I had planned on talking about something totally different, but given the events of yesterday in the United States, I cannot ignore speaking to it. This is not a political ministry, it is a teaching ministry, so let’s analyze what happened from a historical and spiritual viewpoint.

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

For those who might not be aware, there was a large gathering of Americans at our nation’s Capitol building yesterday, which was called to support President Trump and require a decision regarding allegations of election fraud. At some point, violence broke out and a handful of people broke windows and stormed into the Capitol building. The police were called in, they shot and killed at least one woman, and other deaths have been reported; eventually, the crowds were told to disperse and they did. There were tens of thousands of people there. No other damages to buildings or looting were done except for the broken windows to the Capitol building.

This country began as a refuge for those who wanted to worship God as they chose. When we felt unfairly controlled by the Crown in England, we rebelled, but at first, it wasn’t to be independent- we only wanted things to go back to how they were. The Boston Tea Party and the rebellion against the Stamp Act- all the people wanted was for those laws to be repealed. It wasn’t until the Declaration of Independence was drafted did anyone really think about breaking from England, altogether.

And after the new country of America had been under the Articles of Confederation for 11 years and was dying, economically as well as socially, the Continental Congress was called to revise the Articles. They closed and locked the doors and in secret, illegally revised the Articles of Confederation by deep-sixing them and creating the one thing the first Continental Congress did NOT want: a strong, central government.

And thank God they did! And because this country and its leaders at that time were God-fearing men, they were able to come up with the U.S. Constitution.

And because our government, courts, and society were faithfully adherent to the way God said we should live and treat each other, he blessed this nation with financial and societal strength, making it a place where everyone else in the world wanted to go to live for the opportunities it provided.

In the last couple of decades, we have decided that God has no place in our system of government, or in our courts, schools, or even society. And the leaders of this country, who at the beginning made sure that everything they did was based on what God said, have done a complete “180”: God says there are two genders, today the government says people can be any gender they want to be, even going as far as to support the idea that children who haven’t even gone through puberty yet can decide which gender they want to be.

The murder of children, which is no different than child sacrifice to the pagan gods of the Semitic tribes of ancient days, is now financially supported and guaranteed by the government. It’s called abortion.

Our government leaders, especially the ones who are now coming into nearly complete power, have decided that Israel is not to be allowed to exist. They support verbally and financially the Palestinian people (who never really existed until Yasser Arafat created them as a propaganda campaign), a people who only want to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews they can. They teach their children, as early as kindergarten, that it is a good thing to kill Jews and the more Jews they kill the more reward they will receive in heaven!

Who would have ever thought that America would not just condone, but support both verbally and financially, any country that teaches its children it is a good thing to kill other people?

The Democrats have denounced the violence at the Capital but didn’t say one word about all the BLM and ANTIFA rioting and destruction of property (not to mention the murder of police) in the past except for the fact that these were, in truth, peaceful protests. C’mon, people…really? Yet, there are many people who believed that… and why? Because their hatred is stronger than their love, stronger than their common sense, and stronger than their judgment.

In Matthew 7:2 Yeshua teaches us all about judging others:

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

So all who hate will be treated the same way they treat the ones they hate. And when you ask people why they hate, so often all I hear is “because he or she is (a certain type of person).”

Is this a country or a high school? Are our elected officials, especially the President, qualified by how nice a person they are, or by what plans they have for improving the country and their ability to accomplish those plans? Is the President supposed to be friendly to everyone and smiling all the time, never offending anyone (which means the same as not having any moral compass) or is he supposed to a leader with a specific set of standards?

People, this country is not the America I was willing to fight and die for when I was in the Marine Corps. It is most certainly not the America my father fought for in WWII or my uncle, who was a MASH doctor, risked his life for during the Korean War.

And it is no longer blessed by God because we have rejected him. We have replaced him with sexual perversity, sports figures, fast cars, technology, and financial gain. We don’t have time to pray because we are too busy on Facebook or Twitter, reading and spreading gossip, believing what we are told on the Internet or from the corrupted media.

And when we reject God, God will give us time to repent and come back to him, despite how sinful we may have become. But eventually, even God will have to accept that repentance is not coming, and as such, the only thing left is judgment.

God told Jeremiah not to pray for Judea (Jeremiah 7:16) because the time for judgment had come- it was too late to turn away the fierce anger and just punishment that God now had to deal out on them. And, my brothers and sisters, I am telling you here and now that we in America are in the same spot.

God used the Assyrians to punish Shomron, and he used the Babylonians to punish Judea. Now, he is using our own leaders to destroy us from inside.

Pray if you want to, but don’t pray for these people or this country because our time for repentance has come and gone. Pray for quick relief, pray that you will be able to financially survive the punishment, and pray that God will lift up, in the midst of this tsouris we will be undergoing, a leader who will bring God back into our society and courts, and that this country will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the destroying fire we have brought down on ourselves, and return to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Our God, Father, Lord, Creator, and King, please be merciful in this, your righteous indignation with our country and leaders, and speed an end to the punishment we and our fathers deserve. We have sinned against thee, and have committed grievous abominations, all the while ignoring your good instructions. Forgive our stupidity, pride, and selfishness; remove the stain of our sexual perversity and spiritual misguidance of the people, and bring us back into communion with you through your Messiah, Yeshua.

We await your just punishment and ask, in Yeshua’s name, that you mercifully protect those who still honor and worship you, and when the sword strikes, please get it over with quickly.

Amen.

David wrote this heartfelt prayer in Psalm 51 (CJB):

Create in me a clean heart, God; renew in me a resolute spirit. Don’t thrust me away from your presence, don’t take your Ruach Kodesh away from me. Restore my joy in your salvation, and let a willing spirit uphold me.

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

I confess that I pray this on a regular basis, for myself, and not because it is a beautiful passage (which it is) and not because it tells of my love for God (which it does), but because I have become inured to having received the Grace of God and the indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

I have been “saved” for nearly a quarter of a century, and didn’t come to know my Messiah until I was in my 40’s; when I decided to accept Yeshua, I still had to wait nearly three months before I received the gift of the Ruach.

And looking back, I remember the many times I would be in prayer or singing to the Lord and felt his touch, you know- that tingling sensation you get all over-and I knew it wasn’t just a chill or something earthly: I knew it was God.

I can’t remember the last time I felt that. And I know it isn’t because God has abandoned me, or withdrawn his Ruach because of all the wonderful blessings I receive from him and also because of these messages I am given, so to speak, to share with you. I can tell you right now that when I do something that is edifying, which I am happy to say I receive confirmation from people regularly that this is what I am doing, then I know that it is from God ’cause it ain’t from me, I can tell you that right now!

Trust me on this: if something good comes from me, it ain’t me. So when I get a positive reply to a Facebook posting or from one of these messages on my ministry, I accept that as confirmation that the Ruach is still at work in me.

But still, I miss that touch. I know it is my fault I don’t feel it; it is not that I have rejected God, but I have become too used to my salvation. I have worked within it for so long that I don’t really appreciate it as much as I first did. I know that is wrong, but I also know it is part of human nature to become adjusted to almost any condition we are in, once we have been there long enough (I wouldn’t want to use the word “bored”, but that is almost what it is like.)

Now don’t get me wrong: I am not saying I am bored with God- heaven forbid! I appreciate everything he does for me and my wife, and I thank him every day. I read his word daily and pray to him always, but it is that peace of mind, that wonder, that overwhelming sense of joy that I recall when I was first saved that I miss. That zealousness, that strong desire to do absolutely everything in the Torah perfectly…where did it go? Am I the victim of that old adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt?”

Again, not that I hate God- heaven forbid! (I sound like Shaul writing to the Romans, don’t I?) But there is something too familiar with my relationship with the Spirit and to God and Messiah Yeshua. It is like a life-long friendship where two people have formed such a close relationship that they don’t feel it as much consciously, but subconsciously they know they are as one.

So, nu? What do I do about this?

You know what? I don’t know. Maybe someone out there has an answer, maybe someone out there feels they are in the same boat as I am, and maybe the answer will come to me when God is ready to slap me upside my head and say, “Get back with the program!”

I trust that God is still with me, I know that he is waiting for me to come closer, his hand out there, in anticipation that sooner or later I will figure it out. It is undoubtedly some level of pridefulness on my part that is acting as a wedge between me and God, keeping me from getting closer to him.

I don’t know: I just…don’t…know.

So what I will do is continue to study his word, continue to pray, continue to do my best to live more in accordance with the instructions God gave us, and continue to trust that God will, one way or another, in his perfect timing show me what I need to do in order to come closer to him.

And, now that I think about it, that sounds like a good plan for anyone.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe and share these messages to help this ministry grow. I never ask for money because this is a teaching ministry and not a money-grabbing business (although it wouldn’t hurt if you bought some of my books.) I will never tell anyone what they must believe, only what I believe God is saying to us. All I want to do is give people what they need in order to make an informed decision about where they will spend eternity.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

PS: I was making the video for this and as I was reviewing the video, I felt God’s touch! So it seems the answer is as David said elsewhere- a broken heart and a contrite spirit, God will not turn away.

Praise God, now and always, for his love endures forever!

How many times have you heard someone ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” It’s a good question, considering that God can do anything, is everywhere all the time, knows everything, and hears everyone’s prayers.

Well, the answer is pretty simple: being able to do everything doesn’t mean God will do anything.

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

God has a plan for the human species; he has told us what that plan is, and how it will come about, and even what to expect. The only thing we haven’t been told is when it will happen.

This plan, however, doesn’t rely on what we want or when we want it. Asking God to help you, to help someone else, or to help the country is fine, and often God will intervene if it fits within his plan. But if what we ask doesn’t fit in his plan, or isn’t going to make any difference, he may decide that it isn’t going to happen. Or, in some cases, what we would never want to happen will be allowed to happen.

Terrible things people do to other people, such as war, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Hunts, the Holocaust, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, school shootings… are all acts of violence that are sinful and destructive. If God is really a loving and compassionate God, who is in charge, then how could he have allowed these things to occur? And what about all that is happening now?

Again, the answer is that he doesn’t micromanage the world. As horrible and significant as these events seem to us when they happen, in the long run, in the scheme of things over the millennia during which humankind will exist, they are just a momentary hiccup; a blip on the screen; a fart in the wind that stinks for a second, then is gone.

Our lives are nothing more than a mist (James 4:14) and what is our lifetime? Maybe 70 or 80 years? (Psalm 90:10) Even as long as Methuselah lived, when compared to eternity, his life passed quicker than the blink of an eye.

God may decide, in his perfect wisdom, to intervene for you when you pray to him. He may make something that is, even to us, relatively unimportant happen for you. For instance, many years ago I was a Salesman and was in a real slump. I prayed earnestly for God to help me get out of the slump, and asked that he show me I am doing right by helping me to make a sale. And the very next pitch resulted in a sale. Now, you may say that was a coincidence, but it wasn’t just the next pitch, it was the next three pitches. From no sales for a while to three in a row was enough for me to believe this was an answer, and I thanked God for his intervention. My need was so minor, so small a request, so insignificant in the stream of eternity, yet God did do that for me.

That isn’t micromanaging, though, because when God does intervene, it isn’t all the time. Anyone who has been a manager, a GOOD manager, knows that part of the job is to teach your people how to be managers, as well, and to help them develop their skills. Since most people do not learn by listening, you have to allow them to make their own mistakes, even when you see it coming a mile away, so that they can learn the hard way, which is (I believe) the best way. Very few people learn when told how to stay out of trouble, but when they get in trouble and suffer from it, they remember that. Oh, yeah…they remember that absolutely!

Micromanagers don’t allow that- they will never let someone make a mistake because they have to be in on everything. That’s why micromanaging denies people the opportunity to learn how to be better, and it makes them feel insignificant, unimportant, untrusted, and often results in losing good people instead of keeping them. In the long run, micromanaging is self-defeating.

I don’t want this message to go off on a tangent into management theory, but if you agree with my dislike for micromanagement, then you can also see why God will allow many things to occur, things which as a human being we can’t fathom the reason for allowing it.

We see things on a linear plane: we identify the world based on our personal experience and interpret events based on a finite understanding of the universe. We are in the flesh, stuck in here with a very limited ability to comprehend anything. God, on the other hand, is spiritual and infinite; he doesn’t work on a linear timeline. He sees the world, in fact, the entire universe, on an eternal level. We see the past and the present but God sees the past, present, and future. He knows what will happen and he will intervene as is necessary in order for his eternal plan for humanity to be fulfilled.

Being able to do everything doesn’t mean you will do anything, and God’s choice to allow us to manage ourselves is how he runs his business. As the ultimate manager, God has given us his Employees Handbook, which we call the Torah, and when we act in accordance with the corporate culture and lifestyle, we will receive bonuses (they are called blessings) and have a long and prosperous career, resulting in the best retirement plan that could ever exist, anywhere.

Oh, one other really great thing about how God manages humanity: you get to choose who you will work for! There are two Supervisors God has running the show: one is Yeshua (Jesus) and the other is Satan. We get to choose who we will work for.

Yeshua has rules and regulations that you are supposed to follow (the Torah) and he will help you overcome your failings to be a better human being. He will give you rewards on earth as you improve, but you get nominal pay and sometimes the job is very difficult, requiring great sacrifice. His retirement plan is for you to live in peace and joy, basking in the glory of God, for all eternity.

Satan, on the other hand, will allow you to do whatever you want to do. He will give you worldly power and rewards that you probably wouldn’t get working for Yeshua. However, his retirement plan places you outside the presence of God and you will suffer burning torture in hell throughout eternity.

So, nu! God has provided two different career paths for you, and although he is managing everything, he will not micromanage your life or your choices. It’s all up to you, but don’t ever forget this caveat: your choice is not set in stone until after you stop working (die), so when you choose your Boss try to remember that your retirement is going to last much longer than the job.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe (both to this website and my YouTube channel), share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry reach more people, and I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!