God is not in a hurry. Such is the title of a book by long time pastor and radio host, Dr. Warren Wiersbe.
The Lord would prefers to build a solid foundation slowly, as opposed to a soft foundation swiftly. God can do more with a few who are pliable and humble, than He can with many who are proud and adamant (Jdg. 7:4,7).
Poor and hasty construction has cost many a life during natural disasters in places where strict building codes either did not exist or were not enforced. How sobering are Yeshua’s words in metaphor in Matthew 7:24-27 when he warns of building a house upon the sand vs. a rock.
How many marriages entered into through sweeping infatuation, have ended up in painful divorce? How many speeding tickets have been issued, or worse - accidents suffered - due to rushing to save ten minutes!
“I will drive out the occupants of the Land that I am giving you,” said the Lord to Israel, “but not in one year - not all at once - m’at m’at - little by little, and you will gradually inhabit the Land” (Ex. 23:29-30). “I’m protecting you from what you cannot now understand. You think you can handle it all now, but you cannot. The beasts of the field will take advantage of the vacant areas and destroy you! No, I will intentionally hold you back, limit you, yes, even frustrate you - and wait until you are fruitful enough (mature) to possess the Land.”
Rabbi Paul cautions concerning being too quick to place someone in a position of authority (I Tim. 5:22); not to give a new believer responsibility over others (3:6). One paraphrase states, “lest his head get in the clouds and the clouds get in his head!”
Why does my prayer go unanswered? My goal go unrealized? My dream seem so delayed?
God is wiser than I am. He knows what is best for me - and for others whom I will affect (Rom. 11:33). He knows that an oven is to be preferred over a microwave.
“I’m ready Lord!”, we insist. “Now is the right time!”, we presumptuously proclaim - as if we are smarter than He. “No, you’re not (ready). You are not fruitful enough yet (v.30) - you do not evidence the fruit of a self-sacrificing love which serves others, expecting nothing in return” (Gal.5:22; I Jn. 3:16; Is. 42:1, 52-53; Jn. 13:15-16).
Like Peter, we think we are ready. “Why can I not follow You right now?” (Jn. 13:37). “You will, Peter - but not yet.” (13:36).
Be faithful in that which is least, and you will be one day promoted and given responsibility over much (Ps. 75:6-7; Lk. 16:10; 19:17). Do not despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10). The Lord may be protecting you from the beasts of the field. M’at m’at.
Rabbi Ken Alpren
rabkba@gmail.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
(Children's) Shabbat School!
Dear KD Family,
I want to relate how Shabbat School experienced this historic day as well.
I was teaching, so I didn't know what had occurred until I listened to the CD of the service.
Our lesson was on listening to the voice of God. The older children made a prayer journal and the younger kids completed a craft around the verse," Speak Lord your servant is listening."
[That day, I was not as prepared as usual, so was praying all morning for the Lord's guidance. Without worrying about it, I simply did what I had planned and followed what came to mind!]
After they had finished, we sat on the floor in a circle to pray and I asked if anyone wanted to share what they had written in their prayer journals. After a long pause, Cassie said she didn't have a prayer exactly, but she wanted to share her dream. She said she wants to be a singer when she grows up. So I prayed for God to give her wisdom and insight on how to sing to glorify Him. The children were very quiet again. Then Lexi said she wants to be a policeman, and Luke said he wants to be a fireman. Soon everyone had shared their dreams and we prayed for each person to be led by God to grow into the dream that God has given them. Then we moved on to acting out the crossing of the Red Sea. It didn't feel prophetic or historic, but God met us as we moved through our morning!
Shalom to all,
Ginny Powers
Thank you, Ginny. Your ministry and oversight of the children's ministry (SS) is so weighty before God. What an impact you and those investing their lives and God's Word in our children has!! I am so jealous (w/ a godly jealousy - 2 Cor. 11:2). We impart not only the gospel of our God but also our own souls, because they are dear to us (I Thess. 2:8).
rk
I want to relate how Shabbat School experienced this historic day as well.
I was teaching, so I didn't know what had occurred until I listened to the CD of the service.
Our lesson was on listening to the voice of God. The older children made a prayer journal and the younger kids completed a craft around the verse," Speak Lord your servant is listening."
[That day, I was not as prepared as usual, so was praying all morning for the Lord's guidance. Without worrying about it, I simply did what I had planned and followed what came to mind!]
After they had finished, we sat on the floor in a circle to pray and I asked if anyone wanted to share what they had written in their prayer journals. After a long pause, Cassie said she didn't have a prayer exactly, but she wanted to share her dream. She said she wants to be a singer when she grows up. So I prayed for God to give her wisdom and insight on how to sing to glorify Him. The children were very quiet again. Then Lexi said she wants to be a policeman, and Luke said he wants to be a fireman. Soon everyone had shared their dreams and we prayed for each person to be led by God to grow into the dream that God has given them. Then we moved on to acting out the crossing of the Red Sea. It didn't feel prophetic or historic, but God met us as we moved through our morning!
Shalom to all,
Ginny Powers
Thank you, Ginny. Your ministry and oversight of the children's ministry (SS) is so weighty before God. What an impact you and those investing their lives and God's Word in our children has!! I am so jealous (w/ a godly jealousy - 2 Cor. 11:2). We impart not only the gospel of our God but also our own souls, because they are dear to us (I Thess. 2:8).
rk
Sunday, February 7, 2010
An Historic Shabbat at Kol Dodi
Shalom KD Family,
We witnessed an historic day this past Shabbat. As Dr. Finto said, mark the date - February 6, 2010. A nearly packed shul experienced the undeserving and overwhelming Presence of God.
I asked Val Waters if she would attempt to write a synopsis of the event. When the Living God speaks, it truly is eternal Event, as the word D'var in Hebrew indicates. It is active, not static (Heb. 4:12), and we are brought by His Ruach (Spirit) into a separation (Holy) unto the Eternal One who IS the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and will ever BE. This happened in a most significant way this past Shabbat, as a new covenant and covering was publicly pronounced.
Val's summation is superb - far better than my memory would have been able to recall. I have added some of the gems I had written down from Dr. Finto's message - but I believe it was recorded and you can secure a copy at Kol Dodi (see Nathan).
If you were there, you may be able to add something else - please feel free to do so.
We have great days to look forward to if we walk closely with Him:
"Be strong (in Messiah's grace - 2 Tim. 2:1) ... keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep ... what is written ... that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me (you)..." (I Kings 2:2-4).
Rabbi Ken
rabkba@gmail.com
--------------------------
Covenant blessings for Kol Dodi!
When Pastor Don Finto came to speak at Kol Dodi for Shabbat services on February 6, 2010, we expected, as always, to be blessed by prophetic pearls of wisdom from the written Word. Before Papa Don spoke, however, he wanted to ask our forgiveness! He said that as member of the Toward Jerusalem Council II, and involved in gathering with Jewish and gentile leaders all over the world, he recently had recognized that he had never honored the Kol Dodi congregation, and he wanted to correct that error by apologizing to Rabbi Ken and his wife, Frances, and also to the members of the congregation!
He then publicly affirmed Ken and Frances’s ministry, and said that a prophetic word had been spoken during a prior gathering of believing and non-believing Jews and other gentiles about honoring leaders. The prophetic word was that Don was to spread a tallit (prayer shawl) over Rabbi Ken and his wife Frances and declare his Caleb ministry would stand as a covering for Kol Dodi and Rabbi Ken and Frances’s ministry!
Don said he felt he was to use a tallit that he and Joseph Shulam and carried with them in Jerusalem over the years. Don and Todd prayed over Ken and Frances, and asked the LORD to create open gates from heaven to allow a fullness of His power over Kol Dodi and all of Nashville! Don emphasized that he was covenanting with Kol Dodi and with all Jewish believers, to encourage their willingness to express themselves as Jews in their worship of Yeshua! He said that the Jewish expression of worship of Yeshua today helps reconnect today’s Jewish believers with the original Jewish believers, the followers and disciples of Yeshua Himself.
Papa Don described this covenant as correcting a previously established connection between believing Jew and gentile believers was based on what Asher Intrater had called the wrong kinsman-redeemer. Just as Ruth’s husband’s closest relative was not willing to take her as a husband, and the right of kinsman-redeemer then passed to Boaz, the original idea for Jewish believers involved giving up their Jewishness and being ‘converted’ to Christianity. They were to be blended into a church body, no longer recognizable as Jews. Asher then symbolically re-covenanted with Don (as a gentile) saying that he needed to bring the fullness and completeness of being a Jewish believer in a Jewish Messiah and thus add blessings to the church body. This fullness and richness of the Jewish expression of our Jewish faith is what Don was now covenanting to cover and bless.
The shofar was blown at the end of the ‘covenanting’ and the mishpochah, the family of believers, spontaneously broke into a clap offering unto the Lord! This was truly an exciting and momentous day for Kol Dodi!
Val Waters
February 6, 2010
---------------
Some of Dr. Finto’s nuggets from his message (which was recorded – see Nathan for a copy):
• We can only enter into covenant with believers (Messiah’s Body); we have relationship w/ non-believers, but not covenant. My pastor used to say we have a ministry to unbelievers, but fellowship only w/ believers – same truth said another way. Don mentioned this in connection to his relationship to the Jewish Community and leaders at large, vs. the Messianic Community.
• Read the entire Word (Gen-Rev) throughout the week, always, even if it seems laborious at times. Grab hold of its treasures.
• Dreams in the heart – “God-dreams” – don’t stop praying regarding them – even if it takes several decades for a dream to be realized! Stand on the Word of God! He related this to the time when synagogues will believe in Yeshua, including here in Nashville! There will be a remnant of believers in every ethnic group in the world! I would add that P. Richard Wurmbrand had the same vision and writes of it in his book, Christ on the Jewish Road.
• There will be a restoration of power seen and experienced in the Body of Messiah. Moses didn’t hear God’s voice for 80 years, but then he did!
• We must ask God to fill us with compassion – His compassion for others. This will bring the power. I would cite that the Scripture says “Yeshua was moved with compassion” and “virtue (power) went out of Him” to heal. As Don said, the two are inseparable. If there is something in my life preventing this from taking place – some sin – agree with God about it and let God cleanse and use me. We are to provide a landing pad for the Holy Spirit, said Don.
• The Book of Revelation is a book about Passover. As with the plagues in Egypt, some affected Israel, and some did not. We will experience tribulation and be affected in the upcoming confrontation between good and evil. But we will be spared from wrath. God’s wrath will not affect us (because of Yeshua).
• As Moses’ hands were held up by Aaron and Hur, and thus Joshua won the battle (Ex. 17) - so we will only win the battle inter-generationally. It took both generations working together to win.
• We need to share the burden – God’s leader cannot bear it alone (Ex. 18).
We witnessed an historic day this past Shabbat. As Dr. Finto said, mark the date - February 6, 2010. A nearly packed shul experienced the undeserving and overwhelming Presence of God.
I asked Val Waters if she would attempt to write a synopsis of the event. When the Living God speaks, it truly is eternal Event, as the word D'var in Hebrew indicates. It is active, not static (Heb. 4:12), and we are brought by His Ruach (Spirit) into a separation (Holy) unto the Eternal One who IS the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and will ever BE. This happened in a most significant way this past Shabbat, as a new covenant and covering was publicly pronounced.
Val's summation is superb - far better than my memory would have been able to recall. I have added some of the gems I had written down from Dr. Finto's message - but I believe it was recorded and you can secure a copy at Kol Dodi (see Nathan).
If you were there, you may be able to add something else - please feel free to do so.
We have great days to look forward to if we walk closely with Him:
"Be strong (in Messiah's grace - 2 Tim. 2:1) ... keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep ... what is written ... that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me (you)..." (I Kings 2:2-4).
Rabbi Ken
rabkba@gmail.com
--------------------------
Covenant blessings for Kol Dodi!
When Pastor Don Finto came to speak at Kol Dodi for Shabbat services on February 6, 2010, we expected, as always, to be blessed by prophetic pearls of wisdom from the written Word. Before Papa Don spoke, however, he wanted to ask our forgiveness! He said that as member of the Toward Jerusalem Council II, and involved in gathering with Jewish and gentile leaders all over the world, he recently had recognized that he had never honored the Kol Dodi congregation, and he wanted to correct that error by apologizing to Rabbi Ken and his wife, Frances, and also to the members of the congregation!
He then publicly affirmed Ken and Frances’s ministry, and said that a prophetic word had been spoken during a prior gathering of believing and non-believing Jews and other gentiles about honoring leaders. The prophetic word was that Don was to spread a tallit (prayer shawl) over Rabbi Ken and his wife Frances and declare his Caleb ministry would stand as a covering for Kol Dodi and Rabbi Ken and Frances’s ministry!
Don said he felt he was to use a tallit that he and Joseph Shulam and carried with them in Jerusalem over the years. Don and Todd prayed over Ken and Frances, and asked the LORD to create open gates from heaven to allow a fullness of His power over Kol Dodi and all of Nashville! Don emphasized that he was covenanting with Kol Dodi and with all Jewish believers, to encourage their willingness to express themselves as Jews in their worship of Yeshua! He said that the Jewish expression of worship of Yeshua today helps reconnect today’s Jewish believers with the original Jewish believers, the followers and disciples of Yeshua Himself.
Papa Don described this covenant as correcting a previously established connection between believing Jew and gentile believers was based on what Asher Intrater had called the wrong kinsman-redeemer. Just as Ruth’s husband’s closest relative was not willing to take her as a husband, and the right of kinsman-redeemer then passed to Boaz, the original idea for Jewish believers involved giving up their Jewishness and being ‘converted’ to Christianity. They were to be blended into a church body, no longer recognizable as Jews. Asher then symbolically re-covenanted with Don (as a gentile) saying that he needed to bring the fullness and completeness of being a Jewish believer in a Jewish Messiah and thus add blessings to the church body. This fullness and richness of the Jewish expression of our Jewish faith is what Don was now covenanting to cover and bless.
The shofar was blown at the end of the ‘covenanting’ and the mishpochah, the family of believers, spontaneously broke into a clap offering unto the Lord! This was truly an exciting and momentous day for Kol Dodi!
Val Waters
February 6, 2010
---------------
Some of Dr. Finto’s nuggets from his message (which was recorded – see Nathan for a copy):
• We can only enter into covenant with believers (Messiah’s Body); we have relationship w/ non-believers, but not covenant. My pastor used to say we have a ministry to unbelievers, but fellowship only w/ believers – same truth said another way. Don mentioned this in connection to his relationship to the Jewish Community and leaders at large, vs. the Messianic Community.
• Read the entire Word (Gen-Rev) throughout the week, always, even if it seems laborious at times. Grab hold of its treasures.
• Dreams in the heart – “God-dreams” – don’t stop praying regarding them – even if it takes several decades for a dream to be realized! Stand on the Word of God! He related this to the time when synagogues will believe in Yeshua, including here in Nashville! There will be a remnant of believers in every ethnic group in the world! I would add that P. Richard Wurmbrand had the same vision and writes of it in his book, Christ on the Jewish Road.
• There will be a restoration of power seen and experienced in the Body of Messiah. Moses didn’t hear God’s voice for 80 years, but then he did!
• We must ask God to fill us with compassion – His compassion for others. This will bring the power. I would cite that the Scripture says “Yeshua was moved with compassion” and “virtue (power) went out of Him” to heal. As Don said, the two are inseparable. If there is something in my life preventing this from taking place – some sin – agree with God about it and let God cleanse and use me. We are to provide a landing pad for the Holy Spirit, said Don.
• The Book of Revelation is a book about Passover. As with the plagues in Egypt, some affected Israel, and some did not. We will experience tribulation and be affected in the upcoming confrontation between good and evil. But we will be spared from wrath. God’s wrath will not affect us (because of Yeshua).
• As Moses’ hands were held up by Aaron and Hur, and thus Joshua won the battle (Ex. 17) - so we will only win the battle inter-generationally. It took both generations working together to win.
• We need to share the burden – God’s leader cannot bear it alone (Ex. 18).
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Fear Not
Sunburst קרן שמש from Rabbi Ken:
A brief testimony and Holy Scripture prescription to infuse hope and trust as we pray for Ted’s healing:
Timothy (Timothy & Marnie have been visiting KD from Bell Buckel this last month) mentioned to me that their two year old grandson, Gaven, was healed of eczema after we prayed over him the Birkat Yeladim (Children’s Blessing) and laid hands on him at Service two weeks ago. The chronic skin disorder has been with him for a very long time, and Timothy said it is miraculously gone since the prayer!
Ex. 14:13-14 "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. . . The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Is. 51:12-13 "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; you have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?”
I John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
Speak these words aloud! Meditate upon them (I Tim. 4:15). Let the Creator, our Redeemer, and His power define and determine our reality - not what we see and fear from the inferior oppressor! For all the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen to the glory of God through us (2 Cor. 1:20)! Amen.
Rabbi Ken
rabkba@gmail.com
A brief testimony and Holy Scripture prescription to infuse hope and trust as we pray for Ted’s healing:
Timothy (Timothy & Marnie have been visiting KD from Bell Buckel this last month) mentioned to me that their two year old grandson, Gaven, was healed of eczema after we prayed over him the Birkat Yeladim (Children’s Blessing) and laid hands on him at Service two weeks ago. The chronic skin disorder has been with him for a very long time, and Timothy said it is miraculously gone since the prayer!
Ex. 14:13-14 "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. . . The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Is. 51:12-13 "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; you have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?”
I John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
Speak these words aloud! Meditate upon them (I Tim. 4:15). Let the Creator, our Redeemer, and His power define and determine our reality - not what we see and fear from the inferior oppressor! For all the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen to the glory of God through us (2 Cor. 1:20)! Amen.
Rabbi Ken
rabkba@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)