No One Turns to God When They’re Happy

I may be wrong with today’s title. I am certain there are people out there who haven’t accepted God’s Grace and are enjoying fulfilling, useful and happy lives. Maybe there are people who have comfort and joy in their lives, but haven’t accepted God or His Messiah, then suddenly realize that it is not because of their own worthiness or power that they are so well off but because God is giving them blessings out of nothing more than His love for His children.

Maybe there are people who can appreciate Him and say to themselves, “Hey, know what? This is too good to be true, and I don’t deserve any of it because I am a sinner. So, while I am enjoying my life, let me stop and thank God for it, and take this time to accept His Grace, the salvation He made possible through Messiah Yeshua, and ask for forgiveness for the sins He is not punishing me for. ”

Maybe this is happening, maybe there are people who come to the Lord this way, maybe… but I really, REALLY doubt it.

Humans are self-centered, self-absorbed, self-important and hedonistic. And those are our good qualities!

I do not ever recall, in the 18 years I have been saved and even before, talking to anyone or hearing of anyone who came to the Lord in the midst of their joy. It is almost a foregone conclusion that when we are happy all we care about is staying happy. We don’t want to know or think of anything else.

In D’Varim (Deuteronomy) 8:10-20 Moshe warns the children of Israel against falling prey to their nature, in that once they have been secure and happy in the land they will forget it was God who did all that for them and that it was God who made it all possible, driving out the nations before them, and that it was because of God’s love for them that they have that security and abundance. He tells them to remember the Lord in the midst of their joy and not to think that they earned any of the peace they will have. In other places in the Torah he tells them to never think they are worthy of the land God is giving to them: in fact, Moses reminds them throughout the Torah about their stubbornness, their stiff-necked attitude and continual refusal to follow God’s laws wholeheartedly.

I think you have to agree with me- we don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. We want, we pray, we get, and when we are happy we think it was by our power we now have it and we ignore God. When it all goes away, we cry and kvetch and, finally, when we are beaten into a sobbing hulk of self-pity, those who are still smart enough to remember where it all came from look up to God, repent and ask forgiveness.

And He forgives. Over and over, He forgives. Not because we deserve it, because we don’t. I mean, maybe the first, or second, or even third time we screw it all up I can see His forgiveness being given. But after 40 years in the desert and still not paying attention? After thousands of years of distorting His word, making our own rules from His simple commandments? And what about the religions with rules that are against His commandments? How can He still be able, let alone willing- actually, wanting!-  to forgive us time and time again?

The answer is as simple as the commandments He gave us- He can, He does and He wants to because He is God.

If you are reading this and don’t consider yourself saved, thinking that your life is your own, please take this test:

  1. Can you add even 1 hour to the day?;
  2. Can you change one hair on your head from black to gray (without medical intervention)?;
  3. Do you know when you will die?;
  4. Do you know when Yeshua will return?

If you cannot answer any of those questions with an absolute “Yes”, I suggest you reconsider your position about God. And soon, because the prophecies about judgement are all pointing to the unavoidable conclusion that it will be here soon….very, very soon.

If your life is joyful and serene, please thank God for it. It’s because of Him. And if your life sucks, you are unhappy, depressed, needy and feel rejected, then look to God for help. He is there to bring you out of the pit and into the light.

And know this- those of you who are joyful and at peace today may be in tribulation tomorrow, so enjoy it and thank God for it.

Never lose sight of the fact that whatever you have that feels like a gift from above is just that- a gift from above. Yacov (James) reminds us in James 1:17 that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

God doesn’t change, and we can. I think that is one of the greatest gifts that God provided for us, the fact that we have not just the opportunity to change, but the ability. They say the leopard cannot change it’s spots nor the tiger it’s stripes, but we can change; no matter how old we are, no matter how bad we’ve been (or good, for that matter- it can go both ways) and no matter how long we’ve been that way.

God will accept you whenever you ask His forgiveness and request His grace, so don’t wait for the bad times to do so and never forget to thank Him during the good times.

He is worthy and deserving of thanks, all the time.

The Jewish Side of Why They Just Refuse to Believe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Predestination Doesn’t Work

The answer is found in Ezekiel 33. This chapter, similar to Ezekiel 18, is where God tells Ezekiel that he, Ezekiel, is like a watchman on a tower. When God tells Ezekiel of upcoming doom for the sinful, like a watchman blowing the shofar to warn people when the enemy approaches , he is to tell them what God says so they have warning and time to turn from their sins. If Ezekiel warns them, he is free of their blood. Therefore, God is saying that people can choose to turn from their sin, or choose to die in it.

God tells us that He takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner while still in his sin:

11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

The gist of predestination is that the elect are chosen already, and we don’t have any choice. God has designed and determined everything that will happen. There are some things in the Bible that can be used to make this argument; for instance, God told Jeremiah he was chosen to be a prophet and that God knew Jeremiah when he was still in the womb, Moses being chosen, Gideon, Samson, and there are others. All of these Prophets, Judges, and Saviors of Israel (oh, yeah- don’t forget Esther, who was where she was “for such a time as this”) were determined by God to do His will.

Does that mean they didn’t have a choice? Jonah had a choice, and even though he did get a lot of “encouragement” to turn back to Nineveh when he ran away, he still could have fought off the calling. He probably would have died, and we would not read the Book of Jonah at Yom Kippur services; maybe it would be the Book of Bob, or the Megillah of Myron? In any event, if Jonah had turned from his calling, or Gideon, or even Moses (remember that God almost killed Moses as he was first going back to Egypt), God would have still raised someone up to do His bidding. Even Yeshua, when He was praying before capture, asked if the cup could pass from Him let that be so. Even the Messiah clearly could have changed His mind about what He was to do. That’s not predestination, that’s free will in action.

You can’t make an argument from nothing (this is a very important lesson to remember when interpreting the Bible) but we can never know how many babies were pulled form the Nile. Perhaps there were more than just one baby saved during the Pharaoh’s decree, so if Moses hadn’t chosen to fulfill the role God had for him, there might have been others available to God to serve His purpose.

Ezekiel isn’t the only place where we can see people have had choices, and God has given them that right. We do have free will, we do have the opportunity to chose God. Really, when you think about it (something most religions seem to want you to avoid doing), predestination can’t be God’s plan because if the Lord already chose what and who, then why bother allowing evil in the world? If God knows who will be in heaven, then why put billions of people through the Tribulation, or make innocent people die? Why even tell Ezekiel to warn the sinners? Why send the Prophets? If God has determined, ahead of time, who will live and who will die, why even give those destined to die life?

None of it makes any sense. Not that we can be expected to understand God, but really? God making billions of people go through life for what is, essentially, no reason other than to die is… ridiculous. That makes God out to be a young boy with a magnifying glass digging up ants just to incinerate them. Or creating the ants to watch them die (Oy- that’s even worse!)

God is the captain of our lives, and His ship will sail from Creation all the way to Salvation on Earth, a new Earth, where the people who have chosen to choose God (through Messiah Yeshua) will live in eternal joy and peace.

Those who have chosen to ignore God’s existence and choose sin will suffer eternal damnation.

The bottom line is that it is a choice, and it is our choice. It is your choice, and you are the only one responsible for that decision. You can’t blame your parents, your Priest, Rabbi or Pastor. You can’t say your favorite teacher taught you that God is dead, or that you just don’t know what to believe.

Not believing is a choice. And, take it from me, it’s the WRONG choice!!

Yeshua said that those who are not against Him are with Him. Not accepting or believing is being against Him.

Also, accepting what others say without confirming the truth for yourself is, well, it’s just plain stupid! You are going to have to answer to God, and He will not give you a break because you were too lazy to read the Bible and ask for the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead your understanding so that you can make up your own mind. And he won’t buy the, “But that’s what I was taught” line, either.

I will talk about God with anyone, believer or atheist, and if I don’t respect their choice, I respect their God-given right to make that choice.

Make your own choice, and do that with the knowledge that comes from reading the Bible for yourself. There are some parts that are boring and tough to get through, but get through it. Please- at least once in your life do this so that you  have a real chance at having life eternal. It may take a few days or weeks, or even months to get through it- the whole thing, from Genesis through to the end of Revelations. If you are Jewish, read the New Covenant writings, also (it will help if you get a Messianic version of the Bible) and if you are Gentile, read the Old Covenant writings first. You may be surprised at the fact that Jesus did not say anything new. Same thing for the Jewish readers of the B’rit Chadashah: Yeshua taught Judaism, He did NOT invent a new religion.

God has determined what will happen to mankind- no one who says the Bible is true can argue that point. However, because the fate of mankind is settled and already determined, that doesn’t mean the fate of any individual man (or woman) is already determined. The ship is sailing, it will reach it’s final port, and we all have the right and the freedom to decide if we will sail with this ship or not.

It is your choice, so make it a good one.

How Do You Use Your Gift?

If we look for verses in the Manual which talk to us about “gifts” we can find a number of them. There is the gift of prophecy, of teaching, the gift of Grace, and many others.

1 Peter 4:10 tells us that the gifts we receive we should use to help each other, and James 1:17 reminds us that every good gift comes from God.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 exhorts us to use our gifts collectively, that no one gift is above any other, but we all are given gifts to be used collectively as in the body, meaning as one group working together to serve the Lord.

Exodus 35:30-35 tells us that Bezalel and Oholiab were given the gift of skills in all types of artistry to allow them to serve God by managing the construction of the Tabernacle.

One thing that I have noticed about gifts, which is the same (to me) as the use and administration of the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) is that prior to Messiah Yeshua fulfilling His role as the final sacrifice for sin, the gifts and spirit were given to people as needed, but then revoked. The Spirit fell on Shimson (Samson) and it fell on Elijah, as well as other prophets and the heroes in the Book of Judges, but that Spirit was lifted up, again, and returned to God. It was a gift that was revocable.

However, after Messiah Yeshua gave up His Spirit, that same spirit was given to all who believe and accept Him as their Messiah as a gift that is irrevocable. God will send the Comforter to all who Believe and ask for it, and it will not come and go anymore: it will dwell within, for as long as we allow it to remain.

That’s right- I said for as long as we allow it to remain. Irrevocable means it won’t be taken back, but we can give it away, or more correctly, we can throw it away. That’s the thing about a gift: once given, it belongs to the one who possesses it, to do with it as they please. In my case, I try to use and listen to the Ruach all the time, but I am still learning and maturing in the Spirit. There are those that have accepted the Spirit but it proves too much for them to handle, so they ignore it or just throw it away, they become apostatized, and even the Bible tells us that once we have known the Ruach, known Messiah and then rejected Him, we have trampled His blood into the dirt (Hebrews 10:26-31.)

To know best how to use your gift, I guess you first need to know what it is. Yes, I believe there may be many who are not really sure what their gift is. We humans are easily led astray, and I do not doubt for a second that there are many who are trying to use what they believe to be their gift, which is really no more than a gift they want to have. As such, they are blinding themselves to their true gift. If you’re thinking you don’t feel quite right about what you think your gift is, talk with other Believers who know you and ask them to tell you, honestly, what they think your gift is. Nothing wrong with getting confirmation from those who have spiritual maturity.

Once you are sure about your gift, use it to please the Lord. The answer to the question, “How should I use my gift?” is given to you: read Colossians 3:17.

God has many gifts to give, and every gift He gives to us is precious and is to be used to honor Him. It’s all about God.

Regarding your gift: find it, know it, develop it and use it to help others in order to honor the Lord.

Remember what Yeshua told us: that which we do the these, even the least of His brethren, we do unto Him.

Parashot Acharey Mot / Kedoshim (Leviticus 16 – 18; 19 – 20)

Acharey Mot starts with the regulations about how to celebrate Yom Kippur, then about not eating blood and ends with forbidden types of marriages and worship. This is a continuation of the main theme throughout this entire book, which is to teach the people how to be holy.

Kedoshim is the central book of the Torah because it is right in the middle. It is the center of Vayikra, and also the center of Torah. As such, the Rabbis have regarded it as “the essentials of Torah” ( Pentateuch and Haftorah, Soncino edition) and a brief description of it’s main points follows:

* holiness and imitation of God

* moral and ritual laws

* Duties to and treatment of other people

* Prohibitions against hatred and violence

* additional precepts and ordinances

* prohibition against the pagan lifestyle

* ethical injunctions

* penalties for disobedience

* laws regarding immorality

* final exhortation to be holy and set apart

As I say above, this book is not just a set of laws and rules. It is how we become sanctified, holy and separated for God from the rest of the world.

In America, the court cases of Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. The Board of Education (of Topeka, Kansas) are well known to almost everyone, lawyer or not. “Plessy” was a Supreme Court ruling (in 1896) which stated separate accommodations, if equal in quality and standards, is not unconstitutional. Half a century later (1954), “Brown” was the reversal of that decree stating the very nature of things being separate means they can’t be equal (I ask any law professionals to excuse any minor misstatements I may have made in condensing these.)  The belief that separate cannot be equal is also what we are told in Leviticus, and throughout the Bible. If we want to be holy, as God is holy, we need to be separate and NOT equal. We need to be different.

Let’s get something straight here: different is not better than; it is not worse than;  it is just different from. The only thing that separates Believers from the rest of the world is Messiah Yeshua. We are still sinners: the only thing different is that we are saved sinners. And because we profess to accept the truth that Yeshua is the Messiah, and accept God’s Grace provided through Yeshua’s sacrifice, we are bound to change our way of living to that which God decrees in the Torah. Doing that makes us different from the world. God tells us to be holy for He is holy, and in Leviticus He gives us all the rules, regulations, and ordinances that will teach us how to worship Him properly and how to properly treat each other so that we can be holy.

Problem is…we ain’t holy! God gave us all we need to be holy, but it’s beyond us, that’s why God also provided Yeshua, and why we so desperately need Him, our Messiah, to bring us into the communion with God that we cannot bring ourselves into, by means of His sacrifice cleansing us of our sins.

We need to be different, and in the way God says to be different. Not as a means of rebellion (of course, if you’re a teenager, rebellion is mandatory behavior) or as a means of acting “holier-than-thou”, but as the proof that we worship God. It’s just that simple. We worship God, Adonai; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, the one, true God. And when we do this as He said we should (not as a religion tells us) then we are separated from the world.

The world says “holier-than-thou” as a condemnation against someone thinking they are a better person than someone else. Yeshua told His Talmudim (Disciples) that the Goyim (nations, or Gentiles) lord it over each other and they should not, so He also teaches us not to think we are any better than anyone else. But, in the long run, we are supposed to be “holier than thou”, but not because we are better: we are to be holier because our God is holy and we represent Him. We aren’t better, just saved. The difference between heaven and hell is certainly much more than that between railroad cars (Plessy vs. Ferguson) and we definitely want to be in First Class.

I believe this about Leviticus: the central theme of this central book of the Torah is to be holy so that we can represent God correctly.

The book tells us exactly how we achieve holiness by telling us how we are to worship, how we are to treat each other, how we are to marry, how we are to have intimate relationships, how we are to eat; essentially, Leviticus tells us that we should be, and how we are to be, separated from the world.

The brokerage firm Smith-Barney had a great commercial where their spokesman used to say (something like), “We make money the old fashioned way…we earn it!”  That’s the way the world works, and there’s nothing wrong with that- you work hard and you earn your reward.

With God, it isn’t like that. Salvation cannot be earned through hard work, it can only be gained by asking for it.

It’s not until after we have been saved that the hard work starts.

Truth is Simple

Walter Scott wrote a poem called Marmion and it was in that poem that he wrote, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!”  It shows the fruitlessness of lying, but more than that: it shows how convoluted things become when we leave the truth.

One of the country’s greatest writers and humorists, Mark Twain, said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

Let’s not forget what Yeshua said about the truth: the truth will set you free.

Truth is simple, and that’s the truth. Truth has no image to maintain, no “spin” is needed, but as with most things that are simple, the truth is often hard to take.

“Yes, those pants make your butt look bigger.” That’s the truth, but if you speak it, the truth is that you will be sleeping on the couch.

In fact, humans (at least in our society, it seems) are so averse to hearing the truth that if you say something that is truthful, such as telling someone who is doing a poor job at something (even if you are their supervisor and it is your responsibility to do so), if you just come out and tell them they are doing a lousy job, you are in trouble with HR. Not them; you! Because you told the truth, but you didn’t think about their feelings. How can we think about someone’s feelings, in a society where we are all victims, and still tell the truth?

If we “sugarcoat” the truth so much that it tastes good, then how much “good” can it really do?

The bottom line about truth, which it seems no one wants to hear, is that we are not really in total control or complete charge of ourselves. We never have been and we never will be. We are all interrelated, we cannot be without each other, and we cannot survive totally on our own.

As Yeshua said, we are all a slave to something: either a slave to God or a slave to sin. The only real freedom we have is to choose what we will be a slave to.

People want to hear what they want to hear. The truth is not something they want to hear, so the world tells us lies and teaches us to be liars. If someone looks silly in the clothes they have on, don’t say they look silly, tell them they look fine. If someone doesn’t do the job the way they are supposed to, don’t tell them, don’t fire them or pay them less. And don’t “upset” the poor workers- give them a raise just like the good workers get. And when someone says God doesn’t exist, or that His laws are done away with, don’t disagree with them and don’t tell them you believe He does exist and that His laws are still valid because you shouldn’t upset them.

I am not saying that we should talk to each other in a totally callous and unfeeling way, but we need to be truthful. We need to be able to tell the truth compassionately. If someone looks silly we should say that we don’t think the clothes they are wearing look right, and they would look better if they wore something that matched better. We don’t have to say they look silly, but we should say they would look better because what they are wearing doesn’t do them justice. That’s telling the truth in a compassionate way, don’t you think?

If someone is not doing their job correctly, we need to tell them, and we can do that simply by telling the truth: there is an accepted way of doing this job and you haven’t been following that process. Here is the way this is to be done and you need to do it this way. If you think you have a better way, great- talk to me about it and we will see if it can work, but in the meantime, you need to do it this way.

The ultimate truth is that God is in charge, that we can’t understand His ways, and that we need to trust Him to do what is best. That same truth continues: we don’t have control over what we don’t have control over. People are, for the most part, cruel, self-centered and sinful. Sorry, that’s the truth- the Bible is pretty clear on that, as is our own life experience. We have our occasional good ones, and I hope you are one of those, but we are sinful and our nature is to sin: we are sinful sinners, and the more readily we accept that truth, the easier it is to see how much we need Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) to help us to overcome ourselves. That’s the only chance we have for being in God’s presence when all is done, and the best way to improve ourselves. You can’t change what you don’t know is wrong.

The ancient Greek aphorism, “Know thyself” is a call to truth. Know who you are, what you are capable of, and why you do what you do. I don’t think we need to go through years of psychoanalysis to do this, we just need to accept the truth unabashedly and with courage. Cowards hate the truth, hero’s seek it out. Which are you?

The truth is that the truth often sucks. That’s the way it is, and the truth is you can’t change that. To accept it is the first step on the path to peace, really. I am not saying to be apathetic, to be a fatalist and say that you can’t make any changes or do anything, or that everything happens because God is in charge and, thereby, blame the Lord for your own failures to act. I am asking you to remember that old adage about accepting what you can’t change, changing what you can, and knowing the difference.

Trying to do what we can’t do is frustrating and leads to anger and disappointment- those are the kinds of things that lead to the Dark Side. Anger, unforgiveness, frustration of wanting someone else to do what you think they should do and living with the fact that they won’t is the kind of mindset that will prevent you from doing what God wants, which is to forgive them and love them, anyway. When we learn to focus on what we can do and not obsess over what we can’t change we will be much happier, and set a better example of what God wants us to be.

The truth will set you free from frustration and disappointment, and when you are truthful in a compassionate way you can not only be free, but help others to be free, too.

And that, my friends, is the truth.

How to Give a Sleepless Sermon

Sometimes I am both blessed and trusted by my Pastor and asked to deliver a Shabbat message. I am sure there are others out there who are not the congregational leader but also are asked to deliver a message now and then. Or maybe you are a congregational leader and you would just like to improve your skills at presenting the Word of God.

No matter what your title, when you give a message to the congregation, that’s when you want to know not just what you are talking about, but how to talk about it.

There’s the one about a new Rabbi, and he is giving his first Drash. He notices Mr. Greenstein, who he had talked with earlier, falls asleep during the sermon, but at the end of the day walks out shaking the Rabbi’s hand and says, “Good sermon, Rabbi.” This goes on for a few weeks, and finally the Rabbi says, “Mr. Greenstein: how can you say it was a good sermon when you fall asleep all the time?”  The man replied, “Rabbi: if I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

Giving a sermon, or message, or Drash…whatever we call it, is both an honor and a responsibility. My mentor, Rabbi Jeff Friedman, taught me much about giving sermons. I was a pretty good talker before that but he really set me straight on what to do, and I would like to share that, as well as what I have learned from giving sermons and being in sales for many years (yes, a sermon is a sales pitch, or a sort.)

1. First of all, you need to stick to the Word. No one has a better message than God, and whereas human endeavors can fail or fall short, we know that the Word of the Lord never returns void. So keep yourself out of it, and let God give the sermon. That is easy enough to do- make sure everything you say is from the Bible and can be found, using proper Biblical interpretation tools (see some of the blogs I have done on that), in the Bible.

2. Remember that there are many people, with different attention spans, listening to you. Watch your audience and see if they are getting glossy-eyed. If you feel like you are driving with high beams on into a herd of deer, stop. The Word may not return void, but you should still give it a good chance to be heard. No one knows what you are going to say, so they don’t know how much you have to say. That means if it looks like it is time to stop, stop. Stay to your notes, but go with the audience.

3. That is another good thing to do- stay with your notes. Your notes are correct and accurate, but if you start to go off on a tangent, it had better be led by the Ruach or you need to stop. Once we start off on something, there is too good a chance we will start to give personal opinion. That’s when we start to misuse the position. People aren’t there to hear what we think, and we aren’t supposed to tell them what we think- we are there to tell them the Word of God. If you think you can say something more important or useful than what God has told us, then you shouldn’t be on a pulpit because you think you belong on a pedestal. If you have a personal thought that you really, really believe is sticking to the Word but your own opinion, make sure you tell the people that before you say it. Shaul was a godly man and spread God’s word, but when he gave a personal opinion he let us know that.  We are there to give God’s message, not our own.

4. This is a sales pitch. You aren’t selling knives, or laundry detergent, but you are selling the idea that people have to do as God says. And for non-Believers you need them to want to “buy-in” to salvation. Og Mandino wrote a series of stories, and the first one is called, “The Greatest Salesman Who Ever Lived.”  If you haven’t read any of his work, that’s the one to start with. We need to use the basics of a good pitch:

A. No Negative Selling: fear is a lousy sales tool. Get off the fear of suffering in hell and stick to the wonders of salvation that bring peace and joy to you NOW. People don’t care about the future but they want what they want NOW. Stay with the present to get them to buy into the future.

B. Don’t tell Them They’re Wrong: people believe only half of what they hear, but 100% of what they say. Don’t argue against their beliefs, but ask questions that will make them second guess their own statements. If you want them to believe you, you first need to get them to doubt themselves, and that will only happen when they hear themselves question their own statements. Don’t lead off with your beliefs, but ask them leading questions to get them to doubt theirs. Most people I have met believe what they have been told because they are too lazy to research it themselves, so it is fairly easy to get them to doubt themselves. They don’t really know why they believe, other than that’s what they’ve been told.

C. Maintain a Sense of Urgency: we have until our final breath to accept Messiah Yeshua and ask forgiveness through His name. Therefore, we can wait until the last second, but unless you know exactly the moment you will die, you don’t know how much time you have. If you want the peace and serenity that God offers to us on Earth, and you want that during your lifetime, you’d better not wait. After all, why put off having something that you really want now? (here would be a good time for the parable about the man who wanted to be saved but had all these other things to do first. If you don’t know which one I am talking about, it’s in the Gospels- go find it.)

D. Don’t Talk After the Sale: Don’t shove it down their throat, and when they are asking questions answer them truthfully and with short, to-the-point answers. And give it time to sink in.

E. Always be Selling: When you are taking with someone and they are starting to see the light, with each point you make confirm that this is something they would like. If their life seems overwhelming, and they ask about the peace that the Ruach can bring, tell them about your life and others you know where the Ruach has brought you peace (third party testimony is strong), then confirm that with the question, “Doesn’t that sound like what you want in your life? Wouldn’t you like to have that right now?” Every statement should end with a confirming question.

F. Be in Control: the one who is in control of the conversation is the one asking the questions. You will need to answer their questions, but do the “Jewish” thing- answer a question with a question. Why? Why not? The person asking questions is the one controlling the conversation, so make sure you answer their questions truthfully and without going on forever- then finish with a leading, confirming question, like,”Isn’t that what you told me you were looking for?”, or “Does that sound like something you would want to have in your life?”

4. Keep It Short, Keep it Simple, and Be Entertaining. If you are talking to a crowd of people you have, maybe, 15- 20 minutes to keep their attention, then it’s sleepy-time. Oh, yes, there are those high-spirited Believers who will call out, “Take your time! No rush! Preach it, Brother! You tell it, Sister!” They make it hard on everyone else who have already had their fill. Yes, they have had their fill. We are humans, not spirits. We live within a linear time frame and can’t really be expected to stay alert and attentive for much more than 20 minutes. So be entertaining, and don’t be afraid of a little interaction with the crowd. I used to give sales pitches in the home that took 4-6 hours. The best compliment I received wasn’t just a signed contract, but the people would look at their watch as I was finished and say, “Oh my! Look at the time- I didn’t realize we kept you here so long.” They thought they kept me there! The truth is that I kept them at the table and for hours, yet they thought it was nothing. That’s good selling and why I was a very successful salesman. I also have had a lot of positive feedback to my sermons. I was given a gift of being able to use humor and serious, stinging statements that reach right into your heart and grab you by the soul. This is from God. I used and honed it when selling products, and have turned it into selling His Word. When you sell the Word of God you have the perfect product. Everyone needs it, everyone wants what it offers, and the only reason everyone doesn’t have it is because the Enemy is also a very good salesman. What he sells is a lie, but one that is so tempting that most people fall for his pitch. If you can use humor, a good laugh (even just a chuckle) will buy you another 5 minutes or so. And when you use humor correctly, as both a way to relieve tension and to open up feelings, you can be very convincing and effective.

5. Practice, practice, practice. Remember the Rule of the 6-P’s: Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. Know your topic, know your sermon, and talk through it for at least 5 or 6 times before you give it.

6. Show how this applies to their life.  At the end of the message, leave time to show ways to apply what God has for them in their life, now. Whatever the meaning of the sermon, give them ways to use that in their life. If you talk about peace of spirit, tell them how to use that to relieve stress. If you are talking about forgiveness, tell them ways to forgive and offer opportunities for them to do so. Don’t leave things with what God says, but leave them with what God says and how to use it.

7. Trust in the Lord and His Ruach to lead you. Yeshua told His Talmudim (Disciples) not to worry about what they will say because the Ruach will guide them and give them the words they will need. Pray for God to guide your words, and to always give glory and honor to Him through your sermon. Let God be the wind and you be the instrument He uses to make beautiful music.