It was like any muggy Sunday afternoon in late August in north-central Florida. If you have ever been here, you’ll know that this time of year can be sweltering and physically draining. It was 2016 and we had just moved to Ocala, FL to serve in a local Messianic congregation. Our new apartment had a…
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This is an interview with Tikkun America leader Todd Westphal. Ben Juster started by asking: Todd, you have been a long time friend and a transformational leader within our Tikkun America family of congregations. It is so good to have you with us share about how you mentor and develop people into a vibrant walk …
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Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick by one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and money. News flash: “You cannot serve God and money.” There is only one God. As we sing in the…
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I am writing this on my 50th birthday. There was a time when I was only half that old. I invite you to think back with me as I reflect … I am 24 years old and my not-so-well-thought-out decisions have put 1 me in a desperate situation. I’m a new single parent, but also…
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What are you empowered by? What’s the fuel in your tank? I’d like to suggest that we are designed by the Lord to run on the powerful fuel of joy. Joy can mean a feeling of great pleasure, happiness, rejoicing, cheerfulness, or even calm delight. This is not the caricature of joy where one is…
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Matthew 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! What does it…
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As we conclude the season of light and clean up from all of the festive community celebrations, family gatherings, and joyful songs, I consider how important it is that we continue to evaluate our effectiveness of reflecting the light of God to the world. Of course, Yeshua proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.…
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Matthew 6:19-21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart…
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The last line of the Lord’s Prayer is … Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. This verse is sandwiched between two verses that mention forgiveness. Here they are … Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Then in Matthew…
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In Acts 6 we get a glimpse into the multicultural tensions within the early Messianic community in Jerusalem. There were two subsets of the Jewish community, those with a Hellenistic (Greek) cultural background and those with a Hebrew background. No doubt there were many similarities between these two groups, but there were also differences, which…
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