Shalom Leigh,

Semachiah means; "sustained by YHVH'

I grew up in a community where nearly everyone was either Jewish of Catholic and most of the Catholics attended a private school. When I was in High School I was an exceptional athlete
 and was the number one football player coming out of H.S. in my senior year but I was also only 15 yrs. old. Instead of going straight to college I played the summer season of Baseball for the Montreal Expos and that winter I played for the Canadians in Hockey then reported to college for football in the spring. I was actually going to go to Notre Dame to play (yes a Jew at Notre Dame but as long as I was willing to take three "religion" classes that was acceptable by them) but Dan Davine became the coach and although he would honor my scholarship he made it clear that he had no intention of ever letting me play. Since I had already signed my National Letter of Intent I had to go to a smaller school if I was going to play as a Freshman and I chose to go to the U. of Montana. Missoula is 2200 miles from my home and at that time had virtually no Jewish community. Like Moses I found myself in the wilderness. Isolation is what then led me to seek a closer relationship with YHVH and to take a look at other beliefs.

That winter the basketball coach, Jud Heathcoat, before he moved on to coach Michigan State asked me to be his Point Guard. I did and in practice before our first game I got a rebound, landed on the Center's foot and shredded my Achilles Tendon. The doctor's told me I would never walk again. One doctor in Canada disagreed but said my playing days were over. He did the surgery and I transfered schools to get another chance to play. When all was said and done I had lost the ability to cut seriously hard on that ankle and my playing days were over except that I was invited to help start a rugby team for my new school. That was fun! Cuts were not as important and my speed set me apart from everyone else.

This school was only two hours from home and I found that there were allot of kids from my H. S. there. One was in a Sorority and wanted to introduce me to one of her Soro sisters. In doing so she also introduced me to all the other sisters and one in particular got my attention and later became my wife (this was to be the first and only non-arranged marriage in my family). While dating her we went out one night and ended up in a serious one car accident that eventually ended her up in the hospital. While visiting her I asked her if she would allow me to go with her to church. She was a Spirit Filled Messianic Jew attending a Baptist church because of the lack of other fellowship in that area. She had given her life to YHVH in her Freshman year when in her dorm room she was filled with The SPIRIT and had no clue what had happened until she discussed it with her roommate. After her release from the hospital we did attend church together and that week they were having a rivival. On the one night when she could not be there because of a class I gave my life to YHVH and was baptized that weekend.

As for my parents; once I was allowed back into their life I honored my father's decree that I not speak of Y'SHUA but he could not stop me from living it in front of him. In time my mother started asking me questions about Y'SHUA. During this time my father sent me to Israel to study at a seminary to become a rabbi. Every time I came back I was living Y'SHUA and answering questions that showed the connection between Him and The Torah. I graduated and was ordained there and then continued my studies at a Bible college. After graduating there I was ordained a Pastor straight out of school which was something the school had never done before.

Shortly before my mother would find out that she was ill my next oldest brother came back from the West Coast for a visit. While he and I were talking we discovered that he too had given his life to YHVH through The CHRIST and what was really interesting it that despite the time difference we discovered that he had done so at the exact same time that I had. This brought my mother to tears and later that day to YHVH through The CHRIST as well. Through the next two years of her illness the change within her that had been made through The CHRIST was evident and my father started to talk to me about it. As he did I was able to share her testimony and that of my brother as well as all that I had learned in the colleges. After her funeral he broke down with me in his bedroom one day. Within days he would discover that he too had the same extremely rare cancer that had taken my mother and that could only be contracted from one isolated place in Africa that they had visited a few years back. This cancer was so rare and aggressive that there really was nothing the doctors could do but try. Within two years he too was gone. It was actually five days short of being two years after my mother had died. Through this my two older sisters also came to know YHVH through The CHRIST.

The only resister in the family is now my oldest brother and that is due to his wife who has him isolated from the family in a cult (Jehovah's Witnesses). If anyone has ever wondered why the JW's first stop their members from celebrating the HOLY days, it is because in them one finds Y'SHUA and a relationship with YHVH towards HIS people. He was mentally messed-up during Vietnam and this has actually been a good thing. During the years since he has recovered but this "messed-up-ness" has kept him from going head over heals for the JW's and he retains much of his Judaism, he just doesn't allow his wife to know.

its kinda a aside too, for one when I taught my Sunday School class this past Sunday, I told them that when John 3:16 was given to Nicodemus, that, to Nicodemus, the "whosover" meant, whosover seed of Abraham, and it was only with the Vision of Peter in Acts 10 and the sending forth of the 13th Apostle, Paul, that the whosoever of John 3:16 was expanded to Gentiles...by revelation....       I never got to the part where seperation was taught to the Jews, and now, by extension to Christians (unequal yokes ect..., darkness marrying light, Christ and Belial ect...)...   so the "religious" seperation of Jews from Gentiles, especially Orthodox Jews, is "understandable".

Y'SHUA IS YHVH! Find that "IS" in The Scriptures, please? If you can you will find the solution to the problem for the Jews. They can accept Him as The CHRIST and as the possible coming MESSIAH (this is the One who finishes what The CHRIST has started), but they have a problem with Him being YHVH while YHVH is still YHVH. They have a problem with Him being "made" (Ps 8:4-6) by YHVH, being born, changing, dying and still being eternal deity as well, only then to be resurrected, by what CHRISTians describe as, HIS self. Contrastingly they have no problem with Him as The CHRIST and possible coming MESSIAH if He "IS" not YHVH also. The Jewish problem is that a man cannot be YHVH. Thus to classify Y'SHUA as such while He was on the earth, not only defies logic but also The Scriptures and this is where all communication stops with them.

Simply stated, the "IS", is the problem!

Deuteronomy (D'varim) 6:4 "Sh'ma, Yisra'el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, Isra'el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one];

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Exodus (Sh'mot) 34:14 because you are not to bow down to any other god; since ADONAI -whose very name is Jealous -is a jealous God.

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Shaking everything that can be shaken of "Traditional" (Mk 7:13) religion in order to establish you on The CORNERSTONE and foundation of our faith!

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May 8, 2009 -- 6:29PM, Leight wrote:

.....I'm wondering, because I think it would be so cool to use in a presentation this Mothers Day,....  for whosoever is deep out there...    did Mary ever meet in the flesh, in the Scriptures the Ressurrected Christ?..

Leight, Not that it will help with Mother's Day, but I would be surprised if Mary, Jesus's Mother wasn't among those 500 persons Paul reports as seeing Jesus after the resurrection. 1Cor.15:6