Halakah

Careful observation of what is happening in Matt. 12 shows us that the Jews which were in authority, were questioning Him and His disciples because they were "breaking" the halaka (how to walk in or keep Torah) which the Rabbis had added to the writings of Moses, and they put their halaka (oral law, Talmud, Mishnah, etc.) on the same level of authority and in some cases above what was given by YHWH to Moses. Jump to Matt. 15 to see what Yeshua (Jesus) said to them about their tradition or the tradition of their fathers. The problem has always been man adding to or taking away from what YHWH gave to his chosen, for them to live in Righteousness, not be Righteous. Salvation never has and never will come from walking in Torah, that is only given to those who believe and confess Yeshua as the promised Messiah and ask for forgiveness through His Blood. Legalism is what the Jews then and now, as well as some Christians, think that their "works" of the Law is what saves them. It doesn't. Torah is literally our Father's Instructions and we should want to walk in them (those that apply) out of Love.   These upper level authorities of the Jews were threatened by Yeshua's teaching against their halaka.  This is why they wanted to get rid of Him.  But, this was all known ahead of time and had to happen to fulfill prophecy.

How to show Him our Love...

Reading all of 1 John will reveal to you how we show Him that we Love Him and how we love our neighbor. We are to Love G-D first and then our neighbor. All the christian verse pickers like to talk about John 3:16, but what they fail to do is read 20 verses after that. In Hebrew thinking, Belief and Obedience are synonyms. One of our greatest examples of Faith was/is Abraham, Genesis 26:5 is very clear in how he lived. Yeshua lived perfectly within Torah and 1 John 2:3-6 tells us we should walk as He did. The mistake that most make is confusing salvation and righteousness. Salvation is not earned by walking in Torah, that only comes through the Blood of Y'shua. Walking in Torah doesn't make us Right-eous with our Father, Torah is how we walk because of Y'shua's Righteousness. One other point is the mistake of calling Torah "Law". This is a greek/english interpretation error. Greek only had one root word to describe anything that was of law or instruction "nomia" or "nomous". Instruction is not the same as Law. We do only know in part and see in the mirror dimly, however isn't it the point that we are at least trying to know and see?  Maranatha ,  John

Many Rooms

Isaiah 26:19-21... The rooms mentioned in this text is what Yeshua was referring when he spoke what is said in John 14:2-3. Yeshua is almost done with our "room" and His Father is about to tell Him to go and gather His Bride. The Bridegroom is coming and we need to make sure we have the Oil of Torah in our flask before He comes.. Matt. 25:1-13.  Maranatha,  John

Mistranslated Words are Game Changers

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:4, NASB... Interestingly, if we look at the footnote on the word "end" we see that it should be "goal". "For Messiah is the GOAL of the Torah for Righteousness to everyone who Believes" This is likened to a Football game. When one of the teams makes it to the Goal line or End Zone for the first time doesn't mean the whole game is over... Amazing how one word can make such a difference in our understanding... Maranatha, John

Truth or Lies

Because people don't have a desire for the Truth they have been brainwashed and have believed a Lie.  G-D has not given them the eyes, ears and heart for Torah. These poor people have believed the lie that "Jesus" and Paul started a new religion called "christianity". What they fail to see is that both Yeshua and Shaul (Paul) were both devout Jews and stood for Torah ONLY. Christians confuse Yeshua and Paul's dealings with the Oral Torah aka Traditions of Men. Paul never went or taught against Torah. He never called himself anything other than a Pharisee, a Jew and of the sect called "the Way". The only thing that changed with Paul after the scales fell off his eyes, was he then believed in Yeshua, which before his conversion, had been fighting against. No new religion, just Torah based "Judaism" coupled with the belief and obedience to Y'shua. With all of this being said, we still need to plant seeds and pray for them to be watered with the Ruach ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit), allowing them to grow in the Good Ground... We have to teach them that Y'shua was/is the Torah made flesh and that "fulfill" doesn't mean accomplished and done away with. This is exactly what John 1 is trying to show us. Maranatha, John

Paul's Change of Heart

If someone says that Paul was a Christian and left Judaism to follow Jesus, No Christian will argue...  However, if someone says that Paul was not a Christian, but instead a Jew who's eyes were opened to the Messiah in which the Jews of his day were looking for, you will probably get dragged out into the street and beaten.  I have looked and it is true, No Where in the Bible does Paul ever call himself a Christian, nor does any of the other Bible writers.  Instead, Paul calls himself a Jew, a Pharisee, a Hebrew, an Israelite, and of the sect called "the Way"..  Acts 21:39;  23:6; 24:14; 26:5, Philipians 3:5, Romans 11:1, 2 Corinthians 11:22.  Notice the "present tense" in these verses.  The only thing that I can see that changed with Paul was his name (Saul) and that he became a believer in the Promised Messiah, Yeshua.. Maranatha, John

True Worship or False Tradition

In my past I used to believe that I was honoring and worshiping Jesus while celebrating Christmas, however after several years and a lot of study, I no longer believe that Christmas has anything to do with the True Messiah that is written about in the Bible.  Most people hold on to this holiday because of long held happy feelings because of the tradition that they learned from their parents.  (Remember these are the people that also told you there was a Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and took you Trick-or-Treating.)  For us to actually learn where this traditional holiday really comes from we MUST step out of our feelings and emotions and actually study Scripture and History to allow the Lord to show us if what we are following is of HIS Ways or not.  Some of the things that really challenged me was; the word itself, "Christmas" or Christ Mass.  I am not Catholic, so what have I to do with partaking of "Mass".  We are brought up believing that this holiday celebrates His birth, but simply within the word "Christ Mas(s), we see it has to do with His death.  If we take the time to do a word study on Christmas, we find that it means Christ's death or sacrifice.  In context, 'Mass' [mas] is a noun meaning "the celebration of the Eucharist", which is the believed partaking of the actual flesh of the body of Christ.  Yes, this sacrament from Catholicism is that the little cracker or wafer actually becomes His flesh within the person partaking of it. 

There are Biblical Time-line studies that prove that Yeshua (Jesus) was not born on Dec. 25, but during the Fall Feast of Sukkot ( Feast of Tabernacles).  A study of Mithraism, shows us that it was Tammuz who was born on Dec. 25.  With this knowledge, we must ask ourselves, where in the Bible does it tell us to remember or celebrate the birthday of our Messiah?  What about the Christmas Tree and what it symbolizes... Like it or not it is a fertility symbol and if you knew what garland, tinsel, and the balls etc. are; you would be embarrased to have it in your house.  There is more, but you get the general idea.  Some will say that it doesn't hurt anything to celebrate Christmas because GOD knows our heart and he is happy to accept our worship through this holiday.  To this, I point you to a couple of Scriptures..  Jeremiah 10 and Leviticus 10.  Notice that Nadab and Abihu wanted to Worship the LORD with incense and in their heart and mind they were doing what was right, however HE didn't accept their "worship" and HE destroyed them because of their error.  So, for me, just the little bit of evidence that I have given here should be enough to cause the Believer to dig deeper and challenge their traditions..  Here is a link to several studies on the subject that can be helpful.
http://otbg.blogspot.com/search?q=christmas
To those who read this, I hope that you know that it is written with Love and understanding and if it makes you upset at me, I understand, but I will say that your fight is not with me, but with GOD..  Go ahead and Wrestle with HIM just like Jacob did and don't be afraid to ask HIM for a Blessing..  I hope that you will read the following verses from the Bible and then do as the Bereans did by searching the Scriptures to see if these things be so.  Acts 17:11... *** Malachi 3:6-7;  Jeremiah 26:13, Isaiah 8:20..*** John