What is worship? Some will say it is attending services at their synagogue or church; some will say it is praying to God; and some might say it is believing in God and that Yeshua is his Messiah.

And yeah, it is all of those things; but in my opinion, the best and truest form of worship is living one’s life the way that God said to live it.

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In life you will have to be obedient to something; at first, to your parents, then to your boss, and (if you follow one) to your religion.

And, if you are smart, you will share obedience to each other in a marriage.

Being obedient to your parents or boss is something that you often have little choice in, meaning that if you disobey either one of them you will suffer consequences, and they won’t be pretty.

But, in a religion, if you follow the religious tenets and rules and ceremonies you will find that you are respected by your fellow “worshippers”, and even occasionally sought out for advice.

The problem is that when you follow a religion, is that religion following God?

“How can a religion not be following God?”, you may ask. Well, let’s consider that in Christianity there are some 64,000 different forms, all supposedly doing as God said to do, the same God who the Bible says never changes.

So, nu? If God never changes, then what he says to do never changes, right? OK, so why are there 64,000 different ways to obey him?

And let’s not forget my fellow Jews, who have 6 sects within Judaism, all with different rules and what is OK and what is not OK, all (supposedly) according to the one Torah that we all follow.

We read in the Bible how God was not satisfied with the blood of bulls and sheep because the people weren’t obeying him (Psalm 40:6–8; Isaiah 1:11–31; Jeremiah 7:21–23); but when they slaughtered the bulls and sheep, wasn’t that in obedience to the rules in the Torah for sacrifice (Leviticus 1-7)?

Yes, they did what they were supposed to do, but their hearts weren’t in it, and they also sacrificed to the false gods of their neighbors, which was disobedience to God’s commandment not to worship other gods (that’s the second one in the Big Ten!)

Yeshua said we are all slaves to something (John 8:34), and the choice comes down to being a slave to sin or a slave to God. If we choose wisely (that being a slave to God- DUH!), then as a slave, obedience is required.

Shaul (Paul) and Kefa (Peter) both wrote about how a slave should be obedient to their master as a way of showing their worship of God.

In addition to that, our obedience should not be to avoid punishment! Obedience to parents, bosses, spouses, and anyone else in authority over us should always be demonstrating our worship of God.

Have you ever done something for someone you love just because you know it would please them? That is (to me) the most important reason why we should obey God.

Obedience to God should not be to earn salvation (which can never be earned), and not just to show our dedication (which is a valid reason to obey), and not just because what God says we should do is for our own good (which it is).

I believe the way to show true worship of God is to live every moment of every day showing our love for God by how we treat others and through obedience to the rules, commandments, regulations, and ordinances that are in the Torah, defining how we are to celebrate, do business, administer justice, and just generally treat others.

If you believe yourself to be worshipful, are you being worshipful every day or just going to services once a week? Are you being worshipful by treating those who are annoying and even nasty to you with respect and compassion? Are you being worshipful by reading the ENTIRE Bible, challenging what you are told (by everyone), and constantly studying God’s word on your own so that you can tell what is true and what is false?

If you aren’t doing that last thing I mentioned, then you are probably being misled and your worship of God is impotent.

Worship isn’t something that you do in church or shul, it is how you live your life. And if you want to live your life in proper worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which includes accepting Yeshua as the Messiah he promised to send, then you need to follow the Torah because that is the ONLY place where God, himself, dictates through Moses what we are to do to properly worship him.

Choose as you will to follow God or a religion, but understand that when you follow a religion, you are probably not really worshiping God, you are worshiping that religion.

God has NO religion; men created religion in order to have power over other men, so choose who or what you will worship.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and like these messages to help this ministry get more exposure on the Internet, and to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

We all know we are saved by faith, and we also all (should) know that faith without works is dead, so how do we actually walk in faith?

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First off, let’s all understand one very important thing: “works“, in the biblical sense, means to obey the instructions God gave us in the Torah.

Yeshua never taught against his father’s instruction for how to live and worship. Think about it: if he had taught against the Torah, he would have been a rebellious son trying to steal his father’s kingdom (like Absalom), and that would have been a sin. As such, he would not have been the sinless lamb, his sacrifice could not have been accepted, and there goes salvation out the window.

And as for Shaul (Paul), his letters never said to ignore or reject the Torah, only not to obey it as a means of earning salvation (legalism). His letters were to Gentiles who really didn’t understand God’s ways, and he was trying to teach them just a little at a time. The Elders in Jerusalem understood that, and when James suggested to start them off with just four requirements (Acts 15), he stipulated that this was just a beginning because these neophyte believers would eventually learn the entire Torah, since it is read at every Shabbat.

Okay, so now that we are all on the same page, whether you want to agree or not, this brings us back to how to walk in faith.

The answer is… to walk.

A leap of faith is to leap, and to walk in faith means to walk BEFORE you know where you are going, or BEFORE you get that definitive answer to prayer.

Abraham walked into the desert with everything he owned, leaving behind everyone and everything he ever knew, and he had no idea where he was going, or how long it would take to get there.

THAT is walking in faith.

Yeshua confirms this in Mark 11:24 when he said (CJB):

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, trust that you are receiving it, and it will be yours.

Faith is trusting God to know what you need and to provide it, and waling in faith is to act as if you already got the email receipt.

And you know what? That’s all there is to it. Walking in faith is taking that step forward, not really knowing where you are going or what will happen, but trusting in God that so long as you try to do as he wants, you will be okay.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment or “like” these messages so that this ministry will continue to grow, and share them with everyone you know, even non-believers., Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

When we pray to God we expect that he hears our prayers, and in doing so will answer us.

But with so many people praying so often, and with so many prayer requests for so many different things, does God have to review and assign priority to the prayers he receives before acting on any of them?

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I know this: God is capable of doing so many things that no mortal, human mind can ever even come close to understanding. And, as such, when receiving what must be millions of prayers, all coming in at the same time, in hundreds of different languages, God can determine which he answers now, which he puts in his “In Box” for later, and which he just tosses into the holy trash bin.

And yes, God does deny some prayer requests, and no one should be surprised at that because so many people request things that are not really needed or even godly.

And please don’t throw John 14:13-14 in my face: do you really think if someone prayed in Yeshua’s name for a bigger car, or money for a cosmetic surgery that is only a reflection of their pridefulness, or anything born from selfish desires or hateful attitudes that Yeshua will present it to his father and ask that it be done?

I don’t think so.

I think I may know how, but can’t be really sure of the way God treats prayers he receives. I mean, how could I? I am not God and I know better than to even try to understand what he does.

That being said, I do believe God hears every prayer and that he knows which are holy and heartfelt, and which are selfish or spiteful. And I do believe I can say that he does answer every prayer, usually with one of these answers:
1. Yes, and right now.
2. Yes, but not yet.
3. Yes, but what you really need and not exactly what you asked for.
4. Yes, but not what you expect or when you expect it.
5. No, not a chance.

(Hey, like it or not, that is an answer.)

God lives on an eternal plane, where time is not lineal, so what we see as either now, then, or later is all the same to God.

So, nu! I guess the answer is that he doesn’t need to triage or assign priority because in his plane of existence, there is no timeline. Then, now, and later are all simultaneously being experienced, so triage isn’t necessary.

And you know what? I am grateful for that because it means my prayers are just as important to God as anyone else’s.

Thank you for being here and please remember to make some sort of a comment or give me a “like” to help this ministry reach more people. And also please share these messages, even with non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

When we read the letter Shaul wrote to the Galatian Believers, in Chapter 4 he mentions how the Torah acted as a guardian over children, but now that we are one with Yeshua we are no longer children under a guardian, but heirs to God’s kingdom.

My question is this: once you leave your guardian, does that mean you can reject all that they taught you?

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Christianity has always used this letter to the Galatians as a polemic against following the Torah, when in actuality it is an apologetic for the Torah.

What Shaul is saying is that following the Torah as a means of earning salvation (which is what Legalism is) is useless because once you try to do everything in the Torah, you will fail. The reason you will fail is because no one can be 100% obedient to the Torah 100% of the time.

That is why God gave us the sacrificial system- so when we fail, we can recover.

But he doesn’t say the Torah is obsolete or done away with: his message is not anti-Torah, it is anti-legalistic approach to obedience to the Torah.

Yeah, I know that is somewhat hard to follow, but it is really simple: the Torah is the way God wants us to worship him (Leviticus 23) and how to treat each other (pretty much the entire Torah), and he also gives us the sacrificial system (Leviticus 1-7) because he knew that we would not be able to be 100% obedient.

Think of it as a contract with an escape clause.

As I have said, in Chapter 4 Shaul relates the Torah to being a guardian, and once we were joined to Yeshua, that guardian was no longer controlling us (or, at least, that is the way he makes it seem).

Okay, so let’s go along with that. Before Yeshua, the Torah was in charge, teaching us the way God wants us to live. Now Yeshua comes along, teaches us the deeper, spiritual meaning of the Torah (his Sermon on the Mount is a great example of that) and we follow his teachings.

Wait a minute! Christianity says Christians should obey the “Law of Christ” because we are no longer under the Torah, but Christ taught the Torah!

Uh… what?

That’s right! Yeshua taught us the Torah, even though Shaul made it seem that as our guardian the Torah wasn’t necessary after we joined with Yeshua.

Now, the question I am raising is this: a true guardian will teach you the proper way to live, to worship, and to treat others, but when you reach maturity and the guardian is no longer in control of you, should you reject everything the guardian taught you?

If you are no longer legally required to obey a guardian, does that mean once “free” you can reject all that you were taught and live any old way you want to?

Well, the answer is…Yes, you can. You can be taught all that is righteous and proper, and once you no longer have to obey that guardian, you can be as sinful and perverse as you want to be.

However, if we are talking about spiritual life, and God’s Torah being the guardian, sure you can apostatize and live as you want to, but you will suffer for it when you come to Judgement (as we all will).

And what I have never been able to “get” is that Christianity teaches you can pretty much do that.

Not to be perverse and sinful, but it teaches when you “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean), you are no longer under a guardian (i.e., Torah) so you can pretty much live anyway you want to, so long as you are a good person and love your neighbor.

Funny, isn’t it though, how Yeshua himself refused to be called good, saying only his father in heaven is good (Mark 10:18), yet Christianity teaches that you should be good.

That’s a pretty tough standard to reach, considering according to Yeshua you would have to be God.

So, nu? …where does all this mean?

Do you love someone? If you do, don’t you want to make them happy? Don’t you want to do what pleases them? Isn’t doing a “labor of love” not as difficult as doing it because you had to?

If these statements make sense to you, then you know what Yeshua meant when he said the most important commandments are to love the Lord and to love each other, because all of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.” (Matthew 22:40)

Those two requirements do not reject or do away with the rest of the Torah, they simply make it possible for you to follow the entire Torah without having to try very hard.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

In Galatians 3:28, we are told that we are all one with Yeshua. Now, since many believe that Yeshua is God, if we are one with Yeshua then are we also God?

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Before you try to cause the nearest body of water to split into two, let me say that we are certainly NOT God, or even close. And when we say we are one with Yeshua that doesn’t mean we are the same as him.

It was meant to indicate a spiritual joining and not a physical resemblance.

The Bible has many terms and statements that are meant to imply a similarity, a sense of symmetry in action and thought, but not to be taken literally.

For example, in John’s gospel (which I have often said I believe to be a false gospel) it starts by stating that Yeshua was with God from the beginning. Christianity has traditionally taken that statement to be literally true, in that Yeshua existed before his birth by Miryam, but I believe it means the idea of a Messiah, one who will allow all people, Jew and Gentile, to find forgiveness of sin was part of God’s plan from the start.

So, yeah, okay, the Messiah was with God from the start but not in form or spirit; he was always part of the overall plan, and didn’t actually appear until God chose Miryam to bring his idea to life as a physical man.

We are told that through faithfully accepting Yeshua as our Messiah, we will be one with him (meaning in spirit), but if we aren’t living the way he lived, which was in accordance to God’s instructions in the Torah, then can we truthfully say we are one with Yeshua?

What I mean is this: you have a dear friend who is a cop, but you chose to commit crimes because that is what you want to do. Now, can you truly say you are one with your law-abiding friend? You can believe he is right in obeying the law, and you are friends with him (or her), but if you live a different lifestyle you can’t say you are one with that person, either in spirit or in behavior.

So, what’s the bottom line today? (I’m glad you asked)

If you truly want to be one with Yeshua, you must live as he lived, and that means being Torah observant. You cannot say you are a follower of Yeshua if you don’t follow the way he lived, and you can’t say you are one with him if you do not live and worship as he did.

And you know what else, people? Like it or not, what I just said is not really an opinion, but a fact! You can’t say you are one with anybody if you do not live, act, worship, and believe as that person did: Yeshua lived and worshipped according to the Torah, and taught others to do the same.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

There are many who believe in reincarnation, which is different from resurrection: with the former, you get to come back and try to do it better, but with the latter you only get one chance to make it.

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Of course, we who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, including those who accept that Yeshua (also called Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send, know that there is no reincarnation.

I know that you are probably saying to yourself, “He knows we don’t believe in that, so what’s his point?”

Good question.

First, let’s review what reincarnation is about: as I recall from my studies, religions that believe in reincarnation also believe that if you led a bad life, you come back as a snake, or some other lower form of life, and have to live an entire lifetime that way. If you do it well, then you get to come back as some higher form of life.

(Yeah, I am also wondering how do you live a good life as a snake?)

Ultimately, you hope to come back as a Brahman (Priest), and if you do that well, you finally get to go to Nirvana (heaven).

My point is that too many people think they can get away with something now, and then ask for forgiveness of it later. Thinking that you can do something now and be forgiven later is similar, isn’t it, to believing in resurrection? Doesn’t Shaul (Paul) tell us that we are born a new creation every day (2 Corinthians 5:17)? Isn’t that very much like reincarnation?

It sounds the same, but it isn’t, because (as I said) reincarnation is a second chance, then a third chance, then a fourth, ad infinitum… until you reach Nirvana.

But for believers in God and Yeshua, we may be born anew every day, but that is a spiritual thing and not a physical thing, so you still have this one, and only one, chance to make it in God’s presence for all eternity.

Remember always that you never know what day will be your last, and since this is the only chance you have to make the grade, make sure you try your very best every minute of every day.

When it comes to salvation, there are no mulligans.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Prayer is such an essential part of our relationship with God. Unlike using Facebook or Messenger, which are really very impersonal forms of communications, having as much intimacy as a corporate memo, prayer is a very intimate sharing.

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When we pray, most of the time we are sharing more with God than he is sharing with us, but he always listens and he does answer. That answer is not always what we expect or when we want it, and sometimes it’s just “Nope- no gonna happen“, but he always answers.

The trick is being open enough to recognize the answer when it comes.

I have heard people go on and on and on…and on when they pray, and they even stop often. When they do, it’s almost comical because you can see their faces contort because they are trying to figure out what to say next.

If you ask me (and even if you don’t), that ain’t praying: it’s trying to sound prayerful, and I will also go as far as to say it is probably meant more to impress those listening than to impress God.

I think if you ask someone well-versed in the Bible what they consider the most beautiful prayer, they might say 1 Kings 8:22-53, which is the prayer Solomon made at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. It is quite beautiful and I believe the, if not one of the, longest prayers I have read in the Bible.

But for me, the most beautiful prayer in the entire Bible is in Exodus 12:13, when Moses prayed for his sister, Miryam, to be healed from God’s punishment, when he gave her tzara’at (leprosy) after she and Aaron spoke up against Moses.

And what was his prayer?

“Oh God, please heal her!”

Why do I believe that is the most beautiful prayer?…because it comes directly from his heart. It is simple, direct, and heartfelt to the point where just reading what he says you can feel his pain and anguish at the fate of his sister.

He doesn’t run on, he doesn’t repeat “Father God” fifteen hundred times, and he doesn’t search for something to say that sounds very “King James-ish.”

You know, I am pretty sure that Yeshua would agree with me because when he was asked how we should pray, he gave us not just a simple and short prayer (in Matthew 6:9-13), but what is the template for all prayer:

1. Start off recognizing God’s authority and omniscience
2. Ask just for what you need
3. Ask to be guided in the proper way to live, and
4. Finish with thanking God and (again) recognizing who he is.

Let’s not forget that Yeshua warned against babbling on and on like the pagans do, so the next time you are praying and find yourself thinking of what to say, my recommendation is that you have already said too much, so just shut it down there.

Don’t misunderstand me- if you are praying long and hard, but it comes directly from your heart, maybe even with some tears, that is okay. In fact, that is great!

But if you are repeating the same things over and over, and find yourself trying to find more words, or feel there should be more to say, you need to stop.

We are told that God already knows what we want and what we need, so you might ask,
“If God already knows my heart and mind, and what I need, why do I have to pray to him and ask for it?”

My answer is that God wants us to pray to him because when it comes from the heart, prayer creates a strong bond of intimacy, which is something that God desires to have with everyone.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believer. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, and I will be off all next week (Donna and I are going on a cruise), so until then, l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!