While some people may let their minds drift during prayer to off-topic subjects like the price of Nascar jackets, Sue’s music is an aid in the early stages of prayer that keeps me focused on what counts: God and God alone.

The CD is so balanced that I seem to cling to a new favorite track every week or so; initially, I loved “Over All.” Then I drifted to “Songs.” But for the last few days, it has been the gentle Hebrew lullaby, “Koomah,” that has brought me close to the L-RD.

I plan to pick up her first, self-titled release from iTunes soon. What a gifted artist!

And I don’t spend this prayer time doing esoteric stuff like contemplating how fast a stone sinks, either; instead, I am concentrating on improving my relationship with the L-RD and seeking His direction for my life.

This past week, in fact, I had a really different but enjoyable experience where, during the entire hour or so I was in prayer, all I could really do is concentrate on being given a glimmer of the holiness of God. Each night, I don’t know what to expect necessarily, but I’m certainly feeling better about my pursuit of closeness to the L-RD, even though I still have plenty of room to grow.

It draws to mind the words of Yeshua about the “birth-pangs” of the final days, the days referred to in Judaism as the days of Jacob’s troubles. While all sorts of natural disasters are described, each generation, I’m sure, is faced with its own set that seem to them like a sign that the return of Messiah is near.

We know it’s nearer now than ever before, but are such quakes really signs of His coming? Who can say? However, our test as believers in the wake of any tragedy like this is to respond in compassion, rather than purely spiritually.

It’s clear that the tragedy in Haiti was one that cost many lives; once the final tally is in, that’s sure to be true in Chile as well. While it is fine to pray for those affected by this massive quake, we should look for opportunities to help those in need.

Let us respond like the good Samaritan, and look to help in practical ways, however large or small, each according to our means and opportunity. To do anything less is to close our exterior shutters to the world around us with false religious righteousness, rather than living out the compassion the L-RD has taught us by example.

But my prayer life has flourished when I do it in the evening; I’ve adjusted my bed time enough to make sure I don’t fall asleep without praying, and with my iPod singing me through it, I have stayed away long enough for the music to stop and God to begin to speak.

I used to try praying before bed, but would often fall asleep in the first five minutes. There’s nothing wrong with resting in Yeshua, but using Him as a sleep aid is not respecting one’s relationship to Him, either.

Prayer is essential to knowing God, and knowing God is essential to serving Him. It might sound like a disability appeal to say that I wasn’t very effective at prayer before, but I can say that while I still have a ways to grow in my prayer life, I feel for the first time in many years like I’m actually improving and making progress in learning how to recognize God’s voice when He speaks.

My latest favorite artist is someone I pointed out to Rabbi Stan about eight months ago; he wasn’t that impressed back then, but he heard her perform at the Rabbi’s conference this winter and his opinion spun ’round to enthusiasm. It’s kind of nice to know I found her first, even though he won’t exactly admit it: Sue Samuel is a Messianic artist whose latest contribution, Songs … from the Secret Place, is one of the first full albums I bought on iTunes after buying my first official iPod… a 16GB iPod nano, fifth generation!

Along with some songs by Messianic artist Ted Pearce, one track by Paul Wilbur (Shalom Jerusalem!), and even three Christian worship tunes I enjoy … namely, Heart of Worship by Matt Redman, The More I Seek You by Kari Jobe, and Let It Rain by Michael W. Smith … I’ve developed a 46-minute Prayer and Worship playlist that really sets me in the right frame of mind for prayer.

What a help!

The songs help keep one’s mind focused on the L-RD more sharply than an SEO tool. And there’s something Scriptural about staying in prayer for at least an hour in order to hear from the L-RD; after all, in the Garden on the night in which He was betrayed, Yeshua Himself came back from prayer more than once and found his talmudim asleep, and scolded them, saying, “Could you not tarry with me even a single hour?”

So even though Yeshua prayed more than once that night, it seems each session as about an hour or more in length, given that statement. And if an hour or so is good enough for Yeshua, well… that’s who our model is, right? That’s why we call Him Messiah.

Still, it makes sense; I was spending an average of a couple hours a day or more on Facebook, yet neglecting things that matter far more, like prayer, writing my novel and spending more quality time with my wife and Dad. It’s odd that the addictions of others stick out like sore thumbs to you, but your own addictions are something you need a kick in the khakis to see.

How wonderful it is, though, to finally be free of it!

The first week, we were told to concentrate on eliminating sin. I got a surprise from God on my first night following through on this; His priority of the sin in my life was different than I expected, and yet it was surprisingly easy to obey, give it up and not feel tempted to go back. Specifically, God told me to “eliminate Facebook.”

I’d been spending far too much time there in recent months and it was affecting my life in many negative ways, but until I spent time in deep prayer with God, I was taking it too lightly to see it for the sin it had become. Since giving up Facebook (and all other “social networking” sites, too, mind you), I’ve had more time for everything that’s really important to me… especially prayer. Heck, I’d even have time to earn a degree online… or at least another degree… were I of a mind to.

But for now, remaining a Messianic Rabbi In Training is more than enough to keep me occupied. And I’m finally developing a respectable-enough prayer life to feel like that title’s not just decorative.

A couple weeks ago, my wife went on a women’s retreat and I had to cook up something Saturday night for my father and I. Normally, I just buy a couple steaks, slap a barbeque rub on them and cook them up in some margarine and chopped fresh garlic, but this time I wanted to experiment and make something special.

In the course of experimenting, I created something I like to call the Garden Steak. Here’s my recipe:

Craig’s Garden Steak Recipe

What You’ll Need:

• 1-2 lbs. top sirloin steak, trimmed and koshered

• 1/2 clove of fresh garlic, chopped
• 1 bell red pepper
• 1 red hot pepper
• 2 red Roma tomatoes
• 2-3 fresh limes
• 1 bottle McCormick Grill Mates Barbecue Rub
• 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• cast iron skillet, large
• glass bowl, large
• meat mallet
• food grater
• tinfoil or plastic wrap

First you need to prep the meat. That includes trimming any excess fat and koshering the meat properly. (One reason I love top sirloin is that it’s already a very lean cut of meat.) Once that’s done, take a meat mallet to the steaks on both sides, to open the meat up a bit; a fork could be used in a pinch.

Place the steaks at the bottom of a large glass bowl; do not let them overlap.

Now take that red hot jalapeno pepper and roll it vigorously in your hands for at least a minute. Then slice into medallions, quarter those, and sprinkle over the top of your steaks in the bowl.

Now go for the red bell pepper, which has a lot of sweetness to it, but not too much. Cut off the top and bottom and cut the rest into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pepper strips. Then take those strips and cut them down into squares. Toss this over the steaks as well.

Next, chop up your fresh clove of garlic and sprinkle liberally over the top of the steaks.

Now, get those nice red Roma tomatoes out and slice them carefully and cleanly into 1/2-inch thick medallions. Place carefully over the top of everything that’s sitting on top of the steaks by now, so that everything is covered with Roma tomato medallions.

Finally, cut your first lime in half and squeeze out the lime juice on top of everything in the bowl; then use a food grater to grate some lime zest over the top of that.

Cover the bowl with tinfoil or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a minimum of three hours, to let the steaks marinate. You have time now; watch a movie with your spouse, help out by doing some laundry. Devote some time to prayer. Whatever works best for you. Just don’t snack.

Once the steak has properly marinated, start prepping the stove. If you have an electric stove, place your cast-iron skillet on the pad of your choice, or if it’s a gas stove, over a burner. Either way, set to a low heat (about 3 would be right) and put a very small amount of extra virgin olive oil in the skillet, to season it. (Not much oil! A teaspoon is the most… the less you use, the better!) Use a spatula to spread the oil around the bottom of the skillet, just enough to season it.

Here comes the tricky part…

Remove the bowl containing your steaks from the fridge; remove the tinfoil or plastic wrap; and slowly slide your steaks into the now-warm skillet, so that the meat touches the skillet and all those veggies stay on top of them. Don’t waste any of the peppers, garlic or tomatoes… transfer it all into the skillet.

Let it simmer on that same low heat, cooking slowly. Soon great smells will fill the air.

Once the bottom is nicely browned, carefully flip your steaks and this time you can let the veggies – especially the tomatoes – hit the skillet and even cook between your steaks and the skillet. Keep the veggies moving so that they don’t sit in place and burn.

Once the second side is nicely browned, do the second flip and sprinkle the McCormick steak rub on the steaks, to taste. I prefer a generous dose, since it’s a rub; but don’t overload on it because these veggies will do most of the work for you.

Once the rub is on one side, half your second lime and squeeze out more lime juice on top of the steak rub on your steaks. If you want to, use the grater and add some more lime zest, too.

Final flip of the steak… add the McCormick rub, lime juice and lime spice to the other side of the steak and let the steak finish to the degree of “doneness” you prefer. (I usually like medium-well.) If you like your steak especially well-done, you can flip the steak a couple more times, but usually cooking both sides twice does the trick for me.

Final secret: once the steaks are done to taste, move them onto your plate… then spoon some of those nicely grilled, slightly carmelized peppers, garlic and tomatoes on top of your steak, as it makes a very good, natural from the skillet steak sauce… which is why it’s called a Garden Steak!

Bon appetit and shalom!

The last step now is awaiting approval of our feed in the iTunes store; it’s a free feed, and hopefully will open up a much broader audience than we’d otherwise reach with radio alone. Next up, Stan wants to take on video and he’s talking to some real pros.

Hopefully it will all work smoothly, from the cameras to the TV stands to the streaming feed and archiving. That’s the hope.

While that can be fun, it’s usually not what most people with a simple question are looking for, and if done to the wrong person at the wrong moment, it can quickly drive people away from a new church they are checking out. And if that happens, they won’t return.

So, for example, if someone asks about Sabbath versus Sunday worship, a good response would be one that takes no more than a couple minutes. A poor response would be one that starts off with an explanation of the Council of Nicea, anti-Semitism in the early church, and even credit repair services before finally getting around to saying, “But basically, the point is that we know the Sabbath is on Saturday because the Jewish people worship then and have never changed their day of worship, whereas we can trace the point at which Christianity abandoned the Biblical Sabbath for Sunday worship… and Sunday worship isn’t supported or endorsed by a single Bible verse.”

Better to just use the last couple sentences, I think, and save the listener a lot of pointless showing off of how much one has learned. Give those new to the faith a chance to grow into it, just like you were given.

Maintaining his “voice” in the teaching will be important, but so will adapting the material to the target age group; too often, children’s curriculum are either aimed for the teachers exclusively and written well beyond the understanding of kids, or they are so over-simplified, only pre-K kids could gain anything from them.

While it may seem to be a simple task, from browsing the sources cited and deciding what to keep and what to toss, to even something as obscure as deciding if a Symbol LS2208 is a typo or an integral part of the teaching, it’s sure to be a demanding task from which I’ll gain a great “behind the scenes” perspective on formulating a long teaching series.