SHEMA!
Av/Elul 5770 August 2010
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MA CHADASH? WHAT’S NEW?
Ann Arbor Art Fair Outreach
From July
21-24, we expect that about 20 of us will put
on “Jesus Made Me Kosher” t-shirts, go to the
Ann Arbor Art Fair (which attracts something like
500,000 people), hand out 10,000 evangelistic
pamphlets telling the Good News about the only
Savior of mankind, talk to dozens of people and
impact tens of thousands. Thank you for your financial
and spiritual support, which help make evangelistic
outreaches like this possible!
Jews for Jesus New York Campaign
In July,
Jews for Jesus is having its annual evangelistic
campaign in New York, center of a Jewish community
of two million. Each year, the organization distributes
hundreds of thousands of pamphlets in that great
metropolis, making an impact on millions. Shema
is sending Elli to participate in this outreach
and he will need to raise several thousand dollars.
If you would like to help, please indicate with
your donation that it is for Elli and the Jews
for Jesus campaign.
Hebrew Classes
We are offering
a Hebrew class for beginners on Saturdays, beginning
September 25 and ending January 15. The classes
start at 9:00 am and end at 10:00 am. The cost
is $100.00 for those who are not part of the synagogue.
Children 10 years old and older may take the course.
There will be a 50- percent discount for each
additional member of a family who registers. To
register, make your check payable to “Congregation
Shema Yisrael” and indicate that it is for the
Hebrew class. Please include your name, address,
phone number and email address.
High Holiday Services
September 8: Erev Rosh HaShana
(7:30 pm).
September 9: Rosh HaShana (10:30 am).
September 17: Erev Yom Kippur (7:30 pm).
September 18: Yom Kippur (10:30 am, 6:00 pm).
September
19: Build and decorate the Sukka: 2:00 to 5:00
pm. Bring leafy branches, flowers or colorful
fruits and vegetables; some food to share (nothing
non-kosher please - call if you need to know more);
and a desire to be happy and draw closer to the
God Who Dwells Among Us on this joyous holiday!
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TODAH RABAH! THANKS VERY MUCH!
When
money is given to a ministry like Shema, heavenly
treasures are created. Our Supreme Rabbi taught:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
Earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves
treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break in or
steal. When God’s people give to Shema, it
creates a huge responsibility for us - to be worthy
of that money and faithful to use it well. Please
pray that we are able to be worthy and faithful.
And we pray that the Lord rewards you with many
treasures in Heaven!
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YESHUA THE EVANGELIST:
OUR MODEL FOR EVANGELISM
PART ONE
Humanity
is very confused about the most important things.
Because human beings are fallen creatures and
are living in a satanically controlled world that
is in rebellion against God and under a curse,
our species is confused about God, about truth,
about reality, about the meaning and purpose of
life. Fallen human beings might think they know,
but the reality is that they don’t know. The truth
is that God exists! He is the Supreme Person,
not some impersonal force. He has mind, emotion
and will. He is Three and yet One. He is good,
righteous and full of love. He designed the universe
and everything in it for a good purpose. He made
human beings in His image for a very great purpose,
so that we can think, reason and feel emotions;
love one another; and get to know this Three-In-One
God and have a personal relationship with Him
that will last forever! The Lord designed us to
get close to Him in this world and then remain
close to Him and live with Him forever in Ha-Olam
Ha-Ba - the very real World-To-Come - a whole
new and perfect universe that the Lord intends
to create. To make this possible, after the disaster
in the Garden of Eden, God the Father sent Messiah
the Son into this world to enable us to get close
to the God from whom we are estranged, to end
our alienation from the Three-in-One God, to bring
us out of the darkness and confusion and chaos
and into the light and truth, to bring us salvation,
and to bless us with eternal life. These are humanity’s
greatest needs.
When
we come to know that Yeshua is the Messiah and
the Son of God - that He came into this world,
died, rose from the dead, ascended to the right
hand of God, and is now and forever the living
Savior of the world - and when we transfer our
loyalty to the Three-In-One God, the power of
God to save us is unleashed; and we are rescued
and delivered from the real and utterly ruinous
forces of Satan, sin and death. When we have
come to know the God of our salvation, we are
no longer to please ourselves or live for ourselves.
We are here to serve the Living God! We are His
servants! One of the ways He wants us to serve
Him is by engaging in evangelism. Yeshua understood
our greatest need - salvation and the way of salvation
- and He constantly pointed people to that one
and only way of salvation - Himself. Faith
in Yeshua, and then loyalty to Him and His Father,
is the essence of salvation. Messiah taught
that if a human being developed faith, he would
believe what Yeshua said about Himself and become
loyal to Him. He would give his allegiance to
Him. And to be loyal to the Son is to be loyal
to the Father who sent Him. To withhold allegiance
to the Son is to be disloyal to the Father.
Along
with teaching and doing good things for people,
evangelism was the central part of Messiah’s ministry.
He not only told people the Good News, He told
them the bad news of their alienation from the
Three-in-One God. Since we are to walk as Yeshua
walked, let’s take a look at how our Rabbi lived.
The Gospel of John teaches us that Yeshua was
constantly directing people to Himself, using
all kinds of things - the Scriptures, miracles,
analogies from nature and things people were thinking
about and were able to relate to.
At
the beginning of Yeshua’s ministry (the day after
He was baptized), John the Baptist was with two
of his disciples. When that great prophet and
forerunner of the Messiah’s first coming saw Yeshua
passing by, he said: “Look, the Lamb of God”!
Hearing him say this, two of John’s disciples
followed Yeshua. Turning around, Yeshua saw them
following and asked, “What do you want?” They
said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” “Come”,
Yeshua replied, “and you will see”. Yeshua invited
these two men to come and be with Him. After being
with Him for a very short time, Andrew knew that
Yeshua was the long-awaited Messiah. Just like
Yeshua did, we need to encourage people to come
to Yeshua and see. They come and see by hearing
us talk about Him, by reading what the Bible says
about Him, and by praying to God to show them
the truth. When they do this, they are able to
come closer to Yeshua and see the truth about
who He is for themselves.
The
next day, Yeshua took the initiative and engaged
in evangelism. He found Philip and said two simple
words to him: Follow Me! Those two words
are the Good News! Yeshua wanted Philip to come
with Him and learn more about Him. Yeshua directed
Philip to Himself, to have a close, personal relationship
with Himself - not to a religious system, not
to a set of theological beliefs, but to have a
connection to the Person of Yeshua Himself. Likewise,
we are to take the initiative and tell people
that Messiah has come; and if they want to be
reconciled to God and live forever, Yeshua requires
that they follow Him by learning about Him, discovering
that He is alive and real, getting connected to
Him, and learning and doing what the Lord wants
them to learn and do.
Philip
then went and told Nathanael that he had found
the Messiah. Nathanael was skeptical of that claim.
When Yeshua saw Nathanael approaching, He said
about Nathanael: “Here is a true Israeli, in whom
there is nothing false”. “How do you know me”?
Nathanael asked. Yeshua answered, “I saw you while
you were still under the fig tree before Philip
called you”. Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi,
You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel”!
Yeshua said, “You believe because I told you I
saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater
things than that”. He then added, “I tell you
the truth, you shall see Heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending on the
Son of Man”. Yeshua evangelized Nathanael by pointing
Nathanael to Himself. First, He let Nathanael
know that He was a prophet, who was able to see
him while he was under the fig tree. Then He confirmed
Nathanael’s response - that He was indeed the
divine Son of God and the long-awaited King of
Israel. Then, since Nathanael was responding with
growing faith, Yeshua gave Nathanael more truth
about Himself - that He was Jacob’s Ladder, the
bridge between Heaven and Earth, ending the estrangement
between God and humanity and restoring relationship
and communication between Heaven and Earth.
Yeshua
evangelized those who were receptive and those
who were antagonistic to Him. While He was at
the Temple, He evangelized a group of Jewish leaders
by declaring: Destroy this Temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. Messiah pointed these
men who challenged His authority to cleanse the
Temple to Himself. He told them that He was the
truest Temple of God - the place where God most
powerfully lives and reveals His presence to humanity;
that He is the place where atonement takes place.
And He would prove these things by dying and raising
His own dead body back to life! And several years
later He did exactly what He said He would do!
Wow!
Yeshua
brought the good news of Messianic salvation to
Rabbi Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people,
who came to Him by night, already knowing that
Yeshua was a miracle-working Rabbi that God had
sent to Israel. Head Rabbi Yeshua told Rabbi Nicodemus
that to enter the kingdom of God - which is another
way of expressing the concept of salvation - Nicodemus
must be born again. He clarified that the way
to be born again was to know who Yeshua is. And
He told Nicodemus exactly who He is: He is the
Son of Man, the Perfect Human Being, who came
from Heaven to Earth. Just as Moses lifted up
the snake in the desert, and the Jewish people
who were bitten by poisonous snakes and came and
saw the snake on the pole were miraculously healed
and their lives were saved, so the Son of Man
must be lifted up so that everyone who believes
in Him may have eternal life. Yeshua was referring
to His death on the cross. When people understand
who Yeshua is and what His death on the cross
accomplished, they will be miraculously healed
and their lives will be eternally saved! Messiah
continued to evangelize Rabbi Nicodemus by informing
him that God so loved the world that He gave His
one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him
will not perish but have eternal life. But if
they don’t believe, they will perish and be judged
and condemned to Gehenna, Hell, the Lake of Fire.
Messiah
took the initiative and brought the Good News
about Himself to the Samaritan woman, who came
to Jacob’s Well to draw water. She was interested
in water, and Yeshua used water to point her to
Himself. He said to her: If you knew the gift
of God and who it is that asks you for a drink,
you would have asked Him and He would have given
you living water. Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the
water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the
water I give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life. Later in
their conversation, He told her that He was the
Messiah, the God-sent, God-anointed, long-awaited
and much-hoped-for Prophet, Priest, King and Savior.
Salvation is to know who Yeshua is and what He
is able to give - eternal life. If a person knows
the gift of God - that God is able to give us
atonement, salvation, eternal life - and if a
person also knows who Yeshua is, then all that
person needs to do is ask Him - Yeshua - for atonement
and forgiveness; and Yeshua will give that person
eternal life. That is evangelism. That is the
Good News. That is the simple message that we
need to constantly be bringing to others.
Yeshua
evangelized men and He evangelized women. He brought
Good News to Jews and to Samaritans. He evangelized
individuals and He evangelized groups. He evangelized
those who were warm and open and responsive to
Him, but He also pointed people who were cold
and hostile to Himself. Even when He was in a
conflict with a group of Jewish leaders who were
angry with Him for healing a man on the Sabbath,
Yeshua engaged in evangelism when He proclaimed:
My Father is working until now, and I Myself am
working - thus stating His equality with God.
He continued pointing them to Himself by telling
them that His actions were righteous because He
was perfectly obeying and imitating His Father;
that He is the divine Son of God and has the right
to give human beings eternal life; that, like
God the Father, He is eternal - without beginning
and without end; that He will raise back to life
every human being who has ever lived and died;
that He will be the future Judge of all of mankind;
and that a day is coming when all of humanity
will equally honor Him just as they honor God
the Father. We can know that these fantastic statements
about Yeshua are true, not just because He said
them - even though that testimony should be enough
for us - but also because the miracles that God
the Father enabled Him to do testify that Yeshua
was sent by God and therefore speaks the truth.
Additional testimony that these amazing claims
about Yeshua are true come from the great prophet
John, who knew that Yeshua was the Messiah and
the Son of God. In addition, the Holy Scriptures
give evidence that Yeshua is the Messiah. Moses
specifically wrote about Yeshua, and to read and
really understand the Torah leads to faith in
Yeshua. Yeshua told these Jewish people that anyone
who believes what He says has eternal life, and
that to have eternal life, we must come to Him
and know that He is who He claimed to be, and
then enter into a personal relationship with Him
and give our loyalty and allegiance to Him. Yeshua
said these things to people who were in a state
of conflict with Him and were challenging Him.
The lesson: better hot - open and receptive to
the truth - or cold - actively opposing the message,
like these people - but not lukewarm - uninterested.
That means that we need to be courageously
telling people these same things about Yeshua,
pointing people to Yeshua, even if they might
not agree with us or initially be very receptive.
Evangelism
was a central part of Messiah’s ministry. We are
to walk as Yeshua walked, to live as He lived.
Messiah constantly directed people to Himself,
using all kinds of things - the Scriptures, miracles,
analogies from nature, things people were thinking
about and were able to relate to. The Messianic
community has been entrusted with the Messiah’s
evangelistic mission. It is the duty of every
child of God to be actively involved in evangelism.
Tell them the bad news that they are sinners in
the most desperate need of a Savior, and also
the Good News that the Savior has come! Like Messiah,
let’s constantly direct people to Yeshua, using
all kinds of things - the Scriptures, analogies
from nature, things people are thinking about
and able to relate to. Let’s go to them, not wait
for them to come to us. Let’s take the initiative!
Don't wait for witnessing opportunities to occur,
for someone else to open up the conversation in
a spiritual direction. Take the initiative and
make witnessing opportunities happen! Get close
to God, and pray that God will help you witness
to the reality of the risen Messiah to others
- in person or by mail, email, phone, pamphlet
or some other way!
Shalom!
Rabbi Loren
SHEMA!
(Hear!)
is the newsletter of
Congregation Shema Yisrael
P.O. Box 804
Southfield MI 48037
Phone: 248-593-5150
Email: Shema777@aol.com
Website: www.shema.com
Services: Saturday 10:30 a.m.
Bible Study: Thursday 6:30 p.m.
At Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church
3600 Telegraph Road
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302
