MICHAEL FREUND: Ezekiel is commanded by God to take two sticks. On one, he is to write "For Judah," and on the other "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim." Then comes the crucial instruction: "Bring them together into one stick so that they become one in your hand" (37:17). Ezekiel's vision is not one of uniformity. The two sticks do not cease to be what they are. Judah remains Judah; Joseph remains Joseph. Unity does not erase difference – it sanctifies and elevates it by placing it within a larger shared destiny.
Ketriel Blad: In other words, in order for a total restoration to take place, the restored Ephraimites from among the nations will have to become Jewish, in the legal sense of the word, thus accepting the Jewish authorities and becoming obedient to Jewish halachah. In the prophecy of Ezekiel 37:19 the Hebrew text can be understood as HaShem giving Yehuda's stick the function of being over Ephraim's stick and this way both sticks will become one. This teaches us that the Ephraimite movement that comes from heaven cannot rise apart from the Jewish people without submission to the Jewish leaders' authority. This is not for all the gentiles.
Most of us reach at least one pivotal moment in our lives that better defines who we are.
These last several months have been the hardest – but have also ended up being the most freeing months — of my life.
To make an extremely long story short, I have come to be able to admit to myself, and to my family, that I am gay.
I grew up in a very conservative Christian home where I was taught that my sexual orientation was a matter of choice, and had put all my faith into that. I had never before admitted to myself that I was gay, let alone to anyone else. I never wanted to be gay. I was scared of what God would think and what all of these people I loved would think about me; so it never was an option for me. I have been suppressing these attractions and feelings since adolescence. I’ve tried my whole life to be straight. I married a girl, and I even have two beautiful little kids. My daughter, Liv, is six and my son, Beckham, is two.
I had always romanticized the idea of falling in love with a woman; and having a family had always been my dream. In many ways, that dream has come true. But I have also come to realize a lot of time has passed in my life pushing away, blocking out and not dealing with real feelings going on inside of me. I have tried not to be gay for more than 20 years of my life. I found so much comfort as a teen in 1 Samuel 18-20 and the intimacy of Jonathan and David. I thought and hoped that such male intimacy could fulfill that void I felt in my desire for male companionship. I always thought if I could find these intimate friendships, then that would be enough.
Then I thought everything would come naturally on my wedding night. I honestly had never even made out with a girl before I got married. Of course, it felt anything but natural for me. Trying not to be gay, has only led to a desire for intimacy in friendships which pushed friends away, and it has resulted in a marriage where I couldn’t love or satisfy my wife in a way that she needed. Still, I tried to convince myself that this was what God wanted and that this would work. I thought all of those other feelings would stay away if I could just do this right.
When Lauren and I got married, I committed to loving her to the best of my ability, and I had the full intention of spending the rest of my life with her. Despite our best efforts, however, I have come to accept that there is nothing that is going to change who I am.
I have intensely mixed feelings about the changes that have resulted in my life. While I regret the way I was taught to handle this growing up, how much it has hurt me and the unintentional pain I have brought Lauren, I wouldn’t have the friendship I now have with her, and we wouldn’t have our two amazing, beautiful children. But if I keep trying to push this down it will end up hurting her even more.
I am never going to be able to change how I am, and no matter how healthy our relationship becomes, it’s never going to change what I know deep down: that I am gay. Lauren has been the most supportive, understanding, loving and gracious person I could ever ask for, as I have come to face this. And now I am trying to figure out how to co-parent while being her friend, and how to raise our children.
I have progressed so much in my faith over these last several years. I think I needed to be able to affirm other gay people before I could ever accept it for myself. Likewise, I couldn’t expect others to accept me how I am until I could come to terms with it first.
I know I have a long way to go. But if this honesty with myself about who I am, and who I was made by God to be, doesn’t constitute as the peace that passes all understanding, then I don’t know what does. It is like this weight I have been carrying my whole life has been lifted from me, and I have never felt such freedom.
In sharing this publicly I’m taking another step into health and wholeness by accepting myself, and every part of me. It’s not only an idea for me that I’m gay; It’s my life. This is me being authentic and real with myself and other people. This is a part of who I am.
I hope people will hear my heart, and that I will still be loved. I’m still the same guy, with the same heart, who wants to love God and love people with everything I have. This is a part of me I have come to be able to accept, and now it is a part of me that you know as well. I trust God to help love do the rest.
The last nuclear conflict will be over the executor of oil, namely Johns…
In their profound absence, Friendships are Futile.
Hostage-taking is, basically, a raw form of Betrothal, but, occasionally, Plans don’t work out. The last remaining Hostages are to insure Targets. When Y'all are being Held Captive, it must feel strange to be fought over, no? Where Y'all feel most Trapped IS where Y'all were destined to meet Him, Actually; unfortunately, the United Apostates of America are also Guilty of Excessive Fortification. Those that take Hostages should sound familiar. It’s an allusion to [t]he [t]hief in the Night: I expect an increase in orderly Parsim Immigration [that’s my primary concern], from henceforth_
it’s so strange: i wore a striped gray-blue outfit like that years ago; my folks have gone through afflictions on their right sides (him: stroke that struck right, numbing left; her: right breast cancer removal)
i don’t care much for the Body anymore; settling for imagination hasn’t bin much of a consolation, in lieu of how creativity is mistreated
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat: Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing. - Psalms 37:8
There are two different words for the sun in Hebrew and they are both related to Prophecy in the ways in which I demonstrated in the Hebrew version of this post.
One is Chamah. Chama comes from the root in Hebrew for heat. It also means anger, not surprisingly, and it means poison too.
The beginning of the quest for Justice begins with a great deal of chamah. There is much light there, but much heat too. The desire to to “burn off” evil.
The result is that we get burnt out.
The other word for sun is Shemesh - which also means to be useful, to be a servant.
It is when we reach the level of being like the sun in its faithfulness, it’s surrounding us with warmth and light and following us in our path with the desire to enlighten our way that we become effective bringers of Justice in Peace to the world.
As King David teaches: For the LORD God is a sun and a shield;
the LORD giveth grace and glory;
The idea is to shield the evil from destruction and shed light on them and melt the stone in their hearts with warmth, not to cauterize them with anger or imagine we can obliterate them if we summon up enough rage.
Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees - IRQR: I just informed that last night a group of people were arrested in Kerman, Iran by Revolutionary Guards. I am not sure all of them were LGBT or not and I am looking forward for updated news. Please let me know if you have any information. گزارشي دريافت كردم كه شب گذشته گروهي در شهر كرمان در يك ميهماني توسط بسيج و سپاه دستگير شده اند. هنوز نمي دانم كه ايا انها دگرباش بوده اند يا نه و اگر اطلاعي در اين زمينه داريد حتما به من خبر دهيد
It is truly heartbreaking to know that one day after I spoke in front of our congress Saeed was beaten by fellow prisoners. Saeed’s father was not able to see Saeed last week because of a holiday in Iran, but today he was truly shaken to learn of the beating that Saeed had endured. Saeed’s father was also treated horribly and harassed by the prison guards and staff and could only visit Saeed for a short time…
As I shared in front of our congress last week, the Iranian government might turn up the heat in the furnace (as in Daniel 3), but Saeed refuses to deny his faith in Jesus Christ and continues to be a witness in that dark prison. Jesus is with Saeed in that fiery furnace. Saeed wants you to know that he has felt your prayers in his darkest moments. Thank you.
Please continue to keep our family in your prayers during this very difficult time.
Neil Asher Silberman, Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin, and Baruch Halpern: The Book of Joshua (12:21) specifically mentions the defeat of the king of Megiddo and the allotment of his territory to the tribe of Manasseh;
NETANYA MUNICIPALITY: thanks to the Lord for giving them {Netan~ya, lot. "gift of God"} the ability to continue the legacy of the 12 tribes who settled in the Land of Israel, and particularly of the half~tribe of Manasseh, which settled in the region.
Stephen Epstein: Some went down the Mekong River into Vietnam, the Philippines, Siam, Thailand and Malaysia, while some of the Israelites moved to Burma and west to India.
