It is much easier to spot someone else’s errors because your brain will not as easily assume what the author meant to write. I do try to check my posts, but sometimes things will get by me and I do not have a proofreader. So, please show mercy if you see an error. Just make a note in the comments section and I will fix it.
This former copy editor and proofreader thanks you for your understanding.
Avinu Shebashamayim/our Father in heaven, thank You for including me in Your work and plans.
I know I am but one little part of Your team, but I pray that I will do my job well.
No matter what our role, whether public or private, what we each do is important to You. May we all do it well!
This day, may I be a blessing to others and may each person who reads this be blessed in every way.
Touch them, please, Avinu. Help them to see Your hand in their life.
May those who have lost their way, turn their hearts toward You.
Please bring healing and restoration to all who need it.
Bring comfort and strength to those who mourn.
You are great and I thank You for touching me and loving me.
You love every single person from conception to the grave and into eternity for You have made us all and imprinted us with Your very own image. May we wear it well!
No matter what stage of life we are in, change will always come at some point or another. Change is inevitable. How we handle that change can be key to our physical and emotional and spiritual health.
Sometimes, I hate change, especially if it is unexpected or unwanted. Sometimes, I find myself longing for change. However, even when I get change I really, really want, it is does not always turn out the way I expect/hope it will.
The key for me in dealing with change is to be flexible. Now, as someone who prefers all my duckies in a row, I am not a hugely spontaneous person. So, I have really had to learn to go with the flow. But I am a happier person for learning it. It brings a form of contentment I might not otherwise have.
I have also had to learn to trust. Without trust, I am undone. I trust the Creator to be sovereign and to work all things together for good. His plans will not be thwarted and He IS leading us and guiding us, both as a couple and as individuals. He is good and I need never fear Him or what He allows. If He allows hardship or persecution, He is going to use it for His Kingdom. I know who I am in Him and that is enough.
I await the coming of Mashiach. I await the coming of Hashem. Maran ata!
“What Jesus said is irrelevant.”
I was shocked, stunned and dismayed to hear those words coming out of a Christian’s mouth.
There was an animated (passionate, but NOT angry) discussion going on in a group. You know the kind. The iron sharpening iron kind where people are challenged to defend what they believe using the Bible. The kind where what people actually believe starts to come out.
I quoted Yeshua challenging someone’s belief. The response? “What Jesus said is irrelevant. He was talking to Jews and we are not Jews.” At that point, my mouth literally dropped open…a rarity for me. I said something like, “Really?! Irrelevant?!”
I looked around the room, expecting someone to say something in response to what he said. But no one…NO ONE…did. So, I quietly said, “I’m done” and shut up at that point. I don’t know why there was no response, but I find it just as disturbing as the words spoken.
How many Christians actually believe this? Although, I believe few would come out and say it directly like that, some of what they believe does come from picking and choosing what is relevant and what is not. Any time we dismiss the words of Yeshua/Jesus because they contradict what we believe, are we not saying, in essence, that his words are irrelevant to us?
What are the implications of that belief? What is the logical end conclusion? If what Yeshua said is only for Jews, that makes His teaching on prayer irrelevant. Scratch the “Our Father”. Also, Yeshua’s final statement was to Jews so I guess there is no need to “Go and make disciples”. Yeshua’s prayer in John 17 is…irrelevant, since only Jews would have been present listening. Even more importantly, what about “It is finished”? Is that, also, only for Jews? If Yeshua’s words are only relevant for Jews, then why even read the gospels? Of what significance are they to non-Jews? Why is there even a “Christianity”? (Of course, that is a good question for other reasons which would take a whole other post, but I hope you get my point.)
I don’t believe this person actually believes Yeshua’s words are irrelevant. At least, I certainly hope not! However, it IS something to think about. What do YOU believe? Do YOU believe what Yeshua said is irrelevant to non-Jews? If so, why do you believe that? And what DO you believe is relevant?
In today’s world, I see the “church” moving farther and farther away from the clear words of the Bible. For a long time, some churches have only been using the New Testament. Their Bibles don’t even contain an Old Testament! Recently, a well known pastor started teaching that the disciples of Yeshua (Jews) taught to unhitch the Old Testament/Jewish Bible from the New Testament. (An interesting concept seeing as how the only Bible they had at that time was the Tanakh/Jewish Bible/OT and it was all they had when Paul wrote Timothy that all scripture was profitable for teaching, correction and so on.) Many of the things Yeshua said have been discounted over the years…typically, simply ignored or explained away. Are we now moving even further away from the clear words of our Messiah/Christ?
The word Christian means “Christ follower”. How do you follow someone whose words are irrelevant? I don’t know. I know the person who spoke would definitely identify as a “Christ follower”. But who, or what, is Yeshua/Jesus? If you believe Yeshua is G-d, then it follows you must believe he wrote the OT! He wrote the laws contained in it! Yes, they came through Moshe/Moses, but who gave them to him?? If Yeshua’s words are only relevant to the Jews, then doesn’t that mean Yeshua came only for them? Where does that leave non-Jews? (I know there are answers to all these things…answers some folks may not really like, but right now I am just trying to get people to THINK!)
In this instance, I believe the statement made was simply not thought out. I think it was an emotional reaction…at least, I hope that’s all it was. But I just cannot help but wonder how many people have this underlying belief and don’t even recognize it. How many of us think Yeshua’s words are relevant until they bump up against something we believe and, then, they are only for Jews? Or, at least, not for us.
There is a real lack of teaching when it comes to the history of the earliest church. Most are only taught from the time of the Nicene Council forward. They have no idea how the first century church really lived. It’s very sad, really, for this is the logical outgrowth of that lack.
I came across this quote this morning. It is so true. Our Creator said to love our neighbor as ourselves. Some teach we are to hate ourselves and see ourselves as worthless worms. Others exalt self too highly, as if we are above others and more important than others. But that is not what the Creator teaches.
We are to consider others more highly than ourselves in order to serve others with humility. But as for love…we are to be equals. We are to love ourselves and, in the same way, love others. It goes back to treating others as we would want to be treated and the flip side of that… which is don’t do to others what you would not want done to you.
How many of us truly live like that. Maybe we do with people who are nice to us, people we find easy to love. But what about the ones who are not so easy to love…or who are impossible for us to love if it were up to our own capabilities? Are we willing to allow the Creator’s love for that person to flow through us? Are we willing to see His image in that person?
There are folks I have had to ask the Creator to help me love. But one thing I am discovering more and more is the truth of this quote. If I truly love myself (which I can do with the Creator helping me to see myself through His eyes of love and through my relationship with Him), it is so much easier to love others.
It is easier to see their brokenness causing them to be the way they are, just as my own brokenness causes me to be the way I am. I want others to see past my brokenness…to the real me…to see my heart. So, shouldn’t I want to do the same for others? To see past their brokenness to their hearts?
Avinu Shebashamyim, please help each one of us to love ourselves as You love us and to love others in the same way You love them. May we be so close to You that we breathe the confidence, love, kindness and generosity that comes from knowing who we are in You. May we love others even when we cannot, and should not, love certain things about them. May we love them while encouraging them to be all You created them to be and helping them to receive all You want them to have. May we love with humility and compassion.
Avinu shebashamayim/our Father in heaven, today I lift up to You all the poor migrants trying to get into our country.
Avinu, they were lied to and told they could just walk right in. 
Please protect the ones who are now returning home. Keep them safe on the journey.
I lift up the young girls the Border Patrol see whose parents sent them up with birth control pills because the parents knew they would raped along the way.
I lift up the 1 in 3 women who are saying they were raped on the journey.
I lift up the children who were dragged along on this journey who did not have the physical ability to handle it and got sick and died.
I lift up the ones who are being terrorized by the gang members and criminals within the groups.
I lift up the smugglers…that they may be caught and stopped. 
I lift up the people being trafficked. May they be rescued and set free.
I lift up the overwhelmed Border Patrol agents who have to deal with horrific things on their jobs. Please protect them and guide them.
I lift up the ones who truly do qualify for asylum. May our country do what is needed to stop the flow of nonqualified folks applying so they can quickly take care of the ones who are qualified.
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