The Clarion, Oct. 2020
GREETINGS!
The changing of the seasons is upon us. We have completed the first two Fall Feasts, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. This month we will be celebrating the last of the Fall Feasts, Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. We encourage you to learn about this day on our website, JudeoChristianClarion.com. This is a seven-day holiday, with an extra eighth day added on at the end, which represents God dwelling with man for eternity. This year, the first day begins at sundown on October 2.
RUNNING WITH HORSES, PART 6
We have been looking at God’s response to Jeremiah after he questions why the wicked prosper in Jeremiah 12:5, “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” In part 5, we saw that God tells us to be dressed ready for service and to keep our lamps burning. We must be watching for His coming, as Luke 12:37 says, “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.” But to be overcomers and finishers of the race before us, we must live a winning life. To do this, we must pray without ceasing, always in His Word, fighting the good fight—for our fight is a spiritual fight, as Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” God did not leave us defenseless. He gave us His armor. The armor of God is a picture of Yeshua. It is a life in the Messiah. God tells us to be dressed and ready. So how do we do this? We dress ourselves in the armor of God. Romans 13:14 tells us how to begin: “But put on the Lord Messiah Yeshua and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Ephesians 6:13-17 goes on to say, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Let’s look at how a lifestyle in Messiah is all about the armor. First we’ll look at the belt of truth. Yeshua said in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” He also said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” Truth is life, life in Messiah, life His way. We wear truth around us like a belt, around our waist, at our middle, as a stabilizer, keeping us steady and balanced. Without truth we are left with only lies. Next we wear the breastplate of righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5-6 speaks of Messiah as our righteousness: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, “The Lord our righteousness.”’” The breastplate of righteousness guards our hearts. Righteousness tells us who we are in the Messiah. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:7-12 that we too must follow in Messiah’s footsteps, and by doing so we will know Him—not know about Him, but know Him as when two enter into a covenant, like a bride and groom. “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Messiah. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Messiah and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own (salvation) derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Messiah Yeshua.” We see that we must start by laying down our lives and becoming like our Messiah, even in His sufferings and death. Having this faith brings about our righteousness, or as you could say, our faith in Him gives us “right standing” in the Father. Next, we must fit our feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Isaiah cried out in Isaiah 52:7, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” And Paul echoed back to this in Romans 10:15, “And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” Today people are quick to run here and there, quick to action but slow to think. Isaiah 59:7-8 says, “Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.” But James 3:17-18 tells us, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” Are you totally dressed and ready? We will continue in part 7.
COUNTRY OF THE MONTH
Every month our ministry prays for a specific nation in which Christians are experiencing persecution. This month, we are praying for Vietnam. As a communist country, the foundational doctrines of the Vietnamese government are opposed to religion. While the government tolerates registered religions, they are still heavily monitored and their activities are restricted. Those who speak out against the government’s policies have a good chance of being imprisoned or deported.
• Pray that Christians in Vietnam will be encouraged and protected despite the harsh difficulties they face.
• Pray that Christianity will no longer be seen as a political tool of the West.
• Pray that ministries such as Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs will be successful in providing Bibles to believers in rural areas.
• Pray that Vietnamese (including the persecutors) will come to know the truth and receive salvation through Yeshua.
SANDIEGRAMS—”Autumn”
By Sandie Balistreri, Copyright 2010
Autumn is a time of beauty.
It is a time when our Lord touches the earth
And changes it into a wonderland.
The leaves on the trees change
Into elegant colors
As they reach the height of their beauty.
Weeds become beautiful
As the Lord’s hand gently touches them.
Many of us have lived lives like weeds—
Growing wild, not really caring about others.
But once we found our Lord,
We have become beautiful
Like the weeds in autumn.
EXCERPTS ABOUT JOHN BUNYAN
We want to look at John Bunyan as written about in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. If you have not read John Bunyan’s book, Pilgrim’s Progress, I highly recommend you read it or see the movie version. John was born into a Puritan family around the same time that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. John lived in Bedford, England. His father was a tinker, and he was brought up to be the same. When he got older he became a Baptist preacher. Persecution broke out, and he was arrested for preaching without a license. “Before I went down to the justice, I begged of God that His will be done; for I was not without hopes that my imprisonment might be an awakening to the saints in the country. Only in this matter did I commit the thing to God. And verily at my return I did meet my God sweetly in prison.” His hardships were genuine on account of the wretched condition of the prisons of those days. While John was in prison, he wrote some of his early books. But it was during his second imprisonment three years later that he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress. Pilgrim’s Progress is truly the rehearsal of Bunyan’s own spiritual experiences. He believed that life was a pilgrimage. He used England as his rural scenery and London as his Vanity Fair. He himself had been the “man clothed in Rags, with his Face from his own House, a Book in hand, and great Burden upon his Back.” After he had realized that Christ was his Righteousness, and that this did not depend on “the good frame of his Heart” or, as we would say, on his feelings, “now did the Chains fall off my legs indeed.” His had been the Doubting Castle and Sloughs of Despond, with much of the Valley of Humiliation and Shadow of Death. But, above all, it is a book of Victory. Once when leaving the doors of the courthouse where he himself had been defeated, he wrote: “As I was going forth of the doors, I had much ado to bear saying to them, that I carried the peace of God along with me.” In his vision was ever the Celestial City, with all its bells ringing. He had fought Apollyon constantly, and often wounded, shamed, and fallen, yet in the end “more than conqueror through Him that loved us.” An allegory indeed. But how can we forget the travels of the Apostle Paul? He had to fight many battles himself, but for sure he was an overcomer. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Yeshua, that the life of Yeshua also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Yeshua’s sake, that the life of Yeshua also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:7) “For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly. For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face. To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am just as bold myself. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Messiah?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” (2 Corinthians 11:19-27) “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Messiah Yeshua who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)
“PLEASANT SOUNDS” by John Clare
The rustling of leaves under the feet in woods and under hedges;
The crumpling of cat-ice and snow down wood-rides, narrow lanes and every street causeway;
Rustling through a wood or rather rushing, while the wind halloos in the oak-toop like thunder;
The rustle of birds’ wings startled from their nests or flying unseen into the bushes;
The whizzing of larger birds overhead in a wood, such as crows, puddocks, buzzards;
The trample of robins and woodlarks on the brown leaves. and the patter of squirrels on the green moss;
The fall of an acorn on the ground, the pattering of nuts on the hazel branches as they fall from ripeness;
The flirt of the groundlark’s wing from the stubbles –
how sweet such pictures on dewy mornings, when the dew flashes from its brown feathers.
JEWISH RECIPE—STUFFED CABBAGE
You can make this traditional dish to celebrate the Biblical holiday of Sukkot! It is traditional to eat it on the eighth day of this festival, which this year is on October 10.
INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1/4 cup uncooked rice1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
10-12 cabbage leaves (2 small cabbages)
2 onions
1/4 cup lemon juice (add more or less to adjust sourness)
1/2 cup brown sugar (add more or less to adjust sweetness)
2 large (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
6 gingersnaps
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine beef, rice, and egg in a bowl. Add salt. With this mixture, form balls of meat (small enough to be placed inside the cabbage leaves later) and set them on a sheet pan. Place it in the fridge.
2. Core the cabbages and place in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Take the leaves off one at a time. Cut the remaining core away and place it in a deep roaster with the sliced onions. Place onions, extra cores, and extra cabbage in the roaster to make a bed for the balls. Tip: Instead of boiling the cabbage leaves, simply core the head of cabbage and place it in the freezer overnight. As it thaws (takes about 8 hours), the leaves will be soft and will peel right off, ready to be used. To thaw quickly, place the frozen cabbage in the microwave for a few minutes.
3. To assemble rolls, take a cabbage leaf and place a ball of meat on the side where the core was cut. Fold it over and “diaper” it. Combine the tomatoes, lemon juice, and sugar to taste, and pour over the balls. Cook and cover for 2 hours at 325 degrees.
4. Crunch up the gingersnaps and add some gravy from the roaster to soften them. Pour this over the bed of balls. Cook for another hour and a half.
INTERESTING FACTS
In some Jewish communities, it is traditional to eat cabbage rolls on the last day of Sukkot. This has its origin in the Jewish communities of Germany. At the climax of the Sukkot prayers, the Hebrew phrase kol mevasser is repeated, which means “the voice of the herald.” This sounds like the German phrase kohl mit wasser, which means “cabbage with water.” Thus it became traditional to eat these cabbage rolls. Additionally, two cabbage rolls placed next to each other in parallel look a lot like a Torah scroll!
QUOTE
The proof of God’s love lies less in the fact that He raises creatures to Himself, than in that He stoops to have His tabernacle among men and thus reveal Himself to them.— Paul Philip Levertoff
HEBREW LETTER
In each newsletter, we will teach you a new Hebrew letter and give you a little information about it. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This month, you will learn the fifth letter. The name of this letter is he, pronounced “hay.” In Hebrew, each letter also has a numerical value. If you open up a Hebrew Bible, you will notice that the chapter numbers will be Hebrew letters. The numerical value of he is 5.
ה
The letter he makes an “h” sound, as in “happy.” When it comes at the end of a word, it is silent, as is familiar from the pronunciation of the last syllable in the English word “Messiah.” An example of the letter he is found in the word below. In this word, he is found both at the beginning and the end, and all the other letters should be familiar from past lessons. The word is pronounced haggadah. It means “a telling.” “Haggadah” is the name of the prayer book used during the Passover seder.
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