#messianic

Christmas for You, in 60-Seconds

Jesus, God’s only begotten son, vacated his right place in heaven, therefore giving up his Godhood, to become one of us!  He was born to a woman named Mary and came to carry out a mission: to make way for the salvation of all humankind.

Of course he succeeded!

Jesus grew up, lived a sinless life, rallied many toward the Kingdom of Heaven, and then died upon a cross, sacrificially shedding his blood in the ultimate act of forgiving all of us of all of our sins.  He died for every bad thing, every bad thought, every lie, every hurt. Three days later he arose from the dead.

All you have to do is believe this, willingly receive Him as your Savior, trust him as Lord of your life, and you will be saved from an eternity in Hell and instead be guaranteed life in Heaven. He will then place His Spirit within you, to empower you to live as He would have you to live.

As the Bible says:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).

Perhaps a simple prayer for you could be: Lord Jesus, I need your forgiveness, please take away my hurts and pain, and fill me with joy. I surrender my life to you. Empower me to do this Lord, because I can’t do it on my own. Amen.

Find a Bible and read the Gospel of John. You will love it.

Merry Christmas from the Sussman household to yours!

This was originally published on December 24, 2013, and updated Christmas day 2022.

Back to Basics: My Story

My story of coming to faith in Jesus began when I was a boy. My dad made sure my brother and I grew up with our Jewish identity, but we were largely quite secular.

During the fall of my tenth year I happened upon a terrible accident that occurred on a Saturday afternoon just up the street from the apartment complex we lived in. There was a small MG sports cars parked, with a dented front end. Outside the car a teenage girl was completely distraught. In front of the car was a twisted bicycle. Next to the bike was the body of a young boy.

I didn’t know who the boy was until his parents arrived on the scene. It was my friend Kenny. We had just played a Pop Warner football game that morning.

Kenny didn’t make it. Later that week I was a pallbearer at his funeral.

I came home from that funeral petrified of death. That night I prayed: God, if you’re there I need to know who you are. I don’t want to die like Kenny. I don’t want to go to hell; I want to go to heaven. 

There seemed to be no response from God for many years.

My life began to unravel from within as I was so paranoid about dying. I don’t need to go into all the details, but I was a mess. Finally, in college, I met woman my age who recognized the need in my life. She encouraged me to read the New Testament with her. I was reluctant, because as a Jew the New Testament is off-limits. But, honestly, thanks to her attractiveness, I obliged.

I read about Jesus and his disciples. They were all Jewish. Jesus spoke of heaven and eternal life. He said, “Cast your cares upon me.”  Jesus was more than just a good man. He was the only Son of God, who died for our sins and was raised from the dead. He promised his followers eternal life.

It was everything I had hoped for.

So, I prayed. I privately prayed to God to take my fear away, and come into my life and empower me with His Spirit. Immediately that fear of death and hell that had gripped me for years finally vanished. That initial prayer turned into a lifestyle of surrender to Jesus.

My heart has been in a state of renewal ever since.

This is my story.

And by the way, I married the attractive young woman.

Are you ready to let God rewrite your story?

Christians Must Stand Against the Jewish Hate

By the way,  I have an extensive podcast on this topic, but here’s the tidy overview…

I grew up thinking that Christianity was hostile towards the Jewish people.  My primary examples of such violent hatred were the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, Adolph Hitler, and the KKK.  I was told they were all Christians and obviously, and devilishly, hated Jews.

Then I researched Christianity for myself by reading the New Testament. There is NO WAY an authentic follower of Jesus (Yeshua) could align themselves with the activities of those three examples.

Not even for a millisecond!

Let’s take a step back for a moment and look at history. Jesus, his mother Mary, and her husband Joseph were all highly observant Jews.  All of the disciples called to follow Jesus were Jews who loved Torah. John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, was a Jew.  Prior to being known as the Apostle Paul (who wrote much of the New Testament), Rabbi Saul was (you guessed it) Jewish.

And speaking of guesses, guess what?  They were all persecuted for following the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In the case of Jesus he was persecuted to death for claiming to be the promised Messiah, in accordance with prophets like Isaiah who said 700 years prior to the crucifixion:

He was despised and abandoned by men,
A man of great pain and familiar with sickness;
And like one from whom people hide their faces,
He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.

However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore,
And our pains that He carried;
Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted,
Struck down by God, and humiliated.
But He was pierced for our offenses,
He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
All of us, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all
To fall on Him.
(Isaiah 53:3-6) 

Hatred of the Jews goes back to the beginning. When God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees and promised that his seed would become a great nation, possess the land of Israel and that God would use the nation of Israel to bless the world, the Jewish people became public enemy number one in the eyes of Satan!

That’s right, Antisemitism is Satanic.

Whenever or wherever antisemitism has occurred in history, up to and including the current outbreak of disgusting acts being performed by Muslims.

The question is, what action should we take as followers of Jesus the Messiah?  Jesus loved and wept for his brethren, God’s Chosen People.  In fact, as Messiah he died a sacrificial death first for the Jews, and then for the Gentiles.

Is antisemitism to remain unchallenged by the true followers of Jesus?

NO. We cannot–we must not–stand by silently!

I know that true Christians love the Jewish people. In these increasingly troubled times, the Church has a unique opportunity to show Jewish friends that they are loved and, more importantly, that Yeshua loves them!

Through the Jewish patriarchs, the prophets, and the temple, God used the Jews to bring forth His Word, the Law, and morality to a world of sin. He sent forth His son, Jesus the Messiah, in a Jewish body to redeem the world of sin. Satan, the prince of the earth (John 14:30; Ephesians 2:2), has poisoned the minds of men with his hatred of the Jews.

Jewish persecution and antisemitism at large is sign of Satan’s hatred for a people chosen by God to reveal the Word of God, and the Messiah of God.

We Need More Salt, Less Sugar

I’m still dumbfounded by the number of Christians who willingly voted for, and are celebrating in the election of, Biden and Harris.

Right from the start, in the very opening hours of their new administration they showed their evil hand.

New deals will be cut with atheist, Christian-killing China.

Israel’s enemy, Iran, can rebuild its nuclear supply.

Baby-aborting Planned Parenthood is cheering because they will once again be able to receive federal funds (aka tax dollars culled from YOUR paycheck).

All that and your daughter’s school restroom can now be used by boys pretending to be girls.

Where was a large sector of the church during the election season?  Even with the COVID shutdowns you’d think they’d be speaking to their flocks on ZOOM, warning them of the evil scheme’s planned by the democrats.

But no. While some were indeed standing tall, too many—perhaps most—were offering their congregations more sugar.

I prefer churches that preach salt:

  • You’re a sinner (Romans 3:23).
  • If you want eternal life in Heaven, you need a Savior (John 11:25-26).
  • The Savior is exclusively Jesus (John 14:6).
  • You must repent and receive Jesus into your heart, and the Holy Spirit will empower you to follow Him (Acts 2:38).

Those bullet points are preached in churches that serve a gospel seasoned with salt. Throughout  human history you’ll find that salt is essential to life. Salt preserves, disinfects, and enhances taste. Salt is good and has lasting value.

Additionally, I believe the job of a salty church is to instruct its members to walk in godliness and call out societal sin.

Sugar on the other hand has very little (if any) value other than tickling your fancy for a moment, adding useless calories, and jeopardizing your health in the long run.

Sugar is actually a lot like a bad drug.

And what are so many of our churches preaching these days?

Sugar: No sin. No repentance. No laying your life down for Jesus to take it over. No Holy Spirit. No truth. No consequences. No offense. Just say “Yes” to Jesus, think good thoughts, and don’t forget to visit our website! 

“Wow,” the chubby babies in the audience respond. “That was so fun and easy I think I’ll come back next week!”

Not here.

Henceforth, this blog and my podcasts will be totally dedicated to serving you salt, as I aim to “equip the saints to do the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

Join me as we  grow closer to the Everlasting Father and do His will.

 

The Key to Experiencing Personal Joy in a Troubled World

Yes, God created us in his image but we, as a human race beginning with Adam and Eve, are sinners.  This fact deserves a moment of reflection.

As human beings we are not a close cousin of the animals, or a distant relative of primitive plant life, nor a product of Primordial goo.  Rather, we are wonderful and unique—the most excellent of all God’s works.  We represent a special expression of the divine nature, created by God’s own personal activity.  In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (emphasis mine.)

Unlike the making of everything else described in the Bible’s opening chapter, there was a council that occurred between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit prior to man’s creation.  Humanity is introduced with solemnity, dignity, and the honor of an intimate deliberation on the part of the that mystery often referred to as “The Trinity.”

Contemplate how wonderfully we have been made.  God graciously gave us intellectual ability far superior to that of any animal.  We have a mind able to hear and understand God’s word, emotions suited to respond to God’s love, and a will that enables us to choose whether or not to obey God.  Thus we’ve been equipped, not only to obey Him, but to love, follow and participate in His work on earth.

That’s powerful stuff.

Psalm 139:14 sums this up nicely:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfullymade; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

When one considers all this it would seem foolish to not take up God’s offer of forgiveness through repenting of our ways and surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Only then are we able to begin to understand that the precepts of the Lord are right.  And once we live according to those precepts we have fellowship with God and our lives operate much better, thus giving joy to the heart.

A young man once told me about the night that changed his life.  At his mother’s insistence he and his twin brother left their dysfunctional home to escape domestic violence perpetrated by their stepfather.  The two boys had been attending a youth group at a local church and the pastor was able to take them in.

I’ll never forget my friend’s description of that first night away from home.

“I was laying in the bottom bunk; my brother was up top.  I thought about all the wonderful people in the church who were so nice to us. My brother and I were in bed and safe. I knew God loved me.  I knew He was my true father.  I decided right then and there I wanted nothing else in life but to follow Him.”

This young man never swerved from the path, and God has blessed him in remarkable ways.  He never attended college (I’m not sure he even graduated high school), but when was about 19 he landed a job as a deliveryman for a Silicon Valley high-tech startup company.  He kept getting promoted.  Soon he married a beautiful woman from the church.  He kept following Jesus.  They started a family.  He stayed at the same firm and, because of his excellent work, he continued seeing promotions.  The company became wildly successful.  He is now worth millions.

My friend knows that the precepts of the Lord are right, and through obedience his life is full of great joy (and it has nothing to do with his bank account).

Sadly, that night on the top bunk his twin brother didn’t make the same decision.  For many years his life was wasted as he drifted in and out of trouble and jail.

Obeying God doesn’t mean you’re expecting to be perfect.  It just means you’re making a choice to yield your imperfect ways to Him.

This is the key to authentic joy.