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Entries from
June 2005
June 2005 Newsletter
Wednesday, June 01, 2005 :: 336 Views :: Newsletter
C. P. E.
By Steve Cohen
Recently, a concerned mother asked for my help in reaching her daughter and her new son-in-law with the Gospel. The daughter, a believer in Y’shua, had married a “nice Jewish boy”—but he wasn’t a believer. Since then, the daughter has stopped active church worship.
The mother and I spoke for about an hour about her concern for the spiritual welfare of both her daughter and her new son-in-law. She voiced apprehension over broaching the subject of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. The daughter would avoid those conversations, and the mother wondered that if she brought up the matter with the son-in-law, it might damage future relationships.
So the quandary: how to present the Gospel to our loved ones, yet maintain the relationship with have with them.
When I brought up matters of faith to my parents, they always viewed such issues through the lens of my past personal history. Instead of considering the case for Christ, my parents always raised my past behavior and my shortcomings in relating to them.
How can we overcome such hurdles so that loved ones can give honest consideration to who Jesus is? Use C. P. E. –cross-pollenation evangelism.
He Was A Good Jewish Boy...
by Alan Butterworth
In downtown Jerusalem, lost in my to do list, I heard a young man say, “He was a good Jewish boy who lived 2,000 years ago.” As I looked up, I saw a man on a bicycle riding slowly behind me. It took me a moment to realize he was answering the question on the back of my shirt, “What Do You Think of Jesus?”
I replied, “That is a good start!” He stopped his bike, and we chatted for a few minutes. This young Jewish man explained he had heard that Jesus was just a man, not the Messiah, but that he wasn’t religious.
I asked him, “Have you seen the posters of the white bearded Rabbi Schneerson all over Israel?” The posters claim that Schneerson is “Melech Moshiach” (King Messiah). He said yes. I said, “If Chabad has a right to promote Schneerson as the Messiah, we just want people to consider whether Jesus was the Messiah.” He said, “Sounds fair.” He listened carefully as I shared how I came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. He took one of my stories, but wouldn’t give me his name. Please pray others water and nourish this seed so he comes to faith.
I asked him, “What it would have been like to see the blood all over the Priests during the days of the sacrificial system?” He said the sacrifices were a compromise with the Pagan cultures of that era. He said forgiveness of sins comes from repentance and prayer, not sacrifice. I asked him, “What does Leviticus 17:11 mean?” He took my Bible and read, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” I could see him wrestling with the idea that Jesus atoned for our sins. As we left, he said, “We will have to continue this discussion by e-mail.” Please pray for Mr. C’s salvation!
The Gospel in the Old Testament:
I have heard it said many times that the Gospel is only in the New Testament. But our God is the same yesterday, today and forever. The good news that He is seeking to redeem us is predicted in the Old and fulfilled in the New. So for those who do not accept the New Testament as a valid text yet, as many of my people claim, you can point to God’s promises to redeem us from our sin. Look for yourself! - Steve Cohen
Isaiah 59:1-2: “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Ezekiel 18:1-4: “The word of the LORD came to me: ‘What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: “The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?” As surely as I live’, declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son — both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.’ ”
Daniel 12:2 (v.1 in the Hebrew text): “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Leviticus 16 covers in great depth and detail the extent to which the Lord sought to make atonement for the Hebrew people’s sins. Rather than review this entire chapter, I urge you to personally outline that chapter, so that, in a few minutes, you can present its basic principles
Leviticus 17:10-11 Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood — I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Jeremiah 31:31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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