Many of us have memories of places we have been, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but I believe that as bad as some of these places were, pretty much everyone has one place that they feel is the worst place they have ever been.

But I’m telling you that no matter what your experience has been, there is one place that is ultimately the worst place anyone can be…

But first! A word from our sponsor…
(If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.)

The worst place anyone can be, especially if we are talking about your spiritual condition, is…

Locked into your comfort zone.

Now, I am not saying you should go out and ride rollercoasters, or bungee jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, or even just tell your wife that those pants make her look fat.

No. Neither should you give up being comfortable nor forego those things that make you feel safe and secure.

When I say the worst place to be is locked into your comfort zone, what I mean is when you are so comfortable that you no longer want to learn anything new, or do anything different, or even order something other than Chicken Parmigiana every single time you go to an Italian restaurant.

And this is especially true of being so comfortable with what you have been taught regarding God or Yeshua (Jesus) or salvation that you will not even be open to hearing anything that someone has to say which is different than what you already think you know.

I am very secure in my beliefs, but I confess that I have had to change my mind at times. And when I say you should be open to listening, that means to investigate and verify anything you are told about anything, especially if it is different from what you already believe.

One more thing: if you haven’t/don’t read the Bible regularly, from front (that is, Genesis) all the way through to the end of Revelation, then you are already in trouble because whatever you think you know, you are probably wrong.

And if you are stubbornly comfortable with your golf game, or your favorite chair, or with whatever books you have already read, and no matter what anyone says, you don’t want to order something different at your favorite restaurant, the only thing that mindset will effect is how interesting you are and how exciting your life will be.

BUT…if you stay locked into your comfort zone regarding your spiritual condition, meaning that you don’t want to hear or know anything other than what you have been told, then you are risking your eternal soul!

What things am I talking about? How about once you’re saved, you are always saved (that’s a lie!); or all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and you are saved (that won’t be enough!); or howzabout the one where they say if you love each other you get to go to heaven (again, that’s not enough, and for the record? -no one goes to heaven).

When it comes to God, Yeshua, and the truth about obedience to God, which can only be done by being obedient to God’s instructions for righteousness in the Torah, these are things that we should NEVER be comfortable with. You must always verify whatever you hear, whenever you hear something different from what you have (hopefully) already verified to be true, and do so with an open mind. Make sure people aren’t making up what they want the Bible to say, then taking verses and passages out of context to create the illusion that what they are saying is truly in the Bible.

Yeah, all the parts of what they say are in the Bible, but they have taken bits and pieces, here and there, to make it seem that is what the Bible means. But that isn’t always true.

I have written a teaching series on how to properly interpret the Bible, and here is a link to it: Bible interpretation.

So, my friends, please always stretch yourself beyond what is comfortable, and the way to know that you need to stretch is when you are so comfy-cozy that you do not ever want to change. Read a new book, talk to people who disagree with you (nicely, of course) to get an idea why they feel that way, and then spend some quality time verifying their opinion, or being able to (nicely, of course) rebut it.

But do something different, now and then! Your life may be comfortable, but your life is temporary, and eternity is….well, it’s eternal!

If you aren’t willing to spend the time to expand your understanding of God, Messiah, the Bible and salvation, then you are risking your eternal soul.

Are you really that lazy?

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, especially non-believers. Hey! You never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Have often have your heard people say that Jesus died for our sins?

And he did, but it isn’t his death that saves us.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The sacrificial system has 5 steps:

1. You have to sin (no sin, no need for forgiveness, right?)
2. You have to recognize and confess that you sinned
3. You have to repent of that sin (turning from sin is called T’shuvah)
4. You have to shed innocent blood for that sin to be forgiven: blood that should be yours
5. You have to ask to be forgiven.

When Yeshua sacrificed himself, he did not to do away with any of these steps, or the sacrificial system, itself. He replaced step 4, the need to sacrifice an animal (shed innocent blood) at the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only place that any sacrifice to Adonai would be accepted (Deut. 4). Through Yeshua’s sacrifice, we can now ask for forgiveness any time, any where, whenever we need to.

Which, in my case, is too darn often!

Yet, it isn’t by reason of his death that we can be saved; there is more to it than just that.

First, he lived a life that was in 100% accordance with the Torah, 100% of the time. That is something that no human before him, or since, has been able to do, so when he died, he was truly the innocent lamb that the sacrificial system required. And because he was supernaturally born to be the Messiah, his human life and death had a much greater effect on humanity.

Second, his resurrection proved that his sacrifice was accepted, which is the second most important step in being saved. But, as I said, it isn’t how we are saved.

We are saved not by his life, or by his death, or even by his resurrection, although they are all part of the process….

We are saved by being forgiven.

Only God can forgive sins, and even though Yeshua said that he had the authority to forgive sins ( Matthew 9:6; Luke 5:24), he was very specific to say that he had that authority “on earth”, meaning (as I understand it) only while he was ministering to people, and only to prove that he is the Messiah God promised to send.

What we are told about him after he was raised into heaven is that he now sits at the right hand of God, where he intercedes for us.

From the very beginning of creation, and throughout time even to this very moment, it is only God who can forgive sins. Not a priest, not a Minister, not a Rabbi- only God. And the only way we can be forgiven is through confession, repentance, and accepting that Yeshua is the Messiah, whose sacrificial death was accepted as the sin sacrifice we must make according to the Torah.

Oh, yes, and one more thing…you must ask to be forgiven.

That’s right! Even with all that Yeshua did, if you do not ask to be forgiven, you will not be forgiven. There is no such thing as OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved); that is a lie from the pit of Sheol, originated by Satan in order to fool people into remaining stained with their sins, even while they believe they are forgiven.

I hate to burst bubbles, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

It is not Yeshua’s life, or death, or even resurrection through which we are saved; his part in all this was to provide the means of forgiveness (especially after the temple was destroyed) so that we can ask for God to forgive us.

When we are forgiven, THEN we are saved. That is, up until the next time we sin, which (again, for me) doesn’t usually take too long until I have to ask.

Especially when I am driving in traffic.

So, that is the real way we are saved- not by Yeshua’s death (although that is part of it), or by calling on God’s name (which is also part of it), or by the fact of Yeshua’s Torah observant life (which made it all possible)…no!

The only way we are saved is by asking God to forgive us.

In the end, after all that Yeshua did, after faithfully accepting him as Messiah, heartfelt confession, repentance, t’shuvah (demonstrated through Torah observance), it still comes down to this- the only way we are saved is to ask to be forgiven of our sins, and only God can do that.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even those who do not believe. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

There are hundreds of versions of the Bible, over 450 in English, alone, not to mention that today it has been translated into some 756 different languages!

There’s gotta be a whole lotta different interpretations of the same verse(s), what with all those different interpreters, differences that happen when one language is translated into another, and even copyright laws, which state there have to be (literally) hundreds of words different from someone else’s version of the Bible.

If you prefer to watcha video, click on this link: Watch the video.

To properly interpret the Bible, we need to be historians, linguists, and also have a spiritual maturity that allows us to be guided by God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in order to realize what he meant when he told Moses what to write, when he told the prophets what to say (which, for all we know, may have been different from what they heard, but being essentially the same message), and what the Apostles wrote, especially Shaul (Paul), which is not God-breathed scripture, such as what we have from Moses, or the Prophets, or from David’s psalms.

No, what is included in the New Covenant are the Gospels, which are a historical narrative of the life and teachings of Yeshua (which were all based on the Torah), and the letters that were written by the apostles designed to keep the Jews and Gentiles, who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, to reverting from the faith-based obedience they were taught to obedience as a means of attaining salvation (which we call “Legalism”).

Reading the Bible with an open mind is very hard to do if you have been raised already knowing what it means. I have often heard people defend the meaning of a biblical verse, but instead of demonstrating a knowledge of the Bible, they simply go on parroting what they have been told in religious school or from what they have heard.

(“Parroting” means repeating what you hear without understanding what it means,
like a parrot.)

So, let’s get to the point of today’s lesson: do not automatically accept what anyone says the Bible means (yes, including me), until you have thoroughly investigated it for yourself. And, what is even more important, when you think you understand what the Bible means, do not trust your own interpretation, but investigate it as you would if you were hearing it from a stranger.

In the event that you are not sure how to investigate, I have written an entire teaching series on how to properly interpret the Bible, which I believe can help. Here is a link to it: Interpreting the Bible.

And don’t think that just because someone has a couple of letters after their name that they really know what they’re talking about; remember that religious schools (like a Seminary or a Yeshivah) are only teaching what their religion has been saying for centuries.

For example, there is in Jewish history two greatly respected rabbis of old, Hillel and Shammai. They both lived during the transitionary period from BCE to CE, right around the same time Yeshua was teaching. Their interpretations of the Torah were very different, and there was a competition- we could even call it a war- between these two houses of wisdom. So, if two great scholars could have such different interpretations from the same Bible, which was in the same language (Hebrew), then how can we trust what we hear today, with all these different versions?

That is why when you read the Bible, whichever version you prefer, always remember that you must first pray to God for guidance to properly understand what the Bible says, and if you suddenly have a revelation of the “true” meaning of something you have read and reread, hundreds of times, check it out against the rest of the Bible, using the interpretive tools I teach in that teaching series I mention above.

Studying the language, using the proper references resources, and having access to different versions of the Bible (in order to get a rounded understanding), not to mention learning the historical usage of the terminology, is a great advantage in being able to really understand what God is saying to us.

At the very least, you must read the Bible every day, which is essential to becoming familiar enough with it to recognize false teachings, and be able to (respectfully) correct the one teaching because- to be fair- the teacher may not realize they are wrong!

Too often people just repeat whatever sounds good to them, and that is how misunderstandings and wrongful teachings occur. And when it comes to the Bible, you have to realize that you may not just misdirect someone… you may send them straight to hell!

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

We know that sin is a violation of the law, but if there is no law then there can be no sin, and if there is no sin, there is no need for forgiveness, so…we don’t need Yeshua anymore.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The statement above is just so silly and wrong it is almost comical, but that’s the problem: there are millions who can’t understand why it is so silly and wrong.

The Torah is for everyone who professes to worship God. Yeshua never taught against the Torah, but only from it. Why his teachings were thought to be so different was because he didn’t teach the way the Pharisees taught, dealing only with the letter of the law, called the P’shat. Yeshua taught the Remes, the deeper, spiritual meaning of the law.

The law said do not murder, Yeshua taught do not even hate in your heart; the law said do not commit adultery, Yeshua taught do not even lust with your eyes. Can’t you see? He taught us the “heart” of the law, and was very clear he wasn’t here to change anything (Matthew 5:17). , And when that verse is interpreted as “I came to fulfill the law”, the thing he “fulfilled” was the new covenant stated in Jeremiah 31:31, when God said he would write his Torah on our hearts.

Yeshua taught the heart of the law so that we could have it written on our hearts.

But Christianity hasn’t allowed that correct understanding to be taught- no! Christianity has spent it’s time and effort to separate itself from its Jewish roots, and to pretend that after being grafted onto a tree, that tree now is fed by the branch, and the roots are no longer necessary.

I used to teach how silly this idea is by referring to the old Bugs Bunny cartoon, the one where Elmer Fudd chases Bugs out onto the end of a branch of a tree. Then Elmer, sitting on that branch holding onto the trunk, starts to saw the branch off.

I’ve got you now, you silly wabbit!

When the branch is sawn off, instead of Bugs falling to the ground, the tree (with Elmer on it) falls, while the branch miraculously remains suspended in mid air.

Yeshua did accomplish his role as the Messiah when he lived a perfectly innocent life, which was only because he was 100% obedient to the Torah. The Torah is not some set of random rules, it is God’s User Manual for righteousness! If we could, as human beings, actually be obedient to the Torah, all the time (as Yeshua was), then we wouldn’t need Yeshua’s sacrifice because we would already be sinless.

The problem is that no human being can be totally obedient- that is why God created the sacrificial system. DUH!

People! Being stained with sin is what separates us from God’s presence- we can’t enter into his presence if we have the stench of sin on us. Only after we have been cleansed of sin, which can only be done by the shedding of innocent blood (Leviticus 17:11), can we then be able to enter into God’s presence. That is how we are saved: not by faith, and not by works, but by being forgiven.

Of course, that forgiveness can only come through faithfully believing Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and that faith being demonstrated through obedience to the way God said we should live, and not what some religion says. When we have faith in Yeshua, and are as obedient to the Torah (as we can be), then we can ask God to forgive us, which is the final step bringing us to salvation.

When Shaul (Paul) said, in Colossians 2:14, that Yeshua nailed our sins to the cross, the traditional Christian teaching has been that he also did away with the need for the Torah. Now, I cannot understand how anyone, if they actually thought about it for a moment, would agree that a sin sacrifice meant there was no more sin. The idea that we are automatically forgiven simply because we “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) is just plain ignorant.

If Yeshua did away with the law, then there is no law! That cannot be argued against- either there is law, or there isn’t law, there is no in-between. And if there is no law, then there is lawlessness. And if we want to see what Yeshua, himself, says about lawlessness, we can go to Matthew 7:23, where we read that many will say how they exorcised demons, prophesied and performed miracles in his name (all things which the “church” has done), but he will reply:

Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!

And if you want to say there are still some laws, the “moral” ones we all have to obey, I will remind you: either there is law or there is no law. And, for the record, there is not one, single law that is given by God anywhere in the entire New Covenant- everything Yeshua says in the Gospels, everything Shaul says in his letters, and everything the other writers of the other letters say is all based on the Torah. There is nothing “new” in the New Covenant- it is founded solely on the Torah!

There is just so much wrong with this ridiculous teaching that Yeshua did away with the law: how could the obedient son of God reject his father’s laws?

How could the obedient son of God teach that his father’s Holy Days are not to be celebrated?

How could the obedient son of God tell people that he is God and to worship him instead of his father?

How could the obedient son of God …well, you get the idea, right?

Everything the Christian church has taught over the past two millennia has been to represent Yeshua as replacing his father: they teach that he is God, that his followers are to reject the laws his father gave them, and that they should ignore those God-honoring Holy Days in the Torah and instead celebrate man-made holidays that completely ignore God and celebrate Yeshua, instead.

They have turned Yeshua from an Isaac, the son obedient to his father even unto death, to an Absalom, the rebellious son who wanted to steal his father’s kingdom.

So, nu! The next time someone tells you that Yeshua did away with the law, you tell them if that is so, then we are all doomed.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, believer or not. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Just to let you know, I am not going to post anything else until next year.

The Torah is more than a book of laws and regulations, it is a historical narrative of the Jewish people (not to mention how the Universe was created). Inside the Torah there is a set of business ethics as well as a penal code, it acts as both a Ketuba (marriage certificate) between God and people and as a national Constitution, and it is the ultimate spiritual guide to attaining righteousness in God’s eyes, leading to being able to spend eternity in the presence of God, forever joyful.

In other words, it is God’s User Manual for attaining salvation.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Yeshua was the only human being ever to live in perfect accord with the Torah, and he also is the only one who ever will. His resurrection proves that if we can live in perfect accord with the Torah, we will be saved, so yes- as hard as it is for Christians to accept (because of the training they have been given), the Torah IS the path to salvation; Yeshua proved that, but (again) he is the only one who can do it.

That is why God gave us the sacrificial system, of which Yeshua’s resurrection is now part, replacing the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only place any sacrifice could be accepted, according to the Torah.

The Torah is composed of the first five books of the Bible, but you really don’t need to read all five to be observant. In fact, if you read and study Deuteronomy, that is all you really have to know.

Deuteronomy 1:3 says (CJB),

“On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year,
Moshe spoke to the people of Isra’el, reviewing everything Adonai had ordered him to tell them.”

Moses is talking to the children of the rebellious parents who refused to enter the land the first time they came to it (Numbers 13 and 14). The people Moses is speaking to now are between the ages of 38 and 58 (except for Moses, Joshua, and Caleb).

If you are wondering how I came to those ages, during the 40 years in the desert, the first two were spent getting to the land of Cana’an. When they rebelled and refused to enter, God’s punishment was that they would be in the desert for as many years as they had been in the land: their recon mission lasted 40 days, so they would spend 40 years in the desert. They had already been in the desert for two years getting there, so they would be in the desert for another 38. And in Numbers 14:29-30, Moses explains that the ones who will die are those who were in the census of everyone over the age of 20. So, that is why the ages of the people would be between 38 (for those born at that moment) to 58, those who were 20 or younger at the first revolt.

Wow, it seems I have gotten a little sidetracked, so let’s get back to the main point…

In Deuteronomy, as we are told, Moses reviews pretty much everything that happened over the past 40 years, giving a “Reader’s Digest” version of the events, which includes the Big 10, the rules for worship and sacrifice, and the laws regarding interpersonal relationships. If you were to read only the Book of Deuteronomy, you would have enough understanding of what God wants from you in order to live a righteous life, which leads to salvation.

Yeshua’s ministry was not to change or deny the Torah (Matthew 5:17), but rather to teach us the Remes, which is the deeper, spiritual understanding of the Torah. The traditional Christian teaching that Yeshua did away with the Torah is just plain wrong, and goes against what Yeshua said.

The truth is what God said, and what Yeshua confirmed: the Torah is the only word of God, which means it is the only word from God: the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us exactly what to do in order to be righteous is in the Torah- nowhere else!

That means all the drek you have been taught regarding how the letters Shaul (Paul) wrote indicating faith in Jesus is all you need to be saved, well… that won’t do it. You need faith, sure, but your faith is demonstrated by your obedience.

Obedience to what, you ask? Obedience to Yeshua’s teachings? Yeah, that’s OK, that will work- but remember that he taught exclusively from the Torah!

I am sorry, all you Gentiles who have been told the Torah is just for Jews so you don’t need to know it, that’s not right. You need to get real! Faith and obedience to God, which means following the Torah, are two sides of the same coin; faith motivates obedience, and obedience demonstrates the strength and genuineness of your faith.

And you can’t have just one side of a coin.

So, if this makes sense to you, and you feel that you really should get better aquatinted with the Torah, but you don’t have a lot of time to read all 5 books, just read Deuteronomy.

Or, better yet, get to know the entire Bible easily and quickly by reading my latest book, “Not the Holy Bible” (just click the link on the website, or go to Amazon).

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, believer or not. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

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