InFaithOnly, a friend of our Lord and Messiah Yeshua(Jesus).
To all who seek unity among our brotherhood of believers.
It must be said with urgency and amazement that I see divisions number in the thousands among us. In the past year, the Lord opened my eyes to what a mess our brotherhood has become with all the different sects we have(Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Catholic, etc.). What is the problem here with us believers that we cannot get along just as Lord commanded us? It is because we are so caught up in the arguments about theology that we cant take time to love our God and our fellow believer? Or is it all of a sudden that i have become disallusional thinking we are divided against one another? Though some would go with the second choice, however I will go with the first choice as I do have a simple solution to this mess.
My fellow brothers, remember the two most commandments on which Yeshua said all of the Law and Prophets are based on. They are "Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength" and "Love your nieghbor as you love yourself". Simple as that and nothing more. If all of us can simply follow these two commands and not hate our fellow believers, then we would all be united in mind and spirit as Lord is. However, our pride and arrogance makes it hard to do so when it comes to one particular issue in this growing messianic movement when it comes to seperating ourselves from the christian body.
As a believer in Messiah, I can see no difference between Christian and Messianic other than the words themselves which both even themselves mean the same thing. I could call myself Christianic or Messiahan which would be a little wierd to pronounce. Aside from the words, it is important that we as believers in the messianic movement stop making a wall of partition from Christianity as it would cause further trouble down the road just as you can see from the example of so many divided denominations we have out there. I can see fear of losing the Jewish identity in this movement and I understand that, but we need to keep ourselves from building a wall again.
As a believer, I was born of a mixed heritage with English, German, Native American, and a few others. As a far as physical jewish heritage is concerned, my grandmother on my father's side, being an orphan, was rumored to be jewish. I was raised in a gentile household and after recognizing the Jewish roots of my faith, I have incorporated some Jewish style of worship into my daily life. However, being a gentile physically and Jewish spiritually along with most other believers, I do not seek to become a jew as Shaul(Paul) the Apostle said we are a new creation where we are niether Jew nor Gentile. So it is from this viewpoint that we are to see we are one in the body of Messiah and not mess us ourselves us up in the long run by dividing ourselves from the Christian body just for the name's sake.
In spite of all this, I find no problem with the name Messianic as it is a great way to reach out to our Jewish brethren and still maintain a Jewish identity. But it is important for one last time, that we do not let names or physical identity or theology divide us. So in Yeshua's name, I pray that Jew and Gentile be one in the body of Messiah as you are one. Amen
To all who seek unity among our brotherhood of believers.
It must be said with urgency and amazement that I see divisions number in the thousands among us. In the past year, the Lord opened my eyes to what a mess our brotherhood has become with all the different sects we have(Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Catholic, etc.). What is the problem here with us believers that we cannot get along just as Lord commanded us? It is because we are so caught up in the arguments about theology that we cant take time to love our God and our fellow believer? Or is it all of a sudden that i have become disallusional thinking we are divided against one another? Though some would go with the second choice, however I will go with the first choice as I do have a simple solution to this mess.
My fellow brothers, remember the two most commandments on which Yeshua said all of the Law and Prophets are based on. They are "Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength" and "Love your nieghbor as you love yourself". Simple as that and nothing more. If all of us can simply follow these two commands and not hate our fellow believers, then we would all be united in mind and spirit as Lord is. However, our pride and arrogance makes it hard to do so when it comes to one particular issue in this growing messianic movement when it comes to seperating ourselves from the christian body.
As a believer in Messiah, I can see no difference between Christian and Messianic other than the words themselves which both even themselves mean the same thing. I could call myself Christianic or Messiahan which would be a little wierd to pronounce. Aside from the words, it is important that we as believers in the messianic movement stop making a wall of partition from Christianity as it would cause further trouble down the road just as you can see from the example of so many divided denominations we have out there. I can see fear of losing the Jewish identity in this movement and I understand that, but we need to keep ourselves from building a wall again.
As a believer, I was born of a mixed heritage with English, German, Native American, and a few others. As a far as physical jewish heritage is concerned, my grandmother on my father's side, being an orphan, was rumored to be jewish. I was raised in a gentile household and after recognizing the Jewish roots of my faith, I have incorporated some Jewish style of worship into my daily life. However, being a gentile physically and Jewish spiritually along with most other believers, I do not seek to become a jew as Shaul(Paul) the Apostle said we are a new creation where we are niether Jew nor Gentile. So it is from this viewpoint that we are to see we are one in the body of Messiah and not mess us ourselves us up in the long run by dividing ourselves from the Christian body just for the name's sake.
In spite of all this, I find no problem with the name Messianic as it is a great way to reach out to our Jewish brethren and still maintain a Jewish identity. But it is important for one last time, that we do not let names or physical identity or theology divide us. So in Yeshua's name, I pray that Jew and Gentile be one in the body of Messiah as you are one. Amen
