Tag: roman catholic

Brick v Stone as a Building Material

A couple of days ago, I was delivering some metalwork to a customer in the upstate of South Carolina.  While in the area, I called a good friend and brother, Jeff, to see if we could meet-up for lunch.  What a blessed time of fellowship, open Bibles in the restaurant and animated discussion of the Word!

During our conversation he began talking about the difference in building with bricks and stones as an illustration in the context of Exodus 20:24-25.  Let’s read,

24 You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.

I could immediately identify with his illustration as I had written a related article almost a year ago.  His angle was slightly different, but the points are inextricably connected. Continue reading “Brick v Stone as a Building Material”

R U N the 1%?

If Jesus came into your church, would you recognize Him?  While my guess is completely subjective, I would guess that fewer than 1% would recognize the Messiah, King of Israel, if He walked into your church building.

No, He likely won’t come dressed as a homeless guy, though we should receive the homeless with love and concern.

He won’t be in a long robe and probably won’t have longish hair.  He will have a beard.

In fact, 99% of the images and ideas we have of Him are wrong based on simple reading of Scripture.

You won’t know based on a ‘gut feeling.’  Your emotions will fail you EVERY time.

You MUST be able to tell based on facts that are verifiable.  Scars?  May or may not work…

How then will you KNOW without a shadow of a doubt who He is and that He is the REAL deal?

Scripture tells us exactly Continue reading “R U N the 1%?”

Which ordinance of God is “unrighteous?”

I carry my Bible practically everywhere I go.  (ALWAYS ready to make a defense for the Truth of our Messiah and His Torah…)  In my Bible case, I keep a little yellow note pad to jot ideas or thoughts to pursue, or comment on, or write about.  Maybe a book, a thought, a verse, etc…  Some days, like today, are particularly fertile and I wind up adding four or five new ideas or thoughts to develop for this blog or for personal study.

Recently, I posted one of the most popular posts I’ve written.  It was short, to the point and something I thought I was the only one who had overlooked…  But, something connected.  Well, this goes very well with that post…

We enjoyed the day in the company of some Messianic friends and, as I love to do, I cruised a few of the books they had laying around.  I found a little gem Continue reading “Which ordinance of God is “unrighteous?””

Whose Calendar are We Celebrating?

Does Scripture have to say anything about the Creator’s thoughts on time and seasons? When does HE think the year begins?

We could spend a good bit of time digging out the details, but a simple reading of Scripture would demonstrate that tonight is NOT HIS plan…

14 Then God said, “Let there be [a]lights in the [b]expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for [c]lights in the [d]expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.  Genesis 1:14-15

Later, our Father tells us exactly how to ‘read’/understand what season and what month are the beginning of a year… Continue reading “Whose Calendar are We Celebrating?”

Chewing gum for the brain…

As I have mentioned before, I am reading/enjoying/re-reading J. K. McKee’s The New Testament Validates Torah.  Frankly, this is the single best systematic addressing of Torah for the Messianic.  I believe more and broader scholarly works will emerge as time passes, but it will be hard to top this 400+ page work!  EVERY Messianic believer needs this on their shelf, and any pastor wanting to understand or get a comprehensive look needs to read this book.

Advertisement aside, there are so many terrific quotes on every page.  I want to share three from pages 91-93.  The first two are cites of other authors and the last is his.

Take the time to read and ponder each!  I’ll list the original sources from McKee’s footnotes.

What would we think of a presidential candidate who assured his voters that he would only UPHOLD the requirements and FULFILL the goals of the Constitution and never ABOLISH our country’s customs and laws, yet two years after his election, plunged the country into complete anarchy?  Would this be FULFILLMENT of the Constitution of ABOLITION of the Constitution? Continue reading “Chewing gum for the brain…”

“Which is the attitude of maturity?”

I have recently been involved in another “HRM” ‘drive-by shooting.’  But, it is not the first “love” Messianics have received from that blog.

So, pondering some of the comments and wondering about the general lack of desire to really dig in and understand why Messianic/Hebraic studies are growing by leaps and bounds, and what that reveals about lacking elements in Christendom, I continued reading J. K. McKee’s terrific scholarly work, The New Testament Validates Torah: Does the New Testament Really Do Away with the Law?

In an extended quote, McKee so eloquently defines exactly what the crux of the differences are between Christian and Judaic perspectives on the Torah: (pgs 65-66) Continue reading ““Which is the attitude of maturity?””

Pictorial Evidence of Scriptural Truth!!

snow in JerusalemThey say a picture is worth a thousand words…

Well, an acquaintance sent me a picture from Jerusalem, and it tells about a thousand words…

It may be hard to get the message just from this pic, so, here is another of the beautiful snow a couple days ago in Jerusalem.

snow3Here are a couple more interesting and glorious pictures that illustrate the same story, and of course…  the story. Continue reading “Pictorial Evidence of Scriptural Truth!!”

The Apostle Paul was NOT a Christian!

Paul never converted to anything.

Christian mythos teaches that Saul, a rabbi, converted to Christianity.  In fact, that is utter fallacy to support false doctrine/theology.

Here is what my New American Standard Bible says,

“Acts 9:1-3  (NASB)

The Conversion of Saul

9 Now [a]Saul, still breathing [b]threats and murder against the conversion of pauldisciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;… ”

First, that big ‘The Conversion of Saul,’ is inserted by the editors.  It is not inspired Scripture, and the only thing it does is set the reader up with a FALSE premise! Continue reading “The Apostle Paul was NOT a Christian!”

Aspartame vs. Honey

A number of months ago, I began using honey in my morning coffee instead of refined sugar.  In fact, because we have bees, my wife began substituting honey in a number of places in our family’s diet.

Well, late last week I was refilling the ‘honey bear’ PureHoneyBearfrom a Mason jar full of my bees’ honey and had a convenient ‘spill.’  Of course, I licked it up…  Hmmm.

Then it hit me, ‘this used to be the sweetest stuff on the planet!’  In fact, for thousands of years honey was the sweetest readily available ‘sugar’ on the planet.  Only in the last century has man begun to use the laboratory and myriad chemicals to develop alternative sweeteners, aspartame being just one, as well as a plethora of intense flavors derived from all manner of bizarre stuff.

Not long ago I saw a ‘hell’evision program detailing the constant quest in the food industry for new and intense flavors to make whatever food substitute item more desirable, thus selling more product.  And, ruining consumer’s health in the process.

My brain, taking those diverse pieces of information, as I licked up the spilled honey, suddenly made some interesting connections.  Continue reading “Aspartame vs. Honey”