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Announcing National Shabbat in SC!!

South Carolina will have its inaugural National Shabbat in December.  Currently we are trying to secure live music and a place in the Columbia area.  Our goal is the first or second Shabbat in December.  Stay tuned for details, and begin putting the word out to all Messianic and Hebrew roots believers in the SC, NC and Georgia areas!!  All are invited.

Our goal is a day of worship, bridge-building and fellowship between those from this region with a hope to begin fostering a sense of community and cohesiveness among the many fellowships and congregations across South Carolina and the surrounding areas.

More info will be released as soon as we have a venue secured.  Pray Abba provides exactly what we need for fellowship, worship, dancing, children and food prep….

If you have access or ideas, etc, please drop me a note.

B’ney Yosef Region 35 Conference

Central US and I-35 corridor, this is a message for you:

Here is the information many of you have been waiting to hear:

What:  B’Ney Yosef Region 35 Conference, with emphasis on nation-building, particularly on reconciliation within the entire Body of Messiah

When:  Friday, December 4 to Sunday, December 6, 2015.

Where:  Tally Retreat Center, Camp Copass, 8200 E. McKinney St., Denton, TX 76208.  Information on the facility is available at:

http://campcopass.com/facilities/accomodations/tally-retreat-center/.

Who:  The invitation extends to everyone in the Body of Messiah who has a love for Israel and desires to see the restoration of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).  This includes not only Hebrew Roots believers, but also Christian and Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters, primarily from the I-35 Corridor (states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota).

Capacity:  300 people, including overnight guests and participants for the day only.

More details at http://bneyosef35.com/2015conference/

Pray for this conference and if you are in this region/corridor, strongly consider attending this very important event.

Shalom

More on the Jerusalem Post ‘Bney Yosef Advert’

Two recent blog posts have generated some good discussion and a fair amount of traffic.

Yesterday’s Nationality, Citizenship and The Kingdom, as well as last month’s Jerusalem Post: “Yosef is Alive!!”  JPost ad 1

This evening, friend and fellow blogger, Dorothy Wilson, forwarded an email from Kol Hator explaining a bit on their position concerning the return and what flack they are taking for stepping forward with a bold declaration that the ten lost tribes are non-Jewish and coming out of JPost ad 2Christendom.  I am NOT endorsing the website or their position, I am offering this for further discussion and as a clear statement revealing the things we need to be praying for as we see Abba working this restoration from both sides, Jew and Non.

Our Succot Full Page Advert ‘Yosef Lives’ may not have unleashed a storm, but it certainly raised eyebrows. Like with all solid promotion,  it is the change of set ideas which make a lasting difference. And this is seldom reported back to source.  Feed-back and comments received all point to such a healthy reception.  We have also had the advert printed as hand-out brochures and several people assisted in distributing these on the day of the March of the Nations during Succot through the streets of Jerusalem.

Of course, there were concerns raised: Why this, why that? Why the NT Book promotion in the advert.?

Continue reading “More on the Jerusalem Post ‘Bney Yosef Advert’”

Nationality, Citizenship and The Kingdom

Lately, I have been pondering anew BYNC2015my nationality, citizenship and Kingdom affiliation.  Most would consider me an American citizen, of American descent, however, I do not.  Yes, I was born here, to American citizens who come from families that arrived on this shore in the 1640s and 1740s, but I no longer consider this my home, or my nation.

In the very late 1980’s and early 1990’s I served in the US Army and was deployed both to Korea and Saudi Arabia/Iraq.  I had previously lived for six years on the missionfield in Colombia, South America with my bush pilot father and midwife mother.  The combination of the two experiences gave me a very different picture of the United States than the average nationalist.  I saw things from an external vantage point that caused the patriotic patina to begin wearing off.

While I still appreciate this country and the blessings it affords, I have come to the very real conclusion that this is not my home.  Christendom teaches rightly that we are citizens of a higher Kingdom and for years I sought to understand this, being forced to wait for something on the other side of the veil of death.  Once I began to search the Scriptures from an Hebraic perspective, I learned several very important things:

  • The Kingdom, to which Yeshua referred, is not some other-worldly, post Judgment/resurrection, ethereal heavenlies entity, though its fullness will be manifest after the final Judgment.  Rather, The Kingdom is the much prophesied restoration of the tent of David with Him, the Son of David, seated on the throne, and that prior to Judgment Day.
  • Being ‘grafted in,’ does not make me part of something other than Israel (the Church?), rather, it makes me part of Israel.  (The Church hasn’t replaced Israel, rather, when Scripture is rightly understood, those coming to faith in Messiah are grafted into Israel.)
  • Israel is composed of two distinct parts that are ‘echad,’ unified:  The House of Israel and the House of Judah, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, respectively, each with its own destiny/path toward the final restored Tent of David.

Continue reading “Nationality, Citizenship and The Kingdom”

Open question, re: Noach

Reading this portion, Genesis 6:9-11:32, reminded me of a question I have not found a good answer to….yet.   Maybe some of you have thoughts you are willing to share.

The Noach portion has clear lessons for those living in the last days, and I think some explicit details are meant to be unlocked and understood.  So, the recurring question:  What is the significance of the VERY specific dates in the text regarding the day it began and the day it ended?  Lengths of phases, I.e. rain for 40 days, dry for 40, etc are important, but the specificity of dates is a bold highlight in the text.  What is the relevance?

Thoughts?

Noach, some useful stuff…

I learned today from Ray Gardner that this Portion, Noach, is his favorite Torah Parasha because of all the end times themes. I have posted his Study Notes on the Torah Portion Page. While my favorites are the Joseph portions, I have to say that Noach ranks very high on my list.  So much so that one of the most useful insights I have gleaned from Noach, I have made into several different teachings.  You may really enjoy these as a means of sharing the Truth with others.

First, an image from YouVersion friend, Steve King:

Noach by Steve King

This portion offers an amazing defense of the seventh day Sabbath.  Here are several version of the teaching Continue reading “Noach, some useful stuff…”

Dismantling a huge old oak…

All the wind and water in SC has been hard on old trees.  Particularly ones that are dead in the middle.  Here’s a pic of me 15′ up running a chainsaw  dismantling one.  Takes time and is dangerous.  The tree doesn’t appreciate big limbs being removed, but it has to be cleaned up.  The key is figuring out which part/support to remove when.

image

A metaphor.

http://bible.com/100/exo.20.8-11.NASB

Farmers, skinny cows and dream interpretation

This week at Sukkot, Frank Houtz taught a series that included a segment about dream interpretation in Scripture.  One particular part tickled me….  (and, is a great lesson in hermeneutics.)skinny-cows

Generally, Christendom defends eating whatever they want, clean or unclean, by referring to Peter’s vision in Acts 10.  Unfortunately, to arrive at that interpretation, one has to violate a principle of hermeneutics that says the dream or vision is not itself the interpretation, rather the interpretation given in Scripture is the literal meaning of the dream or vision.  To explain, Peter’s vision is not the literal meaning, rather, Acts 10:28 is the literal interpretation of his vision.  Acts 10:28 says,

Acts 10:28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Scripture defines for us exactly what the vision means and we can take it no further by implying some other meaning contrary to established Scripture, both present and future.

To believe the dream or vision is itself the interpretation is pretty absurd, because we would have to maintain the same rule throughout Scripture.  Here is where I got tickled. Continue reading “Farmers, skinny cows and dream interpretation”