March 2024
The Chosen People Newsletter
Haman, Hitler, Hamas - Israel's Enemies Will Fail
Volume 30, Issue 2
Dear friend in the Messiah, This month, we celebrate one of our most joyous Jewish holidays—Purim, the Festival of Lots. Every Jewish holiday has its unique traditions, and Purim is no different! One of the central customs of Purim is dressing up in costumes, which the children especially love! We also read the book of Esther and put on plays retelling the story. Purim…
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As we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, it is good to understand who we are praying for! Therefore, we need to recognize Israel’s key enemies and adversaries today and what they are doing to harm Israel and Jewish people.
The beginning of Micah chapter 7 is a lamentation about the prophet’s disappointment with Israel’s ungodliness: “Woe is me! For I am like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. There is not a cluster of grapes to eat, or…
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Ministry News Briefs
One of our staff recently received the following note from someone who heard him speak at a church:
I asked you what I could do regarding a good friend of mine who was a Christian recently married to a Jewish man. Your advice was never to stop praying for them. I spoke to her this morning, and she gave me the news. Her husband has become a [Messianic] Jew [one who believes in Jesus] and has even been baptized! I NEVER stopped praying for them. I read all your articles and devotions, watched every video I found, and shared with her what seemed appropriate to give her strength and peace. It was, as you said, nothing I could do but pray. [You said] God [would] work in her husband’s heart, and He did. What a glorious day, and I thank you for the advice, for it gave me hope and reminded me to just carry on with consistently putting them in God’s hands.
“You are spreading so much light and love through this, you don’t even know how it impacts us. Thank you.” This comment is what a religious Jewish woman told one of our missionaries as she handed her a white rose. She was expressing her heartbreak and solidarity with her people as the Jewish community continues to experience great grief and fear following the horrendous terror attacks in Israel on October 7. Since the massacre and subsequent war, antisemitism has risen in tremendous amounts. Violence, vandalism, and hate speech against Jewish people—simply for being Jewish—have skyrocketed.
Our staff has spoken with Jewish people about the current climate of antisemitism in the United States and around the world, and they have expressed their fears for themselves and their children. They do not feel safe. While attending a solidarity gathering for Israel, many Jewish people thanked our staff for being there, saying, “Last time this happened (referring to the rise of antisemitism leading up to the Holocaust), most Christians did not do anything to stop it.” This perception is heartbreaking, and it is not what we want the representation of Jesus to look like to Jewish people. As His followers, Your Mission to the Jewish People strives to help reveal God’s heart for His people, and one way to do so is by participating in His love for Jewish people and His desire to see them find salvation in Jesus.
The Lord is opening doors in Israel and sending people ready to see the light. After the war began, one of our staff met Abigail* and her daughter. Abigail’s husband died tragically six months prior, and they were going through difficult times. Then the war started. When their city began to be heavily shelled, they lost all hope. By chance, they ended up in the group our staff was transporting from the south. Abigail kept saying she was not religious. She was wary of our staff and closed to faith in Jesus. However, since we have provided temporary lodging to Israeli evacuees at our Jerusalem center, our staff invited them to live with other families there, and they came.
The Lord began to work in their hearts. Abigail started to ask questions, communicate more, smile, laugh, and open up more and more. One day, her twelve-year-old daughter said: “I prayed to God, and He answered.” Before then, she had not used the word “prayer” at all. It became a turning point. They began praying and discussing their experiences with God daily. Their lives changed. Abigail said when she met our staff, she realized there was something different in their lives and they had become God’s light for her. They have now returned home and started going to the local congregation.
In November, one of our missionaries visited the Russian Far East, home to one of our ministry’s fraternal Messianic Jewish congregations. The leader of this congregation invited our staff to conduct a small series of seminars for the people of the congregation. It was a week full of meetings and connecting with people.
After participating in a Sabbath service, an elderly man approached our staff. The man turned out to be one of the leaders of the local Jewish community. Our staff was extremely surprised how he so easily visited the Messianic congregation. He confessed he is very sympathetic to the ideas of Jesus the Messiah and is always happy to come to this Messianic congregation.
Dear friend, This month, I want to honor the selfless work of our team in Israel, especially since October 7. The barbaric Hamas massacre traumatized the nation and changed Israel forever. The bloodbath shattered Israelis’ trust in their leaders and defenses. Given Israel’s relatively small size, virtually everyone in Israel knows someone who was murdered, injured, or taken hostage. Our staff immediately sprang into…
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