Ministry Update from Bill
Shalom everyone. I trust that everyone is doing well and pray that your week has been peaceful and prosperous. As for us, its been another busy and event-filled time. I wanted to take a few moments and let you know what’s going on with Shoreshim Ministries, the Clouds and Jacob’s Tent.
Shoreshim Ministries or Jacob’s Tent?
First of all, I wanted to try and clear up any lingering confusion about what the launch of Jacob’s Tent means for Shoreshim Ministries: in short, it has no ill effects. In other words, we will continue to run Shoreshim Ministries just as we have for the last twenty years. The only difference will be that I won’t be traveling as I have in the past. I will still be producing teaching resources for our website and web store (four new teachings are in the process of being edited right now) as well as making blog posts each day.
Some have asked about their premium subscription to our site and/or their gifts to Shoreshim as to whether or not that is distinguished from Jacob’s Tent. Put simply, your subscription supports Shoreshim Ministries. Your other gifts, unless specified for Jacob’s Tent, support Shoreshim Ministries. Furthermore, we want to encourage everyone to continue supporting Shoreshim with your subscriptions and gifts. Frankly, we need everyone to continue supporting Shoreshim because this is our sole source of income. That, in turn, makes it possible for us to be at home and direct Jacob’s Tent.
If your desire is to support Jacob’s Tent, you may send gifts to 114 Stuart Rd. PMB 431, Cleveland, TN 37312, made payable to “Jacob’s Tent.” Currently, online donations for the congregation can only be made at www.billcloud.com/donate/ with the comment “Jacob’s Tent.” We are currently developing a website exclusively for Jacob’s Tent which will provide opportunity for you to give to the congregation online. Hopefully, this eventual separation will remove any confusion about the two. To summarize: Shoreshim Ministries is not Jacob’s Tent and Jacob’s Tent is not Shoreshim Ministries even though Beth and I are directing both. If you have any further questions about the matter, please let us know.
Update on the Fellowship
Where the congregation is concerned, as of July 20th, we are meeting every Shabbat at 11 AM. We meet at 151 Inman St. E in Cleveland, TN with praise and worship, a message from yours truly and a time of food and fellowship. Afterwards, we convene for an informal discussion about the day’s topic and other Biblical interests.
As usual, we LiveStream for those who can’t be with us in person. You can catch the LiveStream on our Facebook page and on our YouTube channel. Soon we will include a Jacob’s Tent Facebook page for you to join so that we can continue to distinguish the congregation from Shoreshim Ministries.
Also, where our Streamers are concerned, we hope that you will consider supporting our efforts by liking, sharing and praying for our LiveStream events. Furthermore, we want you to prayerfully consider supporting this outreach with your finances. Doing the LiveStream is not without its expenses, in fact, it costs about $1250 monthly and that doesn’t include equipment. Where the equipment is concerned, so far, we have been able to beg and borrow in order to get the job done. Soon, however, we will have to bite the bullet and buy a couple of cameras in order to continue the LiveStream. We anticipate that this is going to cost somewhere between $7,000 – $8,000. That’s a lot of money to most of us but is minimal when it comes to quality AV equipment.
This is where all of you are being blessed by the LiveStream can really help. Our area congregants have been very generous and have gone above and beyond to make Jacob’s Tent a reality. Taking that into consideration, I think it is appropriate to come to our LiveStream audience and ask that you consider helping us in this regard. Several of you have responded and we are thankful for you. We hope that many more of you who have a willing heart will respond to the need.
In that vein, you should know that we have consulted with a CPA and have filed the necessary paperwork to be recognized as a congregation known as Jacob’s Tent. It is also our intention to take measures that would allow you to report your gift to Jacob’s Tent as “tax deductible.” That specific paperwork has not been filed yet but, since several of you have been asking, I wanted to let you know what we are intending to do. VERY IMPORTANT: This pertains to Jacob’s Tent ONLY. It does not pertain to Shoreshim Ministries.
If you wish to send a check, make it payable to Jacob’s Tent and mail to: 114 Stuart Rd. PMB 431, Cleveland, TN 37312. Thank you for your consideration as we move forward.
Sukkot 2019!
For the very first time, Beth and I, along with our family at Jacob’s Tent, will be hosting a Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) gathering. We have set up a website where you can register and book a RV/Tent site or a cabin/lodge room. There is limited availability and is first come, first served. Your registration will require a deposit. Upon registering, we will contact you with more information and the balance which must be paid by September 30, 2019. If you are interested in celebrating Sukkot with the Clouds and our family at Jacob’s Tent, go to this link: https://jacobs-tent-sukkot-2019.eventbrite.com.
If you have questions, you can call us at 423.559.1177 or email beth@billcloud.org, but you must book your reservation online at the link above. No reservations will be taken over the phone. Thanks for understanding.
A Great Big “Thank You”
As I’ve said may times before, Beth and I deeply appreciate all of you who contact us to offer your words of encouragement and for those who support this ministry with their giving. Please know that we thank God for each and every one of you.
Blessings and Shalom,
Hi Bill & Beth,
To be very honest I have more questions since listening to Steve Berkson’s teachings…..about basic things that I thought I understood already. He says the trinity is a false doctrine, that the Holy Spirit is not a person, that it is the essence (something like a “force or energy”, I guess) of Yahweh & Yeshua, and that it was Yeshua who appeared in the Old Testament as Yahweh even though they are separate beings.
I recently listened to a teaching by Monte Judah on the God-head. I don’t understand Hebrew at all but what he said seemed to ring true. He said the Hebrew word for a stone (or rock) also can mean father & son. Is that true do you know? If so, do you think it has a bearing on how we are to understand the God-head, if indeed we are to do so?
He further explained (If I’m remembering this correctly.)that the Son, being one (or of the same essence?) with the Father, can manifest Himself as the Son or the Father, and the Father can do the same. He also said that they are separate beings (again, if I am recalling this properly). It was not a long teaching,,,I think it was one of their Q&A videos (Lion and Lamb).
Steve Berkson also teaches that the false messiah to come is the ‘Jesus’ of Christianity so he doesn’t allow people to use the name of Jesus. He and Julie are very much against the use of the words ‘God’ and ‘Lord’ as well. ‘Yahweh’, ‘Yeshua, and ‘Elohim’ are acceptable to them. This was all new to me and a little difficult to get used to.
As you probably know the Seventh Day Adventists teach the Trinity but did not do so in the past. Ellen G. White did not believe it to be truth. Even though the SDAs teach it now, I came away from there agreeing with E.G. White. Then Steve’s teaching seemed to confirm what I came to believe. Im still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that it was Yeshua who appeared as Yahweh in the Old Testament. I like the idea though! It answers other questions if it is true.
I’m sharing all this with you just so you know where I was coming from when I asked the question about the God-head last Shabbat mid-rash.
Which, by the way, I really enjoy. I love the fact that you , Bill, are so willing to share your knowledge and expertise with us! What a blessing! Maybe by listening to you I will be able to sort these things out.
In regards to supporting Shoreshim and/or Jacob’s Tent…I will happily do so as the Lord (Yahweh, Elohim, Yeshua, Abba Father, God, Jesus) provides. I am retired and unemployed right now. Once I get some health issues taken care of I plan to start job hunting, at least for a temorary, part-time job as I do have hopes of moving to Tennessee, Yah willing of course. That reminds me Bill of another thing I wanted to ask you about. Do you feel it’s a requirement to tithe on social security income? I tithed for many years on my regular income so I’m just wondering what your thoughts are on that, please.
Thanks so much for all your hard work and dedication. I pray that Yahweh blesses you abundantly in every way! 🙂
Lorraine
Lorraine;
Thanks for following up on the question. First of all, I hope you won’t think that I was being too flippant with my answer but, hopefully, you see how there are so many “explanations” of this topic and few of them agree with the other. With all due respect to these other teachers you have referenced, I don’t think ANYONE – including me – has this figured out. I will say that a lot of the confusion and disagreement about the Godhead is semantics; people use certain words to express what they believe but, unfortunately, those words mean other things to other people. Where the Holy Spirit is concerned, I won’t pretend to know the right word to use to define it and so I try to stick with what the Scripture says. While I agree that the Spirit is force and/or energy, the Scripture also records that it has manifested in form: it was as a dove that came upon the Messiah when He was baptized. The Spirit manifested as cloven tongues of fire in Acts 2. In other words, I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to say that I can put the Spirit of God in a definition box that makes sense to me which I why I said, “How do you explain the unexplainable? How do you define the indefinable?”
Regarding the word “even” (Hebrew for stone): what Monte was referring to was the fact that the the Hebrew letters that form the word (אבן alef, beit, nun) can form the word for “father” (אב and the word for “son” (בן) symbolizing that they are, as Yeshua said, “one.”
In regard to the “Jesus of Christianity” being the Antichrist, I simply don’t agree. Admittedly, the Christ that has been presented by the Christian religion at large is not a faithful representation of who and what Yeshua is. However, there are many who have sincerely and genuinely believed upon the Son (though they call Him Jesus) and He genuinely lives in them. So to say that the Jesus they have accepted is an antichrist is to say that I wasn’t really born again 30+ years ago because Jesus is the One I called upon – how about you? True, I have come to understand that His name is Yeshua and I prefer to call Him that but I don’t require someone who comes into our fellowship to refrain from calling Him Jesus. I’ll let the Holy Spirit – that force and energy we were discussing – be the force that leads and teaches each person in their walk. In short, I believe we should all take a dose of humility and be willing to admit that we don’t have it all figured out and may never have it all figured out. So if we are to err, let’s err on the side of mercy, particularly when it comes to people who are new to this and are overwhelmed with information that rubs up against what they were previously taught.
In regards to the tithing question, all I can tell you is that we are tithe of our increase. You and the Father will have to work that one out where your situation is concerned. Blessings and shalom.
I have seen this question about the ‘godhead’ come up so much recently. I believe the scriptures explain Yeshua is YHVH in John 1 and 2 Philippians in such a beautiful way.
Before he was Yeshua, he ‘existed’ as the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Both. With and Was. We don’t exist that way because we exist as humans. God exists as God. All things were created by him. Nothing was created without him. For this reason, he is the Father. The Word God is the Father because he created all things, including adam/mankind. We are told that the Word who was God was equal to God (the one he was with). They were equal. The Word did not consider this equality with God something to be ‘grasped’. Instead, he humbled himself by becoming a human being. He emptied himself of his God attributes, like omnipresence, and instead became a man. He entered into His own creation. He was born into creation…he now had a father and he was now a son. The Word became the son of God/son of Man when he was born. NOW as the man Yeshua he was subject to God in heaven (the one he had been ‘with’). He prayed to the Father in Heaven. He prayed to God in heaven. He was literally our perfect example. Did he cease to be God? No. His new existence as a man did not erase his previous history. He ceased to exist in the ‘being’ of God and began to exist in the ‘being or form’ of man. That is what changed.
In Acts 20:28 we read that God shed his own blood…his own blood…to purchase the church. Yeshua is YHVH. God, in the form of a man, had blood to shed. Spirit in heaven, the one he was formerly with, does not have blood. Yeshua is YHVH and so is the Father in heaven. There is only one God…YHVH but he is a much more complex ‘being’ than a human being. Yeshua is YHVH who spoke with Abraham and wrestled with Jacob. He is the image of the invisible God.
Let US make man in OUR (singular) image.
Word God AND God
First AND Last
Alpha AND Omega
Beginning AND End
God AND Savior
Father AND Son
Isaiah 48:16
Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me.