The Jerusalem Prayer List – 12 July, 2024
by Joseph Shulam - From Jerusalem Israel
The readings from the Torah are the portion, Chukat from Numbers 19:1-22:1.
From the prophets, the reading is Judges 11:1-33.
From the New Testament, John 2:1-12.
The Jerusalem Prayer List history didn't start with Joseph Shulam! It began in the late 1930s with an Orthodox Jew who accepted Yeshua as his messiah and savior, Moshe Emmanuel Ben-Maier. Moshe was born in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, and like all Orthodox Jews in those days, Moshe went through all the everyday tribulations of Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem. Moshe went to the Haider, the school that Jewish boys at the age of 3 attend, not to play and free their mothers to take care of the younger children and the home.
When Moshe went to Moody Bible Institute in the USA to study in the early 1920s, other Jews were there to study about Yeshua. Moshe returned after 4 years from the USA, and in his luggage, he had translated hundreds of Christian songs to good, high-class Hebrew. Upon arrival in Israel, he published a Hebrew songbook with his translations of the best and most inspiring songs. The book's name was "Shir Hadash" – "The New Song!"
Moshe never felt accepted in Christ Church or the Anglican Church at the very entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. Christ Church was built by a Jew from England who converted and became an Anglican Bishop, Solomon Alexander. Solomon Alexander was a good man but converted to Christianity – to the Anglican Church. A good Jew can't convert to any Church that was started in Europe, Africa, or the USA. There is only one community (church) that a Jewish disciple of Yeshua can be grafted into, and that is the community of disciples of Yeshua that was inaugurated in Jerusalem on the same day that the Torah was given to the nation of Israel on the day of Pentecost.
The litmus test is this: You ask a brother or a sister, "When was your church started?" They should answer: "I am a member of the same church that was started by Jewish Disciples of Rabbi Yeshua (Jesus) in Jerusalem in the first century on the same day that the Torah was given in Mount Sinai thousands of years before!" No person or an apostle in the New Testament said, "I was born in a fishing village in Galilee, and I am a Christian." Maybe I should be more accurate, "I am not just a Christian; I am a Baptist Christian. My brother is a Methodist Christian, and my mother is an Anglican Nun!" Moshe never joined a church. He continued to the last day of his life to be a faithful disciple of Rabbi Yeshua, the Messiah and Saviour of Israel and the whole world.
When I became a disciple of Yeshua on September 2, 1962, I lost my family and my friends and had to leave Israel. From all places on God's good earth, I landed in Valdosta, Georgia, to finish high school at Georgia Christian School. This was a strange place for me, a Jewish boy from Jerusalem, to be in a town where there was only one Jewish family in those days, and they owned a men's clothing shop. The closest thing to Jews were the alligators in the swamps around Valdosta, especially in Dasher, where the High School was about 11 or 12 miles south. Why the alligators? I am unsure why I said this already when I was a high school student because the alligators had a good nose!
I feel fortunate that I graduated from Georgia Christian High School in 1964. The reason is not the location and not the landscape. What made my two years in Georgia Christian School bearable were the president and family of the High School, Bill Long, and his wife, who were very young, in their 20s. What Bill Long did at that time didn't make me feel good. He didn't give me a scholarship and made me work hard and pay all my bills, except the 100 dollars that one of the workers in the financial office paid for me to go to school in secret to make my life easier. I thank Bill Long for making my life difficult and making me work every day after school for 4 hours. On many weekends, he took me to travel and speak in churches throughout the Southeast of the USA, from Georgia to Dallas, Texas, and from Miami, Florida to Kentucky. Bill didn't treat me any differently from what he and his brother experienced when they were High School students at Georgia Christian School years earlier.
Traveling with Bill Long and John Payne almost every weekend was the best education a Jewish boy from Jerusalem could have had. I learned more academically and spiritually about life, faith, money, and God on those weekends on wheels with these men of God.
Why am I bringing this personal note at the beginning of our Torah reading on this Shabbat? This Torah portion has one of the strangest and most challenging commands in the Torah and the bible. Here are the two opening verses of our reading on this Shabbat:
"The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: "This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke." (Numbers 19:1-2 NIV).
This command is given to Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, some 38 years before they enter the promised land of Israel. To find a perfect red cow in the wilderness is almost impossible. In Israel, Rabbis have been looking for a perfectly red cow and are still looking for a red cow that doesn't have white or black hair. A farmer from the South of the United States raised such a cow and brought it to Israel. In the Golan Heights, there is a farmer who is raising such cows, but they are not perfect yet, and the orthodox Jewish religious establishment in Israel can't do anything with these red cows because there are no real kosher Levites and priests to be found.
What kind of command is this – find me a red cow? Why is a plump white chalet cow with excellent steaks and good meat not good enough, or a good Angus cow with wonderful New York strips? Here is my take on this command. Anyone with money could find a cow for sacrifice and then sacrifice to forgive sins and come clean before God. This was true in the days of Abraham, Moses, and King David, and even now! God gave this command in the Torah while the children of Israel were still walking through the sands of the Sinai Desert. The meat that they cried for was answered by God with birds and partridges. There were no flying cows in the Desert of Sinai, and even today, there are not many cows in the Sinai desert. In the heat of the Sinai desert, when you have your daughter milking a cow, it might become yogurt before your daughter comes back to the tent. It is just too hot!
So, here is the point. Why did God make this command in the Torah? My simple answer is that God didn't want to make life easy for the children of Israel. God actually made their physical lives more manageable than they are today in Israel! They got fresh Manna every morning except on Shabbat. The Manna was free of charge, a simple gift from Heaven. They drank water from a very special Rock that, according to Paul and the Pharisees, followed the Children of Israel all through the 39 years in the Sinai Desert until they crossed the Jordan River into the Land of Israel.
I learned that easy come, easy go. Bill Long made my life difficult in Georgia Christian School, but when I needed a blessing, Bill gave me the blessing. No money but work, and when justice was required, Bill gave me justice. When I was wild in a very respectable and prosperous church in Jacksonville, Florida, and called those wealthy white American Christians "Thieves and Bandits" from the pulpit, and I am just a 16-year-old short and sassy Jewish boy, Bill stood up for me and apologized and justified me and what I said that the day will come soon that everyone will know that what is going on in the USA is not right and needs to change right now.
I said what I said in that white church that Sunday because we drove to church in a beautiful, fancy, costly car with a black chauffeur. Many came in fancy vehicles driven by black Chauffeurs. The church auditorium was also decorated in white, and there were beautiful benches with upholstery for the white butts (on purpose, written this way). There was not a single black brother in that beautiful church building.
I asked Bill before the services started where our black brothers were. Bill said they have their own church upstairs. Well, I was a "stupid" white Jew from Jerusalem! I would have kept my mouth closed if I was intelligent and wise. But, as I say, I was not wise, and maybe I am still that same older stupid Jew from Jerusalem. I jumped and looked for the entrance to the upstairs church for the blacks. I found it and went up, and I was in the Attic of that beautiful church building. It was a nice place but no white walls. It was a hot place because there was no air conditioning. I was terribly embarrassed and ran to be with the good old southern gentlemen and ladies. The great-grandchildren of the plantation owners had the great-grandfathers of our black brothers and sisters who were so fortunate to be driving Miss Daisy in the beautiful, chauffeured cars in an attic.
The white family that took themselves and us in their chauffeured car to church on that Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida, was the same family that helped me when I had to get to Detroit, Michigan, at the end of the summer to go to college. I had only 25 US cents and hitched a ride from Miami to Jacksonville with some South Miami Church of Christ members. Getting closer to Michigan via Jacksonville, Florida, was a good deal. I called Eddie, the pastor of that same white church, and he was busy but promised to send someone else to pick me up from the Greyhound bus station where the family who gave me a ride to Jacksonville. I waited about 45 minutes sitting on the GreyHound Bus Station bench, and a rusty old Cornier stopped, and a lady asked if I was Joseph Shulam. Yes, I am! Well, get in. My name is Margaret McGee, and I am a single woman, so I can't take you to my house. But I will take you to my sister's house. To make the story short, Margaret McGee's sister and husband gave me a ride to Michigan!! On the following day, a private airplane with two leather suitcases full of everything a young man needs for college in cold Rochester, Michigan.
Our Torah portion starts with this difficult commandment from God to the children of Israel. You need a perfect red cow! Where can we find a perfect red cow to please God! Why a red cow? How could we keep God's command in the Sinai Desert? We all must understand that we live on God's good earth for our education. Most of the time, education is challenging and sometimes hurts and is painful physically, financially, and emotionally. But we all must remember that God put us on this earth with floods and droughts, days of joy a few, and days of sorrow and pain plenty. Yes, we are living on this island in the galaxy to be educated for life eternal in a much better place in Heaven. This is why God sometimes treats us as He did to the children of Israel in the Sinai desert thousands of years ago. This is why the Torah and the prophets are given to us as teachers to prepare us for a much more excellent, favorable, and easier place called Heaven!
Wow! I almost forgot the most important thing about the Red Cow! Did you know the Red cow was not sacrificed in Jerusalem on the altar? Did you know it was sacrificed in a particular place near the Dead Sea (Sea of Salt) near Sodom? Did you know that the ashes of the sacrifice were burned in the desert, giving the children of Israel the only tool to purify, heal, and restore the children of Israel if they got leprosy or other illnesses that were infectious and dangerous to the public? The only way to be purified from leprosy was with the ashes of the Red Cow, and the only place to get those ashes was right next to the Dead Sea in a place called Qumran. Did you know that we still have a Red Cow that continues to give us purification, forgiveness of sins, and assurance of eternity?
His name is Yeshua (Jesus) !!!
Here is the text from the book of Hebrews, chapter 13.
"Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the Tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here, we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name." (Hebrews 13:7-15 NIV)
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Your prayers for brothers and sisters you don't know personally are pure love and building of the Body of the Messiah. It is Agape Love since you are doing this without any selfish interests and casting a vote in Heaven for someone who is your brother. Still, you don't know them, and God looks at these prayers that are unselfish and genuine expressions of love and care for another link in the long chain of love and faith that binds us together even though we might not know each other in this world.
When we all get to Heaven, it will be a joy to meet people we prayed for and sometimes even cried for. Brothers and sisters who are physically strangers but spiritually a part of the same body of Christ, I believe that one day we will have the privilege to sit together and share: "I remember praying for you to be healed!" "I remember praying for you to be safe when you were fighting in Gaza to free the hostages from the cruel hands of the terrorists of the Hamas in Gaza."
Pray for the following brothers and sisters who need divine grace and the gentle touch of the hand of God for healing and strength.
In Jerusalem:
update Joseph & Marcia Shulam
Additional test and scans are scheduled next week for his Thyroid with biopsy for the cancer locations. We pray for meaningful findings.
Daniel is back home in the hospital after have surgery for removing his GallBladder in France last week. Please pray for his recovery.
Ilana Ahijervie is a dear sister who is 98 years old and suffering from memory problems.
Please pray for our dear sister, Lea Kurkey.
Pray for Adam's father and mother, Barry and Dalia. They have some health problems and challenges.
Pray for Hannah suffering from Migraine Headaches. Miriam is a dear sister old age dementia.
Pray for Daniel S. and his children.
Pray for Gary, our dear leader in the Ro'eh Israel congregation, and his health, as well as for his wife Melanie and their family.
Pray for Um Mahmud Abu-Eid, Jimmy Abu-Eid, and all of the family. This is a dear family of old friends that needs healing and wisdom for the children and for their work.
Please pray for the Romero family, who live deep in the Negev desert. It is hot there, and they are far from our congregation, and we miss them.
In the U.K.:
Pray for Deborah Isaiah. I pray for the Lord to find Deborah Isaiah and lead her to a blessed life, family, and a solution to her problems.
In Finland:
Mauno Lemponen has been diagnosed with cancer in advanced stages. We are asking for God's Will to be done, giving him healthy days with family—prayers for Hilka, Miika, and Ester, who support each other.
Pray for Keijo and Salme, our dear partners and fellow workers in God's flock. Both Keijo and Salme have some challenging heart issues.
Pray for Satu-Maria, Sinni Tuuli, Anne Mirjami, our dear sisters
Pray for Eva H., Patty, Andrea, Julia, Victor, Aaron Tani, and Hillel.
In Brazil:
Pray for the Congregations related to Netivyah in Brazil to have the strength and stamina to face the challenges ahead of them with courage and strength of faithfulness to the Lord and to the vision of the restoration of the church and Israel.
Pray for the millions of victims of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition who have been forced to convert to the Catholic church and now want to return home to the land of Israel and the faith of our fathers.
Pray for a dear young man, Paulo, from Curitiba, Brazil, who seriously needs our prayers for sanity and mental health.
Pray for a dear sister named Claudia Rita Souze Arau. She has cancer and needs God's healing hands to touch her with healing.
Pray for Fatima Maria Docarmo Guimararaes - pray for her health and her granddaughters' twin babies.
Guilherme Antonio Nothen Becker is suffering from back problems.
Aratuza de Oliveira and his wife. Pray for their 3-year-old child, Caique de Oliveira Becker, who has severe problems with his eyes, and ask the Lord to give healing to his eyes.
In Asia:
Pray for Pastor TJ in Taiwan.
Pray for Deborah Ruth, a dear sister from China.
Pray for Sister Yoko Nagumo in Japan.
Tony Tam, his wife Luisa, and his son Marco need special prayers for their situation.
We continue to pray for Zhou Wenrian, the Abe family, Toru San, Yumi Ohara, and her family: Deborah Ruth, Ayla, Daniel, and their daughter.
Pray for Dr. Song and his wife, Sister Harriet Kim and the KIBI Ministry.
In the United States of America:
Larry is asking for prayers for his grandchildren. I would say most of us that have grandchildren are concerned about the states of the world. The state of intolerance. The temptations out there. Please pray for the holy sprit to guide them in making good choices.
Bill C. is undergoing some additional consultation and planning for dealign with a new Cancer diagnonsis. Pray for Jill supporting him.
Please continue to pray for the daughter of Bill Culwell, who is sick with cancer and is receiving a new third round of treatment. Please pray for success and healing.
Brother Philip Slate and his wife. She is suffering from several physical and mental health challenges.
Barbra and Angie in Alaska. Barbra has some pains and discomfort related to old age. Please lift them in prayer for strength and reduction in pain.
Jonathan Bernis is in a long six-month recovery from a liver transplant. We thank God for this match. Please pray for this new liver to function and provide much-needed function. Please pray for Elisangela and the girls and the doctors and nurses attending our dear brother Jonathan Bernis.
Please pray for Danah, my daughter's health issues. I pray for the Lord to give Danah wisdom, peace, and calm in life and her work.
Aaron Hook, Nancy Hook's oldest son, needs our prayers for wisdom and healing from past life issues.
Lift for blessing and healing Jonathan B., his wife Aviva, their new baby, his mother, and his brother Daniel.
Pray for these important men of God: Rabbi Salt, his family, and Rabbi Hasselblad. They are both older and need protection and blessings.
Also, pray for Ilana Avramov, who is married to my cousin Nissim and lives in New York City. Ilana has fallen and is now in rehab, learning how to walk again. We pray for her full recovery. She and Nissim both need our prayers.
Pray for Steve Mock - His cognitive condition has declined, and we ask for the grace of God and His Healing and strength. Steve and Josie's son Joseph has received a wonderful and glorious report. After the last bone marrow transplant, the report is that the doctors didn't find any leukemia in his body! Praise the Lord!
I am asking for a special prayer for a dear brother and friend who is now doing very important work in a very dangerous and precarious part of the world. Just mention DadyLion in your prayers and ask for divine protection and angelic accompaniment for this man of God.
For updates or requests please email us at:Prayer@netivyahinternational.org
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