My Thoughts

My Thoughts on Christianity and Other Things

Archive for the tag “Judaism”

08 Mar 2019

Changed

It’s been over a year since I wrote anything. A lot has changed. Some for the bad, and some good, and none of it was planned.

In 2017 my wife and I decided we wanted to start a ministry for the Hard of Hearing (HOH). Also about the beginning of the year, 2018, I read a book on hearing loss: Odyssey of Hearing Loss by Michael A. Harvey. It was the best book I did not like. It was a good book in that it told the truth about hearing loss. However, I did not like the book because it told the truth about hearing loss. It brought up memories and put me in a bad mood. I wrote a post called Audism. (Not Autism, but Audism) After I wrote the article, I realized my bad mood was in my writing. So I never published it. But my wife and I were still going to different churches and even a Christian camp to talk about the needs for those with hearing loss.

The HOH ministry was not for the Deaf because the Deaf already have churches and social gatherings. The hard of hearing often don’t have churches or social gatherings. Imagine having difficulty hearing. Now imagine being in church. You can’t hear well. You use an amplified system and that helps, until they show a video. You understand maybe only a little of what the video says. Now let’s say your hearing gets worse. You can no longer function in the hearing world. But you also don’t know ASL, (American Sign Language) so you can’t function in the Deaf world either. You become alone, so you stay home. You start avoiding friends and family. My wife and I wanted to change that.

Another thing I wanted to do, was to go back to school to learn computer support. Years ago I was trained in computer networking. But since they don’t use Windows 98 anymore, I decided to be retrained just in the basics, so I could get a part time job. Most people only know me as a mechanic. But I also have a degree in computer networking and was certified as an electronic technician.

Then my wife’s health declined. I became a caregiver. The whole dream of starting a ministry stopped. I dropped out of school. Everything changed. I might write about this someday, but I might not ever write about it. I haven’t decided.

There is another thing that has changed. Something I can’t explain. I can’t explain it, because I don’t understand it. But I know it’s happening, and I believe it is a good thing.

A few years ago I studied and wrote about the book of Revelation. It took me a year to get through it. Many times I wished there was a Jewish rabbi sitting right next to me to explain Revelation. There is so much of it that links to the Old Testament. For example, the altar in Heaven mentioned in Revelation 9:13, is the real thing. I believe the altar in Exodus 27:1-8 is only a replica of it.

I know God is absolute. His love is absolute. His judgment is absolute. His word is absolute. He is absolutely trustworthy. His Holiness, and His might, is absolute. I have seen evidence of this.

So recently, this thing that has changed, is that I have an increased love for Israel. It makes no sense. Or does it? Many of you have heard that Israel belongs to God. Many people, including myself, are developing a growing interest in Jewish roots. If it wasn’t for the Jews, there would not be any Christians. I believe that the present day Israel is the Israel of the Bible.

It seems like there are Gentile believers in Christ, that are being led by God to love Israel. There have always been Gentiles who love and support Israel and the Jewish people. But I believe their numbers are growing. It’s a sense I have. I am finding ads on the internet to learn Hebrew and other things. I am finding many ministries of not only Gentiles reaching out to Jews, but also Jews reaching out to Gentiles, for Jesus or Yeshua, as He is called in Hebrew. There is a Jewish ministry that is translating the Bible from the Hebrew point of view instead of the Gentile point of view. They are doing this to help both Jew and Gentile believers in our Lord, our Messiah, understand the scriptures. I already ordered one of these Bibles. It will be a while before the first one is published.

I know this a little ‘disjointed’. I have a lot on my mind. I’m hoping to start writing My-Thoughts again on a regular basis.

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27 Dec 2013

New Years Resolution

Christmas is now over and 2014 is almost here. Many of us are making New Years Resolution. Dieting, going to school, getting in shape, and others things. This dieting business is hard to do. Even the Pink Panther knows this.

Just over a year ago I made an interesting discovery. For quite awhile my blood pressure has been a little high. Not high enough to take medicine, just high enough for the doctor to say “watch it”. So we have been watching our salt intake. I love to eat crab and shrimp and other types of shellfish, but partly because of the cost of such stuff and other reasons I haven’t had any for a long time. I struggle to get the blood pressure down. Nothing worked.

Then for some reason, (I’m not sure why) we hadn’t had any pork for about a month. When I went into the doctor’s office for a checkup; I found my blood pressure down. Not just down, but right in the middle of normal! Later my wife went in for her checkup and her numbers were close to normal also. Why?

I found the answers to be in these verses:

Leviticus 11:2-4
“Of all the land animals, these are the ones you may use for food. 3 You may eat any animal that has completely split hooves and chews the cud.

Leviticus 11:9-10
“Of all the marine animals, these are ones you may use for food. You may eat anything from the water if it has both fins and scales, whether taken from salt water or from streams.

In other words kosher foods. (There are more verses on the subject. I just didn’t list them.) So we will try to eat only kosher foods, more or less. What I mean is, if someone offers me some BBQ pork, well, I’m going to eat it. Because, well I really like the stuff. Another reason is to turn it down would be rude. The third reason is, Jesus said we could. That means that if we really want to, we can even eat little creatures called grubs. Yummy. (Yes I did try it once. I even had seconds.)

I believe the reason Jesus said we could eat anything is because without the food barrier, it made it easier for the early Jews to spread God’s plan of salvation through Jesus to the Gentiles. Sharing the same food makes it easier for fellowship and talk about Jesus as commanded in Mark 16:15-16.

So now a couple of thousand of years later, because of these early Jewish Believers, there are now Gentile Believers all over the world praising worshiping the same God as the Jews themselves. And this fulfills the prophesy in Isaiah 49:6 and is still being fulfilled.

Isaiah 49:6
He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.
I will make you a light to the Gentiles,
and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

And this brings us to the next part of my New Years Resolution. I want to go through Revelation bit by bit. I’ll be making notes and may be writing about it as I go along. Please remember that I am not a theologian, nor was I trained in any Bible college. I pray that I won’t mess up. Because even though Revelation 1:3 says God will bless those who read, listen and obey the prophesy in this book; Revelation 22:18 says that if we add or take away anything; we’re in trouble. And now I’m thinking, am I crazy for doing this? Please pray that I won’t mess up, and also if I do mess up and get something wrong, please tell me.

Getting back to kosher foods; if cod is kosher, is lutefisk still kosher?

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27 Aug 2013

Following The Lord Is Hard To Do

But why? And why is it so hard to trust the lord?

We all know about the Ten Commandments as listed in Exodus 20:3-17. A lot of dos and don’ts. It true we don’t like rules, but what about the fourth commandment?

Exodus 20:8-11
“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

You would think we would have no problems with this one. Laying back and taking it easy for the day. But we do work. Or we think about work. Some of us think more about work on our day off than we do when we should be working.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, why did they do it? They knew they were created. They knew everything around them was created. They knew God personally. So why would they make the decision to stop following God. Why would they decide to trust a snake more than they trusted God?

Moses did trust God enough to follow Him, and because of it lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, across a sea bed after the waters had been parted, through the wilderness with God feeding with food from Heaven, and on to the promise land.

King David committed adultery, then murdered the man whose wife he had the adultery with. Yes David sinned. But David repented. David trusted God enough to follow Him. Even to the point of standing before a giant to kill him when he himself was only a boy.

What about Joshua at the town of Jericho? The Lord told him to walk around the town with his men for 7 days then shout on the 7th day, and the walls of the town will fall. How does that work? When I was in the military, if my commanding officer told me to do this; I would wonder if my commander had flipped his led. And everyone else would wonder the same thing. Yet Joshua trusted God enough to follow orders. No matter what.

Joshua 6:20 said what happened when Joshua trusted God.
When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.

When a woman was net by Elijah, she trusted him because of God. God had told her to feed Elijah.
1 Kings 17:8-9
8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”

The widow and her son were about to run out of food. But even though it made no sense to do so; she trusted God and fed Elijah anyway. Read what happened next.
1 Kings 17:8-16

I would like to say I am good at trusting the Lord. But I’m not. Instead I am like one of the very many Israelites that roamed around for 40 years after leaving Egypt. After everything God has done for His people, they were still whining about this and that, not trusting God and therefor not always following Him.

In the book of Haggai chapter 1, it talks about how things may not go well for you if you don’t take care of God’s temple. We all know the temple is in ruins, and it’s not yet time to rebuild it. But we still go to a church or a synagogue. Is there something you can do to help fix it up if it needs it? Paint, cut grass, maintain the church or synagogue van, upgrade something? Fix the lawn mower maybe?

I choose to do something. It doesn’t always make sense, but I choose to trust my Lord, my God, and follow Him.

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