Tag: messianic

Parashah Tetzaveh (Thou shalt command) Exodus 27:20 – 30:10

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The previous Parashah described the Tent of Meeting, or Tabernacle, and now we get to the regulations about those serving in the tent. Aaron and his sons were chosen by God to be His Cohen HaGadol, His High Priests, and only those who are direct descendants are to carry on in this office. The clothing they are to wear, the special things for the High Priest (Ephod, breastplate and mitre) and the sanctification ceremony are all outlined in great detail. The last thing mentioned is the altar and it’s manufacture.

The breastplate had  12 brilliant gems, one for each tribe of Israel with that tribe’s name engraved on it, and it was worn over the heart. In biblical psychology the heart is the seat of intellect, not feeling, so people who are “wise-hearted” are those God has given special knowledge to (Exodus 28:3).  The Urim and Thummim (light and perfection) are also to be in the breastplate and worn over the heart.

The breastplate is called the breastplate of judgement: the people and the means of judgement (Urim and Thummim) are to be close to the heart of the one who is God’s representative to the people. I believe that this demonstrates to us that God’s judgement is to be intellectually influenced. It is to be totally fair. Of course, I also have to ask myself where, if judgement is to be unemotional, does mercy fit in? Mercy is certainly not something that is a mathematical equation or something we can intellectualize. It is an emotional feeling; it stems from compassion and love.  Can these two things really exist together? I don’t know. God is fair, and He tempers His judgments with compassionate mercy, but (then, again) He has been awesome and totalitarian in many of His judgments. God has had entire nations and peoples completed destroyed. Frankly, I don’t know how this all works together, and I was thinking of just deleting this entire section, but it raises questions. I think questions before the Lord are good things, so I am leaving this here for you to think over, on your own, and to discuss with God. If you have an answer, or something to add, please comment so we can all discuss this. The topic is: how can God judge fairly and still have compassion and mercy?

One other thing I find interesting: the Urim and Thummim, which are mysterious (we don’t even know what they were) are used to determine God’s will. They may have been some kind of dice that were used for throwing lots. They are mentioned in some of the writings of the Prophets (Nevi’im) but pretty much by David’s time they are not mentioned any more in the Tanakh. These means of determining God’s will were obviously important during the time the people were in the desert, and under Joshua. As time went on, they became less important, and we also see as time went on the people got further and further away from God; eventually, we got so far away from Him that we were nearly destroyed.

With Yeshua, we have been reconciled with God and can (again) draw close to Him. So, will we again see the Urim and Thummim? I don’t think so, because what was used to determine God’s will is now not over our hearts, but inside our hearts. The Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, is how we can know God’s will for our lives. It is our Comforter, our Guardian, our own “Jiminy Cricket” keeping us on the straight and narrow. We don’t have to have a physical thing to help us understand what God wants for us anymore because we have His very Spirit living inside of us.

As we are told in Jeremiah 31:31:

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

The Urim and Thummim have been replaced by the Ruach HaKodesh as our means of understanding what God wants in our lives. For me, that underscores even more than usual the need for people to accept their Messiah, especially the Jewish people, because without accepting Yeshua as our Messiah we can’t receive the Ruach HaKodesh. Without the Ruach, we can’t know God’s will for our lives. It is all so clear: first, after Yeshua’s resurrection, the next major event is the destruction of the Temple. No longer can we bring our sin sacrifice to the Lord- Yeshua was the last and complete sacrifice for sin, and through His sacrifice we are now reconciled and cleansed before the Lord. With the destruction of the Temple we also lost forever the records of the lineage of the people to prove who is a true child of Israel, and more important than that, who can serve as Cohen Hagadol. And that’s because we don’t need that anymore: Yeshua is now the Cohen Hagadol for all eternity, and the separation between the Jew and the Gentile doesn’t exist in the body of Messiah (Galatians 3:28).

If we look at the history of the events that occurred before and after Yeshua’s appearance on Earth, we can see the logical progression of salvation, the gradual development of the plan for eternity. Today we see the regathering of the children of Israel back to the land of their fathers, and God’s judgment on the nations coming to fruition. Terrorism, El Nino, global warming, wars, diseases, and terrible earthquakes and Tsunami’s occurring all over the world. Do you think these are just coincidence? Yes, they have always been here but throughout the recorded history of these events today there are more of them, and they are becoming more fierce and regular.  Just because science says some of these are the result of man-made problems doesn’t mean that they aren’t part of God’s plan. Throughout the bible we see God had used people to accomplish His goals more often than by some miraculous divine intervention.

We are living in prophetic times, and we need to have the courage to tell people, whether they believe us or not, about Yeshua so that their blood is on their own head and not ours.

Ask God to show you what His plan is for you, listen to the Ruach HaKodesh in your heart, and take action. Don’t wait until the Groom arrives to fill your lamps with oil.

Just what is the “Torah”?

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For many the Torah is an unknown thing- something that Moses got from God with a lot of rules and it looks like a big scroll. The most misunderstood thing about the Torah, which is also a very prominent teaching in the Christian world, is that the Torah is for Jews only. Many are taught that Christians are not to worry about the Torah because they are saved by Jesus’ sacrifice and His love. They don’t need to obey Torah.

WRONG!!!  But, we’ll get to that soon enough. Just leave it at this for now: Jesus is the Living Torah, the Word that became flesh (John said that.) He was there when God gave it to Moses, and all He taught was the Torah (it was the only scripture.) Remember Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand?  So…if Jesus is the living Torah, and He can’t teach against what He is (that would be a house divided), then how can He possibly even suggest that we should not obey Torah? Moving on…

Today we are learning about Torah. It is comprised of 5 books, you all should know the names. And Torah doesn’t mean “law”, it means “teaching”, so to ignore the Torah is to ignore not just God’s commandments but His teachings, as well.  There are four basic functions the Torah serves to all of us:

  1. It is a covenant (God says do this and when we do He blesses us)
  2. It is a Ketuba (marriage certificate between us and God)
  3. It is a Constitution (it identifies the penal codes, civil codes and other laws that define a nation)
  4. It teaches us about sin by telling us what is right (Shaul explains this in Romans 3:20 and 4:15)

The Torah is a guide to show us what is right in God’s eyes. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some are laws, some are commandments, some are ordinances- it is hard to tell one from the other sometimes. There are three different types of these laws:

  • Mishpatim (judgements)- there are three types of these, as well.
    1. “Mishpatim” are generally considered laws which we can understand the reason for having;
    2. “Dupah” are laws that God explains why we are to follow them; and
    3. “Hucah” are laws that we have no idea why they are given- God says do this this way, and that’s all there is to it.
  • Mitzvot (commandments)- these are easy to understand and usually God specifies them as commandments (like the festivals in Leviticus 23 and the Big Ten, of course)
  • Chukim (ordinances)- these are more along the lines of the civil and penal codes.

The Torah is part of the Old Covenant, which is also referred to as the Tanakh (‘tah-nach’, with a hard ‘ch’ at the end.) Tanakh is an acronym of the names of the different types of books in the Old Covenant: T is for the Torah (the first 5 books), N is for Nevi’im (the writings of the Prophets) and K is for K’tuvim (the other writings and scrolls.)

I should also mention the Talmud, called the “Oral Torah” which is a compilation of Rabbinic writings and commentaries on the Torah. It is a massive writing, a Tome of some magnitude, with some 60-plus volumes split into tractates and orders and all sorts of different names for each part. There is a Babylonian and a Jerusalem Talmud, both are made up of (essentially) a Gemara and a Mishna. Many of the Orthodox Jews believe it to be scripture, or scriptural, and (in my opinion, this is unfortunate) will often go to the Talmud for answers before they go to the Tanakh. It also defines Halakhah, the Way to Walk, which encompasses Rabbinic rules and regulations for everyday living. It is a wonderful and rich compilation of Jewish thought and also contains many Jewish myths and stories that have nothing at all to with the Bible. I have not studied it, but it is essential if you are to create a library of Jewish writings.

The last thing about the Torah I want to discuss would, and easily can, take a lot more writing than anyone reading a blog would want to deal with. I have had a few posts already about this, and will continue to write about it now and then because it is so important for Christians to understand. And what is so important for Christians to understand about the Torah is this: Jesus did NOT do away with the Torah. He did not finish it, He did not teach against it, and He did not say it was completed and over.  What Yeshua (Jesus) did that no one else has been able to, or ever will be able to do in this plane of existence, is to live according to the Torah perfectly. The Torah identifies what sin is, and Yeshua lived a sinless life. That is the reason His sacrifice was accepted.

In the New Covenant writings there are many sections that have been misinterpreted and wrongfully taught in order to argue against the Torah being relevant to Christians- these are lies from the pit of Sheol! Read Matthew 5:17, or 2nd Timothy 3:16, or Romans 7:12 and you will see that the Torah is absolutely valid and alive. It is still God’s word to all of us, it is God’s instructions for how to worship Him, how to treat each other, and how to earn blessings (not salvation- that is free- but blessings. Blessings can be earned.) Much Christian teaching has used Galatians 3:10, 3:28, 5:1-4 and 2:15-16 as a polemic against the Torah, but that is all wrongful teaching. Galatians is not a polemic, it is an apologetic, just as Romans is. The problem is that Shaul (Paul) writes as a Pharisee does, in a somewhat convoluted way. He makes an argument against the Torah to point out the argument is false. That is why so many people misunderstand- they don’t take the bible in proper cultural perspective, they don’t interpret it using the meanings of the time it was written so they turn  the true meaning around.

The Torah is what God gave to Moses so that the Jewish people could be separated from the surrounding pagans, it sanctifies us, it makes us holy, and it is what God says is the way we should be.

GOD HAS NO RELIGION!! He has rules, He has laws, He has commandments all designed to help us live as He wants us to live, to teach us how to properly worship Him, and to lead us to salvation. And He calls it the Torah.

If you say you worship God and you want to know who God is, what He wants of you, and how to please Him, then you better know the Torah because that is exactly what God gave you so that you can! Yes, God gave the Torah to YOU! It is for each of us, it is who He is, it is who Yeshua is, it is valid, true, and eternal. It is all we need.

Well, Yeshua’s sacrifice is also absolutely necessary because, as I said above, no one (other than Yeshua) has been able to live in accordance to the Torah for more than a few seconds at a time, if that long.

But it is still all we need to know about God, what is right and what is wrong, and how to live with God and with each other.

Yeshua said it all comes down to two things: love God and love each other. The Torah teaches you how to do that, so why would you want to ignore it?

We all need a scorecard

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Ever been to a baseball game? You’ll hear vendors crying out, “Hey! beeeeer heeeere!” or “Hot dawgs! Git yer hot dawgs!” They also scream, “Scorecards! Can’t tell the players widout a scorecard!” (you may have noticed my experience at baseball games has been exclusively in New York stadiums.)

It’s the scorecard that tells you who is who on the teams. And with the scorecard you can also keep track of the each play, marking down who scored when, which players (and in what order) played the ball in the field, and later this record can help you to relive the game and re-familiarize yourself with the players you had seen.

In real life we all need a scorecard, but not for baseball players. We need to know who the spiritual players are, the good guys from the bad guys, if you will.

The legions of the enemy don’t have uniforms, and (frankly) neither do the angels of God. The way we tell who is who is by following the advice that Yeshua gave in Matthew 7:16. In the same way you tell an orange tree from a lemon tree by looking at the fruit that grows on it, we can tell the good guys from the bad guys by looking at their fruit. A good tree gives forth good fruit, so look at the fruit of the person.

And remember that most everyone we look at is human, and like humans, not every fruit from even the best tree will always be good. And also remember that a good tree can sometimes be attacked by bad bugs, turning their fruit rotten even as it hangs on the branch (Job would be a good example of this allegory- he was treated with disdain by his friends because of the suffering God allowed to test his faith, so even though his fruit seemed bad because of the tsouris he was going through, Job was still a good tree and once the ‘bugs’ were removed, he again put forth good fruit.)

This is a hard thing to do because no one always has good fruit. The bad tree can produce fruit that seems good, but may be full of worms. As they say, the only thing worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm is finding half a worm. Sometimes we end up knowing that the fruit is bad only after having taken that bite.

The thing to do is throw the fruit away once we realize it is bad, but not let that turn us off to trying new fruits, or trusting in trees that seem to have good fruit.

The enemy will turn out what seems to be good fruit to get us to bite into it, and once we taste his fruits, we are in big trouble. That’s because the fruit of the enemy is extremely habit-forming. It tastes good, it makes us feel good and we want more of it because it appeals to our sinful nature, the natural part of us that is hedonistic and self-absorbed.

How do we tell the fruit of the enemy from godly fruit? Well, you keep score with your scorecard and you learn the players.

The scorecard we all need, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is the Word of God- the Bible. And we also need the announcer, who is the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, to keep us aware of all that is happening, play-by-play, so we know what is happening as we watch the game unfold.

Reading the bible is so important- you have heard me preach this to you hundreds of times, and I will never stop saying it. Reading the bible is so important (oops- there it is, again!) because it is the best way to know the good guys from the bad guys.

The fruits of the spirit are told to us by Shaul (Paul) in Galatians 5:22-23; and the 13 attributes of God are related by Moshe (Moses) in Exodus 34: 6-7. This is the “fruit” that we should look for. And no one will have all of these, but the ones who regularly show most of these fruits are the ones we should trust. The ones who only show a little are the ones we should watch very closely.

You don’t need to watch your friends, and you should never take your eyes off your enemies.

If you haven’t been using your scorecard, now is the time to get it out and track this game (like it or not, you are in the game of salvation and you need to pick a side.) Read Galatians and Exodus (as referenced above) to start, if nothing else. But that’s not enough- you really need to read the entire bible, that’s from Genesis to Revelations. Even if you aren’t Christian (i.e. you’re Jewish and not Messianic) go ahead and read the New Covenant writings. If you can, get a Messianic version so the subtle anti-Semitic references aren’t so distasteful, but read it. Yeshua (Jesus) did not create a new religion- that was Constantine. Yeshua preached and taught Torah because that was the only scripture there was. In fact, Yeshua was, is, and always will be the Living Torah.

Here’s a pre-game warmup for you regarding the time from Yeshua’s birth to about the Third Century: when He was born there were Jews and Pagans. That’s was all. After He started His ministry, there were Jews who did not accept Him as their Messiah, Jews who did, Gentiles (i.e., pagans) who accepted him and were converting to Judaism, and pagans who kept to their religion.  After Constantine “legalized” (what at that time was being called) Christianity, at the Council of Nicea it was Constantine who created the “Christian” religion which totally separated the Jews and the (now called) Christians.

When you read the entire bible, more than once, and memorize the attributes of God and the fruits of the spirit, then you will be able to hear the Ruach tell you who to trust and who to watch out for.

As Sherlock Holmes used to say at the beginning of a case, “The game’s afoot!” This game is afoot, and has been since Adam and Eve got their eviction notice. But we’re in the Ninth inning, and the game is going to end soon.

The bible tells us that the loser will have a tremendous rally in the top of the ninth inning, and it will look as if the home team (God owns the earth so He is the home team) will be too far behind to catch up. But don’t worry- this scorecard is already filled. Yeshua will hit the ultimate Grand Slam that will defeat the challengers, and everyone on God’s team will win the universe, for all eternity.

You know that credit card that ends it’s commercials with the catch phrase, “What’s in your wallet?” Well, here’s my catch phrase: “Who’s team are you on?” And don’t be fooled by anyone who says you don’t have to choose a side because that is a lie. Yeshua tells us, clearly, that whoever is not with Him is against Him. And when you read the Tanakh, that is clearly what God says, as well. Just go to Exodus 20 and read the first two commandments, if you think God is willing to cede any part of His authority or uniqueness.

So, nu? Who’s team are you on?

The Jewish Side of Why They Just Refuse to Believe

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One of the hardest things for a Jewish person to do, especially one who practices the religion (they say practice makes perfect but after a lifetime of practicing we still don’t get it right), is to accept that Jesus is the Messiah. In fact, you can barely even get anyone who is Jewish to talk with you about Him.

Maybe there’s a good reason, or even a few good reasons: the persecution that started after Rome accepted (what had become) Christianity, separated now from it’s Jewish roots and forcing Jewish people to convert or die, then there’s the Crusades (nearly as many Jews were forced to convert or be killed as Muslims were), the Inquisition, the Holocaust (the Nazi’s, believe it or not, had the saying “Gott mit uns” [God is with us] on their belt buckles)…just to name a few. All of these historical atrocities were perpetrated by “Christians” trying to get Jews to give up the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and convert to Christianity so they could worship Jesus.

I know, I know…Christians worship God. Well, sit down and hear this word: Christianity teaches idolatry. Many Christians will pray to Jesus instead of praying to God (Jesus is supposed to intercede for our prayers, not intercept them), and the Replacement Theologists say that Jews have been rejected by God because they rejected Jesus. The “Born Again” crowd often tells us that the Old Covenant is no longer valid, and I have personally heard from people who tried to be more Torah observant but their fellow Christians scolded them, accusing them of now being “under the law” instead of being “under the blood.” And just walk into any Roman Catholic church and count the graven images people bow down and pray to. To a Jewish person, all Gentile religions are “Christianity.”

If a Gentile in the 1st Century wanted to accept Yeshua as his or her Messiah, they would start to live as Yeshua did, which meant observing Torah; in other words, 1st century Gentiles (who were all Pagans) who accepted Yeshua were becoming Jewish. Nowadays, if a Torah observant Jewish person wants to accept Yeshua as his or her Messiah, they are told they can no longer be Jewish and have to become Christian, worship in a church and forget all that “Jewish” stuff. They are told, essentially, that they have to stop being a Jew to believe in the Jewish Messiah.

How stupid is that? And some people wonder why it is so hard for Jews to even listen to the truth about Messiah Yeshua!

If I hadn’t discovered Messianic Judaism, I don’t think I would have remained saved. If I had to stop being a Jew (and remember- I was not even a ‘practicing’ Jew) in order to accept Yeshua as my Messiah, I don’t think I would have lasted. Praise God that He directed me to mature Christians and a Messianic Synagogue. And a real Jewish Rabbi to show me how to be a Jewish Believer.

Jewish people have been the subject of persecution and hatred pretty much since the days of Goshen, even before they left Egypt. We’re almost used to it, although that doesn’t mean we like it. It’s easier to accept such treatment when you think you’re on the winning side, although it is a shame that many, actually most, Jews don’t realize that that isn’t going to happen without first accepting Yeshua, their true Messiah, for themselves.

That’s why it is so important to help Jewish people know the truth, and consequently so hard to get them to accept it. History is against us because history proves that accepting Jesus means giving up being Jewish. Although that is not the truth, and shouldn’t be the truth, it is a fact.

If you want to approach  a Jewish person with the truth of their Messiah, let me make a few suggestions:

1. Never use the name Jesus- His name is, was and always will be Yeshua, so use that name;

2. If you, yourself, do not believe that the Torah is valid and all who accept Yeshua should live a Torah observant life, then don’t ever talk to a Jew about Yeshua. And get your head into the game- Yeshua IS the living Torah and anyone who thinks Torah is dead might as well say Yeshua is dead;

3. Understand and emphasize with thousands of years of history which has shown for a Jew to believe in Yeshua means converting to a different religion and no longer being Jewish. You need to show that believing in Yeshua means they can stay Jewish, and is the most “Jewish’ thing they can do;

4. Introduce them to a Messianic Synagogue instead of a church- they will feel much more comfortable;

5. If you aren’t fully familiar with the Old Covenant writings, especially the predictions about the Messiah, then don’t ever talk to a Jew about Yeshua. Jews do NOT accept that the New Covenant is scripture.  In fact, they give it as much credibility as they give to the Quran or the Bhagavad Gita. You won’t get anywhere quoting the New Covenant as proof that Yeshua is the Messiah. You need to use Tanakh, and only Tanakh;

6. Once you have proven you know about Judaism, that you respect their Jewish heritage and do not want to take that away, then you might be able to talk to them about the B’rit Chadasha. And call it that- use all the Hebraic terminology you know so that everything you talk about “sounds” Jewish. To talk to a Jew about Messiah, you need to talk about His Jewishness, the Torah He taught, and that He did not create a new religion;

7. Last and most important: You cannot convince someone to listen to you by telling them they are wrong. If you want to start to get the interest of a Jewish person, you start by asking them questions why they believe what they believe. Don’t try to force your beliefs down their throat- simply ask them why they believe. Most people, Jewish or Gentile, who believe something probably do so because someone told them that’s what to believe. Most people are too lazy or unconcerned to study and try to determine the truth of something for themselves. So, if you want to get a Jewish person (or anyone, for that matter) to believe in what you have to say, you first have to get them to doubt what they already know. You do that by asking questions, as simple as , ” I know the reasons why I believe Yeshua is the Messiah God promised, please tell me why you don’t?”  Most likely it will be somewhere between “That’s what I’ve always been taught” to “Because He isn’t, that’s all.”

Jewish people have good reasons for not even wanting to hear about this guy Jesus. It is our responsibility to be understanding, patient and deliver a very “soft” sell when talking about Messiah Yeshua to them. They need to hear it, and Yeshua Himself said in Mattitayu 23:39 that He will not return until Jerusalem (i.e., the Jewish people) say “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”, so it is really important for Jewish people to learn about and accept their own Messiah, Yeshua.

It will take a lot of courage to talk to a Jewish person about Yeshua. But that’s what we need to do. Just follow the rules above and you will be OK. Remember: we can only plant the seeds, God is the one who makes them grow. So have good seed to spread around, and throw it everywhere.

The good soil is out there, you never know where, so disperse the seed of truth and salvation everywhere you go, to everyone, in the way they can receive it.

Parashah D’Varim (the words) Deuteronomy 1 – 3:22

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We are in the last of the 5 books of the Torah. This is where Moshe (Moses) reviews with the people the last 40 years of wandering, their laws and regulations, the history of their travels, warnings to stay true to God and His teachings (the correct meaning of the word, “Torah”) and his song and blessing of the people.

It has been nearly 41 years (this discourse starts on the first day of the eleventh month of the 40th year) since the rebellion at Horeb when the people refused to enter the land, and Moses recounts the fact that he assigned judges over the people to help him, the rebellion at entering the land, the decades of wandering and then, as they re-approached the land the Lord’s command that the Israelites should not battle against certain of their brothers (the Edomites, for example) but will destroy others, such as Og and Sihon. Then he told how those lands were given to the tribes of Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh but they would still fight with Israel in the land until all the land was settled. He told Joshua to be brave and to boldly enter the land knowing that God would go before them to conquer the peoples so that Israel would inherit and rule the land.

This final book is the epilogue of the life’s work of the greatest prophet in Judaism. Throughout it we will review all that happened to the children of Israel during their wanderings, constantly reminding them of the way that God had taken care of them despite the many times they rebelled and showed faithlessness. This is a review, a warning, a condemnation and a confirmation of the unique and blessed position that the children of Israel have with God.

What is important here, I believe, is that when anyone who worships God reads this, they should think of their own life. We wander through life, don’t we? Whereas the Israelites wandered at the command of God, we wander at our own command. We go from job to job, house to house, and (unfortunately, in today’s society) we also go from marriage to marriage. We wander, often aimlessly and not even knowing it, just as the Jews wandered in the desert.

And, just like them, we have God protecting and providing for us. However, the Israelites could see the rock give water, the birds gather, and the manna on the ground every morning. They saw the sea split open and the Glory of God on Mount Sinai. They could clearly and unmistakably see the miracles of God happening in their lives.

We don’t. Really, when was the last time you saw a rock split open so you could drink? Do you think that you would eat something off the ground while walking to work? Probably not.

But that doesn’t mean God isn’t providing for you. If you sit down and think, you might come to the same conclusions I have for my own life:

* when I was going from job to job, God provided all those jobs;

* when I was going through divorce, even though I wasn’t a Believer, He still kept me sane (OK, that is an arguable point), provided enough for me to survive and see my children 2 states away every weekend;

* when I met Donna God brought us together despite the worst first date ever;

* when I changed careers, God provided good people to mentor me;

* over 18 years ago, when I sought Him out, God showed me that I can be a Jew, and saved, and still be a Jew. God’s leading my wandering led me to people who helped me realize who and what Yeshua is, and that Yeshua saved me. God also led me to Messianic Judaism, which is what kept me saved. God provided all that for me. Baruch Ha Shem!!!

* God has given me salvation, the marriage I wanted with a wife whom I love more than life, a good job, financial and emotional security, friends, and even though there is still Tsouris in my life, God has carried me through it all.

This is what we can learn from this parashah; in fact, from this entire book of the Torah: God is always there, He is always helping and providing, and He will continue to do so. We may wander here and there, to and fro, but God is steady. He is always watching, never sleeping, and will care for those who care for Him. Even when we are in rebellion and He punishes us, it is not so much punitive as it is restorative- God punishes us so that we will turn back to Him. I know it sounds a little crazy, I mean really? You want me to come back to you so you send trouble on me? Yes, that is how it works with God because the reason for our rebellion is that we think we are in charge. We think that we can get it done on our own, taking care of “Numero Uno”, and all that garbage. God pulls the rug out from under us and makes us fall on our back so that the only way we can look is up-  at Him. And while there, trying to catch our breath and hurting, we have to look at Him and maybe, just maybe, doing that will remind us that it is God who can lift us up and keep us up, and that even though we wander, if we wander the way God wants us to go (meaning obeying Torah as we go) He will be there to protect and provide.

Do you ever just stop and review your life? Never, never, never do so with regrets or wondering about , “What if I had…..” because that will never move you forward. We need to remember the past, but try to filter out the dreck and recall mostly the stuff that helps us to keep going. Don’t dwell on the bad things but remember them as having passed, and recognize that you got through it because God was helping you through it.

Review your life and remember the good with the bad, but remember the bad as what God helped you through and the good as what God has, and will continue, to do for you.

Hope is a Future Thing

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{ I was rearranging some papers the other day and came upon a book of sermons and Bible teachings I have composed over the years. I couldn’t help but glance through and saw some good stuff in there (of course, it’s from the word of God so how can it be bad?) and thought I might share some now and then with you. Today it’s about hope and faith.}

The past is just that- the past. It can’t be changed and there is no hope for it: the best we can do is learn from it and let go those things that need to be let go of.

The present is just one heartbeat away from being the past. There isn’t that much hope in the present, and the best we can do is pray that we make good decisions as we react to what is happening this very second.

The future is where it’s at! It is wide open, it hasn’t been written and it can be changed. We can plan for the future (although there is the old adage: if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans) and the idea of what may lay ahead should be exciting.

There are those, however, who fear the future because it is unknown. They worry about what may happen.

Yeshua tells us in Mattitayu 6:25 not to worry about anything because we have no control over it- we can’t even add one hour to our lives. He also reminds us that God cares about every bird that falls to the ground, and He cares even more about us. We are also told that no child of God will go hungry or without a roof over his head, and that God has provided for the birds and the flowers, and He will provide for us, too.

Yet, we still worry. Why is that? Simple: lack of faith. We feel uncomfortable and worry about the future because we are still trying to control things ourselves, and since we don’t know what is coming we can’t control it. We are looking to our own power, not to God, for protection and help.

Romans 5:2 and Galatians 5:5 both talk to us about this. Faith is believing in things unseen and unproven. It was through faith, not through human endeavors, that the Patriarchs survived, that the nation of Israel lived 40 years in a desert, and the people of Judea were saved over and over from the Assyrians and Babylonians; up to the days when they stopped acting in faith. When they deserted their God, and rejected faith in Adonai, they didn’t survive.

Faith is the process by which we receive salvation: First, faith in a God unseen, then faith in His works that are seen, then faith in His justice we see when we are obstinate and reject Him, then faith in His mercy and compassion when we do T’Shuvah, then faith in Yeshua who showed Himself to be the Messiah, then faith in His crucifixion and resurrection, as the sacrifice for all of us that was accepted, and finally faith in the promise of salvation that is possible by that sacrificial death.

As we go through life we need to show this faith, and strengthen it. When you feel concerned about things, remember those times when God rescued you, recount your blessings when you are worried about the future, and remind yourself, daily, to thank God for all that He has done, is doing, and especially for what He has planned for you. God only does what is good for us, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is there with us, guiding us to the light. He will never forget nor forsake us.

If these things don’t strengthen you and give you hope for the future, then you need a good slap to the side of your head! Get with the program, and don’t you dare profess to be a good, spiritual person, a Believer in the Lord, then show people your fear and trembling. You desecrate the name of the Lord when you do that. You need to stand firm- how many times did God tell His prophets to stand firm, to be iron against the kings of the day? To speak the truth even in the face of public disgrace and anger?

You don’t have to walk around half-naked as Isaiah, or wear a yoke around your neck like Jeremiah did, but you do, if you profess to be a Believer, have to walk around without stooping in fear, you do have to show courage and trust in God, faith in His provision, so you can show the world that being a child of God is the best way to control your future.

That’s what it comes down to- control. Those who want to be in control are doomed from the start, which is why there is so much fear and anger (from frustration) in the world- we want to control that which we can’t. It’s a lose-lose proposition.

But those who trust in God, who give control over to Him, are secure and free from worry because God is the only one who can control the future- to God, the future has already happened, so He already knows exactly what is coming long before it gets to us.

Exercise your faith so that it becomes stronger. Recount your blessing, forgive people, give hope to their hopelessness through your trust in God, remember Psalm 27:1, and fear not.

God gives us a spirit of victory, not of fear, so be victorious.

Remember what Yeshua tells us in Mattitayu 19:26- “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Trust in God, lead by faith, walk fearlessly into the lions den. Daniel survived, and with faith, you will, too!

Beware of Advice: Part 2

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Yesterday we talked about how just because something seems to be alright or feels “right”, that doesn’t make it right.

We need to know what God tells us is right, and what God tells us is wrong. I do believe that “going with your gut feeling” is often the right thing to do, but only when our “guts” are in the right frame of mind.

What I mean is this: if I was someone who had a moral foundation, a conscience, and a sense of right from wrong according to normal societal mores and biblical beliefs, then my “gut” would be trustworthy. On the other hand, if I was immoral, hedonistic, and did not know or care what happened to others, my “gut” should be the last thing I listen to.

The problem, as you most likely already know, is that the people with the least trustworthy guts are the ones that believe their guts are fine. Too often we have the inmates running the asylum instead of the other way around.

There will come a time in everyone’s death (not during their lifetime, only after) when they will be in THE court- God’s courtroom. God will be sitting on His Throne of Judgement, and on one side will be the prosecution (HaSatan, the Devil, himself) and the other side will be the Defence Attorney. Satan, which means the Accuser, all throughout your life has been trying to tell you that God is a liar; he accuses God of not telling you the truth. He started that way in Eden, telling Eve that she wouldn’t die if she ate the apple (effectively saying God lied to her, right?) Now, when you need him most, he will accuse you– he will accuse you of failing to do as God commanded. And if you say that he was the one who told you to “go with your feelings”, that “if it feels good, do it”, or that you don’t need to obey the Torah because the law was done away with when Yeshua was resurrected, God will say something like, “I understand, but what he told you is not what I told you, and what I say counts!” At that  point you’re only chance to escape damnation is the argument from your defence attorney.

But wait! Where’s the defence attorney? In the courts that men run, a defence attorney is appointed to you if you don’t have one of your own, but God’s court is not like man’s court- if you don’t have a defence attorney, you are defending yourself. And if you have to defend yourself against God’s Torah, and His judgement of how well you have obeyed Torah….OY! You’re in hot water now, Baby!

However, if you have accepted Yeshua as your Messiah and asked Him to be your Saviour, you have the best defence lawyer there is, ever has been, or ever will. He makes Darrow look like a dork, Dershkowitz look like a dweeb,  and Webster look like a wimp.  Yeshua has only one argument for the defence, and it is all He needs. He says, “Father, this one is mine.”

Not guilty by means of the sacrifice; case closed (gavel slams and shofar blows); who’s next on the docket?

Here is good advice you can trust: Yeshua really is the Messiah God promised all those many, many years ago. I know if you are Jewish this is a hard word to accept, but please take it from me, a Jew who didn’t even care for most of my life, it is the truth. We have been told a lie since we were born, by people we trusted, who were told the same lie by people they trusted since they were born, back and back and back, all the way to somewhere around 100 CE. That’s my guess when the “Christian” religions started being developed by men, and Judaism and Christianity began to separate.

It went from: Jews who accepted Yeshua as Messiah and Jews who didn’t, the rest being Gentiles who were pagans;

to: Jews, Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus but were being separated from Torah by religion, and the Gentiles who were still pagans.

And the enemy has been trying to widen that gap ever since. He has been very successful at keeping both Gentiles and Jews from the truth, which makes his “kingdom” grow, meaning that there are more and more people being led away from God, and thereby, worshipping what the enemy stands for instead of what God stands for.

That’s how this works: there is no “middle ground”, there are no minor sins and major sins, there is only God’s way or the hell-way. The enemy doesn’t have to make you worship him, he only has to make you disobey God. It isn’t a choice to be bad, it’s only the choice not to do as God says. You can be a “good person” as far as the World is concerned: a loving parent, a faithful friend, go to worship every weekend, and even tithe. In fact, you can believe in Jesus, too! All of this won’t save you if you disobey God and ignore His commandments.

It takes more than just saying you believe. You need to want to do as God says, you need to provide good fruit, and you really, really need to read the Bible (the whole Bible) and accept that what God said is the way to be is as valid now as it always has been.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, any individual human being can do to save him or her self from the sin we are born into, and from our sinful nature. On our own we have no defence before the Lord. But when we have Yeshua as our defence attorney, it is His actions that save us. But we need to have him in our corner, and the way to do that is to accept His messianic calling as true, to accept we are sinners who can’t stop and ask forgiveness in Yeshua’s name (because we have no righteousness on our own), and to do T’Shuvah (to turn) from our sinfulness and live our lives as best we can doing what God said we should do.

And I mean what God said we should do, not what the Rabbi, Priest or Pastor tells you. Not what your “whatever” guru says, not what Cosmo recommends and certainly not what any other, non-Believing person tells you is alright to do.

You need to read the Bible and believe that God is in charge, Yeshua will stand for you if you stand for Him, and the enemy will do whatever he can to get you to ignore God’s commandments.

When I used to sell siding and window replacements, off telemarketed leads, often I was stopped at the front door and told that no matter what I said that person was not buying anything from me, so if I was going to try to sell him something (it was always the man who said this) I might as well leave right now. My answer was to ask him a question: “When you buy something, do you do it with no information at all about the product or do you want to know what you are buying?” The answer was, as I designed the question to elicit, always that they bought something they knew about. That was my lead to then say, “Of course you do- that’s the sensible way to buy. So, you do whatever you want to do- it’s not my decision and I won’t tell you how to spend your money. All I ask is that you let me give you the information you need to make a wise buying decision when you are ready. Is that OK?”

More often than not, the more obstinate someone was about not buying that day, the more likely I was going to make a sale.

The enemy is a better salesman than I ever was. I sold windows, I sold siding, I sold insurance, I sold estate planning, I sold advertising…all the things I sold were good products that helped people. The enemy sells pleasure, he sells ease, he sells hedonistic rewards and he sells sin, which is what we are made up of. What he sells looks like fun, it seems to be okay to have, it feels good, tastes good, and we want it. But what he is really selling is death and damnation.

God doesn’t sell anything- He is giving it away. But it costs you- you need to separate yourself from the world, you need to obey, you need to let go of friendships and family, you need to be alone in many ways from those you know and work with. The free gift of salvation is very costly in human terms; whereas the enemy sells you something that looks good but kills you, God gives you something that is hard to accept and costly in human terms, but will result in everlasting joy.

Tough call; yes, it is. It goes against our nature, but it is essential for us to make that choice. That’s why you need to know about what you are buying.

There is death for sale and salvation for the taking: learn about each so you can choose well.

God’s Curses aren’t Really from Him

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I just finished reading one of my favorite chapters from Torah- D’varim 28 (Deuteronomy). This is the chapter where Moshe tells the people about the blessings they will receive from God for obedience, and the curses they will receive for disobedience.

The blessings are about 1/3 the number of curses. This is not unusual for a covenant: if you read the covenants and warnings throughout the Tanakh, the promises of a blessing for keeping with the conditions of the covenant are nearly always followed by the promises of being cursed for violating the covenant. Except for the unconditional covenants, God tells us what blessings He will give when we obey and, if we don’t obey, how He will send terrible curses upon us.

But does God really “send” terrible curses?

Is the world a blessed place, or a cursed place? That’s the basis for my thoughts today. We are told the world was cursed from the original sin of Adam and Eve, and later in the Bible we are also told that the Enemy was thrown to Earth (not to Sheol, but to Earth), that he is the Prince of the Air (the world, not the underground) and that he is/will be given dominion over the world for a period of time.

In the Bible God often describes His desire to protect His people, Yeshua wanted to gather them like a mother hen gathers her young (under her wings for protection), and David often talked about God’s protection as being under His wings.

The Hebrew word “kaphar” means to cover, from which we get the word “kippah”, which is the covering men wear (yarmulka). It is also the way God protects us from the sinful and cursed world. When we are under God’s protective kaphar we do not suffer all the ills of the fallen and cursed world. The way we stay under God’s kaphar is the same way we stay under an umbrella someone is holding in the rain: we walk alongside that person.

When we wander off we are exposed to the world. We have lost our shield, and the curses that are in the world fall on us like an avalanche. We are especially susceptible, I think, because we are not ennured to the dreck (filth) and so the curses seem worse to the clean (formerly clean, that is) than to those who have been dirty for a long time.

That’s how God curses- passively. Whereas humans will actively try to hurt one another, God actively loves and protects us. When we reject His protection by doing what we want to do instead of what He tells us to do, we literally walk away from His covering, which leaves us totally exposed to the world. We are under an umbrella of protection, a kaphar of love and peacefulness, yet we choose to go out into the pouring rain, to chance the lightning, to get wet and cold. Why? Because we’re stupid! Duh!

God will allow us to do as we want. He sends prophets and signs to us, all the time, yes: even today there are signs and prophets, of a sort, to warn us to follow correctly. They remind us of His desire to protect us and save us from ourselves, but it rarely works. Really- it is rare. The number of people who follow God’s laws and commandments is exceptionally small. I’m not talking about the ones that say they do, I am talking about the ones that do. God told Elijah that 7,000 hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal; 7,000 out of how many people living in the Northern kingdom (Israel, or Shomron) at that time? Hundreds of thousands? Maybe over a million? And only 7,000 were faithful.

Yeshua said that many are called but few are chosen (I just did a blog on this last week- use the Search button at the bottom of the page to find it), and also that we must take the road less traveled. How many Jews are there in the world? Usually we number about 4/10 of 1 percent. And there are possibly 250,000 Messianic Believers? I looked at a website that said of all the Christians in the world, the “other” category (not Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox) represent about 2.2%. Of course, you can’t (and shouldn’t) believe anything you read on the Internet, but these numbers are not too far away from what I have heard from other sources. Those that choose God, and ‘walk the walk’, are very few.

The blessings God has for us are beyond our ability to count; in fact, they are beyond our ability to understand! How can such a powerful and awesome entity be so loving and compassionate to those that constantly accept His goodness and mercy, then bite His hand and turn against Him in a heartbeat. Yet, after our own folly and hedonistic desires cause us to hit rock bottom, when we call to Him for help He listens and brings us up from the depth of Sheol, a place we went to intentionally. And not just once, but over and over and over. Seventy times seven times. How can any human understand that? I can’t.

God’s curses are terrible, indeed, but they aren’t so much from Him as they are already here. God protects us from the curses, and when we reject Him we are, in truth, cursing ourselves. God passively, and sadly, watches us walk into the arms of the Enemy.

God’s way is not easy: it separates us from the world and, thereby, makes us an enemy of the world, whereas the real Enemy makes himself out to be a friend to the world. If you are of the world, you cannot be of God. That’s just the way it is, so when we choose the world, we lose the protective covering that God gives us. That’s why I say we really curse ourselves; God, being who He is, simply tells us that He is causing it because, uh…, well…you know something? I really don’t know why He takes the blame for it! Why would God say He will send curses our way when the curses are already here, and it is our choice to live with them?

Maybe because he is in charge of everything, and just like a good leader, he realizes that whatever happens on His watch is His responsibility?

Again, I don’t know. I never said I had all the answers, and if you think you know the answer to this question of why God takes the blame for curses we endure when we walk away from Him, please share it. Perhaps this is a question we can’t ever answer, and perhaps someone reading this has been given the answer. If you think you know why, please let us know.

The bottom line is that there are blessings for us, and there are curses, too. The blessings come from God, and the curses are already here, crouching at our door like a lion. The way we master sin is to stay away from it.

Stay under the kaphar of God. It isn’t easy walking alongside someone holding an umbrella, and often you get a smattering of the rain when you start to stray too far away or the person changes direction quickly. You need to be vigilant, every moment, and stay focused on where the person is going.

Sounds exactly like what the Bible tells us about following the Lord, doesn’t it?

The Best Self-Help Book in the World

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Have you wandered about the Barnes and Noble store lately? Once you get past the Starbucks (only place in the world you can get a good $2.00 cup of coffee for $7.00) and all the kids sitting in the aisles reading, you will see the Self-Help section. You can find “whatever” for Dummies books, DIY stuff, and any number of “How to be a Better You” books. How to overcome grief, how to have grief, how to overcome weight, how to accept yourself and your weight …whatever is wrong with you, or (more correctly) whatever you think is wrong with you, you can find a book written to tell you how to feel better about it.

There is another section, not the self-help section, but in there you will find the best self-help book in the world. Have you figured it out yet?

After all, what does a self-help book do?  It identifies an issue that people have with themselves; you can’t get a book published if there aren’t enough people interested in reading it, so it has to appeal to a number of folks. It identifies the issue, gives you a lot of third-party references to how it has affected other’s lives, and then it goes on to dissect the problem, break it down to it’s basic components, and, finally, tell you how, each piece at a time, to overcome or deal with the separate issues. In the end, the third party stories of success bombard you with how they have overcome their big problem, and you can, too.

Whoopie! For the most part, all the self-help books I have seen are ways for someone else to make money off your problems. They don’t really help. They are like the motivational speakers of the ’80’s who made a fortune telling us why we are OK, how to succeed in selling real estate, or getting better jobs, whatever, and everyone bought their tapes and books. They approached their problems eager to overcome them, they followed the program diligently for about 3 or 4 days, then almost every single one of them quit. Why? I think it’s because the basic problem with a self-help book is that the only one you really can depend on to help you is you, the one who can’t overcome the problem.

There is a story in the best self-help book I am talking about that tells a similar tale. A man was sowing his fields and the seeds fell everywhere. Some seeds took hold and grew fast but when the wind blew and the rains came the roots were too weak to sustain the plants. Others fell in good soil and grew roots but weeds sprung up all around the plants and choked them.

I guess you have identified the book I am talking about by now. Most people think of the Bible as the word of God telling us about how we all came to be, sin and salvation and what will happen in the future. Yes, it does all that. But it does more than that.

What really is the best “self-help” we can have?  Learn to deal with grief? Reduce our weight? Get in better physical condition? Deal with anger?  All of these are good things to do, but how long will they last? At best, only our lifetime. Then what?

I think the best self-help book in the world is one that doesn’t just address issues while I am alive, but carries me into the future, after I am dead, all the way to the end of Eternity!  There isn’t going to be a self-help book in the Self-Help section of B&N that will do that for you. But you will find one in the Religion Section.

I say the Bible is the best self-help book in the world because it does what I want a self-help book to do: make me better now and make that last forever. I never felt good about myself before I knew God, mainly because I knew I was doing wrong but had no real idea of how to control myself. And I had no real motivation, other than to get in trouble less. Religion kept getting in the way of my understanding who God is, who my Messiah is, and how I fit in to their plan.

I now understanding that the book is one book, Exodus through Revelations; that Old and New are not different because both are about God, His people, His salvation through a Messiah, and the Messiah’s life; how he taught us what God has been saying all along and how the Ruach (Spirit) can guide me and help me. This book is the one that showed me a real, effective and doable way to be a better me. I still had to work at it, but with the Bible as my self-help book I am not doing this alone. With God guiding me through His Ruach, I am never alone, and the one helping me is the only one in the universe that can.

The Bible teaches us that what we do is because that’s who we are- sinners. Overall, whether you believe you are too fat or too skinny, if you have anger management issues or an inability to deal with stress, bad at math or good at lying…whatever “problems” you think you have, the Bible teaches us that we are sinners and we all will sin. It also teaches us that without God we have no chance of overcoming the sinfulness of our nature.

How is telling us we have no way to overcome what we want to overcome helpful? Simple: it puts us all on the same level. One of the ways to deal with feeling bad about yourself is to realize you’re not alone. Everyone who lives, who ever lived, and who hasn’t even been born yet is in the same boat- we are born into sin and have sinful natures. You’re no better than I am and I am no worse than you are.

The Bible then tells us how to deal with the sin in our lives: simply let go of it. Give it to God. But you first need to have the relationship with God that will let you do that. And that is the ultimate answer to self-help: don’t do it yourself, let God do it for you. Of course, you are part of the process, in that you need to do a couple of things first: one is to accept you’re a sinner, two is accept God as your God and Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah, and three is ask for forgiveness; finally, ask for and accept the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) which will guide you and help you to do T’Shuvah (turning from your sin) and then start walking the path.

That’s it, in a nutshell. Form your relationship with God, and let His Spirit guide you along the path to being a better you. As I have said in the past, I am not a different me since I have been saved, but I am becoming a better me. It is a life-long journey, and knowing that it won’t happen overnight, that there is no easy way out, but that I am not going it alone is what makes it possible to get done, and to last.

The best part is because it is a journey with God as my guide, since He is eternal, my journey will become an eternal one. With any old self-help book the best I can hope for is to “improve” myself until I die; but, with the Bible, I will have what I want for myself for all eternity. I will never, ever, ever be sad or hurt or upset or depressed or feel bad about myself again, and for all time.

Spoiler alert: I will still have issues while I am in this world and in this body, with this nature. That will never change. That’s what the self-help books don’t tell you- you will always be yourself. You see, their sales pitch is that the writer can make you a different person. Bull!!  Let’s get real, people: you are a sinner, you want to sin, you enjoy sin, and sin is the natural and comfortable choice for you.

That’s why the Bible is the best. It tells you like it really is, who and what you are (in fact, what we all are ) and how to overcome it. You can’t change what you are, but you can learn to overcome it. The choice is simple: do I want some human being to tell me, totally on my own, what to do to overcome something,  or do I want the God of Heaven, Creator of the Universe, Lord of Lords and King of Kings to help me overcome it? Gee, let me think about that one. DUH! 

Think about this: you can get a self-help book and deal with your issue during your lifetime, with the only help being yourself and some other person who you will never even talk to, then face God with nothing but your book in hand and the author (possibly) already going to the down staircase.  Or, accept God and Yeshua, receive the Holy Spirit then deal with your issue during your lifetime with the help of God Almighty, who is always there to guide and support you through the indwelling Ruach, and when you face God you will have Yeshua standing next to you saying, “This one is mine, Father.”  Then be blessed and joyful throughout all Eternity. Guaranteed.

Nu? Which seems better to you?

Under Attack: Good Thing or Bad Thing?

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Are you under attack? Do you think the Enemy is trying to get you to do things that will separate you from God?

If so, that is actually a good thing, isn’t it? I mean, if you are getting so close to God that the Enemy sees that as a threat to him, then the attack means you are doing something right. Doesn’t it?

That may not help make things feel better, because an attack is, well, an attack. It’s never fun. But it does mean  you are on the right track.

I don’t feel like I’ve ever been attacked. Really. I often review myself and think, “Why am I so blessed? Why aren’t I going through real Tsouris?”  And the only answer I can come up with is that I am not getting any closer to God today than I was yesterday.

That’s not a good thing- that’s a bad thing. I am not growing, spiritually.

Maybe I am being blessed; so much so, in fact, that I am under the kippur (covering) of the Lord so that the Enemy can’t get to me. That sounds wonderful, but I really can’t see myself there. I just don’t! I still have wrongful thoughts, I look at pretty women just a little longer than I should (not that I lust with my eyes, I just, oh, let them linger there for an extra second or so), when I get frustrated I still spew forth a stream of expletives that can make the sailors blush (once a Marine, always a Marine- in both spirit and language), and I…well, let’s just say there are a few more items on the list. I like to joke that I don’t want to be perfect because of what happened to the last perfect Jewish boy. In truth, I can’t be perfect, and I would like to be closer to God than I am now. Even at the risk of coming under attack.

I guess I have to try harder. I have to work more at taking up my execution stake and following Yeshua more closely. I need to die more to self, to empty the sin from my soul so that there is more room for the Ruach HaKodesh to fill the space that is left there with His righteousness.

I know this sounds really stupid, but I kinda wish that I was under attack more. I would feel that I am doing something right. But let me also state that NOT being under attack is the preferred way to go through life, and being protected by God is better than anything there is.

So, Lord…if you’re reading this, and you are spreading your wings over me like a mother hen spreads her wings over her chicks, please don’t think I am ungrateful or that I don’t want to be here. What I want is to please you, to do what is right in your eyes. I want what David asked for: that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to thee, always.

If you are under attack, look to the Ruach for support and help, and recognize that the attack is not just because the Enemy has nothing else to do- it is because you are doing something worthy of attack. You are getting closer to God, and that is a good thing. Suffer through, for perseverance can build your faith and strengthen your spirit; that’s what Jimmy said, and he is right.

Of course, you may also be under the rod of God. Don’t forget we gain strength and comfort from His rod and His staff; the staff to gently lead us, and the rod when we refuse to listen. Being under attack may not always be the Enemy trying to separate you from God. It may be God trying to get you back on the right path. Either way, if you feel under attack take a really close look at yourself: if you know you are doing what God wants, it’s the Enemy, so stay the course. If you truthfully know you have wandered off the true way, it’s God wanting to direct you back, so get on track.

I don’t really want to be under attack, and I am happy and grateful if I can avoid it. Maybe God is protecting me, maybe the Enemy is waiting for a more opportune time. Remember Cain? God told him that sin is crouching at his door, as it is for all of us. Maybe the real attack is yet to come? Whatever. I am ready, and I think the best defence is a strong offence- believe me, no one is more offensive than me- so I will keep trying. I will continue to work to get closer to God, and to do what is right in His eyes.

Being under attack could be a good thing, it could be a good sign, but not being under attack is even better. I pray that no one reading this is under attack, and if so, won’t be for much longer. There is always hope in the Lord, and that is what the Enemy wants to take away from you. He cannot, nor can anyone, take away the promise of salvation, but we can throw it away, so when you are under attack hold tight to the Lord and His promises. That is your anchor.

Fight back, stay the course, win the ultimate laurel wreath. Attacks are bad things that represent a good thing- keep in mind the good thing is that you are getting closer to God and when you come through the fire you will be more refined, like much fine gold. The purer the gold, the less it tarnishes.