Shalom Fellow Israelite,
You will have noticed that in the
last few weeks I have been bringing up scriptures that take us back to our New
Covenant foundations. It seems that we
have somehow lost, or have forgotten, the very message upon which our present
spiritual understanding is based, and that is the “Gospel” - “Euaggelion”
(yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on) in Greek, meaning: 1) a reward for good tidings 2) good
tidings.
One of the first things that Yeshua
did after He embarked upon His high-priestly calling and position was to “preach
the gospel of the kingdom, heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease…
and deliver those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics” (Matthew
4:23-24). Yeshua was not only preaching
this gospel (good news) of the kingdom, but was Himself the full
expression, or embodiment of it.
In today’s communication with and among
Messianics we hear more bad news, sad news, ominous news, critical news,
judgmental news, sensational news, deceptive news than good news, glad news, great
news, and hopeful news. We are almost in
a race as to how much doom and gloom we can proclaim. But yet Yeshua called us out of darkness into
His marvelous light (that is good news); the Father has reconciled us back to
Himself (that is good news); He has
removed sin once and for all, and has given us the victory so that we can overcome
the power of sin (that is good news). In
Yeshua we have been justified (legally accepted in the beloved) - that is good
news. Through faith we can walk in the
light as He is in the light (that is good news). Through faith and obedience in His Word, we
can enter His rest (that is good news).
Having received, in our hearts, the love of the Father by the Messiah,
we can love ourselves and one another (that is great news).
All of this does not mean that we ‘stick’
our heads in the sand without being aware, from a scriptural point of view, of
what is going on around us. Yet, we must keep these matters proportional and
balanced. We hear a lot about “Jacob’s troubles”,
but forget the last part of that scripture: “but he will be saved out of it”
(Jeremiah 30:7), which is also another piece of good news.
The nation of Israel celebrated
Shavuot a couple of months ago. This is one of YHVH’s feast and it is good news to
be able to arrive and make it for this appointed time. It was this very gospel
of the kingdom that was imparted to the hearts of a remnant of Yeshua’s
followers on this day two thousand years ago, in the city of Jerusalem and then taken out to the
nations. But what has happened to the
“good news” in our generation?
