Here’s a riddle for you:

What is it that makes you feel secure while putting your in life in danger?

Answer: Your comfort zone.

Here’s another riddle:

What do you call something that makes you breathe easier while it suffocates you?

Answer: Your comfort zone.

One more and then we’re done:

What do you believe can take you where you want to go, but in reality keeps you from ever going anywhere?

Answer: (c’mon, ya gotta know where I’m going with this by now!)

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

A comfort zone is that certain way of thinking, of acting, of eating, of doing things or believing something that you have always done, and so you feel secure and relaxed with it.

While some people may excuse staying in their comfort zone because it allows them to be efficient and to maintain a standard, the actual descriptive term for what they say helps them to maintain their standards is: stagnation.

The comfort zone most people have is what they were brought up with, it is all they know, and it is all they want to know.

Talk to a bigot who hates a certain class of person, even though they never knew anyone in that class, and you will see the epitome of a comfort zone.

People in a comfort zone are really just maintaining a certain level of ignorance.

For example, speaking religiously, people don’t want to hear that the holidays they celebrate aren’t the ones God told us to celebrate.

They don’t want to know that the commandments God gave about food are still valid for anyone who wants to please God.

Here’s something that’s really hard to understand: people stay in their comfort zone even when they know it is wrong!

In my lifetime, I have met many people who know that they should be doing something differently, yet when it comes down to it, they do what they have always done.

I read a book once that talked about people in a bad relationship, and it said that when one tries to change the relationship to make it better, the other goes out of their way to reestablish the bad one. Why would someone do something so damaging to themselves?

It’s that darn old comfort zone, again.

Here’s an example: let’s say I tell you that after decades of study, I have come to the conclusion that modern Christianity is based more on misinterpretations of what Paul said than anything Jesus ever said, and hearing this makes you feel really uncomfortable- well, that’s a good thing. If something someone says disrupts your comfort zone, then it is to your benefit to examine what was said.

The most dangerous thing about a comfort zone, if you ask me, is that it restricts you from growing in knowledge or ability, and as such leads you to a path of destruction more than a path of salvation.

I am very comfortable with my beliefs, but I still read what others say and verify for myself if what they say makes me uncomfortable that it is biblically valid. And yes- I have had to change things I believed, and when I do it is VERY uncomfortable.

But, it is also very uncomfortable taking yucky tasting medicine that cures my sickness, but I am going to take it because I know I have to on order to get better.

It is very uncomfortable for me to stretch before going on a bike ride, but I do it because I know it is important to be limber before an exercise.

It is very uncomfortable for me to eat only three or four crispy and spicy chicken wings, but that is better for me than eating eight or ten of them.

(OK, I confess, this is one comfort zone I usually stay in.)

The most dangerous comfort zone of all is our spiritual comfort zone.

It’s one thing to be taught all you need to do is be a good person and love each other and you get to go to heaven, and a totally different thing to hear no one goes to heaven. The Bible tells us that we who are saved stay on the new earth.

It is very uncomfortable to be told that our parents may not greet us after we die, or that our loved ones may not even be saved.

And it is totally uncomfortable to realize that we may be doing the wrong things in God’s eyes, even though everyone we ever respected and trusted has been telling us that what we do is fine with God.

So what’s today’s message all about?

It’s about getting a little less comfortable, and making sure that what you have been told is fine with God, really is fine with God.

And how can you know what is really fine with God? How can I be absolutely certain that what I am being told is really directly from God?

Go to where God tells you what is absolutely fine with him, and that is in the first 5 books of the Bible, which is called the Torah (the word “Torah” means learning, not law).

Truth be told, that is the ONLY place in the entire Bible where God (the father of the Messiah) tells us directly, with Moses taking dictation, exactly what he wants us to do: which Holy Days are the ones he says we have to celebrate (for the record, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate man-made holidays, just that those days God says we must, we must), how we should treat each other, how we should run a business, it has a penal code, we are told which animals are good for eating and which are bad, and many other things, to include the difference between sexually acceptable and sexually perverted relationships.

Your comfort zone just feels so nice: it is pleasant, it is easy to do, it satisfies your earthly desires, and you know what that sounds like?

That sounds like the definition of sin.

I’m sorry- does that make you feel uncomfortable? Good!

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry on my website and my YouTube channel, as well. Help it continue to grow by sharing these messages with everyone you know- let’s make them uncomfortable, too.

On my website buy my books, and on Facebook join my group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And one last thing- remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

As we come near to the major Christian holiday of Christmas, I expect to see a plethora of postings from Christians who have become so zealous for doing what God said over what men have said that they reject every man-made Christian holiday because it was once a pagan celebration.

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

Now, it is true that Christmas was created by men. Basically, the early Christians, who by the end of the First Century were mostly ex-pagans, were following the teachings of men; men who misinterpreted and misused the writings of the Apostles (and especially Shaul) to teach these new Believers that they must reject anything Jewish.

In fact, they were so adamant about separating themselves from their Jewish roots they ended up creating a different religion, nothing like what Yeshua or his disciples practiced or taught, and which Constantine legalized in the Third Century.

The religion they created is known today as Christianity.

Now that they had their own religion, with man-made tenets, dogma, and rituals, all they needed were their own holidays. So, they took the old pagan holidays of the winter celebration of Saturnalia and the spring fertility celebration of Ishtar, which everyone was used to celebrating, and rebranded them to be Christmas, celebrating the birth of the Messiah, and Easter, celebrating the resurrection of the Messiah.

Man-made holidays originally celebrating the pagan gods, now rebranded (or should I say, reborn?) as Christian celebrations of the Messiah.

So, what about the many Christians who used to celebrate them with gusto and joy, who now reject them with a passionate hatred and demean anyone who still celebrates them? Are they right to do so?

First of all, in my opinion, what is important is not what we think but what God thinks, and no one can say they know what God thinks. Job’s friends tried to do that, and we are told that God didn’t like that- no, not one, little bit.

But, we can know that God has shown us he knows the hearts and minds of everyone. So, then, what if I am celebrating the Messiah though the man-made holiday called Christmas, which is celebrated at the same time as a pagan holiday was? When I am decorating my Christmas tree with ornaments that represent memories of times gone by with family and friends, does God think I am adorning an idol? Or when I go to church and sing praises to him, does he think I really am singing to Saturn?

I don’t think so. I think because God knows our hearts and minds, when I believe I am doing something to honor God and his messiah, God will accept that.

God is compassionate and understanding, right? Isn’t it true that he loves each and every one of us beyond our human ability to comprehend the vastness of that love? And doesn’t he tell us in Ezekiel 18:23 that he is not just willing to forgive us, but that he desires to do so?

When I put all that together, it adds up to celebrating Christmas as a means of being grateful for the birth of the messiah is fine with God. And, if I celebrate Easter to be grateful that the messiah was resurrected, God doesn’t have a problem with that.

Do you agree that we were all sinners, but because we are reborn through the Messiah we can be forgiven and those sins are now as far from us as the East is from the West? Even though we all have the same sinful origins we had before? Even though we still have the same birthday? The same parents? The same history?

Do you believe that even though we are the same entity as we always have been, that through the Messiah we can be forgiven and now acceptable before God?

Well, if your answer to that question is “Yes”, then why do you say that a holiday cannot be acceptable before God if it is “reborn” and is now celebrating the Messiah?

If someone born on a certain day who was a sinner and rejected God, but now through Messiah Yeshua can be acceptable to God, then why can’t a celebration that has the same “birthday” as a pagan holiday, but is now celebrating the Messiah, be treated the same way?

If you used to be a sinner and now are acceptable to God through the messiah, but celebrating the messiah through Christmas and Easter is unacceptable to God because they once were pagan holidays, well…if you ask me, I call that hypocrisy.

If I was a sinner who is now saved because I accepted Yeshua as my messiah and changed who I worship from sin to God, then why can’t a holiday that once celebrated a pagan god but now is dedicated to the one, true God and his messiah be given the same consideration?

I am Jewish, so I never celebrated either of these Christian holidays, but my wife grew up with them and still likes to decorate the house at Christmas time. To us, it awakens memories of the good times in the past with family and friends, and is dedicated to God and Yeshua.

And, based on what God tells us about himself in the Bible, I believe he has no problem with this.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but please ensure you read and agree to the rules).

And one more thing: remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

I am going to do something so rare, this may actually be the very first time I have ever done this- I am going to post something that will not have any biblical reference, and will not have a video, and even rarer than that- it will be short.

If you prefer to watch a video, I just told you there ain’t gonna be one today, so don’t look for “click on this link”.

OK, so why do I say long term progress is not a straight line?

The answer, in a word, is… backsliding. No human is ever going to do something right and never, ever do it wrong again.

If we look at a timeline of some growth activity, such as a record of one’s weight while on a diet, we do not see a straight line going up, or down, but rather more of a sine wave, like a wave in the ocean: up, then down, then up, then down, continually. Like this:

If it stays constant, never gradually going up or down, in science we call that stasis; but, in the case of personal or spiritual growth, the more appropriate word is stagnation, or some sensitive people would prefer to hear it called “staying in one’s comfort zone”.

Call it what you will, it still means there is no growth.

Our attempts at improvement will always will have that waviness, but it will be steadily going either up or down, depending on which way represents progress.

So what does this have to do with salvation, or God, or anything spiritual?

It is an important thing to know because this is the way we change, emotionally and spiritually.

As we learn more about the Bible we will show an upward swing, and if we forget some of what we learned there will be a downward swing, but so long as we don’t forget all we learned the wave will slowly go up.

The same is true with learning how to control our sinful nature (in Hebrew called the Yetzer Hara), how to learn to forgive, the proper way to worship, and learning to get along with others.

Today’s message is simple:

Don’t give up when you screw up!

You WILL screw up, sooner or later, and you will always screw up, now and then. If you allow these occasional dips in your spiritual sine wave to discourage you, well, that is exactly what the Enemy wants to happen.

Don’t give in to him.

And that is it for today (see! I told you it would be short). Know that you will make mistakes, that you will backslide, but always keep this in mind:

Three steps forward and two steps backward is not a failure:

it is a step forward.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website and also to my YouTube channel (Youtube.com/messianicmoment).

I have written 4 books, and if you like what you get here you will like them, as well; they are in paperback and digital format, and available from my website and on Amazon Books.

I also have a Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” that you are invited to join, just please read and agree to the rules.

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

PS: I am having an operation on my back today to relieve my constant pain from lumbar spinal stenosis, so please send up a prayer for me.

I took off a couple of weeks- did anyone miss me?

I was reading Isaiah 29 the other day, and when I came to verses 13-14, I had a bit of an epiphany, suddenly seeing in those few sentences the true definition of what religion is.

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

As those of you who are regular subscribers, or dare I say members of my congregation (?), you know that I am totally against religion. God’s instructions to us are a lifestyle and not just some set of activities you perform when you go to shul or church. In fact, God has no religion; religion is the invention of people who want to have power over other people.

Isaiah was a prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judea, and he was trying to get them to return to God’s way of life as they had corrupted themselves with the religions of the surrounding Semitic peoples.

Before we go any further, let me clearly state this caveat: pulling one or two sentences from the Bible is always a dangerous thing to do because it can lead to misunderstanding. I believe that, in this case, I am not misleading you or misinterpreting what God meant when he told Isaiah what to say, and I leave it up to you to judge for yourself whether or not I have.

That being said, let’s see what God told Isaiah to tell the people (this is from the Complete Jewish Bible):

Then Adonai said: “Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their ‘fear of me’ is just a mitzvah of human origin therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people with astounding and amazing things, until the ‘wisdom’ of their ‘wise ones’ vanishes, and the ‘discernment’ of their ‘discerning ones’ is hidden away.”

To put this in words that reflect my understanding, God is saying that even though the people are going through the motions of proper worship, it is not something that they do because their hearts tell them to do it, but rather because they have been told by men what they should do.

And this opinion of mine seems to be confirmed because God says that their fear of him, which back then meant the form of worship, is just a mitzvah (law) of human origin.

God is saying that the form of worship they were practicing was not from God, but from men.

Now isn’t that exactly what religion is? A set of rules, a form of worship, “fearing” God by performing rites, rituals, and celebrating him with holidays that are all man-made?

I mean, how many different religions do we have that all profess to worship the one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who is the father of the Messiah (who we believe to be Yeshua), the same God who never changes?

If God never changes, then what he says he wants us to do never changes, which means that there should not be different forms of worship or different rules, different celebrations, or different days of rest.

Am I right?

So, through Isaiah God is saying that when we practice a set of rules that are man-made, i.e. follow a specific religion, then he will show us just how wrong we are with shocking and amazing things to demonstrate to all that the wisdom of our wise people will vanish and their discernment will be hidden away, meaning there will be no discernment.

Have we seen any of this?

Well, what about the revelation of child abuse in the Catholic Church?

Well, what about the Televangelist who embezzled from his congregation?

Well, what about the Televangelist who had been associating with prostitutes?

Well, what about the New Jersey Rabbi who had an adulterous affair that led to murder?

Well, what about the…well, you get the point.

And these people, as well as many others that we have heard about in the news or, even worse, don’t yet now about, all have one thing in common: they are worshippers of man-made religions.

Yes, even Judaism, which should be the purest form of what God said he wanted us to do, has been corrupted by Talmudic requirements called Halacha, which overrule and sometimes even replace some of the instructions that God gave us, adding so much more to what God said we need to do (which, for the record, is a sin based on Deuteronomy 4:2).

So, nu? What can we do about people who are so fully immersed in a religion that they discount everything I just said as so much tripe and nonsense?

We can try to show them what God says: which, for Jews, means to get their head out of the Talmud, and for Christians, to get their head into the Torah.

And if we can ever get the Jews out of the Talmud and back to the Torah, and get the Christians out of the New Covenant letters and into the Torah, the next step would be to teach them both the truth about who Yeshua is and what he really taught.

And then, maybe, with God’s help, we can teach all these different Judeo-Christian religion followers to fear the Lord the way the Lord said to fear him.

That would be the fulfillment of God’s New Covenant, given through Jeremiah 31:31, which says that God’s Torah will be written on our hearts.

But, to be honest, I fear this will not be accomplished on a large level, and that is because I know what Yeshua said about salvation: it is the path less followed, and the narrow gate that few people will go through.

I pray that if you are one who follows a religion, you will consider what God told Isaiah about the way He feels about religion, and worship God -starting today- the way God said he wants you to.

Look- you don’t have to totally reject your religion: just know which part is obeying what God said to do, which part is rejecting what God said to do, which part is man-made but not rejecting what God said to do, and choose which part you will do.

One last thing: I sincerely ask you to consider how God will feel about your choice.

Thank you for being here. Please share these messages with everyone you know and subscribe to this ministry on my website, and also on my YouTube channel. I have a Facebook page (please “Like” it) and a Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” that you are invited to join- just please make sure you read and agree to the rules.

If you like what you get here, you will also like my books, which you can get through my website or on Amazon, in either paperback or digital form.

And remember: I always welcome your comments.

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

Many people would say there is nothing worse than losing a loved one, and they can make a pretty good argument for that.

But I believe there is something worse, and even though today’s message isn’t so much a biblical lesson, or a spiritual message, there is something of God in it.

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

I have lost loved ones; and, at my age, I will be losing more of them, and it will happen more often. So when I say I know something even worse than the loss, I am talking from personal experience.

Many times when someone loses a loved one, I hear them say that the one who died has gone to a better place. Among Believers, I hear (almost all the time) that the one who has died is now with the Lord.

Personally, I don’t think any human is qualified to make that determination.

We only see the outer person, whereas God sees the heart and knows that person much better than we ever will, no matter how well we think we do.

Think of all the religious leaders of our day who seemed to be righteous and godly, but later we found out they were hanging around with prostitutes or embezzling from their congregation or raping young children.

The truth is we can only hope that the ones we love who die will be with God and have Yeshua the Messiah as their Intercessor.

So, enough lead-in, now it’s time for me to get to the reason I am writing this.

What I believe to be worse than losing a loved one is to not have been as close to that person as we could have been when they were still alive.

I am not talking about “closure”, although that is certainly part of the problem.
I am talking about the everyday, simple things that we can do with those we care about while they are alive.

Such as sharing more of our time, talking candidly regarding our feelings about people, God, life, etc., and hearing what they think about those things.

Even between spouses who love each other and enjoy their marriage, there can be many lost opportunities to be even closer emotionally and physically.

Let’s not be shy here- physical intimacy can create one of the strongest bonds between people in love, and when marriage is allowed to become so mundane that even everyday touching and kissing becomes stagnant, there is a severe loss of opportunity that will never come again after one of you dies.

Doing things that are new and different is essential, in my opinion, to keeping any relationship “fresh”, and those memories will be absolutely necessary after your loved one dies.

How many vacations have you not gone on because they were too far away, or too expensive (even though you could have spent the money without sacrificing your lifestyle), or you just felt too tired to go?

How many times have you not done something you both were thinking of, just because it was too much trouble to set up?

How many friendships have you allowed to fall by the wayside because it was too difficult to maintain that connection?

Ask yourself this: when that person is gone, forever, do you think you will reflect back and say “I’m glad we never did that”?

Or is it more likely you will be thinking “I wish we had done that”? or “I wish I had called more often”?

Here’s today’s “take-away”: make time for each other, share your deepest feelings with those you care about, mend relationships that have gone bad, and never be afraid to make new friends. Do things, even small things like walking around the block together each night, or (as Donna and I do) have one night a week dedicated as a “Date Night”. It doesn’t have to be fancy-schmancy; just going to the drive-thru at Mickie-Dee’s and sharing a meal in the car will be a memory that you can look back on fondly when you won’t be able to do that anymore.

Enhance your time together now, while you have it, because you know you will be sad and miss this person when they are dead. That’s why I say the only thing worse than their death will be the realization that you could have spent more time together, you could have talked more often, you could have been more affectionate, but now you will never be able to do that.

Having those memories will be an emotional support system to help you get through your sadness, so please invest in your relationships now, and build up that joyful memory portfolio for the rainy days to come.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website ministry and YouTube channel. When on my website, please buy my books- if you like what you get here, you will like my books.

I have a discussion group on Facebook called “Just God’s Word” and I invite you to join us, but please make sure you read and agree to the rules.

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

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