 By Christopher from Schtix and Stones
Despite the odd new love for the Gospel of Thomas in the Hebrew Roots Movement, this is a love affair that will result in the same fashion as a Glenn Close, Michael Douglas movie made back in....I donno 1987. I find it rather scary that the same people who told me to stay away from the Rabbinical sources, are the same ones gravitating towards something that is considered a "Gnostic Gospel". It makes as much sense as Clint Howard playing Humprey Bogart in a multi-million Universal release of the life of Bogie. Now I have read the Gospel of Thomas and I read it back in 2004, the Gospel of Thomas claims to be the "secret sayings of Jesus" one of this things I realized is the Buddhist influence in the Fraud...I mean Gospel of Thomas. The Messiah was painted a mix of Archie Bunker, meets, Guru Pinka (Mike Myers character from the Love Guru), meets Dr Gregory House. And at times a drunk Oreson Welles. At times I thought I was reading the Stanley Kubrick script from A.I. Or like I was watching Pulp Fiction on a Meth-bender. Is that enough pop culture references? Ya get the cut of my jib so we can get into the meat of this now? Now I do not wanna get off on a rant here......well again maybe I do. But lets look at what some Hebrew roots believers are reading in the Gospel of Thomas:
 (From Nazarene Israel Magazine)
Christopher Fredrickson is a believer in Yahshua Messiah, a follower of Torah and runs the successful Nazarene Radio Network that over 100,000 people listen to on a weekly basis he also has his own radio show on NRN called Schtix and Stones. Nazarene Israel: Mr Fredrickson we appreciate this interview for our first publication Christopher: Oh wow I did not know this is your first one wow, what an honor for me I hope I do not cause your readers to unsubscribe. NI: Nazarene Media, where did this idea stem from? CWF: Well, I think it comes from all the way back when I became a follower in Torah and Messiah, I wanted to learn and I am a Podcast and eBook guy, I loved finding eBooks online and reading them in my spare time and I had a Sony Reader, later a Kindle, a Velocity Cruz and then recently an iPad, and I am a guy who loves to learn. So I found as many eBooks as I could and put them on my Sony Reader and they were hard to find, so I only had a few. And as far as the podcasts there were only a few you can really find through Google and Yahoo etc and the podcast servers out there you do not know if they are orthadox or if they believe in Yeshua as well so I had this issue, finding all of these. But I found as much as I could. Out of all the podcasts I found I contacted many of the hosts from those and got them aboard the Yahshuan Radio Network back in February of 2012, all the ones I could contact. I started hosting my own show at that time it was called The New Oye In Town, which later became Schtix and Stones, and when doing the website which was a crappy little Spruz site, I added a media tab and I uploaded all the eBooks I could find right there that were public domain. And that little sucker got more hits than did the radio. And I started to realize that people were just like I was at the beginning of my walk they wished there was a one stop shop where they could get all these media resources, whether eBooks or mp3s, Podcasts, videos, blog and radio. So when we left a ministry many of us were a part of, We decided to start Nazarene Media, to have a hub to get all the media we had at the spruz site and to focus more on the media and getting people the free resources they all wanted and honestly needed so they could be fed. We also started the Nazarene Radio Network and since then it has just grown. NI: How much work have you had to put into Nazarene Media? CWF: Oh goodness if you saw it when it first started you would be appalled, it was nothing at all. We had maybe 10 books in the eBook section we had the radio player, and that was about it, I can remember more of what was not there as opposed to what is there now looking back. NI: Tell us about your podcast page. CWF: Oh man YeshuaCast is one of my favorite things, it is a one stop shop of free Podcasts of Hebrew Roots teachers, all great audio quality, and it is not like those big name Podcasting servers, what we have done is set up something that was originally just for the Nazarene Radio Network Hosts and we then took it to the public Hebrew roots teachers can get unlimited space unlimited bandwidth have an iTunes accessible podcast and of they are on a radio network they get a player with their logo on it for only $10 a month or $100 a year, those big guys are not ministry based we are, and we charge only 3% on average what Podomatic and all those other guys charge and the finds go right back into the ministry. We have not had anyone outside of NRN or YRN sign up yet so it is off to a slow start and we have not generated any revenue for the respected ministries yet, but it has been a blessing thus far nonetheless for those whom are looking for safe podcasts. NI: I heard YeshuaCast is the host of the #1 Podcast in Nazarene Judaism (Schtix and Stones) on iTunes ranking. CWF: Oh man that is just crazy, and I do not understand it either, when you go to iTunes and you search the podcasts there you also have Jim Staley, Rico Cortes, Mark Biltz, ya know some heavy hitters there people whom everyone knows and whom I think truly have the Spirit of Yahweh with them at all times, and I highly respect these individuals and these teachers. Then you hear Schtix and Stones and it just bewilders me a great deal that you have two guys who have only been walking Torah for only days compared to some of these others, and yeah we are #1. But I think some of it is from the fact that we have an audience the Hebrew Roots really has not reached yet and that is the younger people. They identify with me and JJ Roxx because we are goofballs, and we kinda have a rock and roll style program. I got an email from a person listening the other day and she said we were blasphemous because we do not have your normal, sit down and be quiet type of program that will help you nod off to sleep. And though she was ranting about us she could not stop listening and when I asked her why she did not just turn it off if she was so incredibly offended she messaged me back in this group on Facebook and said, "I wanted to see what you would say next". NI: Do you get a lot of negativity from people because your show is not, as you said, "the norm"? CWF: Oh yeah big time, but the cool thing is in this show we are learning, and our audience is learning with us, we have been wrong several times and we have been right about several things, and when we are wrong, we come on the next week and correct ourselves and apologize to the audience. You are not going to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time. The thing is we want to be honest with our audience, in who we are. I was talking to someone the other day who recognized me from the radio, and I was with Dale McCoyle from Two Witness Netsarim, and one of his friends he invited said, "you guys remind me of exactly how you sound on the radio" and that is the key is being honest with people. We get a lot of junk from the Karaites mostly and they love to twist every little thing possible, we also get a lot of junk from ministries who think that ministry is a numbers game which it isn't and egos are what causes them to lash out a great deal, some just have a cult mentality. But we must pray for brethren whom act such as this cause we were all there, I know I was. But also remember that Yeshua said if I am for you who can be against you? NI: Who do you learn from? CWF: Everybody and anybody, most importantly the Scriptures. I tend to use a lot of 1st Century Rabbinical sources, including the Talmud and I also make sure to have my ear open to brethren with different interpretations than I, cause I wanna learn and expand my learning, of course we let the Ruach HaKodesh lead, but sometimes the Ruach leads us to people and to texts, to help us answer questions. I recently started a weekly Talmud Portion that goes with the Torah Portion every week and man, you would not believe week after week I see the Messiah in the Talmud and I ask how in the world do our Orthodox brethren not see it? I do not have a Rabbi, other than Yeshua, to be honest. To my advantage I am a objective guy, I do not have any sacred cows as far as my own doctine in the Hebrew Roots or interpretation of a certain verse, plus I make note there are also 4 levels of understanding the Pashat, Remez, Drash and Sod, so many brethren's interpretation though may not be the same as mine as long as it aligns with the Scripture is accurate in my mind. Surround yourself with people whom do not agree with you and whom challenge you, whom make you think outside of the box, and you will learn very very very quickly, I was at a standstill right after I learned the name and a few things on Torah because we were not allowed any interpretation other than the one of the person whom headed that ministry, and if your interpretation was different then you were automatically of HaSatan, and that is no way to learn. But after we stepped outside of the doors of that ministry we decided that we were responsible for our walk we needed to research ourselves test all things, and I grew more after stepping out from under that ministry than I could have if I were there for 80 years. Learn from Scripture first and 2ndly from brethren you do not always agree with cause they will challenge you, and be humble and admit when you are wrong, cause when we have humility and love then we have the Ruach HaKodesh working within us. NI: Not including Torah and Yahshua, what message do you wsh to give to the body? CWF: Unity....simply unity. I mean in terms of uniting as the body it is the single most important message any of us could ever give to the body. Unity can only come through the Torah, Yeshua said love is the single most important part of the Torah, and it should be the main message and the first message when we come into the truth. Cause love brings humility, meekness, kindness and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit. We get too divisive at times, and it is over stupid things like the spelling of the name, one house two house, calendars, prophecy etc. What do these things have to do with Torah and Messiah? Nothing!! Do you believe Yeshua is gonna say, "Hey good job you figured out the correct doctrine"? No he is gonna say did you keep my commandments and did you love your neighbor as yourself? NI: What is next for Nazarene Media and Schtix and Stones? CWF: Oh gosh that is a tough question, we do not have anything really new in the plans and reason being this is what Yahweh wants us to do now, I try and not take the wheel myself. But I can say we hope to keep on doing what we are doing and expanding our database of free material and keep getting out the uniting message of Jew and Goyim which is the message of Torah and Messiah. I am honored Yahweh has allowed us to do what we do, and right now we are gonna focus on do what He has allowed us to do best.  by Christopher From Schtix and Stones Passover is traditionally known as a time of sacrifice atonement and judgement. This is why the blood is smeared over the door posts and it is also why traditionally a lamb is killed and eaten. We also get the leaven out of our houses and out of our lives. But believe it or not the obedience to Yahweh brings many blessings. I was sent this music video from a friend who is an orthodox Jew, by the name of Yonah. This music video really showed me what the Israeli people go through every day surrounded by people whom wish to kill them. (Please watch the music video before reading the rest of this blog) In watching this video I see a lot of symbolism of Yeshua the Messiah, and our orthodox brethren really do not even see it, with the unintentional symbolism of the son resurrected in the music video to the rebuilding of the Temple through the prayer sheets flying around all over the place and Yahweh stopping those missiles from hitting Jerusalem. The enemies of Yahweh will be brought to judgement, the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's of the world, the Kim Jung Ungs of the world will all be put to the judgement of Yahweh during the Passover.
The Messiah will come and he will come back soon and he will answer the prayers of these people in Jerusalem and in the Holy Land, their enemies will be a footstool at their feet, when Yeshua comes back. I ask that no matter what day you start Passover on that you please pray for the people of Israel, pray for our very own military that is fighting overseas right now so you can celebrate Passover, pray that Yahweh's shield is around them, pray for the children who are sick with cancer, pray for the orphan who lost their family, pray for the mother who found out she only has a short time to live, pray for the father who lost his job, pray for the widows, pray for the teachers, pray for the weak, pray for the lame, pray for those who are searching, pray for the addicts, pray for the priests, pray for the the entire world this Passover, pray that Yahweh puts his hands upon them and that he protects his people against the tyrants and the dividers and the snakes and those hiding within the shadows. Pray that the blessings abound for those whom seek him even if they are wrong in their analysis, pray that Yahweh continues to teach them during this time of judgement. I ask that we not be legalistic however we be people with love in our hearts whom are not prideful, not boastful, whom do not demand our own way and whom are humble, loving, caring and kinf |
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Theological Insights from Rabbi Eved Banah the North American Rebbe of Ani Judaism Archives
June 2021
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