Even when just the Tanak is given out (without the NT), we know that our Heavenly Father is fully capable of revealing the existence of the Messiah in the Tanakh to all who are thirsty for the truth. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me”. John 5:46.
When we bring the message of Yeshua at the doorsteps of Jewish homes, we are ambassadors of His message. That message must be brought reflecting the character of the Kingdom. The fruit of the Spirit, love and joy, peace, patience and gentleness must describe our attitude of heart and mark our conversations. But in your hearts set apart Messiah as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… 1 Peter 3:15
Montreal
Jan 13th, 2019
It was a cold Sunday, but we nevertheless gave out 3 sets of Bibles, one Tanach and had some good conversations.
At the first door, a man of about fifty years old greeted us, but after offering him the Scriptures, he said he had everything he needed. We explained that the Brit Chadasha spoke about the Messiah of Israel and again he said that he had all he needed and that he was a respecter of all religions. We asked him how he was preparing for the Messiah’s return and then offered him the pamphlet on Isaiah 53 which he accepted.
At another door, we were met by a 35-year-old man who, being pleasantly surprised by the free offer of the bible set, took it, and thanked us.
Another woman of around 70 years of age thanked us and accepted the set.
At yet another home, we were met by a man in his 70’s who gazed suspiciously at us as well as at the books we held in our hands. We quickly put the Tanach on top so that his first gaze would be upon the Hebrew Old Testament. That familiarity gave him ease and an immediate acceptance of the set, thanking us that we had no other motive than just to simply give out the Word of God.
At another door a young woman answered with her children surrounding her. One of the kids, aged around 3, asked, “What is that you have?” to which we smiled and replied, “It’s a book!”. We explained the reason for our being there. When we opened the Tanach and showed her the Scriptures in English and Hebrew, we saw a great interest develop in her. When we presented the Brit Chadasha, explaining that in it lay the fulfillment to many of the messianic prophecies of the Tanach, she became reluctant and handed back the Old Testament, insisting that other homes would be better blessed to receive it. We invited her to feel free to accept whatever she wanted and she agreed to keep the Tanach. This is of course a very good start! We know that our Heavenly Father is fully capable of revealing the existence of the Messiah in the Tanach to all who are thirsty for the truth. And obviously, this young woman was thirsty to read it.
Calgary
November 18, 2018
The weather forecast was giving a 60% chance of rain, but we waited to see before cancelling the outreach and the Lord blessed our patience! We were able to visit 10 homes.
At the first door, we told the gentleman that as his neighbor, we (the Gentiles) were commanded by God to bless him, that is why we came to offer the gift of Scriptures. This was the first time we used this approach, and he kept his door opened as we spoke with him for about 20 minutes! Even though he declined our offer of the Scriptures, since he already had many Tanachs, he accepted our Isaiah leaflet. Before we left, he invited us to contact his orthodox Rabbi so we could attend a regular service at his congregation.
The second Jewish person, a middle-aged man, opened the door and enthusiastically accepted our gift of the Scriptures. Before we departed, he gladly listened when we exposed the Talmudic agreement with Isaiah 53’s identifying the Suffering Servant as the Jewish Messiah!
At the last door we met an older Jewish man who refused to listen to us demanding that we not return!
Two other respondents were Roman Catholic Gentiles. One was a man renting from a Jewish owner. He agreeably accepted an ESV Bible and listened to the Gospel that he admittedly never heard! The other respondent had purchased the house from the previous Jewish owners, a lady who already had a Bible. We briefly shared with her the necessity of being born again! We are grateful that the Lord enabled these excellent opportunities to present the Messiah to both our Jewish neighbors and to these Roman Catholic Gentiles! Many thanks for your prayer support.
November 25, 2018
We were very blessed with this week’s outreach! We visited 8 homes. Two Jewish households were absent but 4 respondents answered to our knocking, and all accepted our offer of the Scriptures with only one young man declining the Brit Chadasha. He attentively listened as we exposed from Isaiah 53 the four Talmudic quotations concerning the “Suffering Servant”! He thanked us for our offer and blessed us as we departed!
At the next door a middle-aged man responded, in his bare feet and didn’t seem to be affected by the chilly temperatures. He was very happy to accept the full set of Scriptures, and also listened to our short exposition on Isaiah 53! He also gladly accepted the pamphlet enumerating many Messianic verses from the Tanach. He blessed us for our offer as we returned the blessings before departing.
The third Jewish door we knocked on was answered by an older man who gladly accepted our gift of the Scriptures and the Isaiah pamphlet, expressing how he felt greatly honored by our visit!
The last home we visited appeared to have no one home, but as we were leaving, we heard a car. It was the Jewish occupant arriving, providentially. We greeted him with our offer of Scriptures which he accepted, even though he already had a large library of theological books. He was very intrigued when we went over the Talmudic interpretations of the Suffering Servant. He invited us to come in and see his library, but we declined because it was getting late.
December 16th, 2018
This week was such an encouragement to us because of Abraham, a very astute and strategically minded, clean cut, IDF veteran airman who abruptly returned the set of Scriptures that his wife, had kindly accepted from our hands. He requested that we respect their Jewish faith. “We already have the Scriptures”, he clamored! We went on quietly listening to Abraham exposing odd religious views, saying, “Originally all men were one with the Jews, both Arabs and Gentiles and we should all come back to our Jewish origins”! We were quiet as he spoke. It turns out that his views came from the Kabbalah! But his attitude began to change as we were not defensive and the conversation became friendlier. He eventually did accept the Isaiah 53 leaflet and a pamphlet of the Messianic OT passages. We could see that Abraham was happy for defusing our “attack on his faith”. In return for having listened to him, we pleaded for a bit of time so that we could explain the reason for our visit, which in all fairness, praise the Lord, he unexpectedly agreed to!
Being free to expose the truth, we turned to the topic of the Jewish Messiah. We explained that after His first coming as the Humble Servant, according to Isaiah 53, the Messiah was to return a second time triumphantly and on the clouds (as per Daniel 7)! He agreed that we read out loud Isaiah 53:1 to 5. Abraham was riveted by our linking of biblical prophecies in a manor he had not heard before! We then went on to Zechariah 12:10 where Israel would eventually recognize the One they had pierced, Jesus the Messiah! We then went on saying that we were earnestly rejoicing for that time when Israel would say, “Blessed is the One who comes in the Name of the Lord”! Abraham turned silent as he pondered what was being explained to him. We are grateful that the Lord permitted us to have the time to completely bring forth what we believe, the Lord wanted to be exposed from Scriptures. Through the workings of the Holy Spirit (not of our feeble abilities), we were totally not expecting this blitz. We expressed our gratefulness to Abraham for his time and how he was such a blessing to us! Not wanting to overwhelm him with Bible verses on our first visit, we invited Abraham to return inside since he had been standing for about half an hour in chilly temperatures in just a T-shirt! Before leaving I invited Abraham to join me, at another time, for coffee. We’ll see the outcome the Lord has for Abraham in the future!
Concerning the other 5 Jewish respondents, 2 gratefully accepted the Isaiah 53 pamphlet, while the 3 others politely declined our gift of the Scriptures! Please pray both for Abraham to be pulled out of the grip of his mystical influences and that he comes to recognize “Yeshua Ha Mashiach” as the Redeemer of Israel.
December 30th, 2018
On this last outreach of 2018, we had a new team member with us. The Lord blessed us with 3 homes accepting the full set of Scriptures with only two declining our offer. This week we had a chilly and windy -8C, so we had only brief conversations at the door.
The first to accept our gift was a gentleman who was shoveling his driveway but he stopped to talk to us. He listened attentively as we pointed to the Isaiah 53 / Talmud leaflet. We encouraged him to read Isaiah 53 and identify for himself who the Jewish Messiah was. We exchanged blessings with him as he brought the gift of Scriptures into his house.
The second person accepting the full set of Scriptures was a lady who couldn’t believe that we were there to offer her a free gift. We had to reaffirm that yes, we were doing just that, before she gratefully accepted the full set. She thanked us and wanted to close the door because of the cold. We did have a chance to quickly point out the 4 Talmudic writings which agreed that Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant motif. We greeted her goodbye and she kindly returned the greetings!
The next person accepting our gift of Scriptures was a young mother who we encouraged to read Isaiah 53. She had an amazing smile on her face when we shared this with her! We intend on returning, God willing, to have a more extensive conversation with her.
There were two other respondents declining our offer. First, a young man with his son who thanked us for our visit but refused the set. The other was a lady asking us if we were there for religious matters. We said we were there to offer the Hebrew Scriptures. She said she wasn’t interested in religion. We left blessing her for having answered us.
January 13th, 2019
Praise the Lord, for He has been blessing us with exceptional weather. So far this winter, our open-door interactions have been a lot easier. This week we visited five homes, two of which responded while the other three were absent.
The first man, who we thought was pretending to be on the phone, said he was not interested in our literature. We could only thank him for answering us as we offered blessings before leaving. The second respondent, a man who closely examined the Scriptures we offered, sought to know who the publishers were. After close examination, he said that as a Jewish person, he couldn’t accept the New Testament and he already had the Tanach. After expressing his displeasure with Jesus, identifying Him as, “that other Jew”, we continued to express our love for the Jewish nation, and so with some hesitation he accepted the Isaiah 53 / Talmudic leaflet we had to offer. We thanked him for accepting our leaflet. It appeared that he was amazed at our gracious attitude, and accepted our greetings!
Thank you for your commitment to praying for these outreaches as the Spirit reaches into the heart to testify of this world’s sin and unrighteousness. Please continue in prayer support for a young couple, A and E who expressed their interest in joining us in Calgary for the Jewish outreach.
We covet your heartfelt prayers and support for the ongoing ministry of Door to Door in Montreal, Calgary and Buffalo, New York.