Taking Things for Granted

These past few weeks have been real eye opening for me.  As most of you know we had a fantastic Sukkot and the in-gathering was phenomenal.  As I wrote last time, seeing the outreach taking place with all the people coming to assist one another and enjoin in conversations with open minds and willing hearts was truly the work of our Heavenly Father.

A couple of weeks have now passed and we are attempting to get “back to normal” while moving forward toward the River’s in the Desert Conference.  While at the same time I am nursing an injury to my foot while waiting for a surgical procedure to clean out my arteries.  This last part baffles me.  Not to beat a dead horse, but as succinctly as I can put it, I am about to have a procedure done to both lower legs to open the arteries because I have extremely minimal blood flow.  Rule out diabetes, cholesterol, plaque build up, heart disease, smoking, etc.  Does not exist!  And until I had my foot injured, had no reason to have my arteries cleaned out!  Have I been taking myself for granted all these years?  Have I become a victim to my own blindness?  The medical people told me they had the answers;  they ran all the tests, they now say they are stumped..but we will get to the bottom of this!  I hope so.  I am very much aware that miracles do take place and healing comes without any intervention from us as long as we have faith.  But what about doing all the right things and living the correct ways and observing Torah and being healthy and keeping healthy thoughts, etc.  How can it be that someone could truly end up the healthiest man in the grave yard?

None of this bothered me until about an hour ago.  My biggest complaint was that my great toe hurt.  I was not concerned with the rotor rooter going into my legs tomorrow morning and bringing blood flow back.  But it just dawned on me!  Why did the blood flow stop?  No one knows, as yet!.  And when it is corrected, do we just accept it as something that happened along the way, while searching to see His Face?  There is a part of me that strives very hard to not complain and accept what the Father blesses me with.  I also believe there is a blessing in everything and therefore we should not complain about anything; ie. The injury to the toe/foot led the way to finding reduced blood flow and the need for corrective measures; so I don’t want to be ungrateful for the injury.

This event in my life has brought the Spiritual aspects of my faith into the physical aspects of my being.  Probably won’t make a bit of sense, but just for the sake of going along for the ride, go along with me a bit and see if you don’t find that I am the one who may be experiencing the physical component, but we all are or have or will be experiencing the spiritual component whether we want to or not.  

YHVH has a fantastic way of teaching us.  There were many times in my life when I questioned whether or not I had enough faith to follow without having enough good reason to follow.  Many times along the way I asked myself if “this” (He, YHVH,) was real.  I know about the miracles of the oak tree and etc., but accepting something just because it is, can be quite a challenge. One of the difficult things to do is explain how we can believe in something we cannot see.  We can see the supposed results of the Divine intervention, but we are not capable as yet, to see the Divine.  Thanks to the ever so many miracles that have occurred in my life, I am able to say that I have faith in a supreme being that I believe created me.  I believe He did know me before I was conceived.  I believe in the miracle of birth, which isn’t hard to believe in when you see how many in the “count” that did not make it.  These are easy things to have faith and belief in.  The more difficult things are the interventions that occur in our lives that had we not been believers, would have been written off as something that just happened, for no rhyme or reason.

With a great startle I woke from a “dozing” sleep a while ago and realized, my foot was injured to get my attention to take a look at my life flow (Life is in the Blood) and do something about it.  In other words, YHVH woke me up to assure me that He is nearby and looking out for me… and to ensure that I pay constant attention to Him and never turn away.  He is in charge, and I am grateful.  So, when I tell others that I have no fear for tomorrow, I can now rest assured that I am being honest.  My Father has told me so.  Jeremiah 8:8-9;  John 7: 17-18

Shalom shalom; 

Thank you one and all for your prayers and concerns; I love you all.   

Pinchas a/k/a Frankly Speaking All theTime

What Can I Say

Time has passed since I last posted anything…not that there wasn’t anything to post… with a double Shabbat beginning and ending Sukkot there is a lot to say. With a hundred and fifty or so people pitching Sukkahs’s there is quite a bit to say…with ten full days of festivities and four of them Sabbaths words can’t say enough. And don’t forget that leading into all this celebration was the double Shabbat at Yom Teruah and the double Shabbat at Yom Kippurim….(our Congregation follows the agricultural calendar as in the days of old and in Scripture…watching for the moon over Yerushalaylim).. the day will come, yes the day will come…Yom Shekulo Shabbat…the day when it’s all Shabbat. Then what do we do?

That simple question, "Then what do we do?" is answered best by the passage that says to be prepared…it does not say, get prepared! Be Prepared! Make sure you participate in all the rehearsals. Woe to those who don’t even bother to rehearse the weekly Shabbat …the first feast day to be commanded! Be alert to what is happening about you. No need to focus on the world out there; focus on your life in Torah! Yeah! I feel like shouting! What an awesome time we all had…and for some it didn’t end until after the eleventh day!.... How come we can visit with some people and after two hours everything has been said and it is time to go home. But get with the Mishp’kha and a week goes by and we still have lots to share…. Oh the tears of joy !

 

This season we focused on getting back to basics…. getting back to the days when we were first called by the Father to return to Him…when we learned that we were beyond the warm milk of the faith stream we were in and were ready to bite down on some meat! That is when we learned that we knew very little, and still know very little. But we were called, and thus He gave us an ability to put aside the differences and look for the similarities. To not walk as “they” walked, but walk as “He” walked. To reach out to one another not to take, but to give. To be happy to proclaim the Name of YHVH! To cease being afraid of what others might say, but to begin having a healthy fear and respect for our Creator, and realize it is what He says that matters.

This Week of Tabernacles (Sukkot) was so filled with the Spirit and Awe of the Father. I observed young children reading Torah to one another. I watched as the tiniest of the wee-uns to the oldest of the young adults, pitched in, saw things to be attended to and attended to them. They did not have to ask permission or to be told. They were doing what they read in the Word…love your neighbor as yourself. I witnessed so many acts of kindness….and all this with desert like conditions…first we had scorching heat, followed by monsoon like rains and the cold hit upon us. No one turned back. We were in this march to the end. Some talked about the eighth day when He asks those faithful to stay just one more night…and then realized our Gracious and Most Divine Father already factored in two extra days! You just can’t make things like this happen…He can though.

But then came the tears…there was talk about most pulling out early on the Sunday morning….well, a couple pulled out, but “most” didn’t exit our Eastern Gate until after we all had breakfast and lunch together. Each one helping the other to pack. They came from all over the country. They had long drives to make to get back and rejoin that which they had managed to leave outside the camp. I thanked my Father for putting my homestead ‘just around the corner’. 

 

This could go on forever, but I think you may be getting the message….for those who have never kept the Feasts of YHVH, you really have no idea what you are missing. It is like trying to describe going to 'Eretz Yisrael' for the first time…. man’s words are insufficient…we have a lot to learn. So we must rehearse, practice, study and Sh’ma! Shalom…

It would be remiss of me not to mention the manna! If Moshe ate manna like we ate manna, he would have made a couple extra trips around the mountain…Halleluyah! did we eat good! Todah Rabah, Yocheved and your Kitchen Angels… Shalom shalom….

Love you all,

Pinchas a/k/a Frankly Speaking all the time.

The Righteousness of Avraham

Genesis 21: 11-13

Don’t be distressed because of the boy and your slave-girl. Listen to everything Sarah says to you, because it is your descendants through Yitz’chak who will be counted. But I will also make a nation from the son of the slave-girl, since he is descended from you.

Avraham became very distressed over the matter of his son Ishmael . A little earlier, Sarah, Avraham’s wife, told him to throw the slave-girl Hagar and Hagar’s son Ishmael out of their camp. Avraham has to make a tough decision. He wants to please YHVH and he wants to keep peace in the family. YHVH previously made a covenant with Avraham; that Avraham would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky. Ishmael is a descendant of Avraham. How can Avraham discard that which YHVH has given him; even though it is apparent that Avraham took it upon himself to fulfill the promise of the Father to have a child. Thus, Sarah introduced him to Hagar. Oh what a tangled web they weave!

Coming up in ten days from this writing, we will be reading/studying D’Varim 33: (Parashah 54) V’Zot HaBrachah (This is the blessing). Back in Genesis, our life as we know it today was mapped out for us by YHVH. Because of the compassion YHVH has for His people and His Word, the world as we know it today was also mapped out. YHVH’s covenant with Avraham did not overlook his descendant Ishmael. In the last portion of Torah (Parashah 54) Moshe is in the process to go rest with his ancestors. Before doing so, he speaks blessings over all the people of Israel except the tribe of Shimon. Shimon was very rebellious and constantly doing things as he saw fit, not as YHVH would approve.

This Torah portion puts all the previous portions together. This is where we can take a close look. What tribe are we from?  Who leads us?   Are we worthy to be called ‘Righteous’?  With Yom Kippur only days away, we find ourselves soul searching for just who we are and where we are in this world that was mapped out for us so very long ago. There is even an avenue for Ishmaelites. 

 

This is now. Torah is now. Are we so strong in belief and faith that we can be called of the tribe of Levi, who said of his father and mother “I don’t know them”. In observing the Word of YHVH, Levi didn’t acknowledge his brothers or children. He only observed and preserved the word of YHVH and the covenant. Levi placed YHVH and the covenant above all else; even family.

On the other extreme there is Reuven. His blessing from Moshe came in the form of a prayer statement; “Let Reuven live and not die out, even though his numbers grow few” (Deut 33:6) Could it be that should Reuven live long enough, he will eventually fall in step with Torah?

Please read all the blessings for yourself. When you do read this portion, go ahead and do some self-diagnosis. See which blessing fits best. Is there one tribe in particular that your behavior and your heart are drawn to?  Maybe there is a combination of two or more?  Have you experienced a division in your family because of your love for YHVH as Levi did?  Or do you have one foot in and one foot out as seemingly does Reuven? Do none of them strike a cord? Is there some Shimon in your motivation? Or even still, what about Ishmael? 

 

The intent of this writing is not to find fault, make judgment or tell anyone how to live. That is what Torah is for. We are about to call upon our Father to hear our pleas and forgive our transgressions. I believe that unless we can identify who we are and what we stand for, then we are not able to honestly present ourselves to him for any reason.

Shalom, Shalom

Pinchas a/k/a Frankly Speaking all the time