As a child, I enjoyed peering through my kaleidoscope at the colorful fragments of glass as they shifted and formed beautiful mosaics with the subtle turn of the lens. What began as a jumbled mess of glass pieces turned into something incredible—once the focus shifted.
I hear many people, Jews and Christians alike, calling the festivals and assemblies of Leviticus 23 “Jewish Holidays.” And while I agree it is the Jews who reverently honor these Holy days, it is the voice of the Lord, who poignantly declares; “These are my feasts.”
What might surprise Jewish readers of the New Testament are the Israel-affirming bits that show that the Gospels are thoroughly Jewish. Jesus and his rivals argue about food laws because, well, Jews argue about food laws. They argue about how to relate to Rome because that was a contentious issue in first-century Judea. They argue together with tools all Jews recognize and honor — the Torah and the life of worship and festival known as Judaism.
So what do we do with these texts that are still in our Christian Scripture? We don’t dismiss them. We situate them historically as I have done here — as a reflection of one claimant to the legacy of Israel clawing for space against another.
We believe in the biblical principle of restoration. God made everything in the world “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Yet, Adam's sin and Satan's rebellion caused much destruction. God's plan of redemption not only saves us from damnation,
Resurrecting the Jewish Jesus "At the first night of Passover, the youngest person at the table asks the question "Why is this night different from all other nights?" Appropriately, the place to begin speaking of The Passion of Yeshua is to ask the question "Why is this Passion Oratorio different from all other Passion Oratorios?" A devoted educator and mentor, he grew up with both Christian and Jewish faiths in his household. His parents were born in Iran, and he was free to examine his faith from multiple perspectives. Ultimately, he accepted that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, but this did not disavow his Jewishness. After all, Jesus was Jewish.
Messianic worship leader Paul Wilbur has sold over 3 million albums globally and recently felt a charge from God to release his latest, “Roar From Zion,” as a prophetic shout to usher in the return of the Lord. Wilbur’s roar from Jerusalem happened last September during the Feast of Tabernacles and the 70th anniversary of the rebirth of the State of Israel when he recorded his live album, Roar From Zion in the heart of Israel. The new album, which is now available, releases what he calls a "prophetic praise" in hopes of impacting people around the world with a message that reaches beyond cultural, social and political borders.
“While it is true that at the present time a majority of believers in Yeshua are Gentiles - a fact we celebrate! - Yeshua is truly the Jewish Messiah. Faith in Yeshua cannot make Jews into Gentiles. Allow me to illustrate this idea with a story about a Jewish restaurant (the Bible), the food it served (Yeshua, 'the Bread of Life', John 6:35), and the mostly Gentile neighborhood where it was located (the world).
Chanukkah ( חנוכה ) means “dedication.” The Feast of Hanukkah is the Feast of Dedication. The events behind the festival of Hanukkah are found in the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees. Therein the story is told of how Judah Maccabee and his heroic band of freedom fighters overthrew the tyrannical Seleucid forces that had subdued Judea and defiled the Jerusalem Temple. The Hanukkah Story In the time of Alexander the Great’s empire, the land of Israel found itself buffeted between world powers that sought to use her as a natural land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. The people of Israel were the victims of great political upheavals. War was never far from their land. In the meantime, another war was being waged among the people of Israel. Alexander’s conquests had introduced the world to Greek language, thought, custom, and philosophy.
If there are aspects of the Passover Seder from which all people can learn, how much more so is this true for believers in Messiah? After all, our Master Yeshua chose the wine and the matzah of a Passover Seder to represent his body and blood. More than just learning about and celebrating the concept of freedom from oppression and exile, for disciples of Messiah, the seder celebrates Yeshua’s atoning death and resurrection while remaining firmly grounded and centered on God’s deliverance of the Jewish people from Egypt. Gentiles being drawn to the God of Israel is a significant and beautiful part of this grand plan of redemption as we long for the even greater exodus that will come in the Messianic Era (Jeremiah 16:14-15). Rabbi David Fohrman writes: The Exodus, as it actually happened in history, did not accomplish everything it might have. There is work yet to do to complete its unrealized vision. The procession that departed Egypt was a shadow of what it might have been. It will be the destiny of Jew and Gentile to one day realize the promise of that journey as it should have taken place: to march side by side and join hands, proclaiming in unison the oneness of a Father they both share.
Jerusalem is so much more than a city...It has been called the 'belly button' of civilization... and center and origin of the world. Ceramic rendition by Jerusalem artist, Arman Darian,…