He Yelled IT!

 Luke 7:9"And when Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned and said unto the multitude that followed him, I say unto you, 'I have not found so great faith, 

 no, not in Israel.'"

In Matthew when the story is told it is literally a few minutes after the sermon on the mount, so a large crowd, a multitude, is still right there, following Him, probably talking with each other about the greatest 15 minute teaching ever given, or marvelling at the healing of the leper that took place right before this in Matthew and proved that those 15 minutes were being spoken by someone who had the power of the Spirit of the Most High God flowing through Him and in Him.

The back story presented to a similar event, that probably occurred more than once is presented in Matthew. 

5And when he was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6and saying, Lord, my servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7And he saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 9For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 

When I read scripture and study scripture I long for the knowledge of the tone of voice that Yeshua was using at the time, and I strongly feel that since Yeshua just heard this amazing confession FROM A MEMBER OF THE GOYIM, THE NATIONS, THE GENTILES HE (the God of the universe, who knows the end from the beginning, who in fact knows everything) marvels!!!!

And then in my not as humble as it needs to be opinion, He turned and yelled to the multitude of people following Him.    

 “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! 11And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. 12But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”       

Some of the scariest and yet most comforting words in all of scripture.  You gentiles, not included, with rare exception from the people and plans of God, this Centurion is an indicator that you will be coming in, in great numbers and you Jews who think you are in automatically, no, you are not, I AM the gate, I AM the Way, I AM the truth, you have to go through me or you don't get in. 

500,000 views

 Sure it took 10 years and possibly many bots from Brazil and Singapore choosing to follow me on google, but as of today, this little blog is over 500,000 views.

Kind of scary, but most of the stuff on here is truth and most of it I will stand behind. 

The Tent of Shem May Be Larger Than I Thought

 Listening to Art Katz message, The Tent of Shem and I think God gave me the idea that the tent of Shem is larger than I would have expected it to be. The Arabs and the Jews are both in that tent. Egypt and I don't really know who else are descended from Ham and Canaan.

Maybe the gentiles are being called to help to reconcile the Arabs and the Jews.

The Jewish people have an army that is called the Israel Defense Force, the purpose of their army is defense. That is why the "thing" in Gaza does not feel right, Israel was on the offensive, not just for a little bit and not in proportion to Oct. 7th, most would say that they went a little to far in leveling the entire area.  I don't have an opinion on that.  I know that we gentiles in Messiah's community are called to love the individual Jew in our lives at the sacrificial cost of our lives.

Isaac and Ishmael were reconciled in some way at the death of Abraham, who was still alive in the days of Jacob and Esau.

There may be more here than meets the eye. 

Wise As Serpents

 First of all I am quoting from Matthew 10:16, but if you only read that verse you are lazy, arrogant, and beyond repair in ever becoming a teacher worthy of the Master!

Context is key. 

This famous statement is only recorded in one of the synoptic gospels.  

 -----The word "synoptic" means "together sight." The Synoptic Gospels are called such because the authors "saw together with a common view."-----from GotQuestions.org

Not.Very.Synoptic.

Only one gospel mentions this section. It is a truly beautiful section with deep insights into what it means to be a follow of the Messiah of Israel in this evil age.

Don't expect peace.

Don't expect success.

Don't expect support from your entire family.

Don't expect to fit in.

Don't expect power.

Matthew 10:16 -  “Take note! I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be as cautious as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Schindler's List got me thinking of this as the Jews have to be wise as serpents to preserve life in the time of Nazi domination, forging documents, lying about abilities, lying about production.  

Sheep in the midst of wolves. Doesn't sound like a formula for success to me. Sounds like it is doomed to failure and it should have as a movement, and the Jewish people should have been wiped out by now, but the God of Israel specializes in showing mercy to preserve a remnant.

It is all mercy, sometimes it is just hard to see it. Praying for eyes to see and ears to hear His mercy and faithfulness is a good prayer.

10: 22 "and you will be hated by everyone because of my name. He who endures to the finish, however, will be saved."  This is the expectation of a true disciple in this evil age. Period. End of Story.

10:25 is a key to this passage. ^"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household!"  Yeshua is stating an important principle that was known in the Jewish world, your life will be like the life of your rabbi. It is an uncomfortable truth for the disciples, the leadership does not like Yeshua and they have the might of Rome behind them.

Here is something I don't understand and if anyone does, chime in.  Matthew 10:23 “Now when people begin persecuting you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I solemnly tell you this: You will certainly not finish going through all the towns of Israel until the Son of Man comes." 

Jerusalem and Israel is where they started preaching and they went out from there to the gentiles. So you would think there was a time when they "finished going through all the towns of Israel". This seems to indicate Yeshua would have returned in the neighborhood of AD 60 or so?

 One last question since I am asking questions.

Why does Yeshua from the cross assign John to Mary and Mary to John, he was going to see them in three days and then, an unknown number of times over the following 40 days, my questions regards the timing, Why then? From the cross?

Hope everyone has a good day. Life is filled with highs and lows, this evil age has no justice, no peace, He is our peace and He will bring justice. 

Lord, Lord Did We Not,,,

 Recently I was part of a little curfluffle with a person who had an agenda to emphasize the gifts of healing the sick and casting out demons above everything else. Very grateful for the grace of God. He gave me the wisdom to say, “scripture contains a very clear warning that people with these exact gifts can be looked at by Yeshua himself and told  “I do not know you.” Yet never ever ever ever ever anywhere in scripture is a person who loved sacrificially with the love that Jesus has put inside of them ever ever ever been told, “I do not know you.” So, put down your agenda to make other people feel bad because they’ve never healed the sick cast out demons or raise the dead like you’ve done, because if they are loving the poor, the widow and the orphan and showing mercy they are untouchable by your accusations and your agenda. Who is told you what is good O man??   YES WHO INDEED!

Christian Nationalism is a Horrifying Heresy that is Doomed to Destruction

 As a result of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11) the nations were given to lesser gods, to be ruled over and controlled. Deuteronomy 32 makes this a little more clear and the teachings of Michael Heiser, using the book of Enoch and other literature make it super clear if you are humble enough to sit under his teaching on these matters.

The Supreme God, God Most High, chose a childless couple from the Middle East to be the well spring of His work among the peoples of the earth.  Abram and Sarai were reluctantly obedient and had a lot of "fits and starts" along the way, with lying and laughing, but eventually, Almighty God, The Lord of the Angel Armies, confirmed a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and clearly stated that He was going to bring a ruler from one of the sons of Jacob, Judah, a strange choice considering Joseph is the star of the last part of Genesis, but God has His ways that are always higher than our ways.

The Bible only recognizes Jew and Gentile as the two existing ethnic groups, but the gentiles got handed over to the 70 (or 72 in the Septuagint) other Elohim the lesser gods warned against in the 1st commandment, You shall have no other gods before ME!

So if you look with spiritual eyes at the nations you can see, lust, greed, power, hatred, poverty, pride, etc. ruling and reigning over each of the gentile nations. 

Here is where it turns to heresy, if you begin to believe that your nation and your leaders are going to lead the way to the Kingdom of God, you have chosen to follow a false god.  God is bringing the kingdom of God through Israel, ethnic Israel, that people that land and gentiles are being given the incredible grace-filled opportunity to join that commonwealth and come under Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and be one with the chosen people of God. There is no Kingdom outside of that, that will last, period, end of story. 

Messiah’s Community Verses the Word “Church”

 This may seem like a radical statement, but stick with me and I will very quickly show you the truth.

You would not put up a Civil War flag representing the South outside of your "church" building to attract people who are black to your "church", but you continue to use the words like "church" and "christian" which have a horrible history to the ethnic Jewish person. 

Maybe it is because you don't know that history. Go to your favorite search engine and look up the term, "Pogrom". Here   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom#List_of_events_named_pogroms    about 1/2way down the page is a table you can look at. "Christians" or people identifying as "Christians" were at the heart of most of the persecution against Jews. 

Did you know that just before Columbus was "sailing the ocean blue" Spain was expelling all Jews from Spain at the request of the Christian leader?

The Crusades?  Oh boy!  Read all about it here,  https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/christian-crusades-timeline-1095-1258  

More bad stuff to read about (the Inquisition)    https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dominicans

So, hopefully now the statement at the beginning does not seem so radical.

I hope we will all consider taking down the "Dixie" flag and putting up words like "Messiah's Community" and "followers of the God of Israel" "grafted in branches" and I am sure there will be others if we take a creative approach to this.

As the times of the end draw near and one of our assignments is reflecting the heart of the God of Israel for the ethnic children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I would hope we would be willing to change.

Mercy is God’s Super Power

 Reviewing a conversation with Julie T. Today and found this gem about a dialogue between Moses and God. It is in Deuteronomy, God basically says these people are stiff necked and I want to start over with you Moses says that won’t look good in the eyes of the nations and with great humility refuses the offer. Then later Moses says to God, because we are a stiff necked people you should come and help in other words God, mercy is your super power, we throw ourselves on your Mercy!

“A little patience, please.”

 A quote from the movie “The Shack”.

And also something that spurred an answer to the question “Why did you name me Patience?”

This generation is the last generation in this evil age, they will need patience = long-suffering like no other generation in history.

You Really Only Gotta Do One Thing Right

 Humble yourself and trust the Messiah of Israel and HIS work of reconciliation with The God of Israel that HE did for you on the cross.

70 weeks are decreed

 When God decrees something that is a done deal. God decreed 70 weeks to Daniel through Gabriel. There is no arguing with this. There is no debate with this. It has to happen. 69 weeks have happened. But since the Messiah of Israel has not returned to the MOUNT OF OLIVES and set up HIS throne in Jerusalem. The last week has not happened yet. When it does you will know. It will be super clear. A covenant will be made and confirmed by some leaders in the world it will allow for a peaceful rebuilding of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Less than 3 years from the Jews being able to start a daily sacrifice the anti-Christ will take his stand in the temple declaring himself God. From that point the saints of the God of Israel are encouraged to endure for just 3 and 1/2 more years through the greatest time of tribulation the world has ever known, as the world is cleansed and purified of all of its defilement. Then the clean-up takes place and then the wonderful “garden of Eden-like” millennial reign begins. One book, one story, one conclusion!

Put a Guard

 Psalm 141:3  "Set a guard, Adonai, over my mouth.

Keep watch over the door of my lips."

Very rarely remember my dreams, woke up and remembered this one today.

It was a replay of words that I have said to my wife that were wrong in the eyes of God.

I had prayed days ago for our marriage and other marriages that they would be a reflection of Messiah (Christ) and His community (church).

I think this is part of the answer. That God is showing me my words are important and I have failed in the past on many occasions.

The God of Jacob is Our God

 “ Though it may seem elementary or self-evident to state it, to be a Christian means to be in conscious covenant relationship with Israel’s God.  An abstract “belief in God” is far removed from faith in the God of the Bible; He is not to be relegated to man’s concept of Him.  He identifies Himself as the “God of Jacob.”  It is only in this God-specified concreteness that He can function as God for the Gentiles.  To reject that particularity is in fact to reject God and  forfeit the benefit of that relationship. “. Art Katz 

We, gentile believers are grafted into THEIR vine, made a part of THEIR commonwealth, blessed to be included in THEIR covenant and promises.

THE GOD OF JACOB IS GOD MOST HIGH!  By the grace of God He is our God. As the times of the end approach we gentiles will be given more and more opportunities to show our appreciation to a people who will be targeted for and by the wrath of the anti christ more and more. Our association with them will make us targets! Disassociating from them will be the cowards way out and will invoke the ultimate wrath of God, “DEPART FROM ME I NEVER KNEW YOU!”

Trauma Bond

 Stranger Things (the TV series) had a good emphasis on trauma bonding among the young people.

I just finished the series so it is fresh in my mind. 

Art Katz has another great message to listen to. "Israel the Suffering Servant".  Listening to it and thinking about trauma bonding.  

We have that with the Messiah of Israel when we are going through persecution because of living a life that reflects His nature and character.  Israel and Jews will have that with us as we walk through the tribulation together.  Israel will have it with their Messiah when as Zechariah prophecies they see HIM who they have pierced.

Amen, maranatha.

http://artkatzministries.org/audio-messages/k-325-israel-the-suffering-servant/

Bringing His Presence

 Delay is not failure.  The Messiah of Israel will be the Savior of Israel, saving them from their enemies.  Delay is not failure.

Obedience - believing loyalty - Absolute surrender to God - will make way for the presence of God.  Calling for His presence,

Singing for His presence, 

without the conditions He has put down in writing, is a train going nowhere.

ELEVEN

 In 1974 the federal government, defense department division, ran terrifying experiments on children. Read that again!

America was never great!

Manifest Destiny is a horrible lie made up to justify killing, raping, lying to the people who had already settled in this land.

Greed, Consumerism, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, the principalities assigned to this region are obvious and very evil. 

One day they will be destroyed by the rock of GOD’s Kingdom, meanwhile those who cry out for true justice, know that their cry WILL NOT BE ANSWERED IN THIS EVIL AGE, so they cry , Maranatha!

Facts

 Facts; followers of the Messiah of Israel live in this evil age as strangers and pilgrims; we recognize the depraved evil so prevalent in this world and do what we can to be His light and His righteousness in a wicked generation; there will be no,make anything great again, in this evil age; we are on the fast track to true justice and true peace but on the way there (in the next 8-10 years) there will be an abundance of false peace and false “messiahs” and if all you want is “your best life now” you will fall for it like a house of cards; the pre-trib rapture is the first lie you have to crucify; Paul, the Apostles and all the martyrs throughout history and this past week scream very loudly the followers of the crucified Messiah stay faithful till the end no matter the cost!!

REALITY

 This was meant to be an honest, open look into my life. 

My wife is going through the “fire swamp” quick sand, random fire releases, rodents of unusual size, (“Princess Bride” reference) and she needs a loving man by her side, instead she has me.  Self-centered, whiny, and just an absolute amateur at being supportive. I FAIL HER!

My kids have had a dad who listened to wrong voices and over-disciplined them, to the point of being an asshole.  In many ways they are still recovering.

My co-workers have seen an irritable, cussing, slow-moving dude.

I grumble and complain more than any human I know. 

My fellow “church goers” have seen a manic driven boisterous, cursing, life-of-the-party, comedian, speaking out of turn.

Pray for me, I’ll pray for you.

Stranger Things

 I know I am very late to the party on this one.

Stranger Things is a Netflix TV show that ran for 6 seasons and ended this year.

The beauty that I see in it is these teen-agers,(a made up category in Western civilizations, that is actually historically, a young adult) NOW have a True and Deep and Powerful PURPOSE IN THEIR LIVES.

I have seen a great change in my own teen-age son as God revealed to him HIS purpose for my son's life.

I believe this is the absolute key!  We must be able to communicate to the teens that God has an amazing, life and death purpose for their lives as part of the gospel.

Let's Go!

Obedience and Surrender

 Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas two believers in the Messiah of Israel who could be counted on by God.   to be sent, whenever and wherever He commanded. 

These men like the prophet Elijah are human but they have surrendered to God and His will. Humans united by their desire to see God be glorified, surrendered to God, willing to obey Him whatever the cost, these go out in triumph over the principalities and powers of this evil age.

Many are selling and buying a short cut to being servants of the Most High. They are lying there are no short cuts.

Resurrection requires death!

Great Reminder and New Thought

 Beautiful reminder in a room full of men seeking God this morning. 2 Cor. 3:18 "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory—just as from the Lord, who is the Spirit."  It is by beholding God, His love, His character, His faithfulness that we are transformed.  It is not our striving in our own strength that gets us there, it is our focus on Him.

The new thought comes from a teaching on Aleph Beta, Adam and Noah were commanded to be "fruitful and multiply", Abraham was promised he would be "fruitful and multiply".  So grateful to be in the lineage of the man of promise not of command.

Resting and trusting, beholding and knowing.

     

The Great Falling Away

 Art Katz has a 3 part teaching on Cain and Abel.

It is unparalleled in its insight and how it brings that event, that relationship right into our modern lives.

It is one thing to say God loved Cain so much HE was willing to allow the sacrifice of Abel.

It is another thing to realize the followers of the Messiah of Israel, "we" are Abel.

Our call, our destiny when we cry Henani, "Here am I, send me." is not some comfortable road to glory, it is death to self, and daily death, and possibly physical death all because this evil age is NOT OUR HOME. 

A "church" this is wholly and completely unprepared for this destiny is ripe for the great falling away.

Where does the pre-trib rapture lie come from?

The divine rebel who states repeatedly, "Did God really say?"   Because God really said, we are to endure to the END.  Not ever did He say, 7 years before the end I will return and whisk you away before it gets ugly.

Believe the lie and you will be part of the great falling away.

The love of many will grow cold, because they expected God to love them like they love themselves. They did not have His glory as their highest goal.  Their comfort, their self-preservation that is the number 1 priority.

"You're never gonna let me down."   BEWARE of what you are singing.

Poverty is Intimacy

 "Poverty is intimacy."

Simple statement from a podcast.

deep truth

Jason Upton sings, "There's a power in poverty that breaks principalities and brings the authorities down to their knees."

Blessed are the poor

Living in an amazingly prosperous society with a lot of creature comforts, is kind of dangerous to our Christian life.

We end up praying for things to maintain the level of comfort that we are used to.

Ours is an upside-down kingdom.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed are you when all men revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you.

(optional long 'copy and paste' from an old blog written after I wrote a short book)

In order to see God face to face and to recognize that He is the source and perfecter of our faith, we must “come to the end of our strength” and see that we are NOT the source or perfecter of our faith. It is “all to Jesus”, so the place of seeing God face to face is the place of death, death to self, death to thinking that in any way, “I got this.” is a a true statement. It is a false pride-filled statement and leads to death.

     There is a reality, greater and far longer lasting than the reality we currently live in. Paul lived in it and wrote about it and encouraged his readers to discover it. The author of Hebrews states that Jesus endured the unimaginable agony of the cross because of the reality of the “joy that was set before Him.” The reality of the perfect love that casts out the fear of eternal judgment, is the one thing that John sets before us as capable of defeating fear.

     Standing in opposition to this truth is humanistic presumption. It states we can gather our resources and educate ourselves to a place where we learn to work together in peace and harmony. Never mind that no one who believes this can point to a time or a community where this shining example of human love has ever actually taken place,  Still they cling to it as truth. Sadly, examples of this among the followers of Jesus are few and far between also. We have been given everything we need to be able to display a foretaste of heaven, and yet we fall painfully short and give others good reason to mock our self-serving, self-centered efforts. Jesus is the answer, but who will take the time to listen. Who will listen with ears that are willing to go down into the dust and allow the man-made structure to crash and burn. Someone said, we don’t break the commands of God, we are broken on them. If the words of truth that we have available to read do not break the power of our confidence in the flesh, our plans, our goals, then God must use crisis of both inward and outward circumstances, to bring us to the end or our strength. This is ultimate love. The Doctor has made the correct diagnosis and the patient must submit to the prescription and the changes that He states.

     Our statement of faith in the midst of a trial, is, “God I trust you.”

   The diagnosis has not changed, from Adam, to Israel, to the modern believer. Sin has consigned all of humanity to death, God has given a substitute in Jesus, who died in our place. Possibly the saddest thing in all the world is when a person stops at that place, smugly proclaims that his sin has been paid for, takes just a little tiny bit of credit for making the “decision” to trust in Jesus and never considers the call, the purpose that is inherent in the salvation. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)To the degree that we do not love, is the degree that we have not truly taken into our being the cost and the mercy that was necessary for Him to love us. His life in us will be constantly working a death to our pride. Pride is the thing that kills the witness of the individual believer and the corporate body (wrongly called the church).  There is a sad pattern that is repeated through the ages. A change initiated and accomplished by the choice of God brings about a blessing in this temporary existence. The person or people begin to enjoy the blessings and a call comes to share or let go of those blessings. The call comes from the One who provided the blessings in the first place. A subtle evil change has taken place in the heart of the receiver and the call to relinquish the blessing reveals it. The receiver, who did nothing to earn or create the blessing, has taken possession of it. They have decided that it is part of them and they have the right to decide what happens to it. God reacts to this by bringing His word, clearly and rightly penetrating through the pride with truth. If that is rejected, then His love demands that He bring a crisis inward and outward circumstances that are designed to break the pride that grip the blessing in an eternally destructive way.

     This is ultimate love.

   Pride and human power are the enemy, they open the door for separation, fear, abuse, hopelessness, despair, and malice. If I allow in one microscopic size thought that I did even one, microscopic sized thing to bring about this blessing, pride will take that teeny tiny area and turn it into 40 acres before you know it. Nothing that has its root in that 40 acres is from God, every bit of it actively works against the work that God is doing in the earth.  I cannot do anything to activate this statement as a truth in your life.  This is a work of the Holy Spirit from start to finish.  (This section was inspired by writings by Reggie Kelly available at the.mysteryofisrael.org)

     The title I was given, “The Cross of Jesus Christ in the Life of Kathy Steele” seemed to get lost as the book progressed, but now here at the end, I see that it too has gone through a process of death and resurrection.  Kathy Steele was a friend of God.  He shares secrets with His friends and at a point in time, on a level that no other human being could be shown, one on one, with her God, Kathy had a conversation with her Friend.  She was asked to give up the blessing that God had given her for the good of others and she did.  We live in a fallen world where death still appears to reign as king, but the faithfulness of God does not stop at death.  Kathy knew this.  In doing it this way, God is very aware that most people will blame Him and cover up their hurt by lashing out in anger at the One who loves them the most.  If each individual would take a moment and pause and consider Kathy and her attitude toward this time, they would be confronted with truth.  Cancer meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to preserve life, to call you to see beyond this temporary existence, to cause you to be willing to release the blessings you have been given to be a blessing to others and to give you the strength and courage to lay down in sacrificial love for the least of these My brothers.