Rabbi Matt's Meshugas: take it off. take it all off!

Rabbi Matt's Meshugas: take it off. take it all off!: "I am in the middle of a social experiment. I have almost entirely given up on wearing ties and 'dressing up.' Don't get me wrong..."

What I have learned

I am on a new road as of today, a road that is leading somewhere that I cannot see, and does not have clear directions. TOM TOM, Magellan, and Garmin can't guide me there. I am on a road to purity, and righteousness. I have never actually desired to go that way before. I have always strived for knowledge, wholeness, peace, love and happiness, and all that goes with it. I have learned that I can only go so far trying to achieve the same things in different ways. I could try to climb Mt. Everest from every direction on the compass, but I will always be climbing the same mountain. I am getting off this mountain, and looking to a different one. It will have its own unique challenges I am sure. I will face things I have never faced before. It is time!

I am 37 years old now and I have spent most of it as a believer, not a good one, but doing what I thought was best and felt was the right way to go. What a struggle it has been. I have learned that I truly can do nothing by myself. I can't change my wife, I can't heal the sick, I can't make my kids do exactly what I tell them, I can't be in two places at once. I need help to do everything, I could not breathe if God had not made oxygen, or had my lungs do as they were made to and have the gasses change to liquid and pump through my heart, I could not fall wit out the help of gravity. I mean I am a fragile being that God made to be a vessel filled with the right stuff. I feel I have spent the majority of my existence filled with some good stuff, and a lot of bad stuff. I would be like eating a bag of M&Ms where 2/3 of the bag was actually Rabbit poop.

For me purity can only be reached after going through a refining fire. I am sure that the embers are kindled right now. The wind is blowing over the coals and it is going to get extremely hot. All that was in me, and of me will be burned away that is not pure, and ordained by God. I am going to be left a shining vessel worthy of a noble master. The righteousness is going to come not from my own deeds any longer but from the Father who created me and the Son who gave it freely. I have "worked" my way through this life long enough. I am tired and weary of the burden.

I see newness in God's word; I feel a connection to what he has said for thousands of years. His Spirit is moving across the landscape looking for whom he can trust to carry on through all that is to come. I do not want to fear any of it, or listen to fools attempt to predict and prepare for it. We were made for such a time as this.

Does this mean I am going to "be all that I can be" over night, no, but I am sure going to make all the effort towards it. I refuse to lie down and wait for death to take me or people to destroy me. I will fight for what is right and true, something that is VERY unpopular right now. I will leave politics to the politicians; I am a common man with an uncommon leader who gave all for me.

What have I learned, that God is God, and I am not. That he created me in his image to represent him and show his kingdom here on this Earth. His son walked on the same dirt that covers our planet and uncovered sin fro what it was, exposed what was swept under the rug, and lay to rest the lies of the corrupt and rebellious. Aren't we to do the same? YES, but with purity, and righteousness in love or else it is hypocrisy, and self righteousness. Where is the love for what is right. Why have we not become all we are supposed to be? Do what I decided to do, wake up and realize, I have to die today so I will have to climb the exact same mountain again as I did yesterday.

What have I learned? Not nearly enough!

A Matter of the Heart

Caveat: I am just a guilty of this as anyone else.

 

I sit here today staring at my laptop wondering what it is that needs to get on this blog. I have so much to say and so little room to say it here. As I write this my Rabbi is in ICU waiting to see if he is going to need a triple bypass surgery or a heart transplant, it hits me in the face like a ton of bricks. We all need a heart bypass or transplant. Unless by some awesome chance that you have lived a spotless life and never had anything happen to you that would hurt you or cause you to question all you know, then you have had your heart broken. In some cases you have abused your body and you have a physically weak heart, or you may have a heritage of heart disease in your family. Any way that you are right now, you most likely need a new heart.

I have heard it to many times people say "I do what is in my heart" or "My heart tells me I should…." I read in the bible it saying this:

Mat 15:18-19 The Scriptures 1998+

(18) "But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and these defile the man.

(19) "For out of the heart come forth wicked reasonings, murders, adulteries, whorings, thefts, false witnessings, slanders.

More often than not we rely on something that is broken and wounded to guide our thoughts and lives. It can't be that way, unless you have had a transplant. You see God wants to take the heart of ours and replace it with his heart, with his thoughts, and with his ways. As long as we operate from our heart, we are at odds with our Father, and in some cases, we are his enemy.

I believe with perfect faith that we are all at a crossroads in this world, one that if missed may have dire consequences. We are being made to make a choice, are we going to be on Gods side or the side of the World and its prince. When this scripture was written if read in proper context you will see a scary truth:
Mat 7:13-14 The Scriptures 1998+

(13) "Enter in through the narrow gate! Because the gate is wide – and the way is broad – that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in through it.

(14) "Because the gate is narrow and the way is hard pressed¹ which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Footnote: ¹Or the way is afflicted.

Mat 7:22-23 The Scriptures 1998+

(22) "Many shall say to Me in that day, 'Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?'

(23) "And then I shall declare to them, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!'¹
Footnote: ¹ See v. 15.

The truth is this, in the Day of Judgment in which all mankind will stand before Yeshua to give an account, many people who feel they are followers of God, will be sadly shown that they were not. The "broad path, and wide gate" is being traveled by so called believers. The fact is people who do not confess him as Lord are already heading down the path to destruction that is just implied throughout scripture, this is referring to people who actually believe that what they are doing is good enough to get in to eternity. IF we think for one minute that we can walk, talk, a be like the world then we are fooling ourselves and are the foolish virgins who didn't have our oil ready when the bridegroom comes. I am going to be blunt as our Lord is blunt. If we are drinking heavily to be "buzzed" and party with the world, if we talk the word out of one side of our mouth then curse those around you out of the other side, if we are "Godly" in our place of worship then are "hellish" outside, if we drive like the devil, if we place our jobs and money before our family, if we place ANYTHING before our God, we are not going to receive from God what he is promising us, Eternal Life.

I look at Facebook sometimes and see post on there by so called Christians slandering each other, their bosses, their spouses, or a biggy, cursing our President. Come on, these people are creations of God. Our President was placed there by God for a reason, just like Pharaoh was. Keep in mind the power of life and death is in the tongue, and blessings and curses proceed from our mouths.

I have watched people I trusted and respected fall from grace so hard that the earth shook when the hit, but they are still putting on the suit and tie or their Sunday or Shabbat best and a happy face confessing to be Godly. We will be able to see them by their fruit. Our fruit is either righteous or wicked by what comes from our hearts. If you do not have the heart of God, the fruit is by default wicked. If the heart is wicked, the deeds will be wicked. Families are being destroyed, Marriages shredded, lives left in ruins, children lost to the world, congregations turning from God to Satan, all because the heart is dead or broken.

What is the fix, how do we get form where things are to a place on a higher plane? We have been freely given gifts, the problem lies in accepting them. We feel unworthy, dirty, or to separated. Sometimes we are self-righteous, prideful, puffed up, haughty, and religious, and feel like we have it all together. Both places are broken. Accept what has been given exactly the way it was given. Stop justifying the philosophy, viewpoints, doctrines, and ideas that have been taught and get in to the heart of God. Don't pray long religious prayers, Yeshua prayed short to the point and quoted the scriptures when under attack. Walk out your OWN salvation in fear and trembling. Stop worrying about everyone else you can't fix or change them anyway. SHUT YOUR MOUTH, in the kingdom, actions speak louder than words. Mind your own business, start your own reality show you can call it "My Life" and invite EVERYONE to tune in daily. Most importantly do this:

Luk 9:23-24 The Scriptures 1998+

(23) And He said to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his stake daily, and follow Me.

(24) "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake shall save it.
Deu 4:9 The Scriptures 1998+

(9) "Only, guard yourself, and guard your life diligently, lest you forget the Words your eyes have seen, and lest they turn aside from your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children and your grandchildren.

1Ki 8:61 The Scriptures 1998+

(61) "Let your heart therefore be perfect to יהוה our Elohim, to walk in His laws and guard His commands, as at this day."

 

I fully realize that some people that read this may be of the grace camp and that the "Old" Testament is for the Jews, and the "New" Testament is of grace and love. You need to know that the heart of the Father is shown in the Old Covenant writings, and his salvation is distributed to all in the New Covenant, you cannot have one without the other. Please remember that during the penning of the Brit Hadashah, New Covenant, the only word the had were those of Moses, the Writings, and the Prophets. You have to have ALL his laws and commands to understand God. If you are a selective follower, and discount any book or books, you will answer for it. Imagine sitting at the controls of a jet and realizing you only read the part about landing the plane but only the part that sounded like they were important, or interesting to you, ignoring all the parts the said WARNING, or READ CAREFULLY, or refer back to chapter 4. You may not believe that those parts are relevant, or for now, but just as you may not believe in gravity, as soon as you grab on to those controls without the whole truth gravity will pull that plane to the ground. The fall won't kill you, but the sudden stop at the end will. The sudden stop at the end is you standing before Yeshua saying, but I didn't need to know that stuff, you brought grace and love, and freedom from Law. He will say :

Joh 1:1-5 The Scriptures 1998+

(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.

(2) He was in the beginning with Elohim.

(3)
All came to be through Him,¹ and without Him not even one came to be that came to be.

(4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

(5) And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

Find a new heart, the heart of God, the only true heart while you still can…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assimilation

Have we all assimilated?

Last evening I attended a long awaited Bar Mitzvah class and we had an interesting topic brought up during class, have we all become complacent in our sins to the point when we know that we know that we should leave our spiritual Egypt or Babylon we are to comfortable to leave. We like the life we live, the things we have come to accept as "normal", and we justify the "little" sins we commit as being OK now.

If you study the history of the Jewish people, they have always had to battle with assimilating in to the culture in which they lived. They were either forced in to accepting what was being done or they just eventually gave in and did what everyone else did. Over the centuries there has always been a small portion of the Jewish people who remained religious no matter what, as wrong as their philosophies became either through the Babylonian mindset changing the face of Judaism to the eventual modern sects of Judaism making things up as they go. There have always been some who remained very religious. Horribly enough, the very religious Jewish people remained in Europe during WWII because they felt they had to, to remain Jewish and it brought them death at the hands of the Nazis. Many people fled to other countries like the US where they eventually, with in a generation, lost their religious ways either because the lost all faith in God, or they found that staying religious had an adverse affect on their livelihood, so they assimilated in to the culture only keeping a few things that resembled Judaism, and only following that because it is customary to do so.

So, with all that said, are we assimilated in to the world?

How often is a sin in the eyes of God written off as being the norm, or not even recognized at all because it is not taught from leadership because it might cause some squirming in the pews. Here is a tough one, PRIDE, God Abhors pride, in case you don't know that is above hate. Yet how often do we get prideful of stuff in our lives. I like the "Christian" school bumper stickers that say "I have Cougar Pride" or the like for their football team. Then there is Envy, the thing that got Korah and all of his followers to be swallowed up in the wilderness. But we envy someone's car, wife, house, money, etc. But that is OK because it helps us to desire bigger and better things, then it becomes idol worship. You don't want me to go there; idol worship is rampant in the "believing" world. I use the term believer lightly. If "believers" truly believed then they would act like it. Most believe what they are told and do not look in to anything for themselves. Feel good, prosperity, and love have overtaken the body.

I say assimilation has happened because it is easier to remain in Egypt or Babylon, than it is to go home where God is calling. The comforts of the exile have caused complacency to be the norm, and to be in the World not of it is just a neat notion made up by some obscure dude thousands of years ago. Trust me, when you take a stand for what is right, and true you will be alone and isolated. It is a painful place to be filled with ridicule and judgment, mostly from other "believers". God says we are to sore on wings like Eagles. Eagles fly alone; far above all that is "The World".

Whenever the children of Israel return home they are never left in peace, they are ridiculed, slandered, accused, and spit on. Those who truly believe they belong there will fight to remain with every last breath, in fact every capable citizen is required to serve in the military to be able to just that.

They are trained for war, something they live in almost constantly.

God chose Israel not because she is any better than anyone else, but because she is our example, out guide, our home. All of Gods plans revolve around her and her people. The problem lies in that America is the land of the Free, and the Brave where religious freedom is still free, so God is repaid for that kindness with followers who are slaves to sin, and are cowards.

I say, shed your bonds of sin, and complacency, take up your cross and follow him. Go home to where you belong, a place filled with milk and honey, not cheddar and money. If you take up residence here, you are guaranteed to have a difficult life and may be killed for living there, after all, isn't that what was foretold by our Messiah. The prize is only won after enduring the race, which is not a sprint but a marathon filled with hurdles the entire way.

If this is not for you, if you signed on for a 1^st class seat where you are given everything "by grace", you may want to check where the flights final destination is, and make sure that you do hear "I never knew you". IF the Messiah endured it, so should you, he said you would have to.


 
May God richly bless you, and give you strength to consider it all joy when you decide to pitch your tent in the right neighborhood.