Monthly Archives: September 2025

Fall is coming. You can feel it in the air. The growing chill of fall brings with it the Jewish high holidays. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), preceded by the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), is right around the corner. As a Jewish believer in Jesus, I believe each one of these festivals points to Jesus and that He not only fulfills each festival in remarkable ways but He also observed every one of them—perfectly. But because of His perfection, He met the righteous standards demanded by the Law.

Jesus was perfect and the only person qualified to be our sin-bearer. He is a perfect sacrifice . . . He is God in the flesh.

Isaiah wrote, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him”(Isaiah 53:5–6).

He died so that we can live and enjoy freedom, forgiveness, and salvation through His death and resurrection.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”(2 Corinthians 5:21)!

For millennia, our Jewish people sought atonement in many ways, but as a nation, we failed to seriously consider the possibility that Jesus was our Messiah. Some of this had to do with the way institutional Christianity treated the Jewish people throughout history, which turned the average Jewish person off to Jesus. But thank God this is changing, as many Jewish people today are beginning to turn to Him! Your Mission to the Jewish People is responding to this new openness to the gospel on the part of Jewish people in the United States, Israel, and across the globe.

For 131 years, we have been preaching the same gospel, including the perfection of His person and the redeeming power of His death and resurrection for men and women, enabling Jewish people and Gentiles to find salvation by trusting in Him and Him alone for the forgiveness of sin! 

As the author of Hebrews wrote:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11–12)

I love the high holiday season because it reminds me anew of the significance of the atonement, as well as the urgency and necessity of preaching the gospel to the Jewish people. We continue to serve because of your faithfulness and generous support in more than twenty North American cities and twenty countries around the globe.

Thank you for your partnership and love for the Jewish people and our staff.

The Message of the Gospel is Often Wrapped in Flesh

Jesus lived the message He preached and calls upon us to do the same. Have you ever thought of suffering as a means of preaching the gospel? There is great spiritual power in our suffering! Jesus demonstrated this, the apostles followed suit, and so did the early Christian martyrs. Suffering is one way God reveals His grace and power—especially when we follow His example and suffer with grace.

The apostle Peter understood this when he wrote,

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. (1 Peter 4:12–14)

Our suffering is not redemptive and cannot take away sin, but it does empower our witness to the One who can.

As the apostle Paul declared, one of his deepest desires was, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”(Philippians 3:10).

Identifying with the Sufferings of Jesus: A Testimony from Tel Aviv

Seventy of us recently learned this powerful spiritual lesson firsthand on a recent trip to Israel. We had the privilege of identifying with the Lord and the Jewish people through suffering, and to a person, we all agree that it was a great privilege to have the experience.

Let me tell you the story.

On June 14, 2025, after several nights together in a bomb shelter alongside other guests and hotel staff, we dedicated our new Messianic Center in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Just days later, on June 19, our beautiful new center was struck by an Iranian ballistic missile—an event that deeply marked our ministry, our staff, and our Mission. While we are grateful that no lives were lost, the physical damage to our center and surrounding buildings is significant. Yet, we believe that this suffering is not in vain. It has become a powerful testimony to our identification with the people of Israel and, through them, with the sufferings of the Messiah Himself.

We should be able to rebuild the new center within the next year. Meanwhile, we are continuing our ministry across the street as we have kept our rental facility for another year. Now is the time to bring Jesus’s love and grace to hurting Israelis, and we want to be there for Him and for them!

Sharing in Israel’s—and Messiah’s—Suffering

The missile strike on our new facility deepened our connection with the State of Israel. Our suffering has drawn us closer to the Savior, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” and to our Jewish people. Paul knew the meaning of suffering as well. He caused believers suffering in his former life. The apostle wrote to the Roman believers, “And if [we are] children, [we are] heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him”(Romans 8:17).

In suffering, we stand in solidarity with Israel—not as outsiders, but as Jewish and Gentile believers who love the Jewish people and have chosen to walk a path of discipleship marked by obedience, rejection, and sacrifice. Our Messiah walked this same path.

A Historical Commitment to the Jewish People

Chosen People Ministries’ connection to Israel is not new. Our roots stretch back to before Israel’s rebirth in 1948, when our early missionaries there ministered to Jewish communities in the land under the British mandate. We helped Holocaust survivors resettle and rebuild their lives, including some who came to faith and became foundational leaders in Israel’s Messianic movement. More recently, our work has grown among Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants and native Israelis alike.

Our commitment to Israel has always had its roots in love—for the people, for the land, and above all, for the Messiah who walked its soil. The bombing of our center is not the first time we have suffered, and it will not be the last. But it serves as a physical symbol of the truth—that we are willing to share in Israel’s sufferings because our Lord did, and we follow Him. 

Witnessing through Suffering

Paul’s words in Colossians 1:24 are particularly poignant: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”Suffering is not pointless; it is purposeful. It draws us closer to Jesus, conforms us to His likeness, and becomes a testament to our love for Israel and the Jewish people.

Knowing His sufferings and the sufferings of our people motivates our Israeli staff to serve displaced families—and especially their children—in the wake of war by serving in the very places where missiles fell. One of our Israeli staff praised the Lord for the opportunity to care for more than one hundred displaced children and their families immediately after the missile strike. It was nothing short of providential. We were in the right place at the right time, able to bring healing, comfort, and the love of the Messiah to those who were hurting. In the future, we will be rebuilding alongside the one-hundred-plus families who also suffered loss because of the destruction caused by the Iranian missile. 

A Witness for the Future

We believe that the damage to our center—dedicated just two days before the missile strike—will serve as an ongoing testimony. It testifies to our love for Israel. It testifies to our willingness to suffer with our people. Ultimately, it testifies to the Suffering Servant, Yeshua the Messiah, who gave Himself not only for Israel but also for the nations.

In 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul reminds us, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” We cling to that hope, and we press on—not despite our sufferings, but through them.

As we await the day when Yeshua returns to rule and reign from Jerusalem, we will continue to minister in His name among His people and in His love and embrace the privilege of suffering for His glory!

I cannot thank you enough for your faithfulness and pray you will join us in our Rebuilding Israel Campaign.

In light of the rise in antisemitic outbreaks around the world, the ongoing battles in the land, and the public relations war involving Israel, this year will be crucial for Your Mission to the Jewish People and the nation of Israel . . . let’s stand together.