My Independence Day Blues

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Ever get the Independence Day blues — reflecting on how America has gone to the dogs spiritually! I did this year. Why are we so backslid spiritually? Why are our leaders so preoccupied with forcing evil agendas upon us? Where are we going from here? What does the future hold for us? What’s the solution to the problem? What can I do about it?

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The Bible speaks of living in perilous times in the last days (1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:1–9) where men are living in total rebellion against YHVH, abandoning their biblical faith for demonic belief systems, and have become lovers of money and themselves. They are blasphemers, unholy, unloving, pleasure seeking God-haters.

By in large, Americans, and most people in general don’t care about YHVH. They’re too self-absorbed and caught up in the pursuit of materialism, pleasure, and self-gratification to care about that out-of-date religious, Bible stuff.

What’s more, the church is sick—lukewarm to the core. Most churches are more concerned about their building fund and the pastor about his denominational status and retirement than about preaching the hard truth of the Bible. Most Christians are only a few steps behind the values of the world. The lordship of Yeshua? What’s that? Follow the Bible? What an archaic idea. Few read or study the Bible or pray anymore. Few really seek YHVH with their whole hearts. You’re considered a weird throw-back if you do.

It seems as if YHVH is far away, uninvolved and disinterested in the affairs of men—that Yeshua will never return as the Bible promises. Where is the promise of his coming as Peter opined in his second epistle? There will be scoffers pursuing their own lusts feeling that all things continue as they have from time immemorial (2 Pet 3:3–4). It’s easy to acquiesce to this mentality. However, the day of YHVH’s judgment is coming unexpectedly as a thief though (v. 10).

Yeshua prophesied that a time is coming just before his second coming when men’s hearts will fail them for fear. Great distress will come upon nations (Luke 21:25–28).

But what about America? What about the other so-called Christian nations? Is there hope for them? What does the Bible prophesy will happen to them in the end times? This is what I was pondering on July 4th this year.

Because Bible believers have backslid, become fat and lazy, self-absorbed and given over to pursuits of materialism and hedonism and have forsaken the God of the Bible, he is now dealing with them as a loving parent deals with his wayward child—through tough-love discipline. He is now spanking them, and he, among other things, is using Edom to do it!

Who is Edom? Perhaps you recall that name from the back corners of your memory as being a biblical personality. But what could that have to do with you and me? Ah-ha! That’s where the timelessness of the Bible comes in. The Bible gives us the answers!

Next:  Islam Is YHVH’s Paddle to Provoke the Jews and Christians to Repentance

 

 

For Profit Prophets—Like Balaam

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Numbers 31:8, Balaam … they slew with the sword. Jude 11 talks about Balaam being greedy for money and indicates that there are those in the end times in the body of Yeshua who will follow after this sin. How is this possible? What will be the ultimate fate of these “tares”? (See Matt 13:40.)

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Had Balaam believed his own good prophecies concerning Israel and not have sided with Israel’s enemies, would he no doubt would have been spared the sword of YHVH’s justice. What were his motives for siding with them?

Greed and materialism blind one from YHVH’s truth and cause one to side with YHVH’s enemies. What is the end result of this action?

Balaam was a deceiver and a hypocrite. He spoke one thing and did something else. Are we ever guilty of this? How rampant is the sin of duplicity within the body of believers in Yeshua?

There are people who claim to be prophets in the church who, like Balaam, speak soothing and ear-tickling prophetic words in order to profit from the people. How can we know the difference between true and false prophets? A true prophet is not greedy like Balaam. (Read Deut 18:20–22 and Matt 7:15–20.) Can a true prophet of Elohim prophesy out of the flesh something false, and if he repents, when he finds he was in error, be spared from the death penalty? (Read 2 Sam 7:1–17.)

 

New Videos: Managing Crisis, Ecclesiastes, Tobacco & Pot

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What Does the Bible Say About Tobacco and Marijuana?

What to Do When a Crisis Hits Your LIfe
This a short and powerful video about what to do when an unexpected disaster (e.g., death, divorce, sickness, injury, natural disaster, fire, financial reversal, arrest, persecution, political or economic upheaval) suddenly hits your life.

The Book of Ecclesiastes: Find the Right Balance in an Unbalanced World

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 6/30 through 7/6/13

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Parashat Matot-Masei — Numbers 30:2 (1)* – 36:13
Haftarah — Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4
Prophets — Ezekiel 29:1 – 35:15
Writings — Daniel 9:1 – 12:13; Ezra 1:1 – Ezra 3:13
Testimony — 2 Corinthians 10:1 – 13:13; Galatians 1:1 – 2:21

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 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.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 6/30 through 7/6/13.

*Verse numbers in parenthesis refer to the verse number in Christian Bibles.

 

It’s Time to Rise Up Against Evil!

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Numbers 25:7, Phinehas…took a javelin. Phinehas, the priest, rose up against evil and took a stand for righteousness and YHVH commended him for it. In this case, the grandson of Aaron the high priest was not acting as a self-appointed vigilante as it may appear. Rather, YHVH had given the priests the authority to act as judges in Israel and to pronounce sentence in criminal matters (Deut 17:9–11). Additionally, Phinehas was doubly justified in his action against the physical and spiritual fornicators, since he was an eyewitness of these sins, and the Torah teaches that the hand of the eyewitness was to be the first to rise up in executing judgment against the criminals (Deut 17:6; Ezek 44:24). So as an eyewitness and as a priest, he was legally justified in his actions. The priests and Levites were to act as Israel’s legal experts (Lev 10:10–11; Deut 24:8; 33:10; 2 Chron 17:9; 30:22; Neh 8:2, 8; Hag 2:11; Ezek 44:23; Mal 2:7) and to make determinations between the holy and the profane (Ezek 22:26; 44:23).

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Who are YHVH’s priest on the earth today? According to Peter, and John the saints are those priests (1 Pet 2:7; Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). As such, the saints presently possess the divinely mandated legal authority to fulfill the responsibilities of the priesthood of old when it comes to teaching the laws of Elohim to the nations in which they live. Yeshua, our Great High Priest, has tasked his disciples with the responsibility and authority to judge righteously (i.e., to make judgments according to YHVH’s standards of righteousness, John 7:24), and to be spiritual fruit inspectors (Matt 7:15–20). Today, this responsibility is primarily exercised within the congregation of the righteous. However, besides this, the righteous saints are to act as spiritual salt in this world and to be like a spiritual light on a hill for the world to see (Matt 5:13–16). They are to preach the gospel to the world, to make disciples and to teach those around them all that Yeshua has commanded them (Matt 28:18–20; Mark 16:15–16). This means that the saints have heaven’s authority and commission to act as the spiritual and moral compass and conscience for the nations in which they live. This means that they will be standing against evil whereever and however they can as directed by the Spirit of Elohim, even as Phinehas did.

It is time that the righteous servants of YHVH Elohim begin to stand up in a more vocal and demonstrative way against the evil that is being foisted upon our society Continue reading →

 

I’m Sick of Spiritual Peddlers and So Was Yeshua and Paul

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2 Corinthians 2:17, For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of Elohim; but as of sincerity, but as from Elohim, we speak in the sight of Elohim in Messiah. Are you as sick and fed up with peddlers of the Word of Elohim as I am? It’s everywhere you go—people standing along the highways of biblical religion with their hands out panhandling.

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Show me just about any big name in Christianity, Messianic, the Hebrew Roots Movement and, in most cases, I’ll show you someone who has built their ministry on shameless self promotion, hype, glitz, corporate marketing techniques and their ability to cleverly woo people to their book seller’s table or website that is chalk full of wares that  promise to fill your head with the latest prophetic insights, esoteric biblical head knowledge, pop-psychological, self-help, humanistic, new-age, ear-tickling pap. It’s all yours, if you’ll only plunk down some of your hard-earned cash.

Well, I’m not the only one who’s fed up with these modern-day merchandizers of the gospel. The Apostle Paul was too. Evidently it was rampant in his day as well as we have seen in the scripture verse quoted above: “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of Elohim…”  The word peddling there means “to be a retailer, to make money by selling anything, to get sordid gain by dealing in anything, to do a thing for base gain, to trade in the word of God, to try to get base gain by teaching divine truth, to corrupt, to adulterate, peddlers were in the habit of adulterating their commodities for the sake of gain.”

These guys don’t need to bother knocking on the door of the congregation I pastor, Continue reading →

 

New Video: Your Life Is Like a Ladder, But Where Will You End Up?

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Everyone spends their entire life climbing a ladder from birth until death. Some people are climbing a ladder that ultimately leads to the grave resulting in eternal death. In this live, outdoor preach to Mexicans at a migrant camp, Natan shows how to climb the ladder that leads to our Father in heaven resulting in eternal life.