Let’s examine Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah”

RANT:

While Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” is much adored by many because of its beautiful, haunting melody, it seems hardly anyone is offended by the words … words that are NOT about YHWH at all; rather, about a love that has soured and gone stale.

Bottom line: The song is all about SEX (and let’s be realistic – nobody thinks about YHWH when they’re having sex) – so WHY is nobody offended that Cohen included the word, “Hallelujah” (which should be written “Halleluyah” as it refers to YHWH….), which has absolutely NOTHING to do with YHWH?

BACKGROUND: Leonard Cohen in 1984 on his album Various Positions, used a lot of religious imagery, including references to some of the more notorious women in the bible.

Cohen explained:  "Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means 'Glory to the Lord.' The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say: All the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value. It's a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion."

WHAT???? “…many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist”… NO! The carnal, godless world abuses His Name (and they WILL answer for it some day), but it should NEVER be abused by a Jewish person or any other believer. "Poetic license" is a moot point when it comes to Scripture!

BOTTOM LINE: The “YAH” in “Halleluyah” refers to YHWH. Humanity has NO RIGHT to insert His Name or any part of His Name into some CARNAL song, text or idea!

His Name is HOLY, NOT TO BE PROFANED!!! (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11; Leviticus 18:21, 22:32 and 24:11, 16; Proverbs 30:9, etc.)

Here are the lyrics to what I personally believe is an abomination:

Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah….

Responding to readers who don’t have fellowship and wish to know how to start being Torah observant at home

Every once in a while we receive correspondence from people who are alone and/or don’t have fellowship or a congregation they can attend, who wish to know “how to start becoming Torah observant on their own.

In short, we always suggest these three things:

(1) Start keeping the Seventh Day Holy. Saturday is the Seventh Day on the Gregorian calendar.

(2) Start learning how to keep the Feasts. (We suggest you order a copy of Barney Kasdan's "God's Appointed Times." It's not very expensive, and easy to read.) As to "when" to keep the Feasts, we have a handy-dandy calendar toward the bottom of this page on our website.

(3) Start reading our synopsis of each week's Torah studies on the "Weekly Torah Studies page”. There you will also find the link to our calendar which outlines the Weekly Torah portions for each week. (We also blog every Thursday the pertinent Torah study for the week.)

In the meantime, we would caution you to NOT graze the Internet for at least a year, as you learn the basics from us. The reason we say this is because there are LOTS of false and/or contradictory "teachings" out there, and many are WAY off the mark, pushing many opinions and strange doctrines that will only serve to confuse you.

By doing our studies for one yearly cycle (in which we take you from Genesis through the end of Deuteronomy), you'll have a good enough grasp of Torah and the entire Bible to search other websites and be able to discern Truth from fiction and opinion. (We can't tell you how many people we've seen either return to Christianity or totally reject the New Testament and Yeshua because they grazed the 'net and found teachings that "sounded good" to them, but which totally skewed Truth and served only to confuse and frustrate!)

We will begin a brand new yearly Torah cycle on September 28 where all you have to do is to click on the links we send out via blog on Thursdays, read our brief synopsis for the week and then the entire Torah portion listed on each Weekly Torah study synopsis.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at BiblicalTruth613@TheRefinersFire.org

Responding to some excellent reader comments

READER COMMENTS:

I meditate on Scripture as much as I possibly can. I understand we are created in the image of YHWH (Genesis 1:26). How few recognize this  and yet they wish to be seen as wise and intelligent, never bothering their own faulty ways (why they can't reason or think straight, why they deface their bodies (drinking, smoking, whoring around and fashion statements), etc.). I acknowledge YHWH as Creator, Redeemer and King.

I do believe He created everything in heaven and earth within six days (humans, dinosaurs, planets, stars, the sun and moon). I acknowledge the events in the Bible as real events (Creation, The Fall and Curse, The Flood, Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Exodus) because the rest of the Bible refers to them as real events.

I also believe the coming judgement will be with fire (2 Kepha 3:7). I believe that YHWH helps us expose the faultiness of man-made ways (Buddhism, Islam, Darwinism, Shintoism, etc.).

From viewing your website and blog as well as reading and meditating on Scripture, I've realized there is no difference between church attenders and the rest of the world (Hollywood elite, Athletes, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, etc.). They all have vain practices (Psalm 2, Yirmeyahu 10:1-6).

- Kevin

OUR RESPONSE:

Kevin, GREAT observations!  You truly "get it!"  How I wish more people were like you. (I'm going to post your emails in a blog for all to see and use your name, if you don't mind.  I wish you'd respond on the blog directly sometimes, because the things you say are really good!)

Anyway, everything you wrote is right on.  We cannot dismiss anything in Scripture; no matter how hard some might be to understand.  Most passages can be understood via the "plain meaning" of the text.  The messages - even when parables, metaphors and allegories are used - are straightforward:  Be set apart and don't sin … don't lie, cheat, commit adultery, be a drunk, a murderer, child abuser, whore, whoremonger or homosexual.  Simple.

Reading Scripture requires a lot of common sense.  We must always be vigilant and discerning, constantly consulting the Ruach for help in understanding.

For the harder-to-understand passages, we definitely need to pray and ask the Ruach for help … AND we can also do some research via the acronym sometimes spelled "PaRDeS" which refers to (types of) approaches to biblical exegesis in rabbinic Judaism or to interpretation of text in Torah study. The acronym is formed from the same initials of the following four approaches:

• Pshat (פְּשָׁט) – "surface" ("straight") or the literal (direct) meaning. (In other words, the "plain text meaning.")
• Remez (רֶמֶז) – "hints" or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic) meaning beyond just the literal sense.
• Derash (דְּרַשׁ) – from Hebrew darash: "inquire" ("seek").
• Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in 'alone') – "secret" ("mystery") or the esoteric/mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.  (When Paul spoke of 'mysteries' he was showing us the  Sod level)

Be very careful when using the the PaRDeS method, and employ plenty of common sense.  Don't make the mistake so many others make by trying to discover a "mystical meanings" in every passage, and ending up with some strange interpretations and conclusions.  THINK and consult with other trustworthy brothers and sisters so that your own interpretation doesn't become God's Truth in your mind.

Here's the bottom line:  Even if everything in the Bible consisted of "just stories", those "stories" were clearly designed by The Creator to show us the way to Him.   We can know that it's NOT "just stories" though, because there have been at least 300 prophecies fulfilled; Yeshua has so far fulfilled the first four of the seven mo'edim (Feasts/Festivals/Appointed Times);  among other prophecies ) and world events keep unfolding exactly as outlined in the Books of Daniel and Revelation….

Coincidences?  I'm pretty sure they weren't.

A true story about something that happened during our recent vacation on the West Coast

TRUE STORY: Potty-mouthed teenager slips and falls on her rump right after loudly cussing, just yards away from where Bill and I were doing our weekly Torah study last weekend! Coincidence? You decide!

Yes, this really did happen last weekend when we went hiking near San Francisco. Rather than to hang out in our boring hotel room all day Saturday, we decided to do some hiking in YHWH’s Great Outdoors,

To keep from committing commerce or causing anyone to work on Shabbat (i.e, cooks and waiters), we decided to take along our Bible and our sack lunches. After about 45 minutes of following a grueling trail up the side of a mountain, we found a gorgeous, rocky outcropping near one of the waterfalls, where we sat down to eat and do our Weekly Torah study in the natural beauty surrounding us.

That particular study (Parasha 46) was PERFECT, because in it, we came across this passage that brought tears to our eyes, for it almost seemed as if YHWH was speaking to us!

Deuteronomy 8: 6 So obey the mitzvot of ADONAI your God, living as he directs and fearing him. 7 For ADONAI your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs and water welling up from the depths in valleys and on hillsides. 8 It is a land of wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food in abundance and lack nothing in it; a land where the stones contain iron and the hills can be mined for copper. 10 So you will eat and be satisfied, and you will bless ADONAI your God for the good land he has given you. (CJB)

As always, my husband read the Torah portion aloud to me. This one was fairly short; only about half an hour – and it was PERFECT! But, just as we neared the end of the readings, some hikers - an older woman with two very loud-mouthed teenaged kids decided to check out the same area, just yards away from where we were perched. They stared at us for a few seconds (and could obviously SEE that Bill (aka Liam) was reading the Bible to me), but they chose to ignore us and kept on with their loud bantering.

We figured our study had been brought to an abrupt end when, suddenly, the older teen (a girl of about 17) apparently seeing something up in the trees, shouted, “WHAT THE F----?”

As if on cue, she immediately lost her footing and fell hard onto the rocks - and I mean bone-jarring HARD, because she happened to be a big, heavy gal. At first, she attempted to laugh it off, but then she started crying a bit when she realized she had scraped the palms of her hands pretty badly.

But soon, they were all laughing, and when we realized the girl was okay, Bill resumed the readings because the incident had served to quiet the trio down enough to where I could hear him again.

Unfortunately, “the enemy” had yet another ace up his sleeve, because suddenly four more loud people appeared on the other side of us … AND, to make matters worse - they were all drenched in strong perfumes. (I can’t handle perfumes because they give me instant headaches, swollen sinuses, sore throats and can even kick off asthma).

Needless to say, I was FURIOUS!

Regardless, my hubby was determined to finish the Torah reading in spite of the growing noise around us, so I covered my nose with my jacket, and stuck it out for another couple of minutes … after which, we hurriedly got up and left.

The good news was that YHWH had seen fit to give us a glorious half hour of peace and tranquility in beautiful surroundings where we were able to honor Him without interruption!

What an awesome ELOHIM we serve!

“YHWH has different rules for different children,” and “everybody gets to heaven”–REALLY???

Yesterday, someone calling himself "Heritage Beit Midrash" on Facebook, spent a lot of time arguing for the idea that YHWH supposedly has "different rules for different people" and that "everybody goes to Heaven" - which absolutely goes against Torah (see Exodus 12:49, Numbers 15:13-16, Romans 10:12, etc.).

Thing is, if God had different rules for different people, then the goyim /gentiles who accept YHWH/Yeshua/Torah can continue to basically just "believe in Jesus" and ignore the Seventh Day Sabbath and the Feasts,etc.

As a matter of fact, if goyim only had to follow the four rules outlined in Acts 15 that many have interpreted as being THE law for goyim, then goyim can apparently continue to commit adultery, murder, prostitution or whoremongering, remain alcoholics or drug addicts, and engage in homosexual activity, and whatever else YHWH considers to be "sin"....).

The idea that "EVERYBODY gets to heaven" is absolutely preposterous! If that were so, then WHY does YHWH keep harping on His people being holy/set apart? (Those who accept Him as their ELOHIM are "His people" too; we are ONE in Messiah! - Romans 12:5; Galatians 3:28.)

The things Heritage Beit Midrash claims make absolutely NO sense - and here's the Biblical proof:

Deuteronomy 29:9 Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and obey them; so that you can make everything you do prosper. 10 "Today you are standing, all of you, before Adonai your God - your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers - all the men of Isra'el, 11 along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water.

12 The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of Adonai your God and into his oath which Adonai your God is making with you today, 13 so that he can establish you today for himself as a people, and so that for you he will be God - as he said to you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya`akov. 14 "But I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. 15 Rather, I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and also with him who is not here with us today.

16 For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came directly through the nations you passed through; 17 and you saw their detestable things and their idols of wood, stone, silver and gold that they had with them. 18 So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from ADONAI our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. (ESV)

QUESTION: WHO was standing before Him on Sinai? Not just the 12 tribes, but also the foreigners who had followed Moshe and the Israelites out of Egypt and had been absorbed into the tribes and told to do exactly as HIS people did! (Exodus 12:38, Numbers 15:13-16)

YHWH was making His oath not only with those standing before Him, but with all future generations of those who have accepted Him as their Elohim! (Remember, as believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, YOU are part of Israel - Halleluyah! He made this oath with YOU as well as those standing before Him at Sinai: Obey Him and all will go well with you; disobey and you will be cursed....)

Deuteronomy 29: 19 If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, ‘I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although “dry,” [sinful,] will be added to the “watered” [righteous].’ 20 But ADONAI will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of ADONAI will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. ADONAI will blot out his name from under heaven. (ESV)

It couldn't be any clearer, and YHWH is not kidding around! Since we are in the “end times” as outlined in the Books of Daniel and Revelation, we need to be taking Him VERY seriously and stop beating each other up about what we THINK He said, or twist His Word into what we WISH He had said.

Ecclesiastes 12: 13 Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about. 14 For God will bring to judgment everything we do, including every secret, whether good or bad. [Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his mitzvot; this is what being human is all about.] (ESV)

Why do those who find their way to Torah suddenly decide to reject Yeshua?

I find it sad and quite disturbing that some former Christians who discover their need for Torah will immediately jump to the conclusion that the entire New Testament is a lie, and that they’ve “been lied to and duped” all their life concerning YHWH's Divine Instructions to ALL who have accepted Him as their ELOHIM.

Thing is, it doesn’t seem to dawn on them that it’s their OWN FAULT!

Why? Because they always ignored the plain Truth of Scripture!  Instead, they concentrated on the lie that those first five Books of the Bible pertained "only to the Jews" and that God for some reason broke His covenant with Abraham and turned all His attentions toward the Gentiles, giving them only "10 Commandments" (which they don't realize HANG on Torah and the Prophets [Matthew 22:36-38] where the original explanations are found); along with plenty of “grace and mercy” and a brand new religion that required absolutely nothing of them but to “believe in Jesus.”

Even the passages that tell us we are "one in Messiah" don't seem to jump out at them.  (Romans 12:5;Galatians 3:26-28; 1 Timothy 2:5). 

My goodness - rational people should immediately recognize that if we are indeed ONE in Messiah, that would mean "same God, same rules!"  After all, Messiah taught TORAH!  When a couple marries, they share the same house, same values, and work toward the same goals. If they don't, they won't make it.  So, why would our Creator have different rules for different people?  It makes no sense!

But that is where Christianity veers from YHWH's Truth, taking a "left turn" somewhere along the line by coming to the conclusion that Torah doesn't pertain to Gentiles.  (They don't even seem to recognize that, once they have accepted the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are no longer considered "gentiles", rather, they are "Hebrews" - a Hebrew word that means "to cross over," as Abraham did in Genesis 12, both spiritually as well as physically into the Land God commanded him to go to)....

It's incomprehensible that it never occurs to some (probably MOST) who discover Torah, that the truth has ALWAYS been right there in their Bibles – no matter what “version” they read at the time. ALL they had to do was to take the time to READ every word, from GENESIS to REVELATION, to see the beautiful progression of YHWH’s Word unfolding in sequence.

Instead, they immediately jump from one side of the pendulum to the other, never realizing they’re operating on OPINION instead of Scripture.

How sad, pathetic and disturbing.

Misguided Teachings of Christianity

In July 2012, I wrote this response to an article by a “Pastor Smith”. Unfortunately, I did not record the article I was referring to – which I regret.  Nevertheless, what I wrote is still sound today.  I thank my FaceBook friend Candido Torres for reminding me of the article:

Folks, Pastor Smith's article is 100% wrong. He has misquoted and misunderstood Galatians (as most seem to do.) For those of you who think "Jesus" somehow mysteriously negated the Torah (most of you incorrectly call the "Law of Moses"), then you don't understand "Jesus" either. He did not come to do away with the Torah. He said so! (Matthew 5:17). When He was here in the flesh, what do you think He taught from? The "New Testament"? Think again! He taught ONLY Torah!

And what do you all think the "Good News" is? That "Jesus dies for our sins"? No! The Messiah said: "I must announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the other towns too -- this is why I was sent." (Luke 4:43). So it seems we need to know what the "Good News" is! And this is easy because He also told us that! "Just as you gave him authority over all mankind, so that he might give eternal life to all those whom you have given him. And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah." (John 17:2-3).

So there it is! The "Good News" is that the Messiah came to give us eternal life. Now you should ask "How do I get eternal life?" Well, He told us that too! Look at John 17:3, above: "And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah." So eternal life is KNOWING God, and the Messiah. Now you know, the Good News is that Jesus came to give us eternal life, and that to get eternal life we must "know God". Uh oh. How do we "know God"?

Well, we are told that too! "The way we can be sure we know him is if we are obeying his commands. Anyone who says, "I know him," but isn't obeying his commands is a liar - the truth is not in him. But if someone keeps doing what he says, then truly love for God has been brought to its goal in him. This is how we are sure that we are united with him. A person who claims to be continuing in union with him ought to conduct his life the way he did. " (1 John 2:3-6).

Still not convinced? Don't you believe the very words of the Messiah? He said: "Why are you asking me about good? There is One who is good! But if you want to obtain eternal life, observe the mitzvot." (Matthew 19:17) Even after reading this, most of you will turn back to Paul, and misquote him (again) into saying Torah was negated. Well, the Messiah also talked about you too: "Go in through the narrow gate; for the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the road broad, and many travel it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13).

You see Jesus conducted His life by Torah, taught from, and obeyed Torah - and so should we. We are not "justifying" ourselves by Torah! No! We are simply being obedient. This is all God asks of us – obedience. (It's true, you'd know this if you read the WHOLE Bible and not just the "NT".)

And please don't try to say "But we are under grace!" We've ALWAYS been under grace. It's by grace that God doesn't zap you into oblivion for your willful disobedience to His rules for living.

Christianity has made Torah somehow evil, something to be shunned. Sad. How can our Creator's rules for living be seen as "evil", and we spend all our time trying to avoid His rules instead of embracing them?

"I am giving you good advice; don't forsake my Torah." (Proverbs 4:2).

Ready for what really matters? YHWH/Yeshua/Torah!

Have you ever noticed that there are many seemingly unhappy or depressed people asking for prayer and/or direction? Of course, seeking prayer is a GREAT place to start if you're experiencing emotional pain! However, we must remember this: While ADONAI certainly hears the prayers of HIS Torah observant people (Proverbs 28:9), He does expect us to become proactive in our own life by asking ourselves whether or not we're on His Path.

I mean, if we're doing something harmful and "un-Torah-like," can we realistically expect Him to "just fix" our situation? If we somehow got ourselves deeply into debt because we weren't good stewards of our earnings, is it right to ask Him to guilt others into giving us money?

If we continuously abuse our bodies (His temples!) in some way (food, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity) and are suffering some major health problems because of it - we cannot expect Him to "just heal us" or somehow magically provide the money to pay for a lung or liver transplant, right? If He does that, what lessons have we really learned? Aren't we supposed to be good stewards of everything that is His? (Genesis 2:15; 1 Corinthians 4:2 and 6:20; Colossians 3:23; Titus 1:7-9; Matthew 25:20-21; Romans 12:1; 2 Timothy 2:15, etc.)

Of course, He CAN “just heal” us or grant us mercy when we're in need, if He chooses; but what I'm trying to get across is that WE must learn to become responsible Kingdom citizens and good stewards of what He has given us, doing everything in our power to live according to HIS Divine Instructions so that we can remain as healthy as possible in this fallen world where bad things happen, and not just call on Him when we're down and out.

WE are to "take that proverbial bull by the horns" through HEARING, OBEYING and DOING; and to help each other in times of need, teaching each other what to do in order to become "lights” - good, holy, RESPONSIBLE citizens for the rest of the world to see.... (See James 1:19-27.)

YHWH is not an ELOHIM of “convenience”. Throughout Torah, He reminds His people to obey “and all will go well with you.” He gave humans everything they needed to survive on earth, yet many spend their life desecrating their bodies and their environment, never really allowing the Word (specifically Torah) and the Ruach (Holy Spirit) to be their guide; and, consequently, never realizing that we humans are our own worst enemies.

Proverbs 28:9 If a person will not listen to Torah, even his prayer is an abomination. (CJB)

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or don't you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom you received from God? The fact is, you don't belong to yourselves; 20 for you were bought at a price. So use your bodies to glorify God. (CJB)

1 Corinthians 3:12 Some will use gold, silver or precious stones in building on this foundation; while others will use wood, grass or straw. 13 But each one's work will be shown for what it is; the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire - the fire will test the quality of each one's work.

14 If the work someone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward; 15 if it is burned up, he will have to bear the loss: he will still escape with his life, but it will be like escaping through a fire. 16 Don't you know that you people are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17 So if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you yourselves are that temple. (CJB)

A personal testimony

Mishpocah, I must share a personal testimony with you that directly concerns one of the passages in this week’s Torah portion – something ADONAI did in my life back in the Fall of 1996, approximately a year and a half after I “got saved” in a little Baptist church in Missouri. The passage was this:

Deuteronomy 1:5 There, beyond the Yarden, in the land of Mo'av, Moshe took it upon himself to expound this Torah and said: 6 "ADONAI spoke to us in Horev. He said, 'You have lived long enough by this mountain”…. (CJB)

The reason I mention this passage is because this is the same passage He used to get me to move to Colorado Springs from Seymour, Missouri way back in 1996! You see, approximately a year after the Ruach got a hold of me at the ripe ol’ age of 44, I started “hearing” God’s voice telling me to “move to Colorado Springs!” For at least six months, that phrase was the first thought in my head every morning and my last thought before falling asleep every night.

While I was sure it was the Ruach’s prompting, I couldn’t believe that God would tell me to move to Colorado Springs, because that was the place where my adoptive father (my mother’s new husband who brought us to the US from Germany) started seriously sexually abusing me when I was only 10 years old … and I do mean SERIOUSLY … whenever he got the chance - since my mother worked as a waitress during the evening hours.

Regardless, I kept feeling the Ruach nudging me (very insistently) to move to Colorado Springs. Oh my gosh, it was NERVE WRACKING and I honestly thought I might be cracking up, because I could NOT get it out of my head! Of course, I did my level best to ignore that “voice”; however, one day, while doing my daily Bible studies (reading my way though the Bible for the first time in my life), I “happened upon” a passage that “jumped out at me” as if it had been written just for me!

That passage was the one I mentioned above. 'You have lived long enough by this mountain…MOVE to Colorado Springs!”

I was stunned and frankly, quite angry, because I knew He KNEW what had happened to me in Colorado Springs. I remember myself at 10 years old BEGGING Him to stop my father, but He never did. How dare He do this to me, now? WHY would He want to?

HOW COULD HE DO THIS TO ME?

Well, okay, by that time I had learned enough about God and the Bible to understand that when God speaks, you DO – whether you like it, or not. There were plenty of examples in Scripture.

Still, I was truly upset and so, gripped by anger, I raised my eyes upward and yelled out loud: “Okay, FINE! I’ll move to Colorado Springs! I’ll stay for a year, but if I don’t like there, I’m moving back HERE because that’s where all my friends are!”

And so I did. I sold all my possessions, put my house up for sale, and moved to Colorado Springs, not knowing what lay ahead.

Well, all that seemed to lay ahead was a year of total disappointment, loneliness, Bible studies, trying to find a “good Baptist church” like my pastor demanded, cleaning houses to make ends meet, and working as a part-time receptionist until I could land a job in my career field of journalism. The cost of living in Colorado is much higher than in Missouri, and I could not long survive solely on my military retirement.

Time went on, people weren’t all that friendly here, and I couldn’t seem to make any new friends, and so, by the end of that first year , I was still cleaning houses and working as a receptionist. I had found a “good Baptist church,” but kept feeling “something very important was missing in the church” – but in those days, I had no clue what it might be. (YHWH didn’t reveal Torah to me until approximately six months later.) I wasn’t happy with ANYTHING.

And so, one Sunday, while crying in my car after church, I again became angry and yelled at God to let Him know I was DONE with this and going back home to Missouri. “I’ve done as you asked, and NOTHING has happened here after a whole, entire YEAR, so I obviously didn’t hear You correctly!” I yelled. “So, tomorrow morning, I plan on packing and moving back to Missouri, because I can’t do this anymore!”

Well, amazingly, on Monday morning, I got a call from the owner of the Colorado Springs Business Journal, informing me I had been selected to become their Associate Editor, effective immediately….

Hmmm. Okay. So, I stayed.

While I was still a new believer (a total of two and a half years at the time), I was smart enough to realize that YHWH had a sense of humor and He had taught me a great lesson: TRUST HIM and don’t ever test or try to make deals with Him when He is clearly trying to DO something in your life! (Remember, I had told Him I would move to Colorado Springs “for a year” and if I didn’t like it, I was going to return to Missouri….

Well, He had let me make my “deal” and allowed me to wait exactly a year before FINALLY revealing His grand plan for me! All my whining and fretting and sweating and getting nothing much accomplished (except to finish the year-long Bible study that my pastor had given me before I left Missouri) had been for naught. I could have saved myself a whole lot of trouble by simply TRUSTING Him to do what needed to be done for HIS Glory.

Believe me, that is exactly what I’ve done, ever since – and my life has been full of blessings, ever since!

A word about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Tweet about Ivanka Trump: "Being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification."

Well, newsflash, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez: Being a former waitress and bartender doesn’t actually qualify YOU to be a member of Congress, yet there you are!

Now, it’s no secret that I’m no Trump fan – but the man IS our President and it’s his prerogative to hire whomever he wishes to be his advisers. In this case, he’s appointed his daughter Ivanka.

Say what you will about Ivanka, but she is also a fourth generation business woman who followed in the footsteps of her great-grandparents, serving for a time as an executive vice president of the family-owned Trump Organization. She was also a boardroom judge on her father's TV show The Apprentice.

Unlike many couch-potato Americans who are busy pointing fingers and making fun of Ivanka, she has been WORKING for a living. A fashion designer, author, and reality television personality, she is also married to Jared Kushner, who is an American investor, real-estate developer, and newspaper publisher who is currently senior advisor to his father-in-law, Donald Trump, the President of the United States.

As for the illustrious Ocasio-Cortez (who is busy trashing both Ivanka and her father in a clear attempt to build herself up), she majored in international relations and economics at Boston University, graduating in 2011. Afterward, she worked as a waitress and bartender before running for Congress in 2018. To her credit, she also served as an educational director for the five-day-long 2017 Northeast Collegiate World Series for the National Hispanic Institute (Source: Wikipedia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)

NONE of those things serve as actual qualifications for her lofty goals. Not one.

So, my advice to AOC is: By all means, reach whatever goals you can, but at least have the decency to stop trashing others on your way up.

Just because New York was liberal and dumb enough to elect you to Congress, doesn’t mean you are actually QUALIFIED to be there. Judging by many of the things YOU’VE said, you definitely aren’t

Some thoughts about Matthew 10:5-6

There is so much to learn in just this one tiny little passage!

Matthew 10:5. Y’shua sent these twelve and commanded them and said, Do not go by the way of the heathen, and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans. 6. But you go, rather, to the sheep that are lost from the house of Israel. (AENT)

Many insist that the House of Israel consists only of the "lost tribes" of Israel and that Torah was "only for the Jews" and NOT for the Gentiles. NOTHING could be further from the Truth!

First of all, there weren’t any “Hebrews” or “Israelites/Jews” before the patriarch Jacob had his children. As a result, the first 20 generations of the human race were simply people called to righteous behavior by YHWH with no ethnic identity attached to them at all.

In the meantime, ALL who accepted YHWH as their ELOHIM were obligated to obey His commands. (See Exodus 12:49 and Numbers 15:13-16.)

Therefore, after Torah was formally given at Mt. Sinai to ALL who stood before YHWH (including the pagans who had followed Moshe out of Egypt), we are left with little doubt that AFTERWARD the “light” of Mashiyach was to be presented to the “Goyim” (nations or Gentiles) by way of the Jewish nation.

Mashiyach Y’shua himself did not go to the “Gentiles”; therefore, it is imperative for non-Jewish people to comprehend the roots and origin of Mashiyach and the Renewed Covenant according to Torah and the original Hebrew and Aramaic languages.

The footnote to the verse above in the Aramaic English New Testament says that Matthew 10:6 (and 15:24) links to Psalms 119:176 and Jeremiah 50:6 via the hermeneutic rule Gezerah Shavah (Equivalence of Expressions). The Hebrew “sey” (sheep) and “abad” (lost) are common terms, abad (lost) means perished or destroyed, rather than “geographically” lost.

Since YHWH’s people have been led astray by false shepherds through disobedience to His Covenant, their relationship with Him has been destroyed in much the same way that Adam and Eve lost their chance at immortality by following the deception of the serpent.

Counterfeit theologies can easily displace the truth if a person does not access the words of Y’shua in their original context.

Shabbat study for July 6, 2019: Parashah 44: D'varim (Words) Deuteronomy 1:1 through 3:22

For those who wish to get started on this week’s Torah portion, check out our synopsis of Parashah 44: D'varim (Words); Deuteronomy 1:1 through 3:22.

Deuteronomy - or D'varim (pronounced "De-var-eem" in Hebrew) is the plural form of the word "d'var," which means, "word." This Torah portion actually serves as a recap of the major events in the lives of the Hebrews who were rescued from Egypt.

To get started, imply click on the link above to read our synopsis, and then read all of the Torah, Haftarah and Brit Chadasha portions outlined in our article.