Category: A Drash to Start the Day

Why Wait for Saturday?

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I am so brain dead today that I don’t want to do anything. I have to clean the house (it’s my turn this week) and I really don’t like doing that. I also have to work out but I may get a break since there are thunder and lightning storms due this afternoon and riding your bike in Florida during a lightning storm is tantamount to suicide.

If you would rather watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

So I am thinking I may take my Shabbat early this week. Being retired, that is much easier for me to do then those who are still wage-slaves, yet most companies allow a personal day.

The Bible says to do all your work on the 6 days you are given and rest on the seventh, but I never saw anything that said you HAD to work for 6 days. There is nothing that says we can’t have more than one Shabbat during the week, so long as we don’t become lazy and slothful.

So I am taking a Shabbat rest on this non-Shabbat day, and even if you have to work, I suggest you consider doing the same thing. If you have to plan for it, then plan for it.

When I was working on Wall Street as a Department Manager with the Securities Transfer Division, I often would be at my desk, feet up and resting. People would ask why I wasn’t working, and my answer was, “I am enjoying my emergency time. I always plan some time during the day for an emergency, and since I didn’t have one yesterday, I am taking that emergency time now.”

Rest is good for the body and the mind, so make sure you plan for it. Too many of us get so obsessed with needing to do everything we can it becomes a drug that needs to be taken over and over. You know who I mean: the person who is always so busy they never get to do anything for themselves. They spend all their time doing for others until they are so burned out they can’t do anything, for anyone. That is not being a “good person”, that is being stupid and selfish, and self-destructive.

I guess I am going to have to clean the house, but I will skip the workout today. I usually work out 3 times a week, starting with a 15-minute metabolic exercise session, followed-up with working out on the gymnastics rings in the garage, finishing with an 18-mile bike ride. It’s a good workout, and I always feel better when I do it, but that ain’t happening today!  Today is a pseudo-Shabbat for me, and if you have the ability to do so, make it one for you, too.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

The Signs of the Time (to Come)

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I rarely talk about political issues on this website because I believe in the separation of church and state, so to speak, and this ministry is a teaching ministry, not a political one.

However, I do want to talk about the political divisiveness in our country, as well as the socio-political upheavals within Europe.

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

Many countries in Europe have been overrun with Muslims, and they are literally taking over the countries they have migrated into through social reforms (if you can call despotic Sharia law reforming) resulting in the existing governments beginning to capitulate to their demands. Their population is growing at a phenomenal rate, while the indigenous populations are not only growing much slower but in fact, are not even growing at a rate that will be able to sustain the population. Some have predicted that at the current rate of population growth in many European countries, within just a few decades the indigenous peoples will no longer exist in their own country.

In America, the divisiveness over whether or not the President is good or terrible (there doesn’t seem to be any “grey” in this argument) has caused many people, even from the moment he took office, to call for his impeachment. There have been a number of accusations, but in the end, none have been proven viable, and some of the accusers later admitted to having lied.

All of this is, to me, a spiritual sign of the time; not really the times as they are, but the times to come.

The Antichrist will first come as a sort of peacemaker, someone who will bring us together, promote peace and social communion, and offer a program of government that will appeal to everyone. This is always a good thing, but when it is promised within the current environment of social, political, and economic unrest, it is significantly more appealing. After all, if we are doing well as a country, who needs what we (seemingly) already have? However, when people are so divided that even within families they argue vehemently, the promise of a universal solution to all our problems is like a drink of cool water after being in the desert for a year.

The Antichrist is supposed to create peace for 3 1/2 years, then will expose himself (or herself) and demand to be worshiped as God. By then, the mark will have been distributed, those who remain faithful will be persecuted, and the world will follow the Beast.

All of this, I believe, will be predicated upon the entire globe looking for a solution to the social, political, and economic unrest it has been suffering for years. I believe what we are seeing now are the “birth pains” that Yeshua talked about in Matthew 24:8.  We are seeing the foundations for a one-world government and one-world economy already being poured and formed. Eventually, there will be a one-world religion, as well, which may not be religion as we think it is, but a different type of religion. Maybe technology will be our new god and become a new religion (I think that is a definite possibility, if not already here) or sports, or something else that unifies people and promises them worldly rewards and pleasures. Whatever it is going to be, when politics, economy, and religion are controlled by the Antichrist, it will be too late for anyone to do anything about it.

At that point, we will be able to do nothing but maintain our faith and wait for Yeshua to sort it all out.

So, that is all I wanted to say today. I see the end of the world, as we know it, sinking in the West and in the East, the world as Revelation tells us it will be appearing on the horizon.

What do you see?

 

Thank you for being here. Please don’t forget to subscribe and comments are always welcomed, just be nice.

Please don’t hesitate to donate to the Ugandan Messianic Synagogue project I am running, which I will be closing at the end of this week. It is to send Bibles and Bible study materials to congregations in three Messianic synagogues in a rural section of Uganda, who all want to better know God and the Torah. Anything you send will help; here is the link to that Gofundme campaign:

Ugandan Messianic Help

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

Faithful is Peaceful but Faithless is Worrisome

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When was the last time you had a really good night’s sleep?

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

I just had one the other night, but they are (sadly) few and very far between. I have a good mattress, and being next to my wife, the love of my life, is also very helpful in feeling happy, relaxed, and loved. But, still and all, I am more often than not restless, with either bad or (let’s call them) uncomfortable dreams. The kind where you figure, “I know it’s only four in the morning, but I might as well get up.”

I figured this was all just a part of life, you know…they say as you get older you need less sleep, or maybe there’s something in the back of my mind worrying me; and I know I shouldn’t review old memories that are still bothersome, but they always keep me awake. You know what I mean, don’t you? The kind of life experiences where you were mistreated or misjudged and you wish you could go back and give that idiot a piece of your mind.

But recently it all became clear to me why I usually don’t have a good night’s rest, and that was when I was read Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) the other day and came to Chapter 5, verse 2 which says:

For nightmares come from worrying too much; …

Then I began to think of all the other Bible verses that talk about having a good night’s rest, such as Psalm 3:6-7:

I lie down and sleep, then wake up again, because Adonai sustains me. I am not afraid of the tens of thousands set against me on every side. 

and Matthew 11:28, which many will be familiar with and says:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

and another well-known verse, Psalm 91:5:

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,…

I realized that my lack of sleep is not caused by anything physical, but by something spiritual- my lack of faith.

I have not faithfully trusted in God and accepted that vengeance is his, and his alone, so I review things that have hurt me over the years and want to just “tell that person off”, but it’s not my place to do so.  I have talked often about forgiveness and how it is the only way to stop the pain, yet here I am, not practicing what I preach.

I don’t think I am a hypocrite; what I am is a human being, with the same weaknesses as any other human being, and even though I know what I am supposed to do, I am having trouble doing it.  Shaul (Paul) confesses in Romans 7:14-25 that he does what he hates and doesn’t do what he wants to do, so I guess I am in pretty good company when I say I have the same problem.

The Bible tells me that if I am more faithful then I will sleep better, and I do not doubt that for a moment. The problem is this: to figure out how to be more faithful. Oy!

I wish there was a “faithfulness pill” I could take, but that doesn’t exist. I read the Bible daily, I know, ABSOLUTELY, that God exists and that Yeshua is the Messiah, and I also know and remember the many miraculous events in my life and blessings that God has given me, which are more than I could ever count. I also know and trust completely that he has more good things for me in the future. So with all this knowledge and trust, and faith, why am I still having trouble getting a good night’s rest?

I am sorry to say the answer is obvious- I need to be more. I need to be more faithful, I need to trust deeper and more completely, and I need to keep working at really forgiving those who have damaged and hurt me over the years, to the point where it is totally given up to Adonai to handle, and I wash my hands of it, completely.

That’s the answer to getting a good night’s sleep; at least, the answer for me. I confess I will have trouble doing this, but who wouldn’t? In reality, even the most faithful are still only human, and we all have to battle against the iniquity we are born with. It is an uphill battle that will never stop, not until we have shed this mantle of flesh and taken on a robe of righteousness in the spiritual world.

Maybe that’s the answer! I have to stop looking to the past and instead focus on the future.  I wrote a message once called “S.W.I.S.H.”, which stands for: So What, I‘m Saved –Halleluyah!  Looks like I need to go back and re-read my own message! That’s another problem I have to work on- practicing what I preach.

To be fair, that’s something everyone needs to work on.

So, nu?  I have come to the answer, which confirms the title of this message: if I want to be worry-free, I need to be more faithful.  And the way to become more faithful is to count my blessings every day, completely forget the bad things in my past and only remember how God has helped me. I need to keep reading the Bible to know all the different ways God has saved his people and those that trust in him and look toward the future knowing that God will always be there for me and when this life is done, I will be in his presence, completely rested and at peace for all eternity.

Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Thank you for being here, and please subscribe and share me out. This coming Friday I will be closing the Ugandan Messianic synagogue aid project I am managing through Gofundme, so if you haven’t donated to helping me send Messianic Bibles and Bible study materials to three Ugandan Messianic synagogues asking for help, please do so now. Here is the link to the site where you can donate:

Ugandan Messianic Synagogue Aid

I always welcome comments and all I ask is that you be nice.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

What to Expect When You’re Different

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Once more, Dear Abby comes through with something that I can use.

A letter to her this morning was from a woman who gave a friend’s 18-year old son an “adult” birthday card that was from a men’s boutique shop. After reading it he cried and ran to his room; his mother read it and asked the woman to leave their house. The problem later was revealed that he identifies sexually as a “their”, not male or female (or anything else that I’ve ever heard of) and the mother said the friendship was over.

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

The message for today has nothing to do with the boy’s sexual orientation (or lack, thereof) but instead with his and the mother’s reactions. It is obvious that the card-giver had no idea of the boy’s orientation and assumed that he was heterosexual. It’s not like he wore a sign saying, “I prefer androgynous boys to girls”, which is what the mother said his orientation was.  That being said, his childish tantrum in reaction to an innocently presented birthday card, which was supported by his over-protective mother, was uncalled for.

Here’s the segue into today’s message: the boy’s sexual orientation is not considered, even in today’s ultra-liberal viewpoint, as the normal sexual orientation for a male. As such, he is different.

When someone chooses to obey the instructions in the Bible that God gave to us (which are found in the first 5 books, called the Torah), that person will not be considered normal by the majority of the people in the world. At some point in their life, when a Believer is confronted by someone who doesn’t know their “spiritual orientation” and treated to a dirty joke, or given a pork sandwich to eat, or possibly subjected to some pretty foul language, should the Believer cry and run away?

Of course not.

And after asking the person to please stop cursing, or to please not tell those types of jokes in my presence, or to politely refuse the sandwich, explaining that as a God-fearing person these things are somewhat disagreeable to me, the difference will become obvious. And then what can be expected will be some form of harassment. Hopefully not, but in reality being different isn’t generally accepted by other people, and they treat you with disdain and (often) cruelty.

The 18-year old boy over-reacted and showed immaturity, which demonstrated that he wasn’t ready to go out into the world as a “their” and work or live among people who won’t accept his lifestyle. The mother also has (obviously) coddled him to the point where he isn’t able to face rejection. She certainly isn’t helping him, at all, to be able to live as he wants to.

Someone who is “Born Again” must have the opposite reaction when they demonstrate being spiritually, and thereby, behaviorally different from others. The way we should react to those who ridicule, disapprove or disagree with us is to be kind, mature, and self-assured. When I say self-assured, I mean to remain faithful; Yeshua told his Talmudim (Disciples) not to worry about what they should say when brought before officials, but rather to trust in the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to give them what they need.

This poor, confused and insecure 18-year old should have been able to accept the card with dignity, and if he wanted to, could have gently explained about his sexual orientation and how the card wasn’t really appropriate for him, but thank the giver for their thought. That, in my opinion, would have demonstrated maturity and comfortability this boy had with his sexual orientation.

We, as Believers, need to show that we are comfortable and secure in our faith. We shouldn’t react angrily or hurt when someone is surprised or even nasty to us because of our beliefs. Likewise, we should never try to force it down someone else’s throat or threaten them with destruction in hell for not believing, and never, ever insult their lifestyle or life choices. We should confidently and compassionately confirm our choice by explaining why we accepted Yeshua and why we want to honor God and show our thanks for all he does for us through obedience to the instructions he gave us in the Torah.

If you cannot do this, you need to work on your spiritual maturity and your faith in God; being faithful is not something everyone else has to be, it is something YOU have to be!

I will end with a quote from one of my favorite trilogies, “The Matrix.” When Morpheus demonstrates his faith in Neo, and Commander Locke says, “Not everyone believes as you do.”, Morpheus replies, “My faith doesn’t require that they do.”

My faith is between me and God, and your faith is between you and God- what someone else believes should not have any influence on you, but by the demonstration of your faithfulness through your actions, you may be able to have some influence on them.

Thank you for being here. Please don’t forget to subscribe and share me out.

I will be closing out the Ugandan Messianic Synagogue campaign to raise funds to send them Bibles, Talits, and copies of my books (which they asked for) at the end of next week, so if you haven’t contributed or this is the first time you have seen this, please consider..on second thought, there isn’t that much time left, so just go ahead and donate something to this very worthy cause. Here is the link to the Gofundme site:

Ugandan Messianic Synagogue Project

I always welcome comments, and all I ask is that you be nice.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

How Should We Feel When Losing a Loved One?

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The other day someone posted and asked, “How should a Believer handle the death of a parent?”

I am going to give my opinion, and if I think of a biblical passage I may use it, but for the most part, this is going to be more like an opinion piece than a message.

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

First off, when we are sad because someone who is close to us dies, it is a selfish thing. I have been to way too many funerals, and I don’t recall ever hearing anyone say how sad it is for the deceased person to be dead. We don’t cry because they are dead, we cry because we will no longer be able to have them in our lives.

Now, that probably isn’t a tremendously shocking or new revelation, so let’s add in the part about how a Believer should feel.

I believe that someone who knows the Lord and has accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah should be happy for the person who has died. They should celebrate that person’s death with thankfulness. Thankful for the presence they had in your life, and thankful for their (now) eternal presence with the Lord.

One exception to this is if the person who died was not saved. We can’t always know absolutely about the state of someone’s salvation because who knows what happens in those last seconds of life, between consciousness and death; but, in most cases, we can be pretty certain about whether or not they are saved.

Assuming that the deceased was saved, as a Believer we should put aside our own selfish desire to maintain the deceased’s presence in our lives and be thankful for the time we did have together. We should review the happy memories and joyfully remember things we did together.

Here is a biblical reference about how to approach the death of a loved one- do what Job did, and immediately give thanks to God. After all, God put you and that person together, so even though they are gone, you should be thankful for having known them.

It is normal to feel sad about the loss, but we should be able to overcome that sadness quickly if we concentrate on how happy they must be in the presence of God, Almighty, and seeing Yeshua face-to-face. Wow! Can you imagine how wonderful that must be?

Therefore, my response to the original question is that a Believer should be joyful when a loved one (who is saved) dies, and also feel thankful that you had that person in your life for as long as you did. Sadness will creep up on us because human nature is a selfish and self-centered thing, but the sadness can be replaced by joy when we think of their feelings instead of our own. That is something a Believer should be able to do for anyone, alive or dead, i.e. put someone else’s feelings ahead of our own.

For those who die and weren’t saved, but who we loved anyway, well…in that case, sadness probably is the proper feeling. Again, not so much for yourself, but for the one who has passed on and will have to face the final judgment without Yeshua as their intercessor. That is truly a sad thing.

Death is a part of life. In fact, life is really only a precursor to death. Think about it: we live for a relatively short time, but we are dead forever. When we think about that, we can answer another question, the age-old one, which is  “Why are we here?”

The answer is you are here to decide where you will spend eternity.

And since no one will never know how much time God will give them to make that decision, it is one that they should make as quickly as possible.

 

Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to subscribe.

I will be closing out the gofundme campaign to send Bibles, prayer shawls and other Bible study materials to three Messianic synagogues in Uganda by the end of next week. The link to donate is here:

Help Ugandan Messianic Synagogues 

So far I have barely enough to pay for the cost of mailing these things to them and will end up having to shorten their list of supplies, so if you haven’t donated, please give something. Every little bit helps, so please consider giving ten dollars, twenty, five, a thousand..whatever you feel led to give to help these newly Messianic people who want to know God better and learn to worship him as he said we should.

Thank you again for being here, share me out and until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

K.I.S.S.

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Can I assume that most, if not all of you reading this know what K.I.S.S stands for?  If not, I’ll explain: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Of course, being Messianic I prefer to say: Keep It Simple, Schlemiel!

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

As humans, we tend to complicate things that do not need to be complicated. I see this often in the postings that people make on Facebook.  I see constant posts about the “correct” name of God, about the fact that the Sabbath is not on Sunday, about the Christian “church” changing the laws, and many other truths that are stated over and over…and over. These topics are important for people to know, but they are not really that important.

When it comes to deciding what is important and what is not, I have my own “Acid Test” question, which is:

“How does this affect my salvation?”

And here is where many people don’t get it: just because something is important to you doesn’t mean it is important to know. Too many people (and to be truthful, I could also be guilty of this, even as I am writing it) pridefully will present their own idea of what is right (or wrong) with the “church” or a particular tradition, or how to pronounce a name or whatever as being of the highest importance.  And I am not saying these things are not important, but after a while, there has to be something else to write about other than the same topic over and over and over, especially when that topic will not save anyone or bring them into a proper, truthful knowledge of who God is, who Yeshua (Jesus) is, or how they can find peace of mind and heart in this life and complete joy throughout eternity.

If something is going to be repeated, what needs to be repeated is that which brings people into communion with God. We need to repeat the message that sin can only be forgiven through Yeshua; we need to remind people that God will not allow those who sin unrepentantly (whether they know it or not) to be saved; and even something as simple as exclaiming that God does exist, Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and only by faith in them both can anyone have a chance of surviving the first death.

These things definitely affect your salvation, and these are the types of topics we should be concentrating on. Anything beyond or added to this knowledge is good-to-know stuff, but not need-to-know stuff.

Let me state this again- I am NOT against knowing as much as we can about God, Yeshua, the Bible, biblical history, ancient cultures, paleo-Hebrew, …WHATEVER!…so long as it doesn’t lead people into a Gnostic mindset and generate arguments that are useless because, when all is said and done, they won’t save anyone from destruction.  We need to help new and existing Believers in the Lord stay focused on God and Yeshua, and one of the most important things of all: how to properly interpret the Bible.

It isn’t useful to just know what the Bible says, we need to know how to properly interpret what is said in the Bible, to use Circles of Context so that we don’t get stuck on a single sentence. We need to read every sentence as part of the one before and the one after it, as part of the entire thought, as part of the entire chapter, entire book, and the entire Bible. We need to know who was writing to whom, and how it all fits in hermeneutically with the rest of the Bible.

To know the proper way to interpret the Bible ABSOLUTELY will affect your salvation! For example, the typical Christian interpretation of the letter Shaul (Paul) wrote to the Romans is that it is a polemic against the Torah; however, understanding who Shaul was and to whom he was writing this letter (and why), it then becomes clear that he was actually writing an apologetic for the Torah!

This is what I am talking about when I say it is important to know how to properly interpret the Bible because the proper interpretation of Romans will lead you to obedience and salvation and the improper interpretation will lead you to sinfulness and destruction.

The purpose of my ministry is not to change anyone’s mind or to convert people to Judaism or to convince anyone of anything: it is in response to Hosea 4:6:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” 

Let me finish today’s message with this: knowledge is useless unless it is used correctly, and when it comes to God, Yeshua and salvation, that means keeping it simple. Stay focused on what edifies, what leads one towards the narrow gate, and what keeps one on the narrow path.

Thank you for being here, and if you haven’t already done so, please subscribe. Also, share this out with friends and family, especially the ones who are looking for answers.

And please help with my campaign to send Bibles and study materials to Ugandans in three Messianic synagogues who subscribe to this ministry and have asked me for help. I can’t afford to send too much to them and need help. Please share this out with your church or synagogue, send it to your contacts and help bless these poor people who don’t even have computers to get closer to God. Here is a link to that campaign:

Help for Messianic Ugandan Synagogues

 

Thank you, again, and until next time…L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Which is More Important?

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Like many people, I get my best ideas when I am doing something totally different than working, such as when I am in the shower or riding my bicycle.

The other day, as I was riding along on my bike and praying, I started to think about which would be more important for us as Believers to do: is it more important to not sin or is it more important to repent of our sin?

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

The answer seems obvious- just don’t sin. If we don’t sin, then we have nothing to repent of and nothing to be concerned about because not sinning is the pathway to salvation.

I know- you are saying that we are saved by faith, not works, but the truth is if we lived a sinless life, we would be demonstrating perfect faith, wouldn’t we? In fact, if we lived a sinless life, as Yeshua did, we could be certain of salvation.

Of course, it then struck me that there is a significant fly in the ointment with regard to living a sinless life, which is this:  no one can live a sinless life.

TIME OUT

There are just too many places where the Bible tells us that we all sin, so I am not going to quote chapter and verse. If you need to verify that we all sin, do the research. It will be a good experience for you.

TIME IN

I often say “We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less“, and that is how I try to live out my life, but even that is hard to do. So what is left to us? Repentance, and trying harder.

The obvious answer is not the right answer because even though living a sinless life is what we want to do, it is not possible, so the most important thing to do is to repent. And I mean REAL repentance, not just saying”

 

 

and going on with our life as if we did nothing wrong, thinking a simple apology is enough.

It isn’t. God sees and knows the heart and minds of everyone, so if you are not really sorry for having sinned against him- and every sin is first and foremost a sin against God- he will know. He won’t accept insincerity and he can’t be fooled.

And it gets worse: many, many people have their religious leaders telling them that if they confess their sins they can be forgiven. Well, that is biblically accurate, but the truth is that we have to really feel bad about sinning, not just confess we did it and continue to sin. Unrepentant repentance may get you absolved by a Priest or given the “OK” by your Pastor, but it won’t hold water with the Big Guy upstairs. As for mainstream Jews, meaning Jews who haven’t accepted Yeshua yet, repentance is necessary but they also have to accept Yeshua as their Messiah because, without him, there is no means to be forgiven since the Jerusalem temple is gone, and that was the only place (according to the Torah) where a sin sacrifice could be accepted.

Without Yeshua’s substitutionary sacrifice, no one (Jew or Gentile) can be forgiven of their sin.

Therefore, the answer to my original question is this: it is more important to be truly repentant than it is to not sin because we cannot avoid sinning but we can always be repentant. And when we really feel bad about something, it motivates us to better discipline ourselves to not do that something, again. True- it doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s no excuse to stop trying.

That old cop-out “I am what I am” may be OK for Popeye, but not for those who want to please God.

Thank you for being here and please remember to subscribe. Also, I am going to have to wind down my campaign to send Bibles and Bible study materials to poor Ugandans who follow this ministry, so please send something to help me to help them at the link below:

Ugandan Ministry Appeal

Please help- I don’t usually send money through the Internet, but this is a legit cause, and I barely have 1/3 of what I need. I will end up paying for the copies of my books they want out of my own pocket, so please help with money for Messianic Bibles and prayer shawls, and especially just to help defray the exorbitant cost of mailing these items.

Remember that God blesses those who bless others.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

What I Did During My Summer Vacation

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I am back from a week in Ireland, having been on a bus with 27 other family members driving nearly 1,000 miles in 6 days, staying at 5 different hotels and spending a total of 16 hours on planes. OY!

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

As we traveled, we saw so many farms, green pastures, and even the mountains (of which there are many) are green. There are cows and sheep, and the occasional horse; the amount of peaceful scenery is enough to lower your blood pressure.

Yet, underneath this bucolic scene is a roiling cauldron of hatred and distrust, left over from the bad feelings of what our guide called the “Troubled Times”, which was when the Northern Irelanders (Protestants) and the Republic of Ireland people (Catholics) were at war with each other.

And it was a war- in fact, it has been officially declared as a war.

Our guide, Murt, was from the Republic of Ireland and a Catholic, yet he was fair in his narrative of the atrocities that both sides caused.

The issue was not originally a religious one but was, in fact, a political separation. The English had taken possession of lands that had Irish living on them, and when that happened British landowners made the Irish people slaves forcing them to pay taxes, which paid the tax the landowners had to pay to the Crown. This tax was based on how many people were living on the land, so when things got tough, such as during times of famine, the Landowners would evict the people and destroy the houses so that they didn’t have to pay tax on them. In the meanwhile, with no house, land or source of income, the people being evicted would starve to death.

The religious issue came about because the British (Landowners) had separated from the Church of Rome while the indigenous Irish (tenant farmers) had not. The British were Protestant and the Irish were Catholic. This resulted in the Irish population being split into the Loyalists (Protestant Irish) and the Catholic Irish.

In other words, the real problem was the geopolitical separation of land-owners and tenant farmers but it was hidden under the guise of religious persecution by Protestants against Catholics. Everyone knew that it was really British rule in Ireland that was the root of this evil, but the thing that people focused on was Protestant against Catholic.

When I thought about this, I realized that the End Times will be the same thing, but the other way around.

In Ireland, politics was the cause but religion was what people focused on. In the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) the Enemy of God will be fighting a religious battle but will have people focus on the politics. I believe the Antichrist will rise from the political turmoil that we are seeing today, persecution and (civil) lawlessness will give him (or maybe, her?) the fodder on which to build a political platform, selling the idea that peace will come about when the world comes together under a single government that has a single economy. The political focus will be created to hide the true, underlying issue- not one religion or another, but the worship of God or the worship of Satan.

Ireland’s history may be a good example of what we should expect to happen in the world. Politics has already become more like a religion than a form of government, in that people are separated in such a hateful, unjustified way that they are at odds with each other and it is currently bordering on becoming physical. I see Americans spending more time trying to prove someone did something wrong in the past than they are trying to focus on improving the future; I see Europe divided and being taken over by extremists; I see people worldwide losing the ability to communicate face-to-face and becoming so dependent on technology that they will be easily transformed into a bunch of robots, walking aimlessly about with their faces in their phones and not seeing where they are heading (physically or spiritually.)

We are a people composed of individuals in an emotional cocoon which actually separates us from everyone around us. Without Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or the media, people don’t know how to just talk with each other anymore.

In today’s, world, people are not connected to each other unless that connection is through the airwaves, through our TV, the radio, newscasts, or the Internet.

Do you remember what Shaul (Paul) called the Son of Perdition? He is called the Prince of the Air!

One last thing for today: do you recall what Yeshua said about a house divided against itself? America today is a house divided, Europe today (with the Brexit debate) is a house divided, and the only “house” not divided in the world is found within the despotic Communist countries. Islam is quickly taking over the free countries in Europe and had already infiltrated our American way of life and government.

The religious war prophesied in Revelation is already here but it hasn’t reared its ugly head yet. It is crouching in the shadows, and when it strikes out it will not be identified as a religious war but as a political war; I believe that politics is the sea from which the Antichrist will arise.

The battle is (and always has been) spiritual but it will appear to be political, and now that you know this you need to be alert. Don’t be fooled by political upheavals because it is really the Enemy who is behind them. Stay focused on God, strengthen your faith and prepare for battle by reading the Bible, especially Ephesians 6:10-17.

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I look forward to the next time we get together, and until then….L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!