Tag: salvation

Parashah Ki Tavo (When You Come)

Leave a comment

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.

 

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Leave a comment

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.

 

Parashah Re’eh

Leave a comment

(NOTE: this week is actually Shof’tim,  which I did last week. Last week should have been Re’eh, which I am doing this week.)

This parashah has many of the commandments we live by in our daily life. Eating, treatment of others, finances, worship, etc. This is just one of a couple of places where we are given His laws, commandments, rules, and regulations (I have never really gotten a good explanation of the differences. Anyone know?) As with most times when we are told how we should worship, eat, and treat each other (pretty much how we live), there are the two promises that precede God’s commandments: the blessings we will receive if we obey, and the curses we will suffer if we don’t.

Sounds a little unfair, doesn’t it? I mean, God says if you do as I say you will get blessed, but if you choose not to do these things you will suffer. There’s no discourse, there’s no give-and-take, there’s only His way or the Hell-way. Really? I don’t count, is that it? What am I- chopped liver?

Actually, no. You are a worm. You are a sinner from before you left the womb, and your righteousness is nothing more than filthy (the true interpretation is: menstrual) rags before the Lord.

On the other hand, you are a child of God, esteemed and loved, above the angels, and a treasured diadem.

Oy! Make up your mind, already!

There are people who would say God isn’t fair because He makes all the rules, and we don’t get a chance to decide which ones we want. After all, it is a covenant, right? Two people, two sides, two opinions.  Why don’t we get a say in this?

Because He is God. He does make the rules, He does get to choose, He doesn’t have to listen to us. Frankly, I trust His judgement about what is best for me much better than I trust my own, and I got no problem with God being totally in charge. The only problem I have is actually doing as He requires, even though I want to. Sounds like that nice Jewish boy from Tarsus who said he doesn’t do what he wants to do, and does what he doesn’t want to do. He called himself a wretch, and all I can say is: amen to that! I know how he felt.

I think this is what makes it hard for many people to give themselves to the Lord. They simply do not want to give up control of their life. The world teaches us to be in charge, to watch out for Numero Uno, and never trust anyone. We are actually looked down upon by the world when we give total control of our life to the Lord. We are told that we are weak when we patiently deal with people who are mean to us, and when we accept our problems as part of living and “give it to the Lord” we are told that we use Him as a crutch to avoid dealing with our problems.

I don’t think giving our life to the Lord means we lose control of it. We have free will, we can make decisions, and we are given the rules (as in this parashah) that direct how we should live, yet we still can make plans for ourselves, we still can choose what we want to do as a career, we can sail along on God’s super liner to Eternity or we can jump ship. God is not requiring of us to do any more or less than our society does when requiring us to obey its laws. True, as a society we make our own laws, different cultures have different laws to reflect their own needs and desires. So why is it different when God tells us His laws? Maybe because we don’t get a vote. Well, like it or not, that’s how it is, folks.

Is it really very different? After all, when humans make laws we get to vote on them, and if you didn’t vote for the law, you still are subject to it. If you break it, you suffer the consequences.

God makes laws that we don’t get a vote on, and if we break them we suffer the consequences. Oh wait a minute!! We get a break. We have a Messiah who took on our sin for us, so (as far as spiritual consequences go) we don’t have to suffer for our failure to obey. In this existence, i.e., the physical world, we do suffer for our sins, but thanks to Messiah Yeshua we don’t have to suffer for all eternity.

Where do you find that in the law books at the City Courtroom? Any precedence for eternal salvation from the Supreme Court?  Maybe the Governor can pardon you, or the President, but that’s as close as it gets. And they do it, case by case: Yeshua did it for everyone. Everyone who is living, everyone who has lived, and everyone who isn’t even born yet. Until the end of time.

Whoa! That’s not so bad.The laws in society I get to partake in making, but even if I don’t like them I will have to live with them. If I obey them, I get nothing. If I break them I go to jail. I may get a pardon for a single occurrence, but that is exceptionally rare.

The laws God makes I don’t get a vote on, but just like in society, I still have to live with the ones that exist. If I obey them I receive wonderful blessings. If I break them, I get cursed, which really translates to I don’t get the blessings. In other words, when I break God’s laws I get nothing from God and live in a cursed world. As for a pardon, it’s not rare, it’s not just for a single occurrence, and it is for all eternity. All I need to do is accept it, and do T’Shuvah (to atone, to “turn” from my sinning ways.) Thanks to Yeshua, we have an eternal “Get Out of Jail” card. It’s not a license to sin, and although it is an escape clause we have to live up to it and change our ways or it doesn’t count.

Still, all in all, it’s a lot better than the laws we make ourselves.

In the end, I prefer to accept, willingly and gratefully, the laws that God has given me for how I am to live my life. They come before the laws of Mankind, as far as I am concerned, and since most human laws are based on God’s laws, they aren’t all that different. It’s really our attitude that makes all the difference; acceptance or refusal. In other words, pridefulness or worshipful humility. Oohh- that hurt! That hits home, doesn’t it? You mean if I don’t like the fact that God tells me what to do without me getting a say I am prideful?

In a word: yes. God is above all, he is the Almighty, the Creator and King, the Everlasting One, The Holy of Holies, He dah Man!! If you don’t want to receive His laws and commandments with joy, then you must think you are better than Him. That’s human pride speaking.

God’s laws are the best; yes, we don’t get a vote in them. But then again, this is not a human kingdom we are dealing with. It’s not like the Colonial Days when we cried ” No taxation without representation!” It’s way more than that. It’s Eternity. It’s how we live now and where we live forever. It’s the way it is, take it or leave it.

You know, because we can choose to live in accordance with His laws or reject them, we do have a vote, don’t we?  When you cast your ballot, I recommend you vote for God.

 

 

Are You Saved Because You’re Selfish?

Leave a comment

Huh? What you talkin’ about?  I’m saved by the promise of the Almighty. Yeshua died for me. I called on the name of the Lord and He saved me. God loves me.

Yadda-yadda-yadda.

Oh, yes, it is true that Yeshua died so we could be saved, that God is forgiving and loves us, that all who call on His name will be saved, and all that other stuff that makes us feel warm and cozy inside.

But are you saved because you love the Lord or because the Lord loves you? That’s the question we need to ask ourselves. Too often I hear people that are talking about salvation and how God loves everyone. It’s all about how God loves them. But here’s what I think, and maybe it’s just me, but I think we should love the Lord because of who He is and not because of what He does for us.

God deserves our love. God is worthy of our devotion, obedience and worship. He does love us, but does He really love us as we are? For what we are? I don’t think it’s quite as “rosy” as all that; after all, he does require us to obey Him. And I don’t think anyone will argue that when God commands us to “be holy for I am holy” that He is asking us to change.

That’s right- let it sink in. God loves us as we are and for who we are, but He wants us to be different if we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. C’mon, get real- we are sinners. Throughout the Manual we are told that everyone is a sinner, and that God is holy, so if we want to be with God, and God is holy, we need to be holy. Right? God can’t abide sin, so we need to be sinless to be with Him.

When Yeshua died for us His death atoned for our sin. That is how we get to be with God, but it’s not a ticket to continue sinning. We still have to die to self, to allow the Ruach to guide us, to be different than we were before we were “saved.”

I hear people talking and preaching and ministering to others, talking all about how God loves you and forgives you. What they are selling is Dr. Feelgood; snake-oil salespeople getting people to accept the Messiah as their personal Saviour only because of how He loves us. It’s all about me, me, me and how much I need to be loved and forgiven for who I am and what I do. Me…me…me!

I think this is wrong because it doesn’t allow people desperately looking for someone to love them to realize what their commitment really means. It all sounds so nice, especially to people who have a sense of loneliness and just want to feel loved. I know people who are loved but they are such a pain the the tuchas they reject the love people give them and ostracize themselves. Then they kvetch about how no one cares about them, but when we do call or show we care they only complain and carp about their lives. They are totally self-centered. These are the types that are ripe for the picking when it comes to telling them about how Jesus loves them and they can be saved and be in heaven, etc.

This is not what Yeshua said. In Matthew He says that anyone who wants to follow Him must reject parents and family, they won’t have a place to sleep or a home, and they must pick up their execution stake and follow HIm. He says he is a wedge between mother and daughter, father and son, and that the world will hate those who follow Him.

Doesn’t sound much like a good time, party-hearty atmosphere, does it?

I think of the parable of the sower of seed. Those people who are ministered to and proselytized on the basis that God loves them, no matter what, are the people who hear the Word and accept it but are shallow soil. Why? Because they are accepting salvation for selfish reasons. Their interest isn’t in doing what God wants because He is worthy of our worship and obedience, but only for what God can do for them.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I am VERY grateful for God’s forgiveness, and it is a good feeling to know He loves me and that Yeshua did what He did for me. But I am saved because I want to have a relationship with God, I want to fill the emptiness I have felt my whole life not knowing who He is. It’s all about Him, and very little to do with me. That’s the kind of soil where roots grow deep because we are centered on what God is, what God deserves, and I worship Him because He is worthy of my worship.

I don’t want to sound holier than thou. I accepted Yeshua because, as Shaul says, I was jealous. I knew Christian’s who had a peace and joy that God gave them and I wanted in. I did want what salvation offered for selfish reasons, too. But that wasn’t all of it, and it shouldn’t be. As I have matured, spiritually (anyone who knows me can vouch that the only maturity I have is spiritual) I have come to realize that we need to be different, that although God loves us He wants us to be better. And salvation depends not just on asking, but on our doing, too. That’s right- it’s a free gift but it’s like having muscles: if you don’t use them,they atrophy and die. Our salvation is meant to be used to bring others into the Kingdom, to be fishers of men, to be a lamp, a light and to spread the Word by showing people how much God has changed us.

When we read of Yeshua’s ministry, how many times did He preach “God loves you?” It certainly was evident in the way He talked, but didn’t He really preach repent? Didn’t He make it difficult? Didn’t He warn us (by means of how He warned His Talmudim) about how difficult it was going to be  following Him? I don’t recall from the Gospels Yeshua droning on and on about God’s love and forgiveness and how happy you will be and how wonderful that you will get to be in heaven. Yeah, He made mention of it, sure. But it wasn’t what He really stressed, was it?

I want people to know the peace and joy that comes from His indwelling Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of God. It has calmed me and helped me through rough times. I know God loves me and wants me to be saved; He says it over and over throughout the Bible. I would rather be with God than anywhere else,especially throughout Eternity. And because this is so important, I want everyone to know how difficult it is to be godly in a cursed world. I don’t want to “sucker them in” with promises of a rose garden for them to find out it’s really more like a brier patch. It’s tough being holy, it goes against our nature. And if all someone is told about is how wonderful they are, how God loves them, and only how about good they can feel knowing that the Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, the Lord, God, the Big Guy Himself, is only interested in making them feel loved, well…they will fall. They are accepting salvation on a premise that God is here for them, and the truth is we are here for God. If you really mean it when you say it is all about God, then you understand why I am so concerned about not pushing just love, love, love but making sure I tell people that it is tough, tough,tough out there when you accept salvation because you have to be different, you have to change. God loves you but He wants you to be different than you are now.

God is our Father in heaven, He is also our Judge, Jury and Executioner; He is Love, and He is justice and vengeance. When people accept His gift of Grace, it shouldn’t be only because of what God is doing for them. That won’t cut it when the going gets tough. Yeshua told the truth. He didn’t preach how wonderful it would be for everyone, He preached how everyone should be so it can be wonderful. We need to follow Yeshua’s example and preach the truth, both the wonderful and the not-so-wonderful aspects of salvation. We need to be tough and make sure people know what they are in for.

General “Chesty” Puller, a Commandant of the Marine Corps, and 5-time Medal of Honor winner, used to say that the more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war. This is war we are in, spiritual war, yes, but war all the same. We need to make soldiers for God and we can’t do that with people who are in it just to be “Hollywood Marines” (that’s a name we gave people who joined the Marine Corps just to look cool in the uniform.) We need to tell about more than just how God loves us because people who are “saved” so that they can feel loved are not going to last, and if we do that to them, if we tell them only the good and don’t prepare them for the worst, we are doing them an injustice and trampling the blood of Messiah into the dust.

I love the Lord because He is deserving of it. Not just for what He has done for me, but because He is deserving of it! If He never gave me a blessing, never did a single nice thing for me, He is still worthy and deserving of my love and obedience because of who He is.

And because of who He is, He does do nice things for me. He showers me with blessings I don’t deserve, and I am eternally grateful. Be grateful, be happy in the knowledge that you are loved, and that the Almighty wants you to be with Him. But don’t forget that we need to steel ourselves for battle, to put on the armor of God, and to focus on what we can do for His glory.

If it isn’t all about Him, it isn’t going to last.

Without Hate We Can’t Love

4 Comments

Which came first? Hate or love? Good or bad? Chicken or egg?

The Talmud tells us that we are born with the Yetzer Hara, or Evil inclination, and that the Yetzer Tov (Good inclination) doesn’t come until we are older (around the time we start to learn Torah, as I recall.) The Christian world calls it Original Sin. Either way, is is our inheritance from Adam.

In the book of Yacov (James) this is confirmed when he tells us that through one man (Adam) sin entered the world.

This seems to be a good argument that evil, hate, and bad things were here first.

Not so. God existed before anything, and He is good. Adam and Eve were not evil, and did not know good from evil until evil was thrust upon them.  So the answer to which came first, good or evil is easy- good was here first.

The answer to the question are we born good or evil is very different: we are born with the Yetzer Hara. That’s how the world is, a cursed place from the time of Adam. Through a mortal the world was cursed, and through a mortal the world was saved, that mortal being Yeshua ha Mashiach. There is another difference, though, one that the 1st Century Jewish population, as a whole, missed: the first man’s actions are completed and affect us while we are in this world, and the second man’s actions won’t be complete until we leave this world. Sin is of the body and of this physical world, but salvation is of the Spirit and the Kingdom of God.

So, why do I say we can’t love without hate? Because in this physical world there is no way to understand something without it having an opposite. Can I know cold without knowing heat? Can I understand the concept of courage if I don’t know fear? Someone who doesn’t know fear can’t be brave. Fear is something God gave us so we can protect ourselves (yes, yes, I know you are saying the Bible tells us we have been given a Spirit of victory not of fear, but this isn’t a spiritual discussion right now. If God hadn’t given us fear of death or pain or solitude we wouldn’t survive.)

Hate is here, and has been since the snake did the nasty to Eve. And we humans really caught on to evil. Within one generation we went from trickery to murder. I guess we are fast learners, but of the wrong things.

So, nu? What are we to do if hate, anger, murder, selfishness, and all these other evil, hedonistic feelings are, by definition, the natural state of being for us? Should we embrace them? I don’t think so.

Through the gift of the Ruach haKodesh, the Holy Spirit, we can overcome them. The Ruach is given freely, all we need to do is ask for it, and then the hard work begins. Like giving up an addiction to drugs, or food, or TV (Oy!- I have to give up TV, too? Nah- you’re OK with TV, just stay off the those nasty pay for view channels) we need to continually remember that we cannot stop these evil inclinations. They are a natural part of us and we will not be fully rid of them until the natural is over. Our only hope is in the Ruach, which can help us to control and overcome these inclinations.

Shaul (that nice Jewish boy from Tarsus many call Paul) said he was a wretch because he did what he didn’t want to, and couldn’t do what he wanted to do. If Shaul admitted that he struggled with his Yetzer Hara, how much more so will we have to struggle with it?

We can’t love until we know hatred. Ergo, we can’t want to love others until we have felt what it is like to be hated. I am amazed (not in a good way) that many minorities, people who have suffered hatred, are themselves hateful. I guess that’s the old Yetzer Hara at it, again.

I am glad that the Ruach teaches me that those who are hateful and mean are hurting, inside. I know because when I am hateful and mean it’s because I hurt. My hurt pride causes me to want to lash out at everyone and everything. In my natural being this is fine, in my Spiritual being I know this is wrong. The more hurt I feel, the more I should pray to God to remind me what it feels like being at the other end of hate. That’s when the Ruach can wake up the Yetzer Tov and remind me of what God wants of us.

You can always get someone to hate something by hating it, but it is much harder to get someone to love something by loving it. In this world, hate is the natural order of things, and love is not.

The truth, as I see it, is that hate is stronger. I know that sounds bad, and love can sometimes conquer hate, but hate is stronger because it is natural for us. Selfishness, hate, pride, all these feelings are of the natural world and we are born into them. They fit us like a custom made suit, and the world confirms this to us, daily. Just read the news.

We need God’s Spirit and His love to help us overcome these things. We can love someone and still hate some things about them, but we can’t hate someone and love anything about them, can we? Do you think that is possible? I don’t. I hope I am wrong.

But I do know that although there is nothing I can do, on and of my own, that will overcome my natural tendencies, with God all things are possible.

Hate sucks, love is wonderful. Look to God and ask for His love, His Grace, accept it and start to live a wonderful life. But be ready for hard work- it isn’t easy living the life of a reformed addict.

The Acid Test Question

Leave a comment

I am going to “cheat” a little this morning and insert an excerpt from my book, “Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion.”  If you like this short sample, please don’t hesitate to use the links on the Home page and get the whole book. It’s an easy read, and (so far) I have gotten positive feedback. That means both people liked it.  🙂

 

One of the basic beliefs I hope that we all share is the hope of salvation, i.e., resurrection from the dead and eternity with God. This is essential to the acid test question of what to believe and how to act that I will be presenting throughout this book. That acid test question is this, “How does this affect my salvation?”

That’s it. That’s all that we really need to ask ourselves, isn’t it? If something we are told to believe or something we are told to do (or not to do) doesn’t make sense, we should check it out in the Bible and then ask God to help us decide how this thing affects our salvation.

   For instance, let’s take numerology. Personally, I think there are some valuable associations we can make. Such as 3 is representative of the Godhead, 4 is the Godhead and man, 7 is the number of completion, 40 is important, too, although I am not sure why, but it seems to be a regularly appearing number. 40 days for the flood, 40 days for Yeshua in the desert, 40 days spying out the Land, 40 years wandering in the desert (this one we do know because God told Moses the generation that refused to enter Canaan would spend one year wandering for every day they had spies in the Land).

   Anything much past a simple association concerns me because we start to look for things that may not be there. You know, they say, “Figures don’t lie but liars figure” and when I apply this to the many different numerological associations I have heard people make I come back to the acid test question, “How does this affect my salvation?” Will I be saved by knowing that a certain word adds up to the number 8, which is associated with a new beginning? Is knowing some deep, hidden meaning of a sentence that has been manipulated to show a number, that has an association to another sentence, that results in another number, that someone thinks means something, going to get me into heaven? I don’t think so, do you?

   As I will say over and over throughout this book, we need to see what God says. We always need to go right to the User Manual. With regards to Numerology, the Manual (Bible) tells us over and over that Salvation comes through faith, not through accountancy. So the answer is that number crunching the Bible may have some usefulness with better understanding some things, and may even be interesting, but it is not going to save us. It fails the acid test and we can move on to more eternal things.

 

I once was told that you can’t make an argument from nothing. This was when I was being instructed how to properly interpret the Torah, which also is an important lesson when formulating a Drash, or sermon. How many times have people told you about hidden meanings they see in the Bible? Or maybe how, as I state above, certain words have a numerical value (in Hebrew the letters also represent numbers) that has the same numerical value as another word which is a bad thing?

I was taught there are three levels of interpretation: the P’shat, or plain written word: what you see is what it means. The Drash, or underlying meaning: read between the lines. And the Sud, or a deeper, almost mystical meaning that only the Spirit can reveal: what you been smokin’, man? These three levels of interpretation are how we should look at the Word. My admonition about being careful is because if it isn’t there, it isn’t there. Too often people try to find meaning that they want to be there, and there is so much meaningful stuff in the Manual that we can pull a line here, and a line there, and make almost anything we want to seem true appear justified.

That’s why we need to use the Acid Test question over and over- is this really important to my salvation? Is it important to realize that when Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah to kill him, Isaac was probably in his thirties? If Isaac was a pre-teen, as many suppose, does that make what happened different? If the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton ends up being equal to something, will that allow me entry into God’s presence?

No. What does matter is that Abraham was faithful, and that faithfulness was credited to him as righteousness. Now that’s important! That will pass the Acid Test question because we need to understand and accept that by faith we are saved.

Keep listening, because there is nothing wrong with listening- that’s how we learn. But do so with more than your ears- use your brain, be skeptical, verify for yourself what you are told and let the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) guide you. And above all, don’t forget to give anything you hear the Acid Test.

 

Parashah Va’etchanan

Leave a comment

Today’s Parashah is D’Varim (Deuteronomy) 3:23 to 7:11. Within this part is the repetition of the Ten Commandments. I could do a whole book just on those. I mean, really? Who couldn’t?

But don’t worry, I’m not doing that now.

Actually, what I feel I should talk about is just one line, 5:26. Moses relates how the people said they were too frightened to approach God and told Moshe he should talk with the Lord, then tell them what God said. God thought what the people said was good, and then God added, “Oh, how I wish their hearts would stay like this always, that they would fear me and obey all my mitzvot; so that it would go well with them and their children forever.”

To me this shows God’s love for us, but also the fact that God’s love is “tough” love. God loves us, and that is important to know, because His love is not like human love. However, because it is not like human love He will not coddle or enable us to do wrong. He will not be like the mother or father that thinks their child is a good kid, even when everyone else knows the brat is a stinker.

I hear so many people who become Believers because all they can talk about is God’s forgiveness and His love, and I think they are not getting the whole picture. This line, this one statement, really sums up what God feels for us- He loves us, and He wants nothing more than to give us the best there is, always. He wants us to be happy in every way. Yet, He knows we will screw it up, every time. He feels the righteousness of the people, and at the same time He is saddened by the knowledge of what will come in the future. His love is real love, the kind that will be just and true, totally dependable. So is His punishment.

Think about this: God wants to forgive. He isn’t just willing to forgive, He wants to forgive us. But He won’t if we don’t do as we should. All we need to do is ask for forgiveness, and do Teshuva (turning/atonement) in our hearts. God’s a loving and forgiving God, but He’s not stupid and He knows the heart. Asking for forgiveness and then not showing you mean it is not going to work. His love is stronger than anything we can ever understand, but so is His holiness and righteousness, which demands that He judge fairly. This is why Yacov (James) says that faith without works is dead.

If God forgives those who are not turning from their sins, then why should we try to turn from our sins? God will judge, and if we cannot count on His promise to punish those who are not truly repentant, then we cannot count on His promise of salvation, either.

God is love, but that’s not all He is. He is also our God, He is our Father, and He is our Judge and Executioner. He is the one who will decide.

Don’t just think of His love, but think also of what He demands of us and that He will keep His word about both salvation and punishment. To “Fear the Lord” means to worship Him with awe and respect, and we shouldn’t be afraid of God. However, we should be afraid of His judgement and punishment. His promise of salvation is absolute, and His gift of salvation is irrevocable. That means what He promised He will not take away, but that doesn’t mean we can’t throw it away. That’s why He said what He said in this Parashah- He wants to save us, He wants us to be happy, He does love us beyond our understanding. BUT…He is God and will do what He said, and will punish those who are not faithful. And that’s why He was at once both happy that we were so worshipful, and sad because He knew it wouldn’t last. Staying faithful and doing Teshuva- that’s our side of the promise of salvation: we need to keep that in our hearts, always, and work everyday to be more like Him.

We can’t be totally holy, and we can’t do everything in Torah. That’s why we need Messiah. However, we can become better. We can try and continue to run the good race, as Shaul  (Paul) says. Keep our eyes on the prize and so long as we make progress, even if it’s three steps forward and two steps backwards, we are still one step closer to God. I believe that is what will please God and will demonstrate our love for Him. Yeshua told His Talmudim (students) that if they love Him then they will obey Him. That’s the exact way His Dad feels.

God loves us, He wants the best for us, and He will deliver what He promises. Above all, He will judge.  We absolutely need Yeshua as our defence lawyer when we enter His courtroom. If you don’t have Yeshua as your Messiah, don’t wait another second. Ask God for forgiveness, accept that Yeshua is the Messiah and ask Him to send you the Comforter, God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to come into you and guide you. Ask for Grace, and do Teshuva in your heart right now. You will then know God’s love, and you will know His truth. And you will also know His joy and peace of spirit.

Was Yeshua a Man or Was He God?

Leave a comment

I think it’s the type of question we call a conundrum.

Taking some ideas from my book (there are links to it on the Homepage) we can explore this question a little.

Yeshua Himself said, after reading from Isaiah 61, that “before Abraham was, I am!” It certainly sounds like He was declaring Himself more than human, and it almost got Him stoned. Yet, for almost every single miracle that was performed by Him, He didn’t take any credit for the power behind the miracle, and gave credit to the person’s faith as the reason they were cured.

He told his Talmudim (students, or Disciples) that when they call Him “Lord” they were right to do so, because He was their Lord. Then later He says that they will do more than He has done, referring to the miracles that were performed.  And they did. In fact, He did not do any miracles that weren’t done before Him, or after Him.

He was born of a virgin, and that certainly wasn’t as a human is born. Yet even though not totally of  human origin, He was fully human. He was subject to human frailty and temptation but He was also so completely filled with the Ruach HaKodesh He was , as no other person ever has or will be, able to overcome His humanity.

In the end, He had to be totally human or he could not have taken on the sin of the world. God cannot be anything but completely and purely sinless, so Yeshua had to be a human to do what He came here to do.  And let’s not forget that Yeshua never once even implied we should worship Him, only His Father in Heaven. The Manual is full of references that God is deserving of worship, but Yeshua was clear that we should not worship Him, so He certainly didn’t think He was God.

Yochanan (John) tells us (in his Gospel) first there was the Word, and the Word became flesh. The Word is not human, but the flesh is human. The prophecy of Isaiah says that the Moshiach (Messiah) will be just a regular guy, who knows what it is like to be sick and will have human frailties; in fact, He won’t be anything to look at or recognize as “special” in His appearance. Just an average Schmo.

I know, I know…this sort of “He was – He wasn’t” back-and-forth can give you a headache! Was He human? Yes. Was He God? Yes. Did He die? Yes. Well, if He was God how could He be human, and if He was God how could He have died, and if He was human how could he be God, and if He was human how could He do those miracles, and if and if…. YIKES!!

That’s why it is so much easier to just take things on faith. However, being faithful doesn’t mean accepting ignorance. We still need to know what the truth is, and the only way is to hear it from His own mouth. The way He allows us to hear Him is through The Bible,  or as I like to call it, The Manual. Reading that, and asking Him to guide our understanding by the Spirit, is the best and most productive way to know His word. And, since the Word became Him, that’s how we get to know Him.

God is above and beyond all human understanding. Can God be human and God at the same time? Who knows? Me? You? Scientists? How can we even think that we can understand what God can or can’t do? He created the physical laws we are just starting to understand, so He must be above those laws, i.e., not subject to them. If we can’t understand the way the laws of physics works, how can we expect to understand how they apply to the One who created them?

Look, just take it as it is: Yeshua is the Messiah. Does it really matter if He was God or not? I don’t think so, because His job wasn’t to be God, it was to be the Messiah. As Messiah, He provided the path to salvation. That’s what He is- the pathfinder, the most important pioneer ever, because He didn’t create a path to the New World or through the North American forests to the West, but through the dark world of sin to the salvation of God.

One final thought: we need to take a lesson from the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and stop trying to understanding God. Didn’t Yeshua say that we must be like children to enter the Kingdom? Children don’t try to understand, they just do. They trust in what they are told and they do. We need to stop putting labels on Yeshua that He doesn’t need to wear just so we feel more comfortable. There is only one label He should wear, and that is Messiah. After the Acharit HaYamim (End Days), when all is said and done, when we have the new Earth, the New Jerusalem, when the Enemy is eternally subdued and you’re sitting under your pistachio tree enjoying your wine, will it really matter whether Yeshua was human or God?

It won’t to me. I’ll just be happy to be there.

 

 

Salvation: Good News, Bad News

Leave a comment

What is salvation? Whether you believe Messiah had already arrived or whether you are still waiting, it’s clear God saves us from the eternal consequence of our sins by means of His Anointed One, Mashiach/The Messiah. When you accept God’s Messiah as your Saviour and King, then you are “saved”. And,when you are saved, you spend Eternity in a really, really nice place. If you aren’t saved, you spend Eternity in a really, really lousy place. Saved= Eternity in a nice place; not saved= Eternity in a lousy place. That’s Salvation, in a nutshell.

But that’s not the good news, bad news.

From my childhood I wanted a relationship with God and felt unfilled and unfulfilled, yet what kept me from even thinking about being saved for over forty years was the thought that being saved meant I had to be a different person. I couldn’t make dirty jokes, I had to be nice to everyone, I couldn’t get mad, I always had to be holy; no jokes, always serious, no fun…not me at all.

Truth be told, I wasn’t all too happy about who I was, anyway, but I certainly preferred who I was to what I thought I would have to become.

Here’s the Good News about Salvation: you don’t have to become a different person to be saved.

Here’s the Bad News about Salvation: you don’t become a different person just because you’re saved.

Huh? What is this guy talking about?

I am saved, and I am still me. Being saved by Messiah, I am a Saint (according to the Bible, not because I did 3  miracles and was voted in), but I am still me. I still like dirty jokes (but I tell less of them because I am more aware of other’s feelings), I still like to drink alcohol (but I do so moderately), I still curse (but less- a lot less), and I still act like a dope. I am Steve, but Steve is saved. All those years of being afraid of losing myself were for naught. So, why is this bad news?

Because now that I am saved, and have the indwelling Ruach (Spirit) of God that leads me (when I allow it), I think differently. What’s has changed is that  my heart of stone is being replaced with one of flesh.  I am not becoming a different person, I am becoming a better me. And because of this, I now wish, sorta, that I would be changed. I often pray God will take away certain thoughts and desires, and replace them with compassion and patience. Now that I understand what God wants, and now that I want to please Him, I want to be different.

I prayed and prayed for God to excise parts of my personality, to make me a different person, and one day He answered my prayer. He said, “That’s not how it works.” He gave me the insight to know why: we need to learn to rely on God’s Spirit and God’s strength because if He miraculously ‘cured” me I would never learn how to depend on Him. You see, the Tribulation is already here. Just living in the world, but no longer being part of it, is a Tribulation all those who are saved must endure. We need to discipline ourselves and steel ourselves against the sin that is all around us, and (more so) the sin that is always inside us. If God just made it go away, we would be like the seed that falls on poor soil, and when the first wind blows we will lose it all. We need to exercise our spiritual muscles and work them to control ourselves, we need to be good soil and in that way when we call on the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) we will have the strength to listen and obey it.

If anyone is reading this and is a little scared about accepting Messiah Yeshua because (like me) you were afraid of being changed, don’t be. You don’t really change that much; at least, not at first and when changes do happen, you are happy about them.

I used to be a sinner that rationalized my sins, and now I am a sinner who regrets my sins. That’s the big change, and that’s the change that makes me want to do better and be better.

Like I said, I am not becoming a different person, I am becoming a better me. If you want to be a better you, accept God’s grace and accept Messiah Yeshua right now. Make a change for the better.

Proof of Existence Not Required

Leave a comment

When did people stop believing and start requiring proof? I mean, when did we lose faith?

Not just faith, but the belief in faith as a realistic notion?

In the “olden days” people made up stories to explain what they couldn’t understand. Today, of course, with science as advanced as it is, we know these stories to be unfounded and, pardon my saying so, even archaic and naive. But back then, they believed. And it wasn’t based on facts or scientific proof, but because they chose to believe.

The Earth is flat, witches float on water, the “Evil Eye”, and so many other beliefs that were not even questioned. And even though today we know these beliefs to be wrong, choosing to believe in something isn’t.

Maybe it’s no surprise that today, with science and knowledge and technology, we find it very hard to believe in anything, especially things unseen and unproven, such as , oh, what? God?

We have archaeological evidence that constantly indicates the Bible is an historically accurate document, but we don’t have definite, absolute proof of God’s existence. Or…do we?

I believe in God. I see proof of His existence every day, I have seen Him work in my life, and the lives of others. I still take many things I hear about how He has moved in other people’s lives with a grain of salt, but I concentrate on my life to remind myself of what He has done for me. Why do I believe? Because I chose to believe. That’s right- it’s not scientific or even “sensible”. It’s an ancient and emotional thing. It isn’t verifiable, and diminishes my ability to convince others. It’s a made-up crutch to avoid the real problems in the world. It’s my own little fantasy.

That’s what I used to think about people who believed in God. Thank God I don’t anymore.

I wonder why God doesn’t show Himself anymore like He did in Biblical times. He used to split the sea, rain fire down on His enemies, make earthquakes swallow up people, and heal the lame. Oh, yeah- a lot of this still happens today and I believe it is God, but it’s not like in the Bible. Or, maybe, it’s just not accepted by people like it was in the Bible.

I believe that we will never see definitive, absolute, scientifically acceptable proof of God’s existence until it is too late for anyone to argue about it. Why? Because we are saved by faith, not empirical evidence. The Bible doesn’t say Abraham was able to recreate God’s works in a laboratory experiment, thereby proving He existed, and thus it was credited to Him as righteousness. It says he believed Him, and that because of his faith it was credited to him as righteousness. Faith is defined by Shaul (Paul) as believing in things unseen, unproven. That is what God wants from us; he wants us to believe in Him. He does give us proof, all around us, every day, but if we don’t choose to faithfully see it and accept it for what it is, we can’t believe. No faith, no belief, no salvation.

Stop looking for proof. Oh, yes- read, investigate, keep an open mind and ask questions. That is how we learn. There is much to learn, but when it comes down to it, when the time comes to poop or get off the pot, you will not have enough proof. Ever.

You need to chose to believe or not to believe. There is no middle of the road because God is binomial- it is or it isn’t, black or white, is you or isn’t you my Baby? No wishy-washy when it comes to the Almighty.

We always have a choice, and in todays’ world people want choices but they don’t want to have to deal with the consequences of those choices. Brothers and Sisters, there is a consequence of rejecting God, and you WILL have to deal with it. Eventually, and for all Eternity.

Make a good choice, please.