Have you finished sending out

Transcription

1 God s Christmas Cards by David Brickner, Executive Director Have you finished sending out your Christmas cards for this year? Maybe you are still in the midst of writing them. Or perhaps you are procrastinating, still waiting until the last minute to begin. Have you ever been exasperated by the custom of sending and receiving cards? The pressure is on. People are sending us cards and a failure to reciprocate might hurt their feelings. I imagine someone thinking, I sent the Brickner family a Christmas card last year and never heard from them. Can you relate? Sir Henry Cole, founder of the Victorian and Albert Museum in London, first introduced printed Christmas cards in He needed to greet so many people at Christmas time that he commissioned John Calcott Horsley to paint a scene on a pre-printed card in order to ease the burden of writing to so many. Cole s innovation caught on and today millions of people send Christmas cards. Businesses often send such meaningless cards that I have to cringe over the waste of paper. Then again, I have received beautiful cards that make me stop and reflect on the real reason for the season. Sending and receiving these holiday cards can be a joy, a burden or a combination thereof. In a sense, the first ever Christmas cards were all sent to Jewish people. The One to undertake the burden of sending these cards was God Himself. God designed His cards to convey His commitment to deep and abiding relationships with us, and to create a sense of hope and expectation for the fulfillment of His promised plan of redemption. He sent them over a period of several thousand years, all in anticipation of the most pivotal event in human history. That Messianic hope is at the heart of each card. It is this hope that has preserved and sustained the people of Israel throughout history, even in the darkest of times. Each was written in Hebrew, often in the form of poetry. Though there were no watercolor or line drawings, each card painted a picture, a sacred portrait of the One who was to come. For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6) Raphael and Rembrandt never came close to portraying the picture of this Child, first painted by Isaiah. How could anyone convey the pure and precious innocence of a newborn baby who yet possessed the strength to govern the world and the wisdom and power of almighty God? Yet this is the picture God chose to send us in the timeless beauty and power of His Isaiah 9:6 Christmas card Jews f r Jesus (continued on page 2)

2 (continued from page 1) But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting. (Micah 5:2) Neither Martin Luther nor Phillip Brooks ever composed a carol that could capture the awe and wonder of the manger scene so beautifully as this song of Micah. How could it be that this One from the little town of Bethlehem is in fact the Ruler of Israel from everlasting? Yet through this and many other Scriptures, God let us know that He alone cares enough to send the very best. It can be fun to receive cards at Christmas because many come to us as reminders of relationships that matter a great deal. People often include pictures and family updates, personal notes that remind us of significant friendships. Christmas card lists can be pretty important. In fact, in the very beginning, all of the friends of the Jews for Jesus ministry were people from Moishe and Ceil Rosen s family Christmas card list. Maybe some of you are still on that list. But aren t you glad that God put all of us on His Christmas card list? God has been faithfully sending us His expressions of love and care through these precious words of hope. Each one is a tribute to His love. Though first sent to the Jewish people, the list now includes the entire world. But it is still a very personal list. Each verse is a most intimate and personal expression of God s love for you and for me. In our family we place the Christmas (and Hanukkah) cards we receive on the mantel over our fireplace. As the number of cards grows, so does our anticipation of the special day on which we remember Y shua s (Jesus ) birth. This also was God s intention in sending His prophetic cards. All Aren t you glad that God put all of us on His Christmas card list? the hope, all the expectation of what the Father intended to do for us in sending His Son was sown into these precious promises. Those who first received them could only dream and wonder at what God s gift of salvation would really be like. Even the angels longed to look into what we have now welcomed into our hearts on this blessed day. God still intends for us to long for a deeper look, to yearn with eager anticipation for a greater sense of the reality of the hope now fixed in our hearts. Just as He gave promises of the Messiah s first Advent, so He has sent us messages that foretell the Savior s return. When we remind ourselves and others about Christ s birth, we are not only commemorating a past event, but we are building our anticipation of the day when we will see Him face to face. Some Christians feel truly trapped by all the Christmas trappings and the commercialization of the season. Yet there is an undeniable joy that contrasts with all the holiday hype. Maybe reflecting on God s Christmas cards will renew our perspective, not only on His gift to us, but on giving and receiving cards this season. What may at times seem like a burden or insignificant social ritual can take on fresh meaning as we see it as an opportunity to spread a little hope in the hearts of others. In a way, sending a meaningful Christmas card is a bit like handing out a Jews for Jesus broadside. In fact, you ll find enclosed one of the broadside tracts that we are using this month to greet holiday shoppers in many of our Jews for Jesus branch cities. If you feel it is an appropriate addition to your family newsletter or Christmas card, please feel free to make copies. But whether or not you use one of our tracts, sending a meaningful Christmas greeting is a real chance to greet someone with the good news that points back to those original cards God sent to us, and forward to the promises yet to be fulfilled. Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men! (Luke 2:14) WE EXIST TO MAKE THE MESSIAHSHIP OF JESUS AN UNAVOIDABLE ISSUE TO OUR JEWISH PEOPLE WORLDWIDE. JEWS F R JESUS INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: 60 HAIGHT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA jfj@jewsforjesus.org; HOME PAGE: ALSO WORKING IN: AUSTRALIA, BRAZIL, CANADA, FRANCE, GERMANY, ISRAEL, RUSSIA, SOUTH AFRICA,UKRAINE and THE UNITED KINGDOM EDITOR: RUTH ROSEN; ART DIRECTION: PAIGE SAUNDERS; DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION: DAVID YAPP; VOLUME 4:5764, DECEMBER

3 DO YOU REMEMBER? Ed: Last December we had a chart comparing Christmas and Hanukkah and invited you to send us some of the traditional foods you eat at Christmas. Thanks to each who wrote back. I m sorry we only had space for a couple: Mildred McKeehan of Miami, Florida has finally got me to rethink my position on fruitcake. She wrote: I always like to eat fruit cake on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or both. The fruit in the cake reminds me of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Also, Phyllis Ensrud of Daly City, California sent a heart-warming contribution: Seventy plus years ago when I was a small child, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the sewing, knitting, decorating of the house, baking for guests and mysterious whispered secrets between family members. In an effort to explain the meaning of the season, Mom told me that it was to celebrate Jesus birthday. I knew about birthday celebrations and so asked, What kind of birthday cake will you make for Him? Mom thought for a while and said that an angel food cake ought to be just right. Because this was during the Depression and before the invention of electric beaters, even my child s mind grasped how special the occasion was to be since so many expensive eggs were required and it took so long to get the egg whites stiff. After the baked cake was cooled, Mother frosted it with a simply snowy-white icing, put some green holly leaves with a few red berries around the base of the cake, and one 12-inch white candle in the center hole. On Christmas Day, she let me bring the cake to the table while we all sang, Happy Birthday to You, dear Jesus. Thus began a family tradition carried on all these years, now for my parents greatgrandchildren This cartoon was adapted from the text of a forwarded whose originator we were unable to trace. 3

4 About Christmas and Paganism Every time we mention Christmas or Easter in this Newsletter, some of our very best friends write us a word of caution, pointing out the pagan origins of these holidays. We do not dispute the fact that there were pagan holidays at these times of year. (The very name Easter is derived from Ishtar or Astarte, a pagan goddess.) Nevertheless, when we celebrate the Incarnation or the Resurrection, we do so in honor of the Lord, and not in honor of any pagan deity. Implicit in the thought that it is wrong for believers to celebrate Christmas and Easter (or more appropriately, the Incarnation and Resurrection Day) is the notion that by doing so, a believer could inadvertently be venerating a false god. It is not possible to worship, venerate or give allegiance by mistake. In order to venerate an idol or false god, one must be conscious of that idol or god and believe in the validity of addressing worship to it. In New Testament times there were some who claimed that by eating meat sacrificed to idols a person committed an act of idolatry. The Apostle Paul addressed the questions of a believer s liberty in eating such food and which days were to be regarded as special. In Romans 14:5-6 he wrote, One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord; for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. It is not possible to worship, venerate or give allegiance by mistake. Some believers have had impossible burdens placed upon them by others who used the practice of guilt by association. So what if pagans had a holiday on December 25? It does not mean that those who celebrate Christ s birth on that day are being pagans. If that were so, the accusers would need to be consistent about other calendar names as well. They would need to change the names of the weekdays, because each of the weekdays is named after a pagan god. For example, Saturday is named for the 4 god Saturn and Sunday is so called because of the veneration of the sun. And what about the names of cities? According to the thinking that proclaims Christmas and Easter wrong, believers should not live in Phoenix, since that city is named after a mythological god. Furthermore, many other sites in this country, such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Yosemite, etc., bear Native American names which have totemistic significance. Should we shun those places? Carried to its most logical boundaries, such thinking soon becomes absurd. That kind of logic would forbid anyone from eating any category of food that was ever offered to any kind of idol on an altar, because thereby one might be venerating the idol to which such food or spices had been offered. In short, guilt by association does not work. A person can only be guilty by intention. Some fine Christians are expending far too much energy and effort to set other Christians straight on these arbitrary matters. Such energy would be better used to proclaim the gospel. When we come into the presence of Jesus, He will set us all straight about many things. In the meantime, we have forgiveness and liberty in Him, so let s get on with getting that message to those who need to hear it.

5 Prayer Prompters HANUKKAH: Not for Kids Only The following is an excerpt from our children s book, Walk With Y shua Through the Jewish Year by Janie-sue Wertheim and Kathy Shapiro. In addition to the Bit of Background and Digging Deeper sections presented here, each chapter highlights a passage of Scripture with study questions, describes holiday traditions, offers celebration ideas and suggests a memory verse. The book covers eight major Jewish holidays and is great for homeschooling, Sunday School or even grown ups who are looking for a concise explanation of the Jewish holidays. The book is 68 pages, with a full color cover and plenty of color-it-yourself illustrations inside. It is only $7.00 plus $1.05 postage and handling (California residents add 7.25% sales tax). To order on the web, go to or call us toll-free at MESSIAH. A BIT OF BACKGROUND Throughout the history of the Jewish people, wicked people have tried to wipe us out but God s power has always preserved us. One evil ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to destroy our people by making us serve false gods. The brave Maccabees defeated that evil man, but it was God s power that enabled the small band of Israelites to defeat the mighty Greek army. Tradition says that after the Maccabees cleansed and dedicated the Temple, there was only enough oil for one day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days! That is why the holiday is also called The Festival of Lights. DIGGING DEEPER Hanukkah is such a well-known holiday for Jewish families, yet the only Scripture that mentions Hanukkah is in the New Covenant! When Y shua was here on earth, the Roman government ruled over us. Our people longed for freedom. Many thought Messiah would come as a great warrior to defeat the Romans. But God wanted to give His people more than a temporary victory over an earthly ruler. God sent Y shua to defeat sin and death so that we could love and worship Him. The worst thing that Antiochus Epiphanes did was try to turn the Jewish people away from God. He put up a big idol (false god) and sacrificed a pig in the Temple to keep our people from worshipping the one true God. Sometimes we can get so caught up in thinking of the oil that lasted eight days that we forget the reason for the oil. It was to dedicate the Temple so that we could worship God properly once again. Hanukkah is a fun holiday, but it s also a time to think of ourselves as temples. If you have invited Y shua into your heart, the Bible says His Holy Spirit lives inside of you just like God s Spirit once dwelled in the Temple. When we allow other people or things to be more important to us than God, it s like having idols in our hearts. Hanukkah is a great time to make sure that we are putting God first and that Please pray that: the many tracts our missionaries give holiday shoppers this season will bear fruit God will give you opportunities to let your unbelieving friends know the Reason for the Season God will bless this month s Behold Your God campaigns in West Palm Beach, Florida and Sydney, Australia (p. 7 and prayer card insert) new Jewish believers Rob (Florida), Marlena (Moscow) and Lyudmila (Kharkov) will grow in grace and faith (p. 8) we have good follow up for the Beresheet festival in Israel and that many we met there will be saved; also salvation for the family the Smiths met in the parking lot (Boston) and Lyudmila s family also to be saved (p. 8) our hearts are nice, clean places for the Holy Spirit to live. We can ask God to cleanse us and help us be rededicated just like the Temple was rededicated. If we do, God will make a miracle in our hearts. Because even if we don t have all the goodness it takes to put God first, God will provide what we need to dedicate ourselves to Him just like He provided the extra oil for the Temple. 5

6 Jews for Jesus... for the nations By Rich Robinson, Research Librarian, Web Site Administrator In Genesis 12:3 God promised Abraham that in you all the families of the earth [nations] shall be blessed. God has fulfilled that promise in various ways, including Rich Robinson contributions Jewish people have made in fields such as medicine. However, the blessing has come pre-eminently in one person, Jesus. And it continued to come through His Jewish followers who brought His gospel to the nations. Though the majority of missionaries in more recent times have not been Jewish, we thought you might enjoy hearing, from time to time, about Jewish Christians who have been involved in missions, particularly to the Gentiles (nations). Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky Have you ever heard of the Feast of Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky? Probably not, but in the Episcopal Church, every October 14 has been officially designated so. Schereschewsky was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in Orphaned at an early age, and faced with being drafted into the Russian army (where observance of Judaism was prohibited), he decided to attend rabbinical school one of the few ways to escape conscription. This was not a traditional yeshiva, which Schereschewsky could not afford, but a government-sponsored school designed to turn out modern, somewhat secularized rabbis. At this school, it appears that a copy of the New Testament made its way into Schereschewsky s hands. He became convinced of the gospel from an intellectual standpoint, but it was not until he went to Germany and then to America that he met a number of Jewish believers and came to faith in Y shua (Jesus) which, according to one account, happened at a messianic Passover seder in Schereschewsky wanted to become a missionary, but not to the Jews he felt the results of Jewish missions were too discouraging! He ended up sailing to Shanghai, China under the auspices of the Episcopal Church. By temperament, Schereschewsky was inclined to be stubborn, opinionated and to rub his co-workers the wrong way! It became clear that his gifts were more in the area of linguistics than in preaching and evangelism. He moved to Peking, where his main work became translating the Old Testament into Mandarin Chinese. Though not the first such translation into Chinese, Schereschewsky s translation became (along with the New Testament done by himself and others), the most widely used translation in China until In 1881, after an unusually hot day, Schereschewsky was struck with an illness perhaps malaria or sunstroke that left him paralyzed for life. Suddenly, stubborn independence gave way to the dependent life of an invalid. Schereschewsky and his wife Susan (whom he met and married in China) spent 13 years in Europe and the United States seeking a cure and adjusting to the changes. During this time, Schereschewsky spent seven years typing a revision of his Old Testament translation with only one finger on an English typewriter! In addition, he began a translation of the entire Bible into literary Chinese. Eventually, he returned to China and then to Japan (where printing was less expensive) and continued this work. As if two major translations were not enough, he also completed a set of notes for both translations, producing what today would be called a study Bible. What do we learn from the life of this remarkable missionary? First, God can reach into any situation and use the most unusual circumstances to bring someone to faith. Imagine, reading and becoming receptive to the New Testament in a rabbinic school! Second, God worked in concert with numerous Jewish believers whom He put into Schereschewsky s life along the way in Europe and in the U.S. We never know what part we may play in the chain of events of someone s coming to faith. Lesson three: God uses the talents and background he has built into us. Schereschewsky was not a Billy Graham, but he made an enormous contribution to the cause of missions in China. We can rejoice in using whatever gifts and talents God has endowed us with for the cause of the gospel. And finally, God uses us, not just in our areas of strength, but in our weakness. Can you imagine being paralyzed for 25 years and typing with one finger! But God turned an evil to good by using Schereschewsky to bring the gospel to millions. Four years before his death in 1906, Schereschewsky remarked: I have sat in this chair for over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted. * Could a verse such as 2 Timothy 2:10 have been far from his mind? Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. *Quoted on a variety of web sites, e.g. 0/daily shtml 6

7 THE BYG* PIC *Behold Your God *Behold Your God is our five-year plan (God willing) to reach every city outside of Israel where there are 25,000 or more Jewish people. This month we have campaigns in West Palm Beach, Florida (December 5-22, led by Stan Meyer and Chad Elliott) and in Sydney, Australia (December 1-22, led by Mark Landrum and Bob Mendelsohn). West Palm Beach There are 225,000 Jewish people in the narrow stretch from Jupiter to Boca Raton. Most of them have never heard the gospel. Many live behind high walls in gated retirement villages, only accessible through the public mail or telephone. That is not to say that the entire Jewish population there is retired. West Palm is one of the fastest growing counties in Florida, with businesses bringing in many families and young professionals. After Thanksgiving, this county swells with snowbirds who come down for the winter from the Northeast states, including New York and New Jersey. In December, a second wave of visitors, including family members as well as high school and college students, arrive for winter break. This special window of opportunity makes it possible for us to encounter people we would otherwise never meet. So 15 campaigners are ready to make the Messiahship of Y shua an unavoidable issue to the Jewish people of Palm Beach County from December 5-22 at the height of the holiday shopping season. Our outreach will involve door-to-door visits, distributing gospel tracts, evangelistic phone calling, visible presence in busy shopping malls and direct mail. We are joined by author and international speaker Stan Telchin, whose book Betrayed! has sold over one million copies and has been translated into several languages. Stan will speak at several venues including Florida Atlantic University. There, in a joint outreach with Messianic Congregation Ayts Chayim and Messianic gospel singer Jonathan Settel, Stan will share the gospel and answer questions from seekers and cynics. Please pray for our outreach, for the local media to pick up on the event, for legal victories as we seek to exercise First Amendment rights in public arenas where there is excessive restriction, and for Jewish people to respond to the gospel everywhere we go. Sydney Australia needs your prayers! Historical revival that you read about in other countries has never occurred here. This is a country of knockers who love to dismiss anything religious. Alcohol and sport are national religious icons. In fact, with the exceptions of the Mormons and the Muslims, most Aussies don t feel comfortable mentioning religion. We hope that our December Behold Your God campaign in Sydney will stir people s hearts to consider the gospel. With a usual Jewish population upwards of 50,000, opportunities for evangelism increase during December as summertime down under attracts many tourists. In addition to handing out our broadside tracts, we will be sending out mailings, having a public showing of Survivor Stories (testimonies of Holocaust survivors who came to faith in Jesus), and placing gospel ads in the newspapers. We are thankful for Christian friends who have agreed to put gospel signs on their front lawns. Also, we will be trying some new ways of reaching out, such as videotaping man on the street interviews/surveys, asking people who they think Jesus is. Also, we are borrowing an idea from Youth With A Mission, setting up card tables for Free prayers offered here. We hope that by offering to pray for people, we will have a chance to minister to those seeking God s solutions for their lives. We are also praying that God will use this campaign to raise up volunteers who will continue helping with our Sydney work. Chad Elliot Bob Mendelsohn Stan Meyer Mark Landrum 7

8 Boston Nici Smith reports, My husband Garrett and I returned to our car after a sortie (tract-passing expedition) just in time to find a Jewish family ready to engage in conversation. The wife especially wanted us to know exactly what she thought of Jews for Jesus! After a while Garrett asked if he could say something. She said, OK, so let s hear. I am not sure how much she actually listened to Garrett s witness, but her husband did, and agreed to look up Isaiah 53 at home. In fact, he repeated the reference twice to make sure he would not forget, and took a tract that lists many messianic prophecies. Please pray for this family. We marvel at God s timing. Garrett Smith reports, We were inspired by the great donut give-away for Hempfest in Seattle. (For those who did not read about Seattle Behold Your God in our August Jews for Jesus Real Time, we will recap some highlights from the 2003 campaigns in next month s newsletter.) A local donut shop donated ten dozen donuts, and we set up a table with a huge Jews for Jesus sign at the Boston Hempfest. It was one of the best outreaches I can remember in a while. We were talking to people at the table constantly; they were just walking up to us, many not even wanting the donuts. I had to ask the Lord s forgiveness after the outreach. Many times I would have four to eight people gathered around me. In my heart, I guess it was hard to believe they really wanted to hear about God, but then they stayed and kept engaging in a sincere manner. The experience renewed me, and reminded me that God has entrusted us with a powerful message, and He desires to touch people with it, even at a Hempfest. Tel Aviv Efraim Goldstein reports, We had five days of evangelism at the Beresheet festival, over which time 15 people volunteered with us. We only distributed 3,000 broadsides and 500 books, but had lots of conversations. Bits from the As a result, 130 Jewish people gave us their names and addresses to hear more about Y shua (Jesus). Please pray that many of these will turn to the Lord. Fort Lauderdale Chad Elliott reports, A Jewish man named Rob was curious enough to call our office after speaking to one of our volunteers in our online chatroom. Rob has since come to place his faith in Y shua as Messiah, and has met with me and P R EM IUM Stan Meyer. He is attending a local Messianic congregation, and wants to be baptized. Please pray that Rob will continue to grow in his faith! Moscow Mira Gracheva reports, I called a 75-year-old woman, Marlena, for a year and a half, then visited her for a year. Marlena met with me willingly, but between visits she didn t think much about God. I don t know what happened with my Marlena last week. She read the Gospel of Matthew, and was shocked to see how it corresponds with calamities of our days. Then we explored the parable of the wedding banquet (Matthew 22). Do you want to go to such a banquet? I asked. Yes, I do, Marlena answered. But for this you must repent and invite Y shua into your heart, I said. I m ready to do this today, she announced. I had invited her so many times to receive Y shua, and suddenly she wanted to take this step. Marlena left the visit with shining face. Please pray for her growth. Kharkov Elvira Meyer reports, I first visited Lyudmila S. in March, She was very reserved and claimed to be an atheist. But, gradually she began to read the Bible. On our seventh visit, she asked me how she could be reconciled with God! After the prayer of repentance, she said she wanted to pray for the salvation of all her family. Please pray for her growth in faith and pray that she wouldn t only pray, but also testify about Y shua. 8