Christmas Trip to Rochester!

The LORD taught war to the next generation...

Judges 3:1-2 “Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly).” NASB

Man’s choices---God’s Sovereign Control…this is not an either or, though it seems like it so often or is phrased as such so often. Here Joshua has not completed his task - Israel did not drive out the inhabitants of “Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites…(1:33).” But the LORD says “But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done? (2:2).” And then in the next chapter we are reading how the LORD left these nations to teach the next generation of Israelites war. As I read this today, it brought to mind the importance of living out our faith before the LORD ourselves, and not resting on the merits of past victories of others. The LORD commands those who have gone before us to leave a legacy, to tell of His mighty deeds, but He also wants us to walk boldly and expect God to great things OURSELVES. Like Gideon in Chapters 6-8 of Judges, we have the signs of Yahweh given to us before we go out, then we have the victories that He gives into OUR hands. Lord, may I listen to those who have gone before me…seeking out older mentors, reading biographies, autobiographies, and journals of missionaries and pastors who faithfully served you, and learn lessons from those who did not; may I live before you, stepping out boldly – winning people to Christ, serving you faithfully, trusting You for mighty things; and may I testify of Your faithfulness and love to my sons and daughters, to the Body of Christ, and leave a record of Your mighty works in my life and in this world during my short time on Earth. You are the mighty, God, YAHWEH. I praise You!

Rabbi Shmuley?

Rabbi Shmuley recently joined a friend of mine in Dublin debating against PRO-pornography students and activists. That's great, and you can see video at his site here: http://shmuley.com/addComment.php?id=772

I floated around his website and read some of his articles...and believe it or not, I disagreed...so I posted some comments, here's what I said and he said...

http://www.shmuley.com/addComment.php?id=615

Wednesday, 24 September, 2008 23:26 EST (THIS IS MY COMMENT)
Rabbi-On the contrary, in the first commission Jesus sent out his disciples SPECIFICALLY to the house of Israel…Matt.10:6 Jesus says“…rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…preach, saying,’The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Later he opens up the commission to ALL nations in Matt.28:18-20 saying,”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is THE Messiah, He called men to come to Him and he humbly received worship from His disciples and others. As 4791 said, Christians who share the truth of Jesus w/ Jews are not asking you give up your Jewishness, but to embrace the true Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, see John 10 for the Messiah’s bold claims. Christianity does not say that “faith trumps action”…it says that salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and that Christ has created us FOR GOOD WORKS (see Ephesians 2:8-10). Faith without works is dead (James 2:17).

fisherofmen330@gmail.com
Wednesday, 24 September, 2008 23:24 EST
test

4791
Thursday, 3 April, 2008 15:05 EST
Rabbi Shmuley, As a follower of Jesus the Christ, he has instructed me to: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15 I do not believe that he instructed me to remove you Jewishness. Your Jewishness is rooted in thousands of years of teachings, from VERY learned, Godly men. These same teachings taught of a messiah, I believe those prophecies pointed to Jesus as the saviour, and king of the Jews. Jesus was a Jew, who has instructed me to tell others of his holiness, and his right to forgive sin. As a gentile I was not under the law, which as I understand it was created by God to show how holy he is and how flawed I am. It is my opinion that when someone talks to you about Jesus the messiah he or she is not asking you to lay aside your heritage but to embrace it by seeing that your waiting for you king is over. Peter, James, John, and Paul were all Jews who met Jesus face to face and continued to be Jews. Great men of God who were able to accept the grace that thier king offered them by his death on a cross. May the Lord bless you and keep you; may he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; mey he turn his face towards you and give you peace. Jeff

5885
Wednesday, 2 April, 2008 06:13 EST
I see what you are saying but if Jesus isn't the only way, why did He say He was. Also, can anyone explain why he had to be crucified if He was just like any other Rabbi?

Would Jesus want to convert the Jews? Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 From Jerusalem Post Would Jesus want to convert the Jews? Shmuley Boteach , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 31, 2008 A serious blow was dealt to the Jewish-evangelical alliance with the publication in Friday's New York Times of a full page ad by the World Evangelical Alliance - representing hundreds of evangelical Churches, organizations, and leaders, some being among the most prominent in the country - affirming their intention to proselytize Jews. The ad said, "The most loving and Scriptural expression of our friendship toward Jewish people, and to anyone we call friend, is to forthrightly share the love of G-d in the person of Jesus Christ.... We recognize that it is good and right for those with specialized knowledge, history, and skills to use these gifts to introduce individuals to the Messiah, and that includes those ministries specifically directed to the Jewish people." Oh brother, here we go again. Is this really what we all need right now? Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are slowly building an army of non-believers to ridicule global faith. Fundamentalist Muslims who assail both Judaism and Christianity are digging in against the West. And a secular and exploitative culture in America is slowly eroding the dignity of women and the innocence of children. And just when we thought that Christians and Jews could really work together to reverse this tide, we get this: Christians who profess to be the Jewish people's friends by devoting themselves to the end of their existence as Jews. NEXT MONTH in my old stomping ground in Oxford I will be engaging in a debate as to whether belief in the divinity of Jesus is compatible with Judaism. It is not. Period. It never was, and it never will be. But that has never stopped us Jews from loving and respecting our Christian brothers and sisters and the great faith they practice. The time has come for them to once and for all declare their reciprocity by refraining from ever directly targeting Jews for conversion. This is what Jesus would want and says so with ferocious directness, going so far as condemn all who attempt to pry Jews away from Judaism: "Whoever goes against the smallest of the laws of Moses, teaching men to do the same, will be named least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who keeps the Law of Moses, teaching others to keep them, will be named great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:19). The Jewish community must respectfully but forcefully respond to our Christian brothers and sisters as to why proselytizing Jews is a bad idea. IT'S BAD for Christianity because it betrays the tragic fact that after thousands of years of persecuting Jews, many Christians still have not evolved enough to respect the Jewish faith. It's bad for Christians because if they reject the Jewishness of Jesus they will never fully understand his teachings or his life. It's bad for Jewish-Christian relations because, for all their immense support for the State of Israel, most Jews are still suspicious of evangelicals precisely because many treat Judaism as an unsaved, subordinate faith. And it's bad for the Western world whose basic fabric is based on Judeo-Christian values, which will of necessity suffer if the groups who promote these values neutralize each other through unnecessary conflict. But rather than merely lamenting this new effort by Christian to proselytize Jews, I believe that we might see it as an opportunity. Time magazine recently identified the new effort by scholars to re-Judaize Jesus as one of the 10 most important new ideas in the world. Using public forums to teach our Christian brothers and sisters of the essential Jewish nature of Jesus and his teachings is vital to a renewed relationship. Jesus was a Pharisaic rabbi. Everything he taught and lived was based on the Torah and the Talmud. From his proclamation that "The meek shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5) which comes from Psalm 37, to the famous Golden Rule of 'Do to others what you would they do to you," which derives from Leviticus 19, to his statement that 'the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,' whose origin is the Talmud (Yoma 85b), Jesus' mission was to renew Jewish attachment to the Torah in a time when the threads of tradition were being unwoven due to the oppressive hand of the occupying Roman beast. WHILE JESUS lived, Judaism was practiced by 10% of the Roman Empire. Later, because the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, it superseded Judaism as the world's foremost monotheistic faith. Judaism became a backwater that was practiced and largely known only to Jews. But it is specifically Jewish values which today represent a great hope for rejuvenating a crumbling modern world and from which our Christian brethren can greatly benefit. For instance, Christianity says that faith trumps action. What you believe is more important than what you do. And that's why they want us to believe in Jesus. But is that really the problem in the world today, that people don't have the right beliefs, or that they don't have the right actions? Nearly all people believe in love, and, according to the Rutgers University Marriage Project, close to 90 percent of all college undergraduates also believe in marriage. But their actions are not loving, as they practice cheap 'hookups' that are bereft of romance and commitment, and husbands continue to profess a belief in marriage while cheating on their wives, as we've seen recently with so many politicians. LIKEWISE, few today don't believe in democracy. Even wannabe dictators like Putin and Chavez, and actual dictators like Mubarak and Assad, do their best to give their actions a thin democratic veneer. It's their actions, rather than beliefs, that aren't democratic and which must change. Another example: Christianity values perfection while Judaism values struggle. Jesus was perfect, and Christians are meant to emulate his example. But in this age where we are all so deeply flawed and so many are lost, the message they must hear is that of the Hebrew Bible, which recounts all the errors of its heroes to teach us that even flawed human beings can vastly contribute to the perfection of the world. And is the Christian emphasis on salvation what we most need now, or is it the Jewish emphasis on redemption? Should we be talking about getting into heaven when, after so many thousands of years of human history, our earth still has genocide in Darfur, terrorism in the Middle East, and broken, lonely souls across the West? Rather than worrying who needs to be converted to get into heaven, Christians and Jews should join together to create heaven here on earth. The writer hosts a daily radio show in the US. He is working on a book about the Jewish life of Jesus. This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1206632378108&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Moses & Aaron...and Gospel Tracts?

 Exodus 7:1-2 “Then Yahweh said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.”

These verses have never struck me like they did today. Many times when I read these sections I kind of get mad at Moses. God is calling him to go speak to Pharaoh, and he refuses so God uses his brother Aaron. God chides him earlier in 4:11-12 “Yahweh said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? Now then go, and I even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” God reluctantly decides to use Aaron (it says that his anger BURNED against Moses)…and Moses still deferred. To be fair, God WAS calling him to a mighty task, daunting I’m sure for Moses after hiding in the desert for 40 years.

I think that 7:1-2 shows Yahweh’s grace to Moses. He says that Moses will be his ambassador and that Aaron will be Moses’ prophet. He allows Moses to retain the privilege of representing him, but he allows Aaron to do the oratory. As I thought about this today it reminded me of gospel tracts. See the parallel? God has called us to share the gospel with every creature, all over the world, but we are all too often afraid, and we keep our mouths shut. Now every once in a while, if we happen to be accidentally outside of our Christian bubble for a few minutes, someone may ask us a question like, “So why are you a Christian?” These things do happen. Unfortunately, they are extremely rare events! That’s why we see the Apostle Paul and Peter going out to share the gospel, travelling to new areas, engaging people in the marketplace, etc… Christ sent the 72 out; He didn’t tell them to go back to fishing and pray for divine appointments to pop up while they were eating lunch at the local Wendy’s. So must WE take initiative and go where people who do not love God are, and share the gospel with them! At work, yes, at the gym, yes, but also on the streets, by the bars, and in the public square!

 But back to my point, I think that gospel tracts, in some ways (not every way), are like Aaron for us. We know what God has called us to do, but we think, “How would I even start the conversation?” or “but I’ve only got 5 minutes to talk” or “but they are busy and don’t have 2 hours for me to deliver my extended testimony and do a bible study on John 3.” So I believe that in God’s grace He has given us gospel tracts. These simple pieces of paper with the message of reconciliation to the Father are incredibly helpful tools. Some might say, “well, gospel tracts reduce the message of the gospel into a few sentences and that’s not adequate so I’m not going to use them.” A good gospel tract quotes Scripture and wets people’s taste buds for more! Look at some of the gospel summaries in the gospel’s and Acts… “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” “…these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). If you’d like to see some gospel tracts that are not only solid but also interesting and creative, visit: www.wayofthemaster.com. Praise the Lord for His grace to us…and share the gospel by every means necessary, including gospel tracts!

click here for this one!

The Atheist Starter Kit

The Atheist Starter Kit (from Ray Comfort's blog: http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/)

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