SHEMA!
Elul 5768/Tishei 5769 September 2008
<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><
=========================================================
MA CHADASH? WHAT’S NEW?
Outreach At Art Fairs
Evangelism
is an essential part of the mission of Messiah’s
Community. It is very important to us at Shema.
In July, about a dozen of us handed out 8,000
pamphlets at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. We got into
some good conversations with Jews and Gentiles.
I had a particularly good conversation with “R”,
whose daughter recently became a Messianic Jew.
Even those who didn’t take a pamphlet or talk
to us got some of the message, since thousands
of people saw the “Jesus Made Me Kosher” t-shirts
we were wearing. Please pray that we will
make a similar impact on the “Arts, Beats and
Eats” festival in Pontiac, which goes from August
29 through September 1. Another way to participate
with us is in sharing the cost of the pamphlets
for the outreach in Pontiac. They will cost about
$700.
Fall Holidays
Rosh HaShana:
Monday, September
29, at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, September 30, at
10:30 a.m.
Yom Kippur:
Wednesday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday,
October 9, at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., followed
by breaking the fast together.
Sukkot:
Build and decorate the sukka Sunday, October 12,
from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 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!
<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><
=========================================================
TODAH RABAH! THANKS VERY MUCH!
Giving
is a part of worship that delights the Lord: Do
not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such
sacrifices God is pleased (Hebrews 13:16).
Giving is like the sacrifices that were offered
in the Holy Temple, which rose up and made a delightful
aroma in the nostrils of God. Paul, writing to
the Philippians, tells them that their giving
to support his service to the Lord was an acceptable
sacrifice: I am amply supplied, having received
from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant
aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing
to God (Philippians 4:18). Our community is
dedicated to reaching out to the lost, nurturing
them when they become part of Messiah’s eternal
community, and then sending them back out with
the Good News into a world that is perishing,
so they can repeat the process and bring yet more
people into God’s Kingdom. We say “todah rabah”
to those of you who, in an increasingly difficult
economy, give sacrificially to help us go, bring
back and nurture, and then send the new ones back
out. May the God of Israel be well-pleased with
you and your sacrifice, and may He bless you!
<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><<><
=========================================================
BACK TO BASICS:
A SUMMARY OF ROMANS 1-11
PART 2
Not
just humanity, but the entire physical universe
has been tremendously and negatively affected
by man’s sin. All of creation is suffering. But
the suffering of creation will come to an end.
The children of God and the rest of the creation
will one day experience release from this enslavement
to corruption. We and the universe will experience
redemption and a joyous and everlasting rebirth.
In the meantime, we will experience difficult
circumstances, trials and hardships. Knowing that
the sufferings of this short time that we are
alive on Earth are not worthy to be compared with
the eternal honor and glory that we will experience
will help us patiently endure our present sufferings.
The
invisible and good God is working to bring us
to the goal of eternal life. We know that in all
things God is working for the good of those who
love Him, those who have been invited to participate
in His purposes. Apparent tragedies, our sufferings
and hardships will all turn out to benefit us.
The
King of the universe had a great and eternal and
comprehensive and all-encompassing and amazingly
good plan for His sons and daughters. He knew
us before He created the universe. Before the
universe was made, He chose us so that one day
we would be like His Son, the glorious Messiah.
Messiah is God’s Firstborn, Special Son, which
means that He is the preeminent Son and the most
honored Son of God; but Messiah will have many
honored and eternal brothers and sisters - you
and me!
The
eternal and good God had a great and eternal and
comprehensive and all-encompassing and amazingly
good plan for His sons and daughters before we
were born. From eternity past He predestined us.
He had a plan for us. He knew us and marked us
ahead of time for salvation. Then, when we were
born, He made us aware of the Good News of salvation;
and He created the circumstances so that we could
have faith, so that we were able to enter into
a right relationship with Him. He will bring us
all the way to the goal. He will raise us from
the dead and enable us to live forever with eternal
honor and glory!
There
is no force or power in the universe that can
prevent any of this from happening! If God is
for us, who can be against us? God has forgiven
us and declared us to be righteous. No one can
condemn us. Nothing can separate us from the Father’s
commitment to us or Messiah’s love for us. No
force, no power, no angel or demon, nothing in
the present or in the future, nothing anywhere
in creation, no hardship we are asked to go through,
not life and not death will be able to separate
us from the love that God the Father and Messiah
Yeshua our Lord have for us!
In
spite of the many advantages that the Chosen People
enjoyed, the majority of Israel missed out on
what the Lord wanted. We failed God. God didn’t
fail us. We were not faithful to God. He was always
faithful to us. The problem was that we pursued
God the wrong way. We came to the Torah in a legalistic
way and missed the personal relationship aspect,
the faith in God emphasis, the trust in the Lord
aspect of our religion that is the most important
part of Judaism. Laws are to be obeyed/followed/observed
by saved people, who are motivated by their salvation
and by their knowledge of God. Law cannot save.
Law cannot bring a relationship with God. Law
cannot create life. The Torah is God’s book, but
it is only a book! We need more than a book to
save us. A book is only an instruction manual.
A book only gives information. A book only points
the way for appropriate action. A book gives good
information, but lacks the power to implement
the information. God’s book points us to God Himself
and His principles of atonement that point us
to Messiah. This book directs us to get in touch
with God Himself in a personal way - to get to
know God and Messiah, and reach out to God and
Messiah with knowledge and trust. But the majority
of the Jewish people missed the Messiah when God
sent Him, with devastating consequences! Therefore
the majority of the Jewish people are not in a
right relationship with God and are not saved
and will not experience eternal life.
The
majority of the Jewish people are in a strange
spiritual condition. We have a zeal for God, an
enthusiasm for religion, but it is based on a
terrible and deadly ignorance that has ruined
the majority.
There
is more to being Jewish than just being born into
a Jewish family and going through rituals and
trying to keep the laws. We are refusing to become
righteous God’s way and trying to substitute our
own way to be acceptable to Him, and that can
never work. God’s way for us to become righteous
is for us to recognize Messiah Yeshua.
To
be really Jewish, successfully Jewish, God-accepted
kind of Jewish, saved-and-headed-for-Heaven Jewish,
each individual Jew must have faith in the Messiah,
whom the Lord has sent to us to help us. We must
accept Yeshua as the Messiah because He alone
makes us right with God and enables us to establish
a right relationship with God. Only a remnant,
a minority of the Jewish people, the Messianic
Community, is approaching God His way and being
saved. A remnant, the true Israel, is being saved
in the present, just as there has been only a
remnant of the faithful in every generation of
Jewish people. Not all Israel is really Israel!
It is the faithful remnant of saved, Messianic,
Yeshua-following Jews who are the true Israel,
the true Jews!
Meanwhile,
more and more non-Jews, the peoples from the other
nations, are being saved! This too is part of
God’s eternal plan. Gentiles are entering into
this New Covenant. They are being saved by the
God of Israel, through coming to know Israel’s
Messiah. They are being grafted into Israel’s
salvation and spiritual blessings.
The
majority of Jews, like the Gentiles, have sinned,
but that doesn’t mean that God is finished with
the Chosen Nation. The Lord is not finished with
His Jewish people. The nation of Israel is still
an important part of God’s plans. He will bring
our special nation to complete salvation and graciously
enable us to fulfill our calling as His Chosen
People.
The
majority of Jewish people have fallen away from
God and salvation, but it is a temporary fall.
God will pick us up and restore us as a nation
of light and truth, and we will be a great blessing
to the world. All Israel will be saved!
We
will be grafted back into our own Olive Tree of
Salvation and Blessing. It will mean new life
for us and for the entire world of human beings.
Israel’s salvation will begin mankind’s golden
age, so Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews
should pray and preach the Good News and give
money to make sure that happens.
Non-Jewish
followers of the Jewish Messiah need to love us
in a special way, have mercy on us, feel compassion
for us and bring us the Good News about the Messiah.
They need to make us jealous of their close and
personal relationship with our God.
God
used the Jews to reach the disobedient Gentiles.
Now He is using the Gentiles to reach the disobedient
Jews. This is to keep all of us humble. This is
to remind us that God - not weak, pathetic humanity
- is wise and powerful and the source of life
and salvation and blessing.
These
are very important teachings. These are the core
doctrines, the basics of the Faith. You need to
understand these things. You need to study this
message until it becomes clear to you.
That
brings us to the second part of the letter to
the Romans, which focuses on lifestyle and practices,
and implementing these truths in our lives. From
right belief come right actions. Lord willing,
we will consider Romans 12 next month. Until then,
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
|
