Blessing Israeli Believers July 2017

Update from Ariel & Shayla

Sharing the Gospel with 16 Israelis from "Harvest" Village
A group of 16 Israelis contacted Kehilat haCarmel and asked if we could share with them about who Messianic Jews are and what we believe. Eliel and I (Ariel) had the privilege of sharing with them on Friday.
They were a group of older native-born Israelis - traditionally one of the groups that has been most closed to the Gospel - yet were incredibly open, and actually ended up staying with us for almost two hours because they kept wanting to hear more! They were all from a village called Katzir - "Harvest" in Hebrew - how appropriate!
We shared about the congregational life, the ways we reach out to the surrounding community, then about what we believe and how Yeshua has transformed our lives and many others' lives.

On the way there, I asked God if there was something He wanted me to share that I don't usually share. I saw a picture of an ultrasound and knew He wanted me to talk briefly about abortion. A huge portion of Israelis have been involved in an abortion at some level, and responses to any statement against abortion in Israel can often be violently negative, but I knew He wanted me to speak about it. So when I shared about what the Tanakh says about sin and our need for atonement, I briefly talked about abortion as well.

Soon afterwards, one lady interrupted, "But you're just laying guilt on us!" (I'm almost certain she had had an abortion). I responded, "My intention isn't at all to just lay guilt. Any good doctor has to first diagnose the disease before he can give the treatment. That's exactly what God did in the Tanakh, telling us clearly about our disease of sin, and then offering the solution." Then we repeatedly came back to the theme of Yeshua becoming the "guilt offering" (Isaiah 53:10), and how He removes the burden of shame for all the evil we've done, for all those who believe in Him.

The same lady who objected earlier came up to us afterwards and said, "Wow, you all are so full of love! Keep up the important work you're doing! This was marvelous!" Praise God!

The leader of the group stood up at the end and said, "Friends, I think the next step is for us to really experience this for ourselves, first-hand," implying that he wanted them to come to a service the next time. He told us afterwards that he loved the meeting so much that he wants to keep bringing groups!

Several people asked if I really believed the stories about Yeshua's miracles. I answered that He didn't just do miracles then, and shared about how Yeshua has healed over 200 people on the streets over the past few months, then offered them prayer if they had any pain. One lady had intense pain in her shoulder (7 on a scale of 0-10), but Yeshua healed her when we prayed. The word started spreading about this to all the others as well. Interestingly, her name is Ge'ulah, "Redemption!"

Quite a few of them took New Testamentsand the "Supernatural or Just Remarkable" booklet, as well. They all thanked us profusely and one lady even said, "This really opened my eyes!"Praise God!
Let's pray that God would open all their eyes to full revelation of Yeshua and bring them to Him, leading to an even greater harvest here in Israel!

Many blessings in Yeshua,
Ariel and Shayla (with Anayah, Amalyah, and Uzziel)