שלום חברים
Shalom Dear Friends,
It is always exciting to see what the Lord unexpectedly drops in your lap. A prison ministry was not on our ministry radar screen 13 years ago when HaDavar began. However, the Lord has recently allowed us to reach out into the lives of a number of incarcerated men around the country. This month we would like to share with all of you one story, in particular, that stands out from the rest.
In late 2012, we received correspondence from an inmate in a California state prison requesting discipleship material. We have experienced firsthand the fact that there are Bible-believing Christians doing time in the very tough, faith challenging, prison environment. We have also discovered that very few ministries provide discipleship materials and support for their incarcerated brothers and sisters. Accordingly, we responded positively to this request and stated that we would be happy to supply him with our discipleship material. He even sent us stamps to help defray the cost of his request.
In late 2013, we learned that he had been a deacon in his prison church. His letter explained that he was attempting to put together a discipleship program from HaDavar materials and that he was building his Bible study skills by learning Hebrew. He had been self-studying Hebrew for 1½ years. Ironically, his attempts to create a discipleship program and study Hebrew were being discouraged by the Protestant chaplain of his facility. The main complaint came from the fact that our inmate had graciously received Hebrew language tutoring from the prison rabbi. Our inmate was accused of trying to convert to Judaism and given an ultimatum by the chaplain and his inmate pastor to either discontinue his studies or be removed from the position of deacon.
Our inmate saw very clearly that an attitude of anti Semitism was motivating the ultimatum. He is committed to literal-grammatical-historical interpretation of the Bible, while the chaplain and inmate pastor follow the allegorical approach of Replacement Theology. He did not discontinue his Hebrew studies and was consequently removed from his position of deacon and shunned by his prison church. At the same time, a great friendship relationship was growing between him and the prison rabbi. The rabbi had no problem receiving HaDavar CDs, DVDs and study notebooks from HaDavar on behalf of our inmate. How ironic, and sad, that a rabbi is supporting a Christian discipleship program rather than the inmate’s own prison church. He wrote:
I needed to tell someone of what has happened here and the tragedy of it all. The Rabbi has shared so much with me from the Old Testament and was taken aback that I had self-taught myself Hebrew and has done nothing but encourage me to continue my studies. What a beautiful and precious soul!
In December of 2013, we learned that a number of inmates were interested in taking our “Jewish Life of the Messiah” course. We sent him all the materials he would need to teach the course. He wrote in the middle of January:
We finally received the course! Praise the Lord! Thank you all so very, very much. Things are now moving so fast. We cannot believe how extensive this course is–Bravo, Pastor Bob, Bravo! We are now working feverishly to secure the necessary space and time in the chapel so all the brothers that signed up can begin taking the course. … We feel that we have been blessed beyond all expectations and we thank you all for the time, care and expenses that you all contributed to see that we received what we did. May He bless you for all you do.
Then he shares the irony of the situation again:
The Rabbi is going out of his way to help us – which is truly a blessing from God. However, I constantly remind the brothers that are with us …the Rabbi also has a Messianic hope and we pray that God will show him that truly Yeshua is the Messiah. But we continue to demonstrate the love of God to him, Amen! If for no other reason because God loves him!
There are two examples of irony here: 1) the rabbi is supporting a study of the Gospels and the Christian chaplain is not; and 2) HaDavar is supporting a Gentile Christian and he and his fellow inmates are providing a rabbi with a loving witness. We cannot witness to this rabbi personally, but our students can! PTL!
Please pray for this rabbi, that through his compassionate assistance he would come to faith in his Messiah, Yeshua. We should also pray for the chaplain and the prison church, that they would interpret the Bible in a consistent literal fashion and abandon their Replacement Theology.
Another encouraging development is the fact that our inmate’s street pastor has been encouraging him as he travels down this exciting road. Please pray for our inmate and students!
To top it all off, our inmate’s 14 students put together a handmade, signed card of appreciation for us. What a blessing!
Thank you card (front)
Thank you card (back)
Thank you for being part of our ministry team.