http://ffoz.org/blogs/ Timely updates, teaching, videos and inside information about what's happening at First Fruits, written by staff members and guest contributors. en Copyright 2013 Fri, 24 May 2013 12:01:29 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=5.2.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Last week we held our annual Shavuot conference in Hudson, Wisconsin. The event was hosted by Beth Immanuel and our staff agrees it was one of the best if not the best Shavuot conference we have ever had. The topic this year was “Gifts of the Spirit,” and for four solid days, the First Fruits of Zion teaching team along with special guest Rabbi Dr. Carl Kinbar attempted to present... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/05/god-fearers_job_the_god-fearer.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/05/god-fearers_job_the_god-fearer.html Teaching Team Fri, 24 May 2013 12:01:29 -0600 Messianic Judaism is the most exciting movement of our time. Its rebirth in the 1900s was, in a very real sense, a restoration of something that had been lost for over a thousand years—a functional Jewish body of believers in Jesus that continues to identify with Judaism and with the Jewish people. An ever-growing body of scholarship testifies that the early Jerusalem church likewise maintained a self-identity within Judaism and... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/05/introduction_to_messianic_juda.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/05/introduction_to_messianic_juda.html Teaching Team Wed, 08 May 2013 15:39:00 -0600 With Shavuot just around the corner, I thought I would post some material about Shavuot from my book God-Fearers. The New Testament highlights the festival of Shavuot as the time of the outpouring of God’s Spirit in Acts 2, but another reference to the festival in Acts 20 gives us evidence of Gentile believers celebrating this important Torah festival: For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/05/god-fearers_shavuot_for_all_na.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/05/god-fearers_shavuot_for_all_na.html Teaching Team Tue, 07 May 2013 11:53:35 -0600 Last Sunday night I had the great pleasure of speaking at a Pentecostal church. It was really wonderful. I wish I could have canned the energy, the passion, the simplicity, and the spirit that was there to take it home with me. My experience is actually pretty hard to capture in words. It was a beautiful evening with beautiful people of God. And, that night, I did something pretty radical... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/getting_pentecostal.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/getting_pentecostal.html Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:41:48 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. One of the most important works of Messiah was bringing Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel. If it weren’t for the Master extending the mission of salvation to the Gentiles, only the Jewish people would have had... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_rabbinic_perspecti.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_rabbinic_perspecti.html Teaching Team Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:50:02 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. Today is the secular holiday of Earth Day where the world celebrates the gift of creation and dedicates itself to better preservation of the environment. Although it is slightly off topic to my book God-Fearers, I have... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_earth_day_and_gene.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_earth_day_and_gene.html Teaching Team Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:20:33 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. Last week I posted a blog on Christianity’s transition from a Saturday Sabbath to a Sunday Sabbath. I proposed that this change took place quite rapidly once Christianity had severed its ties with Judaism. Early believers would... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_sunday_and_sun_wor.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_sunday_and_sun_wor.html Teaching Team Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:06:36 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. It is obvious from the Gospels and the book of Acts that the Master and the early Jewish disciples had a high regard for the commandment of Shabbat. The New Testament contains no hint of the Sabbath... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_from_saturday_to_s.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_from_saturday_to_s.html Teaching Team Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:47:24 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. A few weeks ago I posted a two part series entitled “The Universal Shabbat” where I attempted to argue a case for a Gentile believer’s participation in the biblical Sabbath. You can read part 1 here and... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_some_practical_sha.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/god-fearers_some_practical_sha.html Teaching Team Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:28:07 -0600 Passover is one of my favorite times of year. It is a time of new beginnings and rebirth. It's a timeto do a spiritual house-cleaning and remove the leaven that has formed in our hearts over time. The highlight of Passover, of course, is the seder meal on the first night. So much preparation is done for that single special event that the rest of the week of Passover receives... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/what_is_the_meal_of_messiah_pa.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/04/what_is_the_meal_of_messiah_pa.html Teaching Team Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:32:00 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. Last week I posted a blog on Passover and non-Jews and spoke of the universal aspect of the seder and how it applied to all of God’s people. Now, that the seder has passed and we are... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god_fearers_easter_ham_or_pass.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god_fearers_easter_ham_or_pass.html Teaching Team Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:22:16 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. I was at Whole Foods yesterday looking to buy some matzah for the upcoming Passover festival and I had to ask one of the workers to help me find it. As we walked towards the Passover section... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god_fearers_passover_and_non-j.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god_fearers_passover_and_non-j.html Teaching Team Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:15:14 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. You can find the first two blog posts here and here. In Messianic Judaism, we get a lot of questions about a Gentile believer’s relationship to the Torah in general, especially regarding the Sabbath. We will continue... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god-fearers_the_universal_shab_1.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god-fearers_the_universal_shab_1.html Teaching Team Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:57:05 -0600 In light of the release of God-Fearers, I am doing a series of blogs that further explain the purpose of the book as well as share some of my personal story behind it. You can find the first two blog posts here and here. The questions that come up the most about a Gentile believer’s relationship to the Torah is in regards to the Sabbath. In the next few blogs... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god-fearers_the_universal_shab.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/03/god-fearers_the_universal_shab.html Teaching Team Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:59:38 -0600 Last July in light of the release of God-Fearers, I attempted to start a series of blogs that further explained the purpose of the book and shared some of my personal story behind it. Alas, I posted a whopping total of one blog, but I would now like to attempt to rectify the situation by starting up the series again. Today, Scot McKnight posted a thought provoking blog entitled “How... http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/02/god_fearers_scott_mcknight_and.html http://ffoz.org/blogs/2013/02/god_fearers_scott_mcknight_and.html Teaching Team Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:38:53 -0600