Tzedakah Ministries is conducting a survey regarding the question of Jewish evangelism. If you have not yet taken the survey, please do so. It will provide some interesting information that will be shared with you at a later date. Shalom! Todah!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=H_2b3jJERDteqkjbwhuZkYTw_3d_3d
In Jerusalem there is a big battle brewing over what prayer to pray over a peanut flavored corn snack named Bamba. Seriously! Check out the articles from Jerusalem Post and from My Jewish Learning for more information.
The basic argument is over what is the proper prayer to intone before it is fed to a baby in Israel. Seriously! Yitzhak Yosef advocates the “Borei pri ha’adama” (”Blessed are You, the Creator of the fruits of the earth”). David Yosef supports the Shekahol Blessing (”Blessed are You Who brings everything into being by His word”). Seriously!
Hopefully you have noticed by now that the commonality of the last names … they are brothers! Hopefully you have also asked yourself — “What is the big deal?” Seriously!
For this controversy truly is not about prayers to God but on a secondary level (1) about a family feud over power and control and (2) adhering to the Talmud rather than the Word of God.
The family feud centers on who will replace their father as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem … power and influence. The Talmud issue is about focusing on the commentaries of man rather than God’s words.
However, and ultimately, this controversy is about putting the focus on the wrong thing (Talmud) and the wrong person (Chief Rabbinate). The only person who can resolve this feud is Jesus who is our High Priest and who’s words are greater than any Talmudic position.
So let me suggest an alternate prayer that might hopefully resolve the controversy — “Dear Jesus, Thank you for this food, Amen.”
Courtesy of Wikipedia (Creative Commons License)
On the flight this morning from DFW to Louisville, KY, for the meeting of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship this weekend, I continued the monumental effort to read The Bonhoeffer Legacy. It is a struggle because the writer does not understand the theological mindset of Bonhoeffer and is frustrated because he does not fit the dual covenantal post-Holocaust theology of mainline Protestant theologians. I become frustrated because the author just doesn’t get it … not only Bonhoeffer but also the continued call of Jewish evangelism that is even more pressing and urgent in a post-Holocaust world that is growing even more anti-Semitic by the day!
Anyway while reading the book, I stumbled across a quote by Bonhoeffer that was a part of the draft of the Bethel Confession (1933). I want to share it with you as well.
A mission to the Jews which for cultural or political considerations refuses to baptize any more Jews at all is refusing to be obedient to its Lord….
Wow! I always knew I liked Dietrich Bonhoeffer (even while disagreeing with some of his more liberal tenets) but now I know of another reason. Bonhoeffer was interested in Jewish evangelism! And if you doubt it, consider what ended up in the actual Bethel Confession:
The confession affirms that God remains faithful to his old people even after the crucifixion of Christ. He preserves a “holy remnant” of Israel according to the flesh, “which will neither disappear in another nation by means of emancipation or assimilation nor become a nation like any other by Zionist or similar efforts, nor be exterminated by pharaonic measures” (115f.).
The confession affirms that the church is charged to call the Jews to repentance and to baptize the believers in the name of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. The refusal to evangelize the Jews “for cultural or political reasons” is disobedience.
Bonhoeffer of 1933 would certainly disagree with the John Hagee’s and the Rabbi Eckstein’s of 2009! So let’s remember not only the call to Bonhoeffer’s definition of “costly grace” but also his call to “Jewish Evangelism”.
Shalom. God bless.
Tomorrow (June 14) Tzedakah Ministries will have the honor and privilege of sharing the work of Jewish missions/evangelism with the amazing people of Heritage Baptist in Nevada, Missouri. While traveling to Nevada, and because of my explorer tendencies, I uncovered interesting historical sites and/or quirky places to visit on my travels across America. Today I hit the proverbial jackpot of Fort Scott, Kansas, about 20 miles from Nevada, Missuri.
I visited the American fortress (Fort Scott) which played a role in much of our history of the 19th century — from the Trail of Tears to the American Civil War. I walked around the fort and marveled at the impact on history an isolated place can have on a country. But more on that thought later….
My original intent of traveling to Fort Scott was to visit the Milken Center — a place established after the four high school girls of Uniontown (20 miles west) discovered and revealed to the world the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who rescued about 2,500 Warsaw ghetto Jewish children during the war. Unfortunately, the center was closed but there was an antique store next door.
Inside of the antique store I discovered German World War II memorabilia including a belt buckle (and belt) with the inscription “Gott Mitt Uns” on it. This phrase while seemingly innocuous means “God with Us” as a statement of belief that God was on the side of the Nazis in the war. WHAT GARBAGE! However, it is this garbage that provides one of the obstacles to Jewish evangelism for many of God’s Chosen Ones.
Satan used Hitler and the Third Reich created a barrier to the truth of Messiah Jesus. This belt buckle perhaps was on the waist of a concentration camp guard as he persecuted and murdered untold numbers of European Jewry. God was not with this soldier but it is the message of this belt buckle that stays in the minds of many survivors. We must stand up and declare the buckle to be the lie from hell that it was and it is. And we must do it today … especially in light of the new Hitler types rising up around the world.
After the fort adventure and the antique store discovery, I then went in search of something that few people would expect me to find in Fort Scott, Kansas — a Jewish cemetery.
I found the cemetery outside of the town and walked through this most beautiful of cemeteries with a sense of reverence and tremendous grief. I saw gravestones dating back to the 1870s. I saw the legacy of people who were born in Eastern Europe and died in the heartland of Middle America. I saw those who died young and those who lived to be old … surrounded by generations of family who followed them in death. And I cried.
I cried for those wonderful people who came to America hoping to find a life of safety and peace. I cried for those people who survived wars and pogroms and hatred only to die and be buried in an isolated land. However, and ultimately, I wept for their souls. I mourned as I realized that these souls probably never heard the message that Messiah Jesus was, is, and always has been for them … and for them FIRST (Rom. 1:16). They came to a land of freedom but never discovered the true freedom of a relationship with Messiah Jesus. They traveled to a new world only never to hear the message of the Kingdom of God made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth. They lived and died … quite probably never knowing or receiving the salvation message of the Suffering Servant and Prince of Peace — Jesus the Messiah.
So tomorrow I will seek to share my testimony of how a small town girl named Amy ended up with a God-given task of sharing Jesus with his brothers and sisters. I will also seek to share how a town or church is never too small to take up the mantle of Jewish missions. For if Fort Scott, Kansas, can be a watchman on the wall for the Western frontier of the United States in the 1800s, then Heritage Baptist of Nevada, Missouri, can be a spiritual watchman declaring that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah for all who will hear … and even for those who don’t wish to hear this message. Shalom.
The Occasional Bulletin for the Evangelical Missiological Society has recently published an article written by me entitled “X + Gospel = World Evangelization: What Is the Missing Component in reaching the World for Jesus?”
If you would like to go read it, go check it out at http://emsweb.org/bulletins/OB_Spring_2009_3.pdf and come back here and give it a review.
Finally the speech utilized a partial variation of the verse from the Koran (”Be conscious of God and always speak the truth”). Let’s look at what the Koran actually says in Sura 9:119 and 123 — “O YOU who have attained to faith! Remain conscious of God, and be among those who are true to their word! …. O you who have attained to faith! Fight against those deniers of the truth who are near you, and let them find you adamant; and know that God is with those who are conscious of Him.”
I must keep my personal opinions close to the vest. I will simply allow for the words of the Koran to speak for themselves.
However, what I can say is that myself personally and Tzedakah Ministries will always hold true to the Word of God … both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. These words tell me that the land of Israel belongs to the nation of Israel. These words tell me that only through Messiah Jesus can anyone find redemption and salvation. These words promise that those who follow the truth will be persecuted and reviled (Matthew 24-25). However, I would rather lives these truths even if it costs the wrath of Sura 5:32-35 for God has given me a mission to share Jesus with the Jewish people and therefore also to protect them from harm. What about you? Shalom Aleichem!
Related to the 26 Reasons book by Norman Asher is the question — was Paul an anti-Semite? What do you think? When this blog responds to Asher’s latest diatribe, it will also attempt to respond to this question as well.
Shalom and blessings in the name of Messiah Jesus on this Memorial Day. On this day we must remember those who came before us in our ever vigilant fight for freedom. One of my uncles on my father’s side was a POW in the Philippines during World War II. His service and sacrifice resulted in an early death that took him from his wife and sons much too soon. I salute him today. Four of my uncles on my mother’s side also fought in World War II — one in Philadelphia, one in Alaska, one returned with MacArthur to the Philippines, and one was the personal cook for Blood and Guts Patton. They are all heroes. They all sacrificed to ensure American freedom.
I want to also remember those heroes who fought another type of war and who sacrificed it all for as Steven Curtis Chapman describes it as “for the sake of the call.” My father on July 2, 2000, preached his last sermon on the ultimate independence day little knowing that he would experience its reality just two days later. David Livingstone’s literal heart was buried in Africa because he did not want to be separated from the continent and people he had sacrificed everything for in the 19th century. Jim Elliot wrote “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” only a few short years before he was martyred by the end of an Aucan spear. Felicitas and Perpetua from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs discovered the horrors of the Colisuem’s lions because they would not renounce their faith in Messiah Jesus. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow Chinese and Sudanese and Arab Christians will be renounced, arrested and martyred for their faith in our Lord.
So I want to ask you one question — are we willing to give our all in this greatest war of all? This great war that calls us to renounce all of our long-held hopes and dreams for the salvation of just one Jewish soul. This great war that few understand and fewer still fight along side of us. This great war that offers no earthly glory or rewards but promises all of us to one day hear, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
I know my answer to these statements/questions. Despite the blows and arrows, I have no choice but to continue on with this war. Too many souls are at stake. However, I discovered there is one less soul today than there was yesterday. I received the news that a Jewish woman who I had been desperate to reach with the Gospel died today and only God knows her eternal destination. I also discovered that 150,000 Brazilian Jewish souls are not as important as an “infrastructure necessary to perpetuate a ministry to the Jews” — did not know you needed an infrastructure simply to share the Gospel! So let us remember the Jack Downey’s, the David Livingstone’s, the Jim Elliot’s, the Perpetua and Felicitas’, and the Christians around the world who are and have given their all for the greatest war of all — the salvation of just one more person. Happy Memorial Day.
Watch this video from the Jerusalem Post and tell me with a straight face that Israel has nothing to fear from Iran.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242212410740&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Ted Pierce has an amazing video that I hope you will not “enjoy” but you will be moved to do something for the Jewish people and about Jewish evangelism. Shalom. God bless.
