Here’s what we can do about it.
The Chief’s Parade Shooting was the Result of a Dispute
Tag: repentance
Enter the Kingdom of God While the Gates are Still Open!
What signs should really warn us of the return of the Messiah and the end of the age? Can mankind reverse the decline we are on and how would that be achieved? Is it still possible to repent and join the family of God? Click here to find out!
Needing Saved
The long road back.
It’s Not Too Late
What can a prostitute teach us about the Kingdom of God?
Audio only below
What can a prostitute teach us about the Kingdom of God?
If you’re just picking up a bible for the first time or you are just now considering Christianity, you might wonder why to follow a Messianic ministry instead of mainstream Christianity or some other faith. Well, there are many answers to why and I’m going to give you three easy ones. The first is a question: Where do you want to spend eternity? Saving our own hides is not a bad motivator for deciding to learn the truth. Christianity has a lot of fanciful notions about the afterlife and how to get there, but if you follow this ministry, you will get a much better understanding of the events that are coming, what you are supposed to be doing, and what that afterlife really looks like. Hint, it’s not floating around on clouds.
The second is another question: How is your life now? Are you at peace with your neighbors? Do you have anxiety about the future? Are you stressed? Are you questioning how to respond to situations that make you uncomfortable in this fallen world? The bible defines morality. It establishes boundaries and lets us know how to love God and how to love our neighbor. A great many of the values our society used to hold dear, values our country has strayed from, come straight from the Bible. The concept of having a justice system that treats everyone the same regardless of status or wealth is from the Torah, for instance. The concept of building safe buildings is from the Torah. The concepts of manslaughter and how to make people whole after an injury are also from the Torah. These are the more subtle things. The definition of marriage and sexual sins are also defined in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, which are things our nation needs badly today. The Bible also speaks of running our houses well, financially, and otherwise. If we follow these and other tenets of the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, we will have a better and more peaceful life today.
The third point I want to hit on is dealing with our own sins and shortcomings. Of course, everybody wants to make it into the afterlife and have a good life today. But how do you deal with the day-to-day ups and downs? How do you make it right when you offend or do someone wrong? And how do you deal with the guilt for the problems you have created with bad behavior, which the Bible calls sin? When you accept Yeshua as the Messiah, Jesus as the Christ, you realize that He bore our iniquities. He absorbed them, yes even in advance. He provides a way out of the depression and guilt we incur for being the fallen humans that we are.
This brings me to why we study the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The theme of redemption is not established in the New Testament, it’s displayed in the New Testament through the sacrifice of Yeshua. Redemption, forgiveness, and having a way out of the messes we’ve created begins in Genesis at the fall where Yahweh makes garments to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. Then these things are built upon throughout the Old Testament, culminating in the ultimate sacrifice Yeshua, the Son of God, whose death pays the penalty for the sins of all who accept Him as the Messiah.
A great example of the Gospel in the Old Testament in Joshua 2 where the Israelites send spies to the land of Canaan before the invasion. These guys do their spying and end up hiding out at a prostitute’s house who lives on the wall in Jericho. The Israelites were to destroy everything and everyone when they invaded Canaan. Some find this to be problematic, but these people were destroyed because of their sins and their sinful culture. Jericho was an enormous walled city that was scheduled to be destroyed. Rahab is the name of this prostitute who hides the spies. This is the beginning of the Gospel story because she decides to welcome the children of God and she makes a choice to ally with them. She says that she’s heard of the mighty deeds of Yahweh and knows He is the real God. She makes the spies swear to spare her and her family at the invasion, which they do, and the family is saved miraculously.
The word gospel means “The Good News” and, by extension, The Good News of the Kingdom of God. Israel was coming into Canaan to establish the Kingdom of God. Rahab realizes this and wants in. She allies with the people of God and is miraculously saved in the turmoil.
Rahab wants to save her family from the tribulation as well. Don’t we all want to save our family from the wrath to come? And there’s something else, she likely doesn’t want to be a harlot anymore. She wants to leave that life behind. The destruction of her world provides for that. She lived on the wall, which hints that she didn’t actually want to be there. It hints at her yearning for a new life, looking for a way out. Somebody who wants to be in that city lives in the middle of it, but she lives on the edge.
This is the same as us. We have to live in this fallen world but we don’t have to like it. We yearn to be in a peaceful and righteous world. And we long to leave our sins and bad pasts behind.
How long do you think it was between Rahab helping the spies and her redemption? From Jericho to the Jordan river is about 10 miles, not that far. But for two million people, it probably took a couple weeks to get there. They had to cross the Jordan, circumcise themselves, recover, and keep Passover. So it took a little bit of time. Rahab had to trust the spies to keep their word. She had to watch as Israel’s huge army march right up to Jericho and then march in a circle for 6 days. Was she scared? Probably. Did she worry about the spies keeping their bargain? Probably. But this is analogous to faith, which is unseen. We have to have faith that Yeshua died for our sins and is holding up His end of the bargain. As the world gets crazier, more violent, and more sinful, we have to be strong in our faith that we, too, will be saved in the midst of the chaos. We also know our world is ultimately going to be destroyed and we will need to keep our faith until the end, through tribulation the world has never seen. And everybody in Jericho was destroyed except a sinner and her family, saved in the storm.
You see, the Kingdom of God is coming. If you want to be in it, it’s not too late. But it will be at some point. Don’t put it off. And if you want to have a more peaceful life with a strong sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, then read your Bible from cover to cover. And then join us as we wait patiently for the return of the Messiah, who is bringing the Kingdom of God, where we will experience true peace. Would you like to know something else that’s very interesting? Rahab the harlot is in the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah. In Joshua 6 at verse 25, it says that Rahab and her family remained in Israel “to this day” after they were saved. They joined the family of God, just like we do when we are baptized. And with her being in Yeshua’s line, that means not only can we relate to Rahab, we are related to her, too.
First Things First
Let’s leave the past in the past and receive those who repent as the first century believers did, as if they have been here all along.
Video with slides via Rumble below.
Audio only via Spotify below.
Let’s leave the past in the past and receive those who repent as the first century believers did, as if they have been here all along.
Jan 1 isn’t really the new year. In the Torah, the beginning of months is in the springtime, not the dead of winter. But we do live in Babylon and we will be writing the year “2023” on our checks and documents starting today. It’s unfortunate that times and law have been changed, but it is all in Yahweh’s plan to bring us to the ideal. It’s just that we are so far from the ideal today.
What shall we leave behind in 2022? What shall we focus on in 2023? These things tend to run together. Overeating or eating the wrong stuff, lack of exercise, not studying the WORD enough, all these things make the list. We will be examining ourselves in the spring so we don’t observe Pesach in an unworthy manner and we will be doing heavy repentance in the Fall for Yom Kippur, but we should always be in a state of spiritual examination and growth. We should always be putting first things first, but sometimes it’s good to remind on the very basic things.
2022 was another year of intense division here in the US. Social media divisions, political divisions, travel nightmares, economic challenges – these things put the most patient of us to the test. Discovering that most of our fears were true about social media and the government colluding to manipulate our thoughts and speech is incredibly alarming. How do we navigate all these things and not just get furious? More importantly, how do we reconcile and move forward?
Slide 2 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Messiah—this Yeshua whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Ruach ha Kodesh. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Act 2:36-39)
Brothers and sisters, we have to return to the basics if we’re going to move forward. If society has any hope of returning to civility, we’re going to have to be able to forgive and forget. The past three years have been intense with division, fear, and all manner of corruption increasing. But as people repent and realize the errors of their ways, we have to accept them back and be kind. Peter’s message was to the very people who murdered Yeshua and once they realized their sin, they asked Peter what to do. Peter did not execute judgment, but received their repentant attitudes and told them to give their lives to Yeshua the Messiah through baptism. That through this they would receive forgiveness from Yahweh and Yeshua and be granted the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Ruach ha Kodesh. And this was not a one-time thing. Oh no.
Slide 3 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. (1Co 15:9-11)
In Acts 7, Paul was the one who held the coats of those who stoned Stephen. He went on to persecute all the first century believers, hunting them down. He locked them up from house to house. In Acts 9 it even mentions murder with Paul’s ravaging of the church of God. But Ananias was giving a message by the risen Yeshua to accept Paul so Paul could become the evangelist to the nations.
This message of repentance and subsequent reconciliation is central to the faith once delivered. We can also see that Yahweh uses chaotic situations in order to bring His chosen ones through the fire. Things keep getting worse and worse in our society but people are starting to realize their mistakes. We need to receive them as if we were receiving Paul when they turn to Yahweh and His Son. This form of reconciliation has been foundational to American life up until recently. We ultimately ended up the greatest of allies with Great Britain after the revolution. The southern states regained their statehood and rights after the civil war. We are now also the greatest of allies after severe war with Japan. The list goes on and on. That was only possible because we were a Christian nation. After other nations defeat their enemies, they destroy them utterly so that their memory isn’t even recorded. But that’s not how followers of Yeshua conduct ourselves in a grand or a small scale. We are to receive people who have repented as if they had been here all along, with the same mercy and love that Yahweh and Yeshua have shown us.
For 2023, brothers and sisters, let’s pray for more people to realize the ways of the world are not going to be profitable. As more and more repent, let’s put first things first and follow the example of the first century believers. For it is Yahweh’s desire that all come to repentance, is it not?