Americans need a spiritual revival to help get over themselves!

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Metaphor For America: Starving 4 Pound Baby Dies In Car While Parents Eat At Golden Corral

By Michael Snyder, on December 31st, 2014

Golden Corral - Photo by Park92What should be done to parents that stuffed themselves full of food at a Golden Corral while their starving four pound baby girl died in their car outside?  This actually just happened down in Florida, and it is a crime that is shocking the entire nation.  Sadly, it is also a perfect metaphor for what is happening to the country as a whole.  We have become an exceedingly selfish and self-centered society that seems to care very little that we are literally destroying the future of America.  We are stealing trillions of dollars from future generations and destroying what was once the greatest economy in the history of the world just to make ourselves a little bit more comfortable in the present.  We stand by and do nothing while our politicians flush the U.S. Constitution down the toilet and construct a Big Brother police state all around us.  We have become a nation of “sheeple” and “zombies” that are so addicted to entertainment that we can’t even see how our society is rotting and decaying in thousands of different ways all around us.  So yes, the parents that starved their precious little baby girl to death are guilty and should be punished.  But what about the millions of Americans that are doing nothing while America slowly circles the toilet on the way to oblivion?

There are very few news stories that affect me deeply on an emotional level.  But when I read about the starvation of this precious little baby girl down in Florida, I was quite upset…

A baby girl named Betsey died, having being starved to death while strapped in her car seat as her parents ate a Florida Golden Corral restaurant.

The parents of the 22-day-old baby have been charged with first-degree murder, police said on Tuesday, accusing them of neglecting the suffering infant.

Ruby Stephens, 23, and Roy Stephens, 48, of Indiana, were visiting relatives in central Florida on December 23 when they called 911 after discovering the baby was unresponsive in their car, according to Lakeland Police.

Betsey Kee Stephens was declared dead at the hospital.

‘She suffered tremendously over the 22 days that she was alive,’ Mike Link, assistant chief of Lakeland Police, told a news conference.

He called photographs of the baby ‘absolutely horrible.’

How cold-hearted do you have to be in order to do such a thing?

How could anyone neglect such a precious baby girl like that?

Inside the Golden Corral, her parents had access to an endless buffet.  But they didn’t even bring Betsey inside with them.  She sat outside strapped in her car seat as she died from starvation.

But like I said, this is such a perfect metaphor for where we are as a nation.

We have become a selfish, greedy, gluttonous nation that doesn’t care about others and that always wants more for ourselves.

For example, in 1962 only 13 percent of all Americans were obese.  But today, 35.7 percent of all Americans are obese, and it is being projected that 42 percent of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.

And of course it goes far beyond just being physically gluttonous.  Much worse is… (to continued reading http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/metaphor-for-america-starving-4-pound-baby-dies-in-car-while-parents-eat-at-golden-corral).

 

Torah-Obedience 101: Just Be Nice!

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Luke 3:7–17, Then he said to the multitudes. What’s really going on in this exchange between John and the religious folks of his day? Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture.

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The multitudes of Jews had to make the long, hot and arduous journey down through the Judean mountains down to the Jordan River, which was the lowest spot on earth, to hear John the Baptist who was the latest fad preacher to come on the scene. However, when they arrived at his lonely wilderness pulpit, instead of stroking their egos by complimenting them for their religious zeal, he excoriates them and calls them a brood of vipers. John confronts them when he says that if they don’t repent, the fires of YHVH’s judgment will consume them (John 3:7–9). John’s preaching pierces their hearts, and lays them low spiritually, and they ask him what he expects them to do (John 3:10). John then preaches a message of social justice involving giving to the poor, being fair and honest in your business dealings, and if you’re a government worker, treating the citizens you serve with respect (John 3:11–14).

Interestingly, he doesn’t instruct these religious Jews in what many might consider to be the specificities and dos and don’ts of the Torah-law.  In our day, most Messianically inclined Torah teachers are telling their listeners to punctiliously start observing the 613 commandments of the Torah, and to cease working on the Sabbath, stop eating pork, toss the Christmas trees in the dumpster, grow a beard, put on a tassel and a head-covering, and to say “Yeshua” instead of “Jesus.” John instead tells his hearers to go back to the basic — something they either never learned to do or they had forgotten along the way. He’s really saying,  “Just be nice to your neighbor. Be fair, honest, loving and caring in your dealings with your fellow man.” And then John points them to Yeshua the Messiah who is soon to become the new star on the Judean preaching scene (Luke 3:16–17). So be nice and follow Yeshua—the most loving Person of all, he says.

When witnessing to people, what is our approach? Do we bash them over the head with a Torah scroll by telling them all the religious legal requirements that are required of them, or do we tell them simply to love one another and to follow Yeshua, which inevitably, but lovingly, will lead them to observing the righteous requirements of the Torah?

But there’s more. Continue reading →

 

Peace on earth and good will toward [all] men. Really?

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Luke 2:14, Peace on earth. (See William Mounce’s  Basics of Biblical Greek textbook, p. 43 for further explanation on this.) This often quoted phrase can also be translated as “on earth, peace toward men of good will.”

This phrasing makes more sense, since the biblical concept of peace or shalom is a blessing only to men who have good will, make good choices or who are benevolent or of kindly intent, which is the definition of the Greek word eudokia.

The shalom or total well-being, which is a gift from YHVH, doesn’t come to men who are of ill-intent or ill-will. For example, when Yeshua was teaching his disciples how to preach the gospel, when going from town to town, he instructed them to lodge in homes that were worthy to hear the message. Upon them, the disciples were to leave their peace. Those homes who didn’t receive the  gospel message were to considered unworthy and their peace was not to be left with them (Matt 10:11–14).

This teaches us that peace is something that is befitting of those who are worthy or of good will, and not to those who are unworthy or of ill-will.

 

Was Yeshua born in a barn or a sukkah?

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Luke 2:7, Manger. The Greek word means “feeding trough” and according to the word’s etymology and lexicology  as stated in the TWOT, gives no indication for this manger to be anything but a manger.

Was Yeshua born in this …

Was Yeshua born in this …

 

or this?

or this?

Nevertheless, this manger may have been a sukkah or tabernacle, which is the flimsy little hut that Israelites build during the biblical Feast of Tabernacles (Heb. Chag Sukkot) as commanded in the Torah (Lev 23:33–43).

We see the connection between a manger and a sukkah in Genesis 33:17 where Jacob built booths (or

tabernacles; Heb. succot or sukkot is the plural form of sukkah) for his livestock showing us that the Hebrew word sukkah (pl. sukkot) can also mean “livestock barn or manger” as well as a temporary habitation where Israelites dwell during the biblically commanded festival of Sukkot.

This raises the possibility that Yeshua was born in a festival sukkah during the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot and not just in an animal barn as Christian folklore would have us believe.

The LXX Greek word for sukkah in Gen 33:17 is skenas meaning “habitation, dwelling or tabernacle” and is the same word used in John 1:14 and Rev 21:1–3 in reference to Yeshua tabernacling with his people.

Putting all the pieces together, Yeshua may have been born in a sukkah-manger prior to or during the Feast of Tabernacles with a human sukkah (or body, of which the physical sukkah during Sukkot is a metaphorical picture) in order to redeem man from sin, so that Yeshua might tabernacle with redeemed men forever in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:3).

 

The Most Depressing Time of the Year in the Most Depressed Nation

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The excellent article below from http://endoftheamericandream.com makes a strong case why America needs a spiritual revival that will bring them back to the Bible and to Yeshua, and why Americans need to start eating a healthy diet. I’ve highlighted the salient points of this article in red. Please read this article and pass it on.

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From http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-most-depressing-time-of-the-year-in-the-most-depressed-nation-on-the-planet. To activate the links in this article, click on the  above link to go to the article’s website of origin.

The Most Depressing Time Of The Year In The Most Depressed Nation On The Planet

By Michael Snyder, on December 2nd, 2014
     

Christmas Street - Public DomainDid you know that the rate of suicide is highest during this time of the year and that 45 percent of all Americans dread the Christmas season?  We are constantly being told that Christmas is the happiest time of the year, but mental health professionals tell us that the exact opposite is true.  For large numbers of Americans, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is filled with stress, anxiety, loneliness and family squabbles.  And for most people, the reality of the holidays never even comes close to matching up with the glittering ideal portrayed in movies and on television.  As a result, depression tends to spike during the month of December.  And of course Americans are quite depressed most of the time anyway.  In fact, one out of every ten Americans is on an antidepressant as you read this article.  No other nation in the world even approaches that level.  So right now we are in the midst of the most depressing time of the year in the most depressed nation on the entire planet.  What is wrong with this picture?

A lot of people start to feel down this time of the year, and they don’t realize that there are millions of others that are going through the exact same thing.  The following excerpt from a Psychology Today article explains that this is something that happens every Christmas season…

We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience the highest incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report the highest incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season.

So when we get depressed, what do we do?

Well, we do what we always do for depression.

We start popping pills.

Today, America is the most drugged up nation on the face of the Earth by a wide margin.  Just consider the following numbers…

–Americans account for about five percent of the global population, but we consume more than 50 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs.  At the moment, the number one selling pharmaceutical drug in America is called Thorazine.  It is used as a supplement to other antidepressant drugs.

–According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans are currently taking antidepressants.

–The number of people that are clinically diagnosed with depression is growing at a rate of 20 percent annually.

–The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole.  It is hard to believe, but right now one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication.

-The percentage of women taking antidepressants in the United States is significantly higher than in any other country in the world.

–Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

–If all of these antidepressants are helping, then why are more Americans killing themselves?  The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 increased by nearly 30 percent between 1999 and 2010.  The number of Americans that die by suicide is now greater than the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents every year.

Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea that the latest scientific studies indicate that many of these drugs could actually be quite dangerous.

For example, one recent study found that children that take antidepressants are more likely to attempt suicide…

High doses of brain-altering chemicals marketed as “anti-depressants” increase the likelihood of self-harm, rather than decreasing the risk, say Harvard health scientists in a study that analyzed data on 162,625 people.

Drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in children and young adults, according to the analysis. SSRI’s are the chemical substances which make up the antidepressants Prozac and Zoloft.

“Our findings offer clinicians an additional incentive to avoid initiating pharmacotherapy at high-therapeutic doses,” Harvard School of Public Health researchers said.

Another recent study found that pregnant mothers that take antidepressants are more likely to have babies with brain defects…

Almost one in five children born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy have a brain defect – called a “Chiari type 1 malformation” – according to a groundbreaking study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The study, titled Rate of Chiari I Malformation in Children of Mothers with Depression with and without Prenatal SSRI Exposure, was published May 19 in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

The researchers found that “children of depressed mothers treated with a group of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy were more likely to develop Chiari type 1 malformations than were children of mothers with no history of depression,” according to their press statement.

Perhaps popping pills is not the solution after all.

.If you are battling depression, one of the key things to do is to look at your diet.  What we eat and what we drink plays a massive role in how we feel and how our brain functions.  If you start eating better, your life will improve in a multitude of ways.

And certainly there are natural ways to battle depression.  If you want to learn more about this, Natural News has some great articles on the subject.

But more important than all of those things is the fact that most Americans today simply do not have anything to live for.

These days, most people just seem to be living for themselves.  They chase one form of entertainment after another, hoping that something will eventually fill the gaping holes that are constantly aching inside their hearts.  Many go to their graves never finding the fulfillment that they were desperately searching for all of their lives.

You have got to have something to live for that really matters.  That is something that I have found, and it has made all the difference.  No matter how broken your life is right now, the key is to never, ever, ever give up.  As long as you keep fighting, there is always hope that things can be turned around.

So don’t give in to depression this Christmas season.

Yes, this world is an incredibly messed up place.

Yes, things are going to get a lot worse in the years ahead.

But that doesn’t mean that the future has to be bleak for you.

The best chapters of your life could be right around the corner, so don’t you ever, ever give up.

 

Question: What university can I study at to learn YHVH’s truth?

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Here is a question from Xavier that just came into this blog:

Gortarboard and graduation scroll

I have been asking God to answer some of my questions
and he answered through the video of Christian Church Divorced Hebrew Roots I want to know if you guys a university that you recommend me going to because I want to learn Gods way of abiding by his law I want to serve our God our Father our Savior our Holy Spirit for Eternity please help me to find a university study at that teaches Gods Torrah and the New Testement correctly.

Here is my response. Perhaps it will help and encourage some other people as well as Xavier.

Shalom Xavier. Excellent question. Thank you for allowing me to answer it.

There is only one university one earth that you can study at to learn what you want. It’s the same one that all the biblical prophets, the disciples of Yeshua and the apostles went to. It’s called sitting at the feet of Yeshua the Messiah, being led of the Holy Spirit, reading, studying and meditating and then obeying or walking out the word of Elohim. It all starts with a faith in Yeshua and a total commitment of love him by keeping his Torah commandments (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3–6). It’s called forsaking all the doctrines and traditions of men that are contrary to the word of Elohim and following Yeshua, the Lamb of Elohim, wherever he leads you no matter where it may take you.

You see, Xavier, I’ve studied at four universities and colleges in America and Europe and have taken numerous classes at other institutions of learning as well, and none of them taught me anything that I’m now sharing on this blog, or on our YouTube channel or on our website. I learned what I know because I was determined to seek to know YHVH Elohim with all my mind and heart, and haven’t ever stopped. You must do the same thing. Sorry, but you won’t learn most of this at any Christian seminary or Bible college or at a Jewish yeshiva either.

When I started studying YHVH’s word back in the 1960s, this was long before the internet. All I had was my Bible, a lot of books that borrowed from my father’s library, my church and my parents. I learned from them and I asked a lot of questions. Now with the internet, you can learn from all sorts of places like hoshanarabbah.org. But your main place will still be your Bible and your personal relationship with Elohim as he teaches you through his Holy Spirit. If you seek him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and are totally committed to obey him no matter the cost, he will begin to pour out to you spiritual revelation. He will also bring people across your path who will disciple and mentor you. YHVH is faithful!

My brother, this is your university if you’re willing and committed to enroll in it for the rest of your life.

You will graduate when when you meet Yeshua in the air at his second coming having left your mortal body behind in favor of a glorified body and when you hear the words, “Well done, thou good faithful servant, enter into life and the kingdom my Father in heaven has prepared for you.”

Happy studying!

 

A Family Once Divided, Now Reunited — to Happen Again!

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Genesis 46:1–7, The reuniting of Jacobs family — the twelve tribes of Israel. These verses recount the move of Jacob and his family to Egypt where they were reunited with Joseph and his family. This prophetically foreshadows a time in the future, which the Jewish sages call the final redemption, which is to occur just prior to and at the coming of Messiah Son of David as he comes to establish the Messianic Era (Millennium).

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The Jewish sages teach that part of that final redemption includes the reunification of the two houses of Israel (i.e. the Messiah-loving Jews and Torah-loving Christians) into one kingdom under Messiah Son of David. Where do we find this prophesied in the Scriptures? (Read Ezek 37:15–28, which interestingly enough is this week’s Haftorah portion!) This speaks of the family reunification or ­reconciliation of Judah and Ephraim at Messiah’s return. (Hos 5:15–6:4; 1:11; Acts 3:21; Ezek 37:25). This will be a supernatural work of the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) of Elohim (Ezek 36:19–32).

After the reunification of the divided family, where did the reunited and reconciled family move to? (Read Gen 46:34.) Goshen was in the Nile River delta area and was, and to this day is, the prime farm land of Egypt. It was a veritable promised land compared to the arid regions of Canaan. Could this be a tiny shadow-picture of the Millennium?

The Jewish sages have a sense that history for the people of Israel is continually repeating itself, over and over again in cyclical patterns as YHVH works his purposes out among his people. He is continually endeavoring to reveal his plan of redemption and reconciliation to those who have eyes to see, and continually reaching out the loving hand of reconciliation to the next generations of Israelites.

This is but one more picture of the cyclical pattern of redemption that we see YHVH working out in the pages of Scripture all pointing toward a final climax at the end of the age where all of the children of Israel will worship YHVH in spirit and in truth (John 4:23) under the rulership of King Yeshua the Messiah, Son of Joseph/David.