Tag: desire

Parashah Bereshit 2020 (In the beginning) Genesis 1 – 6:8

Leave a comment

Last week we celebrated the end of the annual cycle of High Holy Days with the rolling back of the Torah during Shemini Atzeret, so we get to start reading the Torah, all over again. That is why the holiday is also called Simchat Torah, which means Joy of Torah.

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

The first parashah of the Torah takes us from the creation of heaven and earth, through the addition of life on earth, from the sea to the land, ending with the creation of humanity through Adam and Eve.

Then sin steps in. Almost from the very start the Enemy has tried to destroy the good that God creates, and after Eve sins, then causes Adam to sin, God (who must obey his own mitzvot) is forced to eject them from Paradise.

Now we see the introduction of sex into human relationships, and Eve drops her first set of rug-rats, Cain and Abel. We all know what happens then, and as the parashah continues, we are given the succeeding generations up to the time of Noah, when the world has been infected with sin and God is fed up with what has happened to his creation, except for Noah.

Have you ever considered that we don’t really know how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before the fall? The Torah takes us from the creation of Eve and Adam’s (spiritual) joining with her right to the entrance of the serpent. The only thing in-between these two events is a reference to the condition of Adam and Eve, i.e. them being naked and feeling no shame.

This makes me wonder about sexual relations between men and women in the hereafter. We are all looking forward to heaven, and to seeing our loved ones (at least, those that make it there) and in many cases, that means our spouses who have passed on before us. But will it matter, really, who we see there?

After all, I love to be with my wife, Donna, as much as I can be, but if I have a choice between being with Donna throughout eternity or in the presence of the Lord, God, Almighty, well…sorry, Babe, but God outranks us all.

Yeshua tells us when we will be with God that we will be like the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25), there will be no marriage and without marriage, there can be no sexual relations.

Uh, gee…no sex in heaven? Does that mean when we say to our spouse after making love, “Honey- that was heavenly!” it’s actually an insult?

Here’s another thought: what if sex is the first step towards sin?

We are told in this parashah that the sons of God, meaning the angels, took quite a liking to human women and fell from heaven to mate with them, creating the species the Torah refers to as the Nephilim, giants of great strength that lived on the Earth. If we are to be like the angels in heaven, does that mean there is no marriage, no interpersonal, physical relations, but the desire is still there?

Yowsa! What a revelation! There is no sex in heaven but we might still have desire, so how is that good? It sounds more like hell!

But wait a minute! In Genesis 1:28, right after creating man and woman, God tells them to be fruitful and multiply, so how can sex be bad? There is no way that God would ever tell anyone to do anything that would lead to sin, right?

It sounds like there is a really big contradiction here, but I think I know what this means: everything we do we do for a purpose, and the purpose is what defines the act.

It is similar to the old adage “the ends justify the means”, and although there are exceptions to everything, in general, as far as sin is concerned, what we do is less important than why we do it.

For instance, if Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten from the Tree of Good and Evil, they would eventually have figured out where all the parts fit together, and I believe that would end up with sexual relations as a result of caring for each other and not just desire for physical pleasure. If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, I believe they’re being fruitful and multiplying would have been a beautiful and compassionate act.

On the other hand, there are sexual desires which are sinful in nature, such as with the angels who fell from heaven to be with the daughters of men; clearly, they were driven by lust, not love. And the result of their sin would, eventually, create a human subspecies that did not survive much past the Israelite entry and conquest of the Promised Land.

Let’s look at this idea of why we do being more important than what we do in a different light: if I say something that is hurtful to someone, is it automatically sinful? What if I did it as part of “tough love”, with the intention to help them recover from addiction or find the strength to free themselves from an abusive relationship? How can that be bad? Yet, if I did it out of anger or spite, with the intention to hurt them, well, how can that be good?

It isn’t so much what we do as why we do it. I learned a long time ago that people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do. That lesson fits right in with today’s message that it is our heart’s intention that defines sinful or godly. We may sin accidentally because we are weak and easily led astray, and we may do good without really intending to- these are the exceptions, not the rule.

Now, I want to be clear that I am not condoning or authorizing people to tell other people exactly whatever they want to, then hiding under the kippur (covering) of saying, “But I am only telling the truth” or “I am only saying it for your own good” because more often than not, their intention is not to help.

I believe there are many people who use those excuses because they are really just prideful. They want to “tell you off” and do so in order to feel that they are superior, even if they don’t always know it, and that is sinful.

Ultimately, the best example is to look at how God acts. He loves us all, even those who reject and curse him, but even though he loves us, he is straightforward and unwavering with us. He makes the rules and he sticks to them, tempering them with mercy and grace, but never allowing the guilty, especially the unrepentant ones, to go unpunished.

God will do whatever he needs to do to achieve his will on earth, and if that means destroying people who are innocent in order to mete out justice, then that is what will happen. However, his intention is always to do good and never to hurt or damage us out of spite or pride.

In this parashah, we read how Cain’s jealousy and anger caused him to sin, even though God warned him that he must master sin. In Ezekiel 18, God tells us each person is accountable for what they do, and what they did won’t count either for them or against them. When we think about both of these things, we realize that what we do is the result of what we feel, and that is what we will be judged on.

If you allow God to come into your heart, which we can do only after we let go of hatred, spite, pridefulness, and anger, then sin will be conquered; when your heart is right with God, you won’t sin.

Of course, it isn’t that easy and there will always be the ability to sin, but when your heart is right with God, you will be able to conquer sin.

All you need to do is have a heart that is right with God. Oy, if only it was that easy.

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

Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

“It’s the Thought That Counts” is Very Biblical

Leave a comment

There are so many different ideas about what we should do and what we don’t have to do within the multitude of Judeo-Christian religions that exist in the world today. Many of these traditional teachings are about “The Law”, which most understand to be the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

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

To begin with, the word “Torah” means “teaching”, not law- the Hebrew word for law is “mitzvah”, which (not coincidentally) can also mean performing a good deed, such as, “Did you see that boy help the old man carry his groceries? Oy, such a mitzvah!”

God has given us commandments, regulations, laws, and ordinances, all of which I prefer to call instructions, which tell us what God expects from us.

However, knowing (as we do) that because God is always the same his instructions are always the same, he also tells us that he is more interested in the attitude of our heart than he is in the performance of these instructions.

God does want us to obey the specific instructions he gave us, which tells us how to worship him and how to treat each other, and when we follow these instructions we will be able to live a long, happy, and productive life.  And because he loves us so much, he gets quite upset when we reject his good instructions. He stops protecting us and allows the evil in the world to come against us, in the hope that one day we will realize that our way isn’t better than God’s way. When that happens, which is much less frequently than one would think it should happen, we look to God and obey his instructions.

I can understand, having been one of the most sinful types for nearly 2/3 of my life, how people can ignore and outright reject God, but that only makes my T’shuvah (turning from sin) all the more potent. When we turn from sin to God, it is like people who smoked and then stopped. Ask any ex-smoker and they will tell you that now cigarette smoke is an anathema to them- they can’t stand the smell and hate to be near anyone who is smoking. That is how I feel about sin now that I have come to accept Yeshua as my Messiah and turned back to God.

So what does this all have to do with the thought being what counts?  Here are just a few examples of what God tells us how he feels when we go through the motions without really having the desire to please him as our true motivation:

Hosea 6:6

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Proverbs 21:3

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Isaiah 1:11

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Psalm 50:8-9

Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me

Amos 5:21-24

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

 

These are taken somewhat out of context, but in all of them, the idea is that even when we do what God wants us to do, if we are doing it just to say “Look, I did what you wanted.” that will not please God. He doesn’t need animals, he doesn’t get any special reward from sacrifice…in fact, all the things God wants us to do are not for his sake at all. They are totally for our sake!

We don’t have to understand why these things are important, only that when God told us this is how we must live and worship him, he meant it. He makes the rules, and we are to follow them, BUT (and this is a really big “but”) if we do these things without joy or desire to make God happy, he will know.

We sin joyfully, we do wrong with pleasure, and then we think if we go to a Priest and confess it all, we are golden. Really? What about when we fast over Yom Kippur? While at shul all day, we think we are going to be good before the Lord, but if our hearts and minds are focused on waiting for this fast to end so I can go back to what I want to do, do you really think that will be acceptable?

Here’s an old joke that I think gets the point across:

A man is attending shul and the Rabbi is going over the Ten Commandments. When he comes to “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, he notices the man looking around at his feet and his face seems worried. Later, when the Rabbi comes to “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery”, the man suddenly relaxes and looks relieved.

Afterward, the Rabbi asked him why he acted that way, and the man said, “When you said we shouldn’t steal, I noticed my briefcase wasn’t anywhere around me and I thought maybe someone took it.”

The Rabbi said, “Oh, well, I can understand your reaction. But why did you seem relaxed soon after?”

The man replied, “When you said we should not commit adultery, I remembered when I had left it.”

Obedience to the instructions God gave us is not a suggestion or optional, but it must be done with the intention and desire to please the Lord. God wants our obedience to be motivated by faithful appreciation and desire to please him, not as a fear-induced or coerced action. King David knew, and told us in Psalm 51, that a broken spirit and contrite heart is always acceptable to the Lord; in other words, truly feeling bad about our sins and desiring to now do what is right before the Lord is the most important thing to God.

Traditional teaching tells us that Abel sacrificed the best he had willingly and with joy, whereas Cain only gave what he didn’t want, which is why his sacrifice, although done properly, was unacceptable.

Let’s finish today’s message with a statement I am going to make that I am sure (at least) some of you will think “I can’t believe he just said that!”, but here we go, anyway:

If you aren’t obeying God’s instructions because you want to, then don’t waste your time or his. 

God wants us to obey him, no question about that, and he wants us to live and have happy lives (Ezekiel 18:23), but if you are doing just for the sake of doing, then as far as God is concerned (from what I understand him saying in the Bible), you haven’t done anything of value. Before you change your actions, change your attitude.

People, believe me when I tell you, it really IS the thought that counts.

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

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

What is Obedience?

Leave a comment

What is obedience?

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

According to the Webster dictionary, it is willing to do as one is told; when I looked it up on the Internet, it says obedience is compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority.

The Bible tells us to be obedient to the commands, laws, and regulations that God has given to us in the Torah. The question of whether or not Yeshua (Jesus) made those laws obsolete is not part of this discussion, but we are basing this entire message on the idea that the Torah was not done away with, as many Christian religions have taught.

The real problem with obedience to God is that the Bible tells us to be obedient, if for no other reason than to receive blessings (Deut. 28), but then it also tells us that we are all sinners from birth. You can find this in Ecclesiastes 7:20 or Romans 3:10 or Psalm 143:2 or Jeremiah 32:30, just to name a few places, so we are told to be obedient but the Bible tells us we can’t be obedient. At least, not all the time.

Do you remember the drash Yeshua told in Matthew 21:28-32 about the father and his two sons? The father asks his two sons to help in the field, one says he will do it but never does, the other says he won’t, but later changes his mind and goes out to help. Yeshua asked which son was obedient and they answered the one who actually went out to help. The point is that it doesn’t matter what we say, what matters is what we actually do. Even if we initially decide not to obey God, when we do it is considered to be obedience. And those who say they will obey, even if they want to when they say it, if they don’t actually obey then they are disobedient.

But, I gotta go back to the Bible telling us we are all sinners, which is the same as saying disobedient. So if I want to be obedient, but I cannot be obedient, then what’s the use of trying?

My take on this is that we have to be a little bit of both: willing to be obedient and being obedient as best as we can. No one will ever be sinless, no one will ever be perfect, and no one will ever not sin. That is, by definition, being disobedient, yet there are so many sinners throughout the Bible who were considered righteous! Abraham pimped out his wife… twice! Jacob disrespected his father when he lied to him. Judah slept with his daughter-in-law. Moses was a murderer. Samson had serious anger management issues. Need I go on?

I believe that true obedience begins with the desire to obey. Shaul (Paul) wrote about being “under the law”, which meant obeying as the means to gain righteousness and, thereby, salvation. The desire to obey had nothing to do with this form of obedience- it is what we would call “going through the motions.” The Prophets tell us, continually, that God sees the heart and cares not for the blood of bulls and sheep but that he desires our obedience. I believe this means that God doesn’t want us to just go through the motions but expects us to want to obey, and whether we do so perfectly or only partially if our heart is in the right place then we are considered to be obedient.  We can say faith is more than just believing that Yeshua is the Messiah, it also incorporates a heartfelt desire to obey God. And, as James says, when we have faith we will have works that demonstrate that faith.

My belief (and you may disagree) is that the kind of obedience God expects from us is, first and foremost, a willingness and desire to do as he says. Then we must do as he instructs us which, because of our innate iniquity, means we will never be able to do so perfectly. This is where God’s compassion and understanding come into the mix. Just as loving parents know their children will do wrong, even when they want to do right, God understands our weaknesses and incompetence. He accepts us when we want to do what he has told us we should, and do so to the best of our individual ability. Of course, we must also feel true remorse when we fail to obey and have a humble, contrite spirit when we come to God to apologize and ask for forgiveness.

Time out for a moment…let me ask you: Do you ever apologize to God? I do. I don’t just come to ask for forgiveness, but because I really feel bad when I screw up I also apologize to God for not doing what he wants me to do.  After all, if I apologize to people to show respect for their feelings doesn’t God deserve at least that much?

Let’s finish up today’s message with the answer I would give to the original question “What is obedience?”, and that answer is: obedience is first and foremost the willingness to do what one is told and secondly, actually doing what one is told as best as one is able.

My friends, we can never be sinless but we can always sin less, so go forth with both the willingness to obey God and demonstrating how genuine that willingness is by actually doing what he says, as best as you can. That is the kind of obedience that, I believe, God will honor.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share me out, buy my books, and make comments so I know if what I am doing is actually helping anyone to better know God and what he expects of us.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

What Does “Torah Observant” Mean?

Leave a comment

The most likely answer would be obeying everything the Torah says we should do. However, we all know that this is something which no one can do. Only Yeshua was able to be 100% human and still 100% Torah observant. In fact, He went beyond just doing what the Torah says we should do- He not only did it, He felt it, He thought it, He breathed it. He was, and is, the Living Torah.

In Judaism we say the Torah should be a mirror, so that when we look into it we see our own reflection. It is a shame that, even though there is nothing in and of itself that is too difficult for us to do in the Torah, we just can’t do it all, all of the time.

We are told that to disobey or transgress even a single stroke of the Torah is to transgress the entire Torah, and that no one is without sin, so if observance is impossible then how can anyone really be Torah Observant? Or even say they are?

The answer is obvious: no one can say they are completely Torah observant. However, I do say I am Torah observant, and I will share with you why I feel justified in saying so.

I consider myself “Torah observant” not because I do everything the Torah says I should, but because I want to. My heart wants to be observant, and I try to be observant. I respect the Word of God, and honor what He said we should do. Being Torah observant is the goal of my spiritual and physical life.

I know that on my own I can never be completely and perfectly obedient to the Torah, so I ask the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to guide me in what I do and say, constantly helping me to better understand what Yeshua was teaching about the Torah: not just the P’Shat (literal meaning of the words), but the Remez, the Drash and the Sod (the deeper spiritual and mystical meanings) as well.

Most of Christianity has been taught that the Torah, as far as Christians are concerned, was “nailed to the Cross with Jesus”: totally wrong, totally inaccurate, and totally against everything that Jesus and all His Apostles taught in the New Covenant writings. Yeshua died so that those areas of Torah which we cannot perform will not be a stumbling block with regards to our ability to be with God forever. Without forgiveness of sin we cannot come into God’s presence, and Yeshua made that forgiveness available through His sacrifice. The only thing that was “nailed”, if anything, could be the need to bring a sacrifice to the Temple in Jerusalem. That requirement in the Torah no one can obey anymore, yet thanks to Yeshua we don’t have to. Everything else in Torah is still valid.

Torah observance is like that ultimate goal we know we may never reach, but is what drives us to be better than we were. As you have heard me say many time before, we can never be sinless but we can always sin less. That is the goal, that is the light at the end of the tunnel, that is the laurel wreath we all seek: to be in accordance with what God wants in our life and to be pleasing to the Lord in all we say and do.

The first step in being Torah observant is having the desire to be so. Just like accepting Yeshua starts with T’Shuvah (repentance), we must want to obey all of God’s commandments. When you have that desire in your heart, then you will be able to say you are Torah observant, despite what physical things you do or don’t do.

prayer spam

Leave a comment

When the Talmudim (Disciples/students) of Yeshua asked Him how they should pray, well….we all know His answer. But do we think about the line that goes, “Give us this day our daily bread…”? Do we think about what He might have meant by that?

Not the P’shat, which means the written word as it is written, but the Drash– the underlying, spiritual meaning.

I believe what Yeshua was saying was that when we pray, we need to ask only for what we need, then and there. Not for success in life, not for riches or fame, not for next week’s presentation to the Board, but for now. Right now, and only right now, and only what I need right now. I also think that God wants our prayers to go to Him, to the Father, to be delivered in the name of the Son. Not to the Son, not to a “Saint” who is supposed to, what? Intercede with Yeshua (Jesus) to intercede with God? Didn’t Yeshua say the ONLY way to the Father is through the Son (John 14:6)?

What does that mean? It means that our prayers are to be sent to the Father in the name of the Son, and not to the Son for Him to bring to the Father. When we pray to anyone, or anything (even worse!) other than God, Himself- God the Father, God the Creator, God the one and only and God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- then we are committing idolatry.

And when we pray to God, do we pray for what we need now, and only what we need now? I have heard people pray, and I believe their prayers are earnest, but they pray for the same thing over and over, they use “Father God” over, and over, and over- the way a “Valley Girl” uses the work “like”- until I have to think that God is saying to Himself, “All right, already- I know who I am! Just ask for what you want and leave all the ‘Father God this’ and ‘Father God that’ out of it! Oy!”

Don’t pray spam to God. He wants to hear from your heart. I have seen people pause during prayer and I can see them start to sweat trying to think of something else to say. If you have nothing more to say, than what you should say is: nothing more. Just stop. Just end the endless stream of useless words and catch-phrases that are supposed to make you sound like Solomon blessing the Temple. That was a long prayer, and it was a really good one. But long doesn’t mean better. How about Moses’ prayer (Numbers 12:13) when Miriam was struck by God with leprosy? Did he go on and on, or did he just say, “Oh Lord- please heal her!”

Moses found those 5 words to be as effective and meaningful as an entire thesis presented by a graduate student in Theology. God doesn’t just see the heart, He hears the heart.

We see someone who is homeless and downtrodden and (usually) think the worst, yet God sees Job during his trials of faith. We see someone who is mentally or physically challenged and thank God it isn’t us, and God sees a caring, faithful and compassionate person who is thankful that no one else they know has the same problems.

The words we use when we pray are not as important as the condition of our heart. When King David prayed for forgiveness in Psalm 51, he said that God will not despise a broken heart and a contrite spirit. It is the condition of our heart that generates prayer pleasing to the Lord; the fancy King James style words we use, the number of times we say “Oh Lord” or “Father God”, or the length of prayer is all totally meaningless. That is only pleasing to humans who know only what they see and hear. People only see the P’shat of the world, and not the Drash of humanity. I think people just pray “spam” when they use fancy words and long, poetic phrases meant to impress the people around them, and I just have to believe that God is thinking, “Your prayer is to Me, but I know the way you are praying is to impress those around you, so let them answer your prayer.”

Remember: when you pray, God already knows what you need. He knows what you want, He knows is best for you, and He will deliver it when He knows the time is right for you. What you say will not influence His decision but what you feel in your heart will.

When you pray remember the advice Yeshua gave His Talmudim in the Gospels- do not worry about what to say because the Ruach (Spirit) will give you what you need. Trust in the Spirit to guide your prayer and don’t pray from your mouth: pray from your heart.

 

 

Wanting what I do or doing what I want

Leave a comment

It’s the dilemma that (I believe) all those who are Born Again suffer with: am I doing what I want to do to please God, or am I doing what I want to do because it pleases me?

Shaul (Paul- that nice Jewish boy from Tarsus) had this problem, too. He tells us about it in his letter to the Roman Believers (7:15):

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

The Talmud tells us we are all born with the yetzer hara (the evil inclination) and only years later does the yetzer hatov (the good inclination) develop. The yetzer hara can, when controlled by the yetzer hatov, be made useful for it is the desire to have things that are pleasing to us, and so having a spouse, a house, a job- all these can be attributed to the yetzer hara and, when controlled by the yetzer tov, these desires of our hedonistic hearts can be channeled into useful and Godly activities.

However, what we really need to do is that which is pleasing to God, and to know what that is is to first learn to not trust ourselves. We are, by nature, self-centered, self-important, self-absorbed and NOT self-controlled. That which is of us is not that which is of God; that which is of God (the Ruach HaKodesh) is in those of us who have accepted Messiah Yeshua and asked for the Spirit, which we must learn to listen to. It is the small, still voice of God that Elijah heard, and not the loud shouting of the yetzer hara that Ahab listened to.

The Ruach tells us what God wants us to do whereas the yetzer hara tells us what we want to do, which is to please our physical bodies, to be the center of all things and to have more toys than everyone else, no matter what it takes to get them.

The yetzer hatov is not, in my opinion, the same as the Ruach HaKodesh. The yetzer hatov is, in Freudian terms, the ego, controlling the basic, animal desire for self-gratification, which is the Id. The Ruach HaKodesh is more like the Superego, which deals with the morality of what we take (Id) or ask for (Ego) from the world.

I am not an expert in the field of  psychology, but I think the above simile is feasible as an example. We all want what we want- that is as primal as the need for self-preservation. Maslow (back to the Psych 101 class) had 10 levels of self actualization, which describes how he believes the human psyche works. We start at the very basic needs- food, water, shelter, and advance from physical needs, to safety, to love, to esteem, and finally to the highest levels where we have morality, understanding and acceptance.

The science of human psychology is fascinating, and having been in sales for a long time, I am glad that I have a fair understanding of human nature- it is essential to being a successful salesperson. But what really helps is to know the Lord, to know what He wants from us (that means to read the bible, duh!) and to have the Ruach HaKodesh to lead us. It’s OK if you have developed your Superego, if you are at the tenth level of self-actualization, if you have studied under the Guru, whatever- it’s all good to be a “humanly” moral and self-actualized person. But that isn’t someone with the spirit of God leading them. The Ruach will never lead you incorrectly, whereas human leadership is more based on what we want and what the world says you should be. It can’t be any other way: social morality is defined by the culture, right? It may be OK to cane a child in the Philippines for breaking the law, but not in the USA. Therefore, to be a morally upright person means to be in accordance with the moral and ethical norms of the society in which you live.

To be a godly person means to be within the moral and ethical norms of God’s word- the Torah. Human morality is based on your social or geographical environment, but God’s morality is based on what God says it is. It is universal. The bible tells us over and over what God wants of us; Old Covenant or New Covenant doesn’t matter- both are based on the Torah. Yeshua (Jesus) taught nothing but what is in the Torah, so the Torah is where we all need to start and where we all need to stay.

Religion is in the same category as social morality- each one is developed by people and each one has it’s own rules about right and wrong. The Torah is the foundation for all the Judeo-Christian religions, but so many different religions have built on the Torah in so many different ways that it is now buried under so many rules and canon that we don’t even see it anymore. Even within Judaism, the one religion that is closest to honoring the Torah as it was given to us by God, has almost over-ridden it with the Talmud, a document made by people. And there are 7 different forms of Judaism today: how can that be? One God, one Torah, but 7 ways to worship?

Oy! No wonder we’re all so screwed up!

The bottom line is the one that counts, right? So, nu? what’s the bottom line? It’s this:

God has no religion.

Read the bible, forget what religion tells you to do, and when you (if you haven’t yet) accept:

  1. that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised us;
  2. accept Him in your heart;
  3. ask God for forgiveness through the sacrificial atonement Yeshua completed for you;
  4. ask that the Comforter, the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, be given to you and indwell within you

then you will have the ability to know what to do and what not to do from God’s perspective (so long as you teach yourself to listen to the  Ruach.) 

In the meantime, try to live by this rule:

If the world likes it, most likely God doesn’t.

That’s easy enough to understand, isn’t it?

Why It’s So hard to remain faithful: Part 1 of 2

Leave a comment

What makes faith so difficult to have? It’s probably because you have to believe in something that isn’t really there- you can’t touch it, you can’t see it, you can know it’s presence and you can see it’s effect on the world around you, but still- it’s not like you can grab it and hold it up for all to see.

And once you have faith, after you have forced yourself to accept the truth that what you see and feel is indicative of something else, you then need to strengthen your faith. That will also be hard to do, maybe even harder than getting faith, because the world doesn’t have faith and doesn’t want you to have it, either. Misery loves company, right?

Not to mention that the closer you get to God, the more of a threat you become to the enemy of God, so while you are of the world he will not only leave you alone, he will probably make things happen well for you. The enemy wants you to remain in, and of, the world. As you get closer to God, he will attack you.

But as far as why it is hard to keep faithful, although the enemy’s attacks are definitely a concern, that’s not what I  am talking about today.

How many paper towels do you go through in a week? If you have young children still in diapers, are they cloth or Luv’s? Do you use paper plates? When was the last time you bought soda in a glass bottle?

Getting my drift yet? We live in a disposable world- use it than lose it. And that’s OK if we are talking about utensils and things (so long as you properly recycle), but the sad thing is that this apathetic attitude towards things that we use, maybe abuse, then just toss away isn’t just represented by what’s in our kitchen cabinets or linen closets: it has also infiltrated and polluted our interpersonal relationships.

People used to stay married because that’s what you did- now it’s pretty much the opposite. You having troubles? Talk to a lawyer. And at the workplace: it used to be you would get a job and work your way up the ladder. Pension plans used to be based on not even being eligible until after the first year, and usually you had to be at the company for (at least) 11 years after the first year before you were 100% vested. That was done away with way back in the 70’s when the Keogh Plan (HR10) first started, which is (today) the 401-K. In fact, whatever vestment is left is 100% within 5 years. That’s because people don’t keep their jobs much longer than that anymore.

In the 1980″s I was on Wall Street, and I had 4 jobs within 8 years, but I went from a $10K clerk to a $50K Department Manager/ Bank Officer. When I was in Sales I had so many different jobs over a 10 year period I can’t remember them all now. That’s because when the leads ran dry, I ran somewhere else.

And when I was first married, in my “previous life”, I realized it was a mistake somewhere around year 3. I lasted until year 9, and the suffering I endured for those years was nothing compared to the estrangement, suffering, and belittling I have endured since. Resulting in both my children being turned against me so that now I am dead to them.

I tell you this because I want you to know I can talk about having a disposable lifestyle because I lived it for many years. And, consequently, faith came to me late in life, and has been difficult to maintain. But thanks to God and good friends, I have maintained it and now, some 18 years later, I no longer worry about it. I have had enough experience with God to see Him, not with my eyes, but in everything there is. In my life, in my jobs, in my second marriage (which is the one I will have forever because we both got this one right), in everything around me. I am comfortable in my faith and secure in my belief. Still, I work at it because it is too easy to be fooled.

I still use too many paper towels, and we are actually working on that. I try to reuse things, and like every other “real” man, I have clothes that date back to when Yeshua was just a Corporal (that’s a Marine Corps saying.)

Today’s world is made up of disposable things, from diapers to plates to butane lighters, even to our cars which we trade off or sell usually before the warranty is up. About the only thing people keep is their computers: those should be upgraded every 3-5 years but some people just won’t let go.

If only we were as unwilling to give up our faith as we are with our favorite pair of pants or favorite coffee cup. 

The parable about the sower of the seeds, where some fall on poor soil and others fall on good soil, is a demonstration of the disposable attitude we still have, today. The seed that was eaten by the birds, blown away by the winds and choked by the weeds, these represent the enemy and the world (same thing, really) making getting rid of the new faith easier than keeping it. And that’s the root of the evil of a disposable mindset- it is easier to get rid of something than to keep it. Quitting is preferable to maintaining.

If you have overcome the disposable nature towards faithfulness, seek out those that are new Believers to help them maintain their battle to have faith. It is a battle- that’s why Shaul (Saul) tells us about the Armor of God in Ephesians 6:11-18. We need to run the good race, not fall out and say the ‘stitch’ in our side was too much to bear. When I was running cross-country in High School, we learned that the first mile always hurts- you can never get past it if you let the pain in your side overcome you. Once you run it out, then you get your “second wind” which can carry you further than you ever thought possible.

The world wants you to throw away faith because there are so many other things to replace it with, and they are easy to get and easy to get rid of. I think we all have heard the adages, “You get what you pay for”, and “If it’s worth having, it’s worth working for.” Well, God is worth working for, and salvation is definitely worth having. Just because salvation is available for free doesn’t mean it won’t take hard work to maintain it, and it may be free to have but it costs to keep. Oh, yes- it costs! You will pay with lost friendships, lost jobs, lost family, and the pain of watching those you love and care for literally throwing themselves into the pit of fire. And laughing at you for believing they are going to be condemned. There is a heavy payment for having and maintaining faith.

Even Yeshua tells us that we must pick up our execution stake every day to follow Him (Matthew 16:24), so we have been told from the very start faithfulness would not be easy. Much of Christianity teaches that salvation is not a disposable item, it can never be lost, but that is not true: your salvation can be lost if you throw it away. God will never take away the promise, but you can’t be saved if you are sinning on purpose and continually ignoring God’s commands in the Torah. God isn’t stupid, and salvation is not a joke. If you know someone who constantly sins, and says, “God is a forgiving God and will forgive me because I asked Him to”, do you really think that God will accept that person into His kingdom? We are all sinners, and we will all always sin, but the difference is whether we do it by our own will or against our will. Shaul said he was a wretch because he did what he didn’t want to and didn’t do that which he wanted to (Romans 7:15.) Each of us sins, but the one who does it constantly with no desire or intention of stopping because the bible says ‘all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved’ so he or she thinks all they have to do is ask for forgiveness, well, he or she has a big, unhappy surprise coming.

There are so many things in our world that are disposable, but the only really important thing we should dispose of is our sin. God can take that from you, the stain of sin is removable by Yeshua’s blood, but you have to want to dispose of it, all of it, and you have to constantly work at getting rid of it. That’s because the faith we need so desperately is just as disposable as a paper plate. We need to hold on to our faith in a world that says just chuck it and get something easier to keep. It’s easy to get rid of something when there’s always something else to get that’s better.

I am here to tell you there is nothing better than God, nothing more important to hold onto and never let go than your faith, and nothing else that can replace the salvation God has promised us through Messiah Yeshua.

Faith is hard to get, and harder to keep, but there is nothing more important to maintain.

We Will Always Have Less Than What Is Available

Leave a comment

Remember when Yeshua told us not to worry about what tomorrow may bring because today has enough trouble of it’s own? He also told us to ask for our daily bread, not to request enough food for more than that.

And what about the manna from heaven? They were to only collect enough for one day, except on Shabbat when they were allowed to gather two days worth.

And what about the promise in Malachi, that if we tithe correctly God will open the storehouses of heaven and bless us more than we could ever imagine?

I believe (and I hope you agree) that one of the real problems we humans have is that there never seems to be enough. Even in the Garden, it wasn’t enough to have all the food and water and peace and joy that Adam and Eve had- they wanted more. With only a little enticement, they just haaaaad to have the one and only thing that was forbidden to them. They had everything they could ever need, but it wasn’t enough.

And we haven’t changed. Enough is never enough for us, whether we are talking about food, or income, or pets (everyone knows at least one person with 4,000 cats) or cars, or toys, or whatever. We just always have to have more.

With God, there is always more. But that’s not what He wants us to desire. God doesn’t want us to gather, He wants us to sow.

The river Ezekiel sees in his vision of the End Days starts small and gets larger as it flows farther from the source. Now that ain’t normal, right?

And Job- all he had, he lost; but, in the end, he had twice as much as he started with.

God doesn’t love a cheerful receiver, He loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6.)

And how many times in the Tanakh are we told about taking care of the widow and the orphan?

If you really, really absolutely must have more, than give more of what you already have to others.

This is how it works: the more you share what God has provided to you, the more He will continue to provide, provided you provide for those with less provision. (Say that three time fast!)

Maybe that’s why Yeshua tells us we will always have the poor among us: that is the way God can test us. He will always provide us with someone to share His blessings with.

That’s the lesson for today: there’s never enough, God never runs out, so to get what God has for you give what He has already given you to those with less than you have.

Don’t believe me? Then “test me on this” (ooh, we’re back in Malachi!) and see if God won’t do wonders for you when you do what pleases Him.