From Rabbi Jack
There is an amazingly beautiful thing that God does in our lives when we go through adversity. So many ministries have been started by people, not because they decided to start a ministry, but because they went through an affliction, a disease, an addiction, persecution or other traumatic events in their lives. Afterwards, because of it, they want to use what they experienced to help and comfort others. Sometimes, as Believers in Messiah Yeshua, God plans for things to happen to us so that He can use it for us to bring relief, comfort and consolation to others with the comfort and consolation we received from the Lord during our time of trial. I can attest to this from my own life, as I am now emerging from battling a second round of cancer. I have found a well of compassion that was not there before and which I never thought was in me.
2 Corinthians {1:3} "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Messiah Yeshua, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, {1:4} who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. {1:5} For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of the Messiah so also our comfort abounds through the Messiah. {1:6} If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. {1:7} And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."
Life happens, we are all subject to the same curse placed upon Adam after the fall; old age, physical deterioration, sickness, pain, diseases, but all these things that we experience and encounter travelling through life do not have to overwhelm us and detract from living our lives for Yeshua. If we allow Him to, the God of all comfort will use us and our experiences to glorify Him and bring hope, encouragement and comfort to others.
From Ellen....
Hi Ellen here…Many years ago when Jack and I were at Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto I wrote an article on how the Lord peels back the layers of our lives. I likened the process to peeling an onion. I also thought that the Lord was patting me on the back because I had faced up to what He peeled away, repented and voilà I was redeemed. All this is true but lo and behold here I am at another stage in my life and there is lots of peeling going on…again! I have been going through a rough patch spiritually and the Lord reminded me of my article. What is the idiom of onion skin…it is to expose various layers of something…the need to peel back the onion skin to find out what was bothering me. Sounds easy right? Not so! So, I took a beautiful new onion from our pantry and started to peel…first the papery outside then that first peel that we really do not use then the clear filmy part…all discarded. Now I had a beautiful fresh onion so I began to slice and halfway through this perfect large bulb was a ring of mushy decrepit onion, yuck! This is an example of what our heavenly Abba does in our lives. I am sure that the spoiled ring in the middle of this beautiful onion is like an unresolved issue in our lives that needs further investigation. As I go through this rough patch or yucky spoiled ring in my life, I thank God for Him exposing my sin to me so I am able to confess and express the need for His forgiveness. If you are going through a hard time in your life, slice an onion and ask Abba to take you through a time of awareness. Do not worry, if you are willing to be humbled, He will help you through…sending you all my love.
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Meet Janet (picture attached below), a prematurely born child at the orphanage who because she was premature, battles illness regularly and is often in need of medical care. Please keep her in prayer.
Yours in Messiah Yeshua; our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.
Rabbi Jack & Ellen
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