Why Churches ask for tithes but ignore the feasts — Picking and Choosing? (Q&A's)

Hey guys, welcome to another round of Q and A's where I answer some of the questions that you guys have sent in. Today is going to be a really exciting and interesting and diverse one because we're going to be talking about everything from clean and unclean, according to Leviticus, forgiving yourself the Sabbath and can we cook on the Sabbath? Is Christianity picking and choosing commandments and, and mental illness as well. So as you can hear, a lot going on, a lot to go through, my name is pd I don't know everything, but here tonight we're going to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us in our conversations. And so I'd love for you to be a part of this. Go into the comments, tell me what you're thinking about some of the things we're discussing here tonight. All right, so what we're going to be discussing is a few things. Number one, are women during their time of the month to be put outside the camp due to their uncleanness? How do we keep the strange sounding commandment today? And then regarding forgiving yourself, how do I forgive myself my past actions that I am ashamed of? Another one that's been sent in is regarding the Sabbath and it is, is the day of preparation commanded? Is cooking allowed on the Sabbath? Regarding picking and choosing, are churches picking and choosing when they call obedience to tithing but not other laws in the Bible such as the biblical feasts? And then regarding fighting mental illness, how do I fight mental illness such as anxiety, OCD or others? As a believer, is there a connection to demons? All right, guys, let's dive right into this first one. And this is regarding clean and unclean. And this is sent in by Amanda from Bethany, Oklahoma. Amanda, thanks for sending this in. And Amanda's asking, are women supposed to be put outside the camp still when they're on their periods? Should men sleep in separate beds, use different rooms, and not handle any of the women's clothes? Why? And then she goes on and asks, why was it unclean when women were on their period? Is all blood unclean no matter where it comes from? Why was this such a big deal? For those who want to continue following God's commandments after Jesus has done all that he has, how do we follow the separation while menstruation? All right, this is a really good question, you know, really interesting. I think we can totally see where this can come from. Reading the book of Leviticus, God is coming and giving various Instructions in Leviticus 12 through 15 to Israel about how to separate under certain circumstances. Right. And whether it's leprosy, whether it's mold that's in a house, how to deal with that, bodily discharges. And as Amanda is now asking the women's menstrual cycle, you know, we are dealing with unclean things, right, According to the Scriptures. And. And I think, first of all, we have to define what does that mean, because depending on the context of what we're reading, unclean can have different meanings. It could mean unclean as it pertains to the temple, the temple elements, and the temple sacrifices. As it was right in the wilderness with Israel, or when they had the second temple. There's this movie moment where God is coming and saying, you can't come and appear before me bringing an offering just casually. God is saying, no, I want you to take note of certain things. So that's the one thing in approaching the temple. You can be unclean and not be qualified to approach the temple, but you can also be unclean in sin. In other words, you can have sin being, committing sin, and that can also be called unclean. So being unclean ritually, as it pertains to approaching the temple does not necessarily mean you're in sin. It would only become sin when you approach the temple in an unclean state, such as making an offering when there was a temple. So we have to figure out what type of uncleanness are we dealing with. And the Scriptures, when we read it in context, not a verse in isolation, but in its proper context, read that chapter, read the next chapter, read the chapter before it, and then we'll figure out what is God actually saying about this specific thing that he's talking about. Right? So that's what we're going to do right now. We're going to look first in Leviticus 12, 4. We're going to start there. And we see that God is talking here first about one of these moments that can bring an uncleanness. And this is about birthing a male child. And it says, then she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. Now, I want you to see this specifically mentioned that what does it mean when she is in the blood of her purifying? It is that she may not touch anything holy or come into the sanctuary. Okay, so specifically talking about the temple. Specifically talking about the temple elements which are holy, Right? So that's what we're seeing here in the beginning of Leviticus 12. And now we're going to move on. And if we go to Leviticus 15, God is continuing talking about the temple. And you'll see here he says he's talking now about menstrual impurity or blood, anything of that nature. And he's saying this is what Amanda was referring to. Every bed on which the woman lies, all the days of her discharge, she shall be to her as the bed of her impurity, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. Here we have that word unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. And whoever touches these things shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until evening. Okay, so now we are continuing this discussion, and it is still in relation to the approaching of the temple, the Levitical temple. And we know this because that's what he says. He says here just a few verses later, verse 31, Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling the tabernacle that's in their midst. So that's why. That's the reason that he just gave the instruction regarding uncleanness. He did. So they don't die when they come to the tabernacle in an unclean state, defile it or its holy elements. And that would become a sin, right? That would become. But it's not a sin for a woman to be in her menstrual cycle, all right? It becomes a sin when you disobey God and approach the tabernacle in such a state. And so, you know, I think this is very important because let's just draw contrast here. Let's go to Leviticus 18. This is not going to be we're going to, you know, we're a few chapters later now. And now God is going to talk about uncleanness as well, but he's going to speak about uncleanness in a different context. As you'll see, it says in verse 19, you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife, and so make yourself unclean with her. See, this is also now cold being unclean. But then he says in verse 30, if we look at this context here, so keep on charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourself unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. So now we're Seeing something different. We're seeing a never. You're never allowed to lie sexually with your neighbor's wife. You're never allowed to uncover a woman's nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. Never. And these are called abominable customs that are practiced by the pagans. And these are blanket prohibitions. Look, notice that he's not mentioning, you know, just in relation to approaching the temple. I don't want you to be doing these things right before you do that. No, no, no. You will never lie with your neighbor's wife. You will never uncover a woman's nakedness while she's bleeding. These are blanket prohibitions. Not in relationship to the temple or approaching the temple. I mean, think about it. You can't command a woman to stop bleeding, right? Because that's a part of nature. That's part of how God has made. That's part of the fool, right? The fool introduced labor difficulty regarding children, and that's part of that. And so this suffering and this bleeding that women go through is a part of the fall of man and the curse that came in, in the garden. And so now that's not a sin. That's something that women experience. And there are other things that we quickly discussed in a similar light that, that just happen. That's in this life. Leprosy is a sickness. It's a disease. It happens. It's a consequence of the fall. And you are not sinning by having a sickness. It's happened to you. Right? And it can only become a sin when you don't follow what God has said on how to deal with these things. Right? So in regarding the temple, right? So that's what this is all about, guys, I hope this makes sense. You know, I think there are people who have tried to take this instruction that pertains specifically according to the Father to the temple and they've tried to apply to their entire life and said, well, look, my wife is not allowed to touch me or anything in the house because she is during that time of the month because she's going to make all of us unclean. Oh, no, no. Well, I think that's not appropriate. You can get on, become unclean by just by having blood. Like if you cut yourself and you're bleeding, you are now unclean because blood, a bodily discharge has come out of you, right? There are things that men go through that also is bodily discharges that causes that man to become unclean. That can also just happen outside of their control. So ultimately, like we're not talking about sin. We're talking about situations in this life. Okay? And if we want to tell the women that she can't touch anyone or anything when she's during that monthly time, then we should definitely be applying that to everyone. Whenever anything happens that causes them to become unclean. And that happens just about almost daily. Right? So let's be careful. This is not pertaining to the temple of the Holy Spirit. This pertains to the Levitical temple specifically. That's specifically what's being spoken. Spoken about in the book of Leviticus. Okay? So, you know, I think people have tried to spiritualize this. They take it too far and they say, oh, well, now I can't pray to God because, you know, this whatever uncleanness has come upon me. And so now I have to wait until evening, wash myself. Then I can become the temple of the Holy Spirit again and participate in activities of the temple of the Holy Spirit again. No, that's missing the point. Leviticus is speaking about the Levitical priesthood and Levitical temple. Okay, so hope this makes sense. Amanda, thank you for sending this in. It's very applicable even to this Torah portion. I know that we're in right now. Okay, next question is from tj and he's coming from. He's sending this in from Texas, and he's asking regarding how to forgive yourself. All right, tj, thank you. And he's saying, shalom pd. One of your videos helped me to realize that I was harboring some resentment towards a few people and I needed to get to the bottom of it. While praying this morning, I asked y' all would help me make sure that I had forgiven everyone that I needed to and explained that I was feeling some bitterness, but I wasn't sure why I was feeling this way. Then I heard the Lord say rejection, and I knew immediately what he meant. Because I've been rejected by a lot of people in my 50 plus years, including my own mom, three of my six children, and my in laws. So when I heard the word rejection, I immediately understood where the bitterness was coming from. That I've been rejecting myself, that I've never truly forgiven myself of all the things that I'm ashamed of. So my question is, how do you forgive yourself? I know that scripture says I'm forgiven because I've confessed and repented of my sins, but how do I let go of the sins of my past and the bitterness of rejection towards myself? Well, tj, thank you. There is a lot of people who are going to connect with this, you know, I want to say that I'm sorry that you have been going through that. You know, the enemy, he desires. If you look at the garden and with Adam and Eve, right, they ate, they made, they sinned, legitimately made a mistake, and there was consequences and all of that. But there's also something that happened in the garden that can easily be overlooked. And that is what this sin did to them. Even before God walked into the room, before he walked into the midst of them in the garden, something else occurred. Shame came upon them. So much so that they went to hide away from God in the bushes. So when he walked in their midst, asking, where are you? Why are you hiding? There's already another voice that came in that was not the Father's voice, a voice that came in before the Father's voice that told them that they are not. They need to hide away from the Father's presence. And that voice was Satan. See, Satan didn't just say, eat of this. When they did eat thereafter, the voice of shame, of Satan came and said, God will forever now condemn you, reject you, cast you off. You are dead men walking. But that was not the truth as evidenced by what God did thereafter. In the plan of salvation, he established the fact that we're here today. The truth was that God was coming to walk and call their name because he wanted restoration. And he put a plan of restoration in motion. And so we have to be careful of the voice of shame. That is a lie that falsely condemns us. See, when you, T.J. you mentioned that you have repented towards God and that you have changed your ways. And now you're still living in the past, actions that you've committed with the resentment towards yourself, unforgiveness towards yourself, speaking loudly in your soul. Still, I want you to. I want to turn to 1 John 3:19. And it says this. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, this is what we're talking about. When our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. And he knows that everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. So he's saying, look, there's a danger when your heart condemns you, your confidence before God becomes compromised. And it is signaling something that we have not fully believed and taken to our heart, that God has come and forgiven us, that he is greater than our heart. He knows everything. He sees everything, from the beginning to the end. And he proclaims something. What does he proclaim? Over us when we come to him and we say, God, I have sinned. It says that in 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the truth of what happens when we confess our sins. And if we do not believe what I just read, that he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. If we do not believe that, then we will live in light of that never happening. We will live in condemnation, we will live in unforgiveness towards people or ourselves or God. However it goes, because we have not fully taken to heart and believed that God has fully forgiven us. I know we can intellectually say this, and this is what the struggle is. We can intellectually say, oh, God has forgiven me, but our heart still condemns us because it has not reached our heart. And this is what the struggle is that we will, many of us, all of us will face in different times is that we have a mind, we have a will, we have emotions, we have a body, we have a soul and a spirit. And if this is not all immersed in the truth of God, what I just read, then one aspect or another can get out of sync and still condemn us. You can in your mind know the scriptures and say, oh yeah, God says he forgives me, but my emotions can lag behind. My heart can still condemn me and. And because I still feel the shame that Satan has placed upon me. This is a spiritual situation, a situation where Satan has put shame upon my heart. I feel disconnected from God like Adam and Eve were. And now I start to live in light of that, my whole life. And that will lead me to live my life in a way that is not as prosperous spiritually as God has called me to be. Because I'm living in a lie. And if I do not recognize this is a lie, and if I do not teach my body, soul and spirit that this is a lie, then they, my body, soul and spirit will lack behind. See, we must renew our minds. We must, in other words, meditate on the truth of God's word. Pray, we must cast off and say this. Satan the accuser has come and he has placed a lie upon me regarding my actions, my sins of the past that I have confessed and I am actually now forgiven of God has sent his son to restore all things to me that were lost. And I will no longer live in the guilt and the shame that he has set me free from. If God has forgiven me, what right do I have to not forgive myself. That's the question. You have no right to not have complete forgiveness of your own actions. If the God of the universe has forgiven you. Do not take. Do not think that you have the right to do that, because you don't. You must come and say, God, you've forgiven me. And so because of that, because you've sent your son and died for me, I will now forgive myself. I will intend, with intentionality, study the word of God. And here's what's also needed a lot of times is discipleship. Sometimes we can read all of this, but we really need to be in discipleship with someone who can walk us through these things and show us when you did this, this or that in your past. You need to now recognize that should no longer hold. Have a hold on you because you've been set free. That's what I'm doing with you right now. I'm discipling you in this manner. But it can always help to have someone close by you who can really walk with you through the past, things that happened and explain to your body, your soul, your mind, your spirit why these things should no longer have a hold on you. Okay, T.J. thank you for opening up, being vulnerable with me and sharing with me some of what you've been going through in your life. You said you know this has been going on. You felt so much rejection from others. And I think that that may also be playing a part here where the spirit of rejection has told you you're not worthy of God's love. You're not worthy of God's forgiveness. You're rejected by God because men have rejected you. So you feel that rejection deep in your soul. From a young age, perhaps even. Maybe even from childhood. That spirit of rejection has light upon your heart. And right now, I want to speak to anyone who struggle with the spirit of rejection. And I'm going to cause a spirit of rejection off of you. And I want you to really go and renew your mind before God and say, lord, pray about this and ask the Lord, write it out. Write out what happened and give these traumas and these experiences to God so he can work in your heart. And so, Father, I pray right now for anyone struggling with the spirit of rejection. Anyone who's been told they're not good enough, who are rejected by a parent or a sibling or a child or anyone else, an employer or the world itself. Lord, the world will betray us, reject us, hurt us, but the only voice that matters is yours. And you have said, I go with joy to the cross for you. That's what you did, Lord. You decided out of your own will to accept us fully. And so all rejection and every spirit of rejection, I cast out of anyone right now listening to this. And I proclaim the freedom of the cross over them, that they would fully in their heart receive the acceptance of God, of the Creator, that nothing else matters when our God has accepted us. Father, I thank you, I praise you, I glorify you in the name of Yeshua. Amen. Okay, let's go to the next question. This one is from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. It's asking, and this person is asking regarding the Sabbath. And the question is this, is the preparing on the sixth day for the Sabbath commanded? And if so, what does that look like? And should all meals be prepared ahead? Is cooking not allowed on the Sabbath? All right, this is a good question. And I think we have to take a journey through the Book of Exodus here. What I think doesn't matter. What the Bible says does matter. And when we look at the Book of Exodus, we see we can answer the question. The first question of Is preparing on the sixth day commanded for the sake of the Sabbath day? And we get this principle. In Exodus 16:4, the Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you. This is the manna. And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. And on the sixth day, when they prepared what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to the people of Israel, at evening you shall know that it is the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Okay, so we are seeing here this word prepare. When it comes to the sixth day, the day before the Sabbath, you prepare for the Sabbath so that when you're on the Sabbath, you have enough. And you don't have to go and go out into the wilderness or wherever and pick up all of this food and gather it into your home and your camp. No, you make sure. So you make sure you do it on the sixth day and not on the seventh day, not on the Sabbath itself. That's what he's saying here. And so I want to submit to you that this principle, which here in this case, it was regarding the manna. But in the New Testament, in John 19, we're seeing the same thing regarding the burial of Christ's body himself. So his own disciples, his own closest family and friends are applying this regarding his body. And we're seeing now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden a new tomb in which no one had been laid. So because of the day of preparation. Let me see it again. Since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. So they didn't do this on the Sabbath. But this was such a holy moment. I mean, the burial. Think about this. This is the burial of the most important person that's ever lived. And they're still taking care to not profane the Sabbath. And they're putting him in the tomb before the Sabbath day comes. They're doing it on the day of preparation. It mattered to them. It mattered profoundly. Yeshua walked in their midst, taught them about the Sabbath, many things, and they, at the end of his life, still upheld this commandment on honoring this holy day. I mean, they could have been like, oh, you know what? The Sabbath, it doesn't matter anymore. Jesus died. He is the Sabbath day. And the actual physical day doesn't matter anymore. No, they basically made sure to finish everything that needed to be done to prepare his tomb and body so that he can be put in on the day of preparation before the Sabbath came. So keeping the Sabbath is by nature impossible without preparation. That's actually what the commandment is, right? The commandment is don't work on the seventh day. Now, you can't not work on the seventh day unless you've prepared for that. If you didn't prepare your house with adequate food on the days, the six days, then you won't have food to eat on the seventh day. You have to maybe even speak to your employer and say, hey, that seventh day of the week, I can't work on that day. So you have to prepare with your employer so that they can work with you, so that you can actually take off and keep the Sabbath day holy. Preparation is part of the Sabbath. And so now the question has also been, what about specifically cooking on the Sabbath? And this has also been sent in by a person am from Albany. Follow up question. Does the Torah specifically forbid the cooking of food on the Sabbath? My interpretation has been to work for money or heavy work, that is what's forbidden. But to work to sustain life, such as cooking, livestock care, medical care would be okay. Someone told me that cooking is forbidden. And I think because the Torah says no kindling, fire, that's why they said it. I'm also wondering about the kindling of the fire in my region. If our fire goes out during the Sabbath, and we do not kindle a new one. We would freeze to death four months out of the year. Okay, good questions here. So let's explore this a bit further. When we're talking about cooking, specifically, Exodus 16:23 is going to talk about that. And this is also in relation to the manna verse, as we just read earlier. And. And we're reading here. He said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will, bake and boil what you will boil. And all that is left over lay aside until the morning. And so they laid it aside till the morning, and it did not stink. There were no worms in it. This is their food. God was preserving it. Okay, so we're seeing a principle here of, yeah, bake what you will, bake and boil what you will boil before the Sabbath, before the day of solemn rest. So we are getting this principle absolutely in the Exodus, because, you know, we have to ask why Work is what the. You know, and if you read the Ten Commandments, what is specifically commanded regarding the Sabbath day is do not labor. Do not make your servants or anyone else labor. That's how you keep the Sabbath in its most basic form. And work being forbidden by nature means that cooking can become forbidden. Because cooking can be a lot of work. If you have a house full of kids and you need to prepare a meal for them, any mom will tell you, that's work. And so if you now even go further and you look at the ancient world, in the ancient world, it was even more work because I did not have a stove where they just turn on the stove and they have electricity and the stove is warming up. And, you know, I mean, cooking today is much easier than in thousands of years ago, like when we're talking about the Exodus and even in the first century. And so that's where we're now coming into the need for fire. Because you needed to kindle a fire to cook, and that was a lot of work to kindle a fire. And to keep a fire going, if you think about it, you need to be collecting the tinder. You need to be maintaining your toolkits that are for starting the fire, which they didn't have lighters, guys. They didn't have a lighter fluid. They had to have toolkits that they had to prepare out of the wilderness itself. And maintain this required consistent, daily effort to keep that fire going. Especially when you're thinking about morning and night and all through the day. And you need to have that fire going to keep you warm so you don't die. So cooking was way more than turning on a switch for your gas or electric stove or your gas fireplace for that matter, or your. Or your H Vac in your house that we have today where you don't even have to think about it. It's just warming your house. You just tell it what temperature you want and you've got that. Okay. So we're talking about a different. A world that's very different from today, where work and hard labor involved was surrounding the kindling and the maintaining of a fire as well. So we are seeing now that even today, absolutely, cooking can become, can become hard work. And if it is hard, if it's, you know, if it's, if we're talking about hard work of any nature, we need to be doing that on the day before. We need to prepare as much as possible for the Sabbath day itself. And then on the other hand, just to balance things out a bit, if we're looking at, we have to look at Yeshua's words, because a lot of people in the first century were, as today even happening, were taking what the Sabbath is and they turn it into a burden. And that now in of itself is missing the point. Okay. To keep the Sabbath biblically is not a burden, it's a delight. But if you start keeping the Sabbath according to the traditions and laws of man, it can become a burden. Such as lot happening in Orthodox Judaism today. Man, the Sabbath can just be such a burden. So there is a burden to keep God's law, but that burden is light. And if we try and keep the laws of men, we will have a heavy burden. This is why Yeshua said in Matthew 11:28, Come to me, all who are labor and who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My yoke, take it, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. So there is a yoke, and there is a burden to follow. Yeshua, we all know that it's not easy always, but it's easy compared to this world. So when he says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. There is a yoke, there is a burden, but it's easy and light. Okay, I hope that makes sense. I know I said that it's not always easy to follow Yeshua. I'm just referring to, in general, there's going to be trials and difficulty, but when we're talking about the world in comparison, it's so easy. And that's what Yeshua is doing. He's saying, my yoke is easy, but the world that's got a heavy, heavy burden. And that's going to put you under heavy laden. All right, so that's what we're seeing here. Now, I want you to also notice mark 2. 27. Yeshua talks about the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, you know, principle there is we should always understand the Sabbath is there to bless us, not to curse us. And then we also have yeshua in Matthew 12, talking to the Pharisees, if you have a sheep falling into the pit on the Sabbath, will you not help it out? How much more have than a sheep? And so it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath. So when you're doing good, you're not breaking the Sabbath. It's always. He's basically saying it's not always going to be possible to prepare for the emergencies and situations in life. Like someone who, an animal or a person who gets in trouble falls into a pit or in whichever way, there's going to be situations that causes us to have to do things that we would not ordinarily do on the Sabbath that may be considered labor because the situation calls for it. You can't really pick the day that something goes wrong and a calf falls into a pit. It just happens, unfortunately. And so you can't help it when someone gets a heart attack on what day that happens, or when your enemy pronounces war on your country. You can't prevent chaos in this world and just say, no chaos is allowed in my life on the Sabbath. And so when we're talking about emergencies or emergency work to sustain life, such as livestock care, such as medical care, and even cooking under certain circumstances, then you know, those things are permitted on the Sabbath. Because if, you know, if you're in a situation where you were unable to prepare for the Sabbath because something life happened and it was out of your control, then absolutely, it's okay to do that on the Sabbath then in order to not let your family starve. Right. We see AM mentioned in my region. If my fire goes out and we don't kindle a new one, we're going to freeze the death in four months. So that's one of those examples. We're back to this point of it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath while at the same time honoring preparation as much as we possibly can. So when, you know, the fire goes out, despite our preparations to not let it Go out. Surely we would need to get it going again, even if that means doing it on the Sabbath so that our family doesn't die from cold. And so to just answer this question now, should all cooking be prepared ahead? Well, when something becomes work, absolutely. And on the other hand, if you think about the nature of things, you know, taking a walk outside with your family on, you know, with pleasure around the block and having a nice discussion, your kids maybe being on their bikes, you know, that's pleasure, that's calm, that's family bonding, that's fellowship, that can be good. But if I ran a marathon, right, That's a totally different thing now. And that which was walking before now suddenly becomes laborious. Dancing can become a fun activity with your family. You know, your kids may like to dance and you know, maybe they're dancing on the Sabbath unto the Lord, right? Hallelujah. But dancing can also be an occupation at, as a work, as a job that someone does. And now that's labor and that's work. So the context of why we do things does matter. And the nature of it is more than on the surface. You know, Orthodox Judaism kind of discards that notion sometimes where, you know, they will say that any cooking, any walking, picking anything up or turning even a light switch on, that's too laborious, that's work, and that's prohibited on the Sabbath. But I think when we go that far, then the Sabbath gets turned into a burden in of itself. And so my personal conviction is that I would not do any significant meal preparation on the seventh day. I would do it on the sixth day in preparation so that the Sabbath day can be simple, peaceful, and so there's no work labor involved without that pursuit of peace becoming a labor in of itself. You know what I mean? Like, if something goes wrong or just like life happened, I'm not going to feel condemned, feel ashamed or anything because life happened. And now I have to cook because my kids are hungry. And I literally, I was unable to because something occurred on the sixth day that prevented me from doing my preparations in the ways that I wanted. So, you know, what if, let's take this, let's do another like hypothetical. What if making muffins with your kids is an incredibly fun activity and that your five year old's been asking you to do that. And you know, this is something that you guys are just doing for pleasure. And in the same way that dancing is something that you do for pleasure, you know, you're moving your body around, but you're doing it not out of work in a laborious manner or going around the block. Right. I think the principles of God that we see in the scriptures do not prevent any of these things, but it will also be a personal conviction that you guys need to follow and let the Holy Spirit guide you. I'm not here on here tonight to say yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, in every situation, because I think that there are, every family is going to be different to a certain extent and there are going to be lines, but there are also going to be areas that are going to be up to the family and their situation on that very day that they are facing. Okay, hope that makes sense. Please go check out my video, how to Practically Keep the Sabbath, where I go through, like much more scripture to discuss why I'm saying some of the things I've been saying in this video about the Sabbath. You know, there's a lot more we can go through to back this up that I don't have time for right now. But in that video, I do go through all of Yeshua's principles about the Sabbath and the commandment itself and the Torah. And then we build and we see how we can practically implement those principles in our life. So that video is called how to Practically Keep the Sabbath. Check it out on the horizonfar channel. Okay, hope that helps you. Thank you so much for sending that one. And next question is regarding our churches picking and choosing. And this question is sent in from Michelle from Los Angeles. And Michelle, why do most Christian churches say we don't have to keep the law, feasts or Sabbath anymore? Because it's Old Covenant. And now we have the New Covenant. But they still somehow want to claim that tithing is mandatory from the Old Covenant. How do they excuse this blatant abuse of scripture to pick and choose what they think is acceptable? Michelle, thank you for sending this and I appreciate it. So I first I want to say I can totally see how it can seem like some believers are picking and choosing certain commandments over others. And you know, maybe in this case, when it comes to tithing, it can seem like, well, you know, that one is still preached because there are motives that are not pure involved. You know, I think it can be easy for us to, to wonder about that. I want you to understand that I think this is more complicated than we can just see on the surface sometimes. Look, I can't speak for every believer, every church, every Christian, but I think that we can see a historical pattern and historical reasons for why we are in the situation we are today. So if you Think about most people today who are believers. They are believers because of a lot of tradition. Their family were believers, their ancestors were believers, and now they're believers. And that's a good thing, that there is a generational teaching of this is what God wants us to do, to teach our children of his faithfulness. And with that, though, with that teaching of the faith comes the teaching of traditions. And. And so some of those traditions are good and some of them are not good, and some of those theologies are good, some of them are not good. And most people are just living out what they've been taught. And I think that we should have compassion on that, just as we, many of us, we've lived out what we've been taught and we discovered new things as we grew in our faith, and we will still discover things in our futures that we are wrong in that we thought we had right because we believed something we were taught. But actually, biblically, that may not be correct. That's going to be all of us still in the future. So let's have compassion first of all, as we desire that compassion from our God. Because I'm going to stand before him one day and I'm sure there's going to be something still that's not been worked out. And I want his grace. So I'm going to extend that grace to everyone else. That's very important. I think that most faithful believers, Christians, churches who have a heart for God, truly. Right. I believe that they actually do follow the law of God in general. You know, most of them are believing that they shouldn't murder, that they shouldn't steal or lie. They should honor their father and mother and love their neighbors, their self. These are laws. Okay, this is from the Torah. They follow these laws. They follow most of the Ten Commandments. Absolutely. Depending on the believer itself you're talking about. And usually we take issue with them on something we see, they don't see yet. And so when we're talking about tithing specifically, tithing is not an outlier of commandments that they keep. They keep many of the Ten Commandments. But I see where the question comes from. It can seem like tithing is from his old covenant, but I think that the law of God is new covenant. That's what he says. The new Covenant is Jeremiah 31. 31. The new covenant is that God will come and do something with his law. It's all about the law. He will write his law on our heart. He will change our nature. The Holy Spirit will empower us. That's what the New Covenant is. Okay, so Old Covenant, New Covenant, the law of God is the law of God. It's just written in a different place. It's now written in our nature when we become new creatures born new, born again by the Holy Spirit. Okay, so what's this history I've been talking about? I'm going to try and go quick guys, because there's a bit to go through here, so bear with me and I'm going to give you a video to watch if you need more on this. But we need to understand that historically there's been a lot of persecution of Jewish people specifically and their customs have always been used as markers to identify them. A Jewish person has been identified by pagans because of their Jewish customs, by the things they do that make them seem Jewish. Right. And so in the early, when we look at the early church early form of followers of Christ, they were seen as a sect within Judaism because they were followers of this Jewish Messiah who followed and proclaimed the Torah, the book of the Jewish people, the God of the Jewish people, the law of the Jewish people. This is how it was seen in the first century by everyone, including the Romans. And so when the. I'm going to read to you when we're looking at Now Roman society 123 AD around there and we're with the Bar Kokhba revolt. We're seeing. I'm going to read, let me read this. This is going to be from the Encyclopedia Judaica Bar Kochba, the Kedar publishing house in Jerusalem. And we're seeing this following the battle of Bethar where 580,000 Jews perished in the war and many died of hunger and disease. The Romans plowed Jerusalem with a yoke of oxen. Jews were sold into slavery and many were transported to Egypt. Judean settlements were not rebuilt. Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews were forbidden to live there. They were permitted to enter only on the 9th of to mourn their losses in the revolt. And Hadrian changed the country's name from Judea to Syria Palestina. And in the years following the revolt, Hadrian discriminated against all Judean Christian sects. But the worst persecution was directed against religious Jews. He made anti religious decrees forbidding Torah study, Sabbath observance, Jewish courts, meeting in synagogues and other ritual Jewish practices. So this is very important. The reason I'm saying this is because they targeted practices that seemed ritual Jewish, which are commandments of God, like for example, going to this to keep the Sabbath or to eat clean, or to keep the feast days, to read the Torah or to go to the Sabbath, a fellowship on the Sabbath, right? So these are like axes on the back of Jewish people in Roman society during 123 AD and throughout history, by the way, by pagans. And so they received a greater persecution and ultimately barred from Jerusalem along with these Jewish people because they were keeping the same customs. But then Christians started separating themselves more from Jewish people because they wanted to enjoy more freedom than the Jewish people were afforded. And so they changed their appearances. And many of the things that made Jewish people seem Jewish, they stopped doing so that they were allowed to stay in Jerusalem. So they were allowed to have freedom and not be so persecuted. And so we see this for example, with the Fiscus Judaicus, that's the Jewish temple tax that was changed to the Roman tax that Emperor Vasbian did in the early 70s. So then, you know, instead of the two drachma half shackle being given to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, rather after that temple was destroyed, we see that they are now saying, hey, you need to still pay that tax. And the Romans are saying, you just need to still pay that tax to Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. In other words, you need to do it to a different pagan temple now. And this tax was imposed upon Orthodox Jewish people, also Jewish Christians and then Gentile Christians. In other words, people who lived a life that seemed to to be following this Jewish Messiah. That means they were doing things that seemed Jewish. And then later the same thing happened. I'm gonna read this just quickly from Burgle. Jonathan. I'm gonna put these sources in the description of the video. He wrote in the Jewish Christians and the Jewish text that the Fiscus Judaicus was originally imposed upon Jews. At the time, neither Romans nor early Christians considered Christianity to be a separate religion from Judaism, which historians refer to as Jewish Christianity. However, whether that was the intention, it did not take long for Christians to petition the Emperor to distinguish the Christians from the purpose of the payment of the Fiscal Judaicus. And the tax only applied to practicing Jews. If they could be recognized as a separate religion, they would escape the impost. So that's what they did. Some of these Christians started abandoning the Sabbath day, the biblical feast days, diet, wearing Tzitzit, meeting in synagogues, all these things that were very outwardly appearance, outwardly seeming to be Jewish customs so that they can say, oh no, we're actually a separate religion from the Jewish people, so don't give us this tax. We don't want to have to pay this tax as well. Okay? So they were afforded more freedoms, less persecution, and so on. And so I have way more on this. There's a lot in here that we can talk about, but please go look at my video. The Forgotten Story of the Early Church. If you watch that, I go through all of these, I give you more citations, and you'll see how the history unfolded with why we sit with what we sit today, with these certain customs that seem Jewish even today. Right? You ask someone about the Sabbath, they say, oh, that's a Jewish thing. Oh, the feast days, that's a Jewish thing. That's a Jewish thing. It's because of this attempt to separate from what seems Jewish, because of the hostility the world has given the Jewish people even today. By the way, just look at World War II. It was all about persecuting and killing Jewish people. That was what the world was warring over. Okay? This is a modern phenomena. Just. It was a phenomena in AD 72. All right, cool. Hope that answers that complicated history. There's even more to what than I just said. And for that reason, we have to have grace on people who do not understand any of what I just said. And so they just live out what they've been taught. And it's not necessarily about what the Bible says. It's more about how people have been pressed to make certain decisions that have separated them from biblical commandments. Okay, next question. And the last question for the night is regarding fighting mental illness. And this has been sent in from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. And from Berkeley. The question is regarding OCD and anxiety. Hi, Petey. Thank you. Can you talk about obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety and how a believer can battle them? Can a believer be possessed or are they oppressed instead by demons? How can they tell the difference? How can Christ renew their mind like in Romans 12:2? How do they hold their thoughts captive in Christ if medication is not an option due to adverse side effects? What can they do to live out the assignment Yeshua has given them? I don't mean just tolerating the conditions, but living out the life that Yeshua has meant for them. How can they still do what the Lord is asking them to do for the Kingdom? Can you recommend a Torah Observant deliverance Ministry? Thank you for your help. All right. Thank you so much for sending that in. I want to first say, I'm so sorry about what you've been going through. If you're struggling with ocd, anxiety. Oh, that's these things can really put our life. It can make us feel like our life has fallen off the tracks and that we're not on the tracks anymore of God's will. And we can't do God's will and we can't fulfill God's purposes in our life. We can feel like a failure. We can feel like we have failed men and God and our family. And we can feel disconnected from God himself because of this. And that's what I sense here a little bit, you know, the shame. I'm not saying there is shame necessarily in this person, but shame can easily come in as well. Just feeling inferior, not good enough. So I just want to say I'm so sorry for if you've suffered any of these. And, you know, I can totally see how that can cause great. I know that causes great suffering. So first of all, let's just talk about possession and oppression. That was one of the first things asked, you know, like, do I have a demon? And that's a big thing people are asking. I just want to quickly answer this if I can. I'm gonna try. This is gonna be a difficult one to answer in a short space of time, so I'm gonna try. But maybe we'll make a video about this. But I'll just give you a very surface level one first. And then I hope that you can just bear with me even if you don't agree, and then maybe we can talk about this more later. But for now, let's look at this. Let's just clear some confusion of terms. I'm going to read this here because we see this word used regarding demons. So his fame spread all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, and those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics. And he healed them. Okay, he healed them. Or God, he wants to heal. That's who he is. But I want you to notice this word oppressed by demons. So a lot of us, we are of this idea that there's demon oppression and their demon possession. And I don't blame anyone for thinking that, because if I were just. Right now we're in the ESV right here. That's why we see oppressed. Let's jump to the King James, okay? And now we're seeing the word possessed. Think about this same verse, Matthew 4:24. King James uses possessed. ESV oppressed. So which is it? I mean, come on, this is interesting, isn't it? This is literally why there's so much confusion about this out there today. I think one of the reasons, at least the Bible translations have translated things differently. So what does the Greek say? So if I get into the Greek here, possessed by devils. Possessed with devils. It's the word daemonizomai. And it's a word that means to be exorcised by a demon. And it's the word in English for demonization. Now, I want you to know this because when we're looking at oppressed by demons, as the text here says, or as the King James does it, possessed with devils, it's the same word, demonized. And this is the word that is used throughout scripture consistently. The Bible isn't making distinction between possessed and oppressed as people do and as the translators have done here. No, it just uses demonized every time. Demonized. Because demonization simply means that a demon has influenced a person, it has exercised in some form, some degree a person. And this is the thing, guys, is that I think we can all agree that there are degrees of this. If you look at Matthew 16:23, Jesus turns around, tells Satan, sorry, tells Peter, get behind me, Satan. Okay, so Peter, in that moment when he was telling Yeshua, oh, no, don't go and get crucified. Yeshua pointed out that Satan, which is a spiritual statement, a spiritual. The adversary is what Satan means, right? The adversary. It's not just anything. It's not just an adversary, but the adversary. And Satan is a spiritual term. Yeshua is using that on Peter because we know that Satan, just like in the wilderness, was trying to get Yeshua to not die for the world. He was trying to get Yeshua to bow down to him. And so Yeshua is identifying that Satan had operated to some extent in Peter's life in this moment in time. We see the same with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, 3, 1, where Peter actually says to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart for you to lie to the Holy Spirit? Same thing Yeshua told Peter. Now Peter is telling Ananias, see, Peter, he came along. God worked on him. God showed him, God delivered him. And now he's seeing that Satan has filled our heart of angels. Ananias and Sapphira, and they lied to God. But they were believers. Peter was a believer. Ananias Sapphira were believers. By the way, they were in the camp of believers. In Acts, Peter was a disciple of Christ himself. What about King Saul? 1 Samuel 16:14. We can read about how a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul and he raved within his house while David was playing the lar. And as he did by day, day by day. And Saul had a spear in his hand and he tried to kill David. So a harmful spirit, an unclean spirit, came upon Saul there. Saul was King Saul. Saul was. If you read his. His life. He was a believer before he went the way he went. So we're dealing with three different kinds of believers being influenced by an unclean spirit to some extent, some more than others. Maybe it's just something that was said in the moment. Maybe it's something that was done. Maybe it was something big. Okay? And so we're seeing different levels of demonization. And that's true. That's a lie that's happening today in people all around. It's happened in many of us, in many moments even. And, you know, I think that what's happened is we have in the west. No idea, for the most part, about. Let me say it like this. Okay, Let me backtrack a bit there, because I think it's unfair to say no idea. I'm generalizing a lot when I speak of the Western church now, and I don't want to do that too much. Right. But for the most part, I'll say that casting on demons is not happening in Western American churches. In South Africa, where I'm from, it was way more prevalent in my experience because people are way more open to spiritual things and seeking that kind of help. There's also more witchcraft in South Africa than in America. There's for various reasons I'm not going to get into right now. And I think there's a lot of demonization in America and in South Africa and in other countries. Right. Don't get me wrong here. But I think that we put it. We make it very clean. We medicate here in the West. We. We have different solutions. In Africa, you would seek spiritual assistance for spiritual problems more easily. In America, you will more easily seek, go to a doctor to get medicated for spiritual problems. But at the same time, not everything is a demon. And this is the problem. Also on the other end of this is in some charismatic circles, we've gone overboard. Everything is a demon. Every issue, every sin, everything that ever has happened to us or what we do as a demon. And then, you know, this, by the way, does not mean that we are not accountable. If we do something, whether a demon influences us or not, we are accountable to those actions because a demon has come in and we have to do something. If we experience demonization, we can't just like, we have to seek, deliverance we have to seek help. And if we, you know, if, if you murder someone under the influence of a demon and you get locked up into prison, you're going to face that consequence for the, for good reason. That's why there are criminals today in prison. They're there because they have demonization and they're in prison. They are paying personally for what they have done because even if a demon influenced them, demons are influencing people way more than most of us can understand, I think. And it's become such a taboo thing to cause out demons. But the fact of the matter is, is like there's a lot of people who need deliverance and who have no idea even that they have demons. Okay, that's just the reality. Okay, I can say more on this, but let's just stay, let's just try and keep it on track. The question is regarding the link between mental illness and demons. This is the simple test. I learned this from my brother Tom. He said this once and he said to figure out if there's a demon involved, simply ask, is it seeking? Is whatever is happening, is there something seeking to steal, kill or destroy? If you think about a house and a criminal breaks into a house, he's seeking to steal something or to kill or to destroy one of those things a criminal is seeking to do. And so in the same way, this is what Yeshua says, he says in John 10:10, how we can identify a demon or the enemy. And he says, the thief, the thief comes not but to steal, to kill and to destroy. I've come that they may have life and life more abundantly. He's contrasting himself with Satan. He's saying, Satan wants to do this, I want to do that. Satan wants to do criminal acts, stealing, killing and destroying. I want to give you life. When I visit your house, you get life. When a demon visits your house, there's stealing, killing and destruction. And so, you know, we can call it, call it whatever you want, but if that's happening, there is a demon involved to some degree. And when we are talking about mental illnesses, that does not guarantee that there is a demon that is behind that is the root issue behind all this. It can be trauma from when you were a child and you were neglected or abused. It could be because of the fall of man. And it's a disease that came in through, through just the bloodline. And there is the fallen nature that we are in today. Some people will get cancer at an early age and die. Some people can struggle with mental illness. Some people can struggle with predisposition to alcohol and getting addicted to substances. There's many things that can come in, and it's because of the fall of man. And what happens often is that demons are. Even if they're not the root of it, they will try and take advantage of the situation. So, like, if, like, you can be someone who is predisposed to alcohol and addiction. And the moment that you are falling into that and you become an alcoholic, demons will, you know, they will try and draw you and tempt you into that position. And when you have given yourself over to the addiction, they will take advantage and they will take ground in a greater way and try and keep you there. And they can come in and actually demonize. A spirit of addiction can come to make it much more difficult for a person to get free. So now you're not just dealing with the brain, which is addicted to substance. If you take cocaine, there is a real chemical dependency that happens. But then you also have to recognize there is a spiritual. Really, someone has a struggle with a certain mental illness, maybe anxiety. And they struggle with anxiety. They always have. They have it decently under control in their life. And there is really no demonization at all. You know, they struggle with maybe feeling anxious about situations in their life. But they've been seeking the Lord. The Lord is helping them. They still have moments of struggle. But there is not a demon that is now demonizing them. So I'm trying to just say that they're. Yes, it can happen, but it doesn't mean it is just because there's mental illness of whatever kind involved. Is something trying to steal, kill, or destroy your life, the life of someone around you. That's the question. If demons are behind something and we cast out demons from someone who's been strung with mental illness, what usually needs to happen is that they, and I would say they should absolutely get counsel, help, discipleship for the trauma that was caused by the demonization. Because, you know, that person can get free from the demons, but that doesn't mean that the brain hasn't been impacted by all of the horrific trauma they went through in the midst of their demonization or if they were abused as children. There's something to go after there in the mind, just body, soul, the person's health. And they can heal. But there's sometimes inner work that's needed there. Even if we remove all spiritual, like, demonization kind of stuff, if we cause our demons from them, or like that person would ideally, before and after, be still receiving that discipleship and walking through that inner work. That they would have to do in their heart so they can get totally free from whatever they're facing. So I would say that everyone has something. In other words, everyone has a different struggle. And. Pursuing perfection in our life is not realistic because we are going to always have trial come our way. If you don't have trial right now, it'll come again. Right? And don't let the trial or the disease of whatever it is shame you. Don't let it divorce you from God and his Holy Spirit. Because that's a. You know, we've been talking about shame in this broadcast and that's what the enemy wants to do, is to remove you from God. So that's to answer that last part of the question. I don't want to just tolerate my conditions, but live out the life that Yeshua has meant. How can I still do what Yeshua is asking me to do in the kingdom? So I would say if there is responsibility to take for whatever actions have been done that was sin or contrary to God, take responsibility, take accountability. Submit yourself to accountability so that you can grow, eat and sleep healthy, do the basic things that are needed, exercise and seek and attend, show up for help. In other words, submit yourself to spiritual mentorship, Christian counseling, discipleship, prayer. It's very important to do this in community because community is what God has given us so that we can walk the road to freedom of with other believers who can be there for us, support us, counsel us, help us, pray for us, maybe even cause out a demon from us. This is all going to need us to be vulnerable and recognize that God has freedom, not shame for us. Also, I want to say that we need to be at peace and know that God has understanding of what he is doing, that he is walking a path with us. You know, if we think about John 9, the disciples come to Yeshua and they're like, hey, why is this man blind? Is it him or his parents? You know, that's a really interesting question they're asking Yeshua there because immediately it's asking actually, who deserves the shame? Who is guilty? Who should we point the finger at for this man who was born blind in John 9:2, who should we point a finger at? And so Yeshua of course asks them. Neither this. He says to them, neither this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. So he's saying, don't shame, don't blame this man, don't blame the parents, but this is for the glory of God. God has a plan Here God is working. Even in this man's blindness, he cannot see. Can you imagine how? I mean, that's a disability that impacts. It's so deep, it impacts every aspect of that man's life. And I mean, can you imagine not feeling like God? I want to be able to worship you and serve your kingdom the way that people do. Who's got open eyes and who can see? Like, you know, I can imagine someone totally thinking that, right? But God is saying here, don't. He's saying to this blind man, don't worry about what other people are doing or how I'm using other people. I have a special purpose for you. I have a special calling for you. And my works are going to be manifest in you to open the eyes of the other who are blind. See, those who are spiritually blind or in true trouble, they are actually the ones who need to worry is what he is telling to this person really Right. And that by the work of God that I'm doing in you through your blindness, despite your blindness, I will open the spiritual blindness, take away the spiritual blindness of other people. So this is what God is saying. Do not be ashamed. Do not compare yourself to others. If you are in a position where you feel like you have some sort of a disability or something that's keeping you back. Glorify God in your trial and tribulation and in the ways that he will use you, even if it looks different than others. And pursue freedom. Pursue. Figure out how Can. Can I. Is there something I can do? Well, of course, let's do that. But also in the moment of now, where you're at right now, this time of trial, right now, which is going to be different trials that come and go and seasons that come and go. Seasons of being productive, seasons where we're less productive because we're going through stuff. But at the end of the day, God has a plan. God is working. He knows what he's doing. And he will use whatever you're going through powerfully for his calling. Think about Joseph. Last thing I'll say before we end the night. Joseph was imprisoned for many years. He was promised greatness, but he received imprisonment many, many years. And then God used that at the end of it all, as Joseph said himself, what you meant for evil against me, God has used to bring life and to save many. And so whatever people have used as evil against us or maybe something has happened to us, God will use it for his glory if we submit ourselves to Him. Okay, guys, thank you so much. I'm going to. I want to dig into some of these things more deeply, maybe in the weeks to come. But thank you for being with me. Write in the comments what you guys think. I love you. Thank you for joining me. I want to say special thank you to our partners who've made this broadcast possible. We'll see you in the next one. Shalom. Sa.