Friday, July 13, 2012

What does it mean to be "Blessed"

In a lot of Christian circles these days, we hear this statement in response to "how are you"...I AM BLESSED. Often times, I am not sure many people are really aware of the severity of that statement, how blessed we truly are, how blessed we are to have everything we possibly need to have provided for us. We live in the United States, (well the writer of this post does anyway), so why is it that we cannot simply make that answer to people. WE ARE BLESSED.

Blessed in the sense that we have our needs met every single day we walk out the doors of our home, work our 9-5 jobs, etc. Blessed that we don't have diseases, blessed that we have the resources that not everyone has, and we should be sharing it with others.

I may not be one of the most intelligent people on the planet, I certainly to strive to be eloquant with my speech (I probably mispelt that word, and that one too) but I do wish to make this point about being blessed.

We do take it for granted a lot of the time. What we have I mean. We complain about the smallest things and I know I am certainly guilty of this. I have an ungratefully selfish heart and I need to ask for God's forgiveness daily in this matter. I wish to be more grateful daily, and if I had the means to do it, I would give back to people who don't have anything to say that they are blessed.

May we ALL BE BLESSED.

GRACE AND PEACE!

-Joel
Psalm 37:4

Sunday, July 1, 2012

The Darkest of Secrets

Okay so you know about my family, my family's background about being Jewish believers, and our ministry that we are involved in (Chosen People Ministries)...

I was not in anyway aware of the horror that was involved with World War 2. Naturally, anyone would be floored when hearing of the atrocity of 6 million Jews (and others) being put to death, but what about this one to swallow. Currently, there are 15 million Jews in the world. Of that number, 1% (150,000) profess Jesus to be their Messiah. But what if that number were greater?
WELL IT WAS!

According to something my parents had previously told me, there was an estimated 400,000 Messianic Jews that lived between Poland and Hungary, any all of them were wiped out by the Nazis. Among some of these people were missionaries previously employed by CPM. Its not only tragic, its a realization of what happens when the Gospel isn't shared. We must be diligent with our opportunities to be out preaching when necessary. You seriously do not know when God will take you. Many of these missionaries were sent to their deaths in the camps along with the unbelieving Jews (probably could have been saved on their way to the ovens). Remember to never hold your tongue when the Holy Spirit leads you.

GRACE AND PEACE.

-Joel

Psalm 37:4