LEPER HUGGING

To recap a little, so far in our study of Mark, we see how Yeshua was first introduced to those reading this Gospel. Paul’s letters had been circulating among the various congregations for some time, as they preceded the writing of the Gospels, and actually provide the first glimpses into the believer communities. Mark’s Gospel is the first written account, though, of Yeshua’s ministry.  Imagine if this was all new to you and you hear about this Man for the first time this way.  He’s not like anyone else you’ve ever heard about or known. He does things no one ever has.  Who exactly is He?

One of the first things He does is stir up a demon who has evidently been resident in a man with this unclean spirit all along but no one knew it. Though I do wonder if that didn’t explain some of this man’s personality quirks. Not only does this demon speak through this man probably for the first time, but the demon knows who Yeshua is – He’s “the holy One of God!” (1:24).  What in the world does that mean to those people witnessing this in the synagogue that day?  Holy One of God? This is a first, for sure.  

Have you ever been somewhere when a demon manifests its presence and starts talking? It’s pretty creepy. But Yeshua calmly takes charge, though nothing like this has ever happened to those folks in the synagogue that day. Having once been an angel before the demon joined Lucifer’s rebellion, he (it) would certainly know Yeshua by His Spirit. (Much to think about there.) As we know, Yeshua tells him (it) to be quiet and leave the man.  No priests or Pharisees were able to do that!    Then He heals Peter’s mother-in-law, so they learn that He also has healing power over sicknesses.  This results in many others in the village showing up at Peter’s front door who were healed as well. 

If that isn’t enough, Yeshua is then encountered by….. a dreaded leper!  This horrendous disease meant excruciating social isolation besides the pain of disfigurement for a victim of the disease. Somehow the news of Yeshua has come to this man of all that He has done and he takes the risk to come to Him with the great hope that he too can be healed.  Can we even imagine what this man must have been through, from the first evidence of the disease and then undoubtedly having to leave his home, and his livelihood, with no one, even his loved ones, wanting to come near him. Was he a poor peasant? Or perhaps he was even a Pharisee. Whatever identity he once had was no longer his. Now he was only a leper.   

The man asks Yeshua, with much trepidation I would think, not really knowing how Yeshua would respond, “If You are willing….”   My bible says, “Yeshua reached out His hand as He touched him and said to him, “I am willing, be cleansed” (1:40-41). Can you just picture the inhaled gasp of those around them when Yeshua reaches out and touches the man, as they all back up together as if it was choreographed?  

Whenever I read that story, I always hear Yeshua kind of choke up a little as He says that He is willing. This poor man would have been relegated to being an “unclean” person by everyone he knows, and certainly by the priests and religious folk.  Was he once maybe even one of them? We don’t know. He certainly couldn’t go near anything having to do with the Temple. 

But this Son of God who is devoid of “religion” in all the ways in which He reveals the true Heart of God, reaches out to the man in what in Hebrew is called Rachamim.  It’s my favorite Hebrew word. Pronounced as rakh-a-meem, it means compassion. 

Despite the fact that at least one of my English translation bibles uses the word pity right there, rachamim  is not pity but compassion.  The difference is that pity looks down on a person with a kind of sad “tsk-tsk, that’s really a shame for them” perspective, while compassion gets down in the mud with the person to help lift them out of it.  Compassion gets in there, wherever there is, to lend a hand, to be there for them, to help. Whoever he was, he was a man whom Yeshua regarded as a man like anyone else in great need, and responded to him with God-like compassion.  Isn't that what Yeshua did for us all ultimately - He got down in the muddy soil of the earth in every sense to lift us out of all that has kept us victimized by the “fall” of mankind into sin and unbelief. 
 
Yeshua wasn’t just feeling sorry for the man, He didn’t have to touch him; He healed others without touching them.  But the touch was part of the healing.  I wonder how long it had been since this man had felt any human touch.  Reaching out and putting His hand on the man was a way of saying “I accept you as the person you are.  I don’t see you as a diseased man, I just see you as a man whom God considers worthy of His love.” A tender touch, as that must have been, means I care about you. Human touch goes a long way to bring comfort and encouragement to any of us.

Needless to say, the man was entirely, completely and immediately healed. Can you picture what it would have been like for that man to be given back his life.  Or to witness all that happening – nothing you would have ever expected. I'm guessing once whole again he gave Yeshua one very big hug and I can just hear Yeshua laughing in delight with him. After all, what would Yeshua have felt in all this? Joy, I would imagine. And a great sense of godly satisfaction to have been able to restore the man to wholeness. He may have been the one who was the most blessed. We’re rarely told of His responses to much of went on. You have to get those insights from the Holy Spirit when you give them some prayerful pondering.  

I wonder, could this now healed person have been the man whose house Yeshua later went to for the famous dinner when He was anointed by a woman who poured a jar of precious oil over His head (Mark 14:3)?  That dinner was held in the home of a man who was obviously healed but, unfortunately, was still identified as “Simon the leper.”  Was that him? If so, did Yeshua remain friends with this man after He healed him? This possible relationship causes me to wonder what other kinds of relationships Yeshua maintained in His travels and experiences. He and His men had to eat somewhere, or rest somewhere. How would you like to have had them drop by for a while when in the area where you lived?  Oh yeah! I often think He was a lot more human than we imagine Him to have been. 

In a sort of related way, this all brings to mind how useless religion can be when it is devoid of the godliness of compassion.  Keeping all those religious rituals which were added to what God gave Israel in the Torah, actually distanced those from God who were seeking God’s approval for their piousness. They entirely missed what God wants for and from His people. Sometimes a simple hug is being Lord-like and pleasing to God. 

Perhaps the Holy Spirit might make you aware of someone who just might need a touch, or a hug and to be told that God knows just what they’re going through and that He’s there with them. I met the sweetest lady in her 70’s in the Dollar Store last week. She was obviously trying to make a decision about what to buy and seemed perplexed. I started to chat with her and soon she told me about her adult son who ill who lives with her and she wasn’t sure what would be a good juice for him as he is now a diabetic. I showed her how to see how much sugar is in the jars of juices and I wound up praying with her about this son she was so concerned about. She was a believer and said she felt like God had sent His love and comfort to her right there in the Dollar Store. What a joy that little encounter was – for both of us. And yes, we did share a hug.

If you’ve done things like that for someone, then you know that the person isn’t the only one to be blessed. The Lord lets us know He’s pleased by sharing a moment of His joy with us. Yeshua who must have had a great many moments like that, just quiet-like inside, just between Him and His Abba.  

The Gospel of Mark Through Jewish Eyes - Part 2

Shalom, Folks. I hope you had a good week. Thanks for joining me and the others who are a part of this online class.   Some of this lesson might seem a bit on the heavy side as I lay a foundation for where I believe God is taking us as we study the Gospel of Mark through Jewish eyes. We are taking a look outside of Mark's gospel today to how the people he knew might be somewhat bewildered by our "church" today. But take heart, Yeshua has overcome the world, and we are living in a day when God is overcoming some  erroneous doctrines and restoring the truth of His Word where it is needed. And in contrast to some past periods of church history, a renewed sweet sense of His presence is available to us as has not always been there. 

When Yeshua walked the earth and taught God's people, He was largely bringing correction to misunderstandings of God that had come about through what some well-intentioned men had added to the Scriptures. Some of those intentions in time became sufficiently entrenched as religious doctrines so that   when Yeshua came to bring clarity to God's word, His teachings challenged their religious rules which also served to challenge their positions of power. This news isn't news to us, of course, but it's still significant to consider because it serves to make us aware that we too must be careful not to hold onto cherished ways of "doing church" that God may be seeking to better align with His word and His ways.

What John the Immerser said he was bringing was a message to prepare for the coming Messiah, and then Yeshua Himself, through His teachings and acts brought to Israel truth and revelation that also prepared God's people, those with ears to hear, for what Yeshua's atoning death and resurrection accomplished. Could it be that what God is doing today, bringing truth where it has been corrupted, and restoring correct understanding to misinterpreted Scripture is also preparation for the fulfillment of His final redemptive plan for mankind? New-found insights into places in God's Word  that were unclear or confusing before and now being understood that may have been misinterpreted or identified as something that wasn't what was happening at all. But now we have information to inform us of what was really being said. We will be talking about a number of these as we go on in our study. These are helping to readjust some of our concepts of the Father and His Son in "Spirit and in truth" by revealing truth where text has been added or misinterpreted. Happily, we are living in a time when our God is restoring  the power of the truth of His word and it is being manifested in our lives once again with healing, signs and wonders and changed lives. How exiting is all that?!

My mind just went to what Moses must have felt as 'The God of All There Is' Himself gave him unprecedented insights from creation forward that would impact not only Israel but the whole world! No wonder he was so exasperated and angry when he saw the people worshiping an insignificant golden calf after being with the Almighty Creator of the world! This gives me the expectation that for those of us who will spend time with God and let Him impart to us Who He truly is, the foolish things we once saw as "gold" and of value will fall away so that we can see that only He is worthy of worship and being adored.  But back to Mark.   

Remember, this is the first writing of the story of Yeshua and Mark had to decide what to say. The challenge was not what to include but what to leave out as there was so much to say. Each thing he chose to put in the story he obviously felt was more meaningful than some other things he didn't include, in order to build a true picture of Messiah Yeshua.  Try to give some thought to Mark's motivation for wanting his readers to know this or that about Yeshua as we go on for some added insight into the story. Mark as the shortest of the four gospels seems clipped in speech and brief, as if Yeshua's always in a hurry. Not so. Mark uses the term ‘Immediately’ often which means more like “and then this happened.”

There is controversy as to whether this Mark is the John Mark of Acts or not. If so, then the believers would have been meeting in his home under his mother's hospitality, and so as a young man he would have seen or been a part of much of what the virgin church was experiencing, including when Peter came to the door after being put in jail and Rhoda thought it was Peter's ghost and not Peter himself at the door (Acts 12:12-16).  If he is that Mark, he would also have been the cousin of Barnabas who, being a Levite might mean that Mark also was a Levite and possibly came from a family of temple-serving priests (Acts 4:36). (There's so much in between the lines I wish we knew.)  Barnabas brought John Mark, now called just Mark, along on a mission trip with Paul (Colossians 4:10), only to have a falling out with Paul about Mark's behavior in some way, though later Paul asked for him to come to him saying that Mark "is useful to me in ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). Evidently forgiveness for whatever happened put it behind them both. And we know that Mark traveled with Peter as well and heard all his stories which information, it is thought by scholars, is what Mark likely based a good bit of his gospel upon.

The sentence structure in Mark occasionally uses some Latin phraseology, “gospel” being one of them meaning good news, but the writing is more Hebrew in phrases and sentence structure, making Mark’s gospel undeniably Hebrew.  Even though Mark may have been addressing some Gentiles, he tells the story the way he heard it from Peter, and Peter certainly spoke as a Jew, telling the story of the Jewish Messiah to other Jews.  Keep in mind that Mark and the first century Jewish followers of Yeshua had every reason to believe that all who would come to the Lord – Jew or non-Jew – would see that Yeshua was the perfect embodiment of the Word of God given to Moses and the prophets, as there was nothing in Yeshua contrary to those teachings.  He fulfilled every Biblical prophecy pertaining to His life and lived His life as the quintessential Jew in every way.  The believers would have unquestionably thought, of course Yeshua would always be regarded as the fulfillment of the teachings God gave to Moses!  How could it be otherwise? 

These very teachings, known as the Torah defined for Israel how to live the highest quality of life on earth, free from selfishness and all that comes about as a result of it; free from the guilt of sin, and a way to live under the protection and provision of God. It also told of how this One God created the world - a good thing to know - so there is to be no worship of any other (false) gods. No other nation had anything close to this way of life.  So of course those early believers in Yeshua would expect nothing different of anyone who would come to trust in Israel’s Messiah.  As we read through Mark, consider that all that Yeshua lived out in what He said and did, to the very moment of the end of His life as a Man, was in the context of fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures.

How ironic it is then that within a few hundred years almost all that was Hebrew or Jewish, including Scripture, was removed by its leaders from the church.  The Reformation of the church certainly did what it's name implies, it reformed many wrong doctrines and did away with many heretical practices, but it was just that, a reforming of church ways; it was not the Restoration that Peter said must take place before Yeshua's return. To quote Peter again as it continues to be a foundational verse for this study, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21). It is those things we're in search of today and in this study!   

Please note also that there is not one place throughout the entire Tenakh, the Old Testament, where the Torah is referred to as "the law." Rather, the Hebrew words used are more along the lines of teachings or instructions. The Hebrews did not regard the Torah as "you better keep these or else..." but rather as instructions on how to live the best way of life according to all God had taught them. We will talk more later about this when we come to Yeshua's relationship with the Pharisees, but keep in minds that how we may read the word "law" in our English bibles does not present us with an accurate picture of Israel's relationship with YHVH. Think of the teachings also not so much as being Jewish but Godish!  Because it is God who gave Israel their entire way of life through the Torah which Yeshua embodied.

Some of this may be foreign to those who have been raised in the church that has been so alienated from Yeshua’s life as a Hebrew because anti-Hebrew misinterpretations became entrenched rather early on in the church. Even that word church is a misinterpretation of another word, ekklesia which is actually a Greek word, having to do with those who are called out for a purpose. Believers are certainly 'called out' of the worldliness around us. Though we are 'in' the world, we are not to be 'of' the world. You already knew that, right? In meeting together, the ekklesia formed a Kehilla, a Hebrew word having to do with a congregation meeting together in meaningful relationships. Messianic congregations in Israel today are still identified as Kehillote (plural for kehilla).  The term doesn’t have to do with a building, but even so, coming together still had to take place somewhere. Somehow though the word "church" brings up in each of our minds a number of connotations that would not have been familiar to our first century Hebrew brothers and sisters. 

I'm not saying any of this is bad, or that there aren't legitimate ways we are to adapt to the cultures in which we now live, or that anything 'modern' is against the will of God. Of course not, but you may agree that on the whole we do not look like the Book of Acts in terms of spiritual commitment and overarching love for Yeshua. Not yet anyway.  But if we are to give any thought to what God might want to restore to His people, consider that the pristine kehillot would not have even had a clue of what would come about among believers in Yeshua. They would not have envisioned one pastor as a leader who would be the only person who speaks at meetings (even Paul had dialogs, not monologs).  The early believers would not have imagined rows of pews where believers sit silently and passively without anyone contributing insights or revelations, prophetic words of the intentions or affirmations from God or encouragement of the Holy Spirit, or where there would be no messages in tongues with interpretations to reveal God's heart on specific issues - all of which was normal in meetings among the believers. Nor could they have imagined that the power of the Spirit to bring healing would be rare and deliverance from demons just about non-existent. Worship bands of professional musicians, not to mention ear-blasting sound systems, would have confounded them, and certainly, God help us, they would never have even conceived of the Feasts of the Lord having been considered heresy and replaced by two pagan-influenced holidays called Easter and Christmas. Add to all this that it would have been incomprehensible to them that their sacred day of Shabbat would be changed to  when the Roman sun god was worshiped, a day called sun-day, mixing worship of Yeshua and this false god together - thus violating two commandments to keep the Sabbath on the eighth day and to never worship a false god.

Can you see why God, who could envision what would happen, would speak prophetically through Peter and say to Israel, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21)?  I believe we are in that day or restoration.  Israel is God's prophetic time piece and prophesies are being fulfilled regarding Israel more now than ever before. Not the least of which is the restoration we are talking about.  

When man seeks to bring about the Kingdom of God by their own efforts and ideas, it will eventually become what human kingdoms are made of and not of the spiritual power and merciful grace of God. It inevitably becomes more earthly than heavenly. On the other hand, no one could have imagined or accomplished what God did by the power of His Holy Spirit in the early church. Indeed, they would not even have had the vocabulary to describe what unfolded. I suspect the same thing is true of the work that God will do in His people who will yield to Him as He prepares us for Yeshua's return,which is to say, the move toward the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God on the restored earth. As we go through this study, it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will bring truths to us that will bring us to deeper truths and consequently to a deeper trust in and love for Him.

Only God can bring about what is fully "of" Him.  We say, Lord, do by Your Spirit what needs to be done in our lives to make us one with You and instruments of glory.  Amen.
 
Till next week ,chaverim (friends, pronounced ha-ver-eem),
Lonnie 

This article may be shared but must include:  Shared with permission by Lonnie Lane, at Lonnielane.com, August 2016. 

Infinite Compassion

My mom went home to be with the Lord on August 26th, 2010. She was 92 and the sweetest Jewish lady you’d ever want to meet. OK, true, the photo was taken a few years earlier, but she was still beautiful, and yes, that's her own brown hair with hardly any grey hair. I can’t imagine anyone having anything but good things to say about her. She’s known the Lord since 1977, having come to the Lord in her sixties. A Jewish woman of that age with an orthodox Jewish upbringing coming to the Lord was not a usual occurrence at that time. (Still isn't.)

I share this with you about my Mom to let you know of the Lord's faithfulness in the last moments of our lives when we’re His. She went through three difficult days (death is still an enemy!) during which we watched her detach from this life, including saying goodbye to us, to a life that no longer had any meaning to her – only the people did, and even to Lizzie, our doggie, whispering to her, “You’ve been a very good puppy dog.”

Nothing was left to be said. We had said all the I love you’s, and thank you for being you’s. We had asked for forgiveness of each other years ago for any way we had hurt each other. After all, I was an unsaved teenager at one time – that’s cause to ask for forgiveness in itself. There was only love. It had been a privilege to be her caretaker, to honor my mother this way. I know that not every mother is as delightful and as easy to be with as mine, so she made caring for her easy. She was a role model of goodness, graciousness and generosity of heart to the end, even in the way she died.

That Saturday my daughters and their families, consisting of two sons-in-law, six grandchildren and three dogs went to the beach. Mom was always called "Gra," short for Grammom. The kids wrote her full name and "Gra" underneath in the sand. Libi whose name means "My heart" in Hebrew, wrote "We love you" under her name and drew a heart around the names in the sand upside down. "So she can read it from heaven either way if she's looking down," she said. We took a few moments to thank God for Gra and to remember things we loved about her. We were comforted in the Lord that she was in a much better place, but still, we deeply missed her as we left the beach, all of us together for the first time without her.

Two days later, to soothe our souls, my daughter Jenny and I went into the quaint little town she and her family live close to on the ocean here in Florida. We had lunch at a French restaurant, and dessert in a Belgian one. In the town is a synagogue which is over 100 years old, with beautiful stained glass windows and charming architecture. Jenny wanted to show it to me so we found an open door and went in. Three people were speaking together and turned to greet us with questioning looks on their faces as to who and why we were there as the service (It was Shabbat) was already over. Jenny had been there once before for a service and when she reminded them, they recognized her.

The older man, who turned out to be the 90 year old rabbi, greeted us warmly with an accent that sounded like my Grandmother's, a combination of English and a Russian Yiddish accent. Standing with them was a lady, also elderly, who was obviously in emotional pain. She had a handkerchief to her face and was crying, or trying not to.

Jenny asked the woman in a most tender voice why she was crying and she began to tell us, also in an accent, that a member of her family had died in Poland and she was unable to get to the funeral or be with her family. She was grieving terribly, not just for the family member she obviously loved, but also because she couldn’t be with her family so they could share their grief together. (Obviously, there was no Yeshua in her life or her deceased family member to take the sting out.) I asked her if she was the Rebbitzin (rabbi’s wife). Yes she was.

We then told her how we had just lost my Mom, so we now were sisters in grief. Jenny and I put our arms around her and cried with her. She had her head on Jenny’s shoulder while I put my arms around her too and just let the comfort of the Holy Spirit ooze into her as we silently prayed for His comfort to come to her. We just held her and let her hurt and cry and grieve while we loved on her.

That we too had just lost a loved one changed Mrs. Rabbi's sorrow from what was happening to her to sharing what three women were experiencing together. My thoughts went to something Paul once said which we were now experiencing: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua our Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Cor. 1:3,4). It is often in comforting others that we are comforted.

Coming To God's Defense

I’d like to come to God’s defense, not that He needs me to. I often hear it said, and even preached, that God gave Israel the commandments, all 613 of them, to teach mankind that we can’t keep them. As if that statement sums up the whole of the Law (Torah) and God’s entire motive for giving it to Israel. But was that how Yeshua (Jesus) saw the Law? The Law, Christians are often told, was to show how much we need Yeshua. Of course, we need Him. Entirely and completely. But let me ask you this? Would God as Yeshua revealed Him to us demand of His people what they would be incapable of? Would Abba God set it up so that anyone who longed to do His will would live in constant frustration, failure and fear of the consequences of displeasing Him? Is that what your heart tells you is true of the God you know and love?

But what if it was true? Let’s see, the Commandments were given to Moses, according to some estimates, approximately 1491 B.C. That would mean it would be about 1500 years till Yeshua’s resurrection and the Holy Spirit was given when His followers were counted by God as having kept Torah “in Him” because He fulfilled it completely. Let’s consider 40 years to be a generation; that would be 375 generations – millions of people – attempting to observe the commandments unsuccessfully. Why would people continue such a futile endeavor generation after generation? Perhaps a more important question is, what would such unrealistic requirements say about God and what kind of relationship He supposedly would be wanting with His people if it were true?

Perhaps some of you feel that God is always expecting of you what you seem to be unable to fulfill but should be able to. That would foster an awareness of something you need to do to somehow get right with God, yet you just never get there. That’s what it feels like to live under a demanding God whom you cannot satisfy. Does that kind of consciousness of failure make for a loving and trusting relationship in which you find rest in Him? Or does it leave you always somewhat stressed, continually conscious of how you’ve missed the mark He’s requiring of you? That is what it’s like to live under what we call legalism. But legalism is what comes from adding to God’s commandments, not from the commandments themselves. Unless, of course, God really did mean for Israel to live in continual exasperation until Messiah came. Their relationship then would be like demanding of a paralyzed man that he get up and walk on his own, knowing he is incapable of doing so. That’s irrational. Well, we certainly wouldn’t say that about Yeshua. He’s not irrational! But neither is His Father. If we somehow, even a little bit, envision the God of Israel as the irrationally demanding God of the Old Testament (Covenant), that is likely to bleed into our concept of what God expects of us under the New Covenant, despite how good we may see Yeshua. Could how some of us see God in relation to the Law be the cause for difficulty in entering into Messiah Yeshua’s rest?

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About Challenging God

I met a delightful man recently, a doctor, who was raised in a church denomination not known for its power or sense of the presence of the Lord, at least not since the 1500’s. He goes to church occasionally but boasted that “I don’t make a habit of it.” The only thing he makes a habit of, he said, was “being good.” He had enough church-going in him from his childhood that his idea of being a Christian was that of “being good.”

As our conversation continued I spoke about knowing God while he talked of church and how his family is active in church. “But what about you?” I asked. He then voiced some very real questions about God as to why suffering exists in the world. He is a doctor, after all, in order to help alleviate suffering. “When I meet God,” he stated emphatically, seemingly assured that he would and that he’d have opportunity to speak his mind to Him about why He allows suffering, “I’ve got some things I intend to say to Him,” he said meaning he’d like to tell God that he doesn’t like the way He is running the world.

Many years ago a friend of mine was involved in what she identified as a “philosophically based prison program.” The premise was based upon an eclectic blend of “isms,” of different Eastern philosophies and ideas of god (small ‘g’) which provided prisoners with a new sense of self-identity and of reality that would sensitize them to goodness. Again, the concept of “being good” was presumably the solution, in this case to the criminal mind. She was, with genuine altruistic intent, going into prisons to teach and impart this philosophy.

I had recently become a Believer in Jesus having had my own sense of reality greatly altered when I “met God.” He was nothing of what I thought He might be. As a Jew for one thing, I never expected Jesus to be God! But I also knew I met with a power for “goodness” that was emphatically beyond any ability of my own to “be good.” Upon sharing my new-found faith with this friend, she told me, “If I ever meet Jesus Christ there are some serious things I have to say to Him, eye to eye, on equal footing.” I knew she meant the suffering the Jews have endured in His name, but also of why evil exists at all. But I also knew there would be no “eye to eye” encounter where she would “mouth off” to Him, nor opportunity to let Him know how she felt about Him. She assumed He was no more than a person, albeit one of great influence, than she or anyone else. Where or how she would meet Him wasn’t addressed.

I took her to see the movie called “The Hiding Place” which is the story of Corrie Ten Boom’s life in which she and her sister Betsy are arrested by the Nazis for hiding Jews during WWII. They are sent to a concentration camp where Betsy becomes very ill and eventually dies. Before she dies she affirms her love for Jesus and with His love she forgives the Nazis who have tortured her and so many around her, and for all the evil they were perpetrating, and encourages Corrie to forgive them as well. She forgave them! My friend, who is also Jewish, could not get past that. Knowing that six million of our Jewish people and millions of others suffered unimaginably horrible tortures, and died equally cruel deaths at the hands of the Nazis, how could she possibly forgive them? This was where her “philosophically based program” fell apart for it provided no escape from the impotent rage against such injustice.

We returned to my home after the movie as she and her daughter would be spending the night at our house. I took the babysitter home and then found my friend sitting on the back fence of my house overlooking a pasture. It was quiet, peaceful and safe out there in the early summer evening, quite unlike what we had just witnessed in the movie. In the moonlight I could see she was pensive and deeply moved. All she could say to me was, “I know that in order for Betsy to forgive the Nazis there had to be a power beyond anything I have ever known.” I had shared with her before this evening of the forgiveness and pardon Yeshua offers to us through allowing Himself to be sentenced to death in order to satisfy the penalty for our sins. Those are prison terms she would understand. Until this night it was all meaningless to her because her idea of herself was that of “being good.” What was there to forgive? The next morning she told me she had turned her life over to the Lord. That was thirty-four years ago. She has remained a faithful follower of Yeshua since.

Several assumptions present themselves through these two scenarios of wanting to meet the Lord “face to face” to challenge Him. The first is that God “is,” that He exists, and then that He is approachable, and that we will be able to have an audience with Him. It also assumes that we would have the freedom to speak our minds and to demand of Him an explanation, a defense, if you will, for why He allows evil to exist, or is possibly even the cause of it, considering how much suffering is done in His name, though let it be known that such suffering is far from anything He would do or ever sanction. It is a tragedy that the only picture of Yeshua that some people have is of how others have misrepresented Him.

To read the rest of this article go to Articles at www.sidroth.org.

Loving Like God Loves

Yeshua seemed to think we will love each other and be one in Him. I’ve found that it doesn’t take much getting to know each other before we who love the Lord love each other as brothers and sisters if the situation allows for at least some interaction with each other. We were just discussing this in my Kosher Bible class, about how we can just walk by a perfect stranger and your eyes connect for just a moment and you recognize each other as fellow Believers. I love when that happens.

I usually experience a genuine love for them at that moment. Like if someone hurt them right then I’d have to jump in and say, “Hey, that’s my sister you’re messing with. Back off, in the name of Jesus!!!” Okay, a little dramatic, but there’s this sense of belonging when I know they’re Believers too. There’s a connectedness.

It’s not really our love though, especially if we don’t even know the person or know them well. We’re really feeling Yeshua’s (Jesus') love for that person; He puts His love in our hearts. How supernatural is that? If you haven’t had that experience, ask the Lord to open up your life to that kind of sensitivity to other believers. Then look for it. It'll happen.

My then 88 year old mom (she’s 90 now) told the Exterminator, “You’re a believer in Jesus, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes.” He was. A little time of fellowship between Mom and the bug guy!

For the rest of this article, go to: www.sidroth.org and click on "Learn More: Articles." Scroll down to "Loving Like God Loves." You will find others of my articles there as well.

You Can't Taste the Chicken Soup Online

How long has your family been celebrating Passover, I was asked by a new Christian friend who had just learned that my family observes Passover. To her the Exodus was only a Bible story. "Oh, about 3500 years," I responded.

If there's one thing Jewish people do, no matter how religious or non-religious we are, mostly everyone participates in a Seder. I'm pretty sure that's a work of the Holy Spirit. After all, that's a long time, 3500 years, to be telling the same story every year. God has to be in on that. We're just not all that faithful on our own.

The first year my Dad became a believer in Yeshua he conducted the Passover Seder almost entirely in Yiddish (which only some of us actually understood). He did so because Yiddish was his first language as he grew up in his Rabbi grandfather's shull (synagogue) and his heart was so tender toward Yeshua, he wanted to tie his Jewish background together with his Jewish Messiah. We were all so familiar with the story, having each heard it all our lives, that despite the language, we knew what was being said, and were touched by Dad's love for the Lord and his gratefulness to God for rescuing our people time and time again.

This year there were 14 of us at our Seder table in Jacksonville, 12 family members and two guests, one from Germany. But my son was in New York and unable to be with us. That is, not "in person." However, my daughter Jenny had a brainstorm. We "Skyped" him in and there he was on her laptop computer, big as life. Well, almost. She carried the laptop around so we could each greet him. The family kibbitzing went on between the kids and their uncle as usual, only online this time. Then we set him near the candles as my other daughter Ellen lit them and said the blessing. When it was time for the first cup of wine, he said the B'rachah (blessing) in Hebrew and English. We proceeded through the Seder with him at the head of the table -- literally because we could only see his head on the screen.

So not even distance kept us from celebrating our Passover Seder together this year. I wonder if we're the first to hold a family cyber-Seder. The only thing missing, for me was that I couldn't hug him and for him, that no matter how interactive we were able to be, he couldn't taste the chicken soup online.