The Mystery Of Happiness - Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat Preaches

 

How is your attitude to be as a follower of Yeshua?

An inspiring message from Rabbi Zev Porat in Israel.

The Mystery of Happiness

Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat Preaches

messiah ofisrael

(August 3, 2023)

Thursday's Thoughts: Home

 

"Train up a child in the way he or she should go,
and in keeping with their individual gift, and when
they are old, they will not depart from it."
(Proverbs 22:6)

"Fathers do not irritate or provoke your children to anger,
do not exasperate them to resentment, but rear them
tenderly in the training and discipline and the counsel
and admonition of the Lord."
(Ephesians 6:4)

Wild Sunflowers
Image courtesy/University of Missouri Extension

Out in the meadow I picked a wild sunflower, and as I looked
into its golden heart, such a wave of homesickness came over me
I almost wept. I wanted Mother with her gentle voice and quiet firmness;
I longed to hear Father's jolly songs and to see his twinkling blue eyes:
I was lonesome for the sister with whom I used to play in the
meadow picking daisies and wild sunflowers.

Across the years, the old home and its love called to me, and memories of
sweet words of counsel came flooding back.  I realize that all my life the
teachings of those early days have influenced me, and the example set by
Father and Mother has been something I have tried to follow, with failures
here and there, with rebellion at times; but always coming back to it
as the compass needle to the star.

So much depends on homemakers.  I sometimes wonder if they are so busy now
with other things that they are forgetting the importance of this special work.
Especially did I wonder when reading recently that there were a great many
child suicides in the United States during the last year.  Not long ago we had
never heard of such a thing in our own country, and I am sure that there 
 must be something wrong with the home of a child who commits suicide.

Because of their importance, we must not neglect our homes in the rapid
changes of the present day. For when tests of character come in later years,
strength to the good will not come from the modern improvements or
amusements few may have enjoyed, but from the quiet moments
 and the "still small voices" of the old home.

Nothing ever can take the place of the early home influence; and as it does
not depend upon externals, it may be the possession of the poor as well as
of the rich, a heritage from all fathers and mothers to their children.

The real things in life that are the common possessions of us all are the
greatest value-worth far more than motor cars or radios, more than lands,
or money-our whole store of these wonderful riches may be revealed 
to us by such a common, beautiful thing as a wild sunflower.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867-1957)

 American writer
Author of the "Little House" series of books

"Home"
(August 1923)
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Taken from the book,
"Little House In The Ozarks
A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler
The Rediscovered Writings"

By Laura Ingalls Wilder
Edited by Stephen W. Hines
(c. 1991)
Guideposts Edition

Wednesday's Word: Like The Stars Forever And Ever

 

"And at that time of the end, Michael shall arise, 
the great angelic prince who defends and has charge 
of your (Daniel's) people, (Israel). And there shall be
a time of trouble and distress such as never was
 since there was a nation till that time. But at that
 time your people shall be delivered, everyone
whose name shall be found written in the
Book of God's plan for His own.

The Prophet Daniel

( circa.1508-1512)

Michaelangelo

(1475-1564)

Italian sculptor, painter, architect,

and poet of the High Renaissance

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake: some to everlasting life and some to shame
and ever lasting contempt and abhorrence.

And the teachers and those who are wise shall shine
like the brightness of the firmament, and those who
turn many to righteousness, to uprightness and right
standing with God, shall give forth light like the
stars forever and ever.
(Daniel 12:1-3)

"Then will the righteous, those who are upright and in
right standing with God shine forth like the sun in the
kingdom of their Father.  Let him who has ears to hear
be listening, and let him consider and perceive
and understand by hearing."
(Matthew 13:43)

"And they shall come out-those who have practiced
doing good, will come out, to the resurrection of new life
and those who have done evil will be raised for judgment,
raised to meet their sentence."
(John 5:29)

View of the Old City of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel

Picture courtesy/Getty Images/iStock

"The sun is glorious in one way, the moon is glorious in another way,
and the stars are glorious in their own distinctive way; for one star
   differs from and surpasses another in its beauty and brilliance.
    So it is with the resurrection of the dead.  The body that is sown
  is perishable and decays, but the body that is resurrected
is imperishable, immune to decay, immortal.
(1 Corinthians 15:41-42)

May You Shine

(2007)

Zemer Levav

Galilee of Nations Music USA, Inc.

UFO Update With L.A. Marzulli: My Mother Was Taken

 

UFO's are real...burgeoning...and not going away...

Christian researcher and film maker L.A. Marzulli reports
on an infamous UFO abduction case from the early 1980's 
 which became fodder for the National Enquirer.

As it turns out, the story was true after all.

My Mother Was Taken!

L.A. Marzulli

(August 1, 2023)

Full Sturgeon Moon Tonight

 

August will be a month of exciting celestial events for all
who love watching the night skies.  Beginning with the
rising of the Full Sturgeon Moon tonight, this moon will
be the second "supermoon" of the year.  According to
 the Old Farmer's Almanac,  four "supermoons" in
a row is an unusual sequence for the moon.

 

Full Sturgeon Moon 

Image courtesy/almanac.com

  A "supermoon" is a catchy term for what astronomers call, "a perigean full Moon"
or when the full Moon is the closest to the earth in orbit, and will appear
larger and brighter as it rises into the night sky.

August's first full Moon will rise this afternoon and reach peak illumination
at 2:32 pm ET.   This evening just after sunset, look for lovely Luna to rise
 over the southeastern horizon.  Depending on how warm it is in your
neck of the woods, she may appear more yellow or orange in color.

Later on this month there will be a phenomenon known as a "Blue Moon".
This occurs when there are two full moon cycles in a single month.
This later moon will be the closest "supermoon" of the year and 
 will peak on Wednesday August 30th around 9:36 pm ET.

The eighth month moon is traditionally called the Sturgeon Moon.
At this time of the year, the giant Sturgeon of the Great Lakes  
and in Lake Champlain were plentiful and easily caught by the
 American Indian tribes who once lived in these areas, and later
 by white settlers who made their living as commercial fishermen.

Sturgeon are prehistoric-looking fish whose origins date back about
136 million years.  Many people have called them, "living fossils".

Although there are still sturgeon in many parts of the world today,
these fish have become increasingly rare in North America due to
overfishing in the 19th century, and because of pollution, which
has been damaging to their habitats.  There are, however,
some of these formidable-looking, " living fossils" that still 
swim in the deep waters of the Midwestern Great Lakes,
and in Lake Champlain, which lies between the states of
New York and Vermont, and extends northward
into the Canadian province of Quebec.

The word, "Sturgeon" means "the stirrer" which is what this giant fish does when it is looking for food;

it stirs up the mud and silt on the river and lake bottoms.  Notice the pointed snout and whisker-like

tactile organs near the mouth.  Image courtesy/Tennessee Aquarium

 🥮 I hope the skies are clear where you're at tonight! 🐟

To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time (Carpe diem!)

Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may,

Old Time is still a flying:

And this same flower that smiles today

Tomorrow will be dying.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

(1909)

John William Waterhouse

(1849-1917)

English artist 

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,

The higher he's a getting;

The sooner will his Race be run,

And neerer he's to Setting.

That Age is best, which is the first,

When Youth and Blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;

And while ye may, goe marry:

For having lost but once your prime,

You may forever tarry.

"To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time"
(1648)
Robert Herrick
(1591-1674)
English Cavalier poet

*Carpe diem is Latin for "Seize the day!"

A Song For August

 

Blessed, happy, fortunate, to be envied is he who has forgiveness
of his transgression continually exercised upon him, whose sin is covered.

Blessed, happy, fortunate, to be envied is the man to whom the Lord
 imputes no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

When I kept silence before I confessed, my bones wasted away
 through my groaning all day long.

For day and night Your hand of displeasure was heavy upon me;
my moisture was turned into the drought of summer.

Selah, pause, and calmly think of that!

* Sangre de Cristos Crestone Peak and Wildflowers in Colorado
(August 2014)

Photograph courtesy/Lynn Cyrus/Cascade Colors/Pixels

I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide.
I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, continually
unfolding the past until all is told-then You instantly forgave
me the guilt and iniquity of my sin.

Selah, pause, and calmly think of that!

For this forgiveness let everyone who is godly pray-
pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely,
when the great waters of trial overflow, they shall not
reach the spirit of him.

You are a hiding place for me;  You, Lord, preserve me from trouble,
You surround me with songs and shouts of deliverance.

Selah, pause and calmly think of that!

The Lord will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go,
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

Be not like the horse or the mule, which lacks understanding,
which must have their mouths held firm with bit and bridle,
or else they will not come with you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in,
relies on, and confidently leans on the Lord shall be compassed
about with mercy and loving-kindness.

Be glad in the Lord  and rejoice, you uncompromisingly righteous,
you who are upright and in right standing with Him; shout for joy,
all you upright in heart.

(PSALM 32)

A reflective song of David

CORRESPONDING NEW TESTAMENT VERSE:

"Thus David congratulates the man and pronounces a blessing
on him to whom God credits righteousness apart from the works he does:

Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered up and completely buried.

Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person of whose sin 
 the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him."

(ROMANS 4: 6-8)

* Sangre de Cristos means "Blood of Christ" in Spanish