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Jewish Women Who Need Hope |
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Jewish Women Who Need Hope, Who Need Deliverance, Who Need Jesus
I hope in future newsletter editions to come back to the issue of Christian women reaching Jewish women with the Gospel. Tzedakah Times has mentioned the topic of the “Agunah” in previous newsletter editions; however, I think this is an issue that needs to be revisited. For there are many Jewish women who are searching, hurting, and hoping to find out that God loves them.
I recently read a play by Naomi Ragen, Women’s Minyan, about a Orthodox Jewish woman who is being denied access to her children simply because she chose to leave an abusive (physically, sexually, emotionally) husband. The play is fiction but is based on the true stories of many Hasidic Jewish women who are desperate for hope, deliverance, and, even though they do not realize it, Jesus.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of Christian women to reach Jewish women with the Gospel. And that is why the recent opportunity that Tzedakah Ministries had to speak to a District WMA (Women’s Missionary Auxiliary) in Arkansas was so thrilling. I left the meeting feeling revived and invigorated as these women “got it”. For those who did not know any Jewish women, many joined “Elijah’s Witnesses” to be a prayer partner for Jewish evangelism. Others took the evangelistic materials provided and are determined to find ways to distribute it soon. My prayer is that 2009 will have many more Christian women who join together to reach Jewish women with the great hope and deliverance … Messiah Jesus! |
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Jesus Celebrated Hanukkah |
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What Do You Mean that Jesus Celebrated Hanukkah?
Check Out John 10:22-31!
A remarkable event often happens when I mention that Jesus as a good Jewish man celebrated all the holidays. Most will understand this to mean Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. He did celebrate those holidays … and aren’t we thankful that He is the fulfillment of these blessed events!
However, the confusion for many comes when I mention that He also celebrated Hanukkah and this celebration is one of the most important events in Scripture. As you read this article (especially if you are still skeptical), go to John 10:22-31 and read the passage. This section tells us that Jesus was in the Temple during the “Feast of Dedication” and it was winter time. This verse gives us the setting for a most dramatic and controversial event in the life of Jesus.
Jesus was observing Hanukkah, in John 10, but not like the other Jewish spectators of His day. The Jews of Judea were waiting and hoping that another Judas Maccabee (their revised understanding of the Messiah) would arise and destroy the Roman soldiers who were desecrating their land. The Jewish people of Jesus’ time were no longer looking for a Messiah to save their souls but a Messiah who would drive out the foreigners who had been invited into the country by the later descendants of the very first Maccabee.
Therefore, their questions, in the rest of the passage, asking Him if He was the Messiah was not a spiritual question but a political one. His answer, “I and my Father are one,” was not a political one but one that shook the foundations of their beliefs about God and ultimate liberation. The reason they wanted to stone Jesus was not because He said that He was the Messiah but because He said He was God. In other words, the Jews in the Temple that day believed that Jesus had committed blasphemy while missing the fact that He had just promised them liberation on a scale that was far beyond the Romans and any other foreign army. He was promising them liberation of their souls from sin.
Today, Jewish people during the Hanukkah will light their candles hoping for a political Messiah. We have the job and responsibility to tell them that Messiah has come and He is God and He is hope and He is eternal liberation. |
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The More Things Change .... |
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… The Calling Stays the Same!
This last issue of 2008 also marks some big changes for Tzedakah Times. The first thing you should notice is obvious … no more staple! However, and seriously, the newsletter for Tzedakah Ministries has reached a point in which the things which need to be written and read require another page. And so this is the first issue that you will find a four-page Tzedakah Times. Let me know what you think about the changes and directions the newsletter is going!
However, and this is crucial, the calling of Tzedakah Ministries can never and will never change. The purpose of this ministry is “To Equip the Church to Reach His People” and I would rather go home to heaven than to change the mission of this evangelistic outreach. In fact at a recent board meeting for the ministry, the amazing board members and I met together to discuss some of the 2009 goals I would like to share with you. These goals and the effort that this ministry will take to achieve them will take a lot of work and a lot of prayer. Please pray for this ministry in 2009 as Tzedakah Ministries (and I) need them desperately!
One of the first goals is to increase the number of church meetings in 2009. Why is this important? To spread the message of Jewish evangelism and the role of the church in this task takes getting into churches. I know this sounds simplistic but unfortunately it is sometimes (lots of times) more difficult than you might imagine. So in other words, pray for this goal!
The second major goal is the continued development of evangelistic tracts and ministry outreaches to stay current with the expectations and needs of Christians and churches. For example, three of the tracts that Tzedakah is in the process of writing for 2009 deal with Kabbalah and Judaism, the futile search of Buddhist Jews, and the truth that Abraham was saved by faith and not The Law as Abraham himself was not even kosher (Genesis 18). Controversy awaits!
A third objective for 2009 is to find a mission agency (or agencies) that will join with Tzedakah Ministries to reach the 150,000+ Brazilian Jews with the message that Jesus is their Messiah as well. In addition, Tzedakah Ministries also wants to branch the ministry into Canada. For Brazil and Canada are two of the largest countries, after Israel and the United States, in terms of Jewish population. However, and unlike Israel and the USA, Brazil and Canada do not have a large outreach in the area of Jewish evangelism. In other words, please pray that churches in Brazil and Canada will join with Tzedakah Ministries in reaching out to their Jewish communities with the message of Messiah Jesus.
Please pray for these goals (and the others that space prevented me from writing about in this edition). Each goal will take a lot of hard work but most importantly prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Please be a prayer warrior for Jewish evangelism in 2009!
I hope you like the changes to Tzedakah Times. Please let me know if there is an issue that you would like discussed … and I will try to make it happen in future editions.
As I close this article, I pray that the rest of 2008 is filled with joy and opportunities to serve Messiah Jesus. And may your 2009 be overflowing with times of happiness. Shalom! |
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