Category: Messianic 101

Who Really Killed Yeshua?

Leave a comment

Growing up Jewish, I was subject to many accusations from my Christian friends stating that it was us Jews who killed God (meaning Jesus Christ).

Of course, my reply was that it was the Romans who actually killed him, but now I know it wasn’t really them.

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

The answer to who really killed Yeshua is…. I did.

Actually, you did, too!

In fact, everyone killed him; without his death, God’s desire that no one should have to die (Ezekiel 18:23) cannot be accomplished.

God wants everyone, Jew and Gentile, to be in his presence forever because he doesn’t care about religion, he cares about faithfully believing in him and accepting Yeshua as the Messiah he promised to send. Without Yeshua’s sacrificial blood to cleanse us of our sins, no one has any chance of being forgiven.

God will not abide sin in his presence, so we need to be forgiven of our sins, which cleanses us, in order to be with him.

Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which (according to the Torah) was the only place where any sacrifice would be accepted. With the destruction of the temple around 70-73 AD, there was no way for anyone to be forgiven, except by means of the innocent blood shed when Yeshua was killed.

That is why there is no way to the father except through Yeshua (John 14:6).

So, if everyone else on the earth was 100% righteous, with me being the only exception, I believe Yeshua would have undergone all the torture he did and even die…just to save me.

And he would have done the same just to save you.

So, it wasn’t the power elite in Jerusalem who killed him, although they set him up for death.

And it wasn’t Pilate who killed him because all he did was pass a judgement that he didn’t want to, but did so under duress from the people.

And the soldiers who nailed him to that execution stake didn’t kill him, because, well…he was alive even after they did it.

And even God, who accepted his spirit (Luke 23:46), didn’t really kill him since Yeshua asked him to do it.

No, it wasn’t Jews or Romans or even God who killed Yeshua- it was me, it was you, it was all of us.

If we had not been sinning, then even after being forgiven continuing to sin (because it is in our very DNA to do so), Yeshua would not have had to die.

Truthfully, if we were able to be sinless there would be no need for a Messiah at all.

Lucky for us, God knew better.

I believe he had planned for the Messiah since the very beginning, which is why John says that everything was made through him (John 1:3), meaning all that God did was designed with the Messiah in mind.

The next time you hear someone place blame on anyone for the death of Yeshua, you just tell them:

“Truth is the one who caused the death of the Messiah is…YOU!”

Thank you for being here and please 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!

Why God Sent Messiah When He Did

Leave a comment

It is assumed that Yeshua was sacrificed in the year 33 AD, and that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed around the year 72 AD, roughly two generations later.

I believe God sent Yeshua when he did because he knew the temple would be gone, and with it the only way we could be forgiven of sin.

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

To start with, the Torah states that God will not accept any sacrifice unless it is performed at the location where he will place his name (Deuteronomy 12:5), which was first at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, then as the tent moved to Gilgal then Shiloh, and finally to the City of David, people had to travel there to make their sacrifices.

After Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, that was the last (and still the only) place where God put his name, and therefor where sacrifices will be accepted.

Now, I think we all can agree that God knows what is going to happen, even if the only reason he knows that is because he can make whatever he wants to happen, happen, and happen exactly when he wants it to happen, and happen exactly the way he wants it to happen.

As my generation used to say, he is a real “happening” kind of guy!

So, knowing that Rome would soon be destroying the temple, and based on his never-ending desire to forgive us of our sins (Ezekiel 18:23), I believe he sent Messiah Yeshua before the destruction of the temple so that afterward, we could still be forgiven of sin.

Okay, now you may be thinking that he should have sent Messiah way back sometime before 605-587 BCE, when the Babylonian exile occurred and the first temple was destroyed. With that event, there was no way for anyone to receive forgiveness.

My answer would be that maybe since the exile was punishment for not having obeyed the Torah regulations, God wasn’t at that time willing to forgive anyone. After all, they were being punished. They violated many Torah commandments, not the least of which was worshipping other gods, and the people also failed to give the land a Shabbat rest every 7th year for 490 years!

God exiled the people from the land to give it rest, and he chose to exile them one year for each Shabbat rest the land did not get, which over 490 years means they would be exiled for 70 years.

God is really good with math!

Since the exile would be only for a short time, I think God was not willing to allow forgiveness until the punishment was over. That may sound harsh, but he is God and who will tell him what he can or can’t do?

Not me!

So, after the exile the people did return and rebuilt the temple, beginning what we call the second temple period, and forgiveness of sin was once again available.

Let’s now fast-forward to when Yeshua made forgiveness of sin possible by his sacrifice, which replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple; that is why he said the only way to the father (i.e., being free of sin) is through him (John 14:6).

After Yeshua made forgiveness possible anywhere and any time, Rome destroys the temple making the path to forgiveness under the Torah impossible.

Impossible, that is, unless you have faithfully accepted that Yeshua is the Messiah and through his sacrifice forgiveness is still available.

I started out by saying I believe the timing of Yeshua’s appearance two generations before the temple destruction was planned, and now I’ll explain why I say that.

At that time there was no Internet, mail service took a long time, and the best way for news to spread was by word-of-mouth as people traveled to trade their goods and while tending their herds and flocks.

For people to be aware of what happened in Jerusalem when Yeshua was crucified, and especially what happened for the 40 days or so after he was resurrected, needed time to get spread around. The Gospels make it clear that many thousands of people knew of him, but that was in the general area around Jerusalem, mostly in the Southern Kingdom territory.

I read that he covered about 20 square miles during his three year ministry, 80-90% of it in the area of the Galilee, while Israel contained about 8,000 square miles during that time, so he didn’t cover that much territory.

But over two generations, some 40-50 years, I believe that much of what he did had time to spread all over the land, and that gave people time to accept him before the temple was gone.

Those who rejected him as Messiah would soon find themselves, their kids, and all their descendants stuck without any way to be forgiven of sin.

Of course, there is no biblical justification for this drash of mine, and I often have preached how it is dangerous to try to make an argument out of nothing, but I still think “what if” or “why that” now and then. I mean, we humans are curious and there is that innate need to know “why?” that I have found in nearly everyone I have ever known.

Myself, included.

So, nu?.. do you think I’m making any sense with this? Would you agree that it is possible God timed Yeshua’s appearance for the reasons I believe?

Let me know, and thank you for being here. Please do 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 this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

If There is No Law, Then There is No Sin, So Why Do We Need a Messiah?

Leave a comment

So many times I have heard people who claim to be Christians and to follow in Jesus’s footsteps say that he did away with the law.

And I have always wondered how anyone can believe that God sent his very own son to tell everyone they don’t have to obey him anymore.

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

I am going to make this one short and simple, and maybe not even answer the question I posed in the title because the one answer that really matters is, as usual, the one people come up with on their own.

Well, maybe not that short.

Perhaps that is why the path to salvation is a narrow road and the gate to eternal joy in God’s presence is a very thin one- it’s because people prefer what they want to what God says they need to do.

Christianity teaches that the son of God came to earth to provide a means for us to be forgiven (by his sacrificial death) because he died a sinless lamb of God.

That much they got right.

Of course, the only way that could be is for him to have lived a Torah observant life, never failing to do only what God said to do in the Torah.

The Torah was the only God-given instructions that existed back then, and (for the record) are still the only God-given instructions that exist today, since there is nothing “new” in any of the New Covenant writings.

So… most Christian rhetoric says that the Messiah’s death did away with the Torah, but since the Torah is what God gave us to show us what is sin and what is not (Romans 7:7), then if there is no more Torah there is no more sin.

That brings us back to the title of today’s message: if there is no sin why do we still need a Messiah?

If there is no Torah there is no sin, so why pray for forgiveness if there is nothing to be forgiven?

And please don’t say that there are still the moral laws because that also goes against the Bible.

In James 2:10, he says that if you break even one law then you have broken them all, so if you say there are some laws that are valid for Gentiles and some that are not, then you are still going against what the Bible says because if you reject one law, which is breaking it, then you have (effectively) broken them all, which would be a sin if the Torah was still valid, right?

Again, we always come back to the same thing: if there is no law then there is no sin, and if there is no sin then there is no longer a need for the Messiah and everyone- believer AND non-believer- are now saved.

Do you believe everyone is saved?

Do you believe that Gentiles don’t have to obey the Torah?

Do you really believe that God sent his son to the earth to tell us to reject all his laws?

I don’t believe any of those things!

What I believe is that God sent Yeshua to provide a means for us to be forgiven of our sins, which is the only way we can enter into God’s presence, and he did that not by doing away with the very means of attaining righteousness in God’s eyes (which is outlined in the Torah), but by replacing the need to bring an animal to the temple.

The Torah demands that all sacrifices must be made where God places his name (Deut. 4 and 12) and that was the temple in Jerusalem. With the destruction of that temple, there was no way to be forgiven of sin.

THAT is why he sent Yeshua when he did. And that is why the Torah is still valid for everyone who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Oh, but wait a minute! Many Christian religions (and brother, there are a lot of them!) teach that Yeshua IS the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so I guess in that case they can justify that God is telling us we don’t have to obey him anymore.

Oh, but wait another minute! God also said that his commandments were for all our generations, which means as long as we are “generating”, his laws are still valid and Yeshua confirmed that by saying nothing will change until all things have come to pass (Matthew 5:17).

It seems that whether you believe God and Yeshua are totally separate entities or the same one, either way he/they both confirm that the Torah is valid for all believers, Jew and Gentile, until the Apocalypse is over.

Have the 7 scrolls been read?

Have the horsemen gone throughout the earth?

Is the anti-Christ in charge (don’t get political on me)?

Has 2/3 of the earth been destroyed?

Have the 7 bowls of God’s wrath been poured out over the earth?

Have you been marked by the angel God sent to identify the saved?

Has the new Jerusalem been lowered from heaven?

Is there still evil in the world?

Hmmm… I guess that means everything isn’t done yet, so nothing has changed, which means the Torah is still God’s law for righteousness and Yeshua is still a Messiah we need because there is still sin in the world.

Like it or not, the Torah is STILL God’s “User Manual for Righteousness” and Yeshua has not changed anything regarding obedience to the commandments in the Torah for all who believe in God.

There is one thing that has changed, and that is we no longer need the temple to be forgiven of sin because through faithful belief that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send and that after he died he was resurrected (proving that obedience to the Torah IS how we can be saved) so that now his shed blood replaced the need to sacrifice an animal at the temple.

If you prefer to believe that the son of God came to the earth to tell people to worship him and that they can reject everything his father said to do in the Torah because now he is in charge, well… good luck with that.

Thank you for being here and please comment and 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 today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!!

After the Gentiles Were Grafted In, They Pruned Themselves

Leave a comment

We all know that after Yeshua was resurrected salvation became available to the Gentiles who were willing to faithfully accept that Yeshua is the Messiah the God of the Jews promised to send.

And in doing so, they also obligated themselves to accept the same laws and way of life that the Jews led.

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

Now, I’m sure that many Christians reading what I just wrote about the Gentiles being obligated to live as Jews lived if they accepted Yeshua as their Messiah are thinking:

“Well, no! We only have to do those 4 things in the letter they wrote (Acts 15) and the Torah is no longer valid for Gentiles because we have the law of Christ and we don’t have to follow the laws of Moses.”

I understand that is what many, MANY Christians have been taught, but I am here to say that is not correct.

Sorry, but the only place in the entire Bible where any of that church rhetoric comes from is not from God or Yeshua- it is a false teaching stemming from confusing language in letters written by a man to congregations of Gentiles he was teaching to be Torah obedient, but doing so slowly so that he wouldn’t lose them to their old habits.

Shaul (Paul) wrote to congregations that were started by him, teaching them the Torah but at a pace they could handle. That is why it has been so easy for Gentiles who did not want to worship God as God said to do (in the Torah) to change things around.

You see, at that time there was a constant rebellion against Roman rule by the Jews, and as these Gentiles began to accept Yeshua and be taught the Jewish way of worship, they felt they would be associated with the jews and, as such, become targets of Rome.

So, to politically protect themselves from Rome, they separated themselves from the Jews by changing how they worshipped.

And as for those 4 things in the letter James suggested, Christianity loves to teach that those are all Gentiles have to do, but James never said that! In fact, he suggested those 4 things as initial “must-do’s” never intending them to be the only things to do, and that is confirmed by Acts 15:21 when he said that these neophyte believers would learn the law of Moses while attending Shabbat services every week, when the laws were always being read.

So, again, sorry, but the truth is that Gentiles who accept Yeshua as their Messiah also have to accept the Torah as their way of life.

But they didn’t, and (as I mentioned) in order to separate themselves from the Jews, they decided to cover their own tuchas by changing how they worshipped from the way Yeshua worshipped to a way that was not pagan or Jewish, creating a new religion that was soon to be called Christianity.

And that is when they pruned themselves from the Tree of Life, which is the Torah. They created a new man-made religion which has rejected nearly everything God said he wanted from those who worship him.

They rejected his Holy Days and created their own.

They rejected his Shabbat and made their own.

In truth, they rejected God.

How did they reject God? Well, first off, when you reject what God says to do, you have rejected God, and by the middle of the Second Century they had created the idea of a Trinity which replaced God the Father with Jesus the Savior by making them one and the same entity.

Christians pray to Jesus, they ask Jesus for forgiveness of sins (which he, himself, said he could do only while on the earth in Matthew 9:1-8), and there is at least one Christian religion that says any priest can forgive your sins!

Personally, I think they came up with that idea because a celibate life is boring, and by creating this confession thing they could add a little vicarious excitement into their life by hearing what others were doing.

Remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Elmer chases Bugs up a tree? Bugs is at the end of a branch, with Elmer on that same branch sitting next to the trunk, sawing away at the part that Bugs is on. And when he saws all the way through the branch, the tree and Elmer fall, while the separated branch Bugs is on miraculously stays suspended in the air!

Christianity thinks it can do what Bugs did and get away with it.

If any Gentile states they have been grafted onto the Tree of Life but don’t obey the Torah, well they may have been grafted on at one time but by choosing to reject the Torah they have pruned themself from the Tree of Life, and are grafted onto nothing.

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 this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

It’s Not How Obedient You Are But How Hard You Try To Be

Leave a comment

There has always been this issue between obedience and faith, with most people believing they are exclusionary.

I see them as complementary; and, more than that, I believe what is more important than being obedient is why we want to be obedient.

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

In the Book of the Prophets, God sometimes tells the people he is more interested in obedience than sacrifice. Now, at first glance, this seems to be self-negating since sacrificing is being obedient.

I believe what God meant was that he is more concerned with our desire to be obedient than just going through the motions.

Legalism is widely misunderstood by most Christians to be obedience to the Torah commandments; they see doing what the Torah says as rejecting the salvation Yeshua (Jesus) provided by means of his sacrifice.

I have heard Christians tell me that because I do all that “Jewish” stuff I am not really saved because I am under the law, and not under Grace.

Oy, if only they knew how idiotic that statement is!

Yes, idiotic because Grace does not trump obedience: Grace is not forgiveness or salvation, it is God’s willingness to forgive (Ezekiel 18:23). Look, if you continue to reject what God says to do, choosing instead to follow what some man-made religion tells you to do (or what it tells you you don’t have to do), then Grace won’t be coming your way any time soon.

God knows the heart, and he knows the mind, and what he wants is a desire to be obedient. If you are being obedient in a legalistic way, meaning doing what God said to do to earn points by being correct, then you have failed before you start because your heart isn’t into it; besides that, no human being can be 100% Torah obedient 100% of the time.

Yeah, Yeshua was human and he was always Torah obedient, but he was also the son of God and filled completely with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), so he had an advantage no one else ever had, or ever will have.

I try to be as obedient to the Torah as I can for the simple reason that God told us this is how he wants us to worship him and how he wants us to treat each other. That means anything some religion, any religion, teaches against obeying the Torah is not what God wants.

I don’t know about you, but I want to do what God wants me to do.

How can anyone say doing what God said to do is wrong?

How can anyone believe that God sent his son to us to tell us we don’t have to obey his father anymore?

Yeshua obeyed the Torah and was resurrected in God’s presence for all eternity, so how can anyone believe that not doing what Yeshua did will have the same result?

Hard questions with hard answers.

I will go as far as to say this: any religion that tells you you can ignore the Torah is leading you directly to destruction.

But I am almost forgetting today’s message: it isn’t really obedience as much as your desire to be obedient that really counts.

God knows we can’t be perfect; that is why he sent Yeshua. DUH!

God is looking at our heart to see if we want to obey him. If we desire to do as he said, I believe he counts that as righteousness on our part, just as he counted Abraham’s faithful acceptance of what God said as righteousness on Abraham’s part.

For the record, God told Isaac Abraham was blessed because he did everything God told him to do! (Genesis 26:5)

You know, when you think about it, we all wish we could be as faithful as Abraham, and to believe what God said to do is because he wants the best for us, is being as faithful as Abraham.

It comes down to this: if you believe that you can reject the Torah and be saved, your faith is more in people than in God.

After his terrible sins with Bat-Sheba and the murder of his friend, Uriah the Hittite, David asked God to create in him a clean heart and to renew a right spirit in him (Psalm 51). He knew that what God wants is a heart for him, and not just performing some physical acts of worship.

David asked God to search his heart: are you brave enough to do the same?

So, nu?… where is your heart? Is it to please God or to please some religion that tells you to ignore God?

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 this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

They Won’t Believe You Until They Doubt Themselves

Leave a comment

Time for another lesson in how to get people to listen to you.

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

Okay, first off let’s remember this very important rule:

People believe only half of what you tell them, but 100% of what they say.

Therefore, in order to get them to even listen to you, you have to first get them to doubt what they already believe.

“How do I do you do that?” You ask them why.

Ask them to explain why they believe what they believe, and that is how you start to get them to doubt themselves because, for the most part, they will give you parroted answers.

What is a parroted answer? Parrots learn to reply to instructions in a way that makes it appear they know what they are doing, but the truth is that they have no understanding- they are just repeating what they have been told in response to some stimulus.

No disrespect meant, but it’s like talking to Jehovah’s Witnesses- they know verses and passages but they don’t know the proper interpretation because they take everything out of context in order to make it fit into their programmed belief system.

Here’s an example based on Christians being taught that Yeshua did away with the law: you ask them why they believe Yeshua did away with the law and they will most likely say he completed it, maybe even quoting Matthew 5:17.

That’s when you ask this question: “If something isn’t what it used to be, does that mean it has been changed?”

(The best way to control a discussion is to ask questions, and you need to ask leading questions, in that the question leads to the answer you want.)

Of course they will have to answer “Yes”, so then you ask them if Yeshua said (in that verse) that he did not come to change anything, but you say he did away with the law, isn’t that changing something? He said he didn’t come to change anything, but you say he did change something? How do you explain that?

This is when you look at their eyes. If their eyes go up to the right top side of their sockets, according to Neuro-Linguistic Programming theory that means they are trying to create an answer that they don’t have.

Accept it- ministry is Sales and Sales is all about psychology.

You are now on the right track, so while they are thinking you provide an answer- the one you want them to hear, and you do it respectfully and softly, such as …

“What he said is that not one letter or stroke of the pen in the Torah would change, so Torah obedience is still required by those who accept him as their Messiah. He said things wouldn’t change until everything was done, so if you can show me the new Jerusalem or the new earth, which Revelation talks about, then it appears Torah obedience is still valid for those who believe Yeshua is the Messiah.

So, do you believe he is the Messiah God promised to send?”

Again, you asked a question you already know the answer to, which would have to be “Yes”.

Now you follow that up with the one question that makes them really wonder if they are right: “So if you believe Yeshua is the Messiah, and he said the law remains valid, what do you think you should do?”

At this time, don’t be surprised or disappointed if they still hold to their old belief, but what you have done is to put a small crack in the dam they have built holding back the truth, and maybe with enough of this type of ministering, that crack will begin to widen and some of the truth may seep out. Eventually, with God’s help and proper questioning, you will be able to break down the dam their improper teaching has created, and they will accept what you are saying.

Here is an important fact to remember: people who are immediately convinced of what you are saying will be just as easily convinced of what someone else says later- they are not the ones who will benefit from your ministering to them.

So, watch where their eyes go when you ask them leading questions- if they go up to the left, then all they are doing is repeating what they have heard; but, if they go up to the right, then you are having an impact.

The ones who are stubbornly holding on to their beliefs, but whose eyes keep going up to the right when you ask them a question are the ones who have a chance of (eventually) changing their minds.

Be patient and practice on your own with the questions and answers you know you will need because most everyone comes back with the same church rhetoric, and you need to be prepared for it.

Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and 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 today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

What’s In A Name?

Leave a comment

I have heard and read so many arguments about the “correct” name for God, and all that ever results from this topic is dissension within the body of Believers.

Does anyone really think that God doesn’t know who we mean when we pray to him?

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

One thing that so many people don’t understand is that when the word “name” is used in the Bible, more often than not it doesn’t really mean an actual name, such as Adonai, God, Jehovah, Yahweh, or whatever, but is representative of the reputation and renown of the entity that the name represents.

Okay, that sounds a little confusing, I agree, but it is a difficult thing to understand.

We humans use the term “Make a name for myself” when we want to create a reputation, but when the Bible says, “For his name’s sake” or “Call upon his name”, for some reason it is too often taken as a literal command to use a specific name for God instead of just accepting that it only represents God.

Have you ever considered that the names we use for God (and there are plenty of them!) are really titles or descriptions of him?

In Exodus 3:13, when Moses says the people will want to know the name of the God who sent him, the answer he receives is (CJB):

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh ”
[I am/will be what I am/will be]

God is telling Moses that he is beyond any standard name or identifier because he is eternal. He is what he is, and he will be what he will be. Names are used to identify one thing from another, such as goat from elephant, Jane from Melody, or Steve from Harry, but God is totally unique: there is no name or moniker we can use that identifies him from another because there is no other.

We need names to identify who we are from other people, and since names are used over and over, we have to have two or three names, or sometimes even more than three. The reason we use them is to identify who we are from others.

But God doesn’t really need that, and what is completely unique is that we humans cannot read minds so when someone calls out, “Hey, Steve!” I look to see who it is, along with every other Steve in earshot. That’s because I don’t know who the caller means.

But God knows our hearts and minds, so when we pray to him, no matter which of the many, MANY different names we have for him, so long as the name we use we believe to mean the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I believe he will not have a problem with whichever name we use.

Remember: we are saved by faith, not pronunciation!

So, going forward, when you see or hear someone post or talk to you about using the “right” name for God, otherwise you are praying to a pagan god or some other ridiculous claim, tell them that God knows who you mean, and isn’t so egocentric or picky that he will reject a prayer because of what we call him.

If you ask me, I believe that to say God will reject a prayer if it isn’t using the “correct” pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, or a name generally known to mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is an insult to the Almighty because it implies he lied to us when he said he knows our heart and mind.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to insult God.

Heartfelt, humble prayers are always acceptable to God, and he isn’t concerned with which name you use.

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!

It’s Not What You Did That’s the Sin.

Leave a comment

Too often we consider what we do to be the sin, but that is just the result of our sin.

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

For example, let’s say I am married and have a sexual encounter with someone who is not my wife, that is adultery and adultery is defined in the Torah as a sin.

But is the act of adultery the sin, or is the real sin wanting to commit the adultery? What I am saying is that adultery is just the result of my sin- the real sin was my decision to commit adultery.

What’s the difference?… I’m glad you asked!

Let’s look at the teaching Yeshua gave us about the Torah when he gave that Sermon on the Mount.

He taught us more than just the plain-language meaning (called the P’shat) of the Torah, he taught us the deeper, spiritual understanding of what God wants from us (called the Remes).

(If you are not familiar with those terms, please take a moment and look up PaRDeS)

When he said not to commit adultery wasn’t enough because we shouldn’t even lust with our eyes, he was telling us that the sin wasn’t in the doing, but in the desiring.

Committing adultery was not the actual sin; wanting to commit adultery was the sin, wanting to do it was the disobedience to God, and the sexual encounter was only the result of the sin.

He also said not to murder wasn’t enough, but that we shouldn’t even hate in our heart; in other words, the sin isn’t committing the murder, the sin is wanting to commit the murder.

Does this remind you of anyone, maybe like King David? That is why in Psalm 51 he said his sin was against God, and God, alone. He knew that even though he had sex with Bat-Sheba, and even though he planned Uriah’s death, those actions were the result of his wanting to do those things, which was the actual sin against God.

And let’s also recall what the real New Covenant says (Jeremiah 31:31), which is that God will write his Torah on our hearts. That means we won’t be thinking what does the Torah require, we will be a living Torah. There won’t be need to remember what the Torah says, no more so than having to remember to pump blood or to blink our eyes.

Obedience to God’s way of living will be as natural to us as breathing.

The problem is that this covenant won’t be fulfilled until the Acharit haYamim (End Days) are over, so until then we will have to purposefully remember not to commit that adultery in our hearts or murder someone in our thoughts, which is the sin.

This is also an example of why Legalism is so dangerous- it is based on your actions, not your thoughts or desires, so you could want to have sex with someone not your spouse or murder someone in your thoughts, over and over, but as long as you didn’t really do it, you were OK.

Well, no- not really.

So, my suggestion is that the next time you want to do something you know you shouldn’t, stop right then and there and ask God to forgive you (by means of the shed blood of Messiah Yeshua) in order to be clean.

Sadly, we cannot always (if ever!) stop thoughts from entering our heads, especially if we are in a highly emotional state, but we better try because if we so much as think of committing a sin, we already have.

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 this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

What Could It Hurt to Try?

Leave a comment

I have been a Believer in Yeshua as the Messiah for nearly 30 years, and during this time I have met many Christians who have been adamant that the Torah is only for Jews.

So much so, that they not only say they do not have to obey the Torah, but that any Believer (even a Jewish one!) who does try to obey the Torah isn’t really saved.

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

Now, I have written often how the Torah is NOT just for Jews, but for everyone who professes to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

From my experience, most Christians not only deny needing to obey the Torah, but are actually anti-Torah! They say that anyone who is a Gentile and wants to be obedient is “under the Law” and not really saved, or that they are being legalistic and therefor do not know Jesus.

Okay, I understand that it is so much easier not to have to do all that Torah stuff, and to give up pork chops and lobster bisque is hard for everyone. But, still and all, the Torah is direct from God, isn’t it? I mean, other than in the Torah, where else in the entire Bible do you read where it is written:

“And the Lord said to Moses,’Tell the children of Israel that the Lord, God says…'”?

What God is telling us Jews is how to be righteous in his eyes. I don’t think anyone who knows anything about God or the Bible or has any inkling of a spiritual understanding will argue that doing what the Torah says is pleasing to God, and is the path to salvation. I mean, how can anyone argue against Torah obedience leads to salvation when Yeshua lived a perfectly Torah obedient life and was resurrected into God’s presence, forever?

Isn’t that the goal?

However, this is not a message to justify my belief that the Torah is for everyone.

What I want to do is ask a very simple question:

As a Gentile Believer, even if you do not have to obey the Torah, since the Torah has God’s instructions for living a righteous life, what harm is there in trying?

This is what I have never been able to understand, and never will- it is one thing to say, “I don’t have to obey the Torah”, but another thing to actually accuse those of obeying the Torah that they are wrong!

How can doing what God said to do be wrong? God chose the Jews to be his nation of priests to the world (Exodus 19:6) and gave us the Torah so we would be able to learn what is right in God’s eyes and then teach it to the world.

That’s what priests do- they teach people how to worship God.

So, if you are a Gentile and you say you believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the son of God and the Messiah he promised to send, even though you most likely have been raised being taught the Torah is only for Jews, what harm is there in doing what God says he wants his chosen people to do?

In the world, people who do what the successful people do become successful. So, if the Jews who obey the Torah (of course, we can only obey to the best of our limited ability) are pleasing to God because we do what he wants us to do, what can be wrong about copying behavior that pleases God?

I constantly hear Christians talking about being grafted in and how they are adopted children of Abraham, but then in the same breath they deny having to do what Abraham’s kids have to do or that they need to feed off the roots of the tree they are grafted onto.

It don’t make no sense!

So, all I am asking is for those who have an open mind, who are willing to do more than just the absolute minimum when it comes to showing their worship and trust in God, to consider that since God tells us what he wants us to do in the Torah, what harm is there in trying to do more for God?

Do you really think that God will punish anyone, Gentile or Jew, for trying to be obedient to the commandments he gave?

Will trying to be obedient to God’s Torah, not to be “correct” but out of love and respect for God, cause you to lose your salvation?

How will doing what God says he wants done be anything other than righteous in his eyes?

Look, do what you want to do, and if you choose to live believing that it is wrong for a Gentile to even try to be obedient to the Torah, that’s fine. It’s your choice, but may I make this recommendation: first find in the Bible where either God or Yeshua (NOT Paul or James or any human being) says it is alright for Gentiles to reject any of God’s commandments, or where God says the Torah is ONLY for Jews.

And I am recommending this because I don’t want anyone to have to be in front of God and have to answer this question:

“Who told you that it was okay to reject my commandments?”

Thank you for being here and please comment and 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 today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

We Are Not Called to Coexist

Leave a comment

How many times have you seen that bumper-sticker that says “coexist” spelled out in different religious symbols?

It sounds like a good idea, but none of the religions represented by those symbols are called to coexist.  

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

In the Torah, God tells us that we are to be holy, as he is holy; I would give the biblical references but, frankly, there are too many of them so you can just take my word for it.  

Being holy doesn’t mean acting like some saint or being sinless (since no human being can be sinless), all it means is to be separate.  

And what should we be separate from? Why, the world, of course.

The idea of coexisting is fine with most Judea-Christian religions because we allow others to have the freedom to practice their religion without constraint or prejudice.

However, without naming names, let’s just say that not everyone is willing to do that.  

In reality, it’s pretty stupid to think that anyone is ever going to hold hands with a member of another religion that wants to destroy them and sing “Kumbaya“.

Get real, people- it ain’t gonna happen!

As for Israel, my spiritual homeland, I really wish they would stop trying to please the UN (which should be renamed to the United Nations Against Israel) and just wipe out the enemies that are attacking them, once and for all.

Joshua screwed-up by not eliminating all the enemies of God that he was told to eliminate, and that is why Israel is having so many problems, today. We need to learn from that mistake and not repeat it, which (sadly) is exactly what we are doing.

We know what the Bible says about the Acharit HaYamim (End Days) in Revelation, and also from many of the prophets, which is that the whole world will come against Israel before the return of the Messiah. And when he comes he will kick butt… and there won’t be any names left to take!

For those who may not be familiar with the adage, “Kick butt and take names“, the kicking butt part is easy to understand; for the ones whose butt you couldn’t kick, you take their name and send someone back who can kick it.

The truth is there is one God and he doesn’t have a religion, only his instructions for how to worship him and how to treat each other (that’s the Torah, God’s “User Manual for Righteousness”) and I don’t think he really doesn’t want to hear anything about any other way to do things.

People have free will, a gift from God, that no one should interfere with. That means anyone can practice any form of worship they want to without anyone forcing them to worship any other way. That ideal is a two-way street; in other words, you can do what you want and I can do what I want, but neither of us can force the other to do something else.

In Israel there are Jews, Christians and Muslims, and they all get along together, but in the rest of the world we see one religion (or political system) after another forcing conversions and torturing or killing those who remain faithful to their own beliefs.

The idea of different religions getting along is something that history has shown can’t happen, so get rid of the bumper-sticker and replace it with something that simply says, “In God, we trust” or maybe just leave the bumper clean.

Respect everyone’s right to choose for themself, and let them be- we all have enough to worry about regarding our own eternal condition.

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!