If my travels ever bring me your way, I'm looking you up...

On a similar note, someone mentioned the idea of Tabernacles together someplace, and I like the sound of that.
Would give time to plan, camping for a week, fellowship...

It would be great if all who were able to, could get together in the YY Study Group room. I know there are people from all over the world that may be interested in getting involved and fellowshipping there. Everyone obviosly wont be able to log on at the same time, but if we knew when it would be open, maybe a couple of times a week, we could meet and chat with each other. Just a thought, it may have already been tried.

Nice song, Richard. And good questions, all. But the answer to most of them is "no." We are not accomplishing much; the site has not grown many (maybe a hundred a year), less the members that never return. That is surprising considering the more than 10,000 emails Yada says he has received. But your post is timely, because if we can keep on this theme it could show us a way to crack this barrier. I do not know what it will take, maybe a youtube video, a facebook announcement -- Certainly, we cannot be mainstream, but is there something from which we could draw mainstream. We all want to help, but how? If we cannot, what is the best we can do amongst ourselves for the duration. If we keep meeting on a thread, draw more with urgency into it, maybe open Paltalk. At least we should keep firing questions at ourselves; some answer could bounce back. And you are right, too often it is lonely.

II know from shared experience on the forum that the overwhelming majority if not all of us have tried to share YHWH's Word and our convictions about that Word with our friends and family and usually our efforts are to no avail. They reject the message immediately or seem to accept at least some of it with what appears to be downright enthusiasm....then only later you find out that they began to understand the magnitude of the message and decided to retreat back to their "poligious"/humanistic coma or were just patronizing you. It is to be expected. There has only ever been a remnant. As it was in the time of EliYahu so it is now. They would understand us more if we were a milion miles away chasing a comet and waiting for the aliens to deliver us while we have our kool-aide social. What perplexes them and enmaddens and often enrages them is that we cannot be discounted...it is that we have to be reckoned with whether they reject the message or not. As long as we stick to the Tanakh we will be safe and they will be challenged. It is sometimes scary in this isolation. You feel abnormal, and you get discouraged and you begin to wonder if you perhaps are wrong or are crazy. Do not think that the remnant felt any different as they watched their brothers and sisters bow to ba'al and defile the Qodes haqQodesim with the abominations from the nations..weeping for Tammuz and adorning the Asherah poles and planting the sacred groves...offering incense on the high places. Do not think for one second that we have it worse or have more reason to be discouraged than the nebiim or the remnant. The fornication and defilement was all around them. As long as we are rooted in Torah we cannot be led astray no matter how much they berate us or criticize us or reject us. If we are done in it will be because we have turned our back on the Word. So do not be discouraged brothers and sisters.

It is right to say that this forum cannot be the be all end all of what we do on this earth. It would be dishonest to relegate this place to a mere echo chamber but by happenstance that is sometimes what it is and I would venture to say that is what it needs to be. It is a place where we recharge our batteries, where we receive food for thought, and where we are challenged with substance rather than the same tired dross that has no ability to sharpen but rather to dull. It is by no means a perfect or a complete and immersive community but thank Yah it is here.

We don't know what will happen with complete and full knowledge 5 minutes from now and much less do we know about what will happen tomorrow or a week from now. We cannot get discouraged because everything can change in an instant. If you plant one seed in fertile soil you can get a bountiful harvest. We never are wasting our time when we discuss and proclaim YHWH's message. It is as much for our benefit as it is for those we intend to reach. Who knows who will be touched by it. It is like planting a seed in the dead of winter. When you do this...it is not that the time is not right...it just hasn't come yet. It will not germinate and it will not grow. You think the seed is dead, but it isn't. It is merely dormant...waiting for its proper season. We here in this community have planted many seeds such as these. I would not be surpised that when the things that we know are coming do indeed come to pass....which you can already sense they are....then some....not all or most may remember what you or I said and they may come back to us and ask more questions or better yet start reading the Torah from Bereshith bara Elohim...

I don't know about the rest of you but I "converted" completely when I started to get into Yada Yahweh. For a long time I had suspected something was wrong...even when I was a little boy....but I tried to bury these feelings with only more religiousity....trying my hardest to get teary eyed at the midnight service on mithras mass eve and so on and so forth. I was definitely primed when I came to YY but I was not quite there. This literature is what got me back to reading the scriptures with the effort to abdicate my preconceived notions and bias. I can't say that I wouldn't have come to know YHWH if I had never found YY. I was headed in that direction. But I will say this...it would have probably taken me longer and I would have adopted a lot of garbage along the way in the messianic movement. What I appreciate most about this site and this forum is that I was blessed with a much earlier relationship with YHWH. I have been given precious days and weeks and months and years that I otherwise would have lost out on. For those who were outright made aware of YHWH's message or were pushed off the fence by YY....which is I think most if not all of us....we must realize how tremendous that is. As C.S. Lewis said (to paraphrase) YHWH didn't just do what He did and He isn't going to do what He will do simply for MAN. He has done and will do for EACH MAN. It is not just some abstract found in some form of humanistic altruism. It is intimate and personal and horrible and wonderful. It is the fact that He who is almighty truly has created the world for me and has redeemed me in complete intimate love as if I were the only one...and if I was the only one he would have done no less. That to me is something of earth shaking magnitude. I believe that there are thousands that we have touched...either in our endeavors here or throughout our daily walk. We may only talk to them once or twice but that is not to say that we do not have an impact. There are many many people out there that are guests or that are registered that never speak up or post that show up here on a daily basis. And our conversations and debates and arguments DO at the least give them food for thought. More importantly if you or I get something out of coming here...if we are encouraged or edified or fortified or strengthened or humbled....then to me that is enough. That is good. We cannot feed the poor or clothe the naked or comfort the prisoner from here perhaps but we do discuss and bring to the light the message that does all of these things.

And about what I will say next....please hear me out. Charity and comfort and aide are all good and wonderful and mandated things for man in their communion with YHWH as fallen beings. But they are merely things in and of themselves if we do not know YHWH. Some of the most charitable people are atheists. Buddhists, muslims, christians, jews, social secular humanists all extol and promote charity and loving your neighbor and the golden mean and all that. But not one of these "poligions" promotes "w'Ahabtah et YHWH Eloheicha b'khol lababkha u-b'khol naphshekhah u-b'khol ma'odecha" This world may be short on loving one's neighbor...it is something however that at least gets lip service. Everyone knows it is a good. However, not one in one million people talk about loving YHWH with no caveats or addendums or conditions or excuses...with no ifs ands or buts....actually loving YHWH. Not one in a million know his name and I would even go so far as to say the overwhelming majority of christians think that Torah is talmud (some jewish religious rabbinic codification) if they know about it at all. There are merely taught a story here and a story there from the old testament. They don't see it as this unified whole. It is merely the religious mother goose that can be ignored once you are past the age of 10. (Please understand I am talking about the majority of the present age) So yes loving your neighbor is a precous commodity that is in all too short of a supply. Loving YHWH...the root of all things the possibiliy and origin of all love...Love itself as it truly is...terrible in aspect, both awesome and aweful to behold....the joy and the sorrow...the wrath and the mercy.....Jealous and intimate, patriarchal, matriarchal, brotherly, friendly, romantic, and kingly....exacting yet boundless....is in dangerously short supply. We must in our walk love our neignbors as ourselves but I wonder if we even can unless we love YHWH. The kemetic religion's rite of passage that transitioned a young Egyptian from boyhood to manhood included charity and caring for the poor as one of the rites. Yahushua said to those who did so much for their fellow man "depart from me.....". Naturally, don't get me wrong...if we love YHWH we will love and strive to love our neighbors....but if we are doing charity out of any love for any other god or for the benefit of any other system other than the one mandated by YHWH...woe to us.....would that we had never been born. We can say...charity is in and of itself good....even if not done for the right reasons. But I would argue...how many have been led astray by such "kindness" "wow these buddhists are really something....wow....these muslims are really something....wow these christians are really something.....wow....these communists are really something....wow...democracy is really something....wow....the American government is really something".....and so on and so forth. What seems like a kindnessin the immediate in the end can very possibly turn out to be a cruelty. Vulnerable and helpless people can be swayed and influenced and persuaded by the kindness of him who would give soup or a blanket in a time of need. Lies go down much smoother with clean water and bread. Deception is a cozy notion when the deceiver is the one who has warmed you. We must do what we can...when we can and how we can. There is no doubt about it....but we must not fall into the trap of thinking that all of these "poligions" and ideologies have done great good through their works. That is a very very hard notion to swallow and I think if we can separate the horiziontal material good from the much more important spiritual evil we can come to some understanding of the reality. I don't know how many times I have seen commentators on TV talk about say an organization like Hamas or the muslim brotherhood and admit that they are bad with the very big caveat...."but look at how much good they do" They take care of the widows and orphans and they give out food and medicine and keep the streets clean of garbage...." or whatever. Did we think that halal was going to come out with no mask on his machinations and designs for humanity? There is not going to be any group that will attract any following by saying...we are here to enslave, deceive, subdue, oppress and kill. With that in mind the greatest love we can give is the truth. It is of the utmost gravity that when we do love and serve our fellow men....we do so not only with material needs but also with the truth. If we get that wrong....nothing else we do will in the end matter. With that in mind this community continues to serve an important and vital function.

Well stated here Shalom.

Shalom Tagim
Thank you so much for your very kind words that you have offered on this occasion and at other times. I really do appreciate them but in all honesty I shudder to think of a world where there was more than just one of me. That is not false humility...it is just enough wisdom to know how truly flawed I am. Once again I do thank you for your kind words and I thank you for your own contribution to our little community on the web.

YHWH is with you.

WOW!!! Shalom82 you are being misrepresented on this board. Your sound wisdom should warrant more than the negative points for an advanced member...lol. I'll tell you though, these few sentences say it all in my opinion.

"We don't know what will happen with complete and full knowledge 5 minutes from now and much less do we know about what will happen tomorrow or a week from now. We cannot get discouraged because everything can change in an instant. If you plant one seed in fertile soil you can get a bountiful harvest. We never are wasting our time when we discuss and proclaim YHWH's message."

And the reason is, as slow as I am, I still tell folks about YHWH. I even write His name on my gates on my shop door. I try to get folks to ask me what those 4 letters mean, and it works.

Thanks!!!