FOREVER CHANGED

FOREVER CHANGED

                When Bonnie and I first came to Rehoboth (Our Messianic Family) we came out of curiosity. In my study of Bible prophecy (A life-long quest birthed in me by my father) it came to my attention that Israel’s Fall Feasts are yet to be fulfilled in the second coming of Christ. So I began to think to myself “If these feasts are prophetic and they are still in play, then how could they be thought of as dead rituals from days gone by?”

                I felt driven to know more about these feast days and so I got on the internet just to see if there was a Messianic Congregation here in our town of Vancouver and there was one called “Rehoboth.” Well the name sounded sort of strange and I had no idea what we would be getting ourselves into, but I talked Bonnie into coming with me to check the place out.

                The name Rehoboth is found several places in scripture but the one that gave Rehoboth its name is found in Genesis 26:22. It is a story in the life of Isaac.

                “And he moved away from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

                There were a number of surprises waiting us there. First of all a large number of the people are Spirit filled and somewhat Pentecostal. I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting conservative and traditional. Of course now I understand that this makes sense. After all, Messianic Jews were the first Pentecostals, for it was all Jews that met in the upper room to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

                Secondly, they lifted their hands in worship and not because it was a Charismatic fad, but because Jews have done so for thousands of years in obedience to God’s designs for worship.

                Next we discovered that dance is very much a part of their worship. They take it seriously and their beautiful choreographed dances give those who love God a reverent way to express worship physically. That too is commanded by God as part of worship.  Hmmmm… Who knew?

                Next we noticed the ever present sound of the shofars both at the opening of the service as well as at times during worship along with the waving of flags and banners. Shofars played a very important role in Israel as commanded by God. They sounded the battle cry in war. They celebrated victory. They were blown as a part of worship and they play important parts of prophecy including the second coming of Christ. They also had something to do with the walls of Jericho falling down.

                The Jewish style music is beautiful; moving from very lively to solemn and awesome.  In time one begins to feel that this is the way God intended worship to be. Everything fits the biblical patterns.

                Actually it was pagan influence that brought in formal and austere music and wiped the smile off of everyone’s face and if you read God’s desires for our worship in the Psalms you will find that He is delighted with exuberant song and dance and with many instruments. Of this David was a shining example.

                So we settled in to learn more about the Feasts by participating in them and that brought about our next surprise. The Feasts are not legalistic at all. They are in fact grand celebrations of God’s great acts in history along with great anticipation of what God will yet do in the future. You can make anything legalistic if you have a legalistic heart, but you can also make everything into a joyful celebration if you rightly understand what you are celebrating. All of the Feasts are centered in Yeshua and it is He that turns our mourning into dancing.

                Placing God’s Word within a framework of Hebrew culture and language makes the Bible come alive and peels away some of the dead traditions and misunderstandings that have often saddled the church. And even in their mad drive to get away from legalism, they often end up losing the heart of the message as well.

                Throughout most of our marriage, Bonnie and I had generally attended larger Charismatic churches. Bonnie had been burned really badly in her years as a Jehovah’s Witness, having been shunned and turned against by all of her lifelong friends and even her family so she was distrustful. We chose to attend large places with good worship and uplifting sermons, but mainly we attended where we could come and go without being noticed.

                But I, being a deeper student of the Bible had grown weary of Rock style worship and feel good sermons that usually didn’t have any meat in them. To me, where there is no prophetic vision churches have to expend a whole lot of energy to make dead things look alive, or to make the status quo appear to have purpose. You have to have a prophetic view or you are just biding time. And while Rehoboth is not known for its prophetic view, their connection with Israel keeps them close to God’s time clock.

                All that said we came to Rehoboth with a strong sense that the Lord was leading us and He put it in our hearts from the beginning not to go there just to see what we could get, but what we could give. The Lord told us to love and serve and so that became our guiding principle at Rehoboth.

                So I guess what surprised us from the beginning was the unusual love of the people. They were down home and real… no smiling mannequins in this bunch… no facades, no pretending. We began to understand that people don’t just happen into a Messianic congregation. They are led there. They often come in trail- weary and longing for reality and deeper spiritual roots.

                Some are Jews who have come to Yeshua. Many have been chased out of foreign lands, from Romania, Russia, the Ukraine and elsewhere by persecution. Then there are many others who have come out of all manner of churches longing to get back to the roots of our faith. .. Hungry for substance and foundational truth. Still others come wanting to worship on Shabbat (without the usual legalistic baggage that often comes with it.)

                But with all of that in mind, it was nevertheless the great love of the people along with a great sense of divine purpose that kept us there. We became regulars in the kitchen helping to put on the weekly meals after the service (Called Onegs In Hebrew) and we got involved in another ministry to holocaust survivors, (Called Tikvah Rabbah) as we got together to make hundreds of cheery quilts and clothing for the poor people flooding into Israel. Many Jews of all races come back to Israel, some with nothing more than the tattered clothes on their backs. God is gathering His people back into the land even as He promised in many places such as Joel 3:2 saying: “For behold in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance Israel whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.”

                The Lord also said in Ezekiel 11: 17: “Therefore say, “Thus says the Lord God, I shall gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered and I shall give you the land of Israel.” (There are many more such texts.)

                Jesus also in telling His disciples about the last days before His coming, said: “Now learn the parable of the fig tree; (Israel) when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near, even so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”

                Friends, we are the generation that saw Israel come back into its homeland. It was an absolutely impossible Miracle that after 1900+ years of being chased from country to country by persecution and pogroms and Tyrants like Hitler that suddenly, God would fulfil His promises and restore them to their land and their language and their culture. It has never happened to any other race or culture.

                Everything is being set up perfectly for the coming antichrist to rule from Jerusalem as predicted by the prophets                . He will rule from the rebuilt temple pretending to be Christ, Just as Jesus said in Mt. 23:15 and then the real Messiah, Yeshua will come and destroy Satan’s entire global cabal. We are rapidly approaching the time of Jacob’s Trouble for even as the Bible says, most of the Jews were brought back in unbelief, largely because of the way “Christians” have treated them.

                This brings us to what I believe to be God’s prophetic purpose for raising up the Messianic movement at this point in history. We have a twofold purpose. One is to point out and draw the Gentile church back to its Judeo/Christian roots and to heal the divisions that drove them apart as in Ephesians 2, and the other is to once again present a Jewish Yeshua, Jesus to the Jews.

                On this account the story of Joseph is a prophecy. His brothers didn’t recognize him because he looked and dressed and acted like an Egyptian. Likewise much of Israel doesn’t recognize their Messiah today because He has been made to look, dress and act like a Gentile. But according to romans 11, we are nearing the end of the times of the Gentiles when god will once again deal with the Jews and until that happens we have a mission of winning as many to Yeshua as we can so that when they “Look upon Him whom they have pierced. (Zech. 12:10) they will recognize Him.

                Can you catch something of the reason why God is flashing blood moons and Bethlehem stars and Total eclipses all on Jewish Feast Days? The blood moons are a warning to Israel of things to come, while the total eclipses of the sun are a warning for the Gentiles. We are approaching the final time of Jacob’s Trouble popularly called the Tribulation… and according to Romans 11 we are also rapidly entering the end of the times of the Gentiles when God will turn back to fulfill His promises and mandates to the Jews.

                In fact those who don’t understand what God is doing with the Jews and why, have absolutely no understanding of the last days or the real issues behind all that will happen. God’s promises to Israel as it says in Romans 11:29 are” irrevocable” and so the Time of Jacob’s Trouble is a time when the Jews will be brought face to face with their Messiah. The antichrist is going to try and gather a global following and to reign in Jerusalem as Christ, but Yeshua will return and put an end to that.

                And as it says in Zech. 12:10, “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son. (See also Rev. 1:7) These prophetic events cannot be over emphasized.

                So, we have learned a great deal in our time at Rehoboth. We have gained understanding concerning the framework of prophecy as seen in the Feasts. The appointed times of the Lord are called Moedim.  And when signs in the sun, moon and stars coincide with these Feast Days, they tell us something important. Actually in Genesis 1:14 in the Hebrew language it says that God created the sun, moon and stars for signs and for. In other words, our creator set His appointed times in the heavens from the beginning of creation. (See also Ps. 19:1-4)

                 We have learned a lot about the culture of true worship. And most of all we have learned a lot about love from the people who have loved us so freely. Leaving Rehoboth will be the hardest thing we have ever done.

                It came as a surprise to Bonnie and me, when God told us that He had another assignment for us, to go and to be parents and grandparents to our children and grandchildren. This world is soon to enter into some very tough times and the Lord wants us to be with those whom He has given us as life’s most precious gifts. Admittedly at this point we feel a lot like Abraham and Sarah and we just have to take it one step at a time as the Lord leads.

                To be sure, we have already spotted another Messianic Congregation in our new place and miraculously we are finding out that we will be within an hour of the same organization ministering to Israel that we are connected with now. So before we even get there, the Lord is giving us a peak behind the curtain to assure us that we are going in fulfillment of His divine purposes.

                I have said this before, but it is still true. Everyone wants to hear God’s voice, but only a few are actually willing to do what He says. God rarely calls us into our comfort zone. He never calls us into complacency… in fact, without vision the people perish. Every believer has been placed on this earth at this particular time for a reason, and while He doesn’t call us all to move somewhere, we are all, nevertheless called to fulfill our destiny and to live by divine appointment.

                If we are to do the works that Jesus did, then we must also be guided by the same hand. Jesus had a very intentional ministry. He didn’t minister by using a shotgun approach. He did only what He saw the Father doing and said only what He heard the Father saying. That was the secret to His 100% success rate.

                So we all as followers of Yeshua need to learn how to hear His voice and to follow His lead. Honestly it is the most wonderful journey one could ever hope to be on. Never a dull moment I must say. And hearing His voice is not nearly as hard as we have made it to be. Jesus said:  My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. John 10:27 and “To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” John 10:3.

                It is with a great deal of sadness that we will say goodbye to our Rehoboth family, but it is only temporary. After all, we are friends for eternity and soon this difficult moment will seem like a little blip on the infinite screen of time. What is important now is to be led by the Lord so that we can each one of us fulfill the purpose for which we were placed on this earth at this particular time.

                One thing is certain. Bonnie and I have been forever changed by the love and prayers and worship with this wonderful family. Our experience here will forever change the way we look at fellowship and worship. Wherever we go from now on, we will not look for what we can get, but what we can give… and given the wonderful friends we have made in this place…you just can’t out give the Lord. We love you with all of our hearts. Shalom.