Some people imagine spirituality as a climb upward, an “ascent of the soul” that aims to reach God through the performance of good deeds or religious rituals. But God does not say “at the end of the way you will find me,” but rather, “I AM the way, the very road under your feet, the Place (הַמָּקוֹם) where you are, the Bridge to the Father (John 14:6). “For all things come from You (כִּי־מִמְּךָ הַכּל), and from your hand we give to you” (1 Chron. 29:14). The LORD is Present in every “here” and every “now,” the Source of all we are. And no matter what our circumstances, we will find God if we search “bekhol levavkha” – with all our being, as it is written: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
The principle of the self-life, the ego, religious observance, “doing the law,” etc., is a spiritual dead-end because we are without life, without power. The word is this: God gives strength to the weary, to the faint, to those who are without potency or power. But this means that we first must be emptied, broken, and stripped of our self-sufficiency before the strength of God is manifest in us: “My power is made perfect (τελειοῦται) in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). None of this flatters the ego. God’s way is first to break us, to make us weaker and weaker, so that he can then fill us with the miraculous divine nature. Like all sacrifices that were brought to the altar, we must pass through death to life by means of our union with the Messiah at the cross… It is only after the cross that it may be said, “It is no longer ‘I’ who lives; now it is Messiah who lives His life in me” (Gal. 2:20). There is indeed strength, power, and victory – but such comes after the cross, after we reckon carnal energy as useless. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Adonai Tzeva’ot” (Zech. 4:6).
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Repentance means that we believe that the kindness of God can give life to our dead hearts. Repentance is therefore first of all a matter of faith, of believing in the miracle of God. And though it is a great gift from heaven, repentance requires honesty and acknowledgment of the truth. We must confess our inner poverty, our neediness, and mourn over the loss and hurt caused by our sin (Matt. 5:3-5). Repentance turns away from our attempts to defend or justify ourselves and instead turns to God to heal our separation from Him (Rom. 8:3-4). This turning of the heart to God for healing and life is the essence of teshuvah wherein our old nature is buried and all things are made new (2 Cor. 5:17).
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said that life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward, and consequently the present hour provides the only real opportunity you have to examine the present state of your soul… Therefore “repent one day before you die,” and that day is today, since no one knows the day or the hour of his death. The midrash notes that the word 
Those who evade the truth about reality – those who willingly suppress the truth and choose to ignore the ultimate existential pathos of the human condition – must “steal” meaning and a sense of value from the heart of faith. “If a human being did not have an eternal consciousness, if underlying everything there was only a wild, fermenting power that writhing in dark passions produced everything, be it significant or insignificant, if a vast, never appeased emptiness hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?” (Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling). The hidden source of anxiety is to be lost to real meaning – to sense the dread of the inevitable and the unknown and to be utterly confounded and devoid of direction in the face of it. The Torah of Yeshua is heeded by the “impoverished of spirit” who know they must “find God or die.” It is first a word spoken to the shattered of heart and crushed of spirit. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” We all desperately need God, and it is a profound tragedy to be unresponsive to real hope. Friend, if you sense the invitation of the Spirit, which moves unseen as the wind, then draw near while there is still time! “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Isa. 55:6).
The last month of the Jewish calendar (counting from Tishri) is called Elul (אֱלוּל), which begins at sundown on Wednesday, August 19th this year. Traditionally, 
In this audio podcast I discuss the the 
Our Torah reading for this week (i.e., 
This week’s Torah portion (i.e., 
The advent of the “