Tag: messianic

Did Jacob Really Steal the Inheritance?

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You see it all the time in Crossword puzzles: Bible twin (4 letters) . The answer is, of course, Esau. And one of the best known Bible stories is the story of how Jacob forced Esau to sell his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. Oh, let’s not forget that Jacob also stole the blessing for the firstborn by lying to his father, Isaac, and pretending to be Esau.

Truth be told, Jacob was a sly little devil. He was a “Mama’s Boy”, the stay-at-home type, and he married into a family just as sneaky as he was: Laban fooled Jacob into marrying Leah before Rachael, he tried 10 times to change the conditions of his wages, which Jacob reversed to his own benefit,  and Rachael lied to her brother after she stole the family gods when Jacob returned to Canaan.

Seems they were really not a very honest bunch. That’s what it looks like, until we look a little deeper.

First off, Esau was a very “passionate” man, meaning that he was a real macho-macho. Hairy, big, strong, smelly, and he loved to hunt. Jacob was the brains of the family, studious and, yes, a Mama’s Boy in every respect. Then again, he had the penultimate Jewish mother. Esau was all about the moment, and when he was hungry and over-dramatized his condition, Jacob took advantage of Esau’s lack of respect for his own birthright. C’mon, really- did Esau meet Jacob miles away from any civilized area? Was Jacob in the middle of the desert cooking lentil stew? Of course not- Jacob was home. Esau could easily have found something to eat, but he was desperate in his own mind and traded the birthright with no concern or respect for it. When you read that passage it also says Jacob gave him bread and something to drink, as well. Free refills, too, so Jacob wasn’t really as selfish as we may think he was.

Later, when Rebekah knew that Isaac was going to give his blessing to Esau, she is the one who came up with the idea of having Jacob get the blessing, instead. Maybe it was because she favored Jacob, maybe it was because she didn’t want Isaac’s blessing to be wasted on Esau, maybe (even though you can’t make an argument from nothing, and the Bible says nothing about this) because she knew about the sale of the birthright.

Here’s something to ponder: if Jacob did own the birthright of the firstborn, then didn’t he also own the blessing that goes with it? That’s what I find to be an interesting interpretation of the “stealing the blessing” story. If the blessing for the firstborn is tied to and part of the birthright of the firstborn, then as owner of the birthright Jacob was entitled to that blessing, and Isaac was (unknowingly) going to give it to Esau, who did not deserve it anymore. Rebekah didn’t do anything wrong; even though it was underhanded, she did, in fact, secure for Jacob what was rightfully his. Did she know about the sale of the birthright? I don’t know- it doesn’t say in the Bible. In the end, though, I think Jacob did deserve the blessing because he owned the birthright.

What do  you think?

Throughout the Bible we see the first born not getting the firstborn’s blessing: Jacob was over Esau, Joseph was over Reuben, Ephraim was over Manasseh, Solomon was over Amnon. Jacob may have been the first son who was not firstborn to receive the blessing of the firstborn, but he wasn’t the last one.

We don’t have to worry about who gets which blessing anymore. Thanks to Yeshua, we all have the blessing of the firstborn- we are children of God and all who accept the Grace of God are equal inheritors of the blessings of eternal joy and peace. Yeshua tells us there are many rooms in His Father’s house, and He will prepare one for each and every one of us. All who believe in Yeshua and accept Him as their Messiah receive the blessing of the firstborn. But better than that, it is not a blessing from an Earthly father, but our blessing is from The Father, God.

Next time you read this story, when you come to where Jacob had to fool his father to get the blessing he had purchased with the birthright, remember how Yeshua purchased that blessing for us; not with lentil stew but with His blood.

Hmmmm…..I just had a thought: the stew was red, and so was the blood of Messiah, and with that “red stuff” the blessing of the firstborn was purchased. Maybe the story of Jacob also contains a Messianic prophesy?

Where’s the Love?

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I read in Dear Abby this morning how a teenage girl felt she didn’t fit in, and asked Abby for a booklet she wrote about how to be liked by others. I remember that Andrew Carnegie, the great Steel King, wrote a book about how to win friends and influence people. In fact, there are many self-help books, and people on the lecture circuit, telling those who feel they are unappreciated, feeling that no one likes them, or generally feeling unloved how to find  the love they are missing.

People want to be liked. We are a social animal, traveling in packs, seeking others who are like we are. Yet, the divorce rate is almost as high as the marriage rate, children are killing children, and the news is full of nothing but murder, rape, and deceit.

Why? Well, yes- it’s a cursed world (follow my ministry blog and you will hear me say that a lot!) and we are all sinful sinners (also heard from me often), so it all makes sense, doesn’t it? That we should have so much tsouris in the world, right?

Yes. That’s right. But it isn’t just because there are so many people who feel unloved. The real problem is not about our feeling unloved or disliked, it’s that we are looking to the wrong source of love. Like the song says, we are looking for love in all the wrong places and looking for love from all the wrong faces. The Manual tells us what to do: we should be looking to the one, true source of the only love that counts, the only love that lasts, and the only love that is truly trustworthy, and that is God’s love for us. His love is absolute and faithful; His love is what keeps us going; His love is going to shape us and strengthen us to overcome the evils in the world; His love is what saves us from destruction on an Eternal level.

His love is perfect, and the only love we don’t need to look for because He has it for every, single person that has ever been born, is living today, and will be born in this world until the end of time as we know it.

WOW! What a statement! You won’t find any human love that can match that.

Now, with that being said, don’t think that I am saying we don’t need the love of each other, or that it is not necessary or correct to seek out human love. It is absolutely necessary and normal; in fact, God commands us to love each other. If you feel unloved, Abby and Andy and most everyone else has the correct cure for that- to be loved, you need to love. That’s really all there is to it- love isn’t something we are entitled to. It’s not owed to you. Love is not something that you deserve to be given, it is something that must be returned. Think of it as an emotional rebate- you give enough of it and you will get some back.

That’s another thing about love that we all need to understand- it isn’t an “Even Steven” sort of thing. You should give love without expecting anything back.  Unrequited love is the stuff sad stories are made of, the “Love Triangle” where everyone loves someone, but no one is loved by the one they want to be loved by. It is historically the meat of romance writers, a never-ending human tragedy, but not to me. What I get from God’s word is that we should love others as ourselves, not that we should love others to be loved. It is, to me, something I should give without expecting or demanding back. It is like when Yeshua says if someone wants your cloak, give them your shirt, as well. And if someone asks you to carry their pack for a mile, carry it for two. And if someone asks you to lend them something they need, give it to them, instead.

Humans do things altruistically, with the selfish intent of getting it back. It’s all about “Now you owe me one” instead of what God wants us to do, which is to give freely (the Manual tells us that God loves a cheerful giver.) God provides us blessings so that we can share them with others.

“Whoa! Hold up a minute here…if God can bless me, why do I have to share it? Why can’t God bless the ones that need it?” I have an answer for that- it’s to allow you to be able to do God’s work. It’s all about giving us a chance to be more like Him. The more God blesses us with finances or talents, the more we should share those gifts with others, which is exactly what God did for us. We are constantly told throughout the Tanakh that we are to be holy, for He is holy. One way we can do that is to share the blessings we have with those that do not have as many blessings. Yeshua said we will always have the poor- perhaps that’s so that we who have more can be able to share it with those that have less. Perhaps the poor are here for our benefit- to allow us to glorify God by sharing what He has provided to us with others. Think about that.

I tell my wife, who I love with all my heart and who makes my life complete, that she is the most important thing in the world to me, but second to God overall. God is not of the world, and He, alone, is the most important thing there is. I also add that finishing a close second to the Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Creator of the Universe and Lord God Almighty, is not too bad a place to be.

When you give a gift at a party or wedding, don’t expect one back. If you ask people to come to your party or house, or any event you host, don’t do so expecting they will invite you to their next affair. And if you have anything that you consider to be valuable, share it. If it’s of importance to you, it should be shared, joyfully and without expectation of recompense,  so that you can allow God’s gifts to you to be a blessing to others. That’s what it is all about- giving without expecting back. That is what God gave to us- He took off the robes of Majesty and wrapped Himself in rags of humanity, He suffered ills and sicknesses (see Isaiah) and allowed Himself to be ridiculed, beaten, nailed to a tree and to die a slow, painful death. Why? To get an award? To be honored at a banquet? Of course not! He did it because He loves us and wanted to give us what He has- Eternal life and joy.  And He did that knowing that  most everyone alive, then and for all time, would reject Him and hate Him. Yeshua said there is no greater love than that one gives his life for a friend. You probably won’t have to go that far during your lifetime, and in comparison, to give food, money, help, clothing, or even just compassion…whatever someone needs to make them feel loved and appreciated… is not so much, is it? Besides, that is what we are commanded to do.

You want to be liked? You want to be loved? Good- there’s nothing wrong with that.  Just make sure you go about it the right way, which is to love others, to treat them as you want to be treated, and to do so without ever wanting or expecting anything back. Give in secret, help without bringing attention to yourself; your Father in heaven will see, and you will be greatly loved.

The answer to the question, “Where’s the love?” is that it’s with God, and he placed it inside you. You got it from God when you were still in the womb, and He wants you to give it to everyone else, happily, without expectation. When you give love, you will get love.

 

Who Needs a Messiah?

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When I was taking courses for my Certificate in Messianic Studies, one of the questions was “Why do we need a Messiah?” At first you may think ,”What a silly question from a course that teaches about Messianic Judaism and Yeshua!”

Then, again, when you think about it, maybe it isn’t so silly because the answer is: everyone; yet, not everyone will agree. Most of the people I know who are Gentile (not Born Again) were raised being taught about Jesus and salvation their whole lives, and you would think they would know all about the need for a Messiah. But the impression I get is that they are taught that, so long as they are a good person, they get to go to heaven because Jesus died for their sins. It’s like a Third-Party Salvation, there’s no “ownership” of their own sinfulness and personal need for Yeshua. He died for their sins means that just be a good person and you’re in.

What is good? Is it being nice to people? Is it not murdering? Is it treating animals with affection? Yeshua told us- in the B’rit Chadasha (Good News, or Gospels) when a man addresses Yeshua as, “Good Rabbi”, Yeshua says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but my Father in Heaven.” WOW!! The Messiah, the Son of God, the Suffering Servant and Victorious King says He is not good. If He’s not good, what are we? Isaiah got it right- we are worms, and our righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags (menstrual rags is the actual translation) compared to God.

We all need a Messiah to save our eternal soul. Of course, many do not believe in the concept of a “soul”. Many do not believe in God and are convinced that we are all responsible for ourselves and are accountable only to our own beliefs. Do these people need a Messiah? Of course they do, they just don’t know it!

There is a God who created everything we know, and even things we don’t know about yet. He is our Father who loves us. He is also the judge of the world, who cannot judge any way but justly, holding us all accountable for our words and actions. The Torah teaches us that if we break even one commandment we have broken them all, and we all are sinners. David tells us in Psalm 40:12 his sins are greater than the hairs on his head. This from a man G-d said was a man after His own heart! Need more?- Proverbs 20:9 asks “Who can say I am without sin?”. The answer is no one.  The Gospel story of the woman accused of adultery (John 8:7) has Yeshua asking all the “righteous” men in the town to throw a stone if they are without sin. Not even a pebble was tossed. 1 John 1:8 sums it up for all of us- if we claim to be without sin we are just deceiving ourselves.

We all have sin, and are sinners from the moment we were born, born into a sinful world. The only way we can be cleansed of our sin, and thereby be with God, is to atone through the shedding of innocent blood (Lev. 17:11). The problem is that this atonement was to be made at the Temple, which no longer exists. This leaves us in a quandary- we need to atone but cannot do so because the physical Temple of God is no longer in existence. So where can we turn to? We can turn to the Messiah, who was the atonement for our sin (Isaiah 53). Only through Him can our sins be atoned for in accordance with the sacrificial system God put in place from the beginning of time.

So the answer to the question, “Why do people need a Messiah?” is this: to atone for the sin we all have so that we can be in the presence of God through all time. It is up to those of us who understand this to help those who do not acknowledge it to see the truth of God’s Plan of Salvation, the means of how we are saved, and thereby expose the lies of the Enemy that they have been taught to believe.

Parashah Ki Tavo (When You Come)

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This parasha continues with the commandments regarding how the people are to behave when they enter the Land (ha Eretz). It tells them to write the entire Torah on plastered rocks and to stand, 6 tribes on one mountain and the other 6 on another one, and pronounce the blessings and curses that the people are subject to while in the Land. Chapters 28 and 29 specify, in somewhat graphic detail, the blessings for obedience and the curses (this is where it gets graphic) for rejecting the laws, thereby rejecting God.

But does God really curse us? God is good, all the time! We hear that often during services, and it is in the Manual, too. We also hear that God is the same: yesterday, today and tomorrow. Totally dependable. Loving and compassionate. Patient and forgiving; in fact, more than just willing to forgive, He wants to forgive!

We know God will judge, but we also know His judgments are infused with mercy.

However, He is God, and will do whatever He wants to do, however He wants to do it. We trust, and we should, that what He does is just and holy. God is loving, fair, merciful and compassionate, and he wants us to have only the best there is.

So, nu? With all that going for Him, why would He curse us just because we want to do our own thing? He gave us free will, right? He lets us make our own decisions, right? So, if we decide to ignore some, or all, of His rules why be so vengeful and nasty? I mean, c’mon, God- live, and let live. You go your way and I’ll go my way. No need to be all “up-in-my-face” about it. I’ll leave you alone and you leave me alone. Okay?

Actually…that is exactly what he does.

Remember that the world is a cursed place. It was cursed with the sin that Adam and Eve committed, and has remained cursed. In fact, Satan was thrown not to Sheol (hell), but to Earth. If you sometimes think it is hell on Earth, well- you’re right! It is.

God’s blessings are a kippur, or covering. It is the umbrella that protects us from the raining down curses that we must endure while we live in this world. We have the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, coming soon. Kippur means covering, and that is really what atonement does for us: when we atone before God, when we do T’Shuvah and (literally) turn from our sins, He covers us with His protection from the world, i.e., blessings. You see, things start off lousy- we are born into sin, with a sinful nature (Yetzer Hara) and into a sinful, cursed world. The wonderful things that happen to us are the exception, not the rule. Those exceptions happen because God covers us with His blessings. Yeshua said He wished He could cover Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) like a mother hen covers her chicks under her wings. Often, David used the term “under the wings”, an image of being covered and protected, in his psalms about how God cares for us.

We are given free will, and we can do whatever we want regarding the laws and commandments God has ordered us to obey. But we need to be ready for the consequences.

Does God curse us? I say no, because he doesn’t need to. We start off cursed, in a cursed world. God wants to cover us, to give us His Kippur, and we can choose to go to Him and stand under His protection, or we can choose to say, “Thanks, but no thanks” and stand alone, unprotected in the midst of tsouris.

I think many people just don’t like being told what to do; yes, we are sheep easily led astray. But we are also stiff-necked and stubborn, prideful and egocentric. The way we are easily led astray is that anyone who promises us hedonistic pleasures and autonomy will have a following more numerous than the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. What God tells us to do is for our best interest and will lead to Eternal pleasure, but (sadly) we prefer to do what feels good now and ignore the Eternal consequences. We like to be “eased” into obedience, but that is not how it works with the Lord. He doesn’t ask, and He doesn’t need to ask, just like when I was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps I didn’t need to ask an enlisted man to do something. Even the Roman soldier who told Yeshua, by means of servants, that Yeshua did not need to come to his home to cure the sick slave, knew that was true because Yeshua had the authority to do so, wherever He was. God is THE ultimate authority in the Universe. He, and He alone, has the right and the power to enforce telling us what to do. Yes, he could send horrible curses upon us, but he doesn’t use that power- He doesn’t need to. He chooses instead to lovingly, and (I believe from what I read in the Bible) regretfully leave us to our own devices.

People curse each other- we willingly desire that bad things happen to someone else and if we could make it happen, we would. We actively curse each other. God does not actively curse us- His “curses” are passive, in that His curse is the result of us rejecting Him, and thereby throwing off His Kippur from the already cursed world. God doesn’t throw us under the bus- we run into the road and lay down in front of the bus all on our own.

Obey God, believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and accept Him as your Messiah, follow the commandments and you choose life: a life of blessings and an Eternity in the presence of the Almighty. If you prefer to do as you please, reject Yeshua and thereby reject God’s plan of salvation for yourself,  you choose Eternal suffering. You may have one heck of a good life on earth- the sinful know how to get what they want (there’s an interesting parable about that in Luke), but in the end, you are choosing death.

It’s your choice.

 

Spiritual Aspirin

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When someone hurts us by being cruel, or spiteful, or just by accident, it is hard to let it go. I know about this because I have been hurt, and seen my children used and abused (given medications they didn’t need and emotionally conditioned) as an attempt to “get back” at me. Now they don’t even want any part of me, except my money. Yeah- it’s OK to send them money but don’t have any other contact.

Sorry, kids- Luv ‘ya but it don’t work that way.

I am sure many of you have had similar experiences- shunned at work, exploited at home, maybe much worse. By strangers or friends, or even family.

It hurts and all we want to do is make it stop hurting. But how?

The cure is almost harder to accept than the hurt: we need to forgive. Forgiving the person who hurts us is, really, the only way to make the pain go away. You may always be a little “sore” but the pain will fade as you get better at forgiving.

“That jerk doesn’t deserve my forgiveness! Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to forgive them.”  Understood. Acknowledged, and I will even go as far as to say I know just how you feel. But it’s not your choice- God commands us to forgive. In Mattiyahu (Matthew) we are told that if we don’t forgive on Earth our Heavenly Father will not forgive us. And the Lord’s Prayer asks God to forgive us as we forgive others; in other words, measure out to us as we measure out to others. That means if we don’t, He won’t. Hmm….maybe I should revisit my attitude.

In Proverbs we are told that we should give our enemies food and drink, and it will be like pouring hot coals on their head. The idea (I think) is not to be vengeful but to wake them up- make them suffer the indignity of what they did to us by being compassionate to them. Perhaps they will do T’Shuva, and save themselves from Sheol.

In Ezekiel God says He gets no pleasure from seeing the sinner die; rather, he would prefer that the sinner turn from his sinful ways and live. Aren’t we supposed to be holy, as He is holy? We can get closer to God by forgiving.

To err is human; to forgive, Divine. DUH !!!

The other thing to remember is that Proverbs tells us not to return evil for evil, but wait upon the Lord. He will judge. If you think that someone doesn’t deserve forgiveness, you are actually taking the place of God. Not something He is very likely to appreciate, ya know?

I have found, for myself, that forgiveness is one of the hardest things I have to do as a Believer. I discovered something that makes it easier, and I would like to share that with you, hopefully to make it easier for you, too.

Pray for them. That’s right- pray earnestly for the people who hate you and have done you wrong; who have hurt you; who have hurt those you love. When I pray for them, I don’t ask God to forgive them because that decision is actually between them and God. That’s not my place to tell God what to do, but I can ask Him to help them come to Him. I pray they find salvation.

Another way I help myself into being able to pray for someone who has hurt me is to look into the future, and imagine what that person will be facing when they come to judgement. The hurt they caused is finite, and the quicker I pray for them and forgive them for what they did to me, the quicker I will stop hurting. Emotional pain is like a log in my eye: when I remove the log (through forgiveness) I can see the truth about what they will have to endure, for all Eternity. That certainly is nothing compared to what they did to me, which will be nothing more than a faded memory, if even that, when I come into His Glory in the Acharit HaYamim.

It sounds easy enough, but so does anything else until you try it. Truth is, I still get angry and feel the pain of certain things. Deep cuts take a long time to heal, and they always leave a scar. But with God’s help (yes, you most certainly can ask God to help you forgive), the guidance found in His Word, and the peace I receive from the Ruach, I am getting better and better at forgiving.

The more I forgive, the less it hurts. Forgiveness is spiritual aspirin that makes the pain go away.

Here’s another way to look at it: when you forgive something it is easier to forget about it. When you don’t forgive, you end up reliving it, and the pain just keeps coming back. It’s like tearing off the scab before it can heal. And here’s a hard truth that you must accept- if you keep reliving the pain, it is not their fault anymore! That’s right- they hurt you, that was a one-time deal. If the person, or people, hurt you over and over, it is still the same thing.  Each time you relive it, you are now the one hurting yourself. Now it’s your fault, not theirs. Rehearsing our anger is like throwing gasoline on a fire about to die.

If you want to stop hurting, you need to stop reliving the event and forgive the person. Start out by praying for their salvation, and move on. Let their ultimate forgiveness stay between them and God; you do what is right in God’s eyes regarding your own actions. He wants…no, He commands… you to forgive those who hurt you. Obey the Lord. It ain’t easy! Man-o-Manischevitz , it is hard to do!  But do it, we must.

Forgiveness is the only way to make the hurt go away. I know it’s a lousy turn of events. First this piece of work, this sorry excuse for a human being, this so-and-so does horrible things to me and now God tells me I have to forgive them. And if I don’t, I will never feel better. It sounds like a no-win situation.

It’s not; in fact, it’s a win-win because when you forgive you not only make the hurt go away, but you receive God’s blessings in your life. He will bless you for your obedience, and you will be so much better off that you will even start to think (maybe) that the sin against you was itself a blessing in disguise because of the spiritual maturity it helped you to achieve.

Okay, maybe that’s a little far-fetched. But not too much.

Look back in your life and see if there are still scabs that are haven’t healed, wounds festering in your heart and hurts that won’t go away. Pray for that person who sinned against you and see if you don’t feel better. Do it honestly, do it heart-fully, do it trustingly. I really believe that you will feel better, because it has worked for me.

Take spiritual aspirin and call on Him in the morning.

No Statute of Limitations on God’s Commandments

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One of the favorite Biblical quotes for people who are (what I like to call) “Buffet Believers” is from Mattityahu (Matthew). It’s when Yeshua tells His Talmudim that He came to fulfill the law.

I have heard Christian teachings interpret this statement that having fulfilled the law meant it has been completed, thereby doing away with it. This misinterpretation is then confirmed, incorrectly, with Shaul’s writings in Romans, where he is writing to justify the validity of Torah but it has constantly and historically been used as a polemic against Torah, instead of the apologetic it was designed to be. They also use statements taken out of context in other Epistles. They uniformly forget the statements that remind us we are still to obey God’s commandments, such as some found in Timothy and throughout Shaul’s letters.

The truth is that the commandments in the Torah (all 613 of them) are just as valid today as they were when Moshe brought them to the people. There is no statute of limitations on God’s commandments. They are “throughout your generations.” That is pretty clearly another way of saying forever. And anyone who teaches that the laws found in Torah are only for Jews and not for Christians is teaching you a lie from the pit of Sheol. And, by the way, Yeshua warned that those who transgress the law and teach others to do so will be least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

There’s a lot in that one statement to think about; for me, mainly, it seems to imply that even if I sin and teach others to sin, I can still be in the Kingdom of Heaven. Can that be true? Maybe we can discuss that another time.

The true interpretation of what Yeshua said about fulfilling the law can only be realized within the proper context; in this case, a cultural and linguistic context. In First Century “Rabbi-speak” to fulfill the law meant to interpret it correctly. To transgress the law, or trespass against it, meant to misinterpret it. Funny how people like to say, “Yeshua said He fulfilled the law, so since He completed it we are now saved by His sacrifice and not by Torah. We are Born Again! We don’t need Torah.”

OK. So, if Torah is not needed anymore, can I sleep with your wife? If you don’t like that, can I kill you so you’re out of the way? If I like your car, can I steal it? What? No? Am I crazy? All those things are a sin? But you just said the Torah was done away with!  Oh- not all the Torah.  I see, we are only subject to the moral laws, but not the ceremonial ones (that’s another wrong teaching.) I see….so, nu? Who can tell me which is a moral law and which is ceremonial?

Usually the moral laws are the ones that we have to follow because they are civil laws, too, but anything dealing with what we don’t want to do, like give up shrimp cocktails before our ham dinner, well, that’s a ceremonial law.

I wonder why God, in all His wisdom, didn’t mention that when He told us how to live? As I recall, all God said was do this and don’t do that. No separation of moral, civil, ceremonial, or whatever; it’s His way or the hell-way. That’s it.

Did you ever think about this: if God said the commandments are valid forever, and Yeshua taught that they are no longer valid, doesn’t that mean Yeshua called God a liar? That Yeshua, the Son of God, sinned by not respecting his Father because He taught us to do things that the Father said not to do. And, if Yeshua was a sinner, His death could not be an acceptable sacrifice, so our promise of salvation is unfounded and we are not saved! 

Not a very pleasant thought, is it? But, if you want to go around saying that Yeshua fulfilled the law and did away with Torah, that Believers are not subject to the laws God gave us, that you are under the blood and not under the law…well, I hope you have a high tolerance to heat.  

That’s why I call those people Buffet Believers- they pick what they like and leave what they don’t like. I feel bad for them, because they are being taught incorrectly, and like innocent sheep just enjoying the grass, they are eating their way right into the wolf’s den.

It’s really quite simple- God gave us rules, regulations, mitzvot, and commandments: none of which are subject to choice. He said do these and we will be blessed, don’t do them and we will suffer curses. And these laws are for us to follow throughout our generations (look it up- check me out and make sure I am stating this accurately), which doesn’t mean until Yeshua comes.

It’s true that Torah cannot justify us: not because Torah is invalid or done away with, but because we can’t live up to Torah. Even though there is nothing too difficult for us to do in Torah, because we can’t overcome our sinful nature we can’t live Torah correctly. As Shaul said, Torah was a guardian, and it defined for us the difference between sin and holiness. Yeshua died because we couldn’t live under Torah correctly. He didn’t do away with Torah, He lived Torah correctly. He was an example to follow, he showed us the way- you don’t show how to do something so that no one ever does it, do you? If I showed you the safe passage in a mine field, would you then feel that you can walk anywhere in that field you wanted to?  BOOM!!!

Look, when you find the passage I am referencing in Mattiyahu, check out the very next statement Yeshua makes. After He says He came to fulfill the law, He continues to say that not one single stroke, i.e. letter, of the Torah is changed. Duh!! Yeshua said He didn’t come to change Torah, and He also said nothing will change in Torah until the Acharit Hayamim (End Days) are done.

If you are waiting to be “released” from the Torah, you will need to wait a while longer. The only Torah commandments we don’t perform are the 1/3 or so of them that deal with the sacrificial system because, for one, the Temple where the sacrifice was to be made is gone (so we can’t perform the commandment) and, two, because the ultimate and final sacrifice was made through Yeshua’s death. Those are the only Torah commandments we are exempt from following today- everything else is valid. Sorry- too bad. No more pork rinds watching basketball, Shabbat starts Friday night, Christmas and Easter are out for the remainder of the game.

If you want to please God, if you want to receive His blessings, if you want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, then do so. Read the Torah, follow the Torah, stop pretending you’re at some restaurant buffet table and realize that you are an honored guest at God’s table. Yeshua told His Talmudim, when He sent them out to the surrounding cities and towns, that when they are in someone’s house they should eat what they are given. God’s table is set with all types of food (commandments), and we are to eat what He provides.

It’s impolite to tell God, “No thanks- I don’t like that.”

 

 

Seek and Ye Shall Find

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To those of you who have decided to follow along, and for those of you who look now and then, my great appreciation goes out to you. I pray this ministry is acceptable and useful to you in maturing your relationship with God.

Today I would like to explain why you will rarely see me give chapter and verse. It’s not because I am lazy, and it’s not because I don’t know them (although I don’t always remember each one).

It’s because people are lazy. We are all sheep, easily led astray (OK, I will tell you that one is in Elijah) and that is why so many people are blind followers being led by blind leaders who just repeat what they have been told, over and over. No one goes to the Manual to see for themselves. People leave synagogue or church and say,”What a great message!” but they don’t go home and verify what they heard in the Bible. I will not foster or enable spiritual laziness.

This is a hard word, but I challenge anyone out there to tell me I am wrong. To tell me that they don’t know people who profess to love the Lord, and even do good things in His name, but only read what they are told to read and follow where they are told to go. Yeshua said when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into a pit.

I don’t think I am blind, but if I am to look for the log in my own eye, I start with a handicap, don’t I? I mean…I have a log in my eye! Geeze- how can I see straight if I have this log in my eye?

That’s why I read the Manual (with my good eye, of course) and try to always let the Ruach lead me. I listen, with attentiveness and respect, to the teachings I receive from those I trust, and from some extra-biblical books. There is always something more I can learn. What I want to get from my studies, more than anything, is what God has for me. And what He has, He has in the Bible. That is His word, His personality, His spiritual truth. It’s all there. And if I want to know it, I need to read it, to research it, to absorb it. I need to try as best I can to allow God to do what He said He will do for me- write His Torah on my heart (you should find that one yourself. I’ll give you a hint: the New Covenant is not in the New Covenant.)

No one else, and I mean no one, can tell me what God has for me. Only the Holy One of Israel, the Lord God, can tell me what He has for me, and He does that through His word and through His Ruach.

That’s why I won’t tell you where these lessons are, and I challenge you to take the time to find them. They are there, but I can only tell you what God tells me it means.

If you want to know what God is saying to you, go to His word and find out.What’s so wonderful….scratch that, start over…One of the many things that is so wonderful about the Bible is that it never says anything just once. Every lesson, every truth, everything that is important is repeated, over and over, in the different stories, the historical events, and the words of the Prophets throughout the book. Old or new, there is no difference- it is all the word of God, and the lessons are there, over and over. You need to look for them, because where I find one lesson is not necessarily where you will find it. And where you find it may be the best place for you to receive what God wants YOU to know.

I can find many places where we are told to love the Lord, and many places where we are told to love each other, and many places where we see the attributes of God (the best known place is in Exodus- see if you can find it) and it is important that you know where they are, too. But don’t find them because I tell you where to look: find them for yourself through the leading of the Ruach HaKodesh. .

Shaul told one of the Kehillot (the Christian version of this word is “church”) that they should be ready for meat, but they are still only able to drink milk. You, my friends, my brothers and sisters, need to have meat. If you are new to Yeshua, new to salvation, then milk is right for you, and that is why I do give hints about where to look, but good habits should be developed early on.  So, if you are new to salvation, please learn now to seek and find the Lord’s meanings and truths the way you need to- on your own. If you are given a lesson or teaching and told where it is, seek it out and make sure that what God told the person teaching is the lesson He has for you from that message. I can give a great lesson, but you may get a greater understanding when you look for it yourself in His word and let the Ruach tell you what it means for you.

I can only plant the seed; you need to water it with the Living Water of Life, Yeshua ha Mashiach. Let God talk to you, let Him confirm to you, personally, what I may be saying to you through this ministry. Let your Rabbi be the Lord of Hosts, Himself. He wants to tell you something, and you can’t really hear it that well if I am talking, also. So, listen to what I say, if you want, if it empowers you, if it sounds to you like I am saying things that are right in God’s eyes . Lord knows, I pray He approves of what I do in His Name every day.

Then, go ask the Lord what He says about it. Get a second opinion from the One who has the only opinion that really matters.

 

Forgiveness is For Later

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The Bible says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. That’s comforting to know, but what does it mean, really?

It doesn’t mean that you are going to be free of the consequence of your sin. At least, not until you are dead.

Oh, my! That’s not quite as comforting. Can’t we change that? Sorry, no. Forgiveness of sins is something that God does for us, and through the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua we are all able to ask for, and receive, forgiveness of sins. But the actual, temporal consequences of our sins are something we can’t avoid. When we sin, it is always, and foremost, against God. The next level is against someone else. When God forgives us, it is the sin against Him for which we are forgiven, and that forgiveness will be realized most when we meet Him at Judgement Day.

In the meantime, we have to deal with what we did, here and now. Look at David, who sinned against God (he knew the proper order, as you can see in Psalm 51), against Bathsheba, and against Urriah.  The result of his sin was the birth of a baby boy, and the consequence of his sin was the death of the innocent baby.

Sin is bad, and the worst part (I think) is that the one who seems to suffer the most from my sin is the one I sin against. Sometimes it’s just an innocent. Well, wait a minute! That kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? Not that this is a good thing, but doesn’t the Manual require the blood, i.e. the very life, of an innocent to atone for sin?  Isn’t that absolutely clear? You would think that knowing this we would be more careful, right? On the other hand, sinfulness implies that the person doing the sinning doesn’t really care, doesn’t it?

I sin, and I don’t want to. I know I am a sinner, the Bible tells me everyone sins, we are all born with a sinful nature (whether the Christian thought of original sin or the Talmudic thought of the Yetzer Hara), and we have no hope for overcoming this ourselves. God knew that from the beginning, which is why we can see His promise of a Messiah all the way back to Abraham. The Old Covenant tells us what happened right up to before Messiah comes, and the New Covenant tells us of the Messiah and what will happen when it all comes to an end. That’s one of the many things I love about the Bible,: it takes us from the very beginning to the very end, from what has happened to what will happen, and all the time we see what it is like, even today, in how things and people were then.

Hmmmm….that sounds like “was, is, and shall be”. That should sound familiar to you: it is how we describe God. He was, He is, and He always shall be.  Yochanan (John) tells us (at the beginning of his Gospel) there was the Word, and the Word became flesh. In the D’var Adonai (Word of God) we see this description of the Almighty, and the Word tells us of what was, which we can relate to what is now, and it also describes what will be.

Nice correlation, don’t you think?

Anyway, back to sin.

This is an easy lesson for us to learn. The consequence of our sin is twofold: there is the immediate, earthly consequence and the future, spiritual consequence. We are saved from the spiritual punishment sin deserves by Messiah, but there is no escape from the physical, here and now, consequence. The person(s) sinned against will suffer, and (hopefully) the sinner will also suffer. I don’t mean that as a vengeful statement, but as a hopeful one- if the sinner feels the pain of the sin he or she committed, then there is a hope for the future. Maybe they will do T’Shuvah and save themselves. For the sinner that doesn’t care, the future will only get darker.

I don’t think that anyone who sins against God and doesn’t care is really going to feel the pain of their sin, whereas I know, for a fact, that others will feel it. We need to first and foremost ask forgiveness from God, then we need to ask it from those we have sinned against.

With the approach of Rosh Hashanah, I am reminded of a tradition performed at this festival. We are to go to those we may have sinned against and ask for forgiveness. It is an old Jewish tradition, and for those who don’t think that Yeshua did Jewish things, read Matthew 5:24. Yeshua tells the people to do exactly what this tradition says to do. It’s as I always say (besides “God has no religion”): there is nothing “new” in the New Covenant.

Those of you who think that you may have sinned against someone, either in word or thought or deed, go ask for forgiveness. First from God, then from the person. If your heart is truly repentant, God will grant you forgiveness when you ask in the name of Yeshua Ha Mashiach. However, you don’t know what will happen when you go to the human being you sinned against. That person may not forgive you; in fact, you may get a real tongue-lashing. Accept it, and move on. You did right in God’s eyes by asking for forgiveness, and you will do much, much better in His eyes when you forgive those who sinned against you. It doesn’t matter whether they ask you or not. You are commanded, as we all are, to forgive. Check it out in Matthew 6:14-15. There are other places, too, throughout the Tanakh and B’rit Chadashah: check it out for yourself.

Since we are commanded to forgive, if we don’t forgive, we are actually sinning, aren’t we? Isn’t a sin defined as doing something God said not to do?  If so, then is not doing something God said we should do the same thing? A sin? I think so…what do you think?

Heck, why argue? Just forgive; if for no other reason, it is the only way to make the pain go away. Anywho, this is getting into a totally different topic.

Sin stinks. It reeks to High Heaven. Fortunately, God provided a way for us to avoid the Eternal consequences of our sins. Praise Him and thank you, Yeshuah!

In the meantime, be careful. Guard your tongue, control your feelings, always pray to Adonai that He guide you with the Ruach HaKodesh. And if you haven’t accepted your own sinfulness and come before Yeshua asking for Him to intercede with God, you better hurry up. The times, they are a’changin’, and not for the better.  Think about it: since the End Days are in the future, that means every day brings us closer, not further, from the time we will all face God at His judgement throne.  If Yeshua isn’t your defence attorney(everyone wants a Jewish lawyer) , you is in big trouble!

 

Where’s Your Bible?

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I suppose that just about everyone reading this ministry blog has a Bible, aka The Manual. If you are reading this and you don’t have one, please find one. You can always go online to Bible study sites, but it is best if you have one in your hand, paper and binding, so that you hold it. It is to be loved and cherished, and you can’ t do that with an I-pad. Also, I challenge everyone to not take what I say as true, but to look it up in the Manual and verify for yourself the veracity of what I say. I try to discipline myself to never teach about what is in the Bible that you can’t go in there and find for yourself, and I pray that God leads my teachings to reflect only what is right in His eyes. Besides that, you need to develop the habit of checking what you are told.

Someone once told me never believe what you hear, and I took it with a grain of salt. 

So, nu? Where’s your Bible? Is it on a shelf? Is it in a place of honor (collecting dust)? Wanna know where mine is? 

It’s in my bathroom. That’s right- right there on top of the toilet covering the Readers Digest from April of 1995. 

Oy! How disrespectful! How could you do that to the Word of God? 

Before I answer that, let me ask you, “Is it really disrespectful to keep my Bible in the bathroom?” I am sure some of you will say yes, and some will say no, and some just won’t know. That’s how it is with questions.

As you are thinking about your answer, let me submit what I think is the most disrespectful way to keep your Bible: to keep it closed. Whether on a shelf, prominently displayed in a case, or under the table leg to keep the table steady, in my opinion not reading your Bible is disrespectful to the Word of God. He gave us His word so we would know how to worship, how to live, and (consequently) how to be saved from ourselves. He tells us how we got here, where we are going, and about Messiah, who will lead us to Him, forever. It’s all there, but it’s useless if you don’t read it.

“Oh, but I go to church every Sunday”, or “I attend synagogue every Shabbat. When I’m there they tell me what it says.” Lazybones! That’s not going to float your Salvation, Brothers and Sisters. You need to read it, for yourself. You need to let the Ruach guide you. There are three levels of understanding when reading the Bible: the P’Shat (written word- that’s all you get when you listen to someone else read the Bible), the Drash (this is like reading between the lines- it is a hidden message that the Ruach makes clear to you), and the Sud ( this is a deeply spiritual, almost mystical understanding that comes from Ruach-led reading and a deep knowledge of the Word). 

I don’t believe you can really get the deepest and most fulfilling understanding of what God wants to tell you if you don’t hold the book in your hands and read it. 

“But I am sooooooo busy! I have my job, I work out, and then the kids take up all my free time. I really want to read the Bible every day, that’s my intention, but I just don’t get to it.”

Every hear this old adage: The road to hell is paved with good intentions? 

Look, I had kids, I worked a job with a 2-hour commute (one-way) and I know what “too pooped to poop” means. So, take the Bible to work and read it on the train or bus. If you drive, take it to work and read it during your break or lunch.

Or, do what I do- leave it in the bathroom. The Bathroom! Ah, yes! The one and only place where everybody can be guaranteed about 10 minutes of peace and quiet every day, alone with their thoughts. That’s why I keep my Bible in the bathroom. I read at least one chapter every time I…, well, let’s just say I read a chapter daily.

Is this a disrespectful place ? I dunno! Maybe it is, but it is not disrespectful that I read His word every day. And it is not disrespectful that I come to Him as humbled as can be (what’s more humble than on a toilet seat?) I can even say every day I come before His throne while on my throne.

Ouch!! Okay, maybe that was a little too far.  🙂

Seriously, though, I do not believe it disrespectful, otherwise I certainly wouldn’t do it. And because of where I keep my Bible, I easily get to read a chapter or two every day. I like to go in order, from the beginning of Genesis straight through to the end of Revelations. When I reach the end, I do what every Jewish person does on Simchat Torah, which is to take great joy in turning back the Torah (in my case, I go to the front of the book) and starting all over again. I don’t like the idea of these daily devotionals that skip around and jump all over the book. I know that it is OK to do so, in that what I read in one place will confirm what I read in other places (this is known as hermeneutics), but the book has a rhythm, a pace, and a hierarchy. How can I really feel the pain of watching Judea fall deeper and deeper into sin as we approach the end of 2 Kings if I am in 2 Kings, then John I, then Leviticus, then Mark, then…then…then…?  I want to feel the joy as God reveals Himself and I want to feel the pain as we fall further and further from His grace through our own sin. I don’t want to just have someone tell me what it says, I want to live it. I want to experience the full emotions of the history of my salvation. I can only get that from reading it and letting the Ruach Ha Kodesh lead my understanding. After more than 17 years of being saved and having read the Bible cover to cover dozens of times, I still get chills and cry at certain parts. And I thank God that I do: I don’t ever want to become inured to His word.

I’ll ask again: where’s your Bible? If you aren’t reading a chapter every day, and it’s not in the bathroom, maybe you should put it there?

Moses, Man of God: CEO or GM?

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We have been told that Moshe was a great leader. He led the people out of Egypt, he led the people through the Sea of Suf, he led the people through the desert, he led the people to the Promised Land.

But did he lead?

Look, I’m all for Moshe. He was a great man, although I think he would say he was nothing. After all, we are told he was the humblest of all men. I served as an Executive Office of a company of US Marines (over 365 men and millions of dollars of equipment), a manager in different businesses, had a business, been a worker and been a peon, I know the difference between leadership and management.

Leadership wasn’t Moses’s strength. God led the people. God provided the sustenance, the protection, and the ideas that brought them forth. God provided all they needed and it was all His plan.

Moses was a really good General Manager, in that he took the instructions that God gave him and made them work. Moses did as he was instructed, and made sure the people did so, too. That is the mark of a great manager. And, like all great managers (and leaders), he showed them how to do it by living it. If there was anything Moses “led”, it was that he led by example.

Is this a diss against Moses? No: it is a reality check. We need to remember that God is in charge, and He is the leader. He makes the plan, He gets the materials, He has the ideas. We are followers, we are the ones that do what God has planned for us. And the ones that are in charge of the people are God’s Management Team. The Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Ministers, and all the other titled “religious leadership” are really not leaders, but managers.

Think of the believer Community as God’s employees. We have all applied for the position of Believer in the one, true God. The job is a lifetime commitment, with very few perks, low pay (if any) and often it is not viewed as an influential position by the World. Oh, yeah, it can be dangerous and even fatal in some parts of the world.

Given the above facts, you may ask, “Why even want to work for God and Son, Inc?”  It’s because they offer a really great retirement plan.

Therefore, let’s keep our perspective. Let’s continue to honor those who have managed God’s people, who listen to His plan and follow it. But lets recognize it for what it is so that we can give credit where credit belongs- to the Lord. Truth is, leadership and management are two sides of the same coin- you have to have a little of one to be effective as the other. But, ultimately, it is God who leads. He always has, He does, and He always will.

Why am I being so adamant about what some may consider just wordplay? It is because as humans we always try to take credit.  I don’t want to take credit for God’s work, I shouldn’t even take credit for managing His people (if I ever find myself in that position). I want to make sure I always give credit for the leadership of God’s people where it belongs- with God. Also, I want to make sure I never get the idea that whatever I hear God tell me to do, in His name, is something I might think of as my own idea. It’s hard to hear God when I am making too much noise of my own.

Again I say, if I do something good and wonderful, it is God working through me; when I do something totally stupid and useless, that’s when I can take full credit.

You know, this discussion borders on the dichotomy of Free Will and Predestination, two apparent opposites. In light of that, let me submit to you an allegory I heard once how Judaism combines these antithetical idealisms:

God is the captain of a ship, and this ship is going from Creation to Eternity. Those who ask to travel with God are allowed on (all who call on His name…) but we are also allowed to jump off. The work on the ship is hard, and we are expected to do our share of it. At the end, God’s ship will arrive, His plan will be done, whether we are with Him or not. The predestination of God’s plan will be realized, and throughout the journey we have the freedom to choose to stay on board or jump ship. It’s up to us where we will be when the ship arrives.

Considering all the Prophets whose names we know from the Bible, have you ever thought about how many may have been called but refused? Or maybe they didn’t do as they were instructed so their names aren’t mentioned?

Silly question? I have been told that you cannot make an argument from nothing, but I can think of 2 prophets who we are told about and their names aren’t mentioned. Their story is in First Kings, 13:24 through 20:36. Why is this important? Because it shows that what God wants to accomplish, will be accomplished. If God’s first choice won’t do it, then His second choice will. Maybe His third, or fourth. And so, my question is, how many of the Prophets we know might not have been the first choice? What great deeds may the visiting Prophet have performed for God if he had listened and lived?

I don’t know. And (frankly) it doesn’t really matter. It won’t affect my salvation if I know that Elijah wasn’t the first choice, or if I am never aware of the the name of the man in Matthew 19:21 who was told to sell all his possessions so he could follow Yeshua. Imagine! Yeshua invited this man to follow Him! Yet, the man refused. Imagine what that person might have done, imagine what plans God could have had for that man! But, even though he was asked to join the crew, he refused. And so, the ship sailed without him and God’s Will was accomplished through others. .

Back to Moses- each of us can be like Moses. Maybe not as empowered by God’s Ruach, maybe not as encumbered by responsibility, certainly not as humble. But we can be as faithful to follow God. Yeah, yeah- Moshe was The Man! You may ask, “Who can be as faithful as him?”  You can; I can; anyone who wants to be, CAN.

It’s hard, it’s going to make you stand out and be ostracized, and it’s not going to yield any worldly reward. But your reward in heaven will be great- that is God’s promise.

Be the GM of your life; help others to manage theirs, and remember to always let God lead.