Tag: Bible

Ain’t Nothing Free

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I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (retired) with a specialization in Security. I also have a CompTIA Security Plus certification.

Why am I mentioning this? Because despite all that I know about Internet security and cyber crime, I myself have (embarrassingly enough) recently fallen victim to an Internet scam.

It started with someone’s Face Book account being hacked and they did not know it. I was contacted by the “bad guys” using this trusted friends Face Book Messenger service, and told that she had won a giveaway and I was also on the list. She sent me the link to the Face Book page (which was expertly spoofed) where I was fooled into believing I had won one of those many “Like this page and enter a contest” events. There were many signs along the way that now using 20-20 hindsight I can see were obvious. The problem was I was initially taken in because I really believed the contact was from my friend. At that point even though the signs were there, I couldn’t recognize them because my eyes were too filled with dollar signs.

And, honestly, I am not greedy or money-driven. I did not lose that much money, and I thank God that I finally caught on. I reported this to an Internet Crime site and when the bad guys tried to get me for more money, I wrote back that I was contacting the authorities and told them, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

I don’t feel humiliated- I feel humbled. Next time someone tells me about being scammed, I will certainly be more compassionate and understanding about it.

I share this with you all not only as a warning that anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can be taken by a well set up scam, but also to show there is also a spiritual lesson in this for us all. That lesson is this:

When someone promises you something for nothing, you will be the one giving something and ending up with nothing.

The enemy of God will promise us worldly goods: money, power, friendship, whatever it is that we want. The promise will be that we won’t have to do anything to receive this, except maybe worship him (or her?) or something that takes us away from Godly worship. That’s the hook, and if you take it you might end up, like I did, finding yourself too deep in to get out without losing something. In the case of Satan, what you might lose is your eternal soul. Much worse than losing some lousy lucre that won’t have any permanent effect.

So what is the answer to maintaining your security? Just that- maintain your security. If someone tells you something that sounds too good to be true, don’t accept it. It may be true, but verify it and do so using a totally different method. For example, if you receive an email or IM from a trusted friend with good news about a product or context, do not reply. Call them on the phone and verify that they sent it to you. And even then, don’t trust it- they may have been taken, too.

The Golden Rule of Cyber Security is this: you NEVER have to buy something to receive a free giveaway. If you are told you have won a contest but you need to send a retainer or purchase a gift card, whatever… don’t do it. It is a scam.

The Golden Rule of Soul Security is this: If it sounds like something the world would want, don’t accept it. You can be sure that whatever is important and valuable to the world is not valuable to God. Remember what Yeshua told us about how God feeds the birds and dresses the poppies in the field- if you are promised something of worldly value for nothing, you don’t really need it.

Such as a chip that will let you buy things faster and easier.

So stay alert, watch out for evil from everyone, and keep that armor of God on you (Galatians 6:14) all the time. I dropped my armor for a moment, and it cost me a couple of hundred dollars.  A costly lesson, but a good one.

Please learn from me and not from your own experience.

Parashah Tzav 2018 (Give an order) Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36

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As we continue in Vayikra (Leviticus), God gives the orders and commands regarding the daily offerings, specifically the wholly burnt, meal, guilt, peace and thanksgiving offerings.

The procedure and requirements for anointing of the Priests and the Cohen haGadol (High Priest) are given, and Aaron and his sons are anointed by Moses.

There are so many different things we could discuss in these few chapters, but since in this year (2018) Passover falls next Friday night, I would like to talk about the Passover lamb and its significance in the sacrificial system.

Yeshua (Jesus) has been referred to as the “Passover Lamb” for centuries, and His sacrifice is the means by which we are able to be absolved of our sins, so why is He called a “Passover” lamb? The lamb sacrificed on Passover was not a sin sacrifice.

We are told the requirements for the 5 different types of sacrifices outlined in Leviticus; by definition, Yeshua’s sacrifice was a Thanksgiving, or Peace sacrifice. We know this because only the peace sacrifice was eaten by the one bringing the sacrifice. In all the other forms of sacrifice some of the animal was given to the Priest as his compensation, with the remaining parts either burned on the Altar or removed and thrown away. Only the Peace sacrifice was also shared with the one bringing the animal.

Yeshua’s sacrifice was a sin sacrifice, and also served as a Passover sacrifice; in fact, His sacrifice fulfilled three sacrifices: peace, sin and wholly burnt. Of course, His body wasn’t consumed by fire, but His entire body was sacrificed (which is what was done with the wholly-burnt sacrifice.)

The wholly burnt sacrifice represents our complete devotion to God- no question that Yeshua was completely devoted to His Father in heaven.

The sin sacrifice is the means by which we are forgiven our sins when we do T’shuvah (repentance) and ask God for forgiveness (now by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice.)

The peace offering is how we enter into communion with God by sharing the meal made from the sacrifice, which we do at the Passover Seder.

Can you see how Yeshua’s once-and-for-all sacrifice accomplished all three types of sacrifice? Through our acceptance of Yeshua we can show our complete devotion to God, receive forgiveness of sins and enter into communion with God.

Does this mean we shouldn’t call Yeshua the “Passover Lamb” anymore? I think it is still appropriate to refer to Him that way, just as it would also be appropriate to refer to Him as the Yom Kippur goat.

Personally, I prefer to use “lamb” other than “goat” when I refer to Yeshua, although from a technical perspective either would be correct.

For those that will celebrate the Holy Days of Passover and Hag ha Matzot, I pray you thoroughly enjoy this festive festival. I am always afraid I will accidentally eat something with yeast during the week of this festival, and have done so, once or twice, in the past. I hope it is easier for you to keep away from leavening than it is for me (I just LOVE bread!)

Donna and I have different people to our Seder every year, and we usually try to have Gentile friends who have not enjoyed this Holy Day. Every single couple we have shared our Seder with, for nearly 20 years now, has enjoyed it and it has helped them to get closer to their Jewish roots.

I may be a week early, but…Chag Sameach!

Does God Require Praise?

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Let me start out by saying, unequivocally, that God deserves praise.

David praised Him constantly throughout the Psalms, the Prophets praised Him, and Yeshua told us to praise Him at the beginning and the end of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-14), which serves as a template for all prayer. I found plenty of places where we are told to praise God.

But does God tell us to praise Him? Does He ask for us to do that anywhere in Scripture? I couldn’t find any place in the Bible where God says we must praise Him.

God is very clear we must worship Him, and Him alone, but worship isn’t praise. I believe praise is a form of worship but not worship, itself.

So if God doesn’t require praise from us, why should we do it?

First off, let’s make sure we are all talking about the same thing: for the purpose of this discussion I am defining praise as a verbal expression of wonderment, appreciation and respect. It references specific events, such as acts performed for the benefit of others, for the benefit of the one giving praise or just as a general statement showing respect for the one being praised.

Now, let’s go back to the original question: Does God want us to praise Him? Do you think He feels a need to be praised? Is He a little shy? Maybe He wants our approval? Could it be that God desires praise so He can feel better about Himself?

Of course not- those thoughts are just plain silly.

God doesn’t need anything from us, but He does require worship from us. He tells us exactly how to do that, which is through sacrifice and obedience. Those are the things God requires of us.

So why should we praise God? I think we praise God because by praising Him we are reminding ourselves of all the wonderful things He has done in our life and that makes us feel better. That is why the Bible is full of verses telling us to always praise the Lord.

Praising the Lord makes us feel better.

When we praise God I am sure He appreciates our heartfelt emotions, but the real power of praise is how it lifts our spirits and makes us feel better. God doesn’t need us to make Him feel good, but we need God to make us feel good and the effect of praising God is that we receive joy.

It is that simple: the act of praising God makes us joyful. When we are down, praising the Lord reminds us of all the good He has done in our life and helps overcome the sadness of the moment. When we praise God, the memory of the events that justify our praise brings back that emotional “high” we had when it happened.  When we praise God, our spirits are carried into the very presence of God and we fell elated.

Praise is the best way to get over the doldrums we experience every day when we have to live in a cursed and fallen world. It is a “Happy Pill” we can take anytime, anywhere, without ever needing a prescription.

The most important thing to remember about praise is that it is just as effective when you already feel good as when you feel bad! Now…ain’t that the coolest thing? Praise makes us feel good when we feel bad, and when we feel good praise makes us feel even better.

Praise the Lord every day: every time something good happens in your life, and especially every time something bad happens.

Remember Job? When everything he had was taken from him all at once, his immediate response was to praise God. His praise sustained him through the worst trials and tribulations anyone could ever have to endure.

Here’s a final lesson about praise: it is one of the most powerful weapons we have to use against the enemy.

Starting right now- this very moment- join me in shouting, “Praise the Lord for He is good, and His love endures forever!”

Let me leave you today with Psalm 150:

Halleluyah!  

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.  Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Halleluyah! 

What’s in a Name?

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In the famous play “Romeo and Juliet”, William Shakespeare wrote: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

It was spoken by Juliet, who knew that Romeo’s last name was the last name of her family’s enemy.  Her point was that Romeo would still be Romeo, no matter what name he was called by.

My point is that God is God and Messiah is Messiah: no matter what name we use, that name will not change who they are.

Now, I am positive (and I base this on experience) that there are more than a few people reading this who are beginning to vent steam out of their ears because I am saying it doesn’t matter what name they use when they address God or Messiah.  To those people, using a name different from the one they think is correct is no less than blasphemy.

I do not think poorly of these people because I recognize their love for God and Messiah and their devotion to honoring them both. I respect the intensive research they have done over the years to come to the conclusion that they know the correct name. I also understand that to them, using any other name is an insult to God.

I would like to ask this of those people: Do you really think God will reject someone praying to Him with a contrite heart and a broken spirit (Psalm 51) just because the name they use is the only name they have ever known for Him?  Do you really think God will say to Himself, “That’s a nice prayer and I can see they are truly repentant, but I never liked –whatever- as my name so they can just go to hell.” ?  Really?

For myself, I cannot see God refusing a repentant sinner because the sinner calls out to God using a name that isn’t exactly the same name He told Moses.  I also cannot see Messiah refusing to represent a sinner that has called out to Him simply because “Jesus” isn’t the Hebrew name for Him.

Here’s a thought….when somebody tells someone else, as I have seen all too often, that the name they are using for God is wrong and implies that it won’t be heard, isn’t that the real insult to God? Isn’t that the same thing as saying God is too self-absorbed, too egocentric and too “picky” to accept a prayer to Him just because someone uses a name that may not be exactly the way God knows it should be pronounced?

I want to ask those people who are (pardon me for saying it this way) so obsessive about God’s “real” name to please try to remember God’s merciful nature, His understanding and His compassion; I would like to ask that you please STOP telling people that they have to use the name YOU think is right. Have you ever thought that you may be the one who is in the wrong? Could it be that you are the one who may be wrong because you are speaking for God?

Who are you, or me, or anyone to tell anybody else that their prayers and devotion are wrong just because they don’t call God the same name you call Him?

Did you ever consider that maybe, just maybe, your pronunciation is not correct? If so, are you willing to be judged in the same way that you are judging others?

Please think about that before you correct someone else.

I believe God and Messiah are both “big” enough to be able to handle someone mispronouncing their name. Don’t you?

And if it doesn’t bother them, it shouldn’t bother us.

A Drash on The Ant and The Grasshopper

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For those that may not be familiar with the fable, here it is:

One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

“What!” cried the Ants in surprise, “haven’t you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?”

“I didn’t have time to store up any food,” whined the Grasshopper; “I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone.”

The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.

“Making music, were you?” they cried. “Very well; now dance!” And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work.

                                                                        There’s a time for work and a time for play.

The grasshopper was only concerned with what was fun and easy to do than with the hard work of preparing for his future. He was more interested in enjoying the warmth, ease of life and pleasant weather of the season without any concern for the changes to come. The ants, being more industrious, self-disciplined and aware of what was coming were working hard to meet the needs for the winter. In other words, they took a more mature view of their existence and knew that after the pleasures of the summertime winter was coming, and it would be a hard time to survive through.

I see this as the same sort of attitude that we see with Christians who only want to hear about the joy of salvation, about how much Yeshua (Jesus) loves them and how wonderful it will be when Messiah returns and they are raptured into the clouds to be with God forever. Nice stuff, really, but what about all the other things that God tells us will happen in those End Days?  How are they preparing to live through the Tribulations promised to occur in Revelation? How are they going to be able to maintain their faith is it is only based on the wonderful things about God?

God is going to destroy nearly 2/3 of the earth, including what is up in the sky, here on the land and down in the sea. Even the stars and heavenly bodies will be affected. And there is no guarantee that you and I won’t be here when it happens. There will also be persecution of those that worship God and reject the Antichrist. If someone is all about love and joy and acceptance, then how will they maintain their faith in God when the enemy of God offers them even more? Those who’s faith is based on the “nice” stuff will have that offered to them right now! They will be told, “You don’t have to wait, you can be powerful, happy, and have whatever you want right now if you simply accept my rule and bow down to me.”

Truth be told, God promises eternal joy, peace and comfort if we bow down to Him, too, so how can we know who we should bow down to? Maybe, just maybe, by reading the bible and being open to all that it says, the good and the bad, the joy and the tribulations to come, so that we will be able to recognize the lies of the enemy when we hear them. We need to be like the ants working hard (at our salvation) to prepare for winter. Those who only want to hear about joy and love are like the grasshopper, making pleasant music but not preparing for the hard times ahead.

The grasshopper will bow down to the enemy because he is all about the good times, and when things get hard he will be starving (spiritually) and will look for comfort from anyone who offers it.  But the ant, who knows what to expect, will reject the enemy because he knows what is coming and is preparing for it.  When things are hard, he will be (spiritually) prepared to last through the winter.

We need to be like the ant and not have blinders to the reality of the terrible things that will come before and when Messiah returns. He is not coming back as the Lamb of God- He is coming back as the Son of David, the conquering King of the world and it will be a real mishigas!

I also like to hear about the joy and peace we will have for all eternity when the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) have run their course. It’s great news!  And not only do I look forward to that day, faithfully expecting it to happen, but I also know of the terrible things we will have to get through BEFORE all that good stuff is here, with just as much faithful expectation.

And because I do know what is coming, I am prepared to get through it.

Many people I have known over the years since I accepted Messiah wear rose-colored blinders. They only want to hear about God’s love for them, and every discussion ends up, one way or another, with something along the lines of God loves us and He protects us and He is wonderful, yadda-yadda-yadda. Yes, God is all those things, and He is also judge, jury and executioner of the nations. As much as we can count on His promises of joy we can count on His promises of judgement. And that judgement is not going to be fun.

The grasshopper had fun while the sun shone, but his end was not a happy one, whereas the ants survived the tribulations of winter by working hard to prepare.

Judgement Day will be the worse type of winter you could ever imagine, so let me leave you today with this one question: are you a grasshopper or an ant?

Parashah Ki Tesa 2018 (When You Take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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This parashah holds two of the most amazing and influential passages of the bible: the sin of the Golden Calf, and the 13 Attributes of God.

Chapter 32 retells the sin of the Golden Calf, and after Moses goes back up the mountain to ask God to forgive the people, he also asks God to “show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory”, which God agrees to do. When God passes by Moses He proclaims Himself, and these are what we call the 13 Attributes of God.

Today I want to talk about a very small sentence that represents a very magnificent reality: God treats everyone the same way.

In Chapter 30, at the beginning of this parashah God tells Moses to take a census of the people and that everyone has to pay a ransom for their soul. Each person counted is to give the same amount, a half-shekel. And at verse 15 God says:

The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the Lord, to make atonement for your souls.

To me this means that God is asking from each person the same amount because each person is, to God, the same in His eyes. Whether rich or poor, intelligent or unlearned, good-looking or weak of countenance, to God we are all the same. He doesn’t look at our outward appearance and cares not for our financial strength because God looks at our heart.

This is confirmed later, in Chapter 33, verse 19 when He agrees to show Moses His glory, and states:

I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Because God is always the same, Kefa (Peter) confirms this nearly 1,500 years later, in Acts 10:34:

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

God will not be moved or change His mind about something simply because a person is destitute, or rich, or important in the worldview. God will and does treat every single living person on Earth as one of His children. Whether or not they accept and acknowledge Him as God, or accept and acknowledge Yeshua as Messiah, God still treats them the same way.

You may be thinking, “Wait a minute! God treats all people the same way? Are you crazy, Steve?  Are you saying that God will bless sinners who reject and curse His name the same way He treats a godly person who obey’s Torah and loves Him?”

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying, and No, it is not as you may think.

When I say God treats everyone the same way I mean that God will see each person not for what the world thinks is important, but for what God thinks is important. God will not have special concern for a person’s physical well-being, or their finances, or their position the business world, or even their rank within a church or synagogue.  To God, we are all the same, and we all will be treated the same way, which is according to what we deserve.

That is how God treats everyone the same way: we all get what we deserve.

There is one exception to this: those that have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah, who work their salvation in truth, having done T’shuvah (repentance) and who fear God will not receive all they deserve because Yeshua has paid that price for us. Thank God for that! Literally.

From this lesson we need to move forward knowing that God sees everyone for who and what they are, and since we can’t we need to trust God to judge and avenge Himself as He sees fit.  We should not take the position of judge away from God because, frankly, we aren’t fit for that role. We cannot judge fairly as God does because we are human, we are in the world, we are saturated by its standards and whether we like it or not, we cannot be partial in the way God can be partial.

Admitting this is not something that should make us feel bad, it should instead give us a sense of relief. To judge is very difficult, and to judge fairly is almost impossible. I, for one, am very happy to let God do that. I have written many, many evaluations during my lifetime and they are hard to do- if any of you has done this, you know what I mean. The weight of having someone’s future, their family’s support and the person’s self-worth in my hands is a very heavy burden.  Now if we took that up to the level of judging the world, well….better to let God handle it.

Take joy in the truth that God judges everyone equally, as we deserve, and take even greater joy in knowing that because of Yeshua, we will not actually receive that which we really deserve.

Can’t let This One Go (Amended)

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The original post had a mistake- I did not mention that Cruz had already been expelled before he went on his shooting spree. I have corrected the parts of this blog that were incorrect.

I don’t want to be political on this blog but I can’t let this one go.

The Florida Today paper has an article about the man (he is over 18) who killed the 17 people at the high school earlier this month (Feb/18) which says the school he attended wanted to have him transferred to another school that specializes in mental health issues since 2017.

Ever since 2013 Cruz (the confessed killer) had been a problem and well-known in his school for having severe mental health issues, such as swallowing gasoline and cutting himself. A mobile crisis team from a state funded organization, called Henderson Behavioral Services, in 2016 advised that Cruz was not a danger to himself or others because he was on a treatment plan for ADHD, depression, OCD and autism.

Not a danger? This kid was a walking parade of paranoia!! How could they say he wasn’t a danger to anyone simply because he was on a treatment plan? How many patients don’t follow their plan? What if someone had TB, a highly contagious disease and was taking medication: wouldn’t they still be dangerous to others? Until the TB was totally cured, they would still be contagious, right? But with mental illness, which isn’t contagious but still is dangerous, if you’re on a treatment plan then what? You’re suddenly OK? If he hadn’t been on a plan, would they have then restrained him for his own and other’s safety, or would they put him on a plan?

Either way it sounds like sweeping something under the rug.

But wait! It get’s worse…from 2014 through 2015 Cruz attended the other school and had no recorded incidents, but in 2013 at another school he had some 29 incidents, from unruly behavior to fighting.

In 2016 Henderson Behavioral received some $22 Million dollars on grants from the state to prevent people from being incorrectly hospitalized. To me that says that if they want to keep getting money, they need to keep recommending people do NOT  get hospitalized. 

They did that in Cruz’s case, and 17 people are now dead.

The defense wants to state that because Cruz wasn’t given the proper treatment by social workers and school counselors he should be spared the death sentence. In other words, they are saying that the “system” (my quotes) failed to help this boy (who committed the crimes when he was a man, legally) so the courts should take pity on him.

I say that if we hold the system responsible, in any way, then the system should also be held accountable in the same way.

Those people at Henderson who said Cruz wasn’t a danger to anyone should be charged with malpractice, and maybe even accomplice to murder, after the fact. If a medical doctor performs surgery or gives a misdiagnosis to someone, they are held accountable, legally, so why not the people at Henderson? Psychiatry is a science, is it not? As such, just like with the medical sciences, those that practice this science should be a held accountable when they make significant mistakes that result in harm or death.

Everyone is screaming about gun control, but the real cause of this heinous crime has nothing to do at all with guns- it is a combination of the lack of accountability for certain professional services and (I am sure somewhere in this debacle) it is also about money.

What if Henderson was given $22 Million dollars to properly treat mental illness instead of keeping the mentally ill “on the streets?”  Would there be 17 less graves in Florida today?

I say bring the people who misdiagnosed Cruz to justice, too. If people are not held accountable for what they do and say, then society will always be the victim of that irresponsible attitude.

Let’s bring God into this picture. The bible is clear that we ARE responsible for what we do and say: the watchmen in the the towers were held responsible for failing to warn the people of impending attack; the Prophets were held accountable if they didn’t warn the people what would happen if they fail to turn back to God; the Cohanim (Priests) were held accountable for failing to teach the people proper worship; and the King, himself, was held accountable for leading the people into sin. When the king, cohanim, prophets and watchmen (as in Shomron, the Northern Kingdom of Israel) all worked together to protect themselves and take advantage of their position (money, again) the innocent people of that society were the ultimate victims.

I am not saying Cruz is a victim of society’s failure, I am saying that the professionals who are paid to protect society from people like Cruz failed society- this isn’t society failing Cruz, it is society failing itself because we are more concerned with the rights of those that are anti-social then the rights of those that are law-abiding.

And that is totally against the bible, which is very, VERY clear we are to serve righteousness and remove sin from our presence. Cruz needed to be removed from the mainstream: that should have been (and I personally believe WAS) evident to everyone involved in this miscarriage of justice since 2013. But nobody did the right thing, and now 17 lives are lost and others traumatized because of the failure to act justly – not justly to one, but justly to everyone!

Here’s the last thing I want to point out: the paper reports that the county superintendent stated Cruz couldn’t be transferred to a school he didn’t want to go to because once he had turned 18 they are not legally able to force an adult to receive services. His history proved that he was not just a threat to himself and to others, but represented an escalating threat, yet no one made sure he was where he really needed to be- under the care of a professional mental health organization and safely away from society.  Yes, they kicked him out of school but that didn’t prevent him from shooting people. If the proper people had properly attended to him before he reached majority and made sure he was placed in a secured location receiving the help he needed, there would be 17 more students at the school today.

We have become a nation of people who see everyone as a victim and as such we feel they aren’t responsible, or at least should be given some level of mercy for society’s lack of help. HORSE APPLES!  I am sure that once we start to hold people legally accountable for their words and actions we will see fewer problems occurring. The bible teaches us to watch what we say and what we do, and that those who are a danger to society should be kept “outside of the camp.” In modern terms, that would mean some place where their mental issues could be properly treated. The ACLU will fight against that one, I am sure, and that is OK because that’s their claim to fame.

My position is that gun control is not an issue here- what really is the issue is that we need to get our society to concern itself with protecting the general populace and not to protect the individuals who have shown themselves to be a threat to society.

And I admit I don’t have the answer to this next question: how do we properly and fairly identifying the problem? That is going to be a problem.

The Other Side of the Doom and Gloom

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OK, OK…yes, I have been a little on the “It’s the end of the world” tirade lately. I have been told by my older sister, who one always has to listen to, that I need to “lighten up”, so let’s see what the balance scales have against the doom and gloom of God’s judgement on the nations.

Hey, guess what? It’s pretty good stuff on the other side! Those who have accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah; who worship God as He has commanded (that means obeying the Torah); who live their lives always repentant of their sins; who are trying to follow the leading of the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) which they accepted when they asked God for it as part of their forgiveness prayer…all those people are going to be spending eternity in total joy and peace, basking in the presence of the Almighty.

Now they will have to go through tribulations- not everyone will be lucky enough to escape this. God promises He will judge the nations in the Acharit haYamim (End Dyas) and I DO believe we are in them, now. The astrological signs (4 blood moons in a single year in 2017), the significant climatic changes we are seeing and the world-wide social unrest are all signs that we have been warned about from the Prophets in the Tanakh all the way through the Bible, including the letters from Shaul (Paul) and John’s recording of his vision in the book of Revelation.

It is happening now, it’s going to get worse and it is not going to be fun for anyone.

The good news is that for those of us who are God-fearing and working through our salvation, we will live past this event. We will not suffer the second death or be left in the cold and dark where people gnash their teeth. We will be presented before the Judge of All Things, the Lord, God and have at our side Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) to represent us. God will not see our unworthiness but rather Messiah’s righteousness in us. We will be absolved, forgiven and welcomed into the presence of the Lord. Forever.

No more tears, no more sickness, no more disparity, no more suffering. Now that’s what I call a good word!

Going forward let’s recall what every Prophet in the Tanakh did when they spoke God’s warning to repent: they started off relating God’s promises of punishment for those who choose to reject His commandments, specifying the horrors that will befall them (that’s the doom and gloom), then they ended with a word of comfort for those who will choose repentance (REAL repentance), confirming for them that God promises they will have joy and eternal peace.

God tells us in Ezekiel 18:32 what He wants:

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!

God’s judgement on those that have rejected Him will be terrible, and His blessings for those that worship Him will be wonderful.

Like the bank commercial that asks, “What’s in your wallet?” I am asking you now: “What’s in your heart?”

More Gloom and Doom to Report

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I feel a little like Jeremiah; he never had anything really good to talk about, either.

I was reading the paper this morning and decided that I should add a new viewpoint to my messages- showing where God is NOT in the news. I believe by seeing where we leave God out of our society we can get a better idea of where we need to add Him back in.

So, in this light, today I was reading about the aftermath of the mass shooting on this past Valentine’s Day here in Florida. Governor Scott has called a roundtable committee to discuss different actions that we should take to help prevent this sort of atrocity from happening. Here’s one thing that really scared me about the report: a psychologist from Florida State University College of Medicine has stated that by looking at the family history we may be able to predict the mental illness of the child and proactively act upon that. The paper reported she said that we can “predict pretty well which families will have this forward trajectory even before the child is born.”

I don’t know about you, but that scares the HE(double-hockey-sticks) out of me. Someone will be evaluating pregnant women and determine that the child will be mentally ill?  Who can do that? And if they do, then what? Should the child be placed in a program for the mentally ill and/or have his (or her) rights restricted? Does that sound good to you?

I also read today that yesterday in a Florida middle school some students were making jokes about shooting up the school. It was heard, reported and those two boys were taken into custody by the police. Now, what they did was totally stupid (if I was “PC” I would have said “inappropriate”, but it was STUPID), yet these are middle school aged boys- stupid is what we are at that age. I believe they should have been chewed out by the Principal and their parents should have been called in to take them home for that day. Do you think the school overreacted?  And if you don’t, do you think that in an atmosphere of fear that eventually people will tend to overreact? Isn’t that what history shows us does happen?

What I see happening here is that the government of the United States, at all levels, is advocating that everyone report about anyone who they think is a threat.

Sound familiar?

In major transportation hubs there are signs and announcements telling the people to report anything that they see as suspicious; schools are telling the students to report on anything they see or hear that they think is suspicious; and when we add the recent flurry of sexual harassment charges and the current (pardon the expression) exposure of this problem, more and more people are being sensitized to be afraid of almost anything anyone may say.

Here’s the doom and gloom- it will get worse. This is all a set-up for the enemy to take complete charge of our lives. We cannot overtake this, we cannot resolve it, and we cannot avoid it.

See why I feel like Jeremiah?

The enemy will rule by fear and intimidation, and this will not come from him (or maybe her) directly, but from each one of us. Just like in Nazi Germany, where children reported their parents and neighbors couldn’t were afraid that someone might say something that will get them in trouble, the atmosphere of fear and distrust is exactly what will help the enemy take charge.

This is also the kind of environment where people can “rat out” anyone that they have a personal grudge against.

I am not a card-carrying member of the ACLU, and neither am I a Libertarian, but I am someone who believes what I read in the Bible, and all this makes sense to me as a sign of the events yet to come that we are told about in God’s word. I am not saying there is no hope- what I am saying is that the only hope we have is in God. We must strengthen our faith and help lead others to God and Messiah as things worsen. We need to stop wasting energy, time and money trying to fix what God has decreed will happen, and get to work trying to save as many as we can, while we still have the time.

I am no Jeremiah and I do not profess to be a Prophet, but I do think I am on the right track when I say we need to prepare for what is coming because we cannot get out of the way.

I see the writing on the wall- do you?

Sheep Without a Shepherd

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Do any of you read Dear Abby? Or maybe Ask Ann Landers? I read these every morning, but not because I like to get some voyeuristic pleasure from sharing other’s problems with their lives. I see it as a thermometer, measuring the degree to which people in our society have no guidance, mostly regarding interpersonal relationships.

Often I get inspiration from the multitude of personal issues people present publically to a total stranger. I am always thinking of one of my favorite verses from the Tanakh, Hosea 4:6:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

The knowledge they lack is the knowledge of God, the knowledge that comes from reading His Word every day, the understanding of the human condition that we see exemplified through the stories in the Bible. This is important stuff!

I feel saddened and frustrated when I read the almost inane situations people get themselves into; and then, as if they haven’t hurt themselves enough already, they go to Ann or Abby for help. For the record? I’ve got nothing against Ann or Abby. I think, overall, they do a wonderful job. And even though I wish they had more spiritual answers, they are usually spot on with their advice.

However, I can’t help thinking that if the people who write these letters stopped asking humans and went to God for help, they would find that God has the best answers.  All the time.

So, nu?  What can we do? We can make ourselves available to our own family and friends, to let them know that we have the same problems in our life but we also have the best answers, Then show them where the answers to their problems are found in the Bible.  When we relate our own story, not forcing it on anyone but just using it as an example of what worked for us, we can lead them to a better answer, a greener pasture.

And we should be prepared to be rejected and (maybe even) laughed at. That goes along with the territory and is part of the job when you live your life to help others.

Life is tough; there are many times we get ourselves into a situation we don’t want to be in. And when we are there, we cannot fathom how to get out of it.

That’s when we need to go to God. As we read in Matthew 19:26:

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Be a good shepherd to your family and friends and lead them to the answers they really need, which are always found in the Bible.