For our 20th anniversary, Donna and I went to Central Parcs at Woburn Forest, in Bedfordshire, England.
We went with our friends, Diana, David Jarvis, with their daughter Harriet, and also David’s sister, Dorothy Gonsalves.
The Central Parcs resorts have everything you need all in one place: water rides and pool (indoors), shopping, market, games, activities (indoor and out) and even a safari park close by.
I hope you enjoy watching these photos as much as we enjoyed creating them.
Really. I don’t care that there are some things I don’t care about.
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Before we go any further, I should clarify what I am apathetic about: I don’t care which politician is in charge or what any of them say; I don’t care what sports team is doing what; I don’t care that people say the economy is lousy (they always do); and I don’t care what happens in other parts of the world, either politically or socially.
I do care that our society is going to heck in a handbasket at an increasing speed, but (on the other hand) I don’t care to do anything about it.
I do care that my loved ones, friends and most of my acquaintances are pretty much doomed to the second death. Yet, other than living my life as best I can to show them the comfort and joy I receive by having God in my corner, there isn’t much else I can do.
My apathy isn’t really based in discompassion or hatred, and it’s not that I don’t have feelings for anyone other than myself. In truth, I usually come in second, so to speak, when I am with my friends and family. I am more of the ‘servant’ than the ‘master’ in my personal relationships.
What I mean by that statement is that there are two types of people in the world: givers and takers. Those who give have a servant’s heart, and those that take aren’t necessarily bad, it’s just that they take more than they give. Both of these types have many levels at which they operate. For instance, a servant may be operating anywhere from being everyone’s patsy, to being a strong leader in the community. Being a servant doesn’t mean you can’t be a leader- look at Yeshua. He was one of the greatest teachers and leaders that ever existed, and He told us He didn’t come to be served, but to serve.
So why am I apathetic? It’s actually not apathy- what I am is resolved to wait until God’s plan of salvation is completed, and that I faithfully expect the tribulations we read about in the Bible to come true. God has been telling us through the Prophets and especially in Revelation all about what is going to happen in the Acharit HaYamim (End Days), and I see it all happening at this very moment.
In America, we have never been so politically opposed to each other, and the country has never been so vehemently separated as we are today. Except, maybe, during the mid-1800’s, when slavery was the issue that divided us and drove us, eventually, into civil war. Today we still have serious race issues, and combined with the polarization of our political system, well…it seems to me we are pulling ourselves apart. And the sexual perversion that has been a cancer growing silently in our bowels is finally making itself visible to the world.
It used to be that we cared about other people, but today we are all concerned about our own feelings: we are all victims, we need “comfort” animals to travel and eat with us, and we are teaching this slave-mentality to our children. Instead of teaching them to overcome adversity, we are teaching them how to be victims, not even able to care of themselves. Our children cannot make change without a calculator, they can’t tell time using an analog clock, and many can’t even tie their own shoelaces.
If Velcro was taken off the market, we would have shoeless children everywhere!
I read people’s postings, Facebook comments, memos and reports that are an abomination of English! Poor grammar, misspellings, and a general disregard for proof-reading. All social skills that the US of A no longer seems to think are important.
As for the rest of the world, North Korea is run by a nutcase with his hand on the nuclear button; Europe is being ravaged by Islamic extremists who are taking over the entire continent, if not by terrorism than by population; and Russia has learned military power isn’t the answer to world domination- it’s cyberpower!
Taking all this into consideration, when I think about it, frankly…I don’t care!
Why? Because all of this is supposed to happen! It is all prophesied, and if I was to try to overcome or stop it, then I would be “kicking against the goads” because this is God’s plan. I do not want to go against God.
So there you have it! I don’t care that Europe is in trouble, that America still has racial issues, that Jews are still persecuted in parts of the former USSR, that Europe is being assaulted by terrorists, that Christians are persecuted in Third World countries, that the climate is what the climate is, that sports has become a new religion second only to science, both now more important to most people than God, OR that Christianity has so screwed up the teachings of Yeshua that the only thing most of Christianity has in common with Him is His nom de plume.
No, I don’t care, and in some respects I welcome it! Yes, I welcome it because the worse things become, the closer we get to Yeshua’s return. That is what I care about- the return of our Messiah. His return to earth to finish off what He started, which is the completion of God’s plan of salvation for those that have faithfully accept God, His Messiah and are faithfully obedient to His Torah.
So, nu? What do you care about?
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I know what you’re thinking…”Huh?!? We all know that salvation is from Messiah Yeshua and that we can’t be saved by Torah”
Or maybe you’re thinking that the “cross” is our salvation?
Or maybe you are thinking that salvation is through faith and not through works?
Or maybe you are thinking that Jesus did all we need when He died for us?
If you are thinking any of these, well…you’re right. We are saved by Messiah’s sacrifice, which was proven acceptable to God because He was resurrected.
And you’re right that faith and not works (alone) is the way we are saved, BUT we still need to be obedient. God told us in the Torah how we are to worship Him and treat each other, and we aren’t excused from obedience just because we accepted Yeshua as our Messiah.
So, nu? How does Jesus prove that we can be saved by Torah?
Simple- He was saved by Torah!
Let’s take this one step at a time:
It is only through Yeshua, because of His righteous life and acceptable sacrifice, that we also can achieve salvation. We cannot be saved by Torah ONLY BECAUSE WE CANNOT OBEY THE TORAH PERFECTLY.
So you see, because Yeshua obeyed Torah perfectly He was resurrected to eternal life, which we call “salvation.” If He hadn’t obeyed Torah, if He had sinned, then His life would not have been acceptable as a sacrifice for us, just as a lamb with a blemish would not be an acceptable sacrifice. And if you are thinking, “Yeshua is the son of God- He would always have been able to return to God.”, then why bother living a sinless life? In other words, if Yeshua did not give up His divinity and submit Himself to death (which the bible says He did), then He didn’t risk sinning. But Isaiah tells us (Chapter 53) that Messiah is a man of troubles, who knew illness and suffering- God is above all that. You see, Yeshua had to be 100% human, with all the human weaknesses and frailties in order to prove that Torah was trustworthy.
In order to be a real sacrifice, He had to be able to die without a guarantee of resurrection.
The mission of the Messiah is to bring God’s people back into communion with God. To do that, because of our iniquity (desire to sin) we all need someone to bridge the gap between us and God. That is what Yeshua did, and He did it by showing us that the Torah is the roadmap to salvation. By living a Torah-perfect life, He was “saved”, and through His salvation we can all come into God’s kingdom.
So, nu? Does that mean I can be saved by Torah alone? Yes, if you could live it perfectly, but since no one can… NO, it doesn’t mean you can be saved by Torah alone.
Does that mean I don’t need to obey Torah at all? NO, it doesn’t- we all need to be obedient to the Torah because it is God’s commandment that we must, and to ignore or reject Torah is an unrepentant sin. Unrepentance is a wedge between us and God that even belief in Yeshua will not remove. No one who is unrepentant of their sin can be saved.
So then what is my point? It is this: Torah is still valid, it is still part of God’s plan of salvation, and it is what Yeshua taught us we should obey. We can’t do it as He did, but through His accepted sacrifice (which was because He lived Torah perfectly) we can still be saved even when we fail to obey Torah perfectly.
And through the indwelling of the Ruach haKodesh, we can be strengthened to overcome our iniquity and comforted when we fail to.
As I often say: we can never be sinless, but we can always sin less. Yeshua has saved the world from it’s iniquity, but we still have to have faith in Him and God, do T’shuvah (repent) and live as sinless a life as we can.
The instruction manual for living a sinless life is called the Torah.
As someone who posts a lot on multiple Facebook discussion groups, I see many people who state something then have to defend what they say.
I believe how we defend our beliefs is a sign of how well we live them out in our everyday life.
There is a saying that has led many to think they are saved when they may be sabotaging themselves.
That saying is: “Once saved; Always saved.”
It is a lie from the pit of Sheol, which has separated many from the truth of the Gospels and made impossible the proper worship of Adonai.
God is compassionate; God is loving; God is not just willing to forgive, but He really wants to forgive.
But God’s love is tough love, and no matter how badly He wants to forgive us, we will suffer when we reject His guidance and commandments.
You won’t ever hear God ever saying, “Oh no- not my baby! My baby is a good boy.” as they drag the mass murderer to prison.
This title is a little misleading- it’s not really the problem people have with God, it’s the problem people have accepting the truth about God.
That truth is simply that He is in charge, wants to do the best for us, but also will make the rules and enforce them.
And God will do what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, and how He wants it to be done, despite what, when or how we want Him to!
As a child I was constantly reminded that “You Jews killed Jesus” by my Christian friends and acquaintances.
Back then I didn’t know and (frankly) didn’t care about God or the Messiah, but I knew enough to say that Jesus came to die for their sins, so all we did was help Him.
Now I know better- it wasn’t the Jews who killed Jesus, nor was it the Romans: it was ME.
They say evil succeeds when good people do nothing about it. But what if the good people don’t even know there is evil being done?
Have you ever really watched and thought about some of the TV commercials we are saturated with?
We are being conditioned to accept as good that which is evil.
In Luke 4 we read of Yeshua teaching at a synagogue and reading from Isaiah. He reads a few passages from the scroll, folds it up and tells the people that He is the one talked about in that scroll.
But He didn’t read the entire scroll- in fact, He left out the part about salvation and resurrection of Israel and the Jewish people.
Why?
