SHEMA!
Adar
2/Nisan 5768 April
2008
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MA CHADASH? WHAT’S NEW?
Purim
On Saturday, March 22,
we will celebrate Purim (the holiday celebrating
the salvation of the Jewish people in the time
of Mordecai and Esther), followed by an Oneg.
Please bring food to share, especially Hamentashen
to compete for the coveted Golden Hamentashen
Award. Children may dress up in costumes related
to the story of Esther. Those who are Shema regulars,
please plan on arriving early to help with set
up and staying late to help with clean up.
Passover Seders
Passover is one of the
most meaningful holidays, and this year we are
hosting two seders: Saturday, April 19, and Sunday,
April 20, at Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church.
The time for each seder is 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Seating
will begin at 5:30 p.m. The menu includes chicken
matza-ball soup; salad; apple-cranberry chicken
breast; roasted potatoes; steamed vegetable medley;
fresh-fruit plate; mixed Passover desserts; coffee
and tea. Tickets are $20.00 for adults and $10.00
for children age 7 and under. We don’t have infant
seats and the evening is too long for very young
children. Along with your check, please indicate
which night or nights you want to attend, and
how many adults and children for whom you are
reserving places. Please include your phone number
and email address with your reservation. A
confirmation email or letter will be sent to you.
We will not be accepting any reservations after
April 10.
Congregation Sar Shalom
Shema is very pleased to announce the formation of something
special - a new satellite congregation. Its name
is Congregation Sar Shalom (“Prince of Peace”:
“Sar” means “prince” or “leader”. In fact, the
English word “sir” comes from the same linguistic
source.). Sar Shalom is to be a multicultural
congregation with twin goals of reaching out to
the Jewish people with the Good News about the
Messiah and announcing to the African-American
community the message of the Jewish roots of Christianity,
teaching that the Good News is to go to the Jewish
people first and there is a reciprocal blessing
of God for those who bless Israel. We feel there
is a need for this unique congregation and its
special emphasis. This new congregation will be
led by Pastor John and Donna Denson. They are
especially well-equipped for this work. They are
African-Americans who have a passion for evangelism
and especially Jewish evangelism. John and Donna
are trained in Jewish evangelism and have been
involved in planting congregations. If you or
someone you know might be interested in this kind
of community, call 248-312-8277 for more information.
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TODAH RABAH! THANKS VERY MUCH!
The Word of God makes it clear that we are to give to
our congregations so that the leaders who are
serving the Lord can be supported. The elders
who direct the affairs of the congregation well
are worthy of double honor, especially those whose
work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture
says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading
out the grain” and “The worker deserves his wages”
(1 Timothy 5:17-18). Those who do a good job leading
the community are entitled to receive double honor
- referring to financial compensation. Our biggest
expense is paying our staff - myself, Rabbi Glenn,
and now Pastor John. We want to extend a hearty
“Todah Rabah” to those of you who give to Shema
and Sar Shalom and thereby enable us to give ourselves
fully to the work of preaching and teaching and
leading.
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ISRAEL’S FINAL GREAT SALVATION
PART TWO
“On that day I will strike every horse with panic
and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord.
The Lord will cause panic, fear, and irrational
thinking to overcome our enemies, just He did
with Gideon and his 300, and just as He did in
the time of good King Yehoshaphat when he faced
a coalition of armies. He will confuse our enemies
while protecting us from any confusion, and He
will supernaturally empower us, especially those
who are in our capital city. He promises: I
will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah,
but I will blind all the horses of the nations.
Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts,
“The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the
Lord of Armies is their God” (their Mighty
One, the Source of Power).
The people of Jerusalem, and especially the leaders,
will be divinely empowered to fight and have amazing
victories: On that day I will make the leaders
of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a
flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume
right and left all the surrounding peoples, but
Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
Our deadly, satanically inspired, Antichrist-led
enemies, vastly superior in numbers and weapons,
will be destroyed; and the Jewish soldiers who
fight for us will be strong and invincible, so
that Jerusalem will remain unmoved. Wow! How cool
is that? The leaders of Israel will be worthy
of great honor for the amazing victories accomplished
during this time, but so will the rest of the
Jewish people! The Lord will save the dwellings
of Judah first, so that the honor of the house
of David and of Jerusalem's inhabitants may not
be greater than that of Judah. And it won’t
be just the people of Jerusalem and our leaders
who will be supernaturally strong like Samson,
but so will all of the Jewish people living in
Israel, from the leaders to the weakest of the
people. On that day the Lord will shield
- supernaturally protect and empower - those
who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among
them will be like David - like David who fought
the giant Goliath and won, like David who was
one of our greatest soldiers and generals of all
time; and the house of David will be like God,
like the Angel of the Lord going before them.
If the weak and feeble Jews will be as strong
as David the mighty giant killer, then the royal
line of David will be even more powerful - not
even like mortals, but like the Malach Adonai,
the very special and very powerful Angel of the
Lord, and like Eloheem, the Mighty God.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the
foundation of the Earth, and who forms the spirit
of man within him, prophetically informs us that
it is His plan to utterly defeat this united nations
invasion. On that day I will set out to destroy
all the nations that attack Jerusalem. This
is His plan for the proud, arrogant, anti-Zionist,
Israel-hating, anti-Semitic, God-rejecting, Messiah-resisting,
Antichrist-accepting united nations of the Last
Days.
We have experienced and celebrated quite a few miraculous
victories in our long history. Following this
greatest victory of our people from the most desperate
circumstances, where the end of our nation was
certain, one would think that the greatest relief,
the most joy and the best celebration ever would
follow. Not so. What follows this greatest of
salvations is the greatest of outpourings of the
Spirit, which results in the greatest of recognitions
and repentances and mournings over our sins. The
Lord will have saved us from physical and national
destruction; now He finally, after so many prayers
from so many righteous men and women over so many
centuries, will save us spiritually as well. The
Lord will pour out His Spirit on our nation, enabling
us to come closer to Him than we ever have before
as a people. And I will pour out on the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit
of grace and supplication. The result of the
outpouring of the Spirit of God is our new ability
to fully receive all the good and gracious things
that God has done and wants to do for us. Accompanying
this greatest of national outpourings of the Spirit
is the recognition of the Suffering Messiah and
our responsibility for His suffering. They
will look on Me, the one they have pierced.
In the pouring out of the Spirit, King Messiah
will suddenly be recognized by His own as the
source of the salvation we just experienced. We
will have a supernatural revelation that the Messiah,
the anointed Prophet, Priest and King already
came, and it is Yeshua of Nazareth, the One whom
God the Father used to stretch out the heavens,
who laid the foundation of the Earth, and who
formed the spirit of man within him. He is the
Messiah whom we rejected, helped to crucify and
have despised for 2,000 years!
The Chosen People will recognize that we made the very
greatest mistake in human history, a history that
includes many great mistakes, and we will be so
terribly sorry and repentant to the core of our
national being. We will go into a time of unprecedented
national mourning, the deepest and most profound
kind of national mourning. And they will mourn
for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve
bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn
son. This greatest threat, followed by the
greatest salvation, followed by the greatest outpouring
of the Spirit, followed by the greatest recognition
of saving truth and the greatest repentance, is
followed by the greatest national cleansing and
the elimination of all false religion and false
teachings among the Jewish people, within Judaism,
even within Messianic Judaism. True religion will
be established on Earth, centered in a new Temple
in Jerusalem. Israel and the nations of the world
will come under the wonderful administration of
Messiah Yeshua, the Lord who will have returned
to Earth on the Mount of Olives.
Why is Zechariah 12-14 of particular interest to us
today? For several reasons. Isn’t it obvious that
we are living in the time that is approaching
the culmination of this amazing prophecy? After
1,900 years - after having lost sovereignty over
the land of Israel, with the majority having been
exiled from our Land and scattered among the nations
- the Jewish people are being returned to the
land of our fathers by the God of Israel. Since
1948, we are once again in control of the land
of Israel - just as this prophecy foretold.
The reestablishment of Israel is not a chance
occurrence, and anyone who believes that the rebirth
of Israel is a historical accident and has no
end-of-days significance is making a very foolish
and dangerous mistake. The surrounding nations
have an implacable hatred toward us. They want
us removed from our place. Dominated by Islam,
which will not allow a Jewish state to remain
in the heart of the Middle East, they have launched
a series of wars against us. They will not rest
until Israel, to them a heavy stone, is removed
from its place. That is why it is foolish to compromise
with them, divide God’s special land or exchange
land for a peace that can never exist.
This Middle East conflict has already drawn in the
other nations of the world, and it will continue
to do so more and more. In fact, in November
2007, a so-called peace conference made up of
some 40 nations and hosted by the United States
convened to try to bring peace to the region by
pressuring Israel to divide God’s land in exchange
for promises of peace. The nations of the world
are uniting more and more - just as this prophecy
said they would. And most of the nations of the
world are already against us. As we get closer
to Messiah’s return, we can expect all the nations
of the world to unite against us.
The awareness that this amazing prophecy is in the process
of being fulfilled confirms to us the utter reliability
of the Word of God. It confirms to us that all
the prophecies of the Word of God will be literally
fulfilled. It tells us and the nations of the
world what the will of God is about the regathered
nation of Israel. God is a Zionist. There is no
place for anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism among
the nations of the world, especially among those
identifying themselves as Christians. Pray that
the Church turns from all anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
Pray that this nation continues to stand by the
partially regathered nation of Israel, so that
we will be blessed. This prophecy lets us know
that we are getting close to the end of this age.
The scattering and regathering of the Jewish people
to the Land that the Lord reserved for us is one
of the key signs that the return of our wonderful
Messiah is near. This should cause us to be focused
not the things of the world, but on the things
of God, and on purity and holiness and on evangelism.
One final thought that is directed to my Messianic Jewish
brothers and sisters: We are part of this great
salvation of our Jewish people in the Achareet
HaYameem - the Last Days - even now! From just
one man, faithful Abraham, God created a small
but special nation of witnesses; and within that
small witness nation, was the even smaller faithful
remnant that the Lord used to bring truth and
victory and salvation to the rest. From Abraham,
Isaac and Israel, to Moses and Joshua and the
judges and the prophets, to the good priests and
kings, and to the valiant Maccabees and Lord Himself
and His small band of disciples, including all
the righteous men and women, and finally to us
- we, the small remnant of Messianic Jews, have
a part in preparing the way for the culmination
of this great salvation! And so do the wonderful
Gentile Christians who stand with us! We are the
Elijahs and the John the Baptists who are in the
wilderness of rejection, calling out to our people
to turn to the One whom we have pierced, who alone
can save us as individuals and as a nation, and
fulfill us as Jews. We are loosening the hard
soil of unbelief, leveling the uneven ground of
Messiah-rejection to make a highway for Him to
walk on. We are the prophets calling our people
back to truth, to a right relationship with God,
to salvation, to true Judaism, to the Jewish Messiah!
This amazing prophecy lets us know that one day
all of our efforts, our words, our witness, our
faithfulness amid opposition, our patient endurance,
will have their intended saving effect!
So don’t be discouraged
that Messianic Jews are a minority within a minority
- which can be difficult and unpleasant. That
is the way it has been throughout the history
of our people. Until the great salvation of our
people in the Last Days, the faithful remnant
will continue to be in the minority. Let’s continue
boldly and unashamedly calling our people to the
truth. And let’s be willing to endure hurtful
rejection, knowing that we are on the right side,
truth’s side, God’s side, salvation’s side, and
eventually we will see a good end to our efforts
and the efforts of those who may follow us. May
each one of us be found worthy to enjoy the rewards
given by our Returning King to those who have
faithfully served Him!
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.
Wednesday 7:00 p.m.
at the facilities of Bloomfield Hills Baptist
Church
3600 Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Hills
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