January 2005

Special Timely Offer!

 

Blessings as we enter 2005!

Time flies

Doesn’t it seem like yesterday that we anticipated the arrival of a new millennium as we embarked upon the year 2000? Now, it is five years later. Time does indeed fly! Our eldest son, Jonathan has already completed his first semester of college at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Your prayers for him over the years have availed much. Jonathan is passionately pursuing the Lord, playing guitar with a fellowship group worship team, helping teach a Bible study, and counseling and praying for other college students. He is accomplishing all of this while maintaining a high grade point average as he pursues a career of teaching English. (This is still a matter of prayer.) God is so Faithful. Jesse, our youngest, joins his older brother in his passion for worship and is also involved in music ministry both playing guitar and teaching others to play worship music. Jesse is now a 10th grader at Calvary Chapel Academy here in Ft. Lauderdale, a school that is training future leaders for the Body of Messiah. He serves on the high school leadership council. Our family is very blessed. After two bouts with two completely different cancers, Neil is cancer free as we enter 2005. Cancer was not only powerless to prevent us from continuing with our ministry assignments, but suffered a deathblow as we went up to Zion for a very anointed Mercy Mission and also embarked upon our most ambitious television project to date: 22 new Jewish Jewels programs. These programs will be completed, Lord willing, sometime next month. We are believing that God will use them to touch multitudes of hearts with the love of Yeshua and the truth of His Messiahship. It is "harvest time." We are laborers in God’s vineyard. You are our partners in the harvest field; we need you more than ever in 2005!

The "latter times"

We are living in the times spoken of in 1Timothy 4:1 in which some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Jonathan has seen this happen with some of his former classmates, and is earnestly trying to bring them back into the fold through persistent prayer and unconditional love. The "latter times" are also "perilous times" according to 2Timothy 3:1-4. The NKJ version also calls the times in which we live "times of stress." Do you agree? Isn’t our self-centered, materialistic, morally bankrupt society aptly described by the following:

"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God..." (2Timothy 3:2-4)

Do we really understand the times in which we are living? We must pray to be like "the children of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do..." (I Chronicles 12:40) This is Yeshua’s will for us. He rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16) who knew how to discern the weather but could not discern the signs of the times.

God’s prophetic time clock is ISRAEL. An examination of Yeshua’s words in Luke Chapter 21 leads us to conclude that we are in the time immediately preceding the return of the Messiah since Jerusalem is no longer trampled by Gentiles; therefore, the times of the Gentiles must be fulfilled or nearly fulfilled, (vs. 24) and the fig tree (Israel) is indeed budding (vs. 29-31). This generation dates from 1948 when Israel became a nation again. We are living in the last generation, the one that will see the return of Yeshua, the Messiah. Our Lord exhorts us in Luke 21:34, given the nearness of His coming, to take heed lest our hearts are weighed down with "carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life." While most of us do not have to be concerned with the first two, we do need to watch out for being overwhelmed with the "cares of this life." Our real life is hidden with Messiah in God (Colossians 3:3) and our real home is in Heaven. May these realities be more a part of who we are in 2005!

"High time"

We are living in the "high time" spoken of in Romans Chapter 13:10-12: "Love does no harm to a neighbor: therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." It is "high time" to put on love. Let us make that a goal in 2005. Let us tune our hearts to the heart of God and agree with what He is doing in the earth.

In the midst of terrorism, fear, economic distress and uncertainty in Israel, God is reaching out in love to His people. We see Him doing the same thing here in America, and throughout the rest of the world. Now is the time!–the "set time" to favor Zion, spoken of in Psalm 102:13.

..."a time to die"

Ecclesiastes 3:1 begins, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die..." In the midst of writing this letter last month, we had to stop to attend the memorial service of a friend’s mother. She was only 70, too young to die in our way of thinking, but the Lord called her home. He also called home our precious Mennonite friend, Gideon, who first welcomed us to his beloved Amish country more than 20 years ago. He had walked more than three miles the day he died. He returned from his last walk, collapsed and never recovered. Last week, Neil officiated at the funeral of another very dear friend in her 50’s who died of ovarian cancer. All these deaths were tragic, and a great loss to family, friends and the Body of Messiah, yet we had a sense of preciousness about each death and a purpose to them beyond our ability to comprehend. We picture each of these lives as a seed that has fallen to the ground so that much fruit will come forth. We also sense the Lord speaking to His children to "number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). None of us knows how much longer we will be here. Have our lives been an inspiration to others? Have we shared our Saviour with a dying world? Have we loved our family members, leaving them a legacy of security? What will they say about us at our funerals?

We have been deeply inspired by Zelda. One of her twins had muscular dystrophy, but she would not allow her daughter to be treated as anything but normal. Zelda got a school system to make schools wheelchair friendly for her daughter and all those after her.

Lucille challenged her children and grandchildren to be all that they could be, constantly raising the bar, praising them, and setting the example of all things being possible with God. Each of Lucille’s grandchildren thought they were her favorite. Her sons and daughters all knew how much they were loved.

We are forever grateful to our Mennonite friend who welcomed us when we were strangers, and opened his heart and home to us. Gideon’s legacy of hospitality, helping others, humility, love of family and godliness continues on in his precious family, and inspires us to follow his example.

Let’s live 2005 for God first, others second, and self last. Consider living 2005 as if it were your last year on earth. Ask the Lord to help you make the necessary changes to make this year the most meaningful and memorable of your life.

The "acceptable time"

Given the fact that only God knows the number of our days (Psalm 139:16), we need to be ready for eternity: today. This truth is affirmed both in the Tenach and in the New Covenant Scriptures: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you" (Isaiah 49:8). "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

If you have not already done so, today is the day to receive Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). His name means salvation. His gifts include eternal life hereafter and abundant life now. Anyone at Jewish Jewels will be glad to pray with you. Just call 1-800-2YESHUA.

"the fullness of time"

The fullness of time has come for the full revelation of Galatians 4:4-5 to the House of Israel. Prayerfully consider this verse as you read a prophecy given to a friend of ours whom we consider a very credible, conservative, faithful, biblically solid, source of information. He is a pastor of a large congregation in Jerusalem, and does not consider himself a "prophet," but a man of God who tries to hear what God is saying. We absolutely bear witness to this word and believe that it is a word for all of us as we enter 2005. First, the Scripture: "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

A Word from the Lord for our Time

"It happened as I was returning to the Pavilion from a Simchat Torah celebration at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles. A new friend had called that morning and invited some of our ministry team to observe nearly a hundred ultra orthodox men dancing under a giant sukka. As I watched the joyous celebration of the Torah I became engaged in a deep conversation with my host. Although very religious, and one of the organizers of this Simchat Torah celebration, she started singing some lines from "Lion of Judah," the title song on Paul Wilbur’s messianic worship album. This was just one of his songs she knew by heart. I was amazed that such a religious Jewish woman had such affection for Christians and that she loved Paul Wilbur’s music, knowing full well that he is a messianic Jew.

After the celebration, I decided to walk back to the Pavilion, which I estimated would take me about 15 minutes. On the way I checked my watch to see the time and noticed it had stopped. Now, it’s not unusual for a watch to stop working. But what was very strange is that after I shook my wrist vigorously to try to get the watch moving again, the second hand started to jump four seconds at a time instead of its former smooth rotation.

In recent years, as I’ve become very sensitive to the Holy Spirit, I’ve started taking notice of many things that happen to me. I no longer assume that unusual occurrences are mere coincidences or accidents. I now believe that the Lord is constantly trying to get through to us and wants to speak to us if we’ll only pay attention. So I said to the Lord, if you’re trying to say something to me, I’m listening. Within moments I had the distinct impression that He was saying: ‘Your watch has stopped because I am saying that a former era has stopped. And in the same way that when you shook your wrist and your watch started up again, so I am now shaking everything that can be shaken. And this shaking is the ushering in of a new era in which I will accomplish my endtime purposes. And just as your watch started operating again, but this time jumping four seconds at a time, so I am speeding up the fulfillment of my end-time purposes. It will be like the woman in travail whose contractions are sped up.’

If this wasn’t amazing enough, I remembered that this very same morning the first thing my wife said to me was, "My watch stopped." I didn’t take much notice of this except later that morning when my own watch stopped too. When that dawned on me I called her and said, "I’m curious. What time did your watch stop? She said, "At 12 o’clock midnight." I said, "Exactly at midnight?" She repeated, "Exactly midnight." I said, " Did you know that my watch stopped too. And it stopped at 15 minutes to 12."

Again, I went to the Lord. "What are you saying?" Then I sensed that the Lord was saying to me, "The new era you are now entering is a very short period leading up until my coming. That’s why your watch stopped with only 15 minutes left before 12. And just as you shook your wrist to start your watch so I will be shaking My people and you will see the veil over the eyes of my Jewish people begin to come down very rapidly."

After the Lord revealed these amazing things, I then remembered the last two religious Jewish people I had spoken to just prior to and just after my watch stopped: The first person was my ultra orthodox host who expressed her love for Christians and who sang by heart the song, "Lion of Judah" that she had heard sung by a messianic Jew. And the person I met within minutes after my watch stopped was the most recognized anti-missionary in Jerusalem and he too was an ultra orthodox Jew. As I recalled these two close encounters, I sensed the Lord was also saying to me: "The shaking that has begun and has inaugurated this rapid move of the Holy Spirit just before my coming will cause even the eyes of the ultra orthodox to open. In fact, don’t be surprised when you see that it is these who will be so suddenly brought into the Kingdom."

I don’t often get such a dramatic word from the Lord. And being a very cautious person, I was so reassured when the Lord then brought the following verses to my mind: "...but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." ...Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:26, 28).

And then I was reminded that the ultra orthodox are called haredim, which in Hebrew comes from the verb, "to shake." God’s end-time shaking will cause a spiritual awakening among those who appear to be the most opposed to Yeshua, even the Haredim."

 

 

May the Lord Yeshua find you flowing in the rapid move of His Spirit, redeeming the time, and blessing the House of Israel in 2005.

Much Love in Messiah,

Neil and Jamie

P.S. The Voice of the Lord is an excellent Messianic Jewish devotional. Updated version for 2005.

P.P.S. Tell time in 2005 with a lovely 14K gold-plated Star of David pendant watch with pearlized face and 26" gold-plated rope chain; beautifully gift boxed.