As some may already be aware, I've been out of work since November (my old employer having been bought out by a Salt Lake City-based company). This is not a rant against the company, which treated me very fairly, and the severance, combined with my savings and unemployment, has kept me in rent, food, and gas as long as I was careful with my funds.
A little over two months ago, I interviewed for a technical writer contract with a small, start-up company. The interview went very well, but much to my discouragement, the owner of the company chose to sit on the project that I was bidding for. I went on to make other contacts and bid for other jobs, but while I had some good interviews which may yield contracts in the future, none of them came to fruition, increasing my discouragement.
As we came up on Passover, I felt the Spirit telling me that I would get the contract I wanted, but that it would not be until after my debate with Don so that I would have the time to help out with Passover and prepare for and go to the debate.
Yesterday, just ten days after getting back from Memphis, I got the email saying that the job was mine. It'll be a couple of weeks before I start--which will pretty much coincide with the end of my unemployment.
"Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose" (Rom. 8:28). What Sha'ul doesn't point out here is that not only does ADONAI work everything out for our good, but He does it with just the right timing to a) demonstrate that He really is in control, and b) teach us to trust Him. If I had landed the contract two months ago, not only would it have made it very difficult to see to my ministerial duties during a particularly busy time, but I wouldn't have been able to see God's hand so clearly in my getting it.
Shalom!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Times of Refreshing
We're rapidly coming up on Shavuot (Pentecost), the Feast of Weeks. For anyone in the eastern Metro Atlanta area, Beth HaMashiach will be celebrating Shavuot with a cookout at Brisco Park on Wednesday, May 23, from 4-8pm.
We Messianics are often accused of legalism or putting ourselves "under the law" when we observe G-d's Appointed Times. On the contrary, such times are the epitome of G-d's grace, not only offering us relaxation and refreshment (as I said to Pat Donahue during our debate, I don't need to be saved from having more holidays), but tell us in detail G-d's plan of salvation. In Passover, we celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb; in Matzah, the removal of sin; in Firstfruits, the Resurrection of Yeshua as the Firstfruits of the Dead (1 Co. 15:20). Shavuot celebrates both the giving of the Torah on tablets of stone from Mt. Sinai and the giving of the Torah on our hearts by the Spirit in the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34--I'll do a more detailed write-up closer to the event).
I spend a lot of time emphasizing G-d's grace in my ministry. That surprises a lot of people, who assume (erroneously) that Grace is incompatible with Torah. But the simple fact is that if we lose sight of G-d's wondrous and incomparable grace, these times of refreshing that the Eternal has given for our blessing (cf. Mark 2:27) become instead a burden to us, something that we have to do rather than something that we look forward to get to do.
Shalom!
We Messianics are often accused of legalism or putting ourselves "under the law" when we observe G-d's Appointed Times. On the contrary, such times are the epitome of G-d's grace, not only offering us relaxation and refreshment (as I said to Pat Donahue during our debate, I don't need to be saved from having more holidays), but tell us in detail G-d's plan of salvation. In Passover, we celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb; in Matzah, the removal of sin; in Firstfruits, the Resurrection of Yeshua as the Firstfruits of the Dead (1 Co. 15:20). Shavuot celebrates both the giving of the Torah on tablets of stone from Mt. Sinai and the giving of the Torah on our hearts by the Spirit in the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34--I'll do a more detailed write-up closer to the event).
I spend a lot of time emphasizing G-d's grace in my ministry. That surprises a lot of people, who assume (erroneously) that Grace is incompatible with Torah. But the simple fact is that if we lose sight of G-d's wondrous and incomparable grace, these times of refreshing that the Eternal has given for our blessing (cf. Mark 2:27) become instead a burden to us, something that we have to do rather than something that we look forward to get to do.
Shalom!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
New Debate
A couple of weeks after my debate with Pat Donahue (which, at the time of this writing, I've still not had a chance to edit the .mp3s for this website, for which I apologize; I'll put them up soon), I received an email from Pat introducing me to a friend of his who was interested in doing an online debate. Myles Davis and I have since exchanged numerous emails and phone calls, and I can say with all candor that he is a young man who is truly sold out to the L-RD, very well read, and a delight to converse with.
The debate, for those who are interested, can be found here.
Shalom!
The debate, for those who are interested, can be found here.
Shalom!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Website Updates & Thoughts On Passover
I know the Hebrew Root website hasn't exactly looked up-to-snuff lately, and everyone has my apologies for that. I took a good chunk of it down--broke it, really--while experimenting and deciding which direction to take the site in. I've now restored most of the links and functionality, and should have some new articles ready in the next few days.
This last weekend, Rabbi Gavri'el took me and some others to do a Passover Seder in Bremmon, GA (near the AL border). The Seder went very well, and our hosts were very gracious and welcoming.
I feel like we're in a time very much like that of King Josiah. In 2 Kings 22-23, we read how Hilkiah the High Priest discovered a long-lost treasure in the Temple of ADONAI: The scroll of the Torah. He presented the Torah to the king, who mourned, then sought a prophet (who told him that G-d would delay the time of judgment until after his reign). He then rededicated the realm to ADONAI and lead the whole nation together in keeping the Passover--something which had not been done since the time of the Judges, centuries before.
In the same way, the Ekklesia is rediscovering the Torah in the Temple of our fellowship. We are mourning and repenting from our past sin, particularly against our Jewish brothers and sisters. And now we see so many Christians from all denominations hungry to celebrate the Passover once again after so many centuries of absence. We pray that G-d hears our prayers and sends a time of refreshing, just as He did for Josiah.
Shalom!
This last weekend, Rabbi Gavri'el took me and some others to do a Passover Seder in Bremmon, GA (near the AL border). The Seder went very well, and our hosts were very gracious and welcoming.
I feel like we're in a time very much like that of King Josiah. In 2 Kings 22-23, we read how Hilkiah the High Priest discovered a long-lost treasure in the Temple of ADONAI: The scroll of the Torah. He presented the Torah to the king, who mourned, then sought a prophet (who told him that G-d would delay the time of judgment until after his reign). He then rededicated the realm to ADONAI and lead the whole nation together in keeping the Passover--something which had not been done since the time of the Judges, centuries before.
In the same way, the Ekklesia is rediscovering the Torah in the Temple of our fellowship. We are mourning and repenting from our past sin, particularly against our Jewish brothers and sisters. And now we see so many Christians from all denominations hungry to celebrate the Passover once again after so many centuries of absence. We pray that G-d hears our prayers and sends a time of refreshing, just as He did for Josiah.
Shalom!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Passover
Passover is coming up again. It's a time to remember how God has redeemed us by the blood of the Lamb, first from slavery to Egypt, and then from slavery to the world and sin. It is a time to partake of our Lord, to eat Him symbolically in the form of the lamb, the bread, and the wine, to act out taking Him into us physically to demonstrate the spiritual reality.
In most of the Christian world, the day to celebrate our Lord's sacrifice, Good Friday, is scarcely noted, all the attention being on Easter. For those of us who are Messianic, while we also observe the true Resurrection Day, the Feast of Firstfruits, Passover is the main event, as it were. It is the ultimate Lord's Supper, containing not only the bread and the wine, but every element that the talmidim (disicples) would have had at their Last Seder: The bitter herbs (which Judas "outed" himself when dipping into; Mat. 26:23), the haroset (a sweet mixture of apple, herbs, and wine which resembles the mortar the Hebrews used to make bricks), the Lamb, etc.
There are a few questions that those not in the Messianic movement often ask. For example, "Can you find any evidence in the New Testament that the Christians kept the Passover?" You mean besides the Last Seder? Indeed, I can. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Sha'ul writes,
The second question frequently asked is, "Don't you have to be circumcised to observe Passover?" Indeed you do (Exo. 12:48). However, the issue of circumcision is more than just a matter of a cutting of the flesh. By the 1st Century CE, it was an entire rabbinic ceremony by which a Gentile ceased to be a Greek, a Roman, etc., and became a full Jew, expected to keep all of the Torah and the Jewish traditions. It was believed that only the circumcised Jews could be saved (see Acts 15:1), basically excluding Gentiles from God's Kingdom. Now note that in Exodus 12:48, it does not say that the foreigner becomes a Jew when he is circumcised, nor does the ritual act make him a citizen of Israel. When the Apostles discouraged physical circumcision in favor of spiritual circumcision, they were dealing with a rabbinical tradition that committed the sin of adding to the Torah (cf. Deu. 12:32) and of Gentile exclusion.
It is wholly necessary for anyone celebrating God's deliverance of His people to be numbered among and fully identified with those people. However, in Col. 2:11, we are told that we are indeed circumcised spiritually ("without hands") when we trust in the Messiah, whether we are Jew ("circumcised" physically) or Gentile ("uncircumcised"). Therefore we are grafted in to Israel (Rom. 11), adopted into the family of Abraham (Rom. 4:11f, Gal. 3:29), whether or not we have been circumcised under the extra-Biblical ceremony that the non-believing Jewish rabbis and community would recognize.
Besides, if Sha'ul told the Corinthians, a mixed congregation (ch. 7-9) to keep the Passover, it must be appropriate for all believers to observe it. Any other decision would re-erect the wall of separation (Eph. 2:14) that Messiah came to break down.
And finally, the question arises whether it is appropriate to have lamb, when the Temple has been destroyed these last 2000 years (cf. Deu. 16:2). Many Messianic Jews do forgo lamb and substitute another meat in accordance with Jewish tradition and their own understanding about the requirement to have the lamb only in Jerusalem. That's fine, and it's possible that they are right. Now, it is correct that the proper Passover sacrifice, like all sacrifices (Deu. 12), must be offered only in Jerusalem at the Temple. However, as Christian commentators have so often observed, our proper sacrifice has already been offered in the proper place.
Therefore, to us, the Passover is no longer a proper sacrifice, but a memorial: "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19). Note that Yeshua does not repeat that formula for the wine, and yet every Christian considers it to include the wine in the Lord's Supper. Messianics understand it it include the whole of the Passover Seder as well, and at Beth HaMashiach, we believe it to include the lamb as well.
To those readers who have never experienced the joy of having the Passover Seder, I greatly encourage you to do so. It was one of the three life-changing events that led me to becoming Messianic, for truly, every single element speaks of our Lord.
Shalom!
In most of the Christian world, the day to celebrate our Lord's sacrifice, Good Friday, is scarcely noted, all the attention being on Easter. For those of us who are Messianic, while we also observe the true Resurrection Day, the Feast of Firstfruits, Passover is the main event, as it were. It is the ultimate Lord's Supper, containing not only the bread and the wine, but every element that the talmidim (disicples) would have had at their Last Seder: The bitter herbs (which Judas "outed" himself when dipping into; Mat. 26:23), the haroset (a sweet mixture of apple, herbs, and wine which resembles the mortar the Hebrews used to make bricks), the Lamb, etc.
There are a few questions that those not in the Messianic movement often ask. For example, "Can you find any evidence in the New Testament that the Christians kept the Passover?" You mean besides the Last Seder? Indeed, I can. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Sha'ul writes,
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know the saying, "It takes only a little hametz (leaven) to leaven a whole batch of dough?" Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah of purity and truth. (1 Co. 5:6-8, CJB)One might argue, "Ah, but Paul meant that we should keep the Passover in a spiritual sense." I agree, we should keep it in a spiritual sense, just as we keep the Lord's Supper in a spiritual sense--but that doesn't mean that we forego keeping it physically as well. Every ritual in the Scripture is designed to let us "act out" something spiritual physically, so that full participation in God's blessings would not be limited to intellectuals and mystics, but be available to everyone.
The second question frequently asked is, "Don't you have to be circumcised to observe Passover?" Indeed you do (Exo. 12:48). However, the issue of circumcision is more than just a matter of a cutting of the flesh. By the 1st Century CE, it was an entire rabbinic ceremony by which a Gentile ceased to be a Greek, a Roman, etc., and became a full Jew, expected to keep all of the Torah and the Jewish traditions. It was believed that only the circumcised Jews could be saved (see Acts 15:1), basically excluding Gentiles from God's Kingdom. Now note that in Exodus 12:48, it does not say that the foreigner becomes a Jew when he is circumcised, nor does the ritual act make him a citizen of Israel. When the Apostles discouraged physical circumcision in favor of spiritual circumcision, they were dealing with a rabbinical tradition that committed the sin of adding to the Torah (cf. Deu. 12:32) and of Gentile exclusion.
It is wholly necessary for anyone celebrating God's deliverance of His people to be numbered among and fully identified with those people. However, in Col. 2:11, we are told that we are indeed circumcised spiritually ("without hands") when we trust in the Messiah, whether we are Jew ("circumcised" physically) or Gentile ("uncircumcised"). Therefore we are grafted in to Israel (Rom. 11), adopted into the family of Abraham (Rom. 4:11f, Gal. 3:29), whether or not we have been circumcised under the extra-Biblical ceremony that the non-believing Jewish rabbis and community would recognize.
Besides, if Sha'ul told the Corinthians, a mixed congregation (ch. 7-9) to keep the Passover, it must be appropriate for all believers to observe it. Any other decision would re-erect the wall of separation (Eph. 2:14) that Messiah came to break down.
And finally, the question arises whether it is appropriate to have lamb, when the Temple has been destroyed these last 2000 years (cf. Deu. 16:2). Many Messianic Jews do forgo lamb and substitute another meat in accordance with Jewish tradition and their own understanding about the requirement to have the lamb only in Jerusalem. That's fine, and it's possible that they are right. Now, it is correct that the proper Passover sacrifice, like all sacrifices (Deu. 12), must be offered only in Jerusalem at the Temple. However, as Christian commentators have so often observed, our proper sacrifice has already been offered in the proper place.
Therefore, to us, the Passover is no longer a proper sacrifice, but a memorial: "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19). Note that Yeshua does not repeat that formula for the wine, and yet every Christian considers it to include the wine in the Lord's Supper. Messianics understand it it include the whole of the Passover Seder as well, and at Beth HaMashiach, we believe it to include the lamb as well.
To those readers who have never experienced the joy of having the Passover Seder, I greatly encourage you to do so. It was one of the three life-changing events that led me to becoming Messianic, for truly, every single element speaks of our Lord.
Shalom!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sabbath Debate After-Report
On Sunday March 25, 2007 , Patrick Donahue (BibleDebates.info) and I debated the resolution, “The Sabbath is no longer binding for believers.” Pat of course took the affirmative position and I took the negative (double-negative?) position. We should have the audio up on the HebrewRoot site soon for those who are interested.
I have to confess that this was the first public debate that I’ve been in since college; all of my other debates have been informal affairs online. I am very grateful to Pat for the opportunity, as well as to all of those who came to support us from both synagogue and church. And finally, I’m grateful to Rabbi Gavri’el for his support in putting on the debate.
As always in such a format, there were arguments that I simply didn’t get around to addressing or which I had to address so briefly that I’m not sure the audience picked up on it; there were also missed opportunities, thrusts and ripostes that occurred to me only after the debate. I’m sure Pat would say the same. Nevertheless, I’ve been told that I did a fine job of defending my position. Many of my arguments have appeared on this blog and on Hebrewroot.com already; others will be appearing soon.
Pat’s strategy was to attempt to establish that the Sabbath was part of the “Old Law” and that the Law had been done away with. Many of his arguments have been refuted on HebrewRoot; others I have yet to write articles for. He opened with a very rapid-fire presentation designed to put me on the defensive and leave me scrambling to just keep up with trying to counter his arguments, without any time left to really present my own. As a result, I countered what I felt were the essential arguments and ignored others while I built up my own argument.
My position hinged on three main thrusts: 1) Yeshua kept the Sabbath as well as the whole Torah, and commanded us to do the same (Mat. 5:17-19); 2) the Apostles likewise keep the Sabbath and the Torah; and 3) so why then should we who are saved by grace not follow their example? I also showed from Hebrews 4 that we are indeed told in the NT that there still is a “Sabbath-keeping” on the seventh day for the people of God and showed from Isaiah (56:2-7 and 66:23) that the “foreigners,” the Gentiles, were called to keep the Sabbaths and Rosh Chodeshim (New Moons).
As always in such public debates, opinions will doubtless vary on who won. I’m sure Pat would agree with me that if we inspired those watching and listening to thought and to digging into their Bibles for themselves, that G-d was the true winner here. As it should be.
Shalom!
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Updates to Hebrew Root
Tonight (technically, this morning) I put up the first major changes to the Hebrew Root website. Among them, I accidentally removed the bookstore link, and it's a bit late (or early) for me to try to figure out what I did wrong.
On the plus side, I've added several new articles, many of which are expansions of articles first posted here, others of which are brand new. Just click articles and look for the (new) tags.
Shalom!
On the plus side, I've added several new articles, many of which are expansions of articles first posted here, others of which are brand new. Just click articles and look for the (new) tags.
Shalom!
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