Tag: salvation

Do You Really Mean It?

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Have you ever complimented someone, then they returned a compliment to you, but you knew that they were just saying something because they thought they should? Did it really mean anything to you?

When you pray to the Lord, do you really mean it? I’m not talking about when you ask for something you want, or when you have a dire need or are praying for someone else’s dire need. Stuff we pray for that we want, we do really want and we do really pray for, earnestly.

I’m talking about the “regular” prayers; you know, thanks for the food, thanks for the job, etc. When we give thanks for something do we really feel the emotions that we state, or are we just doing what we were taught we should do?

Are we just zombie praying? Are we just going through the motions without the e-motions?

I like to thank the Lord for the medicines I take each morning, and especially for the fact that there are so few of them. I like to thank God for the veggie egg wrap I get each morning from Dunkin Donuts each workday on my way to work (and occasionally I really, really pray they will bring back the turkey sausage one.) And when I thank God for the job I have, the people I work with, my wife, our love, the life He has given us together, and everything, (not to brag) I really mean it.

I have been blessed in having to scrounge up enough coins to buy a Dinty Moore Beef Stew can for my meal that day. I have juggled bills so well I could have starred on the Ed Sullivan Show (ooh- I am really dating myself now.) I have been bankrupt, came back and gained a good financial foothold, then lost all the money I saved to alimony and child support, only to see it go to smoke because I paid a ton of money for 2 years and my son was still wearing T-shirts for diapers, even though his mother lived rent-free.

I say this not to engender pity or respect, but to point out that, yes- it was a blessing to go through those trials because they taught me how to be really thankful. Someone who never has had a lack of anything (I believe) can not be truly thankful for anything. How can you appreciate having what you have never lacked?

And, since we are talking about God, about ethereal things, about salvation and eternity- all things that we humans can’t appreciate as much as we could if we were ,oh, say…a fallen angel, then how can we pray and really feel it?

It is possible, but you need to allow the Ruach to help you. I know what  it feels like to be with the Lord- when the Ruach entered my body, I was ethereal, I was in the Spirit, and I was there for a second or two. But I will never forget what it felt like.

I have felt God’s touch, His embrace, and it brought me to tears of joy. I haven’t felt that so much in the past few years, most likely because I have become inured in my prayer life and in my worship. I pray as David prayed, to be given a clean heart and have a right spirit renewed in me, to remember the joy of my salvation. And because I knew God’s touch, I know how much I miss it when my worship is half-baked (my fault), and so when I pray for it I really mean it.

I don’t wish hardship on anyone but, well…I lied. I do wish everyone would go through hardships in their life. The gold will never be refined if it doesn’t pass through the fire, and metal will never stand up to stress if the slag isn’t removed. I pray (and I mean it, too!) that everyone who wants to be blessed by God go through want, and depression, and suffering (both physical and emotional), and hunger, and unrequited love. All the worst things that can happen to a person, only so that they will all the more appreciate and be thankful, truly thankful, for when they receive from God all that they had lacked.

If life is good and nothing is wrong, pray with thanks to God for His protection, but also realize that the Enemy will leave you alone if you aren’t doing anything for God. Trials and tribulations strengthen us- just ask Jimmy (his book is in the New Covenant writings) and pray that God will strengthen you. And get started doing more for God.

I am really thankful when I am thankful, and I hope that you can say the same. Look deep into your soul, because that’s where God sees you, and make sure that you are truly thankful when you pray. If not, I think it would be better to just not say anything.

Better a truthful lack of thanks than a hypocritical attempt to be “correct”, so don’t pray just to pray- pray as you feel.

Truthful Liars

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In the early part of the 15th Century, if you asked a scientist about the world, he would have told you it was flat.

In the 18th Century if you asked a doctor how to cure diseases he would have told you to bleed the patient.

In the 19th Century, the US Government told the Native American’s they would be relocated and left alone forever.

For many centuries, many Christians have been teaching that Jesus fulfilled the law, thereby doing away with it.

Since the 2nd or 3rd Century Jewish teaching has been that Jesus created a new religion.

All lies. Every single one of them. But they were not told by liars; at least, not people who lied on purpose. They were told by people who believed what they said because this is what they had been taught by their professors and their religious leaders. Who learned it from their professors and religious leaders.

But that doesn’t change the truth that it’s a lie.

Today we all know the Earth is round, ultimately because we can view it from God’s perspective. It’s much easier to see how round the Earth is when you are above it. We also know that diseases are caused by germs because we have microscopes that let us see the teensy tiny little bugs that make us sick. Again, we can see it from God’s perspective.

But we still think that the Old Covenant is for Jews and the New Covenant is for Christians. We still believe, in some circles, that the Jews have been rejected by God because they rejected Yeshua, and we still believe that if you are a Jew and believe Yeshua is the Messiah, then you can’t be a Jew, anymore.

Lies! Untruths! Dreck! In fact, if you collected these various teachings, from both Jews and Christians, you could fertilize a rose garden the size of Texas!

Jesus Christ is NOT a name- it is a bad translation of a worse transliteration.  Here’s the etymology of this made-up name, in a nutshell: Yeshua ha Mashiach means the salvation of the Lord, the Messiah. Jesus was never called “Jesus” when He walked the earth, or for a few centuries after that. His name was, and still is, Yeshua. When the first Gospels were written for distribution, the language of the world was Greek, but there is no Greek word for “God’s Salvation.” It didn’t exist, culturally or religiously, so they made up a word that sounded like Yeshua to identify the person. A word that sounds like another word is a transliteration, and for “Yeshua” it was “Jesu”. Jesu, in and of itself, has no meaning. When the Greek was translated into Latin, Jesu was made into Jesus. Maschiach, the Anointed One, also had no Greek counterpart, so the term Cristos was used. This represented rubbing oil on a shield, which is what the Greek soldiers did to keep their leather shields supple. As with Jesu, when Latinized Cristos became Christ.

We have all been taught that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah, but the truth is that “Jesus Christ” is a false name;  Yeshua ha Mashiach is our Saviour. Yeshua is the name above all names, and the only name that saves.

But don’t blame these people for the way they have misled us, for they have also been misled. The most difficult lie to ferret out is the one from someone who believes what they are saying is the truth. That’s why they are truthful liars. And these lies have become the truth to so many people, and for so long a time, that it is almost impossible for anyone now to accept the truth that they are lies.

So, how do you know the truth from a lie? Well, we know about the earth and about disease because, as I say above, today we can see them from God’s perspective. The logical course to take if you want to know the truth about Yeshua, what He taught, and what and who He is is to see Him from God’s perspective. We all have that ability and that opportunity, because God gave it to us.

It’s called the Tanakh, and (yes, my Jewish non-believing brothers and sisters), the New Covenant,too. Together they make up the entire Bible.

The Tanakh is the God-inspired writings of eye-witness accounts by Jewish men and women of their interactions with God. From Moses writing what God told him to write, to the history of the kings of Israel and Judea, to the warnings of the Prophets, the Megillot (writings, scrolls) of the people who had individual encounters with God and whose story demonstrates God’s influence and power, to the end of Jewish occupation of their Homeland, taken away captive by Babylonia and still waiting for their promised Messiah.  The New Covenant is the God-inspired writings of the eye-witness accounts of Jewish men and women who wrote down the history of their encounters with God, and with one man who proved Himself to be the Messiah through His miraculous works and His resurrection. The same thing is true of both these books- they are God-inspired, they are written by Jews, about Jews, and for Jews. They are about God and His Messiah, and the New Covenant takes up where the Old Covenant left off. Additionally, the New Covenant takes us to the End of Days, just as the Old Covenant did. Except the New is more detailed.

But it is all one story, one beginning and one end; one God, one Messiah, Jews and Gentiles being saved by God’s love and forgiveness. All the same.

God gave us the Torah, God inspired the writings of the rest of the Tanakh, and God inspired the writings of the B’rit Chadashah (Gospels), as well. Jewish men and women, even as children, are taught the New Covenant is a lie, Jesus was Jewish but created a new religion and, thereby, isn’t Jewish anymore, and if you are a Jew and even think about believing in Jesus, you can’t be a Jew.

Christians also teach that Jesus was a Jewish man, but after He was resurrected He did away with the law (Torah) and that it is only for Jews, because they rejected Jesus. There are “right-wing” Christians, called Replacement Theologists, who go as far as to say that God has now rejected the Jews and that they, the Christians, are the “new” Jews, the Israel of God that Shaul talks about in Galatians. They also say that for a Jew to believe in Jesus that person can’t be a Jew, anymore.

Lies. Lies from the very pit of Sheol. Lies designed to keep those seeking the true Messiah from finding Him, and those who think they are saved from really being saved because they do not follow God’s laws and commandments so they can’t produce any fruit.

Look at this from God’s perspective- He gave it to us. It’s called the Bible- the ENTIRE Bible, which is Genesis through Revelations. Even if you don’t believe Jesus (Yeshua) is your Messiah, read about Him. What can it hurt? He lived His life as a Jewish man, He died for all of us, Jews and Gentiles, and His resurrection was as a Jewish man. He never said a single word against the Torah; in truth, He taught from Torah! There was no other scripture, so if He taught from Torah, then it is logical that He supports Torah. I mean, let’s get real, people: Yeshua taught from the Torah, He supported Torah, his Father told Moshe to write the Torah down, Yeshua did His Father’s will (He says that many times) so He had to teach Torah was right and valid. He even says, in Matthew 5:17, he didn’t come to change anything in the Torah.  The other writings, mostly by Shaul (Paul) all uphold and support the Torah, as well. How could any of the disciples or followers of Yeshua teach anything but what Yeshua taught? Didn’t Yeshua say that a student is not greater than his teacher? Therefor, what the students (Talmudim) of Yeshua taught had to be Torah!

John says the Torah became flesh, that Yeshua was the living Torah! How could Yeshua teach against Himself?

That’s why if you want to know the truth, from God’s perspective, you need to read the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, and back again. Over and over, and to ask God to lead you with His Ruach (Spirit) to see the truth about Him, His Messiah, and the entire plan of creation.

That’s the only way you can know the real truth.

Don’t accept what anyone tells you, not me, not your Rabbi, not your Pastor or Priest, not no one, not no how. Listen to them, sure- they deserve your respect, but respect for them doesn’t mean you should blindly accept from them.

Truthful liars are everywhere: in your family, in your schools, in your government, in your Shul or Church, and they can be anyone. Anyone at all. The only way you can know the truth is to determine it for yourself. And realize that you may be lying to yourself, even now. These people are lying to themselves, but they don’t realize it.

Yeshua tells us that teachers have an extra responsibility, and that when the blind lead the blind they both fall into a hole. Even worse, He says that those that sin and teach others to sin will be least in the kingdom of heaven. There is a promise in that, since He says they will be least, but still, in heaven. However, if you are taught that Jesus isn’t the Messiah, or that the Torah is just for Jews, or that because you are saved by the blood that is all you need, or that as long as you are a “good” person you go to heaven, then you are not being taught the path to salvation; in truth, you are being led to destruction and eternal damnation.

But, don’t take my word for it. Go ahead- read about it yourself in your Bible. I suppose you have one, somewhere. If not, go to Barnes and Noble and get one. If I may, stay away from the King James version- too anti-Semitic for my tastes. Try to find a Messianic version, like the David Stern “Complete Jewish Bible”, especially if you are Jewish. Get to know who Yeshua is, and forget this “Jesus” guy that is some blond haired, blue-eyed Westernized version of the truth. Get to know the real Messiah, whose name is Yeshua, who was born and died a Jewish man teaching the truth about God’s Word, not creating anything new but simply helping us to understand the true meaning of what God tells us in the Torah.

It was the men that followed behind, not immediately behind, but a few centuries later that screwed it all up. Just like in the book of Judges, those that knew Him not did not follow Him correctly. Except for in the book of Judges, God continually forgave the Jewish people when they did T’Shuvah and called to Him for help, but in the B’rit Chadashah we do not see the salvation come over and over. We see now the final salvation, the one that saves all for all time, and what will happen when God finally drops the other shoe.

They are so alike, the Old and the New Covenants. Both tell of God’s works, both tell of a Messiah, both tell of the forgiveness of God, and both tell that there will be a time when all will be judged and only those that have accepted their Messiah will survive the second death. And they both tell us exactly what to look for to know the Messiah.

For over two Millennia we have constantly screwed this up. The Jews saw God on the mountain and saw His miraculous salvation, from Egypt, from their enemies, and yet they still rebelled and only a remnant followed Him as He said they should. The Jews also saw Yeshua, and many, many thousands of Jews recognized Him because they knew their Torah, they knew the Prophets and they could see the truth. Then “mankind” stepped in, restructuring, retelling , retwisting the truth and now we have how many Christian religions?  Just like what we did with the Old Covenant, we have done with the new one. Really- there is no difference, is there? We screwed them both up the exact same way, by interjecting our own rules and placing God’s mitzvot second to Man’s traditions.

Do you get it yet? You have to make up your own mind, and you can’t do that intelligently by just taking what you have been told as the absolute truth. I mean, really? If what you have been told is true, how can there be so many sides to the same story?

Make a decision, and make it an informed decision. All the information you need is in the entire Bible, so read the whole thing. Half-read is half-informed, and you have too much to risk to go into this half-way.

Covenants Don’t Change, and They Don’t Go Away

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There are 5 Covenants that God made with us. The first was the Noahide Covenant, then the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic. Finally, there is the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31).

The usual Christian teaching is that the New Covenant did away with most of the previous 4 covenants, leaving only what they (ridiculously) call either “moral” or “ceremonial” laws. The teaching is that the ceremonial laws (which I think are whatever they don’t want to follow) are still valid for Jews but not for Christians.

There are some 613 commandments (as told in Jewish teachings) in the Torah; about 1/3 have to do with the sacrificial system. These laws are not done away with, but they are impossible to obey because they deal with the sacrifices that are to be made at the Temple, and the Temple doesn’t exist anymore. There are a whole bunch of sermons in that fact, alone, but we aren’t going there today.

The other laws are not ceremonial- do you consider commandments about having fair weights and lending at interest “ceremonial”? Do you think that helping your neighbor is “ceremonial”. No? Oh, no- clearly, helping a neighbor is a moral law. Is it? Which is moral and which is not? Who’s to say: you? Me?

God made covenants and these covenants are not exclusionary. In other words, the Abrahamic Covenant did not override or overturn the Noahide Covenant. It added to it, it supplemented it, it complemented it. Same with the others.

Noah basically was told by God He wouldn’t destroy the Earth by flood. The rainbow was the sign and the blood of the millions of dead people was how the covenant was sealed (all covenants are sealed by blood.) Then the Abrahamic Covenant, which added by saying all the people that God won’t destroy will be led into righteousness by a Nation of Priests God will raise up through the seed of Abraham, who will be a blessing to the world.  The Mosaic Covenant then added the rules by which that nation will live. The Davidic added that the ultimate Kohen Gadol (High Priest) would be a descendant of David and also be a king with an everlasting kingdom. Lastly the New Covenant, the final promise, which says:

(1) all the people whom God won’t destroy;

(2) who are blessed by the seed of Abraham;

(3) who live by the codes and laws given to Moses;

(4) who are led to salvation and ruled by the eternal king from David’s descendants (who is the Messiah);

(5) will then be given, permanently, the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit).

And, with the Ruach to help them, they will be able to produce the good fruit they are required to produce which demonstrates their T’Shuvah (turning from sin) during their lives, and which they can present to God at Judgement Day,

Each covenant builds on the previous one- there is no overturning or doing away with, at all. God’s covenants are eternal; as long as He is alive and one human is still alive, every covenant, every condition of the covenants, is valid, real, and still in effect.

Don’t let anyone fool you or tell you that some laws aren’t valid anymore, that some are ceremonial and not required, or that some are done away with, altogether. Yeshua didn’t come to change the law but interpret it correctly and show us all how to live it. That’s what He says in Matthew 5:17. Read the entire verse; in fact, don’t stop there but read the whole chapter. The covenants of God are eternal and valid, true and necessary.

What God has said is not subject to human intervention, human denial, or human interpretation. The covenants are not delivered as a vision or need to be interpreted- they are clear as glass. There is nothing any human should do except obey them as best as he or she can. ALL of them!

The greatest victory the Enemy has won is that he managed to separate those seeking the Messiah from those finding the Messiah. The way he did it was the usual method for the Enemy: he just let mankind do their own thing, subtly leading them to think it is okay to identify God’s laws and commandments as necessary or unnecessary, ceremonial or moral.

At first we had those who believed in the one, true God and all the rest were pagans. Then we had Jews and pagans; then we had Jews who believed in Yeshua and Jews who didn’t, pagans who believed and were becoming Jewish, and all those other pagans. Then we had Jews, Christians, and a few pagans still hanging around. Now we have 6 sects of Jews (Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic), any number of Christian sects (Catholic, Western Orthodox, Lutheran, Protestant, Baptist, with all their subdivisions, Amish, and many, many more) all of whom have their own ideas of how to worship God. Oh yes- believe it or not, we still have pagans hanging around.

As I read it in the Manual, God doesn’t have ceremonial or moral laws, He doesn’t say these laws are for the Jews, these are for the Catholics, these for Mennonites. etc., and He is absolutely clear that these laws and commandments are to be observed throughout all our generations. No end-point, no “up until…”, but forever!

God has no religion, so anyone who believes in God shouldn’t have a religion, either. Period, end of statement, das ist alles, shut the door on your way out!

You want to make it easy, you want to know what to do and how to do it, then read the Bible and just simply follow what God says. Yeshua and the Rabbis of old knew there were just 2 commandments that needed to be followed in order for all the rest to be easily observed: love God and love each other.  If you do that, it doesn’t make the others unnecessary, just easier to obey.

You have your choice to make: follow the laws and commandments in the Torah or try to obey the plethora of laws, regulations and traditions that we find in every religion, which have very little to do with God and everything to do with people enforcing their own will on others in the name of the Lord. That’s the difference between God’s Word and religion: God tells us how to follow Him to lead us to salvation, and religion tells us we must obey human laws and traditions over God’s word in order to allow other humans to rule over us.

The Bible is clear in more than one place that we should never add to or detract from the commandments that God has given us. If we have been following that, then where did all these different religions come from? Read my book and see where there are differences, or just read the Bible and don’t allow yourself to have preconceptions of the meaning of what you read. Let the Ruach lead you to understanding.

God has no religion, and we shouldn’t either. We should have only God. Really: if we have God, what else do we need?

My Worst Nightmare Come True

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To the person who said always follow your dreams, I say,”Bah!! Humbug!!”

I have had a beard, and a nice one, too, for about 18 years. My wife likes it, I like it, and I have been complimented on it.

Occasionally I have this nightmare where I am really tired, and getting ready for work, and instead of shaving around the beard I accidentally shave a portion of it off.

Well, you can see where this is going, I am happy, at least, to say it wasn’t a careless mistake. I bought a new beard trimmer and was testing the plastic heads that allow you to trim to a specific length, and the one that I wanted to use slipped off the shaver head just as I was working my way up the left side of my moustache. So, ZIP!! Half the moustache is gone. I tried to shorten everything else to make up for it, but when I really did not want to face the truth, I took the coward’s way out…I asked Donna if it looked okay.

After I picked her up off the floor (not from fainting but from hysterical laughter) she confirmed what I knew all along, ever since the shaver head fell off.

Like the lead song from that 1960’s movie: Bye, Bye Beardie!

So, nu?  What’s this got to do with God, or Messianic Judaism, or anything, for that matter?  Good question.

My beard was a part of me, and it was something I had cared for and never expected to lose. But in a moment it was gone. Worse than that, in a moment it suffered a devastating accident, and I had to take action on  my own to complete the partial loss.

It’s like when a loved one is suffering, or brain-dead and we have to be the ones to pull the plug. Yes, yes…I know….a beard is not a loved one, but the lesson is the same. We never know when something will happen to change what we expected to remain the same.

In the B’rit Chadasha (Good News) Yeshua is talking with a man who says he is going to build a barn, store his grain, yadda-yadda-yadda. He was telling Yeshua all the plans he had made before trusting totally, and Yeshua called the man a fool, because he was making all these plans for his life, but his life was going to be called that very night. The lesson was that the man was too busy being involved in worldly things to recognize the need to first and foremost be right with God.

We don’t know when we will have an accident. That’s why they call it an “accident”: if you plan for it, it is an event. We don’t know why or when or what will happen, day by day, minute by minute. That’s why we have to be prepared for the unprepared. The way to do that is to be right with God, and trust God to take care of whatever comes your way.

If you are right with God, and you know someone who isn’t (they shouldn’t be hard to find) please tell them about my beard. Tell them how the world is an unknown, and that we can never get back what has been lost. We can only go forward, and sometimes we need to be able to let go of the little bit that is left so we can move on.

There is nothing of this world that is more important than preparing for the second life. The whole purpose of being alive is to take the opportunity to prepare for death. If we plan to wait only a minute longer, we may not have even a second to do that. We need to make sure we are not afraid to tell someone who is not a Believer, or a Believer who is not doing right, that they have no time to wait.

I believe we are living in prophetic times. I see the world coming against Israel, the growth of unrest, wars, bad weather, and an evil that is growing very quickly from the Middle East. We, those who believe in God, that Yeshua is the Messiah, and have been saved must try to get the word out. I often take “chances”, dropping little hints here and there in conversation at work or when I volunteer at the Brevard Zoo, or just in general conversation to see if I get a reaction. I will talk about a story in a book relating to the conversation and tell one of the parables, or a story from the Torah or one of the writings, to exemplify the point I am making. If I get a positive response, I may ask further, “Oh, you know that one. Do you read the Bible?” and that can lead me into a discussion, if the other person is willing.

It’s always by baby-steps so I don’t do wrong. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) tells us there is a time for everything, so if it seems the other person is willing to listen, talk; if they are shying away, leave them be. You can’t shove God down someone’s throat. But you can give them a small taste, and since God’s word never returns void, you don’t know what  good you might have just done by sowing seeds.

We need to sow the seeds, no matter what kind of soil, and let God do the rest.

I’m not sure if I will keep the baby-face look or not. I figure since it’s done, I might as well stay clean-shaven for a while and see what the general reaction is. You know Donna didn’t waste a second before posting my shaven face on Facebook, and we got a dozen OMG!’s before 5 minutes passed (don’t these people have a life?) Maybe I should leave the beard off- being Messianic doesn’t mean I have to look Orthodox, right? Besides that, Donna has a real good belly-laugh every time I try to kiss her now. Until she gets used to it, it’s worth being this way just to make her happy.

Maybe you won’t have to suffer the loss of your beard, but we all will suffer the loss of our loved ones, and our loved ones will suffer the loss of us. Prepare for them- have your will or trust in order, get a Living Will so they don’t have to make that decision for you when you can’t make it for yourself, and tell people to be prepared for death.

The most important way to be prepared for death (as far as I am concerned) is to reserve my place in the resurrection. I have done that by accepting the truth that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised throughout the Tanakh, and I have accepted the gift of Grace through Yeshua. I have made fellowship with God through the fellowship sacrifice Yeshua made when He gave up His human life so I could have my spiritual life. My human life is how I prepare for my eternal life, and I am set. I have a reserved space, a guaranteed ticket, and all I have to do is make sure I do my part while I am waiting to be called.

The Torah says never come before the Lord empty handed. When I am called before Him, I want to have baskets and baskets full of fruit, the first fruit of my life’s work to bring the Good News to people. I am no missionary, and I am not the type to minister to people. I don’t have that strong a love. I am a good teacher- that is my gift from God, and I will try to use that to bring His word to the world.

I also need to live the word and not just speak the word. That’s hard to do, and I stink at it. But I am getting better.

That’s what living the life of a Believer means to me: not being a different me, just being a better me. And not being who I was, a sinner who rationalizes his sins, but being who I am, a sinner who regrets his sins. This is the path we walk, the way we need to be, and the most difficult thing in the world to do: live in the world but refuse to be a part of the world. I am a foreigner, a sojourner in the world, but unlike those that sojourned with the children of Israel and were expected to live as they did, I am not accepting the world’s ways. I want to live as God says I should live.

What about you? Are you ready to lose people important to you? Are you ready to lose things that you love? Are you ready to lose your very life? If not, get with the program, people! Get real- you will lose everything when the Tribulation starts! If you aren’t ‘raptured’ out you will be in the middle of it (and I have to add I don’t think anyone can say, for certain, who will or won’t be enraptured, or even if or when it will happen.) We must steel ourselves for the battle, get familiar with our armor (read Ephesians) and prepare our emotions and our very souls for loss and sadness. The Ruach will get us through it, if we learn to look to it and draw on it’s strength. It is, after all, the Comforter.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord by preparing yourself.

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.

Many are Called, Few are Chosen, but Who Chooses Whom?

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You probably know the parable about the king and the wedding guests, If not, go to Matthew 22.

To understand what I am going to talk about, you need to know about the cultural norm of the day. When people were invited to a wedding, the Semitic custom was for the host to provide proper clothing for the guests when they arrived. The guest would then use those clothes and in this way everyone was properly dressed. Although it is not specifically stated here, since the people were invited to come from the streets, the alleys, wherever the servants could find them, how could they have all had proper clothing unless the custom of providing the clothes was in effect?

The one man who did not have the proper clothing was singled out because to be there with the wrong clothes meant that he had refused to accept the clothing he was given. He did not “put on the Lord”, as the saying goes. As such, having refused to accept the “terms” of the invitation, he was rejected.

So…did the host reject the man, or did the man reject the host?

We are all called by God to accept His Grace, the gift of salvation. Whether Christian, Messianic, Jewish, or just plain confused we all are called by God, to God. That’s because God wants all His children saved. In Ezekiel God says that the death of a sinner does not please Him, rather that He would see the sinner do T’Shuvah (turn) and live. That’s why the parable states that all people, good and bad, were invited. Those that came were then offered the clothing that was appropriate for them to wear at the wedding. In real terms, that means we need to strip ourselves of our own clothing (sinful nature) so that we can put on the new clothing, i.e. we need to be “covered” by the sacrificial death of the Messiah, who is Yeshua (Jesus). Or, as the Christian world likes to say, we need to be covered by the blood of Jesus.

I know Jewish people don’t like that saying, being “covered by the blood”, and I think the main reason is because they don’t really know the Torah. When Moshe anointed Aaron as Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) he sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on him. Same for Pinchus, and all the priests after that. The sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice upon something is what made that thing holy, whether it was a person, the altar, or the Tent of Meeting. It is totally “Jewish” to be sprinkled or covered with the blood of a sacrifice to make one holy.

The people who were called and accepted the “clothing” of the host represent (today) those who accept Yeshua as their Messiah and make a commitment to change their lives to live in accordance with God’s way. That means living in accordance with Torah, since that is the only “way” God has told us to live. Yeshua lived according to Torah, so if you are being told to do as Yeshua did, well, guess what that means?

The man who was not wearing the proper clothing represents those who reject God’s call. You may have been taught that it is the Jews, but after reading a couple of different commentaries about this, the general consensus is that it is about Jews and Gentiles, anyone who rejects God’s call to holiness.

So next time you meet someone who says that God rejects the Jews and references this parable, please set him or her straight. And remember to always think of the cultural environment at the time when trying to understand what the Bible is saying( go to the Search button at the bottom of this page and search for Circles of Context to learn about this.)

God has already invited you to join Him in eternal joy; it is up to you to choose Him.

Is Your Head in the Sand?

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There’s the old wives tale that an ostrich is so dumb when it sees danger it sticks it’s head in the sand, figuring if it doesn’t see the danger, the danger isn’t there. And it is an old wives tale; ostriches live in Africa and where they live there isn’t a whole lot of soft sand.

How many of us have worked for someone, or some company, that decides when there is a problem to just ignore it and hope it will go away? Isn’t that what people do, in general?

When it comes to God, Yeshua being the Messiah, and the validity of the Bible, people of just about every religion have a different take. And then there are those that deny the very existence of God. Just start to mention Him and they stick their head in the sand: “Shields up, Mr. Scott!”

Their choice. And just like the ostrich, they can deny God’s existence, say that all life evolved from an amoeba by random chance mutations, and that aliens are really the one’s that are responsible for the “God” stories, but that won’t change the truth that God is real, He is the creator, and Yeshua is the Messiah He promised to send to us. And, worst of all, if you reject God, Yeshua and the truth about salvation, you will end up suffering through all eternity.

BTW..to all those that believe aliens are responsible for life on Earth, please answer this: who created the aliens?

God is real, and He is waiting for us to accept that fact. He has proven His existence, but it isn’t what would be called a “scientific” proof. That is something that is reproducible- if you can’t make it happen on demand, it can’t be absolutely proven, scientifically. The Bible tells us of all the miraculous things God has done, but it also says “Do not test the Lord, your God”, so to ask God to prove He exists will not get us anywhere. When asked for a sign, Yeshua called the people an “evil generation.” Were they really evil, just asking for a sign? I don’t think that’s what He meant: I think Yeshua was calling their lack of faith an evil thing, meaning not Godly. Their faithlessness was evil and their desire to see miracles, I think, would not have made any real difference. Those calling for a sign are the “poor soil” that may let the seed of God’s kingdom sprout, but it is too malnourished (spiritually) to keep the plant growing. With the very next “sign” they will follow someone else. The Bible also tells us that in the End Days there will be many signs and people who say they’re Yeshua, and they will be able to make miraculous things happen.

The people who call for a sign to prove that God is really God will end up being evil, for they will be fooled by the Enemy and they’ll end up taking the mark.

Faith is believing in things that can’t be proven. God does give us proof, though: the existence of everything you see, birth, death, the unbelievable diversity of life and the total balance of everything. He really has shown us, unquestionably, that when He says, “I am that I am”, that He is. It’s faith that lets us accept this proof, and lack of faith that ignores it.

What a pity! Those that lack faith will have all the proof they ever wanted, but it will come to them too late for them to do anything to reverse their position.

My father and mother both denied God’s existence, and especially Dad. He was a stubborn and faithless man, and when he couldn’t argue with me or deny God, just before he died, I prayed for him, and tried to intercede on his behalf. I don’t know if he heard me and was able to accept my prayers, and it is too late now to change anything. I can only hope I was successful. My sister says that she was with Mom and Mom did accept the Lord before she passed, so I hope to see her again.

How many of us have loved ones that just don’t want to accept God, or remain bigoted and steadfastly ignorant of the truth about Yeshua being the Messiah? How many of us have prayed until we sweat blood to have God intercede, miraculously, to bring these people into the Kingdom?

My two children have rejected me and that’s mainly because they were fed their mother’s hatefulness and spite their whole lives. Once they got their inheritance at 21 they both, in their own way and for their own reasons, just cut me out of their lives. And, just like their mother taught them to do, they made it all my fault. So, I pray for them every day. I pray for reconciliation, I pray they are protected, and I pray for their mother (not as often, I confess) because if she can be turned to God then she can help them turn to God.

Yet, although I pray in Yeshua’s name, and I remind God of Yeshua’s promise that His father will give us whatever we pray for, and I remind God that my prayer is in keeping with His will that all sinners be turned from their sin, I know God will answer my prayer and intercede in their lives but it is still up to Alexandra and Bryce to make their own choice. God can lead them to water (the water of everlasting life, that is) but they have to choose to drink. God will not force us to accept Him, and if he has plans for you but you refuse to be part of it, then He will simply find someone else.

Just as Mordecai said to Hadassah (Esther), if she doesn’t help then help will come from another source. God’s will will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven. When we accept that as fact, then we will be riding on that train, instead of being run over by it.

We cannot make someone love God, or accept Yeshua as their Messiah. We can only show them through our words and what we do that there is something more than just “human” about us. God wants His people, no matter what religion they were brought up with, to be separated from the world. That also means separated from the human-made religious tenets you may have grown up with. If you profess to worship God but obey a Rabbi, Priest, Minister or Pastor over the word of God that He gave us in the Torah,  you need to rethink your devotion. God tells us that He is no respecter of men (check it out in both Acts and Romans), so what makes you think He will respect the extra regulations and rules that men made over and above what God told us? Especially when these rules and regulations go directly against what God said we should do? Doesn’t God tell us in D’Varim (Deuteronomy), at least two times, not to add to or detract from any of the words in this book?

I wish there was some way to prove to those asking for proof that God exists and Yeshua is His Messiah. Evolution goes against God, and it has never been scientifically proven, but the world accepts it as fact. They have total faith in something that is a lie, but no faith in the ultimate truth of God. Oy! Shaul said he was willing to even give up his own salvation if it could save his Jewish brothers and sisters, and so would I. In a heartbeat! In a breath! In the wink of an eye! In a nanosecond, even! (OK, OK, Steve- we get it!) But I know that’s not how it works- we each are responsible for our own choices (the sins of the father will not pass on to the children, and the sins of the children will not pass to the father: Ezekiel.)

We each have to make our own choice, so when you pray for someone to accept God and Yeshua, pray for God to send them angels of mercy to help open their eyes and unplug their ears, and have hope in the fact that although God will never force them to accept Him, He is really, really good at convincing people.

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?

Teaching is a Double-Edged Sword

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I believe, and have had it confirmed by others, that God has given me a gift for teaching. My mother was a teacher, so I learned some of how it’s done while still in the womb. Her sister was also in teaching, as a Vice-Principal. My older sister is a teacher with specific skills for handling troubled children. You could say the defective gene for teaching is in my system, but I like to think that God gave me the gift, also.

Here’s the problem: when you take on the responsibility of teaching, whether it be teaching Math or the Bible, you are shaping someone’s life. If you don’t mold that person correctly you could send them to hell in a handbasket.

The Bible is pretty specific about this: check out these verses:

Proverbs 22:6       Yacov (James) 3:1-2    Luke 6:40 (this one demands we teach by example)

2 Timothy 2:15     Mattitayu (Matthew) 5:19    Nehemiah 8:8      Romans 2:21

There are other verses, but from these you can get the idea that there is great power in teaching. The power to mold and shape someone, which is the same power to turn them aside from the truth and lead them to wrongful decisions. There is the power to save, and the power to destroy.

In the world today there are many teachings, both right and wrong. There are teachings that tell us somethings are bad and there are teachings that tell us the same, exact things are not bad.  The Catholic church says priests are not to get married, but the other Christian religions and the Torah teach that the Kohanim (Priests) are allowed to marry (but there are restrictions on the type of woman they are allowed to marry.) Another teaching is that being kosher is only for Jews, but Yeshua was kosher and we are told to be like Yeshua, to “Do what Jesus would have done”, so why is it taught that we don’t have to keep kosher? If you read my book you will learn more on how this idea that kosher laws are done away with is wrong.

The world teaches you to look out only for yourself and the Bible teaches us to care for others as much as ourselves. The world teaches to live for today and the Bible teaches us to live for Eternity.

So many different things, and all seemingly opposing each other. For those of us who want to teach about God’s way and to lead others to the salvation that Yeshua made possible, we have to work against the world and all the teachings therein. Then, we have to work against all the wrongful teachings that the Christian world has proliferated: Yeshua did away with Torah, Torah is just for Jews, Jews are Christ-killers and because they rejected Jesus God has rejected them so the Christians are the new Chosen People (this is called Replacement Theology), the church leadership shouldn’t get married, or (at the other end) the church leaders can be homosexual. Eat anything you want but you can’t drink alcoholic beverages or dance, and there are hundreds of other teachings, each religion with it’s own ideas, and all claiming this is God’s way.

God has no religion, only commandments. They’re all in the Torah- there is nothing “new” in the New Covenant writings. Get with the program , people!

Then there’s the big one, which I think will send more people to hell than anything else we are being told: if you’re a good person you get to go to heaven. That is a lie from the pit of Sheol (hell) and even Yeshua says He is not good, only His father in heaven is good. So, then, who can be good if only God is good?

What we are being taught is a roadmap, a sort of spiritual GPS, and it is sending us somewhere… but to where?

Here’s is a lesson I offer that is true: we are all sinners. No one is good, no one is worthy, and no one has a snowballs’ chance in Heck of being saved without Yeshua HaMashiach. Simple, straight-forward, Biblically sound, and awesome to realize. Scary actually.

If you want to teach about God, make sure you read the verses I quoted above, and don’t forget this: Yeshua said those who sin and teach others to sin will be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. The good news is that you may be teaching wrong things and still be saved, as this verse implies, and the bad news is I don’t think you will hear Yeshua say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Not if you teach others to sin. Here’s the really bad news: how will you feel if you are in Heaven and people you taught did not make it because of your teachings? Through all eternity you will know they are suffering because of you.

To teach God’s word means you need to live God’s word, and I am the biggest failure of all in doing this. I am teaching do what I say (actually, what God says) and not what I do. Truthfully, we all do this, teach what we can’t do, since we are all sinners without hope of redemption on our own, so no one is going to live a perfect life. That was done already, and we only needed it for the one time. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, because we can sin less.

Here is another lesson you can count on as being true: we will never be able to say we don’t sin at all, but we can always sin less than we do now.

If you want to teach, think about it. You don’t know what you are getting into. If you have the gift, use it, but if you aren’t sure then ask those who are faithful and spiritually mature. Trust their judgement and, more than anything, ask God what He wants you to do. Ask Him to show you what gift(s) He has given you, and work with those. There is nothing more satisfying than doing good for the Lord, and if my gift was toilet cleaning, I would clean the toilets so well that no one would even want to use them, for fear of making them dirty again.

Of course, I am glad that’s not my gifting, but my point is this: whatever God leads you to do, do it well. Do what we are told to do in Colossians 3:23 (I am really breaking my rules about not giving exact locations today, aren’t I?) and you will always feel a sense of fulfillment from your work.

I love doing what I do…this blog, writing my book (c’mon, already- buy it!) and being able to give the message at my place of worship, now and then. And I always, always, always  hold myself up to the Word of God, making sure everything I say and teach about is able to be found in the Bible. I also tell everyone, including you, to test me and verify whatever I say is in the Bible to really be there.

I once read you shouldn’t believe everything you read, but then I didn’t know what to do!

Be careful when you teach because the ones you are teaching are depending on you to guide them to the truth and to their salvation. Don’t let them down.

Parashah Beshallach (After he let go) Exodus 13:17-17:16

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The sea is turned away, Pharaoh’s army is destroyed, manna comes from heaven,  rocks give forth water, and millions of quails appear from an empty sky.

Even with all this, not to mention the 10 Plagues that have just happened and 400 years of slavery are over, the people still grumble and look back to Egypt at every little stumbling block or problem.

Isn’t this what we all do? Isn’t the grass always greener somewhere other than where we are in our lives? And don’t we spend more time “killing the messenger” than dealing with the source of our problems?

Throughout the journey in the Desert we read, over and over, how the people grumbled against Moshe. “We don’t have food”, “We don’t have water”, “We don’t want you to be the only leader”, “The people in the land are too strong for us”, yadda-yadda-yadda! Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch!

And they did this despite the many miraculous events that they witnessed: and we’re not talking about reading of it in the morning paper, or watching it happen on You Tube! They were eye witnesses, they lived through these things, they walked on dry land with a wall of water on both sides. They knew all these things had happened, that God had done it, yet the first time they stub their little toe they are totally fed up and want to go back to being slaves! Oy!

Yet, we are no different today. You disagree? Maybe some of you do, so let’s think about this: when you start a new job, haven’t you noticed that when others are running around you are calm and you can handle things? You think “This isn’t such a big  deal”, right? Then a year later, you are running around just the same way while the newbie is thinking, “This isn’t such a big deal.”

How many times have you been in a situation where you seem calm and others are not, yet there are times you can’t see any hope, running around tearing your hair out by the roots,  and others are calm? Look close at your experiences and you will see that we are all the same as the young and immature Nation of Israel was in the desert- always complaining, forgetting the blessings, not trusting even in trustworthy things, all because of our petty and selfish desires for comfort and ease.

This is a lesson for us all- God is always present, God is capable, and we need to trust in Him to form our future while we let go of the past. There are two things that no one can ever do- change the past or go back to it. The past is just that- past. It is gone, and whatever was good about it is a memory, just as whatever was bad about it is also a memory. It is up to us to choose how we live: in the past, the present, or the future.

God wants us to remember the past so that we can do what is right in the present, which will secure our future. 

(Please read that again because it can change your life)

The people of Israel knew that God was with them and that He was capable of doing everything and anything that they needed. He had sent the plagues, He split the sea, He provided them manna to eat and water to drink, and when they cried out for meat He gave millions meat for a month! In the midst of the desert, no less!

True, they did have some issues: no water or food, the most powerful army in the world coming to destroy them with hundreds of chariots. OK, I will give you that these are somewhat significant, but may I remind you that these people saw the plagues, they saw the sea close behind them while still open in front of them, they saw the pillars of cloud and fire guide them and protect them. I mean, c’mon? How much more do you need to realize that there is a great power that is on your side?

We need to ask ourselves how many seas have opened before us? How many times did we receive water and food during times we were in a “desert?” And how often do we gripe and cry about things that are, in the light of God’s majesty and awesome Grace, so unimportant and childish, that we should feel ashamed?

Shaul complained about a “thorn in the side” that he had to deal with, and that God answered his prayers to remove it by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you.” God’s grace is sufficient for all of us: it was sufficient in Egypt, in was sufficient in the desert, it was sufficient during the time of the Judges, and throughout all history it has been sufficient.

Are you satisfied with the manna God provides for you, or do you want the leeks of Egypt? The people forgot that those leeks,vegetables and meat they had were given to them like farmers feed their pigs, in big pots that were shared by all. They also forgot that whatever they received in Egypt was given to slaves, not free people. They forgot that before they ate they were worked, whipped and mistreated all day, every day. There was no 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch; there was only every day, sun-up to sunset, 7 days a week, every week of the year for their entire lifetime.

Look to your life for the good and do what you can to overlook the bad, even if it seems insurmountable to you. Look instead to all that God has done for you; list it in your head. I guarantee that no matter how terrible it seems right now, no matter how thirsty you feel, how hungry, or how many chariots are coming after you, when you remember and count all of God’s blessings you have received you will realize that even during the worst times of your life, you are blessed.

Let’s not be like the people in the desert, grumbling against those that are just doing their jobs (who take orders from someone else) and always looking back at what we perceive to be better days. No matter how bad it seems right now, there’s a good chance you may find yourself looking back at this very moment and wishing you had it as good as you do now! That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?

Trust in God, look for the blessings He has given you and believe and trust that He only wants what is best for you. Trust in the Lord and you will see His majesty, His power and His compassion rain down upon you as though the very floodgates of heaven were opened over your head. Read His word (all of it) and obey His word (all of it) and He will bless you in everything you do.  Yes, you will still have tsouris in your life because that is part of life. Only the dead have no problems, so if you want a problem-less life, well…not the best alternative, is it?

Stop kvetching about everything and get on with it. Walk in faith and the seas will split for you, the rocks will give you water and the heavens will provide you sustenance.

At the Red Sea, as the Egyptian army was coming after them, God asked Moshe why he was crying out to Him, and told Moshe to tell the people to start walking. The seas hadn’t split open yet, but God said to start walking. That is what we need to do- walk in faith before we see what God is doing. Walk in faith, as God told Moshe and the people to do, and you will see the salvation of the Lord appear before you!