With the rate at which our society continues to degrade, I’ve been seriously asking myself this question: What’s the use in teaching the Bible anymore? Why does showing people what the Bible says even matter—much less trying to help them have a correct understanding of God’s word? Read more
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As we turn the corner toward Fall, we continue to face severe uncertainty about the future. Everything feels like it is in flux, while we are left to wait for life to settle down into the new normal—whatever that will be. But while we are in this seemingly perpetual holding pattern, we need to resist the inclination to put our walk with God on hold as well. The expectations that God had of us last year are the same expectations that He has for us this year—and, if possible, even more so, now that we are being tested in ways we have never been before. Read more
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I have had a moment of clarity. Perhaps it won’t be revelatory to you, or perhaps it will open your eyes. But I feel so compelled to share it with you that I created this special section of our website to address what I see as an epic crisis plaguing our country. If you have school-aged children—or know anyone who does, or care about the future of our country—you need to hear this.
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I love the Scriptures. I love God’s Word. Every chapter, paragraph, sentence, phrase, word and letter of the Book is life to me. If I could, I would spend each waking moment completely immersed in it. Truly, the Scriptures are perfection.
So, because I love the Word and hold it in such high esteem, I handle it with great care. I don’t take anything about it for granted—I want to clearly hear and obey. I disdain obstacles to understanding, and desire to remove any hindrances that would keep me from the purest possible knowledge of what the Book says and what the Book means. Read more
If you’ve been a reader of mine for any length of time, then you know just how extremely high I hold and regard the Scriptures—the written Word of God. After all, with a name like Perfect Word Ministries, it is our explicit purpose to maintain that the Scriptures are God’s perfect Word, written down by divinely-inspired hands for mankind’s benefit and direction, and that the Scriptures alone are wholly sufficient and supreme in their guidance and wisdom. Indeed, how could I ever not cling to and champion the singular belief that only by bearing the standard of Scripture may we find, fix upon, and follow our Master—the Messiah Yeshua?
So with that in mind, here are four reasons why, above all else, you need God’s Word. Read more
“Wow, Kevin! Your teaching on [insert topic here] is spot on! I couldn’t agree more. I had previously been taught to believe something different than what you’re saying; however, your analysis of what the Scriptures actually say is exactly right. There can be no argument from the Word. You are 100% correct that this passage does not say what I have always thought it says—on the contrary, it says something completely different…. Nevertheless—and I’m definitely not saying that you’re wrong—I still believe what I previously believed, and your teaching has not persuaded me otherwise.”
I’m not kidding. In response to a recent teaching of mine, to my surprise, I received multiple replies along these lines. My reader would affirm that while my teaching was accurate in its correction of a long-held and firmly ingrained belief among believers, it didn’t change their mind. Even though I demonstrated the truth from the Scriptures themselves—and my reader recognized that truth—they remained unswayed. In so many words, the response was, “I now see the truth of the Scriptures, but… I will continue to hold on to a false teaching, because I still believe it.” Read more
For as long as I have been teaching and writing about Yeshua, it has been primarily to a Messianic Jewish audience, knowing all the while that many Gentile ears were listening. But one thing that has boggled my mind for more than a decade has been the attraction that certain believers—both Jewish and Gentile—develop for “the Jewish (or Hebrew, or Hebraic) roots of the Christian faith.” While I perfectly understand why a Jewish believer in Yeshua would continue in faithfulness to the Torah, retaining an ethnically Jewish identity in the Messiah, I have often wondered why believers who were formerly immersed in Christianity would begin gravitating toward all manner of things “Jewish.” What motivates people to pursue Christianity’s “Jewish roots”? Read more
I’m always excited to meet other believers in Yeshua, regardless of affiliation or relationship to the Messianic Jewish movement. Recently, we were getting to know another believing family, and over the course of those first few awkward moments of getting acquainted, the young father asked me, “So, what kind of music do you like?” Now, being a musician myself, this was not a strange question to me—in fact, it was one which I could readily answer. Yet within me, it struck a dissonant chord of superficiality. Here we were: two men in Yeshua, two fathers of sons, meeting for the first time, and our best point of connection was the kind of music I like?
While one’s taste in music may be shallow common ground for planting a relationship, believers in Yeshua have been known to build on less. But what about more substantial issues, such as controversial doctrines? Are shared beliefs on things like “once saved, always saved,” predestination, baptism, speaking in tongues, or whether or not Christians are required to keep Torah, enough to establish the foundation for deep, enduring relationships? Or perhaps we can find our camaraderie over slightly less contentious matters, such as style of worship, method of prayer, or manner of preaching?
But what happens when our tastes change? What if our doctrinal perspectives shift? How can a relationship built on personal preference or position papers survive such a transformation? Read more
An ancient voice keeps calling out, “In the wilderness, prepare the way of Adonai; make straight in the desert a highway to our God” (Isaiah 40:3). The prophetic call to be God’s trail blazers has been passed down through the generations—from Elijah (see 1Kings 18:36-37), to Isaiah, to John the Immerser/“Baptist” (see Matthew 11:10-14)—and it will continually resound until the Day the Master Yeshua triumphantly returns (see Malachi 4:5-6). Yet for today, “the way of Adonai” goes woefully unprepared. In our generation, we have misunderstood the instruction and wandered far from the path of our prophetic purpose. We have wrongly imagined “prepare the way” as a call to build, when it is, in fact, just the opposite. Read more
Most of us (I hope!) would say that we love the Word of God… that we depend on it, submit to it, and try our best to fully abide by what God says. But the way that sentiment is realistically worked out in each of our lives is often dramatically different. Sometimes those differences are caused by the pervasive influence of the world. Sometimes it’s because we selfishly pursue our own interests. But in my experience, the fundamental reason why we don’t approach our relationship with God and our reliance upon His Word in the same way is because we do not bear the same standard when it comes to living for Yeshua. The reason we fail to know God and listen to His Word is because our aim has drifted from the goal. Read more
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