I know you were all blessed by the reading of the letter on Sunday. But some may have missed it so we wanted to make sure get a chance to experience it. Here it is (Photo by Belinda Ramos).
"Hi Pastor Joe,
Last night, I decided to go on vimeo.com and watch the message from the 9am, entitled "The Wipeout of Distinctions." I attended the 11am, and while I was appreciative of using that time and space to corporately come to the Lord with such a heavy burden, I was curious about what was taught in the 9. You mentioned that you were going to leave it up to the Holy Spirit to decide whether you were going to revisit the topic. To me, that sounded like a 50/50 chance, so I decided that I would go back and check the message out.
The day of the YACS barbeque, you asked me why I was taking Jewish Studies. I couldn't really get into it, but in my mind, I guess I figured that I wanted to study who God is from a Jewish perspective in order to better understand him from a Christian perspective. And while I've had many "aha moments" while taking my classes, it's also been very frustrating because 1) I don't have all the answers, 2) I'm a Christian in an anti-Christian setting, which is a challenge in itself and 3) The other "Christians" are bigger mouthpieces than I am- which wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so confrontational, didn't try to out-rabbi the rabbis, and had a basic understanding of the Word and basic Christian theology, etc...but I digress.
I have one Messianic friend who is practically a walking concordance, wants the Jews to get to know Christ, and the Christians to keep the Law. Meeting with him was a double edged sword- on one hand, here's someone who knows Judaism in and out, and sees Jesus throughout all of it. But on the other hand, he's also someone who can support (in Ancient Hebrew and Greek) his beliefs on where Christians fall short of understanding the Law vs. Grace.
Between my professors telling me that we have it wrong, my friend telling me that "it's almost, but not quite right," my minimal understanding, Church, the Word, and what precious little revelation that I've received from the Lord, I was pretty confused. I knew that I needed answers. Not from people, not from Talmud and other commentary (which is ironic, because I'm signed up for Biblical Commentary in the fall), but from God. So I prayed and trusted that one day, this would all make sense to me.
PJ, your message was an answered prayer. It touched on every question that swirled around in my head, was clear, was rooted and enmeshed in the Word, and (in my eyes) incorporated the entire plan of God as seen from Genesis to Revelation.
All these questions below were finally answered:
-Why is so much more importance placed on the traditions and teachings of the rabbis found in the Talmud than the Word of God? Isn't this adding on to/replacing the Word of God?
-Does God really care how and when we wash our hands? Or if we eat chuletas?
Or (horror of horrors) morcilla?
-If we're saved by grace, what is the purpose of still following the Law verbatim?
-Are those who worship God like we do less than those who worship God like the Jews (Messianic and otherwise) do?
-If there really is no difference between "Jew and Gentile etc..." under Christ, is our worship satisfactory? Is that of the Messianic community? The Jews? I know God came for us, too, but is he mad that we changed his Sabbath and now disregard a lot of his traditions?
-Do those traditions have any weight if they're man-made?
-Did God plan to save the Gentiles from the beginning?
-What does "to the Jew first mean?" Are we less than?
-What's the deal with Mark 7:24? Are we really "dogs?"
-Do we have it right? Do they? Can both?
Before, I didn't have a concrete answer for any of these questions. I read Romans, Galatians, Acts etc... I knew all the right answers. I believed that I mattered and that I was saved. But I didn't know the truth. I had no such unshakable faith and security in what was right, because the answers weren't revealed to me by the Holy Spirit. I was leaning on my understanding (and Yitzhak's, and my teachers, etc...).
So to have all these questions broken down, cross referenced, and finally checked off my list was a total answer to prayer. God knew my questions and my confusion and was gracious enough to clear everything up for me. And it wasn't like I looked in the back of the textbook to find the answer. It's as if the Lord literally grabbed my hand, walked me through each question I had, explained the answer, the reason behind the answer, the purpose behind the reason behind the answer, and let me ask follow up questions. He put mud on my eyes, his fingers in my ears and on my tongue, said "Ephphatha," and now I understand.
That's revelation!
Needless to say, I'm screaming over here.
So thank you, Pastor Joe. It's not just finally getting the answers to the questions that I'm happy about. More than that, it's knowing that even when I was in over my head and drowning with all the information that academia and society surrounded me with, God heard my frustrated cry of "I don't get it" and saw fit (months later) to pick me up, place me back on his Word, and make all things clear.
