By now you’ve probably enjoyed the treasures God left behind in Africa. You’ve seen the lions, the cheetah, the seashore, the sunsets. But there’s another Africa, hidden from the tourist magazines and the Western media. It is the other Africa that will bring me back. It is the Africa of enormous poverty, extreme racial prejudice,…
O Elohim, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have related to us, the work You did in their days, in the days of old. Psalm 44:1 ISR The work You did – I must confess. I can’t hold it in any longer. The current praise and worship music drives me crazy. It sounds…
Before I left for Africa, there was a lot of discussion about the Jewish idea of the yetzer ha’ra and the difference between this concept and the Christian idea of sin and the sinful nature. I recorded three graduate lectures concerning this topic. You can listen to them here. I hope you find them useful…
Perhaps one of the most significant differences between Christian orthodoxy and Jewish rabbinic teaching concerns the idea of sin. These lectures and comments on the Talmudic view of the yetzer ha’ra are offered as a way to open the discussion for those who are concerned about this difference. Lecture 1. Download the Audio Lecture 2….
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18 NASB Neighbor – Proxy Christianity is a wonderful way to avoid the real world. It allows me to simply pay for someone else to share in…
Tradition is a fence for the Torah; tithes are a fence for riches, vows are a fence for abstinence; a fence for wisdom – silence. Rabbi Akiva, Pirke Avot 3:17B Fence for riches – Rabbi Akiva was one of the most famous and most adored of all the ancient rabbis. His martyrdom at the hands…
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16 NASB To the Jew first – Paul was not ashamed, but don’t cut his sentence short. He was not ashamed of the good…
