To continue a thought...not being born Jewish and/or for that matter not even knowing what Judaism was, what would I know about a Jewish Jesus other than that which I was taught (or not taught) by my family and/or by the non Jewish churches that I was attending as I was growing up. About all I knew of His (Jesus') Jewish roots was that He was born in Israel (Bethlehem) to Jewish parents, and that as was growing up He went to Synagogue to attend church. That's it, Period. So, for the longest time Jesus being a Jew was a kind of an abstract reality thing to me i.e., He's Jewish but really what does that mean to me? You know as a kid growing up with a complete sense of not knowing jack about anything other than the stuff that I deemed important to my world, Jesus being Jewish just wasn't any where near the top of my list of what's what that I thought was important. When it finally started to kind of dawn on me that Jesus was in fact Jewish I being a non Jew didn't think it such a big deal to me. As a matter of fact Jesus being a Jew after thinking about it for a little while made complete sense to me, but not for all the right reasons..the reasons of why he was Jewish. He was what He was. Period. But that's not a good enough reason any longer for me to hold on to. Jesus was born a Jew because God the Father chose the Jewish people as the apple of His eye. He LOVES Israel and He LOVES/and CHOSE the Jews as HIS chosen people.

Again, so what's my point. Glad you asked. The point is is that after I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior everything I read and studied in the bible was from a protestant point of view. The whys and wherefores, etc...behind the what was being said to me as a believer was enough, but Jesus is the Lord of more than enough, so it always seemed like I was missing something in the translation. The truth of the matter was was that I wanted more! I kept feeling a leading to somewhere else to find out what I was seeking but I just couldn't or wouldn't focus on that leading. FINALLY, Praise God! Something just clicked in my head and it dawned on me that the bible was written by Jews about a Jewish Messiah who had been talked about through out the entire Torah, that being Jesus the Son of the Living God and that my Savior was/is that Messiah Jesus. When you start understanding that we who have asked Jesus into our hearts have been grafted into the Vine, that we were the wild olive tree that was on the outside of God's chosen people and that now we are a part of the family of God because of Jesus' willingness to be our Sacrificial Lamb when He was crucified that day and then 3 days later arose from the dead...WOW! The bible gets really up close and personal quickly. We can celebrate all the feasts and all the Sabbaths now, we could before but now once you realize that it was never intended that the Jews and the Gentiles who accepted Jesus as the Messiah were to worship in different and separate places of Worship. The Good News is, is that we were adopted into the family, Jesus was the cornerstone that connects us together. I am telling you that it's awesome. My bride and I have begun observing and celebrating the Shabot (the Sabbath) ceremony at sundown on Friday nights now and I'm telling you it's not a burdensome or an incumbering process. Those who celebrate the Sabbath are asking for and releasing the Blessings of Father God to come upon them. Note: It's ok to celebrate the Sabbath beginning at sundown on friday and carrying it on until saturday's sunset and not celebrate the sabbath on sunday proper. Sunday was proclaimed as the day to Worship God not by God but by man so don't get into this frame of mind that I'm being a heretic or preaching heresy here.

Here's the deal: Jew or gentile, or anyone else; until you ever get to the point in your life that you finally know that you know that you know that you are (A) a sinner, someone who has missed the mark; who can not by his/her own means have any hope of eternity with God the Father without FIRST acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God, that He was born of a virgin was blameless and lived His life without sin and that He was the Sacrificial Lamb who was crucified-died-and then arose from the dead thus conquering death, disease, and satan for all time. And (B) You believe upon Him as your Lord and Savior that He came to this earth to save all of mankind proper (you personally) from Hell. Until you call out to Him asking Him to save you and that you want to give your life to Him, you invite Him into your heart, and that you tell Him that without Him you are lost and without hope..and (C) until you confess Him as your Lord and Savior and thus proclaim that everything else in this world you have done, accomplished, or hope to do is all for naught without Him as your Lord and Savior...until you do these things you are LOST, you are totally hopelessly LOST. The GOOD NEWS is, is that a physician known as Luke who lived some 2000 years ago, a disciple of Jesus and friend of the Apostle Paul made the following statement which answered this question "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" Luke 9:25.
Well Praise God! One day it (the plan of Salvation) became a real and viable subsistence in and to my life. I cried out to God and begged Him to save me because I was hopelessly lost and on my way to Hell. Everyday I give God thanks for what He did for me, and everyday I try to not have other idols before me. I try to obey God's laws and principals everyday, and Praise God when I come up short of the mark He is always willing to forgive me IF I ask Him to forgive me.  He Loves You personally one on one. It is just so easy to become a Christian..ask Him to come into your heart. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins. If you are at a point in your life that you want to get serious with God the Father He is always there wanting to be serious with you. Being a church member, a choir member, or you've been a deacon for the last 50 years doesn't mean squat if you haven't had a personal one on one with Jesus. He's not looking for another someone else, He's looking for you to ask Him to come into your heart.

You know (or maybe you don't know) that I am not a big believer of or in coincidences, i.e., "stuff just happens". Caveat:I can't say (nor can anyone else say either) that with a 100% pure certainty that sometimes "random" things just happen for no apparent rhyme or reason BUT for the record, I just don't believe that "that whatever" that does happen in life doesn't happen for some reason either for the good or for some the bad to their present circumstances. Personally, I am more of a believer of divine providence or intervention if you will. Meaning let's say that if I am flipping through the channels on the t.v. and I end up watching a God inspired message that I didn't have any prior knowledge of it being on and yet it turns out that this particular message is in fact the Word that I needed to hear at that moment of my life, or to say it was something that I had been praying about and then all of sudden this message is the exact answer to that prayer...What I'm saying is is that it wasn't "lucky" on my part that I stumbled onto it...to me it was Gods' leading me to hear what I needed to hear from Him via this particular vessel.
The Holy Spirit is Power! And for me to discount that Power would in my eyes just plain foolishness on my part. Prayer is Powerful! I used to just hate having to pray for something because once upon a time in my life prayer was just something to do when everything else had failed. Or to say, if I couldn't fix it by myself then reluctantly I would throw it up to God and see what He'd do about it.  I realize that nobody else did this foolish type behavior, but I did much too many times.
It's coming into September and after much prayer and then a little bit more prayer after that I have decided to go on a sabbatical from my church "duties" for the entire month of September.  Those of you who read this post know that I play in the Praise and Worship band at my church, well oddly enough sometimes you get yourself focused on the presentation of the Praise instead of the content and the Glory of the Praise and the same thing with the Worship. It is my honor to be able to use my talents for the Kingdom but I also want the opportunity to just sit out in the audience and soak in the Glory of the Holy Spirit without getting wrapped up in actual "presentation" of playing the music, what I want to do is just let the music, and the Praise and the Worship and the excitement of the Praise and Worship just flat out overwhelm me while I am standing out there in the congregation. This will be my intent and goal this next coming month.  The plan is is that I will be visiting other churches who are hopefully seeking the Holy Spirit's Power and direction for their churches; hopefully we'll be visiting a couple of churches who aren't afraid to openly and joyously Praise God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in song and Praise. This idea of 3 hymns and a sermon just doesn't cut it with me any longer.  I have tasted what pure Worship and Praise is when we visited the Florida Out Pouring down in Lakeland Florida last year. Roy Fields was the Praise and Worship leader down there and I am here to tell you after you hear 7000 plus Christians openly Praising the Presence of the Holy Spirit in their mist singing songs like "How Great Is Our God" and "We Are The Generation" when you finally go back to your home church and you know that you know that you know that nobody there "really" wants to get all that excited about celebrating Jesus in that fashion, you have a let down of major proportions that just kind of knocks the air right out of your sails. Anyway, I want my sails to get filled again.
I've been reading the Psalms again listening to David speak to God in his songs of Praise. Note: If there is anyone out there who believes that you have to pray to the Father in a King James Bible Version manner...get over it. David spoke his heart and thoughts to the Father. He sometimes even yelled and got angry with and at God and got irked that his prayers weren't being answered in a timely manner according to Davids' timetable. He also sang love songs to the Father telling Him how wonderful and glorious God was to him and yet he also sang songs of sadness because his people were rebeling blatantly against God. Praying is talking to God. As far I am aware no one I know speaks to me or anyone else I know constantly using thou's and thus saith thus and such to me any more..granted, they may be talking to me that way and I'm just not listening to them but mostly the people that I know just "talk" to me straight up. So, why wouldn't God want you to talk to Him in the same way. I am also presently reading the Book of Kings. God truly loved King David because even after David's son Solomon began worshiping idols and straying away from God, The Father because of His Love for David still let the heirs of David rule Jerusalem. Personally I don't get it, men who were hand picked by God the Father to rule Israel literally thumbed their noses at God and worshiped idols instead of the Father God. Solomon who had wisdom out the wazoo still wasn't smart enough NOT to continue to Praise and Worship God but turned his eyes towards the world and wanted to please it instead of God. They lost their kingdoms, and ultimately their lives and the lives of their heirs because they chose to follow manna and not God. I'm here believing that if God (and He IS) IS then, and is God NOW and is the God for ever and ever; then whatever His Law was then is still in play today and will be tomorrow and forever after that. Or to say, Heaven and earth may pass away but His Word will be forever. Amen. I pray for Peace for Jerusalem, and I do my darnedest not to put anything before God in my life. It may happen sometimes but once I realize what I've done, I repent and then I ask God to be first in my life again. I don't want idols in my life, I don't want "things" to own me. It's ok to have things and to be prosperous, God Bless me and prosper me but I don't my prosperity to come between God and me. Or to say, money isn't a bad thing it's what you make it become. To me it's become a seed to plant. If I don't use my seed for the Kingdom than what it does is buy me maybe a decade or two or maybe even three of earthly stuff. period. The truth is is that this earth really isn't my home per se. I am just a sojourner passing through with an eternity spreading out in front of me, waiting for me to live in.  I don't want my short little 80 plus years here on this planet to mess up my forever and ever in the Kingdom to come. Well..I guess that's it for today. Sometime in the near future we'll have to talk about "somebody" always getting offended and what's their problem? Ok until the next time when you pray, pray like you're having a heart to heart with God and don't hold back from what you want to talk to Him about. Clear the air with Him, and He'll clear the air with you too. Later. 

Is it wrong or is it right for someone to take a side concerning those matters (those somethings) that concern the heart? Or should one just step aside and let life happen even if you know that you know that you know that the parties involved are going to literally take one of the biggest hits of their lives and feel some of the worst pain that they've ever felt before? I'm thinking probably both yes and no.  As I sit here writing this post I am almost ring side to a marriage that is unraveling and falling apart due to who knows why and what the reasons are but is. 25 years of marriage/hard times/good times/multiple highs and lows and everything else in between that are about to become the other side of the statistic board, that almost 50 percent marriage failure stat.  I guess I could simply guess and speculate the whys of it all or make it all fit into this or that particular scenario etc...but, why do that, it is what it is and honestly in the end it's kind of like those lyrics from that old song by Charlie Rich "Nobody Knows What Goes On Behind Closed Doors".  I certainly don't know what or what didn't  transpire or what did or didn't happen and/or who said what to whom and/or who's feelings got hurt but I do know this for a fact and without reservation, both of the people involved are in an aura of disbelief and pain like they've probably never felt or had to deal with before...ever.  Death is much much easier to deal with than divorce. I've had to deal with both experiences and I'm here to tell you unequivocally that one of them was so much easier and a whole lot more manageable to deal with than the other. With one you know that you probably won't bump into them and/or any of their friends that may be blaming you for  what happened be it fact or fiction (even if in their minds they absolutely know the truth) and with the other, you know that it's a final scenario. I guess I could have a sit down with one of the parties involved and tell him almost to the letter what's going to happen to his life in the near future but (and it's a big but too) IF he doesn't want to talk about it then all the reality I can infuse into his near coming experience/s doesn't mean squat.  Shoot, when I went through my divorce I didn't want anyone to even know that I was going through the stupid thing. I was ashamed of my failure (that being that I was actually getting a divorce) and I was ashamed that I had failed my family in general (even though they had gone through a divorce themselves-at least some of them anyway) and I was ashamed that I had failed God and the vows that I had made to Him.  Please note: I wasn't the perfect husband to my then wife. I didn't take my vows all that seriously and I didn't take God all that seriously either, but nevertheless I failed at my marriage and it sucked.
Up date: I got to talk a little to one of the parties involved with this pending divorce, Note: condemnation isn't an option here either, he was hurt and he was hurting badly. If you have never gone through a divorce yourself or if you have never been a child of divorce me trying to explain all the damage that it (that divorce) can cause to your heart set, mindset and to your own self worth per se would be like me trying to tell you where every piece of shrapnel goes when a bomb explodes out on a battlefield. I can kind of maybe tell you where some of the pieces hit and kind of somewhat tell you what kind of damage that some of the pieces caused but I can't exactly and precisely tell you where each and every piece ultimately ended up and what it destroyed on it's path to it's final resting place. Sadly though sometimes the divorce process won't stop, it just seems to keep perpetuating itself over and over and over again because one party involved wants their piece of flesh forever from the other party i.e., the one party who felt that they were wronged. Sometimes one party wants to keep reliving the pain (over and over and over again) even when the other party just wants to move on with their new lives. As far as I can glean even the best divorce under the best circumstances still hurts a lot, and you still have to live with the reality that you failed at something you believed would succeed and prosper. 
Anyway, we talked...well, he talked and I listened and I encouraged him when I could and I gave him the best advise I could to his circumstance. Was it the best advise that he could possibly obtain and did it make his life less painful at this point in his life?, maybe not but it was the best advise I could give him, hey it was honest if it wasn't anything else.  I don't take sides EVER because even in this case I happen to like both parties and you tell me what happens if they get back together again and I dumped on his bride. Hey he isn't going to remember that I was trying to be his bud or his pal during this time, all he's going to remember is that I bad mouthed his wife and now I am the enemy and the object of his scorn and anger.  Note: lesson learned on this.

You pray and you pray and then you pray even more about it, but what you wanted to happen doesn't. Does this make God incompetent? Does this make you angry to the point that you want to tell God off? Was it "God's Will" that what you wanted to happen didn't? Listen...God IS God! Period. Do I believe that prayer is powerful and that it can change things? Absolutely! Prayer is the most POWERFUL entity/substance that exists in this world today.  I had a mother who prayed for me constantly. I had a dad who would pray for me even when I didn't or wouldn't believe or have the faith to even hope for a second that his prayers weren't bouncing of the ceiling and smacking the floor where I was sitting. They prayed with the belief and certainty that God would listen to them and that God would answer their prayers concerning me. I now pray for my own children with that same certainty of my parents. I want all my kids to come to a full knowledge of Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and King. I don't want any of my children to perish in Hell nor any of their children. I like my parents have put my faith in His Words of Life that being that not only I will Prosper in Him (prosper being growing in favor and knowledge of Father God and His Love) but also my family members, See the Book of Acts chapter 16 verse 31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
Well, I prayed and prayed and then even prayed some more concerning a man who just recently died. I didn't want him to die, I wanted him to be healed and then I wanted for him to get out of his death bed and to get back to his normal life. I did not want to claim or give an inch to the cancer and/or to the death that was chasing him.  I wasn't in denial nor was I in a dimension of false reality. I actually believe that prayer is Powerful and that Prayer DOES CHANGE THINGS even to the point that when everybody and their uncle is talking death and fatality I am believing for a Miracle. Sadly though he died. Please understand though that I am angry at God nor am I thinking that God somehow failed me or my prayers to Him. Actually I kind of feel that I let God down somewhat in all of this.  You know it was very possible that when this man died it was in fact his appointed time to die, we are all appointed once to die and this may have been his time. I wouldn't know the difference if it wasn't. I don't believe for a second that God "put" cancer on him and that God "made him" suffer to teach him some sort of lesson. And I don't believe that his suffering was a tool if you will to teach me how to pray more earnestly to God in order to get a better result the next time around for someone else's pain and suffering...that's just plain silly. The truth of the matter is is that I will  pray more earnestly and I will expect more earnestly for a Miracle than I did this time around.  Note: I can't nor can you heal a soul, I can't heal a gnat; ONLY God heals and it's in and through Him that we are able to do anything...so, what I am telling you is this is that I am NOT going to whip up my faith and get a better result per se "the next time" but, what I am saying is this; there was a time when I NEVER prayed for ANYONE'S healing or did I expect that ANYONE would in fact get healed. I held on to that "well if God wants to heal me or someone else He can just go right on ahead and do it with or with out my 2 cents worth of faith and/or prayer." Note: there was a time in my past life (that time when I didn't have Christ in my life) that I didn't have 2 cents worth of faith concerning anything not to mention a mustard's seed worth of for faith for anyone to get anything especially a healing from God. But NOT NOW...NOT THESE DAYS...I continue to pray expecting great and mighty miracles to happen and I'm I here to tell you that one of those miracles is that I believe that Miracles happen and that they are of the Hand of God.  Jesus said to pray for one another so that YOU may be healed, heads up here, we are supposed to pray and to believe and to expect God for Miracles and Healings. It's not up to me heal anyone, but it is up to me to pray and expect healing for everyone. You know I wasn't there when God set His plans for me into action, and note: He knew me long before I ever knew Him or loved Him and He knows my every thought and deed that I've ever done or will do, and he also knew this man's life plan also.  So, even though I wanted God to heal this man maybe (and I don't know) just maybe God wanted him more.  I do know that the moment his heart stopped and the last breath of life left his earthly body he was standing before Jesus being welcomed into Heaven. And not because he was a good man or nice man or any other type of man it was because he professed Jesus as his Lord and Savior. His sins had been forgiven, his sins had been covered by the Blood of Jesus on that cross.  Am I sad? Of course I am. I came to respect and then to love this man for who he was and how he treated me and my family and he will be missed greatly.
I heard a preacher say something the other night that I believe was just profound and earth shaking and that was "it's not our total purpose here on earth to get saved and then die and then go to Heaven" that Jesus came to give us an abundant life right here, right now in the sweet now and now and for us to live our lives in Him. WOW! I was reading that in the bible yesterday and it said to "Live within His Love", how awesome is that! Love NEVER fails, and God IS Love, and I want to LIVE within that circle..don't you?
Being a Christian is so much more than just Salvation now you aren't going to be a Christian if you aren't saved by Grace by your Faith in Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior but, that's just the start of it all, that's the starting line...the life in between that moment of transformation (when you ask Jesus to come into your heart) and until the moment you die and are in the presence of the Lord that's the exciting space to be in.  How would I or anyone else learn how to know what faith is and/or how to use it if we didn't actually use it. Don't have faith in your faith, have Faith in God in His Son Jesus and in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Know that God so loved the world that He sent, that He gave His only begotten Son Jesus to die on a cross to be the atonement for your sins. And brothers/sisters we are all sinners before we surrender to our Lord and Savior. Believe and Receive His Salvation. Until the next time. Take care, be safe. Talk to you the next time around. Later.