Parasha Va'era (And I Appeared)

From Rabbi...

We all know that conditions around the world are deteriorating and fast. There was a time when we could put our trust in the government but through all that is going on due to Covid-19 they have proven that they are totally stumped by this virus and as much in the dark as to what to do as any one of us. Once we could trust in the police, the military, the justice system but those too have let us down. We have gotten to the point today where we cannot trust in keeping our jobs or in the economy. What can we trust in today, where can we find a little comfort or solace in this chaotic world? For Believers in Messiah Yeshua and unbelievers as well the only real hope we have for real and sustainable help is in the Lord.

 

Psalm {121:1} "I will lift up my eyes to the hills [of Jerusalem]— From where shall my help come? {121:2} My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth." (AMP)

 

All that is going on in the world today is not a surprise to God, He is not stumped nor is He in the dark, in fact He is allowing it all to happen. God is preparing those that are truly His for the imminent return of Messiah Yeshua

 

Mark {13: 35} "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. {13:36} If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. {13:37} What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'"  

 

From Ellen...

As You know Jack and I follow the Victory Bible Reading Plan. Each year, if you have followed it brings the reader through the entire Word of God. Jack and I, as a married couple. have read the Bible through 30 years together and prior to marriage …even more times. All that said it never ceases to amaze us the illumination that the Holy Spirit delivers on the Word of God. This past week we were reading in the Book of Luke, chapter 4.  I know I have read this specific passage many times before but verses 5 and 6 jumped off the page! I will let you read them right here… "Then the devil, taking Him (Yeshua) up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Yeshua, 'All this authority I will give to You, and their glory; "for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.'" Wow what an illumination that was to know and understand that the devil himself was given authority to be over all the kingdoms of the earth. That statement the devil made was not just for then but has been carried to this very day! So, stop looking for the anti-Messiah because he has been ruling and reigning from before the time Yeshua walked this earth. What this is saying is our battle has intensified over the centuries and warfare is a part of Believers walk with God.  Do not let your armor tarnish. Do not let your knowledge and understanding of the Word of God diminish. Stand up and take the position the Lord has given you on the enemy's line and fight…fight the good fight and never forget that God is bigger than all this, we are victorious in Him and He rules and reigns over the devil. We know the outcome and we look forward to the Messiah's return…Maranatha Lord Yeshua!

 

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

 

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Parasha Commentary

Sermon: "Immanuel - God With Us"

Parasha Shemot (Names)

From Rabbi..

For decades there has been talk and concern over climate change and as time passes and as we see and experience these changes more and more, governments around the world are uniting in an effort to take the situation into hand. As we have recently seen with the international conference on climate change, they are making agreements, proposals, plans and promises to correct and even reverse the earth's ecological downward spiral.

However, as Believers in Messiah Yeshua and proponents of the Bible as the infallible Word of God, we need to put climate change into its proper biblical perspective.

Genesis {1:28} "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

This was a blessing given to Adam and Eve before they were deceived by Satan and sinned. However, after they sinned things changed and God pronounced the follow curses on them:

Genesis {3:16} To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." {3:17} To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. {3:18} It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. {3:19} By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Notice that God did not only pronounce a curse on Adam and Eve and their future generations, He also cursed the earth, the ground under their feet. Compare these curses with what we are told in Psalm 102:25 and in other passages of Scripture in the Bible, where God ordained the passing away of the earth. Therefore, man's effort to change or reverse what God has cursed, although it may delay the inevitable, in the end it will be an exercise in futility.

Psalm {102:25} In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. {102:26} They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them and they will be discarded. {102:27} But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.

From Ellen...

Hi Ellen here…Even in Israel, a Jewish state, you can hear Christmas songs in the stores and other public venues. This is not the sound of the birth of a King but a sound of commercial ventures and retail exploitation. We do not have Christmas sales or advertising but in certain neighborhoods little shops spring up to sell artificial trees, garlands and shiny colored ornaments. My point? What is the reason for this season? If the reasons were of thankfulness, blessing, generosity, giving to the needy and most of all the acknowledging of our Messiah Yeshua all would be well…but alas as Noel and Silent Night ring out in the shopping centers, people are living in fear of a virus, children and elderly are hungry and cold, the needy are more needy and the fact that our Messiah should be lifted up, unbelief rages on. Let us hold hands, reach into our hearts and pray for the Lord's will to truly be done here…on earth!

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

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Sermon: "Cults - Not So Subtle Deception"

Parasha Commentary

Parasha Vayechi (And He Lived)

From Rabbi ...

Romans 8:28 "God works everything together for good for those that trust in the Lord and are called according to His purposes."

Unlike the rest of humanity Believers in Messiah Yeshua do not live for today. Our lives and our futures are not bound up in the daily events of the world, nor do they depend on what is taking place and reported on by the daily news casts. Our hope is not based on this peace negotiation or that arms agreement; our lives are based on the hope of the promises of God as set forth in His Word, in the Bible. Our hope transcends the natural and extends into the eternal, it does not begin or end with this world but proceeds into and beyond death because of the death and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. That is why in this world we can say with confidence, if we are walking with God according to His purposes, that everything that is taking place and that will take place in our lives, even if perceived as bad, God will work out for our good. And because Yeshua lives, we have the eternal hope of life after death. The unsaved do not have this hope. Their lives are bound up in the here and now, they are like ships tossed by the waves with no anchor to bring hope or security to their lives. In fact, their hope is not hope at all because it has no basis, no anchor, it is just wishful thinking.

From Ellen ...

Hi Ellen here…Did you ever not feel "right", I mean like sick but cannot put your finger on the exact symptom? Your head hurts, you have palpitations, there is a pinching between your shoulders…you are not feeling well but not sick enough to call the doctor. What to do? Well, you can start to Google all your ailments, all your feelings and maybe even that strange spot that just appeared on the inside of your forearm. Why not? All those experts that have degrees on their virtual walls must know more and they will be able to diagnose you and then all will be well. Then it happens…as you read you become sicker and sicker and your "self-diagnosis" is a terminal disease and all hope is lost! Have you been there? People now believe Google before they believe the real thing. You can read up on all the symptoms and you become convinced that you are really, really ill! So why do those same people not, maybe even you and me, read the Word of God and take on its characteristics and believe the Creator of the Universe and those who penned His words on paper…We need to believe and walk in all that the Almighty God has told us. Stop leaning on your own understanding; know for sure that He will never leave or forsake you and truly believe as He is we are on this earth!!!

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

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Parasha Commentary

Weekly Sermon: God's Presence

Parasha Vayigash & Sermon of the week "God's Extreme Makeover"

From Rabbi...

Before I became a Believer in Messiah Yeshua as my Lord and Savior, I was involved in the occult. My specialty was psychometry, the ability to divine information about people or events associated with an object they owned solely by touching or being near to it. Friends and associates would come to me seeking to know what their tomorrow held, and I gained the reputation of being a psychic. Of course, upon coming to know the Lord, I recognized that the information I was receiving was from demons and that I was in communication with what the Bible calls familiar spirits. Looking back, it is amazing how much demons know about us and this knowledge of how much they know has helped me in the ministry of deliverance. However, once our lives are committed and bound up in the Lord, demons can not have any influence over us, nor can they judge or condemn us and certainly they no longer have the power to influence our tomorrows.

Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua,"

We do not know what tomorrow holds, our lives and our futures are completely in God's hands, or more precisely they are imprinted in the nail holes in His Hands. This alone tells us the extent of God's love for us and leaves us with the confidence that He wants only the best for us and, therefore, our futures are secure. Why then do we need to know our future when God's timing for our lives is perfect? So, instead of trying to figure out what our tomorrows hold, we should say as the psalmist:

Psalm 31:15a "My times are in Your Hands; …"

Glory to God!

From Ellen...

I don't know about you, but I ask the Lord all of the time…SHOW YOURSELF LORD – I NEED TO SEE TANGIBLE EVIDENCE OF YOUR POWER IN OUR LIVES!!! You notice I said in "OUR" lives; whenever I pray I pray as my husband and I are one. All that said, I want to share a miracle with you this week. You may not get the impact from it that we did but I am sure you will enjoy our experience. In the storage room at our apartment, we have lots of stuff. Little by little we weed out this and that. My bicycle of almost 45 years was really in the way of easy access. It was a good one and we kept it in usable condition, but we had only one. This would mean that we could not have outings together on one bicycle, so its time was over. We inflated the tires and wiped it down and it was good to go…but go where? Jack and I prayed at home, and we were led to leave it "Canada House". This is like a halfway house for new immigrants, they reside there until their language classes are finished and they can rent an apartment. We pulled up to their entrance but there was not anyone around, so we were going to leave it at their dumpster site for someone to retrieve it. As we were about to unload Jack prayed, "Lord, send the perfect person for this bike…". Out of a cluster of trees walks a young boy with a bicycle on his tee shirt. We beckoned for him to come over and in our broken Hebrew we asked if he would have this, pointing to the bike in our trunk. He said ken (yes in Hebrew), took the bike, squeezed the tires and rode off. Thank You Lord for tangible evidence of your Holy Spirit in our lives!

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

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Parasha Commentary

Sermon of the week "God's Extreme Makeover"

Parasha Miketz & Sermon "CHANUKAH 25th OF KISLEV"

From the Rabbi's Desk

When I was a child there were no microwave ovens and of course there was no such thing as internet and email. If you wanted to warm something up in my youth, you had to heat-up the oven, place whatever you wanted to warm in it and wait and wait and wait. If you wanted to search a certain subject for a school paper, you had to go to the library and take hours searching through an encyclopedia. Mail communication had to be done through the post office and even local mail deliveries took weeks to arrive at their destinations.

In today's modern technologically advanced world waiting thirty seconds for something to warm in the microwave seems like forever. Is it any wonder then, that we get anxious and impatient when God does not answer our prayers within our expected time frame! Sadly, some people get so impatient they go as far as to give up on the Lord and end up backsliding (falling away).

The Lord warned Judah, the Southern Kingdom after backsliding Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was sent into exile of their impending destruction, yet He waited 150 years before sending in the Babylonians.

Acts 1:11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Yeshua has promised us that He will return to claim those that have committed their lives to Him, yet over two thousand years have passed since His ascension and still no sign of Him. Sadly, some Believers have given up hope of Him ever returning, as they watch the world spiral lower and lower into sin and evil. However, the Apostle Peter warned us that this would happen:

2 Peter 3:3 "Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4) They will say, "Where is this 'coming' He promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

Not one of God's promises have ever failed and if we are faithful to commit our way to Him, we will yet see Him return, coming in His Glory.

Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."

Hi Ellen here…How do you act when it comes to a test? I remember when I was in school, the higher grades, I would wait until the last minute then cram, cram and cram some more until it was time for the test…wow did that become an exhausting experience. As I grew, I tried to change but with no success…I remember being totally exhausted in the exercise of trying to change, so I thought; 'why be so tired twice' and so I returned to cramming. Years later and only through the grace of Almighty God, I received the free gift of salvation. I did not have to cram for it, in fact it just happened, I wasn't tired and wow, those carnal and negative habits started to fall off like dried leaves in the autumn…God is so good! So, what is the moral of my little story? Do not dwell on who you were yesterday or on who you are today but look ahead, look straight ahead and receive the free gift of God that is given not by works but by faith!!!

Visit our blog for more teaching and to view previous Torah commentaries:

https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King;

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Sermon of the Week "Chanukah"