I spent four days last week with a human rights activist who works to defend and rescue persecuted Christians around the world from dire circumstances. It was a life changing experience, I can tell you.

This is hardly an accurate statement, and it is not even in harmony with Jewish tradition. Believing in God, his prophets, and his Messiah is basic to the biblical faith, while one of the thirteen principles of the Jewish faith as articulated by Maimonides (Rambam), is that we must believe in the coming of the Messiah, awaiting him every day with unwavering faith.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is wading through a U.S. led diplomatic process towards a comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East.

You would be surprised to see how many passages and concepts actually point to Jesus the Messiah in the Torah.

“Come and see,” Yeshua told the young men scampering after Him as He walked. They had heard John tell them, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” The day before John had testified that this man was “the Son of God!” John had been preaching repentance, but also the coming of Another. And now John had declared that this man was the One!

Two friends and I were enjoying a mini-pot-luck dinner together this weekend. One of us was telling of a car mechanic who was rude, and had a bad attitude, not to mention not repairing her car as he should have. How as Believers should we respond to such situations?

To be equally honest with you, I don’t follow that religion either, nor would I be able to put my trust in a God like that. Only one thing really matters: Is there a place called hell, and is there a judgment after death?

It’s true. Our much used and loved term “church” isn’t in the New Testament. But could it be that name for “church” that we’ve become so accustomed to conveys something that leaves out or presents an alternative picture to what God had in mind for the Body of Messiah?

When God sent Ezra, then Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, he sent specific men to do it with them. OK, true they may have volunteered, but it was God who was behind their choice to go, as you will see. Today God is rebuilding His temple to be the holy place of His indwelling in Spirit and in truth.

Of the multiplied thousands of followers of Jesus that I know around the world — both Jews and Gentiles — I can not think of one who continues to follow Jesus primarily because of the fear of hell, let alone only because of the fear of hell. We follow him because we love him and we recognize him to be our Messiah.