Tag: tanakh

Let’s Talk Trinity

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Get your fishing rod because I am about to open a can of worms. Hopefully I can do this without insulting or degrading anyone’s beliefs, which may or may not agree with mine.

Since this is my blog, I get to say what I want. Please do not hesitate to comment if you feel there is something you want to add- the comment field is below the blog entry, so just scroll on down and write away! Be aware that I am not going to confirm what I believe with verses from the bible as you can look them all up on your own. I am not doing this because I am lazy, but as a means to force you, the reader, to confirm what I say for yourself. One of the reasons so many people have so many wrong ideas is because they are too lazy to confirm what they are told by looking it up in the bible. This is what Yeshua called the blind leading the blind, and He tells us what happens to them: they both fall into a hole.

Ready? OK, then, here we go…

I believe that Yeshua was originally eternal and divine, equatable to, if not actually the same entity, as God the Father (hereafter to be referred to simply as God.) I am not sure if there was a Trinity before human existence, and after humans were created and living on the earth I believe Yeshua did visit the earth and interact with humans, but as a divine being in human form. I also believe that God would occasionally send His spirit (as a form of supernatural empowering) to humans as it fit His purposes, but that Spirit was not indwelling- power by the Spirit was given to the person, and when the action God wanted was completed, He took His spirit back again.

Once God decided it was time for Yeshua to go to earth and perform His duty as Messiah, in order that Yeshua be subject to temptation, illness, all the weaknesses of human nature, and be able to die, Yeshua had to voluntarily strip off His divinity so that He could take on a mantle of flesh. Consequently, He was born 100% human to a human woman, and lived a totally human existence except for the fact that being fathered by God’s Holy Spirit, Yeshua was born without the stain of Original Sin upon Him. Other than that, He was a human being. His power and authority was not of His own, but that which was given to Him by God through the Holy Spirit. He confirms this often enough throughout the Gospels, telling us that He does only what God tells Him to do, and says only what God tells Him to say. He also said that those following Him would perform the same, and even greater miracles, which leaves us with the question how can humans do more than God? As such, Yeshua on earth was a mirror image of God in the flesh. When Yeshua said He and the Father are one, He meant that being an exact human representation of God’s actions and thoughts, they were essentially the same. Not the exact same; since Yeshua did and said only what God told Him to do and say, He was the prefect representation of God in the flesh, but He was not God, Himself.

Yeshua, being totally human, allows Himself to be killed. When He was dead, he had no ability to do anything. God resurrected Him, in the same body that He died with. We know this because we read in the Gospel of John that Thomas put his hand in the hole in Yeshua’s chest and his fingers through the holes in Yeshua’s feet and hands. A new, resurrected body wouldn’t come with holes in it, would it?  Therefore, Yeshua is still in a physical form, but having been resurrected by God He is again eternal, but still separate.

Every letter Shaul writes to the Messianic Communities he founded starts with greetings from God and the Messiah, Yeshua. From God, and the son, the Messiah, Yeshua- Shaul knew that God and Yeshua were separate and different entities. In the Gospels, as I mentioned above, Yeshua told us He and the Father are One because Yeshua is doing and saying only that which God tells Him to do and say. The book of Hebrews also identifies Yeshua as a totally separate entity from God. Acts tells us when Stephen was just about to die, he saw Yeshua sitting at the right hand of God; at His trial Yeshua told the Cohen Gadol that He would be sitting at the right hand of God. We have heard that someone may be so angry that they are said to be “beside themselves”, but that doesn’t really happen, so if Yeshua, the Apostles, Stephen, and all the other writers of the B’rit Chadasha ( New Covenant) state that Yeshua is a separate entity from God, and they refer to the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) in the same manner, then from the point of Yeshua’s birth up to the present day, Yeshua is eternal, but not totally divine because He is still acting as Cohen Gadol for all humanity; He is sitting at the right hand of God but He is not God.  He cannot be God: if He is God then there is no High Priest, if he is God then He is not a Cohen Gadol to be compared with Melchizedek. That would mean the Messianic prophecies about Him are untrue, or that He isn’t really the Messiah God promised in the Tanakh.

But, He IS the Messiah God promised in the Tanakh, and He IS a Cohen Gadol to be compared with Melchizedek, and He IS our Intercessor who sits at the right hand of God. He is not to be worshiped in lieu of God, although He is our Lord (meaning that He has authority over us- Yeshua is our Lord, but not the LORD) and as such He is worthy of worship on His own merits. He is the one who carries our prayers to God, but He is not the one we should be praying to. Yeshua told us that in order to receive from prayer we needed to pray IN HIS NAME- that doesn’t mean pray to Yeshua, it means pray to God while invoking Yeshua’s name as the authority by which we present our prayer. We could say that His name serves to confirm our prayer, His name grants us access to the Holy of Holies, and that His name (as Shaul says) gives us the authority to march right up to the throne of God and present our petition directly to Him.

Lastly, Yeshua will return to earth as the conquering King; He will rule the entire earth until the Adversary is released and the final battle is completed. Then, and only then, will things change. The Torah will be written on our hearts, there will be a new earth and a new Jerusalem, where spirit and physical form are on the same plane of existence, and then…well, who knows? Will Yeshua then leave the right hand of God and be reabsorbed (for lack of a better word) into the Father? Will the Holy Spirit also disappear as a separate entity? Will the Trinity that has to exist at this time for God’s plan to be fulfilled no longer be needed once that plan is complete?

I don’t know, and I don’t believe anyone can be absolutely positive about what will happen once everything we know will happen has happened.

I will finish with this: maybe Yeshua is God, maybe He is not God, and maybe He is something totally different. Maybe the Holy Spirit is in the same boat. I am humble enough to confess that I really don’t know: for those that I hear tell me they are absolutely sure, well, maybe they need more humility or maybe God has singled them out with this knowledge. Generally, what I hear from people who want to express their belief as absolutely correct is that they have “received this knowledge from the Ruach HaKodesh.”  Maybe they have been blessed to have God grant them this special knowledge, maybe they are just saying that so we have to believe them. For me, it doesn’t matter.

The one thing I feel confident we all can agree on is this: as long as we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, constantly repent of our sins and ask forgiveness through the sacrificial death of Yeshua, and trusting in God faithfully try to be what He said He wants us to be, then this whole Trinity “thing” won’t matter as far as our salvation is concerned. Our salvation comes through confessing our sins before God and faithfully believing Yeshua is the Messiah whose sacrificial death enables us to receive forgiveness of sin. Our salvation is not based on whether Yeshua is God or is separate from God; salvation is based on faithfully believing Yeshua did exist, He did sacrifice His life, He did rise from the dead and He is still working on our behalf to help us be cleansed of our sins so we can be resurrected through Him and live eternal lives in God’s presence.

What we all should do is stay focused on what affects our salvation, and not let impotent discussion pull us off-course from that destination.

Loving is Easier than Forgiving

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If there is one thing about God everyone knows, it is that He loves us all. If there is another thing about God everyone knows, it is is that He is willing to forgive us all, even the ones that reject and deny Him.

We, as Believers, should emulate God, right? Doesn’t He tell us, over and over, that we should be holy, as He is holy? Doesn’t Yeshua tell His Talmudim (Disciples) that they should love each other, as the Father does, so that people will know they are His Disciples?

But the old adage doesn’t say: “To Err is Human; to Love, Divine”, does it?  No, it doesn’t. It says, “To Err is Human; to Forgive, Divine.”

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke we are told how even sinners do good things for those they love (specifically their children.) For instance, in Matthew 7 Yeshua says:

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Contextually, Yeshua is teaching about asking God for what we need, and I do not think I am quoting out of context since we don’t need anything more than forgiveness of our sins, right? My point is this: Yeshua is teaching us that even sinners can love others.

But forgiveness? That is not easy for anyone, especially humans, since we are (generally) self-absorbed and selfish. Forgiveness is something that we must do: according to Yeshua, if we do not forgive each other here on earth, His Father in heaven will not forgive us, either. In fact, my message from the other day is all about how we give God permission to treat us as we treat others, even if God wants to give us a break (When We Give God Permission To Do Something).

I checked out my Strong’s Concordance the other day (while thinking about this topic) and counted around 100 references to “forgiveness” (in all forms of the word), but for the word “love” there were nearly three full pages of references, so it is abundantly clear that love is mentioned in the bible much more than forgiveness. But even though forgiveness is mentioned less than love, it is what we need to be saved. God’s love makes salvation available to us, but it is by His forgiveness that we are saved.

Here is what I mean: God’s love is for everyone, as we’ve mentioned already, but His love for you will not allow you to enter into His glory. The way to become justified (cleansed of sin) is not through His love, but by means of His forgiveness, which is given after we have performed the necessary sacrifice. The problem is that the sacrificial system, as outlined in the Torah, is no longer possible because of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, but we are not doomed: by means of Yeshua’s once-and-for-all sacrifice we can be justified and cleansed of our sin. As a cleansed person, no longer stained with our sins, we are able to enter into God’s presence (oh, if only my Jewish Brothers and Sisters would grasp this truth and accept it.)

It is clearly stated throughout the Tanakh (and reiterated in Hebrews 9:22) that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, and without forgiveness of sin there can be no salvation.

So you see? God’s love for us is what motivated Him to send Yeshua to be a sacrifice, and Yeshua’s love for us is what sustained Him throughout His life and torturous death. God’s love for us and Yeshua’s sacrifice is what makes salvation possible, but it is forgiveness of sin that saves us.

As we live our lives trying to die to self and allow the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to fill us more and more, we need to work on forgiveness more than love. Frankly, I really don’t like it when people I don’t even know come up to me and hug me, and say something like “Love you, Brother!” because (to me) love is too important a word to throw around like “Wassup?” or “Howdy” or “How ya doin’?” You don’t even know me, so how can you really love me? God’s love is real, it’s complete, it’s tangible- humans can’t do that, so stop saying you love me when you can’t possibly love me. Just be nice, be cordial, and be honest with me and with yourself.

You want to know what I think is the ultimate expression of love? Forgiveness. Anyone and everyone can love others, but if you want to prove that you have the ability to love as God loves, then stop telling strangers you love them and forgive the people you already know who have sinned against you and hurt you.

That is the kind of love that God wants from each of us.

When We Give God Permission To Do Something

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That sounds backwards, doesn’t it? We give God permission? Isn’t it the other way around? 

For most things, it is the other way around. God is the Boss, the Almighty, the One and Only. He tells us what to do, and we do it: that is how it is.

Usually.

However, there is (at least) one exception that I know of, and that is found in the Gospels. Let’s look at its appearance in Mattitayu (Matthew), Chapter 6, verse 12:

“…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”

This is usually thought of as us asking God for forgiveness, but that is not really what we are doing. What we are doing, in truth, is telling God what He should do- we are giving God permission to treat us exactly as we treat others. We are not asking for forgiveness, we are authorizing God to overcome His mercy, to ignore His desire to forgive us as He wants to, and to only forgive us as we have forgiven others. 

Think about that for a minute, and let it sink in. It should be frightening to you; I can tell you this- it scares the ‘H-E-double hockey sticks’  out of me!

Throughout the Tanakh and New Covenant writings (B’rit Chadashah) we are told of God’s mercy, His desire and willingness to forgive, and His unfailing love for us. All of that, of course, is true and (on top of that) is the (usual) Christian teaching that once under the blood of Christ, you are OK, forever. No problems, no worries, no obedience other than to just be a “good person” and you are set for eternity. 

That isn’t the way it is, Folks! I can say that because Yeshua (Jesus) is the one who tells us how it is, and that isn’t what He says. 

To see what Yeshua says, let’s look a little further down the line, at verses 14 and 15:

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

OUCH!! So, not only am I asking God to treat me the way I treat others, but Yeshua is telling me that, whether I ask to be treated this way or not, I WILL be treated the same way I treat others! Like it or not, that is what Messiah is telling us about how God will treat us- if we are unforgiving of others, we will not be forgiven. And, to top it off, if we pray as Yeshua told us to pray (Lord’s Prayer, remember?) then we are also giving God our permission to treat us this way. It’s a double-edge sword that has both edges against us….IF we are unforgiving. 

On the other hand, if we ARE forgiving, then we are forgiven anything when we ask for it, in Yeshua’s name (of course.) So, here the double-edged sword is cutting a path for us to eternal joy, instead of cutting against us in both directions. 

Now can you see why I say we give God permission to do something? 

If you have been struggling with forgiveness, another thing to remember that might help you be more forgiving, is that the forgiveness you give has nothing to do with the other person- it is all about you and God. The other person has to make himself (or herself) right with God- you can’t do that!  Your forgiveness makes YOU right with God, and it also is the only way for the pain to go away. That’s also important for you to remember. 

So, nu? got it now? When you pray as Yeshua said you should, you are telling God to forgive you, not as He would want to do, but as you do to others.  

If that isn’t motivation enough to forgive everyone any offence, I don’t know what is! 

Humor is God’s Gift, Too

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Although it isn’t specified anywhere in the Bible that I can recall seeing, humor is a gift from God, just as much as teaching, prophecy, compassion, patience, etc. are all gifts from God. 

It just has to be! I mean, look at us- we are so incompetent and foolish we should be in a deep funk every moment of our lives, yet because we can laugh at ourselves our frustration of being who we are is less damaging to our emotions and psyche.

We are told about many people, from Abraham to Moses, to Isaiah, to John, Shaul (Paul) and others. These people were holy, and we read of their emotions often. Yet we don’t read about them laughing or telling jokes or just having a good time. Even when we read about Yeshua (Jesus) there is no specific reference to His having a good time, yet we know He attended weddings. So, while at a wedding (which in those days was a one week celebration with food, dance, song and drink), do you really think Jesus just sat in the corner, like a wallflower, spewing out parables while everyone else was having a good time? 

I don’t think so! 

I believe He was dancing and singing and laughing, and enjoying Himself along with everyone else. 

Again, there isn’t anything in the writings of the Apostles that specifically said Yeshua laughed, or sang, or danced. We are told that He cried (John 11:35) and that He showed frustration when He asked how long He would have to put up with people who just didn’t get the message (Matthew 17:17′ Mark 9:19), so if Yeshua was able to be sad and to be frustrated (somewhat), and we know that because He had taken on human form He was human, then it just makes sense that He must have also had all the other emotions that go with being human. Right?

A small caveat here, one that is my personal opinion: when we are dealing with God, we can’t trust the expression or thought that something must “make sense” because what is sensible to a human being has nothing at all to do with what is sensible to God. We are barely able to see past our noses, and God can see all the way to the end of eternity, so just because it makes “sense” that Yeshua had to have all the emotions humans do, we can’t say that is an absolute fact. 

Historically, He has been painted as somber and melancholy because (I think) we expect that being “holy” means being, well…boring. If I am holy, I don’t laugh (which sometimes indicates a lack of seriousness), and if I am holy I don’t have fun (which indicates I am just like everyone else), and if I am holy all I ever do is decry the sinfulness of the world and show people that they need to be a holy, boring, stick-in-the-mud wet blanket, like I am. 

I certainly hope not! 

I think that humor is one of the greatest gifts God has given us- it should be included in Ephesians 6 as part of the Armor of God. I believe, and have had it confirmed, that God has given me His gift of humor, and I try to use it to make people happy, or (at least) less sad.  I don’t always use this gift well, but I am now much more “appropriate” with it than I was before I was saved.

Humor can turn around anger, it can bring forth good feelings, it can bring light into a dark place, and it can also be used to make people realize how foolishly they are acting without making them mad.

When I was in Sales, I used humor as a sales tactic because I learned that people buy from people; if you can make someone laugh, they can’t help but like you. That bonding is what gave me an advantage when we had to close the sale.

There are basically two types of people: those who make jokes, and those who laugh at them. Each one has a sense of humor, and the funniest times I have ever seen are when two jokers get together because those who make jokes love to laugh at other’s jokes (and steal them, too.) Whether through telling a joke, or making a humorous statement, or providing a humorous narrative, use your God-given sense of humor to make people happy. If you are a missionary, use humor to bond with people and break down their resistance to hear about God; if you teach a congregation, use humor to help them remember the message; if you are counseling someone, use humor (carefully) to reduce their pain and help them see the funny side of their troubles.

Almost every great humorist that ever lived went through a lot of T’souris (troubles) in his or her life, which is where the humor comes from. 

Humor is an emotional balm that God has given us to help heal our painful existence in a fallen and cursed world, so when you are feeling down, take two jokes and throw a pie in someone’s face in the morning.  

salvation is not a covenant

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God has made 5 Covenants with the world (yes, with the world- the Jewish people are the Chosen people, but chosen only to live these covenants as an example for the rest of the world to learn how to live this way, as well):

  1. Noadic– rainbow in the sky to remind Himself not to destroy the world by flood (this is the main part of this covenant);
  2. Abrahamic– to make the descendants of Abraham as numerous as stars in the sky, to make them a blessing to the world and to give them the land God brings Abraham into;
  3. Mosaic– the Torah (which, according to Yeshua/Jesus, was not changed by Him at all so every stroke of the pen in the entire Torah is still valid and necessary- check out Matthew 5:17);
  4. Davidic– that the Messiah would come from David’s descendants, and that the kingdom of the Messiah would be an eternal kingdom (read 1 Samuel 7);
  5. The “New” Covenant- Jeremiah 31:31:
    1. “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,  “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
      because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them” declares the Lord.  “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

These are the covenants God has made with us all. The only one that is a bilateral covenant is the Mosaic covenant, because God delivers blessings when we obey the commandments, and delivers the curses if we don’t (Deuteronomy 28). However, the covenants with Noah, Abraham, David and through Jeremiah are grant covenants;  in other words, there is no requirement on our part.  What God said He will do is not dependent on our actions.

Yet, no where in the bible does God forgive sin or grant eternal salvation as a grant covenant; even though God is always willing to forgive sin, forgiveness starts with us, not Him.

The covenants are from God to us, but for forgiveness of sin it must be from us to God; He offers it through the sacrificial system, but we have to ask for it to receive it. And when we ask for it, we need to be truly repentant; we need to have done T’shuvah (turning) in our hearts and come before God (as David says in Psalm 51) with a broken and contrite spirit. If you ask for forgiveness but don’t really mean it, and have little or no intention to try with all your effort to stop sinning, then you request is useless- God isn’t stupid!

Forgiveness of sin is a promise from God to all the people of the world that is attainable through repentance with the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22), and we are told in the Torah how that sacrifice is to be performed. It is something, though, that had to be done at the Temple in Jerusalem, the place where God put His name. With the destruction of that Temple, the sacrificial system came to a halt. So, how can we attain redemption from sin, which God has promised to be available to us, if the Temple is gone? Through Messiah Yeshua (Jesus); now, when we ask for forgiveness by means of the blood shed with the sacrifice of Yeshua, we will have it.

When we are forgiven, it is for what we have done, and not for anything we will ever do again (I cover this here: Forgiveness is Only for the Past.) The promise of forgiveness is that it will be granted to you, case by case, over and over, so long as you are repentant and ask in Yeshua’s name.

When you come before God at Judgment Day and expect to enter His presence because on March 29, 2017 you asked for forgiveness, but then just kept living your life as you wanted to, continuing to do the same things you did before, well…I am afraid you will be very disappointed.

Salvation is not a covenant, it is simply a promise. But what a promise!

 

Parashot Vayak’hel/Pekudei (He gathered/Countings) Exodus 35:1 – 40:35

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In order to be in alignment with the Gregorian calendar, some Torah readings are doubled, as in the case of these last 6 chapters of Exodus. This dual parashah (hence, Parashot in the title) minutely details the finalization of the building of the Sanctuary. We are told that the people, who just committed the terrible sin of the Golden Calf, have now turned their hearts back to God. They give the necessary materials for building the Sanctuary (cloth, skins, precious gems and metals, etc.) with so much generosity and zeal that the workers have to ask Moses to command that the people stop bringing these items, as there is far too much material for the workers to use.

The manufacture of the separate parts of the Sanctuary is completed, and God decrees that it be assembled on the first day of the first month, which is the first of Aviv (now called Nissan), the spiritual New Year. After erecting the Sanctuary, Moses anoints the building, the items in it and the Priests. After doing so, God’s Shekinah glory so fills the tent that even Moses is not able to go inside. From that moment on, the cloud stays over the tent to show that God is ever-present (during the day it was cloud, and at night the cloud was filled with fire. Imagine how awesome that must have looked!), and when the cloud was withdrawn, it went ahead of the Israelites to lead them to their next destination.

In Chapter 39, verse 42 we are told that when Moses inspected all the work the people had done, he saw that they had done everything God commanded, exactly as God had commanded them to do. Then Moses blessed them.

To me this is a very important statement, that not only had the people done all that God said should be done, but they did it as God had told them to do it– not how they thought it should look, not with whatever materials they wanted to use, or with colors they preferred, but they did it all, just as they were commanded.

Are we like that today? In my opinion, we are far from that. Look at all the different ways we have created to worship God: all the different religions, rites and regulations not found anywhere in the Scriptures. Even within Judaism, we have Chasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic sects. Yes, all read the Torah but all do not follow the commandments the same way. Yes, all are “Jews” but the Messianic Jews are not considered Jews by the other “mainstream” sects, and from some Chasidic viewpoints, they don’t even consider the Orthodox as real Jews because they are more relaxed in their observances.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, my message to the world is this: God has no religion! People have created religions, and each one worships differently than the other, so by definition we can’t be at the same place the Children of Israel were when the Sanctuary was built- we are not all doing what God said we should, exactly the way He said it should be done. Not one of us.

Some are closer than others, and (I am not being prejudicial here) the Jews are the closest of all, mainly because their foundation for worship is based solely on the Torah. Most Christian religions have their foundation built upon the writings of the New Covenant, and they (again, not meaning to be unfair or judgmental) for the most part ignore the Torah. Funny thing, though, is that they don’t realize there is nothing in the New Covenant that is different from the Old Covenant; in truth, everything Yeshua (Jesus) taught is solely from the Tanakh (entire Old Covenant) because that was the only Word of God that existed.

God gave the Torah, through Moses, to the Jewish people in order for them to do as God wants us all to do- they were supposed to show the world how we all are to behave. God called the nation of Israel to be a nation of Priests and, as such, examples to the rest of the world regarding how to worship Him and how to treat each other. Torah was given to the Jews, but it is for the whole world.

The Tanakh (the Old Covenant) is sort of a “Torah 101” class for the world.

A few millennia later, along comes Yeshua, the Son of God and Messiah to the world. He is sent to the Jewish people because they are God’s Chosen nation, and have already had the prerequisite class, Torah 101. Now, it is time for Yeshua to teach the advanced class, Torah 202. Since this was an advanced class, everything He taught was based on the previous teachings. He goes beyond just teaching Torah by using the entire Tanakh to demonstrate who He is and to instruct the Jewish people so they can have a more advanced understanding of Torah. The Jewish people knew the P’Shat, the written words, of the Torah but did not understand the deeper meanings; Yeshua taught the Remez and Drash of the Torah (for a detailed description of Torah exegesis, click here: Pardes), which is why He used parables and riddles.

You see, Yeshua wanted to give the people a deeper understanding of what God was saying to them, and these lessons were very advanced. By using parables and riddles, which require deep thought to find and understand the answer, He was teaching them the tools they needed to be able to more completely understand the Bible. I think that is why Yeshua was surprised that after three years with Him, His own Disciples did not understand the meaning of many of His parables. Ultimately, as with His Disciples at that first Shavuot after His resurrection (Pentecost), it is after we have the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, within us that through that Spirit we can see the deepest meanings of God’s word.

Moses blessed the people for doing what God said to do, the way God said to do it. If Moses is willing to bless for doing as God said, think how much more willing God will be to bless for doing as He says! In fact, if you read Deuteronomy 28, you will get a detailed listing of all the blessings God will shower on you for acting in accordance with the Torah. But don’t stop there- read on to learn of all the T’souris (curses) you will suffer if you refuse to obey. God won’t really do all those bad things to you because that you get just for living in the cursed world we live in. God’s blessings are protection from the world, and we have that protection when we walk under His wings, i.e. obey His word in the way He said we should.

I am not saying that anyone who is not strictly in accordance with the Torah will go to Hell- no one can live strictly in accordance with the Torah, which is why we needed the Messiah! Duh! What I am saying is that God will send more blessings to you, the more you are in obedience to His instructions. Yeshua’s sacrifice covers our sin, but only when we are truly repentant of that sin; if you think that Yeshua died for your sins so you can live your life any-old-way you want to, you are in for a very unpleasant surprise!

It’s really simple: God gave the Torah to the Jews to show the world how to be. The closer we are to observing the Torah, the more blessed we will be; it should be no surprise that the converse is true, meaning that the further away we are from Torah observance, the less blessed we will be. Ignoring the Torah entirely will result in eternal damnation.

As with everything else, you need to make up your own mind: do you want to be more blessed, or less blessed?

Backsliding isn’t failing

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Have you ever felt like you are backsliding? Have you wished you could have taken back something you said that wasn’t what a “real” Believer would have said, or not done what you did because it was the wrong thing to have done?

Welcome to the club.

Everyone backslides, everyone does or says something wrong- EVERYONE!  Don’t let it phase you or discourage you because then you really have backslid (is that a word?); when we think that we are unable to work God’s purpose for our life and begin to feel it is all a waste of time, we are doing what the enemy wants us to do.

Backsliding is NOT failing- it is just making a mistake, and we all make mistakes. Remember that old saw: “To err is human; to forgive, divine”? Well, forgive yourself and move on. Backsliding is not a failure, it is a delay; it is a momentary detour from the path you wanted to be on and, as such, can be repaired so you can get back on the right path.

If you want to be successful, do what the successful people do. So, with that in mind, here are some quotes from successful people who know what they are talking about:

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” – Johnny Cash

“It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Chris Bradford

Every one of these people have been “successful” in what they tried to accomplish during their lifetimes, and every one of them made mistakes and had what can be called a “failure”- but it didn’t stop them from continuing to try. Where Churchill calls it “enthusiasm” we can substitute the word “faithfulness”; the point is that we fail only when we stop trying.

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln, unquestionably one of the greatest Presidents any country has ever known, failed to be elected some 16 times during his lifetime? He constantly ran for office, and before being elected President had only been successful once, becoming a Congressman and then losing re-election just 2 years later.

One of my favorite success stories is about the invention of the light bulb. Thomas Edison suffered about 1,000 different failures as he tried to find which material would make a good filament. He finally came up with the correct answer, and when asked how he felt about failing a thousand times, he answered that he didn’t fail a thousand times, he found one thousand ways that didn’t work.

Now there’s a man who knows how to handle failure- by seeing it not as a failure but as one step bringing him closer to a successful end.

I have said many times, and will continue to say, that three steps forward and two steps backwards is still one step closer to the goal.

Our successful end, so to speak, won’t come until we have been called to the Lord, so until then we need to continue to keep walking the path to God, whether we are walking a straight path or going from one side to the other. Each time we backslide it gives us an opportunity to improve: when we make an error we now know what to look out for in the future, and so what was an error is now a learning experience.

Reading the bible we see that from the very beginning, God has told us how to live and given us exactly what we need to do so. We, on our part, have constantly screwed it up and God, on His part, has constantly done what was necessary to get us back on the proper path. Making mistakes, backsliding and screwing up are as natural to us as breathing. Unlike breathing, however, it is better for us when we stop making mistakes. So, breathe easier knowing that your mistakes are not failures, your failures are just mistakes, and mistakes can be fixed. OK- there are some mistakes that cannot be fixed, so if you do something that can’t be repaired, you need to follow Johnny Cash’s advise (above) and keep going, anyway.

The bible is full of encouraging words about God’s promises of correction followed by reconciliation- He always, always, always tells us through the Prophets that there will be a time when He will bring us together again, forgive and forget our sins, and we will live in peace and joy. That is what we aim for and that is what we need to keep focused on.

Don’t worry about making mistakes- it only proves you are human. God knows this will happen and has provided for you to help you keep going. Maybe my pathway is straighter than yours, or yours may be straighter than mine, but that isn’t important: how we get there doesn’t count as much as where we end up.

Parashah V’yishlach (and he sent) Genesis 32:4 – 36

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There’s so much in here: Jacob becomes Israel; Jacob and Esau are reunited; Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies; Dinah (Jacob’s daughter) is raped and after forcing the entire town to have every man circumcised, Simeon and Levi slaughter them all as they are recovering and weakened, forcing Jacob to leave Shechem; we learn that the wives and children of Jacob have foreign gods with them (Genesis 35:2-4) which they have to remove from among them, indicating they were still influenced by the religion of Laban (remember that Rachel stole the family gods when they fled); Isaac dies; we are given the generations of Esau and the kings that ruled his land.

So, nu? Where to start? And, once I have started, how do I end?

I feel led to talk about what Jacob wrestling with the angel might mean to us, and I will be so bold as to talk about what it means to me and let you consider if you agree or not. That’s just one of the many wonderful things about the word of God- it can mean two totally different things to two totally different people, and both can be correct.

Jacob had striven against men and he did pretty well: he managed to buy the rights to the firstborn, he succeeded in fooling Isaac to give him the blessing that was associated (and rightfully belonged) to the one who had the rights of the firstborn,  and he outsmarted Laban more than once. All of these challenges to Jacob during his life he was able to overcome. Now, as he is about to face a life-threatening challenge, i.e. Esau with 400 men, he calls to God for protection and God sends to him an angel to prevent him from crossing the Jabbok river (Genesis 31-32).

Jacob wrestled with the angel and overcame him, but at the cost of a painful injury to his thigh, which he never recovered from, causing him to limp for the rest of his life.  So, although Jacob won the match, he sustained a life-changing injury which weakened him.

I think of Shaul (Paul) asking God to remove the thorn in his side (2 Corinthians 12:7), which Shaul tells us was there to prevent him from becoming too conceited. Jacob has prevailed against both man and God, so if anyone had a right to be proud, it was Jacob. Yet, here he is- the angel is back in heaven, none the less for wear,  and Jacob will limp for the rest of his life. He may have won that match, but it cost him something, or….maybe the limp was a blessing in disguise? Maybe this limp represents his ego, his self-importance, which God is using as a thorn in Jacob’s side, a reminder that no matter how successful Jacob (now called Israel- another reminder) may be, he is still dependent upon God and it is God who is behind his success.

I know that I need constant reminding that whatever I do that is worthy of praise, it is more the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) which leads me to do good that deserves the glory than anything I do on my own. My nature is to do wrong, to do what I want for selfish and self-serving purposes. I am not saying this to demean myself, I am saying it to remind myself- I was born into sin, and have a sinful nature. Sin is natural for me, as it is for all of us, and only by recognizing this can we overcome it.

An alcoholic or a drug addict can never even start to recover until they hit what is called “rock bottom”, which is the time when they realize they are not in control of the substance but the substance is controlling them. Only when they do their own form of T’shuvah (turning) and “own” their habit can they truly start to overcome it.

And the healthy and sustainable attitude is that they are never cured- they are simply recovering. An alcoholic is always an alcoholic; a drug addict is always a drug addict; what they are while they remain sober/clean is a ‘recovering’ alcoholic or addict. Recovering: not recovered, but recovering. That is a very important attitude they have to have because, like Jacob’s limp and Shaul’s thorn, it is a constant reminder of what they are trying to overcome.

We all have our own thorn or limp; we are all “recovering sinners”, so to speak. The 12 step program for recovery says, “One drink is too many, and two drinks aren’t enough” (or something like that) and the same is true for sinning. We do it unintentionally (I hope!) and, often enough, without even knowing we just committed a sin. That is why the sacrificial system includes a sacrifice for forgiveness for the sins we do that we don’t even know we did. We need a reminder, a limp, a thorn, something to keep us on the straight and narrow.

I wear a mezuzah around my neck as a sign of my faith, and also as a reminder. I also wear a gold bracelet, part of my sales training, to remind me that it is more important to listen than to speak (James 1:19.) At first I didn’t wear a gold bracelet, I wore a rubber band. The lesson was that every time I wanted to say something during a sales pitch, I was to stretch the rubber band and let it snap back onto my wrist. It was a painful lesson, but I learned it well, and my successful sales career demonstrated that. Once I didn’t need to snap the rubber band, I “graduated” to a gold bracelet (being a good salesman, I could afford it then) but it is still a reminder, just a little nicer looking reminder.

Maybe you have something you wear? A mezuzah, a cross, a plastic “WWJD” bracelet? A rubber band around your wrist? Whatever you use to remind yourself to do everything you can to overcome your sinful nature, cherish it because it can save your life. When we can be reminded to do as God wants us to do, and that reminder keeps us from sinning, even if it is just one sin a day less than we would do on our own, it is a blessing from heaven.

And if you limp, have bad knees, suffer from some debilitating disease or physical/mental challenge, accept it not as punishment (too many times I hear people blame God for their problems) but as a reminder of who is in charge, and what is really important.

God is really important. Whatever you have or don’t have or suffer with today, it will mean nothing in eternity. That is the goal, that is the prize- eternal life in God’s presence. So embrace your problem, embrace your challenges, and strive against them as Jacob did, trusting in God to help you overcome them.

That which seems to be a curse can always become a blessing in disguise- it is all up to you and how you deal with it.

Why I say “God has no religion.”

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It’s the “Tag Line” of my ministry, it’s the voice in the desert trying to make straight the path men have perverted, and it’s the truth.

God gave us the Torah, that is, He gave the Jewish people the Torah but not as their sole property. It was given to them to bring to the world. It is the history of a family that became a nation, of a people that were enslaved and freed, of rebellion and atonement; it is also a document that acts as a Ketuba (marriage certificate), a constitution, a penal code and a warning. It provides life eternal, and eternal suffering.

It is, in it’s most simplistic definition, the rules for how people are to worship God, and how they are to treat each other.

Yeshua (Jesus) said the two most important commandments are to love the Lord and love each other. That pretty much sums up what the Torah is all about.

Mankind, with it’s need to interpret, to control, to reject what is hard and create something from nothing, is why there are so many different religions. And instead of loving each other and being compassionate, as the Torah teaches, we have slaughtered each other in the name of Jesus. Or in the name of God (I am referring to persecution of Messianic Jews in Israel. That’s right! Today in God’s Holy Land, Jews killing and persecuting other Jews in God’s name.)

And let’s not forget how many have been killed in the name of Allah (although Allah isn’t a Judeo-Christian deity, but we might as well throw him into the pile just to make sure I don’t miss insulting someone.)

The foundation stone of my tag line is found in Yesheyahu (Isaiah) 29:13, where he is prophesying about the city of Jerusalem:

My Lord said, “Because that people has approached with it’s mouth and honored me with its lips, but has kept its heart far from Me, and its worship of Me has been a commandment of men, learned by rote- truly, I shall further baffle that people with bafflement upon bafflement; and the wisdom of its wise shall fail, and the prudence of its prudent shall vanish.

This came true in the ancient land of Israel; Jerusalem was lost to the Jewish people, and today… Praise God! It is being restored to them.

But there are so many others out there who are not Jewish but are doing exactly what the Jewish people did that Yesheyahu warned them about: they are following the canon of Men instead of the Word of God.

If you haven’t gotten my book yet, please do so. It isn’t expensive, it is an easy read, and it shows you how in many cases the Word of God has been ignored and, worse than that, sometimes just plain rejected by men so that they can worship the way they want to.

If you are a Gentile or a Jew, did you know that what you are following is as much man-made as God-commanded? Maybe even more so of men than of God.

Catholicism is following what Constantine originated; Lutherans and Protestants are following Luther, Methodists follow John Wesley, and there are 6 different forms of Judaism! You would have thought that at least the Jews would have stayed on track!

We follow men more often than God. And don’t think I am leaving out my own people- today the Orthodox and Chasidic Jews will go to the Talmud before they go to the Torah, and the Rabbi is as influential, if not more so, than the teachings in the Tanakh; Jews will ask the Rabbi to interpret Torah and take what he says as gospel (hmmmm….am I allowed to use the word “gospel” when talking about Jews? I mean, it’s just a word but it does have such a “Christian” connotation, doesn’t it?)

Now, there is nothing wrong at all with asking your religious/spiritual leader for an interpretation of the bible:  what is wrong (in my opinion) is not verifying it by reading the passages and asking God to guide you. In fact, you should start in the bible, ask God to guide your understanding through His Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) and then ask your Rabbi, or Priest, Pastor, Minister, whatever for clarification.

God gave us a plain and understandable commandment: love Him and treat each other as you would want them to treat you. Simple. In Deuteronomy 30:11-14 Moses tells us just how simple it is:

 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

The Word is very near- but we don’t read that word, do we? We go far from the word to ask someone else to tell us what it means. Religion is something that men created so that they could control other men. What other reason could there be for a person to ignore what the Lord God, Almighty has said to do and, instead, tell others what he or she thinks they should do? Is a human more knowledgeable than God? Can a human do what God has done? Can a human understand the mind of God?

Get your bible, turn to Genesis 1:1 and read a chapter. Then tomorrow morning pick it up and read another chapter. That’s all you have to do- one chapter a day, every day. Let the Ruach lead your understanding, and try to use extra-biblical writings as little as possible. Trust in God to lead your understanding because, well, He did write it and He knows what He wanted to say.

There is a message in that book for you. Yes- you, the person reading this right now. Don’t look around: I mean Y-O-U. God has a plan for you, a mission for you, a need for you and a reward for you that is greater than anything you could ever have on earth.

The map to that reward is in the bible- the entire bible, which starts in Genesis and ends with Revelations.

Go find your reward!

What is a Jew?

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That is an age-old question.

A Jew is someone who was born of a Jewish mother. However, there are different views on that because according to the Orthodox, once born a Jew, always a Jew, but the Reform Jews believe if a Jew converts, he or she is no longer Jewish.

A Jew is someone who is a descendant of Judah, the 4th son of Jacob.

A Jew is someone who is from Y’hudah, or Judah (Judea).

A Jew is someone who speaks Hebrew.

I once read that some Rabbi had said anyone who worships the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Jew.

A Jew is one of the Chosen people of God.

The Replacement Theologists will tell you that they, the Right-Wing Christians, are now the only “real” Jews (their justification for saying this is that since the “old” Jews rejected Jesus, God has rejected them. That’s just plain silly.)

So, nu? What is a Jew, or more correctly phrased, who is a Jew?

If you ask me (and by reading this blog, you are pretty much asking), there are two kinds of Jews:

  1. Someone who is a descendant of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through one of the 12 sons of Jacob; or
  2. A Jew is someone who worships God the way God wants to be worshiped, which means worshiping God in accordance with the Torah.

Now, does that imply if someone who was born of Jewish parents but converts, or simply doesn’t worship God according to the Torah, is not a Jew? Or, if someone is a Gentile but worships God in accordance with the Torah, is now a Jew without any formal conversion classes, circumcision, etc?

My answer is: Yes. To both.

Again, for me, the term “Jew” or “Jewish” is not confined to the practice of Judaism- after all, there are 6 sects within Judaism: Chasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic. They are so very different in their daily practice that they could almost be considered separate religions.

And as I have always said and will always say: God has no religion.

Someone who is born from Jewish parents is a Jew, but if they do not practice Judaism (any one of the above forms) then how can they be identified as a Jew? If you’re born into a Quaker family but have a cell phone, watch TV, and own a car, how can you call yourself a Quaker? You are not living as a Quaker lives, so you can’t be a Quaker.

God separated the Jewish people from everyone else in the world. To help keep them that way, He gave them the Torah, His set of instructions on how to worship Him and how to treat each other. In other words, how to live a “Jewish” life.

People don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do- I have said that often, and will continue to say it because it is a simple and absolute truth about human nature. Therefore, if I say I am a Jew but I do not live (or, at least, try to live) and worship God in accordance with the Torah He gave us, then how can I call myself a “Jew”? I can’t, because what I do is not ‘Jewish.’

This all started with Abraham, who had no justification to call himself a Jew- he didn’t come from Judea, he didn’t have Jewish parents, and he didn’t worship in accordance with Torah because there wasn’t any Torah. And yet, pretty much everyone considers him the Father of the Jewish people. I would call him a Jew for one reason, and one reason only- he worshiped God as God said he should. That is why I believe a Jew is anyone, no matter which religion they were born into, who worships God as God said we should.

In the letter to the newly Messianic congregation in Ephesus, Shaul (Paul) tells them that the difference between the way people worship will be all gone because through Messiah there will be one, new man- a person who, spiritually, will be separate and distinct, and who will find total peace in his (or her) worship of God by following what Yeshua (Jesus) taught. And, for the record, Yeshua did not teach anything different from what the Torah says. He did not, as we have been lied to for millennia, create a new religion or teach that Torah is no longer valid- the truth is that Yeshua taught us not just the word of Torah but the deeper meaning, the “drash” of God’s word, so that we would not just live it, but be living examples of it, as He was.

And God tells us that anyone who sojourns with the Jewish people is to be treated as one of them, as an adopted son or daughter of Abraham. God, Himself, tells us throughout the Tanakh that anyone, no matter who they were born from, is an adopted son or daughter of Abraham if they worship God in accordance with His Torah.

Therefore: if anyone asks me what a Jew is, I will say someone who worships the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the way God said to worship Him, which is in accordance with the Torah. That’s it: it’s that simple, it’s that easy to understand, it’s that basic.

It doesn’t matter what religion you were born into, how you were raised or where you are from, if you believe in God and worship Him as the Torah says to, you are a Jew.

And if you do all that, and also accept that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised us, then you are a Jew who has found fullness and completion of Torah in that you have found and are one with the Messiah.

It don’t get no better than that!