Category Archives: Scripture

Scripture Studies

Joseph—A Profile in Courage and Faith

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Do you think that things are going badly for you in your life? Take heart. The Bible is full of encouraging stories of faith of people going through circumstances often much worse than what we have encountered, but who overcame their circumstances and prevailed because of their faith in Elohim. Yes, it is true that some people died for their faith, but because of their faith in YHVH-Yeshua and the promises of Elohim, they have waiting for them resurrection into eternal life and the glorious heavenly rewards that will accompany that life.

Genesis 41:9–10, The chief butler spoke. Here the chief butler is recounting the events to Pharaoh of how he ended up in prison as if Pharaoh weren’t aware of these facts. It is quite possible that this was a new Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh who had put the butler in prison was now dead. If so, then this new Pharaoh was very young, since in Genesis 45:8 Joseph, who by now would have been at least in his late 30s, refers to himself as “a father to Pharaoh.”

YHVH’s timing is perfect. Do you have the trust in YHVH to believe that for your life? Had the chief butler remembered Joseph prior to this how would things have been different for Joseph? Would he have had the chance to interpret Pharaoh’s dream? Would he have returned to Canaan? How would the history of the nation of Israel been different? Would YHVH’s purposes have been fulfilled?

Genesis 41:16, Elohim. By this time, Joseph had endured multiple false accusations, murder attempts, enslavement and imprisonment on false charges. A man of lesser spiritual stature than Joseph might have lost his faith in Elohim along the way. What can we learn from Joseph?

In this verse, what is the evidence that he hadn’t given up hope in his Heavenly Father, and that he had not lost sight of the dreams and promises that YHVH had made to him many years earlier? Simply this. Even though Joseph was standing before a king who had the power of life and death over him, he still had faith that Elohim would give him the interpretation to the king’s dream. Not only did Joseph believe this, but openly declared his faith to Pharaoh. 

As a form of witnessing to those around you, do you give honor to YHVH whenever you can—even to strangers and potential enemies as Joseph did? 

The fact that Joseph was able to proclaim his faith in Elohim in front of one of the most powerful monarchs of his day is evidence of his strong and abiding faith in and fear of YHVH even in spite of years of mistreatment and false accusations. Joseph is a powerful and encouraging example to the down-trodden saints of the world, who have been persecuted for the their faith. Joseph is proof that it is possible to maintain faith in YHVH even in spite of dire, even life threatening circumstances.

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 12-22 Through 12-28-19

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Parashat Miketz — Genesis 41:1 – 44:17
Haftarah — 1 Kings 3:15 – 4:1 | Zech 2:14 – 4:7; Numbers 28:9-15**
Prophets — 1 Samuel 18:1 – 24:22
Writings — Psalms 70:1 – 76:12
Testimony — Mark 11:19 – 14:52

Our new annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2019-2020 with daily readings is available to download and print. If you are still working through 2018-2019’s Scripture Reading Schedule, the link will still be available on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links”. If you are using a mobile device or tablet, the link may be below, meaning you’ll need to scroll down instead.

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link or the “share your thoughts” box below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day: one each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

** A different Haftarah is read when it is a special sabbath in Jewish tradition. This week it is Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Chanukah on the traditional calendar with Zech 2:14 – 4:7 and special reading Numbers 28:9-15. Otherwise, 1 Kings 3:15 – 4:1 would be read.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 12/22/19 through 12/28/19.

 

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.

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Christmas—The Rest of the Story (just the facts, nothing more)

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How and When Christmas Came Into the Church

Did you ever wonder how the non-biblical holiday called “Christmas” came into the mainstream Christians church? What follows is the backstory to Christmas—the rest of the story.

Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Amodbius (VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the “birthdays” of the gods. (The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Christmas”)

Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia)

Saturnalia may have influenced some of the customs associated with later celebrations in western Europe occurring in midwinter, particularly traditions associated with Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and Epiphany. (ibid.)

The popularity of Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, and as the Roman Empire came under Christian rule, many of its customs were recast into or at least influenced the seasonal celebrations surrounding Christmas and the New Year. (ibid.)

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, Christmas is not included in Irenaeus’s nor Tertullian’s list of Christian feasts, the earliest known lists of Christian feasts. The earliest evidence of celebration is from Alexandria, in about 200, when Clement of says that certain Egyptian theologians “over curiously” assign not just the year but also the actual day of Christ’s birth as 25 Pachon (May 20) in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus. By the time of the Council of Nicea in 325, the Alexandrian church had fixed a dies Nativitatis et Epiphaniae. The December feast reached Egypt in the fith century. In Jerusalem, the fourth century pilgrim Egeria from Bordeaux witnessed the Feast of the Presentation, forty days after January 6, which must have been the date of the Nativity there. At Antioch, probably in 386, St. John Chrysostom urged the community to unite in celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25, a part of the community having already kept it on that day for at least ten years. 

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On Celebrating Birthdays (including that of the baby Jesus)

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This week much the world (me excluded) will be celebrating Christmas, the supposed birthday of Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of celebrating birthdays from a biblical perspective and briefly touch on the Christmas issue as well.

Genesis 40:20, Pharaoh’s birthday. The is the first of three references to birthdays in the Bible. The second one is to Job’s children who were killed on, presumably, one of their birthdays (Job 1:4, 18–19).The third reference to King Herod, who had John the Baptist beheaded on his birthday (Matt 14:6–12). Because of the fact that birthdays are associated with calamity in the Bible, some people refuse to celebrate birthdays, even though there is no direct or indirect prohibition against honoring a loved one once a year on the day of their birth.  

Though I respect a person’s right to disagree with me on this issue, it is my opinion that celebrating birthdays is neither inherently evil nor a pagan thing to do. It is merely honoring and respecting a loved one on the day marking their debut into this world. What’s evil about that? “Oh, it’s a pride thing,” someone might respond. If so, then answer me this: How is honoring and showing love by telling someone that you’re glad they were born and that they’re special to you “a pride thing”?  And if it’s pride, then pride on whose part? The Bible teaches that there is a wrong and sinful kind of pride and right kind of pride, but that’s another discussion.

Now what about celebrating Yeshua’s birthday on Christmas? Is that wrong or evil? No, not inherently, unless we mix satanic and pagan traditions into the mix, and do it on the same day that the ancient pagans honored their demon sun-god. Of itself, there’s nothing evil about recognizing the coming of the Messiah in human form to this earth. To be sure, this is something to be celebrated in one way or another. The problem is that in so doing, most people have not only mixed in pagan traditions with their celebrations, and have secularized out of it the real purpose of the day, and have chosen to celebrate the Messiah’s birth on the totally wrong day. Perhaps, worst of all, they have rejected or made of non-effect the clear word of Elohim that commands all the saints to celebrate the seven biblical feasts. Instead, men have substituted Christmas and Easter (et al) for Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles and the Eighth Day. This is not only wrong, but it is, by biblical definition, sinful, for it violates the laws of YHVH Elohim (1 John 3:4).

Yeshua addressed religious leaders’ sinful, rebellious and prideful proclivity to substitute their man made doctrines and traditions for the Word of Elohim.

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the [Torah] commandment of Elohim, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.… Making the word of Elohim of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. (Mark 7:6–8, 13)

 

15 years for burning a “gay” pride flag—The penalty DOES NOT fit the crime!

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Here is another example a justice run amok by leftist, amoral God-haters including this particular so-called Christian church. Should the man have stolen the flag from the church? Maybe not. Yet the biblical Gideon did a similar thing when he tore down the pagan idols in his home town, and the Bible lauds him for his brave act of righteousness! And how about Yeshua overturning the money changers tables in the temple?

Really now! Sixteen years in prison for burning a homosexual pride flag? Does the penalty fit the crime? Who in a non-twisted and non-morally perverted mind would think so?

Moreover, what do you think the penalty would have been had this man burned a Christian flag, or an American flag? Well, now that’s different, isn’t it? This is freedom of speech, not hate speech!

Can you see the lunacy of the liberal left? They have turned truth, morality and anything that is good on its head, so that they now view good as evil, right as wrong and up as down. Moreover, they’re fascistically imposing their perverse, upside down values upon the rest of society through the leftist media and leftist judges and politicians. These are in-your-face signs of a society that is sliding downhill rapidly en route to hell!

Read this story and weep for our nation!

Iowa man who sets LGBTQ flag on fire gets over 15 years in prison

Register Staff Reports (https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2019/12/19/lgbtq-flag-burning-iowa-man-sentenced-church-banner-fire/2697139001/) Published 9:53 a.m. CT Dec. 19, 2019 | Updated 9:42 p.m. CT Dec. 19, 2019

An Ames man was sentenced Wednesday to about 16 years in prison after he set fire to a church’s LGBTQ flag in June. 

Adolfo Martinez, 30, of Ames, was found guilty last month of third-degree arson in violation of individual rights — hate crime, third-degree harassment, and reckless use of fire as a habitual offender. 

He was arrested after stealing a pride banner hanging at Ames United Church of Christ, 217 6th St., and burning it early June 11 outside Dangerous Curves Gentleman’s Club, 111 5th St., police said.

Adolfo Martinez

Adolfo Martinez (Photo: Special to the Register)

Martinez admitted to police that he lit the banner on fire with lighter fluid and a lighter after stealing it from the church, according to court documents.

Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said the hate crime charges were added because Martinez is suspected of criminal mischief against someone’s property because of “what it represents as far as sexual orientation.”

He faced a maximum of five years in prison for the hate crime and arson charge and a maximum of a year and month for the other two charges, according to Iowa sentencing guidelines. Court records list him as a habitual offender, allowing him to be sentenced to a longer prison term.

The United Church of Christ is seen in Ames, Iowa. The banner above the doorway reads "God is still speaking." The banner was stolen and lit on fire on early Tuesday morning.

The United Church of Christ is seen in Ames, Iowa. The banner above the doorway reads “God is still speaking.” The banner was stolen and lit on fire on early Tuesday morning. (Photo: Special to the Register)

 

Joseph—Down and Out? NO and neither are YOU!

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The Bible is full of many inspiring examples of people who were unjustly treated and found themselves in almost impossible situations. Yet, because of their faith in Elohim, they not only survived their circumstances, but thrived. The story of Joseph is another such example. Be encouraged and inspired as you read this.

Genesis 39:2, 21, 23, YHVH was with Joseph. This phrase is repeated three times in this chapter to emphasize an important spiritual principle. Even in the midst of Joseph’s unfair persecution first as a slave then as a prisoner, his faithfulness to YHVH insured YHVH’s divine protection and favor in these adverse circumstances.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but YHVH delivers him out of them all (Ps 34:19), and YHVH promises to accompany his people through the floods and fires of adversities (Isa 43:2).

Joseph’s prevailing through adverse and unjust circumstances with YHVH’s help should be a great source of encouragement for every believer. 

Joseph…a successful man. Even as a slave, YHVH blessed and prospered Joseph. YHVH can prosper us in any work situation in which we find ourselves—even if we’re not much better than a slave. If we but will apply ourselves to work hard and diligently, while staying faithful to YHVH as Joseph did, YHVH will prosper and promote us. Laziness, greed, theft, covetousness and irresponsibility has never gotten anyone anywhere in any employment situation.