Tag: Bible

Parashah Emor (Speak) Leviticus 21 – 24

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We have now gone past the middle of Leviticus, the central book of the Torah, which means we are on the “downside” of the Torah, getting closer to the end than we are from the beginning. That doesn’t mean what is coming is less important, it just means that we can start to build up the joy of knowing that as we get closer to the end, we get closer to starting all over again at Simchat Torah in the fall.

As such, let’s take a moment and remind ourselves that Leviticus is all about being holy- how to know clean from unclean, the different types of sacrifices and how to perform them, the many duties and obligations of the Priests, and generally that being holy means being separated. Not better than, not worse than, just different from.

In Judaism we are told that Torah should be a mirror- when we look in it, we are to see ourselves reflected back. It is not so when the world looks at us: when the world looks at us, we are not to reflect the world back to them but they should see Torah. Yeshua said that when we see Him, we see the Father, and if we know Him we will know the Father, too. Yeshua is the living Torah, and the Torah is the Word of God which (really) tells us who God is.

To be holy, or as the prayers say, to be sanctified, we need to be separated from the world. Our family life, our relationships, our diet (yes, our diet!) and our speech…even how we treat our pets and property, personal hygiene, EVERYTHING we do should be done as God tells us we should do. You can’t be a light to the darkness when you don’t shine. Remember what Yeshua said about lamps?

When we read Leviticus, we see the Jewish people (which really should be all those who worship God) separated from the world and sanctified by these commandments….actually, not by the commandments but by following the commandments…and within the separated peoples, the Levites are separated to maintain the Sanctuary and teach the people, as well as judge for them. Then within the separated Levites, the Kohanim (Priests) are further separated to service the Lord, directly, by offering the sacrifices on behalf of the people.

This reminds me of those cute Russian dolls- you  know, a doll inside a doll inside a doll inside a doll.  The world is sinful, and the followers of God are separated, and within them the Levites, then the Kohanim. And even within the Kohanim there is only one Kohen HaGadol.

What this represents to me is that as we get further and further away from the world, we get closer and closer to God.

This parashah includes a very important chapter, Chapter 23. That is the place where God defines the festivals He commands us to celebrate unto Him. These are Holy Days, not holidays. I define holidays as created by religion, and Holy Days as commanded by God. Nothing wrong with holidays (well, some do have questionable origins) so long as they do not overtake or replace when God says we should worship Him, and they should never change what God says. And if the celebration to the Lord is not one that totally honors Him, then I would say don’t partake in it.

My book has an entire chapter devoted to this, so if you are interested in knowing what I think the important differences are, please buy the book (or the downloadable version) and see if you agree with me. There are links to different places you can get it in the right margin.

Being separated means, by it’s very nature, not being equal. The Supreme Court of the United States recognized that axiomatic truth in the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education (of Topeka, Kansas) back in 1954. That decision was based on race, but it holds true for spirituality as well (not religion…spirituality. God has no religion: He is spirit.) We are to be separate, and thereby not equal. But that, as I said above, doesn’t mean better or worse, it just means different. Never “hold it over” someone else because you think you are more holy than they are. In truth, if you are more holy than someone else, you should follow Yeshua’s example and be a servant to that person.

Be separate, be an example, let everything you do and say bring honor to the Lord. Torah should be a mirror for the Believer, and the Believer should be a kind of one-way mirror to the world: we should see the world clearly as it is, but when the world looks at us all they should see is God looking back at them.

Who or What; Was or Is; Which is Right?

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Yeshua, called Jesus by most of the world, is recognized pretty much as the Messiah by the Christian world, although He is also called the Lord, to the exclusion of THE Lord, and God in the Flesh, although there is only one God, and the son of God, which He can’t really be if He is God, can He?

Here is an excerpt from my book, “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion” regarding who or what Yeshua is or was:

Let’s not overlook the fact that He was in existence from the Beginning- He may have been born of a virgin, as the prophecy states, but He certainly wasn’t born as a human is born. He was fully human, but He was not of human origin. He was subject to human frailty and temptation but He was also so completely filled with the Ruach HaKodesh He was, as no other person ever has or will be, able to overcome His humanity.

I know, I know…this sort of “He was – He wasn’t” back-and-forth can give you a headache! Was He human? Yes. Was He God? Yes. Did He die? Yes. Well, if He was God how could He be human, and if He was God how could He have died, and if He was human how could he be God, and if He was Human how could He do those miracles, and if and if…. YIKES!! That’s why it is just so much easier to just take things on faith. Although, being faithful doesn’t mean accepting ignorance. We still need to know what the truth is, and the only way is to hear it from His own mouth. The way He allows us to hear Him is that He gave us The Bible, The Manual. Reading that, and asking Him to guide our understanding by the Spirit, is the best and most productive way to know His word. Since Yochanan (John) tells us in his Gospel at first that there was the Word and the Word became flesh, if we know His Word then we know Him.

Some things we know, historically, about Yeshua was that, first and foremost, His was born into a Jewish family and His name was never ‘Jesus’- that is a translation of a transliteration. For the etymology of the name Jesus do a search on “what’s in a name” in the Search window at the bottom right of this page. We also know His mother and father, what the family business was, that He was circumcised, had been to Yerushalayim at least once (and was left behind there for a week alone), He was baptised by Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist), had a wandering ministry, healed many people of different diseases, taught 12 Disciples who lived and travelled with Him for about 3 years, and was sentenced to death by crucifixion. We also are told by the same dependable writers and witnesses that He was resurrected and wandered among the people for about 40 days (40- another well used number in the Bible) until He rose into heaven.

So, where’s that leave us, with regards to the title of this blog? Is Yeshua a “who”, meaning a human being, or a “what”, as in a proper noun such as Messiah? We know He existed and was killed, so do we refer to Him in the past tense as with a dead person? If so, when He was resurrected He became alive, again, and He is forever alive so shouldn’t we say He “is”, as we do when referring to a living person? He was the Messiah for those people, but, then again, He is our Messiah today. He was God’s son and God in the flesh- didn’t He say if you see me you see the Father? To know Him is to know the Father? If so, that fits in with the old Jewish adage that the Torah is to be a mirror so that when we look into it we see ourselves. John says that Yeshua was the Living Torah, that the Word became flesh. Since Torah is still valid and the Word of God, and Yeshua is the living Torah, then Yeshua is alive, so we should say He “is” and not that He “was”, anything. As a living entity, He is a “who” and not a “what”, wouldn’t you agree?

Who He was is why He was able to do what He did, and what He is is why He is able to do what He does. (say that three times fast!)

It’s all a bunch of literary hoopla. It doesn’t really matter who, what, was, is… whatever! Yeshua was the Messiah, He is the Messiah, and there is only one true Messiah; even after all is done and Yeshua takes on whatever mantle of leadership or divinity that He will wear at that time forevermore, who or what He was or is will not change.

God is eternal, Yeshua is eternal ( Yeshua said, “…before Abraham was, I am.”), and past and present are irrelevant when discussing the eternal.

What is important from this discussion is to understand and accept that Yeshua always has been and, until the end of this existence will continue to be, the only hope we have for salvation.

I have collected this laundry list of questions, and I figure when I see Yeshua’s face I can ask Him because He will know the answers. But you wanna know something? When I do see His face, I don’t think any of those answers will have any meaning for me.

Once I see His face, all that is important to me now won’t matter anymore.

Heaven on Earth

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Aren’t we all looking forward to Heaven? Wafting joyfully amongst the clouds, basking in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, free of concerns, free of duties and toils, forever elated.

Sounds nice, but don’t bet on it. That ain’t heaven- that’s Hollywood.

The Bible tells us that those who survive the Tribulation, the chosen who have chosen to remain faithful, will be part of the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21). In the Acharit HaYamim (The End Days) after all the destruction is completed, the Enemy and his minions are in the lake of fire and the unfaithful in hell, the new heavens and the new earth will be revealed and the faithful (namely, the survivors) will not be in heaven. We will inhabit the new earth. Although Shaul (Paul) says we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) that isn’t where we reside. We are citizens of heaven but we live on earth.

And there will be work to do, there will also be sickness. Huh? Sickness in heaven? Aren’t we are told there will be no more tears? Yes, we are: it says in Revelations, as well as a few times in Isaiah, that the tears will be wiped from every eye and (essentially) there will be no more crying or mourning.

So, if there will be no more crying, where are the tears from every eye coming from? Or is it that there will be one last big “cry” and from then on, it’ s joyful joy, joy, joy all the time?

If there will be no more sickness then why do the trees that are on the river of living water Ezekiel and Yochanan (John) see have leaves with healing in them? In Ezekiel (47:12) and in Revelations (22:1) they both see the same tree with leaves that heal. Why have healing leaves if there is no more disease?

I can’t speak on these authoritatively, and I don’t believe anyone can give us an exact revelation of Revelations, or of the visions seen by the Prophets, either. I feel confident in saying that we can be certain of the meaning of a vision only when the events after the vision demonstrate what it was about. For instance, Kefa (Peter) on the roof dreaming of the animals on the sheet is clearly about the Roman’s asking him to go to the house of Cornelius so that the new Believers would know that the Spirit of God and salvation can come to the Gentiles, too. The history that came after the vision showed us what the vision was about (and just for the record, it had NOTHING to do with Kashrut, Kosher Laws.)

When I read the Bible and the statements made about the Eternal life promised to those that remain faithful, I do not see us roaming the heavens. That is where God lives with the angels. We are on the new earth. We are still working in an agricultural economy; Micah 4:3-4 says we will turn our swords and spears into farming utensils, so again I ask: why need farming utensils if we aren’t farming? If we don’t farm, and war is over, then wouldn’t we turn the swords and spears into something else? Or just throw them away?

We are also told in those verses that each will sit under his vine and fig tree. Here we again are being given a picture of an agrarian existence. Thomas Jefferson once wrote to George Washington that, “Agriculture … is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals & happiness.” Obviously, Jefferson (himself a farmer) thought that agriculture was a very “godly” pursuit. Of course, he also wrote his own Bible and cut everything spiritual and God-related out of it. Oh well, at least he knew farming was a good thing.

Back to the point… we will live on earth, the new earth, when all is said and done. Whether you go for Pre-Millennial, or Post-Millennial, or even Mid-Millennial, whatever! From what I read in the Manual, God will be in the heavens, but I really don’t know where Yeshua will be. I think He will be the righteous king over all the (new) earth, the one wiping the tears from our eyes, the one administering the healing leaves and the one final Kohen HaGadol (Head Priest.) And even though eternity has no beginning and no end, I believe that my “Eternity” will begin when this world’s existence ends.

I look forward to the rewards of honest labor, to the eternal presence of God, to seeing Yeshua’s face, and to sit under my own fig tree and vines, enjoying the fruits of my labor. If you have ever worked at and completed something difficult, and know that you completed it well, then you know a little about what heaven is like. Take that feeling, multiply it by a million and you have a good start at what it will feel like spending eternity with God.

I can’t say for certain what it will be like after the final battle, I don’t think anyone can. I believe from what I read that I will be on a new earth, a farmer, happy, able to live forever without disease (because it can be healed) and without tears (because they will be wiped from my eyes) but I can’t be positive. I can’t be positive because all the images and stories we have about “heaven” are from visions, and (as I said above) we can ‘t really be certain about what a vision is all about and represents until it comes about in reality. Actually, between you and me…I really don’t care what it will be like, just so long as I am there.

I am waiting patiently, faithfully, and with great anticipation for the End Days. I also hope they don’t come until the ones I love and care about that aren’t “saved” have been saved, but it is up to God when these things will happen.

And, despite how much as I care about my unsaved loved ones… Lord? The sooner, the better, if that’s OK with You.  🙂

Dear Abby Strikes, Again

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I have a lot of respect for Dear Abby. For the most part, the advice given by her is reasonable and I am sure over the many years this column has run that there are many people she has comforted, as well as set straight. I have the same respect for Ask Amy, and pretty much any advice columnist because, if for no other reason, they have such an impact on and responsibility to others.

But, then again, sometimes they are giving “politically correct” advice and not really honoring a godly position.

Here’s today’s take: an older couple has a daughter moving in with her boyfriend and having an open house. The couple writes that their faith is against this sort of relationship, they love their daughter but feel they can’t bring themselves to participate in an open house that represents a relationship they are against, religiously.

Abby pretty much told them they were wrong, that many couples are living together today and that they will lose more than they will gain by not attending.

I think since this couple raised these kids, the kids would already know how they feel about cohabitation (“living in sin”, as we used to say; that is, when people cared whether they were sinning or not) and might invite the parents as a courtesy, but not really expect them to attend.

We are to hate the sin and love the sinner, but that doesn’t mean we should condone the actions, and being “tolerant” is just standing by and watching sin without speaking up against it. The Bible is pretty clear about not allowing evil to be ignored. Check out Ezekiel 3:8, or Ephesians 5:11, Hebrews 13:4 (about marriage) and throughout the Tanakh. We are told if we see an enemy’s donkey overburdened we are to offer to help, and if someone loses their animal we are to care for it until it can be returned.

The Bible teaches us to try to help others and speak out against wrongdoing, whereas the World teaches that we should be happy if our enemy suffers and “finders, keepers; losers, weepers.”

I applaud this couple who say they love their kids and yet will not prostitute their beliefs just to make the kids happy. What lesson does that teach? It teaches that if the world says it’s OK then you should do it. That is bad advice, Abby- that is the “wisdom of the world” that will send people straight to hell. If everyone else takes the “mark” and is rewarded for it, as they will be, then should I also take it, even when I know what it means? Just because it will make my family happy? Because everyone else is doing it? Because it is accepted by society? Hasn’t your mother ever asked you, “If everyone else was jumping off the Empire State building, would you jump off, too?”

The trouble is that in today’s world (actually, it has always been this way) people jump off the building because they don’t know they are jumping off the building. The Prophets were told, because they know the true word of God, that they are required to tell those sinning to repent, otherwise the blood of the wicked will be on the head of the Prophet! That sounds like a lose-lose deal, doesn’t it? If I say something against what the world does I will be an outcast, and if I go along with them I will be guilty before God. Read Jeremiah to find out how difficult it is to be Godly-right and worldly-wrong.

Personally, I prefer being OK with God and the World can go to … , well, that’s where the world is already going, isn’t it?

The Bible says that we, those who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are to be holy because He is holy. Being holy means being separated, and you can’t be separated from the world if you go along with the world. This couple is separated, and they are determined to stay that way, even at the potential cost of alienating their own daughter. That is the kind of faith that wins people over to God, and the kind of faith that God requires of us all. That is the kind of faith the Levites showed at the base of Mt. Horeb.

What is the strength of your faith? If it was your daughter or son having an open house for their unmarried relationship, or even a gay relationship, would you go?  I confess I am not sure what I would do. I have family members who have been in a gay relationship for many years and when Donna and I visit we stay at their house. They are very aware that I do not agree with their lifestyle, but I love them and want to be with them. I think the best way I can get someone to see God’s way is to demonstrate it in my lifestyle and I can still be true to my beliefs without having to alienate them. But that’s me.

These are tough questions, and require tough answers. And the answer has to be one you decide for yourself. The end is coming sooner than we realize; it is just around the corner and there is no more time to think about it.

There are only two sides to this game, and God has already won. So, nu? Who’s side do you want to be on?

Holy Doesn’t Have to Mean Boring

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Do you think that when Yeshua was at that wedding (you know, the one where He turned water into wine) that He was standing all alone in the corner, a wallflower not dancing or joining in the fun? I don’t. The Bible doesn’t specifically say anything about that, but it does tell us He cried when Lazarus was dead, so we know He is willing to show emotions. When He felt compassion for the people, He had to be showing feeling, don’t you think? I have to think that when Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on the water, then almost immediately lost faith, Yeshua had to be disappointed and the tone of His voice must have shown that.

If we are to love God and love each other, how can we do that if we are emotionally dead, being stoic and serious all the time?

I like to joke around, sometimes to excess, and sometimes a little more blue than some might think a “Believer” should be (you should have heard me before I cared what God thought; actually, it’s probably better that you haven’t), and I can often relieve tension with a funny comment. This is a gift from above, and when I use it as it should be used, I have to think that God is pleased with what I do.

I can’t believe that Yeshua was dry and always serious. In the Bible He is always talking about God and the way that God wants us to act (that’s called Torah!) After all, the Bible is the manual and what’s important is to have it full of the truth of God and how to please Him. So it’s only natural that the main text will be composed of those things Yeshua did and said that relate directly to His announcement and demonstration of the Kingdom of God. But don’t you wonder, even a little, if Yeshua ever just “talked” with the Disciples? Maybe a little kibbutzing over a nosh?

I think He had to. There had to be “normal” discourse at times because to get through to people you need to be able to communicate effectively, and effective communication is two-way. I can’t think that Yeshua never had a normal conversation about something other than God.

Maybe I am wrong (it wouldn’t be the first time and won’t be the last time): I will be the first to say we can’t make an argument from nothing, and there is nothing (I can recall) in the Gospels that indicates Yeshua had conversations that were not about God. I am not totally confident about this, either (in case you hadn’t picked up on that) because I also believe that to be holy we need to be separated, we need to talk and act differently from the rest of the world. But what about amongst ourselves? Can’t we joke with each other? Can’t we have a little fun?

God gave us a sense of humor, so shouldn’t we be using it? If we are to do what Yeshua did, and we have a sense of humor, can I make a “backward” argument that Yeshua, therefore, must have also joked around now and then; at least, with His Disciples?

I am rambling on a bit today; maybe I won’t get a whole bunch of “Likes” for this blog. Maybe I will get some conversation going. Maybe I am just shouting into the wind.

I want to be holy as God says we should be, and I want to use the gifts He gave me in a way that will glorify Him. I will keep on joking, and making every effort I can, worm that I am, to make the humor acceptable in all circles. And still, I will make jokes to get the attention and to give happiness to those that need a little “blue” in their humor. I will do as Shaul (Paul) did (Corin. 9:22) and be whatever I have to be to get the attention of the person I am talking with so that I can get the message of God to them. I know I was afraid to seek the Lord and turn myself over to Him because the image of “holy” people is one of being stoic, never laughing, never smiling, always talking about God and, basically, boring to be with. I love the Lord and love talking about Him, but I need a break now and then to just have regular conversation. How can I know how to comfort someone if all I do is relate to God and not to that person?

I want to show that God’s influence in my life has been wonderful, and that since I gave myself over to Him I am not becoming a different person, I just am becoming a better me. I didn’t lose myself when I came to God; yes, I found “it”, but I also found myself, and I found the completeness of worship that was always missing. What I found was what had been calling to me since I was a child: I found relationship with the Lord and completeness in my Judaism. I have come full-circle, a Jewish person who knows his Messiah. The Jewish people were separated for God, and promised that in the Acharit HaYamim (the End Days) God will bring us back to Him, and that our Messiah will be the means to which we are rescued from not just dispersion throughout the Diaspora, not just from separation from our ancestral lands, but separation from God.

This news about Messiah ain’t boring: this is good stuff! We should be joyful and happy, we should show that in all we do. And if we can’t present, and represent, the Lord in a emotionally strong manner than how “happy” can we be, really? If we are always emotionally contained, and “proper” and “in control” then who would believe that we are joyous, elated and free? Can you be ecstatic without a smile? Can you talk about your most enjoyable experience without a tear in your eye? Or jumping up and down? Maybe being a little “Pentacostal” is important to demonstrate the uncontainable joy that knowing the Lord gives us.

Being holy doesn’t mean being boring; it just means being separated, and separated doesn’t mean being “bad” different, it just means being different.

As the French say, “Vive la différence!”

 

Parashot Acharey Mot / Kedoshim (Leviticus 16 – 18; 19 – 20)

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Acharey Mot starts with the regulations about how to celebrate Yom Kippur, then about not eating blood and ends with forbidden types of marriages and worship. This is a continuation of the main theme throughout this entire book, which is to teach the people how to be holy.

Kedoshim is the central book of the Torah because it is right in the middle. It is the center of Vayikra, and also the center of Torah. As such, the Rabbis have regarded it as “the essentials of Torah” ( Pentateuch and Haftorah, Soncino edition) and a brief description of it’s main points follows:

* holiness and imitation of God

* moral and ritual laws

* Duties to and treatment of other people

* Prohibitions against hatred and violence

* additional precepts and ordinances

* prohibition against the pagan lifestyle

* ethical injunctions

* penalties for disobedience

* laws regarding immorality

* final exhortation to be holy and set apart

As I say above, this book is not just a set of laws and rules. It is how we become sanctified, holy and separated for God from the rest of the world.

In America, the court cases of Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. The Board of Education (of Topeka, Kansas) are well known to almost everyone, lawyer or not. “Plessy” was a Supreme Court ruling (in 1896) which stated separate accommodations, if equal in quality and standards, is not unconstitutional. Half a century later (1954), “Brown” was the reversal of that decree stating the very nature of things being separate means they can’t be equal (I ask any law professionals to excuse any minor misstatements I may have made in condensing these.)  The belief that separate cannot be equal is also what we are told in Leviticus, and throughout the Bible. If we want to be holy, as God is holy, we need to be separate and NOT equal. We need to be different.

Let’s get something straight here: different is not better than; it is not worse than;  it is just different from. The only thing that separates Believers from the rest of the world is Messiah Yeshua. We are still sinners: the only thing different is that we are saved sinners. And because we profess to accept the truth that Yeshua is the Messiah, and accept God’s Grace provided through Yeshua’s sacrifice, we are bound to change our way of living to that which God decrees in the Torah. Doing that makes us different from the world. God tells us to be holy for He is holy, and in Leviticus He gives us all the rules, regulations, and ordinances that will teach us how to worship Him properly and how to properly treat each other so that we can be holy.

Problem is…we ain’t holy! God gave us all we need to be holy, but it’s beyond us, that’s why God also provided Yeshua, and why we so desperately need Him, our Messiah, to bring us into the communion with God that we cannot bring ourselves into, by means of His sacrifice cleansing us of our sins.

We need to be different, and in the way God says to be different. Not as a means of rebellion (of course, if you’re a teenager, rebellion is mandatory behavior) or as a means of acting “holier-than-thou”, but as the proof that we worship God. It’s just that simple. We worship God, Adonai; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, the one, true God. And when we do this as He said we should (not as a religion tells us) then we are separated from the world.

The world says “holier-than-thou” as a condemnation against someone thinking they are a better person than someone else. Yeshua told His Talmudim (Disciples) that the Goyim (nations, or Gentiles) lord it over each other and they should not, so He also teaches us not to think we are any better than anyone else. But, in the long run, we are supposed to be “holier than thou”, but not because we are better: we are to be holier because our God is holy and we represent Him. We aren’t better, just saved. The difference between heaven and hell is certainly much more than that between railroad cars (Plessy vs. Ferguson) and we definitely want to be in First Class.

I believe this about Leviticus: the central theme of this central book of the Torah is to be holy so that we can represent God correctly.

The book tells us exactly how we achieve holiness by telling us how we are to worship, how we are to treat each other, how we are to marry, how we are to have intimate relationships, how we are to eat; essentially, Leviticus tells us that we should be, and how we are to be, separated from the world.

The brokerage firm Smith-Barney had a great commercial where their spokesman used to say (something like), “We make money the old fashioned way…we earn it!”  That’s the way the world works, and there’s nothing wrong with that- you work hard and you earn your reward.

With God, it isn’t like that. Salvation cannot be earned through hard work, it can only be gained by asking for it.

It’s not until after we have been saved that the hard work starts.

The Best Diet in the World

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In today’s world, when we hear the word “diet” used, it usually means someone is trying to lose weight. That isn’t what diet really means, though- a diet is simply a kind of regimen. It doesn’t even necessarily have to do with food. The Greek word, diaita, means “a way of life.”

If we work with the Greek meaning, which was one of the earliest uses of the word, we should then ask ourselves, “If I am going to diet as a way of life, what is the best diet I can choose?”

What comes to mind for me is not just a means of living, but is a (sort of) food, too, and I found it in the Bible:

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

A diet, to be successful, has to become your “way of life”; it has to be done according to the rules, and even though every now and then we all “pig out” on something (that would be Chicken Wings, for me) we get back to the diet the next day.

My diet is God. Every day I read a chapter or two from His word. In fact, to make sure I have 10 minutes or so of uninterrupted peace and solitude, I keep my Bible in the bathroom. No one comes in and bothers me there, no one knocks on the door, it is quiet and serene; it is the only ‘throne room’ where no one asks for an audience.

I start at the beginning and go to the end, which for a nice Messianic Jewish boy such as myself, means from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21. I even look at the maps and glossary. Then, when I am done, I go back to the beginning and start all over.

What’s your diet? Are you eating Wonder bread, or the Bread of Life? Do you drink bottled water, or the Everlasting Water? Do you hunger for Burger King, or the Eternal King?

They say that to make something a habit, do it 21 times in a row. So, then, here is a challenge: read a chapter of the Bible for the next 21 days in a row. I strongly recommend you follow my example of leaving it in the bathroom, right there with the crossword puzzle and silly jokes books. Read just one chapter every day while you are sitting there with not much else to do. I don’t think it’s disrespectful to have a Bible in the bathroom. In fact, I think the most disrespectful thing we can do with our Bible is to leave it unread. So long as we are reading it, who cares where we store it?

There’s your challenge: who’s up to it?

His Presence is Always Present

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In the Manual we read about God’s presence. There was the time He decided to go down and see what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah, He also went down to see what the humans were doing at Babel, His presence filled the Tabernacle and the Temple, and how many times have there been when you were worshipping and you felt the presence of the Lord all around you?

It’s really nice, isn’t it? For me, I feel spiritually relaxed, unburdened and often I cry: the tears just come all on their own. Tears of joy, of comfort and of peace.

The problem is that it doesn’t last. We feel His presence, we can actually even sense His touch: that sort of chill that goes through you. I remember when I first experienced that as the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) physically entered me. I felt totally ethereal, like I was spirit. It happened about 18 years ago, and it still gets to me, emotionally and physically. I still get all teary-eyed when retelling it.

Whenever we feel His presence it is wonderful. Why then don’t we feel it all the time? After all, God is omnipresent, is He not? That means that He doesn’t really “go down” to anywhere- He is already there. God is always right here, just a hand’s reach away from us, ready to grab us as we fall or hold us back when we go rushing into disaster.

His presence is always present, so why don’t we always feel it? The truth is painfully simple: we can’t come into His presence because we are too into ourselves. The Holy Spirit may live within us, but we have to give it more room if we want to feel it more often. A small paper cut on the finger will hurt when we get it, and then we get used to the pain and it seems that it no longer hurts, until we get lemon juice in it. WOW! Then you remember you have the cut!

The Holy Spirit is much nicer than a paper cut, but the idea is the same. We become inured to it’s presence and we forget about it. We don’t remember it’s there until we pour some lemon juice on it, the lemon juice being our sinful actions, words or feelings. When we are doing something sinful we are then reminded by the Spirit that it is still there. It causes us pain, and helps us to want to wash off the sin like we wash out the lemon juice.

With a paper cut, we put a bandage over it to stop it from hurting. How many of us have put on a spiritual bandage to prevent ourselves from feeling the Ruach when it wants to remind us it’s there?  Every time we do not “die to self” so that the Spirit can live more fully within us, we are placing a band aid on the Ruach. The more bandages on the Ruach, the less likely we will feel the sting of sin when we do something wrong in God’s eyes. And the more we cover it, the less we sense His presence, so it seems that God is not near us. But He is near- He is right there, at your side, at my side, holding out His hand and asking us to take hold.

If you want to feel the presence of the Lord more often, more intently, and more completely, remove the bandages. Allow the soreness of sin to remind you quickly and painfully that you are not doing as the Spirit leads.

We are a container- we are filled with ourselves and with the Spirit, but the container can only hold so much. If you want more Spirit, you need to make room by getting rid of more of yourself. I used to be frightened to death by that statement (literally, since this fear of losing myself meant that I was rejecting the truth about Messiah Yeshua); but now, after I faithfully took that leap and accepted Messiah, I find that I am not really losing who I am, I am just becoming a better me. The more the Spirit leads me  ( scratch that, change it to this):  the more I allow the Spirit to lead me, the better a person I am.

I have been given the gift of humor, and I used to misuse it by making people laugh with nothing but bawdy jokes, and I used foul language to shock the humor out of people. I can tell you this: it worked a lot, but it also got me in a lot of trouble. I still find exotic humor (OK, OK…yes, I admit it, they’re dirty jokes) funny but I have “toned it way down”, and I can still be funny without being sinful. Richard Pryor was one of the funniest men I ever heard, and he was well known for being filthy, but he was also exceptionally funny (when he started out) on the Ed Sullivan and the Tonight shows, and there were no dirty jokes allowed on those shows. The spirit of humor God gave me is like anything else from God- how well I use that gift is based on how much I let the Spirit guide me in it’s use.

God is always here, he never leaves, He never sleeps, He doesn’t need to hit the head; God’s presence is always present. It’s us, it’s me, it’s you, it’s the flesh that prevents the Spirit from being felt and it’s our self-absorbed nature that numbs us to God’s touch.

All any of us needs do to feel God’s presence is to reach out to Him, but to do that we need to let go of whatever we are holding on to. What you are holding on to, you need to determine for yourself.

We Need to Forgive Everyone, but We Need Forgiveness Only From God

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When was the last time you visited Psalm 51? That’s what David wrote after being convicted by Natan the Prophet of the sins he committed against Uriah and Bat Sheba. Yet David knew who he really sinned against- God, first and foremost; David said that against God, and God alone, did he sin.

That doesn’t mean David didn’t realize the effect of his actions against these people, but God is the one who gave us the commandments and when we violate even the simplest of these laws, regulations and ordinances, we have sinned against God directly. Even if the actions are directed to another person, it is against God that we have sinned.

So, we ask forgiveness of God, and we should ask forgiveness of the person we have sinned against, too. If that person decides to forgive us, that is good for them.

No, I didn’t get that wrong: when someone forgives us it is good for them because God doesn’t tell us to be forgiven by others, He tells us to be forgiving of others. When we forgive we are doing what is right in God’s eyes. No person can forgive someone their sin- only God can do that. Your act of forgiveness is actually between you and God; likewise, the sin itself is between that person and God. Your forgiveness of others helps you, not them. They have to deal with God for forgiveness on their own.

The one who has sinned needs forgiveness from God- the sin is between the sinner and God. God is the ultimate judge, He is the one who will decide if we get to sit under our own fig tree and enjoy our wine, or if we spend eternity out of His presence, in misery and darkness gnashing our teeth.

Forgiveness is a wonderful remedy for the pain of being sinned against. Truth is, the only way to make the pain go away is to forgive the person who caused it. That isn’t easy to do, but it is the only remedy. Maybe that’s why God commands us to be forgiving? He wants us to be happy and, therefore, He tells us to forgive (so that we can be happy.)

Maybe that’s also why God is so willing to forgive us? It makes Him happy, too, and helps Him to remove the pain of being ignored and rejected by the ones He loves so much (He is much better at it than we are. Thank God for that, right?)

Yeshua tells us to “…seek ye first the kingdom of God,…” when He is talking to the crowds during the Sermon on the Mount. Within the context of this speech He has been talking about our relationships with each other, about leaving our gift at the altar to make reparations with those we have sinned against, about forgiving each other as God forgives us, and that’s when He tells us to not seek things of the world but things of God. The world seeks vengeance, God seeks forgiveness and reconciliation.

When it comes to things of God, forgiveness is definitely near the top of the A-List. Forgiveness is a natural result of loving each other and since Yeshua said the two greatest commandments are to love God and love each other, forgiveness (in my book) comes in at a very close third.

Shaul tells us to run the good race. If we are to run the race well, we need to understand and remember that to love God, love each other, and forgive each other is the Win:Place:Show of the most important race we will ever be part of.

We must forgive others and we should ask for forgiveness from those we have sinned against, but always ask forgiveness from God first and foremost because that is the most important forgiveness there is, and the only forgiveness you need.

Truth is Simple

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Walter Scott wrote a poem called Marmion and it was in that poem that he wrote, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!”  It shows the fruitlessness of lying, but more than that: it shows how convoluted things become when we leave the truth.

One of the country’s greatest writers and humorists, Mark Twain, said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

Let’s not forget what Yeshua said about the truth: the truth will set you free.

Truth is simple, and that’s the truth. Truth has no image to maintain, no “spin” is needed, but as with most things that are simple, the truth is often hard to take.

“Yes, those pants make your butt look bigger.” That’s the truth, but if you speak it, the truth is that you will be sleeping on the couch.

In fact, humans (at least in our society, it seems) are so averse to hearing the truth that if you say something that is truthful, such as telling someone who is doing a poor job at something (even if you are their supervisor and it is your responsibility to do so), if you just come out and tell them they are doing a lousy job, you are in trouble with HR. Not them; you! Because you told the truth, but you didn’t think about their feelings. How can we think about someone’s feelings, in a society where we are all victims, and still tell the truth?

If we “sugarcoat” the truth so much that it tastes good, then how much “good” can it really do?

The bottom line about truth, which it seems no one wants to hear, is that we are not really in total control or complete charge of ourselves. We never have been and we never will be. We are all interrelated, we cannot be without each other, and we cannot survive totally on our own.

As Yeshua said, we are all a slave to something: either a slave to God or a slave to sin. The only real freedom we have is to choose what we will be a slave to.

People want to hear what they want to hear. The truth is not something they want to hear, so the world tells us lies and teaches us to be liars. If someone looks silly in the clothes they have on, don’t say they look silly, tell them they look fine. If someone doesn’t do the job the way they are supposed to, don’t tell them, don’t fire them or pay them less. And don’t “upset” the poor workers- give them a raise just like the good workers get. And when someone says God doesn’t exist, or that His laws are done away with, don’t disagree with them and don’t tell them you believe He does exist and that His laws are still valid because you shouldn’t upset them.

I am not saying that we should talk to each other in a totally callous and unfeeling way, but we need to be truthful. We need to be able to tell the truth compassionately. If someone looks silly we should say that we don’t think the clothes they are wearing look right, and they would look better if they wore something that matched better. We don’t have to say they look silly, but we should say they would look better because what they are wearing doesn’t do them justice. That’s telling the truth in a compassionate way, don’t you think?

If someone is not doing their job correctly, we need to tell them, and we can do that simply by telling the truth: there is an accepted way of doing this job and you haven’t been following that process. Here is the way this is to be done and you need to do it this way. If you think you have a better way, great- talk to me about it and we will see if it can work, but in the meantime, you need to do it this way.

The ultimate truth is that God is in charge, that we can’t understand His ways, and that we need to trust Him to do what is best. That same truth continues: we don’t have control over what we don’t have control over. People are, for the most part, cruel, self-centered and sinful. Sorry, that’s the truth- the Bible is pretty clear on that, as is our own life experience. We have our occasional good ones, and I hope you are one of those, but we are sinful and our nature is to sin: we are sinful sinners, and the more readily we accept that truth, the easier it is to see how much we need Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) to help us to overcome ourselves. That’s the only chance we have for being in God’s presence when all is done, and the best way to improve ourselves. You can’t change what you don’t know is wrong.

The ancient Greek aphorism, “Know thyself” is a call to truth. Know who you are, what you are capable of, and why you do what you do. I don’t think we need to go through years of psychoanalysis to do this, we just need to accept the truth unabashedly and with courage. Cowards hate the truth, hero’s seek it out. Which are you?

The truth is that the truth often sucks. That’s the way it is, and the truth is you can’t change that. To accept it is the first step on the path to peace, really. I am not saying to be apathetic, to be a fatalist and say that you can’t make any changes or do anything, or that everything happens because God is in charge and, thereby, blame the Lord for your own failures to act. I am asking you to remember that old adage about accepting what you can’t change, changing what you can, and knowing the difference.

Trying to do what we can’t do is frustrating and leads to anger and disappointment- those are the kinds of things that lead to the Dark Side. Anger, unforgiveness, frustration of wanting someone else to do what you think they should do and living with the fact that they won’t is the kind of mindset that will prevent you from doing what God wants, which is to forgive them and love them, anyway. When we learn to focus on what we can do and not obsess over what we can’t change we will be much happier, and set a better example of what God wants us to be.

The truth will set you free from frustration and disappointment, and when you are truthful in a compassionate way you can not only be free, but help others to be free, too.

And that, my friends, is the truth.