Tag: jews

Glitter Ash Wednesday- really?

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There was an article in our Florida Today newspaper the other day about churches adding purple glitter to the ashes for use on Ash Wednesday. Why? To show support for LGBT Christians.

LGBT Christians- that sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? According to the word of God, homosexuality and cross-dressing is an abomination.

Now, don’t go flying off the handle at me if you are an LGBT person- I am NOT homophobic: I have family members and friends who are Lesbian and Gay, and I love them, accept what they are doing as their choice (note that I say accept what they do as their choice, not that I accept what they do) and I have nothing against anyone who has that type of sexual preference. I just agree with God that it is not right.

Actually, because God sees any and all sin as sin, homosexuality is no different than lying, murder, adultery, etc., right? So, if we are going to show support for LGBT Christians (and the Jews are no different in this- there are relatively as many LGBT synagogues as there as churches), why not support murderers, rapists, child molesters, crooks, adulterers, embezzlers, and all people who perform any one of the plethora of sinful activities that humans do to each other?

What I believe is this: churches and synagogues should not demonstrate any kind of support for any sinful activity. For me, to add glitter to ashes to show support for homosexuality is no different than throwing those ashes back in God’s face and telling Him that what He says we should do is less important to us than what the world says we should do.

The two greatest commandments are to love God and love each other- it should be in that order! When we do things to be “politically correct” instead of to follow God’s commandments, we have already taken the first step to accepting the mark of the Beast. That’s right- when you start to act in ways that honor the opinion of this fallen and sinful world instead of standing against it and acting the way God said we should, then you have bowed to the enemy of God and are rebelling against the Almighty.

If you don’t like the sound of that- tough! The truth is there is no middle of the road with God: you are with Him or against Him, there is only black or white, evil or good, with no in-between. Again, if you don’t like that, tough luck, Buddy- that’s the way it is!

So if you do Ash Wednesday and your church has added glitter to some of the ashes, I suggest you find another church because when Yeshua returns, that place is going to be in trouble. The leadership of any church or synagogue that is openly accepting of any sinful activity is leading you away from proper worship of God and will be marked for destruction.

Strong words, I know, but I am for God and not for the world. To paraphrase a godly and righteous man, “As for me, I will serve the Lord ” (Joshua 24:15), and if that means any of my friends or family members will no longer have anything to do with me because I reject some of their lifestyle choices, then so be it (although I know that won’t happen because we have been through this already, and we respect each other’s right to an opinion, and we love each other even when we disagree- that is the correct way we serve God.)

No one who worships God is perfect;  we are all sinners who continue to sin. The real issue isn’t what that sin is, but whether or not we are repentant of it and wish to overcome it. I believe that is what separates the sinners who are forgiven from the sinners who aren’t forgiven- the ones who ask for forgiveness receive it. That is the simple and direct  way God works. If you are sinning (any sin) and you repent of it, then clearly you would not want to do that sin anymore because when we sin, it hurts God. Yes, it does- when you see someone you care for doing something that is hurtful to themself, don’t you feel bad?

If not, you’ve got bigger problems than I can help you with!

So, then, when God sees us hurting ourselves by rejecting His rules and commandments (which provide immortality and eternal joy), He is hurting, too. God is a better parent than any human could ever be, so if we are hurt seeing loved ones suffer, imagine how much more painful it must be to God to see us (literally and spiritually) killing ourselves.

Let me bring this down to a simple statement: if your place of worship supports sinfulness, leave it! If you don’t then you are the blind man being led by another blind man, and you will both fall into a hole (that leads directly to Sheol.)

 

Parashah Va-ayrah (and I Appeared) Exodus 6:2 – 9

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And so it begins: Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh and tell him (it seems Moses is not requesting anymore, but demanding) to let the people go. Pharaoh refuses, and God pummels Egypt with miraculous events to convince Pharaoh to obey God. The rod to snake, the water to blood, and the frogs from the river are all miracles that the Egyptian magicians can duplicate. But the next plague, the plague of gnats, the magicians are helpless to create or stop. This is the first sign that demonstrates God’s absolute preeminence over the magicians and gods of Egypt.

Next the plague of flies is sent, and God “ups the stakes” with this plague by not only doing something that the Egyptian magicians and gods cannot duplicate or control, but God sends this plague against all of Egypt except in the land of Goshen, where His people live.

Pharaoh begins to weaken a little, setting conditions on the release of the Israelites to go into the desert and worship, but Moses holds fast to God’s command that everyone and every animal go forth; all of Israel and all of Israel’s possessions. Pharaoh refuses, and the next plagues attack that which Pharaoh refused to allow Israel to take: all the people (men, women and children) and their cattle. But only the people and cattle of the Egyptians. The next plague was against the produce of Egypt, with the hail destroying the flax crops, but again, none of these plagues affect the Israelites in Goshen.

I saw one commentary on this, in which the author was giving a drash on the idea of bondage; he showed the relationship between how God was freeing the Israelites from human bondage to the Egyptians in the same way that Yeshua (Jesus) has freed humans from spiritual bondage to sin. I thought that was a good message, which is why I mention it here, but it’s not the message I will bring today.

I feel that what we need to talk about is how Pharaoh, in spite of the absolutely undeniable proof of God’s existence and power over him, his magicians and his gods, still chose to defy God. When you’re reading this, aren’t you asking yourself, “What is it with this guy? Hello! Anyone home? Think, McFly, think! C’mon- get with the program, already!”? I know I do. I can’t believe how anyone, even the Pharaoh, could be so stubborn in the face of overwhelming power. Yes, this is a new one for the Pharaoh- I mean, in all fairness to him, the Pharaoh has grown up in a world where he is the all-powerful one, himself, and has never had to move over and make room for someone greater than him. He probably isn’t really believing this, and maybe, even, thinks that after Moses entreats God to stop each plague, that he, Pharaoh, commanded Moses to make it stop. Who knows for sure?

The bible tells us that God hardened Pharaoh’s, heart, but could that have been through a lifetime of being an absolute ruler? Maybe the hardening God did of Pharaoh’s heart was not just there and then, but had been part of God’s plan from before that Pharaoh was even born?  Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter, does it?

The lesson for us, I would like to offer, is that we need to help others see the power and glory of God in everything that happens. I would guess that most everyone reading this (especially those who have blessed me by being a follower of this blog-ministry) know the Lord, or at least recognize His existence and influence, but what about the rest of the world?

What I am trying to say (and not doing a good job of) is that people need to see the wonder, power and proof of God’s existence in everyday miracles, which happen all the time. I am not talking about hail from a clear sky, or rivers being split open, but about events that happen every day . For instance, what about a Tsunami? Isn’t that a force to be reckoned with? Sure, scientists will tell us it is the natural result of an underwater earthquake, but doesn’t God use the natural to show His supernatural power? That is what the world fails to recognize, just as Pharaoh failed to recognize (and accept)- God uses the natural to show that He is supernatural. We have fallen into a sort of ennui when we see supernatural occurrences because, I believe, when we can explain how something happens we think that it can’t be a miracle anymore. Yeah, I watched that Tsunami, I see that volcanic eruption, I lived through a hurricane…so what? It’s nature, it’s based on coincidental weather manifestations, it’s not a miracle.

My Webster’s Dictionary (1993) defines a miracle as, “A supernatural event or happening regarded as an act of God.”  What it doesn’t define is, what is an ‘Act of God’?

As far as I’m concerned, when I breathe that is an act of God. When I eat something and it gets broken down to it’s molecular level in my stomach and intestines, then is distributed to each and every one of the mitochondria in each and every one of the billions of cells in my body so that I can move, walk, talk, act, think…that is an act of God.

When my heart beats and the blood carries life to my body, which is why God said never to eat the blood (Leviticus 17:11), that is a miracle, a divine intervention by God, an act of God that continues to occur. From you and I being able to breathe, to everything else that happens in the universe, every moment of every day, all are a miracle that God has made happen. He has set the ball rolling, and whether He controls which way it goes or just lets it roll whichever way it wants to for a while, it is still an act of God that made it go and keeps it going.

Miracles are all around us and we, as Believers, need to explain to people that even a natural occurrence is something God has caused or allowed to happen. God is in charge of everything, and just because we can duplicate what He does or because we can explain in scientific terms the mechanics of the occurrence, doesn’t mean it isn’t a miracle.

The only thing that can’t be explained is how people can deny God’s existence, power and influence in the world. That is what I cannot explain; this is what I consider something that has no explanation in the natural, that there are still people who refuse to believe in God.

What’s the “take-away” today? This: look for the miracles, show the miracles to others, and proclaim God’s power and glory in every little miraculous thing you see to everyone you talk with. Hit them between the eyes with it (I am talking figuratively) by explaining that that just because we can explain how something happens doesn’t mean it isn’t a miracle.

Let me leave you with this little joke:

Scientists can now read the complete human genome, and in a meeting of the great scientists of the world they decided that with this knowledge they will soon be able to cure any disease or malformation, so God isn’t really necessary anymore. God asks them, “Can you make a living human being from a handful of clay?” The scientists gather and confer, then tell God they believe they can. God says to them, “Show me.” They go out and get a large clump of clay, and when they bring it into the laboratory God says to them, “Oh, no! That’s my clay- you have to make your own clay.”

If a miracle can be defined as an act of God, and we know God created the universe and how it all works, then everything that happens in the universe is, by definition, a miracle. Our job is to teach this to those that refuse to see and accept the truth of it.

Will we ever learn?

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I just read Psalm 78, by Asaf, which is titled as a “Maskil.” From what I have seen, the difference between a psalm and a maskil is that a maskil is a psalm that may have a specific message, other than praise for God. This particular maskil is a reminder of the many ways in which God provided for his people, Israel, despite how they constantly demonstrated faithlessness and a rebellious attitude, which resulted in them being punished.

Fortunately for us (and I mean everyone, not just Believers, Jews or even Americans- I mean everyone in the world), God is a forgiving God, so much so that even in His righteous anger and punishment He is merciful. The fact that we are all still here is proof of that! And when He punishes, it isn’t like when a human punishes, which is (most of the time) from anger and frustration born out of pridefulness (“You didn’t do as I wanted”); no, that is not why God punishes us. When God punishes us, and we end up flat on our backs, it is so that we can only look up to see Him there, with His hand extended, waiting for us to take it so He can lift us back up onto our feet.

We have learned at least one thing- that God is forgiving. In fact, it seems (from history, including my own) that we count on His forgiveness because we keep sinning and rebelling. What would happen if, one day, God just decided, “Oy! Enough is enough! Youse guys have gone too far this time, so you’re on your own. Forever.” ? What would happen then?

I’ll tell you what will happen- there will be no hope for anyone, ever. I assume that without hope for eternal peace, there would be no more fear of eternal suffering- we will just live out our lives, with absolutely nothing else to look forward to, and then die. Our lives will be all we ever have, and when we die it will be as if we never existed. A meaningless past, no future, only the present. No blessings and hope, only random chance to count on; no one to depend on and nowhere to go for hope (you can’t count on humans), with nothing to do but get through it on your own.

Thank God that God will never allow that to happen. His promises are absolute, irrevocable and dependable. His faithfulness is eternal and never-ending; unlike ours, which is weak, unstable and transitory.

We need to learn one thing, if nothing else- God is dependable, and what God says will be, already is. God called Himself, “Ehyeh asher ehyeh“, which means “I am that I am”, or “I will be that which I will be”; what He is saying is that He, His name and everything about Him is undefinable in human terms and understanding. What He is, He was, and He will be. There is no timeline in God’s world- what was, what is and what will be already are.

Try to wrap your head around that one! Yikes!!

So, back to the lesson we need to learn, if nothing else- that God is dependable and what He says will be, already is. In other words, we always have time to ask forgiveness, and when we ask for forgiveness and really mean it (which is demonstrated by a change not only in our heart, but in our actions, too- the former without the latter is meaningless), we will be forgiven, even when we ask with our very last breath.

If you already know this lesson, you are ready to move on to the next level. If I put this in the terms most youth of today will understand, which does sort of jive with some ancient beliefs, as you do better and better, you move up a level (just like in video games); and, like in a video game, the higher the level, the more difficult it is to succeed at that level. The holier we become, the less likely we will fit into the regular world system, and the world will treat us more like an outcast than a member of society. That’s OK, believe me, because what the world offers is temporary and what God is preparing for us is eternal.

And infinite beats the heck out of finite, any day!

When God will reject the Jewish people as His own

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There is a movement called Replacement Theology. The basic premise is that because the Jewish people rejected Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah, God has rejected the Jewish people as His chosen people and only the Born Again Christians (right-wing, in my opinion) are now God’s “Chosen” people.

This belief system is not only against what God has said throughout the bible, but is essentially calling God a liar. There is one who is a divine creature, created by God as an angel, who also believes that God is a liar. In fact, he accuses God of lying, and did so as far back as when he told Eve that if she ate the apple, she wouldn’t die (even though God said she would); he was created as one of the most beautiful of all the angels, but he wanted to be more than a messenger for God- he wanted (and still wants) to rule as God. He was named Lucifer, but we know him as The Accuser, Ha Satan, the Enemy- he is the Devil. And the Replacement Theologists, many of whom I expect don’t even know it, are helping him reach his goal of separating them from God.

Whenever we believe something other than what God has said in the bible, we are guilty of faithlessness and idolatry.

However, God does tell us, exactly, when He will reject the Jewish people as His chosen people. It is here, in Jeremiah 31:35-37:

This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name: “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” declares the Lord. This is what the Lord says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,”

So, there it is: the day the Lord, God Almighty says that He will reject the Jewish people. When the sun stops shining, and the moon and stars all disappear, when the entire Universe is known and every square inch of the ocean bottoms are mapped out and explored, then (and only then) will God reject the Jewish people.

In other words, God will NEVER reject the Jewish people! Never, ever, despite what they have done, which includes rejecting Yeshua when He first arrived.

In fact, throughout this chapter (Jeremiah 31) God reaffirms the Jewish people as His own, and confirms all of the promises He has made to regather His people to Israel, to give them a new heart, and to resettle them in their land, which He promised to them (which, by the way, is actively being done this very day.) Jeremiah 31:31 IS the “New” Covenant, and all through this chapter God verifies and confirms that the Jewish people are His chosen people, forever. There can be no valid argument against this.

But, since there always is some argument, here are some other biblical verses that you can check out for yourself confirming that only the Jewish people, and no one else now or ever, are God’s chosen people:

Exodus 19:5;  Deuteronomy 7:6-8;  Deuteronomy 14:2;  Deuteronomy 26:17-19;  2 Samuel 7:23-24;  1 Kings 8:53;  1 Kings 10:9;  1 Chronicles 17:20-21;  Psalm 105:8-15;  Psalm 135:4;  Isaiah 41:8;  Isaiah 43:1-3;  Isaiah 44:21;  Jeremiah 31:1-4;  Jeremiah 31:9-11;  Jeremiah 46:27-28; Ezekiel 36:24-28;  Ezekiel 37:21-25;  Joel 3:1-2;  Amos 3:1-2;  Romans 11:1-2;  Hebrews 8:8-13

 And there are more places in the bible where God has confirmed, through his Prophets or directly through Moshe (Moses), His irrevocable and eternal choice of the Jewish people as His own.

Replacement Theology is not only a lie from the pit of Hell, but it is also specifically identified by Yochanan (John) in Revelations 3: Yeshua is talking to the Messianic Community in Philadelphia, confirming that they are following His words and comforting them to continue to do so. And, in 3:9, Yeshua says:

“I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.”

In the First Century a synagogue was not a Jewish place of worship- the Greek word means a gathering, or grouping- so the correct usage and understanding is that the synagogue of Satan is a grouping or collection of those who call themselves “Jews.”

Throughout the bible God defines the Jews as His chosen people, therefore, if you say you are Gods chosen people, then you are saying you are a Jew.

Replacement Theologists are the synagogue of Satan, declaring God to be a liar and to have reneged on His promise to always love and keep the Jewish people as His own, special people. Anyone who says the Jews are rejected by God is a blasphemer, and someone who, whether by knowledge or ignorance, is working for the wrong guy.

Let us all pray that these people, misled and mistaken, will acknowledge the truth before it is too late for them.

Parashah Toldot (the history) Genesis 25:19 – 28:6

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One of the best known stories of the Bible is in this parashah- the selling of the birthright. Or, as some describe it, Jacob steals Esau’s birthright and blessing.

We all know the story: Esau, Mr. Right-This-Minute-Who-Cares-About-Tomorrow , comes in from the field after a hard day, sees Jacob with some lentil stew (“That red stuff! Give me some of that red stuff!”) and says if Jacob doesn’t give him some stew he will starve to death. Jacob takes this opportunity to offer the stew for a price- the birthright of the firstborn.

Esau, not caring for anything past right now, says (essentially), “Sure, take it. After all, what good is it to me if I am dead.”  Jacob then feeds Esau, and please note he also gives him bread and water, so he wasn’t all that bad. Consider Ebeneezer Scrooge, who wouldn’t even pay an additional half-penny for a piece of bread. After eating, Esau goes on his merry way, forgetting the whole thing.

Now later, Rivka (Rachel) gets wind that Yacov (Isaac) is getting ready to give the blessing to Esau, so she gets Jacob to cross-dress as Esau and “steal” the blessing. Of course, afterwards Isaac can’t give the firstborn blessing to Esau and Esau gets second-best, which doesn’t go over very well with him.

I want to mention that there is no mention, anywhere, that Rivka knew of the selling of the birthright so what she cajoled Jacob into doing was her own idea. Like mother, like son?

So, here’s the question: did Jacob really steal anything?  After all, he did buy the birthright, so he also owned the blessing that goes with the birthright, right? If you buy a plot of land and it isn’t specified about the mineral rights, then you own the mineral rights, so if you own the birthright of the first-born, you own the blessing that the birthright is entitled to.

Here we see another example of how God’s ways are not our ways:

  1. Ishmael is first-born to Abraham but Isaac, the younger, gets the birthright;
  2. Jacob is younger than Esau, but Jacob gets the birthright;
  3. Ephraim is younger than Manasseh, but Ephraim receives the blessing under the right hand of Israel (reserved for the eldest);
  4. Solomon is much younger than Absalom and some of his other brothers, but he gets the kingdom.

Humans give the birthright and a double portion to the first-born son, but God has made sure that from the first of the Patriarchs all the way down the line, the son that is worthy is the one who gets the blessings.

Jacob did not steal the birthright or the blessing- he bought the birthright and by ownership of same, was entitled to the blessing. We could look at it this way: because Jacob owned the first-born blessing, which Isaac was going to give to Esau, by fooling his father Jacob actually saved his father from sinning against Jacob by giving Jacob’s rightful blessing to the wrong person!

What would have happened if Esau had been just a little more mature, just a little more cognizant, and just a little less immediate?  Maybe he wouldn’t have given up his birthright so quickly, but in the long run it was good that he did. We see later, at the end of the parashah, that Esau just didn’t “get it”: when Isaac and Rebekah show their displeasure with Esau’s Hittite wives, he goes and marries Ishmael’s daughter.

Just not getting it.

But Jacob knew what he was doing from birth- after all, he did supplant, did he not? He knew what he wanted and how to get it, and although he was a bit sneaky and manipulative, it served him well and (eventually) served us all well. Jacob married well, too- Rachel was just as sneaky as Jacob was, stealing the family gods then pretending to be in her time of Nidah to prevent Laben from finding them.

But, then again, that’s another story.

 

Parashah Lech Lecha (walk) Genesis 12-17

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This parashah is known as the History of the Patriarchs. We read how Abram (later called Abraham) was called by God. How he went to Egypt where he gained wealth, how he took care of his deceased brother’s son, Lot. We learn of the separation between Abram and Lot due to both of them having such wealth in cattle, and we see how Abram allowed Lot to choose the best land.

Lot is captured when the 5 kings attacked Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abram and his 300 men save them. This is where we first meet Melchizedek, the righteous king of Salem and the High Priest (Cohen HaGadol), a precursor to Yeshua .

Sarai (not yet Sarah) gives birth to Ishmael through her handmaiden, and God promises Hagar that Ishmael will also be a prince of many tribes, and that he will always be at war and in conflict with his own brothers.

We end this reading with God’s promise to (now called) Abraham that he will bear a son through Sarai (now called Sarah), and they shall name him Isaac, and through Isaac God’s covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled.

The sign of this covenant is the circumcision, which Abraham performed on himself, Ishmael and all his men the very next day.

Wow! The stories alone are wonderful, and demonstrate God’s majesty and power, as well as the weaknesses of humanity. If anyone should ever doubt the truth of the bible, all they have to do is ask themselves this: if the bible is supposed to make God and all those who worship him look like powerful and saintly people, why then do they act the way they do?

Abraham pimped his wife to save his skin (twice!); Lot moved next door to the most sinful and disgusting place in the world; Sarah asks her hand-maiden to bear a child for her, then when she does Sarah throws her out into the wilderness to die, along with her son.

These are wonderful people? These are the saintly Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people? They sound just like you and me!

That’s the reason the bible is verifiable and believable- because these people are just like you and me! That is also why these stories are so wonderful and empowering: because the people in the bible are like you and I, that means you and I can be chosen by God to do great things, just like they did.

The part of this parashah I want to discuss, and this will be brief (no, really- it will be!) is right at the very beginning: Genesis 12: 2-3, where God is talking to Abram and tells him:

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

God made the Jewish people His vessel for blessing the world. That is what being the “Chosen People” means, to be chosen to bring God’s blessings to everyone. And the two greatest blessings of all that God gave the world through the Jewish people were the Torah, and Yeshua ha Maschiach- Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

I have written before about the blessings the world has received through the Jews, the number of Nobel prize winners who are Jewish (a percentage that is far greater than the percentage of Jews in the population), the many wonderful performers, the writers, the poets, the financiers (no stereotyping now!), and many other things.

And I have also written about how God’s promise to curse those that curse the Jews has been proven to be trustworthy: Pharaoh in the time of Moses,  The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Philistines, Spain, the Nazi’s- all demolished or reduced to nothingness. Not even a shadow of their former glory left to them, those that are left at all.

And for those that have blessed the Jews, well, America is about the only country that has done so, but we are moving away from that and soon will be cursed and judged, just as all the other nations will be (and are being judged, even now.)

These two lines in Genesis are the beginning of the Jewish people’s influence on the world and God’s plan of salvation, and they are also the end of it. Judgement is not coming, it is here! The countries that have cursed the Jews are being cursed, the countries that have forsaken God and rejected His Torah are suffering punishment (global warming, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunami’s, war), and it is getting worse every day.

Here is the simple lesson that God is telling us in this parashah: choose sides.

On the one side, you can choose God by accepting and supporting His people (chosen to save you), accept the Messiah He sent to bring you back into communion with Him, and obey the teachings (the Torah) that He gave you to know how he wants to be worshiped and how He wants you to treat each other.

On the other side, you lose. Everything. You lose blessings while you are alive, and you lose heaven on earth and eternal peace after this life is over.

When you look at it, you have to ask yourself: what the heck is wrong with people? Why would anyone give up eternal joy for a short-lived reward of hedonistic pleasures that will never really satisfy?

Because we’re stupid, that’s why.  The definition of stupid is one who is lacking common sense. Rejecting God and His path to salvation is, well, stupid. There is no better word for it, and even Shaul (Paul) used that word in Galatians: 3:1 (some interpretations use the word “foolish”, but I believe the correct word is “stupid.”) Those who reject God, reject His Messiah, reject His Torah and refuse to support the Jewish people and Israel are just plain stupid!

And as Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” So if someone out there doesn’t appreciate being called stupid, then stop acting stupid!

I am not calling you to give up your life as it is and run an underground railroad from the former Soviet Union countries to help Jews escape and make Aliyah (return to Israel)- we have organizations already doing that. Ezra International, Bridges for Peace, and others like Jacobs Hope, helping Jews when they get to Israel.

I am not asking you to convert to Judaism.

I am simply asking that you think about your choices; God has given you free will and intelligence so you can think about your choices. Think about how much better your life will be if God is blessing you, how much better your life will be when you are helping others (treating them as you would want them to treat you), how much more peaceful you will feel knowing that you are promised eternal joy.

I spent 2/3 of my life rejecting all this, and I can remember why I did. It seemed to make sense at the time, but it was, now knowing better, truly senseless. And I can tell you this, unequivocally: I am so very, very glad I came to my senses!

 

 

having control doesn’t mean being in control

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Anyone who believes that God is the Supreme Being who created the Universe, and who created life on Earth, and who has done all the things we read about in the Bible doesn’t have any problem also believing that He is in charge of everything. Believers believe that God controls everything.

Or does He?

My answer is: no, He doesn’t. Not that He can’t, just simply that (I believe) often He just chooses not to.

You see, being in control of everything doesn’t mean that you are controlling everything.  The word we use for this phenomena is: delegation.

When we read the stories in 1 and 2 Kings we see how God uses other rulers, such as Pharaoh (a couple of them throughout the ages) and Nebuchadnezzar, for example, to be His means of punishing the Israelites for their rebellion and idol worship. God sent them, so He was in control, but He also punishes them afterwards for their unusually cruel, sadistic and self-centered actions when doing His work. So, if God is in total control all the time, and he sends “Nebbie” to kick Tzidkiyahu’s tuchas, why punish Nebbie for just doing what he was supposed to do?

According to the bible it was because of what Nebbie did that he wasn’t supposed to do, by (as I mentioned above) being extraordinarily cruel and later thinking himself higher than God. So God was in control of what He wanted to get done, but He delegated the means and ways of doing it to Nebuchadnezzar, who did what he wanted to and not what God sent him to do.

God was in control, in that He sent the army against Israel to punish them, but He wasn’t controlling what happened because He gave that control to Nebuchadnezzar.

We can see this in the story of Job: God delegated authority to Satan to do harm to Job, but He was still in control in that He limited what level of harm was allowed.

We see this in the story of Shaul ben Kish (Saul, the first King of Israel), in that God caused Saul to prophesy even when he was unwilling to do so, yet Shaul did many things wrong, which caused God to take control back and appoint David as King.

We see this in the story of Yeshua (Jesus) at the rock in Gethsemane,  who prayed that He be delivered (if possible) from what was going to happen to Him. God could easily have stopped that whole affair, but He delegated the authority to Pilate and allowed the slaughter of His son to take place. God had control over it all, but He let the people be in control of the events.

Jonah was called, then he took control and ran away; God took control back and sent a storm (which was destroying the ship.) Eventually, Jonah took back control of the situation and sacrificed himself to save the others on the ship. God took control and sent the fish to save Jonah, and left the rest up to Jonah. It was Jonah who ultimately made the decision to go to Nineveh- if not, he might still be there today, trying to get a good cell signal from the belly of that fish. God called Jonah, Jonah took control and fled, God took control back and sent the storm, Jonah took control back and saved the ship and crew, God controlled the fish to let Jonah think about it for three days. Again, God controlled events just enough to let Jonah decide; God gave Jonah control of his own decision.

How many times do we hear this question, “Why do bad things happen to good people, and how can God allow that to be?” The answer is because we live in a cursed world and bad things happen. God is in control; yet God has said He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, alike (Matthew 5:25.) He also said that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy (Exodus 33:19.) What that means (to me) is that God is in control but He chooses not to control everything that happens.

We have free will, mainly so that we can decide to worship God; if God controls our will, then we can’t choose to worship Him, and that is NOT what He wants from us. God will often (as we see above) control the periphery of our life, make things happen that lead us to a decision, but ultimately we are in control of what decision we make. Who knows how many people over the millennia God has called to do His work but at the last minute they decided not to. God could have made them, but He didn’t, and because He is in control, total control, He called someone else until the plan God had was accomplished. This is what Mordecai meant when he told Hadassah (Esther) in the Book of Esther 4:14:

 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then will relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house will perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

This is the same position every one of us finds ourselves in, every moment of every day: maybe we are here for a purpose we aren’t aware of, and standing on the precipice of being able to do something wonderful that will, maybe one day, affect all mankind?

If only I knew what the heck that was!!

God is in control of everything, which is the very reason why He doesn’t have to control everything. Whatever He wants to happen will happen, but it is up to each of us to do our part of that plan, to meet and accept the calling God has for us. I don’t know what that is for me- maybe this blog? Maybe my book? Maybe my position at the Zionist Revival Center here in Melbourne? I really don’t know, but I am trying to keep my ears open and my eyes open to see and hear His calling on my life. I don’t want to “pull a Jonah” when the opportunity comes.

Do you see how God has influenced your life? The times He took control and the times He allowed you make your own choice? We can be confident that God’s plan for salvation is true and will be accomplished, in fact, already has been accomplished through Messiah Yeshua. We can also be confident that whatever God wants to happen will happen. The only thing we can’t have any real confidence in is ourselves, and you are the final ingredient in God’s recipe for the calling in your life.

Don’t screw up the stew- keep looking for the opportunities to do God’s work that He will place along the pathway as you walk through this life, and when you see them, choose to do God’s work. God is in control, and he is letting you control what you do.

Choose to do what pleases Him.

 

 

God’s word is the same for everyone

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Here I am, sitting at home, writing in my blog and wondering how much longer I will be able to go before the caffeine (actually, lack of caffeine) headache starts to hit. Last night began Yom Kippur, and we had a Kol Nidre (Hebrew for “All oaths”) service. Despite technical issues, it went well. Normally there would be prayer services all day, which makes the time go by faster, but not this year. Maybe, if we grow more and get enough people who want to celebrate this day in prayer, we can hold the evening and all day services, as well.

I was talking with someone last night who was drinking something from a cup as we talked, and this person has been a Believer and Hebraic Roots Christian (the other side of the Messianic Jew coin) for a long time. Yet, here he is, drinking in front of me knowing that I am fasting.

He was telling me of plans for a break-fast together at the house of one of the people who has a home fellowship meeting every Wednesday, and they usually bring food and eat at around 1830 or so. Of course, Donna and I were invited but we have our own traditional break-fast that we have done for nearly 20 years and have no desire at all to stop doing: it’s called the Outback Steak House!

Anyway, back to the story: so, I tell him that it would be too early to eat since the sunset isn’t until around 1930, and you wanna know what he accused me of being? He accused me of being “legalistic”! He has no idea what an insult that is, and no idea of what he was talking about, either. Legalism, as Shaul (Paul) used it in the letter to the Galatians, means to follow the Torah only as a means to attain salvation; in other words, we do what God says so we can be saved. I don’t do what God says to be saved- I do it because God said to do it. God didn’t say to do it half-way, or in whichever way is easiest for us, or whichever way we want to. God said this is what you are to do, and this is how you are to do it. Period.

I am not really mad at this person for the sin he accused me of. He needs to re-read the word of God, and include those sentences that come after what he wants to believe. Such as when, in Acts 15, the Elders told the newly-converting Gentiles that they are expected to do 4 things. That was not the end or entirety of their expectations. The letter sent to the Gentiles who were converting to Judaism- if you followed Yeshua that is what you were doing- said that they need to immediately stop eating blood, stop eating anything strangled, stop eating anything devoted to an idol, and to stop fornicating. But that wasn’t the end of it-there was more. Most Christians like to think (or have been taught) it stopped there, and that all the other commandments in the Torah were left up to the individual Gentile to take it or leave it. Not true.

As Paul Harvey would have said, “And now for the rest of the story…”. These four commandments, so to speak, were to be immediately adhered to by new converts, but all the rest of the Torah was not thrown out- the next sentence says that these new converts will be hearing the laws of Moses in the synagogue every Shabbat. Why did they say that, if the Mosaic law (Torah) wasn’t important? They said that because the point is that these 4 restrictions are just the start, not the end, of the process these new Believers would be going through. These 4 restrictions are what the Elders felt could be reasonably expected from Gentiles who have spent their entire lifetime without any restrictions. To throw the full weight of the Torah on them, all at once, would be too much to expect of anyone. Even the Jews, who were expected to fulfill every command of Torah and who had been raised from infancy with those restrictions, even they still couldn’t obey them completely! To throw them all, all at once, on the Gentiles was unreasonable, and would only result in creating a stumbling block in their path to salvation.

That’s why I say we all need to read the next sentence. The Elders clearly expected that these converts would now be leading a Jewish lifestyle, and going to Synagogue every Shabbat where they would hear the words of God and learn the Torah. And, as such, it was expected that they would, eventually, be able to take on the fullness of the Torah.

The statement made to me by my brother last night, which was that Jews are expected to honor the entire Torah but Gentiles don’t have to, is ridiculous. It is nearly blasphemous, accusing God of playing favorites, and announcing that what God said is required (of those that follow Him) is not true for all people. Basically, he called God a liar.

GOD HAS NO RELIGION!  He has Torah. He gave the Torah to the Jewish people, His chosen people, who are chosen to bring the Torah to the world. There cannot be any discussion or argument against that; at least not if  you read the bible, either Old or New Covenant, and read all the sentences. And what I mean is that you don’t just read what you want, pull something from here and something from there: the entire bible is valid, from the first line in Genesis to the last sentence in Revelations. And there is nothing in the New Covenant that is new- and there is nothing anywhere that says some have to do what God says and others don’t- and there is nothing Yeshua (Jesus) said that goes against Torah- and there is nothing Shaul (Paul) said that goes against Torah.  There is nothing, anywhere, in the entire bible that says all laws are for Jews and only some are for Christians.

God is very clear that anyone who sojourns with His people, meaning anyone who wants to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and call themself one of God’s chosen, has the same rights and privileges as a natural-born Jew. That goes both ways- if you have the same rights and privileges, you are also subject to the same laws and commandments. You can’t have your Kugel and eat it, too.  If you believe in God, if you profess that you are saved because you have accepted Yeshua/Jesus as your Messiah and Savior, then you MUST honor His word and worship Him as He said to.

And how we do that is in the Torah.

When Yeshua died for our sins, it did not release us from obeying God’s word. I am spending today, this very moment, fasting and praying for forgiveness NOT because Yeshua’s sacrifice doesn’t cover me, but because I am still a sinner, and because God commanded that this day, the tenth day of Tishri, is a day to be devoted to asking for forgiveness. The fact that Yeshua has covered my sins doesn’t mean I don’t ever have to ask to be forgiven anymore.

Think about it: if you don’t ask for forgiveness of a sin, that means you don’t really feel any remorse, and if you feel no remorse, then you can’t be repentant. Yeshua’s sacrificial death will not save a sinner who is unrepentant.

I fast this day because God said to, and that means the entire day, sunset to sunset, as God decreed it should be done. That’s not legalism, my friends, that is called worship! That is called devotion! That is called demonstrating my love for God by being obedient!

My friends, my brothers and sisters out there somewhere, reading this now- I pray that the truth of God’s complete plan of salvation is fully revealed to you. I pray that the forgiveness provided by Yeshua’s sacrifice, which is the ultimate demonstration of God’s willingness and desire to forgive you when you do T’shuvah (repentance), is not diluted and perverted into some form of license to ignore Torah.

Thanks to Yeshua, I will not go to hell if I eat ham, and with or without Yeshua, I will not go to heaven just because I don’t eat ham. However, if I chose to obey the laws of Kashrut in Leviticus 11, I will demonstrate my desire to please God, to obey Him, and I will earn blessings for obedience.

Obedience brings blessings- it is the promise of God (Deuteronomy 28)-do you have so many blessings that you don’t want any more?

Do you feel that you don’t need to ask for forgiveness? Have you lead a totally sinless life since you accepted Yeshua? Do you think that just because Yeshua died for your sins you don’t have to stop sinning? What is a sin? Isn’t it disobeying God? If God said, “This is what you are to do”, and you refuse to do it, for whatever reason, isn’t that a sin?

If you think that because you are a Gentile you don’t have to follow the Torah, you are wrong. Sorry, don’t mean to burst your “Buffet Believer Bubble” that you can obey what you want and ignore the rest. But, the truth is that everyone, whether or not they accept God or Yeshua, E–V–E–R–Y–O–N–E is required by God to do what He says to do. That is the truth. If you doubt me or disagree with me, that’s your right- God gave us all free will to decide for ourselves. It is not just your right, it is your choice, your decision, and whether or not you make it because of what you believe the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) has told you, or what your religious leader has told you, or just simply what you would rather believe because you want to- it is your choice.

And when you come before the Lord, God, Almighty- and we all will come before Him – you will be held accountable for whatever choice you have made.

That is why I pray you make the right choice: the choice that is right in God’s eyes.

May God bless you all with peace, joy, wisdom and discernment.

And may you have an easy fast.

Why I say “God has no religion.”

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It’s the “Tag Line” of my ministry, it’s the voice in the desert trying to make straight the path men have perverted, and it’s the truth.

God gave us the Torah, that is, He gave the Jewish people the Torah but not as their sole property. It was given to them to bring to the world. It is the history of a family that became a nation, of a people that were enslaved and freed, of rebellion and atonement; it is also a document that acts as a Ketuba (marriage certificate), a constitution, a penal code and a warning. It provides life eternal, and eternal suffering.

It is, in it’s most simplistic definition, the rules for how people are to worship God, and how they are to treat each other.

Yeshua (Jesus) said the two most important commandments are to love the Lord and love each other. That pretty much sums up what the Torah is all about.

Mankind, with it’s need to interpret, to control, to reject what is hard and create something from nothing, is why there are so many different religions. And instead of loving each other and being compassionate, as the Torah teaches, we have slaughtered each other in the name of Jesus. Or in the name of God (I am referring to persecution of Messianic Jews in Israel. That’s right! Today in God’s Holy Land, Jews killing and persecuting other Jews in God’s name.)

And let’s not forget how many have been killed in the name of Allah (although Allah isn’t a Judeo-Christian deity, but we might as well throw him into the pile just to make sure I don’t miss insulting someone.)

The foundation stone of my tag line is found in Yesheyahu (Isaiah) 29:13, where he is prophesying about the city of Jerusalem:

My Lord said, “Because that people has approached with it’s mouth and honored me with its lips, but has kept its heart far from Me, and its worship of Me has been a commandment of men, learned by rote- truly, I shall further baffle that people with bafflement upon bafflement; and the wisdom of its wise shall fail, and the prudence of its prudent shall vanish.

This came true in the ancient land of Israel; Jerusalem was lost to the Jewish people, and today… Praise God! It is being restored to them.

But there are so many others out there who are not Jewish but are doing exactly what the Jewish people did that Yesheyahu warned them about: they are following the canon of Men instead of the Word of God.

If you haven’t gotten my book yet, please do so. It isn’t expensive, it is an easy read, and it shows you how in many cases the Word of God has been ignored and, worse than that, sometimes just plain rejected by men so that they can worship the way they want to.

If you are a Gentile or a Jew, did you know that what you are following is as much man-made as God-commanded? Maybe even more so of men than of God.

Catholicism is following what Constantine originated; Lutherans and Protestants are following Luther, Methodists follow John Wesley, and there are 6 different forms of Judaism! You would have thought that at least the Jews would have stayed on track!

We follow men more often than God. And don’t think I am leaving out my own people- today the Orthodox and Chasidic Jews will go to the Talmud before they go to the Torah, and the Rabbi is as influential, if not more so, than the teachings in the Tanakh; Jews will ask the Rabbi to interpret Torah and take what he says as gospel (hmmmm….am I allowed to use the word “gospel” when talking about Jews? I mean, it’s just a word but it does have such a “Christian” connotation, doesn’t it?)

Now, there is nothing wrong at all with asking your religious/spiritual leader for an interpretation of the bible:  what is wrong (in my opinion) is not verifying it by reading the passages and asking God to guide you. In fact, you should start in the bible, ask God to guide your understanding through His Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) and then ask your Rabbi, or Priest, Pastor, Minister, whatever for clarification.

God gave us a plain and understandable commandment: love Him and treat each other as you would want them to treat you. Simple. In Deuteronomy 30:11-14 Moses tells us just how simple it is:

 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

The Word is very near- but we don’t read that word, do we? We go far from the word to ask someone else to tell us what it means. Religion is something that men created so that they could control other men. What other reason could there be for a person to ignore what the Lord God, Almighty has said to do and, instead, tell others what he or she thinks they should do? Is a human more knowledgeable than God? Can a human do what God has done? Can a human understand the mind of God?

Get your bible, turn to Genesis 1:1 and read a chapter. Then tomorrow morning pick it up and read another chapter. That’s all you have to do- one chapter a day, every day. Let the Ruach lead your understanding, and try to use extra-biblical writings as little as possible. Trust in God to lead your understanding because, well, He did write it and He knows what He wanted to say.

There is a message in that book for you. Yes- you, the person reading this right now. Don’t look around: I mean Y-O-U. God has a plan for you, a mission for you, a need for you and a reward for you that is greater than anything you could ever have on earth.

The map to that reward is in the bible- the entire bible, which starts in Genesis and ends with Revelations.

Go find your reward!

Parashah Re’eh (behold) Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17

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This parashah, as with the entire book of D’Varim (Deuteronomy) is a retelling of all the things that have happened over the past 40 years, with a reordering of the commandments, rules and regulations under which the people of Israel must live. These rules cover how to properly worship the Lord and how to properly treat each other.

We can go over these rules again and again, and as often as we review them, we break them. It’s almost as if we think we need to learn them so that we can be certain we know which of God’s laws we are breaking.

Oy!

I am not going to review the rules this parashah contains, mainly because of what I just said- we all know what we are supposed to do. Even sinners who sin because they like to- they know what they are supposed to do, too! As strange as it may sound, I respect their honest rejection of God more than the hypocrisy of many “Christians” who claim to love the Lord but are really judgmental, self-important and bigoted.

It’s real simple- God loves us, and because He loves us He wants us to be with Him for all eternity. But there’s a problem with that- He is holy, pure and perfect, and from a spiritual viewpoint we’re a little lower than whale poop. You can’t store snow in a hot oven, can’t drive a car looking in the rear view mirror (at least, not very far), and you can’t have sinfulness associated with God.

He’s perfect and we’re …well…we’re “us”- you can see how that throws a monkey wench in the plan of salvation, can’t you?

The Torah was given to the children of Israel because God loved them and wanted them to be with Him. The Torah, if followed perfectly, would allow us to be in total communion with God. He also loves everyone else, and Israel was never meant to be the only people to be with God; they were chosen to be a nation of priests who are responsible to teach the other nations, by example, how they should act. When God gave the Torah to the Jewish people it was both a blessing and an obligation.

Unfortunately, the Jewish people did not live in accordance with Torah, and even though their example was more what NOT to do than what to do, the other nations chose to follow the wrong example. The truth is that the commandments and regulations that God gave the Jewish people, which were to be taught to all the nations, were screwed up by the Jews and then screwed up even more by the nations. The “religions” that came from Judaism have devolved into so many factions and have so many different rules of their own, many of which are directly in opposition to what God says to do (read my book), that it’s hard to believe any of them really know who God is or what He wants, at all.

That’s why it took Messiah Yeshua’s sacrifice to enable us to have our sins washed clean so we all can be with God. Where human nature made Torah (alone) unable to bring anyone into communion with God, Messiah made it possible for everyone.

That doesn’t mean Torah is useless or done away with! The laws in there are still valid because grace from sin is not license to sin. You can believe Yeshua is the Messiah- big deal! Every demon in hell knows that for a fact- they’ve seen Him in person! And you can ask for forgiveness but that doesn’t do it- you need to ask and mean it, and show that you mean by living it! You need to walk the walk- talking the talk is not enough. And when you are ready to walk the walk, the Torah is your only road map.

Salvation is free to have with the asking, but keeping it will be costly. You need to give up hedonism, you need to pay your way with good works that represent your heartfelt desire to live as God wants you to. You need to give up your desires for worldly things and want only the spiritual things.

And you also need to keep your feet on the ground with your head on your shoulders- too many people get so “spiritual” they can’t relate to anyone, especially new Believers. They scare the pants off of them and are like the crows that come and eat the good seed that is on the ground before it can take root.

Yeshua told His disciples to be as gentle as doves and wise as snakes- we all need to be that way. We need to have spiritual eyes and realistic heads.

It really is just this easy: love God and love each other. Treat God as He says you should and treat each other as you want to be treated.  You won’t ever be able to do it perfectly, but the more you do these things, the better you will become at it and the easier it will become to do them.

Salvation is yours for the asking. It is very easy to get, and very hard to keep. No one can take your salvation away from you, but you can throw it away.

Here’s a word of advise- don’t!