It’s still not what I would usually listen to, but it’s definitely not Joel Chernoff.
Update 11 April 2009: OK. “Listenable” might be stretching the point, but it’s not terrible.
Archive for the ‘Messianica’ Category
I Found Some Listenable Messianic Music!
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009Monte Judah Audio Files
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009In case I haven’t mentioned it before, Monte Judah has some interesting audio files available for free on his web site at http://lionlamb.net. Listen here. RealPlayer required.
Messianic Music
Tuesday, February 17th, 200999% of the Messianic music on the market is only on the market because there’s nothing else. Sugarcane and cellophane or worse. Some of it is very worshipful and I’m sure God loves to hear it. He can probably stomach just about anything if it’s done appropriately and with a right heart. Unfortunately, my tastes are a little more dependent on the quality and genre than are God’s. There are a few very talented individuals out there (e.g. Marty Goetz, Jonathan Settel, Ted Pearce, and Sue Samuel), but they aren’t producing anything I’d listen to on a regular basis. My parents would probably love them.
Here are a few that I like so far:
- Oleg Gitlin and Genady Shlapobersky – No vocals, but some very nice music.
- Les Morrison – Ditto.
- Michelle Gold – Definitely not within my usual genre purview, but I’m making allowances for the paucity of material.
Umm…Well, that’s it. I wish I could say there was something on which I’d spend money in hard times, but I haven’t heard it. There is some good Jewish music out there, though. David Gould and Matisyahu both do Jewish reggae, for example.
Va’eira 5769 – Patrilinealism and Naturalization
Friday, January 23rd, 2009Exodus 6:14
These be the heads of their fathers’ houses… By God’s design, all nations are counted according to their fathers. Contrary to modern Jewish practice, nationality is never determined by one’s birth mother. Most people who call themselves Jewish today are descended from Jewish men, but many are almost certainly not. Fortunately for them, naturalization is also a biblical concept. The mixed multitude that left Egypt with the Hebrews were considered by God to be Israelites. Many others are unknowingly descended from long forgotten Israelite roots, and God might someday call them out again to rejoin with their Jewish brothers in the land of Israel.
In fact, I believe he is already doing just that.
Sukkot 5769 – Master of My Judgment
Monday, October 13th, 2008I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all which is done under the heavens. It is a sad task God has given to the sons of men to be humbled by it. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. What is crooked cannot be made straight; and that lacking cannot be numbered. I spoke within my own heart, saying, Lo, I have become great and have gathered more wisdom than all that have been before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart has seen much of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I know that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. (Ecc 1:12-18)
It seems that for every gain there is an unequal, disproportionate loss. We gain the freedom to speak and lose the freedom to think. We gain the knowledge to cure diseases and use it to destroy our health and minds and spirits. We invent the means for unprecedented wealth and luxury by mortgaging generations to come.
It is a sorrowful pasttime indeed to search God’s words for meaning and purpose in this bleak morass. There are so many things beyond our control. God told us that “the poor shall never cease out of the land,” that there will be war, disease, and famine. Why would God do such things?
It is an invalid question.
So says YHWH, ‘Where is your mother’s bill of divorce, whom I have put away? Or to which of My creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother is put away for your sins. Who knows why I have come, and no one is here? I called and no one answered. Is My hand shortened at all so that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.’ (Isa 50:1-3)
God didn’t do this to us. If God wanted us to suffer, do you think he couldn’t do better than government oppression, runaway inflation, or a little coastal storm damage? We haven’t seen God’s wrath yet. There will be no mistaking it when it comes. Yet even then our problems will be of our own design. We sold ourselves into debt. We stopped up our own ears. We murdered our own children. He didn’t make us do any of that.
There is a solution. Though the rain will fall on the righteous and wicked alike, and there are certain to be hard times, we still have a shelter.
The Lord YHWH has given Me the tongue of the learned, to know to help the weary with a word. He wakens morning by morning, He wakens the ear to hear as the learned. The Lord YHWH has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor turned away backwards. I gave My back to the strikers, and My cheeks to pluckers; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord YHWH will help Me; therefore I have not been ashamed. On account of this I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together; who is master of My judgment? Let him come near Me. Behold, the Lord YHWH will help Me; who is he who shall condemn Me? Lo, they all shall wear out like a garment; the moth shall eat them. Who among you fears YHWH, who obeys the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of YHWH and rest on his God. (Isa 50:4-10)
When the Messiah returns the nations will be required to celebrate Sukkot in his honor. Those who listen and obey will be blessed with health, fertility, and abundance. Those who do not, will not. It might be a Hobson’s choice, but we were given three thousand years to contemplate our answer. Have we heard the question?
Israel and the Church
Thursday, October 9th, 2008My opinions on Israel and the Church will seem contradictory to many main-stream Christians and Jews, so let me kill your preconceptions right from the start:
- I do not believe the Old Covenant was done away with. God said “forever” too many times.
- I do not believe the New Covenant replaces the old. It adds to it (the covenant, not God’s Law), it enhances it, and it is superior to it in the same way that a state law is superior to city ordinance.
- I do not believe God has rejected the Jews, the physical descendants of Judah. He sent them into exile and promised to bring them back again. He will never reject them.
- I do not believe that there is one way of salvation for Jews and another for Christians. All people in all times are saved from their sins in the same way: by God’s mercy acting through the blood of Yeshua. That goes for Adam, Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, Thomas Aquinas, and George Washington. No one is saved by their adherence to a set of dos and don’ts.
My opinion is that God only has one people. Two brides, but one people. Judah and Ephraim (sometimes referred to as Israel or the Northern Kingdom) are two halves of one nation. Ephraim was sent into exile first and completely forgot her identity. God promised that he would not lose track of them, and that he would bring them back one day along with their sister. Judah appears to be returning from exile. Ephraim is sure to follow. Those who are physical descendants of tribes as well as those gentiles who attach themselves to Israel are all citizens of the same congregation. They do not replace Judah but are united under the Messiah.
Monte Judah’s September newsletter has a great article on this subject. It’s a little long and rambling, but I think he hit a home run: The Brotherhood of Judah and Ephraim.
It Was Never About Food
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008Yeshua turned water into wine. He fed the multitudes and talked of fish, bread, and leaven. He talked about hand-washing before meals, eating holy bread, and what comes in and out of a man’s body. He talked about eating and drinking with sinners, about fasting, about growing and catching food, about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Yeshua never talked about food.
Ha’azinu 5768 – This Is the Way Love Is
Monday, October 6th, 2008Deuteronomy 32:4-5Â He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He. They have corrupted themselves: they are not His sons; it is their blemish; they are a crooked and perverse generation.
God does not violate his own Law, nor does he force anyone else to do so. “They have corrupted themselves,” and they deserve their end. We all do. It is solely by his mercy and his obedience to his own law* that we escape destruction.
* If God keeps his own Law, does that mean he is under the Law? That he is accountable to it? Of course not. He is accountable to no one but himself. Likewise if we keep the Law, neither does it mean that we are under it. We are under the Messiah, and keep the Law for his sake and for the sake of those who see it.
K’doshim 5768 – A Set-Apart Community
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008Leviticus 19:1 – Torah is called “The Law of Moses” or simply “Moses,” but make no mistake. These are the words of God given through Moses. They are not the words of Moses.
v2 – “All the congregation,” meaning men, women, and children. The Torah is about living in harmony with God, the world, your community, and yourself. This section is primarily concerned with living in community with fellow believers. Paul referred to it as the Body of Messiah. We are to be different than the world (k’doshim) because we are a part of God’s people. Our standards must be different because his standard are different. When God follows a command with a statement like “I am YHWH,” he is emphasizing that we are to follow his rules because we are his. Not because we belong to the First Church of Whatever or because we are Jews or Chrisians, but because we have been adopted into God’s house. We live in his house, so we follow his rules.
v3 – If Yahweh is your God or if you want to live among God’s people, then keep the sabbath. If Yahweh is not your God or if you don’t want to live among God’s people, then “Do what thou wilt.”
v4 – If that other guy is your god, then you can make all the idols you want. “But as long as you live under my roof…”
v5-8 – Peace offerings must always be voluntary. Obedience is mandatory, but going the extra mile is better. Peace offerings are meant to be extravagant community events. They are not meant to be used for regular meals.
v9-10 – Leave something for the poor and the transient, but don’t just hand it to them if they are able to work.
v11-14 – Don’t cheat each other or be sneaky with each other. There is no place for maneuvering in God’s house.
v15 – Don’t play favorites. Don’t brown nose and don’t play Robin Hood, either. There is nothing wrong with being rich, and it’s not your job to cure poverty. LBJ was a fool.
v16 – Don’t be a tattletale, a gossip, or a slanderer. Mind your own business.
v17 – Confront evil (tactfully and quietly when possible) because it would be hateful to allow your neighbor to continue ignorantly in sin.
v18 – Be forgiving and turn the other cheek. I.e. be slow to anger.
The Firstfruits of the Resurrection
Friday, April 25th, 2008Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world, and it is bearing fruit, even also among you, since the day you heard and fully knew the grace of God in truth, even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, he also having shown your love in the Spirit to us. For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being empowered with all power, according to the might of His glory, to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things. For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven. And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His sight, if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and I fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the church; of which I became a minister, according to the administration of God given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God; the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power….
-Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, Letter to the Colossians
We search our houses for leaven in preparation for Hag ha Matzah and Firstfruits. We search our hearts for sin in preparation for Final Exodus and eventual Resurrection. Yet we know that yeast fills the very air we breathe, and sin inextricably infuses our flesh. It is only through Yeshua that we are made pure. Keep the faith, but know that in our weakness, he is our strength. In our failure, he is our success.
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