Category: A Drash to Start the Day

When You’re Guilty, and When You’re Not

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I was going through the Book of Leviticus, and came upon some interesting rules I had seen before, but this time I paid closer attention, and this is what I found out: you are not always guilty when you sin.

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

In Leviticus 4 (I always quote from the CJB), God starts off by explaining what must be done when anyone sins inadvertently against the mitzvot (laws) of Adonai. Now, isn’t this interesting? God doesn’t say when someone sins, but when they do so inadvertently, i.e., by accident.

It seems to me that God expects us to want to obey him, and when we don’t, it must be by accident.

God goes on to say that if the community sins, but is unaware of it, they are still guilty. It is when their sin becomes known that they are expected to perform the sacrifices to be cleansed, and forgiven. The same rule applies to a community leader.

Now, what is again interesting is when we get to Chapter 5, and it talks about when a person is unclean but unaware of it. If they become unclean by an unclean animal, they are guilty right away, but if it is an unclean human, they are not guilty until they learn that the person was unclean. This makes sense to me- you know which animals are unclean (Lev. 11) and that we aren’t to touch dead animal carcasses, etc., so when you do, you have to know what you did.

But who can tell if a person is unclean or not, unless they tell you?

Also, if someone says something sinful but doesn’t remember doing it, he is not guilty until he is made aware of what he said.

Here is something you may not know: the male members of an Orthodox Jewish sect are sometimes accused of being misogynistic because they refuse to shake hands with a woman, or to give her change from a dollar, or anything that involves touching. The truth is that they never know when a woman might be unclean due to her time of Niddah (menstruation). Since woman today don’t go around proclaiming in a loud voice, “Unclean! Unclean!”, a person who is obedient to the Torah really shouldn’t shake hands or touch a woman, or anything she touches.

And, if a woman offered her hand to an Orthodox Jew, I think it goes without saying that he won’t ask her, “By the way, are you menstruating?”

The Torah goes on to say that when someone is made aware of these “not guilty yet” sins, then they are considered guilty, must confess their sins and perform the cleansing activities.

I see these conditions of guilty immediately, or not until made aware, like the difference between committing a federal offence or a local misdemeanor. You are guilty of doing it, but God knows that you may not be aware and, as such, waits until you are made aware, after which you will then be considered guilty and must do what needs to be done to be forgiven.

Ultimately, we are always guilty when we sin, no matter which sin it is, and whether we know it or not, but (for lack of a better term) with the lesser sins, we have some leeway, in that we aren’t considered guilty until we know what we did.

Ignorance is not freedom from the law, but it does give us a chance to do what is right when we learn of it. The important thing, I believe, is to know what is a sin and what is not, and the only way to know that is to become very familiar with God’s Torah.

If I may share what I do, every morning when I pray, I ask God to forgive me of whatever sins I may have committed that I am not aware of. I do this as my system of CYT (Cover Your Tuchas), and ask not only that God forgive me, but also that he strengthen me through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to sin less in the future.

I am not sharing this with you to appear holy or anything like that, but because I think it is a really good idea, and that everyone should do it.

Finally, I just want to remind you all how compassionate and understanding God is, in that he knows we are weak and that we might do something wrong, without really meaning to or even knowing that we did. When he says, in Ezekiel 18:23, that he doesn’t want to see anyone die, but rather do t’shuvah (turn from their sins), and live, he made that possible through these rules, way back at Mt. Sinai.

One last point… when we sin against the mitzvot, i.e., the major commandments which incorporate the Big 10, the ones specified in Leviticus 11 and 23, as well as most every other law regarding how to worship God and how to treat each other, we are guilty immediately. I suppose that should resonate with those who sin, knowing they are sinning, and are still unrepentant.

And if your religion teaches you that you don’t have to obey the Torah, that is a sin, and not an inadvertent sin. The Torah came from God, and was given to the Jews as his nation of priests (Ex. 19:6) to teach to the world, so if your man-made religion (which, in case you didn’t know, is every Christian denomination that exists today) tells you it is OK to ignore God’s laws, then you are guilty.

Not down the road, not until someone tells you that you are, but right NOW!

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!

Let’s Talk About Legalism

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We hear a lot about legalism, but does anyone really know what it means?

The typical answer is that it means obeying the Torah, also called “The Law”, but if we do not follow the law, then we are- by definition- lawless, and didn’t Shaul tell the Thessalonians that God will kill the lawless?

How can I be saved by ignoring the law if God kills those who ignore the law?

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

My definition of legalism is that it is a performance-based system for salvation. What that means is that salvation comes not from faith, but from performing the instructions in the Torah, perfectly.

To date, the only human capable of doing that was Yeshua, which is why his sacrifice was accepted by God. And how do we know that it was accepted? Because Yeshua was raised from the dead and is now in the presence of the Lord.

Now here’s the kicker…Yeshua followed the Torah, perfectly, which is why he received salvation.

You see, the Torah is more than just a set of laws and regulations- it is the ultimate User’s Manual for how to live a righteous life, and by doing so be able to receive salvation.

I’ll bet that is confusing a lot of people, but the truth is undeniable- Yeshua lived a “legalistic” life and yet he was saved. But my religion tells me that I can only be saved by faith, and not the Torah. Oy gevalt! Which is it?

It’s both, but don’t fret, folks!

The good news is that you still need to be saved by faith; the bad news is that faith without works (that means obeying the Torah) isn’t enough.

I was raised Jewish, so I haven’t been conditioned to believe that all you need is faith (by the way, most people I talk to don’t have any idea what “having faith” really means). My conditioning, so to speak, was that the Torah has all we need to know in order to live a righteous life, and that we are to be faithful to God, and God, alone. I was also told that the Messiah has not come yet.

Over the past 25+ years, I have come to the understanding that faith is a choice: we choose to believe that God exists, we choose to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, we choose to believe that he lived a righteous life and sacrificed himself so that, by means of his innocent blood that was spilled, we can receive forgiveness of sin.

And after making those choices, we can now choose to live our lives by God’s instructions in the Torah, which includes which Holy Days to celebrate, which foods to eat, and a whole set of business ethics and penal laws that are also in the Torah (didn’t know that, did you?)

OR

we choose to live our lives by man-made tenets and ceremonies, celebrate man-made holidays, and (for the most part) reject pretty much everything that God said to do, which means we also have to pretty much reject how Yeshua lived his life.

Gee, that sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? I thought legalism was just following the law, and – to be truthful- of course it is! When we follow the law, we are acting legally. DUH!

But, since the New Covenant doesn’t have any laws or commandments in it, by not following the Torah, one is living – by definition- without law.

Time Out: if you are thinking that there is a new commandment in the Gospels, it’s when Yeshua said he was giving a new commandment in John 13:34, that isn’t really new. It’s from Lev. 19:18.

The bad form of legalism is what the Pharisees taught: they said if you would just obey the letter of the law, even if you were faithless, you would be saved. But, in reality, that won’t do it, and we know this because God, himself, said so! He told the people, through more than one prophet, he would reject their sacrifices because their hearts weren’t in it, and also because they didn’t demonstrate real repentance.

Here’s the proper formula, as I see it- you need to make those choices to faithfully believe in God and Messiah Yeshua, and you also need to act faithfully by obeying what God said to do, and reject any religion that tells you to ignore the Torah.

I know this is a hard word for all you “good Christians” out there, especially the ones who have told me I am not saved because I do all that “Jewish” stuff.

Well, surprise! Doing all that Jewish stuff is why Yeshua’s sacrifice was accepted, why he was resurrected, how you can please God and ensure receiving blessings on earth (read Deuteronomy 28), and one more thing… being obedient to the Torah is how you can secure your salvation.

Please remember to subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know, even unbelievers because you never know how fertile the soil will be until you put a seed in it.

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

Are You Honoring the 3rd Commandment When Pronouncing the Tetragrammaton?

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Yeah, I know you were expecting some Thanksgiving Day message, but there are so many of them out there, I didn’t want to get lost in the crowd.

So let’s talk about God’s (alleged) name …or maybe we shouldn’t mention it, at all?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
(This one is a little longer than usual).

What is God’s name? Is it Jehovah? Yahweh? Adonai? HaShem? Lord? God? Harry? Oy-ving?

Maybe what we should be asking, before trying to figure out how to pronounce

יהוה

is whether or not we are supposed to figure out how to pronounce it, at all?

The third commandment says: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain”, so what does it mean to use it in vain? According to the Internet dictionary, the term “use in vain” means…”without success or a result.” I guess that means that if we ever use God’s name, we should only use it in a way that produces something, or has some result.

Before we figure out how to use God’s name where it results in, or produces, something, how about we see what God said his name is?

In Exodus, Chapter 3, verses 14-15, God tells Moses what his name is (CJB):

God said to Moshe, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be],” and added, “Here is what to say to the people of Isra’el: ‘Ehyeh [I Am or I Will Be] has sent me to you.’” God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation.

So God says his name is “I Am“, but he adds that the way we are to refer to him is as “the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”.

Hmmm… not Jehovah, not Yahweh, not Adonai, not any of the typical names that we see being thrown around like a hot potato, without any respect or admiration shown for the majesty and power of the entity that name represents.

God really doesn’t give a name, anywhere, to himself, but rather he refers to himself in terms that are descriptive of who and what he is, and I believe that is because he is above the need for a name.

What do I mean by that? Well, simply enough, we give each other names to identify ourselves as someone who is uniquely different from everyone else. Many people have the same first name, so the addition of a middle and/or last name separates them: for example, there are many Stevens in the world, and some Steven Roberts, as well. But there is only one, or (at least) very, very few Steven Robert Bruck’s in the world.

But how many gods are there? To be honest, as many as people want to create. According to the Bible Gateway site, there are about 8,747 false gods. Besides the ancient names, such as Amon, Molech, Dagon, Ashtoreth, Ba’al, etc., there are other gods from other religions, such as the many gods in Hinduism, there is Buddha, the many Roman and Greek gods, and they all have a real name. Each one of them is uniquely identified by a name, but the one, true God has no name, to speak of, but tells us who he is by referring to a title and a description.

And what does it mean when, in the Bible, someone refers to “the name of the Lord”? Most of the people I have met and read posts from are adamant that they MUST use whatever pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (that’s the fancy term for those 4 letters God said to Moses) they have been taught represents the God of our fathers, the God of… well, you know who I mean. But I am certain, from reading the Bible many times, that “the name of the Lord” doesn’t mean an actual name, like Steve or Harry or Oy-ving (you have to pronounce that last name with a Jewish accent to really get the humor in it), but rather it represents his reputation and his renown throughout the world.

When God referred to himself in Exodus 34, passing by Moses, he announced himself this way (CJB):

Adonai passed before him and proclaimed: “YUD-HEH-VAV-HEH!!! Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh  is God, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in grace and truth;  showing grace to the thousandth generation, forgiving offenses, crimes and sins; yet not exonerating the guilty, but causing the negative effects of the parents’ offenses to be experienced by their children and grandchildren, and even by the third and fourth generations.

He did mention the Tetragrammaton, but then told us about himself in descriptive terms. He always refers to his name in a way that refers not to a specific pronunciation, but what that “name”, those 4-letters, represent! The Y-H-V-H is not to be pronounced, but to be recognized as God, the one who is the God of our fathers; as God, the one who brought us out of Egypt; as God, the one who promised we would dwell in the Land he told Abraham about; as God, the one who will send the Messiah; as God, the one who created the earth and the heavens; as God, the one and only.

When God mentions himself, he doesn’t dwell on the 4-letters, he specifies who and what he is, what he has done, and what he is capable of doing.

God doesn’t need a name because he is defined by what he has done!

There are those who are called “Holy Namers” (not meant to be complimentary), and they are so adamant about how to pronounce the 4-letters that they throw God’s alleged “name” around like it was your name or mine, without the proper respect for who and what that name represents.

I am sorry, but God is not my drinking buddy or someone I can just scream “Yo, Yahweh! Over here, Man!” when I want to get his attention in prayer. He is the one and only true creator of everything, and he is so holy that the angels call him the holiest of all holies!

And when was the last time you read in the Bible an angel calling God by his “name”?

I know that there are many who will say I am wrong, and that it isn’t a sin to use the 4-letters anytime we want to, pronouncing it any old way we want to, and that – in fact!- it would be a sin not to pronounce God’s name, and using any other name (than the one they like) is praying to a false god.

Yeah, I have seen many take it that far off base, refusing to remember that we are saved by faith, not pronunciation.

I use God or Adonai (Hebrew for “Lord”) because it is what I have used my whole life, and as a Jew I also have great respect for God’s Holy Name, so I don’t use it.

I almost forgot to mention how we use God’s name in a way that produces a result or has a purpose, which is, after all, the definition of not using it in vain. You know what? I am not sure about how to do that! If I use it when swearing or cursing, that should have a result, for sure, but then again, doesn’t the bible tell us not to do that? (Matthew 5:34-37 and Deuteronomy 5:11)

I suppose the only way to use his name which would have a purpose and/or result in something, would be in prayer. But that means when we are writing or talking about him, or referencing him in a story or post, we should NOT use the Tetragrammaton because the purpose or result of what we are writing about doesn’t need to have the Holy Name of God used in order to get the point across. What I mean is that the point of my message can have the same exact purpose using “God” or “Adonai” or even “HaShem” (Hebrew for “the name”) as it would if I used the 4-letters. And because of this, I believe using a pronunciation of those 4-letters, other than in prayer, is a violation of the 3rd Commandment.

I hope this message causes some of you to reconsider just how you refer to God in the future. Think of it this way: if you met the President of the United States, would you shake his hand and say, “Hi, Donnie, How are ya?” Or, if you met the King of England, would you say “Yo, Chuckie! How’s it hangin’?”

No? Then what makes you think you can refer to God using his first name?

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even the non-believers- 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!

Let’s Talk About Relationship

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The people who believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send have a spiritual relationship that cannot be denied.

But that doesn’t apply to relationships that exist in the world.

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

I am going to share with you my personal situation with a young man from a different country, who I have known through this ministry for about 2 years.

He sent me a friend request, which I accepted and we began to talk. He wanted me to act as his mentor, which I greedily and egotistically accepted, not considering the effect this might have on him in the future.

Needless to say, the relationship began to become burdensome to me because he was looking for more than a mentor- he wanted a father figure, something I never wanted to be.

He grew up in a single parent (mother only) family, and lives in a third world country that is high in unemployment and political corruption. He has had a tough life, and been lucky enough to have another American, also a senior citizen as I am, who has financially supported his education to the point where the young man now has a public health certification.

I, also, have sent financial aid to him, to the point where I can no longer afford to send him anything. He is, after all, 26 years of age and must learn to be on his own.

So, now we come to the problem: this young man has been so desiring of a friendship that he has, without realizing or meaning to do so, forced a relationship on me that I never wanted nor asked for. From the start, he tried to force me into a fatherly position, wanting to call me his “Daddy-Steve”, which I refused to allow.

And recently, he told me that I was his best friend! Oy! How can I be his best friend? I am 70 and he is just 26, our lives are as different as can possibly be: I am winding down my time on this earth and he is just starting to live. I am not saying that it is impossible, but it scared the heck out of me to be called his best friend when we have so little in common, and the age difference, backgrounds, experiences, and nearly every other aspect that is the glue of a “best” friendship is missing!

The truth is I felt imposed upon, and that maybe I have been leading this person on, and now can’t extricate myself from the situation without hurting him.

And that is just what I did this morning because I have hinted at not wanting to be contacted every day, but the hints went unheeded, so I had to be totally frank, which I did with the subtlety of a charging rhino.

Here is the reason I am sharing this personal situation with you and how it applies to this teaching ministry: what this young man is (innocently) doing to me is what so many believers do to each other, as well as to non-believers who start to show an interest in knowing more about God: in their zeal to form a relationship that they want to have, they force themselves into the other person’s life, and by doing so instead of drawing them near, they cause the other person to distance themself.

The more you force a relationship with someone, the more you just push them away: you need to let relationships happen on their own.

No one can force a friendship between two people. And especially when there is a significant difference between the two of you; you need to take time to find something that you both share, which is absolutely necessary to form a friendship. And that has to be more than a spiritual belief.

Whether you are dealing with family, people you meet at work or at play, or strangers you get friend requests from on Facebook, you need to be patient and allow a friendship to form on its own. Friendships can’t be forced; they must be allowed to mature and grow at their own pace.

I had to state this clearly to this sweet, innocent kid who I still consider someone I want to know, but not to be texted by or called or left voicemails on my phone every day, forcing himself on me, my personal life, my wife and friends, making me feel like his day revolves around me. I don’t want that kind of pressure at this time of my life, and he needs to have a life of his own with friends of his own age, background, and interests.

He has told me that there aren’t many other believers he can associate with, and many of the people he knows do the sort of things he shouldn’t do. And yes, we are told that we shouldn’t mix with non-believers, but that doesn’t mean to avoid anyone who isn’t a member of your synagogue or church. If we don’t make relationships with those still in the darkness, then aren’t we like salt that has lost its flavor?

If we can’t form friendships with non-believers that allow us to be, at the very least, an example of godly living, then what good are we to the kingdom? Or to them?

You can’t save the souls of people you don’t know, but forcing yourself on them won’t do any good, either.

So, when you are out there in the world, and you meet someone who you want to get to know better, or maybe shows an interest in getting to know you better, don’t force that relationship, even if you feel desperately in need of a friend.

The quickest way to destroy a relationship is to force it to be what you want instead of patiently allowing it to become what it can.

I hope this makes sense to someone out there. I had to share this because I have been losing sleep bothered about how cruel I have to be to get my point across to this wonderful, loving and compassionate young man.

Well, that’s it for today. Please remember to subscribe and share these messages to help this ministry continue to grow (but don’t ram it down someone’s throat.)

L’hitraot, and Baruch HaShem!

Ignore the Trees So You Can See the Forest

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We’ve all heard people say, “He can’t see the trees for the forest“, or “He can’t see the forest for the trees.”

Both of those old sayings have the same message: people get involved in seeing what they want to see, and miss out on what is really there.

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

I have often come against people who write about the actual shape of the Tabernacle, the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the “correct” calendar, how many people actually did go into Egypt when Israel moved his family there, what certain numbers mean, and other such minutia that some people just HAVE to know, even to the point of thinking it will affect salvation.

They get so involved in these facts and figures that they lose sight of what is important:

  1. God exists;
  2. He chose the Jewish people to bring his Torah to the world (Ex. 19:6);
  3. God sent Yeshua as our Messiah so that when we fail to live according to God’s way (not the way some religion tells us to live), by means of his sacrifice we can receive the forgiveness we need for salvation.

It’s really that simple; just like Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:11-14, when he told the people that obeying God is not that hard.

And he was right- it isn’t that hard, but it is impossible for us in our present state, being filled with iniquity (the desire to sin) from birth. The only real hope we have now is in Yeshua, because with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem there is no way (under the Torah) for us to receive forgiveness, and without forgiveness of sin we cannot enter into God’s presence.

So, am I saying that studying the Bible in detail is wrong? No.

Am I saying that it is not important to know how certain numbers relate to ideas, such as 7 being the representation of completeness? No.

Am I saying that people who study the Bible in detail and want to know everything they can about every little detail are wrong? No, BUT…they may be missing the point if they let their desire to know everything make them forget the most important thing.

And that most important thing is that we are not saved by pronunciation (do you hear me, Holy Namers?), or by intricate and detailed knowledge (do you hear me, Gnostics?), or by hidden messages in the numbers (do you hear me, Numerologists?), or by strict adherence to man-made traditions (do you hear me, Ultra-Orthodox Jews?), but by faithfully following only those rules regarding worship and treatment of others that are specified in the Torah.

Oh, yes, one more significantly important thing: you must accept that Yeshua IS the Messiah God promised to send, that he was an acceptable sacrifice for sin, that he was resurrected, and that he is now at the right hand of God acting as our Intercessor.

By the way, just for the record…Yeshua is the Intercessor for our prayers, not the Interceptor of them. We are to pray to God for what we need, and we are to pray to God for forgiveness, and Yeshua’s only role in this is that as one of his flock, God sees us through Yeshua’s righteousness, not our own.

I believe God will not reject someone’s heartfelt prayer just because they do not believe Yeshua is the Messiah, but for those of us who do, we have Yeshua’s promise that God will listen and answer us.

You can disagree, but I believe that even though Yeshua said whatever we ask for in his name we will receive (he says this in three of the four Gospels), that doesn’t mean we will get exactly what we request, or when, or even get it at all if what we request is not in line with what God wants for us.

Remember that Yeshua asked his father to let him off the hook, or execution tree (as the case may be), but ended up accepting that God’s will takes precedence over our desires. And I believe that includes prayer, even when we pray in Yeshua’s name.

That brings me to the last point of today’s message: besides getting enmeshed in minutia, so much so that you miss the goal, don’t expect that just because you are a “Believer” that you are in good standing with God. Yes, it is better than one who rejects him, but are you really obeying God, or some man-made religion? If you reject God’s instructions in the Torah, you reject God, and (even Yeshua said) if we reject God, we reject the one he sent, and vice-versa.

Here is today’s message in a nutshell: read the Bible, get to know it well, but do not get all tangled up in the insignificant details which do not affect your salvation and will, in fact, throw you off the track. The Torah is how God says we should worship him and treat each other, and that is all you really need to know. Everything else in the Bible is just historical narrative and commentary.

Thank you, as always, for being here and please remember to subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know, especially unbelievers because you never know how good the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Proud Doesn’t Have to Mean Prideful

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We all know the adages about pride: how pride cometh before the fall, how God humbles the proud and elevates the humble, etc. Yet, the apostle Shaul (Paul) said how he boasted (which the prideful do) about supporting himself while performing his missionary work (1 Corinthians 9:15).

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

There is a difference between pride and pridefulness. I have run into this same confusion with the words judging and judgementalism.

In my opinion, the difference is significant: to me, being proud is a personal feeling that results from having accomplished something difficult, or having done something very well. On the other hand, pridefulness is making a public statement of your what you have done in order to increase your standing within the community. In other words, pride is (or should be) a private feeling, where pridefulness is always a public declaration.

I am proud of the accomplishments I have achieved in my life, having been in a position of authority in the military, I have had success in different sports activities, I was pretty good when I was in the business world, and I have been blessed to be considered somewhat influential in my relationship with others in the houses of worship I have attended.

Now, if I was prideful, then I would go into detail about how few people ever get to be a Marine, let alone an officer in charge of 365 men and millions of dollars of equipment, or how many trophies I won at martial arts competitions, beating many other contestants each time, and how I was the top shot in intramural shooting competitions when I was on active duty, and how I won cruises because I was one of the two top salesman in a large company, or being asked to serve on the Council of each house of worship I ever attended, and not only that, but I also …well, you see, now I am being prideful!

There is nothing wrong in being proud of accomplishments you have achieved, especially when they have been challenging. It is that sense of pride that gives us self-confidence, which is absolutely necessary to have as a believer because without self-confidence, you will never be able to withstand the attacks of the Enemy.

A sense of pride is an asset that will help you to maintain your faith and strengthen you when you face obstacles in your walk with God, which (if you are walking correctly) you WILL encounter. The Enemy doesn’t worry about those whose faith is weak because they can be easily swayed to apostacy. He doesn’t bother at all with the sinful- they’re already on his side.

But to the faithful, he will come at you with all he has, and when you have a history of accomplishments, the knowledge of your past accomplishments, especially when you have overcome challenges, gives you the confidence to know you can overcome whatever Satan throws at you.

Of course, wearing the armor of God (Ephesians 6:14) is a big help, as well!

Pride can be an asset or a detriment, depending on how you deal with it. If you find yourself bragging, you’re probably on the wrong track; but, when you know you have done things few people have been able to do, but it is not something that you constantly make public, then you are handling it correctly.

We are told in the Bible that God humbles the proud, but I believe it refers only to those who are prideful. It’s true that being proud of yourself, and yet remaining humble, takes a lot of inner strength, whereas pridefulness just demonstrates one’s insecurity and weakness.

That’s it for this week! Please remember to subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know, whether or not they are a believer. Hey! you never know how good the soil is until you put a seed in it.

L’hitraot, my friends, and let me wish you an early Shabbat Shalom!

Be Patient…It Took Moses 80 Years

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Prayer is something that we should be doing on a consistent basis. Every day, throughout the day; and, when we ask God for something, we can expect that he will hear our prayer.

But hearing doesn’t mean that he will answer as we ask. In fact, the answer can be anything from “Not yet”, to “OK”, to “NO!”

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One of the things that I believe is the hardest to deal with as a Believer is to maintain faith when we have continually asked God for something that we haven’t yet received.

It is difficult to deal with the biblical references that state asking God in the name of the Messiah will get us what we ask for. Yes, that is what Yeshua said (this is repeated in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John), but is that really to be taken literally?

Personally, I would love it if it was that easy. But it ain’t!

Let me share a personal experience: I had been praying for something for a long time. It was something to do with how I saw people and what my mind would automatically think, and after years of asking I finally received an answer… God told me it doesn’t work that way.

He made it clear that he would help, certainly, but it was up to me to discipline myself to stop those thoughts the moment they came to mind. It was not to be God, alone, rewiring my mind, but the two of us working together.

And I am still trying to be better, but now I see how God helps- when I find myself thinking the wrong way, which could be anything from a sexual thought when I see a beautiful woman to complaining (to myself) about something my wife does that drives me crazy (ain’t love wonderful?), something happens that takes my mind off those thoughts. I drop something that redirects my attention, or if I am driving a light changes suddenly, or any number of small, seemingly insignificant things happen which force me to stop thinking about what I was thinking about.

Now, someone may say that is just coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidence; for me to believe that this is God taking a moment out of his busy schedule to help me attain that which I have prayed for is very comforting to me.

So, whenever I haven’t received what I have been praying for, I look for an answer that I didn’t expect. Lots of times God answers us pretty quickly, but in the way that he knows is best for us. The answer to prayer often is not what we ask for, but exactly what we need, and not when we want it, but at the precisely right moment when we need it.

And when I feel impatient waiting for God’s response, I remind myself that Moses was 80 years old before he began his walk with God. Hey, poor old Moses had to wait 80 years, and I was only in my 40’s when I came to know the Lord and his Messiah, so I consider myself way ahead of the curve!

So, nu! here’s the thing… keep asking, keep waiting patiently, and keep looking for the answer: it may not be what you asked for, but I guarantee it will be what you need, and delivered when you need it!

Thank you for being here and please remember to subscribe and share these messages. I have written a book about Prayer, which you can get through this link: Prayer.

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

Salvation is Not a Choice Between Torah or Yeshua: You Need Both!

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What is one of the first things Christians are taught? Isn’t it that they are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus? Doesn’t that bracelet with the “WWJD” on it mean that the wearer wants to live their life the way Jesus did?

Then why is it that Christianity (and Judaism, as well) says that you either follow the Torah or you follow Yeshua, but you can’t follow both. Don’t they know that Yeshua followed the Torah?

BTW..(in case you didn’t know, Yeshua is Jesus’s real name)

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Being raised Jewish (and, for the record, I am still Jewish, not Christian), I was taught that this guy Jesus was a Jew but he rejected Judaism and created Christianity. So, to a Jew, if you “believe in Jesus” (whatever that is supposed to mean) you are no longer Jewish, but you have to be a Christian!

Isn’t that strange? Jews want to convert believing Jews to Christianity even more than the Christians do!

The truth is this: to believe that Yeshua is the MOST “Jewish” thing anyone can do.

Yeshua had to have lived his life in total, 100% obedience to the Torah. At that time, the Torah was the User Manual for righteousness (and, you know what?-it still is), so because Yeshua was raised from the dead, proving absolutely that his death was an acceptable sacrifice, the fact is that he had to have lived his life obedient to the laws, commandments, regulations, Holy Days, and everything else that is in the Torah, AND that he is the Messiah God promised to send to us!

The Epistles, which is what Christianity is actually based on, weren’t even written then; and, even now, they have nothing at all to do with how Yeshua lived and worshipped.

Both Jews and Christians have had it wrong since the beginning: Yeshua was, is, and will always be obedient to God’s Torah, and in order to do as Yeshua did, to follow in his footsteps, and to live a righteous life, according to what GOD says and not to some man-made religion, you have to be obedient to the Torah and live it as Yeshua did.

Yeshua is the embodiment of the New Covenant: not the biblical books from Matthew through Revelation, but the real New Covenant, the one (and the only one) God made through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31). That covenant says that God will write his Torah on our hearts. Reading about Yeshua, we can see that he was not just obedient to the Torah, but he was Torah in the flesh (despite my opinion about John’s Gospel, he did get that part right), and the living example of the fulfillment of the New Covenant, having the Torah written on his heart.

So, nu? If you really want to do as Yeshua did, and you really want to live as he did, and you really want to follow in his footsteps, the Arthur Murray version of those dance steps are in the Torah- nowhere else, just the Torah. If you decide to accept that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised, that through his sacrifice we can be forgiven, and you try to live as he did, obedient to the Torah (we can never be as obedient as he was, so we do our best)… if you do all that, then you are on the right path to eternal joy.

Thank you again for being here, and please remember to subscribe and share these messages.

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

The Unholy Human Trinity: Fear, Greed, and Pride

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You’ve all heard of the Holy Trinity, right? Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit?

Are you aware that this is not the only trinity that we have in the world?

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The heavenly trinity represents, from a spiritual viewpoint, a combination of things that lead us to salvation. God, the father and creator of everything, who defined what sin is (in the Torah) and gave us the sacrificial system so we could be forgiven when we sin. Then there’s the son, Yeshua the Messiah (also known as Jesus) through who’s sacrifice we can receive forgiveness of our sins (now that the temple is no longer available).

Finally, the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, which is a counselor (as Shaul called it) to help guide us in understanding of, and obedience to, God’s holy instructions for how to live a righteous life.

But, there are other trinities that we have to deal with, and they are unholy.

There is the unholy Trinity of Satan, the Beast, and the Anti-Christ, which are designed to be a wedge between us and God. This trinity was designed by Satan, himself, and has (over many millennia) proven itself very effective in leading people away from God.

But we humans aren’t going to be outdone by God or the Devil- if they have a trinity, we want a trinity, of our own! And we have one.

But our trinity isn’t holy or righteous- it is one which stems from our Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), or what you can call our innate iniquity (desire to sin), and it is made up of fear, greed, and pride.

The first one we have to deal with is greed- the desire to have more than we do, and especially to own what others have. This is followed, and increased, by fear: not the fear of death, and definitely not the fear of the Lord, but the fear of loss.

And when our greed has made us gather things up, the fear of loss turns us into selfish, Scrooge-like beings, we develop pride because we now have more of what others want, convincing ourselves that we must be better than they are.

And this unholy trinity will bring us, eventually, under the power of the Enemy of God, because Satan’s trinity convinces us that fear, greed, and pride are good things to have, encouraging us to continue to trust in ourselves (instead of God) and to build a fortune, no matter who we destroy along the way.

In one of my favorite movies, “The Magnificent Seven”, the evil gang leader taking over the town of poor, God-fearing people, says to the leader of the seven that if God didn’t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep (perhaps not even knowing that he was quoting from Psalm 44:22).

I believe it is usually the rams in the herd who are the ones that have this unholy trinity more than the members of the herd, i.e., the sheep. So many of the “successful” people in the world- successful by the world’s standards- are somewhat selfish, greedy, and definitely fearful of losing what they have.

Fortunately, there are those who have worldly success but are not subject to the unholy trinity of human emotions; they are the ones who give the rest of us (that is, we sheep) godly leadership and comfort.

This simple lesson of how the unholy trinity of human emotions can destroy a people is very apropos today, when here in America we are electing the next President, and our choices are between a godless party and a God-fearing party.

The godless party wants to continue to murder babies, cause anarchy by allowing illegal invaders into our country to commit criminal acts without consequence, encourage social unrest, and control the media and government subsidies in order to gain power over the people through creating a country wide climate of fear. Within that atmosphere of dreadfulness, they will reward greed and prideful judgementalism by accusing the righteous of being exactly what the power-holders are: racist, cruel, and uncaring.

The policy of the godless is to act in a godless way, then point their finger at the righteous, blaming them for the way things are.

We all are born with the Yetzer Hara controlling us; and, just like you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Rye bread, you don’t have to be Jewish to have the Yetzer Hara. In Judaism, we believe that it will control us until we develop the Yetzer Tov, the Good Inclination, which is when we reach the age of Bar Mitzvah (13 years old).

I believe the best way to overcome an enemy, whether it be a military force trying to defeat us, or a spiritual entity trying to separate us from God, or the Yetzer Hara, is to know that enemy. We can study a nations military history and their military leaders to know what to expect from them, and we can read the Bible to know what to expect from Satan, but the only way I believe we can truly overcome the Yetzer Hara is to know the person we see in the mirror.

I can tell you, from personal experience, that the hardest thing to see is who you really are.

That is why so much of the self-help philosophy is actually, in my opinion, working with the godless powers in the world to separate us from God. Why do I say that? Simple- their whole program is about helping yourself, being comfortable with who you are, and not asking for God’s help, at all. Nor do they want you to fight against your nature, but rather (in most cases) to embrace it!

I agree that when people call us names or accuse of us of being a certain way, we shouldn’t allow their opinions to upset us. BUT, on the other hand, if we truly desire to improve ourselves (hopefully, in a godly way) then we should be willing to listen carefully and humbly to what they say.

You know, they might just be right!

So, the bad news is that you, me, and everyone you ever knew or ever will know has this unholy trinity of fear, greed, and pride within them, but the good news is that when we seek God’s help, follow his instructions for how to lead a godly, righteous life (they are found in the first 5 books of the Bible), and strive to always do what is right in God’s eyes and not what the world says to do, then we can develop our Yetzer Tov to the point where that little devil on your one shoulder looks like Steve Urkel, and the little angel on the other shoulder looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Please remember to subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know, saved or not- you never know where the good soil is.

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

PS: If you are voting today, please…don’t vote for a person, or against a person, but vote for those policies which are godly, and which you truly believe will be best for all Americans.

Does Yeshua’s Sacrifice Make It Easier to Sin?

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In his letter to the Romans, Shaul (Paul) says that the Torah identified what sin is (Romans 7), earlier saying that Grace can always overcome sin (Romans 6). He then goes on to ask if Grace can overcome sin, does that mean we can go on sinning?

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Of course, Shaul tells us that just because Grace can overcome sin that is no reason to keep sinning.

(And if it had been appropriate at that time, I’m sure he would have added a “DUH!“)

Yeshua made forgiveness available to anyone, at any time, because by means of his sacrificial death there was no longer a need to sacrifice an animal at the temple in Jerusalem (which was required under the Torah). Therefore, if we can receive forgiveness through Yeshua, no matter where we are, does that make sinning easier to do?

I mean, if Christianity teaches the Torah (which sort of created sin by telling us what it is) is not for Christians, and all anyone has to do is accept Yeshua as the Messiah so they can ask forgiveness in Yeshua’s name, doesn’t that make it easier to sin? And, what with Grace overcoming all sin and Yeshua making Grace available just by asking, then why not go ahead and sin?

Now, what is really scary to me is that there are, and I have no doubt about this, some people out there right now saying to themselves, “Hmmm…yeah, that makes sense.”

It NEVER makes sense to sin: period, end of story, close the door on your way out!

What does make sense is that Yeshua had to replace the need to bring an animal to the temple because within just 4 decades after his resurrection, the temple was destroyed, leaving everyone who has not accepted Yeshua as the Messiah no way to receive forgiveness.

In case you didn’t know: The Book of Leviticus identifies the sacrificial system as the only means to receive forgiveness, and in chapter12 of the Book of Deuteronomy, God commands that sacrifices are only to be made where he places his name; initially, that was the Tabernacle Moses built, then it was the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.
This is why I say that without the temple, according to the Torah, there can be no forgiveness of sin.

It has become all too easy for Christians to sin and not worry about it, what with the “believe in Jesus and you will be saved” ad campaign, not to mention the ridiculous idea that once you have been saved, you are automatically forgiven of your sins (known as OSAS). These tenets of Christianity have misdirected so many God-fearing people who think they are doing the right thing in God’s eyes, while what they are really doing is rejecting everything that God said we should do if we want to live a righteous life!

Here’s the kicker, people: just because Yeshua made forgiveness easier to receive, if you are not repentant, you are not going to be forgiven, and thinking that you can sin and be forgiven just because you “believe in Jesus” is a one-way ticket to Sheol.

God is not stupid- he knows the heart and the mind of everyone. If you think, probably due to what some religion has told you, that Yeshua made forgiveness easy to attain whenever you sin, that is not honoring either Yeshua or God.

Shaul was right- the Torah identifies sin, and that is why we must know the Torah, intimately! God gave the Torah to teach us (both Jews and Gentiles!) how to live a righteous life, and just because we can’t do everything we should, all the time, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying to be as obedient as best as we can.

Yeshua’s sacrifice wasn’t made so that it is easier to be forgiven, it was made to replace the need to bring an animal to the temple. That’s all it was meant to do- everything else under the sacrificial system still exists: you still need to confess sin, you still need to repent of sin, and you still need to ASK for forgiveness- it ain’t automatic!

The real danger of this idea that forgiveness is automatic is that when we think it comes without asking, at first try not to sin, but when we do we know we don’t need to confess it or ask to be forgiven. Eventually, and inevitably, knowing we are forgiven already, we stop trying not to sin. I mean, if I can be forgiven of my sins every time I sin, without having to confess it, or repent of it, or do anything, why try not to?

So, let’s recap:

  1. God identified sin by giving us his Torah;
  2. The Torah tells us that if we sin, we do not get to be in God’s presence for eternity;
  3. God made a way for us to receive forgiveness of our sins, which is the sacrificial system;
  4. That system required us to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem;
  5. Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced the need to bring that animal to the temple, making it easier to receive forgiveness.

But did Yeshua’s sacrifice make it easier to sin? NO!

Yeshua made it easier to receive forgiveness, but it is religion that has made it easier to sin.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know. That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!