Today I am going to present perhaps the most difficult to accept message I think I have ever preached.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
The title pretty much says it all: too many people, mostly Christians but Jews, as well, are taking the easy path to salvation, which is the wrong way to go.
The traditional Christian teaching is that so long as you “believe in Jesus” (whatever that is supposed to mean) and are a good person, you will go to heaven.
In Judaism, we are taught from the moment we start to interact with Gentiles that Jesus was a traitor to Judaism and created a new religion that kills Jews. Our path to salvation is to be Torah observant and, especially in the Orthodox and Chasidic sects, to accept the Talmud (called the Oral law) as scripture and do what the Rabbi says, whether or not it is in the Torah.
Practicing Judaism is a much more difficult road to salvation than the one that Christianity has mapped out, but neither can get you there if you do not accept that Yeshua is the Messiah (that is for Jews) and that Jesus never said you don’t have to follow the Torah (that is for Christians.)
The fact that Yeshua said he did and said only what God told him to do and say, which is what God has always told us to do (in the Torah) shows that modern Christianity has nothing to do, whatsoever, with the things Yeshua taught.
Our comfort zone is where we love to be-it is easy to do since we have always done it, there is nothing we have to change or relearn, and when all is said and done, it is quite…. comfortable.
Who wants to be uncomfortable when you can be comfortable, right?
Or, we could say who wants to learn something new when everyone you trust and love has always told you you don’t need to?
Or, bottom line? Who wants to know the truth when the truth means everything you think you know is wrong?
And that’s what this ministry of mine is all about- trying to get you to realize that what you have been taught all your life may not be right!
I won’t tell you what to believe, but if you listen to me AND (now this is the important part) are willing to re-examine and verify your comfort zone, then I have done what I set out to do.
Look- staying where you are with regards to your knowledge of the Bible is fine if you have spent years reading the Bible and are very familiar with it. But if you haven’t read the Bible at least 5 or 6 times, all the way through- even the really boring parts- then you are in a comfort zone that might just give you a comfortable ride all the way to Sheol (that’s Hell, for those of you who are comfortable not knowing the Bible.)
And for anyone who thinks that just going to services and hearing the Rabbi or Priest, Minister, Pastor…whatever…tell you what you need to know to be saved, you are in a comfort zone that will ruin your eternity. Believe me!
Being comfortable when it comes to knowing God and what he wants from you is dangerous, and can only lead you to a very dissatisfying tour of eternity. So don’t hurt yourself by remaining blissfully ignorant of what God wants from you.
Here are two adages that everyone knows and no one argues against:
1. Anything worth having is worth working for; and
2. When you get something for free, you get only what you paid for.
These are especially important to remember when we are talking about salvation. Yes, it is a free gift from God but it is not easy to keep; it is going to take work, and although no one can take it away from you, you can certainly throw it away.
How? By remaining in your comfort zone, which never takes you where you need to be.
PLEASE!! Listen to me, hear what I am saying- if you are comfortable in your spiritual life, you need to get off your tuchas and do more. Read the Bible more, especially the first 5 books and start to do what God wants you to do.
Christianity teaches to ignore God’s instructions in the Torah, and that is way more comfortable than obeying God, but think about this: since God never said to change how to worship him, and Yeshua never said to ignore his father’s commandments, then the teaching that you can reject the Torah must be from a human source. And when you meet God at Judgment Day and say you followed what a human being told you to do instead of what God told you to do, how do you think he will react to that?
And, for any Jewish readers who still want to reject hearing anything about Yeshua, I ask you to please consider that people who told you to reject Yeshua are just repeating what they have been told. Being raised Jewish, myself, I know that even listening to someone talk about Yeshua being the Messiah feels like betraying Judaism, but it isn’t. It requires you to leave a comfort zone that has prevented you from knowing the truth. Hey, look- if this guy Yeshua (Jesus) isn’t the Messiah, then what harm can it do to learn about him? And if he is, then you might just realize you have been missing the boat to salvation. And the best part is…you do NOT have to become a Christian to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah. I am more “Jewish” since I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah than I ever was growing up rejecting him.
Everyone– read my latest book, “The Good News About the Messiah for Jews:
Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah” to learn how you
have been forced into a comfort zone that is killing you!
We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less. That is the constant challenge, and if you do so whole-heartedly, every day trying to be better than you were the previous day, you will never have to worry about being stuck in a comfort zone.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry on my website and my YouTube channel, as well. And I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
