Rabbi Judah Hungerman

Those who do not love, do not know G-d; because G-d is love. 1 John 4:8

 Also we have come to know and trust the love that G-d has for us. G-d is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with G-d, and G-d remains united with them. 1 John 4:16

The ultimate model of love is evident in the plurality of G-d. All love is a reflection or shadow of the love that exists in the plurality of G-d. That is: love of the Father G-d for His Son Yeshua, Love of the Holy Spirit for Yeshua, etc., There is a dynamic social relationship in the G-dhead. Scripture often attests to the love of G-d. “ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am; so that they may see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” John 17:24. Furthermore we have been called to share in the holy community of love: “I made your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known; so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I myself may be united with them.” John 17:26. “Just as my Father has loved me, I too have loved you; so stay in my love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in my love — just as I have kept my Father’s commands and stay in his love.” John 15:9-10.

How much more must you see to know how important love is?

“Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from G-d; and everyone who loves has G-d as his Father and knows G-d. Those who do not love, do not know G-d; because G-d is love.” 1 John 4:7-8. So if we do not have love for one another in the family of G-d, it is an egregious sin.

The Apostle Shaul picked up on this truth. “Eagerly seek the better gifts. But now I will show you the best way of all. I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels; but if I lack love, I have become merely blaring brass or a cymbal clanging. I may have the gift of prophecy, I may fathom all mysteries, know all things, have all faith – enough to move mountains; but if I lack love, I am nothing. I may give away everything that I own, I may even hand over my body to be burned; but if I lack love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 12:31- 13:3. You may be seeking the greater gifts that would allow you to minister in a more powerful way. May I suggest that your primary focus must be to love G-d and everyone else. I want our Congregation to focus on this. That is the purpose of these recent blogs.

But for now, three things last trust(faith), hope, love; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

From this time on, many of his talmidim turned back and no longer traveled around with him. John 6:66

Frequently, G-d will give us a vision by His Spirit or through His Word of what He wants, and our minds and souls thrill to it. But, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you’ll sink into servitude to a perspective which our Messiah never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision that has been revealed to you will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Yeshua. Do not look at someone and say, “Well, they can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compare yourself with others or judge them. That is between them and G-d.

You may find that your point of view, the point of view which you have been delighting in clashes with the heavenly vision. If you begin to debate or argue with the heavenly vision that has been revealed to you, certain things will develop in you such as a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which the Messiah Yeshua made nothing. He was always against these things as being the root of everything alien to Himself. He taught: “Be careful to guard against all forms of greed, because even if someone is rich, his life does not consist in what he possesses.” Luke 12:15. If we do not recognize this, it is because we are ignoring the undercurrent of our Messiah’s teaching .

We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of a wonderful experience we have had. If there is one standard revealed by the light of Messiah and you did not come up to it and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of falling away; it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of truth. That moment marks you for moving forward as a more true Disciple of the Messiah Yeshua or for falling away as a deserter. Only believe.

“What I am leaving with you is shalom — I am giving you my shalom.  I don’t give the way the world gives.  Don’t let yourselves be upset or frightened.  You heard me tell you, `I am leaving, and I will come back to you.’  If you loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the Father; because the Father is greater than I.  Also, I have said it to you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you will trust.  I won’t be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming.  He has no claim on me; rather, this is happening so that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded me.  Get up! Let’s get going!” John 14:27-31.

Get up!  Let’s get going!  Daydreaming about a thing in order to do it is right; but  daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong.  Messiah Yeshua said those wonderful things to His Disciples, and we might have expected that He would tell them to go away and meditate over them all.  But Messiah never allowed for such “waiting on the Lord”.  When we are getting into contact with G-d in order to find out what He wants, daydreaming is right, but, when we are inclined to spend our time daydreaming over what we have been told to do, it is a bad thing and G-d’s blessing is never on it.   G-d’s initiative is always in the nature of  a stab against this kind of daydreaming, the stab that bids us “don’t sit or stand – but go!”

If we are quietly waiting before G-d and He has said: “Get up! Let’s get going!”, then that becomes the meditation before G-d in order to get at the line He wants.  Always beware of giving over to mere daydreaming when you know you have heard from G-d.  Let Him be the source of all your dreams and joys and delights and go out and obey what He has said.  If you are in love, you do not sit down and dream about the one you love all the time.  You go and do something for him or her.  That is what the Messiah Yeshua expects us to do.  Daydreaming after G-d has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him. So what are you waiting for?

When Yeshua had finished talking about these things, he left the Galil and traveled down the east side of the Yarden River until he passed the border of Y’hudah. Great crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some P’rushim came and tried to trap him by asking, “Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife on any ground whatever?”  He replied, “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and that he said, `For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two are to become one flesh’?  Thus they are no longer two, but one. So then, no one should split apart what G-d has joined together.” Matthew 19:1-6

Does the Bible allow for the theory of evolution?  Is science proving the theory of evolution, thus contradicting the Biblical account of creation?  To answer this, we must first understand what we mean by the term evolution.  If it is defined simply as “change” – as in the development of an infant to an adult or change within a kind, such as dog or cat – then this would pose no problem.  This evolution, or developmental change within certain kinds, is completely consistent with the Holy Scripture

The problem is that the prevailing theory of evolution goes far beyond this the theory.  It states basically that complex elements have developed from simpler elements and living organisms have sprung from non-living chemicals by chance association.  The theory of evolution is less scientific and more of a philosophy about the origin of life and the meaning of man.  The Genesis account records 10 different times how G-d created plants and animals after their kind with no crossing of the kinds.  Man was fully man at his creation, as was woman, with no long gradual period of development.

The idea of natural selection, or survival of the fittest, is at odds with the Biblical teaching that all things were created as good.  Genesis 1:31 records “G-d saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.  So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.”  The Scriptures teach that everything was originally created perfect.  Death and decay occurred when sin entered into the creation.  This is opposed to the evolutionary concept of everything getting better.  Evolution not only contradicts the Bible but it also contradicts some basic laws of science.  For example, the second law of thermodynamics implies that everything, when left to itself, tends to become less ordered, not more ordered or complex.

The rule of thermodynamics is an observation of the obvious: things grow old, rundown and eventually die or decay.  They lose their structure.  The theory of evolution says that things develop and improve their complexity and structure.  This is not the case as we can clearly observe.

Evolution teaches that the changes or mutations are beneficial, but nature shows almost all variations are harmful.  The theory contradicts observable phenomena.  Neither the theory of evolution nor the theory of special creation can be proven scientifically; that is, they cannot be repeated in a laboratory environment.  Special creation happened once in the past and evolution is too slow to observe.  Both theories are faith assumptions and on the basis of the evidence one must choose one or the other.  We should not be embarrassed for believing the Genesis account of creation, since it not only fits better with observable facts but also was the view of Yeshua our Messiah and His teachings.

Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not gloat over other people’s sins but takes its delight in the truth.  Love always bears up, always trusts, always hopes, always endures. 1-Corinthians 13:4-7

HaSatan has tried to counterfeit every good thing God has given us.  He has succeeded in selling the world a corrupted, inferior type of love.  Hollywood has been a big asset to the Adversary in this battle.  Movies portray an emotional, sensual lust as “love”, but it has no basis in reality.  It causes people to long for some utopia where every sense is fully satisfied all the time.  But human love can never fully satisfy anyone’s deep need to be unconditionally loved.  This is God’s kind of love.

The most distinguishing characteristic of the true God kind of love is that it’s not selfish or self-serving.  True love isn’t getting what you desire; it is selfless and giving.  Just look at Yeshua, the greatest example of God’s kind of love that the world has ever seen.  The world will tell you that living selflessly is joyless and  miserable, But Yeshua was full of joy and never miserable.  He demonstrated the secret of life is selfless love.

Yeshua didn’t come to this earth to satisfy Himself.  Ultimately, He did receive great satisfaction by redeeming mankind back to God.  But He became a human being for His father and not for us, not for Himself.  He left all the splendor of glory and came to
dwell in the most humble surroundings.  He left the adoration of all creation to live for 30 years in relative anonymity.

Although some praised Yeshua during His ministry, He also endured the scorn and ridicule of the religious establishment.  Then He suffered the ultimate rejection of crucifixion and took all the shame that went with being a condemned criminal.  He did this because “”For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed.” John 3:16.

Test your love towards others today by asking yourself this simple question: “Am I saying or doing this for me or for someone else?”   Focus on expressing love to others and see
how differently your day goes.

Natan’el said to him, “How do you know me?” Yeshua answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” John 1:48

We imagine we will be alright when the big crisis comes.  But the big crisis will only reveal the stuff we are made of, it will not put anything into us.  We may say “If G-d gives a call, of course I will rise to the occasion!”  You will not unless you have risen to the occasion on the job you should have been doing all along.  If you’re not doing the work that lies nearest to you, the work that G-d has arranged for you to do, when the crisis comes, instead of being revealed as fit, you will be revealed as unfit.  Crisis always reveals character.

The private relationship of worshiping G-d is a great essential of fitness.  The time comes
when there is no more “fig tree” life possible.  When life is out in the open, out in the glare, out in the workplace, you will find your life has little value there if you have not been worshipping as occasion serves you in your home.  We must be worshipping properly in our private relationship with G-d.  Then when G-d sets you free you will be ready.  Because in the unseen life, which no one sees but G-d, you have become perfectly fit.  And when the strain of life comes you can be relied upon by G-d.

“I can’t be expected to live the sanctified life in the circumstances I am in; I have no time for praying just now, no time for Bible reading, my opportunity hasn’t come yet.  When it does, of course I shall be ready.”  No, you will not.  If you have not been worshipping as occasion serves, when you get called to the task, you will not only be useless to yourself, but a tremendous hindrance to those who are associated with you.

The true place of preparation to serve G-d is found in the hidden, personal worshipping life of those He calls.  And all of us are called to this life.

Y’hoshua said to the people, “You can’t serve ADONAI; because he is a holy G-d, a jealous G-d, and he will not forgive your crimes and sins.”  Joshua 24:19

Do you have the slightest reliance on anything other than G-d?  Is there a remnant of reliance left on any natural virtue, any set of circumstances?  Are you relying on yourself in any particular position in this new proposition that G-d has put before you?  That is what this probing Scripture means.  It is quite true to say: “I cannot live a holy life”; but you can decide to let the Messiah Yeshua make you holy.  “You can’t serve ADONAI”; but you can put yourself in a place where G-d’s Almighty power will come through you.  Are you sufficiently right with G-d to expect Him to manifest His wonderful life in you?

You may proclaim: “I will serve the Lord”.  It cannot be an impulse, but a deliberate commitment.  You may say: “G-d never called me to this, I am too unworthy, it can’t mean me.”  It does mean you, and the weaker and feebler you are, the better.  The one who has something to trust in is the last one to come anywhere near saying, “I will serve the Lord.”

We say: “if I really could believe!”  The point is if I ever really will believe!  No wonder the Messiah places such emphasis on the sin of unbelief.  If we really believe that G-d meant what He said– What should we be like!  Do you dare to let G-d be to you all that he says he will be?

David said to the men standing with him, “What reward will be given to the man who kills this P’lishti and removes this disgrace from Isra’el?  Who is this uncircumcised P’lishti anyway, that he challenges the armies of the living G-d?”  1 Samuel 17:26

There were a number of keys to David’s ability to kill the giant Golyat.  One of those keys was his knowledge of and faith in G-d’s covenant with the nation of Israel.  G-d had said that no one would be able to stand before his people.  “No one will be able to withstand you; ADONAI your G-d will place the fear and dread of you on all the land you step on, as he told you.” Deuteronomy 11:25.  Golyat was just a man – an uncircumcised man at that!  This meant he didn’t have a covenant with G-d.  David placed his faith completely in the promises G-d had given him through the covenant He had made with Israel.

Every one of the Israelite soldiers had the same covenant, but the covenant is of no effect until it’s believed.  Hebrews 4:2 says, “for Good News has also been proclaimed to us, just as it was to them. But the message they heard didn’t do them any good, because those who heard it did not combine it with trust.”  David believed G-d’s Word and activated His covenant power in his life.

“Sha’ul dressed David in his own armor – he put a bronze helmet on his head and gave him armor plate to wear.  David buckled his sword on his armor and tried to walk, but he wasn’t used to such equipment.  David said to Sha’ul, “I can’t move wearing these things, because I’m not used to them.”  So David took them off.”1 Samuel 17:38-39. David’s trust was in the G-d of the covenant, not in what he wore.  After all, the King’s armor wasn’t doing him any good.  Under the armor, David was hiding along with the rest of the soldiers.  Rather than faith in armor, David’s faith rested in G-d alone.

G-d’s covenant with you is a better covenant based on better promises.  “But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better.  For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises.”  Hebrews 9:6.  Through Yeshua you are walking in the victory He has already won for you.  There is no reason for you to cower before your enemies.  You have G-d’s covenant promises.  Activate them by faith today and watch your giants fall.

“When Elisheva heard Miryam’s greeting, the baby in her womb stirred. Elisheva was filled with the Ruach HaKodesh” Luke 1:41

This story has become so familiar to us, it’s easy to miss the miracles.  Miryam and Elisheva were cousins.  Luke 1:36 says “You have a relative, Elisheva, who is an old woman; and everyone says she is barren. But she has conceived a son and is six months pregnant!”  They knew each other.  Surely Elisheva was aware that Miryam was engaged but not yet married.  Miryam was just a teenager at this time.  Yet Elisheva prophesied about Miryam being pregnant with the Messiah.  That could not have come out of Elizabeth’s mind.  She never would’ve said those things because they were illogical. Elisheva also referred to Yeshua as her Lord “But who am I, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Luke 1:43.

He had just been conceived.  Today, He would’ve been called a fetus, yet she recognized Him as her Lord and Savior.  Many others proclaim Him as Lord’s at His birth (This very day, in the town of David, there was born for you a Deliverer who is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11) and after His birth, but Elisheva proclaimed He was Lord from the moment of conception .

It’s interesting to note that the Immerser, who was just a six month old fetus at the time, “the baby in her womb stirred”.  This means a six month old fetus has emotions.  It is also when he was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Before he was viable outside of the womb, God consider him a person and filled him with His Spirit!

Elisheva spoke these words without reservation.  She placed a blessing on Miryam for believing what the Lord had told her and then reassured her that it would shortly come to pass.  “Indeed you are blessed, because you have trusted that the promise ADONAI has made to you will be fulfilled.”  What an encouragement and confirmation this must’ve been to Miryam.  Meditate on these wonderful insights as you go about your day.

“After that, Yeshua appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking into the country.”  Mark 16:12

Being saved and seeing Yeshua are not the same thing.  Once you have seen Yeshua, you can never be the same, other things do not appear as they used to.

Always distinguish between what you see Yeshua to be and what He has done for you.  If you only know what He has done for you, you do not have a big enough G-d.  However, if you have a vision of Yeshua as He is, experiences may come and go, but you will endure, “seeing Him Who is invisible”.  The man born blind, blind from his birth, did not know who Yeshua was until He appeared and revealed Himself to him.  Yeshua appears to those for whom He has done something.  But we cannot dictate when or how He will come.  Suddenly, at any turn, He may come. “Now I see Him!”

Yeshua must appear to your friend as well as to you, for no one can see Yeshua with your eyes.  A severance takes place where one and not the other has seen Yeshua.  You cannot bring your friend unless G-d brings him.  Have you seen Yeshua?  If so, you will want others to see Him also.  “They went and told the others, but they didn’t believe them either.” Mark 16:13.  You must tell, although they may not believe.  G-d is your greatest reality through Yeshua.  Do your best to show Him to others.