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OIM is a
Messianic educational ministry,
which has been commissioned to
reach, teach, encourage, and
disciple those within the
Commonwealth of Israel to return wholly to
Him in spirit, soul, and body
in the work of
advancing His Kingdom until the
Messianic restoration of all things.
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MAY 2013
 In
March before commemorating Passover and the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, and entering into the current season of Counting the Omer
for the fifty days in anticipation of
Shavuot,
our family returned to Florida to attend a family wedding. In
what we affectionately labeled our “epilogue journey,” the long
drives back and forth gave each of us some time to reflect upon
our family’s spiritual journey of following the proverbial
“cloud” of walking by faith, and how the Lord has blessed us in
so many ways, since embarking into the Messianic movement back
in 1995.
So with this
trip in mind, combined with this
edition of Outreach Israel News
being delivered via U.S. bulk
mailing privileges to a number of
people who may have not heard from
us for quite some time, I was led to
write this month’s lead article
entitled,
“Our
Messianic Journey: An Historical
Perspective.”
As the dust has settled from our
last excursion, the next chapter of
our lives in service to the Holy One
of Israel is commencing with
gratifying anticipation. Knowing
that after fourteen years of being
led by the Spirit of God to leave
Dallas
and serve Him, He has returned us to
the same zip code area where we
lived when first married, for His
purposes and not our own. This
familial restoration reminds me of a
verse that Margaret clung to years
ago after the untimely death of her
first husband, when she was widowed
with an eleven year old son, nine
year old and five month old
daughters. To comfort her in her
grief, the Lord gave her a verse
from Jeremiah, which let her know
that He had a plan for her and that
she still had a future and hope:
“‘For I know the plans that I have
for you,’ declares the
Lord, ‘plans
for welfare and not for calamity to
give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and come
and pray to Me, and I will listen to
you. ‘You will seek Me and find
Me
when you
search for Me with all your heart. I
will be found by you,’ declares the
Lord,
‘and I will restore your fortunes
and will gather you from all the
nations and from all the places
where I have driven you,’ declares
the
Lord,
‘and I will bring you back to the
place from where I sent you into
exile’” (Jeremiah
29:11-14).
In this passage
Jeremiah was obviously speaking to
the Southern Kingdom exiles, who
would be captive in Babylon for
seventy years—and I would not want
to equate our fourteen year sojourn
to an exile, because our family
always retained a hope for a future.
But I do know that during our
journey from
Honduras
to Norman,
OK, and then to
Kissimmee, FL, we were compelled to call upon and pray
incessantly to the Lord, while we
sought Him with all of our hearts.
As a result, He allowed us, in some
isolation, to focus upon producing
numerous articles and over thirty
written publications, primarily
intended to help others comprehend
similar journeys that they have
individually or collectively been
led to pursue, as they have also
embraced a Messianic lifestyle.
Margaret, John, Jane, Maggie, and I
all agree that if we had never left
the relative comforts of Dallas in
1998, I would probably still be in
the commercial real estate business,
and our family would most likely not
be in the ministry field the Lord
has chosen for us. This is a
sobering conclusion, given the joy
derived by simply being obedient to
the Spirit-led prompting to step out
in faith, and do whatever is
required to fulfill the call that He
has placed upon our family. We each
can reflect upon the many challenges
of ministry, which include the
relative deprivations of denying
oneself of the human wants and
desires that naturally develop in
the heart. However, the difficult
task of learning how to patiently
wait upon and trust the Lord to
provide, while we diligently work
unto Him, has been a blessing that
has affirmed to each of us that the
walk of faith is much more than a
trite expression. In fact, as I
contemplate the path the Lord has
challenged Margaret and me to
pursue—simply modeling for our
children the ability to be led by
the Spirit, while clinging to Yeshua
the Messiah—is so much more
meaningful than repeating those
expressions without actually
experiencing the walk of faith. With
great comfort, we can see that they
have not only put Yeshua first in
their lives, but they are also
patiently waiting upon Him for His
will to be done, and not their own.
As you can imagine, witnessing their
faithful fruit for the
Kingdom
of God
has made each of the insignificant
inconveniences pale in comparison.
Thankfully, the Lord has rewarded
our obedience with His blessings,
because it is He “who
is able to do far more abundantly
beyond all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works
within us” (Ephesians
3:20).
We invite you
to support our ongoing
Theological
Defense Trust
(described later in the newsletter)
and the
Prison
Ministry—Free Book Fund. Your
generous contributions will help
continue the labor that Outreach
Israel and TNN Online are committed
to do, by producing Scripturally
sound and coherently written
publications, which help to validate
how the Messianic restoration of all
things is a genuine move of the
Lord. We have committed our life
work to this endeavor, and
gratefully appreciate everyone who
has already been supportive of our
efforts with intercessory prayers
and financial gifts.
Finally this
month, as the Omer Count to
Shavuot
comes to a close, we have a few
seasonal publications that are
available for your edification. The
Messianic
Spring Holiday Helper,
Counting the
Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward
Shavuot,
and
Sayings of the
Fathers: A Messianic Perspective on
Pirkei Avot
have each been compiled to help
Messianic Believers understand more
about the blessings of this special
season. They are all available in
paperback or eBook for Amazon
Kindle.
Advancing His Kingdom, until the
restoration of all things…
Mark Huey
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