WEEKLY Arrows from Zion 10-23-2013

Arrows from Zion
Serving the Body of Messiah in Israel since August 2001  

Priority Prayer Focus Oct 23, 2013

And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. Numbers 9:16

Pray that we would not get too settled in places that are only meant by God to be temporary stations along the path to the place He is leading us.  Yeshua said He was directed by seeing where the Father was moving.  This is how we must learn follow the cloud of His glory – where and how it is moving on men.  The days ahead may challenge many in this respect.

Contact information for all the ministries
is included inside the Weekly Summary -  By subscription only
Arrows from Zion
Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in Israel

Ron Cantor get us started off this week by talking about their Tel Aviv congregation, Tiferet Yeshua, which is seeing Israelis come to faith in Yeshua and new believers rising in anointing for ministry leadership.  These things don’t just happen but are a function of local congregations committed to these priorities.  Ron has excellently framed the challenge that Messianic pastors all over Israel face and as he wrote, “While paying the rent on our building every month is not glamorous, it enables us to do all the other things.”

The individual congregational pastors in Israel are multiplying quality spiritual leaders but they need us to support the framework they have to do this in: the local congregation.  Many of those who contribute financially to Israel are either project-oriented donors or personality-oriented donors.  The time has now come for our Israel support to become kingdom-oriented giving!  Kingdom-oriented donors are going to invest contributions into those frameworks that multiply the laborers in the harvest field of Israel.  

 You’ve heard of ‘Adopt a City” – well maybe it is time we began to invest in Israel by “Adopt a Congregation’ standards!  This weekly prayer summary is all about raising awareness of the practical and spiritual needs of those who are building Yeshua’s kingdom in Israel.

From the October Tikkun International Ministries newsletter we get a write up about a unique type of discipleship program that is being conducted in the Galilee under the Tents of Mercy oversight.  It is called Olive Tree Ranch and is a 6-month work-study program providing indigenous Hebrew spiritual discipleship together with working hours both in olive groves and on a goat-dairy farm.   The Israeli government is encouraging post-military service training in agriculture which needs a new influx of farmers for the agricultural industry.  This ministry seeks to help believers dig deeper into their faith at the same time providing a launching point into a career path for young Israelis who have fulfilled their mandatory IDF service.  Read more here.

Shlomy and Miriam Abramov of the Jewels in the Crown congregation are doing a “Biblical Day Trip” tour at the end of the month which they are asking prayers for.  This is a biblical site-seeing tour for Israelis and its purpose is to be a gospel tool for leading them to salvation.  Inside the attached Weekly Summary the Abramov’s ask prayer for many of the individuals they are ministering to, as well as other outreaches like the food program.

We have great pictures from the pro-Life national prayer gathering sponsored by Messianic Israel’s pro-life organization, Be’ad Chaim.  The meeting was held in the Haifa Bay region and 500 local, national and international participants gathered as the pastors led in praying for repentance for the shedding of innocent blood in abortion.  We have included several pictures in the attached Weekly Summary mixed in Guy Cohen’s several combined reports about the event which took place last Friday.

Asher Intrater of Revive Israel wrote this week about “an unprecedented attempt to penetrate a large number of terrorists into Israel by Hamas” that was thwarted by the IDF discovery a mile long tunnel from Gaza into Israel at the Israeli town of Ein Shlosha.  He writes:  Please pray for a major uprising of the people of Gaza against the Hamas regime, for stability in the new Egyptian coalition to rebuild their country in peace, and for cooperation between Israeli Messianic Jews and Palestinian Christians to share the gospel with both of our peoples.

Asher also includes prayer requests for successful completion of the next stages of building projects at Yad Hashmonah Messianic Kibbutz; wider expressions of pluralism within religious Judaism in Israel with the new government coalition, in the wake of Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph's passing; anointing and fruit on the Santoro's ministry in the US this week – and other points you can access inside the attached Weekly Summary.

Ye’shi Reinhardt gives an update on a recent “Diaper Party” in Sderot where they were able to deliver 100 diaper packages to locals who are needy.  This was made possible by donations from Australian believers from “Container of Compassion”.  Ye’shi says new stats show 21% of Israelis are living under the poverty line and in Sderot the percentage is much higher at 50%.  This is the city that has been the victim of most of the missiles that are lobbed out of Gaza into Israel.  You can find out how to help Reinhardt’s organizations, Hands of Mercy and Tents of Victory here.

Evan Levine of HaTikva Project is reporting on the grand opening last month of the Messianic Day Care “Milk and Honey” business just outside of Jerusalem.  HaTibah has been a financial support er of this vision since its vision was born and share the belief that this will be a great blessing to the Messianic community it serves.

Evan also writes:  “I absolutely love being the first response team on the ground to meet the needs of the local Body. I have the privilege of seeing every month the intersection of your faithful giving and the blessing that springs from it as those funds are stewarded into the appropriate hands. God has entrusted me with great vision for the future as you from the nations partner with the revived believing Jewish community in Israel! I urge you to continue in your sacrificial giving knowing that you are indeed storing up treasures in heaven.”

Urgent HEALING Needs: Life and Death is in the power of the tongue

Please keep in prayer the Israeli believers who are fighting for their lives or other urgent health needs: 

• Harvest of Asher asks continued prayer for Elena. She is recovering at home and has had some progress in that she has begun to go up and down stairs. Please pray from the situation at home as it is not easy for the entire family.  They also ask prayer for M. who is still in need of prayer for her physical condition. She is waiting for test results and pending an appointment for a second opinion on the condition of her ears and hearing. Thank you for standing with her in prayer, it is making a difference. 
• Please pray for the wife of Ariel Ben David, who leads an Eilat Congregation, and also for his worship leader, both of whom were recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
• Please continue to intercede for Katya Morrison at Tents of Mercy. She writes:  The last time I sent out a health update I told everyone that the dr. had told me I was in remission.  However, I had a doctor's appointment about three 1/2 weeks ago where the doctor said that he was concerned that he saw signs of leukemia again. So, he put me on very low dose chemotherapy shots for a week plus he started lowering my immune suppressant drugs. Yesterday (10/18/13) he said that my blood levels were much better. So now I am evidencing GVHD again, which is good.  It makes the transplant fight harder against any possible leukemia cells. He wants me to come in on this coming Sunday for another blood test, but he is quite pleased with the way things are going. I am too.
• Tom Bender Please pray for the tumor in his lymph node to shrink and disappear; for his Achilles tendons and ankles to be healed from a goutish condition, so he can walk more freely. Both ankles have greatly improved in their mobility since our last report; and for no pain in the area of the enlarged lymph node..
• Pray for Ami Ortiz for ongoing issues from the 2008 bomb blast – and that he would win the appeal for government recognition that he is a terror victim.  It would mean benefits for the continuing surgeries and legal expenses.  See Leah’s report on the latest round of laser surgeries on Ami’s scarring in this issue.

Inside the attachment of the
Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries
Arrows from Zion can be shared freely.  Just copy and paste this email into a Word document to make it easy to print.  However, we ask the Weekly Summaries not be forwarded or information republished without consent of the specific ministries. The Weekly Summary is by subscription only, write arrowsfromzion@gmail.com or donna@d10r10.com

Praying the Headlines

If you know anything about Jews, you know that the norm is they are not open to common evangelistic practices.  In fact, in Israel there are laws about what crosses the line of unwelcome approach by those sharing their faith in the Israeli Messiah, Yeshua/Jesus.  Because of this many Christians have taken a position that sharing the faith with Jews is strictly taboo and to share your own faith in Him with a Jew is a highly disrespectful thing to do.  That is not really the message that pro-Israel Christians need to take away from Jewish resistance to the Gospel and Israeli laws that are related to that issue.  What Christians need to understand is that the primary mandate to share faith in Israel to Israelis belongs to the Israeli believer-citizens who know exactly how to share their faith. They also know how to do it without crossing illegal lines. 

How do they do this?  Foremost is by living in their faith which is the most powerful drawing force anyway – how you live, who you are and what you do is the thing that attracts people to you wanting to know the secret to your life.  This is how Israeli believers in Yeshua are laboring in the Lord’s harvest in Israel; they are being, not merely saying.  This is what most Christians can never do in terms of being a testimony before Israelis of the authenticity of our faith in Messiah.  It the job assignment from the LORD for Israeli believers to carry the main role of being the persuasive witness to Israelis of the love and truth of Messiah Yeshua.  Real faith producing real fruit is what Israelis are looking for because they’ve seen more than enough fruitless religion.

The following article by an unbeliever in a major Israeli newspaper about the Messianic village of Yad Hashmonah shows how the believers are changing minds about who they are.

Caspari Media Review http://caspari.com/mediareview/ 

Topic: Messianic Jews in The Jerusalem Post, October 4, 2013

Oct 14 issue This three-page article focuses on the Messianic community of Yad Hashmona, the village which was founded by Christians from Finland in commemoration of eight Finnish Jews who were handed over to the Nazis during the Holocaust.  Read the rest here

In a similar vein, our friend Martin Sarvis in Jerusalem
comments on a recent surprising U.S. poll that got quite a bit of notice in the Israeli newspapers  

ADDRESSING THE JEWISH IDENTITY  Although a study just completed in the United States suggests that a majority of Jews there are proud of their Jewishness, it found that 32% of those surveyed identify themselves as Jews on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture-not religion. (By contrast, in the last century, 93% of Jews born in 1914-27 identified their Jewishness on the basis of their faith.) The headline for this in the Israeli ynetnews.com read, "US Jews losing their religion, survey finds"; the Times of Israel heading: "Rise of 'Jews of no religion' most significant find of Pew study.." 

According to Greg Smith, the Director of US Religion Surveys at the Pew Research Center which conducted the study, when asked what their religion was, the 32% responded "atheists, agnostic or not particular to any religion." Smith feels the percentage is large and growing. He also believes that the data suggests that "Jews of no religion are much less connected to the Jewish community, are much less engaged and involved in Jewish organizations and are much less likely to be raising their children Jewish as compared to Jews who describe themselves as Jews by religion" ("Rise of 'Jews of no religion' most significant find of Pew study, says director": The Times of Israel, October 3, 3013, 2:25pm. See also "ÚS Jews losing their religion, survey finds": ynetnews.com, 01 Oct 13 15:07).

In Israel, many if not most of early Zionists were secular or even atheist, this in reaction to what they saw as the legalistic coercion of Orthodox Judaism. Today, a majority of Israelis are still secular, not practicing their traditional religion except for the rites of circumcision, marriage and funerals, along with a cultural observance of the holidays on Feast days. Many of these would admit to agnosticism, even atheism if personally questioned, yet would probably still put "Jewish" down in the "Religion" section of a questionnaire.

The old question of what makes a Jew a Jew is still without a standard uniformly observed solution in Israel. Among many, there is a hesitance to equate Jewishness with "race"- one reason being because Hitler and countless other persecutors have done that. And so, for immigration purposes, Jewishness is based on "religion". Put down "Jewish" in the religion box of the application papers, provide family documents and obtain a letter from a rabbi and you may come and be granted citizenship, whatever (Buddhist, New Age, atheist) you really do or don't believe---unless it is discovered that you believe the Muslim faith (whose very holy books are hostile to Jews), or that you believe that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah and divine. Thanks to the influence of anti-Messiah Orthodox parties in the government, this last was made into law a few decades ago; if a Jew comes to believe in Jesus, he has changed his religion and is therefore no longer to be considered a Jew for immigration purposes.

Of course there is an irrational dichotomy here. Israel isn't about to declare the millions of non-believing Jewish citizens already here Gentiles (although that might please the Orthodox)- nor can she kick out as non-Jews the growing numbers of Messianic Jews who were born here.
We are dealing here with spiritual realities at war-with deceptions of the enemy to keep the many prophecies of Jews' return to her homeland (example: Ezekiel 36:24) from coming fully to pass. Or, when they do return, to keep them from awakening to a knowledge of the One "Whom they pierced" (Zechariah 12:10), of the New Covenant in His blood (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Luke 22:20), of the cleansing from sin and new hearts which will be granted at that awakening (Ezekiel 36:25-28; Zechariah 13:1)-and of Israel's ultimate release into her end-time destiny which will signal "life from the dead" to the world!

We find it very significant that within the survey cited above it is cited that "More than one-third of American Jews say believing Jesus is the Messiah is compatible with Judaism"! (Ibid.) How did such a question even get onto this survey? It's just not a question which is usually asked, nor an issue which is brought up! Yet we see a window here. 

In our last elections, the religious stronghold of ultra-Orthodox Judaism which has controlled and coerced the departments of the Israeli government related to religion and immigration for years, was broken off. When the strength of the anti-Messiah spirit behind that stronghold is disengaged, even for a season, there is an atmosphere in which the Holy Spirit may lead Jews to reason more clearly and ask such questions as, "Why should a belief in Jesus as Messiah be incompatible with Judaism?" And what affects Jews in Israel, affects their brothers and sisters around the world.

PLEASE PRAY:  That the hearts of those of the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who are still abroad in the Nations will be warmed to the truth and significance of their heritage. That they will be supernaturally illumined to understand that their identity as Jews is indeed of extreme importance; yet, its deepest meaning is not to be found in the teachings of rabbinic Judaism, nor in their ancestry, ethnicity or culture, as important as those may be. It is to be found in the God of their Fathers-who continues to love them with an everlasting love and to draw them with loving kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).
*That American Jews would discover that "believing in Jesus as Messiah" is not only "compatible with Judaism," it is essential to it. That Yeshua came to His own, and his own received Him not-yet, to as many as receive Him He gives the right to become children of God (John 1:11-12).
*That the restrictions on allowing Messianic Jews to openly enter Israel to live will be overturned. That the Israeli Government will change the law to reflect the truth that "believing Jesus is the Messiah is compatible with Judaism".

.Israeli Ministries on Tours

BOOKING meetings now (See open dates)  Inside the attached Weekly Summary are itineraries and open dates for  Eddie and Jackie Santoro Jerusalem-Ahavat Yeshua Congregation; Sally Shiff Kfar Saba- HaMaayan Congregation;  Sean Steckbeck  Jerusalem-Simeon’s Cry Ministries; and  Eitan Bar and Stefan Silver Haifa-One for Israel/Israel College of the Bible.

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