To me, there's just too much talking and not much doing with regards to modern-day religion but this might be considered as preaching here so I might have to stop this soon. In my opinion actions speak a lot stronger than words. I guess this feeling is from the fact that some people say that I'm a "get in the face person" and I get to the point quite quickly.

It would be nice if there was a way to wave a magic wand and convince you that you need to think the way that I do about religious matters but it's not really possible. At this time I need to go back to a saying of Ben Franklin that I used earlier in this site. It is sort of a key to all of the things that I want to do. He said that "during the Last Days, he is assured that we will be judged on what we did and not on what we thought." Actually, I'm not really comfortable in calling what I do as being religious but instead I want to say that I'm spiritual. We should basically "Walk the way in which we believe in and not just talk about it."

To me, any type of modern day religious expression or adaptation is a subconscious way for mankind to try and put the Creator (ADONAI) into their own box but we should instead try to put ourselves into ADONAI's (the Creator's) box. But, I guess this is not the case because most often what matters in the modern day religions is not the belief system itself but the way that people do these things. Traditions seem to count more these days. We all have our own comfort zones and we don't want to leave them.

We seem to be caught up in different types of denominations but they all supposedly are centered upon the same belief system. They all say that they believe in one book and one Creator but because of the traditions that they believe in and the way they practice their faith there's still too many differences and these differences get in the way. Even with supposedly non-denominational religious organizations, there is still a set way (an order) in doing things.

As I mentioned earlier in another section, Ben Franklin said that "he didn't want to knock any religion in any man but he wished it was more of charity, kindness, and mercy not the attending of long services, the saying of long prayers, and the hearing of long sermons. If all there was to a man's religion, it would be like a tree being proud to be watered and pruned but not producing any fruit."

James 2 in the New Testament says "that if you see somebody in need and you have the physical means to do something about it you can't go to that person, tell them that you'll pray for them, and then walk away. Your faith and your actions have to go together like a hand and a glove."

I don't even really want to call myself as being a Christian because of what it means to some people. Even though I'm a Jewish believer in the Messiah, I don't really want to call myself a "Jewish-Christian", a "Completed Jew" or maybe even a "Messianic Jew" because of what these phrases stand for and mean to people these days. I just want to call myself a "Follower of Y'SHUA (the Messiah)" and leave it that way.

The term "Messianic Jew" has sort of being corrupted in my mind because the concept and phrase has been taken over by a Christian group coming out of the charismatic/ evangelistic movement that is very large in the world these days with many congregations. They feel that the only way to get really close to the Messiah is to adopt the Jewish way of life. Sometimes this causes the people involved to be more Jewish (legalistic) than the real Jews of today.

In a way sometimes this could go even to the extreme as being a cult. I had experience with one of these congregations in Southern California back in the early 1990's that could be considered as being a cult. There were beliefs in the group that if you didn't pray in Hebrew your prayers wouldn't heard or answered, if you didn't worship on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) you would be worshipping Satan instead of ADONAI, and you couldn't believe in the New Testament of the Bible because it wasn't covered under the Blood Covenant of the Old Testament. I admit that these are some really extreme beliefs but this should not be considered as being the norm for all of the Messianic congregations in the world. My advice is just to believe in the Messiah and ADONAI and just call yourselves "Followers" like myself.

Thanks again for giving me the chance to speak my peace and even taking the time to check out my web site.