Torah Studies 2013

Welcome to Torah study!  We pray that you will find these studies helpful in your search for wisdom, understanding, and TRUTH.  Remember that the goal of the Torah is the revelation of Messiah - and that revelation needs to happen in "me" - in each and everyone of "us".  The revelation of Yeshua in me is not about intellect or knowledge - but rather -  It has everything to do with the transformation of our lives into His image by the power of His Word. We read in the Psalms,

(Psa 19:7 KJV) "The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple."

 We also read in Scripture,

 (Isa 8:20 KJV) "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

 The law of Yahweh converts the soul and the testimony of Yeshua which is the spirit of prophecy  is what gives wisdom to the simple so that we may understand the Law of Yahweh.  We need Father's Law and we need His Testimony if we indeed want to become in the image of His Son! The Law and the Testimony is what the Revelation of Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) in "me" is all about!

Shabbat 01-05-2013  -  By Al Lopez   (Scriptures Used) " ...But if no one is good but the Father – why is Yeshua telling me that to enter into life I need to obey the commandments! If I Love Yahweh’s Salvation - I do His commandments. If my hope is in Jesus Christ – I do/obey His Law!  But wouldn’t obedience to Yahweh’s law cause me to fall from grace and loose my salvation? Isn’t that what we have been taught by those who twist what Paul says! But do you really think Jesus Christ is trying to trick us to obey the Commandments so that we would fall from grace so that He would not have to save us? Friends, He died for us – do you think he would want us to fall from grace? Or, do you think that maybe Yeshua is telling us to obey the commandments – to be obedient to the faith so that we may receive His grace and enter His kingdom?..."

 Shabbat 02-02-2013  - By Al Lopez  (Scriptures Used)   Paul’s gospel of Salvation by grace through faith that leads to obedience is not new, is not his own, and is most definitely not confined to a “dispensation of grace” that began 2000 years ago and culminates at the so called “rapture of the church”. Neither is his gospel restricted to a new group of people called the “Gentile Church” But rather – Paul’s gospel of grace is the same gospel of salvation upon which all saints - who in each and every generation since Adam have placed their faith and hope and obedience in Yahweh’s Yeshua - have been made “Tamiym” “perfect!

Shabbat 02-16-2013  - By Al Lopez  -  (Scriptures Used) Today, we will look into the gospel of the Apostle James – half-brother of Yeshua and how his gospel compares to the gospel of the apostle Paul. I know that for many the letter of James is a stumbling block and a rock of offense because they think James is contradicting the gospel of Paul concerning justification by faith alone. And in fact, in his writings, James promotes obedience to the law in order to be justified before God. And his position is in complete opposition to the doctrine that the law of God has been abolished and that we are justified by faith alone..."

Shabbat 03-02-2013  - By Al Lopez  - (Scriptures Used)  Belief in God is based on faith. There can be no religion without faith! And there can be no faith if we demand proof that God exist! Because then is no longer faith!  And "…we walk by faith, not by sight... _{(2 Cor 5:7).}" Why do I need to come to Yahweh by faith? The first thing that comes to mind is that I am finite and God is infinite. And the finite (me) cannot observe, verify, calculate, or measure that which is infinite!..."

Shabbat 04-13-2013  -  By Al Lopez  -   (Scriptures Used)   "... Why does the righteousness of faith first preached by Moses and the Prophets and now spoken by Paul say, “do not say in your heart “who will ascend or who will descend…”? Because by faith we know only Yahweh can save us. Because by faith we know “…the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.    Because by faith we know Yahweh is still testifying against us “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  - “I have come down to deliver them…”  Because from the beginning Yahweh has told us “Who” is ascending and descending!

Shabbat 04-27-2013  - By Al Lopez  -  (Scriptures Used)   "... according to the writer of Hebrews all of these people of Old Testament times live their lives by faith and not by works as we have been led to believe! And if by faith then it was through grace – and grace is suppose to teach us (Paiduo) to obey Yahweh’s Torah!...By faith Moses was hidden because he was a beautiful child? Let me ask, if Moses had been an ugly baby does it mean his parents had no faith and would have given him to Pharaoh to be killed?

Shabbat 05-11-2013  - By Al Lopez  - (Scriptures Used)  "Today we will begin our study concerning “The Mark of the Beast” and what this mark on the “right hand or/and foreheads” might represent. And although most people think this subject of the “mark of the beast” is far removed from what we have been studying concerning Paul and the Torah of Yahweh – I will suggest to you it is not!..."

Shabbat 05-25-2013  - By Al Lopez  -  (Scriptures Used)  "...What is clear from all these speculations is that most of us have been program to look for definitions of what this mark might be - outside the safe boundaries of Scripture. Seldom, if ever - do people define the mark based exclusively from Scripture. But what we need to remember is that the book of Revelation is a book of signified words and symbols – and I suggest these symbols must be interpreted by Scripture.  So, instead of adding fuel to the “speculation” about what this mark might be, I would like us to look to the Word of God for a more Biblical definition!..."

Shabbat 06-08-2013  -  By Al Lopez  -  (Scriptures Used)  "...Job’s and Paul’s words are echo by Messiah Himself in Revelation Rev 3:17 and the church of Laodicea, “'Because you say ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing';…”. That is how Job and Paul and all of us see ourselves at one point in our lives. But if I think I am blameless and righteous because of “my own” definition of faith– or because my own works - then I do not need a savior...."

Shabbat 06-22-2013  -  By Al Lopez  - (Scriptures Used)  "...As by one tree sin entered the garden and death through sin, and so death came to every tree in the garden for they all sin!  All the trees in the garden were envious; they all became prideful so all the trees of the garden were given over to death for the whole field had been defiled by mixed seed. All the fruit and the trees in the garden were drinking the wormwood water of this one prideful tree – in the same way that all human beings partake of the same nature of the first Adam! ..."

Shabbat 07-20-2013  By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used)  The Torah of Yahweh and faith in Him (Law and Testimony) God’s wisdom - is the water that gives life to the tree – when we drink Yahweh’s water the leaf shall not wither – nor will it cease from yielding fruit – but the ungodly – he who is drinking from another source - a contaminated source - will be like chaff which the wind drives away for his heart is deceitful for some one else other than Yahweh is sitting on the throne of his temple. 

Shabbat 08-17-2013  - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used)  Many years ago I really had trouble understanding let alone believing that it was my Heavenly Father who set death before me. Why would He do that? To me, it was like me given my girls a loaded gun, and then telling them not to play with it. Would a loving father place a loaded gun in front of his child and expect the child not to play with it? How can a loving God do what I as a father - would not do it to my own children?

shabbat 08-31-2013 - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used)  Life or death is a choice. And Yeshua defines eternal life as the choice of “knowing God”. Remember that “knowing” in Biblical Hebrew implies intimacy. So, if life is to know Yahweh the one true God, and to know His “Logos” – whom He sent, - by inference, we can also know death is the opposite. Death is choosing to reject “knowing” the one true God in my life – death is choosing to accept another “word”, - a “god” of my own fabrication, of my own understanding (idols of the heart)!  

Shabbat 10-12-2013 - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used) The Architect and builder of the universe is here telling us that to “hear and do” His word is the wisdom that is absolutely necessary to properly build the house. We all know that when a house is being built – the foundation - which is unseen – is what is placed first - and that which is first is what sustains the whole house.

Shabbat 10-26-2013 - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used) How can Yeshua say He did not come to bring peace and yet say that through the things He has spoken we may have “peace”? And within the same breath, those who have peace will also have tribulation (pain, suffering, sickness, persecution…etc) and what’s more, He is asking us to be cheerful about it!

Shabbat 11-09-2013 - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used) Now that we know who has descended and then ascended into heaven - another question is asked in verse four: “What is His name, and what is His Son’s name? Do any of us really know the name of the Father and the name of His Son? I know that most of us will be quick to answer in the affirmative – ..."

Shabbat 11-23-2013 - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used) Friends, Yeshua is the “first and the last” – He is Genesis and Revelation! The book of Revelation reveals Yeshua just as much as the Law of Moses does – but they were never intended to be understood through dispensational theology - but through the Spirit of God for the Law is spiritual..."

Shabbat 12-07-2013 - By Al Lopez- (Scriptures Used) Through the law of opposites we have learned that in order to understand the end revealed in the beginning - we need to understand the beginning revealed in the end – for the beginning reveals the end of the first Adam – and the end reveals the beginning of the last Adam! The beginning reveals the end of the first heaven and the first earth – and the “end” reveals the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth! And remember Yeshua is both the beginning and the end - the first and the last!

 Shabbat 12-21-2013  - By Al Lopez - (Scriptures Used) Through the law of opposites we have learned that in order to understand the end revealed in the beginning - we must also understand the beginning revealed in the end – for the beginning reveals the end of the first Adam – and the end reveals the beginning of the last Adam! The "beginning" reveals the end of the first heaven and the first earth – and the “end” reveals the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth! And Yeshua is both the beginning and the end - He is the first and the last! But how are we to understand these things?...

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