Let There Be... Yeshua!
Then God said, “Let there be light! ” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)I remember the early days of my walk with Jesus. I was so “lit up” that my New Age friends thought I had snapped into some form of psychosis and gave me books to that effect. They were hoping to see me delivered from my deliverance.Reading Scripture and calling on the King of kings effected so dramatic a change in me that my buddies assumed I was under the sway of a powerful cult. The truth was setting me free at such a rapid deep pace that I was becoming unrecognizable. My speech, lifestyle, interests, and time were given to Jesus in ever-increasing ways.My internal experience was just as dramatic as the outer. I was aware of the changes going on inside me—as if LIGHT had entered my soul and was crowding out years, perhaps generations(!), of darkness. The Person of Jesus was both the source and the object of this shining; like a personal Hanukkah, the full menorah illuminating my interior life and beaming to those around me.My zeal, I am sure, scared some friends and family. The fact that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah overwhelmed my reality. I centered my life around Him, to the best of my ability. Suddenly, the nice Jewish boy was hanging around Church people and, to all appearances, attending services around the clock!I immediately attended Bible college, then graduate school for a Master’s Degree in Family Therapy, and quickly thereafter felt called to a position at church as Marriage and Family Therapist…using the Bible as my main text.
Total immersion in LIGHT… a personal Hanukkah
Years later, another menorah experience directed my path. On Mount Carmel in Israel’s Druze village of Isfiya, Katharine and I attended a Messianic leadership school where we learned about the Jewish roots of Christianity from local Believers. Messianic Jews and Arab Christians (among other Believing gentiles) taught us from the Bible and then led us to the sites where it all happened. The Scriptures turned from black and white into vivid, living 3D color!That is why we urge you to join us on a Bible study tour—God will connect your faith to the ground where it all took place! You will be “grounded in the Word” beyond your wildest dreams.This year, 5777, the first day of Hanukkah happens to coincide with Christmas Eve. While Hanukkah is not a mandated Feast of the Lord, the seemingly random occurrence provides a visual reminder of the divine destiny shared by Christians and Jews.