John 15:17 These things I command you, so that you may love one another. What we are reading here in John 15, is a continuation of the dialogue that began in John 13, in the upper room at the last supper. Yeshua is speaking the truth urgently, because He is well aware that time is…
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Friendship is sacred. God came to the first garden in the cool of the day, looking for His friends. Tragically, they hid from Him. Yet this does not diminish our Maker’s design. God’s human children were created for friendship with Him and with each other. We may think it strange that God is looking for…
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Peter is the most colorful of the disciples. Right in the middle of the Upper Room Discourse, Yeshua prophesies over Peter saying … John 13:38 Yeshua answers, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Amen, amen I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times!” Peter had just finished saying…
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Matthew 7:12 So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you – for this is the Torah and the Prophets. Was this part of Yeshua’s big sermon “something new?” It seems like it might be … John 13:34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one…
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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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The last 11 verses of Matthew 5 are a treatise on love. It details the value and meaning of love in the kingdom of God. It may not seem that way, as it starts with Yeshua quoting Leviticus 24:20. That whole “eye for an eye” thing in the Torah was not intended to establish cruelty,…
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Matthew 5:13a “You are the salt of the earth;” Need we go any further than that? Of course, Yeshua goes on to explain his own statement. But, before we study His explanation, let me offer a few thoughts. This is a metaphor. What does “salt” represent in this metaphor? When salt is added to any…
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“Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” (Isaiah 62:10) As you have read part one of this article last month and are now reading part two, please continue to be prayerful as we focus on some delicate and sensitive issues which we need to face…
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After we receive salvation, the most critical aspect of our walk as believers is the condition of our heart. Have we recently given ourselves a heart check? As followers of Yeshua, are we actively tending to the garden of our heart. These are vital questions to ask ourselves. For as water reflects the face, so…
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Before we had Messianic Judaism in our lives, Patti and I — from about 1970-1971 — were on a quest asking, “What really is the nature of the Church?” This question came in the midst of a context where secular writers were ringing alarm bells left and right on the social trends within America. There…
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