Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Finding Jewish People - Part 1




Finding Jewish People is a short series about where we might be already crossing paths with Jewish people and where might rub elbows with them. Many times we think Jewish people only live in New York, Hollywood, and Israel but the live in all parts of the world and throughout all of America.

From time to time I hear that people say they don’t know any Jewish people or there are none in their area, and for these reasons they don’t need to understand or participate in Jewish Evangelism. Sadly I have found that this is not true. Most of these people are like I was. They could not recognize a Jewish person if they had too. If their life depended on it even. I was so ignorant that I did not even know what the stereotypes are. Unless I was to see someone with payots (also called pe'ots, peyots, payos, peyos), a wide brimmed black hat, maybe a kippah (more commonly know as a yakama), and a long beard. I don’t think I could have ever recognized a Jewish person. Not even if they sat next to me on the bus or were at the next table in a restaurant.

The first time I met a Jewish person (that I know of) it was not what I would have expected. He was young, clean cut. He a modern, Southside fade hair cut. His kind a hip, urban looking young man. He was Hispanic and that was a shock. I would have never known that he was a practitioner of Judaism except he was incarcerated and he asked me about how to write a chaplain to make sure that his meals would be kosher. He was a convert from Catholicism. He was nothing like the T.V. type of Jewish people. He was seemingly normal. He told jokes. We talked about how you could make a tamale that was Kosher. Pork which is popular was a complete no-no. I thought of him as a Hasidic Hispanic, although he did not Hasidic. He had a Spanish surname. He was not a Cohen or anything ending in a “berg” or “stein”. He did not fit the mold. The first Jewish person I met did not look the part, yet here was faithful and Torah observant from what I could tell. 

I met the second Jewish person of my life in the same place. Behind bars. This man was not Hispanic but a large, lumbering, white skinned Jewish man. He was Messianic Jew. His family was Jewish. More importantly mother was Jewish. Towering at a height well over six feet he was huge. He had broad shoulders and a big belly, big hands and big feet. A mammoth of a man with a deep voice this man did not seem the typical picture. He read, spoke and wrote fluent Hebrew. He had a Bible in which both Testaments were in Hebrew. Something I had never seen before. He was greatly disturbed that the prison unit he was at had written his name and id number on it. That was a great tragedy to him. And huge injustice. I could not understand at the time as I had no clue about a yad (a pointer for the Torah). He was upset not because it was personal property but God’s words. And those are important.

The first two Jewish people I met were indistinguishable from people I met would bump into at a Costco or a Wal-Mart. They were pretty normal. I would have had no clue that would have kept Shabbat or that they would prefer lochs and bagels to bacon and eggs. They were a great deal like my neighbors and my family members. They were real and human, just like me. 

There is a great chance that you have met a Jewish person. Or maybe you have a family member that married one. A Jewish man, woman, or child may actually live in your neighborhood, pass you in the grocery store or pump gas across from you at the gas station. Jewish people are part of the American community and the fabric of the world. That begs the question, “What can you and I do to reach them for Messiah Jesus?” First, begin to pray. Pray that God would open their hearts and our eyes. That Yahweh would divinely coordinate an opportunity for you to speak to a Jewish person about Christ and that they would be receptive o God speaking through you and the work of His Spirit. Second, equip yourself with some resources from Tzedakah Ministries. They are solid, biblically grounded, cross centered, easy to use resources that can help you share with someone and will give you are greater confidence to do so. Tzedakah Ministries is a huge help to people like you and me and is full of great helps, information and resources. I can’t recommend them enough. They are like no other ministry that ministers to and evangelizes Jewish people. And finally, be open to learning new things. Loving Jewish people for Christ will open up a new world to you that is rich and beautiful even though it was seemingly hidden to you before. Opening up your heart and life to them will be a blessing in itself, but the greater fruit will be seeming them come alive as they trust and follow Christ.

Sunday, April 08, 2012

10 Ways to Communicate Hell to Contemporary Culture

From the Book, You Can't Curl Your Hair with Holy Rollers, by Michael Nolan and Eve Sarrett [note this was published in 1993].

To get modern heathens to wake up and smell the coffee it has been suggested that you try these updated metaphors for what eternity in hell would be like. (If nothing more they are here for giggle and to provoke thought.)

  1. Experiencing an eternal IRS audit.
  2. Watching an endless slow-motion video of a BMW being scratched.
  3. Being only chaperon on a junior high field trip.
  4. Finding your cable TV stuck on The Weather Channel.
  5. Sitting through every graduation ceremony on Planet Earth.
  6. Listening to one 12-year-old teach another to play "Chopsticks".
  7. Becoming a pork chop, and the devil is a pit bull.
  8. Neighborhood blabbermouth learning the number of your cellular phone.
  9. Living above a bowling alley.
  10. Having to do telephone solicitation for a dance studio.


'via Blog this'


Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Watts Wednesday - WHY DO WE MOURN DEPARTING FRIENDS?



Why do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to His arms.

Are we not tending upward, too,
As fast as time can move?
Nor would we wish the hours more slow
To keep us from our love.

Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And left a long perfume.

The graves of all His saints He blessed,
And softened every bed;
Where should the dying members rest,
But with the dying Head?

Thence He arose, ascending high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our flesh shall fly,
At the great rising day.

Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise;
Awake, ye nations under ground;
Ye saints, ascend the skies.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Watts Wednesday - Christ's Dying, Rising, and Reigning


Luke 23:27,29,44-46; Mt. 27:50,57; 28:6ff. 

He dies! the friend of sinners dies!
Lo! Salem's daughters weep around;
A solemn darkness veils the skies;
A sudden trembling shakes the ground.

Come, saints, and drop a tear or two
For him who groaned beneath your load:
He shed a thousand drops for you,
A thousand drops of richer blood.

Here's love and grief beyond degree,
The Lord of glory dies for men!
But lo! what sudden joys we see;
Jesus the dead revives again!

The rising God forsakes the tomb!
The tomb in vain forbids his rise;
Cherubic legions guard him home,
And shout him welcome to the skies

Break off your fears, ye saints, and tell
How high our great Deliv'rer reigns;
Sing how he spoiled the hosts of hell,
And led the monster Death in chains.

Say, "Live for ever, wondrous King!
Born to redeem, and strong to save;
Then ask the monster, "Where's thy sting?"
And, "Where's thy vict'ry, boasting Grave?" 

Luke 23:27,29,44-46; Mt. 27:50,57; 28:6ff. 

He dies! the friend of sinners dies!
Lo! Salem's daughters weep around;
A solemn darkness veils the skies;
A sudden trembling shakes the ground.

Come, saints, and drop a tear or two
For him who groaned beneath your load:
He shed a thousand drops for you,
A thousand drops of richer blood.

Here's love and grief beyond degree,
The Lord of glory dies for men!
But lo! what sudden joys we see;
Jesus the dead revives again!

The rising God forsakes the tomb!
The tomb in vain forbids his rise;
Cherubic legions guard him home,
And shout him welcome to the skies

Break off your fears, ye saints, and tell
How high our great Deliv'rer reigns;
Sing how he spoiled the hosts of hell,
And led the monster Death in chains.

Say, "Live for ever, wondrous King!
Born to redeem, and strong to save;
Then ask the monster, "Where's thy sting?"
And, "Where's thy vict'ry, boasting Grave?" 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Watt's Wednesday - YE SONS OF ADAM, VAIN AND YOUNG



Ye sons of Adam, vain and young,
Indulge your eyes, indulge your tongue,
Taste the delights your souls desire,
And give a loose to all your fire;
Pursue the pleasures you design,
And cheer your hearts with songs and wine;
Enjoy the day of mirth, but know
There is a day of judgment, too.
God from on high records your thoughts,
His book records your secret faults;
The works of darkness you have done
Must all appear before the sun.
The vengeance to your follies due
Should strike your hearts with terror through:
How will you stand before His face,
Or answer for His injured grace?
Almighty God! turn off their eyes
From these alluring vanities;
And let the thunder of Thy Word
Awake their souls to fear the Lord.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Watts' Wednesday - Psalm 7



God's care of his people.

My trust is in my heav'nly Friend,
My hope in thee, my God;
Rise, and my helpless life defend
From those that seek my blood.
With insolence and fury they
My soul in pieces tear,
As hungry lions rend the prey,
When no deliverer's near.
If I had e'er provoked them first,
Or once abused my foe,
Then let him tread my life to dust,
And lay mine honor low.
If there be malice found in me,
I know thy piercing eyes;
I should not dare appeal to thee,
Nor ask my God to rise.
Arise, my God, lift up thy hand,
Their pride and power control;
Awake to judgment, and command
Deliverance for my soul.
[Let sinners, and their wicked rage,
Be humbled to the dust;
Shall not the God of truth engage
To vindicate the just?
He knows the heart, he tries the reins,
He will defend th' upright
His sharpest arrows he ordains
Against the sons of spite.
For me their malice digged a pit,
But there themselves are cast;
My God makes all their mischief light
On their own heads at last.]
That cruel, persecuting race
Must feel his dreadful sword:
Awake, my soul, and praise the grace
And justice of the Lord.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Watts Wednesday - Hymn 44




Hell; or, The vengeance of God.


With holy fear and humble song,
The dreadful God our souls adore;
Rev'rence and awe become the tongue
That speaks the terrors of his power.

Far in the deep where darkness dwells,
The land of horror and despair,
Justice has built a dismal hell,
And laid her stores of vengeance there.

[Eternal plagues, and heavy chains,
Tormenting racks, and fiery coals,
And darts t' inflict immortal pains,
Dyed in the blood of damned souls.]

[There Satan, the first sinner, lies,
And roars, and bites his iron bands;
In vain the rebel strives to rise,
Crushed with the weight of both thy hands.]

There guilty ghosts of Adam's race
Shriek out, and howl beneath thy rod
Once they could scorn a Savior's grace,
But they incensed a dreadful God.

Tremble, my soul, and kiss the Son;
Sinners, obey the Savior's call;
Else your damnation hastens on,
And hell gapes wide to wait your fall


Sunday, January 01, 2012

On Worship



"Without the heart it is no worship. It is a stage play. It is an acting of a part without being that person, really. It is playing the hypocrite." - STEPEHEN CHARNOCK