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Thank you letter…

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Ministry update and thank you letter from Natan and Sandi to those who supported Hoshana Rabbah in 2016…

Shalom aleichem partners with us in Yeshua’s kingdom work!

Once again, please accept our heartfelt gratitude for all of your financial contributions large or small to Hoshana Rabbah Biblical Discipleship Resources. We thank Yehovah Elohim for each of you and pray a blessing over each giver each time. 

Although we run a frugal operation out of our small home and try to keep our expenses low, as you know, everything costs money. The internet and YouTube may be free, but computers, online servers, domain names, video equipment, phone and internet lines, paper, printers, hard drives, electricity, etc., etc., still cost money. It all adds up.Natan still takes no remuneration for his ministry work, but Sandi for her expert services managing the website, the finances, answering phones and all the myriad tasks associated with running a ministry takes a small monthly stipend. For her high level skill set, she could make a lot more money working elsewhere, but then the ministry would suffer. All this is to say that your loving support is necessary and a great encouragement to us as well.

After Sukkot 2016, Sandi and Natan retired from pastoring the local congregation we started in our home 18 years ago. We reluctantly did so, but several factors necessitated it. Frankly, we were tired and burned out and we lacked the necessary local support to be able continue. Moreover, and very importantly, the pressure was beginning to affect Sandi’s health deleteriously. We’re getting older and the strain was just too much. Additionally, I’m still working full-time in my tree care business, and I just was lacking the energy to do it all.

When one door shuts, another opens. Since closing the local congregation, we have rededicated ourselves to improving services on our internet, global outreach ministry. Presently, the Hoshana Rabbah YouTube channel continues to grow steadily with new subscribers and viewers. Currently, there are more than 320 videos on our channel. Natan does all the filming, editing and uploading, and is the researcher and teacher on nearly all of the videos as well. A lot of work, but lives are being touched globally as we endeavor to connect the message of the gospel to its pro-Torah, Hebraic roots. Currently, we have nearly 5,000 subscribers with 665,000 view. This seems pretty good for a tiny ministry in a niche market.

Natan’s Bible study blog continues to be very active. Hundreds read it each day, and the numbers are still growing. Currently, He has posted nearly 2,000 self-written articles on his blog on a huge variety of biblical subjects. In his great commission command, Yeshua told us to make disciples (not just converts). This blog along with the YouTube channel and the many resources on the Hoshana Rabbah website are our way of helping to fulfill Yeshua’s command to take the gospel to and to help gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Agains, thank you for your prayers and financial support in helping us to make these resources available free of charge to the world.

After Sukkot, Natan began to record a video teaching for each Torah-portion or parashah for the entire year—there are about 54. So far, he has recorded all of Genesis and is well into Exodus. Some of the videos are a couple of hours long, while others are more than five hours long. These videos are ideal for individual and group study sessions. As always, they’re gospel-oriented. We always try to keep Yeshua the Messiah at the center of everything as the early apostles did as recorded in the Testimony of Yeshua (New Testament).

Even though Natan is no longer pastoring a local congregation, he is making himself more available to be of assistance in an advisory role to new congregations or home fellowships starting up. He wants to be a big brothers to anyone who needs it. He’s available to help via email, phone and Skype. Through Skype, he is available to speak to congregations, to answer biblical questions and to pray with, encourage and to speak prophetically over groups upon request.

Sandi also plans on redoing the Hoshana Rabbah website—a huge and daunting task—and bringing it up to current web standards. This will hopefully reposition ourselves more favorably in the web marketplace of ideas, so that we can reach even more of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Together, Natan and Sandi are hoping to begin updating the adult Torah study guides. Natan has much fresh material to add to the existing ones. This project may take a couple of years.

That there is a quick update on the Hoshana Rabbah ministry. We’re probably forgetting something, but that’s the main gist of it.

Again, Sandi and Natan want to express our heartfelt and sincere thanks for all of your love and love offerings. We pray that we may be able to continue to earn your love and support, and to be fruitful ground into which you are pleased to sow your finances, and, most importantly, we want to be pleasing to Yehovah Elohim and Yeshua our Master as we together show them our love and devotion by doing our reasonable service for the advancement of Elohim’s kingdom!

Yeshua’s Bondservants in His Love,

Natan and Sandi Lawrence

 

10 Rules of Radicals for the Right

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From World Net Daily — http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/10-rules-for-radicals-of-the-right/
 

10 RULES FOR RADICALS OF THE RIGHT

Exclusive: Scott Lively figures populists have a 2-year window to restore the republic

 author-image by SCOTT LIVELY 

 In 1971 Marxist strategist Saul D. Alinsky published his infamous handbook for “community organizers,” titled “Rules for Radicals,” which ever since has been the essential resource for left-wing agitators, including the Clintons and Obama.

Alinsky dedicated his “Rules for Radicals” to “the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer” [the entity also known as Satan, the Father of Lies and Enslaver of Mankind].

As we conservative populists begin to reclaim our nation from Alinsky’s anti-American Bolsheviks, we need a resource for pro-American constitutionalists. These Rules for Radicals of the Right are dedicated to the One who conquered Lucifer:

1. Tell the truth without hesitation or apology.

Truth is our most powerful weapon and strategy. Truth is objective, verifiable and self-evident to a clear-thinking mind grounded in rationality and knowledge of the facts. Rationality proceeds from recognition and respect for the created order and the Creator Himself. His immutable laws provide the fixed standards by which any material or spiritual thing can be measured, proved and trusted. Without fixed standards there can be no steadfast rule of law making all men equal and free, only arbitrary rule by those with power to enforce their will.

2. Keep it simple but not stupid.

The enemy relies on confusion to create chaos and then exploits it to take control. He weaves a complex fabric of falsehoods, half-truths, misrepresentations, misdirection, hidden false assumptions and sophistry designed to mislead the gullible into drawing false conclusions. Complexity favors the deceivers. Honest and intelligent simplification frees captive minds.

3. Trust or not trust, but always verify.

People who spin narratives or otherwise interpret facts or events instead of providing the straight facts to interpret for yourself often have their own agenda. This includes not just leftist media but can be any information source, including those you think are trustworthy. Whenever you’re expected to form a conclusion on any issue based on the authority of the source rather than the full and free presentation of the facts, including opposing opinions and interpretations, don’t trust it. This is especially true when an inherently controversial narrative is repeated consistently over time from only one perspective, such as “climate change,” the “born gay” assumption, or the theory of evolution.

4. Think for yourself.

Human beings are susceptible to jumping on bandwagons or joining teams to meet social needs, but this makes us vulnerable to manipulation by people who form or control teams to serve their own agenda (i.e, the R’s and D’s). Beware of any group, system or institution that requires or expects you to substitute their conclusions for your own, or to adopt a “team” position on a whole slate of issues, and shuns or denigrates you for disagreeing on one or more items. (E.g., many liberals recognize an essential natural order in the eco-systems of living things but are forbidden from acknowledging the natural family as humanity’s ecosystem because “gay rights” is a “must-embrace” leftist goal.)

5. See the good and bad on both sides.

Remember that the devil works both sides of the street, and it serves his goals if we evaluate people by the team they’re on, not their character or the rationality of their arguments. If truth is our standard and filter, we’ll judge things and people fairly and thereby lessen the “us vs. them” stupidity that makes us so easy to manipulate in elections and other cultural conflicts.

6. Restore critical thinking.

The goal of the elites has always been to “dumb down” Americans to make us easier to deceive and control. Thus liberal terminology always avoids simple definitions and distinct boundaries, especially when used in social policy or laws (e.g., “homophobia”: a nonsense word that implies all disapproval is an anxiety disorder). We can defeat the elites by mastering critical thinking skills and restoring true literacy that employs only clearly defined words in unambiguous sentences conveying true and trustworthy knowledge.

7. Reclaim objectivity.

The elites always obscure the distinction between objective truth and subjective opinion, and between hard science (which is never contradictory to biblical truth, properly understood) and “soft science” (which can easily be manipulated to serve a hidden agenda). We must always promote and defend objective truth and contrast it with the subjective opinions and belief systems of the often-fraudulent “soft sciences” that have been driving our social policies for decades.

8. Challenge the know-it-alls.

The elites on both sides invariably assume an attitude of moral and intellectual superiority. It’s easy to expose their errors by practicing the Socratic Method of interrogation. Just ask 1) “What do you mean by that?” (i.e., define your terms), and 2) “How do you know that’s true?” (i.e., what is your source of authority). You don’t have to be an expert on any given topic to take command of the discussion and expose liberal illogic and it’s lack of sound presuppositions.

9. Avoid the tar-babies.

Remember that you can’t persuade a true-believer leftist with fact and logic. Intellectually, most of them embrace a closed-loop Cultural Marxist narrative similar to paranoid schizophrenia. If someone proves himself incapable of recognizing self-evident truths (such as denying the humanity of an unborn baby while looking at an advanced stage ultrasound image), disengage immediately. Conservative populists should largely ignore the left and their delusions and just focus on taking the seats of power away from them.

10. Be an army of one.

Paradoxically, populism is a movement of individualists whose common denominator is the U.S. Constitution. Unlike our cultural opponents who hold the hive-mind mentality of big-government statists, our true strength isn’t in our numbers, but the rightness of our cause. We don’t need to wait for marching orders from Donald Trump or any other perceived leaders; we can act on our own or in small groups on the inherent authority granted to us by God and affirmed by the founders. The quicker we all decide just to do that, the quicker we can restore this republic. (I figure we’ve got about a two-year window.)

 

How Christianity in America Changed During Obama’s Presidency

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From http://www.christianpost.com/news/how-christianity-in-america-changed-during-obamas-presidency-pew-report-172970/

How Christianity in America Changed During Obama’s Presidency: Pew Report

 

BY BRANDON SHOWALTER , CP REPORTER

A new report released this week outlines the changes in American society during President Obama’s eight years in office; the number of Christians in the United States has dropped significantly, the statistics show, but others argue there’s more to the story.

image: http://d.christianpost.com/full/102405/590-436/u-s-president-barack-obama.jpg

(Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to deliver his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois, January 10, 2017.

“When it comes to the nation’s religious identity, the biggest trend during Obama’s presidency is the rise of those who claim no religion at all,” according to a report released on Wednesday titled “How America Changed During Barack Obama’s Presidency” from the Pew Research Center. When Obama took office in 2008, approximately 16 percent of Americans identified as either atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.” As Obama leaves office, that number has increased to a quarter of the population.

“To me, the Pew data is very important but it’s not the only data,” said John S. Dickerson, author of the 2013 book The Great Evangelical Recession, in an interview with The Christian Post on Friday. “Because there is some conflation between ‘born again’ and ‘evangelical’ and the Pew data does not extricate between the two.”

“But when it comes to the long-term trajectories [for evangelicals], I don’t see anything that has changed,” he added.

Dickerson’s book contends that if you extricate born again and evangelical and actually count the number of devoted evangelicals, they amount to approximately 8 to 10 percent of the population.

“In 2013, when I first released the national data about evangelical Christianity declining, and at that time some prominent leaders said the trends could not be true. But the data never lies, and the last five years have sadly demonstrated what the data suggested back in 2013 — that Millennials are embracing agnosticism and increasingly rejecting Biblical Christianity,” Dickerson noted.

The Pew report states: “Christians, meanwhile, have fallen from 78 percent to 71 percent of the U.S. adult population, owing mainly to modest declines in the share of adults who identify with Mainline Protestantism and Catholicism. The share of Americans identifying with evangelical Protestantism, historically black Protestant denominations and other smaller Christian groups, by contrast, have remained fairly stable.”

Simultaneously, however, Americans who identify with a particular faith are as devout as they have ever been and by some accounts even more so.

Though the full “How America Changed” report was released this week, the findings on religious identification were harvested from Pew’s 2015 America’s Changing Religious Landscape Survey. Media outlets skewed the numbers and created a false narrative at the time, according to notable scholars from Baylor University. The Jan. 11 Pew report also addressed a range of cultural phenomena and political divisions, such as the widespread use of social media, distrust in government, and America’s place in the world.

CP asked Dickerson to explain how Obama’s administration has affected American evangelical Christianity.

“I think evangelicals largely felt alienated and ignored during the eight years of this administration. If you rewind through the decades, evangelical Christians were at the head of the table, then they moved to the foot of the table, and then they got moved to the kids table, and then they got kicked out of the dinner party altogether,” Dickerson said.

Those negative feelings likely precipitated a vote for a man in a presidential election many evangelicals found unsavory, he explained.

First Things editor R.R. Reno previously told CP in an interview about his book Resurrecting the Idea Of A Christian Society that “the main problem facing Christians today is a kind of lament, a spirit of lament of having lost the country” and that lament “tends to make contemporary Christians resentful of the present age. So it creates a defensive posture toward the contemporary moment as we feel the current going against us.”

“Instead, what has happened is very powerful elements of our society are shaking off this presumptive authority of Christianity to define their lives and for the wider public culture of America,” Reno said.

 

More Snow— A Snowy Shabbat Shalom from Us to You!

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my backyard

the front of my office

 

90,000 Christians Martyred (Excluding India and China) in 2016

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I remember that back in the 1990s, according to the Voice of the Martyrs, the number of Christians martyred each year worldwide for their faith was around 50,000. The number is about double that now. Revelation 6:9 describes the fifth seal and the martyrdom of saints in the last days. Revelation 7:14 mentions the great tribulation. Are we living in those days? No matter what, keep watching, praying and preparing for Yeshua’s return! — Natan 

From Russia Today — https://www.rt.com/news/372184-christians-killed-faith-study/

1 Christian killed for their faith every 6 minutes in 2016 – study

1 Christian killed for their faith every 6 minutes in 2016 – study
© Dipak Kumar / Reuters
Ninety thousand Christians were murdered for their faith around the globe this year, which amounts to one being killed every six minutes, Italy’s CESNUR religious study group said.

Christians are now the most persecuted religious group in the world, Massimo Introvigne, director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), told Vatican Radio.

According to CESNUR statistics, around 500,000 Christians around the globe are unable to practice their faith completely freely, Introvigne said.

Egyptian security officials and investigators inspect the scene following a bombing inside Cairo's Coptic cathedral in Egypt December 11, 2016. © Amr Abdallah DalshBlast hits near Christian cathedral in Cairo, 25 killed, 49 wounded

Seventy percent of the killings of Christians in 2016 occurred during tribal conflicts in Africa, he said, referring to data from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.

The large number of deaths may be explained by the fact that many devoted Christians refuse to take up arms, he added.

The remaining 30 percent, or 27,000, lost their lives in terrorist attacks, the destruction of Christian villages, or persecution by the authorities, Introvigne said.

However, he said that the number of Christian killings has decreased, compared to 105,000 deaths in 2015.

The data in the report may be incomplete as it doesn’t include India and China, where the Christian community survives in secrecy, he added.

The religious study group is due to release the full statistics on Christian persecution in January.

Introvigne also said that the Catholic Church is currently considering sanctification for Christian individuals killed by terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq.

Earlier this year, the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, said that during the five years of the Syrian conflict, the Christian population of the country had declined from 1.5 million to 500,000.

 

25 Reasons I Don’t Celebrate Christmas

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  1. Christmas is not the day on which Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) was born. He was likely born in the autumn during the biblical Feast of Tabernacles. In ancient times, December 25 was considered the birthday of the demon-sun god by many heathen religions. This was definitely not the birthday of Yeshua!
  2. There’s no biblical command to celebrate Christmas.
  3. Christmas has become a pagan substitution for YHVH’s true biblical holidays or festivals, which are listed in Leviticus 23. These are the same biblical festivals that Yeshua and his apostles celebrated. They never celebrated the Messiah’s birth.
  4. Christmas is the Christianization of various ancient pagan sun god, sex-worship rituals having to do with the winter solstice. “Cleaning up” a pagan custom is contrary to the biblical truth of turning away from the practices of the heathen and having nothing to do with them after one chooses to follow Elohim and his Word as found in the Bible.
  5. Christmas is laced with heathen and Satanic rituals and traditions. These are things the saints should have nothing to do with!
  6. The Bible forbids placing any trees or tree-like objects near an altar (or in a church building), since this is a heathen practice (Deut 16:21).  Most Christians violate this command when they place Christmas trees in their church sanctuaries near their altars every year at Christmas.
  7. The Bible forbids the heathen practice of incorporating trees into any religious service (Deut 12:1–4). Elohim hates pagan religious practices that happen under trees (Isa 57:5; Jer 3:6).
  8. Celebrating Christmas is friendship with the world which is an act of hatred toward Elohim. In this area, it makes one a friend of the world and an enemy of Elohim (Jas 4:4).
  9. Elohim condemns, forbids and calls an abomination bringing any pagan items into our houses (Deut 7:24–26), of which Christmas trees and nearly all Christmas’ associated accoutrements, paraphernalia and traditions are associated.
  10. The Bible commands the saints not to put up anything that even remotely resembles a Christmas tree. Jeremiah 10:1–5 is almost a perfect description of a modern Christmas tree — and it was a pagan custom 1000 years before Christmas became a Christian holiday in the Catholic Church.
  11. Christmas perpetuates the lie of Santa Clause to one’s children. Lying is not a value one wants to pass on to their children. Lying is a violation of the ninth of YHVH’s ten commandments and is a sin.
  12. The Bible commands the saints not to learn or practice the ways of the heathens (Jer 10:2; Lev 18:3; 20:23).
  13. Christmas is about syncretizing biblical truth (i.e., the birth of Yeshua) with pagan and satanic customs. In the Bible, YHVH commands his people not to be like the heathens, turn from evil, and don’t learn their evil customs. Yeshua commanded his disciples to be in the world, but not to practice its evil ways (John 17:11, 14). Christmas is practicing the evil ways of the heathens.
  14. For many, the main focus of Christmas is on self (“What gifts am I getting?”), rather than on Elohim’s gift to mankind, which was Yeshua the Messiah (who wasn’t even born in December). Christmas generally promotes a culture of selfishness and self-centeredness. These are values that were antithetical to everything that Yeshua and his disciples lived and taught.
  15. Christmas promotes an atmosphere of greed, covetousness and materialism. 
  16. Christmas is a tradition started by the Catholic Church, and I’m not a Catholic and I don’t take my spiritual marching orders from any pope —  especially when he tells me to do something contrary to the Bible, the Word of Elohim.
  17. Christmas is a short, one day long holiday. Too much emphasis is placed on this one day. The devil has tricked and shortchanged Christians into substituting Christian holidays like Christmas for the biblical ones. YHVH gives his saints seven biblical holidays with two of them lasting for seven days each (see Lev 23). These biblical holidays are called feasts, and they are spiritual and guilt-free celebrations focusing on rejoicing and righteously partying with family, friends and Elohim around godly and biblical themes all involving the gospel’s plan of redemption. They are totally righteous with no paganism mixed in. This can’t be said about Christmas.
  18. Do your homework. You will find that even the phrase “Ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas” is sacrilegious and blasphemous.
  19. If Christmas day turns sour for people (e.g., because of bad family experiences and unfulfilled expectations), then one’s year is ruined until next Christmas when one gets another shot at it in hopes it’ll be better the next go around. How pitifully sad!
  20. Christmas as celebrated by the majority of people ends up taking the focus off the glorious event of the Savior’s birth, trivializes it and then places the emphasis on gift-giving, partying and mindless unbiblical pagan traditions and rituals.
  21. The Bible commands us to abstain from all appearances of evil (1 Thess 5:22). There is much evil, Satanic and idolatrous baggage associated with Christmas; therefore, those who are serious about their biblical walk of righteousness and want to be obedient to YHVH Elohim should not be going near it.
  22. Those who celebrate Christmas in the traditional way are honoring or worshipping pagan deities. Anytime anyone puts a pagan practice or tradition ahead of obedience to Elohim and his Word, this is, by biblical definition, idolatry. Whether it’s Christmas lights on the house, wreaths, evergreen foliage, mistletoe, the Christmas tree with its red balls, gifts under the tree, Santa Clause, or even the Christmas greeting of “Ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas,” it all originates from ancient Satanic, idolatrous and lewd sex worship practices originating from pagan religions. This is not something with which the true saints of YHVH Elohim wants to be involved.
  23. Christmas puts a lot of people into financial debt. Debt is bondage and evil.
  24. Christmas was become a major money-making venture for merchants, and I refuse to be suckered in by their marketing schemes to purchase their products.
  25. Celebrating Christmas is following a multitude to do evil — something YHVH forbids (Exod 23:2).

Now that you have received the light of the truth about Christmas, you are responsible before Elohim to live up to that truth. Will you put obedience to the Word of Elohim and his truth first in our life, or continue to walk in sin? To obey Elohim means to cast out of your life all idolatrous practices and cease doing that which is evil and sinful. This is then followed by choosing to obey YHVH Elohim in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24). “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (Jas 4:17).

Come out of [Mystery Babylon the Great], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and Elohim has remembered her iniquities. (Rev 18:4–5)

And what agreement has the temple of Elohim with idols? For you are the temple of the living Elohim. As Elohim has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their Elohim, And they shall be My people. Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate,” says Adonai. “Do not touch what is unclean,  and I will receive you.” (2 Cor 6:16–17)

 

Shabbat Shalom from snowy Oregon

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