Dear friend,

Shalom from New York City! We enjoyed a fruitful season of ministry this summer. By God’s amazing grace, you helped purchase a new building in Brooklyn (we’ll tell you more about our renovation progress soon), conducted major outreaches in Israel and New York City and held a children’s camp on the West Coast.

We also began our Isaiah 53 Evangelistic Campaign, and the first phase in New York City is now complete—except for the ongoing follow up with seekers! Please keep praying for the hundreds of Jewish people who are now reading the book Isaiah 53 Explained and whom our local staff members are visiting.

The High Holidays are Approaching

We are on the cusp of the High Holidays, which include the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot). Your Chosen People staff across the globe is especially busy during this season, as we are conducting services and doing all we can to help our Jewish people see that Jesus is the One who fulfills each of these great biblical festivals.

The focus of the High Holidays is on atonement and the forgiveness of sin. This is the very theme we emphasized during our Isaiah 53 Campaign! Isaiah 53 was written more than 700 years before Jesus and is the clearest prophecy in the Old Testament of the atoning death and resurrection of the Messiah.

For a patriarchal society that greatly valued tradition, family, legacies, and birthrights, the ancient Israelites had something of a spotty track record when it came to fatherly relationships. Yet it also seems that the picture the Bible paints of these (and many others) less-than-stellar-fathers is juxtaposed with the picture of God, the perfect Father.

By David Sedaca
Vice President of Chosen People Ministries
President of the Union of Messianic Jewish Believers of America

Over the past three decades, a new form of congregation has arisen on the scene: the Messianic Jewish congregation. A Messianic Jewish congregation is a New Testament church that is fashioned after traditional Jewish worship styles. Messianic Jewish congregations represent followers of Jesus who wish to worship, make disciples and witness within a Jewish framework.

By Olivier Melnick

One can learn much about God's character by studying His various names. One of these names is "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Early in the Scriptures, we realize that God is a God of people - a God of relationships. This is one of the most reassuring aspects of our Creator.

Another way to look at the God of relationships is achieved by studying the different agreements that He made with humankind in general and with the Jewish people in particular. These agreements, celebrating relationship and commitment, are also known as covenants. Understanding God's covenants is critical to understanding God's plan for humankind and for Israel.

Eight such covenants have been drawn and ratified throughout God's Word. They are the Edenic, the Adamic, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic, the Land and the New Covenants.