January 2023 Update

Welcome to my Romans 15:8 blog for January 2023. I hope and pray that 2023 has started well for you and that this year will bring many blessings to you.

It is good to see this network growing and I hope that we may all be able to encourage other leaders to sign up to this network at some point in 2023.

With kind regards and shalom

Alex

Teaching Reflection of the month

For this month’s reflection, I want to draw your attention to the CMJ Membership/Memory verse for 2023. The verse is from Isaiah 51:1 and we are using the MJFB translation. The text states: “Listen to Me, you who pursue justice, you who seek ADONIA. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and the quarry from which you were dug.”

The challenge or invitation explicit within this verse is to listen. The skill and discipline of listening to the LORD, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and to one another is a foundational tool for ministry. Listening is then followed by the invitation to look. Again we need to look deeply and carefully. Sometimes we can look but never really see or discern the reality of what we are looking into. As the late, great Leonard Cohen said; “Genius is the ability, the very rare ability, to see things as they actually are – you are not fooled.”

The focus of our listening and looking is ADONIA.  ADONIA who is identified and is known in the calling of Abraham (51:2). Alec Motyer, in his IVP commentary on Isaiah makes the compelling point that this looking is not;  “… a searching for something lost, but coming with all the determination of a concerned seeker, to where the Lord is known to be.”

In this text, ADONIA is described as the ‘rock’.  This description is used throughout Isaiah (see 17:10, 26:10, 44:8 etc.). For Isaiah writing at a time of great conflict and threat( the context here was the military advances of the Assyrian Empire), true security is not to be sought in the fortress cities (17:9) but in the fortress LORD.  Is not the same true for us today?

Ministry News Update

Let me share three points with you:

Firstly, I am thankful to all members of the Romans 15.8 network who have viewed, liked, and shared my interview with Canon J.John (Facing the Canon). This continues to receive new viewings via YouTube and the total now stands at 2710. If you have not yet seen this there is a direct link on the front page of this website (CMJ UK).

Secondly, I have just completed the next Olive Press Research Paper- An Open Invitation? This paper is aimed to complement the launch of the new CMJ outreach course (online) JET. Your feedback and questions about this paper and the new course will be most welcome.

Thirdly, as I stated in the previous blog the interviews for our new (third) Community Based Evangelist took place on 15th November and I am pleased now to announce that Simon Terry has been appointed. Simon will begin this ministry with CMJ on 1st Feb.

Book Review – Messiah in the Tanakh, by Jon Taylor 

This booklet, written by Jon Taylor who serves as an evangelist with The Messianic Testimony, addresses carefully and compellingly a number of instances where Biblical characters meet with the ‘Angel of the LORD’. Beginning with the story of Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:10-22), and then moving on to Moses (Exodus 3), Gideon (Joshua 5 and 6 ) and the fourth man in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3:1-25).   Jon Taylor helps the reader see into the character of God and how God deals graciously with His people.

This booklet was originally written as a resource to compliment some of the conversations Jon Taylor has had with Jewish enquirers during his street evangelism. I recommend this little booklet as a great tool for Bible study and as an evangelistic resource in some specific contexts.

Jon Taylor has also written two other such booklets, one is titled “Great Jewish Thinkers” and the other is “Foreshadows of the Messiah”. If you wish to order copies or to contact Jon he can be reached via his website or by phone on 017725 864765.

Monthly Memory Verse

“We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete in Messiah.” Colossians 1:28 (MJFB)