Do Messanic Jews Understand & Use the NT

[hupo]

Do you mind sharing how you found Jesus??

Ok, didn't take too long to find

It also explains my signiture

A journey through the desert:-

This is my testemony or, how I found myself on a path following Yeshua's footsteps.

I have been living in a communal village for 57 of my 62 years. I am an Israeli, Jewish according to my ID but never in practice. I grew up in a country where there are Jews ("us"), Arabs ("the enemy"), the rest of the world ("Christians") . I had nothing to do with God except when we studied the bible in school (This is mandatory in Israel).

Yeshua (Jesus) or Yeshu as he was misnamed by almost everyone around me, was concederd THE enemy of the Jewish people.

I remember a day when our teacher took us out for a lesson. He stood us around a 200 liter barrel, then he comenced tearing up and burning a pile of books we had recieved as a present from the Scottish church in Tiberias.

This went on for 40 minutes and we were told that this is what we must do with Christian books. I didn't think much of it at the time except for it beeing a rather strange thing , burning books. But Yeshua was none of my business, so I just forgot about it.

My phylosophy at the time and untill about 10 years ago was, Yes, God did exist, because I had created Him. I really believed this very new-age phylosophy, was proud of it and argued the point at every chance I got.

Looking back now, I cannot see anything more arrogant than that phylosophy, but that is where I was at the time.

I had a good life, never in need of anything basic, but there was a void, an empty space which grew and grew over the years until I just couldn't ignore it any more. It was then that I turned to my daughter who was a believer, first in our family, and asked her how she was so complete spiritualy. I didn't quite know what it was but there was a kind of peace in her home that made me quite envious. I wanted that peace.

She told me about Yeshua. I asked her: "how do you get to know this Yeshua?" and she said you talk with Him as you would with a friend. To me this sounded nuts. I mean, how can you believe in something you don't believe in?! Do you get up one morning and say that you believe?......

well, I did just that and for two months felt like a total hypocrite, standing on the stage of life acting like a believer, with the emphasis on "acting".

During that time, I met someone in an internet chat, who, for some reason, found an interest in this stubborn Israeli who wanted to contact Yeshua and was doing everything against it....well, everything except quit.

Why didn't I quit if it was so crazy? I don't know. My web friend called it "the long haul... stick in there come what may and God will make that contact" ..... she kept telling me. She was very supportive and still is to this very day. She was right too!

I called on God daily, usualy in the shower, so no one could possibly hear me and send me to the loony-bin.

You have to understand that I am a Jew, living in Israel, and you just don't have anything to do with this Yeshu around here! This went on for two months and nothing happened. Then one day as I was calling Him as I did every morning, a voice suddenly dropped into my head and said "Why don't you live your life rather than explain it?".

It wasn't critisizm, it was a very gentle voice and I could almost "hear the smile behind it".

It was a shock to me, as that was exactly what I had been doing, all my life...explaining it. I needed an explanation, facts, proof, for everything including God. If I couldn't prove God was, then He just wasn't.

This was totaly new to me, troubling to be sure, but it also brough a special kind of peace I had never felt before. This was so strange to me and my curiousity was aroused to the point I just couldn't let go any more.

This happened 10 years ago and I am still following that curiousity pull.

I did try, one time, running away from it all, telling God to get out of my life, that I didn't want Him any more.....

He did just that and after about 7 seconds I begged Him to come back. It was a frightning experience which I have not repeated since.

Slowly and painfuly, Yeshua came into my life. Nothing spectacular. No dazzling light-and-sound display. No sudden visions. Nothing that I could use to prove something was going on in my life. It was totaly between Him and me. Yet in spite of the very slow and quiet way this relation developed, it was exciting, new, refreshing and I did in fact get my "proof", the only proof possible and that was a new experience that was growing in me.

Nothing to show to the outside world, no facts and eventualy I "got it" Yeshua wanted me to BELIEVE rather than KNOW him (in the logical sense).

God talks with me. At one time He told me NOT to read the Bible! Naturally I was very skeptical about that request and for a long time, thought it was satan blocking my way. Eventualy I understood what He was trying to tell me...I just hadn't listened to the end. "Don't read the Bible..... with your logical mind" is what He was saying.

I don't hear clearly and when I finaly do it takes me a long time to accept that it is the word of God.

I feel I am walking in the desert, hoping very much that it won't be 40 years like my ancestors did. I didn't understand why I was in this desert but again He explained that after I had asked Him several times in prayer, to make me thirsty for His word.... "How else do you get thirsty except live in a dry place?"...He said, and you know it makes perfect sense now. I guess I should be carefull when I ask Him for things....He really DOES provide!

So my jouney is through the desert but at the end there is that promised land......... gives much hope, I have to admit.

My testimony doesn't end here, this is just what is happening now....... the present.... my present from Yeshua

IS 40:31 "but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."

May the good Lord hold us all very gently in His very powerfull hand (without squeezing )

[Vickilynn]

Shalom Hupo,

Oh you have me crying with tears of joy!! What a precious testimony to the love of G-d and how Yeshua came into your heart. Oh my, I am so stirred and grateful to read this. You have blessed me!

May I copy it and send it to the those who met you and your wife that night in Tiberias?

[angels4u]

Shalom Hupo,

Oh you have me crying with tears of joy!! What a precious testimony to the love of G-d and how Yeshua came into your heart. Oh my, I am so stirred and grateful to read this. You have blessed me!

May I copy it and send it to the those who met you and your wife that night in Tiberias?

I'm so happy for you and to read how God got a hold of you!

You made my day by this wonderful testimony and I'm so glad you came to this forum to share your life story which bring you into glory!

Can I also copy it and send it to some of my friends?

Thank you and have a wonderful day in our Saviors name, Angels

[hupo]

May I copy it and send it to the those who met you and your wife that night in Tiberias?

Can I also copy it and send it to some of my friends?

I put that testimony out there to glorify God.

If you can use it in that way, you are both welcome.

Blessings in Yeshua

[Guest Ger_Tzedek]

Shalom

Not only do we use it, we see that all of it is already in the Hebrew Scriptures. Each compliments the other. If I attend, for example, Shabbat Shacharis (Saturday morning prayers), we have readings from the Torah (Pentateuch), Haftorah (Prophets), and B'rit Chadashah (New Testament).

And we aren't corrupted by all of this blaming everything on Constantine and other nonsense that has built up in gentile churches in the last two millennium. You guys really know how to kick each other around.

[Retrobyter]

Shalom Hupo,

Oh you have me crying with tears of joy!! What a precious testimony to the love of G-d and how Yeshua came into your heart. Oh my, I am so stirred and grateful to read this. You have blessed me!

May I copy it and send it to the those who met you and your wife that night in Tiberias?

I'm so happy for you and to read how God got a hold of you!

You made my day by this wonderful testimony and I'm so glad you came to this forum to share your life story which bring you into glory!

Can I also copy it and send it to some of my friends?

Thank you and have a wonderful day in our Saviors name, Angels

Shalom, Hupo!

I, like those above, enjoyed reading your testimony. Thank you for your openness. I think I know what you meant about "Don't read the Bible..... with your logical mind," although I can only imagine what you meant. When you are ready for Him,

Rom 11:32-34

32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller?

KJV

1 Cor 2:12-16

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

KJV

What should be obvious to us all, God's wisdom and knowledge FAR exceed our own! He wants to instruct us in His ways through His Spirit and ... believe it or not ... the more you learn from Him, the BETTER thoughts and ideas will blend into an intricate fabric of knowledge that far exceeds the best wisdom and knowledge a human's philosophy could ever hope to produce! Now, if this is too much of a temptation for you at this point in your life, I can understand. Better to be in faith and be subject to God than to slip back into pride and conceit.

Here's a small sample of what I'm talking about:

Z'kharyah (Zechariah) 12:1-14

12:1 A prophecy, the word of ADONAI concerning Isra'el -- here is the message from ADONAI, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit inside human beings:

2 "I will make Yerushalayim a cup

that will stagger the surrounding peoples.

Even Y'hudah will be caught up

in the siege against Yerushalayim.

3 When that day comes, I will make Yerushalayim

a heavy stone for all the peoples.

All who try to lift it will hurt themselves,

and all the earth's nations will be massed against her.

4 When that day comes," says ADONAI,

"I will strike all the horses with panic

and their riders with madness;

I will keep watch over Y'hudah,

but I will strike blind all the horses of the peoples.

5 The leaders of Y'hudah will say to themselves,

'Those living in Yerushalayim are my strength

through ADONAI-Tzva'ot their God.'

6 When that day comes,

I will make the leaders of Y'hudah

like a blazing fire pan in a pile of wood,

like a fiery torch among sheaves of grain;

they will devour all the surrounding peoples,

on the right and on the left.

Yerushalayim will be inhabited

in her own place, Yerushalayim.

7 ADONAI will save the tents of Y'hudah first,

so that the glory of the house of David

and the glory of those living in Yerushalayim

will not appear greater than that of Y'hudah.

8 When that day comes, ADONAI will defend

those living in Yerushalayim.

On that day, even someone who stumbles

will be like David;

and the house of David will be like God,

like the angel of ADONAI before them.

9 "When that day comes, I will seek to destroy

all nations attacking Yerushalayim;

10 and I will pour out on the house of David

and on those living in Yerushalayim

a spirit of grace and prayer;

and they will look to me, whom they pierced."

They will mourn for him

as one mourns for an only son;

they will be in bitterness on his behalf

like the bitterness for a firstborn son.

11 When that day comes, there will be

great mourning in Yerushalayim,

mourning like that for Hadad-Rimmon

in the Megiddo Valley.

12 Then the land will mourn,

each family by itself --

the family of the house of David by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

the family of the house of Natan by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

13 the family of the house of Levi by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

the family of the [house of] Shim`i by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

14 all the remaining families, each by itself,

and their wives by themselves. CJB

Have you ever read this chapter and wondered what the four named families were all about in verses 12 and 13?

I did; so, I looked up the names using PC Study Bible. Here's what I found: By looking in both the Tanakh and the B'rit Chadashah, I found in ...

Luke 3:23-38

23 Yeshua was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. It was supposed that he was a son of Yosef who was of Eli,

24 of Mattat, of Levi, of Malki, of Yannai, of Yosef,

25 of Mattityahu, of Amotz, of Nachum, of Hesli, of Naggai,

26 of Machat, of Mattityahu, of Shim`i, of Yosef, of Yodah,

27 of Yochanan, of Reisha, of Z'rubavel, of Sh'altiel, of Neri,

28 of Malki, of Addi, of Kosam, of Elmadan, of Er,

29 of Yeshua, of Eli`ezer, of Yoram, of Mattat, of Levi,

30 of Shim`on, of Y'hudah, of Yosef, of Yonam, of Elyakim,

31 of Mal'ah, of Manah, of Mattatah, of Natan, of David,

32 of Yishai, of `Oved, of Bo`az, of Salmon, of Nachshon,

33 of Amminadav, of Admin, of Arni, of Hetzron, of Peretz, of Y'hudah,

34 of Ya`acov, of Yitz'chak, of Avraham, of Terach, of Nachor,

35 of S'rug, of Re`u, of Peleg, of `Ever, of Shelah,

36 of Keinan, of Arpakhshad, of Shem, of Noach, of Lemekh,

37 of Metushelach, of Hanokh, of Yered, of Mahalal'el, of Keinan,

38 of Enosh, of Shet, of Adam, of God.

These are not families of the same generation, horizontally related along the family tree! They are families VERTICALLY related to each other! Generations separated, they are all mentioned here as being present for this event, the day of ADONAI. This speaks VOLUMNS about the Resurrection! They can all mourn for the One who was pierced as for a son or even for an only son, because Yeshua` literally IS their son or their firstborn son!

Isn't that a wonderful way to enjoy God's wisdom and knowledge?!

Retrobyter

[terter]

hupo - Thanks for letting us use your testimony. I've been pm a young man and I think your testimony may answer some of his questions. Thanks!

[hupo]

What should be obvious to us all, God's wisdom and knowledge FAR exceed our own! He wants to instruct us in His ways through His Spirit and ... believe it or not ... the more you learn from Him, the BETTER thoughts and ideas will blend into an intricate fabric of knowledge that far exceeds the best wisdom and knowledge a human's philosophy could ever hope to produce! Now, if this is too much of a temptation for you at this point in your life, I can understand. Better to be in faith and be subject to God than to slip back into pride and conceit.

"Should be obvious"...... from my observations I would say the emphasis is on "should"...

Yet, there must be a reason why God allows us to lose our way, stumble, miss the mark ... I don't understand it, but I see it in my life and those around me

(Zecharia 12)

12 Then the land will mourn,

each family by itself --

the family of the house of David by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

the family of the house of Natan by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

13 the family of the house of Levi by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

the family of the [house of] Shim`i by itself,

and their wives by themselves;

14 all the remaining families, each by itself,

and their wives by themselves. CJB

Have you ever read this chapter and wondered what the four named families were all about in verses 12 and 13?

I did; so, I looked up the names using PC Study Bible. Here's what I found: By looking in both the Tanakh and the B'rit Chadashah, I found in ...

Luke 3:23-38

23 Yeshua was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. It was supposed that he was a son of Yosef who was of Eli,

24 of Mattat, of Levi, of Malki, of Yannai, of Yosef,

25 of Mattityahu, of Amotz, of Nachum, of Hesli, of Naggai,

26 of Machat, of Mattityahu, of Shim`i, of Yosef, of Yodah,

27 of Yochanan, of Reisha, of Z'rubavel, of Sh'altiel, of Neri,

28 of Malki, of Addi, of Kosam, of Elmadan, of Er,

29 of Yeshua, of Eli`ezer, of Yoram, of Mattat, of Levi,

30 of Shim`on, of Y'hudah, of Yosef, of Yonam, of Elyakim,

31 of Mal'ah, of Manah, of Mattatah, of Natan, of David,

32 of Yishai, of `Oved, of Bo`az, of Salmon, of Nachshon,

33 of Amminadav, of Admin, of Arni, of Hetzron, of Peretz, of Y'hudah,

34 of Ya`acov, of Yitz'chak, of Avraham, of Terach, of Nachor,

35 of S'rug, of Re`u, of Peleg, of `Ever, of Shelah,

36 of Keinan, of Arpakhshad, of Shem, of Noach, of Lemekh,

37 of Metushelach, of Hanokh, of Yered, of Mahalal'el, of Keinan,

38 of Enosh, of Shet, of Adam, of God.

These are not families of the same generation, horizontally related along the family tree! They are families VERTICALLY related to each other! Generations separated, they are all mentioned here as being present for this event, the day of ADONAI. This speaks VOLUMNS about the Resurrection! They can all mourn for the One who was pierced as for a son or even for an only son, because Yeshua` literally IS their son or their firstborn son!

Isn't that a wonderful way to enjoy God's wisdom and knowledge?!

Retrobyter

This is definatly a new place for me. Never seen this let alone study it

Thanks for this - maybe i'll make this my next study

Blessings