FROM THE PRESIDENT
JULY 2018 / THE CHOSEN PEOPLE - 2
Dear friend,
Shalom in the name of our
Messiah Jesus.
I am writing from Israel where
Chosen People Ministries is hosting
about 600 fellow believers for a tour,
a Bible conference, and a glorious
celebration of Israel’s seventieth
anniversary. The fellowship has been
wonderful and so many of us have
had good opportunities to share the
gospel with both Jewish Israelis and
lots of Arab Muslims as well.
We have also enjoyed having
many of the Chosen People Ministries
Israel staff share their testimonies
and tell us about the good things
God is doing in the Holy Land.
Please pray for our ongoing work in
Israel among Holocaust survivors,
children, soldiers, young people, and
families. Please pray for Maxim, one
of our most faithful
and effective workers
who needs a kidney
transplant and is on
daily dialysis. We are
praying for a donor!
Meanwhile, he leads
our work among the
elderly Holocaust
survivors. We had
the joy of having
about fifty survivors
join us for dinner
the other night, and we heard the
testimony of one of them who came
to faith through this ministry. There
was not a dry eye among us!
There is so much more to
tell, and I will try and dedicate an
upcoming newsletter to our work
in Israel, especially as we enter this
seventy-first year of modern Israel’s
existence. All I can say is that there
are many more Jewish believers in
Jesus in Israel today than probably
since the first century. According
to a recent survey, there are about
25,000-30,000 Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel. We are using
Facebook to reach many Israelis. A week does not go by when
we do not send out more than fifty Isaiah 53 Explained books
in Hebrew to Israelis who request them.
We even have quite a few who indicate that they are religious
Jews. This is amazing and encourages us to pray that the
Lord will reach even the most observant Jewish people in Israel
and across the globe. I share the same broken heart as the Apostle
Paul who wrote, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to
God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that
they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge”
(Romans 10:1-2).
ULTRA-RELIGIOUS JEWISH PEOPLE:
THE LAST FRONTIER?
If I asked you what group of Jewish people would become
the largest group of Jewish people in the next twenty years, you
would probably answer, “non-religious Jewish people.” This is
really common wisdom as our society is becoming more and
more secular as the days go by. And this is true of the Jewish
people as well. Already, most Jewish people do not regularly attend
synagogue any more than non-Jews attend church. I cannot
speak about Hindus or Buddhists but can only surmise that
the more they live in the West, the more they
will also become secularized.
Our world is quickly moving further
and further away from the Creator and this is
especially true in North America and Europe.
Yet, this is not the whole story according to
those who study the Jewish community. In fact,
it is predicted that the most identifiable group of
Jewish people in the years ahead might actually
be those who are identified as ultra-Orthodox,
or what we call Haredim. The Hebrew word
Haredim means “to tremble,” since these very
religious Jewish people tremble before God and
show Him honor and devotion by keeping the Law, known as
the Torah, which refers to the five books of Moses as interpreted
by the sages of the Jewish people.
MY OWN JEWISH UPBRINGING
I was raised modern Orthodox, went to synagogue, learned
about the Jewish religion, and studied how to read the Bible in
Hebrew. But, I was still very different from the religious Jews
you see wearing black clothing, having lots of children, and living
the Haredi lifestyle. There are a few hundred thousand of these
folks in Brooklyn alone and about a million in Israel, with the majority
in Jerusalem.
I wish I could tell you that there are many Haredim who
have come to know the Lord, but really there are just a few. When
AN UNREACHED
PEOPLE GROUP
New Focused Outreach
to the Haredim