Rabbi’s Reflections – Thursday, October 22, 2020
Shalom,
Beginning of the first announcement…
Cantor Bear will be with us beginning Friday night, October 23rd with a dairy dinner on Friday night. This is a high value and very rare opportunity to visit with a professionally educated cantor. We can learn much about the state of the non-Yeshua-believing Jewish community through his visit. Please bring something with no chicken or beef to share for dinner. Just pretend you’re vegetarian (but fish and dairy products are allowed). This is out of respect for Cantor Bear’s dietary requirements. Also, per his request, we will not be broadcasting his visit to the public.
Cantor Bear will also be ministering on Shabbat morning. I’m very excited for the opportunity to introduce my childhood friend to our Messianic Jewish community at Shomair.
End of the first announcement…
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Beginning of the second announcement…
Rabbi’s comment: Knox Area Rescue Ministries (https://karm.org/) provides more than a “hand-out” for the homeless. They literally provide a “hand-up” through ministry to more than 300 men, women, and children every night.
This is more than a soup kitchen and a cot. Counseling and prayer are part of that ministry. The objective is to minister to the whole person, body, soul and spirit, who is in a homeless condition. In addition to donations (which are always appreciated), there are opportunities for the public to be involved in ministry. Here is a note I received from Jo-Ann Hansen, the Volunteer Ministry Coordinator for KARM. End RC.
EBED stands for Every Bed Every Day. It’s our goal to pray over every bed, every day – so we are asking people that want to work from home to make cards that we can place on the beds of our guests. EBED Card Makers can drop off the cards off or mail them directly to me (Jo-Ann). Once volunteers are signed up in our database, they will get newsletters via email that will enable folks to see the progress in many of our guests lives.
Small groups or individuals can sign up to pray over our beds and place a card on each pillow. Our guests love getting “mail” and knowing someone prayed for them that day.
We also have a brand new website called www.everybedeveryday.org and this is where you go to sign up to pray over a bed daily, from home. If you sign up on that website, you will get an email with a bed number and we ask you to pray for that specific bed every day. It would be great for a family to all sign up for a bed and each have a specific bed they pray over each day. If you go to the website, it will give you some ideas about what to pray.
We have a new Prayer Team that prays over KARM’s needs each week. A weekly email goes out to them every Friday. To sign up go to prayer@karm.org .
Lean more about our Prayer Ministries here: https://karm.org/prayer/
Jo-Ann Hansen, Volunteer Relations Coordinator, KARM
P.O. Box 3310 | Knoxville, Tennessee 37927-3310
p: 865-633-7624 / c: 865-387-7477 / f: 865-673-6556
e: jhansen@karm.org / w: www.karm.org
JOIN US Thursday, October 22, 7pm, to celebrate
60 years of RESCUE|RELATIONSHIPS|RESTORATION
End of the second announcement…
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The beginning of the third announcement…
I heard from Lars Enarson over night. I’m thankful to have him as an RR reader. He took some time to add to my understanding of “The Daily Bread.” He wrote, “… the fifth passage is extra for those who want to read through the Apostles twice in a year.
Also, (anyone) can listen to the reading of all the passages on a podcast. See http://dailybread.arielmedia.se/busymoms/ It is for busy moms (hence the title) but you don’t have to be a busy mom to sign up. I signed up and I’m not a busy mom, I’m a busy rabbi.
End of the third announcement, and the beginning of the RR…
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Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Ge 9:8-17 Jos 15 Ps 15-16 Mt 11 (2 Pet 1)
There are 7 sections to the Torah reading each week. Lars has chosen to read one section each day. This is how we read the entire Torah in one year. On Shabbat there is an extra section called the Maf’tir. The person who blesses the Maf’tir, also blesses the Haftarah (reading from the prophets).
In our reading today, God makes a perpetual covenant with all flesh (not just people, but all living creatures) to never again bring destruction like the flood. Next week, God will make another covenant (through circumcision) with Abraham and his seed after him. 1,500 years later, God made still another covenant through the shedding of blood, the blood of His only begotten Son.
Sometimes (maybe even most of the time) these covenants are referred to as dispensations. I don’t like that term because it connotes separation or replacement from one covenant to the next, but God isn’t separating as much as He is building. People who get deep into dispensations frequently get sucked up into replacement theology.
The body of Messiah does not replace Israel in receiving the blessings of God, it joins Israel (grafted in) in receiving the blessings of God. And while we’re on the subject, who is “Israel?” Israel is a name given to Jacob (after he wrestled with the Lord and prevailed). It is then used in Scripture to identify Jacob’s 12 sons collectively.
Ten northern tribes were lost, but Judah and Levi remained. This leaves us with an unanswered question, “Who is a Jew?” The Bible says much on this subject (specifically in Romans 2:28). I started to write more extensively on this subject, but what a subject (ie. can of worms). Let’s leave it for another time. Maybe the Lord will come first and we won’t have to deal with it after all. Let’s just let God deal with it.
So let’s change the subject. In Psalm 15 (also part of our reading today) we find the answer to a question. The question is “Who may dwell in the tent of the Lord?” Part of the answer is found in Psalm 15:4b “(one) who keeps his oath even when it hurts.”
How profound. Sometimes it hurts to stick by a promise. Too often we use grace as permission for many types of ungodly behavior. We (the people who are called by the name of God) should be the most reliable people on earth. Sadly, there is an abundance of testimony to the contrary.
Because I’m writing on this, I’m sure to be tested in it soon. Please pray that you and I will be people of our word and give a good testimony to the faithfulness of God. May it be so, Lord. In the name of Yeshua, amen.
Week 43
Memory Verse: Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts—to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 In it the righteousness of God is revealed, from trust to trust. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by emunah.”
211 10/22 Monday: 1 Corinthians 15-16
212 10/23 Tuesday: 2 Corinthians 1-2
213 10/24 Wednesday: 2 Corinthians 3-4
* 214 10/25 Thursday: 2 Corinthians 5-6
215 10/26 Friday: 2 Corinthians 7-8
Question of the day: How come I couldn’t get past the first verse?
Answer: Because it is so profound. 2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the tent, our earthly home, is torn down, we have a building from God—a home not made with human hands, eternal in the heavens. The “tent” is identified as our “earthly home.” Our physical bodies are temporary tents that will eventually be “torn down.” This is beautiful and poetic language that we will most assuredly get old and die.
Sorry to be so morbid and blunt, but the same verse contains a better promise… “we have a building from God.” What is that “building?” First, it is a building and not a tent. Buildings are far more permanent than tents. However; buildings on earth will eventually crumble too. But this building is not of this earth (made with human hands), but “eternal in the heavens.”
This is a blessed promise of eternal life in the presence of God. Rest in that my friends.