June 22nd, 2010
I recently had lunch with some friends outside the community centre in Earl Bales Park. At a table next to ours was a 92 year old holocaust survivor. (I know his age because he was advertising to all and sundry.)
He was talking to a couple of ladies, telling them that he did not believe in God and complaining that religion was mostly a way of getting money. At that point I asked if I could interject, and he beckoned me over to speak.
I began to share with him the story of a rabbi who was standing in the temple in the days before it was destroyed. He saw many people putting in money into the offering jars, but he was struck by an old woman who put only two very small coins in the jar. He exclaimed at her faith, for while others gave out of their excess, she gave out of her poverty.
I then explained to the old man that God was not interested in religion (or money) but that what was important was faith – a relationship with the living God. I then explained that the rabbi was Yeshua. You can read about this encounter of Yeshua’s in the Gospel of Mark 12:41-44.
The man reiterated that he didn’t believe in God, and then began to state that my books were not valid. I asked him on what basis he said this? Had he read them for himself? Had he studied them? Had he done research into the matter to back up his assertions? The answer to all of these questions was, “no.”
My challenge is this. How can you claim that you know the Gospel message – the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah – is untrue, or that the New Testament is untrue, without looking into the matter? How can you turn down the message, when you don’t give it a chance to be heard?
I’m not asking you to take my word for it. I am asking you to check it out and then ask God for His truth!
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Blog, Evangelism, Jesus and Jews, Jews and Jesus, Knowing God, New Covenant, Personal Stories, Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 10th, 2010
My wife Lynda is a wonderful Jewish cook. Friday nights are always best when she makes her home baked challah. (Store-bought is ok, but you don’t know what you’re missing till you taste hers.) Hanukkah means a chance to sample her delicious latkes, and I can’t wait for Purim to get a taste of her exquisite hamentaschen. Sure, she cooks other things as well, but there is no denying that she is a good Jewish cook.
What makes this even more wonderful to me is that my wife is not Jewish. In this day and age, many Jewish people like me have non-Jewish spouses.
My wife has also learned to say the b’rachah (blessing) over the festival candles and has learned to make our Erev Shabbat meal special. Why does she do it? Why does she care? It is because we are a family who believe in Jesus (Yeshua) and believe that he came for the salvation of Jew and Gentile alike. Would she be doing these things if she hadn’t married me? Probably not, but that’s what a good marriage is all about: sharing and caring and learning how to please God and one another.
Is my family a Jewish home in the sense the rabbis mean it? Certainly not, but then, who says that Jewish is equal to rabbinic? How many of you who read this, I wonder, lead rabbinic lives?
No, our house is Jewish, because I am Jewish, and my faith in Jesus has done nothing to change that. In fact, it was not until I became a believer in Jesus, that I really came to appreciate what being Jewish was all about.
In many ways I feel like another Jewish man, who married a non-Jewish women, not only to his benefit but to the benefit of the entire Jewish nation. His name was Boaz and his wife was Ruth. She has a whole book in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament or Tanakh) named after her. Through her came King David and the royal line, right down to Messiah Jesus.
Most importantly, Lynda and I share a bond with each other, a love for God, and a regard for His Word as found in the Bible (both Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament). In mutual love we can proclaim the words of Ruth,
“For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” (Ruth 1:16-17)
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Blog, Goyim for God, Jesus and Jews, Jewish Tradition, Jews and Jesus, Personal Stories, This, That, The Other Thing | No Comments »
June 7th, 2010
In the grand scheme of things you can be:
A (rabinically) religious Jew
A not-so-religious Jew
A practicing Jew
A somewhat practicing Jew
A non-practicing Jew
An agnostic Jew
An atheistic Jew
A Buddhist Jew
A Zionist Jew
An anti-Zionist Jew
A humanist Jew
A secular Jew
The only thing you can’t be, apparently, is a Jew who believes in Yeshua (Jesus).
Is it not possible that the one thing that most Jews say is un-Jewish is the one thing that is really Jewish?
Most of the Jews in the bible were wrong. Read it and you will see. Why should anything be different?
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Blog, Jesus and Jews, Jewish Tradition, Jews and Jesus, This, That, The Other Thing | No Comments »
June 7th, 2010
Whether speaking at churches or sharing with a Jewish person on the street, I have said time and time again that faith in Yeshua (Jesus) is the biblical Jewish faith. Recently, I have come to realize that is not strictly true.
The Covenant with Moses was not just for Israel but also for the stranger among them. This is clear from the many verses where the alien to Israel is included:
Exodus 12:48-49
Leviticus 16:29; 17:12; 18:26; 19:34
Numbers 9:14; 15:14-16, 26, 29; 19:10; 35:15
There is also the Scriptural testimony of those aliens who entered that covenant, such as Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabite and Uriah the Hittite. In the same way, the whole of Scripture is not addressed to the Jewish people alone but to everyone who wants a covenant relationship with the Lord Almighty.
I have come to realize that the most important issue of identity, Scripturally, is not identity as Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor or anything else – it is identity with Yeshua. With Yeshua’s death and resurrection came the end of the Covenant with Moses as promised by God through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
If we now want a true covenantal relationship with God we must identify with the mediator of that New Covenant – our Messiah Yeshua. That’s true regardless of what your background is.
It is clear to me that it cannot be said that faith in Yeshua is the ‘biblical Jewish faith’; rather it is the ‘biblical faith,’ pure and simple!
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Blog, Evangelism, Goyim for God, Jesus and Jews, Jews and Jesus, New Covenant, This, That, The Other Thing | No Comments »
June 4th, 2010
When I share the Good News with a Jewish person that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah promised by Moses and the Prophets, I always remind the individual that they should not take my word for it. And if they say, as they sometimes do, that they want to talk to their rabbi about it, I always tell them to go ahead.
The reason is simple. I am not afraid of what the rabbis have to say. In fact, many people have come to faith after talking to their rabbi (or many rabbis) and receiving inadequate answers to the genuine questions asked by the seeker of truth.
Now if you who are reading this are a Jewish person seeking to know whether Yeshua is the Messiah or not, I can tell you that your rabbi will specifically tell you not to talk to me and certainly not to listen to me. (I confess I am generalizing here.) They will tell you that what I believe is foolishness. They will tell you anything they can to keep you from asking me questions.
If you are truly seeking to know the truth about Yeshua, this is what we would ask you to do: listen to your rabbis and listen to us. Most importantly check the Scriptures to see if what we (the rabbis and us) say is true. Then pray to the Lord your God and ask Him to reveal His truth to you. Not my truth – not the rabbis’ truth – but God’s truth.
Yeshua said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)“
If you have any questions about Yeshua and his claims to be Messiah and Lord, please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to answer your questions confidentially and without expectation. We would just like to share His message with you. Your decision we leave in your hands – and His.
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Evangelism, Jesus and Jews, Jewish Tradition, Jews and Jesus, Knowing God, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
June 4th, 2010
This year I had the opportunity to help raise money for the UJA Walk with Israel, as a sponsored walker. I walked the 7km course with thousands, and had a great time with the rest of my team (called New Covenant in Messiah). I wore a t-shirt with a Magen David (Star of David) inside of which were the words, “JESUS LOVES YOU.”
Three encounters clearly come to mind while I was on the walk. The first occurred even before the walk was started – when I went to sit next to my friends before the start of the opening ceremonies in the Ricoh Coliseum. Two older gentlemen who let me by, and next to whom I would then sit seemed pretty hot under the collar about the shirt I was wearing. They asked why I was wearing it, and I told them that it was because Jesus loved them. They asked me who Jesus was, and I began to tell them that I believed he is the Messiah of Israel, and that he loves them. This made them angrier.
I asked them how a message of love can bring out so much anger and hatred, when the person who brings the message (myself, in this case,) only has love for them. The conversation did not go much farther, and I pray that they will see past two thousand years of history to recognize the message of love that was offered them.
The second encounter was with a woman who saw the shirt and agreed with me. She was a believer (not Jewish) and goes to one of the messianic congregations in the city. We discussed some of the issues of law and what is to be followed, and we talked of our common faith in Yeshua. It was encouraging to talk to a believer and I thanked God for that encounter.
Perhaps He gave me that interchange to bolster my spirits before my third memorable meeting – that with Jews for Judaism, the counter-missionaries who try to keep the word of the Gospel from reaching Jewish ears. A couple of them began following us, one with a camera. It was somewhat flattering to think that, as we simply walked along with the crowd, they felt the need to give us escort. By doing so they helped to raise the issue of Messiah by adding their presence to ours – they have always been very helpful in that way.
As the walk came to a close and we were preparing to head home, I had one of their number come and ask me what the first gentlemen asked – why I was wearing that shirt? His question was neither sincere nor interested – in fact he seemed to be trying to allow the photographer to get a picture of us. We had a little discussion, but then I remembered the verse from Proverbs 26:4, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself,” and so I ended the discussion and went home.
Our purpose in attending such events is to raise the image of Christ as the loving Jewish Messiah, and to show our solidarity as Christ-believers with the Jewish community, even if we don’t agree with them on religious grounds. Occasionally we have the blessing of speaking with those who respond to that message, whether out of interest or out of anger. Unfortunately, prejudice against Christ and Christianity is still strong among many Jewish people.
Having said all that, we had a pretty good time of it this year. In previous years I have been spat at, pushed around and been kicked. I’ve had people scream in my face and call me all sorts of names. As a Jew, I have never been treated as badly as I have from my own Jewish people.
It is easy to say, “let’s not go out and antagonize them,” but Christ’s message needs to be told even if it means we are sometimes misunderstood or even vilified. And while my friends and I were walking with Israel, we were also walking with Christ. He was also misunderstood and vilified. He also unswervingly spoke God’s truth in love, and despite opposition. We at New Covenant Forum can do no less.
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Evangelism, Personal Stories, This, That, The Other Thing, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
June 3rd, 2010
One of my favourite theatre musicals is ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. Of all the tunes from that show, none is so popular as the song “Tradition.” While I love the tune, the song itself makes me sad sometimes.
Traditions are not bad in and of themselves, but when traditions are followed blindly they can lead us down wrong paths. How many of my Jewish people (Orthodox and secular) have refused to hear about Jesus in the name of their tradition.
It is for this reason that I offer this story – to challenge this dependence of tradition which I believe is leading the vast majority of my Jewish people astray. I don’t know from where this story originated, but it makes the point.
There once was a young woman who wanted to make a Shabbos (Sabbath) dinner for her fiancée. While he watched her prepare the meal, he noticed that she cut the end off the roast before putting it in the roasting pot. He asked her why she did that.
She replied, “My mother always cut the end off the roast, so that’s how I learned.”
“But why?” he asked, “It seems such a waste.”
“I don’t know,” was all she could reply.
At schul (synagogue) with her mum next day the previous evening came to mind. So she asked, “Mom, when you make a roast for Shabbos, why do you always cut the end off?”
Her mother responded, “Well, my mother always cut the end off the roast when I was growing up. I just learned to do it the same way. I’m sure there must’ve been a good reason, though – you’re bubbe (grandmother) never wasted anything if she could help it.”
A week later there was a family gathering. The young woman and her fiancée were there along with her parents and grandparents.
The mother asked of bubbe Golde, “Mom, why do you always cut the end off when you make roast beef for Shabbos.”
Bubbe Golde smiled and said, “Oy, I don’t do that anymore sweetheart. When you were little, we were poor and I only had a small roasting pot. What with so many people at Shabbos dinner we usually had a large roast, and it wouldn’t fit, so I cut the end off and used it for something later. I have a good size roasting pot now, so why would I cut it off?”
You have your Jewish traditions? So did the Jewish people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel before God sent the Assyrians to destroy them and scatter them throughout the earth (hence the Ten Lost Tribes, see 2 Kings 17:6-23).
Don’t keep tradition for tradition’s sake. Read the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures) and, God willing, the B’rit Hadashah (New Testament) and find out what God really wanted.
Want more information? Please contact us, and we would be glad to help.
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Jesus and Jews, Jewish Tradition, Jews and Jesus, Knowing God, This, That, The Other Thing | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2010
Can someone explain this prohibition to me?
According to the Talmud, it is forbidden to eat milk and meat at the same time. This ruling is deduced from the verse, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. (Deuteronomy 14:21)”
What the verse states is a far cry from what the rabbis have come up with: that it is against God’s will to eat milk and meat. It is more likely to have prevented the Israelites from practising the fertility rites of the Canaanites around them. Yet the rabbis have construed this meat and milk prohibition from the verse and have then said that to disobey it is to disobey Torah. Why?
This ruling is even more difficult to comprehend when one considers that Abraham, (whom many religious Jews believe followed all the Talmudic laws,) provides a luncheon to God and his two angels in Genesis 18 and clearly disobeys this provision. “Then he [Abraham] took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them [God and his two angels]. (Genesis 18:8)”
So Abraham gave to God and his angels some milk and meat together. Not only that, but the same verse goes on to tell us that Abraham, “stood by them under the tree while they ate.” So God ate the curds and milk along with the calf that had been prepared!
How did the Jewish sages come up with this interpretation of Deuteronomy 14:21, how did they justify this interpretation, and how did they defend it in light of what we see in Genesis 18:8? I would love to get a coherent explanation.
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Jewish Tradition, Talmud vs. Tanakh, This, That, The Other Thing, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
June 2nd, 2010
This past weekend I went on the Walk with Israel sponsored by the UJA (United Jewish Appeal). I was at the opening ceremonies with a number of speakers, the most celebrated of whom was Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. It was the first time that an Israeli Prime Minister spoke to a crowd in Toronto since Menachem Begin did in 1978.
There were many speakers, all of them well spoken, but none was as erudite as the Israeli Prime Minister. Mr. Netanyahu spoke about the common bonds between Israel and Canada: a regard for rule of law, freedom and pluralism. (He didn’t mention that pluralism does not extend to those Jews who believe in Jesus, but I didn’t expect that he would.)
He also spoke about Israel’s accomplishments. He talked about the fact that Israel’s regard for the Land came from the bible and he mentioned the promises of the prophets. But there was one thing missing in his speech. In fact throughout the long ceremony with its many speakers, one issue was ignored and left unmentioned. No one talked about God.
I have always believed that the will of God is the vital reason that Israel exists and has survived the past 62 years. It is also my belief that what makes Jews different from the rest of the world is the fact that we are the only nation of people who have a special relationship with God.
Here was a Jewish event in which God was given the cold shoulder. You can talk about Jews and you can talk about Judaism, but you can’t talk about God. To those who regard the first two and ignore the last, I direct you to these Scriptures (which talks about God a lot): Jeremiah 5:20-31.
Idolatry comes in many forms. God is the only refuge of the righteous.
Contributed by Daniel Muller, General Director of New Covenant Forum.
Posted in Knowing God, Personal Stories, This, That, The Other Thing, Uncategorized, Zionism and Israel | No Comments »
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