Remove the stones

Januari 2008, by Ruth Youngman

The third largest Jewish community in Britain is in Leeds. Yet for many years, despite living in and praying for the city, I had very little contact with this community. Many of the most successful business's have been started by Jews [ever heard of M&S or Burton's!], to say nothing of the professional and academic people who are Jewish. The leader of the city council, who has just stepped down, was a Jew.

When I returned from Israel in 2001, despite having worked with the Arabs, I felt there was a missing dimension in my life. I missed the messianic fellowships with the beautiful Hebrew worship and Jewish insight into the scriptures, and I sought contact with Jewish people in various ways. I also became aware of the great gulf between the Jewish and Christian communities, and how few of the Christians had any understanding of God's love for His People.

The history of their suffering and persecution by Christian nations goes back almost 2000 years, and continues to this day. The sign of the cross has become an offence to them. Conversion is seen as joining the enemy, and mistrust of our motives when we seek to help them runs very deep, as shown by the headline in our local Jewish paper some weeks ago 'missionaries are Israel's top threat'.

How God's heart must break over this situation. In Romans 11v11, Paul writes '..to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the gentiles'. What can we do? Perhaps we first have to remove some stones from our own hearts; ignorance of the facts; indifference; flawed theology; our lack of love and sensitivity. Holocaust Memorial Day is on Jan. 27th. For the last few years, I've been saddened by the absence of any Christian act of repentance to mark this event. This year I felt that something must be done, and this was confirmed by a prayer partner that I shared my concern with. We prayed, and step by step contacted others. In faith, we have booked a room for 20th January, and we ask you to stand with us in prayer that this will be the beginning of 'preparing the way' for the Jewish people in our area.