Light In Torah

Good morning! “You shall follow/tzedek what is altogether just/zedek, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you. (Deut. 16:20) Deuteronomy 16:20 tells us to pursue/tzedek righteousness/tzedek in order to live and inherit the Land. This verse is sandwiched between putting judges and officers in your gates  (Deut. 16:-20) and the section on the Prophet, like unto Moses, that we should listen to (Deut. 18:18-20). The question that enquiring minds want to know is, "Why double emphasize tzedek tzedek"? Could it have anything to do with having a wedding garment (Rev. 19:7,8)? Enquiring minds really, really want to know :-) “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous/zedek acts of the saints. (Rev. 19:7,8) The word righteousness/zedek emphasizes two sides of a c...

Good morning! In last night's zoom call we examined the five individuals, four of the five are mandatory, in this week's Torah portion, Shoftim/judge, and how we should have all 5 displayed in our daily lives if we want to make an impact in this world. And with each one I gave a descriptive word to evaluate our lives by: Judge-discernment Officer-boundaries Priest-devotion King-guidance Prophet-intuition Within our Torah portion there is a unique command for the king. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may pr...

Good morning! As we have talked about all week, the Israelites journey from Egypt to Canaan is the prototype of our walk in Messiah (1 Cor. 10:1-11). The Apostle Paul likens their journey to the race that all of us run and that will yield reward for those who run to win (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Paul makes an interesting statement at the beginning of this passage, when he states that all our fathers were all baptized into/eis, Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 10:2). all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, (1 Cor. 10:2) Why would Paul say to a bunch of Gentiles who have come to Messiah that it was all ‘their fathers’ who were baptized into Moses? And though all were baptized eis/into Moses, not all remained faithful to that baptism and their constitution (1 Cor. 10:8-10) and some turned to idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14). Whenever we see the word ‘into/eis, we are talking about location. When it’s used throughout the Apostolic writings it’s often used to describe the transloc...

Good morning! Ignorance is not bliss (1 Cor. 10:1)! Especially when it deals with the biblical pattern for our spiritual journey in Christ/Messiah (1 Cor. 9:24-10:12). The Apostle Paul connected the Gentile believers in Corinth with the 'Fathers' that were baptized into Moses, the cloud and the sea. They all ate the same spiritual meat (bread from heaven) and they all drank from the Rock (Christ) that followed them (1 Cor. 10:1-4). Their baptism/mikveh was a complete identification with Moses, the cloud (comforter/HS), and the sea (place of death, burial and resurrection to their past slavery in Egypt). Their food was the bread from heaven, Yeshua (Ex. 16:4; Neh. 9:15; Jn. 6:31,32). They drank from the Rock that brought forth living water (Ex. 17:6) and that Rock was Christ (Deut. 32:4-37; 1 Cor. 10:4). Most of us have no problem immersing ourselves into the 'cloud/HS-Comforter' and 'the sea/baptism', 'feeding on the bread from heaven', 'drinking fro...

Good morning! We are officially in the month of Elul; the 6th month on God's calendar! It's a reality that has been lost in the shuffle of pick and choose your belief system. It's unfortunate that we have moved away from biblical truth that has been established from creation and now we rely on man's wisdom and insight or lack thereof...e.g. 'trust the science', 'Black lives matter', 'the conservatives are destroying democracy', 'eliminating 1/2 a trillion in college debt won't affect inflation; 'If we don't go to total renewable resources we will destroy our planet in 12 years'...etc. Similarly, we have concluded that some passages in the Bible don't stand by themselves without man propping them up (with their man-made opinions (Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Mt. 18:16, 20; 2 Cor. 13:1; Heb. 10:28; etc.). Some have concluded that the cross ended it all, when Yeshua said, ‘it is finished’ there was nothing more that needed to be done i...

Good morning! In last night's zoom call, we spent the evening talking about the most over emphasized topic and under performed topic in all of modern evangelicalism: Judging/shoftim and enforcing/shoftrim (Deut. 16:18-20) You shall appoint judge/shoftim and officers/shoftrim in all your gates/sharar, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. (Deut. 16:18) This week's Torah portion, shoftim/judges (Deut. 16:18-21:9), continues our progressive covenantal theme through the book of Deuteronomy (listen, do, see, and specifics on how to do). As we covered, in last night's zoom call, in fairly significant and practical detail, the importance of judging one another and God's way of doing it, we came to a conclusion that judging is not just a negative function. In fact, it should be just the opposite. The purpose of 'judging' is to lift someone up, not tear them down. Unfortunately, because 'judg...

Good morning! Over the past 3 weeks we've learned three words: listen, do and see. Spiritual Sesame street at its best.  You can get the more complete details on the Shabbat morning zoom call . Many have argued that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, and they are 100% correct. The question that enquiring minds want to know is: "How do I do that"? That's what this week's Torah portion, shoftim/judges,  is devoted too; laws on how to rightly love my neighbor as myself (Deut. 16:18-21:19). Within these right rulings is my favorite topic in all of Scripture: covenantal marriage and war (Deut. 20:1-9). Huh? And no, I don't mean marriage is war...death, yes. War, no! Many have erroneously conferred a brutal war-like mindset to the God of all creation; after all He is a man of war (Ex. 15:3). But my oh my, how we have forgotten to read the whole book that reveals Who this Super Power really is! There are four individuals who cannot go to war (Deut. 20:5-8). On...

Good morning! Why? Why would anyone choose death? Why would anyone choose a curse? Those are the options on the table for every covenant believer in Messiah Yeshua. (Deut. 11:26,27) Mt. Gerazim, the mount of blessing, and Mt. Ebal, the mount of cursing.  All the land around it is made from the same soil. They get the same rain. They experience the same winds....everything is the same, yet one mountain rises above the rest. Similarly, in last week's Torah portion, Mt. Gerazim, the mountain of blessing, which is lush and green, and Mt. Ebal, the mountain of cursing, which is barren and rocky, rises out from the same soil. They receive the same rain. They receive the same winds and are only separated by a valley that belongs to the inheritance of Ephraim; where Yeshua met the woman at the well (Jn. 4). We have blessings and curses set before us today. They both come from the same soil, same rain, and same winds...which one will we choose? Hint: choose blessing! Choose life! I call hea...

Good morning! I got back safely from the KC, MO trip. Thanks for your prayers and loving support! I was asked a question that is directly connected with this week's Torah portion, Re'eh/to see, and I want to share the answer with you. Since enquiring minds want to know :-) This person asked, privately, if I'm not keeping Shabbat, not eating biblically clean, and not keeping the feasts, am I sinning against God? I hope you enjoy the thoughts and are able to glean from his willingness to ask. Before we begin, let me say something concerning the character of God. I believe the Apostle John in 1 John 4 was correct when he stated that God is love. He is not the author of confusion (cf. 1 Cor. 14:33), He does not change (Mal. 3:6), nor would He lead anyone to transgress His Own Words, the Torah. As Yeshua said in Matt. 12, every word that we speak proceeds from the heart and since we are made in the image of God we can deduce that God's Word originated in His heart (the seat ...

Good morning! Happy preparation day and 27th day of counting towards the first fruit of the oil :-) Yah-willing, I'll be driving back to Michigan this afternoon. I'm going to do some more work with a buddy in a couple hours, then drive back through the FBS (Flat Bottom Syndrome) drive :-) Have you ever noticed how often we get into fights with people over idealistic reasons? Figuratively, but emotionally and spiritually, We "slaughter" people with our words or actions, and we feel that we are acting on behalf of an angel. We feel quite spiritual about our actions. Be wary, says the Torah! If you are going to cut someone off from your life, you want to hear it from God Himself. If not, let it go. Now you might be thinking where in this week's Torah portion is this idea? Enquiring minds want to know :-) "You are the children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves/gadad (lit. scraping off your skin), nor make any baldness between your eyes for the de...

Good morning! Today is the 26th day of counting towards the first fruit of the oil, which means it's another opportunity for more Torah thoughts to consider :-). It's also my last full day back in Kansas City to work before I head back to Michigan (prayer appreciated). We're rapidly approaching the Fall Feast season. How ya doing? Are you preparing?  Periodically I go through the day thinking, now what day is it? So I pull my fingers out from behind my pressure washing gun (on this trip) and count just to make sure. It's kind of a funny exercise, but it's all about anticipation and endurance. I'm the kind of person that if I don't keep my focus on something good, I'll get focused on something else not so good. If I don't keep my eyes on the prize, the finish line, the goal of the faith, I get bogged down with the temporary and usually life gets bent out of shape over things that aren't worth bending my life over. Hence, I have my mind focused on ...

Good morning! Thank you for your prayers while I traveled to Kansas City, Missouri.  After a 12.5 hour FBS (Flat Bottom Syndrome) drive, I was greeted enthusiastically and the evening turned into a night full of fun, life conversations that were packed with wisdom from God's Word. For that reason alone the FBS was worth the trip :-) Throughout the Torah and Prophets God constantly warns His people about idolatry/avodah zara/strange worship (Ex. 20:3-5; Deut. 4:15-19; All throughout this week's Torah portion of Re'eh, Isa. 47:10; 1 Jn. 5:21; Col. 3:5; 1 Cor. 5:11; 10:14; Eph, 5:5; Rev. 21:8; 22:15; etc.)..notice, I used mostly post resurrection verses...hmmm. Maybe there's more to idolatry than just bowing down to statues made by human hands...hmmm. I'd encourage you to go back and look at all those verses prayerfully :-) For you trusted in your wickedness/ra; you said, “No one sees me.”  Your wisdom/chochmah and your knowledge/da'at  leads you away/shuv, and you...

Good morning! I'll be leaving for KC, MO in a little while to do some work for past clients. Prayer appreciated for safe travels and that I'll remember how to work outside :-); Leaving 'cool' Michigan (High 70's - low 80's) for very warm Kansas City (mid-90 s).  Speaking of weather...In spite of the political and media driven threats of global warming, the world is experiencing a massive global cooling like never before. The warnings of politicized global warming are not accurate according to the scientific data that tells us arctic ice is up 50% since 2013, according to Alaska Public News, Dec. 27, 2013. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! There's a host of other scientific tidbits that aren't politicized that would reduce fear tremendously. But, I'm talking about another type of global cooling this morning.  The green movement is just one of the government ploys of time releasing fear, with the ultimate goal of both global and domestic terr...