Who I am and who Servants of Messiah Ministries is.

This message will be presented over the next two days (Friday, July 30^th, 2004 and Sabbath July 31^st, 2004). The first message will discuss the process of cleaning out our minds and the second part will discuss the process of maintaining a clean mind.

For the most part, I am addressing the Christian or Ephraimite that is just beginning to try to live a Torah obedient lifestyle. I am also speaking to the Jewish person that has discovered Yahshua and wishes to embrace Him but does not want to "join the church" as it were. I am speaking to that person that has discovered that our Father Yahweh has not changed and that He means and wants us to act and live in a certain way. He has given us His instructions and He has provided a perfect example in Yahshua.

Both the Ephraimite and the Yahudite bring a lot of baggage from traditions and theologies of our former belief systems and our modern western Greek/Roman mind set. Both groups have been programmed with these traditions and theologies and this programming controls how we hear and absorb new information. For that matter, both groups are severely handicapped by this programming. When we are exposed to new information, that programming will control how or even whether we will except that new information. Some of you might not accept what I am going to say and what others are going to say at this conference because of that programming.

I have spoken to Christian pastors and leaders and lay people and discussed Torah matters and stated that the Torah is still for all of us today. I have discussed the restoration of Ephraim and Judah as the whole House of Israel with these same people. Many times the listener has argued with me but there have been other times when the listener has just looked at me with a blank look and then responded with something like "we’re not under the law anymore, but under grace". When I have had the opportunity to speak to Jewish people, they have either rejected what I was saying or walked away.

The Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance

I did not understand fully what was really going on and what I was up against. I just thought that they were rejecting the message and even the messenger but there seemed to be more to it then that. There seems to be an explanation of this in something known as the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance or TCD. This theory says that the mind involuntarily rejects information not in line with previous thoughts and/or actions. This theory was recognized by Leon Festeringer and published in his book "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance".

Festeringer’s findings state that new events or new information create an unpleasantness, or a dissonance with existing knowledge, opinion, or cognition concerning behavior. When this happens, pressures and stress naturally arise within the person to reduce the dissonance. This does not reconcile the new information with the old but just reduces the dissonance.

The strength of the pressures to reduce the dissonance is a function of the magnitude of the dissonance. The greater the dissonance or unpleasantness, the greater will be the intensity of the action to reduce the dissonance and the greater the avoidance of situations that would increase the dissonance.

A person has two choices, they can deal with the pressure generated by the dissonance by changing the old behavior to harmonize with the new information. But if the person is too committed to the old behavior and that way of thinking, they will simply reject the new information. A simple "I don’t believe it" thought or statement is the easy way out. After all, if the person is unaware, they are unaware of being unaware.

For the most part, the Ephraimite and the Yahudite have a kind of wall of programming of all their traditions and theologies that can either protect them or insulate them for any new information. On the one hand this is good because it can protect them from receiving false doctrines and teachings. But on the other hand, it prevents them from receiving teaching of Yahweh’s plan for the restoration of Israel and their part in it.

Therefore, when I have spoken to Christian people about Torah matters and the restoration of Israel and they have looked at me with that blank stare, I now understand that it is their own cognitive dissonance setting in. When I have tried to tell them that Yahweh’s Torah and His commands did not disappear with a few verses written by "Paul", they are unable to accept that because their old programming and theology prevents them from doing so.

The Comfortable Christian

There is another serious issue at hand. I would like to call it the "pew potato Christian". This is the Christian who is so comfortable with their belief system that they do not want to hear anything except the good and easy stuff or "smooth things" (Isaiah 30:10). This also applies to the Jewish person who is very comfortable with their belief system.

This person is not interested in any messages involving repentance. After all, the Christian is saved and everything is just fine. They have their "ticket punched" and they are going to heaven when they die. They do not want to hear teachings about obedience to Yahweh’s commands because they believe that now that the "New Covenant" has replaced the "Old Covenant", they are not bound to those commands. I have actually heard a very popular minister preach this very message.

The Comfortable Christian is also that person that is "me" oriented rather then Yahweh oriented. This is the person that focuses on the prosperity messages, the rapture messages, and the whole "Holy Spirit" thing because they want to receive. I have heard a prominent pastor preach "there is a river of blessing flowing from the throne and all you have to do is dip in and receive". His audience loved it because that’s what they want to hear. He did not predicate this "river of blessing" with Deuteronomy 28:1 & 2 which tells us that those blessings are based on our obedience to Yahweh’s commands.

Something Must Be Done

If a person is expected to receive and hear Biblical truth about Yahweh’s Word and the restoration of Israel under Yahshua, then something must be done about their cognitive dissonance. Quite frankly, I still believe that it is Yahweh’s responsibility to choose His own people and it is the Ruach Kodesh who will open the hearts and minds of His people.

I am beginning to understand that there will be some that will not hear Yahweh’s Word no matter how well put or how loud it is taught. For some, their cognitive dissonance is so strong that nothing can get through. And for others, they are so comfortable that they cannot move. For those people, I still pray but it is still their choice to be where they are.

What must be done is very severe and will even be painful. What must be done will change everything about us. We are about to reprogram our minds and change our thinking. We need to clear out the old stuff and fill it with Yahweh’s stuff. We are going to perform brain surgery on our own minds to radically cut out the old unclean stuff and replace it with new clean stuff.

Why do we have to do this? Here’s a little secret. To be under Yahweh’s Torah is the safest place to be. To be submitted to Yahweh’s will is the safest place to be. To be out of Yahweh’s will is the worst place to be. Our eyes deceive us because they are looking at the natural. It might appear that the person who has placed themselves under Yahweh’s Torah and His will are not doing so well. On the other hand, the person that is blatantly disobedient is wallowing in, what appears to be, "blessings". You might be one of those people that is trying to obey Yahweh but the big blessings seem to be lacking. We are going to have to change this line of thinking also.

Getting Back What We Never Had

The real purpose of cleaning out our minds is to refill it with what Yahweh wants in there. We are wanting to actually return to some earlier time. I believe that what we are actually trying to do is put ourselves back in late Second Temple Times or first century times to the days of the early Nazerene Movement – the early Kehilah. We think we are actually trying to go back to a place where we have never been and get back something that we never had.

What is important is that we are not talking about us as individuals. This is Greek/Roman thinking. We are talking about us – The Whole House of Israel – from Abraham to us today to our descendants. This is Hebraic thinking and, therefore, Biblical thinking. After all, when we celebrate the Passover, do we not put ourselves leaving Egypt with our ancestors?

In fact, we are trying to get back something that we, as Israel, really did have. We are trying to return to that time of the early Nazerene Kehilah and change our thinking. Yahshua’s disciples were sent to the world to teach about the Messiah and the restoration of the Whole House of Israel. Rav Sha’ul taught the lost Ephraimites about Torah. As a matter of fact, Yahweh tells us through His prophet Moshe in Deuteronomy 30:2 – 3 that we will get back what we had.

Wee Need To Recover From the Old Way of Thinking

Both of these definitions imply that there existed something that was "lost or stolen". This would imply that the thing that was "lost or stolen" was of such great value that it would be necessary and desirable to get it back. This thing that was "lost or stolen" would have to have a value so much greater then the thing that "replaced" it that we might go to any length to get it back.

We must presuppose three points. One; that we had a thing of great value. Two; that someone or some force caused us to loose that thing or stole that thing from us. And three; that we have discovered that the thing is missing or stolen and we want it back.

The Thing We Had

From the days at Mount Sinai to the days of King David, the Nation of Israel was united as 12 tribes serving Yahweh in a common belief system. There may have been disputes between the tribes and there may have been times when Israel was less focused and obedient to Yahweh then at others. But what existed was Israel and Yahweh was with them in His Tabernacle. In the days of Solomon the first Temple was built and Yahweh was worshipped in His Temple with a united Israel and a priesthood serving Yahweh as prescribed in Torah. All was well – more or less.

What We Lost and How

Actually, two things have been lost. The first is a united Israel, and the second is both Ephraim and Judah straying from Yahweh’s Torah.

A little history here – All 12 tribes of Israel were united under King David. In approximately 921 BC, the ten northern tribes broke away from the House Of David and called themselves Israel making Samaria its capital. The southern tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi made up the southern kingdom under Rehoboam with Jerusalem as its capital (Read First Kings 11:26-43). As Rehoboam prepares an army to retake the ten renegade tribes in the north, Yahweh forbids it (First Kings 12:24) by telling Rehoboam that this split in the House Of David is from Him and that they should not fight against their brothers.

The Northern kingdom of ten tribes began to adopt pagan practices, holidays, customs, false worship and unfortunately Jeroboam, the king of Israel, became the father of Ephraimite pagans. In First Kings 12:26-33 we see the evil heart of Jeroboam as he devised a scheme for the ten tribes to begin to practice a false religion designed to keep Ephraim separate from Judah and separate from Judah’s Elohim.

This House of Ephraim would one day become hidden as individuals within the Christian Church through Yahweh’s program of the regathering of Ephraim through Messiah Yahshua. This belief system of Jeroboam had as its basic design the creation of a separate entity from the House of David consisting of the ten tribes in the north.

In 721 BC Yahweh brought judgement on Ephraim and sent the Assyrian king to utterly destroy the House Of Ephraim or the ten northern tribes. Ephraim had played the harlot and lifted her skirt to every idol and foreign deity, Yahweh declared that he would in like manner sift her and cause her to be naked before the Gentile nations. This stern punishment would be enacted by the dispersing and swallowing up of these ten tribes by the world’s pagan nations. Since Ephraim’s lust and desire for paganism was so great Yahweh permitted the ten tribes to become the very thing that they so desperately and so wickedly craved to be!

In Isaiah 63:19, we read "we have become like those over whom You never ruled – Your Name is not called on them!" If we put Isaiah 63:17-19 in the context of Ephraim today, we can see that Ephraim has strayed from Yahweh’s Torah. Furthermore, Ephraim, or the Christian church, is even proud of being far from Yahweh’s Torah.

Much of what I have just said can be found in several papers written by Rabbi Moshe so I don’t need to go into much more detail about it here.

The Thing of Great Value that Ephraim has lost is its relationship to Yahweh through the Torah and its relationship to Judah. Even though Yahweh permitted Ephraim’s dispersion into the nations, it was still Ephraim’s choice. The Thing of Great Value that Judah lost was the Messiah Yahshua.

We Want It Back

It is very apparent that Yahweh is calling Ephraimites and Yahudites out of their Babylons and showing them that He will bring them together as a united Israel under Messiah Yahshua. HOWEVER, Ephraim must leave the uncleanness of its Babylon behind and return to a Torah obedient lifestyle and belief system. Judah must also leave its Babylon and return to the true Torah of Yahweh and the Messiah Yahshua.

Isaiah 64:7 tells us that Yahweh has hidden His face from Ephraim and consumed them because of their lawlessness. However, Isaiah 64:8 says, "And now, O Yahweh, You are our Father". It is as though Ephraim realizes who they are and who Yahweh is to them. "And we are all the work of Your hand."

Think about this – at a certain time in history, Yahweh allowed Ephraim or the 10 northern tribes, to be captured by the Assyrians. They were spread out into the nations and in a few years would have lost their identity as Ephraimites. Yahweh allowed Abraham’s seed through Ephraim to be spread into all the nations. Abraham’s seed was now literally countless as the stars in the heavens. This is the work of Yahweh.

In Isaiah 64 verses 9 and 12, we see Ephraim asking Yahweh to cease His anger and to forget or forgive their lawlessness. In verse 9, Ephraim says "…all of us are Your people." Ephraim recognizes who they are. There is a desire to return to Yahweh and His Torah.

How can this be done? All that Ephraim once had and all that they were is lost. Ephraim is unclean and is guilty of its own lawlessness. Today, Ephraim as the Christian church does not even recognize these things. The Christian church believes that all is well with them and that they have replaced Israel as Yahweh’s chosen people and that the "law" or Torah is dead and gone. Christianity continues in pagan practices just like the northern 10 tribes did when they separated from the rest of Israel.

Ephraim MUST return to Yahweh as He wants us and not as Ephraim thinks they should. Yahweh has provided us with His way of doing things in His Torah. He wants us to call upon His Name and not hide it. He wants us to remove our uncleanness from us and become clean as He describes it in His Torah. That even means eating according to His Torah.

He wants us to appear before Him at His set apart times and not the pagan days that Christianity uses. That means His Sabbath not Sunday and that means His feast days and not Christmas and Easter.

Yahshua did not "do away with the law" as Christianity teaches. Yahshua IS the Living Torah – why would He come to do away with Himself?? He is the fulfillment of the Torah but that does not mean that the Torah goes away. Yahshua will return and restore Israel. He will restore the lost 10 tribes of Ephraim and the tribes of Judah together and He will make them clean before Him.

The Early Kehiliah

The original Nazarene Israel Belief System started out on a good, sound footing. As they allowed gentile Ephraimites in with good intentions, they seem to have failed to maintain good and proper control on them. There seems to have been a lapse in vigilance. As more and more paganism crept in, Nazarene Israel increased its tolerance of the paganism. Eventually, Nazarene Israel lost its identity to paganism and became "the church".

As the church became drunk with its paganism, it began to forget who it was. It began to loose control and it abandoned Scripture and adopted man-made rules. It avoided all references to being Israel. And it began to develop serious family problems by hating and then killing its elder brother, Judah.

Don’t think that Judah gets out of this either. Judah began abandoning Torah and adopted man-made rules also. Judah replace Torah with Talmud or the teachings of men and distanced themselves from Ephraim.

The church has progressed downward for the past 1700 to 1800 years. However, it seems that at this time in history, Yahweh is showing His called out people who and what they really are. Maybe this is a "moment of clarity" that causes the "churchian" to see who and what they are supposed to be. Some of these "churchians" see that they must leave the church and return to Yahweh or face being "the least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19) or even worse and hearing the words of Matthew 7:23.

Rav Sha’ul tells us that we are to, "…present [our] bodies a living offering – set apart, well pleasing to Elohim – [our] reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind[s], so that [we] prove what is that good and well pleasing and perfect desire of Elohim" (Romans 12:1-2, T.S.)

Rav Sha’ul is telling us that we are to "renew our minds" but somehow this simple statement seems to get confused with some pretty strange stuff. The word "renew" seems to be misunderstood. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word "renew" means "…to make new or as if new again; make young, fresh, or strong again; bring back into good condition." Notice the word "again" and "back". This implies that the previous condition was good, new, young, or fresh. This is RECOVERY – getting back what we once had.

The Greek word used in Romans 12:2 for "renewing" is Strong’s #342 which is "anakainosis" which means "a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better".

Rav Sha’ul further states in his letter to the Ephesians, "that you put off – with regard to your former way of life – the old man, being corrupted according to the desires of the deceit, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the renewed man which was created according to Elohim, in righteousness and set-apartness of the truth." (Ephesians 4:22-24, T.S.)

Rav Sha’ul tells us the why of this condition in his letter to the Romans, "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity toward Elohim, for it does not subject itself to the Torah of Elohim…" (Romans 8:7, T.S.) I may be accused of using this verse out of context which would be strange because those that would accuse me of using this verse out of context use Scripture out of context all the time. Remember, sin is transgression of Torah which is lawlessness – 1 John 3:4. The "mind of the flesh" is a sinful thing.

It should be crystal clear that Rav Sha’ul is not telling us that we are to throw away the Torah and adopt a new, pagan Belief System. He is telling us to throw away the pagan Belief System and take on the old Belief System or the Torah.

Old Faith Was Better

In Luke 5:36 – 39, we read a parable of Yahshua which discusses patching a garment and putting wine in wine skins.

What I believe Yahshua is telling us is that the "new wine skins" are not some kind of new belief system but the old belief system in new bottles. This "new wine" will actually be the new Believers in Him that will come after Him and the return of Ephraim. Furthermore, the "old wine" needs to be put into new wine skins – a restored Israel.

Making Room For The New

The concept of restoration assumes that we are planning on restoring to an original condition. As we consider restoring our minds, we must answer the question, "what are we restoring it to"? We must assume that we are to restore it to the original design specification, to use an engineering term. That original design specification is what the original designer wanted in the first place.

If we were to use the restoration of an automobile as an example, we would discover that the process of restoration is, more or less, simple. First we must remove all the "old stuff", all the rust, old paint, old parts, grime, goo, glop, and other disgusting stuff. Then we must replace it with "new stuff", new paint, new materials, new parts etc.

Church Belief System vs. Biblically Based Belief System

Our objective is to change our old Belief System based on the doctrines of men to a Belief System based on the doctrines of Yahweh as He sets forth in His Torah.

If we were to watch someone restoring an old car we would see that they would remove the old paint right down to the bare metal. They would take out all the old parts and clean them down to the bare metal. They would remove old material and throw it away. They would cut out all the rusty places and replace it with new metal (not "bondo" or filler). They would strip away everything and bring the old car down to its bare parts so that the restoration could be done on a fresh, new car.

Our job, in this restoration of the Ephraimite’s mind, is to strip away everything so that we can start fresh. This stripping away is going to be painful and many will object to what must be removed. However, we HAVE to get down to "bare metal". We must remove ALL the old doctrines of the church Belief System in order to make room for the Biblically based Belief System.

We cannot save a piece here and there of the old church doctrine because they are "not THAT bad" or because they sort of look Biblical, more or less. Just like the car restoration above, we cannot paint over old paint and expect it to look beautiful. Our objective is not to cover over the bad doctrines of the church but to completely eliminate them.

Cleaning Out The Old for the Ephraimite

If we look in the mind of the normal Christian that has been many years in the church, we will discover a great deal of "old stuff" that must be removed to make way for the "new stuff". We must perform "brain surgery" and dig in there with some serious excavation tools. This is going to hurt. We are doing the same thing as the automobile restorer and cleaning everything down to the bare metal and sparks are going to fly.

Brain Surgery – removing the unclean

Doctrines of Men

Sunday as "sabbath"

Pagan Symbols

Pagan names "God", "Lord", "Jesus"

Easter, Christmas and Halloween

NTOC

Prosperity Teaching/Focus

"church"

Church building focus

Greek Thinking

Replacement Theology

Dispensationalism

"Jews and gentile" mentality

"New Covenant" supercedes the "Old Covenant"

Greasy Grace – "not under the law but under grace"

Lawlessness

Eat Anything

"Law" is a Burden

Roman Calendar

"Jesus" and "Paul" abolished the "law"

"Jesus" and/or "Paul" started a new religion

"communion" whenever they want

Get "baptized" once

Pay no attention to ritual cleanliness

"dedicate" children

Do not know about Shofar

Do not Know about tzitzit

Look and act like the world

Do what seems right in their own eyes

Praying TO "Jesus"

"Salvation" under church doctrines

Now that we have all the old nasty stuff removed, we must scrub out the container and make it clean so that we can put the new stuff in. There is a danger here when we clean out everything from our mind that we might be open to the return of uncleanness even worse then the original. See Matthew 12:44 and Luke 11:25.

Cleaning out the Old for the Jew

The Jewish person who is adopting a Nazarene belief system has some brain surgery to do also. If they have spent many years in the synagogue, they will have a great deal of stuff that must be removed before a restoration can begin. Like we did with the Ephraimite, we are going to need some serious excavation tools to get all of the old, unclean stuff out.

Brain Surgery – removing the unclean

Doctrines of Men – Talmud and the "Oral Torah"

Pagan names "God", "Lord", "Adonai", "Hashem"

synagogue building focus

Greek/ Roman Thinking

"Jews and gentile" mentality

The Jew gets the Torah and the gentile gets the Noachide laws.

Eat Anything

"Law" is a Burden or really not necessary any more

Pagan calendar names

Pay no attention to ritual cleanliness

Observe the feasts as a traditional thing rather then a commanded thing

Do not wear tzitzit

Look and act like the world

Do what seems right in their own eyes

No salvation because they are "God’s Chosen People"

Now we have an empty container so we will need to scrub it out and prepare it for the new, clean stuff.

The "old stuff" that was removed must now be replaced with "new stuff". We must be in prayer as each piece is installed and set in place. Actually, we are watching Yahweh’s hand install the new things of His Torah. He is the great physician so He should know what He is doing. If we try to do this on our own, we might not get some of these things in the right place. After all, we are not just taking a bunch of stuff and dumping it into our open skulls and hope that it falls into position.

There is a place for everything and there is even an amount of the new stuff that Yahweh wants in the mind. We might want a whole lot of one thing or another but Yahweh wants us to only have a little bit at first. He knows that we must learn and study His Torah to understand Him. We must develop a relationship with Yahweh through prayer and Scripture study and then new things are added to our minds (see Acts chapter 15).

Brain Surgery – installing the clean

TORAH – Yahweh’s instructions to His people.

Yahweh’s Commandments

Shabbat

Yahweh’s Feast Days

Yahweh’s Name

Yahshua’s Name

Yahweh’s Symbols

Tanakh and Brit Hadashah as ONE Complete Revelation

Assembly/Congregation

Hebraic Thinking

Restoration of Israel

Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and Messianic Covenants

Chesed – Grace

Lawfulness

Yahweh’s Food Commandments

Tzitzit

Yahweh’s Commandments are a Delight

Yahweh’s Calendar

Yahshua and Sha’ul kept Torah and taught Torah

Yahshua and Sha’ul explained current religion

Observe Pesach on Aviv 14

Perform mikvah often

Observe ritual cleanliness

Circumcise male children on the 8^th day

Blow and hear the Shofar

Are Set-Apart or Holy

Do not look or act like the world

Have a heart for Yahweh’s Torah

Praying TO Yahweh (in Yahshua’s Name)

Salvation under Yahweh’s Torah and His Son, Yahshua

Now that the clean stuff has been installed and set in place, we need to know how to keep our minds clean.

Introduction to Part Two

In Part One we discussed the need to clean out the old unclean things from our minds and replace them with new, clean things. We talked about recovering from an unclean way of thinking to a clean way of thinking. We discussed that it is Yahweh’s will that we follow His Torah rather then man’s traditions and theology.

If we were to continue to use the analogy of restoring a classic automobile from a pile of rusty junk to showroom quality, we discover that we are doing the same restoration thing to our minds. The restoration process of the automobile requires stripping everything down to bare metal and discarding all the stuff that is damaged or beyond repair. The restoration process of our minds will require the same thing.

An extremely important factor in restoring a classic automobile to its original appearance is following the factory specifications. If we were to deviate from the factory specifications, then our, so called, "restoration" is in fact a custom car. It would be something other then the original design. We must us the "factory specifications" or Yahweh’s Torah as our reference for the restoration of our minds rather then "doing our own thing".

What we had tried to do in Part One of this message was to clean out the old stuff from our minds and restore it by installing new stuff. We try to follow the factory specifications as best as possible. However, we are in the real world of the twenty first century which will put some pressures on our restoration.

Just like the restorer of the classic car, we will have to face the facts that some of the original specifications might not be met. The classic car restorer might not be able to find actual factory parts to replace some damaged parts. He might have to buy "after market" or recreated parts. For example, he might not be able to replace the seats with like new, factory seats but he might instead have to rebuild the seats with materials that closely resemble the original.

We will have to do the same thing in restoring our minds. I am not saying that we have to compromise and not do something because it is hard to do it. I am saying that we might have to compromise in what we do but still follow Torah.

A good example is anything to do with bringing an offering to the temple. In Leviticus chapter 23 we are told about the Festivals of Yahweh. In that chapter we are commanded to bring offerings to the Temple. Well, we simply cannot do that because there is no Temple. Or, should I say, we cannot do that YET? This does not release us from observing the Feasts it just temporarily removes one of the requirements for the Feasts.

As we use the new, clean things that Yahweh has placed into our minds, we might find that we are having some other difficulties trying to be obedient. We might find that our culture presents obstacles that can make it difficult to be completely obedient. We might, for example, be trying to follow Yahweh’s food commandments as He sets forth in Leviticus chapter 11. It is hard to know whether your scrambled eggs are being cooked in the same juices as the pig meat sausages next to it. Pig meat is used as a "seasoning" in lots of things that we do not expect.

We might know that Yahweh has commanded us not to eat the blood of animals. However, do we know for sure that the breakfast cereal that we eat that is supposed to be fortified with iron does not use blood as a source of that iron? Some cereal manufactures use blood as a source for the iron.

We might also be diligent in honoring Yahweh’s seventh day Sabbath and His other Feast Days but our employer might not care. For some people, no amount of complaining will get the employer to allow them to have Sabbath off. Some people have even lost jobs as a result of demanding that they have Sabbath off.

Our society and culture is Torah disobedient and there is nothing we can do about that short of moving to a desert island and starting a Torah based country of our own. Actually, I think that’s a good idea but Yahweh has left us here in this society and culture. We have a job to do here.

There is another thing that I’m just not sure how to address. The day begins and ends at sundown so Shabbat begins at sundown Friday evening. So what do people in the far north do? I have been to Alaska in the summer and there really is no "sunset". It seems to always be light. In the winter, there really is no "sunrise". So when does the day begin and end? How does someone in the far north know when the Sabbath begins?

I still believe that Yahweh is honoring our sincere, heartfelt attempt to honor His Torah and follow His commands. So I would think that in cases such as this, He would allow us to make allowances or compromises. Those in the far north might, for example, say that the day begins and ends at 7:00 PM throughout the year. Therefore, Sabbath would be at 7:00 PM summer or winter.

Something else – as we are Torah obedient, we will be noticed by others. You better know that your neighbors notice that you go off somewhere on Saturday morning wearing nice clothes with your tzitzit hanging down your pant legs. They notice that you don’t have Christmas decorations or Halloween decorations up during those Christian holidays. They notice that you don’t participate in Easter celebrations. And they notice when you are out Sunday morning cutting your lawn when they are going off to church or trying to sleep in.

There are two sources of destructive forces that will work to destroy a clean mind. These are internal and external sources. All of these destructive forces have a spiritual element to them even though they might appear to be non-spiritual.

Let’s deal with the internal destructive forces first. These are things that we bring upon ourselves. These destructive forces are like a balloon in our minds. The size of that balloon increases as these destructive forces become more prominent and effect our clean mind.

Doubt as an internal destructive force

I believe that the most destructive internal force that we can have is doubt. Doubt is like a balloon. It might be only very tiny at first with no air in it as we are feeling great joy in our new clean mind. As we study Yahweh’s Torah and we try to live a lifestyle according to His Torah we might find ourselves to be filled with joy that we GET TO BE obedient to Yahweh.

However, we might have some doubtful thoughts about all that we are trying to do because our Christian "friends" and relative are telling us that we don’t have to do all that "Old Testament stuff" anymore. That balloon increases in size just a little with every one of these comments from our, so called, "friends".

As we start studying Torah we might find ourselves overwhelmed with the enormity of the task of learning so much. We might look to others that have more experience then we do and think to ourselves that we are so far behind them. We might find ourselves with dilemmas that interfere with our attempt to obey Yahweh’s commands.

For example, we might be unsure of the "meat – milk" issue or glatt kosher vs. Biblical kosher. We might be confused about covering the head or not covering the head or whether the tzitzit should be made of kosher wool or cotton. We might not understand ritual cleanliness but we know that we should do something. All of these things add a little more air to our doubt balloon.

I think that one of the biggest doubts that seems to come into some people’s minds is whether Yahshua is the Messiah or not. Whether He is deity or not. Or even whether the Brit Hadasha is inspired by Yahweh or not and therefore everything about Him may or may not be true.

Here’s where this comes from. In our zeal to study Yahweh’s Torah and learn more about Him, we go to every source available to us. We might go to orthodox Jewish sources for information on Torah and Tanakh. Most if not all of these sources are blatantly anti-Yahshua and anti-Two House.

For example, the Stone Edition Chumash and Tanakh are blatantly anti-two house and anti-Yahshua. The commentary will constantly refer to Israel – as in the whole house of Israel – as "the Jewish people" even though the text clearly says "Israel". The commentary for places where the Scriptures are clearly Messianic and pointing to Yahshua either are silent or state something altogether different.

A second problem is the Internet as a source for information. Anyone can have a web site and post anything they want. If it sounds real good and has some Scripture quotes it should be OK, right? Not so! Second Corinthians 11:14 and 15 tell us that hasatan is an angel of light and his ministers appear as ministers of righteousness. Some people that I would never have expected have left the faith and pointed others to certain websites that subtlety challenge Yahshua’s deity and His Messiahship.

All these things can eventually blow the doubt balloon up so much that there is no more room for anything else. The doubt balloon will put severe pressure on the rest of the mind and the person might just give up in order to relieve the pressure.

Doubt caused Peter to sink into the water when he attempted to walk on water to come out to Yahshua (Matthew 14:28-31). Yahshua tells us that if we have faith and do not doubt, we can move mountains (Matthew 21:21).

Fear as an internal destructive force

Another great destructive force that works against a clean mind is fear. I have heard fear described as "false evidence appearing real" and I suppose that is a good description.

Actually, there are two types of fear. One is awe or reverence which is good. We should "fear" Yahweh or be in awe and reverence of Him. The other type of fear is a feeling of anxiety and agitation caused by the presence or nearness of danger, evil, or pain.

Fear can cause us to "freeze in our tracks", as it were. Our Fear balloon increases in size and it can have the effect of making it impossible for us to move forward or to do what Yahweh has commanded us to do. We might be afraid of what others might think of us and, therefore, we don’t do what we should do.

We are in a real spiritual war and we might believe that we are under spiritual attack. This might cause us to be afraid of doing what we know to be according to Yahweh’s desire. When this happens, the spiritual attack was successful and the enemy knows that this tactic will work in the future. He’s found our fear and he can us it.

If Yahweh has called us out to a ministry, either full time or otherwise, fear can prevent us from accomplishing that ministry. One thing that I can guarantee from personal experience is that you will be rejected by your former Christian friends once you begin a Nazarene Israel ministry. You will also be rejected by your Christian "friends" and relatives when you begin to follow a Torah obedient lifestyle. Even if those relatives are non-believers. Fear of this rejection can be a serious internal destructive force.

You may have had very close ties with your Christian friends and a particular church or churches, but once you begin following Yahweh and adopting a Torah lifestyle, you will be considered a "cult leader" or worse. Fear of people talking about you behind your back can prevent you from doing what Yahweh has commanded. Get used to it, they are going to talk about you. So you might as well just burst that fear balloon because it can have no effect on your mind.

Some real ammunition that we can use against this destructive force is 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, "Yahweh has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind". We have to assume that the spirit of fear is given to us by the enemy because he must do everything he can to either destroy us or prevent us from doing what Yahweh has commanded us to do. He means to make our minds unclean with the spirit of fear.

Personal spiritual condition as an internal destructive force

Our own spiritual condition can be a destructive force that works against a new, clean mind. The greatest source of this destructive force is personal sin. Remember, sin is "Torahlessness" or "lawlessness" as defined in 1 John 3:4.

Driving 56 miles per hour in a 55 MPH zone is actually not "sin". Smoking is not "sin", drinking is not "sin" – getting drunk can be considered sin – watching R rated movies is not "sin", men wearing long hair, women wearing slacks (women’s type slacks), dancing, listening to rock and roll music and so forth are not "sin".

Torah tells us what sin is. If we are unsure of what to do or not to do, we can start with Exodus chapter 20 where we find the Ten Commandments. We notice for example, that verse 12 tells us to honor our fathers and mothers – if they have been good to us. Oh, wait a minute, it does not say "if they have been good to us". This is so serious to Yahweh that it is the first commandment of Yahweh’s directed toward people. And He means it.

I would say that another sin that is a destructive force to our clean mind is the sin of adultery. I think that adultery is an insidious sin in that the assumption is that adultery means for a married person to actually have sexual relations with another person not their spouse. This is obvious and will produce all kinds of other destructive forces to enter the clean mind and destroy all that had been accomplished.

So, maybe watching some sexually explicit movies or reading sexually explicit books is creating a lusting or coveting of one or more of the characters. Certainly watching X rated material falls into this category. This would then be the sin of adultery as Yahshua defines it.

Another sin is idolatry. In Exodus 20:3, Yahweh tells us that we are to have no other gods before Him. The Hebrew says "in My face". But we don’t have carved images that we pray to – or should I say, "we don’t pray to them anymore" for those that are recovered Catholics.

But we can have other "gods" before Him or "in His face". We can have all our stuff or our things before Him. When we consider that all the things that we have are more important then our relationship with Yahweh, then we have something else before Him.

Part of the hunger for all this stuff comes for the unrealistic, and I would even say, demonic prosperity teachings that American Christians have been smothered with. To get all this stuff, people go into debt so far over their heads that they actually may never get out. This creates the destructive force of fear and even anger at Yahweh for not providing for them so that they can have all the stuff. After all, don’t the prosperity teachers preach that all you have to do is "pray in Jesus’ Name and you’ll have anything you want"?

Sin, or deliberate disobedience to Yahweh’s Torah, is a destructive force that will "unclean" our clean mind. Even not actually performing the act but thinking about it or dwelling on it will produce the same effect as actually sinning. There is a destructive force working within us that is part of our fallen human nature. Rav Sha’ul discusses this in Romans 7:21 – 25. Even though our clean mind wants to serve Yahweh and His Torah, our flesh wants to be Torahless and serve the law of sin.

Anger as an internal destructive force

Anger that we harbor either toward others or even toward Yahweh is a very destructive spiritual force that works against a clean mind.

Yahshua teaches us in Matthew 5:21-22 that being angry with our brother is the same as murder. If we call him a name such as "raucha" or, as some authorities put it, "empty headed fool" which is a serious insult, we shall be in danger of judgement.

Anger does something in our minds that seems to gobble up our mental resources and focus them on being angry with the person. This anger can be a balloon that will blow up inside our mind quickly and will blot out everything else.

Another anger is anger toward Yahweh. This can be caused by many things such as blaming Yahweh for the loss of a loved one. A son or daughter may die or someone might die at a young age of something and we blame Yahweh for taking them too early. We don’t understand His grand plan and we think that the loss is such a waste.

We might also be angry at Yahweh for something that is happening to us. We might discover that we have cancer or some other serious health problem and we blame Him for not preventing this. We might be angry with Yahweh for being so very slow – according to our timing – on something that we think He should do. Look at Abraham – there was a long time between the promise of a son and the actual delivery and he was not angry with Yahweh for the delay.

Other internal destructive forces

There are many other destructive forces that work against us and our clean minds.

A lack of faith in Yahweh and His promises to us is certainly destructive and can have the same effect as fear.

Others of these forces can be addictions to such things as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, pornography, gambling and the like. These things effect our spiritual condition.

Psychological and other physical problems can be destructive forces to our clean mind. Psychological problems such as depression can create or exacerbate some of the other destructive forces such as fear and doubt and even anger. These things are clinical and will have to be addressed by a doctor but if we are aware of their effect on our clean mind, we have the ability of stopping or reducing their destructive influence.

Outside destructive forces activate, as it were, our internal destructive forces and effect our clean mind. For the most part, we cannot change some of these destructive forces so we will have to learn to live with them and reduce their effect on our clean mind.

Other people as a destructive outside force

We live in a society where we are surrounded by other people. It is even Yahweh’s plan that we live together with other people. The concept of a hermit separating himself from all other people is just not Biblical. We may separate ourselves from others for a time for prayer but Yahweh does not mean for us to live alone.

I think that the most destructive outside force that works to destroy our clean mind is how we perceive other people reacting toward our Torah based beliefs and actions. Many of us that have been a part of the Christian church in either ministry or other capacity such as Sunday school teacher, have experienced unbelievable reactions from our Christian "friends" when we adopt a Torah obedient lifestyle.

We can be confronted face to face by some former "friend" who is bent on reforming us. These former "friends" will belittle us as they talk down to us and even call us names and tell us that we are going to go to hell if we do not repent and return to "churchianity". I have heard stories of Christian "friends" even getting physical.

Our families will also treat us the same way. Even the unbelieving members of our families will attack us and say such things as "but we’re not even Jewish". We will be accused of being unstable and not knowing what we want. We will be accused of joining a cult and some might even try to "deprogram" us so that we would leave our new found belief system.

People are going to want to "do Christmas" and will not get it when you tell them that you don’t want to participate. You might go to a family or church meal or get together and they will be serving pig meat. When you don’t want to eat it you might be told "everything put before you is good to eat" or something like that. I wonder want they would say if you were to serve them a lizard sandwich?

As far as Jewish people are concerned, becoming a follower of Yahshua is the same thing as being dead. Some Jewish people are thrown out of the house and no longer considered to be a son or daughter. Kaddish is even said for them. Some marriages are broken up over this issue.

And while I’m on the topic of other people, I would like to talk about other people. Other people around us, like our employers and coworkers, and neighbors and everyone else like the people at the grocery store or the post office have an effect on us. Most of the time that effect is more or less neutral but sometimes it can be an outside destructive force.

Let’s face it, people don’t really deliberately do things to make you mad. They really aren’t thinking about you – they have other things on their minds.

Also, not everybody else in the world drives as good as you do!

These outside destructive forces effect our internal destructive forces such as doubt, fear and anger. These forces will seriously effect our clean mind. We might have to exercise extreme effort to reduce the effect of these forces. It is unlikely that we will be able to avoid these people hoping that by doing so will eliminate the destructive forces they might cause. After all, you can’t really avoid your family and the people you work with. Something must be done to reduce the effect of these destructive forces.

The world we live in as an outside destructive force

Let’s face it, the society we live in today is degenerate. This nation is sliding backwards at a breakneck speed and the evil that it has brought upon itself is spreading like a black plague over every part of our lives. Things that were only spoken of in hushed tones out of the earshot of children are discussed openly in public and in the schools. Things that Scripture calls degenerate and reprobate and abdominal are considered normal and even desirable.

It is nearly impossible to shut our eyes and ears to this barrage of evil. We cannot avoid the effect this degeneracy has on us. We are like people standing on the side of the road, minding our own business and a car comes a long and splashes us with mud.

We may be minding our own business walking through the store or out in public somewhere and two people are talking next to us with a burst of foul language. You may be at work and the same thing will happen. For some reason, men seem to think that all other men want to hear dirty jokes and use four letter words as punctuation marks. I understand that young women are doing this now too. It used to be that a man never swore in front of a lady but now many young women can "out swear" the men.

Rav Sha’ul tells us in Ephesians 5:18 – 19 to be, "…filled with the Spirit; ¹⁹Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to Yahweh". I will tell you that when you have a clean mind that this is what will happen. Your brain will be singing maybe the Shema or Kaddish or another part of the liturgy. Or it may be singing a favorite praise and worship song. However, when suddenly your ears hear this filth and foul, those clean thoughts are disrupted.

We are also inundated with images. We might be watching what would otherwise be a G or PG rated TV show with an innocent topic. I like to watch Discovery channel and sci-fi channel and so forth. Suddenly, the commercial shows a scantily clad woman in a provocative pose. You’ve gone from watching Star Trek to something designed to entice you.

It is not just TV that presents inappropriate images to us. If this were the case, then the simple solution is to get rid of the TV. However, you can be assaulted at the grocery store checkout line by the magazines right next to you. You could be at the doctor’s office reading a magazine and flip the page to an ad for ladies underwear complete with a lady wearing a sample.

The real problem here is that those images will be stuck in your mental video machine for a long time. Even while you are reaching for the remote to change the channel, it is too late. We can’t change the page fast enough. We see and think at the speed of light. This disruption to our clean mind must be dealt with immediately. I would say that the best thing to do is to put it out of our minds and do not dwell on it. Replace it with "…psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to Yahweh."

This might be easier said then done. We must remember that there will be temptations and trials to our faith as Kefa tells us in 1 Peter 1:6 – 7. Some of these images do lead to temptations but as Rav Sha’ul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "³There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but Yahweh is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

We’ve just gone to a lot of work to clean out all the old, unclean stuff and replace it with new, clean stuff so we need to maintain what we now have so that it remains clean. There must be some things that we can do that will keep our minds clean and will clean out any accumulation of unclean junk. The classic car restorer has invested a great deal of time and work in restoring his car and he will do certain things to maintain that car in its pristine showroom condition. We are going to do the same thing.

Prayer as a maintenance tool

I believe that the most important thing that we can do to maintain our clean mind is daily prayer. Daily prayer puts us face to face with Yahweh and changes our daily focus from our things to Him. For most of us, when we awaken our minds begin to focus on the things that we have to do that day. As we eat breakfast and shower, we are thinking about the cares of the day. Even if we take some quiet time to be with Yahweh, part of our mind is still looking toward the day and our own problems and issues.

We must make a conscience effort to focus on Yahweh. This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, we live in the flesh and our flesh wants to take control and push us around taking our minds off Yahweh. We need to take the control back and turn our minds toward Yahweh.

As we pray daily, we are actually exercising our "prayer muscles", as it were. Our "prayer muscle" becomes stronger and produces a kind of spiritual energy that sweeps out the accumulation of unclean things that might have entered our minds.

I was told once:

PRAYER DISRUPTS SIN DISRUPTS PRAYER DISRUPTS SIN DISRUPTS PRAYER DISRUPTS SIN.

Sin acts against our clean mind and prayer disrupts it while sin will act against prayer reducing its effects to maintain a clean mind.

Ways of praying

Let’s just boil this down to two simple forms of prayer. Formal and informal prayer. We could talk about prayer for the next five days and just begin to scratch the surface.

Formal prayer would constitute something like praying the daily prayers from the Siddur. Many might object to this formal, ritualized prayer as being devoid of the Ruach Kodesh but 2 Chronicles chapter 5 tells us that Yahweh showed up at a ritualized event and the Ruach Kodesh knocked everybody over.

I think there is an advantage to the ritual prayers of the Siddur. As the new Ephraimite attends Shabbat services at a congregation that uses the Siddur for its service, these prayers will stick in the mind. Most of the Siddur prayers are sung and these songs stay in the mind easier then just the words.

For example, when we hear the Shema over and over again and when we sing the Shema, it will become a part of our mind’s programming. We will actually find ourselves mentally singing it during the day. This is an effective maintenance tool to use when the outside destructive forces I have previously mentioned attack us.

Informal prayer has less or even no formal ritual but it still is focused on speaking to and hearing from Yahweh. Informal prayer could simply follow a format laid out by Yahshua in the Disciple’s Prayer or what is called, "the Lord’s Prayer".

Weekly Shabbat

Observing the Shabbat every week, without fail, is a powerful maintenance tool to keep our minds clean. Keeping the Sabbath is a sign upon us that we belong to Yahweh and the enemy cannot get past that sign. The Shabbat completes our week of labor and, if you will let me use the programming theme I used before, it reboots our programming. We are ready for another week.

Shabbat services with other Believers also allows us to associate with people that are Torah focused. We will hear the prayers of the Siddur and we will hear the Torah being read. If your congregation does not read the Torah at each service, then talk to the congregation leader. The Scripture readings should be the center of the service and we desperately need them for clean mind maintenance.

Obedience to Yahweh’s food commands

It might seem a trivial thing to eat or not eat certain things but this is important to Yahweh. Leviticus 11:44 – 45 tells us that we are to obey these food commands so that we are set apart. We cannot appear before Yahweh with the smell of bacon on our breath.

We become unclean when we eat that which Yahweh has commanded us not to eat. For example, eating pig meat is something that pagans do as part of their belief system – see Isaiah 66:17 and some other places. When we eat this unclean stuff, we are no longer set apart – we become unclean and our minds become unclean.

Repentance

As part of the daily prayer in the Siddur called the Amidah, there are three prayers said together. These are; tesh-uvah (repentance), she-lach (forgiveness) and go-ayl (redemption). We come before Yahweh will a heart of complete repentance and ask for His forgiveness and praise Him for His redemption.

Repentance does two things, it makes us stop in our tracks from sinning and do a 180 degree turn around, and it causes us to realize that it is Yahweh that we have sinned against.

Yahweh’s feast days

Yahweh has given us specific feast days in Leviticus chapter 23. He means for us to meet with Him in His prescribed manner on these days. Observing His feast days is a major part of maintain a clean mind. As we observe these feast days, things our brought to our minds, in the order that Yahweh wants, that teach us about Him and His great plan for Israel.

Something else. There seems to be a desire to focus on only certain of the feasts and diminish others. My greatest complaint with many Messianic ministries is their great focus on the Feast of Tabernacles while not even discussing Yom Kippur. Some of them do not even have a Yom Kippur service. Yahweh gave us these feast days in His order not ours.

The fall feasts are very important and the order they are in is designed so that we will prepare our selves to be before Yahweh as a set apart people. The fall feasts begin with Yom Teruah or Feast of Trumpets. This day is to call us to wake up and prepare for the Day of Atonement.

There are ten days between Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur that permit us to examine ourselves and come before Yahweh in an attitude of contrite repentance. Yahweh put those ten days there for a reason.

Five days after Yom Kippur we have Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles. Just jumping into Tabernacles without Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur is short circuiting Yahweh’s plan. I believe that this plan was designed partially as a cleaning process so that we may stand before Yahweh clean and set apart.

Scripture Study

I don’t think I can put enough emphasis on Scripture study. We need to read Scripture and study it and hear it often. According to Jewish tradition, we should not go more than 3 days without hearing Torah.

The congregations that you go to should read – but I say – must read Scripture during the service as a part of the service. Acts 15 tells us that the new converts were expected to go to the synagogue on Sabbath to hear the Torah of Moshe (verse 21). Here they would learn what Yahweh expects of us.

An Example of Daily Maintenance

One of our congregation members has a routine that she does every day to prepare herself and protect herself.

Evelyn’s morning armor

She says her daily prayers either in bed or just as she gets up.

She puts on her armor – Yahweh’s helmet of salvation that protects her mind and her thoughts.

She puts on Yahshua’s breastplate of righteousness that protects her heart and will.

She puts on Ruach HaKodesh the belt of truth that protects her emotions.

She no longer lives in her emotions of fear and anger but in her will to do Yahweh’s will to bring glory, honor and praise to Yahweh with the help and the guidance of the Ruach Kodesh in Yahshua’s Name.

She puts on the shoes fitted with the gospel of peace that keep her in the right attitude of love and compassion peace and mercy.

She holds up the shield of faith that extinguishes the fiery darts of temptation.

If she has cherished sin in her heart, Yahweh would not have listened but He certainly listened and heard her prayer (Psalm 66:18).

She says, "If I do not do what is right, sin is crouching at my door. Sin desires to have me but I must master it. That only through the shield of faith. (Genesis 6:4)"

She holds up the sword of the spirit which is the Word of Yahweh it is an extension of her soul and protects her from false teaching

Also she says Psalm 91

Obedience brings blessing

We all come into the Torah based, Nazarene Israel belief system with traditions and theologies that are inconsistent with Scripture.

We have a preprogramming in our minds that prevents us from accepting new information.

Something must be done to remove this old programming so that we may recover the belief system of the early Nazarene Kehilah.

We need to renew our minds.

We have discovered the previous condition was the desirable condition – the Old Way is the Better Way.

We had to perform a "brain surgery" and remove the unclean from our minds and replace it with clean stuff.

We discovered that there were certain maintenance things we had to do to our minds to maintain a clean mind.

We had to be aware of internal and external destructive forces that would spoil our clean minds.

Finally, we examined some good, practical maintenance tools we could use to maintain a clean mind.