Tag: Yeshua

Tiferet Yeshua children's trip to Capernaum, January 2025
Deborah Luquer | | Leave a Comment on Raising a Generation that Knows Messiah Yeshua

When I received the role of the children’s ministry leader in the congregation, I realized that I would be taking on a great responsibility: right here in our congregation, the Lord in His mercy has placed a small portion of the young generation growing up in the land of Israel in families that follow Yeshua as the Messiah. This reality has not happened since the days of the first Jewish believers in the book of Acts! It is exciting, and I consider it a great privilege.

The vision of the children’s ministry at Tiferet Yeshua is that every child will know the Lord and grow in a personal relationship with Him. Last year we developed a curriculum that will put Yeshua at the center of teaching throughout the entire year. This curriculum we then modify for each age group 3 years old and up so that all the children are learning the same subject in a way they are able to understand it.

In addition to teaching them the essentials of their faith –learning the fruits of the Spirit, memorizing Bible verses, the Lord’s prayer, and just praising Him together—we teach them about our identity as Jews who believe in Yeshua through prophecies about the Messiah given to our prophets.

WALKING WHERE YESHUA WALKED

Life in Israel may not be easy, especially in this last year, but we have the amazing privilege of living where so many of our Bible stories took place. In the children’s ministry, we make a point of regularly taking the children and their families to trips around Israel so they can experience firsthand the places where Yeshua walked and taught.

We visited the Nazareth village where the children were able to experience how Yeshua would have grown up with all the traditions of Jewish life of that time. This trip helped the children understand many of the parables Yeshua used to teach about the Kingdom of God.

Last year, we visited the “Good Samaritan” museum to understand the setting of that period of time and emphasize the two most important commandments God has given the Jewish people – to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor.

After learning about the miracles Yeshua performed in our Friday children’s ministry classes, last month we visited Kfar Nahum (Capernaum) in the Galilee and also boarded a boat on the Sea of Galilee that resembles boats used 2,000 years ago in order to being to life the scriptures that testify about His works among the people of Israel.

Seeing the amazement and excitement in the eyes of our children (and their parents) when they walk in these places gave me a deeper understanding of our calling: to fan the fire of the Holy Spirit in the young generation of the Body of Messiah here in the Land. How? By creating an environment where they can read and learn from the Scriptures, pray and praise so that they can know the Lord and be close to Him in their everyday lives.

I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize that we would not have been able to achieve this vision for our children’s ministry without a dedicated, loyal team of volunteers from the congregation who serve with love, consistency and hard work!

Moti Cohen | | 5 Comments on Yom Kippur: Signed and Sealed in the Book of Life

Day of Atonement: the tradition

During the time between Rosh Hashana (the Day of Trumpeting) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the customary greeting one hears everywhere is: “G’mar chatima tova” which basically means “May you have a good final sealing in the book of life.” According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes people’s names either into the book of life, the book of death, or a third “neither here nor there” book on Rosh Hashana. During the ten “terrible” days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, people have a chance to change their fate if they repent and humble themselves enough. Finally, as tradition goes, the books are sealed on Yom Kippur, and people’s fates are sealed. What then, according to Jewish tradition, gets you into the book of life? Charity, repentance and prayer.

Unfortunately, many traditional Jews believe that if you fast and go to the synagogue on Yom Kippur, you get a clean slate no matter how you live during the year. But when one looks at the biblical requirements for forgiveness on Yom Kippur, the reliance on good deeds to get one inscribed into the book of life are a far cry from what the Bible requires.

God Requires Blood

According to Leviticus 16, atonement is made once a year by sacrificing a bull and a goat. It is the one day in the year that the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies, after meticulously cleansing himself, and offer blood before the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant where God’s presence was. So no amount of fasting, good works or giving to charity can atone for our sins. The Bible says it in black and white: only blood atones for sins. Sin is death, and a life can only be redeemed by another life-for life is in the blood according to Leviticus 17.

Since the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the Jewish leaders who rejected our Messiah Yeshua and His atonement had to come up with alternate, non-biblical ways to atone for sin. However, in religious Jewish communities around the world you can find Jewish families performing Kaparot on Yom Kippur: they take a chicken (a stand-in for the scapegoat in Leviticus 16), wave it over their family member’s heads, and then slaughter the chicken (stand-in for the sin offering) and give it as charity-a far cry from the Yom Kippur sin offerings which were taken outside the camp and burned. Who wants to eat a sin-soaked chicken?

Because we understand the righteous requirement of the law, kaparot is a heart-breaking sight to see. Understanding the need for blood to atone for their sins, they are doing the only thing they know how to fulfill that requirement. Sadly, it falls desperately short.

Tradition-yes, but only if it points to biblical truth

As Messianic Jews, we honor our Jewish tradition only when it points to biblical truths. Jewish tradition that doesn’t is nothing but idolatry. When we hear “May you have a good final sealing in the book of life” during this holiday season, we can answer that we are signed and sealed in the book of life by the blood of the Lamb of God who sealed us once and for all 2,000 years ago! This Day of Atonement, we ask that you join us in crying out to God for our people Israel to have their eyes opened to our great High Priest, Yeshua the Messiah, in whom alone we have final and complete atonement and blessed assurance that we are signed and sealed in the book of life!