wondering if I should post something
blessings
Verses That Hang You Up
March 10, 2010I’m curious. Got a verse, from the Bible, that just hangs you up on what it means?
Post it here.
Pacifism Pt 1
March 2, 2010This week we will look at pacifism. It’s widely accepted that Jesus taught this. Matthew 5:39 and Luke 6:29 are examples where Jesus says to turn the other cheek. What was He saying?!?
The concept of pacifism was popularized through the writings of a guy named Leo Tolstoy. Pacifism has not been, nor is it a part of Jewish belief. The idea from writings such as Sanhedrin 72a is that it is permissible to kill in order to defend oneself.
Could it be that Jesus is the first and only Jew to teach pacifism? I believe that is unlikely. Even some of the disciples were armed in Luke 22:39 & 22:50, not to mention that once Jesus even suggest they buy swords Luke 22:35-37, we start to ask ourselves did Jesus really teach pacifism? Pacifism is a theological misunderstanding that comes from mistranslation of several things that Jesus said.
The first common mistranslation is Matthew 5:21. Many English versions say “Thou shall not kill”. This is a quote of Exodus 20:13. The Hebrew word used here is murder / ratzach not kill / harag. These words have very different meanings. The first word, murder, means premeditated murder while the second covers everything from justifiable homicide, manslaughter, killing accidentally and taking the life of an enemy solider during war. The commandment clearly prohibits murder, but not the taking of a life in defense of oneself.
One wonders how the English translators got this wrong since the Greek has two different words for murder and kill. The Greek word used here also means murder. Even with no knowledge of Hebrew the English guys should have been to correctly translate it.
Another passage which pacifism is based on is the first part of Matthew 5:39 commonly translated “Do not resist evil” or “do not resist one who is evil”. Did Jesus really say this to his disciples? If he did then we have a contradiction with other passages in Scripture. Such as Romans 12:9 “Hate which is evil” and James 4:7 “Resist the devil”.
Once again Hebrew provides us with the answer. When this verse is translated back into Hebrew we can see Jesus is not creating an new saying but quoting a well know proverb from the Old Testament. It appears with some slight variations in Psalm 37:1-8 and Proverbs 24:19, one could say it this way in today’s English ” Do not compete with evildoers”. In other words don’t try to rival or vie with a neighbor who has wronged you.
Jesus is not teaching that one should lie down or submit in the face of evil rather He is teaching that we should not try to “get back at” or “take revenge” on a neighbor that has wronged us. Proverbs 24:29 “Do not say, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay each according to his work”.
Well I’m not finished yet, more to come in Pt 2
blessings………mark
The Arronic Blessing; Numbers 6: 24-26
February 25, 2010Numbers chapter 6
22 And the L-RD spoke unto Moses, saying: 23 ‘Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying: On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel; ye shall say unto them:
24 The L-RD bless thee, and keep thee;
25 The L-RD make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;
26 The L-RD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
27 So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
This will be a refresher for those who attend the study, with a tidbit or two I didn’t cover during the study. I noticed you guys don’t take many notes! 
For those getting this only on the information superhighway it’ll be fresh (I hope).
You have probably heard this verse before and I wanted to have a little midrash ( midrash = investigation) for you in this post.
I believe these verses contain a powerful present blessing as well as a prophetic one when we pronounce them over our families / congregations. Now some of my readers may ask was this blessing not the job of the Priest to pronounce? Yes it was and is! If you are a follower / disciple of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) I believe you qualify.
1Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,
Ok that seems clear enough but doesn’t the text say this blessing is for the children of Israel? Yep sure does. Read Romans chapter 11 you’ll see a grafting taking place. without going down this trail atm let me just say I believe us to be part of the cultivated branch that is biblical Israel. Notice I did not say we are all Jewish….there is a difference. One will also notice that the L-rd is not finished with the nation of Israel just yet. The “church” has not replaced anyone, we’ve been grafted into something. There are still some promises that the L-rd intends on keeping! On a side note I read somewhere that 2 cylinders were found in Israel with the Arronic blessing on them that predate the Dead Sea Scrolls by 400 years.
Now back to our text Numbers 6: 24-26…. As is usual with Hebrew, these 15 Hebrew words contain a lot more meaning than the English translation conveys. Let go verse by verse.
24The L-rd bless you and keep you
The L-rd, easy enough for us to understand. Almighty and Holy G-d, creator of all. The one that placed every star in it’s place and made man from the dust and then breathed life into His creation…..AWESOME! He is also called Abba, meaning daddy. This term is still used by Hebrew speakers and when spoken in many other languages sounds somewhat the same. A mentor of mine explains it a way I that drives this idea home. Daddy not in the sense of wearing a three piece suit working on the 12th floor of some high rise, but daddy that tucks you in at night and nd rides you on his shoulders and tells you he loves you and is proud of you. Many people today don’t have a figure like this in their lives or daddy may have passed. Abba wants to fulfill this role as no earthly father ever could.
24The L-rd bless you keep you
The Hebrew word for bless is Baruch ( to fill the palm, bet, resh and a kaph) and we get the following idea from the spelling. Endued by G-d with power for success, prosperity, long life and fruit that remains. Awesome yes?
“and keep you”
The Hebrew word used here is Shomer / Shomar. A Shomer is a watchman, usually on a high place. The watchman has many duties. He sees what others do not or can not see. He sees danger coming in time to warn the people. He watches though the night and announces the coming of the light as the darkness recedes. The watchman can look into the enemy’s camp and know what they are planning then warn the people before it ever takes place. Also the watchman would proclaim the coming of the Messiah.
The L-RD make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The L-RD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
The L-rds glory will not be hidden from you, much in the same way Moses experienced it. After meeting with Adonai Moses’s face shone brightly reflecting that glory. Also Adonai will give you favor. Basically giving or bestowing on you grace and mercy. Grace being goodness you don’t deserve and Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. The L-rd lift up His face / countenance. A great picture of this is from the book of Ester when she approaches the king announced. In ancient times appearing before a king unannounced usually ended in death. However in this example the king lifts up his face to Ester and extends his scepter toward her inviting her in. When we imagine Adonai doing this, it’s a powerful image!!
and give thee peace
The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. Today it’s used by Hebrew speakers to say hello and goodbye. Once again the English does not do this word justice. Shalom in the large sense of the word is nothing broken, nothing missing and nothing out of place.
As you can see these 15 words in Hebrew have so much more to offer us in the way of blessing than we might have taken from the English. Fathers, single moms, parents everywhere, I encourage you to pray this blessing over your families. Pastors and leaders pray this over your congregations. Lets speak these words of power and trust Adonai for the results!
May the L-rd endue you with power for success, prosperity, long life and fruit that remains and may the L-rd be the watchmen over your life and guard you. May the glory of the L-rd shine on you so much that it reflects to those around you. May the L-rd extend His scepter toward you, invite you in and give you grace and mercy. May the L-rd restore your life so that nothing is broken, nothing is missing and nothing is out of place!
blessings to you, mark
A New Wordie
November 13, 2009
Figured out how to do this….so here is my first one. Numbers 6:24
Blessings….. Mark
Serving in a Ministry……
October 24, 2009Serving in a ministry should not determine you self worth. Now that your brow has wrinkled a bit, some explanation. If you have ever served in a ministry you have felt this at one time or another, or maybe you’ve witnessed it. You’ve poured your heart and soul into this thing, sometimes for years. Then for some reason it is not going well or it comes to an end. It happened to me…a couple of times. I’ll share one example.
In the aftermath of 9/11 the Father called me to lead a study that took real world events and put them in context of scripture. The Pastor and I prayed about it and agreed it was something to move forward with. So we advertised and I got the resources, study handouts ect ready for the mass influx of attendees. The day came and guess what? One person showed up!! I mean really? So I went ahead and did my thing thinking this was just the first class. Well nope, weeks turned into months and still just this one person showed up. We discussed the study and everything, man that one person sure was faithful to show every week! So I started to doubt I was doing the right thing. Must be something about the way I was doing it, maybe my accent, maybe I suck at teaching, maybe I’m boring? If I was any good more people would be coming to the class. I was in the dumps emotionally. I felt I was not of much use cause the ministry was not going as planned. After about 9 months of this I decided to just tell the one person in the next class we were done. Thanks for coming all these months, see ya in church on Sunday. Then something happened I cannot forget. The L-rd intervened and taught me a lesson. He didn’t call into a ministry so I could feel good about myself. He called me to be obedient to the call, no matter what. I needed to be obedient during the hard times as well as the good. He showed me the thing that should give me worth is being a child of G-d, a follower of Messiah, a doer of the Word. The Father’s message was clear…..serve till I tell you to do something else. Well I put on my big boy pants, got my thoughts adjusted and decided to tough it out. Then about 4 months later the Pastor ask me to do the study during his teaching time on Sunday nights……guess what? Attendance grew to about 40 or so and it went on for almost another year! Then the season of this teaching passed so something else could start and I moved on.
I said all that to say this;
Don’t let your serving determine your self worth. God knew you before you were born and laid out all your days……you are special!
Now some things just need to get done in a congregation. The lights need to be turned on, things need to made ready for the people. We can all do these things we just have to want to do them and have the skill to make it happen. That’s ok. They just have to get done. These are not necessarily the types of ministry I’m talking about here but the same idea about serving applies in general.
Some ministries do need people that are called, by G-d, and equipped to make them happen. If your in one of these and things are not going as it seems they should, a couple of thoughts. A congregation gets to decide what ministries it offers, fair or not that’s the way it works. Is G-d calling you to do a certain thing?
I serve on staff for the congregation and also under the anointing and call of the Father. One of a few things can happen. The church decides to move in a new direction or G-d changes my ministry / anointing. If the church decides to move in a new direction and I’m anointed to do what I do, then I’ll have to adapt or find a new congregation to serve in. If G-d removes the anointing or says it’s time to move on He’ll open another door when the time is right.
Blessings Mark
Thoughts on Worship Styles
October 24, 2009Time to get out the pitch forks and torches after this post. Before you get offended, that is the two people that read this blog, think seriously about what I’m saying.
The debate on what style should our worship should be has been around for a long time. One could call a heated debate on this topic “worship wars”. If your congregation is currently in a worship war let me know, I’ll pray for you, cause those things suck. Probably everyone has a style they prefer in a worship service……so how does a congregation deal with that? Lots of factors come into play here, lots. So what’s important? What should a worship service do? What is worship? Other questions may pop up in your mind as well!
Worship
The Hebrew word for worship simply means “bowing down”. Giving all our time and attention to something. Focusing, if you will, on a thing. In the context of a worshiping congregation that means bowing down, focusing on, giving our complete attention to….the Father and our Messiah. I know this is a simple explanation, I’ll do an in depth post just on this subject in the future. 
What Should A Worship Service Do?
A worship service should allow ( not hinder) the congregation to experience the manifest presence of G-d. That is it. Do you have the manifest presence of G-d in your services? I mean the tangible feeling that He is here and working among His people. There is another sign that He has been in the service. After the conviction, cleansing, revelation ect comes the one thing that ALWAYS happens……JOY! Joy will always be the end result of all the other stuff that we feel when G-d shows up in a real way. Is there Joy in your services? How about in your private worship time? You do have a private worship time right? Cause you don’t have to be in church to have a little worship.
Now how that happens is where we get all turned around.
Style
Simply……Style don’t matter to the Father as long as it’s true worship and there is some life in it. However style does matter to congregations and that’s ok. A congregation that prefers a certain type of music will be distracted from worship by another style that sounds strange to their ears. G-d allows congregations to make decisions, right or wrong, and He stands by them. This concept comes from Exodus / Shemot 18:19-26 where Moses father-in-law suggested a new way to make decisions;
v 21 And you, you shall look out men of ability out of all the people, who fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain. And you place these over them as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
v 22 And let them judge the people at all times. And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, and every small matter they shall judge. And you make it easy on yourself, and let them bear with you.
v 23 If you do this thing, and God command you, you will be able to stand; and also this people will go in peace to their place.
Oh noo, the word judge!! Hate to ruin years of the “judge not” teaching but to judge in hebrew simply means to make a decision. when Yeshua said “do not judge” He meant do not condemn, but that study is for another day. So the congregation is allowed to make decisions. Read some of Paul’s writings you’ll see the concept there as well.
To sum it all up
A congregation must decide what style best suits it. No matter the style whether, liturgical, hymn based, rock, country, folk or pop styles. They can all be worship and achieve the goal, remember the goal for worship right?
That the Congregation / Worshiper experience the Manifest Presence of G-d!
Blessings Mark
So Why the Tares?
October 24, 2009Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted up….get ready. I’m on a roll here. :O
So in the last post we saw that there are good and bad seed. Actually there is only ONE good seed. Any other seed is NOT the good seed. We see in the parable of the sower seed is the word of G-d and the sower is Yeshua. John 1:1 tells us
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.
So Yeshua is in effect sowing himself. Now in the parable of the tares the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, the kingdom of G-d that is. The tares are the sons of the wicked one.
Hmm, seed yields fruit after its kind, every time. An apple tree will produce an apple not a grapefruit…right? G-d set this down in the very beginning.
Gen 1:11.
And God said, Let the earth sprout tender sprouts, the plant seeding seed, the fruit tree producing fruit according to its kind, whichever seed is in it on the earth. And it was so.
Also I don’t think it a stretch to say if you ingest some fruit you might get some of its seed in you. Sorry back to the topic here.
Why does Satan sow the divergent seed in the field then? To defile the field, from our passage in Deut we see the yield of the seed and, by indication, the field is defiled as well because of this mingling of the seed. Since it doesn’t become clear who is who till the harvest approaches is there a way to tell before then? I say yes! We can see attributes of the “other” seed all the way back in the beginning. That’s where I’ll pick up next.
Blessings Mark
Ok, What’s with the “G-d”???
October 8, 2009Bootgypsy asked this question in a comment on another post. Thanks BG great question!!
I do this when writing to keep the idea that His Name is Holy in the front of my mind. Here is some background.
Exodus / Shemot (Names) 20:7
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
The idea given here and other places is not to use G-d’s name in a common way. Think two ways 1) Holy 2)Profane. Profane actually translates to our word common!
The Name was considered by the early followers of G-d too sacred to be pronounced. The same went for writing it. It would not be written on anything that could be destroyed. So In written texts, like the Bible,
the vowel points of ADONAI were inserted under the consonants Yud Hey Vav Hey and pronounced Adonai. Other forms are used, Hashem (The Name), Christians use Jehovah, however there is not a “J” in Hebrew , the list goes on.
The way I understand it the full Name of G-d was only spoken one day of the year by the High Priest on Yom Kippur and then only inaudibly. After the destruction of the temple the pronunciation was lost.
So the reader can decide for yourself, as for me I call Him…..
ABBA
Blessings to you. Mark
From the Other Stuff Category
October 6, 2009Disclaimer: opinions or methods discussed in this video are not necessarily the opinions of Things Uncovered, our sponsors or affiliates, but it’s really funny
Genesis / B’resheet 2:9
October 6, 2009something to think about with this one.
Gen / B’resheet 2:9
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
ok now in Hebrew, well the best I can do as I’m not a native speaker of ancient biblical Hebrew, but I’m learning!!
And out
min (min)
above, after, among, at, because of, by (reason of), from (among), in, neither, nor, (out) of, over, since, then, through, whether, with.
of the ground
‘adamah (ad-aw-maw’)
soil (from its general redness) — country, earth, ground, husband(-man) (-ry), land.
made
tsamach (tsaw-makh’)
to sprout (transitive or intransitive, literal or figurative) — bear, bring forth, (cause to, make to) bud (forth), (cause to, make to) grow (again, up), (cause to) spring (forth, up).
the LORD
Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw’)
(the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God — Jehovah, the Lord.
God
‘elohiym (el-o-heem’)
angels, exceeding, God (gods)(-dess, -ly), (very) great, judges, mighty.
to grow
tsamach (tsaw-makh’)
to sprout (transitive or intransitive, literal or figurative) — bear, bring forth, (cause to, make to) bud (forth), (cause to, make to) grow (again, up), (cause to) spring (forth, up).
every tree
`ets (ates)
a tree (from its firmness); hence, wood (plural sticks) — + carpenter, gallows, helve, + pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber, tree, wood.
that is pleasant
chamad (khaw-mad’)
to delight in — beauty, greatly beloved, covet, delectable thing, (great) delight, desire, goodly, lust, (be) pleasant (thing), precious (thing).
to the sight
mar’eh (mar-eh’)
a view (the act of seeing); also an appearance (the thing seen), whether (real) a shape (especially if handsome, comeliness; often plural the looks), or (mental) a vision
and good
towb (tobe)
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun
for food
ma’akal (mah-ak-awl’)
an eatable (includ. provender, flesh and fruit) — food, fruit, (bake-) meat(-s), victual.
the tree
`ets (ates)
a tree (from its firmness); hence, wood (plural sticks) — + carpenter, gallows, helve, + pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber, tree, wood.
of life
chay (khah’-ee)
age, alive, appetite, (wild) beast, company, congregation, life(-time), live(-ly), living (creature, thing), maintenance, + merry, multitude, + (be) old, quick, raw, running, springing, troop.
also in the midst
tavek (taw’-vek)
a bisection, i.e. (by implication) the centre — among(-st), between, half, (there-,where-), in(-to), middle, mid(-night), midst (among), out (of), through, with(-in).
of the garden
gan (gan)
a garden (as fenced) — garden.
and the tree
`ets (ates)
a tree (from its firmness); hence, wood (plural sticks) — + carpenter, gallows, helve, + pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber, tree, wood.
of knowledge
da`ath (dah’-ath)
knowledge — cunning, (ig-)norantly, know(-ledge), (un-)awares (wittingly).
of good
towb (tobe)
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun
and evil
ra` (rah)
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)one), worse(-st), wretchedness, wrong. (Incl. feminine raaah; as adjective or noun.).
Now remember the two quailifiers of what G-d caused to spring up where 1) Pleasing to the eye 2) Good for food. The tree of Life fits that bill perfectly. Now the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was it pleasing to the eye? Well let’s see.
Gen / B’resheet 3:6 And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Wow! Seems it did look good to someone. But was it really good for food?
Gen / B’resheet 2:16-17 And Yehovah G-d commanded the man, saying, Eating you may eat of every tree in the garden;
17 but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, dying you shall die.
Hmmm, I would say if you eat something and it would KILL YOU it might not be good for food. Does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil fit the two qualifiers of the things that G-d caused to spring up? Now the woman saw that it was good for food and pleasing to the eye, but G-d said don’t eat it.
This has nothing to do with your ever loving soul or your salvation whatsoever but……..Wonder how that tree got in the garden if G-d didn’t cause it to spring up? hmmmm
Just a thought. Blessings to you. Mark
The Importance of the Seed Summary
October 4, 2009Last Wednesday we looked at the parable of the sower and the parable of the wheat and the “tares”. When I first got exposed to this teaching years ago it started to rearrange the way I looked at scripture…and I think for the better. So after studying this topic for quite a few years hopefully I’m doing the topic justice while expanding on it. The following is a summary for those that missed it
Hopefully you’re familiar with the parable of the sower in Matt 13:1. If not give it a read, Yeshua/ Jesus even explains it for us. Awesome, I love it when it’s easy. So we have different types of ground and we see the seed is the Word..of G-d that is. The types of ground are people and how they receive the Word. Odds are if you’ve gone to church more than twice you have heard this teaching. Now on to verse 24 of Matthew 13, the parable of the wheat and the tares.
So we see in this parable;
A man sowing “good” seed in his field.
While men slept an enemy came and sowed tares in the field.
After the fruit started to show the servants noticed something was wrong and asked the man if he had sown good seed and why then were there tares in the field. The servants then asked if they could fix the problem.
The man gave instruction to wait till the harvest and so on…..you read this right?
Now down to verse 37 where Yeshua gives the explanation, yet again. The sower = Jesus, the field = the world, good seed = the sons of the Kingdom, the tares = the sons of the wicked one, the enemy that sowed the tares is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels.
Now you might be saying, ok that seems self explanatory. I guess it is on the surface but I think there is more than meets the eye here. Lets jump to Leviticus / V’yakra ( And He Said / Called) 19:19( I know it’s your MOST favorite book of the bible).
Lev 19:19 Guard My laws. Do not let your livestock mate with another kind. Do not sow your field with mixed seed. And do not put a garment woven of two sorts of thread upon you.
Since we are in the front of the book lets look at Deuteronomy / Devarim ( Words / Things) 22;9.
Deu 22:9 “Do not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
So we have here two commandments where there seems to be no explanation as to why we should do it other than it will defile the yield and the fruit. Kind of like when I tell the kids “Don’t eat in your room”. I don’t give them the reason, dad said it so they will do what I told them to! Yeah…..Ok, back to real life now.
So why would the enemy, Hasatan(yep means the devil), go to the trouble of sowing the field with tares. I know he’s a dingdong and all but why go to the trouble?
We’ll pick that up in the next post. Blessings! Mark
Some things you should know before reading
October 3, 2009Welcome to Things Uncovered. Glad to have you and thanks for stopping by! Before you read on, a few ramblings first.
I’m a noob at blogging this is my first one so forgive me in advance.
I serve as a worship leader and teacher in a local congregation. I’m not living up in the mountains with a stock pile of supplies..but I can be strange at times:). I mean I am a worship leader…..aren’t we all strange at times?
I’m a sold out follower of Messiah Yeshua (yep that means Jesus). But I still mess up…..a lot sometimes 
I’m not big on religion. I believe religion causes more problems than it solves and has no benefit to the Kingdom of G-d. It should be all about relationship. Between each other here on the earth and us and the Father through the Messiah!
Think about it…..Religion and Politics have the same goals.
- Power
- Control
- Think the way they want you to think about everything.
Seems they are all number one from what I can see.
I think the “church” may have let some principals / ideas fall by the wayside as we have moved forward from the Cross and the Resurrection.
The Holy Spirit teaches us all things and in the proper season.
There are many more things I probably need to say here but……I’m out of words atm. Blessings to you. Mark
