Here is the first thing you need to know, and if this isn’t going to work for you, then please go to another post because this is the rule for today:

I am NOT arguing for or against either side of Trinitarianism or Unitarianism, and I do not want to see any comments or arguments for either.

This is strictly a discussion of how Omnipresence, God, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), and Yeshua (Jesus) all work together for our salvation.

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

Now that I have established the rule, let me really shake people up with the following statement (and I will show why soon):

With regard to one’s salvation, it doesn’t matter if God, Yeshua, and the Ruach are one and the same, or totally separate and unique entities.

(Anyone still with me?)

Here is one thing I am certain we all agree on: God is Omnipresent, which means he is everywhere, at the same time, all the time.

That being accepted as an a priori truth, then whether or not God is a single entity appearing as multiple identities, or God, Yeshua, and the Ruach are totally separate and unique entities, God will always be everywhere he wants to be, in whatever form he wants to appear in; Yeshua is always sitting at God’s right hand on his throne interceding for us; and the Ruach can indwell in any number of people at the same time.

God, Yeshua, and the Ruach HaKodesh can be anywhere from three to hundreds, or even millions of separate places, all at the same time. Whether or not they are one entity or three.

Can you see my point?

Whether we have a single God in three identities, or three separate and unique entities, with regards to salvation, we need to have three identities: God the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit, simultaneously available to us all the time.

Here’s how it works:

1. We seek forgiveness of sin from God, for that is his role in his plan of salvation.

2. We faithfully accept Yeshua as our Messiah, whose sacrifice made it possible for God to forgive us our sins because the Messiah’s blood fulfills the requirement for the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

3. We ask for the indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh to help us see the deeper, spiritual meaning in God’s word and to guide us in our daily trials and tribulations to be more of what God wants us to be.

As far as how salvation works, we need God as God, Yeshua as the Messiah, and the Ruach HaKodesh as our guide.

So, whether or not they are actually one and the same, or totally separate, it doesn’t matter for you to be saved- what DOES matter is that we have God, Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit available to us which makes salvation possible.

The argument about Trinity vs. Unity is not from God, or from faithful believers, but directly from the Enemy of God, HaSatan, because all the argument does is provide a means for Satan to separate the members of the body of Messiah from working together to conquer sin.

Yeshua told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25), and when we all believe in God, and all believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, and all believe that the Holy Spirit is given to us to indwell and guide us in being faithful and understanding God’s word, when we argue about Trinity or Unity we become divided against ourselves.

And Satan scores a touchdown.

Since I am on a roll, and fairly certain I must be shaking things up for a lot of people, let me go one step further: when people pray to a saint or to Yeshua instead of praying to God… Satan scores the extra point.

We need to be together to fight Satan and overcome sin, and if we argue between ourselves, we are weakening our position. And what is worse is that this Trinity or Unity argument is, as I believe I have shown, irrelevant as far as salvation s concerned.

And the ultimate goal of life is to be “saved”- nothing else is anywhere near as important as that.

Here’s my view of this: whether or not we are talking about three in one, or three as three, all I care about is being saved, and the only relationship I see as important to my salvation is that God, Yeshua, and the Ruach work together as the means by which I can be forgiven of my sins so I can come before God on the Day of Judgement and have Yeshua as my Intercessor, claiming me as his own, thereby allowing me to be in God’s presence throughout eternity.

And you know what? When the new Earth is here, the new Jerusalem has been dropped from heaven and the third temple is in existence with Yeshua ruling from his throne over all the earth, that is when we will all know the truth about Trinity or Unity.

And one thing more: when that time comes, when we will all know, absolutely, the truth about Trinity or Unity, I guarantee that not one person there will care which is which.

Why?

Because it won’t matter then; just as it doesn’t really matter now.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books and share them out (after you’ve read them, of course), and on Facebook join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And remember that I always welcome your comments (remember today’s rule).

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

I want to say, from the start, that this is not something I received from God. This is my personal rant and so if anyone disagrees strongly or feels insulted or put-out, I apologize. I am NOT against anyone calling me “Brother Steve” or using “Brother” or “Sister” with other members in the body of Messiah, or even saying they “love” me if they feel the need to do so. This is simply how I feel about calling each other “brother” or “sister”, or telling people you love them.

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

I agree that we are all brothers and sisters in the body of the Messiah, Yeshua, who is known by many as Jesus Christ because they don’t know his Hebrew name and haven’t learned how the Hebrew name was translated incorrectly to become “Jesus Christ”.

But that’s another issue.

We have a spiritual connection with each other through Messiah, which is separate from our real-world relationship. As such, when I am called “brother”, I accept that and appreciate it, but still I feel uncomfortable (to a small degree) because I am not their brother in real life. I have sisters, and I love people, but when a stranger I am meeting for the first time tells me he or she loves me, well…c’mon, really? You love me? -you don’t even know me!

Even people I meet and talk with, maybe for years, but only at the synagogue don’t really know me.

They see “synagogue Steve”. not “just waking up and grumpy Steve”, not the “mad as all get-out and cursing Steve (and believe me, when I am that mad that I curse, the curses flow like water down a waterfall!)”, or any of the other aspects of my personality that are the total me.

So please- don’t tell me you love me. Love is too important a word to throw around like a hot potato, or use flippantly.

Call me Steve, Steven, Yo!, Hey You, but NEVER “Stevie”: the last person who called me that is recovering very well and should be released from the hospital soon.

I have never called anyone I know from a synagogue or Facebook or any of the Facebook accounts I am associated with “brother” or “sister”, and I have never told anyone I love them, except those who I truly love and have known me, the whole me, for years.

Now, I know that Yeshua said to love each other (John 13:34) and Shaul (Paul) even went as far as to say we should greet each other with a holy kiss (2 Corinthians 13:12). But Yeshua was talking on a spiritual plane; I really don’t think he meant loving each other in a physical way: he said to love us as he did, which means to treat each other with respect and compassion.

I really don’t think Yeshua meant to go around telling everyone in the church or synagogue that “I love you”.

And what about greeting each other with a kiss? I don’t know about you, but I do not want to have anyone to kiss me, especially a stranger. Now, if we have already had a friendship for a long enough time that we both know each other well enough to kiss, that’s OK.

And that kiss better be a peck on the cheek, and nothing more.

I feel the same way about hugging.

So, that’s my rant for today- this is the real me, people, and I am sharing with you my private and true feelings. Not that I pretend to be different when I am with you in these messages or when I am in a house of worship with other congregants: I am just much more careful about what and how I say things, and I try to stay emotionally “disconnected”.

I hope you understand my feelings, and if you feel the same way I do, please let me know.

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

(Hey, in case you didn’t notice, I did not include anything about liking my Facebook Messianic Moment page or joining my “Just Gods’ Word” group, or buying my books or subscribing to my website on this post or …… oh, my! I guess I just did.)

Do you know the 10 Commandments? Most of us can tell you all ten, but the problem is whether or not those are the Real 10 Commandments.

Specifically, it’s the first commandment I am talking about.

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

I have found many different versions of the Big 10, depending on whether you are looking at a Jewish Bible or a Gentile Bible.

Here are some blatant examples of what I mean (Exodus 20):

Do you see what I am talking about?

If you are a Gentile, the 10 Commandments you most likely have been taught (to be fair, not all Gentiles were taught incorrectly) that the first commandment is not to have any other Gods before the true God. It ignores the first commandment from the Torah, which God, himself, dictated to Moses, essentially rejected that he is the God who brought us out of Egypt.

In other words, many Gentiles have never been taught that it is God who is truly our Savior.

Oh yes, it references that God brought us out of Egypt in the regular text, but it is NOT listed as a commandment.

Now, why would a Gentile Bible ignore this commandment?

(I haven’t looked at every different version, but my experience justifies my statements)

Why leave out what God considers to be the very first thing that people who worship him should know and remember?

Well, the answer seems obvious: the Gentiles who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- the TRUE God- weren’t taken out of Egypt, so they can ignore that first commandment.

Simple. Easy to understand, and quite frankly…it makes sense.

But, as Dick Tracy detectives would say before calling him on their wrist-radio,

“HOLD EVERYTHING!”

(If you’re not older than 65 then you probably don’t understand this reference)

If you are a Believer, someone who has accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah, then according to the New Covenant writings, you are a member of Israel and an adopted child of Abraham (Ephesians 3:4-6).

In other words, when you accept Yeshua as your Messiah and are “Born Again”, then you are also a member of the tribes that came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

That means that you, too, were taken out of slavery from Egypt!

Now, maybe the “Egypt” for Gentiles is more spiritual than it was physically for the Jewish people back then; i.e., Egypt representing slavery instead of a country, which is a metaphor often used in the Tanakh.

But the idea that God is the one who saved you from an “Egypt”, which could be either physical slavery to people or spiritual slavery to sin, is just as meaningful and important for Gentiles as it is for Jews!

So, here is my message for today: The first commandment, which identifies the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the one who took us out of slavery is important for Jews and Gentiles: representing to Jews the freedom from slavery to men, and representing to Gentiles their freedom from slavery to sin.

Of course, for all of us now, this is only available through the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, who has also made it possible for Gentiles to become adopted children of Abraham.

The real first commandment identifies God as the one who is our savior from sin.

Gentiles have been taught that Jesus is their Savior, which is true him being the instrument through which we can receive forgiveness of our sins.

BUT…Jesus doesn’t forgive sins now, so he isn’t really the one who saves us: the one, and only one, who forgives our sins, thereby saving us from spending eternity out of the presence of God is…G-O-D!

Yeshua (Jesus) is our Intercessor– he sits at the right hand of God, pleads our case, asks his Father to answer our prayers sent in his name, and tells God that we are one of his flock.

If you pray to Jesus, your aim is off- he never said to pray to him. He is the Intercessor of our prayers, not the Interceptor of them.

So, if you want to learn the real 10 Commandments, remember that the first one is:

God is the one who saved you from slavery by bringing you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Whether that “Egypt” was the country or representative of slavery (as in, to sin) doesn’t matter: what does matter is that you know God is your true Savior.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry, on both my website and my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules); please comment on these messages and let’s drash it out, together.

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

If someone was to ask me which New Covenant epistle talks about ignoring the Torah, I would have to say the letter to the Galatians.

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

The reason I say this is because in that letter, more than any other letter, the main topic is obedience for the sake of obeying, specifically dealing with circumcision. The Believing Jews were trying to get the Believing Gentiles to undergo b’rit milah (ritual circumcision) in order to be considered “righteous” in God’s eyes.

Shaul (Paul) is adamant that undergoing b’rit milah is useless to anyone, and makes it even harder to be righteous, because if you try to do just one thing the Torah requires, you are then expected to do everything the Torah requires, and no one can do everything.

Now, if that doesn’t sound like Shaul saying it is better to ignore the Torah than try to obey it, I don’t know what else it could possibly mean.

BUT…that is not what he meant.

Shaul, in his usual roundabout fashion, was telling the Gentiles that doing what is in the Torah only in order to earn righteousness was impossible.

He said that if anyone gets circumcised just to be obedient to the Torah, by wanting to obey one mitzvot (law) they are required to obey every mitzvot. James confirms this in his letter: James 2:10 says that a person who obeys every law in the Torah, but at some point breaks just one law, becomes guilty of breaking them all.

They are both saying the same thing, but coming at it from different sides. What they are sayin is that the Torah is an All or Nothing thing.

So, what Shaul is saying is that when someone tries to obey every law in the Torah TO EARN SALVATION, they will fail, so it is best for them to not even try.

Does that mean we can ignore the Torah? No way! What it means is that we must be obedient but not in order to earn salvation.

Obedience to the Torah because we faithfully believe God gave us the Torah to help us is different from just going through the motions so we aren’t in trouble.

Legalism is a works-based salvation, and that will never work. Why? Because no one can be totally obedient to the Torah.

But…obeying the Torah as a child obeys- trustingly doing what will please God just as a child wants to please its parents- is the kind of obedience that God wants.

God gave the world the Torah so that his children could save themselves from self-destruction, and even when we continually fail to do what God wants, if we repent from our failure and try again, I believe God is pleased.

God tells us in Ezekiel 18:23 that he wants everyone to be saved, and gets no pleasure from seeing the sinful punished.

Legalism is a perversion of the Torah, teaching that we must perform the actions the Torah requires in order to gain God’s acceptance.

Obedience to the Torah comes from wanting to please God and faithfully trusting that when we do as God says, we will be blessed as he promised (Deuteronomy 28).

The Torah is the ultimate User Manual for salvation. It is what God wants from us with regards to worshiping him and treating each other. Yes, “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the foundation which the Torah is built on, but it doesn’t replace “love the Lord, thy God with all thy strength, heart, and soul.” Yeshua said these two commandments are the most important.

Doing what the Torah requires in order to gain acceptance is legalism; doing what the Torah requires to please God is faithful obedience.

God is clear throughout the Tanakh that going through the motions is not what he wants, and even though he made the rules that say not doing what the Torah says is a sin, he provided us the ultimate “Get Out of Jail” card, which is the Messiah, Yeshua.

Not that we can ignore the Torah because we have Yeshua- that is not why God sent him.

The bottom line is God expects everyone who worships him to obey the Torah- he gave it to the Jews to learn, then as God’s nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) to teach it to the Goyim (nations), so they could learn it.

God knows that as hard as we may try, no one will ever be totally obedient to the Torah, which is why he created the sacrificial system (which he explains in the first 7 chapters of Leviticus) so we could avoid the eternal consequences of our sins.

When Solomon completed building the Temple in Jerusalem, that was the only place we could bring our sacrifices. After the destruction of the Temple, Yeshua became the only means for receiving forgiveness of sin.

That is why he says the only way to the father is through him (John 14:6).

Do you now understand the difference between legalism and obedience?

Legalism is just going through the motions, whereas obedience is the result of faithfully trusting that God gave us these laws for our benefit, and we try to do them as best as we can in order to please God.

God, Yeshua, James, and every original Apostle never ever said that we can disobey the Torah, and even though Shaul seems to say that, he never meant it that way.

I believe if Shaul was alive today, and could see how people have so misinterpreted and misused his letters, he would be furious.

Here’s today’s message in a nutshell: if you know the difference between doing something just to stay out of trouble, and doing something as a labor of love, then you know the difference between legalism and obedience.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my ministry website, my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

I welcome your comments, and when you are on the website, please check out and buy the books I have written- if you like what you get in these messages, you will like what is written in my books.

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

Oy vey! What a terrible way to start a motivational and edifying message. How can I possibly say that all who call on the name of the Lord won’t be saved when the prophet Joel tells us we will be saved (Joel 2:32)?

And if what Joel said isn’t enough, Shaul (Paul) said it, too in Romans 10:13!

Oh, wait a minute… actually, all Shaul was doing was quoting Joel.

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

In fact, just about everything Shaul said to his Gentile congregants was not originated by him; he was teaching them what God said through the Prophets and what God commanded in the Torah.

In order to know why I am saying that all who call on God’s name will not be saved, despite what Joel said, we first need to make sure we all understand what was assumed when Joel said that.

That assumption is that the ones calling on God’s name would also be obedient to his Torah.

Joel was speaking to Jews who had turned away from Torah observance, and as such, his message was to return to obedience, and then they would be saved when they called on his name.

(God’s name, of course, not Joel’s.)

The truth is the one thing that separates people from God more than anything else is… religion.

That’s right, I said religion separates us from God. How? By violating one of the most important commandments God gave us in the Torah! In Deuteronomy 4:2, he has Moses tell the people (CJB):

 In order to obey the mitzvot of Adonai your God which I am giving you, do not add to what I am saying, and do not subtract from it.

Show me a religion, any religion (and that includes Judaism) which hasn’t added to or taken away from the Torah.

So, nu? What have you got for me? Nothing? No religion, anywhere, is exclusively Torah-only? Not even the Chasidic Jews, the most Orthodox of all?

No- they are more observant to the Talmud than the Torah!

What about the Jehovah’s Witnesses? They certainly understand not all who call on his name will be saved because they believe there are only 144,000 who are already chosen? But, they also do so many things that are not in the Torah, and don’t do so many things that are in the Torah.

Hozabout the Born-Again Christians? Oh, wait- their religious holidays were created by Constantine and they observe Pauline doctrine (which is based on misunderstanding almost everything he taught), but they don’t celebrate the Holy Days God gave us in the Torah and they don’t observe the rules for eating and worship that God demanded of us.

And some Christians, the Replacement Theologists, believe they are now God’s Chosen people, claiming that he has rejected all the Jews because they rejected Yeshua as their Messiah. They say this, despite God’s constant forgiveness of the Jewish people throughout the Bible and his constant confirmation that the Jewish people will ALWAYS be his chosen people.

Judaism is, undoubtedly, the one religion that is closest to what God has told us to do because our religion is founded in the Torah, but (as I said earlier) within Judaism we have added much to what God told us to do, which is called Halacha (the Walk). Halacha is based on the Torah, but the rules are rabbinic interpretations of how to obey the Torah.

For example, there are the stringent kosher rules, such as different plates for meat and dairy, or rules for observing the Sabbath, such as how far you are allowed to walk on Saturday.

Christianity has, for the most part, done whatever the Pope, or Martin Luther, or the World Council of Churches, or John Knox (Presbyterian), or John Wesley (Methodism), or Richard Allen (African Methodist Episcopal Church), or any other founder of a Christian denomination (of which there are many) has told them to do, all of which have different ways of NOT doing what God said to do in the Torah.

That is why so many people who call on the name of the Lord will not be saved because they aren’t doing what God told them to do.

And Yeshua, himself, confirms what I am saying in Matthew 7:21-23 when he says (CJB):

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.  On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’  Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness! ‘”

Notice, please, that he says only those who “….do what my Father in heaven wants…” will enter the kingdom of heaven, i.e., be saved.

What Yeshua is saying, quite plainly, is that only those who call on God’s name and obey the Torah will be saved.

Sorry, Christians and Jews who obey people instead of God, but this isn’t my idea- it’s what the Messiah says, and he is just saying what his father, Adonai, already said.

There is one other thing to remember- when you call on the name, it isn’t Yeshua you should be calling to for forgiveness, it is God, the father you need to dial up. Yeshua made forgiveness possible by his sacrificial death, but he isn’t the one forgiving you- he is our Intercessor. An intercessor is not the final decision maker, he is our representative to the final decision maker.

Yeshua sits at the right hand of God, not in place of him.

There you have it! Calling on the name of the Lord is not enough- you need to also be obedient to God. Not to Constantine, not to Paul or John Wesley, or the Pope, or Menachem Schneerson (Chabad), but to G-O-D!

And the only place throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, where God tells you what he wants you to do, is in the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel. Like my Facebook page, join my Facebook group “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules) and buy my books, as well.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot- share these messages with everyone you know, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

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

Most of the time when I am talking about Yeshua or God or what is in the Bible, I always give you the reference so you can see, for yourself, that it really is in the Bible.

I’m not gonna do that, today; if you don’t believe what I say, or if it sounds familiar but you’re not sure, I challenge you to find it.

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

Churches, Messianic Synagogues, and Hebraic Roots houses of worship tell people that the salvation we receive through the sacrificial death of Messiah Yeshua is not able to be purchased and we can never earn it, yet it is priceless beyond compare… and do you know what the best part of it is?

It is FREE!

But is it, really?

Yeshua told his talmudim (Hebrew for students, or in this case, disciples) that they would be tortured and killed for following him. So, in their case, their free gift of salvation will cost them something- their health, their livelihood, even their life!

And it did.

Yeshua also told the man that wanted to follow him that the fox has its hole and the birds have their nest, but the Son of Man doesn’t have a rock on which to lay his head.

Yeshua told the rich man to give away all that he owned, then to come and follow Yeshua.

Hey, I don’t know about you, but this free salvation is starting to sound awfully costly! You may end up losing not just financial assets, but suffering abuse of your body and maybe even the loss of your life.

I know of many people who have paid a very terrible price for receiving this “free” gift, in that they have been ostracized by their family and friends.

Salvation being free doesn’t mean it won’t cost us something, it simply means we cannot buy or earn it.

If you wanted to buy it, does anyone really think God has a bank account somewhere so he can cash the check?

And you cannot earn it; well, wait a minute…that’s not really true.

If anyone, anywhere, could ever live their life completely in accordance with the Torah by never sinning, and die in that condition of perfect obedience to God’s instructions, then they would, literally, earn their salvation because the Torah is what God tells us we need to do in order to be righteous in his eyes. And to obey the Torah completely, you need to have both faith and actions that demonstrate that faith (faith and works, remember?)

God gave the Torah to the Jews to learn and obey, the reason being that once they knew it they would be his nation of priests (yes, there is a Bible verse where God tells Moses that is what we Jews are to be), and as such be an example of righteousness so that they could then teach the rest of the world to follow their example.

That would then fulfill the promise God made to Abraham that his descendants will be a blessing to the Gentiles.

But here’s the catch…no one can live a sinless life.

If someone could, then there would be three people in heaven: God, Yeshua, and that one idiot who ruined it for the rest of us.

And because no one can be totally obedient to the Torah, God sent Yeshua, the Messiah, to make it possible for us to receive the salvation that we could never earn.

So asking for salvation costs nothing, and receiving salvation costs nothing, but living “saved” by obeying God’s word (in the Torah) is very costly.

So why would I accept so much tsouris during my life?

The answer is there are two lives we all have: the first one is here on earth in the flesh, and the second one is a spiritual existence either in God’s presence, joyful and serene throughout eternity, or out of God’s presence, in the dark and cold where people moan and gnash their teeth.

The reason we are in this plane of existence is to choose where we will spend eternity; for me, I choose to accept Yeshua as my Messiah now, with all the suffering that might go with it, in order to have eternal peace and joy in God’s presence later.

You know what? Instead of asking people “What’s in your wallet?”, they should be asking “Where do you want to spend eternity?”

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to all my sites (website, YouTube, and Facebook group called “Just God’s Word”), and buy my books. Honest: if you like what you get here, you will like my books.

Oh, yes, one more thing: I always welcome your comments.

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

For me, the most valuable asset I own is my guaranteed ticket to salvation.

But, for most people, salvation is something they just can’t fathom or understand, and as such it has no real value to them.

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

Now, you may be thinking, “C’mon, Steve- everyone knows about heaven.” and you would be right in saying that, but heaven and salvation are not the same thing.

Heaven for most everyone is a place where everyone is happy, but the truth is that heaven is where God and the angels live- not people. When the Acharit haYamim (End Days) are ended, those who are saved live on the new earth, not in heaven.

Salvation, on the other hand, is not a place- it is a condition. Salvation is that state of being (what we call “saved”) where you have the opportunity to be cleansed of the sins you commit by means of your having accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as the messiah God promised to send, believing that he was raised from the dead as a substitutionary sacrifice for all people, Jew and Gentile, alike.

Salvation has no Hollywood presence, unlike all those movies showing heaven. Salvation has no substance, no visible attributes- you can’t see it, you can’t touch it, you can’t smell it.

Salvation is the promise God gave to his chosen people, a promise to cleanse them of their sins when they sacrifice to him to ask forgiveness of their sins against him, coming before him with a repentant attitude, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit.

And remember: every sin is first and foremost a sin against God; King David knew that, and said so in Psalm 51.

To those who have no faith and reject God, salvation has no value.

And don’t think I am only talking about Atheists or people of religions that are not based on the Judeo-Christian Bible. No! The most pitiful people I know are those who reject God while believing they are worshiping him!

A religion doesn’t teach only God says, it teaches whatever the founder of that religion thinks God says.

Even Judaism- which should be the “purest” of all religions because it is based on what God says in the Torah- is not innocent, either. Halacha rules (Halacha means “the walk”) are all rabbinical regulations, rites, and requirements that are man-made. These include separate plates for meat and dairy, restricting how far one can walk on the Shabbat, searching for hametz (leavened products) in the house the day before the Pesach (Passover) Seder, etc. They are found mostly in the Talmud.

Some of these Halacha rules are the man-made traditions that Yeshua talked about which he said were wrong because they overruled God’s word. Now, it wasn’t every man-made tradition that Yeshua decried, only those that took precedence over God’s laws.

Most Christian religions teach, in one way or another to ignore the Torah. Many teach that Jesus did away with the law, and by doing so set their congregants on the path of destruction because they are rejecting God while thinking they are doing what pleases him!

When we do not do as God says we should, that is not a small thing because we either do as God says, or we don’t, and God is very clear that refusing to do as he says is rejecting him.

Period; shut the door; das ist alles!

Salvation is the most valuable thing that exists. However, for most of the people in the world, it has no value because they do not really think on the spiritual (eternal) level. Even many of those who are “saved” do not understand that the things of this world are not valuable because they do not last.

Value is a fleeting thing: today your stocks are worth a million dollars, then the market crashes and now they are worth nothing. In the 12 years I was on Wall Street, during the 80’s and early 90’s, I knew people with million dollar plus brokerage accounts who, overnight, ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and this was AFTER their entire portfolio had been sold to meet margin call when the market crashed.

Value is temporary, value is fleeting, value is based on supply and demand, but salvation is priceless and its value never decreases.

It is a shame that so many people devalue the most valuable thing in the universe- the ability to be forgiven by means of the sacrifice Yeshua made for us. It is especially painful to me when I think of my fellow Jews who have been taught to reject Yeshua.

That’s right- most Jews I have ever known (which used to include me) have no idea of who Yeshua is, what he taught and how he lived. That’s because they have been told by their family, friends, Rabbi, and nearly every other Jew they know that Jesus created Christianity, which hates and kills Jews. And their Gentile friends also think Jesus created Christianity.

Guess what? Yeshua didn’t create Christianity: men and women- mere human beings- created all the different forms of Christian religions that exist today.

I pray that salvation has value to you because you know what God wants from you, which is in the Torah. Don’t be concerned that you have to do everything thing in the Torah perfectly, because you can’t- that’s why we need a Messiah. Duh!

But if you do not try to do what God said you should do, well…that’s different, and I’d be concerned if I were you.

Yeshua taught us to obey the Torah, not just to perform the literal meaning of the laws but to understand the deeper, spiritual meaning. When we do that we will have the Torah written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33), and that is when salvation will have its full, never-decreasing value to you.

We have a choice to either value or devalue salvation, so nu? What’s its value to you?

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, and buy my books from my website.

And I always welcome your comments, which you can make here or on my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word”.

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

Should I show every biblical reference to “Trust in the Lord?” If I did, it would take you longer to read them all then to read the rest of this message! So trust me when I say, there are a lot of references in the Bible telling us to trust in the Lord.

But what, exactly, are we trusting?

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

Do we trust that God is God?

Do we trust that God will keep his word?

Do we trust that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah?

Do we trust there is a Devil?

Do we trust all of the above, and more?

And what if I say I believe in the Lord? Does that mean I trust him, also?

Mr. Webster says that to believe means to accept as true or real, and he goes on to tell us that trust means to have confidence or faith in a person or thing.

This means I can believe that God exists but I don’t have to trust him, as in trust him to punish me if I don’t do as he says, or trust him to forgive me when I ask him to do so.

So, which is more important? To believe in God or to trust him?

Well, you can’t trust something that you don’t even accept as being real, so believing in God is the very first step to trusting him. It seems this isn’t a “One or the other“, but more of a “Once I do, then what?” thing, doesn’t it?

When we are told we should trust in the Lord, for me, that means that I have to accept that whatever God says is true and I should obey him. And when it comes down to Yeshua being the Messiah, or not, it is something I should first believe. If I don’t believe Yeshua is the Messiah, then trust isn’t a factor.

The issue now is if I believe in God, and trust him to do as he says, he did say he would send a Messiah, so trusting him means that Yeshua could be that Messiah.

It comes down to choosing to believe. If I choose to believe Yeshua is the Messiah, for whatever reason, the next step is do I trust in him to… what?

Yeshua said that whatever we ask for in his name, he will do for us (John 16:23), and also that he is the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Those are the two things that I recall being the most important things to trust Yeshua for; other than those two, out trust is first and foremost in the Lord, God.

Hmm… now what? If I trust in God that he means what he says, he told us that we cannot sacrifice (to be forgiven) anywhere but where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:11), which was the temple that King Solomon built in Jerusalem (1 Kings 9:3). But that temple was destroyed in 73 AD, so what do I do now?

Does that mean no temple, no sacrifice, therefore no forgiveness?

Yes, it does, for those who don’t believe that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Yeshua said that through his sacrifice we can be forgiven, which means I can still trust that God will forgive me if I believe that Yeshua is who he said he is.

Wow, that’s confusing, isn’t it? I don’t know now whether I am trusting or believing, or both? And in whom?

Let’s try to bring this into focus: first, you must believe that God exists. Next, you must trust that he will do as he says he will do; for me, that trust has been earned because I have read (and believe) the narratives in the Tanakh showing how God always came to the rescue of his people, Israel, when they did as he commanded.

The next step is to chose to believe what we read in the Gospels about Yeshua, and when we do that we then trust that through his sacrifice we can be forgiven, because his sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple.

In other words, Yeshua is now where God has placed his name, and through Yeshua we can find forgiveness when we are repentant.

Believe in God, believe Yeshua is the Messiah, trust that God will forgive you when you repent and sacrifice, and trust that as the Messiah, Yeshua is the now both where God has placed his name and the substitutionary sacrifice for sin, through which everyone, everywhere, can now find forgiveness and, consequently, salvation.

The temple in Jerusalem used to be the only place we could attain forgiveness from sin, but now that place is the Messiah, Yeshua!

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website ministry and my YouTube channel. Like my Facebook page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).

And share these messages with everyone! If you care to make a comment, I welcome it.

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