The Master Locksmith Who unlocks every door desires to give a set of keys for His Kingdom to each one willing to take it by faith and use it to open up a new world of hope.
On the evening of Monday Feb 15, 2016, we set out for another sortie. We had one team: Danielle, Sarah and me (Tina). We decided to go back to the same building as last week, for there were still more apartments we hadn’t visited yet.
Every week, before we begin the outreach, we pray that the Lord would open and prepare hearts. We recognize that the early Jewish believers in Jerusalem did not necessarily go door to door, but rather spoke every day in the Temple where people gathered, and taught in each other’s homes when possible. Today, instead of people going to the Temple, we take the opportunity to bring the Word of God to them, right into their own home. And we don’t have months and years to sit with them and convince them of the Word, through conversations or through our lifestyle. Sometimes we are given less than a minute and sometimes we have the opportunity for longer conversations, but within that short space of time, we pray a seed would be planted in a prepared heart. And just as Yeshua Himself was so mindful of everyone’s free will, we too must show the greatest respect for the individual’s privacy and choice. Thank you all for your prayers as you come on board with us.
When reaching the designated apartment building, we pray that the Master Locksmith Himself would not only unlock hearts but open up that front door to the building so we can at least get in there!! And that first locked door can be quite a challenge. When we approached the first building, Danielle noticed two people walking up to the front door. I rushed out of the car but was too late as they had already entered and disappeared from view. Seconds later a gentleman appeared, and I gave him a sign to please open the door. Once inside I was then able to let Danielle and Sarah in. We began on the top floor (the only floor we had not done in that building), and as always, looked for that first mezuzah on the doorpost, but oddly there were none to be found, so we left the building. We walked across the street to another apartment building . There was nobody around to open the door, which meant we had to wait. However Sarah, our clever young sister, tried the front door anyway, and lo and behold the door was already unlocked! Praise the Lord we were now inside and went again to the very top floor which was a penthouse with only 2 apartments. One had a mezuzah, so we knocked. There was no answer.
On the 15th floor, the next floor down, we met a Jewish man in his 40’s who was very friendly. Danielle explained that we wanted to present a gift as a blessing to the Jewish people. He looked at us in amazement and disbelief..how could this be? Why would anybody do that? I asked him if he knew about the Messiah, and his answer was “yes” and said that the Messiah would return and everything would work out all right. Then we quoted several verses from Jeremiah 31, Isaiah 9, Micah 5, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, as well as from Psalm 122. We also told him that we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Danielle said that before the Messiah would return, people needed to be reconciled with God, and that God had provided a perfect sacrifice, Himself, as the required blood atonement.
When he saw the Brit Hadashah (NT), he knew that this had something to do with Jesus. We told him that the Brit Hadashah is the fulfillment of many of the promises and prophesies. He did not want to accept the set, as this “would not be the right thing for him to do”. So Danielle pointed out that perhaps he should read it just the same, and then he could judge for himself. We closed by saying that the truth would set him free. But while he did not accept the set in the end, he did ask us again for the particular scriptures we had quoted, so that he could read them later on. In spite of his refusal, we felt so blessed that someone had listened. We felt blessed, too, that we could trust the Holy Spirit that His Word would not return void. In the same building, we noticed that a lot of Jewish families had probably moved out because we could see where mezuzahs had once been placed on door posts. Jewish homes in this apartment building proved to be few in number because two more floors down, there were no mezzuzahs at all.
In addition, many people were either not home, not answering the door, or listening from the inside and saying they were not interested. Some were polite by opening the door but quickly shutting it with a polite “No, thank you”. On one of the floors further down, a nice Jewish man opened the door. He had a wife and two small beautiful children. By his accent I knew he was from Israel. He said he was born in Montreal, but was raised in Israel, and now was back here. We told him that we wanted to bless the family by offering a Tanakh (OT) and Brit Hadashah as a gift. He said that he did not care about it, because he felt that all people were equal, and they would all end up in the same place. He listened a little more but did not want to accept our gift. At the next door, we encountered a Jewish man who was surprised that we offered him this gift. He told us that he spoke Russian and Hebrew, so he would be able to read the scriptures well. He hesitated to accept the set. Then he mentioned that maybe he would be taking it to his synagogue. Well, then Danielle suggested that he should read the Brit Hadashah first, and decide after. We stressed the fact that the Brit Hadashah is the fulfillment of the promises in Jeremiah 31. We also spoke of the 400 year lapse between the writing of the two testaments and how the accuracy of the prophecies was not watered down by time. He did accept the set, and said that he would read it. May he be blessed.
After that, only one elderly lady opened her door. She was quite friendly and was surprised that we offered her these two books, but then she let us know that she would not be able to pay for them. Of course, we repeated that the offer was free. She had not understood that this indeed was a gift as her mother tongue was Hebrew. This dear lady accepted the set and was so happy that she just kept on talking in Hebrew…. it was a great moment! We then moved on to the next building . While walking up to the front door, we saw an elderly lady with (most likely) her son walking in the hall near the door. Within seconds, the gentleman opened the door (wow!) and we headed toward the elevator, beginning once again with the top floor.
Blessings and shalom from Tina and the team