Author: Steven R. Bruck
Who’s Really in Charge?
Do you believe in Predestination? Do you think that God has already planned your entire life and that no matter what you do, it is already set out? Is it true that you are either saved or condemned to hell before you are even able to determine right from wrong?
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
And while we’re asking questions, do you believe that God is in charge? Is God really running the show, making the decisions every moment of every day, and ensuring that all he wants anyone do to is being done, just the way he wants it?
I don’t believe in predestination, and I’ll tell you why: God told Cain that sin is crouching at his door and he must master it (Genesis 4:7), so it is clear that when it comes to what we do, it is our decision. God didn’t say to Cain, “Sin is waiting for you and you can’t fight it- you’re chosen to be sinful and you have no way out of it. Sorry ’bout that, but that’s how it goes for some people. I spin the dice and you pay the price.”
Don’t worry- that’s not how it works.
God gave us all Free Will, the right to choose what we will do and say, and throughout the Tanakh God lets us know that whatever we decide to do, it is our choice. When we do what is right (in his eyes, not our eyes) we will be blessed, and when we choose to reject his instructions, we will be on our own. The world is a fallen and cursed place, under the dominion of the Evil One (remember that Satan was thrown to the Earth) and when we reject God, we lose the kippur, the covering, of God’s protection.
God doesn’t curse us when we disobey, he just leaves us unprotected from the world.
So, nu? If God gives me the right to choose what I do, then is he really in charge?
Yes, and no.
Yes, God’s plans will be fulfilled, and the way he wants them to be fulfilled, yet while we are waiting for that day, we have the ability to do what we want to do.
I once heard that God is the captain of a ship that is going from here to there, and along the way, the ship stops at many different ports. We are able to get on the ship or off the ship every time it stops. In fact, we can even “jump ship” between ports. Eventually, the ship will land at its final destination, and obviously, you want to be on the ship when it gets there.
I was in a position of management for most of my career, and when you are in charge you learn that you need to allow those under your authority to learn, and the way to do that is to give them the freedom to be in charge of themselves. The really good Boss is the one who can let people make their mistakes, and still correct those mistakes before the mission is compromised.
Being in charge often means ceding authority to others so that they can become leaders in their own right. Micromanaging never works out well for anyone, and God is the absolute best manager of all, for he knows everything you will do before you know it yourself, but he is willing to allow you the freedom to do it, even when it may result in pain. He can always soothe the injury and heal us, but if we are never allowed to burn ourselves, we will never learn to be careful around fire.
God is in charge, but you are still the only one who is responsible for what you do and say. If something bad happens, don’t blame God, and don’t say that you are under attack. Of course, you may be under attack (from the Enemy) at times in your life, especially if you are doing what is good and helping to advance God’s kingdom, but for the most part (if you ask me), when bad things happen to good people, it’s just that the good people may have slipped a bit, or as the saying goes, “Stuff Happens.”
We live in a fallen and cursed world; every now and then bad things will happen. You can’t walk through a field of sheep and not end up stepping in something, now and then. And according to the Bible, it will only get worse, so remember that you are the only one who you can blame for what happens to you.
The answer to today’s question is that God can be in charge of everything whenever he wants to be, but when it comes down to your life he will take charge only after you ask him to do that.
In the end, the one who is really in charge of you is YOU!
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages and check out my books. If you like what you read here, you will like my books, as well.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for Who’s Really in Charge?
This is Worth Repeating
There is no video today and I am not even writing a new post.
The link below will bring you to a post I did a while ago, which in light of the upcoming election and the different party positions regarding abortion, I thought it worthwhile to repost this so anyone still considering which party to align themselves with would have a chance to be informed before they make their choice.
And when I said that your vote is aligning yourself with that party, don’t hand me that lame excuse, “I’m not really voting for this one, I just don’t want to vote for that one” because your vote is always FOR someone, never against someone, and those who are not for us are against us, which means who you vote for is who you ARE for!
Click on this link to go to today’s (repeated) message, and please vote with discernment:
https://www.messianicmoment.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=14248&action=edit
Parashah Noach 2020 (Noah) Genesis 6:9 – 11:32
Who doesn’t know the story of Noah and the Ark? How Noah was the only righteous man found throughout the world, so God decided to save him and his family from the destruction of mankind, which had become evil and godless in everything they did.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
The flood comes, all life (except the fish, of course) is destroyed, and Noah and his family repopulate the earth.
Later, we are given the generations of Noah that came after him and then told the story of Babel, that evil town whose population sought to be as God by building a tower to the heavens and, in essence, placing themselves with God. Well, we all know what happened then- God created Republicans and Democrats, and since then people haven’t been able to work together, at all.
Nah, that’s not what really happened.
What did happen is that God created different races and languages which confused everyone, with the result that mankind became separated by language and race.
This parashah ends with the generations of the children of Noah specified, down to the time of Abram (who was not yet called Abraham).
I think we can all agree that one of the most terrible societal ills that exist in the world today is racism. It has resulted in nothing but war, murder, social unrest, rioting, and hatred. It is probably one of, if not the main, reason for millions upon millions of unwarranted deaths that have occurred throughout history, and to this day keeps people from being able to live and work together.
Now, have you ever considered that this horrible, evil thing called racism was created by God? Well, isn’t that what we just read in this Shabbat’s parashah?
In Genesis 11 we are told that God confused the world by giving them different languages and spreading them all over the earth, and since we have different races throughout the earth, and we know that up to Babel there was only one race (the descendants of Noah), then clearly God not only made different languages but different races, as well. Although we aren’t told this specifically in the Bible, and an important rule of biblical exegesis is that you can’t make an argument from nothing, I think it is safe to say that somewhere, somehow, different races were created and since God created everything, well…?
Racism is not so much hatred of another race, but the belief that one race is more important or better than another race. The hatred is what follows from the wrongful ideology that one race is better than another.
So, based on what we read in Genesis 11, since God separated all people into different languages and (assumedly) races, then God created racism, right?
Wrong!
God created different languages and races, but mankind created racism, the hatred of anyone who is of a different color or language. And since mankind created different religions, racism includes hating those of a different religion, as well.
God made us different, and at Babel, it was to help us not become too powerful before we were ready to be so. I don’t believe God wanted us to become separated by race and language forever but he did it to protect us from further punishment. To try to be as God is blasphemy and so, by creating the confusion that kept us from building the tower, God was actually protecting us from hurting ourselves.
In fact, in the long run, creating different races will help to strengthen us as a species. Look at animals: when we cross-breed animals we create what is called Hybrid Vigor, and that is (according to Wikipedia):
Heterosis, also called hybrid vigour, the increase in such characteristics as size, growth rate, fertility, and yield of a hybrid organism over those of its parents. Plant and animal breeders exploit heterosis by mating two different pure-bred lines that have certain desirable traits.
So by creating different races, God gave us the potential for humanity to become a more vigorous and healthy species.
Now, you may be thinking that God has specified we shouldn’t mix different races. After all, throughout the Tanakh God condemns the pollution, so to speak, of allowing pagans to marry into Israelite families, and vice-versa. In truth, he doesn’t specify not allowing (what today) we call mixed marriages, but he is adamant that religious differences are forbidden in marriage and even in social or government contracts.
Do you remember in Numbers 12 when Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses for marrying a Cushite woman, who almost certainly was of African origin, i.e. black? God did not agree with them; in fact, he was quite angry that they spoke against Moses, at all, and God never even mentioned the fact that Zipporah was black.
The only intermixing that God condemns deals with worship, i.e. someone who worships the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should never marry or be involved with someone who worships a different god. The color of their skin is not important, neither is their language or their native land. We see this in the Bible, such as with Rahab and Ruth, just to name two. And the Torah is clear, more than once, that so long as someone “sojourns with the Israelites” (meaning converts to their lifestyle and form of worship, which for Jews is one and the same thing), then they are adopted into the family of God and have the same rights (and obligations) as the Israelites do under the covenants God made with them.
To put it all together, when God created different peoples at Babel, he actually gave us the opportunity to improve ourselves through hybrid vigor, which is also the best weapon we can use against racism. Racism gets its strength from ignorance- the ignorance of not knowing the other race. Once people of different races work and worship together, they learn that we are all the same. God created different races from the same mold, only he used different colored inks, and only after we interact with different races do we realize that we are all the same under the skin and that knowledge is what will defeat racism.
God made us in his image, no matter what color we are or which language we speak, and when he confused us at Babel it was really part of a plan to make us better in the future. It’s up to us to make that plan work.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with others and I always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
Video for Parashah Noach 2020 (Noah) Genesis 6:9 – 11:32
Why Does Sin Just Feel Better?
(I am at the dealership this morning getting work done on my car so there will be no video for today’s message. )
I am going to be talking to you, but about me.
I have this problem with food: I don’t eat “bad”, really, and I don’t have a weight problem, but I do like to eat and I am heavier than I should be. The real problem is that when I overeat, I enjoy that feeling more than when I eat the correct portion and do what I know to be right.
So what, right? I mean, there are a lot worse sins to commit than a little food indulgence. And you’re right, but the question I want to drash about for today’s message is why, at any level, does it seem to be that when we do what is wrong it “feels” better than the sense of accomplishment we get when we do what is right?
Now, maybe I am making an improper assumption because I believe that everyone reading this has had a similar experience. Maybe I am not the case, but the exception, when I confess that more times than not, when I do what is not right (to some degree) I get more emotional and/or physical satisfaction than when I do the right thing.
This isn’t always the case. I carry MRE’s (ready to eat meals, the ones used by the military) in my car so when I am at a stop light and there is a (supposedly) homeless person there, I offer them a meal. I feel really good when I do that, both emotionally and spiritually.
On the other hand, when I overeat I know I have done something wrong because I haven’t shown the proper self-control, which we will all need to have when the End Days come. I need to be able to control my emotional desires, and when I eat to a point past full, well into satiety, I know I really shouldn’t have.
But, Oy! That feeling of a full stomach is, well, pardon the expression…heavenly.
There are also times I get angry and channel my Marine Corps vocabulary, and even though I know I shouldn’t do that, it just feels so good to let it out.
Do you also have similar experiences? Do you also do things that make you feel good but you know are wrong?
I suppose that’s why throughout the Tanakh we are told that no one is good and all sin. Iniquity was found even in the most beautiful of angels (yes, I am talking about the Father of all Lies, that old devil, himself, HaSatan.) And, for the record, iniquity isn’t sin- it is the desire to sin.
God told Cain that sin crouches at his door and he must master it, so is there an extra large portion of french fries in the kitchen with my name on them? If I eat the giant hoagie instead of the medium sized one, is that sinful? Not necessarily, but lack of self-control is the foundation upon which sin is built.
So what is the answer? It is simple: when we realize and accept that feeling good when you do wrong is the natural order of things, that understanding of why we do it will help us to develop the level of self-control which will eventually allow us to overcome sin. Never all of it, but a little more, each day.
We are sinners from the moment we exit the womb, and only with the help of God through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) can we overcome sin. If you are going to say that sin was overcome with the sacrifice of the Messiah, Yeshua, you are wrong. His sacrifice did not overcome sin- it gave us the opportunity to be forgiven of the sin we commit. The only one who can overcome sin is you. We are totally responsible for what we do and say, and therefor we are the ones who must develop the self-control to keep ourselves from doing that which we know to be wrong.
Any thing that is not right in the eyes of the Lord is something that will, probably, feel good in our flesh.
The good news is that even if it feels good in your flesh, when it feels bad in your spirit, you are on the right track. You need to work on that spiritual feeling, and remind yourself (as I do, constantly) that it is better to feel spiritually good than it is to feel physically satisfied. The physical is only for the here and now, which is nothing more than a mist, and is over faster than the blink of an eye, but that spiritual feel-good feeling will last throughout eternity.
So, as we are told in the Bible (Hebrews 12:2), we must keep our eyes on Yeshua, meaning to maintain an attitude of righteousness and run the good race. That means, in plain language, even if it feels better to do wrong, it is still wrong and we must call upon the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to overcome the innate desire to do what feels good but is not good to do.
I pray for forgiveness every day, in Yeshua’s name (of course!), and also for the strength to see and conquer sin before I do it. I confess it doesn’t always work out that way, but as I said, so long as we feel, in our spirit, that we need to do better, then we are walking the proper path, and we ARE keeping our eyes on Yeshua. Do not let the Enemy fool you into thinking that it is a waste, and what feels good must be good- that is the lie that leads to death.
The truth is that what feels good in the body is more likely bad for the spirit, and when we realize this and take it to heart, we will improve.
As I often say, and will end with today:
We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, check out my books, and I always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Is God Still With the United States?
In the last couple of decades, our government has declared that it supports child sacrifice, which we call abortion, something that God not only says he hates but something that never even entered his mind (Lev. 18:21; Deut. 18:10; Jer. 7:31, just to name a few places where God said that.)
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
In the last couple of decades, our government declared that the 10 Commandments have no place in our judicial system.
In the last couple of decades, our government has made it legal and supports the growing homosexual movement, which includes transgender operations. What is worse is that now there are members of the government, including a candidate for the Presidency, who openly state they will support a pre-pubescent child’s desire to have a transgender operation performed!
In the last couple of decades, our government has declared that God has no place in our school system.
Today, some of our state governors are supporting rioting, looting and murder within their cities, even releasing from jail those who have committed these crimes but imprisoning people who are trying to make a living by giving haircuts. And all the while trying to reduce their police force, which can only result in less protection for their citizens, the very people who elected them, trusting that their leaders would protect them.
Currently, using a virus scare as an excuse, we aren’t even allowed to go to our house of worship to honor God.
Homosexuality, child sacrifice, sexual deviancy, and anarchy are not just being condoned, but supported and funded by the government.
We, the United States of America, have removed God from our country.
So the question is: how much longer will God allow this?
We know from reading the Bible that God is a patient and compassionate God, understanding our weaknesses and he is not just willing to forgive, but God desires to do so (Ezekiel 18.) Because of his great compassion, when evil controls his people (as it is doing today) he doesn’t allow it because he can’t do anything about it, he allows it to continue so we have a chance to repent before he does something about it.
He allowed the Northern kingdom (Shomron, also called Israel) to be sinful from the moment it was formed under Yarovam, the son of N’vat, for many generations until he finally had to act.
He allowed the Southern Kingdom, called Judea, to sin until the sins of King Manasseh were too great to ignore anymore, his rulership being so evil and sinful that God could no longer hold back his punishment (2 Kings 21:1-18.)
So, again, I ask (in light of all that America has done in the past 60 years or so): is God still with us? I believe this upcoming election will provide the answer.
I do not like having politics in my messages, as those of you who are followers will attest, but right now it isn’t really politics anymore: for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, we are in the battle between godly and satanic.
We have on one hand a president who has been a friend to Israel, tried to keep God in his speeches, tried to protect his people from foreign influences and attacks, and tried to help his people have a better life by giving them the opportunity to become self-reliant.
On the other hand, we have a political party that has done nothing but tried to stop the president from doing these things; a party that endorses child sacrifice, homosexuality, transgenderism, has removed God from our courts and schools, denies us to right to worship together, and is offering as our leaders, those who represent America, a man who has been in office for 47 years and done nothing, and a woman who has slept her way to power and openly declared that anyone who doesn’t vote for her, when she wins will be punished.
If this ain’t God verse Satan, I don’t know what is.
That is why I believe this election is going to be a watermark in American history. Not just because of the polarization we have within our country, but because it will place in power either a godly agenda, or a satanic agenda.
If the Democrats win, that will be the sign (for me) that this country is in the same place that Judea was after the kingship of Manasseh: there will be no more time for repentance.
You may say “But God never runs out of patience!”, and you’re right, he has unlimited patience, but his patience doesn’t overrule his holiness and his holiness demands that he make good on his promises. And God has promised, first to Abraham, then the other Patriarchs, to David, Solomon, and the rest of the kings he appointed over his people, that if they reject him, he will reject them.
And God always keeps his promises.
The US of A has rejected God for a while now, and this election will show us whether or not we have finally crossed the line and passed the point of no return, which is when repentence is no longer available and all that is left is judgment.
I am voting for what I believe is right in God’s eyes, as I always have. In past elections, where I didn’t see either side as godly, I abstained, which is a vote in and of itself: it is a vote for neither. If you don’t like Trump or Biden, then I would ask you to please abstain. I believe it is better to not vote than to vote for evil, for if you do then you have sinned on two levels: you have supported evil, which is a rejection of God, and if you vote for Biden just to not vote for Trump, you have hated in your heart, which is murder.
It’s also childishly spiteful and an insult to those who have fought and died so you can choose who to vote for.
I am anxious, in every meaning of that word, to see what happens in the next few weeks, because this election will tell us if we still have a chance for survival, or if we are in the same boat with Manasseh.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, check out my books, and when you vote, please don’t vote for or against a person but vote for an agenda; hopefully, one that is right in God’s eyes.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Video for Is God Still with the United States?
Parashah Bereshit 2020 (In the beginning) Genesis 1 – 6:8
Last week we celebrated the end of the annual cycle of High Holy Days with the rolling back of the Torah during Shemini Atzeret, so we get to start reading the Torah, all over again. That is why the holiday is also called Simchat Torah, which means Joy of Torah.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
The first parashah of the Torah takes us from the creation of heaven and earth, through the addition of life on earth, from the sea to the land, ending with the creation of humanity through Adam and Eve.
Then sin steps in. Almost from the very start the Enemy has tried to destroy the good that God creates, and after Eve sins, then causes Adam to sin, God (who must obey his own mitzvot) is forced to eject them from Paradise.
Now we see the introduction of sex into human relationships, and Eve drops her first set of rug-rats, Cain and Abel. We all know what happens then, and as the parashah continues, we are given the succeeding generations up to the time of Noah, when the world has been infected with sin and God is fed up with what has happened to his creation, except for Noah.
Have you ever considered that we don’t really know how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before the fall? The Torah takes us from the creation of Eve and Adam’s (spiritual) joining with her right to the entrance of the serpent. The only thing in-between these two events is a reference to the condition of Adam and Eve, i.e. them being naked and feeling no shame.
This makes me wonder about sexual relations between men and women in the hereafter. We are all looking forward to heaven, and to seeing our loved ones (at least, those that make it there) and in many cases, that means our spouses who have passed on before us. But will it matter, really, who we see there?
After all, I love to be with my wife, Donna, as much as I can be, but if I have a choice between being with Donna throughout eternity or in the presence of the Lord, God, Almighty, well…sorry, Babe, but God outranks us all.
Yeshua tells us when we will be with God that we will be like the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25), there will be no marriage and without marriage, there can be no sexual relations.
Uh, gee…no sex in heaven? Does that mean when we say to our spouse after making love, “Honey- that was heavenly!” it’s actually an insult?
Here’s another thought: what if sex is the first step towards sin?
We are told in this parashah that the sons of God, meaning the angels, took quite a liking to human women and fell from heaven to mate with them, creating the species the Torah refers to as the Nephilim, giants of great strength that lived on the Earth. If we are to be like the angels in heaven, does that mean there is no marriage, no interpersonal, physical relations, but the desire is still there?
Yowsa! What a revelation! There is no sex in heaven but we might still have desire, so how is that good? It sounds more like hell!
But wait a minute! In Genesis 1:28, right after creating man and woman, God tells them to be fruitful and multiply, so how can sex be bad? There is no way that God would ever tell anyone to do anything that would lead to sin, right?
It sounds like there is a really big contradiction here, but I think I know what this means: everything we do we do for a purpose, and the purpose is what defines the act.
It is similar to the old adage “the ends justify the means”, and although there are exceptions to everything, in general, as far as sin is concerned, what we do is less important than why we do it.
For instance, if Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten from the Tree of Good and Evil, they would eventually have figured out where all the parts fit together, and I believe that would end up with sexual relations as a result of caring for each other and not just desire for physical pleasure. If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, I believe they’re being fruitful and multiplying would have been a beautiful and compassionate act.
On the other hand, there are sexual desires which are sinful in nature, such as with the angels who fell from heaven to be with the daughters of men; clearly, they were driven by lust, not love. And the result of their sin would, eventually, create a human subspecies that did not survive much past the Israelite entry and conquest of the Promised Land.
Let’s look at this idea of why we do being more important than what we do in a different light: if I say something that is hurtful to someone, is it automatically sinful? What if I did it as part of “tough love”, with the intention to help them recover from addiction or find the strength to free themselves from an abusive relationship? How can that be bad? Yet, if I did it out of anger or spite, with the intention to hurt them, well, how can that be good?
It isn’t so much what we do as why we do it. I learned a long time ago that people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do. That lesson fits right in with today’s message that it is our heart’s intention that defines sinful or godly. We may sin accidentally because we are weak and easily led astray, and we may do good without really intending to- these are the exceptions, not the rule.
Now, I want to be clear that I am not condoning or authorizing people to tell other people exactly whatever they want to, then hiding under the kippur (covering) of saying, “But I am only telling the truth” or “I am only saying it for your own good” because more often than not, their intention is not to help.
I believe there are many people who use those excuses because they are really just prideful. They want to “tell you off” and do so in order to feel that they are superior, even if they don’t always know it, and that is sinful.
Ultimately, the best example is to look at how God acts. He loves us all, even those who reject and curse him, but even though he loves us, he is straightforward and unwavering with us. He makes the rules and he sticks to them, tempering them with mercy and grace, but never allowing the guilty, especially the unrepentant ones, to go unpunished.
God will do whatever he needs to do to achieve his will on earth, and if that means destroying people who are innocent in order to mete out justice, then that is what will happen. However, his intention is always to do good and never to hurt or damage us out of spite or pride.
In this parashah, we read how Cain’s jealousy and anger caused him to sin, even though God warned him that he must master sin. In Ezekiel 18, God tells us each person is accountable for what they do, and what they did won’t count either for them or against them. When we think about both of these things, we realize that what we do is the result of what we feel, and that is what we will be judged on.
If you allow God to come into your heart, which we can do only after we let go of hatred, spite, pridefulness, and anger, then sin will be conquered; when your heart is right with God, you won’t sin.
Of course, it isn’t that easy and there will always be the ability to sin, but when your heart is right with God, you will be able to conquer sin.
All you need to do is have a heart that is right with God. Oy, if only it was that easy.
Thank you for being here, please subscribe, share these messages with others, and I always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!