Shalom and love,

As it says in the deeper meaning of Psalm 118:26 (Hebrew) “Blessed – “(a) conduit (to) power growth, unarrested development is he who comes in the Name of the LORD”. The Name of the LORD in small part in Hebrew means “Be” “Exist”, “cause to exist” and shows us the LORD “Be”, and is active!

 

Shalom “peace”, and “love”, “complete devotion to the other; to you”! Many followers of Yeshua know or have heard the Hebrew term “shalom”, simply translated as “peace”. What we are and this site is about in part and what we wish for and hope to facilitate and be for the World, for the Body of Mashiach (Hebrew for “Messiah” “anointed”, in part) and for you, is the deeper, richer, meaning of “shalom”.

Shalom in part is not “peace” in a vague sense and not just “the absence of negatives”; it is deep, positive peace, restoration of relationship, concern for the well-being of others, not just a super coexistence but a harmony and an organic interaction”.

Part of our “mission – function – purpose” and that of the Jewish People is to be “to – for – benefit” (a) light to the Nations (Isaiah 42:6), to bring shalom in its deepest sense to the World and to you, as we are “all part of the whole”.

“Shalom” is used almost 100 times in the Renewed Covenant Scriptures (“NT” – “New Testament”, in English). Thus we emphasize it.

The website is to provide as comprehensive as possible a source of in-depth Bible teaching for those serious about study of the Word. We desire to facilitate and provide a fresh, innovative, approach to those who have studied the Bible for years, for those who may be new to it, for those seeking and searching, and for those who are just curious.

Love in a sense is shalom’s highest form. Love means in part “complete devotion to the other”. It is found 320 times in the RCS (short for Renewed Covenant Scriptures), mostly as a verb (“agapeo”, an “action” rather than as an idea or concept). Many Christians are familiar with the noun “agape”.

The love of the LORD for us through the Mashiach (“Messiah” in simple English), is that which causes and ignites our “complete devotion to the other” for the World and for you.

Please allow us to make very clear, that while this is especially so for our brethren it is very much for you regardless of who you are or whether you are a follower of Mashiach or not. Cf. Hebrews 12:14.

Our “complete devotion to the other” is for you, to show with the LORD’s help “love in truth, reliable, and work”. (1 Yochanon “John” 3:18). We hope to show you this love by providing an in-depth comprehensive “judgment free” zone for you. This is so you can discover, even more so, the love of the LORD for us. Our hearts’ desire is that you discover the love of the LORD if one has not already. We desire to be a place to “be and do” love, and to learn and increase one’s “complete devotion to the other”. It is particularly, though not exclusively, for the serious Bible student, and seeker of Truth.

Love in Hebrew more deeply means, “to breath after”, “desire for the best for the other, a willingness to give in, a desire to draw the other close”. Thus, our desire to draw all closer to the love of the LORD and to each other.

As one brother put it so well a couple of years ago, “if we would just do what the Torah says – “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, cited by Mashiach in Mark 12:28-34 and Paul in Romans 13:8-10 and Galatians 5:14) – everything else would take care of itself!”

 

How in part do we do this through this website for you?

By opening up the Word of God from the original languages in order to open up its riches, depth, width, Truth, beauty, wisdom, accuracy and authenticity. To open up the essence the “substance” of the Word. To bring it alive and make it real and applicable while searching its unfathomable richness that is only deeply and accurately found in the original languages.

The original languages, when opened up to reveal their deeper meaning than can often times be translated by a single word, especially Hebrew, will thus help to answer many of the questions many people have about God. Is he a Personal LORD?   What about Life? “What is the meaning of life”? “What should I do?”

For those, and we wish to say this very sensitively, who have been made to feel unloved, less than “worthy”, who have self-doubt or have had it “instilled” in them when it should not be, who feel broken or have “questions” — this is a place as it says on the homepage to be “loved”! Our complete devotion is to the other — for you – and for you to learn to do so for others as well.

This is about building and facilitating the maximum of the potential that the LORD gives to each of us!   See also 1 Corinthians 12:11.

Lest we forget, we mentioned Mark 12:28-34 above. There Mashiach illuminates for us what is the first “commandment”. In Hebrew, meaning in part “fulfilling of which leads to fullness of life”.

Mashiach in answering the scribe’s question, cites 3 verses of the Torah. Deuteronomy 6:4, that the LORD (in Hebrew) “Be”… absolute compound oneness, absolute One”, followed by Deuteronomy 6:5 “love the LORD your God…” and the above-mentioned Leviticus 19:18 “…love to – for – benefit like as a model, yourself”.

This is the “essence” of love. That is, that the Cross of the Mashiach makes possible, in short, the love of God for the World and the love of what is known in Hebrew as “shalom between man and his friend”, his fellow man.

As we would say in Hebrew, “with the LORD’s help”, one of the goals of the website is to provide a means for people, especially those who may feel alone or disconnected or are isolated, to feel connected. Even for those who are not alone, to still have a place and a means to feel more and more connected to God in a personal though not Western “individualistic” or “rugged individual” way, and connected to a larger “whole” and connected in love with others.

Also, lest we forget, please allow us to quickly add regarding “shalom”. The Jewish author of the Book of Hebrews writing to his fellow Jewish brothers writes in Hebrews 12:14 “Shalom, pursue, with” in fellowship “all and – in connection – specifically, referring to the holiness, without (which) no one will see the LORD”.

In the original Koine Greek, “shalom” is put first for emphasis. Thus, we rendered “shalom pursue with all”… This with the LORD’s help we will seek to do! This is especially also, for the shalom the Mashiach makes between Jew and Gentile! Cf. Ephesians 2:11-22, verses 14-17. Cf. also Ephesians 2:19-22 for our “organic” connectedness.

Paul uses the Greek word “eirene” for shalom 3 times in Ephesians 2:14-17. This is too often overlooked in examining Ephesians 2 and we bring this out in our extended teaching on the richness of shalom.

Shalom between Jew and Gentile has been in very serious need of repair over the centuries – and still so today. This is especially so between the Jewish and Gentile brethren “in union with the Mashiach”.

To do so, has nothing to do with “theology”, which “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) is not our concern. Our concern, given its weight in the Renewed Covenant and especially by the Mashiach, is to “be and do”. Thus, our emphasis on “be and do” regarding love and shalom between brethren. Why? Part of the meaning of “shalom” is “inner harmony”. So, we work and hope to be used to facilitate, the “inner harmony” of the Body of Mashiach and the “parts of the whole” (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-27).

In short, the website is to provide as comprehensive as possible a source of in-depth Bible teaching for those serious about study of the Word. We desire to facilitate and provide a fresh, innovative, approach to those who have studied the Bible for years, for those who may be new to it, for those seeking and searching, and for those who are just curious.

By doing so we very much also hope to correct incorrect understandings, incorrect teaching, incorrect interpretation, or misapplication. These happen because things are not taken from the original languages or are taken out of or with no context. This especially happens in the case of the Renewed Covenant Scriptures, where a single verse or several verses are pulled out “in isolation” in order to “prove” a Man-made Agenda.

We desire more than we can express, that those who may have, God forbid, walked away from God or from His Word because of Man’s “religion”, see that “religion” is of Man. Relationship – both to the LORD and to each other – is what the Bible is really about!

This relationship, of both God and Man and Man to Man, does have “rules”. Chaos and confusion are not of God either (1 Corinthians 14:33!!). However, those “rules” are expressly designed to facilitate a godly way of life.

These rules were never intended for the Traditions of Man (see Mark 7:5-13) to make the Word of God of no effect, nor to provide Man, especially post-Biblical Western Man, with a means to rule and intimidate with a heavy hand rather than a soft, godly, heart.     If you are wondering based on what you may have come across elsewhere or perhaps stereotypically expect, that “this is” one of those sites, the answer is a resounding no!

In short for here – we teach the very positive Gospel of Yeshua Hamashiach (the original Hebrew name of the one known in the West as “Jesus Christ”) see Acts 26:14-15. We do not teach and preach a “Western negative gospel”.

What do we mean? As we explain throughout our teaching, the very positive Kingdom of God is used in the Gospel 111 times and overall in the RCS 137 times. This compares to 11 uses of “Hell” in the Gospel and 12 overall in the RCS.

As a quick point of “key” information; Paul in fact never uses the word “Hell” – period.

The ratio of Heaven to Hell in the Gospel is literally 10 to 1. In the RCS it is 11.5 to 1. In short, the classic New England sermon “Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God” is due to certain post-Biblical influences, which we do very much explain about in our teaching.

That sermon is not however, the Good News of Yeshua Hamashiach! Yeshua is not “working people away from Hell”; he works them towards the Kingdom of God! See Acts 1:3; Acts 28:31; cf. Mark 1:15.

So, that is our approach also. In short that Good News is truly Good News! It is a “positive message, with negative consequences for not accepting it”, rather than “a negative message with positive consequences”. The Gospel is not about “the avoidance of Hell; it is about the Good News of the Kingdom!

Without delving into “theology”, we see people in a sense not as “half empty and the glass is leaking” but rather as “half full – with the capacity (i.e. potential) to be, to put it Hebraically, “fully full”. This is because this is how Yeshua sees his fellow Galilean Jews.

The Hebrew based approach to the Bible promotes “fully filling” one’s potential in a real, concrete, active, present, continuous process. This approach is the opposite of the post-Biblical Greek based “fixed and static” passive position which settles for the minimum just to get into Heaven!

 

Why settle for the minimum when God wants us to have the maximum and provides and equips us to do so?

In short for here for the time being, Yeshua does not horrifically suffer on the Cross to be “an object of faith” just so that “the individual gets into Heaven”. Heaven too often is seen in vague terms rather than as concretely revealed to us in Revelation 4-5, 19:1-10 and 21-22.

The description of the Mashiach immediately above is we would posit, more of a post-Biblical pagan religious approach than that of Mashiach himself, with his emphasis on the Kingdom (again, 111 references in the Gospel!). In short, the LORD through Yeshua deals with the World and its’ sin in a very positive way rather than seeing Man totally negatively. Cf. Yochanon “John” 3:16, etc. Yeshua teaches and lives out the “acquisition and actualization”, the “creating and action on” the godly and Mashiach-like attributes as revealed by the LORD Himself to Moshe in Exodus 34:6-7. This is fully illuminated by Mashiach in Matthew 5-7, Yochanon (“John”) 13-16, etc., etc.

If you are seeking to learn the Word of God more deeply, to learn of Yeshua more deeply, accurately and more authentically we are here for you. If you have questions, we are here for you. If you need encouraging we most definitely are here for you! We are here for you even if you scoff at all this. We seek to serve him by serving the crown of his Creation – you!

Do you consider yourself an intelligent educated individual? Do you find “pat answers” and “style over substance” or “fluff rather than stuff” unappealing?

So do we! Even if you are a vegetarian our goal is to provide you with something very meaty to “chew on”.

We are here to help you and provide you with tools to help you think for yourself. We are not here to tell you what you must think. Rather, we are here to aid your search and quest by providing real tools and encouragement to do so.

What you choose to do or not to do with what you see and hear is your decision. That what you see here and hear is accurate and authentic and can be substantiated is on us. We know (Jacob not James 3:1 as we explain elsewhere) we will one day have to give an account for what we put forth. That is on us.