Joined To Hashem Newsletter, October 8, 2010

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Mike Clayton and his ministerie

That through them The האור Light,  רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

		October 8, 2010
	Joined To Hashem Newsletter
	In this issue... Streaming Video Web Site Changes Torah Commentary Quick Links... Mike's Itinerary Resources Torah Is Life Web Site Links Kingdom Paths Linen Hebraic Woodworking Join our mailing list!	TEACHING THE HEBRAIC PERSPECTIVE OF FAITH IN AND OBEDIENCE TO THE ONE TRUE GOD Streaming Video Archived teaching from last year. B'resheet (In the beginning) Genesis 1:1-6:8 Isaiah 42:5-21 Joshua 1-3 VIDEO Web Site Changes I will be making some changes to our web site to reflect the fact that video and written commentaries are from previous years. This may take a couple of weeks.Thanks for your patience. Torah Commentary B'resheet (In the beginning) Genesis 1:1-6:8 Isaiah 42:5-21 Joshua 1-3 And It Still Is This week we begin a new cycle of reading the Torah. Many ask why we should do such a thing. They may wonder why a person would read the same books over and over every single year. Is it not enough to read them once or twice in a lifetime? Are we so dense that we do not get the message of the words? If asked questions like these, most people would say that every time they read the words of scripture they see something new and exciting. This is very true, but are we simply reading them to find something new? Is it a new teaching that we are looking for? While it may be true that every time we read we find something new to us, I would like you to consider that in the words of Brad Scott, "It is not something new we are seeing, it is something that is true." We are not seeing new truth in the words of the Torah, we are seeing greater levels of truth than we have ever known. It is the truth of Torah that goes deep within our spirits that has such an impact on us. It is this truth which in the end is used to build our faith in the One who recorded these words of truth. Through the years I have met some incredible men and women of faith. I have found that each of these people had something in common. What they have in common is that they all admitted to times of doubt in their lives. That's right, even men and women whom we see as giants of faith have periods of doubt. I have talked with them through the years about such times and how they overcame times of doubt in their lives. Almost every one would say they went to scripture to overcome such times. It was through the reading of His Word that they were able to overcome. Maybe the greatest faith building Torah portion we can read is the one before us this week. Our problem with this portion is that most of us have read it so many times it has become too easy a read. We read about light and dark, sun and moon, seeds and plants and the list goes on. Go back and read that first chapter of Genesis again, but this time go a bit slower and with more time for contemplation. Try something like this. Read the verse which says that in the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth. Now look around you. Six thousand years later and it is still there, still spinning like it should, the law of gravity still doing its job on planet earth. Read about the seeds and how a seed brings forth fruit after its own kind. It is still happening today just as it was. We proved this one this very year when we planted tomatoes and were not able to harvest a single cucumber of any of their bushes. All we got was tomatoes. Now go figure that one! Look at the sun and the moon, the stars in the night sky. Read about the seas teaming with fish and then take the time to go fishing. After six thousand years fish are still coming forth out of the sea. Look out your window or better yet take a walk and you will see birds in the air and all matter of creatures filling the earth. Notice also that after all these years, though man is trying desperately to pervert it, there are still only two choices when it comes to being a human. You are either a male human or a female human. In the beginning Elohim spoke everything we see before us unto existence. What is so awesome to me is that six thousand years later it all still exists. It is all still operating according to His spoken word. All I have to do is open my eyes to see that He is still faithful! We do not know what the next Torah cycle may hold. There is no way for us to see what events may shape and change the world in the days to come. Genesis however gives me courage and faith to face those days without fear. Genesis reminds me that anytime I have doubts, anytime I feel a bit of fear creeping in, all I have to do is take another look around me and I see His faithfulness. I just figure that if He is able to take care of over two million sunrises and sunsets since the days of creation, maybe He is able to take care of me. If He is able to speak a word and the complete universe came into existence, maybe guiding my life is not too big of a problem for Him. As long as "It still is" I can rest assured that "He still is!" Shabbat Shalom, Mike PRINT VERSION
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