Archive for January, 2010
Eating at the Master’s Table
Posted by James in Uncategorized on January 21st, 2010
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Rabbi asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.” They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
-Luke 22:7-13
This Shabbat (Saturday, January 23rd), Torah Portion Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16) will be read in Synagogues all over the world. This part of the Book of Exodus is the culmination of a prophesy and a dream: the release of the Children of Israel from brutal slavery in Egypt and particularly, the establishment of the Holy Festival of Passover.
Over a thousand years after faithful Jews painted their door posts with the blood of a slain lamb to insure that God’s angel of death would “passover” their homes and not take the lives of the firstborn within, a small group of men were having their last meal with a person they called “Rabbi” and “Master” and “friend”; the man whom John the Baptiser once called “God’s Lamb, who has come to take away the sins of the world”. But what was being commemorated during this last meal at the Master’s table?
They Shall Even Sing
Posted by James in Uncategorized on January 13th, 2010
The meadows don sheep and the valleys cloak themselves with fodder, they shout joyfully, they even sing!
Psalm 65:14
Tanach, Stone Edition
As for me, I am poor and destitute, O God, hasten to me! You are my assistance and my deliverance; Hashem, do not delay!
Psalm 70:6
Tanach, Stone Edition
I will sing to Hashem while I live, I will sing praises to my God while I endure. May my words be sweet to Him – I will rejoice in Hashem.
Psalm 140:33-34
Tanach, Stone Edition
This isn’t about how well you sing when praising God (though, from a human perspective, some people sing better than others), but about how our worship is received by others and by God. When we worship God in our congregations, it is only right that our minds and hearts be turned only to Him in His Highest Heavens. Nevertheless, the people around us can hear our worship and sometimes, form opinions about what they think it means about us.
I’ve been in Bible studies where everyone was encouraged to offer a prayer to God aloud, going around in a circle from one student to the next. I remember being conscious of what I was going to say and feeling distracted from God by how my choice of words in my prayer would be received by the others. I’m also not the best of singers (I sing like a frog), so it’s taken me a very long time to allow myself to sing and be fully audible to the rest of the congregation on Shabbat, focusing on praising God and not on the sound of my voice.
But this isn’t the main point of the article. I’m not talking about someone who doesn’t sing well or who is slightly, socially awkward. What about the really “odd” person among us who we can hardly tolerate and do not accept?
The Target
Posted by James in Uncategorized on January 11th, 2010
This is not our first foray into the battle for faith. In 2007, First Fruits of Zion offered a conference dedicated to answering anti-missionary arguments. The conference was a response to an alarming trend we observed among many Messianic Gentile believers who were falling in love with Judaism and abandoning faith in Messiah. Without exception, such apostates warmly (and gullibly) accepted the arguments of anti-missionaries without question, while at the same time they treated the New Testament and anything they perceived as Christian with cold suspicion and cynical criticism.
From vineofdavid.org
Answering Anti-Missionaries
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” -John 6:66-69
Vine of David is the publishing subsidiary of First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ). I read their article about Anti-Missionaries and it reminded me of a couple of things. One has to do with the Jewish people and the other has to do with Gentiles in the Messianic movement…at least some Gentiles.
I don’t want to belabor the point regarding anti-missionaries in Judaism, but to understand this article, you have to understand something about anti-missionaries: