DIRE STRAITS
Lamentations 5:11 — “They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.” Have you ever heard the idiom, “dire straits.” It is used to describe a situation that is very difficult or bad? For Jews, the 3-week time frame, from the 17th of Tammuz through the 9th of Av is […]
SPEAK TO THE ROCK!!
God is a speaking God. Psalm 18:31 — For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? In the Wilderness, Bamidbar, the Israelites faith fails to pass the test. This is the second time it happened in the rockey desert area of Zin. The first time was […]
GEVURAH – the 5th Sefirot
Proverbs 21:15 — “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” I chose to write this blog because of a dream I woke up from last night in which a single Hebrew word was put on my heart. I saw “Gevurah” in a healer’s hand. I am not going […]
SHIN – 300
Shin (ש) is the 21st letter in the twenty-two letter Hebrew Aleph-beyt. It is the letter just before the Tav, the last letter associated with the cross, one’s mark or sign and agreement. Shin has a gematria value of 300. The shape of Shin represents “teeth” or “sharpness,” symbolizing power and consumption. Shin’s three prongs […]
GRACE 269 YEARS LATER
Psalm 91:11-12 — “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” 269 Years to the day, both George Washington and Donald Trump spoke of grace saving their life from sniper […]
JONAH
Almost ten years ago I chose to introduce myself by my middle name Jonah instead of my first name Robert. My middle name Jonah is also my Hebrew name, so I was bar mitzvah as Jonah. I wrote about this on my blog back back in 2016 in a post I titled “Call Me By My […]
IN-TENSE
Tense is a grammatical category that expresses time. This blog post explores how one discerns what “tense” a bible verse is in. The primary function or purpose of “tense” is to indicate the time of an action: past, present, or future. One of the most interesting aspects of Hebrew, and thus the way the Torah […]
THE JULY 13TH MIRACLE
In the split second Americans watched the shooters bullet pass through Donald Trump’s ear, millions of people were “given ears to hear and eyes to see.” Like the Roman soldiers who witnessed the soldier’s ear grow back after Peter sliced it off with his sword, witnesses became believers. After all that has failed to stop […]
THE PERFECTOR
Have you given much thought to the burial shroud of Jesus? I have and this post is built on those thoughts. Actual image beside a photo-negative of the burial shroud Hebrews 12.2 — “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning […]
THE REST OF IT – Thoughts about Liberty
Thoughts on Independence Day … the 4th of July. The phrase “let freedom ring” is deeply rooted in American history and culture. It gained widespread prominence through the hymn “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” better known as “America” written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831. The relevant stanza goes: “My country, ’tis of thee, Sweet […]