love what you do!

I have been apart of what we call "The Messianic Movement" my entire life.  When I was five weeks old my parents, along with my older brother (three years old), drove across the country from Ashland, Oregon to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  We drove across the country to participate in one of the few Messianic Jewish Congregations in the whole world, Beth Yeshua.

Back in February of 2010 I came out to Seattle to find an apartment for my family as we began the process of moving from Maryland to Washington State.  At Thirty years old I took my family on a journey across the country to follow God where He was leading us.  On this particular trip I went to a Bar Mitzvah in San Diego first.  So, on my way to Seattle I had to stop in San Francisco.  Because of this particular path I found myself flying over Oregon on my way to Seattle.  I saw Mt. Hood and Crater Lake (I even took pictures from the plane with my iPhone).

It struck me as I was flying that God was doing an awesome thing for me as His child.  I realized that God was in our move and that God was with us because I could have never planned that at Thirty years old God would bring me back to the northwest.  At around the same age that my parents were when they left.  With children around the same age that my brother and I as we drove.  Passing the place that my parents have told me about my whole life but I had not seen with my own eyes.  Not as a baby (in a basket in the back of a station wagon) but as a grown man.  Not as a son, but as a dad.  Not without purpose, but to grow a Messianic Synagogue.

Since about the age of ten I have wanted to be a Messianic Rabbi.  I was a Rabbi in New York for a few years and then in Maryland for ten months.  As I approach a year of being in Seattle, I am really excited for all that God is doing in me and at Beit Messiah.  My heart is full, my eyes are set on the goal of reaching my people and my feet are hitting the ground doing the work of my heart and eyes.

I am convinced that God is doing awesome things here in Seattle!  I am in such an amazing place because my dreams are coming true and the purposes that God put on my heart when I was a boy are becoming reality.  I am entirely passionate about my job.  I am excited to participate in God's plan for my life.  I love what I do, I love my family, I love my Synagogue.  I can't wait to look back on these years and talk of all the awesome things God did!

Do you love what you do?
Are you passionate about your job?
Are you where God wants you?

If your answer to these questions are yes? Praise God!
If your answer to these questions is no?
maybe you should consider stopping what you are doing and going after the things God has called you too.  hard? yes. scary? you better believe it.  worth it? see above :)

His plans for you are good.  He wants you to love and be passionate about what you are doing with your life.  Find Him and let Him bring you into your purpose!

Michael Jackson was right!

Michael Jackson was right.  It's time to heal the world and make it a better place.  for you and for me and the entire human race!

I have been a religious person my whole life.  I love God.  I love my wife.  I love my kids.  Healing the world?! sure, some times.

I think about Darfur.  I think about earthquakes in Haiti.  I think about floods in Australia.  I think about the high rate of abortion.  I think about the struggle of women in society.  I think Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.  The truth is, I only think about them when they are put in front of me (after all it is Martin Luther King Day).  I think about them when they're on the news.  I think about them when I watch George Clooney on dateline.  I think about them when I run into Scriptures like James 1:27: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." 


then they fade from thoughts.  This past Shabbat I spoke about Tikkun Olam (literally: The Healing of the World).  The last two weeks have been an introduction to Beit Messiah's new purpose statement (check out the podcasts on iTunes or our Website):  "Our Purpose is to walk in the likeness of Messiah Yeshua (Messianic Halacha) and partner with Adonai in the healing of the world (Tikkun Olam)."

I included Tikkun Olam in our new purpose because I have always been moved to do something for the world around me.  I have prayed about it a lot.  I have been "waiting" for direction from God as to what role I should play.  Then it struck me.  Its all a sham.  I haven't been "waiting" I have been avoiding what I know my responsibility is.  Not just because I am religious.  but because I am a human being.  The Gospel of Yeshua is more than just spiritual salvation.  It is spiritual.  but it is also physical, emotional, and psychological.  Yeshua didn't just offer people salvation.  He offered power and authority to do real things in a real world.  It seems easy to just offer salvation to people and tell them to trust that they will get to Heaven.  But eternity has already started and Yeshua said many times that the Kingdom of God is right here and right now.  I want to be like Him with all of my heart but being like Him means I have to partner with Him in healing the world.


I am making a commitment to engage with what I most care about in 2011.  I love God.  I love my wife.  I love my kids.  And I am going to work hard to love the world around me (and those far from me).  I am making this commitment as an individual, as a husband, as a father and as a Rabbi.  This year I am going to lead people around me to think bigger, to dream bigger, pray bigger and actually DO bigger than we have ever imagined.  because I love God.  because I love my wife.  because I love my kids. because I love my Synagogue (and the people in it :) and if I really do love all of these then I've got to love the world that God has put me in.  More than just spiritually but also working to bring healing to people physically, emotionally, and psychologically.  I want to go for healing the whole person to the best of my ability and if I can't do it I want to find someone who can. 


In Luke 4:16-19, Yeshua introduced Himself as the Messiah (for the whole world) in His hometown of Nazareth He quoted Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of ADONAI is upon me; therefore he has anointed me to announce Good News to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned and renewed sight for the blind, to release those who have been crushed, to proclaim a year of the favor of ADONAI.”  I want to be that.  Yeshua said we could be that.  I want to be like Him so 2011 is the year I go for it.


wanna join me? 


(Note: I will be laying out some "Tikkun Olam Initiatives" all year and highlighting organizations doing the work of healing the world.  keep looking out.)


Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Living on Purpose

Last Shabbat I introduced the new purpose statement and strategy for our Synagogue:

Our Purpose is...
to walk in the likeness of Messiah Yeshua (Messianic Halacha) and partner with Adonai in the healing of the world (Tikkun Olam).

Our Strategy is...
to WORSHIP the God of Israel, LOVE people, BUILD community and SHARE the message of Yeshua with our Jewish people and the nations.

I began a three part preaching series on this new purpose. The first message was on the first part of this purpose, "to walk in the likeness of Messiah Yeshua" or what we call "Messianic Halacha". (listen to podcast here)

It is hard to live without purpose. The question "why am I here?" has the ability to be encouraging or depressing depending on where your answers come from. For the life of our Synagogue it is important to determine "why are we here?". This new purpose is an attempt to answer that question.

What does it mean to walk in the likeness of Messiah?  What is "Messianic Halacha"?  Halacha means "to walk" and Messianic means "follower of Messiah".  I realize that orthodox Judaism has the market cornered on Halacha.  There are rulings and traditions that go back thousands of years.  I am not negating that entirely.  But, for our Synagogue, our goal is to "walk in the likeness of Messiah Yeshua."  In order to follow a "Messianic Halacha" all Halacha, in fact all we do in life, must be re-examined and re-thought through in light of the Messiah and what He would do.

You may remember a few years ago lots of people were wearing WWJD? (what would Jesus do?) bracelets.  My dad would always answer, "He would go to Synagogue!"  The focus of the WWJD? movement seemed to be on spiritual principals.  How would Jesus love in this situation?  But there is a practical side to the question as well.  What would Yeshua do on Shabbat?  What holidays would Yeshua celebrate?  There are things that He did in his life that we strive to do in our Synagogue.  With the same reasoning that Yeshua used; that it is commanded in Torah.

Whenever we get into this discussion it is important to point out that this is not for everyone.  None of the commandments have to do with salvation.  Not doing specific commandments does not make you lower in God's eyes.  Keeping specific commandments does not make you higher in God's eyes.  For our Synagogue, we want to be a community striving to be like Yeshua in specific ways.  We are made up of Jewish people and Gentile people who are striving together to be like Him!

This will blow your mind: We (humans) were made in God's image (Genesis 1:26).  Then Yeshua came into the world in our image (Philippians 2:7; Romans 8:3).  Then we are told to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). Why? Because we were made in Adam's image and walk in sin like Adam and Yeshua came as the second Adam so we could be like Him!! (Romans 5:15; 1 Corinthians 15:22).  WOW!  That will make you dizzy.  I'm dizzy.

So, we are made in God's image and we marred the image by falling into sin.  God came in our image so that we could be transformed into His image again!  If we want to be like Yeshua we walk in love, patience, kindness and all that good stuff. but it also means we don't take any junk from people who are looking to trip us up for believing what we believe!

When I was 14 my dad led a Tuesday night Bible study.  A Jewish man who did not believe in Yeshua came up to my dad looking to trip him up.  The man asked, "My grandfather was an observant orthodox Jew who kept Torah to the best of his ability.  He never heard the Gospel of Yeshua in his life.  Is he in heaven or hell?"  My dad answered, "God did not make me judge of where people go.  But, I can tell you where you are going because you have heard of Yeshua and what he did for you!"  BAM!  As a 14 year old I thought to myself this is what it must have been like when Yeshua flipped the tables and spoke with such authority that people froze in their tracks.  Even then, at 14, God began a work in me to strive to be like Yeshua.  Why?  because He is God and He came in my image so that I could be transformed into more of His likeness everyday.

I mess up.  I don't always represent Him well.  I say the wrong thing often.  I hurt people.  but, I know that God is doing a work in me to be more like Him.  I will not give up.  I will not turn back.  I want to be more like Him in every part of my life.

how about you?

To me, that is what it means to "walk in the likeness of Messiah Yeshua"!  Stay tuned for the next part of The Purpose of Beit Messiah: "the healing of the world".  Or come and hear it this Shabbat (Directions To Beit Messiah).  Peace and Love!