Category: A Drash to Start the Day

God loves you enough to punish me

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And God loves me enough to punish you, too.

Sounds a little backwards, doesn’t it? If God loves you, why punish me? To me the answer is very simple to understand- God is just and true, dependable, and righteous. That means, despite how much He loves every one of us, He will do as He says He will do when it comes to the unrepentant and sinful at Judgment Day.

I get really sick to my stomach when I hear people who talk about God only in terms of His love. Yes, love is important, and yes, love is what we are to do to each other, and yes, God is love.

But He is also righteousness, He is also truth, He is also very hard to follow in a world that hates and rejects not just Him, but all those who follow Him. Yeshua said to follow Him we must give up everything that we have held dear, even those things that we were raised with, people we know and love, but are sinful . Sin is very comfortable and fits us like a glove, whereas righteousness needs an expert tailor to make it feel (at least) wearable.  Love helps to overcome, but it doesn’t overcome everything.

I think the people who only want to talk about God as love, loving everyone and every single thing, and their discussion always comes down to how God loves us are probably enablers in their own lives. Love is not acceptance of wrongdoing; love is not acceptance of sin; love is not acceptance of improper behavior.  Do you think Yeshua showed “love” when He made a whip of cords and drove out the businessmen from the Temple courts? Did they feel the love? And what about when God sent fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah? Or the fire that destroyed the (total of) 100 men who came after Elijah?

Or the death of Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts? And the way Yeshua talked to the Pharisees? Insulting them, calling them “white-washed sepulchers?” Was that a term of endearment?

God is totally just and His love is truly remarkable, but that isn’t all He is about. He is about zealousness for His laws, determination to live as He says and not as the world demands, and strength and honesty. God is not about lovey-dovey dreck: He is a strong and glorious God who is about truth, devotion, faithful obedience, and love. But love for what is right also makes Him a jealous and fearful God! God is love, all right, but not human “mamby-pampy everything is love, you are love, I am love, God is love, love love love, love is all you need” kind of love.

God is about the hard love that brings people into righteousness.

I accept God as my God, I accept Yeshua as the Messiah God sent to us, and I also accept that love is the keystone of salvation, but it is not the whole building. There is also the need for punishment for those who reject God. If we can’t trust God to punish the wicked, we can’t trust Him to reward the righteous. It’s that simple- God is totally binomial: right or wrong, truth or lie, just or unjust. If you notice, throughout the bible when God gives us a commandment, those who violate it first are punished most severely, and it seems that later on people catch a break. In Numbers we read how the man that gathered sticks on Shabbat, right after God said do not work, was stoned to death, but in Ezra’s day they bought and sold on Shabbat and no one was killed for it. Yes, it was a bit later, but God is the same today, tomorrow and yesterday, so His laws are just as important today and tomorrow as they were yesterday.  God’s mercy, which comes from His love, prevented us from totally destroying ourselves. He gave us His laws and when we first violated them His punishment was swift and terrible, but as we continued to violate His laws His mercy showed (mercy from love) in His tolerance for our wrongdoing. But that didn’t stop Him from punishing Shomron and dispersing His people throughout the world, and it didn’t stop Him from destroying His own house and nearly destroying Judea.

The ultimate sign of His love was sending Yeshua, His only begotten Son, to die so that we can be absolved of our own sinfulness.

God’s love for us doesn’t override His punishment for those that don’t love Him back, and I don’t think that He expects us to allow sin in our lives or to accept sin from others. We are to be holy, meaning separated, from the society of the world. We are to hate the sin, and love the sinner. But not love them to the point where we accept what they do in the name of love- we are to reject the sinner who continues to sin. We are to ostracize those who sin, even our own brothers and sisters. Those who plow and look back are not fit for the kingdom of God, so said Yeshua, which means we must go forth and not cling to the past. Our past is sin, our present is grace, and our future is salvation- as long as we walk the walk.

Love is fine, love is good, and as Shaul said, without love, I/you/we are nothing. But love doesn’t conquer all: sin is not acceptable, ever. Love the people in your life, even though they are sinners, but make it clear that their sin is not acceptable and if they refuse to stop sinning in your presence, then vomit them out of your life. Not right away, not without trying to save them, and not every single one of them because even Believers sin. I can’t draw a line in the dirt for you telling you exactly when you should reject someone and when you keep trying to save them; you need to determine that on your own with the guidance of the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit.)

What I am trying to say is that love is fine and love is wonderful, but it may be the alpha and omega, but there is plenty of stuff in between, and we need to recognize all the factors that go into living a righteous life. If we want to live as Yeshua lived we need to understand this: It ain’t easy being Him!

Pet Peeves

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Sometimes you just have to wonder how we ever got this far as a species.

I love the word puzzles in the morning- they get my brain started. Today a word puzzle had the answer , “Good mothers have sticky floors, dirty ovens and (happy kids).” Really? I thought the main thing a parent was to do was to prepare their children for independence, teach them to be able to care for themselves as well as their family. Good mothers don’t have to sacrifice cleanliness and respect for property just to have happy children, do they?

In a previous life I owned a 2-bedroom condo, and I asked who I was married to at that time to please clean it once a week (she stayed at home with our daughter, who was only 2 at the time) because the dog hairs would get all over my clothes (I was a Bank Officer, so dog hairs covering my legs was not acceptable.) That was it- please vacuum the 895 sq ft or so once a week. I was told (and I quote), “What do you want? A clean house or a wife that loves you?” I was amazed, because I never realized that these things were self-exclusionary! I can be loved or I can have a clean house, but not both.

We need to raise our children to be loving, competent, respectful, compassionate AND able to clean up after themselves! Cleanliness doesn’t have to be sacrificed to be a good parent or spouse. Proverbs says that if we raise a child in the way he should go he will return to it. And the bible does NOT say if we spare the rod we spoil the child: what Proverbs says is that if we do not discipline our children we condemn them to death! Good parents do not condemn their children to death.

Another thing- I saw an article the other day about alcoholism, but they don’t call it that anymore. Now it’s AUD – Alcohol Use Disorder. It’s not so much a disease (having a disease is bad), it’s really just a disorder. By softening the name of a thing it seems to make the thing less our fault. It’s all part of that “Not really my fault” attitude that makes our kids irresponsible and our lives less meaningful. When you think everything that happens to you is someone else’s fault, you are really telling yourself you have no control over your actions and that means you have no hope to be happy. Your problems are from someone else and so your happiness must, as well, come from someone else. You can’t be happy on your own. Hopeless, useless, just a leaf blowing in the wind. Not a good way to live, is it?

What’s next? Serial killers will say they have RMD (Random Murder Disorder)? Transsexuals will have NGSD (Native Gender Specific Disorder)?  Career criminals can say they suffer LPOD (Legal Property Ownership Disorder)? Those who are infected with the pandemic of not being politically correct, bigoted and ignorant can fall under the banner of suffering from SABD (Socially Acceptable Behavior Disorder)?

Let’s just call it what it is and face the music about what we do and say. Yeshua told us that our ‘yes’ should be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ should be ‘no’, because anything else is from the evil one. That’s a strong statement- if we don’t face the music and be honest with ourselves and others, we are essentially doing Satan’s work.

Does your company have quarterly “Kudos”? We do- every quarter the managers make up kudos about their people, and we also have attitude awards where you say I did something really special this time and next time I will say you did something really special. Forced recognition of others, just to say,  “Look at how wonderfully we treat our employees.”

I won’t say what that is called, but you can plant flowers in it.

I have been in management most of my life and understand the value of recognizing good work. I also understand how forcing people to say good things about others undervalues recognition. People today generally have this attitude of, “I show up every day, usually on time, I usually don’t leave early, and I do the minimum I am supposed to do, usually without problems. I deserve a merit raise!” Huh? It’s called a merit raise because it is supposed to be earned by doing meritorious work- that doesn’t mean just doing what you are supposed to do. That means regularly, and effectively, doing more than what is expected from you. Here’s what Yeshua says about meritorious raises for just doing what you are supposed to do (Luke 17:7-10):

Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’

If you want a raise then earn it- just like John Houseman said in the old Smith Barney commercials about how they make money: “We earn it!” If you want a raise or a promotion, then do more than anyone else does so you can earn it! It shouldn’t, and most of the time isn’t, just given out.  I am pretty sure everyone reading this (both of you) know people who have received a promotion by simply being around long enough to get it – do you really think they were qualified for it?

The only thing you can get without earning it (in fact, you can’t earn it) is salvation. And even salvation, free as it is, requires you to work for it to keep it (search this site for ‘losing salvation’ to see why I say that.)

There are so many social and political ills in the world, and America isn’t the only country with them. Every country, everywhere, has the same problems because we all have one thing in common that we cannot escape- we are all human. If we did what God wants from us things would be so much better, and even though we will fail at times, by trying and keeping at it we can be better. God has given us all the answers we need for anything and everything that we have to deal with in the world, and He also provided for us the means to have eternal joy after we leave this lousy place. But we need to take stock of ourselves, be honest with ourselves and others, let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no’, and even more important than that, we need to know when to say yes and when to say no. To do that correctly, constantly, requires more insight and understanding than most humans have, inherently. That’s where the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) helps- it is our comforter because it guides us and helps us find the correct decisions to those hard questions. And, not only does it give us the strength to make them, but also the strength and perseverance to abide by them.

I am ranting here, and my rants may be a little under-researched, I may not understand completely the reasons for some of these things, and I may be way off the mark on others but I know, absolutely, that the bible has all the answers we need, and that faith in God will provide us the wisdom to accept what the proper answers are, and strengthen us to do what is right.

The world thinks it has all the answers, and it does- only it’s answers are wrong.

salvation received is not salvation guaranteed

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Many people are taught that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. That’s accurate but not absolute.  God will forgive us if we ask for it, and prove we mean it by doing T’shuvah (turn from sin), which will be to live our life showing that we reject sin, accept Yeshua as our Savior and follow the leading of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) as our guide and comforter.

Otherwise, the salvation God is willing to grant us will be lost- not taken away (no one can take away that which God has given you), but thrown away.

Let’s look at the warnings in the Bible about this:

Hebrews 6:4-6   For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

2 Peter 2:20-22  For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

James 5:19-20   My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Matthew 24:10  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other

These warnings against falling away from the truth and the way clearly state that these people had known the Lord and were “saved” but chose to return to their sinful life.

Too often people are taught that once you are saved, you are always saved. And that is true, but only from the perspective that God will forgive you when you ask in Yeshua’s name. But that is not the end of it- it is only the beginning. When a slate is wiped clean, there is nothing on it. But when we come before God we are not to come before Him empty handed (Exodus 23:15 and again in Deuteronomy 16:16). As such, the slate He has wiped clean with the blood of Messiah Yeshua better have some real good writing on it (i.e., works of faith) when we bring it back to the Lord at Judgment Day. Look to the parable of the servants given talents by their master (Matthew 25:14-30.) The one who did nothing with what he had been given was not allowed into the master’s joy- he was thrown out into the darkness.

Yes, we are saved when we call on the Lord, when we ask for forgiveness in Yeshua’s name, and when we truly do T’shuvah. We are forgiven our sins, thus “saved” from them, but we are just starting the journey to salvation. It is a long and hard road, treacherous and difficult to stay on. And if we lose our way we may be lost, forever. The Ruach HaKodesh is our GPS system, but if we neglect the “Turn right in a quarter mile” when we hear it, often enough, we will become totally lost. And when that happens, as is human nature, we will deny it was our fault and blame the GPS for not giving us the right information.

What is your GPS? Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it a religious leader, like a Rabbi or Priest or Pastor? Is it some self-help guru? Is it a “fad” religion?  There is only one true, reliable and proven GPS for salvation: God’s Word. And I mean the entire bible, which is Genesis through Revelations. Heck- you should even take a look at the maps at the end, just to make sure you don’t miss anything!

Salvation is promised by God to those who ask for it, but it is then our job to use His gift, to give Him back more talents than He gave us, and to have useful writing on the slate He cleared when we come before Him. James said faith without works is dead (James 2:14) so don’t kill yourself right after God gives you back your life.

One last parable to show salvation received is not salvation guaranteed is the parable about the spirit that was removed and then returned with 7 other spirits (Luke 11:24); again this demonstrates, unquestionably, that a person who has been “cleansed” can still be made “dirty” again if that person just does nothing with the gift he or she has been given. So make sure that you write on your slate, that you invest your talents, that you do not leave your house empty- make sure you use the gift of salvation or you will find yourself in the same place those who we read about in Matthew 7:22-23.

Will Rogers once said:

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Please- don’t sit on your salvation.

free Will or predestination?

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I was reading (in the New Covenant writings) some of the Epistles to the Messianic Communities in the Diaspora this weekend and noticed how Shaul (Paul) and Kefa (Peter) write in a way that seems to indicate God has predestined those who will be saved.

We have Ephesians 1:5 (“Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,…“) and Romans 8:29-30 (“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”)

Even in Psalm 139: 16 it says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

There are other verses in the Bible that seem to indicate we were chosen beforehand, that we are the elect, the special ones who have found favor, yadda-yadda-yadda. It got me wondering if there really is something to the idea of predestination, which says God has already made His decision about who will go and who will not.

But then I came to my senses. I thought that if we are predestined, then the prayers for my children, and everyone else’s prayers for those who are not saved to be saved, are useless. The divine commission to make disciples is a waste of time because those who are chosen will become disciples without us and those who are rejected , well, tough luck! Why waste my breath, why “kick against the goads”  to make Believers out of non-believers if those who are to be will be and those who are not to be are already screwed?

Ridiculous, isn’t it?  All these verses don’t mean that an individual is chosen and another individual is rejected, it means that God has formed the way for everyone to find salvation through Messiah Yeshua. It means that what He has done is to choose life for us and provide the means for us to take hold of it.

In Ezekiel 18 God says that he doesn’t want anyone to die and that He wishes all sinners would turn from their sin, and live. God isn’t a liar, so if He wants people to turn from their sins, then he must have made it possible for us to make our own decisions about what we do or don’t do.

Ergo: Free Will.

Another argument for free will is that God owns everything, He is in control of everything (although that doesn’t mean He does control everything- He can, but He chooses what to control and what to leave alone) and yet, there is one thing that He cannot control or have unless we give it to Him: our love, faithfulness and obedience. If we have the ability to choose to give God our love and faith, then we have the ability to choose to reject Him.

Ability to choose is called Free Will.

Next time you run into a Calvinist, or anyone who says that God has predetermined or predestined those who will be saved, enlighten that person with Ezekiel 18 and the above argument for free will. You can even throw this in, if it comes down to it: if God has chosen who will be saved and who won’t, then why did He need to send Messiah Yeshua to die for our sins?  After all, those chosen are already in and those rejected have no chance, so why provide a means through which your fate can be changed?  If your fate is sealed before you are born, then why tell us that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved?

Without free will, this whole Messiah “thing” makes absolutely no sense.

God has given us free will: it was evident in the Garden, it is clear throughout the history of the Jewish people and the writings of the New Covenant. It is clear from the many times God has stated through the Psalms and the prophets that He wants us to turn from our sin so that we can live. Why ask us to turn if He has already decided?

I’ll tell you who really doesn’t want you to have free will- religion. That thing called “religion” is dogmatic, stoic, and enabling. It doesn’t want you to think, it wants you to follow. It doesn’t want you to question, it wants you to obey, blindly. It doesn’t want you to decide for yourself what is the truth, it wants you accept without question what it tells you is the truth.

God has no religion, only rules. He tells us how to worship Him, and how to treat each other. And we have the right, the God-given right, to decide for ourselves if we will do what God says or not.

Free will is a two-edged sword: it cuts both ways. Do as God says and the world will hate you, do as the world says and you have to reject God (He still loves you, but His judgment will be righteous.) So, whatever you choose, understand that it is your choice. If you choose to do what you are told by religion, without question or investigation, that is a choice.

We all have been given free will to make out own choice- better make sure it’s the right one!

Parashah Tzav (Order) Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36

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This parashah covers sacrifice and ordination rules, but that is not what I want to talk about today.

The Torah is more than just a “book”- it is a narrative (that archaeological discoveries are proving to be historically accurate), it is a Ketubah (marriage certificate) between God and His people, it is a national constitution which outlines and sets the foundation for a nation, and it is a penal code.

It also tells us who God is, who we are, how this all started and how it will all end.

Leviticus is the most legalistic (if I may use that word) book of the Torah. In this book we are told all the laws, commandments, regulations, and ordinances that we must obey in order to receive the blessings of God and salvation. It separates the Jews from the Gentiles, sin from righteousness and death from salvation. Although Torah is often misinterpreted to mean “Law” when it really means “Teaching”, Leviticus is a very legal book. It not only covers laws regarding sacrifice, but also health code, restitution for theft and negligence, penal codes outlining the punishments for these crimes (which, by the way, was at that time the most humane of all penal codes) and generally how we should treat each other.

Too many Christian teachings are that the Torah is not valid for Christians, but how can they say that when Torah outlines how human beings are supposed to live together? Does the blood of Jesus Christ overrule common decency? Does the sacrifice of the Messiah mean that we don’t have to obey laws? Does the promise of salvation through Jesus’s death mean that we can ignore everything else God told us to do?

I don’t think so! Christians are always saying, “Do as Jesus did” but there are almost none who do. Hey! Get with the program, Folks- what Jesus did was to follow the Torah! He kept every single commandment, and (like it or not) He also taught everyone else to keep every single commandment. That’s right- He never once preached anything against or in lieu of Torah.

Jesus is called the Living Word, is He not? Well, what “word” do you think He is? Torah! That was the only “word” that existed, that was the “word” He taught from, that was the “word” He taught about, and that is the “word” He was. Jesus was Torah in the flesh.

Yeshua (that’s Jesus’s real name, in case you didn’t know) also said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If that is true, and He is the Living Torah, then for Him to preach or teach or even suggest doing anything against or in opposition to all that is in the Torah would be preaching against Himself, and if that is what He did then His kingdom cannot stand.

But that can’t be, because His kingdom will always stand, our words will fade away but His words will never fade away, and He built His kingdom on a rock (Kefa) that the gates of Hell cannot overpower.

Read Isaiah 40:8; read Daniel 2:44; Read 1 Peter 1:25; for that matter, read any part of the Bible where it talks about the kingdom of God and you will see that God will place all kingdoms under the feet of the Messiah, and that he will rule forever.

It is impossible for us humans to be perfect according to the Torah. That is why Yeshua had to do what He did, so that we could have this eternal “Get Out of Jail Free” card. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the Torah. The Torah is where God tells us how He wants us to live: how we are to worship Him, how we are to treat each other, what is good for us, what is not good for us, and how to live long, fruitful, and joyful lives.

Why would anyone want to ignore that?

If you have been told that you are saved by the Blood of Jesus and that the Jews are saved by their Torah, you have been led down the path to destruction. Torah is for everyone and everyone who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not to mention accept His son, Yeshua, as their Messiah and Savior, is required to honor and follow the way God says we should live, which is (you guessed it!) in the Torah.

Here is the Torah, in a nutshell:

  • Genesis and Exodus take us from the beginning of existence to God giving us His rulings and instructions regarding how we are to worship Him and live together.
  • Leviticus specifies and explains those instructions.
  • Numbers is the historical narrative of the things that happened while in the desert
  • Deuteronomy is a recap of everything up to just before they enter the Land God promised, ending with the promise of the Messiah to come.

Read Leviticus. It is somewhat long, a little boring in parts (I can’t believe how many different things that skin disease can infect) and very detailed, but it is important to know because, well, it is what God tells us to do. It is what Moses did, it is what the Prophets did, it is what (most of) the Kings of Judah did, and it is what Yeshua did.

And it is what we should do, too!

Do sinners go to heaven?

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I certainly hope so! If not, all of us are in BIG trouble!

The real question is: do unrepentant sinners go to heaven?  I think I can safely say the answer to that question is: NO! Not a chance. Not happening. Close the door on your way out.

Sin is part of our nature, it is the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination, we are all born with. Call it Original Sin, call it whatever you want to, but, as the Bard of Avon said, “What’s in a name?” Any way you look at it, we are, all of us, sinful in nature, sinful in actions and thoughts, and the only difference between me being a sinner before I was saved and me being a sinner now that I am saved is that now I am saved, AND (that’s a big “a-n-d”) I am repentant. I sin, but I don’t want to sin. My actions do not match my attitude.

Shaul said it in Romans 7:15 when he confessed, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

For those who have Yeshua Ha Maschiach at their side, as their Intercessor and Arbiter with the Lord when we come before Him at Judgment Day, we are saved from our sins when we repent of them and call upon His blood to cleanse us from them.

It is not the sin as much as it is the willful act of sinning which separates us from God.

God tells us through the Prophets, over and over, that He is more concerned with the desire of our hearts than He is for sacrifices.

Check out these few examples:

Isiah 1:11- 1:20, ” The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!  Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless;   plead the case of the widow. ‘Come now, let us settle the matter’, says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

1 Samuel 15:22,  “But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

Proverbs 21:3, “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”

Hosea 6:6, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Get it? It’s all about obedience- not from fear of death or destruction, but from fear of the Lord, as in respect, honor, faithful trusting, and love. That is what God wants of us, that is what He desires, and that is the only thing that we can give Him. God owns everything there is in the Universe, and what isn’t here now He can create. What He can’t have without us giving it to Him is our love, our obedience and our trust. These are the really important things to God.

Accepting Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah, as your Savior, confessing Him to be the Son of God, all that is good so long as you mean it.  And the only way to show you mean it is to change your behavior by changing your attitude. Only good trees provide good fruit, and your fruit better be good if you intend to present it to the Lord.

There is an old Jewish proverb: You can’t stop a bird from landing in a tree, but you can keep it from building a nest there. In other words, we will not be able to stop that initial reaction, that first thought, what we think at the first glance, but we can control what happens after that.

Yes, sinners go to heaven. And sinners that are really saved are changing their attitude. They are overcoming, slowly but surely, their Yetzer Hara and maturing and strengthening their Yetzer Tov (Good Inclination) so that their obedience to God’s Torah is from their heart.

God wants us to want to obey Him from desire to please Him. Yes, obedience brings blessings, and there ain’t nothing wrong with receiving blessings! But that’s not what it is really about.

God can have anything and everything He wants without anything from us, except our obedience and love. Tithe, do Tzedakah, give of your time to those in need and you are doing to God that which pleases Him.

 

Stuff happens

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One of my coworkers has to deal with his wife passing away, suddenly. They are barely 40, and he has two young, low-functioning autistic children.

When such tsouris happens, we have to think about why. Is this a judgment from God? Is it an attack from the enemy? Is it just plain lousy luck?

I choose to believe that it is all of those things. God judged Adam and Eve, so yes- living in a fallen and cursed world where stuff happens is a judgment from God. And since the enemy attacks those who do God’s work on the earth, yes- it may have been that (although neither of them are Believers.) And does it just happen to people because these things just happen to people? Yes, of course.

Stuff happens.

God is in control of everything, but that doesn’t mean He does control everything. He is not a micro-manager.  We live in a fallen and cursed world, and we sin. Many times, I would like to think most of the times, we sin because of our nature and not because we want to. I have said this many times:

I used to be a sinner that rationalized my sins; now I am a sinner who regrets my sins. Bottom line: I am still a sinner.

But that’s not everyone, and where sin is concerned, I believe there is always, always, always…collateral damage. The sinner isn’t the only one who suffers. In this physical plane of existence, we all suffer the sins of those around us.

Jews suffered the sins of Hitler (along with a lot of other religions); Jim Jones was a mass murderer, and the masses he killed (his own followers) suffered because of his sin; thousands suffered from the sins of the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center. I could go on and on and on- just read the newspaper. Every single day, hundreds (if not thousands) of people who are innocent suffer because of the sins of others.

If you walk through a cow field, don’t expect to reach the other side with clean shoes. No matter how carefully you watch your step, you will step into something, sooner or later. And probably more than once.

That’s how life is in a cursed and fallen world. It sucks to be here, but there’s no where else to go right now. Of course, we could be with the Lord, but if you want to serve the Lord you can’t really do it when you are with Him- His work isn’t finished here on the earth so we who serve Him must remain here. That was the problem Shaul had (Philippians 1:21), and it’s the same one we all have, too- we want to be with the Lord but the Lord needs us serving Him here.

The good news is this: we who are Believers will be with the Lord, and when we are it will be for all eternity. The lousy lot we are stuck with here on earth is temporary. Yakov (James) says it is like a mist; this life that we suffer through. It seems to take forever, but it will be such a short memory throughout eternity we will barely even notice it. It will be as nothing once we are with the Lord, so suffer through it and be patient. As Shaul advises: keep your eyes on the prize.

Be compassionate, be loving, expect to have problems. You will. But don’ let them get you down. There will be people who harm you, physically and emotionally. Don’t let them hurt your spirit.

There will be people who hurt themselves, people you care about, and it will make you suffer to see them hurting themselves. Try to help them by showing them how much you care, and by treating them with understanding, but still maintaining a firm resolution to let them know that what they are doing to themselves is unacceptable, and that it hurts you. Ultimately, it is their choice to change or remain as they are, just as it is our choice to suffer with them or leave them to their own devices. Even Shaul, who said without love he is nothing, gave up on some people at times and had nothing further to do with them.

We all make choices, whether we want to or not; for instance, abstaining is not making a decision one way or the other, but it is, in and of itself, a decision. We always have a choice, and we always make a choice.

And we will be accountable for the choices we make. Like it or not, that’s the way it is. Get with the program.

I feel for my co-worker, I can’t begin to understand the stresses he is feeling. I am glad we work for a compassionate and family-oriented company who will work with him during this devastating time in his life. I also wonder how I will deal with the loss of Donna, if she should go first. I don’t think anyone who knows of someone suffering the loss of a loved one doesn’t immediately reflect on their losses, too. Life and death are natural to us; in fact, it’s to be expected, and even though we all know everyone will die sooner or later (hopefully later), it still feels like a punch in the stomach when it happens to someone we care about.

The worst thing there is, to me, is losing a loved one who has refused to accept Messiah Yeshua- that is the real loss. It’s bad enough losing the person’s company, but to know what that person is going to have to deal with when the Acharit haYamim (End Days) are done and the final judgment comes to us all, well- that is the most painful part of all.

The best thing to remember when someone close to you suffers a loss is that you need to let them know you are there for them, especially since everyone else is probably shoving their own losses down the poor persons throat. That’s what we do: we share our grief with people who are grieving, in the hope that we make them feel less alone. Trust me- they don’t feel as alone in their grief anywhere near as much as they feel like telling you to shut up!

Pray for people who are suffering, hold their hand, comfort them with silence, and when you talk with them tell them how much you loved and will also miss the one they lost. Honor the life of the lost person, and don’t share your losses. This person has enough loss- they don’t need yours, too. Talk with them normally because what they need is normality.

The loss of a loved one is hard, it is different, and it tears you out of reality. We need to comfort people suffering a loss by bringing reality back, just enough to make them feel comfortable, just by being a friend who is there.

Stuff happens; however, knowing that doesn’t make it feel any better when it does. All I can say is thank God I have God to help me though it.

 

Does God change His mind?

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Yes, He does. How can anyone say He doesn’t?

He changed His mind when Abraham asked Him to spare Sodom and Gemorrah if He found just 10 honest men there. He changed His mind when He allowed the enemy to harass Job (first it was don’t touch Job, then He allowed Job to be touched.) He changed His mind when He sent Jonah to Ninevah (after they repented). He changed His mind about destroying the Israelites after their sin with the Golden Calf.

And that’s just off the top of my head. I’ll wager I could find a few more times He changed His mind.

But then how are we to trust in salvation? If God changes His mind about those things then He can change His mind about His gift of salvation, too, right?

Of course He can…but He won’t. How can I be so sure? Not because of the fact that God changes His mind about things, but because of which things He changes His mind about.

God never has gone back on His word regarding the good things He has done for us: He has honored His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; to Moses,; to David; to Solomon, etc. and so on and so on.

As the Psalm says, His love endures forever. Fortunately, His anger doesn’t.

God changes His mind (sometimes) about destruction and punishment. Even when he continues through with His righteous and just punishment/judgment, He does so with mercy and compassion. It is always (and only) with regard to judgment and punishment that God has changed His mind. Everything else He says He will do, He does. Everything else He said He would provide, He has provided. Everything else He says He will make happen, He has made happen.

We can trust God totally to do whatever good He has said He will do for us, and also hope eternally that He will be merciful and flexible regarding His judgments upon us, all of which we always deserve.

There is nothing wrong about changing our minds, and (in truth) the people who don’t change their minds are the ones not to trust. I once read that good managers are the ones that can make decisions quickly and change them slowly, and bad managers take a long time to make a decision, and then change their minds quickly.

God is certainly a good manager. He has changed His mind only for certain times when He said He would punish the sinners, but never about the promises He has made regarding our land, salvation or His protection and love. And absolutely NEVER about anything in the Torah. The followers of Replacement Theology should remember that next time they profess that God has abandoned the Jewish people. Hasn’t happened, ain’t happening now, and ain’t evah gonna happen.

Those who are repentant, have accepted Messiah Yeshua as their Messiah and who have done T’shuvah in their heart will receive all those good promises about salvation; so long as they maintain their proper attitude and continue to worship God as He said we should, continue to move forward spiritually in maturity, constantly working towards the goal.

Don’t be concerned that God has changed His mind about judgement- He will judge the unrighteous and unrepentant as they deserve, and even they might still receive mercy. Not absolution, not getting off free, but merciful judgment. And those who are faithfully obedient and continue to work towards the goal will be rewarded with every good promise God has made about salvation.

You can bank on it because that’s how God rolls.

 

Leaders need to lead

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Isaiah says that we are all like sheep, easily led astray to do evil. We are also just plain, easily led stray.

People want to be led, not to lead. Oh, they want to be in charge, all right- everyone wants to be able to talk and have everyone else listen. But that sort of authority comes at a price- you have to be responsible for what they all do and for what happens when they do it. It’s all on your head when you are in charge.

I think that’s why people want to be led- no responsibility, no blame, no worries.

Also no hope, no control and nowhere to go but were you’re told to go.

There can not be a lot of leaders- we all know that old expression, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”, and we certainly don’t want our broth to spoil. But, we do need leadership in our lives, and in our churches and synagogues. Leadership is what moves us, what keeps us motivated, and what causes change.

Oy! Wait a minute! I am all for leaders moving and motivating us, but change? That’s a dirty word- I just want things to stay the same. I’m comfortable, I am happy, I know what to expect.

Do you know what the word is for something that doesn’t change? Stagnation.

Will Rogers once said that even if you are on the right track, if you just sit there you’re bound to get run over. Change is how we survive, and if the leadership isn’t willing to create change, then that church or synagogue is already an endangered species. And if there isn’t an inflow of new ideas and actions, it will become extinct.

Change is the main responsibility of leadership. Management and leadership are two sides of the same coin- but they are drastically different in their purpose. Leadership is moving, dynamic, and flexible whereas management is supposed to keep everything stable while the leadership is shaking everything up. It is a very special sort of dance, and when the partners are working together as a team, it is beautiful.

Is your church or synagogue changing? Is it growing? Is it offering you something exciting and new, while maintaining those things that shouldn’t change, such as worship, teaching the word and being responsive to the congregation? Not to forget missionary ministry. You can’t grow if you aren’t finding new members.

If not, then either offer yourself to help or find some place that does these things. If your leadership isn’t really leading, then it’s following. And since those who follow don’t ask questions, you might be being led into a hole. Remember that Yeshua told us when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into a hole.

Keep your eyes open, be compassionate and understanding, but also be aware that if your leadership isn’t leading, then you need to get them on the ball or you need to go somewhere where there is leadership.

There is nothing wrong with questioning leadership. It is not disrespectful, it is not impudent; in fact, it is the responsibility of every member of an organization to keep their leadership in line and accountable.

Join in and help your leadership- there are plenty of sheep, so be a ram. At least, be a sheep that will question where you are being led.

When it comes down to it, we will all be held accountable for ourselves, and our decisions. If your decision is to let someone else make your decision, well, that’s still your decision. If that person makes the wrong decision, it’s your tuchas on the line, too!

Stagnation feels comfortable, but it is a slow death.

 

Sometimes you just wanna get away from it all

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I was asked, and accepted, to be a member of the Board of Directors at the church where I worship. It’s a Christian church but they are a Hebraic roots movement, which is sort of the same as a Messianic Synagogue, except where Messianic Jews accept Yeshua as Messiah and remain Jewish, Hebraic Roots Movement is where Christians want to know more about their Jewish roots and they honor Torah, but are not “converting” to Judaism. I guess they’re two sides of the same coin.

In any event, I was asked to work on getting the website for the church upgraded, updated and , well…up. I did some research, we had a reference from someone in the Congregation who had personal experience and knew the person and after meeting with him I recommended we go with him. There are three others on the Board, two of which said they were fine with what I suggested and the amount, and the third said to not pay it all up front, which we decided was a good idea. I emailed the site host and made our offer, which he accepted and said he would send us an invoice and get started.

That’s when one of the members started to waver, asked questions about other costs, said he never agreed to an amount (that was never suggested), etc. Then he started to ask why we can’t use a free site, or a cheaper site. The last straw, for me, was when he said if we all don’t agree then we have to meet and hold a formal vote. I was told, before I joined, that we did not have to be unanimous, and the issue about having to have a meeting and a formal vote when one disagrees was never even suggested.

Well, I was fuming. I don’t like surprises, and I don’t like indecision. All I saw was cold feet, even though every point he made was valid and useful. The problem I had was that he didn’t make these until we started to move. Where was he, I was thinking, over the past two weeks of emails I had been sending? Why is he making all this fuss now, when everyone else (yes, all 3 of us) had decided to go ahead.

I don’t like that. The events and how they happened, as well as the emails (the last one I sent was so hot it had to be typed with an asbestos keyboard) finally resulted with our Pastor telling us to cool it, get back to being godly in our dealings and no more emails or texts. We need to be face-to-face now. And he was, of course, absolutely correct.

So, what was my tirade about? It’s wasn’t really about the person who was blocking movement (I don’t mean that to be a derogatory statement) and it wasn’t really about having to ask the vendor to hold up starting for a little bit. It wasn’t really about anyone being a bad guy; in fact, if there is a “bad guy” to this story, it’s me.

The level of my anger was not justified. I wasn’t angry because of his suggestions, which were fine, or because of his timing, which was very bad, but I was angry because of my own pride. I felt betrayed, misled and embarrassed: here I had been asked to get this done, something they had been wanting to do for a while, and after being tasked with this, putting in time to research, meet with the vendor, and email everyone with the results, I got approval from two and the third did not say “wait on this” , but the moment I said “Go!” I was grabbed by the nape of my neck and told, “STOP!!”

I believe that the way our third member handled this was wrong- but that is no excuse for me getting so angry as to even threaten to quit (I hadn’t even been to two meetings yet.) That sort of ultimatum (usually) is the result of pridefulness, which (I have said over and over) is the mother of all sins. My pride is what caused us to be shut down, email-wise, and my pride probably made what was just bad timing, and a minor delay, into a major event. I am sure that after we can review all the information I have since sent out, comparing cheap hosted sites against professionally constructed and hosted sites (which I, in my pridefulness, already knew about), we will continue to go forward with the vendor most of us agreed would be OK.

And I expect that, because we are (well, at least they are) godly men, we will get past this with nothing more than a sense of how we can better handle disagreements in the future.

In the meantime, I have to preach this Friday night at Shabbat services and I am preaching about loving each other as God loves us- pretty much what I wrote about for this past Monday’s posting. That was before I blew my top. Now I feel really bad about myself, I feel undeserving of going before a congregation, and I feel ashamed.

So, what should I do? I’ll tell what I should do- I should get over it and get moving, again. I fell down, so what? I am getting up again, I am going forward, I still feel that I wasn’t wrong in what I said but that I was wrong in how I said it (the story of my life!) I know it’s going to be OK,  but I won’t feel better until I apologize face-to-face, shake his hand and hug him, and hear that he has forgiven me.

In the meantime, I am not going to beat myself up. I made a mistake, that’s what we do, we humans. We make mistakes. And I know that he will forgive me because he is a man of God, a man who is spiritually mature, and a man I can trust. I am glad I know him.

I hope he can feel that way about me one day.

Pride is a horrible thing, and being a horrible thing, it makes us do horrible things.  I am prideful, and I am working on it, with the help of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

The most important lesson here is not so much to watch what we say (which we should) , or think before speaking (then shut up, anyway), but to know that we will fall, we will fail, and we will do it more than once. And after all that we must keep going and striving to improve. The Enemy wants me to feel bad, he wants me to call the Pastor and tell him I am not worthy to preach to anyone, and he wants me to quit being on the Board.

Sorry, Satan- I’m not falling for that. I will fall, but not for your line of fertilizer, Buddy-boy! I will keep at it; I will continue to preach because God has given me that gift (which has been confirmed to me by many) and I will stay on this Board because if they asked me to be on it, I should trust their judgment. They are more spiritually mature than I am. They can teach and develop me, and I can also help and enhance this Board because I am working on being better and God is behind me.

We all fall, we all do stupid things, and we all hurt someone or get hurt by someone. So what. Really- so what! I still have God, I still have Messiah, and I still have breath to praise Him and strength to keep trying to be better, for Him.

You never really fail at anything until you stop trying.