“Millions of Christians Avoid Jesus Day” – 1st Sunday of Oct.

Maybe its me … but doesn’t being a Christian mean that Christ (Messiah) Jesus (Yeshua) is supposed to be first and fill everything in your life?

So why have close to 300 million Christians signed on to a day where the name of Jesus is NOT included in the instructions on what to do on that day ???

As a Jew, I am incredibly glad that Christians would pray for the peace of my capital city, and by extention for the peace of my nation, land and people – Israel.

But as a follower of Yeshua (Jesus) , I know that true peace can ONLY come through Yeshua’s rule and reign in hearts and lives.

The first Sunday in October has been designated as “Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem”.  Yet as I check out their web site and materials, I can find almost nothing that mentions Jesus and nothing that talks about how peace ONLY comes through surrendering to Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah, Saviour and Lord.

Go to their official web-site  – www.daytopray.com

Tell me if you find any mention of Jesus anywhere on the site or the materials they make available to download.  I couldn’t find it. (Maybe there has been a change since I last looked?  If so, let me know (abraham@abrahamandjesus.org).

I do not understand how can they advocate for an outline of something to be done in Christian Churches (one would suppose Churches that follow Christ) that AVOIDS NAMING THE FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH?

Did I miss something?

I need Yeshua for things to be at peace.

The world needs Yeshua for things to be at peace.

Israel and Jerusalem need Yeshua for things to be at peace.

I am glad people are sounding the call to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

But, as I understand the Bible, there is no peace with out the Sar Shalom .. The Prince of Peace – Yeshua ha Moshiach (Jesus the Messiah).

I hope you will pray for the peace of Jerusalem.   I hope you do so by following the Apostle Paul’s model.  He said, “My heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved (Romans 10:1).”

Counting the cost – what would YOU go to jail for???

First of all, I thank God for God.  He is The Light that chases away the darkness in a man’s heart and soul.

Next, I thank God for America and for the amazing men who constructed our Constitution.   The 1st Ammendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speec …

Here in Pittsburgh we are about to face many issues surrounding this Right we hold so dear.  All kinds of arrangements are being made to handle the FLOOD of “Protestors” who will descend upon Pittsburgh for the G-20 Summit.

They will come, God have mercy hopefully they won’t cause too big of a mess… and they will go.

Pray for our police and the many other “special forces” coming here … may God protect them from the crazies and those blinded with anger.  They are brave men and women, serving and protecting the peace.

But after that wave of outsiders has come and gone, we still have some on-going issues here in Pittsburgh.

Did you know that our Port Aurthority Transit system has a “blanket ban” on free speech in the “T” stations and Busway stations?   The way my lawyer put it, you can say to your neighbor on the platform “I love cats.”

BUT … if you say, “I love God” you are violating PAT Transit’s rules…

Rules that are terribly unconstitutional.

So, my lawyer has written PAT  letter and a conference call has been set up for Friday.  Let’s pray they abide by the Constitution.

Because if they don’t, when I abide by the Constitution and go into the PAT Stations to hand out free literature about Jesus … they just might arrest me.

NO, I’m not kidding.  I was already threatened with arrest WHILE ON THE PUBLIC SIDEWALK near the Wood Street Station.

Would you be willing to risk arrest while trying to share your faith with other people?  Is your faith worth that much to you that you would CHOOSE to risk going to jail for it?

Jewish Star – Church Lady asks, “Could it be Satan?”

As a Jewish person who believes in Jesus and who spends his life trying to explain to Jewish people that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Jewish Messiah (and hence Saviour of the World), I get asked LOTS of questions about how Jesus and Jews, Jewish things and Christian things fit together.

Here is an example -

Received an e-mail from a very thoughtful person who has a curious mind and is always trying to learn, trying to understand what lies under the surface of things.  She writes

Shalom,

I have an explanation and a request: I know this is going to sound funny, but I’ve been making jewelry to pass the time here and I bought a string of pretty glass beads that have an assortment of colors and designs. Among them are a few with a six pointed star pattern and I thought, “fantastic”, but suddenly I was struck with the thought that I hope it wasn’t like the satanic symbol, that would be bad. So I decided to look it up before I strung it on my necklace.

I hope you don’t mind me sharing this article with you and if you don’t mind, can you let me know what you think of what it says?

I’d really appreciate it.

The article my friend sent, in summary, says that the six pointed Star of David is not of Jewish origin and has MAJOR ties to occultic/satanic practices including human sacrifice.  The article says this is why Hitler put the six pointed star on all Jews, to indicate they were his human sacrificial offering to the evil that he served.

I do not know anything about the web-site where my friend found the article, nor anything about the article’s author… however if you want to read the whole thing for yourself it is at  –

www.cephas-library.com/israel_origin_of_six_pointed_star.html

Since the six point star, exactly in the form as it is known as the “Shield of David”, has indeed been used for satanic purposes, should it be used and worn by Jewish people (and Christians) to represent the nation and people of Israel?

Here is my response to my friend …

Read the interesting article you attached.

My opinion is this … yes, the six sided star has been used in occult practices, but so has the circle, the square and many other shapes.

Dance has been used in occult practices to call up demons, and yet God COMMANDS we praise him with the timbral AND THE DANCE.

Earth, Wind, Fire, Water… all used in new age stuff and have a myriad of ties with occult practices.  Yet God shrouded His Son in Earth (the Incarnation), and the Holy Spirit is pictured in Scripture as Wind, Fire and Water.

It is likely that Hitler, who was very into the occult, thought that putting the six sided star on the Jewish people was a form of cursing them.

Jewish people have used this symbol for centuries, possibly as far back as 6th century BCE and farther (I STRONGLY encourage you to read the wiki article=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_david

The Jewish community had many thoughts of the two interlocking triangles that have nothing to do with the occult.  (Although, because Jewish people have been mixed up in pagan practices at times, and in “modern” times especially through Kabala, their are some non-godly connections made by some Jews and the six pointed star).

In today’s modern world, the nearly universal understanding of the six pointed star is that is the symbol of the nation and people of Israel.

With a love in your heart for the nation of which God said, “through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed”(Genesis 12:1-3) , and the people of whom God said, “They are the apple of my eye” (Zechariah 2:8) … I think God would be please for you to wear near your heart a symbol representing those He loves.

Morals from this story:

1) It IS a good idea to consider the historical source of current practices.

2) It IS much appreciated by Jewish people that Christians are thoughtful about Jewish symbols.

3) It is not up to Satan to decide whether something created is used for evil or good.  Dynamite can destroy a whole town, or it can move mountains to that roads can connect people.  The act of making love can be unholy in the case of rape, or it can be holy in the case of union between husband and wife.    Shapes and patterns can be used to represent things offensive to God, or things that please God.   The Grateful Dead is most well known as the name of a Rock Band made up of people that are not thought of as the best followers of Jesus, but in my opinion, “The Grateful Dead” is a great name for those who “are crucified with the Messiah, nevertheless WE LIVE.”

I haven’t found anything Jewish or Christian like this

Maybe it’s out there, but it doesn’t come up on the 1st few pages of a Yahoo! or Google search…

What can’t I find? … Someone blogging regularly, for public consumption, their experiences trying to convince Jewish people to believe in Yeshua (Jesus), and trying to convince The Church that they ought to be busy trying to tell Jewish people about Jesus.

So, maybe I’m not the first to blog on this, maybe it’s out there… I’d sure like to know.

If you are Jewish, and don’t believe in Jesus, this blog will probably tick you off, but I’m also pretty sure you’ll find it interesting – hearing what a Jewish missionary does, how he reacts to the various situations he encounters, hearing the things he does and things he says to try to convince Jewish people to believe in Jesus.

If your Christian, well, let’s just say that since The “Organized” Church has a 1700+ year track record where it has largely hated my people, the Jewish people … perhaps I’m dealing with some not-so-deeply-repressed anger.

Yeah, I’ll rant, but I’ll also teach.

If you want to explore how Abraham (and the Jewish people) go together with Jesus … this blog is for you … whether you are in favor of that idea… or not.