Rabbi’s Reflections – Friday, December 3, 2021 (6 candles at sunset)
(Early) Shabbat Shalom,
Do you have a heart for Jewish evangelism? I hope so, because when we love what God loves, His blessings flow. God loves His people and wants them in His kingdom. Paul wrote the best treatise on Messianic Judaism in the three chapters, Romans 9, 10, and 11. Consider how he begins each chapter.
Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Messiah—I do not lie, my conscience assuring me in the Ruach ha-Kodesh— 2 that my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart unending. 3 For I would pray that I myself were cursed, banished from Messiah for the sake of my people—my own flesh and blood.
Romans 10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation.
Romans 11:1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2a God has not rejected His people whom He knew beforehand.
Part of a right approach to Messianic Judaism is Jewish evangelism. It’s okay to come initially into a Messianic Jewish understanding of Scripture without the desire to see Jewish people saved, but it is not okay to continue to walk with God according to His principles without a strong desire to see “His people whom He foreknew” come into His kingdom through a right relationship with the Son of God, the Jewish Messiah.
Actually, how strange to think that the Jewish Messiah would not be for Jewish people. Yet there are those who believe Jewish people are saved by obedience to God and therefore do not need to receive Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. However; nothing could be further from the truth.
Many of us have Jewish family and Jewish friends. Christmas is a great time of year to challenge Jewish people to think for themselves and ask God if He sent His Son. Join me in prayer for such opportunities, and watch how God opens doors. Those prayers will be answered, because when we pray for the salvation of Jewish people, we are loving what God loves.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Fri 03-Dec-2021 29th of Kislev, 5782 Chanukah: 5 Candles
Ge 43:16-29 1 Sa 18 Ps 58 Mk 12:28-44 (1 Co 15:29-58)
Nu 7:36-47, 1 Macc 9-10
Week 49
Memory Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
241 12/2 Monday: Hebrews 7
242 12/3 Tuesday: Hebrews 8-9
243 12/4 Wednesday: Hebrews 10
244 12/5 Thursday: Hebrews 11
245 12/6 Friday: Hebrews 12