with Gentiles at the end of the first century thinking they can just change all of God’s rules. Today, I see this dissension from all Believers, whether Christian, Hebraic Roots, Messianic, or what-have-you. It is not righteousness that is behind this, but the spirit of Bilam infiltrating the body of Messiah.

The answer to this problem is actually not very complicated: focus on what saves, maintain a position of humility, don’t allow pridefulness to overcome you to the point where you find yourself insulting someone, and never, ever, ever let yourself be drawn into an argument when you can plainly see that the other person is not going to change their mind.

What I do is to state my case and if the other person is not open to even hearing it, which I know immediately because they don’t address my points but just repeat their side, then I simply tell them we must agree to disagree, and let God judge between us.

If that doesn’t stop them I will stop replying. And in most cases, since they really only want to hear themselves talk, my not being there doesn’t stop them. Eventually, I have to block them.

I do have discussions with people where we are at opposite ends of a topic, but we can discuss it without insults or arguments. These few and far between events are refreshing and renew my hope that we can allow God’s spirit to rule over our own sinful pride when dealing with each other.

Listen to someone as compassionately as you want them to talk to you and when you are in a discussion, always focus on what edifies. Insults, arguing for the sake of arguing, and personal attacks are prideful, unnecessary, and a sin. Follow the example of the archangel Michael (Jude 1:9) who was arguing with Satan but instead of condemning him said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

God’s people should be an example of how God tells us to treat each other, and if you can’t be a good example, then at least don’t be a bad one.

Thank you for being here. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this message with others. I welcome comments, even if you have a different opinion, as long as we can discuss things in a godly way.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Is Salvation Really Free?

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How many of you have heard the expression that salvation is the free gift of the Lord?

It is something that we cannot buy, cannot earn, and can have simply for the asking, so it certainly does sound like it is free, doesn’t it?

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But what is “free’? One definition of free, as an adverb, is without cost or payment. Another definition of free, as a verb, is to release from captivity. And we can also define it, when used as an adjective, as not being under the control or power of another.

So something that is “free” can mean a number of things, and let me add that just because something has no cost doesn’t mean it isn’t priceless.

When we are saved, we are supposedly freed from captivity to sin and no longer a slave to it. But, then again, Shaul writes in 1 Corinthians 7 that while once free we are now to be a slave to Messiah, so in that sense, salvation doesn’t really free us, it just exchanges masters (for the better, of course.) And if being free means not being under the control or power of another, accepting God’s gift of salvation frees us from the control of Satan, but we need to be under the control (guidance?) of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in order to grow in the Lord and become more spiritually mature and strong enough to maintain our freedom from being controlled by the Enemy.

Forgiveness of sin is free, but freedom from sin is not the same as salvation. Of course, salvation comes through forgiveness of sin- we can’t be “saved” if we are constant and unrepentant sinners. But when our sins are forgiven, that is just for then and there; God forgives what we have done, and understands that we will probably sin again. But asking for salvation is a lifetime commitment: forgiveness of sin is now, but salvation is from now on.

Let me say this again: salvation cannot be bought and it cannot be earned, no matter how hard we try. It can be ours simply by asking for it, but there will be a cost.

It might cost you friends; it might cost you family; you may lose worldly status, you may even suffer all three of these losses! And sometimes, it may even cost you your life.

Faithful worship of God and Yeshua is something that the world hates, so to be “saved” and, more importantly, to remain “saved”, you will pay!

Why do you think Yeshua says that to be his disciple we need to pick up our execution stake and follow him? (Mark 8:34) It means that, as I said earlier, the world hates what God loves. Throughout the Tanakh (and it is confirmed within the New Covenant) we are told that what the world considers wise, God considers foolish, and vice versa, so if you are for God, then you are against the world, and the world will be against you. Job loss, being persecuted verbally and physically, losing friends, being ostracized by family…all of these things, and maybe even more, can and have happened to the faithful.

So don’t be fooled by someone who is trying to “convert” you with rose-colored glasses and promises of peace, joy, and contentment because it is a lie. To be truly faithful to God and Yeshua means to be separated (holy) and different from the rest of the world, and that puts you in a position that is not very pleasant.

True, we can find solace in prayer and God will protect us in many ways from the world’s evil. Not only that, but we can also find comfort in the knowledge that this tsouris is only temporary, and we will have that eternal joy in the Olam Haba (world to come.)

But in the meantime, it ain’t no bed of roses.

Today’s lesson is that the next time someone mentions how salvation is free, set them straight. They have to understand that salvation is something that is going to have a cost to them. Only when people are properly prepared to know what asking for salvation will mean to them will they truly be able to make a decision they can stay with. Too many people hear the words “free” and “eternal joy” and “answer to prayer” and think that faithfully following God is a cakewalk.

It isn’t: it is a hard choice to make, it is costly to maintain, and it is difficult to do well but…it is certainly worth it in the end.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website and YouTube channel. I welcome your comments and suggestions and wish you all a blessed day.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Secular Judaism is an Oxymoron

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One of my oldest, dearest and closest friends discovered she was Jewish on her mother’s side. This was a family secret that had been one since her mother was a child in Germany, born just before Hitler’s rise to power began. Her family converted and changed their name, which is what many Jewish families did during the late 1930s and early 1940s to protect themselves.

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Having a desire to know her Jewish roots better, she recently told me she is going to attend services at a local synagogue, which she explained to me is a Secular Jewish synagogue.

When she told me that I thought I heard her incorrectly, but she confirmed that this synagogue follows a humanistic theology.

Huh? Jews that aren’t centered on God but on humanism? That can’t be. But…it is.

Here is what I found on Wikipedia about Secular Judaism:

According to historian Shmuel Feiner, the onset of modernism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witness the appearance in Europe of Jewish communities who rejected the religious norms and discipline demanded by the rabbinical elite and whose identities as Jews were increasingly separate from beliefs and practices from the Torah or the commandments.

As far as I know, the Reconstructionist sect of Judaism is close to this description, although they do have some deist factions. Here is the Wikipedia definition of their theology:

Most “classical” Reconstructionist Jews (those agreeing with Kaplan) reject traditional forms of theism, though this is by no means universal. Many Reconstructionist Jews are deists, but the movement also includes Jews who hold Kabbalistic, pantheistic (or panentheistic) views of God, and some Jews who believe in the concept of a personal God.

To settle this confusion, one could simply identify what being a Jew means, or to rephrase my statement, we could ask, “What is a Jew?”  This is a question that seemingly has no one answer. Some say it is by birth, some by spiritual attachment to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some say it is those who live a Jewish lifestyle, but that opens up an entirely new can of worms, for what is a Jewish lifestyle?  Is it being Torah observant? Is it celebrating all the holidays that are identified as “Jewish”, or just the ones God specified in the Bible? Is it wanting your son to grow up to be a lawyer or a doctor?

Frankly, there are as many opinions as to what a “Jew” is as there are people answering the question, but there is one thing that I do not believe any can argue against, which is that the Bible has told us God chose the Jewish people, meaning the direct descendants of Jacob (later called Israel) to be his nation of priests to the world (Exodus 19:6) and gave them the Torah to learn, then teach to the rest of the world.

Yes- the Torah is for everyone because when you are a priest to the world that means you teach the world how to worship God.

So to be “Jewish” according to the Bible is to worship God as he said he should be worshiped, and to live our lives in accordance with the instructions he gave us in the Torah. Not that anyone can do that perfectly, but if we want to- if we try our best to live as God says to in the Torah- then we are, by definition, “Jewish.”

This means there is no way to separate Judaism from God, or vice-versa: God is the very foundation of Judaism, the roots of the Tree of Life, the rock upon which the house of David (Messiah) is built. According to the Bible, you cannot reject God or his Torah and still be Jewish.

You can reject much, if not all, of the Talmudic regulations, called Halacha (the Way to Walk) because they are man-made traditions and rules, but to reject God and his rules? No way, Jose!!

Judaism has been identified as a religion for thousands of years, but when God told Moses how we are to worship him and treat each other, it wasn’t a religion -it was how you were to live your life. The Torah is more than just a set of laws; it is a marriage certificate between a people and their God, it is the Constitution for a nation outlining the organization of the government, creating a justice system, establishing a penal code, and defining societal standards of behavior.

The idea of secular Judaism is an oxymoron. For me, you can’t be Jewish when you reject God as the way he presents himself in the Bible.

We will never know exactly what a “Jew” is, and that doesn’t really matter. What matters is how we feel towards God, other people, and how hard we try to live according to the instructions God gave to all human beings (through the Israelites) in the Torah.

Jews, the Torah, and God are inseparable.

Thank you for being here, and please share me out, subscribe, like my Facebook page and buy my books. I appreciate your comments and welcome them (just be nice, okay?)

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Yom Kippur 2019 Message

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Today I would like to share a message that I had given every Yom Kippur service when I was still living in Northeast Philadelphia and attending Beth Emmanuel Messianic Synagogue. For about 2 years we didn’t have a Rabbi and the Council members (of which I was one) kept the temple going, with me serving (pretty much) as Rabbi-pro-tem. The following is an updated version of the sermon I had been giving on this day.

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

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 called the Lamb of God, the Pesach Lamb, and by means of his death and the blood he shed, we can find atonement for our sins. But, it wasn’t just as the Passover lamb that He accomplished this.

It’s important to know that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, as we read of it in Exodus, Chapter 12, was not a sin sacrifice: it was a thanksgiving sacrifice. And the blood was not a sin atonement, but rather a kippur, a covering, which was meant to identify the people of God. It was spread on the sides and over the doorway of the house and as the identification of God’s people, it protected those people from being killed by the angel of death.

The blood from the sacrificed lamb on Passover provided protection from physical death for the people of God, and today Yeshua’s blood not only identifies us as God’s people, but also protects us from spiritual death. Yeshua’s sacrificial death may have occurred on Passover but is actually what the sacrifice of the Yom Kippur goats is all about.

The Yom Kippur goats (the one killed and the one released) together provide for our atonement (Lev. 16:9-10.) The scapegoat (which is the one released into the desert) had the sins of all the people transferred to it before being released into the desert, or as the Bible tells us, to Azazel. Let’s take a moment and talk a little about Azazel:

  • The Talmud interprets this word to mean a steep mountain, and for many years the scapegoat was not released into the desert but instead was thrown off of a steep mountain;
  • In the Book of Enoch, 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 the community of God’s people.

I had always wondered why we needed two goats. If all the sins were removed by the scapegoat why kill another one? It’s because sin can only be forgiven by the shedding of blood (Leviticus 17:11) so the goat’s blood had to be shed.  That still leaves me with the question, what did the scapegoat represent?

The scapegoat released into the desert represents our T’Shuvah. 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 meant that we all were giving up our sinful ways and desires.

Atonement is a five-step process:

  1.  You commit a sin (after all, without sin there is nothing to be forgiven for);
  2. Recognizing and taking responsibility for that sin;
  3. Doing T’shuvah (repentance);
  4.  Shedding innocent blood to atone for the sin, and finally
  5.  Asking forgiveness from God by means of the first four steps we took.

Yeshua’s sacrifice was more than just as the “Passover Lamb”; his death fulfilled the meaning of the two Holy Days most associated with freedom from both physical and spiritual death: Passover and Yom Kippur.

On the execution stake, Yeshua took upon himself all our sins just as the Yom Kippur scapegoat does, and when he died, just as the scapegoat sacrificed to Azazel, he carried them not just into the desert but beyond the grave. He also fulfilled the role of the goat sacrificed on the altar, the one whose blood atoned for the sins and made it possible for God to forgive us.

The blood of the Passover lamb gave protection from death and the Yom Kippur blood allows forgiveness of sin. Passover and Yom Kippur, although two separate Holy Days, through Yeshua have become spiritually one and the same thing.

In the Acharit HaYamim (the End Times) 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 both the Passover Lamb and the Yom Kippur scapegoat. When He said He was the beginning and the end it meant more than just some timeline: he is the beginning of our eternal life and the end of our sin.

Praise God for his goodness and mercy, and give thanks to Yeshua, ha Maschiach for his sacrifice so that we could all be saved.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe and share me out to friends, family, and anyone seeking to know the Lord and Messiah better.

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

Do We Really Drink His Blood and Eat His Flesh?

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In each of the 4 Gospels, there is a statement that Yeshua makes where he tells his Talmudim (Disciples) that they are to drink the wine of the Kiddush, which is now his blood, the blood of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31), and they should eat the bread (actually, it was matzo) which is his flesh and his body.

Sounds really pagan and disgusting, doesn’t it? Nothing at all that any self-respecting, God-fearing Jew would ever do.

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

Of course, we all know he was speaking metaphorically. Or do we?

The Roman Catholic Church believes in Transubstantiation, which is the transformation of the bread and wine into the actual flesh and blood of Yeshua. Yuck!! They explain this in the same way they explain most of the doctrine they have created: it is what it is and we can’t understand how it is that way. In other words, I ain’t got no idea where this came from but I was taught this is how it is, so don’t ask questions and just believe what you are told to believe.  Typical RCC stuff.

(Sorry, Pope your Grace, but Yeshua would never tell anyone to actually eat flesh or drink blood, which is a sin.)

Let’s get back on topic…Yeshua says this in Matthew 26:28, Luke 22:20, Mark 14:24, and John 6:55. It is also repeated by Shaul (Paul) in 1 Corinthians and elsewhere in other Epistles of the New Covenant.

To understand why Yeshua said this, which was meant to be metaphorical, we need to go back to the Tanakh, then to John’s Gospel.

Let’s start at Leviticus 17:11, which says this:

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Next, let’s go to Deuteronomy 8:3 (Moses is talking to the Israelites just before they enter the land of Canaan):

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

And the last thing we need to read is John 1:14:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

When we take these three verses and put them in their proper perspective, Yeshua’s blood is the life we gain by reason of the atonement he performed for us on the execution stake, and his body is the word of God which we must take “inside” ourselves, meaning to have it be a part of us, indwelling and written on our hearts.

Yeshua was talking about the new covenant as God promised it should be, from way back when Jeremiah first told us about it.  Yeshua was speaking to Jewish men using terms that they could understand because they knew what the blood and the body represented. The ones we read about in John 6:53-59 who thought he was speaking literally did not have the spiritual sekhel to know what Yeshua meant.

Many acceptance ceremonies within societies include toasting and sharing food; maybe they are based on the Kiddush? We can cite anything from a wedding to a Bar Mitzvah, to a military Hail and Farewell at the Officer’s Club (this is when new officers coming into the company and officers being transferred out get together for drinks and dinner.)  The ceremony where Yeshua shared drink and food was the Passover Seder, so it was very appropriate at that time for him to make this “toast”, which would be the way for all people to enter into communion with him and the Lord throughout all eternity.

Whenever we, those who have accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, perform the Kiddush prayer, we do it in memory of him. Whereas we are literally eating bread and drinking wine, we are metaphorically taking into ourselves the word of God and the life that it gives us.

To answer the question posed in today’s message title, what Yeshua meant when he said to drink his blood and eat his flesh is that when we accept him as the Messiah we will have eternal life (yeah, there is a little more to it than just that, but that is for a different message.)

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this website and also my YouTube channel by using the link above.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

My Problem with the Gospel of John

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In case you didn’t get the hint from the title, let me give a caveat to those reading this who are infatuated with the Gospel of John: you ain’t gonna like what I am about to say.

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

Before we begin I want to point out that many scholars doubt the authenticity of the author of pretty much every book in the Bible. From my research, it seems most scholars agree that the Gospels were not written by the ones they are named for, and the true writers of the Epistles in the New Covenant are also subject to doubt. We know for certain that scribes interpreted the Codex’s and letters they had been given when formulating the New Covenant and that men decided which books and letters should be included, and which should be excluded (meaning not a divinely-inspired item), and those men were mainly Gentiles who had accepted Yeshua. I have found anything to indicate that there was a single Jewish person who was part of the group that decided what would be included in the New Covenant.

So is the Bible the exact word of God? Is it God-inspired teaching? Or is it the work of men writing what they think God meant? The answer is this: each of us must choose what we will believe.

Let me tell you a little something about me, so you know where I am coming from.

I was brought up in a Jewish home, am Jewish by descent, and over 20 years ago I accepted Yeshua as the Messiah God promised to send to the Jews, and then to the world.  I have been studying the Bible ever since; I have a Certificate of Messianic Studies and have served in two separate houses of worship (a Messianic synagogue and a Hebraic Roots church) on their Counsel and as one of the leaders of the Shabbat services. I say this to establish that I do believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and have a good, working knowledge and understanding of the entire Bible, which has been independently confirmed to me by more than just a handful of spiritually mature people.

Now, let’s talk a bit about the Bible so we are all on the same page.

The Torah (first 5 books) is more than just a set of laws: it is a historical narrative that tells us how God created everything, made mankind to be a steward of the world he created, and gave us free will so we could choose to love and worship him. He chose a man (Abraham) and told him his descendants would become a nation (“The Jews”) and be a blessing to the world (Genesis 22:18), and God told Moses that the Jews are to be his nation of priests to the world (Ex. 19:6.) For that to happen, God gave Moses the Torah, which is the instructions from God telling us how we are to worship him and how we are to treat each other; Moses was to teach the Torah to the Jewish people so they could teach it to the world.

Before Moses dies he tells us of one who will come to lead the people and will be a prophet like him, and throughout the books of the Prophets we read of God’s continual confirmation of this promise to send us a Messiah, who will gather the Jews back into their nation and, with them, all the Goyim (the other nations) into eternal communion with God.

The Old Covenant, which is misnamed “The Jewish Bible”, ends about 400 years before the coming of Yeshua, with the rebuilding of the Temple and the wall surrounding Jerusalem. The New Covenant is the continuation of this narrative, which begins with the Gospels, telling of the arrival of Yeshua, his ministry, teachings, death and resurrection which (along with the miracles he performed during his ministry) prove that he is the Messiah God promised to send.

The rest of the New Covenant is composed of one book telling of the events that occurred during the early years of the acceptance of Yeshua as the Messiah (Acts), followed by the letters written by Shaul (Paul) to the congregations of Messianic Gentiles he formed throughout Asia and the Middle East, as well as letters which were written by other disciples to both Believing Gentiles and Believing Jews. It ends with (in my opinion) the almost impossible to interpret or understand Book of Revelation, the spiritual vision given to John on Patmos of the End Times, known in Judaism as the Acharit HaYamim.

Now let’s get into the main point of today’s rather long message, and thank you for staying with me this far.

The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are called the Synoptic Gospels because they are fairly straight-forward in their style and writing. Matthew is the most “Jewish” identifying Yeshua as King (some 35 times), Mark identifies him as a servant, and Luke identifies him as the Savior. All three are written in a way that is easy to follow.

Now we come to the Gospel of John, called the Spiritual Gospel. It is anything but easy to follow, using many series of verses that are so circular that by the time one is done reading it one forgets what the point was. Another difference is that the other three show Yeshua to be human endowed with power from God, but in John, we are told that Yeshua and God are one. This is a significant difference between John and the other Gospels and has been misinterpreted (or purposefully misused?) to provide the basis for forming the Doctrine of Trinity.

John isn’t just different from the other three Gospels, it is in opposition to them; let me give you some examples.

In the three, Yeshua does not make public the fact that he is the Messiah.

After cleansing men of their diseases:

Mark 1:43-44…Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

Matthew 8:4…Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 

After exorcising demons:

Mark 1:23-25… Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!”

Luke 4:41...Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

After Kefa (Peter) proclaims he is the Messiah:

Matthew 16:20…Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

However, in John Yeshua publically announces he is the Messiah on more than one occasion:

With the woman at the well:

John 4:25-26…The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

In the synagogue:

John 5:46…If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

At the temple in Jerusalem:

John 7:28-29…Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

One exception is in Luke 4 when we read how Yeshua, after reading from the scroll of Isaiah about the Messiah, tells the people there that what he read to them is now fulfilled.

One other major difference between the three and John is that in the three, Yeshua never claimed to be divine, yet in John, he constantly claims to be one with the Father, implying he is the father. In the three, here are examples of where he talks of the father as a separate entity:

Matthew 11:27…All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Matthew 26:39…Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Luke 23:34…Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Matthew 18:14…In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Yet in John, Yeshua constantly claims he is divine and that he the Father are the same:

John 10:30…I and the Father are one.”

John 8:58…Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!
                    (In Judaism, God is often referred to as “the great I am!”)

John 1:1…In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

I am sure we can find more such examples within the Gospels, but I am not trying to overload people with biblical quotes, only to show the difference in the intent of these Gospels: the first three show Yeshua to be a man empowered by the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) and who tells no one (except his Disciples) that he is the Messiah, and never claims to be God. Whereas in John’s Gospel, Yeshua constantly makes a public announcement that he is the Messiah and claims to be equal with God.

How much more in opposition can you get?

A more subtle issue I have with John is John 8:17, where Yeshua is arguing with the Pharisees and says, “In your own Law (some versions have Torah) it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.” Now, at the very beginning of this Gospel John tells us that Yeshua is the Torah come to life (John 1:14) so why then does Yeshua say “your law”? Why didn’t he say “in the law”? Or better yet, because he is Jewish, say “in our law”? The way this verse is worded is a subtle implication that separates Yeshua from the Law (Torah), which became one of the foundation stones on which the early “church” built the teaching that Yeshua and Christians are separate from Judaism, altogether.

And THAT is my major problem with the Gospel of John – its wording and the constant reference to Yeshua and God as one entity is so far afield of Judaic thought that I cannot believe it was written by a Jewish follower of Yeshua.

We also have to consider that it is the youngest of the four Gospels, written probably at the very end of the First Century, certainly not by the same John that lived with Yeshua, and during a time when the (now called) Christians, composed mainly of Gentiles, began to separate themselves from the mainstream Jewish population. John was written around the same time Ignatius of Antioch proclaimed Sunday as the Sabbath and that Christians and Jews cannot possibly be together.

These were the days when the Gentile Messianic congregations, who were initially converting to Judaism (since there was no other religion except the Roman one) wanted to be seen as separate from the Jews in Judea. They didn’t want Rome to come after them like they were going after the non-believing Jewish population, which was in a political rebellion.

The separation between followers of Yeshua and Judaism was made complete at the Council of Nicene when Emperor Constantine created the dogma, traditions, holidays, and doctrine that is modern Christianity.

My opinion is that the Gospel of John was written by Gentile Believers who wanted to turn followers of Yeshua away from Judaism.

If it was up to me, I would take the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, the Book of Acts and the Book of Revelation, add them to the Tanakh and that would make the Bible complete. It would be a homogeneous narrative of God and his works, from creation through mankind, their failures and their successes, the Messiah coming and the final Judgement.

The letters from Shaul and the other items aren’t really necessary for the completion of the narrative God gave us through Moses and the Prophets.  The letters from the apostles were all written mostly to Gentiles converting to a form of Judaism who were confused and having troubles within their congregations. These letters speak of God and his laws, and of Yeshua and his teachings, but they have nothing “new” in them. And because Gentiles back then didn’t understand the cultural nuances and forms of argumentation that Jews use, and also (as I mentioned earlier) because they wanted to separate themselves from the Jews Rome was persecuting, they misinterpreted these letters and  have taught this wrongful understanding throughout the centuries, so that today Christians believe the Jews have their Torah and Christians have Jesus.

I don’t think the letters of the Apostles are valid as scripture and I would get rid of the Gospel of John, too, which (from my experience) many Christians I have known find to be the “best” Gospel for new Believers to read. And I can see why- it confirms Trinitarianism and separates Jesus from Jews. Add to that the traditional Christian misinterpretations of the Epistles and you come up with the “Jesus nailed the Law to the Cross” and the “Once saved, always saved” lies, leading people away from God’s instructions and into lawlessness.

So there you have it! Label me a heretic!

You have to decide if you think I have a valid point or not, and if you want to discuss it I am open to discussion, but I can tell you right now that you will not change my mind about this. I have prayed an awful lot on it, and if I am doing John, God or Yeshua an injustice, then that will be between them and me.

Today I wanted to share with you my misgivings about the Gospels of John, and that is what I have done.

Thank you for being here and especially for staying through this message, one of the longest I have ever given through this ministry.

If you appreciate what you have read today, please subscribe to this ministry and also use the link above to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

 

 

What is the Real Meaning of the Talents Given?

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I am sure many here know the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), but how many really understand what is being said here?

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

On the Internet I found this etymology of the word “Talent”:

The use of the word “talent” to mean “gift or skill” in English and other languages originated from an interpretation of this parable (referencing Matthew-Ed.)  sometime late in the 13th century.

I found that very interesting, as I believe most people recognize that the meaning behind this parable is that what God gives us we should use. The one servant who didn’t use what was given to him was thrown out into the darkness, whereas the ones that gave back the talents they received, with interest, were welcomed into their Master’s joy, which means they were to share in the joy that God feels when his children do what pleases him.

Nice story. And I am sure that most people concentrate on the two faithful servants who were welcomed into their Master’s joy. I mean, really…who wouldn’t want to associate themselves with those two?

The question is: what makes us think we can be like those two?

Is being a “good person” good enough? I don’t think so, and I’ll tell you why.

Yeshua himself said that no one is good except his Father in heaven (Mark 10:18), so we can be pretty sure that no human is ever going to be “good”, at least not in the eyes of the Lord. That kills the “be a good person and you go to heaven” argument right there.

So, nu?  If no one can be good, then what do we need to do to be considered a good and faithful servant? The answer is right here in this parable: we need to take the talents God has given us and increase them. This is where the idea that a talent is more than a unit of monetary measure comes in- it is a gift, something that we receive from God without asking, and which God wants us to use for his glory.

My talent is teaching. I have had this confirmed to me by many people over the years, and also (believe it or not) God has given me a sense of humor, which has helped me in being able to maintain interest during my teaching. It has also gotten me into a lot of trouble when I didn’t use it in a way that glorifies God. The talents God has given me are increased each time I get a new subscriber to my website or YouTube channel (hint…hint) or when someone buys one of my books, which I believe (and pray) are glorifying God and helping people to understand his word better. That is why on the bottom of my Home page I quote from Hosea 4:6:  “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” This ministry is a teaching ministry: I am not trying to make converts or to be a missionary: I just want to give people the correct information and they can decide what they are going to do with it.

What talents did God give you? Don’t feel bad if you aren’t sure, and don’t cop-out by saying, “I am good parent” or “I am a good friend”, because Yeshua already killed that argument when he said even sinners will not give their child a snake if they ask for a fish or a friend a stone if they ask for bread. Even sinners share good things with those whom they love and who love them, so just being what the world considers to be a “good person” is no different than burying your talents.

When God spoke to Abraham, he did what God said. Not after thinking about it, not after waiting for the harvest, but the very next morning. And even though Moses took some convincing, he (eventually) learned to do as God said right away. Many of our biblical heroes did as God said pretty much as soon as God said it, and the ones that didn’t or hesitated for a while, well…we don’t know who they are because they didn’t make it into the Bible.

Our God is a God of action, not of sitting around watching for signs and waiting to be given what you need. He wants us to demonstrate our faith by starting something as if we already knew what was going to happen.

You need to determine what talent(s) God has given you and increase them. If you are compassionate, volunteer at a Senior’s Home or with people in need; if you are good with money, volunteer to help at your house of worship with the accounting, or at non-profits who could use the help. If you are good with animals, volunteer at an animal hospital (my wife, Donna, has been volunteering for about 4 years at a local wildlife hospital.) The idea is that you need to increase your talents so that when you face the Lord you will have something to give him that shows you have increased what he gave you.

Here is one last thought that most people don’t want to consider: These three servants were ALREADY members of the Master’s household! Think about that; it means that they were all already “saved”, but the one who failed to do anything with the talents God gave was kicked out!

Think about what that means.

So go forth this very day and if you know what talents God has given you, start to increase them. If you’re not sure what your talents are, think of what you do that makes you feel really good and start there.  Anyone can bring glory to God simply by showing how “talented” you are and giving the credit to the Lord.

Thank you for being here and please, if you missed the hint above, subscribe to this website to help me increase the talents I have been given. You can also “like”my Facebook page and invite others to, as well. You can get to it from this link:

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Thank you so much for being here, have a blessed day, and until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!