Finding Ephraim - The Journey Home

2011-12-27T22:29:00.000-08:00

Last night of Chanukah. We had a great time with friends, almost caught the kitchen on fire. Exciting!!!

Flippin Latkes and Spinnin Dreidels Yeah!!!

2011-12-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

Learning Cantonese

2011-12-13T21:38:00.000-08:00

Working with lots of different ethnicities of people all day. Some of my customers speak German, some Cantonese. So I try to learn phrases here and there. If I had the chance I would go back to school to be a linguist.

Great song by 8th Day, awesome band! I work at a grocery store, and even told a grouchy customer that he should try Ya'alili he didn't respond.

2011-12-11T21:17:00.001-08:00

Chanukkah at the JCC

2011-12-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Scripture of the Week: Psa 128:1 YLT - A Song of the Ascents. "O the happiness of every one fearing Jehovah, Who is walking in His ways. The labour of thy hands thou surely eatest, Happy [art] thou, and good [is] to thee. Thy wife [is] as a fruitful vine in the sides of thy house, Thy sons as olive plants around thy table. Lo, surely thus is the man blessed who is fearing Jehovah. Jehovah doth bless thee out of Zion, Look, then, on the good of Jerusalem, All the days of thy life, and see the sons of thy sons! Peace on Israel!"

I enjoyed a wonderful day today at the JCC Chanukkah event with my wife and daughter. It was quite the experience for Eloisa who has little exposure to the greater Jewish world. I watched as my wife Lisa and Eloisa sang O Chanukkah, O Chanukkah; and Dreidel dreidel dreidel with the accompaniment of an eclectic group of musicians. We saw a wide variety of Judaica and ran into various friends.

It's been tougher not belonging to any particular group, being quite isolated from everybody except our fellow commune partners the Becerra's. With whom we have come to love and appreciate. I have found that we are not the only ones. In the past we found ourselves studying at home alone but always with the intention of joining a congregation when we found one that suited us. Having been through that we are now at the point when we know that we are to stay home on the Shabbat.

It is now coming on around our 5th or 6th year of Torah observance, and as we heard said by others living this life, "Once you live a life of Torah observance you never want to go back." We find that to be true.

Something About the Rio Grande

2010-10-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

Verse of the Day: 1Ki 10:22 for a navy of Tarshish hath the king at sea with a navy of Hiram; once in three years cometh the navy of Tarshish, bearing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

I always prefered the navy.

Song of the Day: Ebony & Ivory by Paul McCartney

I've finally begun the process of finishing my first book. I guess in actuality I've finally entered the time in my life where I'm ready. Funny thing happened last night, I woke myself up singing Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney around midnight and woke up this morning with the song in my heart. So many things to write about...

Last night I walked home from Walmart about 6 miles of wind, and sand in my teeth. As I walked across the Rio Grande it occurred to me how many times I've walked over the same river in different cities and different times in my life. When I moved back to Colorado after years away I moved to the small town of Alamosa to which the entrance boasts a small bridge crossing the sojourners river. Years later I moved my new family to Pueblo Colorado, and thus found myself crossing yet another bridge. And now living in Albuquerque New Mexico. There is something about that river! Something having to do with a secret past.

A miscommunication is the reason I ended up stranded at Walmart applying for work. It was the same reason in Pueblo, twice. As upset as I was about the whole thing, I came to realize that there are people around the world that have to make six mile jaunts like that, and even farther, just to fetch water. We Americans could hardly survive without cars, and all of the luxuries of the modern "civilized" world. Something to think about when things don't go our way.

Finding Ephraim - The Journey Home: One Step Closer

2010-06-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Finding Ephraim - The Journey Home: One Step Closer

One Step Closer

2010-06-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Home used to be Colorado, whenever I longed for someplace I called home it was there. Now I don't even live there and a longing for home remains. Now I know that that home is Israel... Jerusalem, the place of peace. In the past few years my wife and I have been searching for answers to question I believe a lot of truth-seekers have. Questions involving contradictions in the Bible, history that has been fudged, and religious systems that have been reduced to egocentric politics.

As we've found answers to some of these complicated questions we have developed a passion to share the answers, but surprisingly found that most people just don't want to know. There is now a gigantic difference between the young naive altar boy i used to be, and the modern version. Having been humbled by the Almighty year after year, i have found, for now, a quiet and secure closet of peace in my obedience to His Word, to His commandments. I long to be able to answer some of these tough questions for people, but only a select few make it far enough to challenge the status quo, to truly look at themselves and what they know and consider that they might be wrong, and be willing to change.

As I've seen the world turn on Israel in the past few months I have been both disgusted and at peace. I read the papers and still find columnists that are willing to see it like it is, to tell it like it is. People willing to stand up to the deceptive politics and mass media majority that paints a bleek and deceptive picture of Israel as terrorists, and a colorful one of terrorists made to look like angels (humanitarians actually.)

If you've found yourself here, I encourage you to get involved in this work. It is a labor of love for the people of Elohim (God). A net that has been cast. I think I've watched to much sci-fi in my life because as I write this I feel like I'm writing it to a younger version of myself in an alternate universe.

Defining Ephraim

2009-05-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

Scripture of the Day: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Song of the Day: "Home Free" By Wayne Watson

I pose these two questions to myself:
If we are expected to seek his righteousness then why study torah?
What does it mean (to me) to be righteous (tzaddick)?

I can’t exactly say how, when, or why I felt or knew things that I should not have known being so little. When I remember some of these things, I hope to document them. One of these things was the feeling that God would reveal to me his purpose for my life when I turned twenty one years old. I was convinced of this, and was very impatient getting there.

I moved to Virginia on August 24, 1994, and I had just turned twenty one. I had been backslidden for quite a while before my twenty first birthday, and it wasn’t until I moved to Virginia that I decided to start attending church. As far as I was concerned, though I looked diligently for the Lord’s direction, I found none. It wasn’t until many years in the future (13 years to be exact) when I realized that the Lord had indeed shared his purpose for my life.

The poem you are about to read was written in 1995, probably before I turned twenty two. This poem was God’s very specific instruction and ultimate destination. The scripture calls it “the mark:” as in “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14

The Call to “The Place”

The words spoken from this pen, uttered by my mind, none of these are sufficient for the ponderings of my soul. It only seems unexplainable to understand that intangible spirit of the Lord; real by faith, it is made manifest in me. I am a witness of the Lord G-d Almighty whose name is Jesus. Through faith I have found, and it has been made existent to me this place, this frame of mind, in which it is by faith in the Lord that my mind is ruled. Where the intangibility of the spiritual realm is made tangible and seen through understanding.
The power of the Lord is reached in liberty, by working in holiness, and by sharing his word to others in Love. For this mindset I seek: To be focused on him, and having a made up mind. So that there will be no hindrances for him, as he can use me for his own will, and purpose.

By Ephraim D’Angelo 1995

It wasn’t until a couple of days ago when I realized that I HAD received the direction I had been looking for, but like the scripture said about the disciples when they didn’t understand the Lord’s instruction about leaven. He said, “Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?” Mark 8:18. I too didn’t understand though it was clearly written with my own hand.

I am now 34 years old, and this year I will be entering into the fifth seven year cycle of my life on the earth. I have received my Hebrew name, and am striving to die to myself, and live in Christ (Mashiach, Messiah). Though I write “seven year cycle,” I really don’t have any solid biblical reverence for this phrase, nor have I any reason. I only say it here for the time I discover the reason, and can see that I was right in my feeling.

1st Question: If we are expected to seek his righteousness then why study Torah?

This is a very tough and straightforward question. Having been blessed with a good compass that helps me on the spiral staircase of biblical truth. I have found myself beginning to realize my Hebrew roots. Not through any natural or genealogical methods, but by the spirit that leads to all truth as stated in John 16:13

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.“

This truth is what I am referring when I say truth. He also said in the same book; John 14:6

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

These two scriptures are enough to define “his righteousness” that we should be seeking. He was also the living word of God (the living Torah) made clear in John 1:14:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

This instigates more questions to discover the answers to question #1. What did Jesus say and do? What did he say about the law (Torah)? Mat 5:17:

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

And John 10:10:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.

What is life? How can we obtain life? How is life defined by God’s word?

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1 John 1:1-10 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;…

This passage of scripture brings up two more questions:

What is light and what is sin?

1.) What is sin?

1 John 3:4
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

1Corinthian 15:56
The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law.

Romans 3:20
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.

Romans 6:14,15
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

2.) What is light?

Proverbs 6:23
For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Psalm 119:105
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Isaiah 8:20
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

1John 1:5
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ (Yahshua Ha’Mashiach) his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Defining Ephraim D’Angelo

2009-05-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

Scripture of the Day: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. Proverbs 3:5-7

Song of the Day: I Just Want To Be With You By Chris Frank

I pose these two questions to myself today:
Who is Ephraim D’Angelo?
What do I think God’s purpose is for my life?

1st Question: Who is Ephraim D’Angelo

I am Ephraim D’Angelo raised by parents that were raised from childhood in the Apostolic Assembly, but backslid when they married. I was raised a hippie child only aware of what was exemplified by my parents moral attitudes. Since the age of seven years of age God took me, and placed me on a journey to find and obtain truth. I am a truth-seeker, with (I believe) the call and responsibility of a teacher, and a watchman.

I have yet to operate as a teacher as I believe I should. I have children, and I teach them but I am lazy and lack discipline. I lack the understand of how critical my role is in the lives of these young babes. I procrastinate everyday of my life to develop those necessary habits, and to focus and strengthen my mind in the ways of the Lord. This is an attempt at beginning a constant habit of study, self evaluation, and awareness. Ephraim D’Angelo is my pen name given to me by the man of God. Ephraim is also becoming a sense of my true heart being manifested in my very demeanor, attitude, speech, and countenance. Following are a few words I would use to define myself, although others that know me may use different words. I believe myself to be loyal, passionate, creative, sincere, articulate, obedient, impatient, procrastinative, caring, giving, co-dependent, foolish, ethical, teachable, reasonable, committed, insecure, frustrating, foresight, discerning, friendly, overbearing, longing (desire), stubborn, cleaving, and unrelenting.

2nd Question: What do I think God’s purpose is for my life?

I believe God’s purpose for my life involves more than just one particular purpose however as I begin to define these things in writing, I believe the end result will be a phrase already etched out in his word. I believe I am to grow spiritually into a tzaddik which is Hebrew for a righteous man. All my life’s journey is finally culminated to this realization. Once I am living in the realms of light, and walking in the ways of the Creator consistently and purposely I hope I will end up a productive tool in my masters hands.

Memoirs of my Journey Home

2009-05-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

Oh dear...Oh DEAR...I'll be so late! And as the story goes the rabbit hurries off and Alice finds herself following him down the rabbit hole...

As I began this journey there is no doubt that I have felt just like Alice. This blog has been created to share with you some of my prolific writings. Writings having to do with the process of awakening that takes place when a sincere soul truly begins to search for the living God; writings that have only benefited me until now. I do not belong to any particular denomination, or religion. I belong to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and a seeker of His truth.

I was raised a christian, but consider myself a covenant child of the Creator. These writings are not meant to teach or endorse any religion or doctrine. If I, at times, come across as confident in any particular idea, concept or principle, please do not take offense, just remember that most of these writings were written for my own clarity.

Also remember that I am on the journey, I have not arrived, so some of my ideas may still be in error. When a sword is being sharpened it is being stripped of metal, and so it is with man. We must be stripped of our biases and erroneous ideas, stripped of ego and vanity.