Archive for March, 2009
The Freedom to Love: A Lesson from Colossians
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 31st, 2009
I recently reviewed a book written by David Rudel called The Gospel You’ve Never Heard (you can find the review on this blog) and noticed that one of the points Rudel made was that there’s a relationship between how Paul refers to being “saved” in his letters and the giving of the Spirit. As I was reading Colossians last Shabbat, I noticed Paul mentioning the Spirit and, applying this perspective, started taking notes on Paul’s observations. This blog post is the result. Unless otherwise stated, all passages referenced are from Colossians.
If being “saved” has to do with receiving the Spirit and, according to Rudel, the special gift of the Spirit, is to enable us to obey the teachings of Yeshua (Jesus) and the Word of God (Torah), then I think it’s important to connect those concepts together when reading Paul’s writings. Let’s take a look.
Who Really Goes to Hell? The Gospel You’ve Never Heard
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 29th, 2009
Author: David I Rudel
Format: Paperback, 204 pages
Publisher: Biblical Heresy Press (February 15, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0981826601
ISBN-13: 978-0981826608
I first heard about this book on the blog of a fellow named Aaron called Honest Uncertainty. Well, actually I started following Aaron on twitter, but that’s beside the point right now. After reading Aaron’s review, it seemed like the book really needed a deeper going over and, long story short, I requested and received a review copy from the author David Rudel (thanks, David). Here’s what I found out.
Although there are a few websites and a blog that support the book, I wanted the text to speak for itself first, and so bookmarking the relevant URLs, I pressed on. The first thing about the book that I (and practically anyone, I imagine) noticed was that it has the world’s longest title: “Who Really Goes to Hell? The Gospel You’ve Never Heard: What a Protestant Bible written by Jews says about God’s work through Christ (A book for those in the church and those offended by it)”. Egad. Why not just put the entire text of the book (it’s only 204 pages) on the cover and be done with it? I can only guess that the author and the publisher felt that the long title was needed to “hook” the reader, but then I’m guessing.
Speaking of the publisher, they have a rather unusual name: Biblical Heresy Press. Usually the word heresy isn’t taken in a very positive light in Christian circles, so I thought the explanation from the publisher as to how they made such a name choice would be interesting, but that wasn’t the focus of my review or this blog post. Under the publisher’s logo were the words, “The Bible is best read with your own eyes…preferably open”. I couldn’t agree more, but in what spirit were those words written? I continued turning pages.
Speaking of URLs I decided not to visit until after reading the book, the footer on each page of the book contained a URL not listed elsewhere. I’ll talk about it more at the end of this article. I really wanted the book to be my first presentation to the author’s and publisher’s content.
Messianic Judaism 101: An Introduction
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 27th, 2009
Before I create too many more blog posts, I suppose I should start to define some basic concepts. While all of the readers from my congregation and from other Messianic groups will know what I’m talking about, anyone who surfs in from the web or clicks a link leading to one of my articles may not understand some of the language I use or the ideas I describe. Since I worship at a Messianic congregation and conceptualize my faith from that framework, I think it would help if I described a little of my perspective.
According to Wikipedia:
“Messianic Judaism is a religious movement whose adherents believe that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they call Yeshua, is both the resurrected Jewish Messiah and their Divine Savior…The central characteristic defining the Messianic Jewish movement as Christian, rather than Jewish, is its belief in the divinity of their Messiah, Jesus. This central tenet of belief is seen by the great majority of Christians and Jews as being the defining distinction between the two religions. This is also the opinion of the Supreme Court of Israel regarding immediate and automatic eligibility for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return…”
Frankly, I don’t even like the term “Messianic Judaism” because I don’t think it’s particularly accurate and because some pretty odd ideas and theologies have become attached to that label.
Sharing Faith in a Dark World
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 26th, 2009
Why is it so hard for people to understand us when we share our faith? I don’t even mean why is it hard for people to believe that the events in the Bible depict God’s involvement in humanity, but why do people have a hard time believing that we actually experience God?
I was pondering this during my morning commute. It makes a sort of sense, actually. When we tell people that we’ve experienced “that small, still voice” inside of us, it sounds as if we’re crazy. True, I’ve never experienced an actual, audible voice, but I know for certain that God has spoken to me. How do I know? I can’t explain it. It’s “just a feeling”. I guess that makes me sound like a nut, doesn’t it?
After all, people experience all kinds of subjective internal states all of the time. Every emotion, whether anger, or fear, or anxiety, or joy is something that only we can experience within ourselves. Nobody else can plug into our nervous system and actually feel what we feel (CAT, PET, and other types of scans aside). So how do you tell someone that how you experience God isn’t just another emotional or mental internal state that starts and stops inside of your brain and biochemistry? From a secular humanist point of view, that’s all it should be.
Sharing Faith: I love you…please don’t kill me
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 25th, 2009
I read a news story published by World Net Daily last November that took me by surprise. A group of Christians had been visiting San Francisco’s Castro District for several nights, praying for the people there (The Castro is known as a primarily “gay district” in San Francisco). It was a peaceful encounter and, according to one of the Christian women in the group, “People would come stand with us and join us…We got to pray for some people.”
All that ended one night when a group of “hundreds” of gay men “rushed out of the bars and swarmed (the) group of Christians…and some even threatened to kill the worshippers.”. What happened? During the confrontation, one of the gay men asked “Why are you here?” to which the leader of the Christian group replied, “We’re here to worship God, and we’re here because we love you.”
You can read the World Net Daily story by clicking the link I provided in the first paragraph of this post, but ultimately, the encounter turned so violent that the San Francisco Police had to escort the Christian group out of the area for their own safety. The Christian group said they weren’t there to preach or condemn gays or to evangelize them. Their only goal was to pray, to sing, and to worship God. Why was there such a strong and violent response to these believers? Joe Schmitz, an opponent of Prop 8, crystallized the rationale, or at least some of it, when he told San Francisco’s KTVU Channel 2, “They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk, and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech, which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood.” But did that have to include a physical attack and death threats?
A Quick Tour of Philippians
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 22nd, 2009
You’re going to need a Bible when your read this. I’m not going to put down the exact text for each Bible verse I’m referencing as well as my commentary about it. Actually, I think that looking up the information in your Bible really helps in learning.
I can almost never read the Bible any more as a narrative. I opened the Book of Philippians last Saturday morning to center my mind and spirit while preparing for Shabbat services later that morning. As I started reading, connections and ideas started popping up in my head. I opened up a text editor on my computer and started taking the notes that ultimately resulted in this blog post.
This article is a text representation of how I teach and to some degree, how I think. If you follow the list of verses I present, you can almost see me reading through Philippians and then connecting to some other part of the Bible that seems to illustrate a point or speak to Paul’s theme. On the Shabbat I wrote these notes, I already had my teaching prepared and I knew I wouldn’t have the opportunity to also present this material. Not wanting a Bible study to go to waste, I saved the notes and turned them into what you’re reading now.
The church or faith community in Phillipi was primarily Gentile and Paul knew how to speak to specific audiences. I started wondering if the metaphors he used would be different than those he employs when talking to either a mixed (Jewish and Gentile) congregation or a completely Jewish audience. What I found was interesting.
Open up your Bibles and follow along. Let’s see what we can discover together by exploring these notes.
Welcome to the Congregation Shema Yisrael Blog
Posted by James in Uncategorized on March 22nd, 2009
Congregation Shema Yisrael is one of the oldest continually operating Messianic congregations in Idaho. Founded in 1996, Shema Yisrael is a fellowship of Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua our Messiah. We are starting this blog to more effectively communicate the Hebraic understanding of the Bible and the Messiah.
The blog is very basic now, but will continue to develop and expand to provide our readers with the resources necessary to engage a passionate pursuit of Torah study and Messianic faith.