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The Jerusalem Prayer List – Friday, July 23 2010
by Joseph Shulam
Celebration is a inseparable part of Worship! In our culture Celebration is a great opportunity to experience the best part of fellowship and relationship with each other and with God. If there is one thing that Jewish people know how to do is to Celebrate. In our congregation in Jerusalem we often have families Celebrating their children's Bar Mitzvah and their daughter's Bath Mitzvah, and we have weddings, and when our kids enter the Army and graduate from school, and all the Biblical Holidays. In other words we have Celebrations often. A congregation based on Biblical principles is a congregation that follows all the stages of personal and community life. The Roman model is that a church/congregation is a temple and as a temple like every temple it is a place where you serve the gods. However, the New Testament Church is not a temple – the people are the temple of God and He dwells in the hearts of His people. The New Testament Church is actually a Synagogue a community and not a temple. The things that people did in the New Testament as a fellowship with each other and with God and Yeshua are the very same thing that one does in every Synagogue. In the Synagogue people pray, and sing, and study the Word of God, and have fellowship around food, and contribute money for the charities and good works in the community and for education and taking care of the needy in the community. Is this not what the people do in the New Testament Church? There are no altars in the New Testament Church, there are no priests among the early disciples of Yeshua, there are no statutes or furniture mentioned in the New Testament for the fellowship of the Saints. In fact the New Testament often calls the place of fellowship for the Disciples of Yeshua “Synagogue.”*** There are times when people have even come from as far as the United States and even Brazil to celebrate the Bar-Mitzvvah of their son or daughter in our congregation or even for us to help them celebrate with us in the Wailing Wall. Often when we have a celebration of a Bar or Bath Mitzvah there are many family members who attend who have not yet been acquainted with Jewish Disciples of Yeshua and with a First Century alternative to traditional Christianity. It has often happened that the family members who come to visit us one time get very excited and enthusiastic about the spirit and friendliness of our congregation. These Celebrations are of great importance for the community of Yeshua following Disciples because they give an opportunity for people to show their cooperation and their both moral and spiritual support for each other. The community participates in the joy of the families who are celebrating and with the young people who are being affirmed as adults, or getting married, or going into the army. It is this bonding through action and through the drama of Celebrating the Historical evants like the Exodus from Egypt and the building of the Tabernacles on the Feast of Tabernacles that makes us a community.
I want you to pray for our community and for our Synagogue, the place that we gather to fellowship with each other and with our Lord. Community is the divine design that God made as a key to successful life. It is in a community setting that we can help each other and learn from each other to be better people and a holy fellowship. We are a part of the general community and our identity is connected to our Nation, but as the Disciples of Yeshua we are also a part of a much greater community that Universal and Transcendent with eternal promises that gives us power to live and overcome in this life to capture our inheritance for ever. Our community in Jerusalem is not interested in taking Jews and making them members of some Baptist, or Pentecostal, or Presbyterian, or Anglican, or Catholic, church, we are interested in restoring Yeshua back to His rightful place in the very heart of Israel as King and Lord on the Throne of David. We need your prayers because there are very intensive and wonderful things happening here and great challenges. We are in the very eye of the storm and in the heart of Jerusalem. Without your prayers and your support for the Lord’s work in Israel and other parts of the world we could not continue and persevere.
Marcia is getting better with her knee, but she is still in much pain and according to all who have gone through this kind of surgery this is normal and it takes time for the pain to end and the muscles to get strong. Please keep Marcia in your prayers.
Udi's mother is in the Hadassah Hospital ICU already for two weeks. She is past 90 years old and we are all praying for her recovery. Please join us and mention her in your prayers.
Kol HaYeshua Radio is suffering a major shake up. Through The Bible (T.T.B.) is cutting from October 2010 their Hebrew broadcasts and that means that if we want to continue broadcasting a full hour each evening we would have to raise the funds for the additional half hour that we are losing. Trans World Radio is doing a great job for many years paying for our broadcasting of half an hour per day and T.T.B. paid for the second half an hour. This is a matter for prayer, but we are also resigned before the Lord that even half an hour is a great opportunity to potentially bring Good News to every household in Israel and in fact to the whole Middle East from Ukraine in the North to Sudan in the south.
Danah and Noaam are in Tennessee this weekend and they are with Barry, Beth, and Joey. They will be traveling to visit their Grandmother and Grandfather in East Tennessee. Please keep them in your prayers for safety and for spiritually invigorating visit with the family.
We are still very much concerned for several brothers and sisters in Israel who are unemployed. These families need our help and especially our prayers for the Lord to help them find jobs that can support their children and their families. It is not always easy for Jewish Disciples of Yeshua to find good jobs because there is still such a deep prejudice and rejection of those who believe and follow Yeshua. The Body of the Messiah must stand with the brothers who are in need. This is our witness before the world that we love each other and care for each other and show our love in these very practical and basic spheres of life.
Please lift your voices and pray for the Almighty One of Israel to come to the help of this nation. The Arabs and their friends together with the Islamic block in our world have managed to blacken the face of Israel in the international media and deny Israel the right of self defense. They have found the soft spot of the Jewish Nation like the media in the West seems to take the side of the thieves and criminals and judge the policeman who are out there doing their best to protect you from these thieves and criminals. The same way the international press and media has portrayed Israel as a criminal for defending itself against crafty terrorist organizations. Israel and the West need your prayers to God to look down and bring the redeemer to deliver His children out of this Egypt of slavery to un-godliness. You might think that what I wrote in the above paragraph is “politics” - for us in Israel it is not “politics” it is the faith in God's Righteousness and justice for all, and standing on His promises that all of Israel will be saved. For this to happen the Apostle Paul says that the gentiles have to provoke Israel to jealousy. You can provoke Israel to jealousy only by loving God and His promises and loving Israel. It is hard or impossible to provoke someone to jealousy by hating them or ignoring them or turning against them.
Please pray for Sara and Zvi, and Ahuva, Liora, Leah, Sarit, in Jerusalem, and keep praying for Ruby, and Paulo, and Tim Tucker, and Tellervo, and June, who are scattered around the world. These are people who have given their lives for God and for Israel's salvation and are now in need of a special dispensation of God's grace for healing and strengthening of their bodies and minds in their old age. It is really a “Mitzvah” (a good deed) and a privilege to lift up these people in prayer. This is especially true when you pray for people whom you don't know personally. It bonds the Body of the Messiah together.
The preparations for the conference in Portugal are progressing. If you want to register and attend you should go to the following web page and register or make contact with EuroMar travel agency in Portugal so that they can help you in the registration and hotel reservation and travel:
www.anussimconference.com
The conference is picking up steam and the number of hotel beds in the Castelo de Vide area are limited. Please don't wait if you are interested in the subject of restoring the lost Jews of Portugal back to the fold of the Jewish people and Israel.
I just received a note that our brother Marcelo from Brazil will be going through two knee replacement surgeries in August. This means that he will be incapacitated during the time that I am in Brazil at the end of August, and that his function in the Portugal conference will be limited. Please pray for Marcelo because we need him so very much for this conference.
I will end this prayer list now and ask you to lift us all up because there is key events and key functions taking place here that it would be unwise to talk much about them. We need you our dear brothers and sisters.
Joseph Shulam
*** End Note: In all these places the root of the Greek Word Synagogue is used: Acts 4:27, 31; 6:9; 9:2, 20; 11:26; 13:5, 14, 43-44; 14:1, 27; 15:6, 21, 30; 17:1, 10, 17; 18:4, 7, 19, 26; 19:8; 20:7-8; 22:19; 24:12; 26:11; 1Cor 5:4; James 2:2.
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