-
Communion: The Divided Table
Today I am writing about communion and several issues around it that hearken back to ancient times.
Track with me as I explore the biblical issues about taking communion. It is a subject that came up this week, and I know I want to address some of those issues. Some I already know, but others are part of the deeper dive of research that I will do into those issues today.
The first thing to say about communion is that the wine and the unleavened bread have been taken for thousands of years in the Passover. In fact, the Last Supper was the Passover dinner, something a great many Christians have no inkling of. In the gospel accounts, when Jesus took the Passover Feast with His disciples, in the Luke account Jesus gave the symbolic meanings of the Passover bread and wine. (Luke 22:19-20) They are symbols, not literal, but prophetic symbolism.
Yeshua/Jesus took the unleavened bread, gave thanks and told them, “This is my body which is given to you: this do in remembrance of me.” And he took the wine and said, “This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.”
This is symbolic of Yeshua giving His body as the sacrificed Lamb, that His blood would be used as the covering once, for all, of sins.Back to Luke’s account, in verse 21, in the course of saying these things, Jesus hands a piece of the bread to Judas saying, “But, behold, the hand of him that betrays me is with me on this table. And truly the Son of man goes as it was determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed.”
The Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul warned in 1 Corinthians 11:26-28, that we are proclaiming the Lord’s death as often as we take the bread and wine, until He returns. Because of that if we take communion “in an unworthy manner” we are guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Therefore each one of us “must examine himself before” taking communion. -
Tears into Wine
The Lord gave me the scripture Psalms 56:8 this past week as I read of tragic abuse a lovely Messianic Jewish lady in Israel endured as a young child. As I explored the verse and the original language, I began to see what I believe is a direct spiritual correlation to the first miracle Jesus ever performed, according John 2:11. Track with me.
“You have taken account of my wanderings (nôḏ exile). Put my tears in Your bottle (nō’ḏ skin, skin-bottle)— are they not in Your book?”
It was deeper than I first thought. I didn’t realize there was a Hebraic word play in play!
The first miracle that Yeshua ever performed was turning the water into wine. This has a hidden connection to those tears of ours that God collects. The connection of the two means more than I have ever realized. -
All Nations Attack
Artist is DeHong He. This is a screen save from video here.
All Nations Shall Come Up Against Israel
Recently I watched a respected Israeli Messianic prophet teaching online about the end times. Asher admitted how he could not understand why so many Christians did not believe that “all nations” would come up to destroy Israel.
I know it is difficult for American Christians to accept the idea that “all nations” will one day join together in an overwhelming force to annihilate Israel. It’s difficult, but it is Bible. The prophets say it plainly. Isaiah, Joel and Zechariah all describe it, but many Christians in the not long ago past could not fathom how their nation could be involved. American Christians found it impossible to see the United States participating in such a thing. Our nation was founded on the Bible and the Rock of Christian faith in the Man from Galilee.
At this point it may be much easier to believe as we see many American Christians suddenly clamoring to stop all U.S. support of Israel. That abandonment of Israel is happening throughout the “Christian” Western world along with a global rise of anti-Semitism. Christians are suddenly parroting classic anti-Semitic tropes with a new twist of accusing Israel of genocide. The accusation could not be farther from reality. It is a lie that no honest person could buy into. And there is the rub, isn’t it? Our Western nations have turned their back on Christian faith and the degradation of our moral fiber is that now a great many of our citizens prefer lies to God’s truth.
As John 3:19-20 explains it, “. . . but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” -
A Death in Zion
“Weep with Those Who Weep”
Recently I heard tragic news from my Israeli friend and long-time Christian Zionist Jim Schutz. He and his wife had just buried their beloved and only son David on August 12th in Jerusalem. The news shook me. It has been a long, hard season of deaths in Israel. There have been many funerals and many bereaved parents grieving the loss of their children. Psalm 34:18 assures us that, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” He stands close to many in Zion today.
A parent burying their child is considered to be among the most heartbreaking and stressful experiences in life that we can ever face. This kind of trauma violates the natural order of life. Children expect to bury their parents, but parents usually do not expect to bury their children. It is a shock to our entire being when it happens in reverse.
When I listened to the comments that Jim and Leslie Schutz made to their family congregation in Jerusalem just days after finally finding out their son’s body had been recovered, I marveled at the grace with which they spoke. There was no holding back my own tears at the sorrow they expressed either.
Their thirty-six-year-old son David had gone missing on April 18, 2026 from Chicago. David travelled to Chicago from the home of his aunt in Connecticut, whom he had been visiting. After a while he decided to travel to Chicago for three days to visit a friend he had known since childhood in Israel. -
Question for Israeli President
A Question for the President of Israel
by Guy Cohen
August 13, 2026
The President of the State of Israel is elected by the Knesset. Alongside the formal and ceremonial responsibilities of the office, the President carries a much deeper role. He is often regarded as Israel’s number one citizen, someone expected to rise above political and social divisions and seek to bring together the different communities that make up Israeli society.The President does not have to agree with the faith, worldview, or lifestyle of every Israeli citizen. Nor does meeting a particular community amount to theological endorsement of its beliefs. But the President is expected to be the President of all Israelis.
This raises a question that has been on my mind for some time. Is there a community in Israel that is simply too politically or socially costly for the President to publicly embrace?
I am referring to Israel’s Messianic Jewish community. -
CULT
Israeli Messianic Believers are often accused of being a “CULT”. That bears no resemblance to reality to any of the Messianic congregations I have been covering for the past 25 years! So I was glad to see Israeli Messianic congregational leader, Guy Cohen, shed some light on this. As the saying goes, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant” and I believe Guy Cohen moves this discussion forward greatly.
Guy Cohen writing on August 10, 2026:
In Israel, the word “cult” carries an unmistakably negative meaning. It evokes images of manipulation, psychological control, blind obedience, isolation and leaders who exercise extraordinary power over their followers. Yet the same word has also appeared in Israeli public discourse as a description of Messianic Jews, a community whose members identify as Jews and believe that Yeshua is the Messiah.
The label is not confined to private conversations. Israeli religious media have explicitly described Messianic Jews as a “cult,” while mainstream Israeli media have also reflected the language of suspicion surrounding the community. In a 2009 report by the investigative television program Uvda about the bombing that severely injured 15 year old Ami Ortiz, whose family was part of a Messianic community in Ariel, the accompanying report described the hostility directed toward Messianic Jews and noted accusations that they sought to turn Israel into a Christian country. It also described them as being treated as missionaries attempting to win Jewish souls.
The suspicion surrounding Messianic Jews in Israel cannot be understood simply as a disagreement about Yeshua. Behind it stands another word with an especially powerful meaning in Israeli Jewish society: “missionary.”
For many Israelis, missionary activity is not perceived as the neutral sharing of a personal faith. It carries a historical memory of the relationship between Jews and Christianity, including periods in which Jewish communities experienced persecution, discrimination, pressure to convert and, at times, forced conversion.
That history continues to influence the language of modern Israel. -
Christian Support Falls Short
At the southern steps of the Temple Mount on Shavuot/Pentecost 2023
[This article has been edited to protect the innocent.]Sadly, most of the famous Christian spiritual leaders who are known for fervent support Israel, don’t give the Israeli Messianic body of Messiah the time of day.
They don’t know any of the leaders of the 200+ congregations of Israelis in the faith of Yeshua (Jesus) and it is more convenient for them to stay away from the Israeli Messianic community. The unsaved Israelis they want to have influence with absolutely will not tolerate it if these famous Christian leaders come out in support of the Israeli Jews who proclaim the salvation in Jesus, whom they call by His Hebrew name Yeshua.
A couple of people came on my radar in recent days who have strong ties in Israel with authorities, but zero contact with the Israeli 5-fold ministries in Israel.
That’s right: there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers who are Israeli Jews ministering to the people of Israel. I’m not going to put these Christians down by mentioning their names, but all across the field of famous Christians who support Israel, MANY times over 3 decades Messianic Jews have approached them to open up to the Israeli Messianic community and they have rebuffed every approach. -
Anniversaries to Remember
Two years after the bombing of Jerusalem Sbarro Pizzeria My favorite American traditional Jewish commentator, Jonathan S Tobin has written something very close to my heart this morning. I cried reading his editorial just now about the 25th year anniversary of the Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on August 9, 2001. Since writing this a couple of days ago, I have learned that the son of a well known Israeli Messianic figure was one of the first responders to arrive at the horrific blast scene. Terrorism creates hell-scapes.
Within a week of that bombing I would launch the first Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries. A handful of us would meet every Thursday to pray for them who were in the midst of continual terror attacks all around the country.
My 50th birthday was 2 days before Islamist terrorists chose to bomb a pizzeria filled with women pushing baby strollers. The bomb killed “16 people, including eight children and a pregnant woman, and wounded another 130 persons.”
Our newly formed Israel Prayer group met each week to pray for God’s protection and for thwarting suicide bombing plots with the intel I was gathering directly from inside the Israeli Messianic ministries.
Then in around Oct-Nov 2003, in my first ever trip to Israel, the two ladies I traveled with and I purposed to go to as many of the bombing sites as we could on that 2 week visit. We did go to Sbarro Pizza which had been rebuilt to demonstrate the resilience and determination of Israelis not to brutally driven from the Promised Land. The picture above I took in 2003. My travel companion, Toni, is standing behind the two men in white shirts in front of the Sbarro pizza.
It was sobering for us to visit these bombing sites. We were not there just to visit ancient sites. We knew we were standing among those who are continuing the book of Acts beyond its 28 chapters in the Bible. This is the real Israel. Still biblical. Still contending for God and wrestling with enemies in finding their way back to Him spiritually. -
On Nicaean Council Ruins
Ruins of the Church of the Nicaean Council Hidden Underwater (Video Screensave)
Did you know that after the first century apostles died that there was a gradual loss of connection among the churches established by the Apostle Paul and others among the non-Jewish churches?
Before Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and imprisoned in Rome, he established an offering be set up among all the churches he established. The offerings were collected over about a three year period before Paul, along with representatives from each church, brought the donations to Jerusalem. The donations were for the Apostles to administer. The purpose was to help sustain “the poor” body of Messiah to continue to minister in Israel.By 318 AD no churches had continued sending financial assistance, even though Paul knowingly paid for delivering it with his freedom.
As he made his journey to Jerusalem to carry the FIRST donation from ALL the Churches, prophets came out warning Paul that if he continued forward, he would be arrested. Paul already knew there would be harsh consequences for him delivering this important financial gift to the Apostles in Jerusalem for sustaining their ministry and for assisting Jewish believers in Israel.
In Paul’s letters to the churches four out of six times that Paul uses the phrase, “the poor,” he is clearly in context referencing the poor believers in Judea. One of the remaining two is in reference to himself. (Ro 15:26, 1 Cor 16:1, 15; 2 Cor 9:1, :12-13). They were of the Jewish people, but were shunned because of faith in Yeshua. It has been much the same today as then and it the reason for much of the lack of financial blessing among the body of Messiah and their ministries in Israel. -
Seed Bed of Genesis
Grok created image “In the Beginning”
Last Days Content Found “In the Beginning”
From the Seed Bed of Genesis Part 1I began to reread the Genesis chapters about God’s call on each of the Patriarchs beginning with Abram wanting to confirm the accuracy of my memory and verify my facts. It was to make sure the article I was writing, the Barren Matriarchs of Israel, was true to the biblical account. The details of how Abram’s call by God was necessary. As I began to reread about Abram’s call, I found much, much more than I had ever seen before. It was supposed to be a ‘quick’ fact check but God had other plans. When I came upon The War of the Kings it was out of nowhere! I did not remember ever really seeing it, but as I saw it now, it was clear to me it had application for the days we live in. The deeper I studied the brief account, the more convinced I became that it was something we needed to know for the days we live.
That discovery made me slow down in my reread of Genesis to take a more focused sweep of God’s “seed bed” of all his plans. In the past I learned that God progressively revealed His plans throughout the Bible and throughout the expanse of human history. Genesis is the seed bed of the main thing God is doing among us. He is creating a family. Genesis is the account of the first human beings God chose for His family. That makes their experiences of critical importance to us because He is still in the process of forming us for His family too.
God’s purpose in calling out Abram is the same purpose He called you out too: ‘in order to form a more perfect union’. We are to be a unity of Jew and the peoples of the nations who are God’s family. It is a family that transcends the families of Adam and Eve. God is going to restore the Garden of Eden for a family He has formed for Himself. Whether you are a Messianic Jew or a Christian in any nation, it will serve us well to look earnestly at the way God “formed” the first individuals chosen to be in His family.
Referring to accounts in Numbers 16 and 25, Paul tells the Corinthian church, 1 Cor 10:1-4,
“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. “
The scripture did not say in vain: their lives were recorded to be examples for us who followed in covenant faith in Jesus. Paul tells them explicitly a few verses later in 10:11:
“Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”