Newsletter of
1. PRESIDENT'S REPORT
2. SHAVUOT: A NEW WINESKIN
3. JOSEPH PROJECT REPORT
4. PRAYER FOR ISRAEL
5. MESSIANIC PHONE DIRECTORY
6. COMING EVENTS
PRESIDENT'S REPORT
We bring greetings on behalf of the MJAC. It has been some time since we sent out our last Menorah. We do apologize.
There are some highlights we would like to share with you. This past February the Messianic leaders in Canada met together in the Ottawa area for a time of relationship and vision building. It was a great time of refreshing and a much needed break. One special feature of our leadership gathering was to have Paul Liberman, the General Secretary of the IMJA as our special guest. He spoke into our leadership and shared about the challenges and vision he is having in strengthening the International Alliance. Paul recently returned after living in Israel and has taken the helm of the IMJA. He brings with him much wisdom, enthusiasm and administrative experience. We are looking forward with anticipation to the International Alliance continuing to be a strong and united voice for the messianic movement worldwide.
Our vision for the MJAC continues to be to strengthen unity within the leadership of Canada. To a great extent we have been accomplishing this. We are in ongoing communication with one another. We have shared together in joint projects, one of them the Joseph Project. See this Menorah for a report on this important humanitarian aid ministry that is helping the poor and needy in Israel.
Our plan was to have a MJAC conference in the Ottawa area this summer but because of scheduling we had to postpone it. We are looking forward in planning one in Toronto in 2006. More details will be provided. Conferences are one way of promoting the vision and purposes of the Alliance in Canada as well as strengthening relationships among the congregations in this country.
Our goal is still to organize an association of Messianic Congregations in Canada to help unite the messianic community. Our first step towards this goal was to build unity among the messianic leadership in Canada. Our vision is also to develop a Yeshiva program in Canada to help train up messianic leaders. This is crucial in ensuring that we equip and raise up messianic leaders to continue building a healthy messianic movement.
One of the challenges we face in the MJAC is that the executive of the Alliance consists of congregational leaders who are very busy shepherding their own congregations.
This has made it challenging to find the needed time to focus on the goals aims and vision of the Alliance. Our prayer is that Adonai will raise up a qualified messianic leader who will be able to devote his time and energy to fulfill the goals and vision of the Alliance.
A highlight out west was the Hine Ma Tov Messianic Gathering during the May long weekend. Our purpose was to gather together all the messianic congregations and fellowships in Alberta. Five messianic groups joined together at Sylvan Lake just out side of Red Deer for a picnic and mikveh concluding with an awesome worship service that drew close to 200 people. This was the first time we have planned an event such as this and it was a great success. We plan to make this a yearly gathering to help strengthen the messianic community in Alberta.
Ani Li Dodi Ve Dodi Li ( I am my beloved and my beloved is mine). We are planning a special tour to Israel next November which will include an opportunity for couples to renew their wedding vows in Jerusalem under a Chuppah. The tour will highlight some romantic moments. This tour is not only for couples but for anyone interested in being part of an exciting tour to Israel. Details of this tour can be found on the Website: bethshechinah.com Please contact us if you are interested in joining us for this exciting and unique tour.
We welcome your feedback by way of letters to the editor, praise reports or special prayer needs that you may want to share with others through the Menorah newsletter. Please e-mail us.
Cal Goldberg
President, MJAC
Phone or fax: (403) 256-3478
E-mail: hglory@telusplanet.net
SHAVUOT: A NEW WINESKIN
Almost 2000 years ago the Ruach HaQodesh (Holy Spirit) was poured out in awesome power on 120 talmidim [disciples] who were waiting for the promise of what Yeshua spoke.
The 120 were not disappointed. Each one was filled and empowered by the Ruach HaQodesh and their lives and that generation was forever changed. A new community of the redeemed was born. A people full of faith and empowered by the Holy Spirit turned that generation upside down. The Most High radically changed their lives and literally hundreds of thousands of Jews and Gentiles from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the remotest parts of the earth heard the message of the gospel and were born into the kingdom of G-d.
During Yeshua’s ministry He spoke of a time when G-d would pour out His new wine into new wineskins. Luke 5:37-38 says font color="blue">“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.“
When G-d first poured out His Spirit on the 120 it was the new wine of the Ruach HaQodesh that was being poured. The wine was the Holy Spirit and the wineskins were the human vessels that G-d was pouring His presence into. “If any man is in Messiah He is a new creation, 0ld things have passed away behold all things have become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17
Whenever the Holy Spirit fills and empowers a repentant person a radical transformation takes place. The old order of things passes away. The old wineskin bursts and a new wineskin emerges to hold this new life and power of Adonai.
When the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom after the Messiah’s death a new and living way was opened into the presence of the Most High. No more blood sacrifices of goats and animals, no more priests or temple ceremonies were needed. G-d provided a better and new way through the blood of the Messiah.
Hebrews 10:19-23 says: ”We therefore have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Yeshua through the veil, that is His flesh and we now have a great High Priest over the house of G-d. We can now draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water… Let us hold fast to this confession of faith without wavering.”
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit represented the dawning of a new day and a new way for G-d’s people.
Israel today both in the natural and the spiritual are not unlike what it was like in the days of Yeshua. Israel is a nation that has lost her purpose, vision and calling as a people. Even though there has been a physical restoration of the land over the past 57 years, Israel today is a nation without the Spirit, a nation of dry bones.
The Bride of Messiah on the other hand has become a tired, weary and complacent bride, waiting and wondering if their bridegroom will ever return. The bride of Messiah has lost its focus and has fallen in love more with the world than with G-d. The intimacy, passion, the love and fear of G-d that was once there, is lacking.
We desperately need another visitation of the Holy Spirit. We need G-d to fill us with His Ruach HaQodesh and to rekindle our love and passion for Him. Do you have a hunger and longing in your heart? Do you have the heart of David, “Oh God, restore to me the joy of my salvation? Renew me with a steadfast spirit.” Psalm 51.
Are you tired, weary and hungry for G-d? How many of you sense a stirring in your spirit for more of G-d in your life? May this become the hearts cry of G-d’s people. Many believe we are on the verge of a great spiritual awakening. G-d is calling us to wake up and be ready. There are birth pangs of revival all over the earth.
The end-time fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy in Joel 2 is yet to be fulfilled. “It will come about in the last days that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.” Acts 2:17,18…
G-d is reserving the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit the world has ever seen. He is saving the best wine for the end!
If we are the final generation that will witness the coming of the Messiah and there are 6 billion people in the world today, doesn’t it make sense that we need a greater measure of the Holy Spirit to be poured out in order to gather in such a great harvest?
“Yeshua said lift up your eyes and look on the fields, they are white for harvest. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore beseech the L-rd of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” John 4:35; Luke 10:9
In Acts 2 the words says that the 120 were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in the tongues of the nations. In rabbinical thought seventy was considered to be the number of Gentile nations and the traditional number of languages of mankind. Although the number 70 is not mentioned in Acts enough languages are suggested to allow the understanding that G-d is speaking through Yeshua’s disciples in a very prophetic way.
The outpouring of the Ruach Ha Qodesh on Shavuot was intended to manifest the power of the Most High to be His witnesses of the good news of the kingdom first to Jerusalem and then to Judea, Samaria and the remotest parts of the earth.
The fact that this feast coincided with the wheat harvest was intended to be prophetic of the great spiritual harvest to gather in.
Yochanan spoke of Yeshua filling G-d’s people with Holy Spirit and fire. He said, “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and He will gather His wheat into the barn.” Matthew 3:11,12
Every year as we observe this feast it is intended to remind us of the Great Commission that Yeshua commanded us to obey. Mt. 28:19,20/ Mk 16
Are we doing our part in fulfilling the great commission? This is the challenge we face. Are you willing to be a laborer in the fields and gather in the whitened harvest Yeshua spoke of at the end of this age? Be part of the great commission not the great omission.
Reb Cal Goldberg, President MJAC
hglory@telusplanet.net
JOSEPH PROJECT REPORT
MJAC and MJAA unite together to bless Israel
What do MJAC, MJAA, Joseph Project and the needy in Israel have in common? A medical mitzvah blessing!
Purim is a time when we are encouraged to give gifts to the poor and needy as a mitzvah blessing. We read in the book of Esther, that the Jewish people received deliverance from intended annihilation. They rejoiced and celebrated by sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor. (Esther 9:13)
This year at Purim, March 25-26, the Messianic Congregations across Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax united in one accord. Donations were received to facilitate the shipment of donated medical supplies to Israel.
Joseph Project, Israel made a request of the MJAC (Messianic Jewish Alliance of Canada) to help with the expenses of transporting medical supplies. These medical supplies were donated made by an individual in eastern Canada. He has worked with “World Vision” for twenty years. He shared that this is the first time such a shipment of supplies was targeted for Israel. The supplies included; syringes, bandages, ECG monitors, IV tubing and bandages, on and on the list go. More than 136 boxes of supplies, enough to fill the back of an eighteen-wheeler truck, was graciously donated with the simple request, please ensure these goods are given to Israel. The only catch was that MJAC was asked to pay for the trucking expenses to ship the goods from New Brunswick to Jezreel International in Albany, New York.
It was agreed that the MJAA (Messianic Jewish Alliance of America) would pay for the storage fees involved in housing the medical supplies until shipment. Joseph Project, Israel would receive and distribute the supplies once they arrived in Israel, at the Ashdod Port. Upon arrival, these goods will be distributed to hospitals; Emergency relief services such as: Magen David Adom, which is a supportive agency of Israel’s emergency medical disaster services and ZAKA. a volunteer rescue worker relief service that arrives on the scene after terrorist bombings. Other pertinent centers that will receive these medical supplies include Bet Avot (homes for the elderly) and other institutions for the disabled. Additionally, the Ministry of Welfare may receive some of these goods. Many will be helped as a result of this shipment of medical supplies from Canada.
This is the first time that the MJAC has united together with MJAA for the common purpose of blessing Israel. MJAA has applauded the idea of Canada helping the Joseph Project and said that this could set a precedence for all Messianic Alliances worldwide. Jo Kaplan, executive director of Joseph Project Israel said, “If the MJAC will take the lead, other nations will see and may decide they want to do something like the MJAC has done."
The MJAA, (Messianic Jewish Alliance of America) began the work of Joseph Project in 1996. Joseph Project was birthed as a response to the thousands of olim (new immigrants) that were making aliyah (immigrating to Israel). Containers of humanitarian aid were gathered to help the needy olim. They contained dried food goods; clothing, medical supplies and building materials, etc. all being shipped to Israel. Now, more than ever, with a growing population, ever increasing poverty, the needs are tremendous. Shiploads of blessing are continuing to arrive in Israel. In order to meet the anticipated need, Joseph Project “intends to send close to $1 billion worth of humanitarian aid amounting to 35 to 40 loaded Ships of Blessing over the next few years”.
Cal Goldberg, President of the MJAC has said, “We are pleased to help Israel in this tangible manner. Uniting together as Canadian messianic congregations with MJAA, US and Joseph Project makes a loud statement of support to Israel and we want to continue to help by staying on board and helping with the tremendous needs of filling these ships”.
For more information about how you can help or learn more about the Joseph Project, send an email to MJAC Canada at
PRAYER FOR ISRAEL
As believers, we are called to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” Psalms 122. To cry out to the Most High and ask Him to fulfill His declared word on behalf of Israel. The following commentary provides insight and exhortation of how we can pray for Israel and G-d’s purposes to be fulfilled.
PASSION AND VISION FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE - As believers living in a world of instant communication, we can become overwhelmed by reports of things the Most High is doing all over the world. Indeed, G-d is moving by His Spirit in South Korea, South America, China, and Africa and beyond. All of nations are near to the heart of the Father and we rejoice in their salvation and revival. There is however, a special and unique place in G-d’s heart for the Jewish People. When understood, this uniqueness can fuel a deep love and burden for G-d’s Chosen People that is pleasing to the L-rd.
It’s Unique Beginning and Spiritual History – The nation of Israel began with the amazing call of Avram and continued through Isaac and Jacob. Jacob’s son Joseph became famous in Egypt and saved the nation from starvation during seven years of famine. Jewish history continues with Moses, the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea which provided the way for the nation to leave Egypt in a miraculous way. A cloud led them by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Manna was provided daily for them for forty years and water was provided from a rock. By parting the Jordan River, Joshua led them into the Promised Land where the walls of Jericho fell down before them. Eminent Judges, Prophets and Kings arose in Israel establishing without doubt the uniqueness of Israel as a nation.
It’s Unique Covenant Relationship with G-d – This unique relationship came into being by the divine election of G-d and is backed up by the eternal covenant G-d made with Avraham. “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be G-d to you and to your descendants after you.” (Genesis 17:7) This covenant relationship is affirmed in the New Covenant, “for the gifts and the calling of G-d are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29)
It’s Unique Relationship with the Land G-d Promised – G-d’s covenant promise to Avraham included inheriting the land of Israel as an everlasting possession. “And I will give to you and your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their G-d.” (Genesis 17:8) The fact that the Jewish People were twice scattered because of their sins and then twice re-gathered back to their land is an amazing historical confirmation of this eternal covenant.
It’s Unique Position Among the Nations – “…Israel is my son, my first-born.” (Exodus 4:22) Israel is first among nations as a first-born son is in a family. That is why Rabbi Shaul directed the gospel, “…to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16). G-d’s judgment follows this pattern also. “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.” (Romans 2:9) In addition, G-d has established a reciprocal relationship between Israel and the nations. In the way a nation deals with Israel, so G-d will deal with them. “And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse…” (Genesis 12:3)
It’s Unique Purpose as a Nation – G-d entrusted the Nation of Israel with the privilege of bringing forth the Word of G-d into the earth. All the men the Holy Spirit moved upon to produce the Scriptures were Jewish. Rabbi Sha'ul recognized this unique purpose in the New Covenant. “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all they were entrusted with the oracles of G-d.” (Romans 3:1-2) In addition, G-d’s ultimate purpose for Israel was fulfilled when the nation brought forth the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, the Living Word made flesh.
It’s Unique Contribution to the World and the Church – In speaking to the Samaritan woman by the well, Yeshua revealed the tremendous contribution the Jewish People would make to the world. He said, “…salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4: 22) In other words, as a result of the Messiah being born through the Jewish People according to the Scriptures, salvation would come to the world. Furthermore, it was the Jewish apostles who laid the very foundations of the Church. “having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua Himself being the cornerstone"(Ephesians 2:20).
It’s Unique Spiritual Destiny – G-d’s plan for the nation of Israel is not yet complete. There is a great purpose and destiny assigned to the Jewish People in the last days. Having come under a partial hardening and being sidelined for twenty centuries, an amazing spiritual awakening is taking place among the Jewish People. This will culminate to the point that, “…all Israel shall be saved…” (Romans 11:26) Rabbi Sha'ul shows that when the Jewish People become spiritually awakened, it will trigger powerful revival in the spiritual realm. “For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15) Finally, the return of the Messiah is intricately connected to the Jewish People. Yeshua said to the Jewish People, “…you shall not see me until you say, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the L-rd.” (Matthew 23:39) It is the Jewish People who must welcome back the Messiah to the earth!
Rabbi Jeff Forman – City of David, Toronto, Ontario
Kehillot Tsion - Vancouver, BC - (604) 325-1863
CTOMC Conference - August 1 to 3, 2008 in Halifax, NS. More information at http://www.ctomc.ca
rabbijeff@sympatico.ca
Messianic Telephone Directory
Messianic Israel Fellowship - Vancouver, BC - (604) 921-7721
Shalom House - Maple Ridge, BC - (604) 467-9820
Beit HaMashiach - Williams Lake, BC - (250) 392-9557
Teruah Messianic Community - Pemberton, BC - (604) 894-1134
For Such a Time - Vernon, BC - (250) 260-5815
Mandell's Chavurah - Delta, BC - (604) 940-8977
Raah Tsoni Messianic Congregation - Black Creek, BC - (250) 337-8288
Jilco Ministries - Clinton, BC - (250) 459-2626
Elim Messianic Yisrael Fellowship - Chilliwack, BC - (604) 795-9697
B'nai Chayim - Edmonton, AB - (780) 452-1649
Congregation Beit Mashiach - Edmonton, AB - (780) 423-8955
Beth Shechinah - Calgary, AB - (403) 256-3478
Hebraic Roots Beit Midrash - Prince Albert, SK - (306) 763-1884
Winnipeg Messianic Fellowship - Winnipeg, MB - (204) 222-0604
Shepherd of Israel - Hamilton, ON - (905) 627-4026
Congregation Melech Yisrael - Toronto, ON (416) 785-7612
City of David - Toronto, ON - (905) 761-8118
Olive Tree Congregation Toronto, ON - (416) 250-0177
Beit Shalom Messianic Fellowship - Trenton, ON - (613) 392-9641
Ottawa Messianic Fellowship - Ottawa, ON - (613) 736-9480
Congregation El Shaddai - Winchester, ON - (613) 774-4425
House of David Montreal, QC - (866) 698-1530
Kehilat Ariyeh Yehudah - Montreal, QC - (514) 737-2298
Kehilat She'ar Yashuv - Montreal, QC - (514) 481-4579
Congregation Ner Tamid - Halifax, NS - (902) 444-0153
Ariel Ministries - Montreal, QC - (514) 685-5902
Chosen People Ministries - Toronto, ON - (416) 250-0177
Heart to Heart Messianic Ministry - Westville, NS - (902) 396-4759
His Word for His People - Middleton, NS - (902) 825-1584
Israel Prayer Watch - Oakville, ON - (905) 875-9876
Comfort Ye My People - Toronto, ON - (416) 633-5432
Jews for Jesus - Toronto, ON - (416) 481-5500
Coalition of Torah Observant Messianic Congregations - Halifax, NS - (902) 405-9803
IMJA - Rancho Mirage, CA - (760) 770-8533
Coming Events
Send e-mail to
hglory@telusplanet.net