Digging with Darren » Personal

Atlanta, Georgia 2012

Darren — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:05:58 +0000

For the past few days we have been in the Atlanta, GA area. We drove through the night the past Saturday night so that we could arrive in time to experience the home birth of some very close friends of ours (Jeff & Melissa Turner) who live about an hour or so outside of the Atlanta area. We were blessed to make it here in time to experience the birth of their daughter and be able to spend time with them over these last few days.

Today, Jeff & I took a trip into Atlanta, and I was privileged to finally meet fellow-blogger Derek Leman in the real world, rather than merely in cyberspace. We all ate lunch together at the Pita Palace, a very tasty kosher restaurant that serves things like shawarma & falafel. It was good to finally meet Derek and spend some time talking about our stories of how we each came to recognize the validity of Torah, as well as hear about the things his congregation, Tikvat David (Hope of David), was doing. It seems like he has a wonderful opportunity to reach out to the greater Atlanta community and bring the hope of Yeshua, coupled with the foundation of the Torah to a world that so desperately needs both. Great to meet you, Derek. Many blessings to you and your congregants!Similar Posts:

I Am Thankful

Darren — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:03:47 +0000

Yes, it is Thanksgiving Day, 2011, and I am writing about all of the many things about which I have to be thankful. However, I am writing this is not because it is Thanksgiving Day, but because as I have been studying mussar. Hashem has been dealing with me in the area of gratitude, and today I want to make sure I put into writing a list of things for which I am thankful as a record of Hashem’s blessing and faithfulness in my life.

First, and foremost, I am thankful that Hashem loves me infinitely and that he sent Yeshua in order to bring His message of love into my life. Thank you, Abba.

Second, I am thankful for my beloved wife, soul-mate, best friend and lover. I couldn’t have created a better ezer k’negdo than the one Hashem has provided for me. I am still madly in love with this woman after 17 years of marriage and almost 21 years of friendship. She is my blessing, my anchor, my confidant, my solstice. Thank you, Hashem, for giving her to me.

Next, I am thankful for my four wonderful children, Kaleb, Kai, Boaz and Einya. I am truly blessed with and by these packages of joy in my life. They each come with their unique personality, sense of humor, gifts and mission in life. They are full of zeal for life, and create a special sense of Hashem’s presence in this world. Their joy and innocence bring a bit of tikkun to this life. I pray that I do not taint them with my cynicism and that I am worthy to set them on the path to fulfill their calling in this life. I am also gratefully thankful that Hashem has allowed us to conceive again. We are looking forward to meeting another Huckey child toward the end of March or beginning of April.

I am thankful for the friends with which Hashem has surrounded me. I am very blessed to have a group of close friends who love Him sincerely, and are a constant source of encouragement and inspiration in my life. I can’t express how blessed I have been over these last few years because of them. They have loved and supported me and my family in some of our deepest times of need.

I am thankful for being able to work from home and be with my family nearly 24/7 all year round. Sometimes that can be a frustration point for a family, but not ours. It has only drawn us closer together. I see the fruits of this when I go to a meeting for an hour or two and return home to see my children running from the house to greet me with warm smiles and hugs. I don’t think very many fathers who are away from their homes for 8 to 10 hours a day get this kind of treatment.

I am thankful that I live in a time and an environment in which I have opportunities to serve Hashem in a capacity of which I can take advantage. Although I may not be taking full advantage of these opportunities, the recognition of this is the first step in pushing me towards them. Thank you, Hashem, for your sovereignty.

The last may sound arrogant, but I it’s actually an act of humility, which I have been learning about. I am thankful for the abilities Hashem has placed within me. I often get frustrated that I don’t have one particular thing that I have “mastered” (yes – that’s me – Jack of All Trades, Master of None). However, I am discovering that because of my wide range of abilities, I am able to accomplish many things by making use of these gifts which compliment one another in order to bring about the end result. Thank you, Hashem, for making me uniquely me.Similar Posts:

Viruses & Malware Problems

Darren — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:18:07 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had various problems with my site. It started with Google blacklisted my site because of malware coming from another site on the same server. It eventually ended up infecting my site, and causing my site traffic to drop to the level of non-existent while I was trying to figure out how to track down and fix the infected files (see the screenshot above).

This morning, I sent out a tweet that I was having trouble, and within a minute or two, my friend Cotton Rohrscheib replied and sent me a link to a site that would scan my site and tell me exactly which files were infected so that I could deal with them. (Up to this point I had used several other sites to scan mine, all of them giving me a clean bill of health.) I was able to get things fixed within a matter of minutes.

Thank you, Cotton for your help! And for all of my visitors, please accept my apologies for the scare you’ve been getting while trying to access my site. I’ll try to keep this from happening in the future.

Many blessings to you all, and may you have a wonderful, peace-filled Sabbath!Similar Posts:

Shavuot 5711/2011

Darren — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:40:49 +0000

Just wanted to write a quick post letting all of our friends who we might expect to see us in Hudson, WI this week for Shavuot (Pentecost) know that we had to cancel our trip at the last moment due to uncontrollable circumstances. We will miss you all! We hope to have a small gathering of friends here for Shavuot and enjoy celebrate the giving of the Torah together here. Many blessings to you all! May your Shavuot be filled with Simcha (Joy) and the Ruach (Spirit) of our Mighty God!Similar Posts:

In Righteous Memory: Dwight A. Pryor

Darren — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:56:28 +0000

This past Shabbat, February 5 (1 Adar, 5771), a beloved co-laborer and spiritual mentor, Dwight A. Pryor, of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, passed from this world into the next.

Following are some of my thoughts about Mr. Pryor and how he impacted my life.

One of my earliest exposures to the Jewish roots of my faith came from hearing four Christian scholars at one conference (the Jerusalem Conference, hosted by Dr. Moseley) back in 1998. This was an event I was to attend repeatedly in the subsequent years. The scholars who taught those first few years were:

Dr. Ron Moseley, author of: Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church
Dr. Marvin Wilson, author of: Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith
Dr. Brad Young, author of: Jesus the Jewish Theologian, Paul the Jewish Theologian: A Pharisee among Christians, Jews, and Gentiles, Parables, The: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation, and Meet the Rabbis: Rabbinic Thought and the Teachings of Jesus
Mr. Dwight Pryor

Did you notice anything about that list? All of the men held a doctorate, but Mr. Pryor. All of the men were authors, except for Mr. Pryor. But these things didn’t make Mr. Pryor any less of a scholar, or of any less caliber than any of these other men. In fact, Mr. Pryor received great respect from all who knew him. In many ways, these other scholars owe their achievements in some part to Mr. Pryor. He was a mentor to Dr. Moseley, and helped Dr. Wilson with the publication of his book. He also helped with the publication of the joint effort of Dr. Blizzard and David Bivin, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: New Insights From a Hebrew Perspective.

I always thought of him as a gentle giant (in more ways than one). He was a tall man, but soft spoken and deeply respectful to everyone with whom he came in contact. And although I didn’t know him personally, he held a dear place in my heart since the moment I briefly met him. He was truly an inspiration. One of the things that inspired me most about Mr. Pryor was that he had so many challenges in life, yet he overcame them through the grace of Yeshua. He had many reasons to complain and loath in self-pity (the loss of his first wife nearly 20 years ago to cancer, losing the use of his hands due to severe arthritis, etc.), yet he was continually full of joy, so much so that it was contagious. One could not help but feel inspired after hearing him speak.

Yesterday, Boaz Michael of First Fruits of Zion, posted the following:

In Chasidic thought, it is an auspicious sign when a person dies on a holy day. On Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Adar, 5771, (the new moon of Adar), my spiritual mentor and teacher, Dwight A. Pryor (זצ״ל), passed into the world of truth. He died on a Shabbat, and more than that, he died on the new moon of Adar. According to the Talmud, “Joy increases in Adar.” In this case, joy may have increased in heaven, but those of us still wrapped in this mortal coil lament the loss.

How true of such a great man as Mr. Pryor.

When we first learned about his passing through yesterday’s FFOZ blog post, my wife and I wept. I commented that you know a person has impacted you deeply when you weep at their passing, even though you do not have a personal relationship with them. Mr. Pryor was a luminary in our lifetime and will be greatly missed. The void of his presence will be felt.

May his memory be for a blessing.Similar Posts:

Help Spread the Word

Darren — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:25:25 +0000

I need your help. I need you to help spread the word about Digging with Darren (DWD). (Yes, this is a shameless plug.)

DWD has been rolling (sometimes fast and sometimes slowly) since the Fall of 2002 (shortly after my archaeological trip to Israel). At one time this site had a large reader base and lots of discussion (some very heated). However, due to my wrestling with balancing my time with my family, and balancing my theology as well, I let this site sit dormant. Over the last few months I have slowly been picking up steam again and working to improve the site and especially the quality & quantity of the content. I would like to increase my readership, and post articles that are valuable to our faith community.

I have written on a wide variety of topics that should appeal to a broad audience, and will continue to do so. I work my best when I know people are enjoying what I’m putting out. Here’s where I need your help.

I need you to recommend DWD to your friends, tweet my posts, share my posts on Facebook, link to me on your websites, etc. Anything you can do would be appreciated. You can easily do those things with the links at the top of each article page.

Use these buttons

Also, if you have any suggestions for articles, or how to get DWD to a greater audience, please post your thoughts as a comment on this post.

Thanks in advance for your help! I look forward to hearing back from you!Similar Posts:

Teaching Opportunity

Darren — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:05:25 +0000

Today I had an opportunity to teach at an event in a public park, hosted by a friend of mine, Justin McDade. The event started with a group of young girls involved in an expressive worship dance group. Next, I sang a few songs and then spoke. And rounding it out was my friend Justin who spoke and sang as well. I feel we need to create medals for the poor souls who sat through the entire event in an outdoor amphitheater with absolutely no shade in 90º+ temperatures without melting into the concrete.

I spoke on Becoming a Disciple of Yeshua. It seemed to go over well, and was possibly an entry point for people to look into the Jewishness of our Messiah and our faith. Ultimately, I hope the end-goal was that people become more passionate about studying Scripture and more devoted as a disciple of the Master.Similar Posts:

Opportunity Knocks…And I Need Your Help!

Darren — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:01:51 +0000

Yes, opportunity has knocked and I need your help. A friend of mine has started a church in our capital city which is very information/media driven. They are very open to new ideas and are very culture-centric. They have started a new blog series called “CityView” and invited me to be a guest blogger on their site in a few weeks to present my perspective on any topic I choose. The concept behind CityView is as follows:

Faith is everywhere. or lack of faith. Either way, there’s a bigger conversation occurring in our city than just a single church or a single faith perspective. Instead of becoming an insular community, we hope that [name of church] can be a place that listens to & engages in the broader faith conversation in our city. CityView is our first shot at doing just that. We’d love for you to share your faith perspective with us in this new blog series.

Whether we agree on this perspective is not the point. The point is that I am going to be able to blog about anything at all and I was wanting to get ideas from anyone out there who wants to give me their input. If you had a chance to stand up to the mic at a Sunday-going-church, what would you say? I would really like for you to submit your thoughts as to what you feel are some important “points” that need to be addressed in greater Christendom from a Messianic perspective. Please submit your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

Rules for submissions:

Be nice
Be nice
Be nice

Similar Posts:

Seder Semanim by Boaz & Einya

Darren — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:24:00 +0000

Long after Passover my youngest two children will still be singing the Seder Semanim, the song that lists the 15 different steps of the Passover seder (Kaddesh, Urchatz, etc.). For some reason they just love to sing that song! So… To capture their zeal and sweet voices, I recorded them singing their current favorite tune. Here is Boaz (age 5) and Einya (age 3) singing for you. I hope you enjoy it half as much as I do.

Similar Posts:

The Book of Acts and Moral Relativism

Darren — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:22:47 +0000

I had coffee with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and we began to discuss the Scriptures and our beliefs. I’ve only really gotten to know him over the last year or so. He is curious as to my beliefs and has approached me a few times to lovingly debate a few points of doctrine/theology. Although we disagree on many points, we have a mutual respect for each other’s faith and can speak frankly with one another without jeopardizing our relationship (a rarity). As we got into our discussion, however, I realized that he held to a position I haven’t been exposed to in a number of years. It goes something like this:

The Tanach (the Old Testament) represents a lot of stories of faith, and examples of how we should live our lives in obedience to God (in some vague way, as we will see by the next component). And the Gospels, Acts, Hebrews and Revelation are not written as a documents of instruction, therefore they are not “prescriptive” but only “descriptive” in their content, and therefore cannot have any theological bearing in the life of a believer. Wow… I was really dumfounded for a good while, as I mulled over this implications of how his theological perspective had essentially stripped out 90% of the authority of the Scriptures, relegating “prescriptive” or “authoritative” Scripture to the (misunderstood) writings of Paul and possibly the epistles of Peter, James, John & Jude (and even then I’m not sure if all of them hold equal weight with the Pauline epistles according to this theological premise).

This theological supposition seems to be heavily taught in missions-based organizations, because of opposition they have received over the years that their missionary methods were not practiced by the first believers. In other words, it’s not found in the book of Acts. I just did a quick search on the net for the phrase “book of Acts descriptive not prescriptive” and found a blog from a seminary student returning from a class on missions that said it point blank:

The book of Acts is not presented as a prescriptive book. That is, it is not presented as a manual on how a church should be run (you’ll find a lot of that in the epistles) or missions should be conducted. It describes what did happen, not what should/must/will happen in every time and culture.

I think this represents a snapshot of the theological pulse of our seminaries. It was this concept that was ingrained in my friend, and totally blocked our communication. If you’re interested, the passage of Acts in discussion was the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) in which the Apostles presented their ruling on the minimum requirements of non-Jews entering into the faith. The gist of my argument with my friend was that the minimum level of Torah observance was put forth by the Council in Acts 15, and that we should at least be keeping these four basic boundaries as a bare minimum, whether we agreed on the whole of Torah or not. He was in total disagreement, using the argument that since Acts was not “prescriptive” but “descriptive” the ruling of the Council had no bearing in the life of a modern day believer.

Again, Wow…

Here we have a contrast as to the authority of the Apostolic Council making a strong line in the sand for the entire Yeshua faith community verses the Pauline epistles, which were written for a specific purpose (almost always a response to a specific issue) to a specific group of people. Yet this theological position supplants the authority of James, the brother of our Master (and steward of his throne at that time) and the original Apostles of our Master. [editor's note: I am not saying the Pauline epistles are not authoritative. I believe they are, and have a greater appreciation for them now than ever. I am only suggesting that "if" there was a priority, then the Apostolic Council would be first in line, rather than Paul's addresses to specific situations and specific people which do not apply to us as directly as much as the Apostolic decree.]

Does anyone else see a problem with this? Has anyone else ran into this? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to bridge this gap in our communication?Similar Posts:

Welcome Back, Mr. Kotter

Darren — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:13:07 +0000

Well… blogging has not been a priority at all for me over the last year or two. However, I’ve been enticed by a few people, including my wonderful wife, to get back at it… at least on some level. Over my absence, I have been working to provide for my family, and keep from being viewed as an “authority” on any topic (for which some seemed to think). I am not an authority and do not claim to be. There is much I do not know, and as each day passes I find myself more and more in the negative balance of knowledge.

I hope that you will be able to enjoy my posts, but realize I have a 99% chance of being wrong on anything about which I write. I write, however, in order to express my observations and insights for the present moment, and these perspectives can changevery rapidly. There are many things about which I have blogged over the last half a dozen years with which my perspective has changed. I have almost removed these posts many times, but have kept them so that 1) I can remember my journey, and 2) you can possibly see it as well.

Not only are there outdated posts, but several broken links. I really apologize for this, but I just don’t have the extra hours in the day to go through each post / page and find everything that’s broken. So… please help me on this. If you click on something that interests you, and get a broken link (or content that is unexpected), please send me an email and let me know, so that I might have some kind of an idea of priority for fixing these things. Thanks in advance!

In case you’re wondering, the event that spurred me to pull the trigger was the opportunity to be a part of the Messianic blogosphere in relationship to the J-BOM (Jewish Book Of the Month). I am nearly ready to post my first review, and I look forward to participating in the Messianic community each month in this continuing dialog.

May Hashem bless you, and may He give me strength to not fall short at the task at hand. Your prayers are certainly appreciated.Similar Posts:

Emotional Week

Darren — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:35:34 +0000

This past week was an emotional roller coaster. We had the sudden & unexpected passing of a loved one, the birth of a nephew and a bar mitzvah all within just a few days. These are the times I am thankful for family & friends. Thank you to everyone who has sent their condolences by email or through Facebook (btw – if you’re on Facebook, please look me up). Although the death was difficult, I believe this may be a catalyst to bring about some long term fruit for the glory of the Father. I’ll try to post photos of my new nephew and of the bar mitzvah later today or tomorrow. Blessings & thanks for your prayers…Similar Posts:

Chametz Everywhere!

Darren — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:41:12 +0000

Invariably, no matter how hard and long we clean in preparation for Chag HaMatzot (the Feast of Unleavened Bread), somewhere around the middle of the week, we open a cabinet or the freezer and there’s a whole package of hamburger buns or something ridiculous like that. This year things are already a little different.

We’ve found a couple of small things that we had forgotten contained vinegar (a type of chametz/leavened food that we have chosen to remove during this time), such as our Ranch dressing that we had mixed up before we had started purging our home. Since it wasn’t labeled, all we thought about was what was in the mix contents. We didn’t think about the mayo that was added to it!

But there was something that was even larger that I, personally found. The actual day of Pesach, I found about three loaves of puffy, white bread in my heart. I allowed my zeal for observing the feast at a higher level than those around me spoil the spirit of the feast. The entire daylight hours of Pesach for my family ended up being a burden, and not a joy. I allowed a conflict of observance to get under my skin and sour our Pesach experience. Fortunately, I was able to work through this with my family prior to our second seder, confessing my sin and asking forgiveness from my family & friends.

I am admitting this publicly, because we need to confess our faults in order to get rid of them, and I also need a reminder for the following years so that I don’t allow it to happen again. I need to remember that we must continually look into the “Law/Torah of Liberty” (James 1:25;2:12), not falling prey to the “leaven of the Pharisees”—hypocrisy. I wanted to be strict in the minor areas, while allowing the larger, more weightier matters of the Torah (love, compassion, etc.) to fall by the wayside. May Hashem use this as a life lesson to draw me (and hopefully others) to the heart of His commandments. I am thankful for a loving and gracious family. Truly love does cover a multitude of sins.Similar Posts:

Re-discovering Jesus

Darren — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:33:33 +0000

I was privileged to speak at a small, Pentecostal church in Oklahoma over the weekend. I was given total freedom as to the teaching topic and three speaking sessions (two on Shabbat and their Sunday morning service). My topic was “Becoming and Making Disciples of Jesus.” I spoke on the necessity of making disciples, rather than converts and emphasized the importance of knowing our rabbi. I introduced them to this person in the illustration, using it as a springboard for looking into the Jewishness of our Master and his teachings. It was a really good weekend, filled with positive feedback and interaction. The members of this church were warm, loving and accepting and hungry for the Word of G-d. Please pray for our brothers and sisters who have just been exposed to this life-long journey of rediscovering our master.Similar Posts:

Being Fruitful and Multiplying

Darren — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:13:01 +0000

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply…”
(Genesis 1:28)

This passage gives us what the sages identify as the very first commandment in the Torah: And although we do not negate the literal meaning of the commandment, our Master gave us a similar commandment just before he departed this earthly existence, saying:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19,20, ESV)

Making disciples of the Master is a means of bearing fruit and multiplying. In order to be a fruit-tree, the tree must produce fruit, which is capable of producing other fruit-bearing trees. A disciple is not a true disciple, unless he is giving birth to other disciples, who in turn will give birth to other disciples. Disciples do not bear sterile fruit. Disciples bear other disciples who have the ability to reproduce exponentially.

There are several reasons my posts have been lacking over the last few months. However, one of them has been that I have been investing my time into trying to figure out a plan of how to make disciples for the Master in my local community. As a means of starting to fulfilling this mitzvah, I thought about starting a weekly study of the parasha at an introductory level, gearing it towards people who didn’t know anything about Torah, and were still plugged into their local churches. I immediately thought of Torah Club, Volume 1 from First Fruits of Zion as the perfect methodology to facilitate this. It’s organized, well-written, thought-provoking and intentionally geared towards those newly coming to an understanding of Torah. Although this won’t necessarily “make” disciples, this will prepare people to become disciples as they study the Scriptures with a fresh understanding.

A couple of months back, Boaz Michael shared with me his vision of beginning to share Torah with non-messianics on a local level. He had a plan to develop local Bible studies across the country called “Torah Portions,” based off of the weekly Torah portion. This immediately sparked within me, and I knew this was an affirmation of what I had in my heart.

This past week, I started this weekly Torah study, introducing people to the Torah, some for the first time. We meet at an office building in the middle of town, making it accessible to everyone and keeping it from having any sort of denominational association. Tonight will be our second meeting. I’m finding out that this is a great way to fulfill a deep desire within me to share Torah with others, and help to nurture disciples of the Master.

I want to encourage you to do the same and share Torah with your community. Start a Torah Club group and teach from your heart the things the Father has been showing you in your studies, gently allowing the eyes of others to be opened to the wondrous things of the Torah. Don’t wait for the “right time” or for someone else to do it. Step out and begin cultivating an environment for discipleship within your city, community or church.Similar Posts: