An ad from the Israeli anti-Messianic activist group Yad L'Achim
It requires a level of spiritual maturity to stick it out with a group of people who treat you poorly, even mistreat you. It takes rising up to a level of commitment first to God that says, I see how much was sacrificed for me when I was yet a sinner, and how much faith and patience You have shown me as I stumbled and fell short in my life. I see also that Your desire is to see those who have isolated me, who have made me the butt of their ill will, that those are ones you desire to come to the saving knowledge of Your Son who laid down His life that any who did not persist in unbelief, but welcomed Him could enter eternal life with You.
Some things that does not mean: Yeshua/Jesus did not let anyone kill him, He laid down His own life at the time God showed Him was the time. There were attempts to murder Him before that, but He did not just lay down and let them do as they pleased with Him. We are not to do that either.
It is a false Gospel to suggest that we - to show our love - must be passive in life-threatening environments. Yeshua removed Himself from life threatening environments because the day of His sacrifice was to be at a certain, God-ordained time, the Passover. We are the same: we cannot prove our love of our enemies by just allowing them to "kill" us or cause us great bodily harm.
No wife is called to God to remain under the same roof as a physically abusive husband. Likewise, the passivity of believers in Israel will NEVER convict the activist religious groups who have been threatening the believers in Israel for decades. Since I have been doing the Weekly Summary and Arrows from Zion, I have known of about 5 fire bombs targeting Messianic Jewish congregational facilities and believers. This is only the fiery attempts to harm the Jewish believers in Israel, there are so many other forms the persecution has taken place.
Now Christian organizations in Israel are in the crosshairs of religious activists, and it is not just the yeshiva boys riled up by their religious-political elders, it is the religious far right in Netanyahu's coalition government who are in positions of government power over things like clergy visas. Now the Christian organizations are getting a taste of the persecution Messianic Jewish believers have experienced for many years: the Interior Ministry trying to kick out husbands or wives of Israeli Messianic Jews because the spouse is not Jewish even if all the children were born in Israel. Some have been kicked out or forced to leave because of government refusal to extend benefits to spouses of Messianic Jews.
I DON'T TELL YOU ALL THIS TO RILE YOU UP AGAINST ISRAEL. Even though I could see this level of persecution rolling down the track for a long time - it was inevitable according to prophetic scripture - my point is not that you turn on Israel as an enemy. My point is that you wake up to reality.
What do Christians owe the Israeli Messianic community who have been placed there by GOD Himself to be the laborers in the LORD's vineyard. They are going to bring the spiritual harvest of Israel in regardless of the harassment and persecution of the religious activists - and God is going to be with them to the END of it all when Yeshua returns.
What do we owe them? Exactly what scripture tells us we owe them: "For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." We STILL owe this debt to the Israeli Messianic believers - much more than Messianic Jewish believers in ANY other nation in the world. Israel is the last battleground. They are in the center of the spiritual storm on earth and we have been STARVING them out, with not even funding to do the ministry work God has laid on their shoulders.
It is past time the Christian organizations who donate so generously in Israel, began to wake up and realize that by all those donations not being channeled through the ministries of Israeli Messianic Jews, this has tied the hands of those who are actually ministering Jesus to the people of Israel.
We cannot let these things turn to hatred for Israelis, not can we ignore the reality that how Christians give to Israel is so out of bounds. This money must go into the hands of Messianic Jews pouring out their lives to minister the Gospel.
If what I am writing means that I never get to set foot in Israel again, so be it. I settled that reality in myself years ago. I don't need to go to Israel, but my money and my support for Israeli Messianic Jews does.
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