Tag: judaism

Do You Believe, or Do You Just Agree?

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What kind of a question is that? I think one that we need to think about.

I know many people who say they are a “Believer” but they make up their own rules, and they are more like a “Buffet Believer” than a Believer that obeys the Lord. I also know many people, all raised within one of the Christian religions, who say they believe in God and Jesus, and pass it off with as much enthusiasm as when they say they believe the Mets will win the pennant this year.

These people have been brought up being told that Jesus died for their sins, that they are going to heaven so long as they are “good” people (where ‘good’ is what the world says ‘good’ is), and although they all believe in Jesus they are anything but what we who have been “born again” would consider a Believer.

Even the demons believe in Jesus / Yeshua; in fact, they are the most stringent and trusting believers because they have met Him, they have seen His Father, they know His power and that’s why they shake from fear at the very mention of His name. I think the demons have a better chance of getting to Heaven than the vast majority of people I know who say they believe in Jesus.

This is because of the wrongful teachings that have been handed down over the centuries. Too many humans telling other humans what God wants us to do, what is the right way to worship, creating traditions that only enforce their power over others instead of truly bringing glory to God.

Here’s a list from Wikipedia of the different forms of Christian worship (I am presenting it as an example, not as a definite and complete listing):

Catholic Church

The Latin Church

Eastern Catholic Churches

Other churches and movements

Independent (self-identified as Catholic)

Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox Church

Oriental Orthodoxy

Church of the East

Medieval sects

Protestantism

Proto-Protestant Groups

Lutheranism

Anglicanism

Anglican Communion

Other Anglican Churches

Calvinism

Continental Reformed churches

Presbyterianism

Congregationalist Churches

Anabaptists and Schwarzenau Brethren

Plymouth Brethren and Free Evangelical Churches

Methodists

Pietists and Holiness Churches

Baptists

Spiritual Baptists

Apostolic Churches – Irvingites

Pentecostalism

Charismatics

Neo-Charismatic Churches

African Initiated Churches

Messianic Judaism \ Jewish Christians (Ed: really should be under Judaism) 

United and uniting churches

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement

Southcottites

Millerites and comparable groups

Adventist (Sunday observing)

Adventist (Seventh Day Sabbath/Saturday observing)

Church of God movements (Sunday observing)

Church of God movements (Seventh Day Sabbath/Saturday observing)

Sabbath-Keeping Movements, Separated from Adventists

Sacred Name groups

Movements not related to the Millerites but comparable to them

Sabbath-Keeping movements, predating the Millerites

Latter Day Saints

Oneness Pentecostalism

Unitarianism and Universalism

Bible Student groups

Swedenborgianism

Christian Science

Other non-Trinitarians

New Thought

Esoteric Christianity

Racialist groups

Syncretistic religions incorporating elements of Christianity

Christian Movements

Internet Churches

LGBT-affirming Christian denominations

Interdenominational (ecumenical) churches and organizations

What’s with that? There is one God, and He gave us the Torah with the Mitzvot, Hukkim and Mishpatim (Laws, ordinances and regulations) and He said to obey these throughout all our generations. If these are the instructions directly from God, then how is it possible to have so many different groups of people worshipping the Lord in all these different ways?  Was God that confusing when He outlined the laws?

Moses said that to obey the Lord isn’t that hard: he said the laws aren’t so far from us that we need to send someone to get them or so high we couldn’t reach them. He also was adamant not to add to or take away from any of these laws, yet how can we have so many different means and ways of worshipping God, all with their own sets of “laws” if we never strayed from God’s Torah as He gave it to us?

Even the Jewish people, the ones that were given the Law and are the protectors and guardians of Torah, have 6 different sects that worship differently.

How can we know the difference between those that agree and those that truly believe? I guess the same way we know who to trust and who not to trust- by their fruit, by their ethics, by the way they live. People don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do, so are you a “believer” or just someone who repeats what you have been told, accepting things blindly because they are easy to live with?

Yakov (James) told us to be doers of the law and not just hearers of it. Decide if you really believe in Yeshua/Jesus; decide to accept the responsibility of knowing that He died so you can have a chance at salvation. The truth, Brothers and Sisters, is that you can’t make it on your own, and just because someone with a theological degree tells you the Spirit of God is in you and you are saved by the blood (after being able to answer three questions correctly) doesn’t mean you are a believer, or saved.

You need to decide that you are going to believe; you need to live your life showing that you are a believer by being a doer of the Word; you need to take possession of your salvation. You need to ask God for forgiveness: you, and only you because no one else can do it for you! If you just agree with what your Priest or Pastor or Rabbi, for that matter, has told you about salvation without deciding for yourself based on your own relationship with God, then you are a blind person being led by another blind person.

If you have decided to believe, halleluya! If you just agree, please please please get on the ball and make up your own mind!

Get real people- we’re talking about Eternity here!

Parashah Ki Thissa (when you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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As usual, there is just so much here. I took an entire course just about the symbolic nature of the spices used for the incense and anointing oils.

There’s also how God can use humans to achieve His goals, in the way that he gave all this knowledge and understanding to Oholiab and Bezalel to make the things required for the service in the Tabernacle.

Then there is the sin of the Golden Calf; and what’s up with Aaron? How could he have done that?

And then there’s Hur- Moses left both Aaron and Hur in charge, but there is no mention of Hur when Moses comes back and asks Aaron why he made the calf. In fact, Hur isn’t mentioned anymore. The Chumash says it is thought that Hur stood up against the people and was killed, so Aaron decided to do as the people said and live. It also says that Aaron was a peaceful man and that he was stalling, knowing that to refuse would cause bloodshed and hoping that Moses would return before they actually had a chance to worship the calf (which is why he said the next day would be a feast.)

The Levites are the ones that come rushing to Moses when he asks who is for God, which God later reminds us about when He separates the Levites from all the other tribes to serve Him, alone. Their dedication and their immediate choice to serve Him was remembered and they were given the honor of having God as their inheritance. There’s gotta be at least one or two good sermons in there!

And then we have Moses asking God, after this terrible sin, to do him a favor? To show Moses His glory? I mean, what’s that about? Moses just managed to convince God that He shouldn’t destroy the people for this terrible sin, and when God relents Moses decides, what? Now’s a good time to ask Him something no one has ever asked of Him? To show me your presence so I will know that you really, really like me?

And God says, “OK- you got it. But you can’t see my face or you have to die; that’s how it is.” Talk about a compassionate and forgiving God! He is so teed off at this stiff-necked, rebellious group of people that He is going to wipe them out of existence, and when He relents to Moses’ pleas and says He won’t destroy them…POOF! It’s gone. No more anger, and here’s this guy asking to see my presence. Ah, he’s OK, I guess. After all, I did tell him that he finds favor in my sight, so why not?

Finally, Moses goes back to the mountain and gets the 10 Commandments again. After he destroys them in his anger (after telling God not to be so angry), God doesn’t say, “Why did you do that? I gave them to you and you broke them, on purpose, and now you want me to give you more?” Instead, He gives another set of tablets to Moses.

This parashah shows just so much about God, Moses, and the sinfulness of mankind. Where do I start? Worse than that, how do I stop?

I am always affected by Moses’ actions in this parashah, regarding the first set of tablets and how he soothes God’s anger, then loses his own. God is holy and righteous, yet with the intercession of Moses God relents from destroying the people and making a new nation out of Moses. This, alone, is remarkable when you consider that God was willing to chuck some 470 years of work right out the window, and start over. This reminds us that God’s time is not like our time. It would have been easy for God to do what we could never even think of trying. Yet, was God really going to destroy the people, or was He testing Moses’s desire to lead and his humility before the Lord? Abraham asked God to relent from a destruction, and here is Moses doing the same. Was that really the reason behind God saying He would destroy the people?

And after Moses, with a cool-headed and compassionate plea (not so much for the people but for God’s reputation) saves the people, when he sees the actual crime before him, he totally loses it. He smashes what God gave him, he calls for support and then he, on his own, orders the destruction of the sinners. Some 3,000 of them. Much less than the number God was going to destroy, but still, that’s a lot of people.

So Moses was cool and thoughtful when he was keeping God from vengeful destruction, but when faced with the same emotional response, Moses doesn’t hold back.

I think there is a lesson here for us- it is easier to tell others what to do than it is to do it ourselves. “Do as I say, not as I do” is easy. God, however, is different; He does what He says, and He expects us not to do what He says. Yes, He commands us to do things, but He knows we can’t. If He didn’t know that we are incapable of doing what the Torah says, then why did He plan, from moment One, to send Yeshua our Messiah to make it possible for us to be with God?  If, when God gave us the Torah, He really expected that we could obey it to the letter (as Yeshua did), then why did we need Yeshua? Even if we are able to observe Torah perfectly, there still will be very few people who will make it into Heaven. No doubt. Even with the Grace of God we have now through Yeshua’s sacrificial death, Yeshua told us that only a few will make it. The path less followed is the one to salvation, so even with the automatic and guaranteed “Get Out of Hell” card Yeshua deals us, still, only a remnant will make it.

But we can’t observe Torah perfectly. And we do need Yeshua. That’s why I say God does as He says and doesn’t expect us to do as He says.

That’s no reason for us not to try. We need to do the “WWJD” thing. God requires us to do, not to think about doing, not to observe others doing, but to do. Like Yoda said, “Do…or do not. There is no try.” We must start out wanting to do, not saying we will do our best. I believe that saying we will try our best is making an excuse for failure before we even start. Henry Ford was quoted as saying, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” And Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

What God is saying to the people and to Moses is simply, “Do!”

Maybe we can’t “Do” as God tells us to do, but we can do more than we have been doing. We never can be sinless, but we always can sin less. That’s the “Do!” for us. This is something we can hear and obey: sin less.

Look for the thing that God wants you to find in this parashah, as you should with the entire Manual. Always read it with the prayer that God will show you what He wants you to get from it.

I feel like I did a lousy job this morning, since there is too much for me to talk about and too little time for me to do it with. So help me, please- take whatever you can from my babbling and use it in a way which will allow you to please the Lord. That’s the best I can do- give you something you haven’t had: a new understanding, insight to a new revelation, or just a push to get you off your tuchas and into the game.

Thank you, Father, for your Word, your teachings, and your salvation through Yeshua Ha Mashiach, help us all to be doers of the Word.

Shabbat Shalom!

It’s Not Where It Is That Matters: It’s What It Says

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How many people do you know that can quote chapter and verse from the Bible? In fact, can’t we all? Isn’t one of the basic training exercises for Bible study to remember a favorite quote or story, and where to find it?

If you read this blog regularly (and thank you, if you do!) you know that I rarely tell you where something is. That’s not because I don’t know, its because I believe two things:

1. Everyone needs to read the Bible, but the way it is taught is to tell you where the quote is from. Now why bother reading it, right? Telling you where to find it almost prevents you from looking for it, which keeps you away from the Bible. Making you look for it brings you closer to the Bible, and what God has for you in there won’t be found by someone else telling you what it says; and

2. It doesn’t matter where it says something in the Bible- what matters is that you know what God wants you to know.

Have you ever had a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness? If you want to talk to someone who knows where nearly every word of the Bible can be found, that’s the person you want to go to. Unfortunately, the ones I have talked to (even before I knew God) have little or no understanding of what they are quoting. If you ask them about it, they will tell you another quote. If you question them, they will tell you another quote. But they don’t understand the meaning.

I don’t want to insult any JW’s out there, but this is my experience, as well as the experience of other people, knowledgeable of the Bible, who I have talked to about this.

The blood of bulls and sheep is not what God wants. He doesn’t want the circumcision of the flesh without the circumcision of the heart. Yeshua did not teach anything new; in fact, as you have read and heard me say many times, there is nothing new in the New Covenant writings. Yeshua interpreted the Word correctly, which is why it was so powerful. He didn’t tell us where God’s messages and commandments were found, He told us what they really mean. He went beyond just repeating what God says, and transformed our understanding.

Yeshua showed us that performance of God’s commandments is necessary, but living them is what we should be doing. In other words, don’t just repeat what is in the Bible but live it.

That’s all I want to say. I know I usually ramble on a little more, but what else is there, really, to say?

Live the Word of God. The Word became flesh so we can know God better, and so we can be with God in the Olam Haba (World to Come.) God has something in His Word just for you, but if you don’t look for it you will never find it. Seek, and you shall find, and what you find will change your life and the life of others.

You can make a change in people’s lives, as well as your own, but not by sitting still and listening- you need to get off your tuchas and DO something! Reading the Bible is an easy way to start, and the best way.

So go read something now!

Why We Need to Know Why

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One of my all-time favorite TV shows is “How It’s Made.” This is on the Discovery channel and, if you’re not familiar with it, shows how things are made- everything from cars, to ceramic figurines, to pools, to pool cues, to whatever. It gives you about 7 minutes of a quick, this-is-how-it’s-done review for each thing. You need to watch some of them two or three times to really understand what is happening, like when they show and explain how a clutch is made.

I think we, as a people, like to know how things work. I think this is because it gives us a sense of control; if I know what makes this work, then I can control it, I can make it do what I want, or I can stop it from doing something. It all comes down to who is in control, and we want to be in control of our selves and our lives.

That’s not how it works with God, though, is it? God is in control, and the best we can hope for is that when we pray He will answer as we wish, doing what we ask Him to do for us. That usually isn’t what happens, since what we want is usually bad for us and what God wants for us is always what is best for us. Personally, even though I want to know how everything in the world works, I have learned to allow God to work his own way and I don’t really need to know what He has planned. I trust Him to do what is best for me.

Solomon tells us, in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) that the man who tried to know everything, who wanted to understand about all the ways of God, found himself frustrated and doing nothing more than “chasing the wind.” That’s why he says everything is useless. Here is the whole point of Kohelet: it’s not the things that we do or achieve that are useless, it’s trying to understand why God does what He does that is useless. Why? Because we can’t understand God. He is too high above us, too wonderful, and certainly a lot holier than we are, or ever can be, and we cannot fathom His thoughts.

I like knowing about the world and even the universe; how it works, how chemicals interact to form things, how we are able to construct buildings or make engines, design machinery and how foods are mass-produced. I love that stuff and I will watch the Discovery channel to learn how the world works because I am still, despite the general opinion, human. And I do feel some level of comfort knowing what to expect because I understanding how things work, and thereby I have some level of control. Knowledge of the world gives us a sense of comfort, but the truth is that God is in control, and we need to accept that. Trying to understand Him is fruitless and frustrating. We need to trust, to obey, and to faithfully expect that whatever he does in your life is for your good. That’s walking in faith with the Lord.

As I said, knowing how everything works is what I love. But with respect to how God works, why He does what he does, and what He will do next, well, that is off-limits to me. I am happy to leave all that in His hands. That is my way of showing Him the respect, trust and confidence I have in His promises and His judgement, and one way I demonstrate my worship of Him. Maybe you should consider that as a good way you can worship Him, too.

I read once any god that can be understood by the mind of Man is not worthy of the worship of Man. I think that is very wise, and I agree. I don’t try to understand God, and think it is disrespectful to even want to. God is too much: too much higher in thought, too much higher in holiness, too much greater in wisdom, and way, way too much more powerful than me. Why would I not trust Him? And, frankly, He’s gonna do what He wants to do whether I trust Him or not! He is going to do what He wants to do no matter what I think, or what you think; He is no respecter of people. But He is a loving, compassionate, merciful and just God who will do what is right. Always.

If that isn’t enough for you, I’m sorry to say, I believe you are setting yourself up to be very frustrated in your life and in your worship. And it will be all your own fault. Sorry, but that’s how it is. Life is a game of poker- it’s not Stud poker: you can trade in some of the cards you are dealt, and there are some you just need to work with. You must decide for yourself which cards you hold and which cards you change; however, you still have no control over which cards you are dealt. The good news is that in this particular game, the dealer can deal you what He wants to, and He wants you  to win.

Trust the dealer to send you the right cards and be satisfied to work with them. Use them wisely, and you will end up winning the pot.

One Way to Beat the Holiday Blues

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It’s the happiest and most joyous time of the year, so naturally, suicides and a general feeling of the Blues are at their highest level of the year, also.

Those who do not have the knowledge, trust, faith or belief in God, at this time of the year, feel that emptiness more than at any other time. This is more my opinion than substantiated fact, but I don’t think anyone will disagree with me. We read about the holiday blues symptom every Christmas season.

Even those people who are adamant God doesn’t exist, or those who refuse to accept Yeshua in the way the Bible says we should and think they are OK (because their Priest or Minister has taught them that so long as you are a “good” person you go to heaven), feel a sense of “incompleteness” because (again, my opinion) they know, deep inside, that they are missing the most important part of what this holiday is supposed to be about.

No one can tell you you are saved and no one can tell you the Spirit of the Living God, the Ruach HaKodesh, is in you. This has to be from your asking God directly, and from your acceptance from God, directly, privately, and faithfully. If you haven’t accepted your own sinfulness, that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send to take away your sins, and committed yourself to doing T’shuvah (turning from sin), you can’t receive the ultimate gift, which is the Grace of God, and the the Holy Spirit. And if you don’t have this, then you are missing out. We all need to admit our own overbearing and natural sinfulness, and that we cannot stop sinning without God’s help, and (this is the important part, the part that shows you have really “turned”)  that we do not want to sin anymore. When we do this, and then ask for His forgiveness and guidance for the rest of our life, we can receive the Ruach HaKodesh.

I was afraid that this would make me a different person, that I would have to stop being who I was (although I really didn’t like much of who I was, I didn’t want to lose it.) Here’s the surprise: now that I have been on that path for years, I realize that I haven’t stopped being me, I am just becoming a better me. And I don’t feel that emptiness, or incompleteness that I did before I made that leap of faith.

It’s that emptiness that causes the holiday blues. No one is immune; even those who know and love the Lord have “down” times, and this season seems to make any sadness worse. Maybe because all we see on TV, hear on radio, and are exposed to everywhere we go is joy-joy, happy-happy people and family that all get along and love each other. Yuch! That’s not the real world. And that is what makes this season so joyously unhappy- everywhere we go and everything we see is rose-colored utopia, but then real life hits us in the face.

You may be asking, “So, nu? Steve- what’s this “magic bullet” you have to overcome the holiday blues?”

I was looking over answers to essay questions from a class about incense and prayer that I took when getting my Certificate of Messianic Studies degree and I found this:

Praise has power that is hidden from us until we begin to use it. Praise reminds us of who we are- the children of the Almighty! Praise brings back to our minds all He has done in our lives, and the lives of others. When we praise the L-rd we can’t help but become joyful, for His spirit is awakened in us as we call on His name in thanksgiving. The best way to get out of the dumps is to count your blessings, and that is a form of praise. Praise makes us feel better, and isn’t that a powerful thing?

That’s the answer: thankful prayer and praise. It is so simple and it is so necessary for us to remember to do. In order to praise God we have to enumerate those things that are wonderful and glorious about Him, and when we do that we naturally have to personalize it. That causes us to think about all the things God has done for us. We are a self-centered and egotistical species: when I review the history of our people throughout the Millennia I think, “How can anyone doubt there is a loving, compassionate and forgiving God? If there wasn’t, how else could Mankind have survived for so long?” I mean, really- we are the most self-destructive thing that there ever has been. Yet, despite ourselves, we have survived. Yes, not just survived, but thrived. There just has to be a God in heaven protecting us.

Praise and thankful prayer invigorates the Ruach inside a Believer. C’mon, admit it- I do- sometimes we stifle the Spirit and instead of dying to self we manage to hang on and continue. We overcome the Spirit, which is a shepherd and guide, but can be ignored if our sinful nature is allowed to take charge. It is the constant battle, the reason Shaul (Paul) called himself a wretched man- the little devil on one shoulder and the little angel on the other.

When we praise and give thanks, the little angel turns into Arnold Schwarzenegger and the little devil turns into Steve Urkel.

When the holiday blues start to creep up on you, and anytime during the year you feel down, praise the Lord, give thanks for His salvation, think of all that you do have, and remind yourself that no matter how bad it is now, you have a guaranteed reservation at the Hotel Paradise. And when you get there you won’t ever have to check out. Eternity in Eden is yours, and all you have to do is wait a while longer before you are there. That hope should be able to get you past any temporary situation, which means anything in this life because this life is not the destination and it is not all there is…it is nothing more than the crossing from one place to another.

When you feel down and out, lift up your head and shout, “Thank you, Father! Thank you, Yeshua!! Thank you Ruach!” And when you tell them why you are so thankful, you will feel better.

As my people say, “Try it: you’ll like it! After all, what could it hoit?”

The Flood was a short-term solution

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We all know the story of Noah and the Ark. Because the Earth was full of sin and treachery God regretted that He had made people. He decided to destroy all the evil there was, except for Noah, who was the only righteous one and who God allowed to be saved.

Have you ever wondered whether this meant that only Noah was righteous, but not those in his family? Could it be that they were saved for Noah’s sake?

I don’t mean to question God’s actions, and especially not to cast doubt on God’s ability to do whatever He wants to do, but I have to ask myself this one question: did God really think that the next generation would be any different? Let’s get real, people…the world was still a cursed place. With the flood the Earth did undergo a kind of T’vilah (baptism, or cleansing), but the new generation of people were still under the curse that Adam caused us to suffer, weren’t they? Noah was born with original sin, so were his sons and all the wives, and their children would be, too. No change there.

So, nu? What was the reason for the flood? If it was to destroy, once and for all, the sins of mankind, well, sorry- didn’t happen. Sin was evident as soon as Noah got fall-down drunk. That was a sin. Then Ham, of course, not doing anything respectful, such as covering up Dad’s exposed equipment when he saw him dead-to-the-world on the ground, also sinned. We haven’t even gotten past the generation that was saved and already we have sin.

As I have said, and will repeat often, when interpreting the Bible we cannot make an argument from nothing, but if I was to read between the lines (in Judaism we call that giving a midrash) is it possible that Ham didn’t just tell his brothers about his father? Is it possible that Ham went to them and, like a child, was laughing about it and left his father that way so he could bring them over to see, then they could all have a good laugh? Maybe? It seems that Noah’s curse on Ham is a little over the edge if all Ham did was let his brothers know that Dad was passed out. What do you think?

So, the flood has come and gone, all the baddies are dead, and Mr. and Mrs. Noah (already hundreds of years old) are going to repopulate the Earth, with his children’s help, of course. Big job, and I can just imagine how the women felt about this (“Oy…I’m gonna be pregnant for the next couple of centuries!”) Maybe they were happy that human mortality was about to see a significant change with regards to one’s expected lifetime.

Going back to my question, was it God’s plan to remove all sin? If it was, it didn’t work. If it wasn’t, then why would He do what He did? Why destroy so many people, and all those innocent animals (there’s a good discussion- can an animal be innocent? After all, to be innocent, don’t you need to have the potential to be evil, and animals act on instinct, so they can’t really be evil, so they can’t be innocent, but they are the ones to sacrifice because the shedding of innocent blood is the only way to absolve sin, but if they aren’t evil and they can’t be innocent can their blood really work?)

Maybe the animals had to be destroyed because they are innocent, if we define “innocent” as meaning devoid of evil intentions and desires. And by destroying the animals, i.e. shedding their blood (figuratively, since they drowned), each animal that died was a sacrifice to atone for the sins of each and every one of the people destroyed? Maybe not so much to cleanse the person, but to cleanse the land? I don’t know!

There were some significant changes after the flood; for instance, up until the flood there was no rain. The Earth was watered by a mist every morning and everyone, animals and humans alike, were herbivores (read the beginning of Genesis.) After the flood the animals and humans feared each other because now they were food to us, and we were food to some of them.  And the animals also would eat each other. Carnivores, herbivores, insectivores, and all the other -vores now inhabited the Earth.  There were going to be seasonal rains, which were absolutely necessary for the agricultural economy that existed.  We would have droughts and famines. What might have happened if there were no famines in the land? Would Abraham have gone to Egypt? Would Yitzchak have moved? Would Pharoah have had the dream that Joseph interpreted, fulfilling the prophecy God told Abraham about his descendants being slaves? If there hadn’t been a famine to cause Israel to send his sons to Egypt for grain, would we have had Moses? The Torah? If there had not been a drought, how would God have shown His glory and power to the Northern Kingdom inhabitants when Elijah called fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel?

Ya know? Maybe the flood was necessary not just to get rid of sin, which it didn’t, but to get a fresh start. To kick it up to the next level, allowing for this new generation of humans to take the next step in God’s plan of salvation.  Maybe, just maybe, the story we hear has more to it than just a flood to ged rid of the drek of society.

That is one of the many things I love about reading the Manual every day- you read something you have read many, many times before, and suddenly….WHAM!!! You get this revelation, this new view, on what you have been reading for years. You see something in there you never saw before and have ask yourself, “How could I not have seen this?”  It’s like the Bible is one of those optical illusions, except this is, maybe, more like a spiritual illusion, where you’ve seen one thing for years and then you see something different, in the same place. Like the picture below: is it two faces or is it a lamp?

The point to this whole thing is that we will never know, for certain, what God is up to all the time. Sometimes He makes it clear, sometimes He doesn’t. As He tells us in His Word, that which He wishes us to know we will know, and that which He wishes to remain secret will remain secret. God is no respecter of persons- He tells us that Himself. He will do what He wants to do, and when He wants to do it. He will tell us, or He won’t- it’s His game, His rules.

The best we can do is make sure that whatever He has told us, we study and learn. We will need to know it when the real spiritual battle begins. And what He wants to reveal to any one of us at any time, He will do through the Ruach.

In the meantime, keep reading, keep asking the Ruach to guide you, and stay faithful that just because we don’t know what’s happening or what’s going to happen, God does.

And faithfully believe that God is in control.

The hopeful and the hopeless

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I like the comic Pearls. I appreciate the humor, although it is edgy. I must confess, I associate more with Rat than I do with Goat.

The other day there was one where Rat is drinking at their favorite hangout and Goat asks why he drinks so much (Rat likes beer- I can’t stand beer.  I just don’t trust something that looks the same going in as it does coming out) and Rat answers that he isn’t sure about life or God and you never know until it’s too late (or something to that effect- I left the strip at home this week and I am in Tampa at a training class.) When Goat, who is the more logical and elitist of the characters, hears what Rat says, the next panel has Goat also drinking and saying, “We should do this more often.”

It’s funny, but it is also sadly true of so many of us. Not the drinking part so much as the hopelessness that many people feel. Especially those that refuse to accept God’s existence as real, and also for those that refuse to make a decision about God.

When I say they refuse to make a decision, that is exactly what I mean- they hem and haw, think He probably does exist, or (as I heard yesterday) they believe in Him but not in the religious teachings they grew up with so they just make up their own religion. They believe in God and Yeshua as their Messiah, but it stops there. The laws, regulations and way God says they should live are left to be thrown away with the religious teachings. This is sad and I have seen it more than once, haven’t you? People get fed up with the religious traditions and teachings so ignore all the rules and laws God gave us, lumping them all together with “religion” so that they are, in essence, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. {Isn’t that a great, old expression?}

God is the only real hope any of us have, and refusing to accept Him means that you are hopeless. Not so much you, the person, but your existence as a person has no hope. Oh, sure…there is luck, there is chance, and there is (this is really the case) God taking care  of you even when you reject His very existence because He is, well, He is God, and that’s how He rolls. He loves you whether you love Him back or not, and He will take care of you, even if you are a sinner. Remember we are told that Yeshua died for us even though we were sinners. He didn’t wait until we “earned” His sacrifice, He died because we could never earn His sacrifice. I have heard it said that “mainstream” Judaism has explained, as one of the reasons the Messiah hasn’t come, that we are too sinful to be worthy of the Messiah. How could such intelligent and learned people miss by so far the purpose of their own Messiah? Nu- if we were worthy of being brought into the very presence of the Lord, we wouldn’t need a Messiah! DUH!!

Back to the hopeless…all I can feel is sadness and pity on those that reject God, and his laws. His laws are what make life good, they lead us in ways that will bring us closer to God and to each other, and they are so simple and functional. They are, as is God, perfect. If we just hold on to them and follow them we will have a wonderful society, we will care for each other, and every Miss America since the 1950’s will finally get their wish- we will have peace on Earth.

If you know someone who is hopeless (maybe it’s you?) please introduce them to the founder and provider of hope- God. And tell them of the hope we get from Him that came to us in human form, Yeshua the Messiah. Hope is, in and of itself, ethereal and intangible. Yeshua is the hope of the world, and He was very tangible; He was real flesh and blood. He was, and is, a physical representation of the hope we have in God. Accepting Him as your Messiah is receiving hope, which gives you the power to continue in any situation.

Shaul said when he is weak, that is when he is strong because, as Yeshua said, with God all things are possible. That is what hope is- the belief that something is possible. When we have our hope in God, then anything, and everything, is possible. If the only source we have is in chance, or luck, well…in reality, we have no hope. Hope needs something more than randomness to be of any value- it needs to be based in something. A buoy in the water is a marker that identifies where it is safe to go, and it gives the ship’s pilot the hope of  reaching the shore safely. If that buoy isn’t anchored on rock or solidly in the ocean bed, it can’t offer any hope because it is not stable.

God is totally stable- He was, He is, and He always shall be, never changing and eternally powerful and trustworthy. That’s the kind of buoy I want to navigate by. That’s the kind of hope my decision has given me- hope that is always, always, always there for me.

Is that the kind of hope you have? If so, shout out, “Hallelujah!!”  If not, please consider taking stock of your life, making a decision to decide, and join the club.

God has been waiting for you and has a healthy, heaping helping of hope, just for you.

You Love Me? Really?

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We all know that the Lord loves us. Whether or not we love Him, He loves us. His love is unconditional, it is forever, it is based on who He is and not who we are (thank God for that!), and it will cause Him to judge us fairly with mercy. Which we all need.

It is so much above human love, and so far beyond human understanding; how can any of us, really, associate with what He did when He sent His only son to die for us so that we could be close to Him. Something we could never have achieved on our own, even though it isn’t that hard. After all, Moshe told us that it isn’t so far away we need to send someone to get it for us, or so deep we can’t retrieve it, or so high above us we can’t reach it. It is right there, right in front of us.

But we can’t get hold of it, not a real good hold. So God did for us what we should have done for ourselves, at a great cost. Yeshua stripped His robes of righteousness and took on a mantle of flesh: filthy, dirty and mortal coverings that He wore just as the rest of us. Except despite this, He did not sin in the flesh that causes all the rest of us to sin. He survived unblemished, He showed us how to live, and He properly interpreted God’s word for us (which means Jesus/Yeshua did NOT create a new religion- those that followed after Constantine created a different religion, but Yeshua taught from the Tanakh and taught how to follow the Torah correctly.) Yeshua died so that I could live; so that you could live. It was, and is, a very personal thing.

Do you love the Lord? Most everyone I ever met who is Born Again says “YES!! Emphatically! Totally! Absolutely!”

I love God, too, but I don’t feel it.  I feel love for my wife. I feel love for my children (even though they have rejected me, so in that way I know a little about how God must feel), but I confess I don’t feel love for God- I know I have love for Him. Maybe because He is so wonderful, so far from me (in holiness, but not emotionally or relationship-wise), or maybe just because I am really selfish with using the word “love”, I don’t have the same emotional sense I feel with other humans. I love the Lord, and I am His bride (wow- to say such a thing in today’s world, and so close to election time, is scary) and those who read this most likely know the true meaning of that reference. But I just can’t honestly say I love God and feel it. I want to, I know I do, but I don’t feel it. I do feel unworthy, unresponsive, and undeserving of what He feels for me because I just don’t know how to return it. And I absolutely know that He deserves it.

Maybe my real problem is that I can’t separate the holy love I know for God from the romantic love I feel as a human. How many of you out there love someone because of how they make you feel? You feel whole, completed with the other person, right? My relationship with God has made me feel completed as a Jewish man, I feel that I have (finally) come full circle with God and we are on the same page, so to speak. My relationship is wonderful and fulfilling with the Lord- exactly what He planned when He sent Messiah. And more than anything or anyone else that ever was, God deserves my love. He has earned it because He gave me life, because of His sacrifice for me, through His devotion to me, through all He has done during my meager life that has protected me and kept me from harm, both physical and spiritual. God is worthy of my worship, my devotion, and more than anything, my love. He is worthy and deserving of everyone’s love.

However, I am not. That’s why I am confessing to you that I don’t “buy it” when a stranger, or even someone I worship with regularly and would call a friend or acquaintance, comes to me at the worship and says, “I love you, Brother!” I don’t doubt their sincerity, but I doubt they really love me. Not me. Maybe the spirit of God that they expect I should be housing? I could go along with that. But not me. They don’t know me. They haven’t seen me at my worst. They haven’t  heard the words I use when I am angry and frustrated (for me, those two emotions are so close together they are almost like Siamese Twins.) They haven’t heard my vengeful talk when I am wronged; I don’t take vengeance- that is for the Lord. But, I do plan it out for Him, now and then. They haven’t seen my evil twin, Skippy, at work when he locks me in the basement and takes over for me in real life, going to work and impersonating me. He angers the clients, makes trouble for the co-workers, he even gets my wife angry at him. It takes a lot to get Skippy to leave town; fortunately, he doesn’t get along with the Ruach HaKodesh so the closer I get to God the less often Skippy comes around.

But if you met Skippy, you certainly wouldn’t say to him, “I love you , Brother!” You would probably say something more like, “Oh Brother!”

I don’t tell people whom I don’t really know that I love them. I am not much of a hugger, either. I find it very impolite when someone hugs another person without asking permission. It isn’t their love for me that makes them want to hug me- it is their own desire to feel loved. They physically misuse my body, they assault me, in order to feel that they are loved. And if I should say, “I’m not really a hugger” their response more often than not is, “Well, I am.” and they proceed to violate my space, my body and my rights by hugging me. And if I should complain, guess who’s at fault? That’s right- they blame me for not loving as the Lord loves. They insult God’s love and cheapen what Yeshua did by ( as the psychologists call it) “projecting” their feelings at me instead of reflecting on what I said.

{By the way, to those who know me and those who worship with me, if you are thinking you should keep your distance don’t worry- I do hug people I feel comfortable with, and if you offer and I reply with a hug, it’s OK. If I should stick my hand out, that’s the signal that I am not comfortable enough yet. It’s not a rejection, it’s just caution on my part. Don’t stop asking, and please do not be upset or feel rejected if it isn’t time yet. It will be, eventually.}

You love me? Really? I don’t think so. I don’t think humans have that kind of love. Again, I don’t doubt your sincerity, and I appreciate your attempt  to be more like God, but love for others is worth a lot to me, and I don’t just throw it at the feet of anyone who says they are a child of God. It is like throwing pearls before swine, in my book. I pretty much start of with giving everyone the benefit of the doubt when I first meet them, or start to work with them, and I assume (and expect) they will be professional, dependable and trustworthy. I trust them and am looking forward to working with them, or knowing them as friends, whatever the relationship is supposed to be. It is up to them to give me cause to feel otherwise.

But it’s not like that with love. Love is something that the Bible teaches us we should have for each other. Love thy neighbor as thyself- Leviticus 19:18 (for those who don’t know this, when Yeshua gave us the “Golden Rule” He was quoting from Torah. There is nothing ‘New” in the New Covenant)- is the standard for all of us. Yeshua said the two most important commandments (in this order, by the way) are to love God, and love each other. He told His disciples that the way people will know they are His disciples is if they love each other. There is nothing but love in the life of a true Believer, a real worshipper of God. Shaul tells us, ultimately, no matter how many gifts he has been given, no matter how many talents he has, no matter how hard he works for the Lord, if he has not love, he has nothing.

I guess I am just a step or two above nothing. I have love, but I am selfish with it. I am too ensnared in the world, still, to separate the romantic version of love from the holy love that God feels for us. And, I am sorry to say, I don’t think I am that much different from most everyone else.  I believe that people cannot love the way God loves, but I do honor their attempt. That’s why when someone says they love me, I don’t argue with them. I may thank them, I most likely won’t say anything, and I guarantee I won’t say that I love them, too. I don’t know them that well, I am not that Godly, and I am certainly not that open with my feelings.

I hope you are different. I hope that some of you reading this will pity my weakness, my fleshly curse that prevents me from feeling love the way God does and keeps me chained to the emotional, romantic understanding of love that is a bane, in many ways, of humanity. Pray for me, if you will, and pray for yourself that you are really feeling the intercessory power that comes from truly loving as God does- not romantically, not selfishly, not humanly.

I doubt that I will ever feel that way, at least, not in this body. I do believe that once resurrected, I will be beyond the human level of emotions; I believe that we will all, those of us resurrected to the second life, no longer have emotional feelings as we do now. Our sense of love and emotional closeness to each other will be beyond the physical and it will be as God feels- love that is so powerful, so much a part of us that it is like breath, and as such we will be in total joy just being with each other.

I can hardly wait.

No Pain; No Gain

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Having been very active in sports during High School, and throughout my life, I have a deep and intimate understanding of the title for today’s Drash.

It’s not wise to hurt yourself, but when you push your muscles to their limit, you will feel it over the next couple of days. It is a “good” hurt because, although having sore muscles does hurt, it represents that you have done a good job, you pushed yourself to the limits of your ability, and (so far as physical exercise is concerned) that means you will gain more muscle and endurance.

Real muscle grows when you destroy it. When you feel that “burn” and your muscle is “pumped”, the excess blood flow that causes that feeling is going there in order to help the destroyed tissue. The destroyed tissue isn’t just replaced; the body builds more tissue than there was originally. That is how body-builders get those large muscles (even without the ‘roids’). The constant destroying of muscle and careful rebuilding through proper diet and rest results in larger and stronger muscles, with greater endurance.

Faith is a spiritual muscle that we need to work with, every day. And, just like biceps, pecs and abs, we need to push it to it’s limits; indeed, we need to destroy it so that we can rebuild it to be stronger and more enduring. The way we exercise our faith is to live  in a way that pushes us to do more than we want to do. In other words, we need to force ourselves to get outside our spiritual comfort zone.

Get more involved in activities at the place where you worship, witness to friends and family, even strangers, more often. Risk their disapproval. Go on mission trips, help the homeless and needy, volunteer, just get off your butts and do something that takes faith. Pray more often (see my section on Prayer for some ideas about that), read the Bible more often, trust more often (oh, that is a hard one). And here’s the really difficult one: forgive more often, and more completely.

Exercise your faith by using it. I gave you some ideas above, but I don’t know what you need to do. I don’t know where your faith is weak…but you do. You know what makes you feel uncomfortable, you know what you don’t like to do, and you know what God is telling you to do. Finally: it’s all about you now.

Search your heart, seek those things that God tells us we should all be doing and that you know you don’t do, and do it!

That’s pushing your spiritual muscles to the limit. And just like the professionals, rest and eat properly. The proper diet is to read the Word of God (Man doesn’t live on bread alone but every word from the mouth of God) for food to nourish your spirit, and rest through intimate and private prayer time with the Lord. Prayer is refreshing to both your soul and your spirit, and even to your physical body.

So get on out there and work those spiritual muscles! Feel the burn, get pumped; Yeshua worked His spiritual muscles completely and showed us how we are to do it. Stop being a Weakling of Worship, and become a Schwarzenegger of Spirit!

Remember: Yeshua was the first one to say, “I’ll be back!”

The Lone Ranger, the Bible and Fruit

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Remember the Lone Ranger? He stood for right and justice in a world where it was not always found. He travelled all over, and helped those who sought out what he stood for- righteousness, fair treatment, justice, and also compassion, forgiveness and tolerance (his best friend was a Native American at a time when they were not accepted in society.)

I often think of him when I think of the Gospel verse about the man who approached Yeshua and said he wanted to follow Him. Yeshua told him that the fox has it’s hole and the bird has its nest, but the Son of Man doesn’t even have a rock upon which to lay His head. In other words, there is no rest, no place of comfort, no vacation spot for Yeshua during His time on Earth- He is to wander and expose Himself and the B’rit Chadashah (Good News) to everyone He can.

Like the Lone Ranger, Yeshua travelled around, looking for those in the dark seeking light, spreading love, compassion and tolerance (not as we mean tolerance today. Today it means allowing others to sin while you say it’s OK. Yeshua’s tolerance is the kind that lets you hate the sin but love the sinner.) And all in a world and a society sadly lacking those things. He didn’t stay in any one place for long, and although He did have places He revisited He was always on the move.

There is another thing that I think of when I think of the Lone Ranger. This may seem a little far-fetched (actually, really far-fetched) but I also think of pruning a vine. Yeah, I know- Huh??  The Lone Ranger and a vine?

Yes, the Lone Ranger and a vine. And the Bible, too! When a vine is fruitful and produces a lot of good fruit, what do you do with it? That’s right- you prune it, and replant it so that it becomes a bigger vine, producing more fruit. The Lone Ranger was a fruitful vine, producing justice and compassion, and he was transplanted every time he finished cleaning up the bad guys. Yeshua was a fruitful vine, also. Probably the most fruitful vine there ever was!

I can see it now: a desert town, the bad guys taking over and misleading the residents, teaching them traditions over the word of God, using unfair weights and tithing little but taking everyone else’s tithes for themselves. In rides Yeshua, with His trusty companion, Torah. He tells the truth, He shines light on the darkness and leads some of the people back to God. He does away with the wrong teaching by teaching what God really wants, then He leaves and goes to find more darkness. Hiyo, Righteousness…away!!!

Well, maybe not.

There is a lesson here, somewhere. I believe that lesson is if you want to be a fruitful vine, which (by the way) we should all want to be, you need to be prepared to be pruned. You will never realize the fullness of your gifts from God or the fullness of your influence on others for God if you stay in one place. That may not mean moving around geographically, so much as spiritually. We can grow in spiritual maturity and, thereby, produce more fruit without having to renew our passport. On the other hand, we may need to physically relocate, or travel. Maybe go on a trip to some Third World country to do missionary work, maybe just go down the road to help in a homeless shelter. Maybe just go to your place of worship more often to intermingle and edify those there that need help.

The fruitful vine is pruned so that it will be able to do more. Pruning is not fun- you are cut away from your roots, replanted in a new place and you need to grow new roots. You need to start all over again, and all you have going for you is the strength you took with you. You are dependant on the gardener to provide you with good soil, water and protection from the elements until you have put out strong roots. Once you have, and you produce fruit again, you will be allowed to stay there and grow. At some time, not by your choosing, the gardener will prune you, again, and it starts all over.

This doesn’t sound like fun. And, in many ways, it isn’t. When you are working for God, you can never settle into a comfort zone. At least, not for long. As long as you are producing fruit, you need to understand that you will be pruned. Maybe that’s why Yeshua said  we need to pick up our own execution stake and follow Him. As long as we are with Yeshua we will be against the World, which is a cursed and unrighteous place. The good we do is the water for our soul, the light in the darkness we bring is the fruit we provide, and the word of God is the soil we are planted in, which nourishes us.

Let’s all try to be a Lone Ranger for God, a fruitful vine, a person who brings righteousness and justice to those that seek it. Also, let’s all be prepared to be pruned, and willingly go where God leads us to do His work.

It won’t be easy, but the rewards will be greater than anything you can imagine.