These words Jesus spoke to Paul on the Damascus Road are interesting when brought into today’s setting. Paul was not persecuting Israel’s leaders, nor the leading rabbis of his day. He was persecuting those who believed in Jesus as Messiah.
Let us continue to love and bless all of God’s covenant family through whom redemption has come to the world, but let us be careful to affirm and bless those who have come to believe in Jesus as their Messiah. When Paul was writing to the Galatians, he said, “Do good to all men, especially to those of the household of faith” (6:10).
There are about 15,000 Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel today. All of them have been at times harassed, chided or even persecuted because of their faith. Some left homelands because of persecution, but have also not been fully received into Israeli culture because of their faith in Jesus. We can unintentionally give to organizations who do not appreciate Jewish believers in Yeshua and who do whatever they can to discourage and even harass them.
Remember our Caleb team in the next few days. We are with the students from our present training school in Israel where we will not only visit the places significant in our history, but we will also spend time with believers. We are also able, because of your generosity to us, able to take several thousand dollars to be given to some of the fruit-producing ministries who serve in the Land.
May the Lord give great wisdom to all of us as we walk forward in these turbulent times, but may especially give wisdom to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government of Israel. May the Holy Spirit help them to make Godly decisions.
Blessings,
Don Finto