Some Conference takeaways: A New Day
Given at Aglow National Conference
Sunday 10 November 2024
Dallas, Texas, USA
By Bob Mendelsohn
Shalom to the sisters and brothers here in the Hyatt this morning, and to those of you watching on the Livestream or later in one of the options to share at home or abroad. Shalom means hello, it also means goodbye, and ‘complete’. I suppose the old line still works, we say ‘shalom’ on coming or going because we don’t know if we are coming or going. Listen, if you understand the long history of the Jewish people being chased from one country or another, exiled in biblical times and in the last Millenium from England, Spain, Italy, and in Europe’s most complete attempted annihilation of my people in the Holocaust, then you will understand that we often don’t know if we are coming or going.
All that to say, you at Aglow International have forged a weapon of love and care for my people that is without equal on the planet. Your weekly prayers and lavish grace extended on tours of Israel are not only seen and noted, but also heralded across the Jewish community as a ‘new thing.’ Ask Jewish people 100 years ago what they think Christians think of Jews and with one voice they would say ‘enemy.’ Christians blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus; Christians had regular prayers for the perfidious Jews, lost in their decay. On certain days of the year, on the streets of Berlin and New York City, of Boston and Buenos Aires, Jews were often beaten and mocked, simply for being Jews. That’s the world of Jewish and Christian relations only 100 years ago.
But you are making a massive difference in such relations. Jews know they are loved by Aglow. After 1800 years of wrong interrelations, to change this takes a massive turnaround, and you are doing just that. For that new thing, I say thank you.
My friend Jane asked me last night if I could share some thoughts, some takeaways with you from the conference and how could I say no to our general?
First, a couple of correctives. And by that, I am not a naysayer to the way things are going. In fact, I’ve had a fantastic few days with y’all. But as a missionary for 45 years with Jews for Jesus, first in the US in New York and DC and other cities, and the last 26 years serving in Sydney, Australia, I’ve learned a few things from the Bible that when I hear them explained, dare I say, wrongly, it causes me to wince and if I get a chance to amend it for the hearer, I usually try to do so.
ISSUE NUMBER ONE: New Wineskins
With that understanding, let me say that the phrase Jesus used about new wine in old wineskins is a simple and direct way of saying something in particular. Luke places the teaching in his gospel account between the healing of the paralytic dropped down through the roof, the call of Matthew or Levi and the challenge by some religious leaders of Jesus not complying with the standards the leadership had set.
In that context in Luke 5, Jesus says,
“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise, he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”
What does that mean? Jesus is looking for people who will receive his teachings. It means that those who want to critique and set his words to the side are old wineskins and Jesus is looking for teachable people, and he has found them in the 12 and in scenes throughout the land of Israel and Judea. New wineskins are for the fresh wine of the Gospel, and you and I and the multitudes who have said, “YES” to the Lord are the wineskins who receive the fresh new wine.
I appreciate some try to make the imagery useful in explaining new situations and new things, but in context, the term refers only to people.
ISSUE NUMBER TWO: Traditions
OK, here’s another one. You may not know this, but I’m a musician and play several instruments. My last name is Mendelsohn, after all. And I love rhythm. The keys and guitars and drums of our musos have delighted me this whole conference in that regard. The band has taken me to new heights in my own rejoicing before God, and that’s not an easy task. Thanks to each of you who lead us.
Rhythm touches my soul. And you have it as well, don’t you? This is November. Beyond elections and autumn’s colours, now we move to the calendar with Thanksgiving and its commensurate turkeys and celebrations. Macy’s parades and football games. Even Aglow National US conference. It’s part of the rhythm of US fall.
Then comes Christmas and Advent and parties and family and church gatherings. They are part of our rhythm. And January brings the bills and invoices for all the presents and that ache is part of our rhythm of life.
I grew up an Orthodox Jew in Kansas City, and the calendar of the Jewish people, most notably listed in Leviticus chapter 23, lays out the weekly and annual cycle of appointments with the Almighty that give me a circadian sense, a way to negotiate life and to embrace time with God and my people, that gives me a way to move forward.
From what I’ve read, they say that women who live in the same household often begin having their monthly periods in the same week as each other.
Rhythm, whether with holidays or weekly Sabbath thinking and reading and resting, all give us a sense of peace and calm. And it’s God’s idea. If you look at the world, most visibly in Asia, you will see that no day stands out in their work week. 7 days’ work is normal. The normal is that no one observes a day of rest in China or Thailand. African tribal peoples take no such Sabbath. God’s new thing, God’s new day idea is different. Nothing in nature says 1 in 7. We have 10 fingers. A month observed in lunar cycles is 29 or 30 days or so, and that doesn’t divide to 7 at all naturally. Only God established the 6 days on, 1 day off rhythm. And it’s long ago set, and it works.
That’s my tradition; that’s my religion.
So, when I hear us sing the phrases, “shake up the ground of all my tradition, break down the walls of all my religion, your way is better” I don’t know whether I agree with that. Each of us has many traditions and religion. And I guess it’s that some of us have found Jesus and the baptism in the Holy Spirit outside the ordinary church and religion in which we grew up, so it’s only natural to take a punch at the words, and perhaps at the institutions that gave us less than we found at Aglow or at the conference in New Orleans in 1987 or at a neighbourhood revival gathering last year. When we say “God’s way is better” I’m 100% in agreement that His ways are not our ways. That said, if he established his ways and I’m honouring and observing those, whether Passover or Shabbat, or the traditions of turkey on Thanksgiving or singing “Hark the Herald angels sing” on Christmas Eve, I’m not so keen to dump the tradition for what the song might say “is better.”
You do know that the Old Testament is over 2,000 years old, and some would point to its being old and thus to be dumped. But the Newer Testament is about 1,900 years old, and that sounds old to me.
I guess I’m saying, please be careful that in your desire for newness, we don’t dump the very thing that God gave us which for eternity is a new thing.
Here’s another one.
ISSUE NUMBER THREE: Pray without ceasing
In Exodus 30, God tells Moses information about the incense in the Tabernacle.
Ex. 30:1 “You shall make an altar as a place for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. 6 “You shall put 1this in front of the 3amercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7 “Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. 8 “When Aaron 1trims the lamps at 2twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.”
Morning and evening, two times each day, Aaron is to trim the lamps. What’s the purpose? So that the incense is perpetual, in Hebrew TAMID. In modern Judaism you will see the ‘eternal light’ above a part of the sanctuary, that is ever burning or electronically continuous. It is the perpetual of the Tabernacle in modern days. The ‘ner tamid.’
I tell you that because you are told in Thessalonians that you are to pray without ceasing. And for most of us, that’s a bridge too far. How do we accomplish this? I recommend the traditional practice of trimming the lamps in the morning and the evening so that it is perpetual. That is, pray in the morning and pray in the evening so that your life is continually in prayer. Does that make sense? It is our communion with the almighty that is in view, so touch base, check in with Heavenly headquarters at least twice a day so that your communion is substantial all day and dare I say, all night.
That’s part of my traditional biblical rhythm in today’s ‘new day’ practice.
The Big Idea: Newness itself
You see, what makes today a ‘new day’ is not anything necessarily brand new. We are still going to carry on the traditions of calling singing ‘praise and worship’ even though worship is lifelong, and praise happened already when we saw the sunrise today. We will have some songs and then a word or two and then Jane will speak and then we will dismiss and … well you get it. A new day is not a brand-new day. It’s often the repeated day. BUT It’s the freshness and presence of the Almighty that makes a day new. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies are perpetual, they never come to an end. They are new every morning. (Lam. 3.22-23) Mercies are new every morning. What are mercies?
Mercy is not getting what we deserve.
Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.
Mercy keeps us from hell; grace opens heaven to us.
Mercies are God’s kindnesses, from his heart, his bowels (as KJV once said), from the innermost being. Mercies are new every morning, why?
Because if we are honest with God, with another human being and certainly with ourselves, we will know that we fall short of God’s standards in life, even yesterday.
We sinned.
And yet. Oh, how I love that phrase. And yet. I have a pastor friend down in Houston who loves a similar one: But God. It’s the same.
No matter what we deserve, due to our failures to act or our failures not to act, God makes a way. He extends mercy, and mercy upon mercy.
Those are the mercies of the Lord. Hallelujah! Great is thy faithfulness!
Jews for Jesus Update for encouragement
Now a quick update from my work in ministry. This last week I was in London with 70 of the leaders of Jews for Jesus International at our annual summit. I heard story after story of God’s mercies being extended in Israel among our 50 staff, in Budapest in the midst of serious antisemitism and hostility, and in Sydney where our Jewish engagement numbers are off the charts. So many Jewish people are finding Messiah, I’m wondering if we aren’t that much closer to the return of our King Messiah. Come on Lord!
One by one Jewish people are listening and engaging with our workers around the world: it’s humbling and exciting. If you want, feel free to find Jews for Jesus on our website and sign up to hear from us; it’s our joy to share his mercies to encourage you in our mutual faith. Click this link: Bob page
You might watch the YouTube video channel named “So Be It” with Jeff Morgan in Israel where millions of folks have watched him evangelise man-on-the-street style in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and listen to the testimonies of the Jewish doctor in New York City or folks in other cities around the globe. So Be It is the name of the channel, and it will bless you. (https://www.youtube.com/@SOBEIT32AD )
Yes, Jewish people since the 7th of October are fearful; they are exposed as we saw in Amsterdam over the weekend; they are disturbed and scared. And into that situation, our teams in France and Russia, even in Ukraine3 are speaking and finding open hearted folks. PLEASE pray for them to find eternity, to find God’s mercies, new to them, new to each of us every morning.
Even this morning?
Last night, may I commend each of you who responded to Jen’s message with finances? I had not seen such an explosion of generosity since 1987. On that day at the messianic Jewish conference over which I presided, we had upwards of 1,000 folks in the ballroom at our hotel and the room only held about 700. When the offering buckets began to be distributed, I thought it would take about 5 minutes. 20 minutes later the buckets were full and finally returned, as people kept popping up to add to the offering. It was just like that last night. Awesome response.
Friends, the men of Issachar prayed this morning together; we shared healing stories and prayed for healing in Israel and in each other and took communion together.
This has been an enormously powerful weekend for me and hopefully for you as well.
If you are still waiting for God to make today new, right where you are, please close your eyes, and open your heart. Consider Jesus and his love.
Consider his care for you and the mercies he wants to extend to you. They are new this morning. And each day until he returns.
Jane, you know, we have known each other for 39 years, and I’m the better for that knowing. You live what you believe and beyond all the public statements, your faithfulness to our awesome God and his plans for you and Aglow are substantial. I never tire of reading your weekly emails and watching the regular videos from headquarters. The ladies of Aglow and the Men of Issachar are a tribute to your tireless and humble acceptance of future leaders in Generations and allowing them to guide this organization, this movement, this weapon of the Lord into the next day, the next year, the next station of life.
May the Lord Yeshua continue to give you favour. May his grace be yours in celebrating this conference long after the return to Washington. May you rest in his power and kindness. May you know shalom in your coming and in your going. I’m a better man for knowing you, and since this is Texas, I’m a better man for knowing y’all.
Shalom!
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