Winter 2012

Being

The Spirit recently impressed upon me that in order to feed my soul and prepare my heart to more effectively preach in churches, I need to take time to reflect on the text I’ll be speaking from. In other words, I need to preach to myself before I preach to others.
For example, in Romans 9 there’s the Potter/clay imagery depicting God’s sovereignty over human beings. And on a personal level, as a redeemed child of God, this sovereignty means that the Lord is arranging the events of each day into a preconceived pattern that ultimately results in my good and His glory. It also means that I can trust Him in the circumstances He sends and allows to come into my life; while also realizing that if I properly respond to these same circumstances they’ll mold me into the person He desires me to be.
And so in this new year, before publically proclaiming the Word of God, I want to have a meaningful encounter with the God of the Word.
 
Praise
 
Our son Stephen is engaged to a wonderful godly young lady who shares his passion for ministry. The wedding ceremony is being planned for December of this year.

Doing

On January 13, we held our first meeting of Olive Tree Fellowship (OTF). The Lord blessed us with 17 people attending—including two couples who have previous experience in messianic ministry. The teaching for this initial gathering consisted of “two what’s and a why.”

First, we discussed what is OTF? I stated that OTF is a once-a-month Friday night meeting that seeks to be used by God for reaching members of the North Dallas suburban Jewish community with the Gospel. I also elaborated that OTF is:

• a venue where believers can bring their non-believing Jewish friends to hear the Bible taught, and apologetic issues discussed in a sensitive and culturally relevant manner;
• a ministry where people can evangelistically network with friends and contacts who have non-believing Jewish friends;
  
• a venue where Scripture is studied from a Jewish perspective;
  
• an outlet for Jewish believers to be involved in Jewish ministry;
  
• a venue where one can celebrate some of the biblical Jewish holidays.

Next, from Romans 11:16-24 we addressed the question what is the olive tree? It was explained that this tree represents the place of blessing associated with the biblical covenants of promise. I also stressed that gentiles (wild branches) are sharers, participants with the Jews (natural branches) in this place of Jewish covenant blessing.

We then answered the question of why Olive Tree Fellowship? Here it was argued from Romans 1:16 that even though the Gospel is designed and available for all people, it was particularly prepared for the Jewish people because of their unique covenant relationship with God. In that sense I understand the Gospel to be “to the Jew first.”

Prayer

• Salvation of Jewish unbelievers through the ministry of Olive Tree Fellowship. (Check out our OTF Facebook page for new prayer requests and ministry updates.)
• Terry’s continued discipleship of a young lady.
• Pre-marital counseling for Stephen and his fiancé.
• Discipleship of two men with whom I’m studying basic Bible doctrine.
• Full speaking calendar.

As always, your standing with us is most appreciated. And I’ll close this letter the same way I close my church meetings, with the Aaronic Benediction from Numbers 6:24-26:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you,
And give you peace.

In His Grip,

John Kanter