Your Daily Bread for March 5-11, 2023
Welcome to Your Daily Bread for March 5-11, 2023, by Dr. Apelu Poe!
Key Torah Code for this Week: “Tazria” (The Power of the Seed): Leviticus 12:1-13:59
Basic Principle of Our Judaic-Christian Faith: Our God deals with each one of us measures for measures; he blesses those who keep his commands, but he punishes those who transgress his commands.
“The first Bible code prediction had already been fulfilled. The fall of the very symbol of our economic power, the World Trade Center, and the attack on the very symbol of our military power, the Pentagon, made the predicted dangers look all too real. On September 11, 2001, after I had seen the attack on the World Trade Center after I found it perfectly encoded in the Bible, I retrieved my copy of that sealed letter. When I read it, it shook me.” I’ll get to the point in a minute.
?But, first, let me say Talofa, Welcome, and Shabbat shalom to you, my friends in the name of “Yeshua HaMashiach” Jesus the Messiah! And through the power of God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). As they say in Samoan, Malo le soifua manuia! Faafetai fo’i le fai tatalo! Congratulation on your good health! Thanks also for the prayers. May our God always grant us his lovingkindness!
?Getting back to the point. If you have followed God’s calendar, which dictates and foretells the events of our lives to which the above quote refers, you will know that we are now entering the third week of the Lent or Preparation season. What is the Lent or Preparation season? The Lent or Preparation season is the sixth season of the 2022-2023 Christian year calendar. The Lent season does not have a festival because everything looks forward to the Easter festival. Just as the name itself suggests, Lent or Preparation season, is the time that we are called to prepare ourselves spiritually for the holy suffering of Jesus on the cross. Therefore, it is a time of prayer and fasting, a time to draw closer to God, knowing that it is our sin that sent Jesus to the cross. The Biblical basis for this is Mark 2:20, which says, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.”
Before we take a look at this week’s Torah portion, let me also say “thank you” to all of you, my prayer warriors, and my dedicated supporters who supported the launching of my first book, The Hidden Secrets of the Master’s Mind: How You Can Live with God’s Time on February 28. The book has reached the #1 International Bestseller ranking in several different categories that, include Christianity, Christian Old Testament Study, Jewish Sacred Writings, Old Testament Bible Study, Hebrew Bible, Bible Study Guides, Christian Reference, Judaism, and Religion and Spirituality, not just here in the United States of America, but also in Australia, and the United Kingdom. Here’s the thing, I am just the instrument, the agent, the medium, the vehicle that God can use to perform miraculous acts, but the credit goes to you because it was you who put your complete trust in God that together we can make a big impact. So, unto God be the glory. It is, indeed, a great inspiration for me to see that so many of you around the world have been following my teaching on social media, Facebook and Linkedin from week to week. I call my Torah gift for you this week “Your Daily Bread for March 5-11, 2023.”
Why am I saying this? Well, for those of you who have been following my teaching, I’m saying this because, as you might have noticed, I have been using this same gift that God has given me for the past 40 years to help guide the destiny of those whose spiritual welfare God has entrusted to me. And now that I have retired from the ordained ministry in July 2021, I want you to have free access to it. My pastoral desire is simply this: For you to be the person God has created you to be. My prayer, then, is that you would be able to live according to God’s time so that you may discern God’s Divine path for your life and how it is that God wants you to live to best receive his blessing and to best shine his holy light.
Your Benefits from My Torah Gift I Can Give You This Week
So what exactly can you expect from the Torah gift I’m giving you this third week of the Lent or Preparation season? Well, the first and foremost is self-awareness. Why self-awareness? Because life transformation begins with precisely that: self-awareness. While some people seem naturally confident (and some people are remarkably confident in a very good way), most of us are not. And that’s okay, because self-confidence can be developed. That means anyone can develop self-confidence.
?Remember what we said, to address any concern or any challenges that we face in our life today, we must, first of all, identify what is at the heart, the root of those challenges. Without that, we will never be able to come up with an adequate or appropriate strategy that will resolve our challenges. So the Torah gift I’m giving you this week will help you become aware of the fact that our salvation is God’s gift to us, his children. But it is certainly not a cheap one because it cost Jesus’ life on the cross. How do we know that? Well, listen, again, to the prophet Isaiah’s testimony, “Who has believed what we have heard…He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:1-5).
Remember, the cross is the severe punishment the Roman government designed for its criminals. But our Lord, who has no sins, and does not deserve to be publicly humiliated, was hung on that cross because of your sins and mine.
So, what precisely is the point of the cross? The point of the cross is precisely that vicarious suffering of Jesus, the Son of God, that through the depth of his death, opens for us the way to eternal life. Whoever comes! And whoever believes! And let me add, in the prayer that Jesus prayed on the cross while suffering excruciating pain, Jesus said, “Father God, please forgive them for they know not what they have done. For their sake, I sacrificed myself.”?
The second benefit my Torah gift will give to you this week is a greater sense of mental clarity. It'll help you develop a greater sense of mental clarity so that you can overcome any challenges or any hardships that you face in your life today while at the same time eliminating all your procrastinating habits and your scarcity or poverty mindset. Why is that important to us at such a morally and spiritually challenging time as this? Because the biggest problem that we face in our lives today is a lack of mental clarity.
Mental clarity is needed not only to avoid confusion in decision making, but also in cherishing beautiful moments, or in avoiding crisis. Mental clarity is the reshaping of thoughts for the betterment of life. It improves the essence and quality of life. Once you can identify that loop point, our thoughts start to flow in a perfect direction. Decluttering of the mind is the first step to gain clarity. Decluttering is removing what you don't need in your life. For example, reading a book, keeping a journal, leading a healthy lifestyle, getting sound sleep and doing meditation, etc., can help achieve clarity. People in this world go through an emotional roller-coaster sometime or other. Mental clarity helps you achieve stability in your life and helps you in risk-taking decisions.
It is no wonder why God wants us to be quite clear on what we should and should not do. Listen, again, to Paul’s reminder to us, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). ?“Say to those with fearful hearts,” the prophet Isaiah said, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance, with Divine retribution, he will come to save you” (Isaiah 35:4).
The third benefit that my Torah gift will give to you this week is self-confidence. It’ll help you to develop your self-confidence or your cognitive competence. Why the need to develop your self-confidence or cognitive competence? Because these are the skills associated with the acquisition of knowledge and the processing of information through thought, such as reasoning, intuition, perception, imagination, inventiveness, creativity, problem-solving, and oral and written expression.
领英推荐
It is no wonder why the apostle Paus leaves us with these words of comfort, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). The fourth benefit my Torah gift will give to you this week is inner strength. It'll help you to develop your inner strength. How? By putting your complete trust in the hand of God.
You must read the signs or the trends of the time; you must focus on the must-do, not the want or the like, but the must-do. And you must manage the risk involved as best you can. To do that, you must persevere and not give up easily. You must exert the utmost power of your mind. If one way does not lead to the desired outcome, take another; if obstacles arise, then still another; until, if your inner strength holds out.
That is why King Solomon puts it this way, “So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work.?Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God (Ecclesiastes 2:24). Listen, again, to Peter’s advice to us, And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:6).
The fifth benefit my Torah gift will give you this week is a heightened sense of gratitude and heartfelt appreciation. It'll help you enhance your sense of "thank you" and heartfelt appreciation, knowing that when we were destined to die an eternal death, our God has offered to pay the redemption price so that you and I will have life and have it abundantly. How? Through the precious blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Listen, again, to the apostle Paul's confession of faith, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).
The Historical Proof that Supports our Need for Your Daily Bread that Sustains Us Spiritually
Does it surprise you, then, that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, did not forget to remind us about these things? That is why last week you heard Jesus speaking to us, saying, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything that is written about me in the Law of Moses [Torah] and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled…” (Luke 24:44). ). Jesus, then, did something which I thought was quite remarkable and quite extraordinary. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:45-49).
Overview Summary of this Week’s Torah Portion
With this in mind, let us look at this week’s Torah portion, Leviticus 12:1-13:59. In the Hebrew language (God’s sacred tongue) from which our English Bible translation was taken, this week’s Torah portion is called, “Tazria” translated as “If a woman conceives,” see Leviticus 12:1-2.
?To understand this, one has to, first of all, identify the double references in the text. On a simple linguistic level intended primarily for the Jewish audience, the reading focuses on the code “Tazria” translated as “If a woman conceives.” Thus, in the opening part of the reading, we are told that if a woman conceives and gives birth to a child, then that woman, according to the Jewish tradition, should undergo a process of purification. In the central part of the reading, we learn that if the child turns out to be a male, then the woman shall be unclean for 7 days. On top of that, the woman shall remain unclean for 33 more days which is symbolic of the 40 days of Lent in which we are made aware of our sins and, therefore, our need for purification.
Please note that this so-called law of ritual impurity and purity requires immersing in a naturally gathered pool of water and bringing offerings to the Holy Temple. All male infants are to be circumcised on the eighth day of life. Also included in this week’s Torah portion is a supra-natural plague, often referred to as leprosy, which also can afflict garments.
Indeed, on a profound theological level, this week’s Torah portion, “Tazria” translated, as “If a woman conceives,” has an important message to us, the Church, and the Body of Christ. This message is evident when the Torah portion is interpreted in the context of this third week of the Lent or Preparation season. And that is, our God blesses those who keep his commandments, and he punishes those who transgress his commands.
?Consider how faithful and truthful God is, in carrying out his promise made to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel,” (Genesis 3:15). This means that Jesus, the Messiah, will come to us through the seed of a woman, not a man. How do we know that? Listen, again, to this week’s text, “If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean 7 days…” (Leviticus12:1-2).?This is a clear reference to the 7 days of the Holy Week. It is no wonder why the prophet Isaiah assured us, saying, “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” (Isaiah 7:14). That is what Isaiah had in mind when he said, “To us, a child is born, to us, a son is given,” (Isaiah 9:6).
?Question: When was this promise that God made to the serpent in the Garden of Eden fulfilled? Answer: On Good Friday and Easter morning. On Good Friday, the devil nailed Jesus’ heels on the cross; listen, again, to Jesus’ cry on the cross in excruciating pain, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me…” (Psalm 22:1).
?No doubt, the devil thought that he had conquered Jesus once and for all. But on Easter morning, when God resurrected Jesus from the grave, the devil had never slept well since that day. Perhaps, it is for this reason that Jesus put it this way, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but when it dies, it bears much fruit,” (John 12:24).
Should you be interested in an in-depth study of the weekly Torah codes on which our lives turn, Book I, Volume 1 of my III Books Series: 11 Volumes,?entitled, “The Hidden Secrets of the Master’s Mind: How You Can Live with God’s Time” was released on February 28. The book was published by Create & Write Publishing: A Division of the Master’s Mind International. Please use the following link to get your copy of the book on Amazon:
?You can reach me at [email protected]. Also, get your FREE copy of God’s calendar for this 2022-2023 ministry year that will help guide your faith journey.?