Holding Court 27 Aug 18

Working Dates: Monday, August 27, 2018 to Tuesday, August 28, 2018
[10 pages]
Doug Addison: Feel like You’re Birthing an Elephant?
Israel 365 (26 Aug 18): Streaming Water ✡ “So Shall This Land Fall To You As Your Heritage”
Psalm 45:1 My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
Jon and Jolene Hamill: This turnaround is granted by Heaven’s court. Daniel 7:22 continues to be our mandate and prototype; judgment in favor of the saints, restraining the enemy and releasing the saints to possess the Kingdom!
Daniel 7: 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The Shelah connects the concept of a roof – a high place – to haughtiness, which makes a person feel superior to others. Just as we are instructed to make a boundary around a roof, so, too, we must make a boundary around our pride.
Jon and Jolene Hamill: We have already seen Israel and America dramatically impacted by this turnaround verdict. In January 2018 a visitation from the Lord alerted us that He is now releasing the next phase of His Daniel 7:22 turnaround. The launch of this movement took us from the Western Wall on the 70th anniversary of Israel’s rebirth, to Sacramento, CA to help spark a renewal of godly government, to the halls of the State Department for the first-ever global ministerial on religious freedom.
Mark 7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Brat: Your tactics and choices shut me in this cyber-house and tied me with ropes (Ezekiel 3:25), so that I could not go out among the people. Now even Ascent on Facebook didn’t respond! How do we go anywhere without a response??
Journal (in “Speaker for the Dead” 10 Oct 2014 [!]): In Ender’s Game the buggers don’t talk either. So, who will be the Speaker for the Dead?
Chuck D. Pierce (in “Donno” 22 Aug 18): “My call to you is very personal. Hear Me call your name so you can begin to gain direction. I am calling your name to show you the way. If you listen for My voice, I will pour out what you never could have imagined. Like My call to Abraham going up to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah, I am calling you into an understanding and a sacrifice you’ve not had before. When you present this sacrifice, it will shift your supply lines properly.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: “Similarly you shall do with all of your brother’s lost things.” (Deut. 22:3)
Steve Shultz: Your PERSONAL Word of the Lord
Shawn Bolz: “My Sheep Hear My Voice”
Israel 365: Rabbi Tuly Weisz (26 Aug 18): Join us at the Kotel on Sept. 12, Kathryn Hauser
Brat (in “An Unresolved Murder” 19 Aug 18): I am truly sorry and apologize to the Sanhedrin for the infractions of the Church over the last 2,000 years. I stand with other believers at the spiritual Wailing Wall and cry out in concert with those abandoned by their Church and are seeking refuge. We do teshuva in asking for your forgiveness. We honor your service. The Lamb is looking as one who is slain. (Rev 5:6), because we have done it to Him by not believing He is King and Lord of our lives. May we be held accountable to God and you. Please send an emissary, so that we may work toward reconciliation.
Song of Solomon 2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.
Brat: Rabbi Tuly? Is that you? Is it a planned thang that you happen to be in my inbox escorting your flock through the Book of Ruth right now? And sending out the Israel 365 daily quotes? And leading Christian/Israeli tours? And bringing comfort to Holocaust survivors? I know you’re Super-rabbi, but I worry about you. I pray for you. Throwing out a personal word is not the same as having a personal relationship.
Ezekiel 3:1 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.”
Doug Addison: Major shifts have been happening all over the world. This is because the “Key Angels” have started going around collecting keys that are unused assignments, anointings and gifts that have been laid down by others. These keys are now being redistributed to different people and God is issuing new assignments!
Martha Spong: My son is getting married next spring, at the church where he was baptized and I was ordained. My wife will be the officiant, and on a trip this summer, we visited the sanctuary with the young couple, noting the logistics of the space, talking through the components of the service, and considering possible readings.
Jonathan Udren: The communal is fundamentally sound, as opposed to the individual, because the individual is in a state of constant change. But the community stands, since it is not subject to constant change.
Brat (in “Open” 26 Aug 18): Open
Open heart, vulnerability
Open hand, hospitality
Open eyes, clarity
Open mouth, prophetically
Open song, graciously
Open heaven, visitation
Open door, opportunity
Open will, humility
Open smile, joyously
Open scroll, sweet (Ezekiel 3:3)
It was a Scroll of Remembrance. It was sweet.
Until it got stolen. Then it turned my stomach sour. (Revelation 10:10)
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Make a boundary around a roof. The railing on the roof is not for the owner to protect himself, but to protect the visitor.
Pastor John Tolle (26 Aug 18): If we don’t respond it gets lost in the mix.
Ezekiel 3: 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.
Brat: The Church has fallen, because she had no railing, due “to the gravity of haughtiness in a community leader.” (Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter)
James 1:19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger
Anna Blake (in her poem called “Sanctuary” 27 Aug 18): … Neglect is a lie told against the casual
beauty and abundance of this planet;
a cynical sin of omission. There is food
enough, none here would deny you,
recognizing a shared wasting place within
us. In offering you sanctuary, we save
ourselves, held in the care of each other.
Doug Addison: Often, when God is wanting to release something big, the enemy begins to attack in a big way! Many of us are feeling the effects of this in our daily lives through attacks on our finances, health and relationships. During this time of transition, God is asking us to open our hearts, so He can pour His love, hope and peace into it. As we do this, we allow room for God to step in as our faithful, loving Judge. His verdict is always in our favor!
Jon and Jolene Hamill: As part of this movement, Jezebel is now being thrown down from the gates of governmental influence. God is delivering His Body from sinful and idolatrous structures tied to the Jezebellic spirit as part of this separation of light from darkness. This force of darkness always incorporates accusation, abuse, sexual immorality, and witchcraft to impose unjust control upon humanity. Countering this force by verdict from Heaven’s court is key to releasing women into the fullness of their destiny as end-time leaders. Once again, I hear the Lord declaring: “LET MY PEOPLE GO!”
John-Paul and Annie Deddens: Today let’s pray that the evil of sex abuse in the Church is cast out like the apostles cast out demons.
James 1:26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
Doug Addison: Take Your Decrees into the Courts of Heaven
Jon and Jolene Hamill: These will be formed with the substance and weight of Holy Spirit. The tabernacle of David is being restored. And a dimension of the breaches which caused it to fall have now been restored. Under various expressions of His bridal canopy, the Lord is joining us back to Him and in Him, back to each other.
Lana Vawser: Where many of you have found it hard to believe, found it hard to keep your hope at times, where it has been such a battle to continue to stand or believe, there is MAJOR breakthrough upon you in this divine comeback. The ways you are going to see the power of God move in and through your life is going to release such faith into your heart again to believe for greater things than you have before.
Martha Spong: When I was a young bride, the first time around, we read what the never-married apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians about husbands and wives, and how they were to love each other. He compared the wife to the Church and the husband to Christ. I had no idea how those words had been used to create and perpetuate family dynamics and cultural systems that permitted abuse of women. Is that really how we think Christ would show love to the people committed to follow in his way?
Jon and Jolene Hamill: As we’ve emphasized, there is absolutely no room for prejudice or abuse in this movement. This is actually the lowest rung on the ladder we are called to ascend. God’s dream is that every tongue, tribe and nation dwell together under His bridal canopy!
Journal (not publically posted) in “Be Subjected” 27 Aug 18: Ezekiel 3: 24 Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people.
Brat: For the future record, it’s not about you being gay that is the reason for the silent rebuke that I cannot utter. It’s that y’all refused to listen.
Doug Addison: Knowing how to operate in the courts of Heaven is extremely important to the season we are in right now. It is especially important in the area of your destiny! Through the courts of Heaven, I have successfully petitioned for healing, finances, relationships, world crisis and more.
Martha Spong: Yet this seemingly outdated passage from a letter written almost two thousand years ago contains an instruction I embrace. “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” While to be subject can sound like giving into the control of another person, it takes on another meaning when two people offer each other mutual accountability.
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter (in “Donno” 22 Aug 18): “And you should make a fence on your roof”
Matthew 24: 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.
Mary Luti: “I am like a little owl of the waste places.
I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
I eat ashes like bread, because of your indignation and anger, O God;
for you have thrown me aside.” – Psalm 102:6-10
Revelation 3: 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Martha Spong: My wife and I took our vows almost six years ago, in this new era of marriage equality. We have had to adapt and revise what we learned about marriage when we were younger. The binary roles of husband and wife are something we joke about at those times when our division of labor seems to fall along stereotypical lines. What we have is something new for both of us; our partnership relies on being answerable to each other.
Mark 7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me
Martha Spong: Prayer
Holy Love, give us all the gift of reverent mutuality in our closest relationships, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Brat: You fed the churning wheels of the living creatures, cuz you (UCC) are one of them. This is hypocritical to speak of reverent mutuality in our closet relationship. Yes, you heard me right: I said closet not closest. It is prudent for a girl to know her wardens (uh, chaperones)! God said the Church was to care for widows and orphans and you talk about binary roles that fall on stereotypical lines? Y’all knew my plight and did nothing! To me that feels no different than all those Catholic priests molesting their victims and getting away with it because they had the power of the Church and their ordained position behind them.
(In “Mama Goose to Blue Angel Squadron!” 23 Oct 2014 [!]
Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 11:41 am Journal: Parked at Pleasant Valley Park. Rick Joyner was right when he said:
“In Luke 6:37 the Lord said, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.” From this text, believers and non-believers have assumed that Jesus told us not to judge others, but that is not what He said or meant.
In Luke 6:37, the Greek word translated “judge” is krinete. This could more literally translated “to distinguish as in putting into a category.” It could actually read, “Do not stereotype.””
This is accurate teaching. Judging righteously (ie, sans stereotyping) looks for ways to help, redeem, and restore by coming in the right spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
[Paul! Angels are in this life!]
In Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card, 1985) the children fought the buggers thinking they were playing games, when in actuality their “games” were played out in real battles without them knowing it. If they had known their battles were real, the Truth would have paralyzed them and made them ineffectual. In truth, the Children of God are like angels.
Matthew 22:30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
Yo! Smyrna, check this out! And you’re worried about a threat of slander? (Rev 2:9)
Luke 20:36 And they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.
Since we will judge nations and angels, we must anchor in forgiveness first and judge within that context. Forgiveness is like jasper. When the angels forgive the Churches then all the Church-as-Bride has to do is follow suit.
Rick said: “I am addressing this because possibly the main factor keeping the church from becoming what it is called to be, and keeping Christians from seeing God’s redemptive purpose with Israel, is unrighteous judgment. This is mostly the result of so little being taught about righteous judgment. The twelve apostles were told that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel in the Lord’s kingdom. We are told that we will not only judge nations, but also angels in the age to come. This age is about “training for reigning” for those who will rule and reign with the Lord in His kingdom, and this is something we must learn now.”
Squawk. Honk.
Mama Goose to sapphire Blue Angels in formation (arc to Rev 21:19): Since we have learned about unrighteous judgment, bank to the right and fly straight! Humpty Dumpty is golden inside. Do you read me?
Code Word: Forgiveness. Jesus did not use the word ‘Forgiveness’ with the Seven Churches. It was The Lesson each Church had to learn.
Message to the Children of God: Do not stereotype the angels. Forgive them and the Churches.
Over.
(Four years ago in “The Hodý”): Monday, October 27, 2014 at 9:30 am Me to Rick Joyner:
Mama Goose to Mourning Star: Approach vector. Aligning sights. Over. Remember “Ender’s Game.” Which way is down? Check orientation. Over.
Mt 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Preaching to the poor who gave at the Office? I see. Redeem.
Ezekiel 3: 12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound as the glory of the LORD rose from the place where it was standing. 13 It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. 14 The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD on me.
Lana Vawser: This isn’t to “run ahead” of the Lord or to strive. I saw that this was a running in the Spirit of God to accomplish more than you have before. Within the things the Lord has called you to, the things the Lord is breathing upon, there is a supernatural empowerment to RUN and defy the natural. I kept seeing a vision of Elijah outrunning the chariot (1 Kings 18:46). Weariness and discouragement has beaten you down for so long, but the Lord is decreeing: “No more.”
John-Paul and Annie Deddens (Santa Monica Novena): God has blessed us in so many ways, it is often easy to forget His blessings. It is often easy to focus only on the bad things in life.
Bill Myers (26 Aug 18): Interactive Story
Brat: This is a first. I shared one of my pieces with him months ago and I never heard anything back. My writing style is interactive.
Lana Vawser: I saw the Lord releasing the gift of faith in MANY of your lives through this divine comeback. There will be such radical transformation in your heart that in the places where fear and doubt used to hide, there will now be FAITH in Jesus and the Word of God. The Lord will use you and the gift of faith He releases to you to encourage others and to see miracles manifest. You will speak the Word of God, in faith, and see things manifest!
Brat: LORD JESUS! I have heard this before from them. I HAVE FAITH, HEAL MY BELIEF!!
Verse of the Day (28 Aug 18): Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” ~ John 6:29 NIV
Brat: And when the ones that You have sent me to, Lord, have proven themselves that what is on the inside of us is what defiles us?
Mark 7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,
7:22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Brat: Lord, thank You that we have fulfilled what You said:
Revelation 22: 10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”
Martha Spong: The deep truth in Paul’s advice can take a new shape.
Brat: In his video segment [https://youtu.be/tOWHDq2W020] Bill Myers is describing taking the shell of a story and starting it with four characters for his online Sci Fi adventure.
These four characters try and solve the world’s problems.
Paraphrase of Bill Myers (26 Aug 2018): You become one of the four characters. You decide what that character does, what that character thinks, who that character is. 12 Chapters. That’s three months. Submit on Facebook. If there are enough players, you have some direction of where to go by the end of each week. We have three storytellers on staff. It costs ~$30.
Brat to Bill Myers (27 Aug 18): This storytelling format is remarkably similar to the four living creatures in Ezekiel and repeated again in the Book of Revelation. I am sharing this download with you and not charging $30. It’s free.
Martha Spong: “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” – Ephesians 5:21 NRSV
Monk: About this time, Brat should be bringing up feeling again like Ender in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.
Brat: I’ve done it before!
(Four years ago): 11 Oct 2014 to Lance Wallnau: Have you read “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card? Who will be the Speaker of the Dead? ~k
[Me to myself: Stone? Got that right!]
Journal (in “Speaker for the Dead” 10 Oct 14): …Lord? What are You showing me? It felt weird walking into the empty house. It felt weird stacking another note on top of the other. Did he notice or read the last one? Jo and I are trying to get the males to communicate and the communiqués just keep stacking up—as always. Is anything penetrating? In the peak of irony, I turned over the print-out to see what was on the other side of Jo’s email (since I recycle from my old papers whenever possible,) and it was a portion of one of my old Reflections from 04 Advent on 19 December 2010 entitled “Oh, Get Real!” Yes, God! Please! Get us REAL! We still seem to be operating by the code of knuckle-dragging and primal grunting with us women pulling our hair out! (Literally! I’m shedding! It’s a good thing I’m praying that the abomination does not take place in winter! (Mk 13:18) I could be bald by then and a Babushka on my head is not flattering!) Where’s Jane Goodall when you need her? Did Eve have this much trouble communicating with Adam? No wonder she asked for wisdom! Oh, no, so sorry, she didn’t ask for wisdom! She assumed the serpent was telling the truth!
Genesis 3: 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Surly God knows! But in relationships He seems to be the only One who knows anything BECAUSE WE DON’T TALK ABOUT IT!
Meanwhile, we just keep munchin’ on the fruit!
Gen 3: 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Adam’s right there with her! They ate the fruit of the Spirit. Consumers! Fruit of the Loom!
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
[Ugh! Fig leaves are sooooooo itchy!!]
And still nobody’s saying anything, except God, of course!
“Where are you?” (v 9)
Well?
[Bonehead keeps telling us what we’re not doing or what we’re doing wrong rather than what we’ve been doing right! I can’t tell where I am!
Ezekiel 3: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from Me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.]
Back to my original observation from this morning (10 Oct 14):
In every relationship it seems to continually boil down to this: I just need to know what he knows and what he wants. But he won’t talk about it!
Well? [Echo]
What do you know?
What do you want?
Do those questions even come up?
God asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” (v 11)
And He asks if they ate from the tree that He told them not to partake of. (v 11)
Two questions:
1) Who told you?…
2) Have you eaten…?
Ok, so, “Who told you…?” is an arc to “What do you know?” It depends on who you are listening to as to what you know. “What do you want…?” Duh. Food! What else? Man eats. Man consumes. “Have you eaten…?” Even Jesus said, “Take, eat, …!”
[Good Yenta!]
We’re like infants and teenagers! The bottomless pit!
Ok, Lord, tell me again that this is good news?
And where’s the sharing in all this?
How many times have the prophets and preachers talked about spiritual hunger just in the last six months?
So I give, and give, and give like a nursing mother (Mk 13:17), even though I have no Sanctuary. That also means (by association) that what they’re consuming of me is also what they’re consuming of You, Lord. And isn’t that what You nailed the harlot about in Revelation 17?
[O shock! Naw. Really?]
Greedy Church! Bottomless pit!
I don’t think the fruit that Eve ate was an apple. I think it was a Vlasic pickle!
Is there a Jesuit in the House? Oh, that’s right! We’re all just hiding under the fig tree! (Gen 3:8) And Jesus did say there would be no more temple! (Mt 24:2)
Jesus: “Do you see all these things?” (v 2)
And a loud voice from the throne says: “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (Rev 21:3)
Who needs a kitchen or a bathroom when we have God? Eli’s happy! (1 Sam 2:25) Who could ask for anything more?
We don’t talk about it! Where’s Joan Rivers when you need her?
In Ender’s Game the buggers don’t talk either. So, who will be the Speaker for the Dead?
(And again from three years ago…)
Journal (in “The Rock of “Jerusalem”” 10 February 2015): …Back on the road I looked at the cliffs and I thought of the War Room again. We’re living Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. The generals know exactly what they’re doing. This is a set up. This is staged. This is real but it is not.
Narrator (28 Aug 18): Back to now…
Brat: Israel, you can ask for the scroll from the Church. God has put a stumbling block before her and she will “die”. (Eze 3:20) God will hold me accountable for her blood if I do not warn her, but I have!
Psalm 45:6 Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity;
45:7 you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: When one helps his fellow man by returning a lost object (either in the material or spiritual sense), he merits spiritual benefit for himself and an elevation of his own soul. As our Sages declared, “The poor [recipient of charity] does more for the master than the master does for the poor man.”
(Sefat Emet) (from L’chaim #533)
Brat: I also warn the righteous Jews not to sin.
Ezekiel 3: 21 But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”
Brat: Whoever will listen, let him listen, and whoever will refuse, let him refuse. (v 27) I cannot fight a rebellious house.
Jon & Jolene Hamill: Keep in mind that the fire on the lamp is the flame of His covenant. Let’s gain the oil now that keeps His lamp stand shining. Invest, because God is releasing a wealthy generation to complete the work He promised! And the burning lamp is bearing witness that now is the time for this new way forward. No King but Jesus.

An Unresolved Murder 19 Aug 18

Working Dates: Saturday, August 18, 2018 to Sunday, August 19, 2018
[11 pages]
Rabbi YY Jacobson: An Unresolved Murder
Steve Shultz: Add your faith to August 18 this year, and don’t doubt. Watch the tiniest signs on that date and don’t be shocked when you see them.
Kris Vallotton: Do you know there’s a big calling on your life but feel like you’re the only one who sees it? One of the most painful things that can happen when you know you’re made for something great is for your leaders not to see or recognize what you know in the depths of your heart to be true.
Revelation 5:6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Kris Vallotton: I know what it’s like to long to be seen, or for someone to come along and say, “You’re amazing!”
Deuteronomy 21:2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns.
Jennifer Brownell: But lately, all the teachers I trust have been telling me my eyes were not turned in the right direction. It’s not the dissenters and offenders Out There I have to watch out for. It’s not the appetites, the smooth talk, and the flattery of Those People I need to keep my eye on. It’s not the simple minds of Other Guys that are in danger of being deceived. It doesn’t help to look out there at all, my teachers gently instruct, because the problem is in here, right in my own head and heart and soul.
Anna Blake: Maybe there’s a rule that if you have dogs long enough, you eventually end up with a terrier even if you try to avoid it. No shade to my terrier friends. Humans are designed to fit into categories of identifiable behaviors that compliment dog breeds. Cynics say we use dogs like fashion accessories but it’s really the other way around. My idiosyncrasies and horizontal stripes go well with herding dogs. And rescue dogs. Rescues are a leaky area though…
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Spiritually, the entire month of Elul, our month of preparation for the high holidays is, like a refuge city. Elul is connected to doing teshuva, returning to a fuller relationship with G-d. That is why we blow the shofar each day and say a special Psalm (#27). The defining purpose of a refuge city is to save a person who took a life (i.e. spilt blood of an innocent person) from the deceased’s avengers pursuing him. Similarly, every sin is like taking a ‘spiritual life’, since the sinner is taking positive energy that was meant for holiness and wasted it on a negative action, something impure. To where can they escape? They can escape to the month of Elul.
Journal (in “God, I Miss You” 17 Aug 18): God, I miss waking up in the morning and feeling Your touch. I miss seeing the laughter in Your eyes as You showed me God’s sunrise through the window. I miss walking on the beach with You and journaling and talking with You at Seacliff (which is now overrun with drug dealers.) I miss the smell of Your presence and running my hands through Your curls. I miss the sweet and salty taste of Your kiss. I miss hearing Your voice in my ear as our banter would continue for hours and yet the time flew by as mere minutes.
Kris Vallotton: So now you may be thinking, “So, what do I do in the waiting?”
Shira Schechter (in “Ironworks” 13 Aug 18): The Torah specifies many horses are forbidden because they may lead the nation to return to Egypt to acquire them. Why do you think many wives and much silver and gold would be specifically forbidden to an Israelite king?
Brat (11 Aug 18): Mother Goose, do you read me? The fox was not supposed to touch the package. Over.
1 Kings 3:5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
Walt Woolvett: I fell back asleep and when I arose and was getting some food and having a coffee, the Lord spoke this from the story: “Jack took the bag of gold coins and the giant slept right through. Jack came back at a later date and took the goose that laid the golden eggs and the giant slept through it again. Jack came back again and saw the golden harp that could speak and sing. Jack took the golden harp and ran, but as he ran out, the harp started yelling to the giant: ‘Master I am being stolen!’ Jack was quicker than the giant and descended the beanstalk with the harp to the base, where he ran into his house with the harp, got an ax and cut down the beanstalk. As it fell, the giant fell to the earth and died.”
Anna Blake: Jack is a puzzle, coming together or apart, one signal at a time. Just like the rest of us. The art of reading calming signals is to take the sum of all his body language and listen without jumping to conclusions. His Corgi friend, Preacher Man, is anxious, too, but they play bitey face now. Zoomies happen. Maybe they’ll help each other. I do know this: I can’t miraculously heal them, but I can give them space to figure it out for themselves.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: During Elul, a person can escape from his “avengers” which is a person’s evil inclination until the judgement on Rosh Hashanah, and in the meantime has the opportunity to do teshuva to be forgiven for his problematic actions.
Kris Vallotton: The truth is that this waiting time is completely normal! Take a second and breathe if this is you today. You are not the exception, and the process from the promise to promotion is something that every world changer must walk through.
Jennifer Brownell: Those faces and voices and elbows? They’re still there. But my teachers are on to something. The more I watch my own behavior instead of theirs, the quieter and less powerful the offenders, Christ-deniers, and smooth-talkers become.
Vince Amlin: And we, the Body of Christ, receive our own call bite by bite. To rise to new life and be consumed. To give our lives, our bodies to one another in the name of love.
Anna Blake: Oh, hogwash! Wait, that’s not fair to hogs who are very intelligent. Oh, poppycock then! Snap out of it, it isn’t about love at all! Humans believe what they want to believe, usually the thing that makes us feel good about ourselves.
Luke 18:7 And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?
Kris Vallotton: What To Do When Others Don’t Recognize Your Calling
Anna Blake: Other times, with a wag to his tail that could power the eastern seaboard, he crumples his big old bat ears down and gives me a huge smile, showing each of his teeth, up past the gums. He pulls his lips so high that the end of his nose curls up. His smile is how I know he loves me.
Christina Villa: As a world-class worrier myself, I can see the appeal of Josiah’s method. How great would it be if you could just wipe out every trace of whatever is out there that threatens you? The trouble is that no sooner is one worry eliminated, one false god demolished, than another one springs up to take its place.
Anna Blake: Back to Jack. See what I did there? I listed a few of his calming signals and drew a caricature of him that was really all about me. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good story. I just think animals are more interesting than us. Rather than make up a fairy tale, let’s try to understand his less flattering habits. At the least, recognize when he shows anxiety and respond by not exacerbating it.
Jennifer Brownell: So lately, instead of policing the behavior of those other people out there, I’ve been keeping an eye on the only person I really know I can change. Myself.
Randy Walter: A woman talked about how her husband was not open in his relationship with her but kept things to himself. “He was not honoring you, was he?” I asked. I could see by facial expressions that the guests were applying this to their own lives.
Shira Schechter: Why do you think different species may not be grown or worked together?
Brat: Like the Beast?
Anna Blake: Jack was stoic when he first came, he held himself tight and didn’t have much to say. Our pack was larger then; we lost two dogs over the last year. It’s given him room to yap. In some ways, he shows more anxiety but sometimes when a stoic animal begins communicating, it’s uncomfortable good news. The only certainty is that there’s more change ahead.
Breaking Israel News (16 Aug 18): Sanhedrin Invites Christians to Inaugurate Universal Rosh Hashanah
Rabbi YY Jacobson: To answer this question, we must examine the purpose of the enigmatic ritual that followed the discovery of a slain victim in the field — where members of the Supreme Court, the most exalted and distinguished body in the Jewish state, were required to come down and make measurements; the elders of the city were obligated to offer a calf as an atonement and the priests needed to pray for forgiveness.
Breaking Israel News (16 Aug 18): Concert to help heal 2,000–year-old rift.
Brat: I am truly sorry and apologize to the Sanhedrin for the infractions of the Church over the last 2,000 years. I stand with other believers at the spiritual Wailing Wall and cry out in concert with those abandoned by their Church and are seeking refuge. We do teshuva in asking for your forgiveness. We honor your service. The Lamb is looking as one who is slain. (Rev 5:6), because we have done it to Him by not believing He is King and Lord of our lives. May we be held accountable to God and you. Please send an emissary, so that we may work toward reconciliation.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: “When a corpse is found fallen in the field in the land that G-d gives you to possess,” The Torah instructs (Deuteronomy 21:1-2), “and it is not known who the murderer is, your elders and judges must go out and measure the distance to the closest city,” where we assume the victim was last before his murder. The Talmud explains that a delegation of five members of the Jewish Supreme Court in Jerusalem (known as the Great Sanhedrin) would come to the field where the victim was discovered and make the measurements to the closest city [Soteh 44b. Quoted in Rashi to Dt 21:1-2].
Revelation 21:15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.
Kris Vallotton: If you’re in the middle of the process, what I really want you to hear today is that this time is just as purposeful as when you will one day be in the palace. Use this time to ready yourself for the pressure that will come from being known. Strengthen yourself in God.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: “Would it occur to anybody that the elders of the court are murderers,” asks the Talmud [Soteh 45b. Quoted in Rashi Dt 21:7]?” What they meant was that “perhaps we did not notice him leaving and we sent him off without food and without escort.” Clearly, if we would have looked after this man, he might not have been slain. If he was given shelter, food and company, he might have escaped his horrible fate. What was he doing out in no-man’s land alone? Why did nobody look after him?
Anna Blake: Communicating with animals is complicated. Some feelings we share are similar, some are not. Anxiety is frequently confused with affection. Understanding the differences takes perception, seeing them with human eyes but listening in a way truer to their species than ours. Perceptive attention versus anthropomorphism.
Wade E. Taylor: When Israel entered the Promised Land, they were told to slay all of the inhabitants of that land. The names of these nations can be related to “the works of the flesh.” Thus, we also must first slay the “inhabitants” of our land (carnality), before we will be ready to partake of this promise: “We shall reign on the earth.”
Johnny Enlow: Israel had just suffered their first “Promised Land” defeat losing in battle to Ai. This had happened because Achan had disobediently taken of the spoils of Jericho (Joshua 7:21) admitting “I coveted.” He took a “beautiful Babylonian garment” as well as silver and gold. This representatively speaks of disobediently linking with Mammon and using its covering (Babylonian garment) and greed (“I coveted”) to gain wealth. Now the Lord was giving another opportunity even to gain wealth at a place where they had been ruined. Ai means “heap of ruins”. What followed was that Israel successfully took the city of Ai. Joshua 8:27 tells us that Israel then took the livestock and the spoil (riches) of the city as booty for themselves.
Revelation 5:7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
John-Paul and Annie Deddens: As St. Monica prayed for her son, St. Augustine, to experience a conversion, we would like to pray for all people who are inflicting violence around the world.
Kris Vallotton: I hope you hear me on this that just because you’re in the middle of the process it does not mean that something is wrong with you! You didn’t “miss it”! You are simply in a season of preparation.
Brat: By your timeline or God’s?
Wade E. Taylor: These “inhabitants” that must be slain are very busy manifesting themselves within us as these “works of the flesh.” Thus, they must be utterly slain in order for us to become the “habitation of God” (priestly role), and begin to “rule all nations” (kingly role).
Vince Amlin: It’s incarnation at its roots: “in flesh.” Jesus gives his body for the life of the world. His beefy heart. The marrow of his bones. His lifeblood.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Rabbi Yisroel from Husiatyn (1857-1948) in Galizia went for a visit once to Germany for a Shabbos with a group of his chassidim. There were very few chassidim in Germany. On Friday night he made a “tish”, inviting the public to his Shabbos table (‘tish’ in Yiddish) where they could hear the Rebbe say Torah and even share in his foods. One of the locals came, who had never seen a tish before. He turned to one of the chassidim and asked him what is a Rebbe and what is a tish? The chossid tried unsuccessfully to explain. The man went to another chossid and another trying to find an answer until the Rebbe himself heard the exchanges and asked what was going on. When his chassidim explained the Rebbe said he would answer himself. He explained:
Journal (in “God, I Miss You” 17 Aug 18): Ever since the four living creatures allowed Satan to come into the inner circle to steal the story, kill our love, and destroy our family, You have looked slain, Jesus. We’ve gone through many different cycles of me trying to revive You and encourage You to get back on Your feet, but the tribe doesn’t rise to help me, so I cannot help You. Their gladiator sport of using me because of their unbelief was their god. I cannot help them and I cannot help You. I cannot help myself! God, all I can do is cry out to You! I MISS YOU!
Christina Villa: “Josiah broke down the sacred poles and the carved and the cast images; he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and demolished all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel.” – 2 Chronicles 34:1-7
Vince Amlin: I’m tempted to spiritualize, to say Jesus sustains us the way that other bread from heaven sustained God’s people.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: There is the Rabbi of a synagogue. His job is to make sure that everything in the synagogue is managed properly. Then there is a Rabbi of a community. His job is to make sure all the rabbis and everything in the community is managed properly. Above him is the Rabbi of a town, he is responsible for all the rabbis in his town. And then there is a rebbe. His job is to be master of himself. This is what it says in the Torah portion, “You should surely place on yourself a king.” A person has to be a king and master on himself, on his strengths and his emotions and on his behavior.
Brat (in “Sophia” 19 Aug 18): Lord, when You spoke to the angel of the Church at Smyrna, You identified Yourself as the First and Last. I can’t help but think that the rabbis may be trying to address how Satan got into the inner circle of the four living creatures. You’re looking as one who’s been slain. To me this doesn’t sound like a “synagogue of Satan,” if we are believing You are King over us. Jesus, are You not the Rebbe over me?
Revelation 2: 8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Brat: What if my Bagel Boys are trying to redeem this prison and these persecutions? Look at this phrase: “I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Am I just being naive? They are the only ones who have stood by me! They have gone through terrible persecution and imprisonment, also. Have they not been trying to get the snake out of the Garden? This is Your Garden, Lord! So what, that You know the slander? So do I! What about the teshuvah they’ve been doing their best at, in preparation for Rosh Hashanah? Will You honor that? Will You bring some resolution? Kris Vallotton talked about being patient in the waiting, but this has been going on for more than ten years, not “ten days.” The corruption that Sophia talked about is rampant.
Anna Blake: The trick is to find compassion without an over-abundance of sentimentality.
Christina Villa: After a while, it’s pretty clear that some of us need something, anything, to be afraid of.
David Slavin: “Other Side” in the Land
Rabbi Amichai Cohen: Two people sitting in the same room can be the furthest people from each other, where as 2 people from the other side of the world can always think about each other. One is face to face, the other backside. It is not about proximity, it’s about intention, the real deeper intention.
David Slavin: The best way to understand the phenomena is by parable: A landowner has a servant who has fled his master’s servitude. Instead, he works for another man. One day the original master walks in, finds his servant, and takes him back to where he belongs. So too, the Jewish people have acquired for themselves a master through their transgressions.
1 Kings 8:30 Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Similarly, when an individual wishes to think positive thoughts, say something helpful or kind, or do a mitzvah, he should open up his gates wide. Alternatively, when the impulse to think, speak, or act in a negative way approaches, he must close the gate.
Vince Amlin: My three-year-old daughter is fascinated by the macabre. She came home from a visit with my parents invoking the name of Dracula and begging us to recite in our best Transylvanian, “I vant to suck your blood!” Thanks, Grandma.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz: And through our prayers in Israel on your behalf we will together become more aware of God’s presence in our lives, better listen to and reflect on God’s word, and grow our relationship with Him.
Journal (in “God, I Miss You” 17 Aug 18): By vamping our intimacy, they have stolen our joy, and replaced it with a power trip demanding joy to be made evident. Joy through the urban trash blowing everywhere? Joy that the army of rats have invaded our house AGAIN? Joy that I feel like I’m being dragged through a knothole lined with sandpaper, just like when I was at St Patrick’s? But a princess is supposed to smile and put on a happy face for the troops 24/7 cuz the nanny cams never sleep? But she’s not allowed to have her private time to be human? There is no space, no place to enjoy God? No refuge for the scribe with the writing kit? No priest that respects my mission and assignment?
Kris Vallotton: I know how it feels to be called by God, to believe it with your whole heart, and then have your vision and excitement dwindle over time as you don’t see the fruition.
Anna Blake: It was hard getting a photo for the blog, even after all this time, because he always looks away when I have the camera out. He’s a comedian, always squinty-eyed and cute. Sometimes when he’s on my lap, turning circles, he pulls up one side of his lip and in a lopsided sneer. It’s like I’m a bit distasteful to him. His lip twitches up and down, perhaps he’d like to say something nice, but he can’t get it out.
Kris Vallotton: Listen, I understand how frustrating it is.
Revelation 4: 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”
Florida Georgia Line: H.O.L.Y: https://youtu.be/zXDAYlhdkyg
David Slavin: If the Land is so holy, why do we experience spiritual darkness?
Vince Amlin: This week she got hooked on a comic that features a sneering skeleton surrounded by flames. We decided to put that one away. It seemed a little too scary. A little too grim.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz: A person, through his prayers, has the power of “dividing flames of fire” (Psalms 29:7). When one prays, his words hew and pierce like flames of fire. The very breath that exits one’s mouth transforms into intense spiritual forces.
Vince Amlin: But then, we let her take communion every week.
Rick Joyner: The greatest music ever heard on the earth does not compare to the least in heaven. However, the worship on earth—even the driest, struggling worship that we do here—can touch God more than all of the worship in heaven. In heaven you cannot help but to worship, and He knows this. When we are struggling through all of the battles and trials on earth and we still thank Him and try to worship Him—as feeble as it is at times—it deeply touches God, and all who are in heaven witness it.
Wade Taylor: If we have rightly used the “keys of the Kingdom” that presently are being offered to us, we will also will have a part in singing this new song.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Even after Moshiach comes, the third Temple will be rebuilt and all the Jewish people will be reunited in Israel, and serving G-d will be on its highest level, we will still need refuge cities. When the spiritual level is so high, even a small lapse needs to be repaired. This is the purpose of a refuge city and of the teshuvah effort it encourages.
Randy Walter: I define the word “honor” as meaning: to hold in high esteem; to be given special preference; a privilege; a person’s integrity and reputation.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: Then the priests who accompanied the elders in the ritual would beseech G-d, saying, “Forgive your people … do not allow the guilt for innocent blood to remain with your people Israel (Deuteronomy 21:3-8).”
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: One of the commandments in this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, is that when the Jewish people come to Israel they must create easily accessible refuge cities, a place to escape for a person who killed someone accidently. Even after Moshiach comes there will be a need for refuge cities (Devarim 19:8-9).
Rabbi YY Jacobson: What exactly is the nature of this law that Jacob taught Joseph? It is discussed in the book of Deuteronomy in this week’s portion and it goes like this:
Bible Heading: Atonement for an Unsolved Murder
Chuck Pierce: New Wine at Head of the Year
Deuteronomy 21:1 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was
Jennifer Brownell: I used to be certain exactly who Paul is talking about here. I had a pretty darn good eye for those who caused dissensions and offenses, as well as those who did not serve Christ, but their own appetites. I could spot them from a mile away. Their faces lit up my television screen, their voices screamed from my radio, they elbowed their way in front of me in every line.
Anna Blake: Like usual, most of us are trying to navigate the gray area between extremes. We’ve gotten beyond the story of the Three Pigs with that huffing and puffing, and learned enough about wolf packs to be impressed; the truth is better than the fairy tale.
Vince Amlin: Flesh and blood. Grim. Scary. A gift from heaven worth getting hooked on.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: For this the entire community of Israel, beginning with the members of the Supreme Court, needed to ask of themselves tough questions. They were required to make resolutions for the future. The ritual served as a tool for repentance and atonement.
Kris Vallotton: So you had a God-encounter and you know you have a big calling on your life but your leadership (or anyone else) doesn’t recognize it. The truth is that this is normal! Take a second and breathe if this is you today. You are not the exception, and the process from the promise to promotion is something that every world changer must walk through.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: A person might think that only someone who is sunk in material activities, like business etc., and is far away from spiritual consciousness needs the opportunity of a refuge city, while a person whose life is more involved in spiritual actions all year, studied Torah, prayed regularly – why should they be involved in the deep refuge city type teshuvah of the month of Elul?
Rabbi Amichai Cohen: The meshuga replied “a friend of mine from the large town of Zitomir asked me why I don’t move to Zitomir and be the town meshuga there. I was considering my friend’s suggestion, but then thought what about if there are other meshugas there, I would have competition, it’s a new place etc. All this is what I discussed with the Rebbe”. The people listening laughed at the meshuga saying “you spent a whole hour with the Rebbe…you could have spoken about the most important and profound things and yet you wasted your time talking about your meshuga business?”
Israel 365 (18 Aug 18): Repetitive Redemptions ✡ “We Enjoyed The Care Of Our God”
Johnny Enlow: It is so kind and merciful that God redeems a situation, even though it was THEIR sin that lead to the original loss. Apply that for your situation. God considers it unjust any time the enemy steals from you – even if it was by YOUR fault that the door opened. “Stretch out your spear” pointing at your Ai, and let God strategically allow you to recover and beyond that, prosper. His economic justice is not just for where you were perfect, but where you invited Him back in.
Kris Vallotton: Between the promise and the palace is always the process. What I mean is that from the time God speaks something over your life, to the time you walk it out (the metaphoric palace) is a journey. If you figure out a way to get around the process and get through to the palace before you’re supposed to be, you won’t be able to stay there. It’s the process that gives you the character you need to stay in the palace.
Anna Blake: You’re okay, Jack. You don’t have to try so hard.
Kris Vallotton: I also understand something that you may not yet—I understand how scary it is when someone introduces you as something you never knew anyone else saw you as, and then have to decide how to navigate favor. I understand the fear and anxiety that can come from being seen as something you don’t know if you’re ready for. I understand what it’s like to go from no one knowing you to everyone thinking you’re amazing… and let me tell you that is much harder than being unknown. With being recognized comes its own challenges, but the thing that may be the hardest challenge to overcome is the pressure from people who don’t even know you. I don’t say this for you to fear the palace. I’m simply saying every season of life has its own gifts and its own challenges.
Brat: Excuse me? For ten years I’ve been asking for sanctuary from the Church and you are pimping a lifestyle of celebrity fame and political favor? What does this have to do with a hermitage where I could pray and write? Isn’t it the Lamb that we are supposed to bow down to and not fame and fervor?
Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.
John-Paul and Annie Deddens: Let’s pray that they may also experience a conversion, that the violence will stop through the intercession of St. Monica, and that peace will reign.
Christina Villa: Josiah was one of the kings of Judah and an ancestor of Jesus, according to the genealogy in the gospel of Matthew. He was known for his great loyalty to Jehovah, which today’s scripture illustrates with a vivid description of him routing out false gods, destroying pagan images, and burning priests’ bones on their own altars. He didn’t stop until he had “demolished all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel.”
Journal (in “God, I Miss You” 17 Aug 18): The mourning dove is cooing outside my room. Something inside me just snapped. I was harvesting the words shared to my inbox yesterday to see where the Holy Spirit is leading and I suddenly could not go on with my assignment. I was too exhausted in my spirit. Why bother? What’s the point? It is our Sabbath today, a day of rest. I’ll rest without feeling God’s presence. That sucks. Even if I harvested the words, what would it matter? They’ll just vamp it anyway. They take without giving in return. I’m just a commodity to them.
Rabbi YY Jacobson says, “You matter!”
Where?
Rabbi Tuly Weisz: Each week, from Rosh Hashanah until the end of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), Israel365 will pray somewhere different in the land of Israel – the Western Wall, the biblical Heartland, the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Christina Villa: Do our serial worries actually function as false gods? Do we find our only comfort in eliminating or destroying them? Only to find ourselves fixated on yet another one? Do we really want to spend our lives worshiping what we fear—with a break on Sunday to distract us?
Randy Walter: “What You Honor, Honors You”
Rabbi YY Jacobson: The Torah concludes by saying that “The blood shall thus be atoned for. You shall thus rid yourself of the guilt of innocent blood in your midst, since you will have done that which is morally right in G-d’s eyes (Dt 21:8-9).”
Kris Vallotton: So what do you do now?
Christina Villa: Prayer
Dear God, let every day have at least a little Sunday in it. Amen.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The Torah gives us the answer. We find in the total of 9 refuge cities there were a number of different levels. The cities that were on the far side of the Jordan River where murderers were more common, were for coarser individuals, while those in Israel were for more refined people. The reason is that when it comes to spilling blood, (or in our context, taking spiritual energy that was meant for holiness and wasting it on impurity), you find it everywhere, by everyone. Even a person who is ostensibly on a high level and in general careful about his spiritual actions, even they are sometimes lax, not using their full potential. They also will need to repair themselves.
Rabbi Amichai Cohen: On the verse “they have shown me their back side and not their face”, The Alter Rebbe interprets that there are 2 types of relationships. The first kind reflects an deep relationship between the 2 parties, where there is love and mutual respect. Then there is an external type of relationship where the 2 parties are unwilling to connect on a deep level and show each other the “back side”.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: Following this, the elders of that city situated closest to the corpse, were obliged to go out and bring a heifer as an atonement for the slain man’s blood (Deuteronomy 21:1-2). The elders of the city would then declare, “Our hands have not spilled this blood and our eyes have not witnessed it (6) .”
Kris Vallotton: Be patient and hang in there. I didn’t understand the joy of the process and I really wish I had. Learn from my experience and take the time to see the gift in the season you’re in. Use the extra time you have now to learn and study and hone your gift. Practice walking in royalty now so that when you arrive in the palace you don’t have to go through the pain of pressure without the preparation. Celebrate others when they experience favor as a deposit into your future. Do not give up hope and carry the promises God has spoken over you in your heart just as Mary did.
Christina Villa (18 Aug 18): No Worries
Kris Vallotton: I see this happen a lot with prophetic people, so I talked about it at the School of the Prophets last week and shared my story like I never have before… all the way from my 3-year nervous breakdown, to God calling me to be a prophet, to the 15-year journey of waiting to see any movement on that word, to meeting Bill Johnson, and to where I stand today and operating in the promise God spoke to me (in many ways… there’s still more I believe He’s going to do). You can watch the message for free on my YouTube channel but I also wanted to break down some of the key takeaways for you today.
John-Paul and Annie Deddens: When St. Monica was praying for her son’s conversion (she prayed for more than 15 years for this), she prayed, fasted, and even asked clergy to talk with him — to argue with him. But they assured her it was useless after so many years.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: A National Crisis
Rick Joyner (18 Aug 18): Asking the Lord for Guidance on an Important Issue?
Randy Walter: As I was preparing to lead devotions at a homeless shelter, the Lord told me to teach about honor. I’ve realized that we honor the things and people we cherish and respect the most. The Lord said to me, “What you honor, honors you,” and He instructed me not to tell them this until the end of the teaching.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz: Send us your prayer requests
Christina Villa: I know all this is supposed to make Josiah one of the good guys in the Bible. But his approach to things reminds me of how easily and often we over-respond to perceived threats.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Every city and town should have gateways serving as an entrance and exit that can be closed if necessary to stop unwanted traffic.
Eliana Rudee: Is Now the Time to Return the Temple Mount to God’s Intent: A House of Prayer for All Nations?
Israel 365 (16 Aug 18): The Abandoned Baby ✡ “I Will Remember The Covenant I Made With You”
1 Kings 8:6 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, UNDERNEATH [!] the wings of the cherubim.
Brat: God, then please remember to send a delegation who can hold the leaders over here accountable.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Just like there are different levels of refuge cities, and even refuge cities after Moshiach comes, so too everyone in their own particular way has to see Elul as their own ‘refuge city’ where they are given another chance to correct their negative actions. Even people on the highest spiritual levels have to make an accounting of all of their thoughts, speech and action of the past year, if they were appropriate and according to Jewish law. And whoever did not do it yet, now is the time to do teshuvah.
Brat: So, are you saying that you’ll help us?
1 Kings 8:41 “Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of Your name
8:42 –for they shall hear of Your great name, Your mighty hand, and Your outstretched arm–when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house,
8:43 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and so that they may know that Your name has been invoked on this house that I [Solomon] have built.

Ironworks 13 Aug 18

Working Dates: Monday, August 13, 2018 to Wednesday, August 15, 2018
[12 pages]
Prophets Instead of Witchcraft
Shira Schechter: There is a debate among classical Rabbinic authorities whether witchcraft is forbidden because it is false or whether it has real power. What do you think and, based on the sources here, why?
Brat: Witchcraft has a power that is real. The other night I was cleaning up the library at the closing of my work shift. Earlier in the day I had written in my journal, “I am continuing on in my own Princess Diaries as I learn my princess lessons in keeping the people in mind as I worship God…” That evening at work in the Young Adult section the actual book Princess Diaries literally jumped off the shelf and landed at my feet. It was creepy. It was like out of a horror flick, but it was happening to me! But God was awesome! He anchored me in Himself. I bent over and calmly picked up the book and put it back on the shelf where it belongs. “I DO make order!” I said to myself (and to the goon if he was listening.) “I AM a Princess!” I said it clearly and crisply as I slipped the book back into place. End of discussion. It did not happen again.
Rick Joyner: This worship from the afflicted is even a witness to principalities and powers of darkness. It is such a witness that the angels and other majesties in heaven declare that those who demonstrate such faith and devotion when going through so much are worthy to be their judges. For this reason one of the most important things we can do to prepare for heaven, and our part in the ages to come, is to not waste our trials. Rather, let us use every one as an opportunity to grow in our faith and trust in God, and be thankful through them.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: To be sure, there are corpses, skeletons, demons and ghosts in almost every human person; that is what makes them human. Even the Holy Land has its share of carcasses—physical and psychological. But when that is the only thing you see, it means that you are a non-kosher person. You need your own cleansing.
Alane Haynes: Will Jesus find just ones walking in faith? We are told four times in the Word of God that the just shall live by faith – once in the Old Testament and three times in the New Testament! Jesus is the Just One (Acts 7:52, 22:14). It is time to allow Him to have His way in our lives, to see Him as the Most High God, the Holy One of Israel, the Lion of the tribe of Judah roaring to see His Kingdom come. This is not a time to draw back! It is time to keep pressing forward in faith – trusting the Lord completely, and yielding fully to Him. It is time to let our soul (our mind, will and emotions) be fully saved.
John-Paul & Annie Deddens: Every saint we ask for intercessory prayers is a persistent saint. They’re in Heaven with our Lord, and they desire for us all to be there too.
Brat: Are you saying that Jesus is our ticket to escape hell?
John-Paul & Annie Deddens: This next saint we’re calling on is especially known for being a persistent intercessor, and she also desired for those closest to her to reach Heaven someday…
Alane Haynes: “When we shift into Heaven’s viewpoint, we see the overcoming King and the enemy can no longer side rail or derail us, and the curtailment of God’s plans cease.”
Brat: Okay, so how do we disciple others through this?
Lance Wallnau (13 Aug 18): I have GOOD NEWS and BAD NEWS Kathryn
Pastor John Tolle: We are like sheep without a shepherd.
Binyomin Adilman: “You shall appoint for yourselves judges and officers in all your cities that G d has given to your tribes for an inheritance, and they shall judge the people with honest justice.” (Deut. 17:18)
Vicki Kemper: What motivates our throes of civic action? What generates our columns of resistance? What galvanizes me to action?
Binyomin Adilman: The ant, although she has no ruler and no officers over her, will not resort to the use of unjust or illegal means to attain her goal. Even more so, we, who are commanded to appoint judges and officers to instruct us, need to be vigilant in the face of the temptation to steal or bend the law.
Lana Vawser: The Lord is shifting and changing things, even if you don’t see it in the natural yet. The Lord is making a way where there previously has been no way. For many of you there have been giants in your land for SO LONG and they have refused to move. They have continued to taunt, oppress and torment you! Well, those giants are being driven out of your land by the hand of God. The Lord is moving powerfully, even if you don’t see it yet. He is setting things up that are far beyond what you have imagined or dreamed.
Binyomin Adilman: “The tzadikim are governed by the Positive Inclination, the wicked are governed by the Evil Inclination. The Benonim, those in between, are governed by both.” (Berachot 61b) One’s daat (conscience) is called a “judge” or “governor”. A person uses his daat to weigh out every action. Is it or is it not proper?
Alane Haynes: As I was writing this out, Holy Spirit reminded me of Rev. 5:5, that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed! Today as I awoke, I was once again reminded of Zech. 3:17, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty…!” As I worshipped Him, Holy Spirit brought to mind 2 Chron. 20:20-25. Worshipping warriors love this story. King Jehoshaphat sent forth the worshippers out first to the battle and God went before them, causing their enemies to destroy each other. The people of Judah did not need to fight at all, and they were three days recovering the spoils. Holy Spirit told me to go back to the beginning of 2 Chron. 20.
Alexander Jacob Tsykin: Job 16:2 I have heard many such things; sorry comforters are ye all.
Brat: Are you saying that with a pirate accent?
2 Chronicles 20:5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard 6 and said:
“LORD, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 9 ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’
Israel 365 (15 Aug 18): Judgment, Compassion, and Kindness ✡ “He Is A Living God, The Everlasting King”
2 Chronicles 20:10 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. 12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
Israel 365 (13 Aug 18): Firing Up The Nations ✡ “A Light Of Nations”
Iliza Vie Shlesinger: “Fire in the hole!”
Revelation 20:14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Binyomin Adilman: There is always a spark of the divine soul in every Jew which can never be extinguished. That spark can consume all the foolishness and idle thought which confuse a person, and lead him on a straight path to closeness with G d.
Brat (13 Aug 18): I have noticed that when God talks about “fire,” much of the time it is in relation to shame. Ya’ know, that burn in your shoulders and neck that can flame up into your ears? Shame is a core issue and is territory that only God can get to. “Fire” is also righteous indignation. It is quite possible to feel the fire of righteous indignation over unhealed shame and one may not even be guilty of causing the shame that one feels! Go figure! That’s the plight of sensitives, empathetic people, and introverts. It’s also the cross upon which a real prophet is crucified. It sucks to get infected by other people’s feelings and rise in their spiritual temperature. God bless the comedians! They can go where angels fear to tread. We need Jesus and the Holy Spirit, too, because we are covered by His blood! Just because we’re a close and easy target doesn’t mean anyone has the right to touch us. I am grateful for Saint Monica’s prayers!
Alane Haynes: “Know that I AM in you. Let the reality of the power of the Blood of My Son shed for you shift you into the truth that the Kingdom is at hand. Allow My holiness to work within you, and bring forth to the earth the righteousness that My all-sufficient and perpetual sacrifice brings. Roar over your flesh, your soul and your circumstances that the Lion of Judah reigns. The subterfuge of the enemy has caused a numbness, a shutting down, a faithlessness causing you to sink down in your circumstances and turn to fleshly and soulish endeavors. Submit to My will and be made My pure treasures!
Alexander Jacob Tyskin: Job 22:3 Is it any advantage to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to Him, that thou makest thy ways blameless?
Brat (12 Aug 18): … I simply curled up into a fetal ball.
Binyomin Adilman: This brings us back to our little ant to whom we are looking for wisdom. She too understands the secret of three, for she builds herself a three story house. Yet she lives only in the middle one. The top story is too hot and it leaks. The bottom story is too cold and damp. The middle story is the perfect climate, a fusion of the two extremes. The same is true for us. We should avoid the upper story, representative of haughtiness. Nor should we inhabit the bottom story, which represents extreme humility that leads to despair. Rather, our place is in the middle.
Brat: Are you expecting me to tear my bathrobe and throw dust on my head like Job’s friends? (Job 2:12)
Pastor John Tolle: You’ll misrepresent me if you feel condemned.
Brat: What is it with you and this word “condemned”? It seems to get into every conversation and sermon. Who said anything about condemnation? I didn’t!
John 3:18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Jo Ellen Stevens: Job 33:14 (NIV) “For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it.”
Brat: Shame is not the same as condemnation.
Geronimo Stilton: Paws off Chedderface!
Pastor John Tolle: God will bring out a double standard and we’ll all have egg on our face.
Alexander Jacob Tyskin: Job 22:4 Is it for thy fear of Him that He reproveth thee, that He entereth with thee into judgment?
Brat (12 Aug 18 in a letter to Billy Graham’s organization): Speaking of which, the shepherds over here were never held accountable. Eli and Sons are still in power even though Mr Franklin Graham came to California. Maybe he didn’t know. How would he if word never got to him? The prince of the air is especially adept at blocking communication.
John 16:8 When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in Me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
Jamie Rohrbaugh: Note that you will have to cooperate with His pushing in order to benefit from His building anointing. You will feel the squeeze, but you have to choose to take the only way out you see that aligns with His Word—even if you never wanted to go there.
Brat: I tried three times to reach Mr Graham. Still more silence. Just like with everyone else. Pastor John, you are more than welcome to step in here and help us out. They’re your homies.
Pastor John Tolle: In the story of the Good Samaritan, they say, “I’ll let someone else take care of that.” Usually that goes to the institution, but that devalues you. That disrespects what Jesus did.
Binyomin Adilman: G d decreed that repentance always helps. The Jerusalem Talmud states, “They asked Wisdom: ‘What is the punishment for the one who transgresses?’ Answered Wisdom: ‘The Soul that sins shall die.’ (Ezekiel 18:4) They then asked the Holy One Blessed Be He: ‘What is the punishment for the one who transgresses?’ Answered He, ‘Let him return in repentence!’ (Makkot 2:6) It might not occur to one to return to G d, yet G d wants it to be known that there is a unique institution called repentance (teshuvah) and it works!
Jo Ellen Stevens: God is speaking in new ways to us and by that I mean, He is showing us things in new ways. He spoke to me and said, “I am teaching My people new ways that I want to communicate with them.” For example, God is beginning to show many how that He uses their issues to point out words of knowledge to them. And this is just one example!
Lana Vawser: I could feel the heart of the Lord so intensely. He had seen. He had heard. His heart was moved. He was moved by the hearts of many of His daughters who have been through the fire, yet remained in a place of intimacy and tenderness toward Him. They were continuing to draw close; continuing to trust even in the midst of the most difficult of onslaughts. Their faithfulness and trust of the Lord rose to Him like a sweet smelling fragrance. It was such beautiful worship to Him. My eyes fell back upon the book and I saw a new chapter open and suddenly the pages stopped turning…
Rick Joyner: The worship there is not because God needs it, but because it is the only way one can react before the glory and majesty of God. You just have to express your adoration for Him because He is love, and in His presence, He compels the greatest love from all. Worship is something that you cannot help but do in His presence, and it is so wonderful to be able to express ourselves to Him in this worship that there may not be anything else as wonderful that we can experience. There are too many other things going on in heaven to discuss, and all of them are wonderful, but worship is the highlight of all—the greatest thing we will be doing and the main thing we will want to do.
Lana Vawser: As I looked down at the page of this new chapter, suddenly I saw the Lion of Judah’s face appear in the pages and He began to ROAR. There was a violent roar that came from His mouth with such authority the whole Earth shook at the sound. As He roared, I heard the word “RECOMPENSE” shouted over and over.
Vicki Kemper: Prayer
Take away my fear, Rebel Jesus. May it be love that drives my holy resistance. Let it be love that keeps me going.
Alexander Jacob Tyskin: Job 22:2 Can a man be profitable unto God? Or can he that is wise be profitable unto Him?
Travis Holland (15 Aug 18): Do you want to know an easy way to know if it’s the Holy Spirit or just a person trying to hype it up……. it will point directly back to Jesus, He will glorify Jesus, not a man or a ministry.
Ephesians 5:15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise
Anna Blake Poem (13 Aug 18): Counterfeit
The herd stands close as the midday heat
saturates the air, shadows black on the earth,
their bodies held motionless. Stacked head
to tail, shoulder to haunch, a cheek inclined
toward the curve of a flank, eyes soft as
tails barely move flies. Horses so close
that shallow air taken in by one might be
expelled by another. The same formation,
in a few months’ time, will hold snow atop
longer coats, a light steam rising from backs
and nostrils, as white covers the ground,
save the same dark oval claimed by shadow
today. This organism of interdependent souls
welcomes me to circle and watch, stalking
their primal calm, kindly acknowledged but
always separate, a counterfeit on two legs.
Shira Schechter: The Torah specifies many horses are forbidden because they may lead the nation to return to Egypt to acquire them. Why do you think many wives and much silver and gold would be specifically forbidden to an Israelite king?
Brat (11 Aug 18): Mother Goose, do you read me? The fox was not supposed to touch the package. Over.
1 Kings 3:5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
Walt Woolvett: I fell back asleep and when I arose and was getting some food and having a coffee, the Lord spoke this from the story: “Jack took the bag of gold coins and the giant slept right through. Jack came back at a later date and took the goose that laid the golden eggs and the giant slept through it again. Jack came back again and saw the golden harp that could speak and sing. Jack took the golden harp and ran, but as he ran out, the harp started yelling to the giant: ‘Master I am being stolen!’ Jack was quicker than the giant and descended the beanstalk with the harp to the base, where he ran into his house with the harp, got an ax and cut down the beanstalk. As it fell, the giant fell to the earth and died.”
Jo Ellen Stevens: “Many who heard God by word will now have dreams and many who had dreams will now begin to see visions, and many who never had a word of knowledge will now begin to get signals in their physical bodies. Many who have never dreamed will now learn My dream language!! I am increasing your hearing not taking away from it! Rejoice and be glad My children because you are now adding to your heavenly specialties! This is once again going to be an exciting adventure!”
Rick Joyner: The greatest music ever heard on the earth does not compare to the least in heaven. However, the worship on earth—even the driest, struggling worship that we do here—can touch God more than all of the worship in heaven. In heaven you cannot help but to worship, and He knows this. When we are struggling through all of the battles and trials on earth and we still thank Him and try to worship Him—as feeble as it is at times—it deeply touches God, and all who are in heaven witness it.
Luke 18:7 And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?
Alane Haynes: What does being just mean? According to the Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, it means upright, righteous, virtuous, observing divine and human laws. This is a time when God is purifying His Bride, desiring us to be just – walking in the righteousness of Christ!
Alexander Jacob Tsykin: Job 16:4 I also could speak as ye do; if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.
AIPAC: Where would Israel be without Iron Dome?
Brat (12 Aug 18): They say “iron sharpens iron” (Pv 27:17). Thyatira rules us with an iron scepter (Rev 2:27), the rider whose name is Faithful and True on the white horse rules us with an iron scepter (Rev 19:15), and God snatched up to His throne the woman’s son who would rule with an iron scepter (Rev 12:5). There are so many sparks flying off the Grim Reaper’s sharpening stone that Charles Dickens would be inspired.
Binyomin Adilman: A verse can help us explain the ant’s incredible behavior. “Only this have I found, that G d has made the man upright, but they have made many inventions.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
Alane Haynes: I am hearing, “In the midst of devastation and darkness I AM roaring; can you hear? My Blood covers all that was lost at the fall. Hear My roar, let the truth shift your thinking. I AM El Elyon, the Most High God, higher than any circumstances. I am El Shaddai, God of all might, in the midst of thee. Even as the lion roars in his domain and his kingdom is made known, bringing fear and trembling, know that I have roared, I AM roaring and will continue to roar. The sound of My roaring is an eternal sound, piercing the heavens and the earth. Can you hear? Let the roar of My omnipotence break off fear and doubt. I AM in the midst of thee.
Shira Schechter: The portion then goes on by instructing the people in proper procedures for war. It also details what should be done in the event of an unsolved murder.
Steve Shultz: I know some of you have been experiencing intense levels of warfare…in your lives, in your families, in your workplaces and even in your regions. In times like this, we need to “see the big picture” and how God is working out everything that comes against us.
Brat (12 Aug 18 in a letter to Billy Graham’s organization): I believe that Blackpool, England may be related to the Pacific Northwest by connection through the Elijah List (based out of Oregon). I would like to think that if Mr Graham asked my pastor (John Tolle), he would confirm that accountability starts at home. The evangelist is in a position to clean the house of the shepherds.
Pastor John Tolle (12 Aug 18): You do know, and the issue is I will obey Him.
Alane Haynes: “You will Not be Curtailed! God is Bringing His Justice in Our Lives!”
Jamie Rohrbaugh: Be very careful that your steps align with the Word. But, as long as they do, look for a pathway to open up as you allow Father to squeeze you out of the narrow place into a broad place of prosperity. The squeezing is from the Lord; He is forcing your hand so you will follow Him.
Walt Woolvett: The giant of the high place who stole this valuable instrument from the Church is about to fall. Great joy and praise is about to erupt from the masses that will be brought into the Kingdom of God through the return of this “golden harp that prophesies.”
1 Kings 3:3 Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places.
Mount Calvary Monastery: Mount Calvary Open House & Meet the Superior
Binyomin Adilman: The Benonim are judged by both. Sometimes the Positive Inclination is in control and they are able to make an honest spiritual accounting. Sometimes the Evil Inclination is in control, telling them that everything is all right and they are really complete Tzadikim.
Walt Woolvett: The Golden Harp and the Music that Belongs to the Church
1 Kings 3:4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
Walt Woolvett: “After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, timbrels, pipes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.” (1 Samuel 10:5-6)
Molly Baskette: Take Action:
You can join the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival at http://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org.
Brat (12 Aug 18 to Franklin Graham): A revival is removed from the religious elite’s power. Events don’t penetrate their ring. Events keep God’s word playing the game of thrones until an anointed one has the chutzpa to join Rabbi YY Jacobson [https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/2519] and start some triage from all the spiritual corpses littered about from Ezekiel 39 and to get on with the great supper of God (Rev 19:17).
Alexander Jacob Tsykin: Job 16:5 I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would assuage your grief.
Rick Joyner: For this reason we should not accept any vision, revelation, or prophetic experience that in any way conflicts with the testimony of Scripture. Others that I do not accept, and that trouble me, are those who claim to have gone to heaven and witnessed things that trivialize heaven. There is a dignity and majesty to God that exceeds even the greatest of these on earth, and that dignity and majesty pervades His realm. His angels are not Gerber babies playing games. They are of a brilliance and magnificence hardly imaginable by those whose only experience is this present age.
Travis Holland (15 Aug 18): Do you want to know where the really prophetic flows from…….. it’s the Testimony of Jesus. Even the Angels carry the Testimony of Jesus
Binyomin Adilman: Tzadikim are totally consumed by their passion for serving G d, learning His Torah, performing His commandments and loving their fellow Jews. Their entire bodies, all their bones and muscles are dedicated to this purpose, and they are therefore never satisfied with their level of divine service. They constantly endeavor to improve and refine it. The wicked are the opposite: they never really consider that their crooked ways have a hold on them, and they always imagine themselves to be tzadikim.
Charisma Media (15 Aug 18): How are Christians to live in the midst of a world that is collapsing into anarchy and a church that is being overwhelmed by apostasy? How are we to respond to the exponential increase of paganism and the complete breakdown of society?
Alane Haynes: “My Blood is sufficient, I have prevailed. See Me upon the throne and walk in faith in Me alone. There is no weapon that can stand against all that belongs to the Son of Man. My Blood is sufficient, I paid the price for all sin, now it is time to enter in. Bring My light to the darkness; do not dread. Walk in boldness and speak life to the dead.”
Brian Simmons (13 Aug 18): I hear His whisper…”Be on fire with passion for Me.”
Brat: Ok, fine. But what about Old Yeller? You extroverted, charismatic evangelists can go and scream your passion at me so loudly that my nervous system automatically tunes you out and I have no choice but to not hear you, and then the next dude can come along and whisper it. Is it the same as whispering sweet nothings in my ear? Why would you have to listen to the prophet when you have yourselves to listen to? Why seek out God’s wisdom when man’s seems so much more fun?
Alane Haynes: “Hear My roar, align and release. Wake up, oh sleeper! I am the Mighty God in the midst of thee. Will you let Me receive My inheritance in and through you? Cross over through the veil of your flesh; break all ties to the lies, open your eyes, declare that the enemy is in demise. Declare sight to those bound in the enemy’s illusion and his camp is brought to utter confusion. Now is the time for the big surprise – My sons and daughters to come forth – ARISE! Decree it is finished, be not curtailed. Decree My justice; I have prevailed!”
Alexander Jacob Tsykin: Job 16:3 Shall windy words have an end? Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?
Brat: Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
Alane Haynes: The Lord is Mighty!
Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.
Israel 365: Sanctifying God’s Name ✡ “All The World Came To Pay Homage To Shlomo”
Shira Schechter: The Israel Bible brings down an observation on the passage [Dt 18:9-22] made by the Sages. The passage begins by saying, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee…” This demonstrates that the land was promised to each and every person personally, and that it is up to each individual, then, to behave in a manner which earns them the right to remain in the land. For that reason Moses warns the people not to learn from the abominations of the nations which are being conquered.
Vicki Kemper: Is it hatred of “the other side,” anxiety about what might happen, an all-too- legitimate fear that we or others we care about will be harmed? Is it a passion for justice, concern for the least and the lost, love for the God of the poor? Most days it seems to be a mighty mix of all of that.
Brat (12 Aug 18): The fear of God is a holy and awesome thing. It is not meant to be taken lightly. Maybe it is respect that earns us the right to remain in the land “… for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! (Lk 13:33)
Binyomin Adilman: Therefore it is written, “G d has made the man upright…”. A person should endeavor to follow the middle path. On one hand one must not be too haughty, lauding oneself for one’s Torah and good deeds. On the other hand, one must not be too humble or unpretentious, looking down on oneself in disdain until one succumbs to bitterness in despair of one’s self worth and worth to the world. Both extremes are obstacles in the path to repentence.
Alane Haynes: Later, the worship shifted and there was a strong cadence sound. As I began to see another vision, I was filled with an overwhelming fear of the Lord – a sense of reverential awe at the reality of being in the presence of the Most High God. I saw a vast landscape of destruction and darkness, void of life. I saw tears falling from Heaven, the Father’s heart breaking. My vision expanded and I saw the Lion of the tribe of Judah seated on a high, rocky ledge overlooking the devastation.
Vicki Kemper: Jesus was forever telling his followers not to be afraid, and yet there was—and there is—much to fear. What he really meant, I think, had less to do with feeling than action. “I understand that you are afraid,” he might have said, “but don’t live out of your fears. Instead, let love be your fuel.”
Binyomin Adilman: Therefore King Solomon said, “Go to the ant, lazy one, consider her ways and become wise”. Prepare yourself, store up your mitzvot and good deeds in this world so you will have them in the World-to-Come. The ant, who has no “bones and muscles”, no mitzvot and good deeds to take to the World-to-Come, nevertheless with her faith that maybe G d will grant her a longer life, endeavors to save up for the world-to-come. Even when one has no Torah and no mitzvot, the faith that G d is the true source of all life can sustain and nourish a Jew for a lifetime.
Rick Joyner: That being said, heaven is not stiff. There is a pervading joy and exuberance far beyond anything that I have witnessed on earth, but it was not silly. There is a royalty beyond any earthly royalty, and a nobility beyond any earthly nobility, that pervades heaven. There is a holiness that pervades heaven that is not legalistic, but rooted in the nobility and royalty of the King. This holiness is one of the most compelling and attractive aspects of the atmosphere of heaven. It is based on how we should conduct ourselves in the presence of our awesome God.
Binyomin Adilman: Thus the ant. She has no real hope for the future, no Torah and no good deeds, nevertheless she puts away her grain in the middle story of the house she has built. All the more so us, for whom the median, perfect path of return to G d is always prepared.
Proverbs 9:1 Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.
Alane Haynes: During the prophetic event I noted previously, we were worshipping in unity when I saw the first vision. I saw a large river, the waters were moving, and there were angels dancing and rejoicing as a gentle rain fell. I heard once again, “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty…” (Zeph. 3:17 KJV) As I watched, the rain began turning to gold which formed into large drops. It seemed the angels were releasing the gold upon the waters. I asked the Lord what He was saying through this. He responded that when we recognize He is mighty in the midst of our struggles, we are rightly positioned and aligned to truth.
Brat (12 Aug 18): Lord, please use Mr Graham to apply the gospel message he knows in his heart to confront and bring down the power-hungry elite, so the true flock can be fed with the bread of heaven. Amen.
Jesus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51)
Alane Haynes: Seeing Jesus as the Righteous One, and ourselves covered by His Blood, should exhort us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice and submit fully to His will. Only then can we truly walk in His authority and see His Kingdom come. Jesus, exhorting His disciples to keep praying, taught a parable about an unjust judge and asked a compelling question that should cause us to search our hearts:
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.'” (Romans 1:17 KJV)
Brat: Pastor John Tolle said that God is trimming our branches, so we’ll bear much fruit. Where can I park where it is QUIET so that I can listen for the wisdom that God wants to impart?
1 Kings 3:11 God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right
Binyomin Adilman: What did King Solomon infer that we should consider her ways and become wise? The Rabbis pointed out one of the ant’s special qualities: she is very strict concerning theft. Rabbi Shimon bar Chalafta once saw that an ant dropped a grain of wheat and all the other ants came and smelled it (to see if it was theirs), but not one of them took it. They waited for the ant who dropped the grain to come and retrieve it.
Brat: I remember having a discussion with Fr David Galletly probably ten years ago now, as we looked at “faith.” He asked me how he could pray for me. I asked him to pray for my faith. He exclaimed in shock, “You’re the most faithful person I know!” I wasn’t talking about faith as in belief. I was talking about my commitment to my faith. I was wearing down (and out) in the spiritual warfare.
Lana Vawser: I then began to hear the word “SUDDENLY” booming over and over again. I could feel His heart for the many daughters of God who have been waiting such a long time for the promises of God to be fulfilled. There has been a LONG wait for many. I then heard Him decree: “There is a turning in the waiting. A turning in the waiting. A turning in the waiting…suddenly.”
Jill Weber Smith (in the Jewish Journal): A Woman of a Certain Age: My Own #MeToo
Luke 18:8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Alane Haynes: Holy Spirit has been emphasizing to many that this is a time of acceleration, this is a time of a great work in the earth to see God’s justice enacted. God is working to bring His justice in our lives.
Brat (14 Aug 18): Now I wonder if the faith that the Son of Man looks for is not just the faith of believing in Jesus Christ, but our faithfulness in that baptismal commitment. That really IS a covenant. Are we sticking to God even in the face of divorce? Even through our Armageddon’s? Even through the thefts?
Psalm 111:9 He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
John-Paul & Annie Deddens: Along with her intercessory prayers for those who have fallen away from the faith, Saint Monica is also the patron saint of alcoholics, married women, mothers, wives, and difficult marriages.
Alane Haynes [echo]: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.'” (Romans 1:17 KJV)
Brat: “Faith to faith” to me speaks of covenantal commitment, even when the world is crushing us, even when our partners consume us.
Charisma Media (15 Aug 18): How are Christians to Cope in this Crumbling Society?
John-Paul & Annie Deddens: We’re looking forward to praying with you and for you!
Binyomin Adilman: One ought to adopt the middle path. That is, one must know that a human is indeed a lowly creature, barely in control of his desires, yet concurrently in possession of an inner jewel, a spark of G dliness: a divine soul that inspires one to engage in G d.
Travis Holland (15 Aug 18): For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ~ Romans 1:16 -NKJV
Lana Vawser: The Lord with tears in His eyes and His heart full of love and compassion for His daughters, spoke so gently… “Look at their faithfulness in the fire. Look how they have continued to stand and cry out to Me in the midst of their pain and their torment. Look how they have remained devoted to Me.”
1 Kings 3:9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”
Alexander Jacob Tyskin: Job 22:5 Is not thy wickedness great? And are not thine iniquities without end?
Binyomin Adilman: We are the Benonim. “We are not so impudent and obstinate to declare before You that we are Tzadikim and have not sinned. Indeed we and our ancestors have sinned.” (Morning Confession/ Tachanun service) We have done good and we have done the opposite. Nevertheless, G d is compassionate and merciful, and he leaves the door open for those who will return. May we use these days of the month of Elul to improve our divine service and to do complete and heartfelt repentance.
Lana Vawser: Instantly, I knew that the Lord was making a decree about the new chapter He is leading His daughters into. It is a season of RADICAL RECOMPENSE. Not only will there be recompense for what has been stolen and lost, but what has been endured by the daughters of God – the battles, the opposition, the onslaughts. The Lord has seen and now the justice of God is going to be demonstrated powerfully. Not only will the Lord restore what was lost, but there is going to be significant INCREASE in the RECOMPENSE and RESTORATION.
Alane Haynes: I trembled inwardly at the magnitude of His majesty. He arose, shook His mane with purpose, and roared a sound that vibrated to the depths of my being. As He roared, blood began to pour out from the rock and spread across the landscape, filling every part. Then light began to break through at the horizon, and sprouts of new life began bursting from the ground. Behind the Lion I saw a vast array of men, women and children moving forward in confidence, and a host of angels surrounding them. I heard:
Brat: Yes?

Princess Mia Lessons 09 Aug 18

Thursday, August 9, 2018
Brat: God has been leading me in Princess Mia lessons in training for reigning.
Patricia King: Did you know that you are God’s mouthpiece in the earth?
Brat: Last night Pastor John Tolle said, “The questions you ask reveal what you desire to learn.”
I say, yes! I do know that I am God’s mouthpiece in the earth. Now how do we continue the conversation?
House of Destiny: Table Talk
Brat: Where?
Ben Lim: I see in the spirit a great rush of prodigals returning home to the Father. The prodigals are returning home! They are not returning to a religious system nor to an institution, but to the Father of lights and to the family of God.
Job 1:5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
Emily-Rose Lewis: “You know that you belong to Me and run into My name for refuge. You call forth the truth of My Word over your harvest fields and there is movement in the mail room of Heaven as your order is being processed and sent forth by My words that are spoken through your lips. We laugh with joy by the confusion that comes to the forces of darkness as they are reminded of their final outcome. Our common enemy is no match for My chosen ones that walk by faith and love.
Luke 18:7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

Benyamin 07 Aug 18

Tuesday, August 7, 2018
[6 pages]
Chana Katz: Benjamin the Tzadik
Pastor John Tolle (29 July 18): When the student is ready the teacher shows up.
Brat: The reverse is also true: when the teacher is ready, the student shows up.
Rick Joyner: Some teachers attribute those resurrected on the earth as men as being the “foolish virgins” who were waiting on the Bridegroom, but without the zeal and wisdom He deserves. They attain eternal life, but not on the plane with the overcomers. Others have made the distinction between those who are invited to the wedding feast and those who have attained to being part of the bride. We have also noted that there is the “great company” that stands before the throne in Revelation 7, and the overcomers in Revelation 3:21 that sit with the Lord on His throne.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: The Power Combination of Charity and Prayer
1 Kings 19:7 The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”
Lana Vawser (6 Aug 18): Daughters of God, this is a significant moment for you. This is a significant season. The battle has been intense because of the tremendous breakthrough’s the Lord has for you. The battle has been intense because of the new chapter the Lord is opening up over your life. It’s not something to fear, it is something to rejoice in. For the enemy has come against many of you, time and time again to attempt to SIFT you but the Lord is decreeing that He is now SHIFTING you. He is moving you. You are not going to remain in the same place. The Lord is building momentum in your life and He is moving you. He is moving circumstances, moving mountains, removing boulders and making a way where there is no way.
Nate Johnston (in “Wine” on 3 Aug 18): He is asking you today, “Will you allow Me to flood the pages of your life with My goodness? Will you allow Me into your heart afresh to heal, restore, and fill you? Will you leave the past behind and write the pages of history with Me?”
Brat (in “Surprised” 2 Aug 18):
To: Almighty God and Judge, to Jesus, my Advocate, and to the Holy Spirit as my Witness
RE: Verse of the Day (02 Aug 18): Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ~ James 1:22 NIV
I submit to the Heavenly Court as the High Court’s anointed scribe, that just as Ezra chronicled the historical journey of the Jews and Baruch chronicled the prophecies and journey of Jeremiah, so I have chronicled the story and events played out in our day in the Seven Churches as addressed in the Book of Revelation. I have done what You have asked me to do. The documents that I have chronicled and shared have been signed in Jesus’ own Blood and sealed by the Father.
John 6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
Now I ask that You deliver the chronicle from the Cloud into the hands of those anointed to steward it here on earth in a more solid form, so that our children can learn from our experiences and testimonies. Just as You gave the Israelites manna in the desert, so You have given the Churches manna for building up the body in love. I say grace with the rabbis after this meal as they were present at this table, too. Thank You for their wisdom and generosity. They, too, have done what You said.
John 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Humbly submitted,
Your faithful servant,
Kathryn Hauser
Nate Johnston: “…all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16)
Chana Katz: His selfless, life-sustaining assistance took place on earth but, the Talmud relates, the heavens clearly took notice. Years later when Benyamin was very ill and near death, an angel arose in the heavenly courts and argued in his behalf: “If a person saves one life, it is as if he saved a whole world. How much more so that he sustained this woman and her seven children. How can such a man’s life be cut so short?” The decree was cancelled and 22 years were added to Benyamin’s life.
Lana Vawser: The Lord with tears in His eyes, His heart full of love and compassion for His daughters, He spoke so gently…
“Look at their faithfulness in the fire, look how they have continued to stand and cry out to me in the midst of their pain and their torment. Look how they have remained devoted to Me.”
Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles: Finally, insight came; revelation dawned upon him. The word “fulfills” does not refer to the Al-mighty who issues the decrees — the subject of the verse. It refers to mankind, the object. G d enacts the decree and also gives (or has given) us the strength to endure it, to withstand the trial. In understanding this verse, we must read it, “Blessed is He who decrees and enables us to fulfill.”
Lana Vawser: As I looked down at the page of this new chapter, suddenly I saw the Lion of Judah’s face appear in the pages and He began to ROAR. There was a violent roar that came from His mouth with such authority the whole earth would shake at the sound. As He roared, I heard the word over and over “RECOMPENSE.”
Demontae Edmonds (in “Wine” on 3 Aug 18): Did you know there are books in Heaven written about your life? These books contain detailed information about your walk with God. There are divine times and seasons when the angels of Heaven are instructed by God to open these books.
Revelation 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Brat: Excuse me, sir. One of the elders is listening to Jesus. I don’t see it say that the angels open these books. Even in Revelation 20:12 it just says, “…and the books were opened.” The “dead” are standing before Jesus who is on the throne. I keep looking and trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t see angels opening the books.
Rick Joyner: Then we are told of a time when the earth, seemingly the whole physical universe, is rolled up like a scroll. We know from science that there will be a time when even the biggest stars will have consumed all of their fuel, and the physical universe will go dark. Because all who trust in the atonement of Jesus have eternal life, it seems there will be a time far in the future when all are given spiritual bodies.
Steve Shultz: There is no doubt about it…there truly is a battle over thrones and we are seeing light clashing with darkness before our very eyes in many areas. Many situations are most certainly being brought to light in this hour.
Journal (in “Broom Tree” 5 Aug 18): …I thought that maybe the heat was an issue. It’s supposed to be 107° today and 109° tomorrow. The BBC said it was 118° in Spain. All of Europe and Great Britain seem to be baking.
I don’t have my Bible with me (as it’s in my car that’s in the shop,) but I remember one of the plagues (?) is heat.
Revelation 8: 7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Brat: And the people don’t repent. (Rev 9:20)
Are we not seeing this prophecy fulfilled right before our very eyes? California is in the midst of the largest burn ever recorded in our history.
The lectionary barons skip John 6:36-40 in this week’s readings. Hmmmm…I wonder what that’s all about?
John 6: 36 But as I told you, you have seen Me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. 39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Lana Vawser: Suddenly I began to see visions before my eyes of so many daughters of God pressing through the fire, standing, decreeing, holding His hand, looking to Him, offering Him a sacrifice of praise in the midst of the fire being turned up seven times hotter. I could feel the heart of the Lord so intensely. He had seen. He had heard. He was moved.
Ascent of Safed (07 Aug 18): “Deveikut”, literally meaning “cleaving”, “clinging” or “attaching” oneself to G d, is one of the most fundamental concepts in Judaism and is greatly emphasized in Chassidic thought and practice. It implies, however, much more. It is the heart of the relationship between a parent and a child, a husband and wife – one of ultimate devotion and commitment. Today, we call it “G d Awareness”. In practice, it means being connected in thought, speech and deed to the Creator – divine service in a state of rapture. Jewish sources are replete with expressions, examples and the encouragement of Deveikut.
Brat: In the gospel reading for this coming Sunday, Jesus says to the Jews, “I am the bread of Life.”
Ascent of Safed (07 Aug 18): The Ramban in parashat Ekev (Deut. 11:22) gives a detailed description of Deveikut in action. “The principle of Deveikut is to constantly remember G d and your love for Him, and never to remove your thoughts from Him, while on the way, when lying down or when awakening. And even while conversing with others, one’s heart shall remain attached to G d’s presence…. People who have reached this spiritual level live in eternity even while in this material world; they themselves are a dwelling place for the Shechinah.”
John 6:41 Then the Jews began to complain about Him because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
Brat (06 Aug 18): Actually, I did NOT see the Jews complaining this morning. I saw a report from the Antiquities Authority who was clearing out a stone that had fallen out of the Wailing Wall and landed near a devout praying woman. I saw reverence. I saw awe. I saw gratitude that God had given them a miracle that nobody got hurt (although many were shaken!) In contrast, I see the Pharisees over here grumbling like the Grim Reaper.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: A Change in Perspective
Donna Schaper (7 Aug 18): How often do you make a decision about which side of the street or path to walk on? If it is cold, you choose the sunny side. If warm, you might prefer shade. We also make decisions about whether to be optimistic or pessimistic. Sometimes we also enjoy the freedom of choice about hope and despair as well. Right now, a lot of people are spending a lot of time wringing their hands. They moan and groan. “Things are getting worse,” we hear. “I’m not watching the news anymore.”
Revelation 9: 20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Brat: I had said to Darlene a coupla weeks ago that I was praying counter prayers of repentance to the lack of repentance from the people in this heatwave, asking that God would redeem the times. She nodded.
Ephesians 4:27 and do not make room for the devil.
Brat: There would be no room for the devil if I had someone I could regularly correspond with and share my writings with; someone who knows me as a friend and not as their frenemy; someone who loves me as a daughter and not their whore: to take and leave for dead.
Ephesians 4:28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
Journal (in “Think Tank” 31 July 18): Dear God, dearest Lord and Savior, please, please intervene with a place of solitude with some peace and quiet! I understand we are in the thickest part of the siege of the spiritual storm. But we are not saved by what we know. You were broken for us, for me, therefore all this noise and heartache is just Satan wreaking havoc because he knows his time is short.
Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Well, God, is it kosher to say, “TIME’S UP!”?
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The first Sadigura Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Yaacov, connected this to what we say during Selichot (the additional prayers recited each morning from about a week before Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur) that G d should forgive us for the sake of His pe’er’, His beauty. The Talmud says that tefillin are a ‘pe’er’, an adornment. (Berachot 11:1) Therefore, what we are saying during Selichot that G d should forgive us for the sake of His tefillin, that they should be kosher!
Maayan Hoffman (7 Aug 18): Running Like the Benjamin Man: Bible Run is Prophecy Fulfilled
Psalm 130:8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
Ascent of Safed (07 Aug 18): What is the end result of all this Deveikut [dedication]? Rashi (in parshat Ekev and Re’eh above), teaches us the practical meaning of Deveikut. We must cleave to G d and emulate the ways of the Creator. Just as He is compassionate, kind and forgiving, so too must we relate to our fellow Jews and to all of the Creation only through compassion and kindness.” (See Deut. 16:11, Rashi) When Rashi (Deut. 13:5) bids us to cleave to the Sages as the only way to cleave to G d, who is “an all consuming fire”, he means that we are to learn from them the ways and wisdom of the mitzvot of loving-kindness. When the needs of others are our concerns then we will have achieved a Deveikut which will lead us further into sublime aspects of the service of G d.
Lana Vawser: Again, the atmosphere decreed.. “EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE, THINGS WILL NOT REMAIN OR LOOK THE SAME.” There truly is SIGNIFICANT change upon the daughters of God. The landscape is truly about to suddenly change.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The Torah was given to each person equally, but the ability to “see” i.e. understand and absorb the Torah G-d gives each person according to his individual spiritual makeup.
Brat: The Church used to offer sanctuary for her intercessors and outside benefactors would support their efforts. Prayer was seen as an art form. Intercessors were given a place to pray so that they could do what they were called to do, just as artists were once valued in France and people made space for them to do their craft. There was respect and value of God’s given gifts.
John 6:43 Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: This process of moral self-discipline is the hallmark of living a healthy psychological and spiritual life. A violin can produce its exquisite music only when its cords are tied, not when they are loose and “free.” Similarly, a human being who allows himself to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants and with whomever he wants, robs himself of the opportunity to experience the inner music of his soul.
Ascent of Safed (07 Aug 18): Furthermore, the Maggid explained, that after a person has had spiritual achievements, and feels Deveikut with G d, more likely than not one will experience a fall. Nevertheless, one must maintain his Deveikut with G d even if it dips to a very low level. As long as one remembers that one’s Deveikut to G d has left an indelible mark on one’s soul, one has what is necessary to begin his ascent anew, as it is written, “A tzadik falls seven times and rises again”. (Proverbs 24:16) He will be able to return to an even stronger level of Deveikut. (Likutei Yekarim)
Brat: With a little help from my friends…
Ahuva Balofsky (07 Aug 18): Proverbs 30:3 And I have not learned wisdom, that I should have the knowledge of the Holy One.
Ascent of Safed (07 Aug 18): This is the relationship of genuine, unfailing love. When one remembers that he is a child of G d, one will certainly refrain from displeasing the Father and thereby forfeit the privilege of being in His presence. Yet the relationship is two-way. Being a child of G d implies that we are also the recipients of His special love.

Wine 3 Aug 18

Working Dates: Thursday, August 2, 2018 to Sunday, August 5, 2018
[14 pages]
Table
Donald J. Trump (03 Aug 18): How about dinner?
Luke 14:12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.
Jo (02 Aug 18): I had baked chicken yesterday and prepped the tuna salad. They are familiar habits. Prayers. When you cook to feed, actually feed someone to give them strength and comfort, it is like praying.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky (02 Aug 18): According to Jewish law, if three or more men have eaten bread together, they must recite Grace together. One of the party acts as the leader and formally invites the others to join him in reciting Grace.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: One of the verses in this week’s Torah portion is (8/10) “and you ate and you were satisfied and you thanked G-d”. This is the foundation of the Torah commandment to say birkas hamazon, grace after we eat a meal containing bread. Interestingly enough, the first ‘bread’ or main food that the Jewish people had after they left Egypt and started keeping the commandments was the manna. Manna was a delicious food (tradition teaches that it tasted like poppy seeds and honey) that fell from heaven during the entire 40-year sojourn in the desert. Moshe even made a blessing that all the Jewish people said before and after they ate it. The blessing before was, “Blessed are you, G-d, our Lord, King of the universe who delivers bread from the heavens!” I know it probably sounds familiar. This is almost the same blessing that we say now when we eat bread during a meal. When the Jewish people entered the land the manna stopped, they had to grow the wheat themselves. Therefore, the blessing changed to “who delivers bread from the earth”. Moshe also instituted the first blessing in birkas hamazon, that begins with the words, “Blessed are you G-d, Lord of the world, who nourishes all the world in His goodness”.
Mark 7:27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: Rinsing the remains of the meal off the fingertips is seen as “throwing the dog a bone”. Evil possesses no intrinsic power; it derives its power solely by virtue of man’s misdeeds. However, in the present order, it must be present to at least some minimal extent in order for there to be free choice. If evil receives this minimal sustenance, it is satisfied, and, realizing that it has nothing more to expect from this meal, departs.
Anna Blake: Let’s say leading from behind went well, that we gave the horse moments of autonomy and it didn’t destroy all his training. That we were so confident in ourselves that we weren’t threatened by his answers. Let’s say we responded to all our horses did with a kind word. Good boy for walking to the gate. Let’s say we did it enough that both horse and rider felt good about it.
Lana Vawser: Many of you have been transitioning for a long time now, and the Lord’s been speaking to you about the great birthing and breakthrough to come. It is now here! It is time! It is time to see the goodness of God with your eyes and your land full of manifested blessing, breakthrough and joy. What God is birthing in and through you will take place suddenly and the landscape of your heart and life will suddenly change overnight.
John 13: 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Kaji Douša: My feet are looking awfully filthy.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: The first error lies in overestimating the power of the secular, mundane world and underestimating the power of holiness. True, the Divine soul, the observant Jewish community, and the Jewish people in general often seem to be at a disadvantage in every way, but the truth is that nothing can really oppose holiness. Deluding ourselves into thinking that anything can is the first psychological descent into the mentality of exile.
Ahuva Balofsky (4 Aug 18): PROVERBS 22:4 The reward of humility is the fear of the LORD, even riches, and honour, and life.
Luke 14:9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: This leads us to replace our natural religious fervor with enthusiasm for worldly pursuits. This is symbolized by the snake, whose venom is hot. Eventually, our enthusiasm for worldly things will consume our religious fervor altogether; this is symbolized by the burning sting of the serpent.
Tony Robinson: “Salvation is all about grace,” goes the old saying, “ethics is all about gratitude.”
Ahuva Balofsky (4 Aug 18): PROVERBS 22:3 A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the thoughtless pass on, and are punished.
Anna Blake: I have never, not once, seen a horse have a positive training experience from domination or commiseration. We want to find middle ground and partner with a horse. Affirmative training should build confidence in both horse and human.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The answer is something that each of us should keep with us all the time. The truth is, bread from the earth is just the ‘garment’ of the spiritual source of the nourishing food that is actually from G-d, that comes from heaven. A Jew knows the truth. The food we put on our tables is not a product of our preparations or our even our working. The food that we eat, really, does not even come as part of the whole natural order or as a vessel that contains within it G-d’s blessings. Really, really, really, the food we eat is ‘bread from heaven’. Remembering that will not only help our intention when we bless before and after we eat, it will also change how we look at everything we ‘get’ in life.
Tony Robinson: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: Come and see [picture the arrangement of the Tree of Life diagram of the sefirot], the Masters of the dinner given in honor of the Queen had goodly and beautiful customs. These showed that they were of the sons [who ate at] the King’s table.
Daughter
Journal (“Raise Dem Bones, God”, April 2011): Lord, You told me to “share the journey.” I have. And the Church as Institution rejected me just like they rejected You. I have forgiven them and myself. I have prayed prayers of mercy for them and us. I have wept for them and us. They could not join in the koinonia dance. It is a wedding dance. And the whole world is ripe and ready for the wedding banquet. But I am just a Daughter of man. I cannot breathe Life into “dem old dry bones.”
Psalm 51:4 Against You, You alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and blameless when You pass judgment.
Esther O’Reilly: The Awkward Christian Witness
Kaji Douša: How do your feet look?
Kris Vallotton: …God’s prophetic people stand in the valley of the shadow of death, and God is asking us the same question He asked Ezekiel: “Can these bones live?”
Brat: The fires in Redding and Northern California are scary bad.
Tony Robinson: “Listen to yourself: ‘With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? Will God be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ (Micah 6:6-7)”
Anna Blake: Why does it surprise us every time? We all agree that horses are sentient but we speak down to them. We micromanage horses because we don’t trust them to volunteer. We control them into robotic submission because we don’t trust their intelligence.
Kris Vallotton: Just as Ezekiel was called to look at a hopeless situation of death and dismay and have a role in changing the course of history, so must we as believers look at our city and see beyond hopelessness.
Rabbi Yitzchak Luria: This is particularly true if he has eaten by himself and there are not three to recite Grace together. For the Invitation to Recite Grace drives away the “other side” from there, as is mentioned in the Zohar (III:186b) regarding the incident of the young child.
2 Samuel 12:3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Mashiach’s arrival will be hastened because of the great self sacrifice required of us.
Mark 7:25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.
Kaji Douša: Filthy-Footed
John 13:7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Tony Robinson: In plucking this single verse out, we miss the drama of the passage in which it nests. We risk reducing it to something formulaic. A slogan.
Anna Blake: Some of us approach horses like a helicopter landing with body language that spits profanities, on full attack with ropes, flags, and a few too many training videos on the brain. Some of us approach horses as if we’re on a pilgrimage for spiritual healing, humbly reciting the rescue story and nearly crippled by our own compassion, explaining the heartbreaking plight of horses -to the horse.
Tony Robinson: Is that a problem?
Matthew 15:22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: From a different perspective, our era is also dubbed “the footheels of Mashiach”, referring to the period of time immediately preceding Mashiach’s arrival. During this era, it was foretold, perception of G dly revelation will be reduced, and that people will fulfill mitzvot by “accepting the Heavenly yoke” even with only minimal understanding. However, this in itself is an act of great merit. Mashiach’s arrival will be hastened because of the great self sacrifice required of us.
Tony Robinson: I’ve not as yet seen anyone in the end zone with a poster reading “6:8,” but I’m certainly seeing a lot of posters in churches with Micah’s words.
Demontae Edmonds: Did you know that you can pray and ask God to open your books? Also, we can ask God to open others’ books of remembrance and bring blessings into their lives. Once I was in great need and prayed, “God I have been faithful. You said in Your Word the laborer is worthy of their reward! I have been laboring and want my reward.” A few hours later a young lady blessed me with the exact amount that I had petitioned God for. The Word works and understanding the inner workings of the Kingdom of God will allow us to better access the divine promises setup for us by Christ.
Tony Robinson: In context, God says to God’s people, “We gotta talk.”
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: In the ‘60s and early ‘70s everyone who wished to could have a private audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. One family from Florida took advantage and entered the Rebbe’s holy room many times. At one point the family moved to NY but kept close connection with their family doctor who stayed in Florida. The mother once mentioned to the Rebbe that her son was ill, had a bad cold and she was considering taking him back to Florida because she only really trusted her doctor there. The Rebbe gently told her to give her son a tea with honey and he would get better. The mother said to the Rebbe, “Rebbe, if you only knew how many cups of tea and honey I have already given him”. The Rebbe said, “this tea will be different”. The mother asked, “what is different?” The Rebbe answered, “the difference is that the tea you gave him before was before you came into this room, and the tea you will give him now is AFTER you came out of this room.” This story illustrates not only the power of the tzadik of the generation but also of his concern and care for each neshama.
Tony Robinson: “Our relationship. It’s broken.”
1 Samuel 17: 28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
Tony Robinson: Do you hear it — the anger, the resentment?
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: Exaggerating the power of the unrectified world leads us to granting it dominion over the “religious” aspects of life as well. We become so afraid of the world’s power—we consider the desert so awesome—that we are scared to appear too religious, even in private.
Anna Blake: Notice how much you want to use a hand to touch him. If you can reach him, you’re too close. Does your hand on the rope move without you asking? Resist. Go smaller, focus on every movement in your body because a horse’s senses are more acute than ours and they listen to body language. That’s why it seems to us that horses read our minds; our minds are written all over our bodies. Hands are superfluous, put your shoulders at the angle you want to travel; let him read that.
1 Samuel 17: 29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: When G d tries to arouse us from this state with a thirst for true life, we will not be able to recognize what we are thirsting for. We will “thirst” but remain “parched.”
Tony Robinson: “Broken? What do you mean?”
Anna Blake: Pro-tip: The answer to every question is forward. Allow him the confidence to move and find his natural balance.
2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
Nate Johnston: The Lord began to speak to me about the torn pages and said to me that they represent the failure and ruin that many have experienced in previous seasons, but especially recently. I felt His grief as He highlighted broken marriages, loss, disaster and ruin that had come to people and homes. There was such a brokenness over the fact that many had been so deeply torn in their hearts and overshadowed by trauma. I hear the Father saying so tenderly, “Come out of hiding. That page of your life is not your end. Now watch Me make it your brand-new beginning! I am healing your heart right now and turning the page for you where you will begin to hope again, love again, and dream again!”
Guests
Mark 7:28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Brat (in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): I found Rabbi YY in my email spam box. What was he doing orphaned in there?
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky (02 Aug 18): In the Zohar, it is recounted that the young, orphaned son of Rabbi Hamnuna the Elder possessed great spiritual perception and mystical knowledge of the Torah. One of the teachings he shared with his guests, two students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, was that when the Invitation to Recite Grace is recited, it weakens the power of evil present at the table.
Anna Blake: Do you think he’s ignoring you, this life-and-death prey animal? Do you need to repeat the cue for this animal whose senses are so keen? Is he not fast enough for you? That’s your anxiety. Take a breath and keep it to yourself. Listen to his body instead of your mind.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The beginning words “Ekev tishmi’un” can be translated as “the heel will be heard”. Each new generation is compared to the heel of a foot while previous generations are considered like “heads”. Because they were closer to the source, earlier generations were capable of fulfilling mitzvot with higher levels of spiritual understanding to which we are mostly oblivious. Nevertheless, our deeds are “heard”, as the verse affirms. G d accepts the mitzvot of our generation as if we, too, had the higher spiritual consciousness. This is because we have a strength earlier generations did not have. Our faith is so strong we can serve G d even in our relative blindness.
Mark 7:26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
Lana Vawser: Goliaths have been shouting at the threshold of a new level of birthing, but take heart as you stand in faith! The Goliaths are coming down!
Pastor John Tolle: We’ve been too busy.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: But sooner or later, devotion to worldly pursuits leaves us jaded and our enthusiasm for them spent. This leaves us cold and deadened to any kind of stimulation, just as the scorpion’s venom is cold.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Brat: Pastor John Tolle told us that he has been getting physical therapy for his Achilles Heel. Maybe that’s prophetic.
1 Samuel 17: 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
Kaji Douša: Prayer
Holy One on holy ground: wipe my feet clean. Prepare me for the steps you call me to take. Because the dust will never shake free without your help. Amen.
Anna Blake: Can we agree that a horse is standing in front of an obstacle, a tarp or a wading pool or a horse trailer, is smart enough to know what to do? Go slow, let your horse think instead of distracting him with another louder cue. Perfect, give him time to reason it out himself. Let him come up with an answer and reward that.
Tony Robinson: “What do you want from me, God?” “How much do I have to give?” “What do I have to do to make you love me — or at least get you off my back?”
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: There is a suggestion that using the same first blessing today for grace that Moshe instituted for the manna is belittling of the blessing that Moshe instituted. How can we compare bread that we make from wheat that we have to grow to the holy and exalted bread that G-d sent to us from heaven?
Tony Robinson: Broken.
Ahuva Balofsky (4 Aug 18): PROVERBS 22:2 The rich and the poor meet together–the LORD is the maker of them all.
Drunk
Revelation 18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted:
“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
3 For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
Taylor Swift: “Babe” [https://youtu.be/l25AL0BdD6w]
Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles (in “Tracking Dem Bones” 31 July 18): R. Yitzchak sent his attendant to fetch a bottle of special wine that came all the way from the Land of Israel, but, when the wine was served, R. Yochanan refused to taste it!
Matthew 26: 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
James W. Goll: “Shields Up!
ICEJ (03 Aug 18): The impact of your gifts and prayers
Matthew 15:23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
Charisma (01 Aug 18): What If You Are Wrong About Hell?
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: Deluding ourselves into thinking that anything can overcome holiness is the first psychological descent into the mentality of exile.
Kaji Douša: Jesus knew about that lingering dust and how, if not carefully addressed, it would follow the disciples everywhere. He also knew that they could not afford this. The next town would require a freshness, a cleansed soul prepared to receive people anew. The disciples could ill afford to let the woes of the last place to sully their chance to minister in the next one.
Matthew 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
Tony Robinson: I’m a little worried that this wonderful verse is becoming a progressive prooftext.
Brat (in “O Virgin Israel” 26 July 18): Thank You, Lord, that Israel has come through as the Virgin in contrast to Babylon! Praise You, Almighty God, for Israel’s faithfulness as You sustain us all. Uphold her purity!
James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz (02 Aug 18): Rabbi: Battle For Joseph’s Tomb is Battle For Sexual Purity
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: There is another way to explain the expression of “the heel [or ‘the last or end’] will be heard”. Later in the portion, commenting on the verse: “All the commandment that I command you today, be careful to do it…” (Deut. 8:1), Rashi derives the concept that the one who completes a mitzvah (“all of the commandment”), is credited with it. He explains that it was the Jews who entered the Land after 40 years who were credited with the mitzvah of burying Joseph. This was despite the fact that Moses alone was initially responsible for retrieving Joseph’s body and taking it to Israel. The Lubavitcher Rebbe says that similarly, one might also think that the previous, higher generations would be credited with the final, impending redemption, because of their elevated service of G d, incomparably greater than our own. Nevertheless, we learn from here that our lowly generation is the one who will usher in the final redemption, and thus will receive the credit. The heel will be heard.
Wash Your Hands
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: Firstly, the most honored [“gadol” in Hebrew] of the dinner company would wash his hands.
Matthew 27:24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
Brat: Thank you, Ascent! It seems to me that you are redeeming Pilate!
Ahuva Balofsky (4 Aug 18): PROVERBS 22:1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
Brat: You are most kind.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: A person must therefore be very careful to have the proper intentions when rinsing his fingertips after the meal, in order that [the “other side”] not prosecute against him.
Mark 7:3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.
Anna Blake: We’ve been doing one version or another of leading from behind for a few centuries and there are no two trainers who teach it the same way. And at different times, we have different intention behind the exercise.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: For by giving it this gift, as is known, the “other side” departs, leaving [the person alone]. In the beginning [of the meal] it is just a guest, but if the individual does not recite Grace with the proper intention and concentration it becomes the host and prosecutes against him. As we said, this is particularly true if one dines by himself, without the [protection offered by the] Invitation to Recite Grace.
Anna Blake: This is the secret: Improving your training skills isn’t about learning new techniques; it’s about deepening understanding of how horses think and then evolving our intention into something a horse believes is trustworthy. Our intention is written all over us; it’s the first impression we give horses.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The month of Ellul is even more important in this regard since it is the preparation month before the high holidays. Our behavior on the first days of the month of Ellul affects, therefore, not only the month of Ellul (August 11-September 9th) but also the month after, the month of Tishrei, the high holiday month (that begins with Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur, etc) when we bring down all of our blessings for the coming year. And it is the Shabbos before the first days of the new month, this Shabbos Parshas Eikev, that blesses the whole coming week. The result of this slightly convoluted discussion is simple: If we behave in a positive way on this Shabbos it will essentially positively affect the entire coming 13 months! What an opportunity! The most important part of the process is to plan this Shabbos in advance. Not only where you will be sleeping, where you will be praying, eating and studying, but even what you will wear, who you will spend your free time with, etc. The better we plan for a positive Shabbos is the best guarantee that G-d will bless us with the best potential for the coming year.
Anna Blake: My intention in this exercise of leading from behind is for the horse to experience moving with us but without our constant jabbering about how or where or when. He gets to discover and make choices. That adds up to confidence.
Tony Robinson: “About what?”
Rick Joyner (in “Tracking Dem Bones” 31 July 18): The fellowship that God created people to have with Him, and then with one another, is the most satisfying, fulfilling experience we can have. The Greek word for this fellowship is koinonia. This is a bonding so strong that it is like the bonding of the members of our body to the rest of the body. It is because of this bonding that the blood, which is the life, can flow to all parts. This is why we are told in I John 1:7,
If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship (koinonia) with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: And behold, following [in Hebrew, “ekev”] the edicts which you heard… (Deut. 7:12)
Verse of the Day (02 Aug 18): Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ~ James 1:22 NIV
Anna Blake: Let your cue be like a secret between you, too loud if it’s visible.
Mark 7:24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.
Anna Blake: Now, in the peace of following, it’s finally time to ask for a task. Look around and pick an “obstacle.” It could be a fence post or the mounting block, a letter on the rail or a tree. Label it the destination in your mind. Did your mind shift? Does the task take you out of your body and back to your brain? Breathe, maintain self-peace, then follow behind as your horse does the task.
Emily C. Heath: As a young activist I believed that it was irresponsible to be joyful while injustice flourished in the world. Happiness felt almost sinful while others suffered.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: The way to avoid all of this, then, is not to begin this process altogether, by making the mistake of overestimating the weight of the world around us. By fostering our awareness of the power of holiness within us, we can avoid the pitfalls of exile and live up to our true destiny.
Ahuva Balofsky (4 Aug 18): PROVERBS 22:5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward [perverse]; he that keepeth his soul holdeth himself far from them.
Israel 365 (2 Aug 18): Learning the Ways of God ✡ “You Shall Know That I Have Been Sent To You By The Lord Of Hosts”
Anna Blake: Trust his ability to learn. It’s more about confidence than a quick answer by rote.
Kaji Douša: When I walk into the sanctuary that is my home, part of my ritual of entry is to remove my shoes and clean off the city’s residue. We expect the same of our guests.
Anna Blake: We aren’t looking to correct a behavior, but to acknowledge his voice with the hope that this exercise creates a shift in our thinking, by starting in a quiet place and pondering the real question, “Would a horse volunteer to be with us if we didn’t force him?” Wait. Don’t answer the question for him or for you. Just ponder it.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 2:54 pm Journal: Dear God, dearest Lord and Savior, please, please intervene with a place of solitude with some peace and quiet! I understand we are in the thickest part of the siege of the spiritual storm. But we are not saved by what we know. You were broken for us, for me, therefore all this noise and heartache is just Satan wreaking havoc because he knows his time is short.
Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Well, God, is it kosher to say, “TIME’S UP!”?
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: From this moment onward, we want to begin to improve our behavior and to go in the proper way to fulfill the divine will — the true meaning of the saying “To live in the here and now.”
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: The Jewish people’s desert trek was a forerunner and metaphor of the existential state of exile, which is followed by the redemption and entry into the Promised Land. The Torah here describes the stages through which both the people as a whole can descend into their collective exile and we as individuals can descend into our own personal exiles.
Kaji Douša: No matter where we live, many of us walk around carrying the dirt of another time. But God has blessed the land before us and called it holy. Like Moses, we stand on holy ground.
Lana Vawser: “Your Suddenlies Are Happening and Goliaths Are Coming Down!”
Anna Blake: Ponder this: Beyond love and control, beyond platitudes and cheap talk is the realm of authentic trust. First, Leading from Behind, then Riding from Behind, and ultimately, Training from Behind are the act of truly believing in horses.
Tony Robinson: Prayer
Save us, O God, from turning faith into slogans. Make it, make us, a love story. Amen.
Kaji Douša: “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” – Mark 6:11
Anna Blake: Have you known horses who are better under-saddle than on the ground? Picture it, when we’re in the saddle, we’re effectively out of their space. Hold a position at least that far away from your horse’s head. Give him space. Then check your feet, notice that you’ve moved to his shoulder, and step back again. Maybe go back to last week’s blog and ponder it again.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: This coming Shabbos we read the Torah portion Eikev, but we will get to that shortly. Next Shabbos (Parshas R’eh) and Sunday is the beginning of the Jewish month of Ellul. The first days of the month are called Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh means “head of the month” and the kabbalistic teaching here is very important. Just like the head controls the body, the ‘head’ of the month controls the coming month. When a person behaves in a positive way both between man and G-d and between man and man on the first days of the month, we are able to open the channels and draw down more positive energy the entire month. That is good to know in and of itself.
Kaji Douša: But no matter how hard I scrub, it seems that at least a part of the city stays stuck on the soles of my feet.
Anna Blake: Eventually, you and your horse take turns choosing the path, like partners. You’ll think canter transition and he responds effortlessly because after all, it’s his canter. If we want this quality of relationship, then we must give up some ground (control) to get it. Horses tell me that the exercise of leading from behind is transformative. My hope is that humans come to the same conclusion.
Favor
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: The collective power of the three individual’s divine souls and the positive energy generated by their camaraderie overcomes the negative power of evil. This occurs, however, only when they consciously join their individual energies together to recite Grace, that is, to focus on the spiritual dimension of the meal rather than simply the sensual pleasure of eating. Hence the power and importance of the Invitation to Recite Grace.
Kaji Douša: I don’t mean this metaphorically. I live in one of the dirtiest places in the country. My beloved doesn’t understand my penchant for wearing sandals when we all know just how disgusting the ground can be in New York City, what with our puddles of unidentified liquids on nearly every corner, and just all of the dirt that blows through the streets on the summer’s breeze.
John 13:9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
Lana Vawser: The Lord showed me that there have been some Goliaths that have risen up against God’s people recently, and the battle and fear/intimidation many have been facing has been intense. Yet what I noticed is that when the Lord showed me these Goliaths, they were roaring and attempting to bring fear and intimidation. This is happening because there is a significant birthing that is taking place in the lives of God’s people.
Brat (in “Hounds of Hell”, October 2011): I ran to Christ panting and terribly afraid. I asked: “What should I do??!”
He said, “Listen.”
So I listened.
Luke 14:10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The Baal Shem Tov taught that the word “ekev” is a commentary on the word “listen”. How should one listen? Like this is the “ekev”, the “end”, the last mitzvah he will ever merit to perform. If that is how you do every mitzvah, you will certainly do it and fulfill its every nuance with pure and true love and fear for the sake of Heaven.
Matthew 15:25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
Anna Blake: The benefit of this exercise for humans is the opportunity to go slow enough to become aware of how we lead. Can we just listen to the horse and say yes? If we want a partnership, we must first make space for the horse inside ourselves. We must learn to share.
Demontae Edmonds: Did you know there are books in Heaven written about your life? These books contain detailed information about your walk with God. There are divine times and seasons when the angels of Heaven are instructed by God to open these books.
Revelation 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Brat: Excuse me, sir. One of the elders is listening to Jesus. I don’t see it say that the angels open these books. Even in Revelation 20:12 it just says, “…and the books were opened.” The “dead” are standing before Jesus who is on the throne. I keep looking and trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t see angels opening the books.
Lana Vawser: There is going to be significant acceleration in the things God is birthing in and through His people in the remainder of this year. Where many have felt like they keep facing battle after battle, the Lord is going to demonstrate His radical, amazing faithfulness in the significant accelerated birthing that He is releasing. Things are going to radically shift. Hearts are going to radically change.
Anna Blake: I hear story after story of something a horse did that was really smart. People tell me it’s special. Not just their love for their horse, there’s a quality of awe that their horse is so quick, so smart. Sorry, but no, that’s horse normal.
Mark 7:28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Emily C. Heath: Alice Walker once wrote that “Resistance is the secret of joy!” I believe that. I also believe that it’s inversely true as well: Joy can be resistance to the forces that would destroy us.
Anna Blake: How did leading from behind go? There were comments that it was hard, the horse didn’t do it right. Comments that all the horse did was graze or trot off or go stand by the gate. All good and fair answers but humans didn’t like them. Okay, don’t take it personally. Breathe, remember calming signals? Each of these behaviors that we judge as “wrong” are their way of telling us we’re too loud, that they are no threat to us. We might need to work on listening to that.
Matthew 15:27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Shmuel-Simcha Treister (in “Tracking Dem Bones” 31 July 18): The host is parallel to The Master of the House (G d) and as such represents the conduit to draw down blessing on all the diners. At the same time, the response of “Amen” from the diners is an integral part of the blessing, so he must wait for them to respond before eating. By saying “Amen” the company is affirming that they are tuned into his blessing and wish to be part of it; they then become a vessel to receive it.
Luke 22: 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Emily C. Heath: Later in life I learned that it wasn’t my responsibility to fix everything. And I also learned a lot about joy. I learned that though this world will always be imperfect there are often moments of extraordinary beauty and grace that require nothing less than our abundant joy.
Revelation 3: 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”
Court Summons
Emily C. Heath: Joy as Resistance
Israel 365 (03 Aug 18): What is Everlasting Joy? ✡ “The Ransomed Of Hashem Shall Return”
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: Whenever a person succumbs to the temptations of evil, the sin he performs acts as a “prosecutor” against him at the heavenly court.
Verse of the Day (4 Aug 18): “This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ ~ Jeremiah 33:2-3 NIV
Demontae Edmonds: What’s Written in Your Heavenly Book?
Matthew 15:26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Nate Johnston: He is asking you today, “Will you allow Me to flood the pages of your life with My goodness? Will you allow Me into your heart afresh to heal, restore, and fill you? Will you leave the past behind and write the pages of history with Me?”
Brat (in “Surprised” 2 Aug 18):
To: Almighty God and Judge, to Jesus, my Advocate, and to the Holy Spirit as my Witness
RE: Verse of the Day (02 Aug 18): Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ~ James 1:22 NIV
I submit to the Heavenly Court as the High Court’s anointed scribe, that just as Ezra chronicled the historical journey of the Jews and Baruch chronicled the prophecies and journey of Jeremiah, so I have chronicled the story and events played out in our day in the Seven Churches as addressed in the Book of Revelation. I have done what You have asked me to do. The documents that I have chronicled and shared have been signed in Jesus’ own Blood and sealed by the Father.
John 6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
Now I ask that You deliver the chronicle from the Cloud into the hands of those anointed to steward it here on earth in a more solid form, so that our children can learn from our experiences and testimonies. Just as You gave the Israelites manna in the desert, so You have given the Churches manna for building up the body in love. I say grace with the rabbis after this meal as they were present at this table, too. Thank You for their wisdom and generosity. They, too, have done what You said.
John 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Humbly submitted,
Your faithful servant,
Kathryn Hauser
Nate Johnston: “…all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16)
Tony Robinson: So when we get to [Micah] 6:8, there are tears in God’s voice. “You don’t have to do anything to make me love you. I already do. Held in my grace, do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.”
Brat: Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying over the years?
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Rashi explains that the word “ekev” literally means “heel”. He says that this verse is referring to the easy and habitual mitzvot that a person may sometimes feel are unimportant and therefore metaphorically treads upon with his heel. It is our job to be careful with all of the mitzvot, even the easy ones, so that our whole bodies – from head to heel – are serving G d.
Mark 7:29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
Canaan
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter (in “Tracking Dem Bones” 31 July 18): The fifth reading within the parasha opens with “And now, you Israel, what does G d ask from you? Only to fear the Lord your G d.” (Deut. 10:12) The Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 21:6) says that the Hebrew word for “now”, “atta”, is always connected to doing the concept of reconnecting with G d.
Quinn G. Caldwell: Take the Ark of the Covenant. They kept it in the innermost part of the Temple, far from public view. Only one guy got to approach it, and him not very often. When he did, he had to do all kinds of preparations, and then make sure the room was shrouded in incense smoke. Mysterious as heck.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: Yet there is a strange law associated with this ritual. The Talmud states that the second blessing in which we express our gratefulness for the land must include a few words about the Covenant G d made with the first Jew, Abraham. (Berachot 48b) In this Covenant recorded in Genesis, G d promised Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan as an inheritance to his descendants. (The circumcision of every Jewish male baby represents this Covenant.) What is more, in this blessing we must also make mention of the Torah, the divine constitution for the Jewish people, which promises — scores of times — the land of Canaan to the Jews.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles: Superior Vintage
Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
David Bryant: “like feasting on Jesus.”

Tracking Dem Bones 31 July 18

Working Dates: Monday, July 30, 2018 to Wednesday, August 1, 2018
[14 pages]
Vince Amlin: “The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or destroy it?’ After looking around at all of them, Jesus said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury.” – Luke 6:7, 9-11a
Demontae Edmonds: There Are No Betrayals….Only Lessons!
Vince Amlin: Filled with Fury
Pastor John Tolle (29 July 18): I’m like the washing machine agitator. That’s one of my jobs.
Brat (in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): And I’m the Pew Pest! Someone has to confront the Pharisees!
Vince Amlin: I’m a rule follower. Give me a rule, and I will follow it. Don’t give me a rule, I’ll make one up and insist upon it. Break a rule in front of me and my blood pressure spikes.
2 Samuel 12:12 For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”
Israel 365 (29 July 18): An Unconditional Commitment ✡ “I Will Never Forsake My People Yisrael”
Pastor John Tolle: If not, we become religious zealots. Those patterns may not be what the Lord wants.
Vince Amlin: Jesus holds out a different standard of righteousness. More important than rules, he says, are goodness, and healing, and life.
Bill Yount: I believe this great outpouring is intended for our families first, and that God knows nothing else can stop it from going upon all flesh! I even sense that each family member has certain keys for the family’s health and deliverance that could ultimately result in the deliverance for our nation. Look again. I believe the answer for our nation is right inside of our own house!
Revelation 11: 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
Pastor Steve Dittmar: Elevated Thinking
Demontae Edmonds: Betrayals can feel like the proverbial “knife in the back”, and cause a wound to our soul. The blow of betrayal may produce a psychological affect of distrust within our minds and discouragement within our hearts. Betrayals often happen so suddenly and from an unexpected party that we are caught off-guard.
Vince Amlin: A family barbecue. An afternoon swim. Chalking the sidewalk with your kids. What could be more important?
Rabbi Jonathan Klein (in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): A talmudic story for Tisha b’Av tells of two competing young cohanim (priests) running up the ramp leading to the altar in the ancient Temple, in a zeal to be the one celebrated for cleaning the ashes from the altar, one literally stabbing the other in the back to prevent him from taking the glory from him — a murder in the name of religion — the harsh example of deadly religiosity echoes in our hearts to this day as precisely the danger of Torah without the heart. Sadly, this is what Neumann’s book suggests is authentic Judaism, a historical amnesia that would return us to the pre-exilic, power-centered, self-obsessed piety that the great talmudic theologians insist destroyed the Temple.
Mary Luti: “The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body…” – 1 Corinthians 11:23-24
Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles: R. Yitzchak sent his attendant to fetch a bottle of special wine that came all the way from the Land of Israel, but, when the wine was served, R. Yochanan refused to taste it!
Matthew 26: 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Andrea Ciceri: For me, one of the most difficult lessons to learn is the one expressed in the Gospel passage concerning the multiplication of the loaves. The theme is simple: the line that divides what we need from what we desire is a very thin line, difficult to distinguish clearly.
Journal (“Raise Dem Bones, God”): Wednesday, April 06, 2011 to Friday, April 08, 2011
I’m trying to figure out “dem dry bones.” On Monday I wrote out the “bones” on half index cards. I put down prayers, needs, praises, and passions, and I dramatized the passage from Ezekiel on Monday in spiritual direction with Yuka while I read it from her Bible: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Andrea Ciceri: I have had several spiritual guides in my life; “several” because I was forced to change them as I moved from one place to another. I have met honest people, who were seriously looking for my good and God’s will, and I have met dishonest people, those who love to manipulate. Beware of those guides who want to dig your heart to see your deepest desires, and then tell you that you do not desire the right things, and make you feel guilty about it. But also be wary of those guides who pave your way and defend your desires, but who leave you alone when you face the consequences of your choices. The first are those who reproach Antigone for having buried her brother, the latter are those who push Oedipus into his mother’s bed.
Proverbs 4:3 For I was a son unto my father, tender and an only one in the sight of my mother.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: In the last verses, we are instructed to go in G d’s ways. Rashi explains that since G d is merciful, we should also be merciful. Since G d acts kindly we should also act kindly. We find instances in the Torah where G d is jealous of His honor. Why doesn’t Rashi also say that G d is jealous, we should also be jealous. Rebbe Itzele from Valozhin answers with a quote from the Jerusalem Talmud: “G d says, I control my jealousy and my jealousy does not control me!” G d can control his jealousy, but people can’t control theirs. No one should rationalize his jealousy. Jealousy is one divine attribute whose blessings are out of our reach.
2 Samuel 12:5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die;
Rick Joyner (31 July 18): Those who are faithful to serve the Lord in this life, and those who paid the price of martyrdom, will rule with Him over the earth in the millennium. This is a great honor, but it is also a duty. Our reigning with Him is not just so that we are honored, but it is for the restoration of the earth to the paradise that it was originally created to be, as we see in Isaiah 11 and other places. So how do we reign?
Andrea Ciceri: Let’s be honest: desire is a gray area in which we find the best and worst of us. And distinguishing one from another is not for everyone. The lesson from Revelation reminds us it’s not easy. You can throw your hidden desires into the hands of God, but you will only receive what the prophet Elijah received in 1 Kings 19:1-8: a hearth cake and a jug of water. Because these are the bare essentials. In Lk 11:11-13 it is not written that if you ask God for fish, he will give you a fish. Maybe he will give you an egg. All you know is that he will not give you a snake or a scorpion. You will receive what you need.
Lovesick Scribe: The command given by the Lord was never to talk about the bones or the wind, but this is the trap that many of us become ensnared. We choose the ease of talking about the bones and the wind, placing all of our focus on what holds no life. It is not to say that we deny the current state, but we are to prophesy to the bones and to the wind. To prophesy is simply to declare what will happen. Ezekiel was instructed by the Lord to prophesy, to declare what would happen. He was not instructed to talk about the dry bones and to talk about the wind. There is no power in merely talking about things. God calls us to action and to carry a responsibility in prophesying. What if Ezekiel had not obeyed the Lord? What if he had chosen to see as a man instead of speaking as a prophet, declaring the vision of God?
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: The explanation in esoteric terms is that the phrase “the master of the house slices” refers to the middle line [of the sefirot in the Tree of Life]. This is the middle line [containing the sefira of tiferet in Zeir Anpin], and on Shabbat he needs to slice from [one of] two loaves. They represent the two letters hei, and the master of the house is the vav in the middle. In order not to make the guests appear to be gluttonous, he can give each guest a portion the size of an egg.
Ahuva Balofsky: Proverbs 10:4 He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: The host knows how much food he has for the guests. He should be generous, showing a “good eye” because this causes bountiful blessing to descend on the company. The phrase “good eye” is a code referring to the verse “He who has a generous eye shall be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.”(Prov. 22:9) And the sages say, “Don’t read that he shall be blessed, rather that he should be the one to make the blessing.”(Sota 38b) The reason is because his generous eye will stimulate a generous response in the spiritual world causing all to benefit from his blessing. He makes the blessing on the bread with this generous intention and then slices it in a generous manner for the company, serving the three representatives of higher consciousness first.
Brat (in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): How would Peter process all this fish? How would Pastor John process all my writings? He talks all the time about how we make excuses. He’s a fine one to talk, donchaknow?
Pastor John Tolle (in “Pearls” 22 July 18): This world needs people who aren’t just Chatty Cathies.
Lovesick Scribe: I urge you to prophesy to the wind and not merely talk about it. Anyone can talk about the wind, but the power lies in opening your mouth and releasing the word of the Lord upon the breath of God within you so as to beckon the wind to come to those around you who are dry and dead. Saints, you and I have an amazing privilege to pray and to intercede, calling forth specific battle plans to be dispatched in those private moments with the Lord. What if you went into prayer expecting God to lay a burden upon you that had yet to be revealed to you or made public, and it devastated hell’s agenda? It is time to get specific, go to war and prophesy to the wind!
Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Rick Joyner: When I first considered that our reward for obedience in this life would be ruling over cities in the next, I confess to not being very happy about it. Having sat through city and county council meetings, I could not think of a more boring job. However, the way we see cities and the way God sees them can be very different. We tend to see the buildings, roads, and subways, but God sees the people. City planning of such things as buildings and roads are necessary to serve the people, but the building of cities in the millennium will be more about building people than things.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: Rebbe Yechiel Michel of Zlotchuv writes that the opening verse, “In the end [‘Ekev’] you will listen…” means that in the end, you will listen and do the commandments. So since anyway we all will eventually do the commandments, let’s get going now. Why be lazy and procrastinate? The reward is right there in front of us.
2 Samuel 12:2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds
Rick Joyner: Why was this so wonderful? I saw people changed. I saw their lives impacted for good. I’m sure that it would be a very satisfying thing to design a great building and then to see it built, but I don’t think it can compare to building people, to see people change and become what they were designed by God to be. One person is worth more than many buildings. People may dwell in buildings, but God dwells in people. When we help to build people, we are building God’s dwelling place.
Vince Amlin: Many of which they had made up. Many of which were not being broken. All of which were a thin pretext for the blatant racism of the “rule followers.”
Ahuva Balofsky: Proverbs 10:2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing; but righteousness delivereth from death.
Demontae Edmonds: One of these unpleasant but productive experiences is betrayal. Betrayal happens when someone breaks or violates are trust and friendship. There may be individuals who attempt to deceive or misuse us but these actions may not qualify as a betrayal. A true betrayal is always personal and happens with someone that confidence was placed in.
Vince Amlin: Jesus heals a man. Restores him. It’s a miracle! But the Pharisees can’t celebrate. They have come to love their rules more than God’s Rule of Love.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The sixth reading concludes with the verses that comprise the second paragraph of the Shema. These include “…to love G d your L-rd and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.” (Deut. 11:13) This differs from the first paragraph of the Shema, which says “and you shall love G d, your L-rd, with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your possessions” (Deut. 5:5). In the second paragraph, dedicating one’s heart and soul to G d are mentioned, but not possessions. The Maggid of Mezritch relates its absence to the verse’s continuation, “and I will give you dew in its time…” When a Jew loves G d with his soul and heart, G d grants physical rewards, such as dew and rain. However, “possessions” is dedicating to G d a Jew’s “muchness” his most precious things. When a Jew is dedicated to G d in such a way, he displays how physicality for its own sake does not interest him. Thus, the fitting reward for dedicating one’s physical possessions to the spiritual realms must be non-physical. Therefore, it was omitted from the verses guaranteeing physical rewards.
Pastor John Tolle (29 July 18): Don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)
Brat: I know my reward is in heaven, but I live down here. Stop dicking with me, grampa. I could be your daughter, as we are of similar ages, your kids and I. God may not have Grandkids, but we have something to pass along to ours!
2 Samuel 12:3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.
Quinn G. Caldwell: Contrast this with modern life, especially online. Everybody has access, everybody can see everybody. No mystery at all, unless it’s how they decide what ads to show you. No lack of “information,” no lack of loudly-proclaimed opinion. No lack of tweets and thinkpieces to make you an expert. No lack of people telling you that if you don’t take a position you’re bad. What there is a lack of is mercy; since we all know so much, we’re all entitled to mercilessness. Who needs mercy when you have justice, perfectly informed and vehemently expressed?
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: Every human needs a soul; every nation needs a soul. Even Israel. And the soul of the Jewish people for 4,000 years has been the Torah.
Vince Amlin: And I know how they feel.
Ahuva Balofsky: Proverbs 10:3 The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish; but He thrusteth away the desire of the wicked.
Lovesick Scribe: There is another vital aspect to all of this that I believe is coming ever so stronger on the wind and that is the call to prayer. I do not know if anyone else senses it, but there is an increasing urgency to pray specifically and strategically. When the command was given to prophesy to the wind, it was saturated with specificity. Ezekiel was told to speak to specific directions, and the wind was told its final destination, which was the earthen vessels in the valley. Just as prophetic utterances should be specific without a buckshot effect, or the intent to spray anything in the perimeter, prayer is meant to be strategic and specific.
Isaiah 24:23 The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders—with great glory.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: The Sun and the Moon
Luke 5: 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
Brat (in “Jeremiah” 4 July 18): Pastor John [Tolle] was contrasting Moses with Joshua and said that for us Christians, Jesus is our Joshua, and that “Promises keep you waiting.” I do believe that Jesus is our Joshua. On the promises point, I personally, can’t stand that notion. I grind with the notion that “Promises keep you waiting.” It is truth. I don’t deny that, but it is also something Pharaoh would say to keep the chain gang going, because he’s in a position of power. That premise makes God seem like a negligent Father who only promises but doesn’t follow through. That premise sets the stage for the Jews to look like the favored ones and the rest of us to be orphans without a land, cuz the Levite priests got the lion’s share, right out of Eli’s script. I disagree with him, but what can I say?
Pastor John Tolle (29 July 18): If I don’t, who will?
Rick Joyner: The first prophecies I received as a new believer were a marvel beyond anything I had ever experienced. I knew that the people giving them could not have known the things about me that they were addressing—I was hearing straight from God through them. I soared on that experience for days, and considered it the greatest experience I had ever had until I was used to speak to others in the same way. That was even better, so wonderful that my main ambition became to be used by God to speak to His people.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: One explanation might be this:
Moses represents Torah; Joshua embodies the Land of Israel. Moses gave us the Torah; Joshua gave us Israel.
Andrea Ciceri: God is a better judge than either we or our spiritual guides can be. He knows what we need, and as Bonhoeffer wrote in one of his last letters: “God does not grant our wishes, but he keeps his promises.” The same is revealed in Jesus: he is the messiah of the final times, the last Moses who repurposes ancient miracles that recall the actions of Elisha and the gift of manna in the desert. But at the same time, Jesus is not the messiah desired by the people, he is not the political figure who will restore the supremacy of Israel over the nations, but is instead the true sacrificial lamb for the expiation of our sins.
Journal replay from “Hounds of Hell”, October 2011 in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): …After 3 years (at that time) of already living into my Calling, I could hardly agree with her that this was the “beginning.” I was already living out my calling and getting absolutely no acknowledgement or appreciation for these supposed “insights,” let alone any income. It was all sacrifice on my part. If my writings were a blessing, of which she was so sure, then it was news to me. She didn’t take me up on my offer to read my Reflections any more than Bishop Jon Bruno did. Her postcard was a velvet glove dismissal. The diocese couldn’t plug me into a title and role any more than St Patrick’s could, so they just dismissed me. And that part about not having structures was bull. [Gee, any relation to the Papal Bull?] The diocese has the protections of both canon and tax law. The structures have been in place for centuries! …
Miriam Yerushalmi (Author, Counselor): Both souls, both hearts are holy, and both are necessary to loving God fully. The animal soul emanates from a very high spiritual plane, yet corresponds to our bodily nature. It is likened to a “wild ox”: untamed, passionate, a tremendously powerful force of potential spiritual energy waiting to be applied. The Godly soul, which actually emanates from a lower existential plane, is like a lamb. It knows how God wants to be loved, and wants to love God that way, but lacks the energy or the physical capability to fulfill its highest potential.
Vince Amlin: Prayer
I repent of the times I have chosen lawful harm over rule-breaking love.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The fifth reading within the parasha opens with “And now, you Israel, what does G d ask from you? Only to fear the Lord your G d.” (Deut. 10:12) The Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 21:6) says that the Hebrew word for “now”, “atta”, is always connected to doing the concept of reconnecting with G d.
Quinn G. Caldwell: Take the Ark of the Covenant. They kept it in the innermost part of the Temple, far from public view. Only one guy got to approach it, and him not very often. When he did, he had to do all kinds of preparations, and then make sure the room was shrouded in incense smoke. Mysterious as heck.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: Yet there is a strange law associated with this ritual. The Talmud states that the second blessing in which we express our gratefulness for the land must include a few words about the Covenant G d made with the first Jew, Abraham. (Berachot 48b) In this Covenant recorded in Genesis, G d promised Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan as an inheritance to his descendants. (The circumcision of every Jewish male baby represents this Covenant.) What is more, in this blessing we must also make mention of the Torah, the divine constitution for the Jewish people, which promises — scores of times — the land of Canaan to the Jews.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles: Superior Vintage
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The Chozeh of Lublin explains the connection between “now” and returning to G d, teshuva: The foundation of doing teshuva is to always realize in our hearts that until this point we have not even begun to understand what it means to serve the Almighty. And now, from this moment onward, we want to begin to improve our behavior and to go in the proper way to fulfill the divine will. This, by the way, is the true meaning of the old saying “To live in the here and now”.
2 Samuel 12:1 and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: Torah vs. the UN
Rick Joyner: The teaching of the Lord on this is clear in some areas. He said that His twelve apostles would reign over the twelve tribes of Israel. He taught in His parables about how those faithful with what He entrusted to them would be given a number of cities to reign over in His kingdom that correspond to their ability. This points to this life being “training for reigning” in the age to come.
Anna Blake: One of the challenges with horses is understanding what a training method means to them, compared to what we think it means. For all we have in common with horses, there are also just as many things that don’t translate. We confuse anxiety for affection. We’re surprised by what does, or doesn’t, spook a horse. And sometimes pushing a method of training can end up getting the opposite result than we intended.
Ahuva Balofsky: Although this verse can be understood literally, it also contains a parable. The speaker represents the nation of Israel, called God’s firstborn son in the Bible (Exodus 4:22). It is to that chosen child that God imparts the wisdom of His Torah, just as a father imparts precious wisdom to his son (see verse 4). Like the child in this verse, the nation of Israel received the Torah at a tender stage, shortly after being released from the bondage of Egypt.
Israel 365 (31 July 18): Grandchildren and the Land ✡ “Grandchildren Are The Crown Of Their Elders”
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: The relationship between Moses, the face of Torah, and Joshua, the face of Jewish statehood, is that of the sun and the moon. As long as Israel reflects Torah—its faith, its dreams and its passions—it is hard to find something more beautiful and inspiring. When Israel, however, ceases to see itself as a reflection of Torah, but rather as a secular national homeland for Jews, a member of the United Nations, it loses much of its inner glow and beauty. Its very identity and future is put into question.
Legal Witness
Journal (in “Hounds of Hell”, October 2011): He [Jesus] said [to me], “I told Peter to watch and pray.” [Mk 14:38] I also said to him, “Upon this rock I will build my church.” [Mt 16:18] The Church has done exactly as I asked of Peter. They have watched and prayed. I told the ‘Church in Ephesus’ to remember their First Love. They have. I told the ‘Church in Smyrna’ to be faithful and they have been. I told the ‘Church in Pergamum’ that I would fight against idolatry with the sword of My mouth. And I have been. I told the ‘Church in Thyatira’ to denounce Satan’s so-called deep secrets, and I have confronted them, and Satan. I told the ‘Church in Sardis’ to repent and wake up. They are. You have been witnessing this. I told the ‘Church in Philadelphia’ to keep My Word and not to deny My Name. They did, but they did not love you. They did not care and repeatedly said, “I don’t give a rip.” The ‘Church in Laodicea’ was too entrapped in their own desires. They had access, ability, power, and possessions, and succumbed to selfish pride. Satan then eroded their confidence. They told you many times, “You pray in the garden and wait, and we’ll be blessed.” And they were. The ‘Seven Churches’ that make up the Church as Institution did exactly what I told Peter:
Mt 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
And they, too, fell into temptation just as Peter did, even though they watched and prayed.
“Like father like son? Lord, what should we do?” I asked.
Ahuva Balofsky: Proverbs 10:1 The proverbs of Shlomo. A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the grief of his mother.
Andrea Ciceri: I am aware that in Catholic spirituality (and in a certain Protestant spiritualities) desire is often presented as a facet of our personal spiritual journey. For devout believers, it is suggested that our deepest desires are a reflection of the will of God for us. Our desires point us towards our vocation. But I believe that the Gospel disagrees with this idea. In the passage mentioned, John highlights how Jesus avoids the desire of the people to make him king. The people want the wrong thing. There are also other passages that warn the reader to be wary of desire. The most significant one seems to be Mk 7:21-23: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within.”
2 Samuel 12:11 Thus says the LORD: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun.
John-Paul and Annie Deddens: Let us introduce you…
Ben Peters: Furthermore, I believe that in preparation for the coming Great Awakening, God wants healthy marriages and families to be a major pillar in this revival movement. With millions of new spiritual babies coming into the Kingdom, the Christian family will have an incredibly important role in discipling others. That will include many married people coming right out of the world, who need the wisdom and encouragement of strong and stable Christian couples. Church leaders will have a limited capacity to disciple new converts, but married couples, who know how to use spiritual fruit and gifts, will have the capacity to disciple the millions.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: The Talmud states (Bava Batra 75b), “Moses is the face of the sun; Joshua is the face of the moon.” What is the symbolism behind this poetic statement?
Journal (in “Hounds of Hell”, October 2011): …Whatever ego-pride I had when he showed me the world now made me sick. All I could say to him was to repeat what Jesus had said: “Do not test the Lord your God! Whatever God does, however God does it; that is for God to do! I trust His plan, promises, and provisions. Get out of here!” Satan had to leave, but nonetheless I’ve been really shaken by the picture, because I remembered my mystical experience from having been there in person, and being drawn “into” the symbols while looking at the tilma.
I ran to Christ panting and terribly afraid. I asked: “What should I do??!”
He said, “Listen.”
So I listened.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: The Baal Shem Tov taught that the word “ekev” is a commentary on the word “listen”. How should one listen? Like this is the “ekev”, the “end”, the last mitzvah he will ever merit to perform. If that is how you do every mitzvah, you will certainly do it and fulfill its every nuance with pure and true love and fear for the sake of Heaven.
David Sterne: Not by Bread Alone
Mary Luti: Jesus gave us bread to eat, saying, “This is my body.” He wasn’t being spiritual. We commune with a real body that was tortured and slain. We’re meant to discern it, to eat it, and by our eating vow, “No more.”
Journal replay from “Hounds of Hell”, October 2011 in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): …The Church as a corporate conglomerate body had repeatedly proven through their actions that they knew brotherly love, but had no compassion. All I could say to Satan was: “At the beginning of my calling Christ directed and promised me clearly, “Vows first; then hermitage.”” Satan knew Christ had said that. He grumbled and murmured but then he had to leave me alone.
Rick Joyner: This is a main reason for the church—it is the place where we learn to edify, meaning “to build,” one another.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: That is why the Sages said that “Whoever did not mention the Covenant and the Torah in the blessing for the land did not fulfill his obligation.” If our sense of gratitude and connection to the land is based on the divine Covenant with Abraham and the Torah, it will remain passionate, morally inspired and eternal. If not, our loyalty to our homeland hangs on a thread.
Rabbi Jonathan Klein: This Tisha b’Av, Jonathan Neumann has reminded me through his unsuccessful attempt to discredit the giants of Jewish justice work, built upon omission of huge swaths of textual bases for “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God” (Micah 6:8) why the sinat chinam we bemoan is worth rejecting, and reassert my commitment to join the millions of Jews worldwide who have demonstrated over and over again that our compassion-centered religion makes us, indeed, an “Or L’goyim,” a light unto the nations as the Prophet Isaiah imagines. And as a result, the Jewish people will be strong. I might even write a letter to demand that the now-orphaned immigrant children be reunited with their families. God calls upon us to do just that.
Verse of the Day (30 July 18): “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. ~ Matthew 5:14,16 NIV
Brat: I found Rabbi YY in my email spam box. What was he doing orphaned in there?
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: …in the mind of the world we are defending ourselves while sitting on stolen land.
Ahuva Balofsky: Proverbs 10:5 A wise son gathereth in summer; but a son that doeth shamefully sleepeth in harvest.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: The Talmudic rabbis, 1700 years ago, understood something about the Jewish psych, and Middle Eastern politics which may have eluded the founders of modern Israel.
David Sterne: The spiritual light of creation, so to speak, shattered, falling into places where it didn’t belong. The highest categories of creation fell furthest into the grasp of non-spiritual forces that actually hide, rather than reveal, G dliness in the world. The highest categories of creation fell into the kelipa, the shell that conceals G dliness.
Mary Luti: You and I aren’t murdering Muslims in the CAR. But you don’t have to kill or want to kill to make communion a sham. You just have to receive the Body as if it has nothing to do with actual bodies. You just have to regard communion as a “spiritual experience” untethered to earth.
Ryan LeStrange (30 July 18): My Monday Word for You…Stay in your Lane!
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: Washing the hands before eating symbolizes the banishment of the kelipot from the hands through the spilling of water, which represents chesed, over them. It is therefore appropriate that the one who is the representative of this sefira of chesed should wash first. He then lifts up his hands to draw down blessing from above upon them and says the blessing relating to the washing of the hands. He then waits for the rest of the company to wash, settling on a low couch that was arranged for him to recline on during the dinner.
Imagination
2 Samuel 12:4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.”
Rick Joyner: The fellowship that God created people to have with Him, and then with one another, is the most satisfying, fulfilling experience we can have. The Greek word for this fellowship is koinonia. This is a bonding so strong that it is like the bonding of the members of our body to the rest of the body. It is because of this bonding that the blood, which is the life, can flow to all parts. This is why we are told in I John 1:7,
If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship (koinonia) with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Journal (“Raise Dem Bones, God”, April 2011): Lord, You told me to “share the journey.” I have. And the Church as Institution rejected me just like they rejected You. I have forgiven them and myself. I have prayed prayers of mercy for them and us. I have wept for them and us. They could not join in the koinonia dance. It is a wedding dance. And the whole world is ripe and ready for the wedding banquet. But I am just a Daughter of man. I cannot breathe Life into “dem old dry bones.”
Lovesick Scribe: There are some ministers reading this that have been told by the Holy Spirit to get specific battle plans over your region, and you are waiting for others to do it, but God has mandated you for this assignment. You have even received some of these strategies, but you are second guessing yourself and what you see all around you. These plans unnerve you because of their specificity and their proportions, but you need not fear when God is leading you. I even hear the Lord saying that many are men who have stepped aside and felt inferior in power to pray, but God is calling you men to pray with fervency and passion. Prophesy and pray, and resist the lie that women are more sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
Andrea Ciceri: The heart is the core of men; it’s the center of the spirit, the place where God and man can meet. But it is also the place where things went wrong, the place where the original fracture took place. This fracture may have been healed, but we still carry the consequences, like a bone callus after a fracture. What remains is the yetzer hara of the Jewish tradition, the concupiscence of the Catholic theology, the radical evil of Kant; the tradition of ancient Buddhism that wants to silence desires by considering them the source of all suffering.
Rick Joyner: The blood does cleanse the body by carrying any impurities or toxins from its parts. It also brings the food and nutrients to every part of the body. Similarly, it is our connections with other members of His body through which His blood flows through to do the same for us. This kind of deep connection with members of His body is one of the fulfilling and satisfying experiences we can have on this earth, second only to our fellowship with the Lord Himself. Having this is one way that we are bringing the kingdom to this earth and preparing the earth for the kingdom.
Anna Blake (in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): We call it connection when we stand close, romantically pushing into a horse’s face, but horses tell me that connection is freely moving in unison while a few feet apart. Trust shows best at a distance.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: The light of the moon is beautiful, soothing, and romantic. Moonlight has inspired many an imagination and a heart. Yet the glow of the moon is merely a reflection of the sun. As long as the moon reflects the sun’s glow, it casts upon the earth its own unique poetic luminescence; if the moon is separated from its source of light—as is the case in a lunar eclipse—it becomes a large chunk of dark and rocky matter.
Revelation 8:12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
Nathan Shaw (in “Two Witnesses” 27 July 18): The Bible is full of imagery. Many times Biblical prophets described scenes that were yet to happen. Their descriptions were so vivid that they evoked works of art seen only in the minds of their listeners or readers. You get the impression that if the prophets had paint, paintbrushes, and canvases, they would have simply painted the scenes and presented them with the caption, “This is yet to happen.” But prophets were not limited to seeing things in the future. When Ezekiel was in Babylon he saw what was happening back in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8), and some passages of Scripture (for example Genesis 1) could only be written by prophets seeing things that were in the past.
Brat: I wrote this seven years ago:
Addendum: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 God Takes Us Personally:
An interesting thing happened on Sunday, April 10, 2011, and continued on through Monday and Tuesday, and now it is Wednesday morning. For the first time since Ash Wednesday, February 2009 when God asked me to write Reflections every single week (even when on vacation), this last Sunday for 5 Lent 2011, I did not email the Reflection, even though I had it written. God gently said, “No. Wait.” From my perspective, I thought I was done. I had finished my part of this relationship partnership for the week, where I pray and write, and God does the rest. I asked, “Wha’zup, God?” He smiled and said, “I’m calling out My people from their ‘graves.’” I thought about Ezekiel
37:13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.

37:14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.
I also thought about what both Father David Galletly (Episcopalian) and Pastor Dave Clack (non-denominational) told me: “A calling must be called out from the people by the people.” A calling is not about what I call myself, but is recognized by others to the glory of God. Three-and-a-half years ago, when God called me, and I said, “Here I am, Lord, send me,” God gave me my Calling directives (ie road map instructions): 1) worship God (the relationship part with the Trinity), and 2) share the journey. These directives are not just for my benefit, but also to benefit the Church body, so that she may grow and mature through the process of sharing. The Institution (and not just Fr David, but the mindset itself—so no finger-pointing!) said, “Tell us how we benefit from your calling, and then we’ll acknowledge you.” The “awake” Church says, “We benefit from your calling because all callings are a gift. Let us share how our lives have been enriched by your calling.”
Lovesick Scribe: As I continued to meditate on what the Holy Spirit was saying about all of this, I heard the words, “specific battle plans” in my spirit. Church, we are being given specific battle plans in this hour, and they come in times of prayer and intercession. They come in times of the quiet and seeking His voice. Do you want to know what will change the course of sinking ships? It is prayer. Do you know what will alter the advancement of darkness upon the battlefield? It is the prayers of those who know their God. Prayer is an exploit as well. But we have made prayer a misnomer and an old maid. We have made prayer boring and unattractive because we know that prayer demands more from us. Can I tell you something? Prayer is not boring; we are.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 2:54 pm Journal: Dear God, dearest Lord and Savior, please, please intervene with a place of solitude with some peace and quiet! I understand we are in the thickest part of the siege of the spiritual storm. But we are not saved by what we know. You were broken for us, for me, therefore all this noise and heartache is just Satan wreaking havoc because he knows his time is short.
Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Well, God, is it kosher to say, “TIME’S UP!”?
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: From this moment onward, we want to begin to improve our behavior and to go in the proper way to fulfill the divine will — the true meaning of the saying “To live in the here and now.”
Quinn G. Caldwell: Mystery might be good for mercy, I think.
Vince Amlin: I’ve always felt so (self) righteous about my rule-following. Until I started to see the videos pop up on social media:
Brat (in “Think Tank” 31 July 18): God, break the spell of narcissism! It’s too much!
I don’t have quiet to think. Jo has too much quiet to think. Cynthia is too sick to think. Her mother is too self-absorbed to think. This isn’t the think-tank that can honor You! How can we do what’s right when the silence of the lambs is slaughtered? You promised that You would restore fourfold the lamb!
2 Samuel 12:6 he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
Vince Amlin: White people taking it upon themselves to police public parks, neighborhood pools, coffee shops. White people screaming at black and brown people about the rules.
Mary Luti: Prayer
May the only body we ever break be your bread, O Christ. In our eating, pledge us to the end of violence visited on any body, anywhere, for any reason. Amen.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson: Paradoxically, it seems the world is waiting for this. Not only the Christian and Islamic world, who view the Bible as the definition of truth. Even the secular world, seems to respect Jews who respect themselves and their faith. The world is waiting for Israel to treat the Land the way Israel should be treated, as G d’s personal gift to the Jewish people.
Mary Luti: Communion has many different meanings, but in these violent days the broken bread must at least be our way of declaring, “One broken body is enough.”
2 Samuel 12:13a David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
David Sterne: Thus, “not by bread alone does man live, but by the world of G d entrapped in the bread…” That is, not only by the food itself, but by the G dly sparks inside the food, do we live. Humans, even though we are higher than the food we eat, live from the spirituality in the food, when it is returned to its source above us.
Mary Luti: But Christians are the only ones who take communion. Only Christians step over bodies they maimed with machetes to receive the Body of Christ. Only Christians pray at the table, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Only Christians exchange Christ’s Peace, hear the words, “The Body of Christ”, extend their hands for bread, and say, “Amen.”
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: The host is parallel to The Master of the House (G d) and as such represents the conduit to draw down blessing on all the diners. At the same time, the response of “Amen” from the diners is an integral part of the blessing, so he must wait for them to respond before eating. By saying “Amen” the company is affirming that they are tuned into his blessing and wish to be part of it; they then become a vessel to receive it.
Luke 22: 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Quinn G. Caldwell: God, apparently. Because though the mercy seat may have been shrouded in unknowing, God’s perception isn’t. God knows more than the entire Twittersphere and blogosphere put together, and still chooses mercy. And if God, who numbers hairs on heads and searches hearts, can be merciful, maybe you—who after all move through the world as one enshrouded by ignorance and bounded by mortality, no matter how well-informed you are—could admit that most of the world is actually a mystery to you, and try mercy, too.
1 Corinthians 11: 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.
Brat (30 July 18): The classic medieval text “The Cloud of Unkowing” seems to address the same thing in the first paragraph of the Prologue. One cherub to another Arc-ing over the centuries. Does this count as the Thousand Years having ended? (Rev 20:2) Is this prophetic? God still chooses mercy over knowledge. Babylon is no mystery to me, but God, may Your mystery forever envelop Your children in Your loving arms.
Verse of the Day (31 July 18): Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. ~ John 1:12-13 NIV
Quinn G. Caldwell: In time, the people would come to call the be-cherubbed ark cover “the mercy seat.” It became the place from which not command, but mercy, proceeded. Apparently, the cloud of unknowing, the shroudedness of the place made it easier for the people to imagine God being merciful.
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: These table manners, that are still prevalent today at meals given in honor of the performance of a mitzvah, have deep and meaningful significance in drawing down abundant blessing on those who merit being there!