You may be thinking that salvation is a gift from God that no one can have taken from them.

And you are right- no one can take our God-given salvation from us, but we can certainly throw it away.

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

We are warned against apostasy, but that isn’t the threat I am talking about.

We are warned about how the Enemy can confuse and mislead us, which is a definite threat, but I don’t believe it is as big as the one I want to tell you about.

The greatest threat to your salvation is…RELIGION!

When we ask God, through Messiah Yeshua, to forgive our sins and take us into his presence, we will be “saved” from the spiritual and eternal consequences of our sins. But that is just the first step: the road leading to that salvation still lays before us and it is a long and treacherous one.

The guide taking us down that road, which almost everyone who worships God in one way or another is led by, is a religion. It may be Judaism, it may be Catholicism; you might be a Protestant or maybe even a Mennonite. There are some 6 sects with Judaism and dozens of Christian religions and sects.

Here is why I say religion is the greatest threat to your salvation: religion is not from God. God tells us exactly what he wants from us regarding how to worship him and how to treat each other, in the Torah. There is no other place, anywhere, in the Bible where God gives us a direct commandment regarding these things.

Religion is the creation of people who want to have power over other people. Religion tells you what you can and cannot do, and also tells you that this is what God really wants. Some religions tell you to ignore the Holy Days that God told us to celebrate, but if you don’t celebrate their man-made holidays, then you will go to hell.

Religions tell you what you want to hear so that their leaders can control you. God has told us all how he wants us to act, but religion tells you it is OK to ignore some of the things God says and do what the religion says you should do. What is worse is that they say it’s OK to ignore the Torah commandments because you believe in Jesus!

For the record, Yeshua (Jesus) NEVER told anyone to do anything other than what his father, God, said to do! And religion tells us that Yeshua is our savior, but that is wrong! We can have our sins forgiven through Yeshua’s sacrifice, but he is NOT our savior- God is.

We are saved because of what Yeshua did but it is God who is our savior because he is the one who forgives us!

Yeshua replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which was the way we used to be forgiven under the sacrificial system. God would forgive our sins by means of the shed innocent blood of the sacrifice, but did anyone ever say that the goat or the bull or the lamb was their savior? Of course not- the sacrifice is not the savior, it is the thing which makes forgiveness possible, and that forgiveness is what saves us, and that forgiveness comes from GOD!

And let’s not forget that it was God who provided the Messiah in the first place!

Religions also attract people, especially today’s Mega-churches, by appealing to their comfort zone. Religion is the greatest threat to your salvation, and next in line after that is your comfort zone.

People love to hear that if they are a good person and believe in Jesus, they will be saved and get to go to heaven.

Anyone who really knows the Bible should immediately realize both of those statements are wrong. First off, no one is good- even Yeshua refused to be called “good” when someone addressed him that way, rebuking them and telling them that only God is good (Mark 10:18). And Revelation 21 tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, so if everyone goes to heaven, why do we need a new earth?

The answer is that no one goes to heaven- that is where God and the angelic beings live. We live on earth. And we can confirm that from the prophecy of Micah, in Micah 4:4 where he says in the Acharit-Hayamim (End Days, meaning after the Messiah has come and is ruling the world) that each man will sit under his own fig tree and drink wine from his own vineyard without fear. Not in heaven, but here on earth (well, the new earth).

Religion teaches you what is OK with God based on what that religions’ originator believed (and NO- Yeshua did not create Christianity, men did). And one of the biggest comfort zone appeals I have heard all my life from religion is that when you die, if you have done what your religion has told you to do, you get to go to heaven and you will see all your loved ones there, waiting for you.

What a load of drek!

C’mon, people- get real! Do you really believe that everyone you have loved is in heaven? What about people who you may have loved who had a different religion? Doesn’t your religion teach you that it is the ONLY way to be saved? Doesn’t a Catholic Priest say a Protestant is doomed? Doesn’t a Rabbi say that a Mennonite isn’t worshipping God correctly? Don’t the Jehovah’s Witnesses tell you that all but 144,000 people will be in hell?

I’m Jewish, and I can tell you from personal experience that the Chasidic Jews call the Reform Jews “Goyim” (meaning “Gentile”), and because I believe Yeshua is the Messiah they say I am not Jewish anymore but a Christian!

Let me throw a plug for myself in here quickly: my latest book, “The Good News About the Messiah for Jews, Debunking the Traditional Lies About the Jewish Messiah” is all about how religions have misled people about what the Messiah really taught, and what religions have said about him that isn’t true. You should seriously consider reading it if you want to know whether or not your religion has guided you to salvation or sin.

Let’s bring this to a close…look, I can’t speak for God and would never even think of doing so. And, I won’t tell you what you should believe. But, on the other hand, what I know about God- based on what he tells us about himself and what he wants from us- is that when we meet him at Judgement Day (which we will all do), it may go something like this:

You: “I did everything that my religious leaders told me to do.”

God: “My child, I understand that you did what they told you to do, but it’s what I say that counts.”

Now, if that doesn’t rattle your comfort zone, I don’t know what will.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website, to my YouTube channel, “Like” my Facebook page, and join my Facebook discussion group called Just God’s Word.

Oh, yeah- it wouldn’t hurt to buy and read my books, either.

I’m done for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

When we read the Bible, we know that God is a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God. We also know that he promises to punish the guilty, guilty being anyone who purposefully rejects and ignores God’s instructions.

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

“So when I disobey God, does that make me a guilty person, deserving of punishment?”

Yes, it does.

“But, but, but…wait a minute! I am a Believer: I accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as my savior, so I can’t be guilty because he forgives my sins.”

Well, actually, no- that’s not accurate. Only God forgives sins; yes, Yeshua did say that he was authorized when he walked the earth to forgive sins, but that was only to prove he was (and still is) the Messiah. Believing in Yeshua as the Messiah does not automatically cleanse you of sin.

“So, then my religious leaders lied to me?”

Yes, and no, because they were only telling you what they had been told.

Why do you think Yeshua had to die? It was so that by his sacrifice we could be forgiven by God, in accordance with the sacrificial system God defined in Leviticus. Yeshua replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, that’s all. We still need to confess our sins, repent of them, and ask God to forgive us in Yeshua’s name, i.e. by means of his sacrifice on our behalf.

“OK, so when I sin, I am guilty, and still need to confess, repent, and ask God to forgive me, which he will do because I have accepted Yeshua as my Messiah and ask forgiveness by means of his sacrifice. Is that right?”

Now you have it!

Sin is something no one can escape or completely overcome, even if the sins we commit are accidental. Before Yeshua, when the temple existed, we could sacrifice there to be forgiven, but only there- God commanded a sacrifice had to be made only where he placed his name (Exodus 20:24). When the temple was utterly destroyed (around 70 CE) there was no place we could go to be forgiven. This is where Yeshua’s sacrifice comes into play: as the Messiah, God’s anointed, his sacrifice replaced the animal sacrifice that had to be made at the temple. Yeshua’s sacrifice is acceptable to God anywhere, anytime, for all time.

“So what about the Jews? I know the Messianic Jews have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah, but what all the other Jews?”

Yes, that’s a problem. The mainstream Jewish population rejects Yeshua as the Messiah God promised to send because, for no other reason, they have been taught to reject him. It’s not really that much different than with most Christians, who have been taught they can reject the Torah commandments.

Jews aren’t the only ones left out of salvation by rejecting Yeshua; many, many Christians who believe they are saved are not because they have been taught to reject God’s commandments, or that they do not have to confess and repent of their sins because they are automatically saved by believing in Jesus.

It seems they don’t realize that believing Jesus is the Messiah isn’t enough. C’mon, people! Every demon in hell believes Jesus is the Messiah!

The sacrificial system requires confession of sin (once you have been made aware of it), repentance (you have to feel bad about having committed that sin), and the shedding of innocent blood to cleanse the sin (Hebrews 9:22.) When the temple existed, that is where the sacrifice had to be performed. As I explained, Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced the animal sacrifice and, as the Messiah, his sacrifice is acceptable anywhere, anytime.

After the destruction of the temple, in accordance with the Torah (do you hear this, my Jewish brothers and sisters?) forgiveness of sin can only be accomplished through Yeshua, the Messiah.

The teachings of Yeshua are, of course, also very important, and what he taught was exclusively from and about the Torah laws. He did not change or replace a single stroke of the pen, but what he did do was to explain the spiritual meaning of the laws, which is called the Remes.

Before Yeshua, the Pharisees only taught the plain language or literal meaning of the law, which is called the P’shat. In other words, the Pharisees taught performance-based salvation: do exactly what the law says to do and that is all you need. Yeshua taught the deeper, spiritual understanding of the law: just doing the right thing wasn’t enough, you had to feel it in your heart!

Just like God said in Jeremiah 31:33, the New Covenant will be written on our hearts.

The Torah teaches us what we must know to do, and Yeshua taught us what we must feel in our hearts. The Torah says do not kill, Yeshua says do not even hate; the Torah says do not commit adultery, Yeshua says do not even lust with your eyes.

Can you see? Yeshua didn’t just teach us what the Torah says, but what the Torah means!

This is why Yeshua came the first time: to teach us more than just what to do, but how to feel, and to replace the need to bring an animal to the temple for forgiveness.

The next time Yeshua comes will be to complete God’s plan for the redemption of his people, all those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and been faithfully obedient (as best as we can) to God’s instructions in the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel, like my FaceBook page, and join my discussion group called Just God’s Word.

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

I have written 4 books regarding God, religion, prayer, and (most recently) debunking the traditional lies about Yeshua that both Judaism and Christianity have proliferated over the millennia, so please consider getting these for yourself. They are available on Amazon Books or use the links on my website.

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

Here we are, again, at the end of a Torah cycle.

Time to march the Torah around the neighborhood, with singing and shofar blowing. Then, after returning to the synagogue, we read the last lines of Deuteronomy and while the congregation sings and dances we roll back the Torah to the beginning and read the first lines of Genesis.

(Rolling the Torah back gives you forearms that look like Popeye’s!)

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

“Simchat Torah” means the Joy of Torah: the joyful part being the fact that we get to read it, all over again. The Torah is split into 54 separate readings, each reading is called a “parashah” and the weekly parashah is read at the Saturday morning Shabbat service. This is what we have done every Shabbat for millennia, even from before the time Yeshua walked the earth. These parashot (plural) are designed for an annual cycle, although in some synagogues they use a three-year cycle instead of the one-year cycle.

After the parashah is read, we read the Haftorah portion, which is from the other parts of the Tanakh and is relatable to the Torah portion. This is how it works: we read the Torah, which is the direct word of God telling us how we should live, worship, and treat each other, and then we read the Haftorah to see the practical application (or failure, thereof) of the Torah portion we just read which occurred during our history.

For example, Parashah Naso (Numbers 4:21 to the end of Chapter 7) includes the laws regarding the vow of the Nazirite. The Haftorah portion is from the Book of Judges 8:2-25, which is the story of the birth of Shimshon (Samson), who was to be a Nazirite from birth.

In some cases, there is a double parashot reading which is done to make sure the final reading comes out on the 8th day of Sukkot.

Yes, I know Sukkot is only 7 days, but the story goes that God so loved to be with his children that he extended it an extra day, which is called Shemini Atzeret (this is also Simchat Torah.)

It is very sad that so many Christians pretty much ignore the Torah. Not only is this sad because they can never really understand who Yeshua (Jesus) is if they don’t know his people’s history (he is, after all, Jewish) and they also can’t really fathom the depth of the lessons in Shaul’s (Paul) letters if they don’t know where he is “coming from”, meaning the mindset and beliefs of the Jewish people, which is given in the writings of the Torah.

They miss learning the wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs, and let’s not forget experiencing the beauty of the poetry in the Psalms; even though many churches do take from the Psalms, now and then. However, the full impact cannot be felt without knowing the history that motivated those songs.

And the worst part of all when Christians ignore reading the Torah is that they do not know what God said we should do, and no matter what their Priest, Minister, Pastor or whatever tells them Paul said, or John said, or even James said- it is what God said that counts!

Yeshua never taught anything different than what is in the Torah. Why people said he talked as no man has talked before is because he taught the spiritual understanding of God’s commandments. The Pharisees only taught the literal meaning, what we call the P’shat, but Yeshua went deeper than that and taught the Remes, the underlying spiritual meaning.

Here’s proof, which we get directly from Matthew 5 when we read the Sermon on the Mount: the Pharisees taught “Do not kill” but Yeshua said not to even so much as hate in our hearts; the Pharisees said “Do not commit adultery” but Yeshua said that wasn’t enough- you must not even lust with your eyes. Yeshua taught what God wanted us to know, which is not just the letter of the law but the very spirit of it.

If you aren’t that familiar with the Torah, please take it out and read it. Make it part of your daily reading. I keep my Bible in the bathroom because I know that every day I will have (at least) enough time alone and undisturbed to read a chapter or two. You will be surprised how quickly you get through the entire Bible that way. I start at Genesis and go all the way through to Revelation, then start all over again.

Of course, since I am reading much more than the Torah, alone, it takes me more than a year to go through the entire Bible, but doing it this way I have read the whole Bible many times over the past 25 or so years, and each time I get to start it over I am excited to do so.

Reading only the New Covenant is like building a house starting with the second floor. You may end up with something, but it will never be complete.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. The more people who hear these lessons, the more people who will know what God really says. The whole purpose of this ministry is to grow and teach people what they need to know so they can make an informed decision about where they want to spend eternity.

Also please subscribe here and only my YouTube channel as well (use the link above), and remember that I always welcome your comments; you can make them here or on my Facebook discussion group called Just God’s Word.

PS: I have finished the draft of my latest book, which is debunking the different lies that have been traditionally handed down, in both Christianity and Judaism, about Messiah Yeshua. I hope to have it self-published and available for purchase within the next month or so and will announce it on my website when it is ready.

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

Here we are at Sukkot, again, which this year happens exactly on the first day of Fall.

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

Sukkot is, traditionally, believed to be the time when Messiah Yeshua was born, and this is verified by the timeline in the Gospel of Luke, with regards to when Zachariah (Yochanon the Immerser’s father) served in the temple, saw the angel, Miryam visited Elizabeth, etc.

The Torah commands us to live in Sukkot, which are tabernacles, or tents, with an open-top. The Sukkot are decorated with fruits and branches, which would be consistent with what materials would have been available to the Jews living in the desert. The commandment is also to live in the Sukkah (singular form) for 7 days, as a memorial to how the Israelites lived for 40 years.

In modern days, we build a Sukkah but for most people, it is in the backyard (if they have the space) and maybe the kids sleep in it, but for the most part, they will have dinner in it but sleep in the house.

When I was attending a Messianic synagogue back in Northeast Philadelphia, I built a Sukkah using PVC pipes so that it could be used, then reused, over and over again. It lasted for many years. We performed the shaking of the Lulav with the 4 Species in it, and it was fun to erect, decorate and then tear it all down when the week of Sukkot was over.

The message I have for us today is this tabernacle represents how God cared for his people, and whether or not you build a physical Sukkah, the tabernacle I believe God desires to share with us, more than anything else, is the tabernacle of our hearts.

When we read about God and his relationship with his people, we are told that he knows the mind. We read in the Gospels that Yeshua (through the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit) knew men’s minds. But we do not read about God seeking our mind: what we do read is that God seeks our heart.

When I like to check traditional Jewish thoughts, I go to one of two sources, neither of which has ever let me down: one is the book called “The Jewish Book of Why” (there are two volumes) and the other is the Chabad website. In this case, to share with you the Judaic belief about the relationship between the mind and the heart, I am paraphrasing what I saw on the Chabad website.

According to Chabad, there are two hearts and one mind. There is an outer and an inner heart; the outer heart reacts to the world, what we would call the “flesh” and the inner heart is purer and what we would call our spiritual side. The mind is the pathway to the inner heart, being able to overcome the fleshly desires of the outer heart and direct us to what is good and holy.

When I read this I thought immediately of Freudian analysis, the Id, Ego, and Super-ego.

Monsters from the Id! Monsters from the Id! Morbius didn’t think about the monsters from the Id!
(If you don’t recognize this reference, watch “Forbidden Planet”)

Freudian psychoanalysis identifies the Id as the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-ego operates as a moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. I am sure you can now see the clear relationship of the Id (outer heart), the Super-ego (the inner heart), and the Ego (the mind). I wouldn’t be surprised if Freud, being Jewish, knew about the two hearts and the mind and used that as the basis for his system.

In any event, God seeks the heart, which is clearly the inner heart, and through prayer, we can have a sort of Sukkot every day of the year.

And unlike this week, the weather has no influence on our ability to tabernacle with God through prayer.

So enjoy this most festive Holy Day, which is really a Holy Week, and look forward to Shemini Atzeret, also called Simchat Torah (the Joy of Torah) which starts next Monday night The traditional thought is that even though the Torah says Sukkot is 7 days, God so enjoyed being with us in the tabernacles that he extended it for an extra day. On Simchat Torah, we turn the Torah back to the very beginning to start the annual reading cycle all over again, which is the joyful part.

(If I may, I will take this time to plug my book, "Parashot Drashim" which is a commentary/Bible study of each of the 54 Torah readings (called Parashah).  I believe you will find it very useful to see Yeshua in the Torah, as well as better understanding the Jewish mindset. It is available in paperback and Kindle; there are links to it on my website and it is available directly on Amazon.)

Sukkot is a time of celebration that, unlike most Holy Days, allows us to get closer to God not just spiritually, but physically, and I will finish today’s message with this one thought: God is never any further away than the length of our arms, yet no matter how close we get to him we can always get closer.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, and I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Chag Sameach!

First off, I want to say to everyone the traditional Jewish greeting we pass to each other on Yom Kippur, which is:
May you have an easy fast.

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

So often over the years, I have heard Christians tell me that because we are saved by faith in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), we do not have to fast on Yom Kippur, or even obey any of the Moedim (Holy Days) that God gave to the Jews, all of which are specified in Leviticus 23.

My response is to ask if they understand what Yom Kippur is about. They say it is the Day of Atonement when we ask forgiveness of all our sins. For those who really know Judaism, they add that we do this by afflicting ourselves (the traditional method is fasting) and pray that God will move from his Throne of Judgment to his Throne of Forgiveness, and inscribe us in his Book of Life.

So, I ask you: if Yom Kippur is how God said to ask him to forgive you of your sins, who doesn’t have sin?

If you are sinless, then you don’t need to ask forgiveness, right? But, then again, refusing to afflict yourself on Yom Kippur, in whichever way you feel afflicted, is rejecting a commandment from God, which is a sin. Yeshua never said to reject any of God’s Holy Days, and even Shaul (Paul) never said to reject any of God’s Holy Days. So, by saying we have forgiveness through Yeshua so we don’t have to fast or observe Yom Kippur is, by definition, a sin.

And that means you need to ask forgiveness on Yom Kippur.

Here are my two reasons for Christians to observe Yom Kippur:

1. It is a commandment from God; and
2. No one is without sin, so why not ask for forgiveness?

Christianity has been professing that Yeshua did away with the law, but if he did, then that means there is no law. If there is no law, then we have no need for a Messiah, right? I mean, the law is what defines sin, so if there is no law there is no sin, and if there is no sin, there is no need for forgiveness, so we don’t need to practice any religion.

The conundrum Christianity has created is that believing Yeshua, who obeyed every law in the Torah, is the Messiah God sent to bring us into communion with him makes you a Christian, and Christians don’t have to obey God’s laws in the Torah, which means they obey man-made laws that reject God, which is the opposite of what Yeshua came to do!

God gave us laws, credos, doctrines, Holy Days, etc., but if Yeshua set us free from the Torah, then shouldn’t we also be free from the man-made traditions, holidays, and commandments that are in Christianity? Doesn’t it make sense that if we can reject what God said we must do, then whatever men say is even less important? Isn’t God more powerful than humans? So, if what God said doesn’t count, then certainly a human-originated commandment or law has no power or value, at all.

I am Jewish: I was born Jewish from Jewish parents of Jewish parents, and I even have the Levitical DNA marker in my genes. When I accepted Yeshua as the Messiah God promised, I was reborn- not as a Christian but as a renewed Jew. My faith was stronger than it had ever been, my life became more in alignment with the Jewish lifestyle that Yeshua lived, and I have been blessed beyond belief since doing this.

Yeshua celebrated every single Holy Day that God commanded us to obey, and even though he was given the authority to forgive sins on earth, he still fasted on Yom Kippur.

Hold it a minute! There is not one mention in the New Covenant Gospels about Yeshua observing any Jewish Holy Day or holiday (the former being God-ordained, the latter being man-made) other than Hanukkah and Passover. So how do I know he celebrated Yom Kippur? Because he was resurrected, which proved his sacrifice was accepted by God. And if his sacrifice was accepted, that means he died sinless, a spiritual condition which could only have existed if he observed every commandment God gave in the Torah.

The only difference between the sacrificial system for the forgiveness of sin God created in the Torah and the current means of forgiveness of sin through Yeshua is that Yeshua replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, the only place where God said we could make a sacrifice. Other than that, we still need to confess our sins (a part of the Yom Kippur service called the Ashamnoo prayer), repent of them and ask for forgiveness from God, which we do during the Yom Kippur service when reciting the Al Het (All sins) prayer.

Yom Kippur is not just something that we can throw behind us because we can receive forgiveness through Yeshua anytime we ask for it. The Sabbath, Passover, Shavuot, Yom Teruah (now called Rosh HaShanah), Yom Kippur, and Sukkot are Holy Days that God commanded us to observe as part of the way we worship him. Throwing them behind our back is a direct rejection of God. Period.

Unless you can find someplace where Yeshua said once we accept him as the Messiah it was OK to reject everything that his father said, then you had better reconsider rejecting the observance of God’s Holy Days. And I am not talking about what Shaul said, or more accurately, what people over the millennia have misinterpreted what Shaul said because God is more important than people. Yes, even more important than that nice Jewish tentmaker from Tarsus.

Too many Christians I have met don’t realize that they are not obeying God but instead a bunch of ex-Pagans who made up a religion of their own, with their own rules and holidays to replace the ones God gave, justifying this new, man-made religion by misinterpreting what Shaul said in his letters to ex-pagans learning how to be Jewish.

Think about it: God gave instructions on how to worship him and treat each other, as well as many other regulations regarding civil and criminal law, business ethics, and appropriate interpersonal relationships in order to teach us how to live righteous and holy lives. He did this in the Torah, so nu? Does that sound like something you should ignore?

Look…if you still aren’t sure if Yom Kippur is something you should celebrate as God commanded, I will leave you with one last question: do you really think that the Messiah, sent to bring us back into communion with God, would do so by telling us to reject everything God said?

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, and check out my books, as well. Please remember that I always welcome your comments, so don’t be shy about letting me know what you think, even if you disagree. Hey, I’m not always right and I do respectfully listen to what people tell me they believe. All I ask is that you be respectful of me, as well.

That’s it for today, and remember that it is easier on you if you do NOT eat a big meal tomorrow night before sunset.

L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

How many times do we read in the Bible that God says we are to be holy, as he is holy? Too many times to count, right?

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

But we are human beings; mortal, finite, and born with iniquity in our very DNA! God is perfect, holy, eternal, and unchanging; he knows we are weak, sinful, and as stable as a leaf in a hurricane, so why would he even think to task us with such an enormous burden, to be as he is?

How can God, being fair and just, expect us to be the same way he is?

The answer is: he doesn’t. C’mon, people, get real! God absolutely knows that we could never be the exact same way he is, so what does he mean when he says, “Be holy, as I am holy”?

I believe he means to emulate the way he is.

“What way is that?” you may ask, and the answer is given by God, himself: he tells us the way he is throughout the Torah.

God is forgiving; God loves everyone, even those who hate and reject him; God is fair and just, not giving special treatment to anyone.

God wants to forgive but because he is holy and just he will punish those who do evil in his sight, so we, too, must be fair and just, willing to forgive but not allowing evil to go unpunished.

God is trustworthy- he says what he means and he does what he says, unfailingly. His “Yes” means yes, and his “No” means no! Therefore, we must be trustworthy and do as we promise.

That’s all there is to it! God is forgiving, loving, just, fair, and merciful but will not allow evil to go unpunished. He treats all people the same and will not be turned to the left or the right, maintaining his course along a moral and holy path.

This is hard for us to do, but it is possible. We can never be exactly as God is, but we can be holy, as he is holy by dealing with people the same way he deals with us.

And if you aren’t really sure how to do that, then read the Torah. That is where God tells us how to worship him, and how to treat each other in all the different relationships we have. God tells us how to act with our spouses, our family, our friends, and in our business relationships. He even tells us how we should deal with evil by giving us a Penal Code.

God tells us how he expects us to interact with him and each other, and that is possible for us to do.

So, yes, Virginia- there is a way we can be holy, as God is holy, and the way to do that is to deal with people the same way God deals with us.

We can never be exactly as God is, but we can emulate God in the way we deal with others.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages (to help this ministry grow), and check out my books. And remember: I always welcome your comments.

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

This is going to be a deceptively short and simple message today and is pretty much the definitive difference between Legalism and Faith.

It is such a simple concept that I am not even going to do a video.

Legalism is the belief in performance-based salvation, meaning that what we do is how we are saved, regardless of our actual feelings. This is what religion still teaches today, especially Christianity: just do what we tell you to do and you will be fine.

Faith-based salvation is what Yeshua brought to us because he went beyond the “just do it” legalistic teachings of the Pharisees, and taught us that why we do is just as important as what we do. He taught us the spiritual meaning of the law, the true “new covenant”, i.e. what it means to have the law written on our hearts.

And in the Torah, we are told that Abraham, the poster-child for faith, was considered righteous not just because he believed God (Genesis 15:6) but also because he DID everything that God told him to do (Genesis 26:5).

So no matter how faithful you think you are, if you don’t do what God said to do, and the ONLY place that is found is in the Torah, your faith is not going to get you anywhere (James 2:14). Conversely, if you don’t have faith but try to act in accordance with the Torah in order to earn salvation, you will fail because no one can do everything in the Torah perfectly. That is why God sent the Messiah.

So there you have it: faith and works are inseparable. They are two sides of the same coin and one can’t function without the other. Faith is what must motivate us to do as God says; despite what you may have heard, Yeshua never changed anything and Shaul (Paul) never rejected the Torah or his Judaism. If you do not do as God said you should- not Paul or James or your Rabbi or your Priest, Minister, or whatever- but as God said to do, and you do it because you believe God’s promise of blessings (Deut. 28) and that salvation can now only be through Messiah Yeshua, then you are on the right path.

God has no religion, but men created religion to have power over other men, so if you succumb to religion you will be taken off the path of righteousness and directed down a path made up of ritual and false worship which ends in destruction.

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L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

We all know (at least, I hope we all know) that unconditional means without any requirements or minimums. And we all know (at least, I hope we all know) that when we pray we are to pray to God and not to anyone else. We do NOT pray to a saint or even to Yeshua (Jesus), only to God; but, we should pray in the name of Messiah Yeshua because he said that when we pray in his name, it will be done.

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

For the record, even though in the Gospel of John where Yeshua says when we pray to him he will do as we ask, he means that he will intercede for us with his father, which is why he adds that he will do it to glorify the Lord. To pray exclusively to Yeshua would be wrong because Yeshua is the Intercessor of our prayers, not the Interceptor of them. John’s Gospel is ultra-spiritual and uses too much metaphor to be able to be understood easily. God said not to bow down or pray to anyone or anything but him, and that is one of the Big 10, so it really seems incomprehensible that his son, Yeshua, would tell us to do differently.

All that is well and good, we know what unconditional is, we know to pray to God, but what do I mean when I say to pray unconditionally? I mean to trust God to know what to do and how to do it.

Over the past 2 1/2 decades of my knowing the Lord and his Messiah, I have heard many people pray. And when they pray I hear them telling God what he should do, or how he should do it. For example:

“Lord, so-and-so is suffering with (whatever) so please do this, make that happen, ensure this is done this way, don’t forget to close the doors and turn off the lights, remember to feed the cat while they’re in the hospital, yadda-yadda-yadda…”

You know what? God knows what needs to be done, and in which order, and even all the sideline activities that are necessary. We don’t need to tell him what to do, and the truth is, he knows better than we ever will what is best to do and how to do it, so when I ask if you pray unconditionally, what I am asking is do you simply ask God to do something without all the requirements, instructions, and details?

In Numbers 12, after speaking out against Moses, God struck Miryam with leprosy. Did Moses go through a dissertation with God, asking him to make her skin as white as a newborn, or to give her back the cleanliness she once had by removing her leprosy?

No, he didn’t; all he asked was “God, please heal her!”

The reason I say we should pray without conditions or, worse yet, instructions, is because we should trust God to know what to do, how to do it, and even when it should be done. He is the LORD, he is the one who can heal and make well, and he is the one who punishes the unrighteous. Perhaps what we are praying against is something that God did for a purpose. Who can know? But when we pray, we need to do so without conditions so that God knows that in our hearts, we trust him to know and do what is best.

That’s all there is to it. Either we trust God or we don’t, and when we tell him what he should do and how to do it, that ain’t trust.

May I share my own experience? Long before I knew the Lord, I had a divorce, and at that time we had two children, aged 7 and 2. I constantly lift up my daughter and son to God, children who have been brainwashed by their mother over many years to hate and reject me, which they have done. There are so many things I want God to do to exonerate me but most importantly, to reconcile us. And as much as I would love to ask God to let the children know so many things about me that they were misinformed about, I don’t ask for that. I simply ask that he reconcile us and if that is not in his will, then to help them find him. I think that if they find God, then by his spirit they will want to reconcile, but the order and the timing are completely up to God.

I also know that God will never force anyone to accept him, which means no matter how much I pray, he will not force them to accept him or reconcile with me. I have done all I can for years to get them back, and now it is all up to God. But despite his unlimited power, I know also that if this never happens it isn’t because God didn’t try, it is because they refused to listen to him.

Yes, God can do anything, but he won’t force people to accept him or take away their free will.

Trust God to know and do what is necessary when you pray to him. Don’t place conditions on him or give instructions, just ask for what you want. Remember that Yeshua also told us God already knows what we want, and I think that he still desires us to ask him because that shows we are trusting in God to hear us and act.

It’s just like confessing of sin: God knows when we sin, and he also knows when we repent. He is willing, able, and more than that, desiring to forgive us, but the way it works is that we have to ask. We have to ask God to forgive us, we have to ask God for what we desire, and that is all we should do- just ask, trusting that he knows what to do and how to get it done.

Thank you for being here; please subscribe and share these messages. Also, check out my website, books, Facebook page, and discussion group (Just God’s Word).

And I always welcome your comments.

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