There are so many titles and names that we read throughout the Bible for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But which of these is the “real” name? The arguments for one of any number of them goes on and on and on.

But God tells us how HE wants to be known, and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why so many people ignore that.

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

After Moses asked what name should he use when the people ask who sent him, God gave a name we call the Tetragrammaton, which is composed of three Hebrew letters, the Yud, Heh, and Vav, and it looks like this:

יהוה

Now, Hebrew is a language that doesn’t have vowels, so no one can really know how those 4 letters are to be pronounced. In Judaism, we use the word “Adonai”, which means “Lord”, to represent God. Sometime in the past, the vowels for Adonai were placed under the letters of the Tetragrammaton, and so when we have yud-heh-vav-heh with the sounds of ah, o, and ah under them, we get Yahovah, or Jehovah.

Is that the one and only correct way to pronounce those letters? Maybe; all we can state with certainty is that it is a pronunciation we made up.

In Exodus 3:13, we read:

God said to Moshe, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be],” and added, “Here is what to say to the people of Isra’el: ‘Ehyeh has sent me to you.’”

So here, God says that we are to call him “I am”.

In Exodus 3:14-15, we read:

God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation.

Now God says we are to call him the God of our fathers, the God of Avraham, etc. , and that is how he is to be known throughout our generations!

In Isaiah 51:15, God said:

For I am Adonai your God, who stirs up the sea, who makes its waves roar — Adonai-Tzva’ot is my name.
(Lord of Hosts)

Oy! Now he wants to be called Adonai Tzva’ot!

So, even God doesn’t know what to call himself, since he has told us no less than three different ways to refer to him.

C’mon…make up your mind, already!

And that wasn’t enough for us! We had to go and make up even more names for him, such as El Shaddai (God Almighty), El Elyon (God on High), Jehovah Jira (God who Provides), and these are just some examples. If you do an Internet search, there are some 100+ names used to identify God.

But are any of these really a “name”? To me, they are more of a title or description than some unique identifier, such as Steven or Harry, or Elizabeth, or Mary.

Why do we even have names? Isn’t it to identify someone as different from someone else? I mean, if we were all called “Steven” (I picked that name because I am most comfortable with it) , and someone yelled, “Hey, Steven!”, wouldn’t everybody look? How would any of us know which “Steven” the person was calling to?

So, in human society, we need to have a name which may have meaning in our native tongue, but is specifically designed to identify us as separate and unique from anyone else like us, i.e., human.

But God isn’t human, and there is no other like him, so he doesn’t really need a name, does he? Yet we still have to be able to have some way to refer to him, so since we don’t really know how to pronounce Y-H-V-H, we use titles, such as God (which isn’t a name, it is a description), or Adonai (Lord), or Yah (God), or El Elyon (God on high), or…well, you get the idea.

So, nu? To all you “Holy Namers” out there who insist that if we don’t use the name for God that you believe is the one and only correct name for him, consider that God- you know who I mean, that guy who created the universe, who flooded the earth, who brought the Jewish people out from Egyptian slavery, who gave the world the 10 Commandments, who did all those miraculous things throughout history, and who sent Yeshua, the Messiah so that we all can be saved from our sins (still with me?)- never gave us just one name or title by which to call him.

And if you ask me, because God identifies himself in different ways, using different titles, then it seems very clear to me that if we use those same names he uses, he won’t have a problem with it.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

The last story in the Book of Numbers is about a man who was caught collecting sticks on the Shabbat. After Moses consulted God, the verdict was that the man must be stoned to death for violating the command about not working on the Shabbat.

But what God said next shows that he wants to help us protect ourselves from being punished.

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

God had given us the commandment to honor the Sabbath (Exodus 20), and one important way was not to do any ordinary work on that day. Well, this guy went out to collect sticks, which was ordinary work, and even worse than that, he probably was going to use them to start a fire, which is another violation of the Shabbat (Exodus 35:3).

Now, this seems to be the first recorded event of someone violating the Shabbat, and so his punishment was pretty harsh- he was to be stoned to death.

And he was.

But, as Paul Harvey used to say, “Now, for the rest of the story…”

In Numbers 15:37-41, God commands us to make tzitzit, those strings that hang down from all four corners of our garments.

The idea is that when we wear these, it will remind us to obey all of God’s commandments.

That makes sense, but then again, who walks around looking at their waist?

Yes, I have to see them when I put them on each morning (the garment that has these on them that is worn under the shirt is called a Katan), but who remembers everything you do in the morning as you are going through your day?

The Tzitzit are really there for you to be a reminder to everyone else you meet, because they are the ones who see your tzitzit all the time. And, when you are a constant reminder to your neighbor that they must remember to obey God, then you are actually showing them love, because you are helping them to avoid sinning, which leads to eternal damnation.

So, nu? Did you ever think of tzitzit in this way? Or that by being a constant reminder to people how to obey God, through speech and actions, that you might be saving their eternal soul?

That’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? When you obey God, not only are you helping yourself, but you are an example to others that might just motivate them to be more obedient, and thereby saving their soul!

But I am not talking about being obedient to a religion- no! I am talking about being obedient to God, and the only way to obey God is to do as he says, right? Well, there is only one place in the entire Bible where we are told, exactly and undeniably, what God wants us to do because he tells Moses to instruct us in that way, and that is in the Torah.

POP! (That’s the sound of Christian “the law is done away with” bubbles being burst).

Wearing tzitzit is a commandment, in and of itself, but many Jews do not do that, myself included (I am ashamed to say). Mostly just the Orthodox and Chasidic are obedient to this commandment. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be living tzitzit, in how we treat each other and show our obedience to God’s Torah in many other ways.

So, whether you wear tzitzit or not, always be a reminder to others how to obey God’s commandments, and not those of some religion, especially if that religion tells you the Torah is only for Jews. Yeshua (Jesus) lived in 100% accordance with the Torah, 100% of the time, so if you want to follow in the footsteps of the Messiah, and DWJD, then you have no option other than to read and know the Torah so that you can live the way it tells us to live, as best as you can.

Trying our best to be Torah observant is as good as we humans will ever get to be, and thanks to Yeshua’s sacrifice for us, when we fail we have his blood to wash away our sin.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I would like to share a personal experience with you, one that I confess I am a bit ashamed of, yet I also am proud that I did the right thing, eventually.

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

The backstory starts with us receiving a large tax refund, as well as some other “found” money from an insurance account. Considering this financial blessing, and taking into account the hurricane season will begin in June, and that I am getting just too darn old to be putting some 13 large, plywood shutters up on every window (which I have done no less than 6 or 7 times in the past 12 years), we decided to use this financial windfall to replace the original, 40-year-old metal windows with Category 5 hurricane proof windows.

Which are REALLY expensive! But I’ll never have to put up shutters, again.

OK, I’m almost there… this past Friday we decided on a company and the sales rep asked if he could finalize the paperwork the next day, and I immediately said yes, that would be fine. I knew the next day was Shabbat, but I allowed my desire to get this project started to override my desire to be Torah obedient.

And the moment I said it was OK to do the paperwork on Shabbat, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) slapped me upside my head and said, “Hey! It’s Shabbat, duh!”.

And this is why I feel ashamed- I ignored the Spirit’s guidance. Why? Because my fleshly desire to do this overrode my spiritual desire to be obedient.

But that wasn’t all that I did to be ashamed of!

No, still trying to justify my buying something on Shabbat, I tried to come up with some loophole, some biblically acceptable justification to allow me to do the paperwork. Even though no actual cash would be exchanging hands, I would be putting a deposit down using a charge card, and that is buying.

One excuse I tried was telling myself that Yeshua said to “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no” (Matthew 5:37), and so even though it would be violating the Shabbat, I was telling myself that I agreed to let him come, so I can’t go back on my word.

That didn’t work, really, because I knew that the real “yes” was buying the replacement windows, and to simply reset the paperwork date was not going against my word.

Then I tried to ask God to forgive me because I am sorry (I really did feel repentant that I agreed so quickly) but I am going to go ahead with this, anyway. However, that just didn’t sit right with me because I know that God can’t really forgive someone for purposefully sinning, especially when it would be very easy to just avoid it by resetting the date.

That night was a sleepless night, and I decided to call the man early in the morning and reset the date to Monday. And when I made that decision, I felt proud that I overcame my flesh.

And it worked out well because when I texted him to reset it, he said that he was really busy that day, anyway, and resetting the date would be good for him.

So, here I am, ashamed to have ignored the Holy Spirit just to buy something because I wanted to. And when I did obey the Torah by resetting the date, that made me feel a little proud of myself.

I later realized that I just lived out one of the parables that Yeshua told! In Matthew 21:28–32, he told us of the two sons. The one son immediately said he would do as his father asked, but never did, and the other son initially refused to do as his father asked, but later obeyed (that was me).

The message from all this is not about me, or what I did, but about how we can be disobedient and still remain right in God’s eyes if we repent of that sin and then do as we should have done, from the start.

Righteousness is not easy for us; it goes against our most basic instinct, which is the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination). It is only when we listen to the Yetzer Tov (Good Inclination), which motivates us to be obedient to God, that we can do what is right in God’s eyes.

So, if you find yourself doing wrong, don’t just let it go because you’ve been told that God will forgive you so long as you believe that Yeshua died for your sins. Personally, I don’t think God will forgive someone who is not repentant, and to use Yeshua’s sacrifice as some sort of absolution for you when you know you are sinning is not going to get you anywhere.

No amount of “Our Father’s” or “Hail Mary’s” is going to help an unrepentant sinner.

So listen to that still, small voice in your head the moment it speaks to you. You know, if the Holy Spirit took form, I think it would look just like Jiminy Cricket, because we are all like Pinocchio. He wanted to be a real boy, and we want to be a real Tzaddik (righteous person), but like the little, wooden boy who let his personal desires cause his nose to grow, we also have to watch out that our noses don’t grow, as well.

And being Jewish, I don’t need my nose to be any bigger than it already is.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

One of the most prevalent (and incorrect) teachings within Christianity is that the Torah is just for the Jews, and Christians don’t need to follow it because they have the blood of Jesus.

Well, even Christians believe that the prophets of the Tanakh spoke God’s word, so let’s see what God told one of the major prophets, Isaiah, regarding the Torah and the Goyim (nations).

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

Let’s go right to Isaiah 2:2-3, when God gave Isaiah a view into the far future, the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) (CJB):

In the acharit-hayamim the mountain of Adonai’s house will be established as the most important mountain. It will be regarded more highly than the other hills, and all the Goyim will stream there.
Many peoples will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the house of the God of Ya‘akov! He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Tziyon will go forth Torah, the word of Adonai from Yerushalayim.

Wow! So what God is telling Isaiah is that at the end of days, all the nations (meaning the Gentiles) will want to go to Jerusalem to learn God’s ways, which are outlined and defined in the Torah.

I wonder how the many leaders of the many Christian religions that have developed over the past two millennia all missed that?

They have taught Torah is just for Jews, but God says- clearly!- that the Gentiles will come streaming to Israel, desiring to go to to the temple mount, so that they can learn how to be obedient to the Torah!

Nu! what more is there to say? The next thing I say might be the shortest, but most powerful, message I have ever given:

God says everyone will, eventually, be Torah observant.

So, to you who have been misled by humans teaching to ignore what God said, telling you that you don’t really need to obey the Torah, I suggest you choose to believe God and ignore what men have said.

Oh, and one more thing… I think it is also pretty safe to assume that anyone who refuses to climb the mountain will not be saved. I have said this often (and will continue to repeat it):

I believe that when we face God on Judgement Day, and we all WILL face him, and you say, “I just did what they told me to do.”, I can’t speak for God, but I think he will say something to the effect of,

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

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey!- after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Recently I have been teaching about the lies and misrepresentations of being automatically “saved”, so I thought I would do a little more on why it is important to be aware of what we do, every day.

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

I was somewhat motivated to review this topic by someone’s response to my recent post, saying that because I said OSAS is a lie (and I really don’t think they understood it, at all), I was not spiritual, not saved, and worshiping a false God.

Wow! Well, in case that person who, by the way, didn’t even show their face on their avatar, is still reading or watching my videos, let me try this, again.

When someone believes that there is nothing they have to do after professing faith in Yeshua, believing that they are now saved from the eternal consequences of their sins no matter what happens, then they WILL eventually begin to lose respect for that salvation, take it for granted, and eventually stop repenting.

How can I make such a profound statement? Easy- I read the Bible and I know human history!

We can see throughout the Tanakh that as soon as the Israelites got comfy-cozy, they began to do exactly what God told Moses they would do in Deuteronomy 31. And after Yeshua went back to God, and the Jewish leadership of the movement he began died out, with only Gentiles now leading the people, what was then being called Christianity morphed further and further away from Judaism, and they made the same mistakes we made, only they made even worse ones!

They rejected God’s Torah, and instead of properly representing Yeshua, they formed their own “savior” (they don’t even use the term “Messiah”!), created their own holidays (rejecting the ones God said to celebrate), their own ceremonies, rites, and even their own Sabbath day.

So, with all that history to go by, I am positive that when someone thinks they are saved, forever, and that it can’t be lost, they will become totally devoid of any concern when they sin, and that is equivalent to being unrepentant. And, on top of that, since they believe they are automatically forgiven, they won’t be repentant, which has to result in them not even asking for forgiveness!

Geeze! Even the Roman Catholics know enough to ask for forgiveness, although they are not going to have any success by asking a man to forgive them instead of God.

And, again, from what I read about God in the Torah, I strongly doubt that he will forgive a sinner (which we all are) who doesn’t recognize their sin, repent, or ask forgiveness.

Sadly, that is the condition the vast majority of Christians are in, without even knowing it.

So, if you think that I am not really saved, or that I worship a false God, or that I can’t be “born again” because I think that we can throw our salvation away by sinning without being repentant, well… I suppose we will both have to wait until we are in front of God at Judgement Day, and then we’ll find out who gets the nice place and who doesn’t.

To the rest of you, thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

In my last message (a link to it is in the description) I mentioned I would talk about FUNT this week.

To start with, it is not a reference to Alan Funt, of Candid Camera fame.

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

To review, OSAS is “Once Saved, Always Saved”, and the reason it is a lie is because there is no such thing as automatic forgiveness of sins.

There is a never-ending desire by God to forgive your sins (Ezekiel 18:23), but to even suggest that your sins will be forgiven automatically just because you have accepted Yeshua as the Messiah is unbiblical.
The forgiveness system has 5 steps to it:

1. You must sin (after all, you can’t be forgiven if there is nothing to forgive- DUH!);
2. You must confess your sin (if you refuse to accept that you sinned, it is a rejection of recognizing God’s authority);
3. You must repent of your sin (God will not forgive an unrepentant sinner);
4. You must ask to be forgiven with the shedding innocent blood (Hebrews 9:22); the Torah allows for a sacrifice to be substituted for your own blood;
5. You must do t’shuvah (turn from sin) and rededicate yourself to obedience to God.

Yeshua, the Messiah, died as a once-and-for-all (meaning all people) sacrifice of innocent blood in lieu of bringing an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, the only place according to the Torah where sacrifices could be made (Deuteronomy 12:5; 2 Kings 21:7). Once the temple was destroyed (70 AD), there was no possibility to be forgiven without Yeshua.

Once you accepted Yeshua and asked to be forgiven by means of his sacrifice, the sins you had committed UP TO THAT POINT were forgiven, but any future sins (and we all continue to sin) are separate and new, not covered by that initial request.

When Shaul said that our sins were nailed to the tree with Yeshua (Colossians 2:14), he was referring to the prior sins, not any future ones.

The real danger of OSAS is that people who think they are doing what is right stop asking for forgiveness, assuming they are already forgiven, And, given human nature, if we know we are already forgiven, then we will think it is OK to sin, which means there won’t be confession, or repentance, or t’shuvah!

How many of you think that God will accept a person who has sinned continually, not confessing, repenting, or even trying to be better?

Yeah, me, too.

The way forgiveness really works is FUNT– Forgiven Until Next Time.

Believing that Yeshua is the Messiah is not enough- after all, every demon in hell knows he is.

And obedience to the Torah is not enough, because no one can be 100% obedient, 100% of the time.

What we need is a combination of accepting Yeshua and trying our very best to be obedient to the Torah (not to a religion), which is God’s User Manual for Righteousness.

So, when you screw up (and you will), if you confess, repent, ask forgiveness by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice, and try to be better (t’shuvah) in the future, God will forgive you…THIS TIME!

We know that the next time we sin, if we do all these steps that God outlined for us in the Torah, we will (again) be forgiven because, as I pointed out in Ezekiel 18:23, God is not only willing to forgive, but desires to do so.

But only when we go through the proper procedure.

God desires to forgive us, and Yeshua made forgiveness available to us any time, any where, but forgiveness, itself, is not automatic.

Thank you for being here, and please share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey! after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

How easily we all throw around the expression, “I’m saved!”, like it was tartar sauce at a fish fry.

The truth is that no one who is alive can truthfully say that they are saved.

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

Now you may be thinking how I can say such a crazy thing as no one who is alive can say they are saved, but what is really crazy is using a word that is clearly representative of a past event to identify a current condition.

The word “saved” is in the past tense, and we are in the present. No one can really know that they are saved until after they have died, have come before the Lord, have had Yeshua intercede on their behalf, and received God’s final judgement of salvation.

Only then can anyone say, “I am saved!”

If you are thinking that once saved you are always saved, that is a lie from the pit of Sheol. The true acronym isn’t OSAS, but FUNT!

(If you think you know what that means, hold that thought until my message next week because FUNT is the subject of that drash)

How many times does the Bible talk about those who will apostatize in the Acharit haYamim (End Days)? Shaul mentions it to Timothy in both his letters to him; and the writer of Hebrews says in Chapter 6 that for those who turn from the faith, it will be impossible for them to return.

The frightening truth is that we may be forgiven, and will be able to seek forgiveness every time we sin (which we all will continue to do- don’t fool yourselves!) by means of the sacrificial death and shed innocent blood of Yeshua, BUT… we are always threatened by our own, sinful nature and too easily controlled emotions (which then control us) to throw our faith away, even when we think we are being faithful.

HUH? How can I be unfaithful when I am acting in a faithful way?

Easily- by following the wrong teachings.

Are you being taught that the instructions God gave in the Torah for worshiping him are just for Jews? Well, if you ignore the Torah, you ignore God!

Do you believe what John says when, in his Gospel, he said the Word became flesh? The only word at that time was the Torah, and if it became flesh in Yeshua, and Yeshua said that when we reject him we reject the one who sent him (Luke 10:16), then rejecting the Torah is rejecting the flesh that it became, which is rejecting Yeshua, which is rejecting God.

Who here thinks that they will be accepted by God after having rejected him their whole life?

OY! I suggest you go back and read that again to make sure you understand that if you don’t obey the Torah, you are rejecting God, and no amount of false worship, man-made ceremonies or holidays will have any effect on your salvation, other than to throw it away, while all the time you think you are doing what is right.

If you are following a religion, any religion, you are probably going in the wrong direction. I would say, although it sounds bias, at least Judaism, despite its many improper man-made traditions from the Talmud (called Halacha, the Way to Walk), is still the closest way to follow God since we try to be obedient to the Torah as best as we can.

It’s so simple that people cannot understand it – the only proper way to worship God is to do as he says to do, and the only place God tells us what he wants us to do is in the Torah. Modern Christianity is not based on the Torah or on Yeshua’s teachings, as much as it is based on misinterpretations and misuse of the letters Paul wrote to Gentile congregations.

And, sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but Paul is not God, and his letters are not God-breathed scripture; they are nothing more than managerial directions to Gentile Believers who were having issues of faith, and interpersonal relationship problems. Read those letters with an open mind, and you will see the closest thing to scripture they come to is when he quotes from the Tanakh.

The bottom line is this: I believe by saying “I’m saved” we are actually fooling ourselves and creating a false sense of security. What we should be saying is “I am on the path to salvation”, because that is the reality of our condition. We aren’t saved until after we are dead; what we are is walking a path, a path with many misleading road signs such as religious non-biblical doctrine and false teachings which can make us lose our way.

By remembering there is only one path to God, and that map is the Torah, we are better equipped to stay on the right path.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey! after all, you never know how fertile the soil will be until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I have been absent for the past two weeks as Donna and I have been on a cruise, but I am back now.

Before we start, if you are thinking this might be one of those messages where I tell you that God intended the Torah to be for everyone, let me address that concern right away… of course this is about how God intended the Torah to be for everyone!

And today I am going to give you the proof of that statement!

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

The title of today’s message tells us it all starts with Exodus 19:5-6, so let’s take a look at that:

 ⁵ Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; ⁶ and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.’ These are the words you are to speak to the people of Isra’el.”

Moses is told that the Jewish people will be God’s nation of priests.

So, nu? what does a priest do? Well, according to the Internet version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the priest is…

Someone who is authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion especially as a mediatory agent between humans and God.

Well, that certainly sounds correct…for a priest of today, but what about the priests back in the days when God chose us to be priests?

According to the Bible, yes- they performed the sacrifices and acted as mediator between the laity (common folk) and God (divine person). Those duties were outlined in Leviticus 1-7.

But the priests also served in a judiciary position, judging the people in criminal matters, with the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) acting as the court of last appeal (Ezekiel 44:24).

But that wasn’t all- they were also to serve as medical consultants regarding problems with skin diseases (Leviticus 13).

The priest also served as teacher, teaching the people how to properly serve and worship God (2 Kings 17:28).

Knowing the multiple functions of a priest at the time God chose the Jewish people to be a nation of priests, let’s backtrack a bit to when God separated the Levites to be priests to the Jewish people in Deuteronomy 18:15. He didn’t name all three families (Gershon, Kohath, and Merari) to be priests, only the sons of Kohath were chosen to be cohanim, and from them only the direct sons of Aaron were to serve in that position.

All the Levites were priests, technically, but only the sons of Aaron were Cohanim, those who presented the sacrifice and officiated over the ceremonies and rituals.

Now let’s start to put this in order…God first chose the Levites to be his priests to the Jewish people, and that means (as we have identified from the Tanakh) they served as intermediaries between the laity and the Divine, performing services to both people and God. The sons of Aaron were the Cohanim, while the other Levites served God by caring for the Sanctuary.

After God told Moses that the Jewish people (which meant all 12 tribes) were to be God’s nation of priests, since priests act as intermediaries between the common and the divine, and they were already intermediaries, they couldn’t really be priests to themselves, right? Therefore, when God said the Jews are to be a nation of priests, they must be serving as intermediaries between some laity other than the Jews, which leaves only the Goyim- the nations.

In other words, when God chose us to be a nation of priests, he clearly meant we are his priests to the entire world.

And right after God told Moses we are priests to the world, the very next thing that happened was in Exodus 20, when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, and (as many believe) the entire Torah while Moses was on Mount Sinai.

The Torah is not just a bunch of laws- it is God’s User Manual for Righteousness, with rules about how to worship him, how to treat each other, how to conduct business, how to identify skin diseases, a penal code for capital crimes, torts, and other misdemeanors, even including formulae for making restitution, and many other societal and spiritual guidelines for proper living.

Do you now see the logical and absolutely obvious sequence of events? God chooses the Levites as priests to the Jews, then he chooses the entire nation of Jews to be his priests to the world, and then he gives the Jews the Torah, which contains God’s instructions on how to worship him and how to treat each other. And so, as priests to the world, with the instruction manual from God, we are to learn it then teach it (remember teaching is a function of the priest) to the rest of the world.

Which means, like it or not, that anyone who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- whether or not they accept Yeshua as their Messiah, but especially MORE so if they do- is to be taught by us Jews how to live in accordance with the Torah.

The Jews that accepted Yeshua didn’t change from living in accordance with the Torah, and the Gentiles that accepted Yeshua were being taught how to live in accordance with the Torah. And, for the record, Shaul (Paul) never told anyone to ignore the Torah; rather, he allowed the Gentiles learning it to learn at their own pace, concentrating first on faith and love. And this process was confirmed by the Elders in Jerusalem, when James said in Acts 15:21 these believing Gentiles will learn the Torah as they attend Shabbat services.

Hey, look, if now maybe you realize that you have been ignoring what God wants you to do, which is to live according to the Torah, don’t be angry with me- go complain to your religious leaders who have been misdirecting you!

But be kind to them, because they have also been misdirected; in fact, Christians have been misdirected for two millennia.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Many of us have memories of places we have been, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but I believe that as bad as some of these places were, pretty much everyone has one place that they feel is the worst place they have ever been.

But I’m telling you that no matter what your experience has been, there is one place that is ultimately the worst place anyone can be…

But first! A word from our sponsor…
(If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.)

The worst place anyone can be, especially if we are talking about your spiritual condition, is…

Locked into your comfort zone.

Now, I am not saying you should go out and ride rollercoasters, or bungee jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, or even just tell your wife that those pants make her look fat.

No. Neither should you give up being comfortable nor forego those things that make you feel safe and secure.

When I say the worst place to be is locked into your comfort zone, what I mean is when you are so comfortable that you no longer want to learn anything new, or do anything different, or even order something other than Chicken Parmigiana every single time you go to an Italian restaurant.

And this is especially true of being so comfortable with what you have been taught regarding God or Yeshua (Jesus) or salvation that you will not even be open to hearing anything that someone has to say which is different than what you already think you know.

I am very secure in my beliefs, but I confess that I have had to change my mind at times. And when I say you should be open to listening, that means to investigate and verify anything you are told about anything, especially if it is different from what you already believe.

One more thing: if you haven’t/don’t read the Bible regularly, from front (that is, Genesis) all the way through to the end of Revelation, then you are already in trouble because whatever you think you know, you are probably wrong.

And if you are stubbornly comfortable with your golf game, or your favorite chair, or with whatever books you have already read, and no matter what anyone says, you don’t want to order something different at your favorite restaurant, the only thing that mindset will effect is how interesting you are and how exciting your life will be.

BUT…if you stay locked into your comfort zone regarding your spiritual condition, meaning that you don’t want to hear or know anything other than what you have been told, then you are risking your eternal soul!

What things am I talking about? How about once you’re saved, you are always saved (that’s a lie!); or all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and you are saved (that won’t be enough!); or howzabout the one where they say if you love each other you get to go to heaven (again, that’s not enough, and for the record? -no one goes to heaven).

When it comes to God, Yeshua, and the truth about obedience to God, which can only be done by being obedient to God’s instructions for righteousness in the Torah, these are things that we should NEVER be comfortable with. You must always verify whatever you hear, whenever you hear something different from what you have (hopefully) already verified to be true, and do so with an open mind. Make sure people aren’t making up what they want the Bible to say, then taking verses and passages out of context to create the illusion that what they are saying is truly in the Bible.

Yeah, all the parts of what they say are in the Bible, but they have taken bits and pieces, here and there, to make it seem that is what the Bible means. But that isn’t always true.

I have written a teaching series on how to properly interpret the Bible, and here is a link to it: Bible interpretation.

So, my friends, please always stretch yourself beyond what is comfortable, and the way to know that you need to stretch is when you are so comfy-cozy that you do not ever want to change. Read a new book, talk to people who disagree with you (nicely, of course) to get an idea why they feel that way, and then spend some quality time verifying their opinion, or being able to (nicely, of course) rebut it.

But do something different, now and then! Your life may be comfortable, but your life is temporary, and eternity is….well, it’s eternal!

If you aren’t willing to spend the time to expand your understanding of God, Messiah, the Bible and salvation, then you are risking your eternal soul.

Are you really that lazy?

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, especially non-believers. Hey! You never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Have often have your heard people say that Jesus died for our sins?

And he did, but it isn’t his death that saves us.

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

The sacrificial system has 5 steps:

1. You have to sin (no sin, no need for forgiveness, right?)
2. You have to recognize and confess that you sinned
3. You have to repent of that sin (turning from sin is called T’shuvah)
4. You have to shed innocent blood for that sin to be forgiven: blood that should be yours
5. You have to ask to be forgiven.

When Yeshua sacrificed himself, he did not to do away with any of these steps, or the sacrificial system, itself. He replaced step 4, the need to sacrifice an animal (shed innocent blood) at the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only place that any sacrifice to Adonai would be accepted (Deut. 4). Through Yeshua’s sacrifice, we can now ask for forgiveness any time, any where, whenever we need to.

Which, in my case, is too darn often!

Yet, it isn’t by reason of his death that we can be saved; there is more to it than just that.

First, he lived a life that was in 100% accordance with the Torah, 100% of the time. That is something that no human before him, or since, has been able to do, so when he died, he was truly the innocent lamb that the sacrificial system required. And because he was supernaturally born to be the Messiah, his human life and death had a much greater effect on humanity.

Second, his resurrection proved that his sacrifice was accepted, which is the second most important step in being saved. But, as I said, it isn’t how we are saved.

We are saved not by his life, or by his death, or even by his resurrection, although they are all part of the process….

We are saved by being forgiven.

Only God can forgive sins, and even though Yeshua said that he had the authority to forgive sins ( Matthew 9:6; Luke 5:24), he was very specific to say that he had that authority “on earth”, meaning (as I understand it) only while he was ministering to people, and only to prove that he is the Messiah God promised to send.

What we are told about him after he was raised into heaven is that he now sits at the right hand of God, where he intercedes for us.

From the very beginning of creation, and throughout time even to this very moment, it is only God who can forgive sins. Not a priest, not a Minister, not a Rabbi- only God. And the only way we can be forgiven is through confession, repentance, and accepting that Yeshua is the Messiah, whose sacrificial death was accepted as the sin sacrifice we must make according to the Torah.

Oh, yes, and one more thing…you must ask to be forgiven.

That’s right! Even with all that Yeshua did, if you do not ask to be forgiven, you will not be forgiven. There is no such thing as OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved); that is a lie from the pit of Sheol, originated by Satan in order to fool people into remaining stained with their sins, even while they believe they are forgiven.

I hate to burst bubbles, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

It is not Yeshua’s life, or death, or even resurrection through which we are saved; his part in all this was to provide the means of forgiveness (especially after the temple was destroyed) so that we can ask for God to forgive us.

When we are forgiven, THEN we are saved. That is, up until the next time we sin, which (again, for me) doesn’t usually take too long until I have to ask.

Especially when I am driving in traffic.

So, that is the real way we are saved- not by Yeshua’s death (although that is part of it), or by calling on God’s name (which is also part of it), or by the fact of Yeshua’s Torah observant life (which made it all possible)…no!

The only way we are saved is by asking God to forgive us.

In the end, after all that Yeshua did, after faithfully accepting him as Messiah, heartfelt confession, repentance, t’shuvah (demonstrated through Torah observance), it still comes down to this- the only way we are saved is to ask to be forgiven of our sins, and only God can do that.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even those who do not believe. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!