Tag: sin

The Smashing Rock and COVID-19

Can a pestilence like COVID-19 help destroy kingdoms like the Rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?

I teach a weekly Shabbat service online in addition to posts I write for different outlets, including this one. From my Shabbat group as well as news broadcasts and online articles, the Wuhan virus, aka COVID-19, as a pestilence is troubling a great many people, and some, to our sorrow, have died. Some are looking to the heavens and expecting a rapture because of this pestilence. I do not believe, nor teach, that the rapture will happen anytime before Yeshua physically returns. We have to go through the refining process here on earth with all our peoples, all Israel and the many Gentile nations. As part of the refining process, Yeshua is going to destroy human governments that are opposed to Him and His rule. He with, and through, the Holy Spirit, is preparing a people ready for him. That includes being ready to be ruled by the terms of the Mosaic Covenant made at Mount Sinai, and reaffirmed several times since, and made into a New Covenant in our hearts. Let’s consider part of the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and interpreted by Daniel, servant of YHVH.

Continue reading “The Smashing Rock and COVID-19”

Christendom and the Sin of Jeroboam

On occasion, friend and fellow Messianic, Tzefanyah ben Yochanan, has visions that are prophetic in nature.  This morning my email had a detailed vision that he had yesterday, and it triggered some thoughts.  Here is the majority of that email,

Today @ 8 AM Eastern time Yom Rishon (Sunday) August 23 I had a vision. I was standing and talking to hundreds of people. As I spoke I began to share that it is time to bury the hatchet of all the doctrines that divide us. I began to share that there are many gray areas in scripture, but we have taken those areas and made doctrines out of them and used them to declare ourselves having a truth that everyone needs that I have a corner on. I shared how when we do that we create separation between each other. We as the people of Yosef are still walking in the sin of Jeroboam to this very day. We are erecting golden golden-calf2calves and altars to ourselves and we have made these doctrines as mighty ones. After I finished sharing that bold message to these hundreds of people my whole body began to shake and my knees began to buckle. I was weeping profusely and I fell prostrate upon the ground and with a loud cry came forth, “Oh King of Yisrael bring us home!!!” As I lay there yelling out and profusely weeping, the hundreds of people in that place began to do the same. We were all identifying the sin of Jeroboam in our lives. The hundreds in that place were now all prostrate on the floor crying out in unison with weeping and travail, “Oh King of Yisrael bring us home!!” My body was quaking and I was weeping throughout the vision and then at the end was a sense of calm assurance, tranquility, that He heard our cry.

All of us in that room knew heaven touched earth in that place. We all knew it was time to prepare for our journey. He heard us and was taking us home.

What particularly struck me was that in recent days, I have again been thinking of the sin of Jeroboam.  While this is a topic we have discussed before, I think it is something we need to revisit, particularly in light of Tzefanyah’s vision.

Most of Christendom does not know or realize that the way the faith is currently practiced is not the way it has always been.  Indeed, very little has changed in the last 1500 or so years, but a great deal changed between about 150 CE and 500 CE.  Even a cursory reading of the book of Acts reveals Continue reading “Christendom and the Sin of Jeroboam”

Today is a Day of Confession!

We leave in a few minutes for Dan, way in the north.  We’ll drive 3.5 hours each way to go see the replica of an altar to an idol.  I have been looking forward to and dreading this day all at the same time.  I wrote about the significance of the place a while back.  It is where Israel committed great sin and apostasy.

Our purpose is to pray and repent for the sins of our fathers.

Christendom struggles with the idea that one can repent for ancestral sins, however, not only does Scripture specifically address this on multiple occasions, but it says tat it is a prerequisite for Yehovah’s to turn His face again toward His people and the Land.  The House of Israel has much repenting to do.

Here are a couple sample verses:

40 ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— 41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. 43 For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, [a]because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”   Lev. 26:40-45

4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 10 They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to [c]revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man.”  Neh. 1:4-10

3 So I [a]gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6 Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.

7 “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us [b]open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. 8 [c]Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You…..  Daniel 9

Continue reading “Today is a Day of Confession!”