Welcome to Shema

Welcome to Shema

Bless the Lord!Bless the Lord who is worthy to be praised

for all eternity!

Shema

Shema Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai

Echad.Baruch shem k’vod

malchuto l’olam va’ed.

Shema

Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the

LORD is One!Blessed be the name

of His glorious kingdom, forever and

ever. Amein.

Luke 14:7-11

Then Yeshua noticed that the guests had picked the best seats at the table, so he told them this example: “When someone invites you to a wedding reception, don’t recline on the couch in the place of honor,

because a person who is more important than you may have been invited.

The Source with Hebraic adaptation by Rabbi Lutton

Then the host who invited both of you will have to tell you, ‘You’ll have to give up your seat to this person.’ Then you’ll be embarrassed and you’ll have to sit in the worst seat.

“Instead, when you’re invited, go and sit in the worst seat. Then when the host comes up, the host will say to you, ‘My friend, move up to this place of honor!’ Then you’ll be honored in front of all the other guests. People who big-note themselves will be put down, and people who humble themselves will be honored.”

Luke 14:12-14

Then Yeshua also said to his host, “When you have lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, associates, relatives, or your rich neighbors. If you do, they’ll invite you back and you’ll be repaid. But when you give a party, invite the poor, the disabled, the crippled, and the blind, and you will be blessed! Although they can’t repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Luke 14:15-24

One of the guests reclining with them for dinner heard this and turned to Yeshua. “The person who eats at the feast in God’s Realm is certainly blessed!” the guest exclaimed.

But Yeshua answered, “A certain person was organizing a big party and invited a lot of guests. When the party was ready a slave servant was sent to tell the guests, ‘Come on, everything’s ready now.’

“But every one of them began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I’ve just bought some land, and I have to go and see it. Please accept my apologies.’

“Another one said, ‘I’ve just bought five pair of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please accept my apologies.’

“Still another one said, ‘I just got married, so I really can’t come.’

“The servant came back and reported all this to the boss. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered the slave servant, ‘Hurry out into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in the financially poor, the disabled, the blind and the crippled.’

“After that happened, the servant said, ‘Master, I’ve done what you said, but there’s still some room.’

“Then the master told the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and country lanes and make them come in - I want my house to be full.’

“I tell you, not one of those invited guests will get so much as a taste of the feast!”

Luke 14:25-33

Large crowds were traveling with Yeshua, and he turned to them and said, “No one can be my disciple if they put their father, mother, wife or children - even their own life – before me. And no one can be my

disciple unless they carry their own cross and follow me.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Surely you’ll sit down first and calculate the cost to see if you have enough money to finish it? If you lay the foundation then run out of money, everyone who sees it will poke fun at you, and say, ‘This silly fool started building and can’t even finish it!’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Surely he’ll sit down first and consider whether he is able to win, if he’s only got 10,000 soldiers and the other king has 20,000 soldiers! If he thinks he can’t win, he’ll send out a delegation while the other one is still a long way off and will negotiate peace terms. In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:34-35

“Salt is good, but if it loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again? It’s not even fit to put on soil or a pile of manure! People throw it out. If you have ears you had better listen!”

Luke 15:1-7

All the Tax Profiteers and sinners were coming close to hear him. But the Pharisees and the Bible scholars were grumbling to each other, “This guy welcomes sinners and eats with them!”

But Yeshua told them this example: “Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and you lose one of them. Surely you leave the other 99 in the open country and keep looking for the lost sheep until you find it!

And when you find it, you’re happy! You put it on your shoulders and go back home.

Then you call your friends and neighbors and say, ‘Come and celebrate - I’ve found that lost sheep!’

“In the same way there will be more celebrating in Heaven over one sinner who changes their mind than over the other 99 people who are right with God who don’t need to change their minds.

Luke 15:8-10

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and she loses one of them. Surely she turns on the light, sweeps the house and searches carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her girlfriends

and neighbors over and says, ‘Come and celebrate, I’ve found that lost coin!’ In the same way there is celebrating in the presence of God’s Messengers over one sinner who changes their mind.”

Luke 15:11-16

Yeshua said, “There was a guy who had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Dad, give me my share of the estate.’ “So he divided up the property between them. Not long after that, the younger son sold off everything he had, and went abroad to a distant country. He squandered his wealth extravagantly.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine throughout the country, and he started needing money. So he went and hooked up to a citizen of that country, and he sent him out to his fields to feed the pigs. He wished he could fill his stomach with the bean pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

Luke 15:17-24

“Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many paid servants of my father have more than enough food, and here I am starving to death! I’ll go and say to my father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you! I don’t deserve to be called your son. Make me one of your paid servants!”’

“So he left and headed for his father. But when he was a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion toward him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I don’t deserve to be called your son!’ “But the father said to his slave servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best coat we have, the finest, and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let’s have a party and celebrate! This son of mine was a corpse and now he lives again - he was lost and now he’s found!”

Luke 15:24-32

“And the party began. Meanwhile, the older son was out on the farm. As he approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants over and asked them what was going on.

“The servant replied, ‘Your brother has returned, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has got him back all in one piece.’

“The brother was so angry that he couldn’t go into the house, so his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father, ‘All these years I’ve been working for you and I never once disobeyed you. But you haven’t even given me a young goat so I could give a dinner for my friends!

But when this precious son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes, you kill the fatted calf for him!’ “His father answered, ‘My child, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to have a party to celebrate, because your brother here was dead and lives - he was lost and now he is found.’”

Luke 16:1-6

Yeshua told his disciples, “There was a certain rich person whose manager was accused of wasting money. So he summoned him and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’ll have to give me an account of your management, because I’m about to give you the sack!’

“The manager said to himself, ‘What I am I going to do now? The boss is about to give me the sack as the manager! I’m not strong enough to dig and I’m too ashamed to beg! Oh, I know what I’ll do! Then when I lose my job as the manager here, people will welcome me into their houses!’ “So he summoned each and every one of his boss’s debtors. He asked

the first, ‘How much do you owe the boss?’

“‘100 barrels of olive-oil,’ the person replied.

“The manager said, ‘Get your bill quickly - sit down and write on it 50.’

Luke 16:7-9

“Then he asked the second, ‘How much do you owe?’

‘100 bags of wheat,’ the person replied.

He said, ‘Take your bill and make it 80.’

“The boss praised the dishonest manager because of his good sense. This group of people has more practical wisdom in dealing with their own kind than do the people of the light. And let me emphasize this, it’s in your own interests to make friends of those people of the dishonest wealth, so that when money runs out, they will welcome you into their camps for set periods of time.

Luke 16:10-12

“The person who can be trusted with a small amount can also be trusted with a large amount, and the person who is dishonest with very little will be dishonest with a lot. So if you haven’t been trustworthy in handling dishonest wealth, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you haven’t been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give

you property of your own?

Luke 16:13

“No household servant can serve two masters. Either they will hate one and love the other, or alternatively they will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You are not able to serve both God and wealth.”

Luke 16:14-16

The Pharisees, who were greedy, were listening to this and turning up their noses at Yeshua. He said to them, “You are the ones who are making yourselves look good in the eyes of people, but God recognizes your hearts. What is good in people’s estimation is an abomination in God’s sight!

Luke 16:14-16

The Law and the prophets were up to the time of John: after then, the Good News

about God’s Realm has been announced, and many people get into it by illegal means.

Luke 16:17

“It is easier for the sky and earth to vanish than for the tiniest stroke of

a letter to drop out of the Law.

Luke 16:18

“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Luke 16:19-31

“Now there was a certain rich person who dressed up in fine purple linen and lived in the lap of luxury every day. A beggar named Lazarus lay ill at the rich person’s gateway. He was covered with sores

and he wished he could eat his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich person’s table.

Not only that, the dogs came and licked his ulcerated sores. Well, it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried away by the Messengers to the place of honor, Abraham’s side. The rich person also died and was buried.

The rich person was being tormented in Hades, and looking up and seeing Abraham far away, with Lazarus next to him, shouted out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Please send Lazarus to

dip the tip of his finger in some water and cool my tongue! I’m in agony

in this fire!’

“But Abraham said, ‘Remember, my child, all the good things that you fully received while you lived, and all the bad things that happened to Lazarus. But now this person is encouraged in this place and you’re the one who is in distress. And as if all this isn’t enough, there’s a great big

gulf between us, so that no one from either side is able cross over.’

“The rich person answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, because I’ve got five siblings. Tell him to give them a strong warning so they won’t come here too, to this place of torment!’

“Abraham replied, ‘They’ve got Moses and the Prophets - they can listen to them!’

“‘No way, father Abraham!’ the rich person said, ‘It’d have to take someone from the dead going to see them - then they’d change their minds!’

“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from among the dead!’”

Luke 17:1-4

Yeshua said to his disciples, “Things that cause people to fall into a trap are going to come, but it’s a sorry thing for that person who causes it! They’d be better off hurled into the ocean with a large stone block tied around the neck than to cause one of my little ones to fall into a trap!

So watch yourselves!

If your fellow believer sins, rebuke them, and if they change their mind, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times a day, and seven times come back and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ forgive them!”

Luke 17:5-6

The apostles said to the Lord, “Please increase our faith.”

The Lord replied, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would listen to you and do as you say.

Luke 17:7-10

“Suppose one of you had a slave servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would you say to the slave servant when they came in from the fields, ‘Please come here now and sit down to lunch”?

“Surely you’d rather say, ‘Get my lunch ready, then get yourself ready, and serve me while I eat and drink. After that you may eat and drink.’?

Will you favor the slave servant because they did what they were ordered to do? In the same way you too, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We’re unprofitable slave servants - we ought to do our duty.’”

Luke 17:11-19

When Yeshua was on his way to Jerusalem, he went through the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten lepers came out to meet him. They stood at a distance and shouted out, “Yeshua, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go off and show yourselves to the priests.”

And it turned out that as they slowly went off they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was instantly divinely healed, returned and praised God loudly. He threw himself at Yeshua’ feet and thanked him.

And he was a Samaritan.

“But weren’t all ten of them cleansed?” Yeshua asked. “So where are the other nine? Why is it that no one else has come back and praised God except this foreigner?”

Then Yeshua said, “Get up, off you go! Your faith has rescued and preserved you.”