Category: A Drash to Start the Day

salvation: easy to get, hard to keep

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“All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32) is a very comforting thought.

Are any of you reading this surprised to see me cite Joel? Were you perhaps thinking this is from Acts 2:21 or, maybe, it’s in Romans 10:13? You are correct: we do find this verse in each of those letters, but the writer was quoting Joel. In fact, there is nothing “new” in the New Covenant- it is all, every single word, based entirely on what is found in the Tanakh.

And when Joel said this, just like when Shaul (Paul) repeated it centuries later, the meaning was not that calling on the Lord is all you have to do, but that calling on the Lord is only the start of what you have to do, and continue to do for the rest of your life.

What is “calling on the Lord?” Is is asking for forgiveness? Yes. Is it asking to be rescued from a dangerous situation? Yes. Is it asking to be saved from your sinful lifestyle and the consequences that come from it? Yes, of course it does. But does it mean call on Him once and that’s it? You don’t need to do anything else?

Not a chance!

The Lord is wiling and able, and even more than that, desiring to forgive you. He wants to forgive you, He loves to see a lost soul return to the flock. In Ezekiel 18:23 he tells us:

 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Being forgiven is something that comes easily because the One who forgives wants to do so. It wasn’t so easy for Yeshua (Jesus) to provide the pathway to salvation, but it is easy for us to get on that road. There is no toll booth, no “Exact Change Required”, and no traffic.

However, it is a rough road to travel.

As we go along our way, we need to stop in to the churches and synagogues that are along the road to get refreshed, and we need to avoid the “tourist traps” that have billboards all along the road. They want you to get off the road and travel to their hotel, or inn, or restaurant. They offer free drinks, free food and free accommodations. They are enticing and very hard to resist when you have been travelling a bumpy and dusty road.

What I am talking about is the “world”- everyone else who has chosen to take the smooth, paved highway to hell, with all it’s earthly pleasures. They want you to join them on their road as badly as God wants you to stay on His road. He knows it’s a hard road to travel, He knows that our very nature is to get on that smooth surface and glide through life, and He knows that what He is asking is hard for us. Not impossible, just hard. It’s designed that way, because the only way to prove we are serious and honest about our call to Him is to have us go “through the fire.”

And this isn’t to prove to Him how serious we are- God sees the heart, He knows our desires and our inner-most truths. The reason we have to go through hell-on-earth to avoid going to hell-for-eternity is to prove to each one of us that we are serious.  We are the ones that need to know what is truly in our hearts because, as humans, we lie to ourselves. If we lie to ourselves, then when we tell others the same lie it isn’t really a lie, right? After all, we believe it to be the truth, so when we tell someone else it isn’t lying, right?

Wrong. It is a lie, but it is not a lie of volition, it is a lie of omission. We omit the truth about something by pretending and convincing ourselves that it doesn’t exist or that what we are being told is not the truth.

For instance, if you thought that the quote at the start of this message was original to the New Covenant, that is a lie, but a lie that you were taught is the truth by someone who also was taught it was the truth. The lie is not where the verse originated as much as the lie that it is a Christian “thing.” Many Christian teachings are designed to ignore the Old Covenant because that is for Jews, and not for “us”. They are saved by their Torah but we have the Blood of Christ!

That is also a lie. Christians aren’t the only ones who have the Blood of Christ because Jews have the blood of Christ, too. Muslims have the Blood of Christ, as well. Buddhists, Hindi’s, Atheists, Skin-heads, Nazi’s, everyone has the Blood of Christ to save them!  He didn’t die just for Christians- He died for everyone. His blood doesn’t care who you are or what you believed in- when you call to the Lord for salvation, it is there for you. I, you, we are saved by the Blood of the Messiah, no matter what we did before we called on His name.

And when we call on His name, that is just the start.

Once you have been given salvation, it is not set in stone. No one can take it away, that’s true, but we can easily (as many do) throw it away. God gives you a ticket to get into the Garden of Eden, but you have to get there yourself. He provides the divine GPS, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead us and help keep us on the pathway, but there are all those billboards. Come in for free drinks; children eat free; get a free night’s stay for every night you sleep here (Hotel California); take this short cut to the same destination because our road is smooth, and the gas is free!

The signs are enticing, they are overwhelming, and they are constantly in our faces. But they do not lead us to the place we want to go. That is why salvation is easy to get, and hard to keep, because the world we have to live in is cursed and sinful and it wants us to join it as badly as God wants us to be separated from it.

That is why almost every prayer we have starts with:

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu, Melech Ha Olam, asher kidshanu, b’mitzvotav, vitzivanu… which means: Blessed are you, oh Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments….

To be sanctified, to be made holy, means to be separated. And what we need to be, and remain separated from, is sin. Sin is all around us, not to mention living inside of us. It is our nature to sin, and that is why the road is so bumpy and difficult to travel: we have to overcome our own desires, and it is so much harder to do that when all we see, every mile, at every exit ramp, is the sinful world calling out and beckoning to us with rich and pleasurable rewards if we would only return to it.

Don’t be fooled. Stay the course, keep running the good race, and keep your eyes on the prize. Please believe me, or better yet, believe God when He tells you that the rewards at the end of your trek will be more than worth the effort it takes to get there.

Can I come to God unclean?

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Sometimes when I am starting to pray to God I feel so unclean, spiritually and physically, that I feel unworthy to approach the Lord. Maybe sometimes you feel the same way?

I once read a Rabbinic thought for the reason the Messiah hasn’t come to the Jewish people (remember “mainstream” Judaism doesn’t accept that Yeshua/Jesus is the Messiah God promised) is because we are unworthy, because we are too sinful to receive the Messiah. I tried to find this again, but couldn’t; however, if I am remembering it accurately, then it is such a shame that they just don’t “get it.” Our sinfulness is not what is keeping Messiah away- it is the very reason He has to come!

I mean, think about it- if we have to be sinless to deserve the Messiah, our sinless condition would disqualify His need to come at all.

Truth be told, only when we are unclean can we come to God for cleansing.

We read in Mark 5:25-34 about a woman who had an issuance (some form of bleeding or fluid loss) which made her ceremonially unclean, but was able to come to Yeshua and be healed.

In Matthew 8:3 a man who is unclean comes to Yeshua saying if Yeshua is willing He can cleanse him; Yeshua says He is willing and cleanses the man.

We also read about how Naaman was cleaned of leprosy by bathing in the Jordan because Elijah told him to do so (2 Kings, 5:10) and we read how God cleansed Miriam of leprosy after Moses prayed for Him to heal her (Numbers 12); of course, in this case it was God who caused the leprosy to come upon her as punishment for talking out against Moses, but the fact remains she was unclean and God cleansed her.

The reason Messiah has o come is because we are unclean; and when we are unclean, if we don’t come to God to ask for cleansing, how will we ever be made clean?

Yes, there are ceremonial practices where we wash our body and clothes in water and after sundown we are clean from certain uncleanlinesses (is that a word?), and for other forms of an unclean condition we may need to sacrifice animals, be sprinkled with blood, etc., but still in all, we have to come to the alter to sacrifice to be cleaned; we come to the Cohen (God’s representative) to be inspected and pronounced “clean” before God and the people; there is no other way to come to God for cleansing other than when we are in our state of uncleanliness.

When you see your child all muddy and soiled, you just have to throw that kid in the bath and burn the clothing!  God feels the same way about us when He sees into our hearts and sees the soiled, filthy desires of a sinful nature. He desires to clean us, He wants us to come to Him in any condition we are in. It’s a “Come-as-you-are” salvation that God offers to us, and when we come ready and willing to be cleaned, then God will clean us up. We will still get dirty, and through Messiah we can always be cleaned up again, but because we want to stay clean we will get a lot less dirty than before we did T’shuvah (turning from sin.) Eventually, from a spiritual viewpoint, we won’t look like “Pigpen” from the Charlie Brown comic strip anymore.

Isaiah knew all about our spiritual condition, and said so in no uncertain terms (Isaiah 64:6):

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

King David, when he asked God to forgive him for his sin with Bat-Sheba, knew about God’s willingness and ability to clean us of our sins (Psalm 51:7-12):

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness;  let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

David, who the bible calls a man after God’s own heart, knew that there is no state of unclean that God cannot make clean.

So if you feel, as I do sometimes, that you are too dirty to come before God, do as I do when I feel that way: remind yourself that God is always willing to clean you up. He has continually cleaned the uncleanable, saved the unsavable, healed the unhealable, and made the filthiest sinner so clean that they shine like silver and are as white as new fallen snow.

Brothers and Sisters, please- never feel you cannot come before God. There is no condition of spiritual or physical being He will reject if you come to Him humbly and honestly: He is always here, within reach, with His hand held out just waiting for you to grab hold of it.

Salvation is an “IF…, THEN” statement

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I used to be a programmer back in the Nineties, and when you write a program the most basic and useful command is called the “If…, Then” statement. This is the one command that, in my opinion, drives the entire program because it is what directs the program by telling it when there is something it has to do, and where to go to do it.

If the number if greater than 5, Then go to this module; If the input is not the required type, Then go to “Error Processing”, and so on.

We live our lives the same way, don’t we? When you come down to the lowest common denominator of decision making, we decide what to do by reviewing our options: If I have a salad, Then I won’t have room for desert (consequently, I eat very few salads); If  I don’t get the report out in time, Then I will have to deal with an upset Boss; If I tell my spouse what I really think right now, Then I will be sleeping on the couch for a week.

Salvation is no different: everything God tells us about how to live, how to worship and how to act is an “If…,Then” statement. If you do as I say, Then you will have blessings. If you do as you want, Then you will have no blessings.

God gave us all Free Will and I believe He really likes to see us use it wisely. Foolishness, according to the way it is used in the bible, is not acting silly- it is refusing to accept the existence and sovereignty of God. When you think about it, that is the ultimate silliness- refusing to accept that God exists and that He is the King of kings. When we use our Free Will to accept God’s existence and sovereignty, then He is pleased with us. When we do that and also choose to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, better still. And when we believe in God, accept that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised, do T’shuvah (turning from the desire to sin) in our hearts, and live our lives trying to sin less- well, IF we do all that, THEN we will be saved.

That’s the eternal IF…, THEN command: trust in God, accept the gift of Grace provided by the sacrificial death of Yeshua, do T’shuvah, and show it in how you live your life (which means to respect and honor the Torah- that has to be in there, too), and you will be saved from eternal damnation. It’s that simple, it’s that complete, and it’s the hardest thing you will ever do.

But it’s worth doing. And not when you have time, and not when you are ready, but right now. This very moment. Stop reading this-well, actually, don’t stop reading until I finish telling you what to do- so, after you stop reading this, close your eyes and tell God that you are sorry for not obeying Him. Tell God you are sorry that you have never really tried to stop sinning, and (this is especially important if you are Jewish) tell God that you believe Yeshua is the Messiah Adonai promised to send to the Jewish people and the world. Lastly, ask for the forgiveness Yeshua provided for you and ask to receive the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) because you want it to lead your life from this moment on.

IF you do that and mean it, THEN you are set on the pathway that will lead to earthly blessings, peace of spirit and the comfort of knowing that you will be spend eternity in the presence of the Lord, God Almighty.

IF you don’t, THEN you’re screwed!

Let’s talk about abortion

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Never let it be said I ain’t got the guts to talk about high profile topics.

The real issue, the one that is at the very heart of abortion (if you can use the word “heart” when talking about abortion), is not so much a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body, but a person’s right, woman AND man, to be irresponsible about what they do with their body.

Let’s step back a bit: let me start by stating I am against abortion (now that’s out of the way), and I want to look at both sides of this argument to try to bring out the truth behind the hype.

The Right to Life (RTL) side says abortion is murder, and the Right to Choose (RTC) side says that it is not murder because the fetus is not a human being. At least, not yet. If we define murder as the taking of a life, then stepping on an ant is murder. In that case, we better build a lot more jails, so let’s not call abortion murder for the purposes of this discussion.

The Roe vs. Wade decision was that abortion is legal so long as the fetus is not “viable”, which is defined as being able to live outside the mother’s womb, which is considered to be approx. 20 weeks of pregnancy. In other words, you are not a human being until you are able to live without being a parasite. Really- isn’t that what a fetus is? It lives inside your body and feeds off of what you eat. So, it is a parasite until it can live on it’s own outside the womb.

But does it really live outside of the womb? If you have a preemie born at 26 weeks, the odds of it’s survival are low but it is legally human, and the doctors will connect it to all sorts of feeding tubes, place it inside an incubator, etc. It may not be in it’s mothers’ womb, but it certainly isn’t living on it’s own outside of it.

In fact, any baby born before the final weeks or so of the final trimester is pretty much incapable of surviving without medical aid, so it also should be considered non-viable, but it isn’t. Therefore, the viability argument isn’t, well….viable. To be fair, we either have to reverse that decision and say that life begins at conception, or we have to consider a fetus to be non-viable until the, what? late 8th month? early 9th month? I think even those who are staunch RTLer’s would have to admit that aborting a pregnancy that late into it really is “murder.”

Let’s get back to my earlier accusation: the right to choose isn’t about the right to do what you want with your own body, it is the right to be irresponsible. I do not believe in fornication, although before I was “saved” and decided God’s laws are better for me than my own choices, I was all for fornication. Adultery was, for the record, never in my book for my own marriage, but I admit that there had been times, as a single young man, that I did not care about the marriage condition of the woman. Because I have been there and done that, I have earned the right, if you will, to say I don’t believe it is right.

But I also believe, just as strongly, that God gives each of us Free Will so that we can make our own decisions, and although He provided us with the guidance we need to make good decisions (it’s called the Bible), we are still allowed, i.e. given the right, to make our own decisions- good or bad.

But we were never given the right to be irresponsible, and that is what abortion is: the right to be irresponsible. Other than rape or incest, both the woman and the man should be responsible if they are going to copulate. When I say “be responsible” I mean that if they are going to copulate with the aim to create a baby, then go for it. Obviously, in this case, there is no need to use anything designed to prevent contraception. On the other hand, if the sex is for the sex and no baby is desired, then the responsible thing to do is to use some form of contraception.

And I don’t mean “Rhythm”  method (used by most large families) or pre/post-coital contraceptive foam, or IUD’s, or anything that has less than a 99% chance of being effective. And underneath it all, if life happens, they should both be prepared to bring forth the life they create.

And yes- it is a life. Anything that has the ability to reproduce itself is alive, and the moment that zygote splits into 4 cells it is a living organism. There can’t be any reasonable argument that a zygote is not a living organism, so to abort it after conception is, by definition, killing a living organism (at this point everyone jumps in with that “viability” argument.)

I am not sure about abortion even in the case of incest or rape, and the bottom line (for me) is: What does God say about this? In the bible, He never even mentions it. That makes sense, because there was no such thing as abortion in those days. If you were a woman, you were married as a virgin, or you were a prostitute. No in-between.  As a man, if you needed to “sow your wild oats”, you found a prostitute. If she had a kid, that was her problem. Since there is no such thing as abortion in the bible, we don’t have a definitive “Aye or Nay” from the Almighty.

But Steve, God says, “Thou shalt not kill!” What about that? Yes, He does, and that brings us back to the viability argument- does God mean not kill anything, or just not kill another human being? Actually, most of the time that commandment is used, it is in reference to another person. A person who is already born and out of the womb and somewhat grown. Now, if we consider that God doesn’t want us to kill anything living, then what about the sacrificial system? What about the commandments to wipe out every man, woman, child and (even) animals regarding those peoples the Children of Israel were to destroy when they first entered Canaan?

I think that God doesn’t want us to kill another living thing unless it is in accordance with His command. Then the blood guilt is on God, if you will, and not on us. We still need to go through the cleansing procedure outlined in the Torah, but the guilt is not on us. Under this understanding, an abortion is a blood guilt killing. Whether at the moment of conception or whether Mom has just broken water and is dilated at 10 cm., this is a life created by God. We are just the tools He uses to create life, but it is His creation. As He says (more than once) in the bible, God knew us from the womb. I don’t think that means from the time we were in the womb and able to answer His cell phone or able to tweet Him back, but in the womb: whether at 4 weeks or at 34 weeks, God says we are His from the moment we are IN THE WOMB.

For anyone who honors God and His Word, that should answer it. For those who don’t care about what God says, at least regarding abortion, life and fornication, then it falls back to responsibility.

So, bottom line: I don’t believe abortion is right. I accept that people have the right to decide what they want to do with their body, so long as they do not interfere with the rights of others. If a woman and a man copulate, and a pregnancy occurs, then it is their joint responsibility to give that child the same rights that they demand for themselves- the right to do what they want with their own body. Destroying that life denies the child that right. Forget about that viability thing: it is a smoke-screen designed only to form some “Point of No Return” for a legal argument.

If you want to copulate, then copulate. In your marriage, in your co-habitation, or in the backseat of your Chevy with someone you don’t even know the name of. You have a right to make your own decisions about what you do, but do not cry to me about the right to do what you want with your own body, then blatantly deny that right to another life form which isn’t even old enough to make that decision yet.

You DO have the right to do what you want to with your own body, but you don’t have the right to be irresponsible about it. If you make a baby, you need to let that baby grow up so it can have the same rights which you demand for yourself.

prayer spam

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When the Talmudim (Disciples/students) of Yeshua asked Him how they should pray, well….we all know His answer. But do we think about the line that goes, “Give us this day our daily bread…”? Do we think about what He might have meant by that?

Not the P’shat, which means the written word as it is written, but the Drash– the underlying, spiritual meaning.

I believe what Yeshua was saying was that when we pray, we need to ask only for what we need, then and there. Not for success in life, not for riches or fame, not for next week’s presentation to the Board, but for now. Right now, and only right now, and only what I need right now. I also think that God wants our prayers to go to Him, to the Father, to be delivered in the name of the Son. Not to the Son, not to a “Saint” who is supposed to, what? Intercede with Yeshua (Jesus) to intercede with God? Didn’t Yeshua say the ONLY way to the Father is through the Son (John 14:6)?

What does that mean? It means that our prayers are to be sent to the Father in the name of the Son, and not to the Son for Him to bring to the Father. When we pray to anyone, or anything (even worse!) other than God, Himself- God the Father, God the Creator, God the one and only and God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- then we are committing idolatry.

And when we pray to God, do we pray for what we need now, and only what we need now? I have heard people pray, and I believe their prayers are earnest, but they pray for the same thing over and over, they use “Father God” over, and over, and over- the way a “Valley Girl” uses the work “like”- until I have to think that God is saying to Himself, “All right, already- I know who I am! Just ask for what you want and leave all the ‘Father God this’ and ‘Father God that’ out of it! Oy!”

Don’t pray spam to God. He wants to hear from your heart. I have seen people pause during prayer and I can see them start to sweat trying to think of something else to say. If you have nothing more to say, than what you should say is: nothing more. Just stop. Just end the endless stream of useless words and catch-phrases that are supposed to make you sound like Solomon blessing the Temple. That was a long prayer, and it was a really good one. But long doesn’t mean better. How about Moses’ prayer (Numbers 12:13) when Miriam was struck by God with leprosy? Did he go on and on, or did he just say, “Oh Lord- please heal her!”

Moses found those 5 words to be as effective and meaningful as an entire thesis presented by a graduate student in Theology. God doesn’t just see the heart, He hears the heart.

We see someone who is homeless and downtrodden and (usually) think the worst, yet God sees Job during his trials of faith. We see someone who is mentally or physically challenged and thank God it isn’t us, and God sees a caring, faithful and compassionate person who is thankful that no one else they know has the same problems.

The words we use when we pray are not as important as the condition of our heart. When King David prayed for forgiveness in Psalm 51, he said that God will not despise a broken heart and a contrite spirit. It is the condition of our heart that generates prayer pleasing to the Lord; the fancy King James style words we use, the number of times we say “Oh Lord” or “Father God”, or the length of prayer is all totally meaningless. That is only pleasing to humans who know only what they see and hear. People only see the P’shat of the world, and not the Drash of humanity. I think people just pray “spam” when they use fancy words and long, poetic phrases meant to impress the people around them, and I just have to believe that God is thinking, “Your prayer is to Me, but I know the way you are praying is to impress those around you, so let them answer your prayer.”

Remember: when you pray, God already knows what you need. He knows what you want, He knows is best for you, and He will deliver it when He knows the time is right for you. What you say will not influence His decision but what you feel in your heart will.

When you pray remember the advice Yeshua gave His Talmudim in the Gospels- do not worry about what to say because the Ruach (Spirit) will give you what you need. Trust in the Spirit to guide your prayer and don’t pray from your mouth: pray from your heart.

 

 

Too selfish to receive

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‘Tis the season for giving. In Acts (20:35) we are told that Yeshua said it is better to give than to receive, and we also are told in 2 Corinthians (9:6-7) that God loves a cheerful giver. So, it is pretty clear that we should give generously and cheerfully when we give to others.

Being a generous giver means that we give for the love of giving, and for the hope that what we give will help, edify and please the receiver.

The world, however, is not a generous giver- the world teaches us that what we give should be considered as a sampling of what the other person should, sooner or later, give us back.  Maybe that’s why so many give something they want for themselves becasue they hope the receiver will “get the hint”?

On the other hand, that doesn’t explain why fruit cakes get passed around like a hot potato.

What the world teaches us about giving is that when we receive something we need to make sure we give back something of equal or better value. The world teaches us to receive a gift wrapped with a sense of obligation. It is never “cheerful” if you give something with the expectation that you will receive something back. That is not giving- that is called “investing”. You invest some money to get more money back, and you invest some time to receive a benefit greater than the value of the time you invested. However, it is wrong to give a gift in order to receive something similar or better at some later date. If you do, then you are not a cheerful giver: what you are is a sinful, selfish and manipulative louse.

“Hey!! Ease up, Steve!”

Sorry if you feel a little offended, but like it or not, that’s the truth; if it hits home then you need to think about what Yeshua said regarding giving. He should know. After all, He gave His life willingly so that you could have a chance to live with God, eternally. He doesn’t expect you to give your life to Him in exchange out of obligation, but He hopes you do. And not out of obligation, but out of thankfulness and as an opportunity to allow what He did to become useful in your life. He wants you to accept His sacrificice, His gift to you, for your sake and not for His.

Here’s the really hard part for humans, who (as I say above) have been taught by the world that when you receive something you owe something back to the giver: it is very hard for us to receive as generously as we give.

When you receive a gift that you think is disproportionate to your gift, do you feel “guilty”? Do you feel that you did not perform as you should have? Even if the gift you gave is appropriate, useful and appreciated?  If you feel this way, then you are too worried about the world’s view and not about God’s view. You need to “give” the other person gifting you the true joy of giving. You need to “give” the other person the joy that you feel when you give with no expectation of return. You need to accept the gift with the same joy you feel when you give a gift, and not feel any obligation to return anything.

If the other person is upset that you didn’t give proportionate to their gift, or that you didn’t bring them anything at all, then that’s their problem. And if you have been giving gifts to a friend and their children at holiday times and they always have an excuse for not giving you anything, then give them one more gift: give them the guilt-free gift of telling them you don’t give to receive, you give to give and that the only one you want to impress is God by cheerfully sharing the blessings He has given to you with those you care for.

God wants us to share that which He has provided for us. If you have more than someone else has, give them some of what you have that they can use. Give it freely, give it cheerfully, and give it without expectation of receipt. If you give to others without any desire to receive back, you will receive something- you will receive blessings from the Lord.

And let me tell you something- what the Lord will bless you with won’t be found at Macy’s, can’t be ordered from E-Bay, and will never be available on Amazon.  What the Lord will bless you with will be peace of spirit, joy of giving, love of your fellow-man (and woman), and rewards in heaven.

That’s a lot better than free shipping!

What is your heart IQ?

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Intelligence Quotient- that is what IQ means. The test given to assess the intelligence of a person is supposed to measure not just what they know but also their ability to learn. It is essentially your mental age divided by your chronological age, and measures not just what you know, but cognitive abilities, such as memory, attention and speed. It is used to determine one’s potential for success.

Let me tell you, though- intellect and intelligence are not always the same thing:  you could have the highest IQ ever yet act more irresponsibly and idiotically than someone with an average IQ. I am a living example of that.

What is interesting is that intelligence as a function of the brain is a modern thought. In ancient days, the center of intelligence, as well as emotions, was considered to be in the heart.

I have borrowed (and paraphrased) from jewishencyclopedia.com some of their definitions of the Judaic viewpoint of the heart:

It is the seat of the emotional and intellectual life. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. iv. 23), refers to the moral and spiritual as well as the physical life. Animals have simply a sentient heart without personal consciousness or reason.

The three special functions, knowing, feeling, and willing, ascribed by modern psychologists to the mind, were attributed to the heart by the Biblical writers.

In the Book of Daniel intellectual functions are ascribed not to the head only (Dan. ii. 28; iv. 2, 7, 10 [A. V. 5, 10, 13]; vii. 1, 15), but also to the heart (ib. ii. 30).

 The heart is the the seat of the physical organism,  as the seat of all morality and of all moral and spiritual functions

As in the Bible (Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21), the seat of good and evil impulses alike is neither the body nor the soul, but rather the heart (not, of course, the physical organ, but the willing and thinking self)

The heart is also the seat of feeling, of courage, of hatred, of pride, and of deceit. 

As the Seat of the Intellect and the Will: the Midrash renders “an understanding heart” by “wisdom”; and there it is said that God gives Solomon “wisdom and understanding.” 

According to modern science the brain is the center and originator of our emotions, our intelligence and our feelings. Yet, in Judaism (and Islam, too, from what I read) the heart is really the center of the emotional and mental activity.

How many times have we heard…”do what is in your head, not what is in your heart”? And just as often we have been told to do the converse of that statement.

In the bible, this question never appears because the heart is both the center of emotion and intelligence, so we really only need to do what is in our heart, and what should be in our heart is the Lord (D’varim/ Deuteronomy 6:5):

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

This commandment is repeated throughout the Gospels, as well, when the young Pharisee asks Yeshua (Jesus) what is the most important commandment.  The first thing we are to do is to love God with all our heart. I have also seen “with all your mind” added in some translations, which would then mean to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength. In other words, we should love God intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically. 

As our love for God should grow with our understanding of Him, then since the heart is the center of understanding, it stands to reason that the more we love God, the “smarter” our heart will be, and the smarter our heart is the more we can love the Lord with all of it. 

Loving God more lets you become wiser, and becoming wiser lets you love God more- now that’s what I call a synergistic relationship! 

There are plenty of tests to determine our IQ from the modern version, but what test can we take to determine our H-IQ (heart IQ) ? Maybe we already know that answer: it would be in the way that we treat each other and how well we honor God through faithful obedience to His word (Torah) in our everyday lives.

Are you willing to take a H-IQ test? I can’t give it to you; this is a self-test. You need to honestly look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are measuring up, heart-wise, to what God expects of you. And don’t allow false modesty to interfere with an accurate rating- you could be in the top 10%. Is there a spiritual MENSA group out there? Yes, there is- I believe we call them “Saints.”

I am not talking about the Saints in Catholicism: I am talking about what the bible describes as a “saint”, which is one who is holy, one who is separated for God, and one who acts in accordance to God’s will and commandments (found in the Torah.) Shaul (Paul) wrote to “the saints” in many of his letters in the New Covenant, and in the Old Covenant the saints are referred to as the faithful people of the Lord over and over, in Psalms, Chronicles, Job, etc. 

A saint is not someone who the Pope says is a saint; a saint is anyone and everyone who is faithful to the Lord. 

Needless to say, saints have a really high H-IQ.

So what do you think your H-IQ is? Is it high enough for you? Is it high enough for God to be pleased with it?

The good thing about H-IQ is that you can constantly increase it, so why settle for having just another old, normal heart when you can be a Heart-Mensan?


does God ever change His mind?

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Let’s start by remembering who it is I am going to talk about: it’s God. The one and only, the Lord of lords and King of kings, the Everlasting, the One who created everything and everyone. He never slumbers nor does He ever sleep, He remembers, He knows, He is always present and ever lasting. He is the Eternal One.

He is also the same today, yesterday and tomorrow and whatever He wants to do, He does. Whatever He wants done, gets done, and whatever He says is absolutely absolute.

Got it? So, nu? With all that going for Him, does He ever change His mind? Does He say He will do something then decide not to do it? Does He say a thing will happen, but then prevent it? I have often said that what God says will happen is so certain that it is already history. Yet….

He told the Hebrews coming out of Egypt that He would bring them into a land filled with milk and honey, the land He promised Abraham, but they never entered it.

He told Moses He would destroy the Israelites in the desert, yet He didn’t. More than once.

He had Jonah tell the Ninevites they would be destroyed in 40 days, but they weren’t.

He told King Hezekiah (2 Kings, 20) that he was going to die, but instead He added 15 years to his life.

In each of these cases God told someone that He was going to do something, and it didn’t happen. It really does look like God changed His mind.

But He didn’t- what happened was that the conditions upon which God made the decision changed.

The Hebrews coming out of Egypt were brought to the land God promised, but they refused to go in.

God said He would destroy the Israelites and make a nation out of Moses, but Moses refused that option. God was ready, but Moses didn’t want to do it, so the conditions changed.

Nineveh repented of their evil and asked for forgiveness- up to then, they were rebellious and didn’t fear the Lord. They changed the condition of their hearts when they did T’shuvah (repentance), thereby changing the conditions on which God decided their fate.

Hezekiah cried bitter tears and prayed to God to spare him. God didn’t have Isaiah tell the king that God was going to kill him, just that he was going to die. But when Hezekiah cried to the Lord and reminded God (not that God forgot) about all the good he had done, God granted the prayer of the king to live. The king’s prayer to be cured changed the conditions of the situation.

I am sure there are other examples of when something in the bible makes it look like God changed His mind. I submit that God can change His mind, if He wants to. He is, after all, God, and can do whatever the heck He wants to. However, we have to remember that the timeline we live in has no effect or bearing on God- He is above all the laws of physics that we understand. So when God says He will do something, if the conditions for that decision remain unchanged, that something will be done. It may not be done in a straight, chronological line, but it will be done.

The Israelites did come into the land God promised; Nineveh was destroyed for it’s evil; Hezekiah did (eventually) die; and the best part is still yet to come- God will gather all His people from the four corners of the Earth and settle them back in Israel. In fact, that is happening as we speak. Today we see the promise of God’s regathering His people and judging of the nations coming true before our eyes.

We also saw God’s promise to send a Messiah come true, some 2,000 years ago, and that promise is just as alive and active today as it was then. Yeshua (Jesus) is alive, He sits at the right hand of God, and all who accept Him as their Messiah and do T’shuvah will be saved.

Although it seems somewhat contradictory, God’s decisions are based on the conditions at the time He announces them to us, but those conditions can change, henceforth the events based on them change. God doesn’t change, His decisions don’t change, but the conditions can change, causing new decisions to be made.

That means you can be an unrepentant sinner today and are (thereby) condemned to death, but any time you change the conditions of your heart, you change the conditions of God’s decision.

Think about that- you have the potential to change God’s decision! What an awesome thought. All you need to do to change God’s decision is change your attitude, your actions, your heart. If you are evil you are condemned to death, yet if you turn from your evil ways you will be saved. If you are a God-fearing person who decides to apostatize and turn your back on the Lord to do evil, then whatever righteous deeds you had performed will be forgotten and you will die in your sin (Ezekiel 3:20.)

God’s promises are absolute; what God says will happen, will happen; what God wants to be, is. The only thing that changes is you, is me, is us. If we change, then the conditions upon which God has said something will happen will change, and God will make a new decision based on the new conditions.

God’s plan for salvation is like a willow tree in the breeze: it stands firm and will not be moved, but it is able to sway with the wind and bend as it needs to.

God’s plan of salvation is like a ship sailing from one port to another: the beginning and the end are set and unmovable, but the ship may stop at different ports, tack against the wind, or sail around an obstacle while on it’s journey. Those on the ship can stay on board or leave anytime they want to, and those on the land can come aboard any time they want to. The captain has set the destination, and even though the course may be here and there, the ship will arrive where it is going to when the captain wants to be there.

God does not really change His mind, but when the conditions of His decision change He will re-evaluate the situation and make a new decision based on the new condition. You are in total control of the conditions of your life, so make it easy for God to decide to do good for you.

Do sinners go to heaven?

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Geeze, I hope so! Otherwise, I am in BIG trouble!!

Frankly, so are you.

Anyone, and everyone, is a sinner. Whether they commit murder, rob, lie, or just eat ham on Shabbat, they (and we) all are sinners. Adam sinned, Eve sinned, Cain sinned, Nimrod sinned, Enoch (well, maybe not Enoch), and just about everyone else down the line, sinned. Moses was a murderer, King David was more than just a murderer, he was an adulterer who committed murder to cover his crime, Solomon burned his own children to Molech; yet, I don’t think anyone doubts that Moses, King David or Solomon are in heaven.

Look, Yeshua came to earth to die for our sins because we are sinners. DUH! And no one can live a sinless life. As I have said, and will continue to say:

We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.

So, if sinners can go to heaven why bother not sinning? Oy! Now I sound like Shaul (Paul) in his letters. The reason we try to stop sinning is to demonstrate the one thing that separates the sinners who live and the sinners who die- it’s called T’shuvah, which is the Hebrew word meaning “repentance.”

We have the propensity to sin in our DNA, we are born into it, and it is what (in Hebrew) we call the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination. We also have the Yetzer Tov, the Good Inclination, but the Rabbi’s tell us that doesn’t develop until we are old enough to study Talmud and Torah (unfortunately, that is often the order the Orthodox take. I think it should be the other way around), so we all start out with sin in our hearts.  We are all sinners, who continue to sin.

Again, the difference is not who sins and who doesn’t, but who doesn’t want to anymore!  I have another saying you might have heard me repeat (often):

Before I was saved I was a sinner who rationalized my sins; now I am a sinner who regrets my sins.

Yeshua (Jesus) came to earth, stripped Himself of His divine nature and took on a mantle of flesh, specifically so that He could act as the substitute for us, to take on the penalty for sin that we deserve. He gave up eternal divinity so that we could have eternal life. But, if being sinless (as He was) is the condition for salvation, then it was all a waste because no one can be sinless. It would have been just plain stupid for Him to give up what He did if we have to be sinless to avail ourselves of His sacrifice.

Let me tell you something you probably already know: God and Yeshua?  they ain’t stupid!

The difference is simple- if you have truly accepted God’s grace through Yeshua, have accepted the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) and live every day in order to die to self, then you will have done T’shuvah, you will regret your sins, you will  live to sin less, and thereby you will be able to spend eternity in the presence of God. That is really what heaven is- eternally in God’s presence.

On the other hand, even if you call on the name of the Lord but do not change your attitude towards sin, if you say you’re a good person because you don’t kill and lie but you cheat on your taxes and fail to give to the poor or tithe, and if you constantly try to get away with explaining your sins as OK because Jesus died for you, then you are going to be very, VERY sadly disappointed when you come before the Throne of God (as we all will); because, when God starts to read off your sins and you turn to the right hand of God and scream,

“Yo! J-man! How you be? Get me outta here, ‘K?”

I am afraid you will only hear Yeshua say, “Get thee away from me- I know you not.”

We all sin, and yes- sinners do get to go to heaven (we can discuss another time that we really don’t go to heaven- read Revelations) as long as they are repentant sinners who have fruits of righteousness they can present to the Lord. We are told never to come before the Lord empty handed, and at Judgement what we bring will not be the blood of goats or rams, but the fruits of the Spirit we have developed, the execution stakes we picked up when we decided to follow Yeshua, and the good works we did in spite of the iniquity within us.

Yes, Virginia- there is a heaven for sinners, but only those sinners who constantly sin less because they are faithfully obedient to God.

Do you purr for God?

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I have two cats, Shadow and Bowtie. Both males, both fixed (why do we say they are “fixed” when what we did is to make sure it doesn’t work anymore?), and both with different personalities. Shadow is an nudge, always crawling on the newspaper when we are reading it, always moaning at 0330 in the morning (it’s a miracle he is still alive!),  and Bowtie is the one who is the “good son”.

The other day I was petting Shadow and he started to purr. I did the same with Bowtie later in the day, and realized how often I do this. Yes, obviously they have me well trained, but here’s the interesting part: when I pet them and do good things for them, their purr tells me they appreciate what I am doing for them, and I start to purr. Not audibly, but in my heart. I like hearing them tell me how much they like what I do for them.

Then it struck me- God must also feel good when we tell and show Him how much we appreciate what He does for us.

I am not saying that God sees us as pets, but what He does for us is wonderful, and when we show that appreciation I just have to believe that he feels as good as I do, if not better, then when I hear Bowtie or Shadow purring as I do good things to them.

We don’t sacrifice lambs or bulls to show God our appreciation anymore because the Temple is gone, but we can sacrifice in other ways to show how thankful we are. We can sacrifice our time to help others through volunteering; we can sacrifice our income through charitable contributions to those organizations we know are really doing God’s work (so many charities seem to be doing good when you see their TV ads, but you need to be as wise as the Sages of old when giving to charities- make sure it is legit); we can also sacrifice our work time to be with family more often.

Yeshua told us that whatever we do to our brothers, we do to Him. And I don’t think He meant just fellow Believers; I think Yeshua and God want us to be kind and compassionate to anyone and everyone, whether they are a Believer or not.

So, nu? Do you purr for God? Do you show Him how much you appreciate all He has done, is doing, and has planned to do for you? It is all for your good, trust Him, and even when He throws you into the fire, it is to designed to make you (come out) more purified than before.

I challenge you all to think of one way you can “purr for God” today. Do something that you know will please the Lord- it doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be honest and heartfelt and thankful. God loves a cheerful giver, and He is pleased when we do what is right, so go out there and purr loud and strong for God today.