Have you ever wondered how Arnold Schwarzenegger or Lou Ferrigno became so muscular? They worked at it, hours every day, for years. And the way they built their muscles so large was by destroying the existing muscle tissue.

That’s right! The way you build muscle is to first work the existing muscles so hard that you destroy them. When the body rebuilds the damaged cells, it always adds more cells to the repaired ones, and after many years of hard work, you look like Mr. America.

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

Our spiritual muscles are no different than our biceps or abs: in order to build spiritual muscle, we need to work hard every day destroying wrongful teachings and lawless beliefs and build new spiritual muscles.

How do we do that? First, by accepting that what God said to us is the primary and unchanging requirement for righteousness; the other writings, interpretations, and teachings of men are nothing more than commentary to be verified and validated against what God said in the Torah.

For example, many churches today are not only condoning homosexual marriage but endorsing and confirming it as godly. But God is clear in his admonishment against such relationships in the Torah, and in the way he punished those societies (such as Sodom and Gomorrah) who practiced that form of sexual orientation.

Another example is that God said we should NEVER make and bow down to any graven image of anything on the earth, in the sky or under the sea; but walk into most any Christian church (especially a Roman Catholic one) and there are paintings and statues all over the place. And when I asked a Priest why they pray to them, he said they don’t really pray to them, but are simply asking them to intercede with Yeshua to have him intercede with God. Really? You’re bowing down in front of these statues of people and asking them to intercede with Yeshua, even though Yeshua said the only way to the Father is through him. Not through someone through him, but through him, alone!

And Yeshua never said to pray to him but only in his name– praying to anyone or anything other than God is the definition of idolatry!

Another thing the musclemen do to help build muscles is to have a protein-rich diet: muscle fiber is made up of protein chains, so they ingest protein to help fuel these new muscles.

Spiritual muscles need the Word of God to feed upon, so when building your spiritual muscles you must read the Bible on a daily basis.

I have often shared that I keep my Bible in the bathroom because I know I will have (at least) a few minutes of totally uninterrupted time to read a chapter or two. And it works! I have been through the entire Bible (which is the only way to read it), from Genesis straight through to Revelation, so many times over the past 25+ years I have no idea how many times I have done this. And what is great about God’s word is that no matter how many times I have read it, there is always something new for me to see in there, that God (through the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit) shows me that I never saw before.

So nu? If you want to become a spiritual muscleman or musclewoman, then start your workout today. Grab that Bible, put it in your bathroom within easy reach of your throne, and start reading from the very first line of Genesis, reading (at least) one chapter every day.

And remember one last thing: working out causes aches and pains, and in your spiritual workout you may be upset and uncomfortable with learning that what you have been taught is wrong. Let God lead you through his spirit to see the truth, and pray to God (in Yeshua’s name) to show you the truth, because most people don’t know what God said, but have been totally misled by what people have taught them.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website, my YouTube channel, and go give a Thumbs Up to my Facebook page, too.

Until next time, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

In Jeremiah 11:14, God told Jeremiah that he should not pray for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

It seems odd, doesn’t it, that the Lord would tell his own prophet that he shouldn’t pray for the security or peace of God’s children, but there is a reason for it.

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God is a loving and compassionate father. He understands our weaknesses and he is not just able to forgive us when we repent, but he desires to forgive us, as he demonstrates in Ezekiel 18:23 where he says he doesn’t want anyone to die.

But, God is also a fair and just God, holy and not one to change his mind. He says the guilty will not go unpunished, and although salvation is available to everyone, those who refuse to repent and continue to sin will be found guilty and their own deeds will come back on their own heads.

God has more patience than any human ever could have, and often he has waited to judge and punish for centuries, hoping against hope (since he already knows what will happen) that somehow the guilty will repent.

But sooner or later, the hammer has to come down.

What sins were so terrible in Jerusalem that God told his prophet to stop praying for the people? What could they have possibly done to bring God to the point where forgiveness was no longer possible, and judgment (meaning punishment) was the only option left to God?

Well, let’s see: we read about their worship of many of the pagan gods of the Semitic tribes around them, building and worshipping of idols, sacrificing on the high places, burning their children to Molech and K’Mosh in Vadi Kidron, cult prostitution, use of divination and spirit guides (necromancy), as well as many other horrible sins. And despite the good kings that we had along the way, with the sins of King Manasseh the point of no return had been reached.

This all happened circa 600 BC, but I believe we are seeing the same conditions today, here in America, only there is no prophet to warn us.

How does this apply to America, today?

Well, to start with, our government has not only legalized abortion but subsidizes it: I have posted in the past how this is no different than burning children to Molech (Abortion is More Than Just Murder).

We haven’t erected idols to Ba’al or Dagan, but we do hold our celebrities and sports figures in such awe that it is nearly a form of worship.

Every newspaper throughout the country has a section by an Astrologer, which is not much different than worshiping the army of heaven.

And in our society, we honor sinful relationships which include (but aren’t limited to) homosexual marriages, transvestites reading to children, and government removal of prayer from schools and from our courts.

When you take a close look, it really isn’t that different from the way society lived in the days of Manasseh, is it?

That’s why I believe if there was a prophet in America today, as Jerusalem had Jeremiah, he would be told by God something to the effect of:

"Geeze! I thought they would have learned their lesson after what I allowed Nebbie to do to Jerusalem! Oh well, here we go again- don't bother praying for this bunch because they have gone too far."

Look, I am not anti-American: I was an Executive Officer of a Combat Engineer Company in the United States Marine Corps and was willing to give my life to protect and preserve the America I grew up in. That was an America where people said they were Americans first, not something-Americans; that was an America where people had opportunities and weren’t chained to a system of welfare which reduces your chance of being able to pull yourself up out of your current social and economic class.

That was an America where nationalism was the rage, and racism was not used as a political weapon to usurp elected officials.

That was an America where education taught our children proper ethics, didn’t try to change history (although it was somewhat white-washed), and respected all life, in and out of the womb.

And in that America, the government asked for God’s direction and help, instead of rejecting him as unconstitutional!

No, my friends, we are seeing the beginning of the end of the America in which I grew up, the America that was a world leader, not just economically but ethically, and which represented the best opportunity for a person to really make something out of themselves. Sadly, that America is diminished to the point where it can’t come back.

No, my friends, the best we can hope for is that Messiah returns soon, because the ignorance and sinfulness of the youth today, as evidenced in YouTube videos, video games, TV shows, and movies, demonstrates that America’s future looks bleak. Even our professional athletes, heroes of the people who represent the best America has to offer, kneel at our national anthem and turn their back to the flag at Olympic events!

No, my friends, this is the end of the America I knew and the start of a different America, a godless and sinful country with no hope.

Although on the outside we seem to be strong, we have rotted away on the inside, just like a centuries-old Baobab tree, and one day (just like with those trees) we will suddenly collapse, and be no more.

So stop praying for America and start to pray for the return of the Messiah, because America is past help. And don’t tell me that God will forgive anything because he won’t- the Bible is clear on that. Yes, he is able to forgive anything, but he will not forgive an unrepentant sinner and that is what America has become, for more than a few decades now. The time for repentance and forgiveness is passed, and I personally don’t believe there are enough true American’s left in America to save the country.

Sorry for being such a “Debbie Downer” in my message today, but I preach what I believe to be the truth. If I wanted to be popular and go viral, I would do what the mega-churches do and tell you all the wonderful things God has for you and how wonderful everything is going to be.

I would rather be unpopular with people but do what is right in God’s eyes; people can only do so much for me while I am alive, but God can do everything for me throughout eternity.

He can do the same for you if you learn who he is, what he wants from you, and then deliver.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my YouTube channel and website, share these messages with everyone you know, and if you like what I do here you will like my books, as well. That’s it for today so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

I was having a discussion with one of my Facebook friends, a sister in the Lord (Yes, Sarah- I am talking about you) about the red heifer, and I said something that I think is worth sharing. I doubt it will be of any great significance or a wonderful revelation to anyone, but still and all, this is my ministry and so I will talk about it.

Seriously, I think it might be of interest to some.

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The red heifer is an important animal in Judaism. It is a rather rare birth, and when born the cow is to be sacrificed and its ashes used to cleanse those who have become ceremonially unclean when touching a dead body. You can read about the red heifer in Numbers 19:1-10. One of the interesting aspects of the process of preparing the ashes that purify and cleanse people is that for every step in that process, the one performing it is made unclean and must wash their clothes and their body in water, remaining unclean until the evening (i.e., the next day.)

I have read the red heifer is considered a foreshadowing of Yeshua, in that the death of the heifer cleansed people, just as did Yeshua’s death. Personally, I don’t really think that is such a good comparison.

True, the red heifer was killed outside the camp, and Yeshua was killed outside Jerusalem; and true, the death of the red heifer led to a process by which people could be made clean, and the death of Yeshua cleanses us of our sin.

But there are significant differences that I believe make this comparison weak, if not invalid.

For one thing, no one became unclean associating with Yeshua, but the person who burned the heifer, the one who watched it (the Cohen), and the one who collected the ashes all became unclean by their association. The ones who were around and in close proximity to Yeshua not only were not made unclean but instead received the Ruach HaKodesh!

The ashes of the red heifer were used to remove only the uncleanliness that one receives from being in contact with a dead body. There’s no sin in being exposed to or touching a dead body, only ceremonial uncleanliness. The ashes make you clean, ceremonially, but they do not remove sin.

That is a significant difference: the ashes of the red heifer are useful only to remove ceremonial uncleanliness, but they do not remove sin because being unclean is not a sin. God never says, anywhere, that if you are unclean you are in sin. You are not allowed in the sanctuary when unclean, and if you go to the sanctuary when you are unclean or participate in any service (such as a Seder), THAT would be a sin and the ashes of the red heifer would be useless to you. You will need to go through one of the sacrifices outlined in Leviticus 1-7 to remove that sin, and the red heifer ashes are not part of any of those sacrifices.

On the other hand, Yeshua’s sacrifice and the blood he shed cleanses from us our morally wrong sins.

Yes, when in sin we are “unclean”, but not in the same way as when touching a dead body. There is a BIG difference between being unclean because we touched someone’s dead body and being unclean because we killed that person; the former is a ceremonial condition and the latter is a mortal sin.

Now, let’s talk about something I do find to be a valid comparison between the red heifer and Yeshua.

As mentioned above, everyone involved with preparing the red heifer becomes unclean, and what I find interesting is that when we are first introduced to the Torah, the closer we come to the Torah, the more we become aware of our own moral uncleanliness.

In the letter he wrote to the Roman Believers, Shaul mentioned how the Torah created sin because before we were given the law, there was no way to identify sin. As we become more knowledgeable, or better yet let’s say “in contact”, with the Torah, we become more aware of our own sinfulness (uncleanliness) before God.

With Yeshua’s sacrifice, we can be cleansed of our uncleanliness (from sin) just as those who had the ashes of the red heifer sprinkled on them became cleansed of their (ceremonial) uncleanliness.

The red heifer made people unclean and clean, first in contact with it and later after it had been properly prepared for them.

Yeshua, the Living Torah, makes us unclean by identifying that which we do as a sin, and he also makes us clean through his sacrifice, i.e. after he had been “properly prepared” (by means of his crucifixion and resurrection.)

The red heifer and Yeshua initially make us unclean (through touch and learning about sin, respec.), and both have the power to make us clean after they have been “prepared”.

Interesting? I thought so, and I hope you found this little conversation to be interesting, as well.

That’s it for today. I thank you for being here and if you haven’t already subscribed, please do so on my website and on my YouTube channel as well, because they are different lists and I don’t always do a video.

You might also consider buying one or more of my books, and with that I will say l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!