Tag Archives: ישוע

Mar 23 2023

Israel trip in 2022 – 1. items in the wrong places

First of all, I was excited to return back to Israel to see many different old friends and visit and explore a few favourite places I have not seen yet.

I’m up in Tiberias, the lovely city that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. I got to visit a few friends here, and stay in youth hostel and chat to local Israelis and other tourists.

This above picture shows a poster with the word משיח (Messiah) and shows a picture of a bearded hat wearing Ultra Orthodox Jewish man. These posters are put up by the Chabad Lubavitch who consider this man (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson) to be the Messiah. There are a lot of these posters but this one different as its a paid for advertisement, rather than a fly poster.

Chabad has a religious information building on the shore of the lake and a TV outside that plays some looped video

This gent is not the Messiah. As he lived in New York and didn’t visit Israel once, nor did he fulfill any of the prophecies talked about in the Tanakh (what Christians commonly call the Old Testament) Micah 5:2 tells us where the Messiah would be from – Bethlehem. New York doesn’t have a Messiah, but has good pizzas.

This restaurant is around the corner from the Chabad building.

These pigeons made a nest on this fan!

I would like to see the birds somewhere safe to build their home. Also I really sincerely hope the Haredim (Ultra Orthodox Jews) would know their Messiah as outlined in the books of the prophets.

But, so near, so close, to where he was….

This area is where the Messiah spent time in, I’ll have more to show in the next few days…..

Dec 14 2015

Gospel of the Jewish Messiah hitting secular Israeli media

Saw this great article today from local Israeli believer news site and magazine Israeltoday.co.il

The mainstream secular Israeli news site Walla announces in Hebrew about the growing number of Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus in Hebrew) in Israel and how the New Testament is a continuation of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and how Yeshua fulfilled the commandments as promised.   It is quite unusual for this to appear on mainsteam Israeli media.

http://familyguide3.walla.co.il/item/2914039 (In Hebrew only)

Somewhat strangely the video can only been shown in Israel.   Maybe I’ll try this with a proxy (such as this one which is Israeli technology) later. The internet is probably the best tool to provide Israelis with the gospel of the Jewish Messiah.

Please pray that more and more Jewish people will be drawn to their Lord and saviour.

 

Jun 18 2015

Hyper Hebrew Roots movement – 4. Sacred names

1. What my definition of HHRM is – 2. Popular but highly sketchy names in the movement – 3. Holidays, Shabbat, keeping & eating – 4. Sacred names – 5. Do believers need to keep Torah? – 6. Bad teaching that leads to apostasy – 7. what do real Jewish believers in Jesus think of this movement? – 8. How we can help people in HHRM

NB, I’m a Christian who loves Israel and Jewish people.   These posts aren’t criticism of actual Jewish people or Israel or believers in Yeshua/Jesus, only of Christians that may go a bit over the top or get confused over names and language differences.   Please see first article to get better idea of what this is about.

How people say most common names for God

Traditional Jews: God is written as יהוה (Yod Hey Vav Hey) phonetically pronounced Yahweh or Jahovah.   However traditional Jews will never pronounce this, only pronounce this as Adonai. (Lord)  Therefore if Christians pronounce this in public this may offend or seem insensitive to observant Jews. God may also written as G-d, traditional Jews will leave one letter missed out, in a way deemed respectful of not writing his name in full. Elohim, El Shaddai, Eloheunu are allHebrew names for God.   In fact anything with -im on the end is a plural (aha! you can spot the trinity!) You will often see words with Yah or El.   This words are found inside a few popular names. Hashem literally ‘His name’

Ways of writing Jesus

Correct: Jesus or Yeshua or ישוע (Yod Shin Vav Ayen)

Not right: Other names used by the HHRM, that are not really right; Yahshua, Yahoshua, Ioshua, etc Allah this is the Muslim word for God, and used by Arab Christians, and also Christians in Malta. (they have an Arabic derived language)   I prefer not using these for regular western Christians, this is another theological hot potato for another day.

Definitely wrong:-
Yeshu/ישו (insult)  This is a Hebrew abbreviation for “may his name by blotted out” used by those against Yeshua.
Issa (used by Muslims who describe Jesus as only a prophet in the Koran)

Arab believers: Correct word for Jesus in Arabic for Arab believers is Yesu

If believers in Jesus/Yeshua someone tells you can ONLY use a certain name and gets finicky about it, they may have issues with legalism. Often HHRM people will tell you can only use THEIR own definition of a name only, and anything else is wrong or ‘Pagan’. I once went to a Messianic congregation in UK, there was a man who was Jamaican who was dressed as a Jew who was speaking, he told us that anyone who used the word Jesus was actually referring to the Greek God Zeus.   This was the worse teaching I have heard so I walked out.    This was a total embarrassment as this was a congregation of mostly non Jews trying to do Jewish customs in a clumsy insensitive way, in a part of the city with a lot of ultra Orthodox Jews close by.  This was such a cringeworthy painful experience that would no way impress anyone in this community.

What they forget is the gospel was spread to all nations, so Jesus died for all people and all races, so his name is going to be written differently as the gospel is translated to every language, tribe and tongue.   Today, because of the internet and more affordable travel, its feasible to bring the message of Jesus to every single part of the world.

Philippians 2 : 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here’s another example.   My name is Jonathan.   I’m not Jewish.   My name is extremely popular among Jews especially in Israel, and ordinary British chaps like me born in the mid 1970s. Actually name is Jonathan is really which is pronounced Yahnatan which is written יונתן (yntn) My name comes from Yah Natan = God’s gift/given.

Over the years this has got changed on its way to a language like English. Yah has become Jah which has become ‘Jo’ I think “J” only pronounced “Jer” in English, French and Arabic.    In German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch and Hebrew its pronounced as a Y.

“natan” has become Nathan (another boy’s name) There is two different types of Ts in Hebrew that look like ט and like ת – so when one is Latinised its written as a “TH”. So among religious hipsters thinking they have the most authentic way of doing religion, please look down on me as I’ve got a Hebrew name that’s been interfered with over a few centuries.   Oh well. 🙂 I get annoyed if people call me Jonathon, Johnathan or something else, but that just me 🙂

1. What my definition of HHRM is – 2. Popular but highly sketchy names in the movement – 3. Holidays, Shabbat, keeping & eating – 4. Sacred names – 5. Do believers need to keep Torah? – 6. Bad teaching that leads to apostasy – 7. what do real Jewish believers in Jesus think of this movement? – 8. How we can help people in HHRM

May 27 2015

Jeremiah 31 – The Tanakh’s warm up to the New Testament

I forgot to mention that verse from the Joshua Aaron worship song I posted a short while back.

This is by far one of my favourite passages from the Tanakh (Old testament)   its like a kind of ‘warm up’ to the New Testament of what’s planned through salvation through Yeshua (Jesus)

Jeremiah 31 : 31

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”

This bit is mindblowing, soon even atheist Jews in Israel will have God revealed to them!

35 This is what the Lord says,

he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the Lord Almighty is his name:
36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the Lord,
“will Israel ever cease
being a nation before me.”
37 This is what the Lord says:

“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the Lord.

Here, the Lord is abundantly clear that the Jewish people have a part to play, with the modern nation of Israel, with Jesus’s return in the new future.

This completely trashes the concept of “fulfillment theology” (or replacement theology, or supercessionism) common opinion that says that God’s covenant with the Jewish people is finished.   Jesus fulfills the law but one of the biggest revivals will happen back in the land where it all started.

Interesting sign, turn around left and you can see the Golden Gate where Jesus will return (blocked up with Muslim cemetery in front)  to the right the Mount of Olives where he will stand.

Apr 7 2015

Archaeologist believes he found the site of Jesus’ trial by Pontius Pilate

(I’ll go back to blogging on Morocco later this week)

This is apt for this time of the year! (As we are in Easter and Passover)

kishle4-965x543

http://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologist-believes-hes-found-site-of-jesuss-trial-by-pontius-pilate/ 

(Worth mentioning that this is from a secular Israeli news source)

Dec 5 2013

Bells on horses and taxi signs

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I was reading this passage the other day:-

Zechariah 14 : 20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite[c] in the house of the Lord Almighty.

I was wondering about bells on horses, this must be symbolic right?  I mean not many people have horses these days, its a bit hard to feed them with not a lot of grass for them, and they aren’t really used for work much except the odd Bedouin camp.   I don’t know of any culture in the last hundred years has bells on horses.

So, in recent times some clever Israeli hi tech company have started putting large coloured LCD displays on taxis, so must be a nice money spinner for the drivers and owners of the equipment.   I saw these type of screens on Las Vegas taxis when I was there in 2001.   This looks like a new venture, as I don’t see any regular ads apart from them trying to sell spaces on them.

A car is a modern day horse for work, a bell gets people’s attention, so, whats the chances of the name of the Messiah could be broadcast on one of these one day?

 

 

Feb 6 2013

Take out coffee and Transfiguration

These don’t seem like related subjects do they?

I didn’t think so, until the beverage I got from Aroma had this interesting message on top of it:-

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It’s made in a factory in Tavor (Mount Tabor, V and B are often interchangeable in Hebrew) funny as this is also the mountain considered to be the most likely place of Jesus’s transfiguration.

It’s also an exciting sounding place I’d like to go.  I am waiting for two new PCs to arrive at work, then I need to visit Karmiel to install these are some other maintenance then I will visit some of these places.

I think the town at the foot of Mt Tavor is Arab.   I’m now curious if the little hole is to let the heat out slowly, of it could be a symbol of something implied over Tavor? 🙂


Actually now you can see it on Google Street Map View!!    I’m not sure if this ‘spoils’ visiting biblical places or not, you could see it like a spoiler in a movie or trailer to get an idea what to expect – in this case Mount Tabor on your computer is more of the latter as you can’t see much pass the car park when you get to the top.

Matthew 17 (I have added some colours for emphasis)

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

The climb up the hill goes in a zigzag fashion which looks not too difficult to do, or you can go up in a car or bus.    Interesting enough, although three shelters were erected on here, there are two churches (Catholic and Orthodox) at the top today.   Its not guaranteed if Tabor is the exact place of the transfiguration, but seems the most likely place by biblical historians.    The other mountain in the north, Mount Hermon is covered in snow a lot of the time, I think Jesus would of mentioned this if it was there. 🙂    This part of the world has had earthquakes so maybe the shape of the landscape could of been different then, which Jesus mentioned in Matthew 17 : 20 that mountains aren’t necessarily a permanent fixture.

Related: My quick glimpse of Mount Tabor in September