Category: A Drash to Start the Day

You’re Always You

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Did you miss me? The last two weeks I have been spending time out of the country: one week at a timeshare with my friend in Cabo san Lucas, and the other week on a cruise celebrating the marriage of a co-worker and friend.

It’s nice to be back home.

Many, many years ago I saw a book entitled “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him.”  I thought the title interesting so I bought it and read it. The point of the book was, simply enough, that no one who promises you enlightenment and total change is telling you the truth, and is, in fact, just selling you a bag full of lies. You will always be you, and you will always mentally and emotionally react as you have, but you can change how you act after the reaction.

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

A Christian co-worker and friend who was helping to lead me to God and Messiah when I was still searching told me that what is wonderful about accepting Messiah is that your brain gets rewired by God. I really wanted that and still do, in some ways, but have realized that except for a few rare cases it doesn’t really work that way.

I am who I have always been. I can’t change who I am, I can’t change the immediate thoughts that enter my head, and I will always think and react the way I have for my entire life, sans some brainwashing techniques that may be used on me. Even then, I am still me, only conditioned to be different, which isn’t really me, in the end.

So if you are always you, and I am always me, what good is trying? The answer is: trying is what comes from God. On our own, we don’t try to resist. We don’t repent, we rationalize. I have often said that before I was saved I was a sinner who rationalized my sins, now I am a sinner who regrets my sins.

And that is what makes the difference: repentance. The desire NOT to sin is what is rewired in our brains. Our reactions, our desires, and our thoughts will always be what they are, but the difference that God makes in our lives is that instead of accepting that we do wrong, we resist doing wrong.

And we often fail, but we keep on trying. Taking three steps forward then backsliding two steps is still one step closer to the way we want to be!!

So accept that you will always be you, and instead of trying to be perfect, just work on being a better you.

God tells all of us how he wants us to act towards him and towards each other, so read the Bible and work at being a better you, the “you” that God wants you to be.

Thank you for being here, and please don’t forget to subscribe and if you like what you hear from this ministry, please share me out and buy my books.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Divine Inspiration or Divine Dictation?

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The Bible is known by many as “The Word of God.” That implies that it is exactly what God has said; but, in fact, that is not what most of it is made up of. And the problem with this is that people who don’t study or read the Bible themselves don’t know the difference between the divine dictations and the divinely inspired writings.

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

Inspiration is an intangible thing that is filtered through the individual’s experience, culture, language, and understanding. Divine inspiration is when someone receives a message from God, but being an inspiration means when they write it down or repeat it they are not going to be quoting God exactly.

For instance, the Ten Commandments written on the two tablets given to Moses (which he copied into the Torah) were written with the finger of God (Ex. 31:18), so they are divine dictations. From God directly to us: no interpretation, no personal bias, no filtering, and not even a typo or two. Divinely dictated, meaning presented to us, directly from God exactly as he said it.

On the other hand, when we read the letters written by Shaul, most of the time he is speaking to Gentiles who do not know the divine dictations that occur in the Torah, so he more often than not interprets what God has said. His meaning and words are divinely inspired, but they are not directly from God. He has rebranded God’s words in a way that will make sense to pagans just learning about God.

And he tells us this is what he is doing. In 1st Corinthians 9:20-22, he says that he will be whatever he needs to be in order to win people over to Messiah. Essentially, he is saying that he will teach and say whatever he needs to in whichever way his audience will understand, in order to win over souls to Messiah. In other words, he knows what God ‘s dictated words are but he is rephrasing them so that his audience can understand and relate to it.

So the question is: which is more important? Divine dictation or divine inspiration?

My answer is: obviously it is more important to know what God, himself, says than what someone thinks God meant. Divine inspiration is certainly going to be important, but it will be, by definition, in the person’s own words and stated in a way that is influenced by that person’s experience, language, culture, and understanding of the Bible, in general.

What is most important of all is that the one listening knows the difference between what God said and what someone says God said. 

The Bible is composed mostly of divinely inspired writing. The New Covenant has very little that is a direct quote of God’s own words. Because Yeshua is the Messiah, he taught from divine knowledge. However, much of what he quoted from the Tanakh came from the divinely inspired writings.

God’s direct instructions to all people are found in the Torah. I believe that when Moses wrote “The Lord says…” that what he wrote was directly dictated by God. Anything and everything else Moses wrote, as well as most of what is in the Prophets and other books, is divinely inspired.

So, nu? What’s the point? The point is, as I say so very, very often, you need to read the Bible every day and ask God for his divine understanding so that you know which is which.

The many different religions that have come into existence have created man-made doctrines but pass them off as divinely dictated commandments. And those who do not read the Bible are blind, being led by the blind, and we all know where they end up.

Divine dictation is not something anyone can afford to ignore or reinterpret, whereas divinely inspired writing can be rephrased and taught using different terms and cultural identifiers so that it can be understood by people with varied backgrounds. In just the same way that Shaul taught his Messianic congregations.

When we know the difference between what God said and what people say God meant we will not be easily fooled by the Enemy of God when he tries to turn us from the path of righteousness.

Thank you for being here; please subscribe and share me out so you can help this ministry grow. I appreciate your feedback and comments, as well.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch Hashem!

What Are New Wineskins, Really?

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I have read the Bible many times, and every time I came to Matthew 9:16-17 I always wondered what it really meant. As I was reading this passage again the other day, I asked God to show me what it meant, and I believe he has.

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

Before I tell you what he showed me, let’s look at this passage, together:

No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunk cloth, because the patch tears away from the coat and leaves a worse hole. Nor do people put new wine in old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. No, they pour new wine into freshly prepared wineskins, and in this way both are preserved. 

Most of the Christian interpretations I have heard say Yeshua was making the point that his teachings and commandments are new, and override the existing, older commandments. The new patch and the new wine are now the commandments that we must obey, and (again, this is a Christian interpretation) therefor the old laws and traditions have been done away with to make room for the new ones.

Of course, being Jewish and Messianic, I know that this interpretation is false. First off, Yeshua taught from the Torah, and if he had said or done anything that even implied we shouldn’t obey the Torah, then he would have been in rebellion against his Father, God, and in sin. If that was true, then his sacrifice would not have been accepted, and we all would be in a lot of trouble today. Fortunately, that isn’t the way it is.

Secondly, although Yeshua did speak against many of the traditions of the elders, which later would become Talmudic doctrine and practice, he did not universally condemn all traditions. For instance, we know he celebrated the Festival of Lights, which is a traditional, man-made holiday and not even in the Bible.

So, what did Yeshua mean when he said new wine has to go into new wineskins?

He meant that his teachings, which were based entirely on the Torah, were being interpreted in a new way. And, as such, he couldn’t properly “fit” them into the old wineskins, meaning the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were too used to and comfortable with their understanding to accept what he was saying.

The “new wine” he taught was the spiritual understanding of the Torah, called the Remes. This is from a Jewish method of biblical exegesis called PaRDeS, which represents different levels of meaning. There is the Pashat or literal meaning of the words- what you see is what it means. A deeper understanding is Remes or spiritual meaning. For instance, Yeshua said we have been told not to commit adultery (Pashat) but when we lust with our eyes, we have already done so (Remes.) The other levels, Drash (a story with a spiritual or moral meaning) and Sod, which is such a deep meaning it is mystical.

The new wineskins are the Am Ha’aretz, meaning the people of the land, those who are not formally trained in the Torah and the Tanakh. These are receptacles that can accept the new wine because they haven’t been “stretched” to their limits from having contained the older wine. These new wineskins were familiar with the traditions, but not affected by them so much that having known them they were not able to accept new wine without bursting. That is why Yeshua prayed:

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated and revealed them to ordinary folks. (Matthew 11:25)

Today, the knowledge of God’s word is not much more, and probably a lot less, than it was in those days. Christianity has so skewed and misinterpreted the meaning of the letters from Shaul (Paul) and taught disobedience to God’s Torah that the world is more sinful and decrepit than ever. Instead of serving the wine of truth, traditional Christian teachings have caused people to become drunk with the beer of hedonism and ignorance.

Christians (I am not talking about every Christian, but I do mean most of them) need to become new wineskins; they need to be able to accept that what Yeshua taught did not do away with the law, but confirmed it! That means to let go of the teachings that Christians have been filled with, such as Sunday Sabbath, Christian holidays, and Constantinian doctrine and practices, and become new wineskins able to accept the new wine of proper interpretation of Yeshua’s teachings, and of the Epistles in the B’rit Chadashah (New Covenant.)

Yeshua’s teachings may be considered new wine, but it was the exact same vintage as the Torah; all Yeshua did was market it differently.

Thank you for being here, and please share me out. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel so you will be notified the next time I post a message.

Until next time we are together, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

Speaking Can’t be Erased

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There is a story I once heard that provides the basis for today’s message.

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

A man once spread gossip about his Rabbi. Later, he felt bad about it and went to his Rabbi to apologize. He asked if there was anything he could do to make it better, and the Rabbi asked him, “Do you have a feather pillow?” The man, a little taken back, said that he did. The Rabbi told him “Take the pillow into a large field of grass on a windy day, split the top open and swing the pillow around your head. Then, come back to me.”

The man did as he was told, and when he went back the Rabbi asked what happened. The man said, “It was really beautiful, Rabbi. The feathers floated here and there, everywhere, and it looked like snow. But, Rabbi…what does this have to do with my spreading gossip about you?”

The Rabbi said, “Go back out to that field and pick up all the feathers.”

Gossip isn’t the only thing we do that cannot be taken back. Angry words, nasty comments, and a discompassionate attitude are all things that, once done, cannot be retracted.

Oh, yes- we can apologize, and we may be forgiven, but for most people, the rule is “Once bitten, twice shy.” And many people, to their own detriment, will take the attitude that once you do something to them they don’t like, they will never have anything to do with you, at all.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean trusting again, it doesn’t mean loving again, and it doesn’t mean wanting to be friends again. Forgiving others who hurt us is something we must do, not for their sake but for our own. We will never get past the hurt until we forgive. But, as I said, forgiving doesn’t mean having to re-establish the previous relationship. I can be forgiven for saying something, but that person doesn’t have to trust me or even speak to me, ever again.

The Bible is clear that we must always watch what we say. We read about it in Proverbs, in Psalms, in the Gospels and the Epistles. We must always be wary of what we say and how we say it, if not only to avoid hurting someone but (more importantly) not to do or say anything that will dishonor God.

Remember in Psalm 51, when David asked God to forgive him for the sin he committed against Uriah, the Hittite and with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba? He said (Psalm51:4):

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;

Any and all sins we commit are, first and foremost, against God because we have done something he said we must not do. And when we ask for forgiveness, it must first be from God. When we come to judgment, it will be God who is the judge, so we better make sure we have nothing for him to hold against us. If we only go to the one we sinned against to ask forgiveness, even if he (or she) forgives us, they are not God.

When God forgives us, we have re-established our relationship with him; when someone else forgives us, it doesn’t have anything at all to do with our relationship with God. It affects their relationship with God, but not ours.

No one other than God can forgive your sins, and because there is no longer any temple in Jerusalem (where the Torah commands we must bring our sin sacrifice) the only way to receive forgiveness of our sins today is through the substitutionary sacrifice that Yeshua ha Maschiach made for us.

Therefore, be very, VERY careful what you say. Always think before you speak, and if you have even the slightest doubt that what you are saying (or writing) may be taken the wrong way, then shut up!

I say this not as someone who knows how to shut up, but as someone who has made a profession of not shutting up in time.

I know all about sin because I have so much experience doing it. God forgive me for my weakness and strengthen me to sin less each day.

Amen!

Thank you for being here and please share me out to help this ministry to grow. I never ask for money, I just want to spread the truth about God so that people can make an informed decision, based not on their religious doctrine but on what God says.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch haShem!

You Don’t Deserve Squat

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Normally, I turn the sound off when a TV commercial comes on. So many times what they say is such an insult to someone’s intelligence. One of the worst things, in my opinion, is how they constantly try to sell you on the idea that you deserve what they have for you, and don’t let anyone take it away.

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

You deserve this coverage, you deserve to feel better, you deserve more interest, you deserve a better car, you deserve to feel loved, you deserve…actually, if you listen to this drek, you deserve anything and everything you want.

The truth is you don’t deserve squat… unless you earn it.

Wait a minute, Steve! What about our inalienable rights? The U.S. Constitution says we deserve them.

No, it doesn’t. It says you have the right to them, but we didn’t deserve the freedom to exercise those rights until after we earned it through warfare and bloodshed.

The current generation is known as “Millennials”; they all seem to have a sense of entitlement (of course, not all Millennials fit this description, but certainly, enough do to justify the stereotype), and I believe a lot of this is due to their having been brought being told they deserve whatever they want. I want a new car, well, I deserve it. I want better insurance rates, well, I deserve them. I want a better insurance plan, well I deserve one.

Get real, people! You don’t deserve anything you haven’t earned, but there are many things available to you. If I work hard and save my money, or if I invest wisely, then I can say I deserve to have those things because I have earned them.

By definition, if I already deserve something then all I should have to do is ask to receive it, right?  What do you think will happen if you go to your insurance company and tell them you deserve better rates? Do you think you will get them without giving up some benefits or paying more? If you go to a car dealer and offer to give them your car for that better car you deserve, will they accept your old car and give you the better one at no additional cost?

No one deserves anything that they haven’t earned.

What about salvation? Yeshua died for our sins, and haven’t we been told by our religious leaders that all we need to do is ask and we shall receive? If we can get it simply by asking, doesn’t that mean we deserve it?

You would think so. Even by my own definition, something that we deserve we should be able to get with the asking. Yeshua did die for our sins, and he did make salvation something that we can have simply by asking, but it isn’t something we deserve.

It is available to us, but we haven’t, and (frankly) none of us ever will, deserve it. That is the reason Yeshua had to die – no one can earn salvation.

What about blessings? Doesn’t God give blessings to everyone even when they are sinful? Doesn’t it say in Matthew 5:45 that God sends rain to the just and unjust alike?  If that is true, then we must all deserve blessings.

It is true that God will bless even those who reject and curse him, which he does because he is a loving and compassionate God. But we don’t automatically deserve a blessing; however, blessings can be earned by obeying God’s instructions in the Torah (Deut. 28.) God promises that when we are obedient to his instructions he will bless us, and God always keeps his word.

Yeshua earned his salvation through a lifetime of perfect obedience to God’s instructions, something none of us can do. He did that so salvation could be available to all people. We do not deserve it, but we can have it.

I’ll finish with this: we can’t earn and we don’t deserve salvation, but we can have it; the hard part is deserving to keep it. And that, my friends, is for another message.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe if you haven’t done so already. I welcome comments and look forward to our next time together, so until then…L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Right Relationship is More Important Than Being Right

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I just had three wonderful days with my two sisters visiting me. One from North Carolina and the other from Austin, Texas. I am the middle child (which probably explains a lot) and we each had our differences growing up, although my (8 years) younger sister didn’t have the same “issues” with either of us as my (2 1/2 year) older sister and I had.

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

We all three have different ideas about many things, and each of us, separately, has been upset by or upset with each other about one thing or another over the years. But here’s the point: we forgive each other and continue to work on having a good relationship instead of dwelling on whatever thing had upset us.

The important thing for everyone is to be able to forgive automatically so that we can maintain our family (and other) relationships, even through tough times. This is also a biblically correct thing to do, as we are not commanded to ask for forgiveness, but we are commanded to (or, at least, warned we’d better) forgive each other.

Most of us know the “Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-13, right?  “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done”, ….got it?  Well, do you remember what Yeshua said after he gave that template for prayer? Let me help you; it’s Matthew 6:14-15:

For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will not forgive yours.

Forgiveness is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves, and it is the glue that holds people together when certain acts or words try to tear them apart.

I am so very, very grateful to God for always giving me a forgiving heart, even before I knew him. I was able to reconcile with my mother long before she passed away, and have been able to maintain friendships for decades, more than a handful going all the way back to elementary school, all because I have learned to forgive people.

I know people who have not reconciled with family, and when the opportunity to do so was gone, they realized what they missed. The fact that once someone is dead you can never fix that relationship can often be devastating.

And here is another important fact: forgiving people is not supposed to be a reaction to someone asking for it. You are to forgive those that hurt you whether they ask for it or not!  

That’s right- you are to forgive them whether they want you to or not, whether they even care if you do or not. Your forgiveness of them doesn’t have anything at all to do with what is going on between them and God, but it has everything to do with what is going on between YOU and God.

My older sister and I have very different views on many things, especially politics, and we tend to walk gingerly when we discuss them. And often the room starts to heat up, and when that happens we simply agree to not agree. Because, even when things get a little “heated”, we will not allow it to affect our feelings for each other or our relationship because for us, being together is more important than being “right.”

What is important is that you maintain your good relationships, try to reconcile the bad ones, and remember that you don’t need to be right with people but you do need to be right with God.

And the only way to do that is to read the Bible so you know what God wants from you.

Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE. Share me out and I always welcome comments, I only ask that you be nice.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Abortion is More Than Just Murder

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(No video today)

Do you know of the Canaanite god called Molech? There are a few different spellings of the name, but he is the god of the Ammonites to which the people sacrificed their children by making them go “through the fire.” Our God called Molech an abomination.

There’s no argument that this was a form of murder, but the act of murder was superseded by the atrocity of killing one’s own child.  In other words, it wasn’t just a murder, it was more than a murder: it was a heinous crime that no God-fearing person would ever even contemplate.

Abortion is taking something that is alive and killing it. Since the living entity in the womb is a human being, that is what we call murder. But it is more than murder, isn’t it? It is killing one’s own child, and with the current political movement throughout the states which allows abortion in the third trimester, this is not just abortion- it is child sacrifice.

I searched for the reason that people would sacrifice their children to Molech and this is the best answer I could find:

When a couple sacrificed their firstborn, they believed that Moloch would ensure financial prosperity for the family and future children.

That’s pretty much why people get an abortion, isn’t it?

Now, before someone starts to attack me and bring up rape and incest, etc., and other more “socially acceptable” reasons to abort a child, let me say that the vast majority of abortions are not the result of trauma or some other form of copulation that was not consensual. The majority of abortions are done is because either the mother (or both parents) decided that the time isn’t right to have a child, or that they don’t want to have the child, or that the pregnancy was a mistake. Or any combination of these excuses.

That means, to me, that they want to abort (isn’t abortion so much nicer a word than murder?) their child so that they can have a better future and maybe more kids later on. That is no different than saying I am sacrificing this child I am now carrying so that I won’t have the expenses of a child (i.e., to have financial prosperity) and we can always have another (benefit future children.)

Do you see? Abortion is sacrificing to Molech. Maybe the clinics aren’t shaped like a giant with his hands outstretched to hold the child, as the ancient sacrificial altar was formed, but it is the same act. And, for that matter, whether the father is there or not, his absence is silent approval.

If anyone thinks we aren’t nearing the spiritual lows of the ancient days, or that the End Times are not rapidly approaching, talk to them about the abomination called Molech and child sacrifice.

Today, all that has really changed is the altar of sacrifice and it has been rebranded as Abortion.

Thank you for being here, and please don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE and share me out.

Until next time, L’Hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

When Do We Stop?

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Today, as I was reviewing Facebook, someone posted this message:

In life, it’s important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong. 

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

I thought about this with regard to the many times I have seen a discussion devolve into an argument, all because one person wouldn’t stop trying to get the other person to agree. The exchange of ideas was corrupted into an exchange of insults because of one person’s stubborn pridefulness not allowing the other person to have their own view.

For those who profess to be Believers, meaning people who are supposed to be God-fearing, respectful, compassionate, and loving of others to argue about things to the point where their pride takes over is a very poor way to represent God. It doesn’t glorify him, at all! What makes it worse is that the person who refuses to stop arguing will, more often than not, say they are just telling the truth, which they proclaim justifies their rude behavior.

Shaul tells us that righteous anger is fine, and it is, but it is no excuse for being nasty or disrespectful to someone. The same goes for telling the truth; as far as I am concerned, if you are unable to tell someone your understanding of “the truth” without having to yell at or insult them, then not only have you already lost the argument but your truth might not really be the truth.

Now, someone may say that Yeshua insulted the Pharisees and Scribes and Torah-teachers often, and that is true. My answer to that point of fact is this: you ain’t Yeshua! And when he spoke, even those who were against him could not argue with him because his truth was God’s truth and stood on its own. When you or I discuss God with others and they don’t accept what we say, or tell us we are wrong,  before we start to insult them we might consider that if what we say isn’t strong enough to stand on its own, maybe what we think is right is actually wrong. Or maybe what we are saying is right but we are saying it in a wrong way.

I learned this lesson many years ago when I received a left-handed compliment from my boss. I was a Sales Manager for Home Depot’s At-Home Services and the Senior Vice President I was working for told me that what I say is almost always correct, but (here comes the down-side) it becomes impotent because of the way I say it. You see, I was just telling the truth, but the way I told it rendered it useless because it made people upset.

God gave each and every one of us Free Will because he wants us to choose to worship him. We also can choose to reject God and all he says. That means God, himself, allows someone to be wrong if they choose to be wrong. So who are we to disallow that which God allows?

Your truth may not be my truth, and (truthfully) both may still be true. What is important is that we don’t tell someone the truth in order to show how correct we are, but to help them come closer to God. It is all about bringing people into proper relationship with God and Messiah, so when someone chooses to reject what you say, go ahead and make an argument without arguing. Allow them a minute or so to take it in, and if they are willing to continue to listen then you are doing well. If they reject what you say, and refuse to accept any proof from you, then before the discussion becomes an argument, do as God does and allow them to be wrong.

One last point: remember how God told the prophets that if they did not tell the people to repent, then their blood would be on his head? But, if after telling them to repent, they decided to reject God’s warnings and continued to sin, then the prophet would be free of their blood and it would be on their own heads? This rule holds true for us, as well. We are to try to bring people into the Kingdom of God but not by force, coercion, fear, or bribery (such as telling them about all the blessings they receive for being Believers.)

As purveyors of God’s truth, your job and mine is simply to tell the truth as God has shown it to us and allow people to make up their own minds.

Thank you for being here, and please share this out to your friends and family, and SUBSCRIBE so that when I post you will be notified. And I always welcome comments, all I ask is that you be nice.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Acknowledging God is Not Worshiping God

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If you hadn’t noticed, I was off all last week. Donna and I were on a cruise with relatives who got married on the ship. It was very nice.

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

Many times we have heard our religious leaders tell us that all we need to do is call on the name of the Lord, and we will be saved. They got that from Romans 10:13; just call on God for salvation and it’s yours. What is implied is that you actually believe God exists and that you also accept that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah.

Believe in God, believe in Yeshua as the Messiah, ask for salvation and that’s that! Saved! Easy enough, right?

I am afraid I will have to bust your bubble because, as the old song goes, it ain’t necessarily so.

Do you think that King Nebuchadnezzar was saved? No? Why not? He recognized and lauded the God of Daniel. He wrote letters (this is all in the book of Daniel, of course) proclaiming the sovereignty of God and even threatened to tear down the house and kill anyone, including their entire family, who did or said anything against the God of Daniel (Daniel 3:31-33 and Daniel 4:31-34.)

Daryevesh (also called Darius), the king of the Persians, also proclaimed the God of Daniel as the living God who endures forever (Daniel 6:26-28), yet do we think that Daryevesh sits in the presence of the Lord for all eternity?

And what about every demon under the authority of the Son of Perdition, that old lion HaSatan?  They certainly aren’t saved, yet not only do they believe in God and know (absolutely) that Yeshua is the Messiah, but they have actually seen them both! Are they going to be saved because they acknowledge and believe in God and Yeshua?

Of course not. Not until they: (1) genuinely repent of their evil, (2) ask forgiveness by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice, and (3) return to a righteous existence.

It’s the third step in this process which is the difference that makes a difference: believing isn’t enough, and repentance isn’t enough, we need them both AND we also need to do T’shuvah– turn from sin.

Sin is a very easy thing to define: it simply means going against the instructions God gave us all to follow, which are found in the Torah.

The things that Yeshua’s Talmudim (Disciples) say and the things that Shaul (Paul) says, and the things that are written in the Prophets and other writings that tell us what God wants us to do (or not do) are all based on what God said in the Torah.  Anything you have been told that even implies any of the rules, laws, commandments, regulations, or statutes found in the Torah are no longer valid is going against what God said, which, by definition, is a sin.

Yeshua obeyed his father. He tells us this over and over…and over…throughout the Gospels. More than any other book, in the Gospel of John Yeshua constantly says that he says only what the Father tells him to say and he does only what the Father tells him to do. And, since we all know God is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow, that means Yeshua obeyed everything that we are told to do in the Torah. And more than that, he taught us that we should do everything we are told to do in the Torah.

There is a slight problem with that, though- we can’t do everything God tells us to do. We aren’t perfect, we are infused with iniquity from birth, and we cannot live a sinless life, as Yeshua did. Does that mean we shouldn’t even try? Of course not!

If you want to be saved from the eternal punishment that being an unrepentant sinner will bring, then you must try, and try your best. I often say we can’t be sinless, but we can always sin less. That is the goal to attain- not being sinless, but simply sinning less each day.

I feel sorry for those that have been taught the lie that just calling on God, asking for forgiveness and being a “good person” is all they need to do. What is worse is that this incomplete teaching is usually followed up with another lie, which is that the Torah is just for Jews and we are saved by the Blood of Christ.

I wonder what a Priest, Minister, Pastor, or even a Rabbi would say if someone asked, “What do I need to do to be considered a good person by God?”

Would they answer by quoting Yeshua’s answer to that question, which is found in Matthew 19:17:

“Why ask me about what is good?” Yeshua replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.”

Next time you come across someone who believes that being a good person is all you need to do, please remind them of what Yeshua said, and try to get them to realize that asking isn’t enough- we must prove our repentance through actions, or what James calls good works.

I learned a long time ago that people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do. I try to live my life saying what I mean and doing what I say, and I say I want to be less sinful. I am not doing that every day but I am always trying.

God knows our heart and mind, and even when we fail if we are constantly trying to follow his instructions that, in and of itself, is a good work.

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Until next time…L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

How to Defeat Pridefulness

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Many believe that pride is a bad thing, and it usually is, but it doesn’t have to be. We can be proud of a job well done; we can be proud of our country, our friends, or even our way of life. We can be proud of the accomplishments we have achieved during our lifetime.

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I believe there is a difference between being proud of something and being prideful. Being proud is simply feeling good about what you have accomplished, knowing that you did it skillfully. Pridefulness is thinking that because your skills are superior, YOU are superior.

This feeling of self-importance and superiority is sinful, and the way to quell it is to be humble. Not false humility, but true humility.

As Shakespeare would say, “Ah! There’s the rub!”

As a Marine, I often say (what a United States Marines can rightfully say) “It’s hard to be humble when you’re the best!”

Of course, I am joking; yet, it does raise the question of how can anyone be humble when they know they are better at something than someone else? There is nothing wrong with being more skillful than someone else at a certain thing, or for that matter, nothing wrong with being less skilled than someone else.

God gave each of us certain gifts and talents, designed and meant to be used for his glory. The special gift or skill God gave doesn’t make you or me a better person than anyone else, it just means we can do something better than someone else. And maybe that is the best way to remain humble: realizing that no one is really any better a person than anyone else, it’s just that we each have different abilities, abilities which we did not give to ourselves but which were given to us.

I know people with advanced degrees in education who can’t boil water, and people with little more than a high school education who can finish the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle in under an hour. Some people are capable of doing just about any kind of handyman work but can’t balance a checkbook, and others who have a mind for mathematics but can’t change a lightbulb.

I have achieved much in my life that many never could, and I have skills and abilities that many don’t. Because of this, I fight with pridefulness because I am also a human being, infused from birth with iniquity. It is only with God’s help through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) indwelling in me that reminds me I am nothing special. And I really, honestly know that to be true. I am not being falsely humble, and I can say that because God has provided me, and still does, many opportunities to realize just “un-special” I really am. I have been fired more than once, I have had a failed marriage, I have been bankrupt, my children disowned me ( thanks to God I have reconciled with my son), and I have many experiences that I cannot forget which demonstrated my immaturity, selfishness, and incompetence.

And I am truly grateful to God for putting me through this tsouris in my life in order to keep me in line.

Nebuchadnezzar is a great example of learning humility, and you can read about it in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 4.

The first step to defeating pridefulness is to recognize it in yourself, and here is a simple test:

When you feel proud of something are you thinking “Look at what I can do” or are you thinking, “Thank you, Lord, for the gifts you gave me which enable me to do these wonderful things”?  

Here is today’s final lesson: we can never really defeat pridefulness, we can only control it.

It is like any other sin, which means we are always subject to backsliding. People who have overcome drug addiction will not say they are cured, they will say they are “recovered” because they know that they could slide back into that dark and deathly lifestyle at any time if they do not maintain control.

I will finish with this: we are, every single one of us, a musical instrument and when we are played by God we can make beautiful music that can change the world.  On our own, we can’t do anything. Understanding, accepting and being thankful for this truth is how you can begin to defeat pridefulness.

Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to subscribe. I also welcome comments, all I ask is that you be nice.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!