It’s never too soon to celebrate the resurrection, since one can celebrate it every day anyway! At one of our outreaches, an interested Jewish woman had come, invited by her believing friend. Sara* was taken back by just how Jewish this Jesus is! I had taught that the resurrection itself was intrinsically tied to Passover through the biblical observance of First Fruits. Even the need to trust in the Lord is clearly portrayed through Passover, in that God wanted to redeem not merely a people of the flesh, but a people of faith. Sara gladly took some materials I offered her to read, and Miriam followed up with her.

For Sara, the issue of evidence was especially important to her; are there good reasons to believe that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah? Miriam went through the Messianic Answer Book with her, looking at evidence for the Virgin Birth and the Triune nature of God from the Hebrew Scriptures. After studying with Miriam for several weeks, Sara prayed to receive Yeshua as her Messiah, Lord and Savior.

But there are many other blessings, as well. At one Passover banquet in a church fellowship hall, well over four hundred people participated in this commemorating of the deliverance from bondage. As I went from table to table during the meal between the second and third cups, I had a number of opportunities to speak to the many Jewish people who accepted their friend’s invitation to a Messianic Passover Seder. One elderly mother and her daughter had many questions about the matter of sin and forgiveness. While time didn’t permit me to fully answer their questions, I invited them to our weekly services. The daughter has attended twice, each time having more questions about personal faith in Messiah Yeshua.

A few weeks later, we had nearly five hundred at our Passover Banquet in Charlotte. Since Jewish people invited by friends had just celebrated a Passover seder earlier in the week, they were amazed at how the Messianic perspective brought tradition into focus. Besides the seeds planted and harvested, there is a special joy in seeing believers finally “connect dots” on how their faith in Jesus fits in with the whole Bible! I was encouraged to see a number of pastors in attendance; part of our ministry is to help churches grow in their calling to reach the Jewish people with the Good News.

Seedlings for a New Harvest
Besides the Passover outreaches, discipleship and training here in the Charlotte area, I also was blessed to see the Lord working through a new Messianic congregation in Hampton, Virginia. Dr. Michael Herts invited me to to speak to his ministry leadership team that assists him in building B’nei Avraham (children of Abraham) Fellowship.

This team of Messiah’s servants spent Saturday evening and all day Sunday developing evangelism and outreach into their growing Jewish community. My hope is that the congregation’s ‘DNA’ will be encoded with the humility and fervent service for the Lord that these volunteers for Messiah already have to overflowing.

Please keep in prayer these seeds that were planted as well as the fruit that has been picked, that in all matters the God of Israel will be exalted in the name of Yeshua! Y